Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 10:00:01 -0700
Subject:CA: Davis Veto Of Industrial Hemp Study Draws Criticism Up TOC

Newshawk: Dale Gieringer
Pubdate: Wed, 25 Sep 2002
Source: Press Democrat, The (CA)
Copyright: 2002 The Press Democrat
Contact: letters@pressdemo.com
Website: http://www.pressdemo.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/348
Author: Paul Payne

DAVIS VETO OF INDUSTRIAL HEMP STUDY DRAWS CRITICISM

Strom-Martin Says Rejection Of Bill Came As A Surprise

Industrial hemp supporters on Tuesday criticized Gov. Gray Davis' veto of a
bill to study the profitability of growing the fibrous crop for use in
textiles, food and fuel.

Assemblywoman Virginia Strom-Martin, the bill's author, said the veto came
as a surprise considering the governor's support for medical marijuana. She
said her legislation could have led to a major economic boost for agriculture.

In his message accompanying the Sept. 16 veto, Davis said because hemp has
been put in a class with marijuana by the federal Drug Enforcement Agency,
and is illegal, there is no reason to proceed with research.

"There are a number of significant concerns regarding the legality of
producing industrial hemp in the United States," Davis wrote. "For these
reasons, I am returning this bill without my signature."

The bill would have requested that the University of California conduct a
study of the economic benefits of the production of alternative fiber
crops, including industrial hemp, flax, and kenaf.

Hemp is grown in 33 countries. Worldwide sales of hemp-based products in
1999 were $250 million. Americans purchased about 60 percent of that
amount, Strom-Martin said.

"It is a crop with huge potential from farmers," said Strom-Martin,
D-Duncans Mills. "Here we are importing hemp from Canada and China. It just
doesn't make sense that we couldn't be growing it right here."

Advocates said hemp contains only trace amounts of THC, the active
ingredient in marijuana.

Hemp is valued only for use in clothing, paper and cosmetics. Hemp is a
fuel and hemp seeds are a nutritional supplement, supporters said.

"It shouldn't be on the DEA's list," said Strom-Martin, who has written
three failed hemp bills and leaves office because of term limits in
December. "I have absolutely no idea why it is. I guess it's one of the
mysteries of life."

Others agreed.

Lotus Bakery owner Jim Dow, who produced health bars containing hemp before
a DEA crackdown in 2001 slowed sales, said the veto was an unfortunate blow
to an industry with much potential.

"He missed a big opportunity to move agriculture forward," said Dow of
Santa Rosa. "People could have made money in an ecological kind of way.
It's certainly not very progressive of him."
__________________________________________________________________________
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------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 10:03:44 -0700
Subject:CA: SD Pot Activists Face Federal Hurdle Up TOC

via Dale Gieringer

Pot activists face federal hurdle

State law not a shield to U.S. prosecution
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20020926-9999_1m26pot.html

By Marisa Taylor and Jeff McDonald
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITERS

September 26, 2002

Medical-marijuana activist Steve McWilliams believes the law is on
his side when he dispenses pot to the sick. After all, California
voters in 1996 approved Proposition 215, which allows patients to
grow and use marijuana for medicinal purposes.

He may not be as protected as he thinks.

The federal law that prohibits the cultivation of marijuana
supersedes California law - and that allows the U.S. attorney in San
Diego to seek criminal charges against McWilliams.

San Diego's top federal prosecutor, Carol Lam, hasn't decided whether
to file charges in the case.

If she decides to, legal experts say, mounting a defense in federal
court would be tough. The best hope for McWilliams and other
medical-marijuana patients is that individual U.S. attorneys will
decide not to charge them in the first place.

McWilliams, whose garden was uprooted by federal agents Tuesday, is
the latest medical-marijuana patient to be weighing defense
strategies. In the past year, the federal government has raided
cannabis clubs in Los Angeles and Oakland; at least seven people have
been charged.

"This is not accident," said Stephen G. Nelson, who was a federal
prosecutor in San Diego for 25 years. "Somebody in Washington,
presumably the attorney general, made the decision that we are not
going to allow the people of California to defy the law."

The medical-marijuana community is preparing for a fight in San Diego
that could have national implications.

The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws plans to
offer legal help to McWilliams, said R. Keith Stroup, a
public-interest attorney who founded the Washington D.C.-based
nonprofit group in 1970. He said three dozen California attorneys are
ready to assist in the case.

"We may not be able to protect him from the powers of the federal
government, but we can damn well make sure he has a good lawyer,"
Stroup said. "And we've done that."

McWilliams, 47, has spent years advocating the healing powers of
marijuana. He smokes the herb to relieve pain he suffers from a 1970s
motorcycle accident.

The unemployed activist has brought marijuana plants into the San
Diego City Council chambers to accentuate his point. Yesterday, he
smoked the drug outside City Hall, where 40 or so people gathered to
protest the DEA raid on his home. San Diego police stood watch but
did nothing.

McWilliams' belief that his personal garden is protected by
Proposition 215 seemed to be bolstered by a state Supreme Court
ruling last July that granted medical-marijuana patients limited
immunity from prosecution.

Many state and local officials support his view.

Earlier this month, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer
complained about the recent raids in a letter to U.S. Attorney
General John Ashcroft and DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson.

"The decision to continue federal raids on medicinal-marijuana
providers when there is no evidence that the operation is actually
engaged in illicit commercial distribution is wasteful, unwise and
surprisingly insensitive," Lockyer wrote.

San Diego attorney Patrick Dudley, who has been plotting McWilliams'
defense strategy, said the state court ruling doesn't protect
Californians from being prosecuted in federal court. An earlier U.S.
Supreme Court ruling said medical need cannot be used in a defense
against marijuana charges in federal court, no matter what state law
has approved.

"Because of the way federal law is right now, it's a pretty
straightforward case for them, unfortunately," Dudley said.

'Jury nullification'
One possible defense strategy would be to persuade a jury to acquit
medical-marijuana activists even if the federal government's evidence
against them is overwhelming.

This tactic, known as "jury nullification," has been used by draft
dodgers and tax protesters to argue they should be acquitted because
the laws under which they were prosecuted are misguided.

San Diego defense attorney Michael Pancer said that tactic usually
fails, because judges carefully instruct jurors to follow the law,
not their hearts.

"The jurors cry and say they don't want to convict - but then they
do," Pancer said.

Peter Nunez, a former U.S. attorney under President Reagan, said he
prosecuted several people in federal court in the late 1970s for
smuggling an extract of apricot pits known as Laetrile. Most of those
defendants tried to argue for jury nullification because some cancer
patients believed the drug helped cure the disease.

Each time, they were convicted, Nunez said.

Prosecutors have another edge in the McWilliams case, because they
can argue he continued to violate the law after they warned him that
growing and distributing marijuana was illegal.

In an unusual move, the U.S. attorney notified McWilliams in a
hand-delivered letter last Thursday that he would be prosecuted if he
continued his activities.

McWilliams said he wouldn't stop, because it was a matter of
principle. Even the knowledge that a conviction could put him in
prison hasn't deterred him. If tried and convicted of manufacturing
marijuana, he could face up to 16 months in prison.

McWilliams said he hopes the U.S. attorney's office will decide not
to prosecute him.

The federal government appears to have backed down in one
high-profile case this month. In Santa Cruz County, dozens of federal
agents had seized 100 plants and arrested several members of a
medical-marijuana cooperative. A few days later, federal authorities
said no charges would be filed.

"It would not be a nice, easy, clean prosecution," McWilliams said.
"We've been assured that if we stayed within these guidelines, we'll
be protected."

Stephen Nelson, the former San Diego federal prosecutor who once
headed the drug division, said some jurors might view a guilty
verdict as unjust.

In one of the few medical-marijuana cases prosecuted in state court
in San Diego, jurors in 1993 acquitted a La Mesa man who said he
needed the drug to ease the symptoms of AIDS. The verdict was reached
before Proposition 215 allowed medical use.

"Jurors aren't stupid," said Nelson, who believes federal officials
should not press charges. "There's always a chance they would hang or
acquit."

Civil complaint
McWilliams and his partner, Barbara MacKenzie, have been lining up
support from activists and lawyers throughout the nation.

Gerald Uelmen, a law professor at Santa Clara University who is
defending the Santa Cruz marijuana advocates, is putting together a
civil complaint seeking an injunction to prevent the DEA from
conducting further raids until the courts resolve the conflict
between state and federal laws.

"They're just engaged in hit-and-run operations, trying to close down
as many (gardens) as they can," Uelmen said of the drug agents. "They
just go in and grab the plants, the records and computers and then
not engage in any criminal prosecution."

McWilliams has received a vote of confidence from some members of a
San Diego city task force that is drawing up guidelines under which
chronically ill patients may use marijuana. McWilliams was a member
of the task force until last month, when he quit because he felt the
committee was moving too slowly.

"This is a medical issue," San Diego City Councilman George Stevens
said yesterday at a committee meeting attended by dozens of
McWilliams supporters. "People are sick. The marijuana is needed to
address their illness."

The task force recommendations are scheduled to go before a City
Council committee Oct. 16. San Diego police and drug-abuse prevention
groups disagree on some of the suggestions.

City officials estimate that between 1,500 and 3,000 people will
apply for identification as registered medical-marijuana patients.
The city expects to begin issuing the ID cards early next year.

Meanwhile, McWilliams is bracing for a knock at his door he hopes
will never come. He worries whenever helicopters pass over his rented
house in Normal Heights.

Before their house was raided this week, he and MacKenzie harvested
the useable marijuana from their garden and divided it among five
clients.

"If we waited and they came, then we would lose everything,"
McWilliams said. "So we just tried to help as many people as we
could."

- ------------------------------------------------------------------------
Marisa Taylor: (619) 293-1020; marisa.taylor@uniontrib.com
- -- 
- ----
Dale Gieringer (415) 563-5858  // canorml@igc.org
2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114
- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Attachment: http://www.drugsense.org/temp/part3.html------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 12:01:11 -0700
Subject:UK: High Times for Alzheimers  Up TOC

via DcD

High Times for Alzheimers
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread14254.shtml
By Sophie Petit-Zeman
Source: Guardian Unlimited

'A younger sibling of mine accidentally let grandma eat the wrong
brownies... You could tell she had AD --Alzheimer's disease -- but
nothing so prominent. It was like it took her back 3-4 years." Postings
such as this one on the Alzforum website intrigued Dr Nathaniel Milton,
a biochemist at London's Royal Free and University College medical
school.

He was already actively researching compounds which prevent the brain
cell death that occurs in Alzheimer's disease, and, with research
partner Insight Biotechnology, had taken out patents on some capable of
doing this.

He was also aware of a few reports suggesting that cannabis
preparations, in the hands of doctors, could do for their patients much
of what the brownies did for grandma.

The brain of an Alzheimer's sufferer contains abnormal deposits called
"tangles" and "plaques." Associated with these deposits are proteins,
or bits of them, called tau and amyloid-beta (A=DF) respectively. Healthy
tau plays a structural role in brain cells, but there is good evidence
that in Alzheimer's disease, it becomes festooned with atoms of
phosphorus and oxygen, like lights on a Christmas tree.

It is thought to be this that tips tau into tangles. Milton has
evidence that something similar happens to A=DF in plaques, and that
this, in turn, makes it toxic to brain cells. In research to be
published in the journal Neuroscience Letters, and which he will also
present at next month's neurobiology of aging conference in Florida, he
reports that cannabinoids - cannabis-like compounds that occur
naturally in the brain - can stop A=DF killing cells.

"My basic hypothesis," he says, "is that A=DF is taken up into neurons,
where it is phophorylated [garlanded, like tau, with phosphorus and
oxygen] and kills them. It's this toxic action that cannabinoids
prevent."

Milton discovered this by incubating human neurons in culture, and then
poisoning them with A=DF. When he added cannabinoids to the brew, A=DF was
apparently no longer toxic. Milton describes a complex "protective
signalling pathway inside neurons" that he thinks is activated by the
cannabinoids.

Other compounds with similar properties do exist, and one of particular
interest is corticotrophin releasing hormone (CRH). Like cannabinoids,
CRH is made within the brain and is reportedly reduced in people with
Alzheimer's disease. This is of particular interest to Milton because,
he says: "If it turns out that reduced CRH is fundamental to the
disease process, then the brain may be losing one of its innate
protective mechanisms. People with high natural levels of cannabinoids
in their brains might then be protected against Alzheimer's disease."
And the next question follows like, well, smoke after lighting up: Are
we set to see a generation, or indeed generations, of cannabis smokers
immune to Alzheimer's disease?

Milton says not, because his research shows not only the ability of
cannabinoids to protect against brain cell death in Alzheimer's
disease, but also that too much of them is toxic. Dr Richard Harvey,
director of research at the Alzheimer's Society, says: "There's no
epidemiological data on whether exposure to cannabis in humans affects
the risk of developing dementia, and it may be difficult to collect
such data." But Harvey calls Milton's research "very interesting",
adding that:  "Clearly in the test tube, cannabinoids have the ability
to block at least one of the probable causal mechanisms in Alzheimer's
disease and so become a potential treatment or preventative agent that
needs to be tested in humans."

Note: Sophie Petit-Zeman on the way cannabinoids could alleviate
symptoms of degenerative diseases.

Alzheimer's Society helpline: 0845 300 0336

Source: Guardian Unlimited, The (UK)
Author: Sophie Petit-Zeman
Published: Thursday, September 26, 2002
Copyright: 2002 Guardian Newspapers Limited
Contact: letters@guardian.co.uk
Website: http://www.guardian.co.uk/




=



**




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

------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 15:35:32 -0700
Subject:NY: Stop Blowing Smoke At America's 'Pot Problem' Up TOC

Newshawk: Libertarians 1 - Drug Warriors 0 - http://www.plylar.org
Pubdate: Thu, 26 Sep 2002
Source: Newsday (NY)
Copyright: 2002 Newsday Inc.
Contact: letters@newsday.com
Website: http://www.newsday.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/308
Author: Jonathan Zimmerman
Note: Jonathan Zimmerman is the author of "Whose America? Culture Wars in
the Public Schools" and also teaches history in the Steinhardt School of
Education at New York University.

STOP BLOWING SMOKE AT AMERICA'S 'POT PROBLEM'

Do The Mets Have A Drug Problem?

I don't know the answer to that question, and neither do you. But I do know
that our entire culture has a problem, and not just with drug use. We have
a problem discussing the whole subject with anything that resembles
intellectual honesty.

In short, we are liars.

Every single day, Americans tell their children that all illegal drug use
is dangerous and immoral. Parents tell it to them at home; teachers tell it
to them at school; advertisers tell it to them on television.

But that doesn't make it true. Nearly 80 million Americans have used
marijuana - 20 million of them during the past year. That makes pot our
third most popular recreational drug, trailing only alcohol and tobacco.

Granted, some marijuana smokers develop a health or social problem as a
result of their drug use. But all of them? Come on. Given how many of us
have smoked pot, it's simply absurd to assume that every drug user has a
drug problem.

That's why 12 states - including New York - have enacted some type of
marijuana decriminalization since 1973. In each of these states, users are
no longer imprisoned for possessing small amounts of pot. Oregon voters
recently upheld their marijuana decriminalization law by a 2-1 margin; this
fall, Nevadans will decide whether to increase their legal pot limit to
three ounces, or enough to roll about 100 joints.

Which brings us back to the Mets. Last week, Newsday reported that "at
least seven" members of the team had allegedly smoked marijuana this
season. Nobody knows how much any given player possessed; if it was less
than 25 grams, it wasn't enough to earn jail time in New York.
Nevertheless, one player allegedly had an accomplice smuggle pot into Shea
Stadium inside peanut butter jars, to evade drug-sniffing dogs.

First came the predictable jokes about "munchies," courtesy of late- night
television and shock-jock radio. Then came the equally predictable outrage.
Some fans quickly presumed that drug use had caused the Mets' awful
performance this year. Others said the ballplayers had set poor examples
for children, who must be shown that all drug use is - you guessed it -
dangerous and immoral.

Is it possible that pot smoking contributed to the Mets' dismal season?
Sure, it's possible. But it's highly unlikely. The three team members who
were named in the Newsday story were role players; one is no longer even on
the squad. Nobody has identified the other four players, but it's hard to
believe that they smoked enough dope to account for the Mets' woes.
Remember, we're talking about a team that went the entire month of August
without winning a single home game.

What about the other complaint - that the Mets forsook their role as "role
models" for our young? Without much evidence, this argument presumes that
kids mimic athletes' off-field antics as well as their on-field maneuvers.
Even more, though, it presumes that any pot smoker-regardless of occupation
- - is a reprehensible person.

Listen to Mets owner Fred Wilpon, who took care to emphasize that most of
his players did not smoke marijuana. "I know many of those guys in that
locker room," Wilpon said. "They are good citizens, they are good fathers,
they are good husbands . . . and they are not involved in any illegal kind
of things."

Translation: If you do smoke pot, you are not a good citizen. Or a good
father. Or a good husband.

Just ask the family of Darryl Kile. Remember Kile? Earlier this summer, the
Cardinals pitcher was found dead in a Chicago hotel room. An autopsy
confirmed that Kile died of coronary artery blockage. It also found traces
of - surprise! - marijuana.

That's right: marijuana. Smoked by an All-Star, who won more than 130 games
over the last decade. Smoked by a consummate family man, who bought a home
in suburban St. Louis so he could spend more time with his 5-year-old son
and infant twins.

After the Newsday story broke, the Mets' Wilpon says, his 8-year-old
grandson asked him about it. Wilpon told the boy "that his role models
should be people who live good, clean, lives."

Fair enough. But let's suppose that the kid had gone on to ask, "Like who,
Grandpa? Like Darryl Kile? Wasn't he a good man? And didn't he use drugs?"

Wilpon seems like a good man, too, and I think he would have told his
grandson the truth: Kile was a fine person and a marijuana smoker. So are
millions of other pot-smoking Americans. They go to work, pay their taxes
and raise their families. And sometimes they even become professional
baseball players.
__________________________________________________________________________
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------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 15:36:27 -0700
Subject:AZ: War Against Drugs Just Isn't Working Up TOC

Newshawk: Libertarians 1 - Drug Warriors 0 - http://www.plylar.org
Pubdate: Thu, 26 Sep 2002
Source: Arizona Republic (AZ)
Webpage: http://www.arizonarepublic.com/opinions/articles/0926pimentel26.html
Copyright: 2002 The Arizona Republic
Contact: opinions@arizonarepublic.com
Website: http://www.arizonarepublic.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Author: O. Ricardo Pimentel

WAR AGAINST DRUGS JUST ISN'T WORKING

What do the following items have in common?

* We have embarked on yet another attempt to eradicate the coca crop in
Colombia, a country beset by civil war.

* Law enforcement drew a direct link recently between terrorism and the
drug trade, moving beyond those ill-reasoned TV spots and arresting
suspects in the Midwest who were allegedly funneling proceeds to terrorist
groups.

* Proposition 203 on Arizona's ballot in November would decriminalize
possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use and set up a
system for the state to dispense and regulate the medicinal use of marijuana.

* Another initiative, Proposition 302, would allow the courts to jail,
despite a previous initiative that said we shouldn't, first- and
second-time offenders. This if they refuse to complete drug treatment.

The simplistic view is that drugs, of course, connect all these items. What
really connects them, however, is the black market in drugs.

It's what makes possible the obscene profits that fuel civil war in
Colombia and corruption all over the world. These profits are what made
drug trafficking alluring for terrorists who otherwise might claim
spiritual purity.

Without criminalization of drugs, there would be no black market, no
obsession with putting drug users away, hence no need for the two ballot
initiatives, one to decriminalize and the other to re- criminalize.

What we've done, lo these many years, is to say drugs are the problem, when
the real problem is the prohibition that jacks up prices so much that both
trafficking and corruption are inescapable.

We have made criminals of vast numbers of Americans whose biggest victims
are themselves. We have made millionaires of the people who supply them the
means. Our insane drug policy induces profits that create the rivalry that
produces violence in the streets.

The black market is the father of all these ills and criminalization of
drug use is the grandfather. We apparently learned nothing from Al Capone
and Prohibition.

This new plan to eradicate Colombia's coca crop comes on the heels of
another that failed. But even if this one succeeds, what's next? Defoliate
the world?

Meanwhile, the leftist guerrillas waging war against South America's oldest
democracy reportedly get their financial backing by giving security to the
drug lords. The right-wing paramilitary there also reportedly is in the
drug trade.

So we send military aid to Colombia when the best thing we could do for
that country is to take away the profits that fuel the war.

The Taliban and al-Qaida, before their U.S.-induced deterioration, had long
been trading opium and heroin for gold. Recently, the feds say, they broke
up a Midwestern drug operation that had proceeds going to terrorist groups
like Hezbollah.

But would any of this happen if the black market didn't make it so profitable?

Critics of the Arizona initiative to decriminalize small amounts of
marijuana will undoubtedly argue that this measure amounts to creeping
decriminalization for all drugs.

And they'd be right. This initiative's major flaw is that it doesn't gallop
us toward that goal.

Yes, decriminalizing drugs may increase usage in the short term, and there
are many problems attendant with that.

But our war on drugs has certainly not allowed us to escape any of those
pernicious effects, including criminal behavior so folks can secure these
forbidden fruits. Faithful readers may detect contradiction here. Recently,
I wrote about the need to enact laws that allow for a presumption of child
abuse for mothers who give birth to babies born with drugs in their systems.

No hypocrisy here. We punish the consequences of behavior in this country.
It's legal to drink, but drive drunk and get caught and the law comes into
play. If our history has proved anything, it is that enforcement has done
little to dampen usage and that drug treatment saves more lives than jails
in any case.

There's a slogan hanging in many an office that goes something like this:
If you keep doing the same things and keep getting the same bad results,
you need to do something different.

It's a motto tailor-made for our drug war.
__________________________________________________________________________
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------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 16:27:14 -0700
Subject:NV: One Puff At A Time Up TOC

Newshawk: Vote Yes on Question 9: www.nrle.org
Pubdate: Sun, 29 Sep 2002
Source: Economist, The (UK)
Copyright: 2002 The Economist Newspaper Limited
Contact: letters@economist.com
Website: http://www.economist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/132
Webpage:
http://www.economist.com/printedition/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=1358184
Author: Emily Bobrow
Cited: Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement ( www.nrle.org )
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/findUKP162 (Nevadans for Responsible Law
Enforcement)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/findUKP163 (Question 9 (NV))

Drug Wars

ONE PUFF AT A TIME

The States Are Loosening Drug Laws; Will Washington Follow?

PROHIBITION supposedly divided America, like Gaul, into three parts: wets,
drys and hypocrites. Cannabis is now doing the same. One in three adult
Americans admits to having tried the herb; most have survived, and some
have even gone on to become president. Yet the government still spends
billions of dollars trying to save them from it. In 2000, the last year for
which figures are available, 734,497 people were arrested on marijuana
charges, more than twice the number in 1991. Nine in ten of these
"criminals" were guilty of possession alone.

Several European countries have tired of this crusade. Will America follow?
The first puff of smoke comes from Nevada, where a chance to legalise
marijuana is on November's ballot. Even if Nevadans vote in favour of
Question Nine, they will need to do so again in 2004 for the initiative to
become law. Yet the aim is clear: to make pot as legal as beer.

Nevada has already moved a step or two in that direction. Two years ago,
voters widely approved a measure to legalise marijuana for medicinal
purposes. In 2001, the state legislature decriminalised possession of small
amounts of the drug. Under Question Nine, anybody older than 20 would be
allowed to possess up to three ounces of the stuff- enough for a nice
evening in (or at least that's what some guy we met somewhere told us once).

The details of the distribution system are still unclear: would there be
special shops and farms, or would anybody be allowed to grow and sell it?
But the state legislature would regulate dealers, tax sales of the weed and
even subsidise low-cost medical marijuana for some patients, such as AIDS
sufferers. The initiative sets out harsh penalties for smoking the drug in
public, selling it to children and driving under the influence. Anybody
caught selling the drug without a proper licence would be sent to prison.

Advocates argue that a regulated marijuana market would free policemen for
other work and give the government more control over the trade. Even the
Nevada Conference of Police and Sheriffs, weary of the thankless task of
pursuing pot-smokers, endorsed Question Nine at first- though it backed down
when its endorsement made headlines, and its president had to resign.

A recent opinion poll shows Nevada's voters rejecting Question Nine by 55%
to 40% (5% being unsure). It will probably be much closer than that. A
record 110,000 people signed a petition to put the idea on the ballot, with
18-25-year-olds (surprise!) showing particular enthusiasm. Billy Rogers,
campaign manager for the artfully named Nevadans for Responsible Law
Enforcement, which is pushing the initiative, is confident that Question
Nine will pass. This is despite the news that America's drugs tsar, John
Walters, will descend on Las Vegas on October 10th to speak out against it.
Although he will come armed with plenty of alarming statistics, the
pro-cannabites feel his visit will only help their cause. Nevadans do not
like federal bureaucrats telling them how to vote.

The state, which already allows legalised prostitution and gambling, may
seem an atypically libertarian sort of place. But 11 states have
decriminalised possession of small amounts of marijuana, and eight allow
use of the drug for medicinal reasons (California, Colorado, Maine, Nevada
and Oregon permit both). Recent national polls show 70% of Americans
supporting medicinal marijuana and 60% favouring decriminalising possession
of small amounts. A number of other ballot initiatives in November reflect
this shift. Voters in Arizona will decide whether to decriminalise small
amounts of marijuana; and in wide-open San Francisco, red-eyed voters may
decide whether the city itself should start growing cannabis.

The problem is how to reconcile these states' lenient laws with the
stringent federal ones. Last October, the Bush administration began a
wide-ranging crackdown on medicinal-marijuana distribution, tearing up
patient-run gardens and confiscating doctors' files in California. A group
of these doctors has successfully sued the government, though the case has
gone to appeal and could eventually reach the Supreme Court. In Santa Cruz
on September 17th, medical marijuana was handed out at City Hall in a
protest against a federal raid on a cannabis collective. A States' Right to
Medical Marijuana Act has attracted 36 co-sponsors in Congress, but seems
unlikely to get anywhere this year.

Money may eventually help politicians to change their minds. It costs $1.2
billion a year to keep 60,000 people in prison for marijuana offences. The
cost in police time is stunning, too: California is said to have saved
$100m a year in enforcement costs by relaxing its laws. By letting Nevada
tax the drug, Question Nine would turn the wicked weed into a nice little
earner.
__________________________________________________________________________
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------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 16:28:42 -0700
Subject: WA: On A Mission For Dope: Helicopter Crews Get Training In

Newshawk: Libertarians 1 - Drug Warriors 0 - http://www.plylar.org
Pubdate: Wed, 25 Sep 2002
Source: Columbian, The (WA)
Copyright: 2002 The Columbian Publishing Co.
Contact: letters@columbian.com
Website: http://www.columbian.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/92
Author: Thomas Ryll

ON A MISSION FOR DOPE: HELICOPTER CREWS GET TRAINING IN ANTIDRUG FLIGHTS

Five times now, Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Alan Proctor has volunteered for
duty flying in helicopters looking for marijuana.

That would be four times in the Pacific Northwest and once in the
Caribbean. And the latter, Proctor is quick to point out, is not
particularly cushy duty.

"The people don't like having us there," said Proctor. "Here they have a
few plants on a hillside. There they have entire plantations. Here you have
to go looking for the plants. There, all you have to do is look down. The
first time I went on a flight I was thinking, 'What are they doing with all
these Christmas trees?'''

For several weeks, Proctor and 53 colleagues from a Marine Corps helicopter
squadron based in Camp Pendleton, Calif., have been hauling law officers as
they look for the "Christmas trees" that are grown to be smoked, not
decorated. Last week, authorities destroyed a 6,000- plant Klickitat County
pot plot that had been spotted earlier with the help of the Marine Corps unit.

Flights winding down

That operation was on state Department of Natural Resources land. Flights
have been conducted over the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area and
Gifford Pinchot and Mount Hood national forests and are winding down. The
Klickitat project was the only marijuana operation spotted on this side of
the Columbia.

Tuesday, officials orchestrated a media event at the Portland Air Base,
trundling out Marine Corps personnel against a backdrop of four
1970s-vintage UH-1N Huey and AH-1W Cobra helicopters used in the recent
flights.

Christine Lynch, a Gifford Pinchot law officer, said it has been years
since military antidrug flights have been made over the forest. Officials
asked for help six months ago.

"What we're trying to do is make a dent in the production," she said. "But
we have limited resources, and the fire season occurs at the same time as
the peak (marijuana) growing season."

While it is not possible to know how much pot is being cultivated on or
near the forest, Lynch said it appears that enforcement efforts have at
least reduced the size of illegal operations.

"In the past we would see huge tracts, and now they are much smaller," she
said.

The missions are part of Joint Task Force Six, formed at Fort Bliss, Texas,
under the order of then-Gen. Colin Powell in 1989.

Not all requests filled

Task force spokesman Armando Carrasco said all flights are at the request
of law enforcement agencies, and that only half the requests can be filled.

Military personnel are too busy flying the helicopters to do any pot
spotting. That work is left to law officers who go along on every flight.

"We're just a platform," said mission commander Maj. Rob Russell, a
reservist who flies a Saab passenger plane out of Los Angeles International
Airport when he's not on Marine Corps duty.

Cruising the national forest hillsides during a typical two-hour mission
provides mountain terrain training that could be useful in combat
situations, said Russell. With that, "we both get what we need flying the
aircraft."

Given the age of the machines, some of which date to the Vietnam War era,
task force missions can be first-rate training for maintenance workers as
well. "I'm only two years older than the airplane," said Proctor, 31.
__________________________________________________________________________
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------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 16:29:34 -0700
Subject: AZ: 203 Would Mandate Fines For Pot Smokers

Newshawk: Libertarians 1 - Drug Warriors 0 - http://www.plylar.org
Pubdate: Wed, 25 Sep 2002
Source: Tucson Citizen (AZ)
Webpage: http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/local/elect02/9_25_02pot.html
Copyright: 2002 Tucson Citizen
Contact: letters@tucsoncitizen.com
Website: http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/461
Author: Eric Weslander

203 WOULD MANDATE FINES FOR POT SMOKERS

The initiative will save state millions by keeping harmless users out of
jail, proponents say; foes say passage will let drug abuse flourish

Marijuana smokers in Arizona risk criminal charges, but that could change
in November.

Proposition 203 asks voters to decide whether possessing small amounts of
pot should be reduced to a civil offense similar to a traffic ticket.

The initiative also would make it harder for a court to send someone to
prison for using any controlled substance, and it includes a controversial
plan for state police to distribute free marijuana to sick people.

A competing initiative, Proposition 302, would toughen penalties for
convicted drug users who refuse treatment.

Despite the many facets of Proposition 203, the image of cops handing
baggies of pot to patients is grabbing the most attention.

"Free Pot? Dumb Idea," read campaign signs hung around Tucson by the bill's
opponents.

Police vow they won't take part in any such program, even if 203 passes.

Supporters say police are missing the big picture.

"This is a referendum on the war on drugs," said Sam Vagenas, a former
deputy secretary of state and a spokesman for Proposition 203 supporters.
"Drug use has actually gone up since we started the drug war."

Proposition 203 is partly the result of unfinished business between the
state's law-enforcement establishment and a handful of wealthy reformers
from around the country.

Like a successful 1996 marijuana initiative, this initiative is being
generously bankrolled by three people: Phoenix entrepreneur John Sperling,
New York financier George Soros and Cleveland businessman Peter Lewis.

The trio have donated a combined $840,000 to a campaign committee known as
"The People Have Spoken."

They claim their law will help sick people and save Arizona millions of
dollars by keeping harmless drug users out of jail.

Opponents such as Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley argue that passage
of the law would cause drug abuse to flourish.

"Their objective is to incrementally move toward legalization of drugs,"
Romley said. "What does this tell our children?"

In 1996, two-thirds of Arizona voters passed Proposition 200, which
approved medical marijuana with a doctor's prescription and made many
low-level drug users eligible for probation instead of jail.

Voters later shot down two efforts by the Legislature that would have
repealed parts of the 1996 law.

Even so, those votes didn't achieve the desired results for Soros and
company. The federal government threatened to punish any Arizona doctor who
prescribed marijuana, and prosecutors invoked drug- paraphernalia laws to
put drug users in jail, Vagenas said.

If Proposition 203 passes, Arizona will join four other states - Maine,
Nebraska, New York and Ohio - in making pot possession a civil offense.

Under the proposed law, someone caught with less than two ounces of pot for
personal use would be subject to a $250 fine. Possession of paraphernalia -
such as pipes and rolling papers - and two or fewer marijuana plants also
would become a civil offense. After two offenses, the fine would go up to $750.

The state couldn't seize a drug offender's property unless the person was
convicted and the property was directly linked to the crime. Mandatory
minimum sentences for drug offenses would vanish, but the maximum sentence
for drug-related violent crimes would increase 50 percent.

A person caught with small amounts of any controlled substance - whether
it's heroin, cocaine or Ecstasy - or its paraphernalia would receive
probation for a first and second offense, as long as the drug wasn't for sale.

Under the proposition, drug users wouldn't face jail time unless they were
convicted of possession three times and each time violated probation by
refusing drug treatment.

Proposition 302, the competing bill supported by Romley and others, would
allow courts to put first-time offenders in jail if they refused treatment.

Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws Foundation, said Soros, Sperling and Lewis are
"taking another bite at the apple."

"They see the polling. They see the focus groups. I think they just tried
to tighten this up as much as they can and not leave any doubt," he said.

Some legalization advocates, however, doubt whether votes will go for
Proposition 203, because they see the "free pot" plan as a ham-handed scheme.

"If I was working for the enemy and wanted to draft some kind of
legalization plan that would be the worst kind, that's what I would draft,"
said Tucsonan Joe Duarte, a Libertarian candidate for Congress in Arizona's
8th District.

"They'd get a lot more votes if they just said, 'Arizona's going to
legalize marijuana. Go home.'"

Proposition 203 dictates that when cops are done with using confiscated pot
for evidence, they must package it and store it in secure public buildings
in Pima, Maricopa and Pinal counties.

People who could prove they had a doctor's recommendation - not a
prescription - could then flash a medical-registry card and receive up to
two ounces of free marijuana per month.

Fat chance, says Frank Valenzuela, a spokesman for the Department of Public
Safety.

He said that even if his agency had enough money to set up cannabis kiosks,
it wouldn't, because federal law prohibits it.

Valenzuela also pointed out that the law doesn't explicitly require police
to test the marijuana for impurities before it is given away.

"The stuff we collect is collected under the crudest circumstances," he
said. "It's usually stashed in pickup trucks. It's stashed in hidden
compartments in the back of semi trucks. It's stashed in homes that people
would never enter for health reasons."

Vagenas argues that there's a precedent. In the 1980s, law-enforcement
agencies gave confiscated marijuana to research institutions, which
distributed the pot to patients for clinical trials, he said.

Vagenas also said that there's no better agency to distribute marijuana
than the police, and that police would test pot for impurities before
giving it away.

Law officers are having a field day with the free-pot plan. At a recent
news conference in Tucson, County Attorney Barbara LaWall dumped 200 fake
marijuana cigarettes on the floor and warned that police could soon become
the biggest drug dealers in the state.

Romley admitted there would be some benefits if the law passed, but not
enough to outweigh its dangers.

"You won't have the problems with dealers. That one I'll give you," he
said. "You need to start looking at the bigger picture. Their argument is
that if you legalize drugs, that somehow we're going to have less drug
abuse. That's an intellectual non sequitur."

PROPOSITIONS 203, 302: A CLOSER LOOK:

Proposition 203

Decriminalizes possession of two ounces or less of marijuana for personal use.

Prohibits courts from sending low-level drug offenders to jail unless
they're convicted three times and each time refuse drug education or treatment.

Requires the Department of Public Safety to distribute confiscated
marijuana free to patients who can prove they have a doctor's
recommendation. If the amount of confiscated marijuana isn't enough, the
state is required to request quarterly shipments of marijuana grown for the
federal government at the University of Mississippi and to ensure the safe
shipment of the marijuana to Arizona.

Increases by 50 percent the maximum sentence for people who commit violent
crimes under the influence of illegal drugs.

Prohibits courts from seizing drug offenders' assets unless the person is
convicted and the assets can be linked directly to the crime. The law
doesn't hamper temporary seizure of criminal evidence.

Requires drug offenders currently in jail for personal possession to be
paroled or placed on community supervision, unless they've previously been
convicted of a violent crime or are in jail for other offenses.

Supporters: Most of the money for Proposition 203 is coming from a trio of
wealthy businessmen - John Sperling, George Soros and Peter Lewis. Other
supporters include former Arizona Attorney General Grant Woods, independent
gubernatorial candidate Dick Mahoney, and Phoenix resident John Norton, a
former deputy U.S. secretary of Agriculture.

Opponents: Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik and County Attorney Barbara
LaWall, Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley, Tucson auto dealer Jim Click.

Proposition 302

Allows courts to put first-time drug-possession offenders in jail if they
refuse court-ordered treatment. The law applies to all controlled
substances, not just marijuana.

Supporters: Romley, Phoenix Mayor Skip Rimsza, Viad Corp. (Phoenix- based
business-services firm), Arizona County Attorney and Sheriff's Association.

Opponents: Sperling, Soros, Lewis, Woods, Mahoney, Norton.

Medical marijuana benefits

Supporters of medical marijuana say the drug can help relieve all of the
following ailments:

Nerve damage pain

Nausea

Spasticity

Glaucoma

Movement disorders

Loss of appetite associated with AIDS or dementia

Legalization opponents such as Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley say
that the risks of smoking marijuana outweigh potential benefits.

"We know pot gives you the munchies. Yes, I have sympathy for that. You eat
a little better, but you die a little faster," he 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------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 16:31:21 -0700
Subject: CA: Smoke And Mirrors

Newshawk: The War on Drugs IS Terrorism
Pubdate: Wed, 25 Sep 2002
Source: Metro Santa Cruz (CA)
Contact: msc@metcruz.com
Copyright: 2002, Metro Publishing Inc.
Website: http://www.metroactive.com/cruz/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2346
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

SMOKE AND MIRRORS

Medical Mary Jane has legs, long distracting legs, especially when the only
other news story is Dubya trying to get his war on Saddam. Or is medical
marijuana really the big story we should be tracking, yet another example of
the struggle that states and individuals face in fighting the =FCberfeds, a
fight Bush would rather we forget (along with the energy crisis) as we watch
him play at being a God of War?

These questions were on N=FCz's mind as every media outlet in the known
universe converged on Santa Cruz last week to witness the green stuff being
given away outside City Hall to members of WAMM, whose medical marijuana
crop was destroyed by chain saw-wielding DEA agents Sept. 5.

The giveaway even made it onto the Tonight Show, where host Jay Leno showed
actual footage of Santa Clara University law professor Gerald Uelman
praising WAMM for "grassroots activism." But then Leno went off on the
predictable jokes-about-dope path, injecting fabricated footage of people
toking up, then raiding supermarket aisles for junk food. (Not exactly the
point WAMM founder Valerie Corral was hoping to make on national TV, but
maybe Jay can make it up by inviting her on as a special guest?)

Also spotted in the actual footage was local resident and constitutional law
professor Paul Sanford, who is on the legal team that Uelman has put
together to defend Corral and her husband Michael, who could be indicted and
their property seized any time in the next five years, according to existing
federal law.

"Their case could be a turning point in the federal-state power balance,"
said Sanford. "This country started out having a very small central
government, with the states having all the power, but that shifted radically
after the Depression, so that now we have the exact reverse of what the
founders contemplated."

Sanford says that since the 1930s the federal government has exploited what
he calls "the interstate commerce clause" whenever it wants to override
state law. But according to Sanford, the U.S. Supreme Court has recently
questioned this policy and suggested that the 10th Amendment (which says
that powers not regulated to the United States by the Constitution, nor
prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or
to the people) actually does mean something.

"The question is, what power gives the feds the right to deny marijuana to
people who've been legally prescribed it and who are getting it in an
exchange within one county where no money is involved?" says Sanford. "In
100 years, this could be seen as one of the defining cases that started
giving people their rights back from the behemoth of central government
which our founders so feared and is why they cut away from the king in the
first place."
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk

CRRH is working to regulate and tax the sale of cannabis to adults like=20
alcohol, allow doctors to recommend cannabis through pharmacies and restore=
=20
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/

------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 16:38:01 -0700
Subject: CA: In Santa Cruz, DEA Agents Bust Medicinal Pot Users

Newshawk: The War on Drugs IS Terrorism
Pubdate: Wed, 25 Sep 2002
Source: Santa Monica Mirror (CA)
Contact: Mirror200@aol.com
Copyright: 2002 Santa Monica Mirror
Website: http://www.smmirror.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/970
Author: Tony Peyser
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Note: This rhyme appeared as "The Last Word" column.

IN SANTA CRUZ, DEA AGENTS BUST MEDICINAL POT USERS

Shouldn't the government

Go after terrorists

With evil plans to hatch?

- ----

Yeah =85 but sick people

In wheelchairs are

Much easier to catch.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk

CRRH is working to regulate and tax the sale of cannabis to adults like=20
alcohol, allow doctors to recommend cannabis through pharmacies and restore=
=20
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/

------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 20:50:47 -0700
Subject: CA: Sister Somayah RAIDED/SNATCHED

Dear Friends,

I just received a call from Sister Somayah Kambui's
neighbor.  At sundown, a number of unmarked vehicles
descended on Somayayh's home, cut down her plants,
and arrested her and her brother.  She only had time
to shout my phone number to her neighbor.  The neighbor
did not recognize the officers as LAPD.  She did say
that several looked like local bicycle cops, but
Somaya was taken away in an unamrked car by unmarked
persons.  We are trying to find out now, who has her
and where she has been taken.

Given her recent Proposition 215 acquittal, it is
likely that the feds have her.

Scott Imler



------------------------------
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2002 20:56:41 -0700
Subject: Canada: To Toke Or Not To Toke?

Newshawk: Join CMAP (http://www.mapinc.org/cmap/lists.htm)
Pubdate: Thu, 26 Sep 2002
Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Webpage: http://www.mapinc.org/cancom/6D951E1F-A68D-47B7-BB84-79E06036E09C
Copyright: 2002 Calgary Herald
Contact: letters@theherald.southam.ca
Website: http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/66

TO TOKE OR NOT TO TOKE?

What Smoking Pot Does To The Body

Herald News Services; Edmonton Journal, Ottawa Citizen, Los Angeles Times,
The Washington Post

Scientists from as far away as Britain and Japan attended a conference in
Banff this year hosted by the Canadian College of Neuropsychopharmacology,
an umbrella organization of researchers who study the impact of drugs --
recreational and medical -- on the brain.

The sessions attracted a few of the world's leading psychopharmacologists,
whose research reveals that some of our attitudes towards mood-altering
substances are not only hypocritical, but absurd.

Marijuana, characterized for decades as a wicked corrupter of youth, is now
known to have tremendous potential to treat pain and illness, and is far
less harmful than such longtime legal drugs as alcohol or tobacco.

"Cannabis is essentially a good drug with a bad reputation," said Dr. Peter
Silverstone, a psychopharmacologist and clinical psychiatrist from Edmonton
who helped organize the Banff conference.

While polls reveal Canadians are split on the question of legalizing
marijuana -- about 47 per cent for and against -- the pro side has gone up
from about 30 per cent in the mid-1970s and the mid-1990s.

The Canadian Police Association, however, describes marijuana as a
dangerous "gateway" drug that entices people to use harder drugs such as
cocaine. But, if you ever wanted to find a medically beneficial, mood-

enhancing, mostly benign substance, marijuana is your drug.

"THC is probably one of the safest compounds on Earth," said Daniele
Piomelli, a psychopharmacologist from the University of California at Irvine.

It was only in the last decade -- 1992 to be exact -- that scientists were
able to definitively locate the systems in the brain affected by cannabis.
It's now known that naturally occurring chemicals, known as
endocannabinoids, trigger pleasure centres in the brain, in much the same
way dopamine does.

But cannabis is far less toxic on the physical structure of brain and
doesn't have the addictive properties of other drugs. "Cannabis . . .
doesn't have that command over your personality that nicotine, cocaine or
alcohol have," said Piomelli.

"The effects of THC and alcohol are completely different," said Piomelli.
"Alcohol is way more toxic than cannabis -- it is devastating to your liver
and devastating to your brain."

Then there is the medical potential of marijuana. The two cannabis
researchers say marijuana has proven effective in regulating pain -- better
than morphine in many respects -- boosting appetite, controlling nausea,
even reducing tremors in sufferers of multiple sclerosis. There is also
evidence cannabis derivatives have anti-stroke, "neuroprotective" properties.

Smoking marijuana several times a week leaves a lasting effect on a healthy
person's immune system, a new study from Florida says. But this may
actually boost opportunities for the medical use of marijuana.

The effect of marijuana smoking suppresses the immune system by altering
the molecules on the outside of some of our cells, and suppresses
inflammation at the same time.

This could be a useful tool in combatting diseases where the immune system
runs out of control and causes painful, and sometimes dangerous,
inflammation in our bodies, say scientists at the University of South
Florida and the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Arthritis is the most common form of inflammation caused by a misdirected
immune system. By attacking our healthy tissue, it causes inflamed and sore
joints.

Now Thomas Klein, a professor of medical microbiology and immunology at
South Florida, says marijuana may do a similar job.

His study of 10 healthy marijuana smokers, all of whom smoked at least
several times a week, and 46 non-drug users found molecules called
marijuana receptors were more numerous on marijuana smokers' white blood
cells, part of their immune system.

The findings were reported recently in the Journal of Neuroimmunology.

Marijuana's influence on the immune system has been hotly debated. While
there's a lack of information on humans, Klein says animal studies show
that marijuana and its psychoactive compounds, known as cannabinoids,
suppress immune function and inflammation.

"This suggests marijuana or cannabinoids might benefit someone with chronic
inflammatory disease, but not someone who has a chronic infectious disease
such as HIV infection," he said.

If that's true, "this property might be harnessed to treat patients with
overly aggressive immune responses or inflammatory diseases like multiple
sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

"The bottom line is you cannot routinely smoke marijuana without it
affecting your immune system," he said.

For a long time, nobody knew what delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC -- the
active ingredient in pot) was doing in the brain because there didn't seem
to be a receptor for it. Only in the last 10 years did scientists finally
find the receptor and isolate a naturally occurring brain chemical called
anandamide that binds to it, notes the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)

THC also binds to the anandamide receptor and suppresses activity in the
hippocampus, an area of the brain pivotal for learning, memory and
emotions. Studies show that learned behaviours deteriorate with marijuana
use. That translates to problems with attention, memory and learning -- all
of which are impaired among college students who use marijuana heavily,
even after they have stopped using the drug for 24 hours.

On average, it takes at least 30 hours for the body to clear even half of
the THC from a single use.

Those who begin using marijuana before college show lower achievement and
are more likely to engage in more delinquent behaviour and aggressiveness
than non-users.

There also are lots of anandamide receptors in the basal ganglia and
cerebellum, both of which are involved in movement control, and in the
cerebral cortex, where the "high" probably is generated.

Other physical effects:

* In the lungs, marijuana produces many of the same health effects as
tobacco smoke -- daily coughs, phlegm, chronic bronchitis and increased
susceptibility to chest colds. Long-term marijuana use damages lungs.

* Since marijuana smokers inhale deeply and hold the smoke in their lungs
for long periods of time, they also appear to be exposed to three to five
times the levels of carbon monoxide as tobacco smokers. Marijuana increases
heart rate and raises blood pressure.

* Like nearly all drugs, marijuana doesn't mix with pregnancy. Use of
marijuana by expectant mothers raises the risk of delivering a baby who has
a low birth weight and is at increased risk for various health problems.

* Nursing mothers who smoke marijuana pass THC to their babies through
breast milk and risk damaging their infant's motor development. Children
who breathe passive marijuana smoke display more temper tantrums, thumb
sucking and anger than youngsters not exposed.

Current and past smokers of marijuana are at increased risk of developing
cancer of the head and neck, including tumours of the mouth, throat and
larynx, a study found last year.

The study, the first to link marijuana with such cancers, suggests that the
drug's popularity in recent decades could have serious long-term health
consequences for some users.

Marijuana smoke is higher in tar and carcinogens than tobacco smoke, and
previous research has shown that marijuana smokers, like cigarette smokers,
can develop precancerous changes in cells lining the respiratory tract.

Researchers said they therefore were not surprised at the news that smoking
marijuana predisposes users to head and neck cancers, and they predicted it
will likely be found to increase the risk of lung cancer as well.

"It's what I expected to see," said Li Mao, an associate professor of
medicine at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. "It appears marijuana
(smoke) is a stronger carcinogen than cigarette smoke."

Nevertheless, the independent effect of cigarette smoking on an
individual's cancer risk is probably greater than that of smoking
marijuana, noted Eugenia Calle of the American Cancer Society, "because
people just smoke so many more cigarettes."

Many doctors believe marijuana can be helpful in the treatment of people
with cancer and AIDS. Starting in the 1970s, studies have shown that oral
doses of marijuana's major active ingredient, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol,
or THC, alleviates the nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy. The
drug, also called dronabinol or Marinol, was approved by the Food and Drug
Administration in the U.S. for this purpose in 1985.

A 1988 study by Cornell University researchers found that smoking marijuana
was even more effective than the oral medicine. It relieved nausea in 44 of
56 patients who hadn't responded to other anti-nausea treatments, including
some who had failed to respond to oral THC.

Marijuana's ability to stimulate appetite is also well established. The FDA
approved oral THC for the treatment of AIDS-related anorexia and weight
loss in 1992, based on evidence from a study involving 139 AIDS patients
who were randomly assigned to receive either THC or a placebo.

Appetite increased significantly in the THC-treated patients. Side effects
such as dizziness, sleepiness, confusion or feeling "high" occurred
initially in 18 per cent of the THC-treated group, but they decreased when
the dose was lowered or the medicine was taken late in the day.

Despite the drug's popularity among AIDS patients, some experts are worried
about research that suggests that marijuana suppresses the immune system,
and about the bacteria, fungal spores and lung-damaging chemicals present
in marijuana smoke.

Donald P. Tashkin, a professor of medicine at the University of California,
Los Angeles, said some studies have linked marijuana use with opportunistic
lung infections and with more-rapid progression of HIV infection.

"The downside is that (smoking marijuana) might increase the risk of
developing pneumonia," he said.

Marijuana smoke contains some 420 chemicals, including twice as many
carcinogens as a tobacco cigarette of the same weight. Heavy marijuana
smokers frequently suffer from bronchitis, and they may eventually be found
to have an increased risk of emphysema or lung cancer.
__________________________________________________________________________
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------------------------------
End of Restore-Digest V2002 #203
********************************