THE SCOOP: LOSING FREE MONEY

Hartford To Lose Federal Funds; Bad Spelling At Cabe, And Medical Marijuana

Every Hartford resident knows shootings and homicides are out of control,
especially in the North End. Then we've got that $50 million city budget
hole, raising the specter of police service cuts just when we need bodies
on the street.

So against this backdrop, Scoop is outraged that Hartford could lose
hundreds of thousands of dollars in free federal money, funds that help the
police department fight crime and set up education programs.

If police and city officials don't satisfy Washington, D.C., the feds could
discontinue the Weed and Seed program in Northeast Hartford, a program that
puts money into policing. An application for new funding must be submitted
to the Department of Justice in April, but in the meantime, the national
Weed and Seed office is trying to figure out why Hartford isn't spending
the money it already has.

"The executive office for Weed and Seed is expecting to be provided
additional information about the funding balance and administration of the
grant," says Delcie Thibault, law enforcement coordinator for the
Connecticut U.S. Attorney's Office. Weed and Seed is a two-pronged program.
"Weeding" money goes to police work -- patrols, community policing, and
equipment. "Seeding" money funds GED programs, tutoring, and other services
to give residents a way out of a life of crime.

Hartford started receiving Weed and Seed money in 1994, and officials said
it worked well in Stowe Village. Crime rates went down, and test scores at
Wish Elementary School went up. Then the housing project was torn down and
the program expanded to the entire Northeast neighborhood, and that's when
the problems started.

The Justice Department has not sent new money to Hartford since 1998,
Thibault says, because the city sat on surplus funds from previous years.
That means we've already missed out on $250,000 a year since then.

But city grants writer Rae Ann Palmer says of the $340,000 in the bank in
1999, only $90,000 remains, and that's already slated for programs. "It's
not like there's gobs of money not being spent," Palmer says.

Six other cities in Connecticut receive Weed and Seed money, but only one
- -- Bridgeport -- has ever seen its funding halted, Thibault says. But even
Bridgeport is not dealing with the same type of federal audit that Hartford
faces.

Although Thibault could not fully illustrate the nature of the Justice
Department's questions, she stressed that Hartford is still in contention
for new Weed and Seed money, just as long as they can satisfy the feds.
"I'm not worried about what they'll find in our files," Palmer adds.

Type-O, No

Scoop receives more than our share of press releases every day, some
well-written, others written in chicken scratch. Each receives our attention.

But in recent weeks there is one press release that we pinned to our wall
of shame with a piece of old gum. That is the press release we received
from the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, which was a
reminder encouraging us to attend the "Education Funding Rally," at the
Capitol. It reads, "Leaders Rally to Support Public Shcools." Maybe
Connecticut schools have been failing students longer than we thought.

Put This in Your Pipe

Ned Pocengal is HIV positive. He's got chronic hepatitis B, too. Not to
mention Crohn's Disease, a condition that inflames the intestines and makes
it difficult to eat.

Pocengal's system can't handle the normal synthetic drugs doctors prescribe
for Crohn's. So three or four times a week, the Yale medical library
employee takes one hit of pot. Or two. Just enough to help with the
inflammation and stimulate his appetite. Pocengal says he uses it "the same
way someone would take an aspirin if they had a headache."

Of course, the law makes no distinction between Pocengal and a 16-year-old
who can't stop spilling bong water on mom's rug. Technically, they're both
criminals. So Pocengal came to Hartford Monday to testify for a bill that
would legalize marijuana possession in Connecticut, just as long as the
possessor has a doctor's note.

Medical marijuana has been in the news lately as more states start to
relax. Vermont just OK'd medical use last week. But all of this activity
continues under the yoke of repression by the Drug Enforcement
Administration. The feds shut down two medical growers' collectives in San
Francisco last week. Significantly, local police did not cooperate.

Connecticut lawmakers allowed doctors to prescribe marijuana in 1983, but
patients can still get arrested for possession, making the law useless.
This year's bill would end prosecution of patients holding up to an ounce
of pot and allow them to grow their own plants. They would have to register
with the Department of Public Safety, though, after receiving authorization
from a doctor.

By passing the law, legislators would be not be changing state policy;
since doctors can already prescribe pot, the government should allow
patients to access it without fear, state Rep. Jim Abrams (D-Meriden) says.
As for the feds, Abrams believes the DEA will not go after individual users
for possession as they did with the larger growers in California.

Besides it being the right thing to do, pols should check the polls -- a
survey conducted by reform advocates shows an overwhelming majority of
Connecticut residents support legalizing marijuana for medical use.

If the bill makes it through the Judiciary Committee, it will probably
travel to the Public Health Committee, Abrams says, and then it's up to
House Democratic leadership to bring it to a floor vote. Scoop hopes any
legislator who would dare deny a sick person his medicine never ends up
needing the same relief.

Homeschooling Fight Fades

Homeschoolers can't breathe a sigh of relief just yet, but it looks like a
bill that would require them to report to their local superintendent will
not make it. The deadline to take action on bills is this Friday, March 22.
State Rep. Cameron Staples (D-New Haven) says that it won't go forward, but
then stranger things have happened.

- -- Dan Levine and Christine Stuart got the Scoop.