Date: Fri, 09 Aug 2002 08:26:29 -0700
Subject:US: Nevada blazes trail for legal marijuana Up TOC


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/showcase/chi-02080903=
24aug09.story?coll=3Dchi%2Dnews%2Dhed


Nevada blazes trail for legal marijuana

By V. Dion Haynes
Tribune national correspondent

August 9, 2002

LAS VEGAS -- Nevada established its renegade reputation in the 1920s when
local leaders thumbed their noses at the federal ban on alcohol, with one
mayor openly threatening to put "a barrel of whiskey with a dipper" on
every street corner.

The state, long a haven for prostitution, then legalized the sex trade in
13 of its 17 counties. And at a time when the rest of America considered
gambling taboo and confined it mainly to illegal backroom parlors, Nevada
enshrined it in gaudy casinos.

Now the state regarded by many as the sin capital of America is again
pioneering a new frontier: the legalization of recreational pot smoking.

In November, Nevada voters will decide whether to become the first state to=

legalize the recreational use of marijuana, for quantities of 3 ounces or
less, for adults 21 and older. If the measure passes this fall and again in=

November 2004 as required for amendments to the state constitution, Nevada=

also would tax marijuana and establish a system for distributing the drug
- --possibly selling it in smoke shops, pharmacies or coffeehouses.

This week, the state's largest law-enforcement group, the Nevada Conference=

of Police and Sheriffs, endorsed the initiative, saying decriminalizing
marijuana would free officers to concentrate more on "life-threatening and=

serious incidents."

The initiative thrusts Nevada into the battle between the federal
government and nine states over their efforts to legalize medical marijuana=

for chronically ill patients and into the center of an international debate=

over moves by Canada, Great Britain and other nations to approve the
across-the-board use of marijuana.

More than 60 years after the federal government passed the first law
prohibiting its use, marijuana is the most debated and studied illegal drug=

in the nation. It also is the most widely used illicit substance -- the
U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration says that 1=

in 3 people age 12 and older have tried it at least once during their
lifetime--despite billions spent by federal, state and local
law-enforcement authorities to fight it.

"What this does is allow respectable people to use marijuana in their homes=

and bans it everyplace else," said Billy Rogers, spokesman for Nevadans for=

Responsible Law Enforcement, the measure's sponsor.

Echoing the sentiment of the police and sheriffs group, Rogers said: "This=

will allow law enforcement to concentrate on more serious criminals:
terrorists, rapists, murderers."

Marijuana use peaked in the 1970s; nearly 30 million people 12 years old
and older used it at least once in 1979, according to the Substance Abuse
and Mental Health Services Administration. The number of users steadily
dropped, to 26 million in 1985, then 16 million in 1992. The number of
users then increased before stabilizing at about 19 million in 2000.

Use declines with age

Statistics show that marijuana is most popular among teens and young adults=

and that use declines sharply as people reach their 30s and 40s.

Still, experts say, a sizable constituency of Baby Boomers smoke marijuana.=

One study shows that 1 in 40 -- or 2.6 percent -- of 40-year-olds use
marijuana on a regular basis.

Marijuana advocates, attempting to counter the Cheech and Chong images of
the 1970s, have launched campaigns to portray marijuana as mainstream.
Earlier this year, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana
Laws plastered billboards all over New York City featuring this response
from Mayor Michael Bloomberg when asked whether he ever had smoked pot:
"You bet I did, and I enjoyed it."

"We want equal rights with people who use alcohol and tobacco," said Mikki=

Morris, director of the Northern California-based Cannabis Consumers=
 Campaign.

Seeking to follow the example of the gay-rights movement, Morris posts on
her Web site photos of doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs and other
professionals who openly describe their marijuana use. "To gain our rights,=

we have to come out of the closet and show that we're non-threatening to
society," she said.

Marijuana falls into the realm between liquor and hard drugs such as heroin=

and cocaine, experts say, creating inconsistent and often contradictory
public policies.

Most states have lowered marijuana possession charges from a felony,
punishable by a prison sentence, to a misdemeanor or a finable offense. Yet=

in 2000, about 743,000 people nationwide were imprisoned for marijuana
possession, the highest number ever.

Despite intense efforts to crack down on illegal drugs in New York City, a=

sophisticated underground delivery system using bike-riding and
limousine-driving couriers -- mainly for exclusive Manhattan residences --=

proliferates.

"Rank-and-file officers often wink and look the other way when it comes to=

a segment of the [marijuana-]using population," said Ric Curtis, chairman
of the anthropology department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in
New York, who has studied the city's illicit drug trade extensively. "For
[officers], it's not worth the time and effort to go after the more upscale=

people."

Whether non-conformist Nevada is the right place for proponents to make
their point about the mainstreaming of marijuana is an open question. Under=

the measure, a ban on public use of marijuana would remain, but police no
longer would arrest users 21 and older who possess no more than 3 ounces of=

the drug and smoke in private.

No organized effort has formed in Nevada to oppose the measure. But the
initiative is facing harsh criticism from the federal government.

Contradicting federal law

If it passes, the measure would put Nevada, like California, at odds with
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The agency has raided and shut
down medical marijuana dispensaries in California, equating them to drug
traffickers. While the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against the California=

medical marijuana law, state Supreme Court justices recently decided that
users are protected from prosecution in state courts.

"This is the wrong message to send, the wrong program for Nevada," said DEA=

spokesman Will Glaspy. "We will respond to this in a way similar to the
approach used for the cannabis buyers clubs. This is still against federal=

law."

Other opponents say the Nevada measure is a well-orchestrated,
well-financed attempt by proponents to achieve the eventual legalization of=

all drugs.

Robert Maginnis, vice president for policy at the Family Research Council,=

asserts that arguments about compassionate use of medical marijuana are a
smoke screen by proponents who want to liberalize laws to allow
recreational use of pot.

In fact, the Marijuana Policy Project, which was involved in many of the
medical marijuana measures, launched the Nevada organization that is
sponsoring the decriminalization initiative. Moreover, billionaire George
Soros has provided millions of dollars to finance several organizations
advocating medical marijuana and legalizing drugs.

"We've got to make sure we're not comparing age-old memories of Woodstock
with what's going on today," Maginnis said.

"Today's cannabis is much more potent," he said. According to the DEA, the=

level of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, has risen to 7 percent
from less than 1 percent in 1974. "You'll get addicted much faster."

Along with the quality, the price of marijuana varies widely across the
country -- from $400 to $5,000 a pound. The Nevada initiative would require=

the state to establish a price, a tax structure and a distribution system
for marijuana. The issues of quality and purity are not addressed, but that=

is something that the state most likely would have to consider.

"We spell out that it couldn't be sold in places that allow gaming . . .
and that the establishments would have to go through a licensing process,"=

said Rogers of the initiative campaign.

"What [the distribution system] would look like is impossible to say."

Copyright =A9 2002, >http://www.chicagotribune.com/<Chicago Tribune


=



**




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

------------------------------
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 01:04:57 -0700
Subject:Canada: Chatham Hemp Firm Filing Suit against US Up TOC

Title: Chatham Hemp Firm Filing Suit against US
Author: Canadian Press
Source: London Free Press
Contact: letters@lfpress.com
Website: http://www.canoe.ca/LondonFreePress/home.html
Pubdate: Thursday, August 1, 2002

TORONTO (CP) -- America's war on drugs has turned into a trade battle
between the U.S. government and a small Canadian company.

Industrial hemp-growing company Kenex Ltd., will take on the U.S. State
Department tomorrow when it files a lawsuit under the North American Free
Trade Agreement.

The company, based in Chatham, is seeking at least $20 million US
compensation because it says the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's
attempt to ban hemp-seed foods is financially devastating.

"Kenex's business was going to be built around and focused on its access
to the U.S. market," says the company's lawyer, Todd Weiler. "They were
ready to go to town and they have this come down on them . . . . It's not
just that they were exporting into the U.S., they had plans to do a heck
of a lot more, and that got stymied."

The company, which employs about 10 people, has grown and processed hemp
oil, seed and fibre products since 1998 -- when the Canadian government
lifted a ban on hemp farming dating back to 1938. Kenex is now North
America's largest producer of hemp seed, with three-quarters of its
business going to the United States where it's illegal to grow and process
hemp.

"The U.S. government has such an absurd practice of harassing and seizing
shipments that it's put a real chill in the market," says David Bronner,
president of Dr. Bronner's Magic Soap, which makes soap containing hemp
oil, and chairperson of the Hemp Industry Association's food and oils
committee.

"Customers need on-time delivery and they can't be worried about holdups,
let alone seizures . . . we want the marketplace to be more free so we
don't have to worry about DEA harassment."

Legal counsel for Kenex met with Washington officials in March in an
attempt to prevent a drawn-out trade dispute, but after the officials
failed to recognize the legality of Kenex's products, the company moved to
seek compensation under Chapter 11 of NAFTA, which allows investors to sue
governments.

"They haven't played by the rules. And it's crippled our investment . . .
we're done if this stands," Kenex president Jean Laprise said in January
when the company filed its notice of intent to sue.

Spokespeople for the DEA and the State Department refused to comment on
the impending case until they reviewed the notice of arbitration.

Kenex is the fifth Canadian company to face the U.S. government in
arbitration at a NAFTA tribunal. A three-member panel will listen to
arguments and issue a decision -- a process that can take two years.

Even though hemp seed and oil is highly nutritious -- packed with Vitamin
E and essential fatty acids -- and is used in everything from bread to ice
cream, the DEA wants it banned.

While marijuana has long been considered a controlled substance,
industrial hemp products, such as fibres and textiles, are exempt from
control under U.S. legislation.

However, the 1970 Controlled Substances Act still lists THC as a
controlled substance, giving the DEA grounds for its "zero THC policy" in
products for human consumption.

The ruckus, which prompted Kenex to sue, started when a shipment of its
sterilized hemp seed was confiscated at the border in 1999. After a
four-month legal battle, Customs allowed the shipment to cross, but by
that time the seed had spoiled and the company had lost major customers.

Kenex argued the DEA's actions violated the 1970 Controlled Substances
Act, which exempts sterilized hemp seed and oil from control. And six
months after the seizure, the U.S. Department of Justice said the DEA
lacked the authority to confiscate the goods.

In October 2001, the DEA issued a ban on food products made with hemp seed
and oil, giving manufacturers and retailers until February 2002 to pull
products from the shelves. That would have dealt a blow to the $5-million
hemp food industry, but a counter-attack launched by the Hemp Industry
Association blocked the move in a ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, where a
decision is still pending. Kenex is a co-plaintiff in that case.

Copyright The London Free Press a division of Sun Media Corporation.


____________________________________________________
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------------------------------
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 01:05:09 -0700
Subject:NY: High-Minded Gesture Up TOC

Newshawk: Alex
Pubdate: Wed, 07 Aug 2002
Source: Leader-Herald, The (NY)
Copyright: 2002 - The Leader Herald
Contact: editor@leaderherald.com
Website: http://www.leaderherald.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2276
Author: George A. Fletcher

HIGH-MINDED GESTURE

Marijuana Activist to Raffle Off Bong to Raise Cash for Area Fire Department

EPHRATAH - A local businesswoman and pro-marijuana-legalization activist is
putting her money where her mouth is by raffling off an expensive water
pipe to benefit the RGL Volunteer Fire Department.

Ina Kurz, owner of the Rockwood General Store, claims she stands among
community leaders and other upstanding citizens as a supporter of the drug,
and those who dabble in its recreational use should not be thought of as
criminals.

Kurz, known in the area for organizing the pro-marijuana Woodrock festivals
in 1997 and 1998, has also run on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket for
the Ephratah town justice seat and lost three times. She has also been a
volunteer for Marijuana Reform Party gubernatorial candidate Thomas K.
Leighton.

Kurz has owned and operated the only "head shop" in the county - the
Rockwood General Store-for 28 years.

Kurz's effort to support the Rockwood-Garoga-Lasselsville Fire Department
is being received with polite hesitancy by Fire Chief and Town Supervisor
Todd Bradt, although he doesn't agree with the politics behind the offer.

"I am personally grateful for the offer, but I don't approve of the
marijuana angle," he said. "Maybe if it were legal, it would be different.
At the same time, we get along okay. I wouldn't want to step on her toes."

Kurz said the large, specially made smoking device is called "The Twin
Towers" in honor of the victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center.

Kurz said she is sure there were many victims of the tragedy at Ground Zero
who had smoked pot. "I think that it's perfectly appropriate," she said.

But Bradt said he doesn't agree because so many firefighters lost their
lives during the response and rescue stages of the effort at Ground Zero.

"In her way of thinking, maybe it's great," Bradt said. "But I don't think
that it's very appropriate. Besides, I'm up for re-election in September. I
really don't need the bad association."

Bradt was appointed to the supervisor position to finish out the term left
vacant by Bessie Floyd, who unexpectedly resigned and moved away from the
area last year. He hopes to serve for the remaining two years of Floyd's
term, and then if successful, he will run for his first full, four-year
term in 2004.

Kurz said she wouldn't take the association so badly.

"Raising money for the firehouse is the least of it," she said.

She said her aim is to raise awareness of the futility and injustice of
anti-marijuana laws as well as a recent push for the repeal of New York's
Rockefeller Laws.

"People go through Hell because the laws go against the First Amendment,"
she said.

"People have their jobs held over their heads because they choose to use
marijuana. These laws are [at the whim] of only a few politicians choosing
who can do what."

Kurz said her customers of marijuana paraphernalia include health
professionals, law enforcement officials, government employees and other
"heads" of the community.

But not everybody is hip to the lingo. "I had a hard time trying to explain
to the [members of the fire company] just what a bong is," Bradt said. "Not
too many people knew."

Despite the potential controversy, Bradt said he doesn't want to pass
judgment. "Ina's not a bad lady, and we have a decent relationship."

Kurz says a person should not be defined by his or her use of the drug.
"You are not a bad person if you smoke marijuana," she said.
__________________________________________________________________________
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web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 01:06:19 -0700
Subject:OR: Judge Says Search Of Stoudamire's House Not Up TOC

Newshawk: Terry Liittschwager
Pubdate: Wed, 07 Aug 2002
Source: Register-Guard, The (OR)
Copyright: 2002 The Register-Guard
Contact: rgletters@guardnet.com
Website: http://www.registerguard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/362
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

JUDGE SAYS SEARCH OF STOUDAMIRE'S HOUSE NOT JUSTIFIED

OREGON CITY - A judge rejected two arguments by prosecutors trying to
justify a search of the home of Portland Trail Blazers guard Damon
Stoudamire in which a large bag of marijuana was found.

Judge John Lowe said Tuesday there was no legal justification for the
search that turned up marijuana behind an attic access door in
Stoudamire's home.

Lowe also ruled there was no express or implied consent to search the
home just because Stoudamire had installed an alarm system.

The decision could lead to the dismissal of the case. Lowe did not say
when he would rule.

Police, responding to a burglar alarm at Stoudamire's home in suburban
Lake Oswego on Feb. 23, found the front door ajar, searched the home
and discovered the marijuana.

The Lake Oswego officials will wait for Lowe's ruling before deciding
whether to app
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web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 01:07:20 -0700
Subject:Canada: Pot Fans Sniff Out Way To Save Their Sea Weed Up TOC

Newshawk: krinklyfig
Pubdate: Thu, 08 Aug 2002
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2002, The Globe and Mail Company
Contact: letters@globeandmail.ca
Website: http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/168
Author: Vernon Clement Jones
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

POT FANS SNIFF OUT WAY TO SAVE THEIR SEA WEED

B.C. activists have begun spraying commuter ferries with the watered-down
essence of marijuana in a plan to stymie police dogs sniffing for the
illicit drug.

Wednesday marked the first of several "spray days," said a spokesman for
the B.C. Marijuana Party. That campaign of secretly spraying the decks of
ferries, said Michael Cost, is the most effective way of throwing drug dogs
off the scent of marijuana shipments.

The first covert operation occurred on a ferry travelling between Nanaimo,
B.C., and Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver, Mr. Cost told globeandmail.com
Thursday. It's something of a preferred smuggling route, say local police,
for marijuana growers on Vancouver Island looking to get their product to
the mainland market.

Exactly how many litres of a diluted THC solution - the active ingredient
in marijuana - were sprayed, is a secret, said Mr. Cost. But that liquid,
floated in an alcohol solution, was sprayed all over the ferry's deck and
should overwhelm police dogs sent to ferret out marijuana stashed in the
cars of commuters.

The home-made cologne is so pervasive as to cast a marijuana haze over
everything on the boat, said Mr. Cost. Police who have been searching for
marijuana on the ferries will probably be fogged out, he said.

It was on July 30 that West Vancouver Police led a battalion of
pot-sniffing police dogs on a search of a ferry travelling the
Nanaimo-Horseshoe Bay route.

Those canines did, indeed, sniff out about eight kilograms of the drug
hidden on board. Eight arrests resulted from that discovery. But, Constable
Tim Dean told globeandmail.com Thursday, the actual car inspections occured
after the ferry docked in Vancouver and search warrants had been issued.

Still the police action is an invasion of privacy, said Mr. Cost, and just
another example of the rights of B.C. citizens being sacrificed to the
province's war on drugs.

"We will continue to spray the decks of ferries to protect citizens from an
overzealous police force," said Mr. Cost, whose organization has actively
lobbied provincial and federal governments for the "full legalization of
marijuana."

But the covert sprayings, while problematic, may not in fact be criminal,
said Constable Dean.

"As far as the police are concerned this is all a publicity stunt," he
said. "The spraying would only become a criminal offense if it did affect
the dogs and if they were actually out on a search - its all very
hypothetical now."

What's much more certain, said Constable Dean, is that the hunt will
continue for marijuana on the ferries travelling between Vancouver Island
and the vast North American market.
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------------------------------
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 01:07:44 -0700
Subject:AL: Editorial: The Unusual Suspects Up TOC

Newshawk: chip
Pubdate: Thu, 08 Aug 2002
Source: Huntsville Times (AL)
Webpage:
http://www.al.com/opinion/huntsvilletimes/
Copyright: 2002 The Huntsville Times
Contact: htimes@htimes.com
Website: http://www.htimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/730

THE UNUSUAL SUSPECTS

A Policy Requiring Teachers to Report What Medicines They Take Is Invasive
and Impractical

Worries about drug use abound. Maybe that's because we realize what a
pathetic failure the "war on drugs" has been, how powerless we are to do
more than momentarily stanch the hemorrhage of drug availability.

The only things worse than our failure to solve the drug problem are the
intrusive, demoralizing, ineffective ideas we keep generating as responses.

The latest - no doubt well-meaning but essentially wrong-headed - comes
from the Jefferson County school system. It has adopted a policy that
requires teachers who are taking medication that could impair them
physically or mentally to tell their supervisors about it.

What a grand-sounding proposal, but, oh, those satanic details! Teachers
apparently will now have to tell supervisors about every illness they
suffer and every medical relief they adopt.

After all, every medicine has a side effect. Even common aspirin can cause
physical problems for some. And, unfortunately, side effects vary from
person to person. Supervisors will have to take crash courses in
pharmacology - which, unfortunately, usually requires years of study - to
have any clue about specific medication, much less drug interaction. A
doctor's drug manual won't cut it.

What circumstances would force a teacher to report the use of a medication?
Who knows? Will teachers with illnesses they might not want to discuss -
and shouldn't have to discuss, like treatable depression - have to tell
supervisors? Apparently.

"We expect (teachers) to perform," said Superintendent Bob Neighbors, "and
if you can't, then we want to know about it." Fine. But where does
providing your medical history to supervisors who can turn it against you
come in? Aren't supervisors supposed to be able to discern who is teaching
properly and who isn't without rummaging through purses and briefcases for
prescription bottles?

This is another of those arbitrary, high-handed and invasive searches
without cause - this time with teachers expected to report their own
undefined guilt. The fourth and fifth amendments to the U.S. Constitution
have things to say about this.

Jefferson County can surely spend its school money more productively. It
can surely treat its teachers like honest citizens, not drug suspects. And
it can surely figure out how to discover drug-abusing teachers without
putting the innocent on trial.

The freedom to be safe and secure in your person is getting hammered enough
by national law enforcement leaders who aren't quite sure how to protect
Americans from terrorists. Sometimes, as in Jefferson County, the threats
to freedom come from ourselves.
__________________________________________________________________________
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web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 01:08:55 -0700
Subject:Israel: Pots Hint At Ancient Drug Trade Up TOC

Newshawk: JohnC, The November Coalition http://www.november.org/
Pubdate: Thu, 08 Aug 2002
Source: Tampa Tribune (FL)
Section: Nation/World
Webpage: http://tampatrib.com/News/MGAF4U77M4D.html
Copyright: 2002, The Tribune Co.
Contact: tribletters@tampatrib.com
Website: http://www.tampatrib.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/446
Author: Jason Keyser of the Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)

POTS HINT AT ANCIENT DRUG TRADE

JERUSALEM - A thriving Bronze Age drug trade supplied narcotics to ancient
cultures throughout the eastern Mediterranean as balm for the pain of
childbirth and disease, proving a sophisticated knowledge of medicines
dating back thousands of years, researchers say.

Ancient ceramic pots, most of them nearly identical in shape and about 5
inches long, have been found in tombs and settlements throughout the Middle
East, dating as far back as 1,400 B.C., said Joe Zias, an anthropologist at
Jerusalem's Hebrew University.

The drugs probably were used as medicine, and the finds are helping
researchers better understand how ancient people treated illness and disease.

"It's a window to the past that many people are unaware of," Zias said at a
recent conference in Israel on DNA and archaeology.

When turned upside down, the thin-necked vessels with round bases resemble
opium poppie pods. The round bases have white markings, designs that
symbolized knife cuts made on poppies bulbs so the white opium base can
ooze and be harvested, Zias said.

The Mycenaean ceramics were analyzed with a procedure called gas
chromatography that turned up traces of opium.

Hundreds of the pots have been found, and they commonly show up in the
hands of antiquities dealers in places such as Jerusalem's Old City. "Give
me an hour there and I could find you 10 of them," Zias said.

Based on ancient Egyptian medical writings from the third millennium B.C.,
researchers believe opium and hashish, a smokable drug that comes from the
concentrated resin from the flowers of marijuana plants, were used during
surgery and to treat aches and pains and other ailments. Hashish was also
used to ease menstrual cramps and was offered to women during childbirth.

Based on Egyptian writings, archaeologists think the opium was eaten rather
than smoked.

The drugs are part of a medical record that shows the ancients were far
more advanced than most people realize, Zias said, noting evidence that
European people did cranial surgery as long as 10,000 years ago, while the
Romans left records of 120 surgical procedures.

Mark Spigelman, a Zias colleague at Hebrew University, found one of the
poppy-shaped ceramic pots from the middle Bronze Age in Siqqura, a Giza
cemetery near the pyramids outside Cairo, during a dig four years ago. The
pot, found in an 18th Egyptian dynasty grave, was identical to other pots
found throughout Israel and the Middle East.

"These guys were selling opium all over the Middle East," Spigelman said.

The ancient trade likely was run by respected healers rather than violent
drug lords.

"We know for sure these things were used for medical purposes," Zias said.
"The question is whether they were used for recreational purposes."

In an archaeologically rich area of central Israel, Zias found another
clue. While excavating a tomb from the late Roman period in Beit Shemesh 10
years ago, he found the skeleton of a 14-year-old girl who died in
childbirth about 390 A.D. On her stomach was a fleck of a burnt brownish,
black substance.

"I thought it was incense," Zias said. But when he had it analyzed by
police and chemists at Hebrew University, it turned out to be a mixture of
hashish, dried seeds, fruit and common reeds.

Medical researchers have found that other than relaxing the user, hashish
increases the force and frequency of contractions in women giving birth;
and it was used in deliveries until the 19th century, after which new drugs
were developed.

But it didn't help this girl. She bled to death.

The drug was a rare find. Organic compounds quickly decay, but because this
one had been burned, it was carbonized and preserved.
__________________________________________________________________________
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- ---

MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager



------------------------------
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 09:23:26 -0700
Subject: Canada: Pro-pot protest on ferry

Newshawk: Canadian Media Awareness Project (http://www.mapinc.org/cmap/)
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Date: August 9, 2002
Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/
Address: 200 Granville Street, Ste. #1, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N3 Canada
Contact: provletters@pacpress.southam.ca
Copyright: 2002 The Province
Fax: (604) 605-2323
Page A35

                       Pro-pot protest on ferry

VICTORIA - Forget the Sunshine Breaakfast.  There could be a little
something extra in the air on board B.C. ferries running between Nanaimo's
Departure Bay and Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver.

The B.C. Marijuana Party is vowing to be on board ferries plying that route
for the next two weeks to sprinkle ground-up marijuana and cayenne pepper
powder, and spray distilled marijuana.  They are protesting against the
actions last week of West Vancouver Police, who used drug-sniffing dogs to
find marijuana hidden in cars on board ferries.  Three people were arrested.

"We are totally opposed to the police and the government and we have to
defend our people," says Marc Emery, B.C. Marijuana Party president.



------------------------------
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 09:24:12 -0700
Subject: Canada: U.S. agent scolded by B.C. judge

Newshawk: Canadian Media Awareness Project (http://www.mapinc.org/cmap/)
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Date: August 8, 2002
Website: http://www.canada.com/vancouver/theprovince/
Address: 200 Granville Street, Ste. #1, Vancouver, BC V6C 3N3 Canada
Contact: provletters@pacpress.southam.ca
Copyright: 2002 The Province
Fax: (604) 605-2323
Page A29
Author: Barbara McLintock

                     U.S. agent scolded by B.C. judge

The conduct of a U.S. drug enforcement agent who snuck into Canada to set up
a drug buy was so appalling the Canadian involved should not be extradited
to face charges in the United States, a B.C. Supreme Court judge has ruled.

Justice Janice Dillon instead took the rare step of ordering a judicial stay
of proceedings in the case of Dave Licht, who was wanted in California for
trafficking and possession of cocaine.

"The conduct of a United States civilian police agent entering Canada
without the knowledge or consent of Canadian authorities, in defiance of
known Canadian requirements for legal conduct, with the express purpose to
entice Canadians to the United States to commit criminal acts in that
jurisdiction, and acting illegally to offer to sell cocaine in Canada, is
shocking to the Canadian conscience," Dillon wrote.

The incident began in the summer of 1999 when the U.S. Drug Enforcement
Agency and the RCMP began working co-operatively on what's known as a
"reverse-sting operation" involving the sale of up to 75 kilograms of
cocaine at a time.

But when the U.S. authorities one day later wanted to deal in only
one-kilogram amounts, the RCMP said they weren't interested in continuing.

Despite that, the civilian confidential informant continued working on his
own and met with Licht two weeks later.

Because of that meeting, Licht went to the United States, became involved in
various drug deals, and was charged.

"This is one of those rare cases where an abuse of process is readily
apparent," wrote Dillon.

"A United States police agent entered Canada without proper immigration
status to carry out an illegal activity without the knowledge or consent of
the RCMP and knowing that the RCMP had withdrawn consent to further
involvement in the reverse-sting operation.  This conduct is clearly
contrary to Canadian sovereign interests."



------------------------------
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 09:26:36 -0700
Subject: Canada: Book Review: Toking a trip around the world

Newshawk: CannabisLink.ca (http://cannabislink.ca)
Pubdate: Saturday, August 10, 2002
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Page: D6
Website: http://www.globeandmail.ca/
Contact: letters@globeandmail.ca
Author: Micheal  Poole

Toking a trip around the world

By MICHAEL POOLE

Pot Planet: Adventures in Global Marijuana Culture

By Brian Preston

Grove, 298 pages, $24.95

Loaded: A Misadventure on the Marijuana Trail

By Robert Sabbag

Little, Brown, 332 pages, $34.95

Vancouver journalist and marijuana fancier Brian Preston sets himself an
enticing task: As a book project, he is to toke his way through 12
countries, sampling the local grass and hash. "A global gourmet-ganja
holiday," is how he puts it.

But that's not how it turns out, at least in the beginning. He wanders
Nepal, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos, looking for dope or -- afflicted by
tourista -- the nearest latrine. For this reader, hard content about
marijuana is thin, and most of the people he encounters are not very
interesting.

Preston, however, is a good reporter, and when he gets down to business, he
writes an engaging and informative book. It happens in Australia. We've been
at Nimbin in New South Wales, "the great citadel of cannabis culture Down
Under." It's Mardi Gras -- peace, love and the hard sell. The price of pot
doubles, then triples. But then Preston visits a third-generation farmer
named Kog, a family man who has done time in jail for growing cannabis.

"So Brian," Kog asks him, "is writing this book the most important thing
you've ever done in your life?"

The question gives Preston pause. "In the beginning, this book had almost
seemed a lark. Pure pleasure," he tells us. But after meeting so many people
like this man who had been persecuted and jailed, "I understood I owed these
people something."

Though Preston never says exactly what that something is, in England, the
next stop on his tour, we begin to meet marijuana activists who are not
merely passionate about pot, but also eloquent and deeply thoughtful.

In dreary Luton, of all places, an hour west of London, we visit the Exodus
Collective, whose dedication to love and community is so idealistic that
Preston warns us his account "is likely going to sound very hokey." But
who's to argue with success? Working on the belief that cannabis promotes
conscience, Exodus holds pot raves on land provided by a sympathetic Duke of
Bedford. In six months, attendance jumps from 100 to 10,000, local crime
rates fall and Luton breweries complain to police and government about lost
pub business.

Just weeks ago, Britain reclassified cannabis, easing penalties for
possession and smoking. Belgium and Portugal have now decriminalized it
(which falls well short of legalizing). The Swiss are liberalizing, and even
cautious Canada is once again making permissive noises 22 years after the
justice minister at the time, Jean Chr=E9tien, promised to decriminalize=
 pot.
(An idea soon scotched by a lobby of parents and teachers from vote-rich
Ontario.) But, as Preston explains in a fascinating chapter on Amsterdam,
all these pseudo-solutions cause more difficulties than they resolve.

The vaunted freedom of the Netherlands' 1,200 cannabis coffee shops is, in
fact, a sham. Yes, you can buy grass or hash and smoke it on the premises.
But Dutch legislators, like their counterparts everywhere else, could not
bring themselves to legalize commercial production and distribution. So the
police must connive in illegal activity, looking the other way while
supplies are hustled through the back door, a standing invitation to
manipulation and corruption.

Caught in the pinch between the law and reality are coffee-shop owners and
growers like Ben Dronkers, a pioneer breeder of new varieties, who has been
arrested more than 80 times. "I don't want to be a pain in the ass any
more," he tells Preston wearily. "I want what I do to be accepted."

But that's not likely to happen, as Pot Planet explains in a review of
marijuana court cases past and pending, including a split decision from the
B.C. Court of Appeal that's headed for the Supreme Court. The issue, as
always, is where to draw the line between the power of the state and the
rights of the individual.

As we in Canada know all too well, it's American drug-war fundamentalism
that drives the statist cause around the world. In California, Preston goes
to see Dennis Peron, founder in 1991 of the San Francisco Cannabis Buyers
Club, prototype for clinics -- including a number in Canada -- that supply
prescription marijuana to patients with medical conditions that respond to
cannabis.

Peron is also the man who organized the 1996 state ballot that endorsed
medical marijuana in California. It's the law now, sanctioned by the state
legislature, yet the federal Drug Enforcement Administration persists,
raiding clinics and finally driving Peron away to his farm. He still faces
charges.

Near the end of Pot Planet, a woman named Watermelon makes a plea for
activists to remember that they represent "hundreds of thousands of users,
white-collar and blue-collar regular folks." With some skipping over the
groovy bits, such regular folks will find much of interest on Preston's
tour. Pot-heads will love it all.

It's hard to imagine anyone getting off on Robert Sabbag's Loaded, a pot
pot-boiler that tells the story of Allen Long, an American who made and lost
millions smuggling Colombian marijuana into the United States in the 1970s.
The names are changed, but the usual cast of clich=E9s remain -- plane
crashes, suitcases spilling cash, machine guns and alligator cowboy boots,
all unredeemed by Sabbag's hyperventilating prose.

Given such elements, Loaded doesn't have to be dull. But it is. And a big
part of the problem is all those damned meetings. Meetings in motels,
meetings in the jungle, in villages, on boats, planes. If that's what you
have to do to deal dope, it sounds even worse than jail. Long should know --
that's where he ended his druggy career.

Sechelt, B.C., writer Michael Poole is the author of Romancing Mary Jane: A
Year in the Life of a Failed Marijuana Grower. He is presently at work on a
novel set in the First World War.

Related Reading

Cocaine: An Unauthorized Biography, by Dominic Streatfield, St. Martin's,
$41.95

Streatfield, a London documentary filmmaker, offers a comprehensive,
engaging and sometimes cheeky look at the history of cocaine, from 1499,
when Amerigo Vespucci discovered natives stuffing their mouths with coca
leaves in what is now Brazil, to our own time, when the cocaine trade is an
estimated $149-billion per year or more, he points out, than the combined
revenues of Microsft, Kellogg's and McDonald's.



------------------------------
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 09:29:22 -0700
Subject: Nev. Police Group Changes Pot Stance

Nev. Police Group Changes Pot Stance

By KEN RITTER
The Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) - Nevada's largest police organization ousted its president
Friday and reversed his endorsement of a statewide initiative that would let
adults legally possess small amounts of marijuana.

The Nevada Conference of Police and Sheriffs issued a statement blaming
former president Andy Anderson for a ``misunderstanding'' and declared that
the executive board had not endorsed decriminalizing marijuana when Anderson
polled them Tuesday.

The organization said Friday it doesn't endorse the measure, which will
appear on the Nov. 5 ballot, ``nor will it support any measure for the
decriminalization or legalization of marijuana.''

The group represents about 3,000 Nevada law enforcement officers - about
two-thirds of police in the state.

Anderson, one of the founding members of the 23-year-old organization, could
not be reached for comment Friday night.

On Tuesday, he said, ``We just feel we could use our resources better. Why
waste our time with marijuana arrests?''

Until last year in Nevada, it was a felony to possess a single marijuana
cigarette. Now, possessing an ounce or less is a misdemeanor.

The ballot initiative would allow marijuana to be sold only in state-licensed
and taxed smoke shops. Possession by minors would still be a crime and public
use would be banned.

The measure would have to pass twice - in November and again in 2004 - to
become law.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 2002 16:04:12 -0700
Subject: CA: $32.2 Million In Pot Seized, Plants Destroyed

Newshawk: M & M Family
Pubdate: Sat, 10 Aug 2002
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2002 San Jose Mercury News
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390

$32.2 MILLION IN POT SEIZED, PLANTS DESTROYED

Law enforcement authorities raided a marijuana-growing operation in
San Benito County, seizing about $32.2 million in pot and destroying
more than 8,000 plants.

The operation was next to a site where more than 76,000 plants were
taken in 1999, which is why authorities decided to check out the site
again.

The farm raided Wednesday stretched more than a mile, with marijuana
plants hidden behind native plants.
__________________________________________________________________________
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

CRRH is working to regulate and tax the sale of cannabis to adults like 
alcohol, allow doctors to recommend cannabis through pharmacies and restore 
the unregulated production of industrial hemp.

*Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp*
mail:     CRRH ; P.O. Box 86741 ; Portland, OR 97286 USA
email:   crrh@crrh.org
phone:  (503) 235-4606
fax:       (503) 235-0120
web:     http://www.crrh.org/

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End of Restore-Digest V2002 #162
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