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Oregon Marijuana Ballot Measure Learns From The California Experience
('The Associated Press' Suggests The Proposed Oregon Medical Marijuana Act,
Which Would Benefit About 500 People, Is Superior To The California
Compassionate Use Act Of 1996, Approved By 56 Percent Of Voters,
Because The OMMA Would Arbitrarily Limit Physicians From Recommending
Cannabis For Many Life-Threatening Illnesses, Would Arbitrarily Limit
The Amount Of Medicine A Patient Could Possess Or Grow, And Would Require
Patients To Register With The State, Like Jews In Nazi Germany)
Date: Mon, 03 Aug 1998 19:23:19 -0500
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US OR: Oregon Marijuana Ballot
Measure Learns From The California Experience
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
Source: Wire, The Associated Press
Pubdate: Fri, 31 Jul 1998
Author: AMALIE YOUNG The Associated Press
OREGON MARIJUANA BALLOT MEASURE LEARNS FOR THE CALIFORNIA EXPERIENCE
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The spasms in her back and legs begin at night.
Half asleep, her twisting, jerking limbs rock her awake. There is
little Jeanelle Bluhm can do -- legally -- to relax the grip of
multiple sclerosis.
So every night, Bluhm draws her curtains, props herself up in a chair
and fires up a pipeful of the only thing that gives her relief -- marijuana.
"I don't care what has been proven," she said. "I only know what works
for me."
Bluhm, a 46-year-old former nurse who gets around her house in a
motorized scooter, helped gather signatures for a ballot initiative
that would legalize marijuana in Oregon for medical uses.
Opponents say illnesses will only become a ruse to allow the
widespread smoking of pot. They point to California's two-year medical
marijuana experience, where cannabis buyers clubs have sprouted up and
local ordinances allow patients under marijuana therapy to keep up to
1 1/2 pounds of pot.
But backers say they have learned their lessons from California, and
have drawn Oregon's measure to tightly control the amounts of
prescribed pot and ensure that it only goes to those who truly need
it.
"It's absurd that doctors can't prescribe this centuries-old
medication when they can legally prescribe morphine or cocaine," said
Rick Bayer, a Portland physician and chief petitioner who worked to
qualify the initiative for the November ballot.
Under Oregon's proposal, marijuana would only be allowed to treat a
limited number of illnesses, such as multiple sclerosis, cancer, AIDS
and glaucoma.
A letter of permission from a doctor would allow a patient to get an
identification card issued by the state Health Division. With the
card, a patient would have the right to carry up to an ounce of
marijuana and grow as many as three marijuana plants to maturity.
If the initiative is passed, Bayer estimates that about 500 people
would apply for an ID card in the first year.
A group called Oregonians Against Dangerous Drugs is putting up a
fight, arguing that the state is not equipped to deal with the
bureaucracy the law would create.
"It will make the policing of these marijuana laws extremely
difficult," said the head of the group, Multnomah County Sheriff Dan
Noelle. He warns voters to be wary of any initiative that is part of a
national effort by "people who have spent a lot of money trying to
legalize marijuana."
The measure is unusual in that it is being financed from entirely
outside the state. It is sponsored by the California-based Americans
for Medical Rights, which has the backing of billionaire
philanthropist George Soros of New York, insurance mogul Peter Lewis
of Cleveland, and John Sperling, founder and president of the
University of Phoenix.
The three men worked to persuade Californians to approve marijuana for
medical purposes two years ago. Arizona voters also approved a similar
measure in 1996, but it was blocked by the state's
legislature.
Oregon, Alaska, Colorado and Washington state are all considering
medical marijuana laws this year.
Dave Fratello, spokesman for Americans for Medical Rights, said
California's measure was written "more as a statement of principle
than a law," that included nothing about how marijuana would be
supplied. "We decided to write the laws more carefully in Oregon."
For Bluhm, who smokes marijuana twice a day -- once in the morning and
once at night -- the law would allow her to grow her own weed and give
her the peace of mind that it is pure and safe.
"The most frustrating thing I have had to deal with is the
bureaucracy," Bluhm said. "Why can't they be a little easier on the
disabled?"
Craig Helm, who also suffers from multiple sclerosis, was convicted of
two counts of felony possession and manufacture of marijuana in May,
after police raided his home and found eight marijuana plants.
Marijuana, he said, is the best way to calm the violent and painful
muscle spasms in his legs.
"I can't take another pill to make it stop -- that's when I smoke
marijuana," Helm said from his wheelchair.
Helm is on probation, but although he is under minimal supervision, he
still smokes marijuana.
"There are so many serious things going on," he said. "Are cops proud
of busting people like me?"
Copyright 1997 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Joe Camel Turns Up In Portland Nightclubs ('The Oregonian' Is Shocked,
Shocked To Learn That Some Portland Nightclubs Are Accepting Advertising
Money From Tobacco Companies - Just As The Newspaper Itself Did For About
A Hundred Years, Until Recently - But Fails To See Any Double Standard
In Its Own Endorsement Of Similar Events And Promotions
For Alcohol Manufacturers)
The Oregonian
letters to editor:
letters@news.oregonian.com
1320 SW Broadway
Portland, OR 97201
Web: http://www.oregonlive.com/
Joe Camel turns up in Portland nightclubs
* R.J. Reynolds and other cigarette companies are promoting smoking in a
number of local nightspots
Friday, July 31 1998
By Crystal Carreon of The Oregonian staff
Cigarette smoke thickens the night air as a young crowd spills onto the
sidewalk outside Fellini, a bar in Northwest Portland. Next door, the
Satyricon nightclub regulars wait for the heavy-rock band Morbid Angel to play.
Ingrid Ohlson, who books bands at Satyricon, waves her Camel cigarette like
a wand. "We try to appeal to everyone," she said -- 20 and 30-years olds,
"yuppies who come here after work to people covered in tattoos like me --
everyone is here."
Tobacco companies are here, too. Although cigarette smoke in bars and clubs
is nothing new, what's new for cities such as Portland are contracts between
tobacco companies and clubs for brand-name sponsorship. Forced into a corner
by advertising restrictions and accusations of targeting underage youths,
the tobacco industry appears to have found a creative way to appeal to a
slightly older crowd.
Fellini and Satyricon are "Camel clubs" -- among about 1,000 such nightspots
across the nation to sell and promote Camel cigarettes exclusively to their
clientele.
R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., maker of Camel, was the first to use this
marketing strategy. Beginning in 1994, R.J. Reynolds signed contracts with
popular nightspots in Dallas, Chicago, New York City and Los Angeles.
Now the network has expanded to include smaller cities such as Portland.
Philip Morris Inc. has joined the trend with sponsored music events at its
"Marlboro bars," places such as the Caribou Bar & Grill on West Burnside,
East Bank Saloon and Restaurant in Southeast Portland and Space Room, also
in Southeast Portland.
At Fellini, the Camel logo appears on everything from ashtrays, napkins and
coasters to glasses and posters. By contract, the cigarettes sold on site
are Camels, sometimes offered free by tobacco company representatives, often
hired from the club scene.
"Once in awhile, we'll have an event and (the tobacco company) will do
anything. They will make T-shirts, they'll call around for sponsors, they'll
design and pay for our ads -- whatever we need. They will help us throw a
party," Ohlson said. "We would not have been as successful without their help."
George Touhouliotis , who owns both Fellini and Satyricon, signed the Camel
contract last year.
Touhouliotis said he recognizes the dangers of cigarette smoke. He quit
smoking 15 years ago out of concern for his health. But he also recognizes
that corporate dollars can help small, locally owned establishments.
"It's not like I sold my soul to the cigarette companies," he said. "It's
business."
At least five other Portland-area clubs and bars have signed contracts with
R.J. Reynolds, including the Gypsy Supper Club and Lounge in Northwest
Portland, La Luna in Southeast Portland and E.J.'s in Northeast Portland.
From trendy downtown nightspots to alternative clubs, tobacco companies are
there.
"We want to be in an environment where we are able to interact with adults.
We have a presence in age-restricted (over 21) venues, and we hope to
reinforce brand loyalty or convert adult smokers to our brand," said Carole
Crosslin , spokeswoman for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. in North Carolina. She
declined to say how much money the tobacco company spends to promote its
product in bars and clubs.
Although Camel clubs sell R.J. Reynolds cigarettes exclusively, people who
frequent these places are free to choose what to smoke, if they want to
smoke at all.
However, sometimes R.J. Reynolds representatives give away packs of
cigarettes or encourage smokers to swap their current brand for a pack of
Camels at shows sponsored by the tobacco company, Crosslin said.
Prizes awarded
Philip Morris has a policy against offering free cigarettes at its sponsored
events but sometimes awards sweepstakes prizes, such as vacations at a
"Marlboro ranch" in Montana or Arizona, as part of its promotions.
Scott Ballo worries about this new tobacco trend.
"(Tobacco companies) have the best market researchers. Their advertising
campaigns are sleek, sexy and cool. It's smart advertising for something
that's not only dumb, but deadly," he said. Ballo is an account manager at
Pac/West Communications, a public relations firm hired by the Oregon Health
Division to help develop a $2 million campaign to warn about the dangers of
tobacco use.
Ballo said tobacco companies are using a form of "social marketing" to hook
the people who frequent night spots. By placing brand cigarettes in places
where people go for fun, smoking becomes associated with having a good time.
"It may look glamorous now, but the consequences are severe," he said.
In Oregon, 27.4 percent of the adult population smokes cigarettes regularly,
according to a 1996 Oregon Health Division survey. And Oregon taxpayers pay
at least $116 million annually in smoking-related illnesses, loss of
productivity and other tobacco-related health costs. Both firsthand and
secondhand smoke exact a health toll, Ballo said.
About 80 percent of smokers start in high school and develop brand-name
preferences before the age of 18, according to the national Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. About 98 percent of smokers begin the habit
before the age of 25, so the young-adult population remains attractive to
the tobacco industry.
"When it comes to smoking, I believe in everybody's right to go and kill
themselves as soon as possible," said Jason Angelfell, a Fellini regular who
plays in a band. Angelfell opposes any form of corporate sponsorship. He
said tobacco company dollars are killing the authenticity of alternative
culture.
Others disagree.
"I don't think these ads and contracts make too much of a difference," said
Nick Mondrut, a customer at Gypsy. "Everybody who comes here smokes anyway,
and they smoke what they want to smoke."
But he acknowledged the marketing could be influential. "If you see Camel
everywhere, it could be subliminal. It could sway your opinion about the
cigarette."
Still, smoking is a matter of choice, Satyricon's Ohlson said.
"I'd say that 99 percent of people who smoke cigarettes have smoked before
Camel took over the bar scene," she said. "We all know it's bad for us. It
really is our choice. It doesn't start with Camel and it doesn't end with
Camel."
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Female Inmates To Be Sent Out Of State ('The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'
Says Wisconsin Soon And For The First Time Will Send 120 Female Inmates
To A Prison Out Of State, In Virginia, To Ease Severe Crowding,
Under A Contract Approved Thursday By A Legislative Committee
That Will Cost $58.30 Per Inmate Per Day)
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 02:08:25 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US WI: Female Inmates To Be Sent Out Of State
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
Pubdate: Fri, 31 Jul 1998
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)
Contact: jsedit@onwis.com
Fax: (414) 224-8280
Website: http://www.jsonline.com/
Author: Richard P. Jones of the Journal Sentinel staff
FEMALE INMATES TO BE SENT OUT OF STATE
Panel allows move of 120 women to West Virginia prison to ease crowding
Madison -- In as little as two weeks, Wisconsin for the first time will send
female inmates to a prison out of state to ease severe crowding, under a
contract approved Thursday by a key legislative committee.
On a 12-3 vote, the Joint Finance Committee gave the state Department of
Corrections authority to send 120 women to a federal minimum-security prison
in Alderson, W.Va., about 65 miles southeast of Charleston.
The contract with the federal Bureau of Prisons will cost the state $58.30
per inmate per day, or about $2.5 million a year. The state will transport
the prisoners to the federal prison camp as early as Aug. 14.
Until now, Wisconsin has shipped only male convicts out of state to ease
prison crowding.
After the vote, Kristine Krenke, warden at Wisconsin's only medium- and
maximum-security prison for women in Taycheedah, said the agency had no
alternative.
"We have really exhausted all options to try to keep people in Wisconsin,"
Krenke said. With no single cells available, she said common areas of the
prison were being used to house prisoners.
The Taycheedah prison near Fond du Lac has an operating capacity of about
430, yet held 683 inmates Thursday, Krenke said. Other Wisconsin facilities
for female inmates also are crowded beyond capacity, she said.
"It's a real unfortunate reality," Krenke said of the unprecedented move to
transfer female inmates out of state.
However, having visited the West Virginia prison, Krenke described it as an
excellent facility offering treatment and educational programs, and she said
that as many 40 Taycheedah inmates had expressed an interest in transfers.
In selecting inmates for transfers, Krenke said women who have children and
want to remain in Wisconsin would receive no special consideration. "That
was not one of the considerations in reviewing either men or women for
out-of-state transfers," she said.
Krenke said inmates would be sent to Alderson if they meet the camp's
guidelines for placement at the minimum-security prison, and if their
sentence is long enough to justify the expense of sending them to West Virginia.
In an attempt to provide some relief at Taycheedah, the state built a
150-bed barracks at a cost of $1.1 million. But Krenke said another barracks
at Taycheedah was not the answer.
"You're not only talking beds," Krenke said. Besides bunks, a prison should
offer inmates programs aimed at rehabilitation, she said. "Because Wisconsin
definitely does not see itself as a state that warehouses people," she said.
Rep. Spencer Coggs (D-Milwaukee), Sen. Brian Burke (D-Milwaukee) and Rep.
Barbara Linton (D-Highbridge) voted against the out-of-state transfer of
female prisoners.
Coggs said he objected to the transfer even though his position probably was
politically unpopular.
"Obviously, prisoners don't vote, and often times the poor families that
they come from don't vote," Coggs said.
But Coggs said he felt compelled to object, primarily for two reasons.
Coggs, who was one of the state lawmakers to tour Texas jails last summer,
said he found out that Wisconsin convicts in that state come under so-called
Texas rules.
"Texas rules often times treated model prisoners from Wisconsin with less
regard than the most heinous murderers and rapists in the state of
Wisconsin," he said.
Coggs said the vast majority of Wisconsin's inmates come from Milwaukee, and
many would return to Milwaukee after serving their time. He said he was
concerned about their attitude upon returning home and whether they would
commit new crimes.
"The vast majority of these prisoners, whether male or female, will be
coming back to my community," he said. "They're not going to be going to
Brookfield, Whitefish Bay or River Hills."
Wisconsin's inmate population now totals 16,429, yet the state prison system
has an operating capacity for 12,628 inmates, including cells the state is
renting elsewhere.
While female prisoners amount to less than 6% of the inmate population, the
number of women imprisoned in Wisconsin has been growing at a faster rate
than the male inmate population.
Since January 1996, the female inmate population has increased from 508 to
952, or 87%, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau.
During the same period, the male inmate population increased from 10,777 to
15,477, or 44%.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
O'Hare Cargo Gets Custom Search Job ('The Chicago Tribune'
Describes The US Customs Service's Elaborate Search For Contraband
In Every One Of The 37 Passenger Planes And 11 Cargo Planes Landing At O'Hare
International Airport Over 24 Hours That Ended At Midnight Thursday,
Which Apparently Turned Up Nothing)
Date: Mon, 03 Aug 1998 01:28:44 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US IL: O'Hare Cargo Gets Custom Search Job
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Steve Young (theyoungfamily@worldnet.att.net)
Pubdate: Fri, 31 Jul 1998
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Section: Metro DuPage, p. 1
Contact: tribletter@aol.com
Website: http://www.chicago.tribune.com/
Author: Rogers Worthington
O'HARE CARGO GETS CUSTOM SEARCH JOB
The task is gargantuan: Check for contraband in the cargo of 37 passenger
planes and 11 cargo planes landing at O'Hare International Airport over 24
hours that ended at midnight Thursday.
"You're talking about looking for the needle in the haystack. . . . It's a
tough job," says Larry Shirk, acting port director for the U.S. Customs
Service at O'Hare, as he watches a hydraulic lift lower another huge pallet
of boxes and crates from the yawning cargo bay of a Boeing 747 just in from
Hong Kong.
Chicago's O'Hare is one of the largest in-bound customs ports in the nation,
with 6,552 international flights a month and 1 million pounds of cargo a
day. In addition to drugs, agents are looking for undeclared U.S. cash;
banned plant and animal life; and counterfeit products, such as knock-off
Gucci goods and bogus Beanie Babies.
There's no way Customs agents can look at it all. On an average day, they
rely on analyses of brokers' shipping documents; anomalies, such as goods
shipped from a country in which they are not made; and other suspect signs,
such as huge quantities of personal effects shipped air express.
But this was not an average day. The intense search is part of the Customs
Service's 6-month Brass Ring Initiative, aimed at interdicting narcotics but
is the first time in the operation that Customs has tried to check every
foreign flight that arrives in a 24-hour period.
Shirk is joined by Michael Johnson, who supervises the service's contraband
enforcement team at O'Hare, and Jeff Gabel, the supervising canine officer
for the service in Chicago.
Gabel has been at this task since midnight Wednesday. He and Johnson are
coordinating 78 officers and 19 canine teams, 14 of which are from local law
enforcement agencies in the south suburbs, Indiana, and Cook and DuPage
Counties.
Even with this much help, the task is a daunting one. Skilled smugglers, the
three agents know, are not stupid.
To give them the upper hand in this cat-and-mouse game, the agents have at
their disposal an array of sophisticated equipment.
A van full of hyper-hardened tools, such as air chisels, can cut a steel
cargo container--or an airplane--in half in minutes. Electronic measuring
tapes and high-tech devices similar to a stud sensor can detect a false wall
or floor. A $193,000 X-ray van with a conveyer belt shows the contents of
boxes and luggage in detail.
And then there is the ion scanner, on loan from the 126th Wing of the
Illinois Air National Guard. It resembles and works like a hand-held vacuum,
sucking up minute traces of narcotics--or explosives--from luggage or
packages. Its filter is then fed into a computer, which provides a readout
of the substance's properties.
For the suburban law teams, the 24-hour blitz is a chance to try out their
drug-sniffing dogs in a different milieu. Falco, a German shepherd with the
DuPage County sheriff's office, and Manto, a shepherd with the Hammond,
Ind., police, precariously make their way across the floor of the 747's
cargo hold, which has a thousand nooks and crannies.
Smugglers have not secreted any drugs here. So to keep the dogs on their
paws, they are allowed to discover planted packages of hashish. As a reward,
they get to play with a favorite toy.
Later, in a warehouse where cargo from the 747 has been hauled, the dogs are
turned loose on a crate of personal effects in which agents found a bathroom
deodorizer and perfumed candles. Drug smugglers often include such items, as
well as coffee, cayenne pepper and curry, to bolix a dog's sense of smell.
The agents won't say whether the 24-hour search Thursday turned up any drugs
or other contraband, not wanting to tip off anyone to whom the goods are
being shipped.
Shirk figures that even if nothing is found after an exhaustive search, it
says something for the deterrent effect of the more routine efforts.
"If you've done a good exam and find nothing, that's a valid statistic right
there," he said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Canada And The US - A World Apart On Hemp (An Article
In 'The Carbohydrate Economy,' A Publication Of The Institute
For Local Self-Reliance, About Why Farmers Get To Grow Industrial Hemp
In Canada But Not The United States Notes The Health Officials Calling
The Shots In Canada Don't Have A Vested Interest In Prohibition,
As Does The DEA In The United States)
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 04:03:10 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US: Canada And The U.S.: A World Apart On Hemp
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Joe Hickey (agfuture@kih.net)
Pubdate: Volume No. 1, Issue No. 3, Summer 1998
Source: The Carbohydrate Economy, A publication of the institute for Local
Self-Reliance
Contact: (David Morris)dmorris@ilsr.org
Author: David Morris
Note: David Morris is vice-president of the Institute for Local
Self-Reliance His columns regularly appear in the St. Paul Pioneer Press.
CANADA AND THE U.S.: A WORLD APART ON HEMP
Changing the Rules
In May of this year, a few miles north of Buffalo, New York, 50 Canadian
farmers began planting 2,000 acres of industrial hemp, the first commercial
hemp crop in that country in 60 years. South of the border that same month,
the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) held hearings on its proposal
to spray the countryside with lethal chemicals to eradicate any hemp plants
growing wild in this country.
Two countries, two radically different attitudes toward the world's most
interesting and controversial crop. Why such a difference? Maybe because
Canada's hemp policy is overseen by Health Canada, an agency with no vested
interest in keeping hemp illegal. In the U.S. hemp falls under the
jurisdiction of the DEA, which receives over $16 billion to fight drugs and
finds it in its self-interest to demonize hemp, a cousin of marijuana.
Indeed, the DEA receives a reported $500 million a year simply to wipe out
wild hemp plants. In the U.S. the policy toward cannabis is rigid and
absolute. In Canada the government's approach has been much more flexible
and sophisticated.
For decades both Health Canada and the DEA have had the authority to issue
permits for the growing of hemp for research purposes. But while the DEA has
made it impossible for farmers to receive such permits, in 1994 Health
Canada's Bureau of Dangerous Drugs granted to mechanical engineer Geof Kime
and his business partner, tobacco farmer and retired teacher Joe Strobel,
the first federal license to grow industrial hemp. Kime and Strobel raised
ten acres near Tillsonburg, Ontario.
The small plot immediately gained widespread public attention. To respond to
the sudden public interest, Canada's ministry of agriculture issued a
remarkable four-page bulletin on hemp, to this day perhaps the single most
concise agronomic overview of hemp. (Gordon Reichert, "Hemp (Cannabis
sativa)," Bi Weekly Bulletin, 7:23.)
In 1995 the Canadian government issued permits for more than l00 acres of
test plot in five provinces. These plots allowed local police authorities to
become comfortable with hemp and gave farmers the opportunity to test hemp
in different soils and climates zones. They also generated sufficient
material for industries to conduct substantial product testing.
In 1996, based on the information gathered, Canada's Parliament modified the
Controlled Substance and Abuse Act to allow for the commercial planting of
hemp. In 1997, when it appeared that Health Canada was not moving fast
enough to issue regulations for a 1998 planting, the parliament made clear
its disapproval.
To find out how to handle the crop, researchers visited some of the more
than two dozen countries that have gone through the hemp learning curve. In
early 1998, Health Canada called together representatives from effected
agencies and parties. These included the Ministry of Agriculture, the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency, Revenue Canada (Customs), Provincial and
federal police organizations, farmers, scientists and business persons.
After two and a half days the 70 participants had hammered out regulations
that allowed Canadian farmers and entrepreneurs to begin developing a
domestic hemp industry while taking into account law enforcement officials'
concerns about marijuana cultivation.
Health Canada's regulations are more onerous than the hemp industry would
like, and the permitting process this first year has been so slow that many
farmers were unable to plant any hemp at all. Nevertheless, all parties
expect the process to be streamlined in future years.
U.S. officials could learn from Canada's experience. Under the final
regulations, approved in late March, industrial hemp is defined as a
cannabis plant whose leaves and flowering heads don not contain more than
0.3 percent THC (the psychoactive component). To prevent higher levels of
THC, importers and exporters of hemp seed must be licensed. Shipments of
live seeds must be accompanied by foreign certification and from countries
that do not allow plants containing more than 0.3 percent THC. Health Canada
will publish a list of approved countries.
Only approved varieties of industrial hemp seeds (as specified in Health
Canada's List of Approved Cultivars) may be planted. However, Canada
officials understand that breeders need a wide selection of germ plasm to
develop breeds optimal for Canadian growing conditions. Thus plant breeders
will not be restricted to approved cultivars.
Products derived from seed, such as oil and seed cake, must contain no more
than 10 milligrams of THC per gram, a figure considerably below the 50 mg/g
level set by the Swiss Academy of Science.
To obtain a license of importing, production or sale of industrial hemp,
applicants must provide information from a Canadian police force listing any
arrests or convictions with respect to drugs over the previous ten years.
The Canadian process for legalizing industrial hemp has been cautious but
not paranoid, incremental but not glacial. It allowed time for farmers, law
enforcement officials, industry and government agencies to become familiar
with the plant and it properties without getting bogged down in red tape.
South of the border, the process is stalled - perhaps even stumbling
backwards - as long as the federal government lets drug agencies make
agricultural policy.
For more information contact Jean Peart, Manager, Hemp Project, Bureau of
Drug Surveillance, Therapeutic Products Directorate, Address Locator 4103A,
122 Bank Street, 3rd Floor, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 1B6 (613-654-6524)
NOTE: After a most intensive examination, Canada concluded that although
hemp and marijuana are both members of the cannabis family, they are
distinct types. One can get you high. One cannot. The agronomic and
biochemical differences are well-described by Dr. David West, who received
his doctorate in plant breeding from the University of Minnesota, in his
recent report, Hemp and Marijuana: Myths and Realities (available on the web
at www.naihc.org).
-------------------------------------------------------------------
DEA Official Becomes Rich At The Expense Of Agency ('The Wall Street Journal'
Describes How David Bowman Of The Drug Enforcement Administration
Ripped Off The US Government For More Than $6 Million)
Date: Sat, 1 Aug 1998 13:30:17 -0700
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US WSJ: DEA Official Becomes
Rich At the Expense of Agency
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Mark Greer
Source: Wall Street Journal
Contact: letter.editor@edit.wsj.com
Website: http://www.wsj.com/
Pubdate: Fri, 31 Jul 1998
Author: Phil Kuntz - Staff Reporter
DEA OFFICIAL BECOMES RICH AT THE EXPENSE OF AGENCY
ARLINGTON, Va. -- David Bowman's cubicle, usually a bureaucrat's ideal of
meticulous order, was a shambles. His desk had been rifled, his computer
was gone. This much, though, was left undisturbed on the cubicle wall: the
seal of the Drug Enforcement Administration, the agency he had served for
21 years.
"What's going on?" a slack-jawed Mr. Bowman asked.
"I can't tell you anything, David," replied James Duke, his boss at the
DEA's budget office. "Go home, and we'll talk about it tomorrow."
Later, the eldest of Mr. Bowman's four grown kids, Donna Dunn, arrived home
to find her usually ebullient father mumbling to himself: "You just follow
orders. You follow orders."
Her brother, David Bowman Jr., summed things up: "Life as we know it is over."
Indeed. The Bowmans had lived luxuriously for years, thanks to the father's
mysterious side business, Bowman Enterprises Inc. The company grossed $1
million a year on average. But investigators have concluded that the money
was illegally siphoned to a bogus company from DEA headquarters here, in
hundreds of checks averaging just under $9,000 each. In all, the government
says in an indictment, Mr. Bowman stole more than $6 million between 1990
and 1996.
And for years, nobody noticed.
Not the DEA clerks who kept cutting checks for an unknown company based on
incomplete documentation and vague cloak-and-dagger assurances. Not the
Justice Department's credit union, where Mr. Bowman sometimes socked away
$5,000 or $10,000 a month on an $87,100 salary. Not his boss, who couldn't
understand Mr. Bowman's secretive ways. And certainly not the government
officials who gave him and his colleagues an award for cutting costs.
Nor did anybody outside DEA inform authorities that one of its midlevel
bureaucrats was rolling in dough. Not his retinue of $12-an-hour personal
assistants who deposited the Treasury checks in the bank but never saw any
business conducted. Not the merchants who sold his family $300,000 worth of
jewelry and $124,000 worth of poster-shop artwork.
Nor was there a word of warning from his wife and children. They spent huge
amounts on home purchases and renovations, overseas honeymoons, new cars --
even Rolex watches costing up to $18,000. American Express bills regularly
exceeded $20,000 a month.
"I never thought to say, 'Dad, how come you make so much money?' It's not
something you ask your father," says Ms. Dunn.
Rumblings About the CIA
Mr. Bowman's undoing was a matter of happenstance -- an audit by an
inquisitive newcomer, checking to make sure the government was paying
vendors on time. The March 1997 office raid marked the unraveling of a
simple scheme allegedly perpetrated against one of the world's most elite
police agencies by a man so severely disabled from muscular dystrophy that
he can't eat, use the bathroom or breathe without assistance.
Mr. Bowman denies wrongdoing and claims that a now-deceased former CIA
official authorized his actions. His family says he is innocent and is
desperate to keep him out of prison. Nevertheless, many of the facts in
this case are corroborated by records at the U.S. District Court in
Alexandria, Va., and interviews with law-enforcement officials, the Bowman
family, friends and associates.
Mr. Bowman is scheduled to go on trial in September on multiple charges.
But however his criminal case is resolved, investigators estimate they will
recover, at best, 20% of the DEA's money. His health is fading fast, and
forfeiture laws favor innocent beneficiaries, such as, by their account,
his relatives. "If he drops dead, we may get nothing," says a Justice
Department official.
Investigators wonder if that was the plan all along.
A Devastating Disease
Mr. Bowman's disease was diagnosed in his childhood, and he tells people,
"I was supposed to be dead before I graduated high school." He was in a
wheelchair by age 30. Yet, even on borrowed time and bum limbs, he sought
to live life to the fullest. He lettered in high school by managing track
and cross-country teams. He was good at target-shooting and handy at sewing
Boy Scout patches. He acquired a taste for good wine.
As his legs and arms weakened, his wife and children dressed him, bathed
him and helped him on the toilet. "There was no embarrassment," says Ms.
Dunn. "He was not a naked man; he was just in his birthday suit and needed
to have a bath."
By the late 1980s, his health had deteriorated severely. He was permanently
hooked to a machine that pumps air through a tracheotomy incision. Bosses
encouraged him to retire, but Mr. Bowman refused. "Work gave him purpose,"
says Ms. Dunn. The DEA hired her to be his aide and nurse at the office
(and later gave her another job), but Mr. Bowman felt he was being
pressured to quit.
So he became more tight-lipped about how he did his job, thinking that
would make it harder to fire him. Transferred from a supervisory position
to a budget job with no one reporting directly to him, he took on some new
duties and ended up in control of an account used to reimburse the State
Department for supporting DEA posts overseas.
Around the same time, Mr. Bowman's own expenses jumped. The Bowmans
upgraded to a $421,000 home in 1988 and later spent $100,000 improving it,
partly to accommodate his disability.
As he became more ill, the stress wore particularly hard on his wife, Pearl
Bowman, who hurt her back moving him and seemed weary of caring for him.
"She still loves him," says daughter Jennifer Bowman, but "Mom has been
less of a wife and more of a nurse or caretaker for so long that I think
the whole wife aspect is gone."
'A Sweetheart Deal'
In 1990, Mr. Bowman began what he would later tell people was a sideline as
a DEA contractor. A former personal assistant, Ramon Robertson, recalls Mr.
Bowman's saying that the agency had given him "a sweetheart deal" because
he was too disabled to be a DEA agent. He told his wife, "We'll never have
to worry about money again."
He filed incorporation papers in Virginia for Bowman Enterprises, saying
the company would be involved in debt collection, academic services,
landscaping, real estate and debentures. On DEA forms requesting permission
to moonlight, he also mentioned snow-plowing. Mrs. Bowman was named
assistant chairman, his daughter Alison president, and the three other
children vice presidents.
All of them now say they knew little about the company, and they state in
court filings that they believed it was legitimate. Bowman Enterprises
certainly had trappings of legitimacy. It had an insurance plan. Calendars,
calculators, pens and a brother-in-law's racing car were festooned with its
name. Mr. Bowman even paid taxes on company profits.
Mrs. Bowman tells people she repeatedly asked her husband to explain the
business, but he refused. She says she asked him if he was doing anything
illegal and he said no. Mrs. Bowman's lawyer said in court that she
figured, "'Oh great, we're doing well,' and didn't investigate any
further."
Mr. Bowman told friends that he provided money for covert operations
overseas and even helped free hostages. He spoke mysteriously of bosses who
wanted things done but didn't want to know details.
Harvey Volzer, Mr. Bowman's lawyer, filed a sealed document in court
claiming CIA authorization for his actions, people familiar with it say.
Mr. Bowman's purported contact was a longtime friend who worked in the
CIA's personnel office until 1993 and died in 1996. DEA officials say Mr.
Bowman had nothing to do with covert operations.
On Nov. 15, 1990, an application form was filed at the Rosslyn, Va., post
office to open a box in the name of the "Finance Liaison Group." It was
signed "CEO David S. Bowman." Eight days later, he opened a bank account
titled "Finance Liaison Group-Bowman Enterprises" and asked for checks
bearing only the latter part of the name. On Dec. 7, 1990, the DEA started
sending checks to the postal box.
Mr. Bowman's assistants -- some DEA-employed, some from Bowman Enterprises
-- deposited the checks. Aides found this curious, but they trusted Mr.
Bowman. "I put him on a pedestal," says Mr. Robertson, now a policeman. "It
was ludicrous the way he spent money, but I was never suspicious."
Another former assistant, Bradley Kennerly, felt sure that DEA employees
couldn't also be DEA contractors. But "I figured I'm being paid to perform
services, not to ask questions," he recalls.
No Red Flags
The DEA acknowledges that Mr. Bowman's handling of its funds violated the
agency's own safeguards. Ordinarily, such disbursements require the
involvement of multiple officials. But in Mr. Bowman's case, he alone
decided how much money the account needed, verified services rendered and
authorized payments. On Mr. Bowman's watch, the agency's State Department
reimbursement account grew 66% to $10 million in six years. During the same
time, Mr. Bowman was sending more and more of those DEA funds to his
company -- up to $1.9 million in 1996.
Investigators say Mr. Bowman would file a standard agency form requesting
that the Finance Liaison Group be paid for undefined "support services"
provided to particular DEA posts around the globe. The vouchers often
lacked signatures, authorization codes or other backup -- but no one
questioned him closely. When he was pressed, court records say, he
suggested to an accounting supervisor "that the payments were for
CIA-related services." Nor did the payments raise a red flag when the DEA
reconciled the books each quarter.
DEA officials now speculate that Mr. Bowman's disability may have shielded
him from closer scrutiny. While on the job, he was viewed by colleagues
with a mixture of pity and admiration. Though he sometimes came off as
furtive about his DEA role, he also was seen as competent and well-liked,
bringing doughnuts on Fridays and fruitcakes at Christmas. He often sported
a pin he was given for working on a task force that won an award from Vice
President Gore's reinventing government initiative. (His panel had
developed cost-effective ways of paying for those "support services.") He
also was the "go-to guy" for overseas agents needing guidance through the
bureaucracy back at headquarters, says a former colleague.
"How could you not trust a guy like that?" says Mr. Duke, his supervisor.
"To my eternal shame, I didn't look deeper into this clown when I got there
because I knew he was weird -- but not dishonest." (Mr. Duke's bosses
didn't want him to discuss specifics.)
Spending Sprees
As the money poured in, the Bowmans' lifestyle was transformed.
Raised in rural poverty, Mrs. Bowman led the way. She bought an $8,000
Rolex for her 50th birthday in 1991 and quit her Pentagon secretarial job
in early 1992. She became the best customer at Shaw's Jewelers at the local
mall, salespeople say. Her diamond ankle bracelet cost $11,000, tanzanite
pendant and earrings twice that. She stocked up on gifts for friends and
relatives. "I'll take all of them," she once said, eyeing 50 bracelets on
sale.
Mrs. Bowman paid for cosmetic surgery for herself, two daughters and a
sister. Victoria's Secret charges topped $500 a visit. She spent nearly
$140,000 on gold pieces, proof sets and commemorative coins. She acquired
so many limited-edition prints and animation cels that she displayed them
on rotation at the house.
Mr. Bowman also indulged. At Shaw's, he spied a pendant, considered the
$500 price tag on the chain and decided to buy it. But he had seen only the
chain's price; the pendant cost nearly $18,000. No matter; Mr. Bowman
pulled out his credit card.
He also became more security-conscious. He bought a state-of-the-art
home-security system and had utility wires buried, lest bad guys sever
them. The house has an elaborate multi-line phone-and-intercom system
connecting almost every room -- bathrooms, attic and garage included.
Mr. Bowman was generous to relatives and friends. He also donated countless
hours of his bookkeeping time to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, the
local Boy Scouts and the Westover Baptist Church.
But "if he stole money, he didn't give it to the church," says former
pastor Chester Smith. As for all of that newfound wealth, Mr. Smith says,
"My wife and I used to discuss that frequently: How in the world did the
Bowmans have that much money?"
Bowman Enterprises employed his children's friends as personal assistants
to care for him. The company paid his children, too, when they took care of
him. He sometimes chastised them for not putting in for every minute on the
ledger by the front door.
The parents were strict, insisting on respect, manners and honesty. But the
children got practically whatever they wanted. "We were spoiled, but we
weren't spoiled brats," says Ms. Dunn. "We earned what we got. We put up
with a lot. We cared for Dad so much, and Dad thought the only way he could
pay us back was to provide for us."
"I was brought up dealing with things that a normal child doesn't have to
deal with," says Jennifer Bowman. "When I was 10 years old, I was at home
taking care of a 46-year-old 'trach' patient. I never said, 'I'll take care
of you if you'll buy me a car.' As a reward for doing such a good job, you
get things."
The children say they got new cars routinely, as did spouses. Over the
years, David Jr. received three Mustangs, an Explorer and two motorcycles.
He customized one Mustang with racing parts for $12,000 and with a
20-speaker, stereo-TV-video system for $6,000.
Everybody got cellular phones, beepers and generous use of credit cards.
Alison and Robert Waters racked up $36,000 in charges in the summer of
1996, when they married and then honeymooned in Britain. College tuition
was covered, too. Mr. Bowman kept the children near his Arlington home by
providing them around $375,000 for down payments, mortgage bills and other
housing expenses.
Christmas was especially festive. Aides once procured 250 fruitcakes and a
car load of honey-baked hams for gifts. They spent thousands on White House
Christmas ornaments, and rented a cherry picker to hang lights on their
house.
A New Auditor Arrives
The end began shortly before Christmas 1996. A new DEA auditor, Diane
Webster, walked into Mr. Bowman's office with a sheaf of payment requests.
She was doing an audit under a law that requires vendors to be paid
quickly, and she happened to pick some of the Finance Liaison Group
documents.
"Mr. Bowman, I need to talk to you about these. There's nothing on here. Do
you have any backup?" she asked. He replied: "It's a very sensitive issue;
I'll have to get back to you." Then, according to a witness to the
conversation, he tried to play down the matter by noting she had only a
handful of vouchers. "There's 60 more on my desk," Ms. Webster replied.
Mr. Duke demanded substantiation, so Mr. Bowman told his family to help
reconstruct some missing files. They began faxing vaguely worded letters to
DEA offices around the globe asking for verification of services rendered.
According to court files, Mr. Bowman also tricked a State Department
official into signing a fabricated authorization form, telling him it was a
duplicate he needed for his files. Finally, Mr. Bowman wrote his boss a
memo: "I trust that this information will alleviate your concern."
It didn't. Mr. Duke couldn't find anybody who knew of the Finance Liaison
Group. Then DEA Inspector Harry Spence found a copy of the application for
the postal box. Agents raided Mr. Bowman's office that weekend.
The family reacted quickly. Mrs. Bowman stored jewelry and coins at her
sister's home, family members say. Mr. Bowman said "everything would be
taken. If anything is yours, you might want to take it," recalls Jennifer
Bowman. David Jr. says his father told him it would be "a good idea" to
empty bank accounts. Evidence disappeared, including a "Finance Liaison
Group -- For Deposit Only" stamp. David Jr.'s wife, Kim, says Alison told
her to throw it away; Alison says she doesn't recall what she told Kim.
Mr. Bowman retired from the DEA. The good life over, relatives bought
groceries until his $3,000-a-month retirement kicked in. Ms. Dunn pawned
her Rolex. The other children got jobs.
One night, "all four of us got together with Dad," Jennifer Bowman recalls.
"We said, "We love you regardless, [but] we want you to tell the truth."
But he's afraid if he told all, that we'd be assassinated. He won't let us
take the bird out of the house because if somebody tries to put gas in the
house, the bird would die first."
Seizing the Assets
Prosecutors sought to temporarily seize the family's major assets -- a move
that U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema allowed after finding "a
substantial probability" of Mr. Bowman's guilt. Three homes went on the
market; two have sold. Proceeds went to an escrow account. Another judge
later allowed the family to use some of the money to pay debts. That
angered the Justice Department and the DEA. "It is unfair for the
government to be again paying the Bowmans' bills," government attorney
James Pavlock argued in court.
On March 10, a year after the raid on his office, Mr. Bowman was indicted
on 74 counts of money laundering, mail fraud and theft. The government also
has filed forfeiture claims for up to $2.3 million in cash and property. No
one else was charged, and the indictment doesn't accuse Mr. Bowman of
conspiring with anyone else.
DEA Administrator Thomas Constantine blamed his agency for the mess: "Had
many of the managers and personnel responsible for processing or
supervising Bowman's accounts exercised proper care and adherence to
protocols, Bowman's scheme would not have been successful." The DEA is
weighing whether to discipline numerous employees. Ms. Dunn, along with Mr.
Bowman's last DEA aide, nephew Scott Blizzard, were suspended last
September, with pay.
Prosecutors wanted to plea bargain with Mr. Bowman so he would forfeit
assets without a fight. But the negotiations went nowhere when DEA's Mr.
Constantine demanded significant prison time as part of any deal.
Mr. Bowman's lawyer is seeking to have his client declared unfit for trial,
now set for Sept. 14. Mr. Bowman was hospitalized on Tuesday. When at home,
he spends his days in the family room, tethered to a ventilator, bloated
and overweight. He gets one drug for pain, another for depression. He's
usually asleep or groggy. His speech is labored but coherent. A casket that
he commissioned -- made by his best friend from specially selected Wyoming
pine -- sits in the living room.
Niece Jennifer Blizzard likes to plop down on his bed and toss grapes into
his mouth, as she did at his 58th birthday party recently. Later, Mrs.
Bowman disconnected the breathing device, and nephew Scott manually pumped
air into his lungs while Alison cleaned his tracheotomy. Mrs. Bowman tested
his blood-sugar level with a finger prick and declared him fit for a bit of
wine. Someone brought out a straw and a "Bowman Enterprises" wine glass.
Some of Mr. Bowman's family and friends are sure he is an innocent dupe
being prosecuted to cover up who-knows-what. As for David Jr., he refuses
to believe his father is guilty, but he also doesn't buy the
cloak-and-dagger stuff. "I'm not sure what's right," he says. "If he did
this, then everything I grew up with was a lie. He helped me memorize the
Boy Scout oath."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
'Harm Reduction' Strategy Won't Work ('The Bulletin' In Bend, Oregon,
Prints The Boilerplate Op-Ed By The US Drug Czar, General Barry McCaffrey)
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 23:48:31 -0700
From: owner-maptalk-digest@mapinc.org (Maptalk-Digest)
To: maptalk-digest@mapinc.org
Subject: Maptalk-Digest V98 #308
Reply-To: maptalk@mapinc.org
Sender: owner-maptalk-digest@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/
Subj: Harm reduction strategy won't work
From: cwagoner@bendnet.com
Date: Fri, 31 Jul 1998 23:58:42 -0700 (PDT)
Newshawk: Curt Wagoner (cwagoner@bendnet.com)
Pubdate: 7-31-98
Source: The Bulletin (bulletin@bendbulletin.com)
Page: A-6
"HARM REDUCTION" STRATEGY WON"T WORK
By Barry R. McCaffrey
The so called harm-reduction approach to drugs confuses people with
terminology. All drug policies claim to reduce harm. No resonable person
advocates a posistion consciously designed to be harmful. The real question
is which policies actually decrease harm and increase good. The approach
advocated by people who say they favor harm reduction would in fact harm
Americans.
The theory behind what they call harm reduction is that illegal drugs
cannot be controlled by law enforcement, education and other methods;
therefore, proponents say, harm should be reduced by needle exchange,
decriminalization of drugs, heroin maintenance and other measures. But the
real intent of many harm-reduction advocates is the legalization of drugs,
which would be a mistake.
Lest anyone question whether harm reductionist favor drug
legalization, let me quote some articles written by supporters of this
position. Ethan Nadelman, director of the Lindesmith Center, a Manhattan
based drug research institute, wrote in American Heritage ( March 1993 ):
" Should we legalize drugs? History answer 'yes'." In issues in Science and
Technology ( June 1990 ) , Nadelman aligns his own opinion with history's
supposed verdict: " Personally, when talking about legalization, I mean
three things: The first is to make drugs such as marijuana, cocaine and
heroin legal." With regards to lables, Nadelman wrote: " I much prefer the
term ' decriminalization ' or ' normanalization '."
People who advocate legalization can call themselves anything they
like, but deceptive terms should not obscure a position so that it can be
debated coherently. Changing the name of a plan doesn't constitute a new
solution or alter the nature of the proplem.
The plain fact is that drug abuse wrecks lives. It is criminal that
more money is spent on illegal drugs than on art or higher education, that
crack babies are born addicted and in pain and that thousands of
adolescents lose ther health and future to drugs,
Addictive drugs were criminalized because they are harmful; they are
not harmful because they were criminalized. The more a product is available
and legitimized, the greater will be its use. If drugs were legalized in
the United States, the cost to the individual and society would grow
astronomically. In the Netherlands when coffee shops started selling
marijuana in small quanties, use of this drug doubled between 1984 and
1992. A 1992 study by Robert MacCoun and Peter Rueter from the Univerisity
of Maryland notes that the percentage of Dutch 18-year-olds who tried pot
rose from 15 percent to 34 percent from 1984 to 1992, a time when the
numbers weren't climbing in other European nations. By contrast, in 1992
teen-age use of marijuana in the United States was estimated at 10.6
percent.
Many advocates of harm reduction consider drug use part of the human
condition that will always be with us. While we agree that murder,
pedophilia and child prostitution can never be eliminated entirely, no one
is arguing that we legalize these activities.
Some measures proposed by activists, like herion maintenance, veer
toward the absurd. The Lindesmith Center convened a meeting in June to
discuss a multicity herion maintenance study, and a test program for heroin
maintenance may be launched in Baltimore. Arnold Trebach argues for heroin
maintenance in his book " Legalize It? Debating American Drug Policy " :
" Under the legalization plan I propose here, addicts...would be able to
purchase the heroin and needles they need at reasonable prices from a
nonmedical drugstore."
Why would anyone chose to maintain addicts on heroin as opposed to
oral methadone, which eliminates the injection route associated with HIV
and other diseases? Research from the National Institute for Drug Abuse
shows that untreated addicts die at a rate seven to eight times higher than
similar patients in methadone-based programs.
Dr Arvin Goldstien, in his book " Addiction: From Biology to Drug
Policy," explains that when individuals switch from herion to methadone,
general health improves and abnormalities of body systems ( such as
hormones ) normalize. Unlike heroin maintenance, methadone maintenance has
no adverse effects on cognitive or psycomotor function, performance of
skilled tasks or memory, he said. This research indicates that the choice
of heroin maintenance over methadone maintenance doesn't even meet the
criteria of harm reduction that advocates claim to apply.
Treatment must differ significantly from the disease it seeks to cure.
Otherwise, the solution resembles the ciricular reasoning spoofed in
Saint-Exupery's " The Little Prince " by the character who drinks because
he has a terrible problem, namely, that he is a drunk. Just as alcoholism,
heroin is no cure for heroin addiction.
As a society, we are successfully addressing drug use and its
consequences. In the past twenty years, drug use in the United States
decreased by half and casual cocaine use by 70 percent. Drug-related
murders and spending on drugs decreased by more than thirty percent as the
illeagal drug market shrunk.
Still, we are faced with the many challenges, including educating a
new generation of children who may have little experience with the negative
consequences of drug abuse, increasing access to treatment for 4 million
addicted Americans and breaking the cycle of drugs and crime that has
caused a massive increase in the number of people incarcerated. We need
prevention programs, treatment and alternatives to incarceration for
non-violent drug offenders. Drug legalzation is not a viable policy
alternative because excusing harmful practices only encourages them.
At best, harm reduction is a halfway measure, a halfhearted approach
that would accept defeat. Increasing help is better than decreasing harm.
The " 1998 National Drug Control Strategy "- a publication of the Office of
National Drug Control Policy that presents a balanced mix of prevention,
treatment, stiff law enforcement, interdiction and international
cooperation- is a blueprint for reducing drug abuse and its consequences by
half over the coming decade. With science as our guide and grass-roots
organizationa at the forefront, we will succeed in controlling this
problem.
Pretending that harmful activity will be reduced if we condone it
under the law is foolhardy and irresponsible.