Date: Thu, 04 Jul 2002 10:02:36 -0700

Subject:Happy 4th!  15 year flashback to Abbie Hoffman's LTE Up TOC

The Nation, November 21, 1987

Reefer Madness
By Abbie Hoffman
If there was anything unusual in Judge Douglas Ginsburg's rapid descent, it 
was probably the sight of White House conservatives scrambling to create a 
loophole in the national drug hysteria that would mitigate occasional 
marijuana use by a Supreme Court nominee. Never mind that President Reagan 
said last year that drug users are "as dangerous to our national security 
as any terrorist'; he tried dismissing Ginsburg's indiscretion as nothing 
more than "youthful fancy."

There was nothing surprising about Reagan's expedient reversal. For six 
years, the only consistent thing about our national drug policy has been 
its inconsistency. Harsher penalties, urine testing, hysteria, budget cuts 
and the simplistic "Just Say No!' campaign (the equivalent of telling manic 
depressives to "just cheer up') have returned drug education and treatment 
to the Reefer Madness era.

Since 1980 the President and Nancy Reagan, Attorney General Edwin Meese 3d 
and White House drug policy advisers such as Dr. Carlton Turner, have made 
numerous rash and absurd statements about drugs. Dr. Turner claimed that 
smoking marijuana leads to AIDS (the sequence: Pot leads to harder drugs, 
which lead to sharing needles, which leads to AIDS). Peter Bensinger, 
former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration, claimed that marijuana 
was harmful because it "contained dioxin.' The dioxin, of course, came from 
government spraying. Such statements are reminiscent of the 1920s, when the 
public was told that cocaine made blacks impervious to bullets.

Truth has been the first casualty in this so-called war on drugs. When 
Reagan labeled drug abuse "an evil scourge' that has become the nation's 
number-one social problem, during the 1986 campaign, the nation had been 
whipped up into such a frenzy that polls showed the citizenry believed him. 
On October 27, 1986, Reagan got what he championed: the fifty-fifth Federal 
antidrug bill in eighty years. Congress authorized $3.96 billion to attack 
what Newsweek, with typical hyperbole, compared to "the plagues of medieval 
times.' (That plague wiped out two-thirds of the people in Europe. 
According to government statistics, in 1979 3,500 deaths were attributed to 
illicit drugs. No deaths, incidentally, were caused by marijuana.) Then, 
after the elections, Reagan cut $1 billion from his own war on drugs 
program and, in the harshest blow, recommended that no money be spent on 
drug rehabilitation and treatment in fiscal 1988.

Like the Red Menace of the early 1950s, the current drug hysteria has led 
to a loyalty oath - this time, the urine test. Extrapolating from 
margin-of-error figures supplied by manufacturers of standard drug tests (5 
percent) and instances of laboratory mishandling documented by the Centers 
for Disease Control (15 to 20 percent), one can easily agree with a 
Northwestern University report claiming a national error rate of up to 25 
percent. That means roughly one of every four persons tested for controlled 
substances could wrongly be fired, not hired or denied promotion.

But Reagan's not one to quibble about margins of error or unreasonable 
biochemical searches. Last year, when he announced the notorious drug-free 
workplace edict, he targeted Federal workers as an example for all labor. 
New applicants and tenured employees were forced to submit to urine tests. 
Of course, he wants to test all workers in America, which is rapidly 
occurring: In the private sector an estimated 35 million people were 
screened this year and the White House hopes to see 90 million being tested 
by 1990.

It is time to rethink a complex problem like drug abuse and disregard the 
simplistic nonsense of the Reagan antidrug campaign, which has ignored 
scientific evidence and overridden fundamental values of privacy and due 
process.




 
 


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Date: Thu, 04 Jul 2002 10:05:53 -0700

Subject:UK: MS Cannabis Trial At Ipswich Hospital Up TOC

Newshawk: Weedom For Peace
Pubdate: Thu, 04 Jul 2002
Source: Evening Star, The (UK)
Copyright: 2002sEastern Counties Newspapers Group Ltd
Contact: nigel.pickover@ecng.co.uk
Website: http://www.eveningstar.co.uk/Content/news/news_home.asp
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1695
Author: Jessica Nicholls, Health Reporter

MS CANNABIS TRIAL AT IPSWICH HOSPITAL

A CONSULTANT at Ipswich Hospital is involved in groundbreaking new
trials to see if cannabis really does relieve the symptoms of multiple
sclerosis.

Trials are being conducted nationally by the Medical Research Council
into the use of cannabis as a prescribed drug.

Sufferers of the disease have been campaigning for several years for
the trials and some have even been taken to court for using the drug
which they claim relieves the debilitating symptoms they suffer.

But MS sufferer, Stephen Williams, of St Peters Road, Stowmarket,
treated the news with some caution. He was diagnosed 16 years ago and
said during that time his hopes had been raised too often only to be
dashed when the treatment proved too expensive.

The 52-year-old said: "The frustrating thing is being told that there
is a major breakthrough but it has to go through five years of trials.

"So you sit and wait patiently and then you find you can't have it
after all because it is too expensive."

Mr Williams has been closely following tests of cannabis and spoke out
in the Evening Star in September for the cannabis law to be reformed
so he could use it to relieve the pain wracking his body.

He said: "I have been checking the website of a pharmaceutical company
(which is running trials) and they said that in most incidences they
have had good results.

"Although there are still a lot of people that it does not help, it is
helping more than they thought".

"When I was first diagnosed in 1986 the doctors told me not to worry
and that there would be a cure by the end of the century" that has
been and gone.

"I am wary of it but now it is in Ipswich I will ask my GP if I can
get involved."

Bob Wake from Stradbroke, near Eye, was diagnosed with MS 14 years
ago. At that time he said he never believed medical research would
advance this far.

He said: "I never thought I would see this".

"We always hoped that it would and various things have come up during
that time".

"When I was diagnosed I did not think there would be anything for me
and cannabis may not be the one but at least we can try."

Mr Wake, 67, is involved in the East Anglian Branch of the Multiple
Sclerosis Society and often gives talks to both sufferers and
non-sufferers.

He said: "From what I know, cannabis does not seem to be doing much
harm".

"If you have MS you are willing to have a go at absolutely anything
you don't know when you wake up each morning which part of you is
never going to work again".

"When I have been to meetings and talked to people they have said that
as long as there would not be any terrible side effects they would try
anything" even if there was only a one in a thousand chance it would work.

"No two patients are the same and MS affects random sections of the
brain.

"One person could be helped in a different way to another."

Dr Stephen Wroe is a consultant neurologist at Ipswich Hospital and he
has been involved in the trials.

He was unavailable to comment today but it is believed that around 23
patients are actually taking part.

If the trials are successful the treatment could be in place as early
as 2004.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Derek

 
 


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Date: Thu, 04 Jul 2002 10:18:12 -0700

Subject:CA: Pot Trial Lawyer Asks Judge To Throw Out Two Charges Up TOC

Newshawk: Jay Bergstrom
Pubdate: Thu, 04 Jul 2002
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Webpage: http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/3450669p-4478729c.html
Copyright: 2002 The Sacramento Bee
Contact: opinion@sacbee.com
Website: http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Author: Denny Walsh, Bee Staff Writer

POT TRIAL LAWYER ASKS JUDGE TO THROW OUT TWO CHARGES

The government wrapped up its case Wednesday in the marijuana-growing trial
of Bryan James Epis, and his lawyer asked the judge to throw out half the
charges due to "an utter lack of evidence."

The 35-year-old Epis, who helped establish and supply a cannabis buyers'
club in Chico, does not deny cultivating marijuana. But he insists he did
not profit from the venture and sought only to help sick people with
doctors' recommendations, in compliance with California's Compassionate Use
Act.

What he and his lawyer, J. Tony Serra, hotly dispute is that Epis agreed
with others to hike his own production to more than 1,000 plants, a charge
that carries a minimum of 10 years in prison upon conviction in federal court.

The two counts in the indictment that embody that charge are what Serra
asked U.S. District Judge Frank C. Damrell Jr. to dismiss at the close of
the government's case. Damrell reserved ruling in the matter.

The other two counts charge Epis with growing at least 100 plants.
Conviction on that charge carries a minimum five-year term.

Assistant U.S. attorney Samuel Wong argued that the evidence supports a
1,000-plant conspiracy. He reminded the judge that fingerprints of two
other people were lifted from cultivation and processing equipment in Epis'
Chico residence when it was searched June 25, 1997. A Jiffy Lube receipt
written to one of those individuals also was found in the residence, Wong said.

The prosecutor also argued that evidence shows Epis was assisted by another
person. It further shows that Epis was sharing each harvest with at least
two people, Wong said.

Finally, Wong noted that a car belonging to David Kasakove, the operator of
the buyers' club and one of the people whose prints were found at the
house, was seen at Epis' residence three months before the search.

Serra countered that, if there was enough evidence to place Kasakove in a
1,000-plant conspiracy, he would have been charged along with Epis.

"There is no evidence of an express agreement," he said, adding that the
material upon which Wong is relying is "fatally ambiguous."

The prosecution is based on the fruits of the search and the testimony of
two officers who were there -- U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Special
Agent Ronald Mancini and Michael Shane Redmond, then a Butte County
sheriff's sergeant and now a state agent assigned to gambling investigations.

The search team found a hydroponic grow operation in the basement, a
processing room on the second floor, and 458 plants in various stages of
development.

Evidence that Epis was helping patients and that the growing operation
post-dated passage of the state's medical marijuana initiative is not
admissible under federal law. It is the first federal criminal case
involving a cannabis buyers' club to reach a jury.

The key document underlying Wong's theory that Epis was looking forward to
big money as a major distributor is a computer-generated table of projected
sales and expenses from March 21, 1997, to Jan. 1, 1998, that was found in
the house. It estimates sales of smokable pot extracted from the plants'
buds and baked goods made from the plants' leaves would yield a net weekly
profit of $1,896,960 by the end of 1997.

Thousands of plants would be required to generate profits of that
magnitude, Redmond testified. He cited extra equipment and supplies found
in the house that, but for the raid, could have been used to expand the grow.

Serra told the jury in his opening statement that the computer document's
data are not confined to Chico Medical Marijuana Caregivers, with which
Epis was affiliated. Rather, he said, they reflect membership in medical
marijuana organizations throughout California.

The defense lawyer began presenting his case Wednesday afternoon.

The trial will resume Monday.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom

 
 


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Date: Thu, 04 Jul 2002 10:21:16 -0700

Subject:Canada: Grow Op Industry Leaving Police Behind Up TOC

Newshawk: Canadian Media Awareness Project (http://www.mapinc.org/cmap/)
Pubdate: Tue, 02 Jul 2002
Source: Elk Valley Miner, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2002 The Elk Valley Miner
Contact: evminer@titanlink.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1237
Note: No known website. Contact data not verified
Author: Paul Willcocks

GROW OP INDUSTRY LEAVING POLICE BEHIND

VICTORIA - Marijuana grow ops are popping up faster than police can hope to
deal with them, according to a new report done for the RCMP by a university
crime expert.

The study which looked at almost 12,000 grow op reports from every area of
the province over four years, found police can't cope with the burgeoning
industry.

The business is probably the province's fastest growing with the number of
operations that police discover growing by an average 36 per cent a year,
the report found.

Operations are growing larger and more sophisticated, with the average size
increasing at 40 per cent a year.  Solicitor General Rich Coleman has
called for tougher laws against grow ops.  Coleman said less than one in
five people, convicted of running grow ops in  B.C. serves any jail time.

But in Washington State almost half those convicted get a jail term of five
years or more, he said.

"They're sending a totally different message relative to their acceptance
of this particular activity in their economy," said Coleman.

Chuck Beyer of the B.C. Marijuana Party said the U.S. is the last place to
look for an example.

The U.S. has seven times as many citizens in jail as Canada on a per capita
basis, he said, in part because of tough drug sentences. Canada would have
to build seven times as many prisons and jail thousands of citizens to
match the U.S. approach, he said.

"And it's not working," Beyer said.  "They haven't cut down drug use." The
real answer is to legalize marijuana, he said.  The study found the average
seizure-166 live plants and 3.7 kg of marijuana-is worth somewhere between
$100,000 and $130,000.  Firearms were found in about six per cent of cases.
During the four-year period, police seized 1.2 million plants and 8.6
tonnes of dried marijuana, worth between $500 million and $1 billion
depending on prices.

Darryl Plecas of the University College of the Fraser Valley was part of
the study team.

He said the flood of grow ops has overwhelmed police.  Most cases that came
to police attention resulted from public complaints or an accidental
discovery while police were investigating an unrelated matter.

"The high volume of marijuana cultivation activity in the province has
actually hindered police capacity to respond, let alone engage in proactive
enforcement activities," the report found.

In 2000, police were too overloaded to take action on one-quarter of the
reports of grow operations.

Police only laid charges in about half of the 8,000 cases they found
justified.  In most of the rest they simply seized the plants and let the
growers go.

Out of some 12,000 reported cases, only 2,255 resulted in charges being
laid.  Only half those people were convicted.  And among those convicted,
only one in five went to jail with the average sentence of 4.5 months.

The report found that most suspects in the cases reviewed had some prior
criminal record, with an average of seven convictions.  The report also
highlighted a growing role for people of Vietnamese origin in the industry
in the Lower Mainland.

A report last year by the Organized Crime Agency of B.C. warned that
increasing pressure on grow ops on the Lower Mainland was resulting in them
moving out into smaller communities.  Criminals were also shifting from
grow ops to producing drugs like Ecstasy, the report found.

The agency estimates there are 15,000 to 20,000 grow operations in the
province and said organized crime groups have taken control of many of
them.  It estimated the industry's value of $6 billion, or 4.5 per cent of
all economic activity in the province.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart

 
 


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

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Date: Thu, 04 Jul 2002 10:25:30 -0700

Subject:pulling no punches this week at drugwar.com Up TOC

Greetings fro New York City on the 4th of July. The editor of drugwar.com 
plans to sit and watch the fireworks from his rooftop in the Lower East 
Side of Manhattan, one of the best views of the fireworks displays, as well 
as once offering an unimpeded view of the World Trade Center Towers.
     For the editor, this day is a reflection of just which Americans the 
phrases "the land of the free" and "life, liberty, and the pursuit of 
happiness" pertain to. Have taken a meager 18 week course in Civics in 
junior high school in Sarasota, Florida years ago, taught by one of the 
Ringling brothers' circus family performers, the Carl Walenda of the Flying 
Walendas, to be quite frank, the depth of real learning in this class about 
the US political system and how it really works was minimal, even had I 
been able to keep from dozing off less often and pay more attention to the 
incredibly boring and superficial presentation.

so on to the news.

Craig Morris has written a special commentary for Drugwar.com, entitled 
"Medicinal cannabis (in the UK) - Is drug-policy rational or a series of 
'accidents of history'?"
<http://www.drugwar.com/morris1.shtm>http://www.drugwar.com/morris1.shtm
"It is my opinion - and has been for some time now - that to continue 
denying such individuals access to cannabis on a legal basis is a question 
of human rights and that the issue ought to be pursued on such a basis 
legally," writes Morris, a Research Associate at the University of 
Greenwich in London. He is currently completing his doctoral thesis on the 
subject of medicinal cannabis use by chronically ill and disabled people.

There is coverage of the One Blood project, a conceptual art piece geared 
towards reminding people that we human being are not really truly 
separated, that we really are of one blood, that if cut we bleep the same 
color red.
<http://www.drugwar.com/poneblood.shtm>http://www.drugwar.com/poneblood.shtm
"One Blood is visual symbol of the unity of all human beings" say Claire 
Lemmel, the artist, and David Jones, her husband."

Who Takes Responsibility for the Carnage an interview with Clifford Wallace 
Thornton, Jr.
<http://www.drugwar.com/thorntoninterview.shtm>http://www.drugwar.com/thorntoninterview.shtm

Clifford Wallace Thornton, co-founder of Efficacy-online.org, 
(<http://www.efficacy-online.org>http://www.efficacy-online.org) is a man 
who someone of a prohibitionist mindset might expect to be rabidly pro-War 
on Some Drugs, considering the horrifying circumstances involving his 
mother and drugs he experienced mere weeks before graduating high school. 
After spending a good number of years holding the opinion that illegal 
drugs should be "eradicated from the face of the earth," he began to change 
his perspective. Because after diligently researching the War and its 
actual effects, and not only speaking with but listening intently to others 
who explained the all encompassing destruction resulting directly from the 
War on Some Drugs itself, Thornton has become an outspoken advocate, a full 
time activist, dedicated first to bringing the War into full public 
discourse and discussion, and ultimately an end to the War on Some Drugs 
itself.
We'd like to remind you all once again to Cletus Nelson's brilliant report 
for drugwar.com,
"Headshrinking the American Addict- Recovery in the 21st Century" with 
focuses on research by the National Institute for Drug Abuse into 
vaccinations designed to forever "cure" human beings from getting "high" on 
any assortment of substances both legal and non,
<http://www.drugwar.com/cheadshrinking.shtm>http://www.drugwar.com/cheadshrinking.shtm
because in light of a new report, Cletus's article is especially 
disturbing. Considering the following:
<http://www.drugwar.com/pprofile8herbs.shtm>Risk-Benefit Profile of 
Commonly Used Herbs - Legal & Otherwise (July 1, 2002)
(<http://www.drugwar.com/pprofile8herbs.shtm>http://www.drugwar.com/pprofile8herbs.shtm)
While comparing 7 legal herbs, and one illegal herb, all generally accepted 
to be medically beneficial, Dr. Rick Bayer reports on recent findings that, 
"If the action of the cannabinoid is blocked with an antagonist drug, the 
newborn pups do not suckle and thus die. Therefore, not only is the 
internal cannabinoid system important for pain control but it also 
regulates important appetite areas in the brain that are essential for life 
in newborn mammals." This brings to mind , [as noted above] Cletus Nelson's 
recent article for drugwar.com, 
"<http://www.drugwar.com/cheadshrinking.shtm>Headshrinking the American 
Addict- Recovery in the 21st Century", which dealt with recent advances in 
vaccinations and antagonists designed to permanently block the ability of 
humans to get high. Scary stuff.

We also have link in our newsbar to :

A Terrorist Manifesto?
<http://www.drugwar.com/pterroristmanifesto.shtm>
http://www.drugwar.com/pterroristmanifesto.shtm

Absolute Wealth Corrupts Absolutely
<http://www.drugwar.com/pwealthcorrupt.shtm>http://www.drugwar.com/pwealthcorrupt.shtm

Student Drug Testing Implementation
<http://www.drugwar.com/ppisstestpromo.shtm>http://www.drugwar.com/ppisstestpromo.shtm

Marines, Sailors Nabbed In Drug Bust
<http://www.drugwar.com/ptroopdrugnabbed.shtm>http://www.drugwar.com/ptroopdrugnabbed.shtm
(Yes, these service men and woman are expected to die for the 
corporation's...uh, I mean, the Democrublcian Party send them to die in, 
but they cannot do drugs of their own choice of they risk prison for life. 
What in the hell is this reasoning, other than perhaps a fear that if too 
many troops who are supposed to kill other human beings might actually 
begin to question their programming if they use drugs.

The Technology Secrets of Cocaine Inc.
<http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,41206,00.html>
http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,41206,00.html
To be honest, while having linked to this article at drugwar.com, and not 
really doubting the major international drug trafficking  cartels have 
plenty of money to buy technology and inside influence in all areas of 
society, most certainly not limited to those political, intelligence, 
military, and law enforcement branches in non-American countries A glaring 
point in case- drugs cannot not be kept from pouring in floods across US 
borders. What's to make anyone think corruption is somehow magically 
stopped at those same porous borders? So isn't it quite possible that many 
of these cartels, who in the past have been documented to actually be 
working with US intelligence services, ahve acquired mcuh of this high tech 
euqipment from US sources both public and covert? This is admittedly only 
specualtion, but the question has been raised in the mind of the editor of 
the Drugwar.com

Risk-Benefit Profile of Commonly Used Herbs - Legal & Otherwise
<http://www.drugwar.com/pprofile8herbs.shtm>http://www.drugwar.com/pprofile8herbs.shtm

<http://www.drugwar.com/pprofile8herbs.shtm>Risk-Benefit Profile of 
Commonly Used Herbs - Legal & Otherwise (July 1, 2002)
While comparing 7 legal herbs, and one illegal herb, all generally accepted 
to be medically beneficial, Dr. Rick Bayer reports on recent findings that, 
"If the action of the cannabinoid is blocked with an antagonist drug, the 
newborn pups do not suckle and thus die. Therefore, not only is the 
internal cannabinoid system important for pain control but it also 
regulates important appetite areas in the brain that are essential for life 
in newborn mammals." This brings to mind Cletus Nelson's recent article for 
drugwar.com, "<http://www.drugwar.com/cheadshrinking.shtm>Headshrinking the 
American Addict- Recovery in the 21st Century", which dealt with recent 
advances in vaccinations and antagonists designed to permanently block the 
ability of humans to get high. Scary stuff.

There's also links to nuclear dangers, more misadventures of Matt McDaniel 
in his mission to help the Akha people not only preserve their heritage, 
but flat out survive, semi-covert US funding of paramilitaries who aren't 
called paramilitaries in Bolivia right now, the socialist origins of the 
Pledge of Allegiance, and one heck of a lot more.
     Last but not least, there's tons of room any and all to post their 
views, their calendars, their links, whatever they want pertaining to the 
War on Some Drugs in our spacious forum, so please feel free to stop by.
     Peace, will eventually arrive,
     Preston Peet
Editor in Chief <http://www.drugwar.com>http://www.drugwar.com
<mailto:ptpeet@nyc.rr.com>ptpeet@nyc.rr.com




 
 


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