DENNIS'S UTAH CASE

Dennis Peron and his co-defendants were back in court in Iron County, Utah,
Oct. 7, filing a motion to get the charges against them dismissed. Peron,
56, John Entwistle, 38, and Kasey Conder, 20, were busted in November `01
in a Cedar City motel room. They were charged with possession of marijuana
(a pound) and intent to distribute. The three are documented patients
under California's Health & Safety Code section 11362.5, created in '96 by
Prop 215 (which Peron and Entwistle drafted and campaigned for).

Their motion to dismiss is based on a section of the Utah Code that bans
possession of a controlled substance "unless it was obtained under a valid
prescription or order directly from a practitioner while acting in the
course of his professional practice, or otherwise authorized by this
chapter. Where violation of this chapter violates a federal law or the law
of another state, conviction or acquittal under federal law or the law of
another state for the same act is a bar to prosecution in this state."

Public Defender Dale Sessions argued that a trial would violate the
Californians's constitutional right to travel. "People with all kinds of
medical treatment, including experimental drugs, travel Interstate 15 all
of the time. We do not routinely prosecute people with prescribed
medication. There was no intent to distribute, there was no consummated
transaction, there was no third-party possession. It would be inappropriate
for this to reach a jury."

Dennis thinks the judge, J. Philip Eves, seemed receptive. A ruling is due
any day.

Recalling Harry Hay

Harry Hay died this week at 90. In the late 1940s he founded the Mattachine
Society a group of men who met in secret to discuss their oppression as
homosexuals and how to deal with it politically. He'd always wanted to
live in the Castro, and a year and a half ago he and his longtime partner
moved from Los Angeles into Dennis's downstairs flat. For the last six
months Hay was in a wheelchair and Dennis often took him on strolls through
the 'hood, where they were both recognized and stopped for conversations on
every block. Hay, according to Dennis, was bittersweet about the
achievements of the gay rights movement he had launched all those years
ago. He'd hoped that homosexual men and women having broken with the
prevailing sexual "morality," and having experienced painful discrimination
would be inherently radical, and would oppose the injustice of the
rich/poor system. Hay took no pride in gays making it big and promoting
this culture and its institutions.

The Cover of Time

On the cover of Time this week it's not the caught snipers or the late
Senator, but some hand-rolled joints sticking out of a pack of cigarettes.
The story is datelined Las Vegas, where Drug Czar John Walters is
campaigning ardently against Question 9, which would legalize possession of
up to three ounces. Sales would be taxed at the wholesale and retail
level, and buyers need not claim "medical use." The measure would have to
carry again in two years before it takes effect, and the feds will almost
certainly try to block implementation. As of now, it's neck-and-neck in
the polls.

Time distorts history by echoing the Drug Czar's main theme as if it were
fact: "Among the biggest pro-pot players, medical marijuana was actually
kind of a ruse. Sure, there are sick people who really feel they need
marijuana to numb pain, relieve the eye pressure of glaucoma, calm muscle
spasms or get the munchies to help with AIDS wasting. But they are not the
people who put the debate into high gear." That's wrong and insulting; the
people who put the debate into high gear were mainly AIDS patients in San
Francisco, not rich men back east. And Time's reporter contradicts his own
point by noting that two of the "pro-pot players" discovered the medical
effects of marijuana on their own, long ago Phoenix University founder John
Sperling used it in coping with cancer, and Progress Insurance owner Peter
Lewis uses it as an alternative to alcohol.

Dennis says if Question 9 passes he's going to ask one of those rich men to
buy a Nevada ghost town for him to run as a marijuana-friendly resort.

Design note: The front page of Time's marijuana story consists of black
print against a dark red background, which is an almost unreadable
combination. A new breed of daring art director is out there, overthrowing
the old rules and conventions - most of which serve useful purposes. Like
legibility.

Who Killed Tammy Wynette?

One of the ways in which the prohibition of certain drugs serves corporate
interests is by diverting public attention from the real and extensive harm
caused by corporate drugs. Legally prescribed pharmaceuticals taken in
proper dosages kill 100,000 people in U.S. hospitals annually more than
double the deaths attributed to all illicit drugs. And that's not counting
people killed by prescription drugs in outpatient settings. The corporate
media is in on the misdirection play; you might say the media is the
misdirection play. And when a story gets too big to contain, they credit
themselves for breaking it!

In July of this year the federally funded Women's Health Initiative cut
short its longterm study of hormone replacement therapy when five-year data
showed that women taking Prempro, the leading HRT drug, faced slightly
heightened risks of breast cancer, heart attack, and stroke. "A Shock to
the Medical System" declared the frontpage headline of the New York Times.
"A bombshell" said the director of the North American Menopause Society as
if Dr. John Lee and other clinicians hadn't been warning for years about
the harmful effects of HRT.

As of July, six million women in the U.S. were using Prempro, a combination
of estrogen derived from the urine of pregnant mares, and synthetic
progesterone manufactured by Wyeth (formerly known as American Home
Products). With sales of $2 billion/year at stake, Wyeth tried to spin the
bad news gently. The company sent a letter to 500,000 doctors and other
healthcare providers stating that women taking Prempro for less than four
years were not at risk, and urging them to keep pushing the drug for
"menopausal symptoms" (mainly hot flashes).

Last week (Oct. 23) it was reported by Dr. Rowan Chlebowsky of UCLA who
followed the large number of women who had dropped out of the WHI study
that short-term HRT users face the same heightened incidence of breast
cancer, heart attack, and stroke. Also last week the U.S. Preventive
Service Task Force, which develops medical best-practice guidelines for the
federal government, recommended against the routine use of HRT for
post-menopausal symptoms, including osteoporosis. Wyeth execs turned up at
the government press conference to muddy the waters by distributing their
alleged evidence of Prempro's benefits outweighing its risk among
short-term users.

Wyeth has managed to hang on to half their Prempro customers in the four
months since the WHI issued its warning. The makers of other HRT products
are emphasizing that the WHI study involved Prempro specifically. Damage
control efforts are working to some extent. Pfizer's FemHRT is down
only13%; Galen's Extrace down 15%; Estratest, made by Solvay which also
markets Marinol is down 16%

Wyeth is also paying out billions to people who suffered serious lung and
heart-valve damage after taking "fen-phen," its infamous diet-drug cocktail
(consisting of Pondimin and Redux). In the mid-1990s,.when doctors first
reported problems caused by fen-phen, the company first ignored and then
tried to discredit them and their patients. Eventually they were sued, lost
big, and agreed supposedly to settle. But they bitterly contested each of
the 16,814 claims filed through 2001, paying out on only 2,157. An
additional 17,170 claims have been filed and Wyeth's lawyers are now
attacking the credibility of the highly respected cardiologist who reviewed
most of their echocardiograms!

Wyeth is hoping to make up for lost profits by pushing its antidepressant,
Effexor, to college students. In November the corporate dealers will start
staging campus forums featuring Cara Kahn, a star of MTV's show "Real World
Chicago." Her alma mater, Washington University in St Louis, will be one
of the first venues. The Wyeth forums will culminate in "screenings" at
which students can define themselves as depressed get steered towards a
'script.

The pharmaceutical corporations all use similar marketing ploys, and
sometimes they join forces Wyeth, Pfizer, and GlaxoSmithKline have joined
Eli Lilly as sponsors of National Depression Screening Day. Lilly, having
had great success selling Prozac by promoting awareness of "clinical
depression," tried the same approach with the non-disease of menopause. In
`98 Lilly purchased the endorsement of the Ladies' Professional Golfers
Association and created the Lilly Legend series, featuring some 20 LPGA
members older than 40. Lilly also sponsored booths at the major LPGA
tournaments staffed by golfers wearing buttons saying, "It's OK to ask me
about menopause." Joan Ryan of the Chronicle did a column earnestly
praising this promotion (before the bad news about HRT reached her): "Women
stop in to ask, quietly, about hot flashes, bloating, night sweats, mood
swings, insomnia, hormone replacement therapy," wrote Ryan. She quoted
Betsy King, who won the Lilly Legend series at age 42: "This has been a
great learning experience for me. I didn't pay any attention to the issues
the way I should have."

Why should a 42-year-old women be thinking about menopause? Women used to
stop having their periods and that was that. What's different nowadays? If
the symptoms are so much more severe, "Science" ought to look for the
causes. Dr. Lee blamed over-exposure to pesticides. Hormone replacement
therapy results in pulmonary blood clots in 1 to 2 percent of the women who
take it=85 Makes you wonder who killed Tammy Wynette, a big strong
55-year-old glamour girl with no known health problems, who died in her
sleep of a pulmonary blood clot.

Dr. Lee, Dr. Lee

If the medical and journalistic establishments hadn't marginalized
clinicians who've been warning for years that hormone replacement therapy
is dangerous, the cancellation of the WHI study would not have come as such
a "shock." John Lee, MD, was the foremost voice crying in the wilderness
on behalf of his middle-aged female patients.

After many years as a family practitioner in Marin, Lee retired to Petaluma
in 1989 to write and disseminate his ideas, which constitute a wide-ranging
critique of how medicine is practiced in this country. His first book,
Natural Progesterone: The Multiple Roles of a Remarkable Hormone, was
written with doctors in mind and published with the help of a friend. It
soon built up an underground reputation among women and the edition of
5,000 copies sold out.

In 1995 Warners published a version written for the lay reader (with
Virginia Hopkins), What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause. It
charged that the ob/gyn establishment promotes hormone replacement therapy
on false bases that menopause leads to estrogen deficiency and that its
unwanted consequences can be reversed by estrogen supplements.

Lee's thesis was that progesterone, which is produced by the body in
connection with ovulation and serves to modulate the effects of estrogen,
is the hormone most significantly lacking in menopausal women (as a result
of poisons, including unnatural estrogens, in the food, air and water, plus
the sedentary lifestyle forced on most of us in the name of progress).

Lee emphasized the distinction between natural progesterone and the various
synthetic progestins as in Prempro given to millions of women who opt for
hormone replacement therapy. "Most doctors think the synthetics are actual
progesterone," according to Lee, as a result of systematic miseducation by
the pharmaceutical companies. "Doctors should recall that 'synthetic'
means that it's not found in nature there's no plant, no tree, no animal
that makes it, it's a compound foreign to the body whereas real
progesterone is a natural compound that's synthesized in the body from
cholesterol.

"The pharmaceutical companies prefer the synthetic versions for the simple
and obvious reason that they are patentable," Lee said. Natural
progesterone has been on the market as a cream sold over-the-counter since
1936. Most doctors don't advocate its use because, according to Lee, "It
would diminish their control over their patients no prescription is required."