JUDGE FIRED FOR ANTI-DRUG WAR BELIEFS

A Chandler, AZ attorney was relieved of his duties as a judge pro tem last
week after he announced in writing that he would recuse himself from all
cases involving drug related crimes.

Marc Victor, a member of NORML who serves on that organization's legal
committee, had only managed to serve about one hour of his first shift when
Judge Thomas O'Toole, head of the Maricopa County's criminal law judges,
gave him the boot. According to an article in the Arizona Tribune, Judge
O'Toole called Victor's conduct "grossly inappropriate" and "bizarre."

Victor replied, "It's a real chilling kind of a thing for one judge telling
another judge what he can say in a minute entry while he's recusing
himself. It's another thing if I decided to sit on drug cases and started
dismissing them."