THIS JUST IN

(1) LEGALIZING POPPIES NOT AN OPTION: EXPERT

Pubdate: Fri, 29 Jun 2007
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2007 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.
Author: Mike Blanchfield, CanWest News Service

There Would Still Be Much Illegal 'Leakage,' He Says

Many have touted it as a simple and compelling solution to
Afghanistan's chronic poppy problem: legalize the world-leading opium
trade to take it out of the hands of criminals and terrorists.

The controversial Senlis Council, the federal Liberal Party, a major
Canadian foreign policy think tank, even a former Canadian NATO
ambassador have all advocated some form of legal and controlled opium
production. Doing so, they argue, would deprive drug dealers of
massive profits while easing the pain of the world's sick and putting
money into the pockets of poor Afghan farmers.

William says that's one big pipe dream. In terms of turning from
illicit to licit production, it just seems like a non-starter," said
Byrd, who until recently was the World Bank's senior economic adviser
in Kabul. "It is not feasible for the foreseeable future."

Byrd developed the World Bank's reconstruction strategy for
Afghanistan following the ouster of its Taliban rulers in late 2001.
He was responsible for the first economic report on Afghanistan in a
quarter century.

Byrd, who has a doctorate in economics from Harvard, has since become
the bank's senior advisor on poverty reduction in Washington. He took
part in a panel discussion in Ottawa yesterday on the economics of the
Afghanistan narcotics industry.

In a succinct presentation, aided by a few slides, Byrd systematically
and dispassionately attempted to debunk the legalization argument.
Byrd identified the Senlis Council in his main slide on the issue, but
he just as easily could have pointed a finger at the opposition
Liberals, the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, or
Gordon Smith, a distinguished retired public servant who served as
Canada's NATO ambassador at the end of the Cold War, all of whom have
endorsed some for of legalization of the Afghan poppy.

[snip]

This week, the United Nation's Office of Drugs and Crime reported that
Afghanistan's illicit poppy crop has increased by 59 per cent, and is
now the source of 92 per cent of the world's heroin.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n768.a05.html

(2) A DREAM TO GIVE DRUG ADDICTS NEW HOPE

Pubdate: Wed, 27 Jun 2007
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 The Province
Author: John Bermingham

MLA Wants Former Army Barracks To Mimic Italian Success Story

Vancouver MLA Lorne Mayencourt wants to turn a former army barracks
near Prince George into a cutting-edge community for drug addicts and
alcoholics.

To be called New Hope, the 65-hectare community would house 100 people
in a long-term-recovery program that could last years.

It's based on an Italian model that has treated more than 20,000
addicts and has a 72-per-cent success rate.

B.C.'s addicts usually get one week of detox and 28 days of treatment,
then are back on the street. But 85 per cent relapse within the first
30 days.

The Italian model has a high success rate because people not only kick
the habit but also turn their lives around.

"I'm not entirely satisfied with what we do now, and I think we can do
much better," Mayencourt told The Province from Prince Rupert.

"The therapeutic community model that we're looking at in Italy has
some real great opportunities here in B.C."

New Hope members would get addictions treatment, therapeutic support
and learn new work skills to turn their lives around.

"You spend some time exploring who you are as a person," said
Mayencourt, who has visited the San Patrignano community on the
Adriatic. Its 2,200 recovering addicts live there for three to five
years.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n766.a05.html

(3) STATE TO LET PATIENTS GROW THEIR OWN POT

Pubdate: Fri, 29 Jun 2007
Source: New Mexican, The (Santa Fe, NM)
Copyright: 2007 The Santa Fe New Mexican
Author: Diana Del Mauro, The New Mexican

When lobbyists rallied this year at the Roundhouse to legalize medical
marijuana, they distinctly said patients wouldn't be growing this
mind-altering herb. Rather, the state Health Department would create a
secure production and distribution system - the first state to do so.

After years of failed attempts, the measure won approval, making New
Mexico the 12th state with such a law. Now, as the law is about to go
into effect Sunday, the message has changed. In a surprise move
Thursday, the Health Department unveiled a provision that allows
patients to grow a limited number of marijuana plants with protection
from state prosecution.

That angered the law-enforcement community. Jim Burleson, director of
the state sheriffs' and police association, said having individual
growers in the state could be a big problem.

"If a person is growing their own (marijuana), there is no quality
control and no quantity control - and it's absolutely contrary to what
was discussed at the (legislative) session," he said.

Also, it "sets up" patients for a high amount of scrutiny from federal
law-enforcement agencies, he added. Using or distributing marijuana is
illegal under federal law, and state law cannot protect violators from
federal prosecution.

The Health Department says qualified patients and caregivers may
cultivate as many as four mature marijuana plants and three immature
marijuana seedlings.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n770.a05.html

(4) VICTORIA MAYOR WANTS 'DRUG CONSUMPTION SITES'

Pubdate: Wed, 27 Jun 2007
Source: Vancouver Sun (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 The Vancouver Sun

VICTORIA -- Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe is applying for an exemption to
Canada's drug laws to operate three supervised drug consumption sites,
based on a report released Tuesday that the city's addicts need urgent
help.

"We must do something to improve the current situation and we cannot
wait any longer," lead researcher Benedikt Fischer, of the Centre for
Addictions Research of B.C., said at a press conference. "It should
have happened yesterday."

The city will submit an application to Health Canada by December to
operate for three years, as a research project, multiple sites where
addicts can under supervision not only shoot up, but possibly smoke
and swallow drugs.

"We need to move forward with this to look at public order on the
streets and see how we can reach those most vulnerable on the street,"
Lowe said.

[snip]

The consumption sites are expected to prevent overdose deaths, slow
the spread of infectious disease, and curtail hospital emergency
visits. They would cost an estimated $1.2 million a year to operate.

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n767.a04.html

WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW

Domestic News- Policy

COMMENT: (5-9)

While the "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" case was a free speech disappointment, it seems to have stirred some prohibition-related memories for Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens. While the case itself is examined in this week's Cannabis Section below, the Washington Post analyzed the dissent from the interesting perspective of Stevens's personal history. A review of a new book shows that others are making the connection between the failures of alcohol prohibition and the failures of drug prohibition.

Also last week, drug tests for teachers are challenged in North Carolina; a California mom offers unusual honesty about the fatal drug overdose of her son; and more details about CIA drug experiments are released.

(5) JUSTICE STEVENS CALLS ON HISTORY HE LIVED

Pubdate: Wed, 27 Jun 2007
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2007 The Washington Post Company
Author: Charles Lane, Washington Post Staff Writer

'Bong Hits' Dissent Points to Prohibition

Justice John Paul Stevens, the third-oldest person ever to sit on
the Supreme Court, turned 87 on April 20. If he's still on the court
142 days from now, he'll overtake Roger B. Taney, who died as chief
justice in 1864 at the age of 87 years 209 days.

Stevens still has a long way to go if he wants to catch Oliver
Wendell Holmes Jr., who was 90 when he retired from the court in
1932. But he has already started invoking his considerable life
experience to buttress his opinions.

On Monday, Stevens dissented in the case of the Alaska teenager who
was suspended for displaying a "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" banner at a
school event. While a majority of the court said the Constitution
does not protect pro-drug student speech, Stevens took the historic
view.

Harking back to Prohibition, which began three months before
Stevens's birth and ended a month before he turned 13 in 1933,
Stevens compared the current marijuana ban to the abandoned alcohol
ban and urged a respectful hearing for those who suggest "however
inarticulately" that the ban is "futile" and that marijuana should
be legalized, taxed and regulated instead of prohibited:

"[T]he current dominant opinion supporting the war on drugs in
general, and our anti-marijuana laws in particular, is reminiscent
of the opinion that supported the nationwide ban on alcohol
consumption when I was a student. While alcoholic beverages are now
regarded as ordinary articles of commerce, their use was then
condemned with the same moral fervor that now supports the war on
drugs."

Stevens knows something about Prohibition -- he was born and raised
in Chicago, where Al Capone and other organized-crime figures
controlled hundreds of speakeasies. And he knows something about the
moral fervor of Prohibition's supporters, because one of them was
his mother, Elizabeth Stevens, who used to say, "Lips that taste
wine will never touch mine."

His father, Ernest Stevens, was a hotelier who carefully obeyed the
alcohol ban in his establishments but who predicted in 1932 court
testimony that his business would benefit from the end of
Prohibition, because diners would abandon the speak-easies for legal
restaurants like the ones in his hotels.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n758/a10.html

(6) UP FROM PROHIBITION

Pubdate: Thu, 21 Jun 2007
Source: New York Sun, The (NY)
Copyright: 2007 The New York Sun, One SL, LLC.
Author: John McWHORTER

You have to go to the history section of the bookstore to find
Michael Lerner's new book recounting New York during Prohibition,
"Dry Manhattan." It would be more usefully displayed in Current
Affairs. Mr. Lerner has given us not a mere academic exhumation of a
bygone New York, but an uncannily accurate description of New York
last week and the city's fight against drugs.

Prohibition was, of course, a dismal failure. It didn't stop people
from drinking, and, in fact, made many, attracted by the glamour of
the illicit, drink more. But worst of all, it created an ongoing war
between police forces and humble working people, bringing out the
worst in everybody.

Public respect for the law plummeted. Mr. Lerner writes, "officers
increasingly accused of using excessive force, planting evidence,
and conducting illegal searches and seizures." I could have opened
this oped with that sentence and pulled the journalist's rhetorical
trick of writing, "Does that sound like something out of today's
headlines? Well, in fact, it is a description of 1921 in Michael
Lerner's new book ... "

And even honest agents and officers were "chased, bombarded with
bowling pins, assaulted by women and children, and knocked
unconscious" out of hostility to a frivolous and unfair policy.
Nowadays officers attempting drug arrests encounter weapons more
menacing than bowling pins, but the principle is the same.

Because the risk involved in trafficking liquor meant tempting money
for those doing it, for too many poor people bootlegging became an
alternative to legal work. Today, way too many inner city young
people seek the easy score available from "working the corners"
selling drugs. It is not that there are no jobs available for them
- -- check work by the Urban Institute, for example. The problem is
the temptation of a trade where high risk spells big bucks -- and
even if the underlings don't make much, they aspire to rise in the
outfit and make more.

Finally, immigrants and blacks were hounded much more than native
whites. They didn't like it. Fast forward to today, with the common
resentment that the white middle manager caught with powdered
cocaine in the glove compartment gets a slap on the hand while the
black kid with some vials of crack goes to jail.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n743/a01.html

(7) FORMER CHEROKEE COUNTY TEACHER SUES OVER DRUG TEST POLICY FOR
SCHOOL EMPLOYEES

Pubdate: Wed, 20 Jun 2007
Source: Cherokee Sentinel (NC)
Copyright: 2007 Cherokee Sentinel
Author: Dwight Otwell

A former Cherokee County Spanish teacher has brought suit against
the Graham County school system to prevent it from implementing
random drug testing of all school employees.

The North Carolina Association of Educators filed the lawsuit on
behalf of Susan Jones, who now teaches at Robbinsville High School.
Jones previously taught Spanish at Hiwassee Dam High School in
Cherokee County.

The suit states that the drug testing policy violates state
constitutional principles against discrimination and searches
without evidence.

Graham County Superintendent of Schools Rick Davis said the purpose
of the policy, which will take effect July 1, is to ensure a drug
free and safe work environment. He said he believes that Graham
County would be the first school system in North Carolina to
randomly drug test all school employees.

While private companies can drug test its employees, governments can
only test employees suspected of drug use or those with safety
sensitive jobs. School bus drivers' jobs are considered safety
sensitive and bus drivers are drug tested across the United States.

In its new policy, the Graham County School Board classified all
positions in the school system as "safety sensitive positions". The
policy states that the classification was made "due to the fact that
these positions require work where an inattention to duty or error
in judgement will have the potential for significant risk or harm to
those entrusted to their care, and the possibility or probability of
contact with students and the influence employees have could cause
irreparable damage to the health and well being of the students."

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n742/a03.html

(8) COLUMN: MOTHER TELLS WORLD IN OBIT HOW SON DIED

Pubdate: Thu, 21 Jun 2007
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2007 San Jose Mercury News
Author: Scott Herhold, Mercury News

It was one of the most unusual obituaries: "David Alan Stewart of
San Diego, 21, only child of Morgan Stewart of San Diego and Sander
Greenland of Topanga, died May 31st of a heroin overdose." It asked
mourners to give to organizations trying to end the war on drugs.

Having written many obituaries in my life, I like directness. But
dying of a heroin overdose? Even in the liberated language of the
Internet era, it feels brutally stark, a slap to the face.

So I called Morgan Stewart, David's mother, and asked why the obit
that she paid to put in the Mercury News - her son grew up here -
was, well, so blunt.

The answer wasn't what I expected. "It actually never occurred to me
not to do it," she told me, explaining that she had been trained as
an epidemiologist. "I've always been annoyed when I see an obituary
and not a cause of death."

And giving to organizations that want to end the war on drugs? "I've
always been a strong believer that drug policies are not just
archaic, they're making the problem a lot worse than it needs to
be," Stewart told me. "The illegal status of drugs is a tremendous
boon to crime."

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n746/a02.html

(9) EXPERIMENTING WITH THE MIND

Pubdate: Tue, 26 Jun 2007
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2007 The Washington Post Company
Author: Thomas E. Ricks

The CIA was eager to examine the use of dangerous pharmaceutical
drugs to modify the behavior of targeted individuals, and so it
asked commercial drug manufacturers to pass along samples of
medicines rejected for commercial sale "because of unfavorable side
effects," according to an undated memorandum included in dozens of
CIA documents released yesterday.

CIA scientists tested some of the drugs on monkeys and mice, the
memo said. Drugs that showed promise, it said, "were then tested at
Edgewood, using volunteer members of the Armed Forces." This appears
to be a reference to an Army laboratory north of Baltimore now
called the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center. The memo doesn't
discuss the reactions of those human subjects.

The three-paragraph memo reports that the late Carl Duckett, a
senior CIA technologist, had said the testing program was not
intended to find new techniques to be used offensively, but rather
was an effort to be able to be able to detect if such drugs were
being employed by others.

Duckett "emphasizes that the program was considered as defensive, in
the sense that we would be able to recognize certain behavior if
similar materials were used against Americans," it states. Duckett,
who was the CIA's deputy director for science and technology,
retired from the CIA in 1977 and died in 1992.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n752/a08.html

Law Enforcement & Prisons

COMMENT: (10-14)

As the U.S. prison population continues to rise at an alarming pace, at least some political leaders, like the Mayor of Newark, N.J. seem to understand what's happening and how the drug war is involved. Also last week, more perfidy from law enforcement with respect to cannabis-related crime; more high-level drug corruption in North Carolina; and a new "Wall of Shame" for meth convicts in Illinois.

(10) NUMBER OF U.S. PRISONERS HAS BIGGEST RISE IN 6 YEARS

Pubdate: Wed, 27 Jun 2007
Source: Reuters (Wire)
Copyright: 2007 Reuters Limited
Author: James Vicini

WASHINGTON ( Reuters ) - The United States, which has the most
prisoners of any country in the world, last year recorded the
largest increase in the number of people in prisons and jails since
2000, the Justice Department reported on Wednesday.

It said the nation's prison and jail populations increased by more
than 62,000 inmates, or 2.8 percent, to about 2,245,000 inmates in
the 12-month period that ended on June 30, 2006. It was the biggest
jump in numbers and percentage change in six years.

Criminal justice experts have attributed the record U.S. prison
population to tough sentencing laws, record numbers of drug
offenders and high crimes rates.

State or federal prisons held two-thirds of the nation's
incarcerated population while local jails held the rest, according
to the report by the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics.

The number of inmates in state prisons rose by 3 percent, the report
said. That growth mainly reflected rising prison admissions, which
have been going up faster than the number of released prisoners.
Also, more parole violators have returned to prison, the report
said.

Forty-two states and the federal system all had more inmates in June
last year than the previous year. The number of jail inmates
increased by 2.5 percent during the same 12-month period, the report
said.

The report on U.S. prison numbers is issued every six months.

Jason Ziedenberg of the Justice Policy Institute, a group that seeks
alternatives to incarceration, said the new numbers showed an
"alarming growth" in an already overburdened prison system.

"Billions of public safety dollars are absorbed by prison expansion
and limits the nation's ability to focus on more effective
strategies to promote public safety," he said.

Officials at the Drug Policy Alliance, another group opposed to long
prison sentences for drug offenders, said the drug policies of the
past 30 years have been a major contributor to the U.S. prison
population explosion.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n757/a07.html

(11) COLUMN: BOOKER REDIRECTS HIS ANGER AT THE WAR ON DRUGS

Pubdate: Sun, 24 Jun 2007
Source: Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ)
Copyright: 2007 Newark Morning Ledger Co
Author: Tom Moran

The BlackBerry in Mayor Cory Booker's jacket pocket signals him
every time the gunfire in Newark claims another victim. It happens
almost every day.

A man shot in the neck while fending off a robber on Spruce Street
at dusk. Two men shot in the face during an argument on 19th Street
just after midnight. A man assassinated on Clinton Avenue by a
gunman who fired several shots into his chest from close range.

That BlackBerry carries grim news.

"It's frustrating," Booker says, shaking his head. "I've said this
is what I'm going to hang my hat on, the safety of my residents.
That's how I want to be judged. That's my mandate."

For Booker, it has been a sobering first year as mayor. When he
swore his oath last summer he was the whiz kid, the fast-talking
Rhodes scholar with a million strategies to make the city safe. He
pinned everything on that.

Now he is staring into this abyss, and it's leaving a mark on him.
He is an angrier man now. And the focus of that anger is a public
policy that he believes is ruining his city and threatening his
hopes to change it.

The problem, he says, is New Jersey's tough tactics in the drug war.
We are heavy on jail time and unforgiving even when prisoners finish
their terms. At a time when even states like Texas are changing
course, we are sticking with our failed strategy.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n749/a04.html

(12) COLUMN: DRUNK AND STONED

Pubdate: Thu, 21 Jun 2007
Source: North Coast Journal (Arcatia, CA)
Copyright: 2007 North Coast Journal
Author: Hank Sims

In case you missed it, there's been a fascinating little war of
words over marijuana, prohibition and murder playing itself out in
the pages of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat over the last few days.

On June 10, the Press Democrat carried a long feature by Ukiah-based
reporter Glenda Anderson about a region-wide upswing in marijuana
cultivation and marijuana busts. There was a sidebar accompanying
the story; it was headlined "Marijuana industry blamed for jump in
killings, robberies." In fact, this headline was misleading. Most of
the article was about environmental damage wreaked by North Coast
growers, the specter of foreign cartels and families "torn apart" by
consumption of the demon weed.

Violence was cited only twice. Mention was made of a double murder
near the eastern Mendocino town of Covelo last year. But the bulk of
the story -- the only thing that served to justify the headline --
was an unsubstantiated quote from Humboldt County's own Sergeant
Wayne Hanson, of the sheriff's Drug Enforcement Unit.

"If we average five homicides, four will be marijuana-related,"
Hanson told the reporter. "People are killing people because it's
the same price as gold."

Really? Four out of five homicides in Humboldt County are marijuana
related? To put it kindly, this seemed like utter nonsense to Ellen
Komp of SoHum's Civil Liberties Monitoring Project, who responded
with an understated yet fiery letter in Tuesday's PD. Hanson's
statistics, Komp wrote, "...had no basis in fact." She added that
she had spoken to County Coroner Frank Jager, and that Jager had
reported that none of the three homicides the county has tallied so
far this year had been marijuana-related in any way.

Reached Monday, Hanson said that his figures were off-the-cuff, but
that he basically believed them to be correct. "That was just an
approximate guesstimate," he said. "It may be lower. It's not an
exact quote, because I have not studied all the stats in the last
five years."

Well, to be fair to Hanson, it could be that he was thinking only of
homicides in the county's unincorporated areas -- homicides handled
by his department, the Sheriff's Office. Six of the eight homicides
in Humboldt County last year occurred within the Eureka city limits;
none of them had anything to do with weed. There's a couple of
unsolved cases -- including the disappearance of SoHum marijuana
advocate Chris Giauque -- that may well have had something to do
with weed. But the last cut-and-dried case anyone can remember that
definitely did have something to do with weed was the murder of
Whitethorn teen Sean Akselsen in 2003.

So it's safe to say that countywide, at least, Hanson's off-the-cuff
numbers were badly wrong. Considering the Sheriff's Office alone,
they were probably wrong. That's what Jager thinks: "They may have a
lot of crimes related to marijuana, but we don't have a lot of
homicides related to marijuana," he said Tuesday.

The backdrop of all this, of course, is the recent move by the
Mendocino County Board of Supervisors to call for the legalization
of marijuana, a move that SoHum Supervisor Roger Rodoni has
endorsed. Legalization would have two near-immediate consequences.
It would all but put an end to any violence the illicit marijuana
trade does engender, and it would see Sgt. Hanson assigned to other
duties.

[snip]

Continues: URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n744/a05.html

(13) FEDS JOINED RAVENEL COCAINE CASE IN APRIL

Pubdate: Thu, 21 Jun 2007
Source: Post and Courier, The (Charleston, SC)
Copyright: 2007 Evening Post Publishing Co.
Author: Brian Hicks

The call came in to SLED in September 2005: Charleston police were
working on a cocaine investigation, and it was a big one. They
needed help. And from the start, Chief Robert Stewart, the veteran
leader of the State Law Enforcement Division, saw a lot of promise
in the case. "It was a good case with the potential of multiple
defendants, pretty lengthy, a lot of undercover work," Stewart
recalled Wednesday. Although federal officials suggest that Thomas
Ravenel was a target early on -- up to six months before he became a
candidate for state treasurer in March 2006 -- Stewart can't comment
on when the high-profile Republican became a target. You have to
follow an investigation through to its logical course, he said.

"When you've got an ongoing investigation, names come up," he said.
"Some of them pan out, some don't."

By April 1, 2007, less than three months into Ravenel's term as
state treasurer, Stewart made a call to the U.S. Attorney and the
FBI. The state was investigating one of its own top officials.

"I didn't want any conflicts on political or ethical issues," he
said. Less than a day after Ravenel, 44, was indicted on federal
charges of cocaine possession and distribution, Gov. Mark Sanford
has named an interim treasurer to replace him, the Legislature is
already vetting potential permanent replacements, and, political
analysts say, whether he is convicted or not, Ravenel's public
service career is over.

Now, people are simply waiting on the details and Ravenel's July 9
arraignment in federal court in Columbia. Although Charleston police
didn't return phone calls about the investigation, Stewart said more
arrests in the general cocaine investigation, not necessarily
Ravenel's case, could be on the way. The allegations against Ravenel
have dealt a serious blow to one of South Carolina's best-known
political families. Ravenel's father, Arthur Ravenel Jr., is a
former U.S. Congressman and state senator, and currently serves on
the Charleston County School Board.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n744/a06.html

(14) WEB HALL OF SHAME FOR DRUG CONVICTS

Pubdate: Mon, 25 Jun 2007
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2007 Chicago Tribune Company
Author: Andrew L. Wang, Tribune staff reporter

Authorities Posting Meth Makers' Names

To keep the public informed of methamphetamine makers in their
midst, Illinois State Police and the governor's office Sunday
unveiled an online database of convicted meth producers.

Like the state's online sex-offender registry, the new list --
dubbed the Methamphetamine Manufacturing Registry -- displays the
name, date of birth, type of offense, conviction date and county
where the offense took place, though it doesn't include where the
offender lives or a physical description.

"This registry provides people statewide with a resource to identify
those who have been convicted of manufacturing this drug and help
them engage in the fight to stop production in their neighborhoods,"
said Gov. Rod Blagojevich in a statement.

Blagojevich signed a bill in June 2006 requiring the creation of the
site. Illinois is one of a handful of states that have such
databases, said Gerardo Cardenas, a Blagojevich spokesman.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n750/a04.html

Cannabis & Hemp-

COMMENT: (15-18)

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the 'Bong Hits 4 Jesus' case was the big story of the week. A solid majority of the editorials and columns in the press were critical of the decision. Syndicated columnist Debra Saunders's analysis, which has been printed in a number of newspapers, is typical. Students for Sensible Drug Policy has a review of interest at http://www.ssdp.org/freespeech/

Ed Rosenthal is not one to give up in his battle with the federal courts. U.S. farmers look with envy to the north, where the uses for industrial hemp continue to grow.

With the exception of a few major cities like San Francisco, city ordinances prohibiting medical cannabis dispensaries continue to multiply across the state. Articles like the one below are frequent, sometimes several times a week. California law does allow for cooperative efforts to supply marijuana to patients, but unfortunately many dispensaries push well beyond the limits of the state laws. While some cheer those efforts, there is little doubt that the media stories about the excesses of some dispensaries is providing negative publicity which impacts on efforts to provide for the needs of patients in both the states which have medical marijuana laws and those who are working towards that goal.

(15) FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION TAKES A BONG HIT

Pubdate: Tue, 26 Jun 2007
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Hearst Communications Inc.
Author: Debra J. Saunders

IN ITS 1969 Tinker decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that an
Iowa public school could not expel students who wore black armbands
to protest the Vietnam War because students do not "shed their
constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the
schoolhouse gate." On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a muddled
ruling -- with four justices agreeing, one partially agreeing and
three dissenting -- that restricts those free-speech rights, even
outside the schoolhouse gate.

The story begins in January 2002. An Alaska high school student
attending a Winter Olympics Torch Relay on a Juneau sidewalk
unfurled a banner that read, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus." Joseph Frederick
hoped that prank would land him on TV news.

Because the school had sanctioned the event and school staff
supervised the event, Juneau-Douglas High School Principal Deborah
Morse saw fit to confiscate the banner and suspend Frederick.

[snip]

So the court ruled that public schools have a right to censor
opposition to the war on drugs, even as it has upheld the right of
students to oppose military wars. Eric Sterling, a board member of
Students for Sensible Drug Policy, described the decision in the
nutshell: "They're saying there's free speech in the schools, but
you can't advocate drug use."

I understand why the big bench would want to side with Morse --
although it's news to me that unfurling a banner on a public
sidewalk is a principal's business, even if the school did sanction
student attendance. Morse was trying to do her job -- even if she
was heavy-handed. Frederick comes across as a disrespectful cut-up,
who lacked the spine to admit the banner was a pro-marijuana
message.

But Supreme Court rulings are not supposed to be adjudicated like a
popularity contest. Roberts wrote a pragmatic results-oriented
decision likely to please many parents. But to rule that schools can
suppress ideas officials don't like -- well, who knows where that
will end?

[snip]

In the war on drugs, common sense is the first casualty.

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n756/a07.html

(16) MARIJUANA GROWER WANTS A NEW TRIAL

Pubdate: Sun, 24 Jun 2007
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Hearst Communications Inc.
Author: Henry K. Lee

Ed Rosenthal, twice convicted of violating federal drug laws by
growing marijuana for medical patients, wants a new trial.

The 62-year-old Oakland man claims U.S. District Judge Charles
Breyer in San Francisco wrongly barred him from telling jurors his
goal was helping the sick.

In a motion filed earlier this month, Rosenthal's attorney argued
Breyer should have allowed him to present evidence regarding "the
scientific value of medical marijuana."

Assistant U.S. Attorney George Bevan said Rosenthal's allegations
are without merit, according to a motion he filed Wednesday.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n748/a08.html

(17) THE HOUSE THAT HEMP BUILT

Pubdate: Sat, 23 Jun 2007
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Copyright: 2007 Calgary Herald
Author: Joanne Hatherly, CanWest News Service

Drew and Jaime Rokeby-Thomas had the property, builder, designer and
finances lined up for construction of their straw-bale home on
B.C.'s Saltspring Island.

They had everything they needed -- except straw.

Construction on the 1,760-square-foot house was to start in 2003,
the same year Alberta's drought made headlines across the country.
The couple found that Alberta farmers, unable to grow their own
bedding for their livestock, had gone shopping in B.C. That meant
regular straw-bale sources were sold out.

"We started calling family and friends in the Kootenays looking
everywhere and anywhere for straw," says Drew, an inventor. They
never found it, but they did find a rancher with 2,000 hemp bales
and snapped them up.

Building an alternative-style house can be a large-scale experiment.
Each house built of alternative materials, such as earth and straw,
needs to be certified by an engineer to pass building inspection.
The last-minute switch made by the Rokeby-Thomases threw new
variables into their plans.

"Hemp was much harder to build with," says Drew. The difficulty was
due to hemp's tougher fibre, making it harder to cut the bales. "I
would never do a hemp house again."

But that minus has been compensated for by a big plus. While
straw-bale homes can sometimes run into trouble with moisture when
not properly designed, the in-wall moisture reader on the
Rokeby-Thomas house showed the hemp dropped its moisture content
faster than straw-bale homes.

Everest Reynolds of Elevation Design Studio provided the basic house
design. Builder Nick Langford, a building technology and design
graduate from B.C. Institute of Technology, worked with the couple
to fashion the two-level low-energy home. Timber-frame construction
bears the load of the house, while the hemp bale walls on the main
floor provide an insulating value of R30. Large windows run along
the south side of the house, helping it to gain solar heat
throughout the day.

The house is well-sealed, not only against the climate, but also
against sound. Jaime is a professional musician whose stage name is
jaime rt. Her music studio occupies the north side of the house.
There, the walls were built with double-offset studs and gasketed
doors so that Jaime's creative output wouldn't resonate through the
house and neighbourhood.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n747/a01.html

(18) MORE CITIES PUSH TO NIX MEDICAL POT SHOPS

Pubdate: Wed, 27 Jun 2007
Source: San Bernardino Sun (CA)
Copyright: 2007 Los Angeles Newspaper Group
Author: Andrew Edwards, Staff Writer

YUCAIPA - Another inland town moved closer to snuffing out medicinal
marijuana Monday when the City Council approved staffers' plans to
craft an ordinance prohibiting medical cannabis dispensaries.

Yucaipa's not the only East Valley city addressing the marijuana
issue this week. In Redlands on Tuesday the Planning Commission
voted unanimously to pass along a recommendation to the City Council
to put an anti-cannabis law on the books.

California cities face a contradiction between state and federal
laws governing marijuana. The state's voters cast ballots to allow
the use of medical cannabis when they passed Proposition 215 in
1996, but Uncle Sam has since maintained federal policy that
classifies marijuana as an illegal, controlled substance.

John McMains, Yucaipa's community development director, recommended
that Yucaipa adopt a policy that would require dispensaries to
comply with both federal and state laws regarding medicinal
marijuana, basically meaning that dispensaries could only be allowed
in the city if federal law changes.

[snip]

The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the federal government's power to
enforce its marijuana laws despite state laws such as those in
California. However, the court has never struck down Proposition
215.

Redlands Community Development Director Jeff Shaw said in a phone
message that federal prohibitions against medical marijuana are a
key reason officials in that city are also moving against
dispensaries.

Medical cannabis advocates say the drug can be beneficial for
patients with cancer and other serious diseases. The Drug
Enforcement Administration argues that drug traffickers use
California's medical marijuana law as a shield for law-breaking.

San Bernardino County cities Ontario, Grand Terrace, Upland and
Montclair have banned marijuana dispensaries. Fontana planning
commissioners recommended a ban earlier this month.

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07/n759/a10.html

International News

COMMENT: (19-23)

It was the UN's International Propaganda Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking last week, and the UN was ready to trumpet its perceived successes. Only 200 million people worldwide ignore drug laws, and use illegal drugs anyway. Drug problem? Admits the UN: only a "small fraction" of these can be considered "problem drug users". With the exception of Afghan opium, says the UN, drug use has levelled off or is declining.

It is back to broken car-antennas for crack addicts in the Canadian city of Nanaimo, as a public outcry over the distribution of crack pipes halted the program. Given out by the Vancouver Island Health Authority, the crack pipe kits were intended as a harm-reduction measure to help stop the spread of diseases like Hepatitis. Nurses had given out about 200 kits over five months before some Nanaimo residents and city council objected. The Nanaimo crack pipe harm-reduction scheme followed similar programs in Ontario, Manitoba, and British Columbia.

Mexican President Calderon's escalated drug "war" in that country took a new turn last week when some 280 federal police chiefs were "purged" in a bid to circumvent prohibition-fueled corruption in the ranks. While gung-ho prohibitionists have applauded the Calderon regime's iron-fisted drug-fighting approach, there's nothing to show for it. As the UK Independent newspaper put it, "there is so far no evidence that the assault is slowing the distribution of drugs. Nor has it quieted the violence." Added the Independent, "Critics doubt whether the war can be won with so much money at stake." But when has a drug prohibition ever succeeded?

In Canada this week, much ado about a Mexican mint (salvia divinorum) authorities assert "can be another step to another drug." In Edmonton Alberta, led by Ald. Dana Smith, the city council of Leduc is asking Ottawa to make the hallucinatory herb illegal for everyone, young or old. Even though use of the herb is miniscule (few try it more than once), just knowing it is for sale irks some. "As far as I am concerned that makes it a problem in Leduc in that it is available, but it is not a problem in that it is rampant and that sort of thing," said Smith. Smith did not specify which other drugs to which salvia divinorum users might "step".

Did you think that the police "spinning" drug busts and seizure numbers into impressive sounding press conferences was a purely American phenomenon? It isn't. The UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) -- hailed by some as the "UK's answer to the FBI" -- was in hot water this week for fudging seizure stats, apparently a popular pastime among drug warriors worldwide. "Soca can't have it both ways and claim record seizures and then refuse to give a breakdown," noted even Conservative MP David Burrowes. "Otherwise the public will be right to suspect this is more spin than substance." Too late, David. We already figured as much.

(19) 200 MILLION PEOPLE IN WORLD USE DRUGS: UN

Pubdate: Tue, 26 Jun 2007
Source: Times of India, The (India)
Copyright: Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. 2007

NEW DELHI: About 200 million people around the world consume drugs
each year, with cocaine, opium and its derivatives - including
heroin - topping the list of favourites, a United Nations report
said on Tuesday.

"Though a large share of the world's population - about five per
cent of the people between the ages of 15 and 64 - uses illicit
drugs each year, only a small fraction of these can be considered
'problem drug users'," the report issued by the United Nations
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.

According to the report, opium continued to be the prime drug in
most of Europe and Asia. In South America victims queue up mostly
for cocaine-abuse treatment and in Africa abuse is primarily
confined to cannabis.

[snip]

However, the UNODC stressed that the global drug problem was being
contained. The production and consumption of cannabis, cocaine,
amphetamines and Ecstasy have stabilised at the global level - with
one exception.

"The exception is the continuing expansion of opium production in
Afghanistan. This expansion continues to pose a threat - to the
security of the country and to the global containment of opiate
abuse."

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n755.a06.html

(20) NANAIMO HALTS CRACK-PIPE HANDOUTS

Pubdate: Thu, 21 Jun 2007
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2007 Times Colonist
Author: Jeff Rud

The Vancouver Island Health Authority has stopped issuing free crack
pipes to addicts in downtown Nanaimo after city council and some
residents expressed concerns about the harm-reduction approach.

VIHA chief executive officer Howard Waldner said yesterday that the
authority realized "in hindsight" that it probably could have done a
better job of communicating the pilot project to the public and
politicians before implementing it more than five months ago.

[snip]

Earlier this month, Waldner estimated that VIHA nurses had
distributed about 200 of the kits.

[snip]

Waldner said the practice of handing out the crack pipe kits was
approved by Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall and is
happening in other Canadian cities including Vancouver, Toronto,
Ottawa and Winnipeg. It is not being done in Victoria.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n743.a09.html

(21) MEXICO PURGES TOP POLICE IN BATTLE AGAINST CORRUPTION

Pubdate: Thu, 28 Jun 2007
Source: Independent (UK)
Copyright: 2007 Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Author: David Usborne

Mexico has launched an unprecedented purge of its top police
officers as the latest step in its increasingly high-stakes campaign
to combat the drugs cartels and end a gruesome wave of
narcotics-related violence.

Summarily removed from their posts, at least for the time being, are
284 federal police chiefs spread across every state of the country.
Each of them will be extensively vetted for corruption and possible
ties to the cartels and their ruthless gangs of enforcers.

Since taking office in December, Felipe Calderon, Mexico's
President, has taken increasingly bold measures to tackle one of his
country's most intractable problems - the unabated activities of the
drug lords and the corruption within law enforcement that protects
them from arrest.

It is a crusade that has drawn wide applause from most Mexicans, who
are tired of the bloodshed spawned by the drugs trade, as well as
from the United States government. However, there is so far no
evidence that the assault is slowing the distribution of drugs. Nor
has it quieted the violence.

[snip]

The death toll last year from drugs-related killings reached 2,000
and could be higher this year. Grisly discoveries in towns as far
apart as Monterrey, Acapulco, Veracruz and Mexico City are reported
almost daily.

[snip]

Critics doubt whether the war can be won with so much money at
stake. About 75 per cent of all the cocaine consumed in the U.S. is
smuggled through Mexico, generating up to $24bn (UKP12bn) in profits
for the traffickers, who spend $3bn a year corrupting officials.

[snip]

Alex Sanchez, a Mexico analyst at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs
in Washington, said: "The problem is the way the cartels are
structured. Taking out one guy... just leaves a vacuum that others
fight to fill. There is a perpetual cycle of violence."

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n758.a04.html

(22) LEDUC RIPS INACTION ON LSD-LIKE DRUG

Pubdate: Wed, 27 Jun 2007
Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB)
Copyright: 2007 The Edmonton Journal
Author: Jeff Holubitsky

Council Wants Salvia Divinorum On Illegal List

EDMONTON - Leduc's city council is pushing Ottawa to remove a
powerful hallucinogenic drug called salvia divinorum from the
shelves of head shops and add it to the list of illegal substances.

"This is definitely a preventative measure and I want the federal
government to be aware this is readily available," Ald. Dana Smith
said Tuesday. "It's being used and it can be another step to another
drug."

[snip]

Smith, a member of the Leduc community drug action committee, said
while the use of salvia divinorum in his city isn't believed to be
widespread, it can be bought there legally.

"As far as I am concerned that makes it a problem in Leduc in that
it is available, but it is not a problem in that it is rampant and
that sort of thing," she said.

Chad Wentworth, owner of Chad's Smoke Shop, said sales of salvia
have dropped off dramatically since he first stocked it about eight
months ago, and he doesn't plan to order more once the small amount
he has on hand is sold.

"Now that people have tried it, it's going down," he said. "I don't
even know where you can get it because a lot of places don't sell it
anymore."

[snip]

Health Canada recently said it is monitoring the drug and that its
long-term effects aren't known, but in the short term it has caused
unconsciousness and memory loss.

But Smith wants Ottawa to speed up its procedures in controlling
such substances.

[snip]

The drug has been chewed or smoked for centuries by Mexico's Mazatec
people, who use it for spiritual reasons.

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n757.a09.html

(23) UK'S ANSWER TO FBI ACCUSED OF SPIN IN DRUG SEIZURES CLAIMS

Pubdate: Sun, 24 Jun 2007
Source: Independent on Sunday (UK)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers Ltd.
Author: Paul Lashmar

Headline-grabbing claims of record drugs seizures by Britain's
answer to the FBI - the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) - have
prompted calls for a parliamentary investigation amid suspicions
that the organisation is "spinning" its success.

Soca's recent boast that it has seized a record 73 tons of cocaine
in its first year was widely reported across the media. But the
agency is refusing to provide any evidence to back up its dramatic
claims.

According to Soca's chairman, Sir Stephen Lander, a former MI5
chief, the huge haul of cocaine had a street value of UKP3bn and
equalled one-fifth of the annual supply to Europe. But when The
Independent on Sunday asked the agency to provide a breakdown of its
cocaine seizures it stalled for 11 days before saying it was
"unwilling" to provide any details.

Conservative MP David Burrowes, secretary of the All-Party
Parliamentary Drugs Misuse Group, said Soca's figures must be
investigated. "Soca can't have it both ways and claim record
seizures and then refuse to give a breakdown. Otherwise the public
will be right to suspect this is more spin than substance."

[snip]

A former senior drug investigator questioned this approach: "It is
claiming success even where there is no reason to believe that any
of the consignment seized was likely to be destined for the UK."

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v07.n747.a05.html