Date: Wed, 19 Jun 2002 21:34:37 -0700

Subject:FL: Surveyors Stumble Into Marijuana Crop Up TOC

Newshawk: Jane Marcus
Pubdate: Wed, 19 Jun 2002
Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2002 Orlando Sentinel
Contact: insight@orlandosentinel.com
Website: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325
Author: Amy C. Rippel, Sentinel Staff Writer

SURVEYORS STUMBLE INTO MARIJUANA CROP

ZELLWOOD -- Surveyors in west Orange County made a startling discovery as
they trekked across a huge piece of land Tuesday afternoon, authorities said.

About 600 marijuana plants, some nearly as tall as 2-story buildings, were
found in a field off Laughlin Road, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said.

"Usually, they're not this big," said Orange County sheriff's Sgt. Rick Meli.

Investigators said they don't know who planted the marijuana, which had
with an estimated street value of about $1.2 million.

No arrests were made.

Each of the plants, which ranged from 6 to 18 feet tall, could produce as
much as 5 pounds of dried marijuana, Meli said.

Meli said the plants were hidden within other plants, called myrtles, that
look similar to marijuana and hide the illegal plant from view.

The marijuana plants were growing in a 500-square-foot area on the property.

Investigators chopped down the plants and plan to destroy them, Meli said.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Larry Stevens

 
 


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web:     http://www.crrh.org/

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Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 20:37:52 -0700

Subject:US: Higher Immorality? Up TOC?

Newshawk: The Original Drug Policy Weekly http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 20 Jun 2002
Source: ABC News (US Web)
Copyright: 2002 ABC News
Contact: http://www.abcnews.go.com/service/help/abccontact.html
Website: http://www.www.abcnews.go.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2105
Author: Dean Schabner
Cited: Christians for Cannabis http://www.christiansforcannabis.com/ -
which also has an open threaded discussion forum at
http://www.drugpolicycentral.com/phpBB/viewforum.php?forum=16&0
National Coalition for Effective Drug Policies
http://www.csdp.org/news/news/8steps.htm
Unitarian Universalists for Drug Policy Reform http://www.uudpr.org/

Higher Immorality?

For Some Religious Groups, Drug Laws Do More Harm Than Drugs Themselves

June 20 -- For Jennifer Wallace, the revelation came four years ago,
after she found out that a friend of hers who she knew came from a
devout Christian family smoked marijuana, and she became worried about
the young woman.

Wallace, a devout Christian herself, started looking into the research
on marijuana and what she found surprised her. She said she found no
evidence to back up the horrible things she had heard about the drug,
and when she searched the Bible for any reference to it she found
nothing at all. So she began to wonder why some religious leaders
seemed to favor stiff penalties for marijuana users.

She even decided to try smoking it, though she had always been afraid
before.

"I was very surprised that I wasn't very different than I was before,"
she said of the experience. "I believe it made me think more, and
thinking more is always good."

Those experiences led the 35-year-old mother of five to start the
Christians for Cannabis Web site, and to begin a campaign of
letter-writing to legislators, religious leaders and newspapers,
urging an end to the marijuana prohibition and more research into
potential uses of the drug, she said.

Christians for Cannabis, which describes part of its mission as "to
provide encouragement, support and prayer for the [Christian cannabis
user] subculture as a whole and those that work on its behalf," may be
the extreme, but it is not the only religious group advocating an end
to the war on drugs.

The Presbyterian Church (USA), the Unitarian Universalist Association
of Congregations, the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious
Society of Friends and the Progressive Jewish Alliance are among the
groups that have lent their support to a call by the National
Coalition for Effective Drug Policies to redirect efforts to curtail
drug use.

These organizations all make clear that their opposition to current
drug policy is based not on support for drug use, but out of a belief
that the war on drugs has done more harm than good and that it is
essentially immoral.

"The war on drugs has been an abysmal failure in any practical sense,
and the number of people who are being victimized by the war is fairly
awful," said Thomas Jeavons, the general secretary of the Philadelphia
Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends, a group of Quakers.

"The war on drugs affects our society in so many negative ways,"
Universal Unitarians for Drug Policy Reform executive director Charles
Thomas said. "We believe underlying it all is an immoral approach to
dealing with a health problem."

An Evolving Process

The thrust of the NCEDP's statement, "Eight Steps to Effectively
Controlling Drug Abuse and the Drug Market," is that criminalizing
drug use has failed to curtail drug use, and that society would be
better served by a "shift to treating drug abuse as a health problem
with social and economic implications."

"It's an evolving process -- reform," NCEDP president Kevin Zeese
said. "We've seen over the last five or six years more denominations
realize that the drug war is hurting their denominations and does more
harm than good. They're seeing in their own experience that their
people are hurting from the drug war."

A broad range of treatment programs should be made available on
request, and should include alternatives to "abstinence-based
treatment," such as methadone and other alternative maintenance drugs,
according to the program. The statement also calls for mental health
treatment and broader social services to deal with "the underlying
causes of addiction."

These programs should be focused on abusers and addicts, not on
everyone who uses drugs, the statement says.

Among other aspects, the statement calls for increased funding for
after-school programs, job training and mentoring programs to keep
young people "interested and involved in life," and a shift in the
focus of law enforcement from prosecution of low-level, nonviolent
drug offenders to those who are the most dangerous and violent.

Conservatives for Drug Policy Reform

The aim, according to Zeese, is to create a drug policy that treats
the problem as a social and public health issue, and deals with
abusers and addicts as human beings who can be more effectively
brought back into society with help rather than punishment.

He said the policy of treating drug abuse as a criminal issue is
responsible for much of the spread of HIV and AIDS, because it bans
needle exchange programs that have been shown to be effective, and for
many overdose deaths, because people are afraid to get help, fearing
the legal consequences of their drug abuse.

"That's what I mean by the immorality of those who support the drug
war," Zeese said. "They let a deadly epidemic spread because of zero
tolerance."

The Philadelphia Quakers, one of the largest groups within the
non-heirarchical denomination, signed on not because they share the
view of Christians for Cannabis that drug use is a neutral issue,
Jeavons said.

"Absolutely not. If you know anything about Quakers, you know we're a
fairly conservative lot," he said. "However, we believe that there
must be a better answer to the problem. We encourage our members to
avoid these substances or use them in moderation."

Consulting Conscience

The Philadelphia Yearly Meeting formed a Drug Concerns Working Group
in 1997, and in 1998 drew up a minute, or brief statement in early
1998. He said that the importance of the issue was reinforced when
members took part in the so-called "shadow convention" held in
conjunction with the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia in
2000.

The minute makes clear the Philadelphia Quakers' objections both to
current drug policy and to drug abuse, and calls on Friends to do what
they can to change that policy and to help others stop their misuse of
drugs.

The Unitarian Universalists' objection to the treatment of drug abuse
has a long history, dating back to 1970, when the denomination passed
three drug policy reform resolutions, calling for legalization of
marijuana and heroin maintenance programs.

In 2000, the denomination passed a resolution calling for all
congregations to study the issue and develop a comprehensive
"Statement of Conscience," which will be voted on at the General
Assembly to be held on June 24.

The effort is to draw up a statement of "what the ideal drug policy
would look like," Thomas said.

"It is remarkably good, recognizing the distinction between use and
abuse, and calling for removal of criminal penalties for possession,"
he said.

Challenge to 'Hypocrisy'

Assuming the statement passes, Thomas said it will be taken to other
denominations for their consideration. He said that the Unitarian
Universalists for Drug Policy Reform have already worked to spread the
group's message by sending speakers to drug policy conventions and
discussing the issue with representatives of other religious groups.

Part of that campaign will be to engage those Christian leaders who
say they favor the current drug policies in debate over the issue.

"We will challenge people on their position, really start to call
people on their hypocrisy, because that's really what it is,
hypocrisy," Thomas said. "These people are doing the exact opposite of
what Jesus taught."

He said the statement and the Unitarian Universalists draw much of
their inspiration from Jesus' own words.

"People often justify the war on drugs by saying drug use is
inherently immoral," he said. "That's not what Jesus said. He said,
it's not what goes into a person, it's what comes out. If we meet
people with love and respect, we can help them more."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake

 
 


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web:     http://www.crrh.org/

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Date: Thu, 20 Jun 2002 20:38:55 -0700

Subject:UK: Going Dutch Up TOC

Newshawk: MAP in The Netherlands http://www.mapinc.org/mapnl/
Pubdate: Fri, 14 Jun 2002
Source: Leicester Mercury (UK)
Copyright: 2002 Northcliffe Electronic Publishing Ltd
Contact: tgobey@nep.co.uk
Website: http://www.leicestermercury.co.uk
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2251
Author: Ciaran Fagan
Cited: Legalise Cannabis Alliance http://www.lca-uk.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)

Going Dutch

Campaigners want a cannabis cafe to open in Leicester, but would it be
a drugs den or a harmless leisure facility? Ciaran Fagan went to the
UK's first cannabis cafe to find out what the locals say

The air is heavy with the pungent aroma of cannabis as Kate rolls up
the latest in a long, long line of fat, loose joints. The 23-year-old
law school graduate is extolling the virtues of the Dutch "cannabis
cafe" culture over a mug of coffee.

But we're not sitting in one of Amsterdam's famed hostelries where
smoking cannabis is tolerated.

We're in Stockport. Well-to-do Stockport, just outside Manchester. And
if pro-weed campaigners get their way next month, people in Leicester
will be rolling joints over a latte in similar fashion.

Even Stockport's tourist information centre in the town - accustomed
to taking calls about the town's famous hat museum - will tell you how
to get there.

At present, the Dutch Experience is an over-18s, members-only affair
decked out in the style of an Amsterdam cafe.

Smokers sit supping coffee and chatting amiably about different weeds.
Board games and table football are popular diversions. But smoking is
the main order of the day.

Cannabis is not on sale - although that is the ultimate aim of
campaigners across the country - but coffee and Kit Kats are.

Kate, who is from nearby Cheadle, said: "It's such a relaxing place
because weed and violence do not mix. The worst thing that can happen
if you have too much in my experience is that you fall asleep.

"The police aren't doing anything apart from the odd undercover visit.
In fact, I can't think of a better way of wasting money than trying to
close places like this down."

The cafe is tucked away in a small parade of shops within a two minute
walk of the town centre. And it was doing good business on Tuesday
afternoon.

It's been a bumpy ride so far for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance -
pioneers of Britain's first stab at establishing a cafe culture with a
dash of easy-going Amsterdam.

The Stockport cafe - now known as Dutch Experience I after a second
venture opened in Bournemouth - opened in a blaze of publicity in September.

A gaggle of press watched as officers from Greater Manchester police
stormed in, searched customers and arrested owner Colin Davies.

Mr Davies, who says he is helping to provide cannabis to people
because of the medicinal properties he and others believe it
possesses, is to appear in court next month to face charges of
allowing the Class B drug to be smoked in his cafe.

Police in the town insist that they would raid the cafe if they had
evidence that cannabis was being smoked there.

But, apart from rumours of undercover surveillance operations,
business has gone on, apparently unhindered by police for at least six
months.

Bart, 30, from Holland who is helping to run the Stockport cafe, said:
"The reaction of 95 per cent of the people I speak to is supportive of
what we're doing here - but then again a lot of the people who don't
agree with what we're doing probably wouldn't talk to me."

He says he smokes both because he enjoys cannabis and for medicinal
reasons - he has severe arthritis in his leg. When 30-year-old Tom
Robertson underwent bone graft surgery a few years ago, he was left in
excruciating pain.

Now he takes a cocktail of pain-killers every day but comes to the
Dutch Experience for a little extra pain relief.

"I don't feel like a criminal but I'm breaking the law here," he said.
"For me it's simple, how can it be justifiable to withhold something
that is a medicine for so many people?"

Outside on the streets of Stockport, opinions were pretty much evenly
divided about the cannabis cafe.

Another (mainstream) cafe owner, who asked not to be named, said:
"It's a nonsense the police allowed it to open in the first place,
it's having an adverse effect on Stockport's reputation. People who
sell drugs will start hanging around places like this - without the
owners' knowledge maybe - and you'll get harder things than cannabis
being sold.

"And who's there to keep an eye on it all?"

Young mum Lisa Ashraf, 19, said: "I'm against all drugs and this sends
out all the wrong messages. I'm bringing my son up to say no to all
drugs and how am I supposed to do that when there's a place in the
middle of town where people are openly smoking weed?"

Barbara Hewitt, 49 of Wythenshawe in Manchester said: "I've read about
this place in the local papers and I'd agree that people should be
allowed to smoke cannabis like this if it's for medicinal reasons -
the pain of some illnesses can be unbearable."

Greater Manchester police insist they will act if they have evidence
that people are smoking cannabis in the Dutch Experience. A
spokeswoman said: "As far as we're concerned, it's open as a coffee
shop only and we're keeping an eye on it. As the law stands, it's
illegal to possess or smoke cannabis so if we find people doing this
we will enforce the law."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake

 
 


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Date: Fri, 21 Jun 2002 09:21:23 -0700

Subject:South Dakota Voters To Decide On Industrial Hemp Up TOC

Newshawk: Bob Newland (http://www.sodakhemp.org/)
Pubdate: Wed, 19 Jun 2002
Source: Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan (SD)
Copyright: 2000 Yankton Daily Press & Dakotan
Contact: newsroom@yankton.net
Website: http://www.yankton.net
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1046
Author: Bernard McGhee, AP Staff Writer

SOUTH DAKOTA VOTERS TO DECIDE ON INDUSTRIAL HEMP

SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota -- South Dakota voters will be able to decide
whether to legalize hemp in November's election.

More than 13,000 signatures calling for the South Dakota Industrial Hemp
Act to go on the ballot were turned in to the Secretary of State's office,
state Election Supervisor Chris Nelson said Tuesday.

If passed, the proposal would draw a legal distinction between hemp and
marijuana, paving the way for the legal development of hemp in the state.
Under the proposal, hemp would be a legal crop if it contains no more than
1 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the substance in marijuana that makes
people high.

It will remove any South Dakota barrier from the production of industrial
hemp," said Bob Newland of the South Dakota Industrial Hemp Council, which
sponsored the proposal.

Industrial hemp is a form of the Cannabis sativa plant, which is also known
as marijuana. But unlike marijuana, hemp cannot be smoked to get high.
Instead, it can be used to make products such as rope, paper, cloth, soap
and animal feed.

Under current law, the federal government is able to unjustly tell states
what they can and cannot plant, Newland said.

Newland is also running for state attorney general as a member of the
Libertarian Party. He said his first act, if elected, would be to file suit
against the federal government on the issue, claiming state sovereignty.

Newland said that 85 percent of South Dakota voters support the
legalization of industrial hemp, according to a statewide poll commissioned
by the South Dakota Industrial Hemp Council.

"Could some voters could interpret the initiative as a vote to legalize
marijuana?"

"There's always the 15 percent ignorance factor," Newland answered.

The Industrial Hemp Act has also been endorsed by the South Dakota Farmers
Union.

Members of the Farmers Union see hemp as a useful alternative for farmers
who have suffering financially because of drought and low prices, said
Chuck Groth, communications director for the Farmers Union.

And support of the hemp act does not mean the Farmers Union supports the
legalization of marijuana, Groth said.

Anyone who would assume that our support means we're one step away from
(supporting marijuana legalization) would be badly mistaken," Groth said.

Farmers who would grow hemp would have no problem telling the authorities
and allowing them to inspect their crop, Groth said.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth

 
 


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End of Restore-Digest V2002 #113
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