THIS JUST IN

COMMENT: (1-4)

There may not be a daily newspaper in Canada today that does not have
a story about the new government war on some politically selected
drugs, but is it really a new war?

Every day we see some California newspaper that has editorial page
content questioning the excesses common under the cover of Proposition 215.

Hats off to Sandee Burbank for teaching harm reduction for a quarter
of a century.

(1) HARPER VOWS JAIL TIME FOR DRUG DEALERS, PRODUCERS

Pubdate: Fri, 05 Oct 2007
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 The Vancouver Sun
Authors: Meagan Fitzpatrick and Randy Shore

PM Mum on His Plans for Pot Growers

The federal government will introduce legislation this fall setting
out mandatory minimum jail sentences for people convicted of
"serious" drug crimes, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday.

"Currently there are no minimum prison sentences for producing and
trafficking dangerous drugs like methamphetamines and cocaine,"
Harper told a news conference.

"But these are serious crimes; those who commit them should do serious time."

The $63.8-million national anti-drug strategy also promises more
resources for identifying and closing down marijuana-growing
operations, although Harper would not say whether marijuana growers
would face tougher sentences.

About $22 million of the funding would go toward enforcement, while
about $32 million would be directed to treatment and $10 million for
prevention in the form of an awareness campaign. The money would be
spent over two years.

Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan called the announcement a good start.
Noting that enforcement has been well-funded for many years, he said
treatment and prevention will require "a much larger investment."

[snip]

Mark Townsend, of Vancouver, called the federal announcement
"depressing" and dismissed it as meant to court the tough-on-crime vote.

Drug addiction is a devastating problem for the individuals and their
families and the communities that they live in too," said Townsend,
executive director for Insite, the city's supervised injection site.

These problems are very complicated. But in Vancouver we have a lot
of consensus about harm reduction and Insite.

[snip]

The federal government this week extended the special exemption that
allows Insite to operate until June 30. The facility averages about
600 visits a day and has referred almost 2,000 people to some form of
addiction treatment or counselling over the past four years.

Harper admitted Thursday that he remains skeptical about Insite and
said even if it's effective, it's a "second-best strategy at best."

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1140/a04.html

(2) EDITORIAL: TORIES' 'NEW' STRATEGY TO FIGHT DRUGS JUST POURS MORE
MONEY INTO SAME OLD FAILED APPROACHES

Pubdate: Fri, 05 Oct 2007
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 The Vancouver Sun

[snip]

In fact, despite all the rhetoric surrounding the strategy, it can
really be described as more of the same -- the same failed,
enforcement-heavy approach toward illicit drugs that the Liberals
took when they were in power.

Enforcement Is the Priority

Of the $64 million, $22 million will be directed toward enforcement,
$10 million toward prevention programs and $32 million will be
earmarked for treatment. The extra money for treatment and prevention
are welcome, but it's clear that enforcement will continue to get the
lion's share of funds, just as it did under the Liberals.

That's because the $64 million is only a small addition to the money
already invested in the drug war. For example, in the 2004-2005
fiscal year, Canada devoted $271 million toward enforcement, compared
with $51 million for treatment and $10 million for prevention.

The additional funds will therefore do little to tilt the emphasis
away from the failed war-on-drugs approach. And while the
Conservatives have painted the Liberals as having been soft on drug
crime, it's clear that they were anything but. As just one example,
the City of Vancouver noted that between 1992 and 2002, the marijuana
offence rate rose nearly 80 per cent, due mainly to an increase in
possession offences.

But while the Liberals were enthusiastic foot soldiers in the war on
drugs, the Conservatives clearly want to lead the charge. Making good
on a previous promise, Harper said the Conservatives will introduce
legislation with mandatory sentences for those convicted of
trafficking in drugs like methamphetamine and cocaine.

[snip]

But not content to learn from U.S. failures, the Conservatives forge
ahead. Their entire strategy is based on the myth that there is a
sharp distinction between drug dealers and drug users. Yet many
addicts become (low-level) dealers because it provides them with a
steady source of income and a steady supply of drugs. The most
severely addicted are the ones most likely to take up dealing.

It is these people who are most likely to be subject to mandatory
sentences since high level dealers are good at insulating themselves
from the police. Also, when large-scale traffickers are caught, they
are often able to provide valuable information to prosecutors in
exchange for lighter sentences.

[snip]

In reality, though, we're on the same road that we've been on for
decades. We're merely going a little faster, which is unfortunate
since it's a dead end.

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1141/a07.html

(3) A PATIENT PLEADS FOR ACCESS

Pubdate: Fri, 05 Oct 2007
Source: Long Beach Press-Telegram (CA)
Column: Viewpoint
Author: Tom Hennessy

"My husband has terminal lung cancer," said the woman on the phone.

That was her introduction to a complicated, sometimes harrowing story
about trying to obtain the only medicine that gives her husband relief.

The medicine is marijuana.

She called a day after Tracy Manzer's Sunday story listing 11 Long
Beach locations where, police say, marijuana is sold to people in
medical need, and perhaps to people pretending to be in medical need.

[snip]

The man and wife cited above are Long Beach residents. She has given
me permission to use her name. However, I will not do so because the
federal Drug Enforcement Agency has a history of making raids on
people using marijuana for medical relief.

[snip]

For all her troubles and those of her husband, Mrs. X says she
understands the city's position: even if medical marijuana sales were
sanctioned by the federal government, it would be difficult to
prevent ineligible marijuana users from abusing the system.

"I agree there are people who are getting marijuana and are not
eligible for it," she says. "How do we stop that? How do we get that
under control?"

[snip]

Please do not interpret this column as an argument to legalize
marijuana. That is a different debate.

The column is actually a plea on behalf of one cancer patient, and
thousands of others who, like him, are seriously ill.

Are they to suffer because the government cannot devise a system
whereby those in pain can be helped, and those seeking to get high
can be turned away?

Not even the government can be that stupid and that lacking in
compassion. Or can it?

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1142/a07.html

(4) 25 YEARS SEE GROWTH FOR MAMA SUPPORTERS

Pubdate: Thu, 04 Oct 2007
Source: Dalles Chronicle, The (OR)
Copyright: 2007 Eagle Newspapers Inc.
Author: Ed Cox, of The Chronicle

After 25 years, Sandee Burbank's controversial views on drugs haven't
changed, but she's become more comfortable -- and better at -- backing them up.

[snip]

It's a testament to how Burbank and her organization, founded in 1982
by seven women at a mountain cabin near Mosier, have grown up.

That maturity includes Burbank's 1997 recognition by the Drug Policy
Foundation with the Robert C. Randall Award for Achievement in the
Field of Citizen Action.

It also includes the 2005 opening of an office and clinic in Portland
that now helps patients register for the Oregon Medical Marijuana
Program and use the drug to effectively to deal with severe pain and
other qualifying conditions.

That state program fits right in with the philosophy of MAMA, which,
while not a strictly pro-cannabis group, asks that all drugs -- legal
and illegal -- be judged on a level playing field.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1139/a11.html

WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW

Domestic News- Policy

COMMENT: (5-8)

After years of failure, federal drug warriors are crowing over
alleged success. A new report claims that the cocaine supply in the
U.S. has been reduced to the point that prices are going up in some
American cities. Never mind that there could be alternate
explanations for the situation (see the DrugSense Weekly feature
article below for more on that subject), or that if the shortages are
indeed occurring, it will lead to more violence in the market.

Elsewhere, the drug war is not going as usual. In Oregon, a
controversial drug-free zone policy has been ended, while in New York
a judge's order for a drug-using couple not to have children has been
deemed unconstitutional. And, some officials in Palm Beach do not
want to be known as the rehab capital of the world.

(5) COCAINE SUPPLY DOWN SHARPLY, U.S. OFFICIALS SAY

Pubdate: Wed, 03 Oct 2007
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Times
Author: Richard Marosi, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

Drug Policy Critics Say It's Too Soon to Tell Whether the Data Signal
Success in the Drug War.

SAN DIEGO -- Mexico's crackdown on drug cartels and U.S. authorities'
seizures at sea have helped to sharply reduce the availability of
cocaine in 37 American cities, according to a report released Tuesday
by federal anti-narcotics officials.

The shortage has driven up prices to their highest levels in nearly
two decades, with the cost of cocaine increasing 24%, from $95.89 to
$118.70 per gram over the six-month period ending in June, according
to the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Los Angeles, San Francisco, Phoenix, Washington and New York are
among the cities reportedly experiencing shortages.

Critics of U.S. drug policy remain skeptical, saying it's too early
to determine whether the statistics signal an important milestone in
the war on drugs.

The report, they say, comes as the Bush administration prepares to
ask Congress for an aid package of nearly $1 billion to help Mexico
fight traffickers.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1131/a10.html

(6) EXPIRING DRUG-FREE ZONES END A CITY ERA

Pubdate: Sat, 29 Sep 2007
Source: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
Copyright: 2007 The Oregonian
Author:Andy Dworkin, the Oregonian Staff

Neighborhoods - Residents Have Mixed Feelings About the Demise of the
Controversial Exclusion Policy

Albert Johnson cuts through an alley near Northeast Simpson and MLK.
Police say the area is a waiting room for junkies, though just blocks
from the police precinct and in the heart of one of Portland's
expiring "drug-free zones."

Johnson pleaded guilty a year ago to possessing heroin. He became one
of the hundreds of Portlanders to get banned from the city's
drug-free zones. That meant he could only travel his neighborhood to
get to work, home or necessary social services, not to visit friends,
buy socks or grab a beer.

Officer Mark Zylawy stops his cruiser. Johnson says he's just
walking home. Zylawy tells him the drug exclusion laws are ending.

"They're going away? Cool," says Johnson, 63.

The exclusion made it hard to move around, Johnson says. On the other
hand, he used less heroin after his exclusion, though he still uses
"now and then." And he tells Zylawy the neighborhood may be safer for
the law: "I'm for it."

Johnson's split feelings mirror a city divided on its 15-year
experiment to bar people arrested for open drug and prostitution
crimes from wandering through big parts of the city for 90 days (one
year after a conviction).

Neighborhood activists pushed the exclusion ideas, tired of seeing
drugs dealt on downtown and inner eastside streets. Business groups
and cops praised the law, and other cities copied it. Civil rights
advocates attacked it as racist and unconstitutional, since no
conviction was needed to exclude someone.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1116/a10.html

(7) NO-PREGNANCY ORDER VOIDED

Pubdate: Sat, 29 Sep 2007
Source: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (NY)
Copyright: 2007 Rochester Democrat and Chronicle
Author: Michael Zeigler, Staff writer

Monroe Judge's Unprecedented Ruling in Error, Says Appeals Court

An appeals court has overturned a controversial, first-of-its-kind
ruling that ordered a homeless and drug-addicted Rochester couple to
have no more children.

The Appellate Division of state Supreme Court said Friday that Monroe
County Family Court Judge Marilyn L. O'Connor overstepped her bounds
in 2004 when she banned Stephanie Pendleton and Rodney Evers
Sr. from having more children until they could redeem the four they
lost to foster care.

"We conclude that the court had no authority to prohibit (Pendleton)
from procreating," a five-judge panel of the appellate court said in
a written decision.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1120/a01.html

(8) PALM BEACH COUNTY DENIES HELP FOR ALCOHOL AND DRUG TREATMENT CENTER

Pubdate: Wed, 03 Oct 2007
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2007 Sun-Sentinel Company
Author: Mark Hollis, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Caron Foundation Won't Receive Tax-Exempt Bonds

With Web sites decorated with images of sunsets at the beach, sea
gulls and big ocean waves, at least 40 substance-abuse treatment
centers in south Palm Beach County attract thousands from around the
globe for help with their addictions.

Now, some local officials say the drug and alcohol abuse treatments
are an economic enterprise that the community doesn't desire.

On Tuesday, after hearing Delray Beach Mayor Rita Ellis complain that
clients at many treatment centers have become a burden on local law
enforcement, Palm Beach County commissioners rejected one center's
request for financial help.

The commission voted 6-1 to deny granting tax-exempt bonds to help
the Caron Foundation of Florida, a nonprofit substance abuse center,
expand its facilities. The bond was sought to assist the foundation
in paying for the construction and furnishing of an addiction
treatment facility at 8051 Congress Ave. in Delray Beach and to
refurbish its residential facilities in Boca Raton.

"I want to be known for quality care, but I don't want to be known as
the drug rehab capital of the world," said Commissioner Mary McCarty,
who led the opposition to the request and who represents a south
county district.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1131/a06.html

Law Enforcement & Prisons

COMMENT: (9-12)

In North Carolina, a sheriff who took federal anti-drug money and
then used it to pay deputies to do menial or political work has pled
guilty to perjury and conspiracy. So one crooked one gets caught, but
in Florida, an officer accused of lying in a drug case appears ready
to get off the hook, as witnesses involved in the case can't be found.

Also last week, a disturbing story out of Wisconsin and another way
the drug war impedes justice; and in Mississippi, who's going to pay
for the anti-drug task forces, and when?

(9) FORMER SHERIFF PLEADS GUILTY

Pubdate: Thu, 27 Sep 2007
Source: Fayetteville Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2007 Fayetteville Observer
Author: Greg Barnes

RALEIGH -- Former Robeson County Sheriff Glenn Maynor pleaded guilty
Wednesday to perjury and conspiring to misapply federal money.
Maynor, who is 61, declined to comment after the hearing in U.S.
District Court in Raleigh.

He was charged two weeks ago in a two-count bill of criminal
information. Each count carries a sentence of no more than five
years and a $250,000 fine. Maynor's sentencing has not been scheduled.

"North Carolinians must have confidence in the integrity of our peace
officers. Prosecuting corrupt law enforcement officials is a top
priority," U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding said in a
statement. Maynor becomes the highest ranking of 20 former Robeson
County law enforcement officers to plead guilty since a state and
federal investigation called Operation Tarnished Badge began nearly
five years ago. The investigation continues.

Wes Camden, an assistant U.S. attorney, said the Robeson County
Sheriff's Office received more than $10,000 in federal money meant
for law enforcement programs between September 2002 and September 2003.

Camden said Maynor conspired with his deputies to use $5,000 or more
of that money to benefit the former sheriff personally and
politically. Maynor solicited employees to clear trees and other
debris from his property, to collect contributions for his political
campaigns and to work fundraisers for his campaigns, including his
annual golf tournament, Camden said. The deputies were paid for their time.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1117/a06.html

(10) PERJURY CHARGE AGAINST DEPUTY DROPPED

Pubdate: Sat, 29 Sep 2007
Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2007 Orlando Sentinel
Author: Willoughby Mariano, Sentinel Staff Writer

Prosecutors cite the loss of 2 witnesses. The Orange cop says he did
nothing wrong in the drug case.

The State Attorney's Office decided Friday not to pursue a perjury
charge against an Orange County deputy sheriff accused of lying to a
jury in a drug case.

Kevin Carter, 46, was arrested in May because he told a jury in
January 2005 that an anonymous stranger at a bus stop tipped him off
to drug-dealing behind a Pine Hills liquor store. A sheriff's
investigation determined that the tipster was actually a suspected
prostitute Carter threatened with arrest if she failed to cooperate.

Prosecutors decided to take the case off the docket because two key
witnesses disappeared, said Randy Means, executive director of the
Orange-Osceola State Attorney's Office. If the witnesses in Carter's
case surface, his office may file charges again.

Carter is one of three former undercover drug-squad members arrested
on perjury charges. The cases against deputies Jeffrey Lane and
Nicholas Ortiz are ongoing.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1118/a01.html

(11) GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER?

Pubdate: Thu, 27 Sep 2007
Source: Isthmus (WI)
Copyright: 2007 Isthmus
Author: Jason Shepard

Police Identified Suspect, But No Charges Were Ever Filed In Amos Mortier Case

In the front room of her small east side home, Margie Milutinovich
skims computer records she's compiled over the nearly three years of
searching for her son, Amos Mortier. "Missing" posters hang on the
walls. Notes, timelines and piles of court records are scattered on a desk.

"Should I put on the coffee?" Milutinovich asks a reporter. "Once you
get started, it's hard to keep anything straight."

Indeed, trying to figure out what happened to her son in November
2004 has eluded both Milutinovich and the authorities. But this
summer, dozens of new clues emerged after a judge unsealed 18 search
warrants executed more than two years ago.

"Reading the search warrants has diminished a lot of the hope I had
that Amos is still alive," says Mortier's friend Martin Frank. "They
suggest something bad happened to Amos. I have a million more
questions than I did before."

The documents ( see this story at TheDailyPage.com ) identify a
central suspect, Jacob Stadfeld, a 31-year-old Madison resident who
works for a pub on Park Street. Stadfeld purportedly owed Mortier
$90,000 for marijuana Mortier fronted him to sell. The search
warrants show police sought evidence of "kidnapping, false
imprisonment [and] homicide" in searches of Stadfeld's home, office,
truck and property rented by his mother.

Among the evidence cited to justify these warrants: a verbal argument
between Stadfeld and Mortier days before Mortier vanished; Stadfeld's
presence near Mortier's home hours after Mortier was last seen; and
two phone calls placed by Stadfeld to a gun shop days
earlier. Stadfeld has previous convictions for possessing and
selling marijuana. Earlier this month, he lost his Madison home
after defaulting on his mortgage.

Mortier, 27 at the time of his disappearance on Nov. 8, 2004, was a
quiet but friendly man who worked at State Street shops, hung out at
the Inferno, shopped at the Willy Street Co-op, and had an interest
in organic farming. He took classes at MATC and supplemented his
income, it's now clear, by selling large quantities of marijuana.

The Fitchburg police, Dane County Sheriff's and District Attorney's
Offices, FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office have all been involved in
investigating Mortier's disappearance. Sources also say the case has
come before a federal grand jury and been the subject of a rare state
"John Doe" probe. No arrests have been made nor charges filed in what
authorities have long considered a homicide investigation.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1109/a02.html

(12) 14 DRUG TASK FORCES FACE SHUTDOWN OVER FUNDS

Pubdate: Sat, 29 Sep 2007
Source: Clarion-Ledger, The (Jackson, MS)
Copyright: 2007 The Clarion-Ledger
Author: Jimmie E. Gates

State's Units Investigate Street-Level Trafficking, Homicides And Burglaries

The future of the state's 14 multijurisdictional narcotics task
forces was left in limbo Friday with uncertainty over funding for the
new fiscal year that begins Monday.

A committee appointed by Mississippi Department of Public Safety
Commissioner George Phillips has not approved funding for the task
forces, said Claiborne County Sheriff Frank Davis, whose county is a
member of the North Central Narcotics Task Force.

The task forces attack street-level drug trafficking and also
investigate major crimes such as homicides and burglaries.

"We went through this same thing last year," Davis said of the task
force that serves his county. "As it stands right now, we have not
been funded." Other counties in the eight-member North Central
Narcotics Task Force are Tunica, Coahoma, Grenada, Holmes, Humphreys,
Leflore and Yazoo.

Four employees of the North Central Task Force, the state's largest,
will be out of work beginning Monday if no money is appropriated by
then, said Holmes County Sheriff Willie March. He questioned why task
force members must wait to learn if they will receive money from the
Byrne Justice Assistance Grant. About $1 million of the nearly $3
million grant is to go to the task forces, he said.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n1120/a05.html

Cannabis & Hemp

COMMENT: (13-17)

Last week saw a refreshingly realistic interpretation of the
relationship between cannabis, alcohol and crime by Australian police.

The DEA continued their campaign against California's medicinal
cannabis patients, growers and dispensaries, pressing federal charges
to deprive selected defendants of a medical defense under state law.

The British press trumpeted Howard Marks' admission that cannabis may
not be completely harmless as an endorsement of the proposed
re-rescheduling of the herb from Class C back to B.

It's harvest time again in the green hills of Kentucky.

Finally, a poignant reminder from the fragrant streets of Vancouver
that cannabis dealers are people too.

(13) AUSTRALIA: MOST ARRESTED IN DARWIN STONED

Pubdate: Mon, 01 Oct 2007
Source: Courier-Mail, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2007 Queensland Newspapers
Author: Matt Cunningham

Three out of four people arrested and detained by police in Darwin
are under the influence of illicit drugs, research shows.

Australian Institute of Criminology data reveals 73 per cent of
Darwin detainees tested positive to cannabis in July and August,
steadily increasing from 46 per cent in January last year.

[snip]

Drug Free Australia executive officer Jo Baxter said there was a
common misconception that cannabis was a "soft" drug.

"Research now shows just how complex and dangerous this drug is," she said.

She said Australian Governments needed to be tougher on illicit drugs.

"Then, and only then, will we begin to get the results similar to
those countries that have been successful reducing illicit drug use," she said.

But NT police say alcohol is a far bigger problem than any illicit
drug when it comes to crime.

[snip]

"It's that really high level of drinking and offending that's the
problem," said Sgt Mitchell.

"People when they get drunk do dumb things. They get into cars and
drive. We know they shot someone because they looked at their girlfriend.

"Cannabis users, by and large, are fairly mellow."

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1123.a05.html

(14) FEDS TAKE OVER CHICO MEDICAL MARIJUANA CASE

Pubdate: Wed, 03 Oct 2007
Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Chico Enterprise-Record
Author: Terry Vau Dell

OROVILLE -- In a surprise move, federal prosecutors Tuesday took over
a Chico pot cultivation case, effectively depriving the suspect of a
medical marijuana defense in court, his attorney objected.

At the request of the U.S. Attorney in Sacramento, the Butte County
District Attorney's Office moved in court Tuesday to dismiss local
charges against Robert Gordon Rasmussen, 23.

Federal prosecutors intend to seek an indictment on new marijuana
cultivation charges, which could carry up to 20 years in prison.

The Chico man is accused of growing about 210 marijuana plants at his
Bennington Drive home earlier this year.

He claimed through his lawyer he was growing the pot as part of a
lawful seven-person medical marijuana patient collective.

The U.S. government takes the position that federal drug laws that
prohibit growing marijuana trump Proposition 215, the 1996 voter-
approved initiative that permits smoking pot with a doctor's
recommendation in California.

Rasmussen's attorney, Omar Figueroa, contends Tuesday's development
is an effort by federal prosecutors to "subvert the will of the
voters" by depriving defendants like Rasmussen of his right to raise
a medical marijuana defense in court.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1133.a09.html

(15) NO MORE MR NICE GUY

Pubdate: Sun, 30 Sep 2007
Source: Independent on Sunday (UK)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers Ltd.
Author: David Connett

Howard Marks, Poster Boy for Cannabis, Doubts Safety of Drug

The man who made a career, in and out of prison, from cannabis has
for the first time expressed concern about its links to mental
illness in the light of reports in The Independent on Sunday. David
Connett reports

Howard Marks, the one-time "King of Dope", is a living icon for
campaigners for the legalisation of cannabis. But yesterday he
admitted for the first time that he is concerned about links between
cannabis use and schizophrenia. Marks, better known as Mr Nice - one
of 43 aliases he used when running his worldwide drug empire and the
title of his best-selling autobiography - said more medical research
into the issue is vital. Marks admitted he was uneasy over growing
evidence which suggested that being "stoned and being off your head"
may be connected. By that, he meant the temporary high from the drug
and long-term mental health illness.

Marks, speaking in a TV interview, said: "I think it is difficult to
establish whether these two states are similar. If, as a result of
smoking a lot of dope, one becomes schizophrenic, that's reason for
concern. If being slightly schizophrenic makes you want to smoke
some dope to ease you through the day, I don't think that's a cause
for concern.

"To find out which of these is true will require research. One has to
look into the action [of cannabis] on the brain and what happens."

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1129.a09.html

(16) MOUNTAINS OF MARIJUANA

Pubdate: Sun, 30 Sep 2007
Source: Courier-Journal, The (Louisville, KY)
Copyright: 2007 The Courier-Journal
Author: Chris Kenning

BARBOURVILLE, Ky. - Deep in the Appalachian woods near the Knox-Bell
county line, Kentucky State Police Trooper Dewayne Holden's Humvee
belched smoke and roared as it struggled up what once was an old logging trail.

As his three-truck convoy stopped at a clearing atop a 3,000-foot
ridge, Holden grabbed a machete and joined eight other armed troopers
and National Guardsmen, hiking toward a hill under some power lines.

Keeping an eye out for nail pits, pipe bombs and poison-snake booby
traps, they found fresh ATV tracks.

[snip]

Welcome to the battle police and marijuana growers wage each fall in
Kentucky's remote Appalachian counties, where 75 percent of the
state's top cash crop is grown.

Kentucky produces more marijuana than any other state except
California, making it home to one of the nation's more intensive
eradication efforts -- a yearly game of harvest-time cat and mouse in
national forests, abandoned farms, shady hollows, backyards and mountainsides.

More than 100 state police, guardsmen, DEA agents, U.S. Forest
Service spotters and others are part of a strike force based in
London that works dawn to dark, sometimes roping into remote patches
from Blackhawk helicopters.

With a budget of $1.5 million and help from a $6 million federal
anti- drug effort in the region, last year the state seized 557,628
marijuana plants worth an estimated $1.3 billion.

[snip]

Authorities say their efforts keep drugs off the streets and illicit
profits out of criminal hands. But critics call it a waste of time
and money that has failed to curb availability or demand.

"Trying to eradicate marijuana is like taking a teaspoon and saying
you're going to empty the Atlantic Ocean," said Gary Potter, an
Eastern Kentucky University professor of criminal justice who has
researched the issue for decades.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1136.a02.html

(17) TOUCHED BY A DOPE DEALER

Pubdate: Wed, 03 Oct 2007
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2007, The Globe and Mail Company
Author: Pam Chandler

By The Time Our Transaction Was Complete, I Had Seen The Person
Behind The Occupation

One night this year, I met a man whom I frequently think about,
although not romantically. This man, who told me his name was Jay,
was by no means an angel; in fact he was, and very likely still is, a
drug dealer.

I met Jay at a very low point in my life. I had separated from my
husband, my birth mother was in the hospital dying and I had a
fractured jaw due to a hellish extraction of wisdom teeth.

My friend and I met Jay after a day of hard drinking in downtown
Vancouver. We were trying very hard to forget. We were two middle-
aged women who had not smoked a joint since high school, more than 20
years ago, but for some reason we decided we would try it again.
Because I recalled someone saying that whenever he walked down
Granville Street he was offered drugs, we decided to try our luck there.

En route, we discussed the fact that we had no idea how you "score
dope." Our only experience with dope was being passed a joint at a party.

I first saw Jay with another man loitering at a payphone on a street
corner. My first thought was these guys look like pretty shifty
characters. I don't remember any details about the other young man;
only Jay stands out in my mind. The way he was dressed led me to
believe he was a drug dealer. He had on clothes that were worn and
torn, he wore a black bandana as though he were from the 'hood, and
wraparound sunglasses even though it was nighttime.

I approached him and asked him very loudly for "weed." He seemed
stunned by the request. He said, "You want dope?"

I said yes. I remember fumbling in my pocket for change and asking
him how much you could get for $2.50. His friend and my friend
started laughing; he simply said, "Nothing."

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1137.a11.html

International News

COMMENT: (18-21)

While U.S. aerial spraying of glyphosate on Colombia hasn't done
much but spread out coca plots and create hardier hybrids, the
central planners of prohibition in Washington D.C. know best. They
know that doing the same thing in Afghanistan must be the key to
forcing farmers not to grow opium. Even Hamid Karzai (the
U.S.-installed satrap there) has been "resisting American pressure"
to spray. But this is bound to change as pressure increases, year
after year, and bumper opium crop after bumper crop. The split (to
spray or not to spray) cuts across the alliance, with the British
said to oppose the idea. The U.S. denies that spraying "causes harm
to people or cattle."

Officials in the Western Canadian city of Port Alberni say an
outbreak of tuberculosis there is "linked" to crack. "There is a
close connection with crack cocaine use" stated Vancouver Island
Health Authority spokesman Janice Jesperson. Health officials have
reportedly identified over thirty cases of TB there since the spring
of 2007. The nearby city of Nanaimo only recently stopped a
crack-pipe exchange program last summer. The purpose of the program
was to reduce the spread of disease from used crack-pipes.

"Most" of the youth in the Gulu district of Uganda are using illicit
drugs, says a Gulu mental health specialist quoted in the Ugandan New
Vision newspaper. Many of the children in Gulu have "witnessed
atrocities during the insurgency in the region" and were suffering
from post-traumatic stress disorder. Police in Gulu "arrest four
teenage drug abusers every week, including girls."

And in the Czech Republic, lawmakers look to loosening drug laws,
after their "get tough" approach backfired. It sounds much like the
Dutch approach. The "idea behind the amendment is to separate
recreational drug users from 'the black market'," said Justice
Ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Kuncova. The proposal seeks to also
separate "light" drugs like cannabis from meth and heroin by making
penalties for cannabis less severe. In 1999, the Czech legislature
made possession of drugs illegal. "But far from lowering the amount
of marijuana found on the streets, the tougher approach seemed to
make things worse, according to a government study on the effects of
the new policy conducted one year later." Expect the little Czech
Republic to come under intense pressure from the U.S. to recant such heresy.

(18) U.S. WANTS TO BRING COLOMBIA TACTICS TO AFGHAN DRUGS WAR

Pubdate: Thu, 04 Oct 2007
Source: Independent (UK)
Copyright: 2007 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Author: Kim Sengupta

The Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, is resisting American pressure to
authorise a major programme of crop spraying to eradicate the
country's massive opium crop amid warnings that it would lead to a
rise in support for the Taliban.

The plan has been strongly opposed by the British, who hold that it
will make the task of the military in Helmand, the province which
produces 50 per cent of the opium crop, much harder. Spraying from
the air, critics say, carries with it the danger of destroying other
crops, causing long-term ecological damage, and affecting the health
of livestock.

But according to senior Western and Afghan officials, the American
position has been significantly strengthened following the latest
poppy harvest, which shows a jump of 34 per cent from last year,
which was already a world record.

[snip]

The policy in Colombia came under severe criticism with claims that
it damaged legitimate crops and ultimately failed in its aims of
destroying the coca crop. However, during his confirmation hearing
before Congress, Mr Wood said the Colombian option may be repeated in
Afghanistan and General Peter Pace, chairman of the U.S. joint chiefs
of staff, has also voiced the opinion that it could be a template for
Afghanistan. Members of the Colombian security forces are already
training Afghan police in counter-narcotics.

[snip]

A U.S. diplomatic source said: "There is absolutely no evidence that
spraying causes harm to people or cattle. Everyone has seen the rise
in the poppy harvest, and obviously the current policy is not working."

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1137.a03.html

(19) TB OUTBREAK IN PORT ALBERNI LINKED TO CRACK

Pubdate: Thu, 04 Oct 2007
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 Times Colonist
Author: CanWest News Service

PORT ALBERNI -- Vancouver Island health officials have linked the
current tuberculosis outbreak in Port Alberni to the use and abuse of
crack cocaine.

"There is a close connection with crack cocaine use [in the
outbreak]," Janice Jespersen, public health nurse with the Vancouver
Island Health Authority, told Port Alberni city councillors this week.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1136.a08.html

(20) MOST GULU YOUTH TURN TO DRUGS

Pubdate: Sun, 30 Sep 2007
Source: New Vision (Uganda)
Author: Caroline Ayugi

Most youth in Gulu district have resorted to use of drugs as an
assumed remedy to depression and post-traumatic stress disorder, a
psychiatrist at the Gulu mental health unit has revealed.

Dr. Thomas Oyok said the abuse of drugs had resulted into increased
cases of mental illness and poor performance at school.

[snip]

"Teachers might think a student is a slow learner but when you dig
deep, you find that he might have lost both parents, was abducted and
witnessed atrocities during the insurgency in the region."

[snip]

The community liaison officer at the Gulu central Police station,
Johnson Kilama, said the Police on average arrest four teenage drug
abusers every week, including girls.

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1123.a04.html

(21) DRUG USE DEBATE LIGHTS UP

Pubdate: Wed, 03 Oct 2007
Source: Prague Post (Czech Republic)
Author: Eva Munkova

Penalties for Marijuana and Magic Mushroom Growers May Drop

The Idea Behind the Changes Is to Separate Users From Dealers.

Lawmakers are considering lower penalties for small-scale
recreational drug growers under a Criminal Code change that
decriminalizes recreational drug use.

If the new Criminal Code passes, marijuana growers would face six
months in jail if they produce more than an amount deemed to be for
their own use. Anyone who makes drugs or possesses them in certain
quantities can go to jail for one to five years if caught under the
current law.

The idea behind the amendment is to separate recreational drug users
from "the black market," says Justice Ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Kuncova.

Police officers will still have the same abilities to arrest dealers
if the new rules pass, Kuncova says, because the rules related to the
criminal manufacture or sale of drugs are essentially unaltered by the code.

Under the proposed new rules, penalties would be more lenient for
possession or cultivation of "light" drugs such as marijuana for
individual use, but remain strict for possession or sale of hard
drugs, such as cocaine, methamphetamines and heroin.

[snip]

Lawmakers first made cultivation and possession of any amount of
drugs a criminal offense in 1999, said Josef Radimecky, a former
member of the government commission that penned the original amendment.

[snip]

But far from lowering the amount of marijuana found on the streets,
the tougher approach seemed to make things worse, according to a
government study on the effects of the new policy conducted one year later.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n1138.a05.html

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