-------------------------------------------------------------------
Conflicting measures could change the way Oregonians look at marijuana
(An Associated Press article in The Argus Observer, in rural eastern Oregon,
examines the two very different marijuana-related initiatives on the Nov. 3
ballot, Measure 57, which would recriminalize possession of less than one
ounce of cannabis, and Measure 67, the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act.)
From: "Stormy Ray" (mbpdoors@cyberhighway.net)
To: "dpfor" (dpfor@drugsense.org)
Subject: DPFOR: Conflicting measures could change the way
Oregonians look at marijuana
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 01:44:00 -0700
Sender: owner-dpfor@drugsense.org
Reply-To: dpfor@drugsense.org
Organization: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/
From: Stormy Ray
Argus Observer 10-07-98
(541) 889-5387
Subject: Conflicting measures could change the way Oregonians look at marijuana
. Portland (AP) - Two people - one in a
wheelchair in a cramped apartment, the
other skateboarding through the city
streets - have the same craving for a joint,
but for very different reasons.
For Craig Helm, a middle-aged man who
suffers from multiple sclerosis, smoking
pot is the only thing he's found that can
calm his violent and painful muscle spasms.
Matt Smith, a 20-year-old wearing dread-
locks and grunge-green clothes, calls
marijuana his "freedom" and says he's just
looking for another high.
Their lives could be drastically changed
under conflicting measures on the Oregon
ballot this November that address the way
the state looks at marijuana.
One would legalize the medical use of
marijuana, the other would restore crimi-
nal penalties for possession of small amounts
of the drug.
Backers of medical marijuana in Oregon
say they have learned lessons from two
years of growing pains with the law in
California, 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.
Oregon's measure, which would let those dying or suffering
from debilitating illnesses use the drug with a doctor's
prescription, would control how much prescribed
pot can be used and ensure that it only goes to those
who truly need it.
"It's not like it is making it available to
every Tom, Dick and Harry," said Kristen
Van Anden, a breast cancer patient who
uses the drug to curb the nausea that
comes from her chemotherapy treatments.
"It would be far healthier to grow it on my own, rather
than rely on the something that is grown
who-knows-where," she said.
Under the measure, marijuana would
only be allowed to treat a limited number
of illnesses, such as multiple sclerosis, cancer,
AIDS and glaucoma. Patients would
have the right to carry up to an once of
marijuana and grow as many as three marijuana
plants to maturity.
But opponents of medical marijuana say
it is just a ruse to legalize pot.
"It is designed to move Oregon to such a
position where it appears like marijuana is
not a dangerous drug," said Multnomah
County Sheriff Dan Noelle. "We see this as
an attempt nationally to take one of the
tools away from the issue of dealing with
drugs."
The measure is unusual in that it is
being financed from entirely outside the
state. It is sponsored by California-
based Americans for Medical Rights,
which was the backing of billionaire
philanthropist George Soros of New York.
He worked to persuade Californians to
approve marijuana for medical purposes
two years ago and is behind similar ballot
measures this year in Alaska, Colorado and
Washington state.
Soros' group is also the main opponent of
the other marijuana measure on the ballot,
which would make possession of less than
an ounce of marijuana a misdemeanor
instead of a civil violation.
Currently, there is no jail time for such
an offense, just a minimum fine of $500.
Opponents say the measure would put
too much pressure on prisons, leading to
higher numbers of criminals released early.
Law enforcement officials who are leading
the campaign for the measure say it would
help discourage curious teens from ever
trying the drug.
"The nature of the bill isn't mean-spirited.
It allows us to send a message that it is
wrong to use marijuana," said Molalla
Police Chief Rob Elkins, who directs a
political action group that supports the
recriminalization effort.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Study finds pain went up sharply among dying in late '97 (The Associated Press
says a survey by researchers at Oregon Health Sciences University
of relatives of patients dying in hospitals around Oregon showed a sharp
increase in the level of pain suffered by their loved ones during the last
two months of 1997. Some medical leaders speculate the increase is related
to the threat of federal sanctions against doctors who help terminally
ill patients die under the state's physician-assisted suicide law.)
Associated Press
found at:
http://www.oregonlive.com/
feedback (letters to the editor):
feedback@thewire.ap.org
Study finds pain went up sharply among dying in late '97
The Associated Press
10/7/98 5:01 PM
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Family members of patients dying in hospitals
reported a sharp increase in the level of pain suffered by their loved ones
during the last two months of 1997, according to a statewide study.
Researchers can't explain why the levels increased, but some medical leaders
believe it's related to the threat of federal sanctions against doctors who
help terminally ill patients die under the state's physician-assisted
suicide law.
"What made it happen? Is it still happening? We don't know," said Dr. Susan
Tolle, an expert in end-of-life care at Oregon Health Sciences University in
Portland who led the study.
The phenomenon began in November, the month after the Death With Dignity Act
took effect. Voters rejected by a 60 percent to 40 percent margin repealing
the law, first approved by voters in 1994.
The preliminary finding is being released in the Oregon medical community in
hopes of turning around what researchers called a "worrisome trend."
"It's one possibility that it's physicians who were holding back in
palliative care, and if that's the case, we could do our part to get the
word out to physicians" to give better care to dying patients, said Kathleen
Haley, executive director of the Oregon Board of Medical Examiners. The
organization's fall newsletter includes news of the finding.
Congress is considering legislation that would block the assisted-suicide
law. A Senate version of the bill would prohibit doctors from prescribing
controlled drugs for suicides. The bill's chances of passage have dimmed as
lawmakers push to adjourn by the weekend.
Tolle said several factors could explain the study's results. Publicity from
the political campaign over assisted suicide may have given families
heightened expectations about pain control, she said. Doctors may have been
worried about a threat earlier this year from the Drug Enforcement
Administration to punish doctors who aid in suicides. Or it may have been
nurses or pharmacists who were concerned about providing large doses of pain
medication and possibly hastening death.
Haley said that the preliminary finding is surprising in that Oregon is
perceived as a leader in end-of-life care and that this finding could
indicate a "step backward."
Part of the study, called "Barriers to Care for the Dying," included
interviews with 475 families three months after the death of a loved one in
Oregon. Complete results of the study will not be released for another year.
For most of 1997, families reported relatively constant levels of moderate
to severe pain during the patient's last week of life. The levels of pain
were similar for people who died at home, in a long-term care center or in a
hospital.
But with deaths occurring in hospitals last November or December, family
members reported severe to moderate pain significantly more often than at
any other time during the year, Tolle said.
Tolle said analysis of the patients' medical records and interviews with
their care providers will show the true causes for the finding.
But Ann Jackson, who heads the Oregon Hospice Association, contends that the
DEA scrutiny and the increase in reported pain are related.
"I think that it's very likely that there's a connection here," Jackson said.
(c)1998 Oregon Live LLC
Copyright 1997 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Assisted suicide bill falters on Capitol Hill (The Associated Press
says that with Congress trying to adjourn by the weekend, time may be running
out on a bill to block Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law.)
Associated Press
found at:
http://www.oregonlive.com/
feedback (letters to the editor):
feedback@thewire.ap.org
Assisted suicide bill falters on Capitol Hill
The Associated Press
10/7/98 4:41 AM
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- With Congress trying to adjourn by the weekend, time
may be running out on a bill to block Oregon's doctor-assisted suicide law,
The Oregonian reported in today's editions.
The effort to block the law was led in the Senate by Assistant Majority
Leader Don Nickles, R-Okla., who acknowledges that time is running out. But
he did not say he was ready to give up the fight on the bill.
"I'd love to get done this year, but I also recognize the clock is running,
and it's hard to get everything done," said Nickles, the Senate's No. 2
Republican.
Nickles sponsored a bill that would prevent doctors from prescribing lethal
doses of controlled drugs to assist in a suicide. The bill was approved by
the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, 11-6.
Although the bill would effectively block Oregon's groundbreaking law,
Nickles told The Oregonian that wasn't his intention. Instead, he said he
wanted to reassert federal jurisdiction over drugs covered by the Controlled
Substances Act.
"What I'm trying to do is say, these drugs will not be used for assisted
suicide," Nickles said. "Assisted suicide is not a legitimate medical
purpose, and that's what I'm trying to clarify."
In August, a House version of the bill, sponsored by Rep. Henry Hyde,
R-Ill., cleared the Judiciary Committee, of which Hyde is chairman. It
stalled before a floor vote last month after opponents questioned its
unintended effects.
The bill, they said, would make doctors reluctant to prescribe sufficient
doses to ease the pain of terminally ill patients.
That argument had persuaded many lawmakers not to support the Senate version
of the bill, but it was expected to win passage if it came up for a floor vote.
Nickles still could offer his bill as a last-minute amendment to the omnibus
spending bill likely to emerge this week.
Some interest groups that support the Nickles and Hyde bills, however,
concede that no further action was likely until after the Nov. 3 election.
"There's just too many forces conspiring against it at this point," said
Richard Doerflinger of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
Hyde has been particularly busy with possible impeachment proceedings
against President Clinton.
Meanwhile, two other bills affecting the Northwest are moving ahead.
The items, which could be included in a massive, end-of-session spending
bill, are a provision requiring congressional approval for removal of
Northwest dams and a proposal to revamp guest worker laws covering field hands.
Clinton has threatened to veto the dam proposal. The administration also
said it would object to the guest-worker plan, sponsored by Sens. Ron Wyden,
D-Ore., and Gordon Smith, R-Ore.
Smith and Wyden told The Oregonian Tuesday they were still trying to broker
a three-way deal with the administration and House Republicans who object to
allowing in more workers who could become illegal immigrants.
(c)1998 Oregon Live LLC
Copyright 1997 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not
be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Measure to block assisted suicide appears sidelined (The Oregonian version)
The Oregonian
letters to editor:
letters@news.oregonian.com
1320 SW Broadway
Portland, OR 97201
Web: http://www.oregonlive.com/
Measure to block assisted suicide appears sidelined
* As Congress hurries to adjourn, bills affecting Northwest dams and guest
workers may yet pass
Wednesday, October 7 1998
By Jim Barnett
and Dave Hogan
of The Oregonian staff
WASHINGTON -- With Congress rushing to adjourn by this weekend, prospects
dimmed Tuesday for a bill that would block Oregon's physician-assisted
suicide law.
However, other legislation affecting the Northwest moved ahead.
Two items that could be included in a massive, end-of-session spending bill
are a provision requiring congressional approval for removal of Northwest
dams and a proposal to revamp guest-worker laws covering field hands.
Both measures irked the Clinton administration, and the dam provision
elicited the threat of a veto. But proponents said they hoped for compromise
to win President Clinton's signature.
"We're making headway," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who co-sponsored the
guest-worker measure with Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore. It would expand the
number of foreign workers available to farmers and growers at harvest time.
The threat to Oregon's assisted-suicide law has been led in the Senate by
Assistant Majority Leader Don Nickles, R-Okla., who acknowledged that time
was short. But he stopped short of calling an end to the fight this year.
"I'd love to get done this year, but I also recognize the clock is running,
and it's hard to get everything done," said Nickles, the Senate's No. 2
Republican.
Nickles sponsored a bill that would prevent doctors from prescribing lethal
doses of controlled drugs to assist in a suicide. The bill passed the Senate
Judiciary Committee last month by an 11-6 vote.
Although the bill would effectively block the Oregon law, Nickles said in an
interview that was not his goal. Rather, he said he wanted to reassert
federal jurisdiction over drugs covered by the Controlled Substances Act.
"What I'm trying to do is say, these drugs will not be used for assisted
suicide," Nickles said. "Assisted suicide is not a legitimate medical
purpose, and that's what I'm trying to clarify."
In August, a House version of the bill, sponsored by Rep. Henry Hyde R-Ill.,
cleared the Judiciary Committee, of which Hyde is chairman. It stalled
before a floor vote last month after opponents expressed doubts about its
approach.
The bill, they said, would make doctors reluctant to prescribe sufficient
doses to ease the pain of terminally ill patients.
Nickles has another option remaining. He could offer his bill as a
last-minute amendment to the omnibus spending bill likely to emerge this
week. Although Nickles downplayed the possibility, Wyden plans to keep an
eye out.
"We're still being vigilant," said David Seldin, a spokesman for Wyden, who
opposes the bill.
Nevertheless, some interest groups that back the Hyde and Nickles proposal
conceded no further action was likely until after the Nov. 3 election.
"There's just too many forces conspiring against it at this point," said
Richard Doerflinger of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. Hyde has
been especially busy with possible impeachment proceedings against Clinton,
he noted.
Bargaining on regional issues
The Northwest dam proposal, sponsored by Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash., could
prove a sticking point in negotiations this week between the administration
and Republican leaders.
The administration has threatened to veto an omnibus spending bill that
contains the Gorton proposal or any of 38 other objectionable "riders" that
had been tacked on to several of the annual spending bills stalled in Congress.
In addition to the dam rider, the list contains a Senate plan to end funding
for the Interior Columbia Basin Ecosystem Management Project. Without the
money, the administration said, species could be endangered and timber sales
withheld.
Gorton said Tuesday he had revised his dam rider to allay administration
concerns that it would interfere with dayto-day operations of dams along the
Columbia and Snake rivers.
But the veto threat stands for now, administration officials said.
In public remarks Monday Clinton said: "If they insist on sending these
anti-environmental riders to my desk, again I will veto them."
Separately, the administration had said it would object to the Smith-Wyden
guest-worker plan, which passed the Senate this summer as an amendment to
the annual spending bill for the commerce, justice and state departments.
But both Smith and Wyden said Tuesday they were still trying to broker a
three-way deal with the administration and House Republicans who object to
allowing in more workers who could become illegal immigrants.
Amid the last-minute bargaining, the House passed an annual spending bill
for the Veteran Affairs Department and the Department of Housing and Urban
Development that includes $750,000 for the Oregon Garden Project in Silverton.
The federal money will be used for purposes such as signs and an irrigation
system that will utilize treated wastewater.
U.S. Rep. Darlene Hooley, D-Ore. said she expects the bill to be passed by
the Senate and signed by President Clinton this month.
Today, the Senate is expected to return to consideration of a bill sponsored
by Wyden, that would place a temporary freeze on new taxes on Internet
transactions while a federal commission studies the issue. A similar bill
from Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., was endorsed by Clinton and passed the
House in a near-unanimous voice vote earlier this year.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Voters should OK medical use of marijuana (A staff editorial
in The Columbian, in Vancouver, Washington, endorses Initiative 692,
the medical marijuana ballot measure.)
The Columbian
701 W. Eighth St.
Vancouver WA 98666
Tel. (360) 694-2312
Or (360) 699-6000, Ext. 1560, to leave a recorded opinion
From Portland: (503) 224-0654
Fax: (360) 699-6033
E-mail: editors@columbian.com
Web: http://www.columbian.com/
In Our View
Wednesday, Oct. 7, 1998
Voters should OK medical use of marijuana
Marijuana is no different than morphine. If used properly, both can have
therapeutic benefits for people with severe health conditions. If used
improperly, both can have health-threatening side effects.
But if a doctor prescribes morphine, he's a healer. If he provides
marijuana, he's a felon.
Initiative 692 doesn't legalize drugs or turn drug dealers loose or allow
kids to trade joints on the school playground. All it does is treat
marijuana like any other medicinal chemical: tightly controlled, but
available for patients who truly need it.
There is ample research and overwhelming anecdotal evidence that marijuana
can, in certain cases, provide relief from pain, nausea and seizures more
effectively than any other substance. The latest is a federal study that
finds cannabidiol, a component of marijuana, can help the survival rate of
stroke victims by blocking the compounds caused by a restricted blood supply
to the brain.
Likewise, marijuana has proved effective in fending off the nausea caused by
chemotherapy in cancer patients; in stimulating the appetites of those
stricken by AIDS; and in controlling or reducing the spasticity in those
afflicted by multiple sclerosis.
This isn't just the opinion of a few stoner doctors. Ten years ago, an
administrative law judge for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration
concluded: "The evidence in this record clearly shows that marijuana has
been accepted as capable of relieving the distress of great numbers of very
ill people, and doing so with safety under medical supervision."
Unlike last year's medicinal marijuana initiative, which The Columbian
opposed, I-692 is narrowly drawn and provides ample safeguards. Only
qualifying patients, as defined by the state Medical Quality Assurance
Board, would be eligible to use marijuana. Only certified physicians,
conducting themselves under the strict licensing and oversight rules of the
state, would be allowed to prescribe marijuana.
Our society has long outgrown the goofy notion of marijuana as "devil weed."
It's a drug, with capacity to help or hurt, and should be treated as such.
-- Michael Zuzel, for the editorial board
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Marijuana Product May Aid In Traumas (The Boston Globe says a study being
released today at the American Association of Neurological Surgeons
conference in Seattle shows a synthetic cannabinoid called dexanabinol -
already in use in Israel - could offer hope to hundreds of thousands of
victims of severe head trauma, reducing the death rate and letting 50 percent
more patients resume a normal life. The findings are drawing substantial
interest, in part because head injuries are the leading cause of death among
young people in the United States, and there are few if any treatments. If
early results are substantiated, the new drug would be the most medically
useful treatment derived from the cannabis plant.)
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 10:39:53 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US MA: Marijuana Product May Aid In Traumas
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: emr@javanet.com (Dick Evans)
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Contact: letters@globe.com
Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/
Pubdate: Wed, 7 Oct 1998
Author: Larry Tye, Globe Staff
MARIJUANA PRODUCT MAY AID IN TRAUMAS
Test fuels hope for head injury victims
A drug modeled after a chemical found in marijuana could offer hope to
hundreds of thousands of victims of severe head trauma, reducing the death
rate and letting more people resume a normal life, according to a study
being released today at an international conference in Seattle. The findings
are drawing substantial interest, in part because head injuries are the
leading cause of death among young people in the United States, and there
are few if any treatments. And if these early results are substantiated, the
new drug, called dexanabinol, would be the most medically useful treatment
derived from the cannabis plant.
''It's hugely exciting,'' said Dr. Brian Andrews, who chairs the neurotrauma
program of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons, which is
meeting in Seattle and will hear today a presentation on the new drug.
Dexanabinol, he added, appears to be just the sort of treatment ''that we
have been looking for for years and years.'' Dr. William Beaver, professor
emeritus of pharmacology at Georgetown University School of Medicine, is
even more upbeat: ''This kind of treatment, if it works, would have
tremendous impact on the treatment of neural injury and it could, of course,
also be of value in something like strokes.'' The new drug also would be,
''beyond any doubt,'' the most medically significant use ever made of
marijuana, said Beaver, who chaired a panel assembled last year by the
National Institutes of Health to review possible medical uses of marijuana.
Scientists have been searching for 40 years for medicinal uses of the more
than 400 chemicals in the marijuana plant, which is used to treat nausea and
severe weight loss.
Dexanabinol is one in a series of compounds made in the laboratory and
modeled after chemicals found in marijuana.
Dexanabinol's founder, Professor Raphael Mechoulam of Hebrew University in
Jerusalem, sought to capture the neuroactive properties of the marijuana
chemical, but not the psychoactive ones that induce a ''high.'' Mechoulam
licensed dexanabinol to Pharmos Corp., an Israeli-based pharmaceutical firm,
which has run two stages of clinic trials.
The first showed the drug was safe. The second, results of which are being
released today, showed it could be remarkably effective.
The mortality rate among the 30 head trauma patients who took the drug was
10 percent, compared to 13.5 percent with 37 patients getting a placebo.
The incidence of low blood pressure, which can worsen a patient's condition,
also was significantly reduced in the treated group (13 percent) versus
placebos (38 percent). And, even more encouraging, the drug accelerated
recovery and let 50 percent more patients resume a normal life six months
after their injury.
How does dexanabinol work? The original trauma not only kills brain cells
that were directly hit, but it also generates the release of chemicals that
can kill or dangerously inflame surrounding cells.
Dexanabinol, which is given within six hours of the injury, protects the
brain in three different ways, explains Anat Biegon, Pharmos' vice president
for research and development. The drug mops up some of the dangerous
chemicals, forms a protective barrier around at-risk brain cells, and limits
intracranial inflammation.
Pharmos, which has just 45 employees, is looking for a bigger partner to
help it launch a last phase of clinical trials involving as many as 900
patients worldwide.
Those tests, which could begin next year, would take about two years,
predicted Pharmos chairman Haim Aviv. ''There are about 370,000 eligible
patients with head trauma in the US, worldwide there are 700,000 to 800,000,
and currently there is not a single drug there for them,'' Aviv added. ''We
estimate there are 10,000 lives that could be saved by this drug ... and it
could mean 37,000 more patients who could go back to a normal life.'' Dr.
Christopher Ogilvy, director of cerebrovascular surgery at Massachusetts
General Hospital, cautioned that ''a lot of chemical compounds used to treat
head injury initially looked encouraging, but with rigorous testing they
proved to be only marginally beneficial.''
***
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 17:19:44 -0300 (ADT)
Sender: ai256@chebucto.ns.ca
From: Chris Donald (ai256@chebucto.ns.ca)
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
Subject: Boston Globe: Marijuana Product "Tremendous Impact"
For Trauma Cases (fwd)
This product derived from the cannabis plant, dexanabinol, has
been used in Israel to treat stroke and head injury cases for years, and
was recently found by the US military to be the best possible defense
against nerve gas. NATO troups are "likely" to be issued this marijuana
product in the near future.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Pharmos Announces Successful Phase II Head Trauma Study; Marijuana Analog
Benefits Brain Injured Patients (A Pharmos Corporation press release
on PRNewswire says highlights of the trial use of dexanabinol, manufactured
by Pharmos, resulted in a 26 percent reduction in mortality. No drug is
currently approved to treat severe head trauma.)
From: Remembers@webtv.net (Genie Brittingham)
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 08:48:43 -0700 (PDT)
To: she-who-remembers@makelist.com
Subject: DPFCA: Fwd: ...dexanabinol is difficult to overstate,
since there is no drug currently available for the treatment of...
Sender: owner-dpfca@drugsense.org
Reply-To: dpfca@drugsense.org
Organization: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/dpfca/
She Who Remembers
http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Senate/7525
http://www.remembers.com
From: "Todd McCormick" (todd@a-vision.com)
To: "Todd P McCormick" (todd@a-vision.com)
Subject: ...dexanabinol is difficult to overstate, since there is no drug
currently available for the treatment of...
Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1998 01:41:42 -0700
Wednesday October 7, 5:00 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Pharmos Corporation
Pharmos Announces Successful Phase II Head Trauma Study; Marijuana Analog
Benefits Brain Injured Patients
SEATTLE, Oct. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Pharmos Corporation (Nasdaq: PARS - news)
will present the results of a successful Phase II clinical study with
dexanabinol, a non-psychotropic synthetic analog of marijuana, in the
treatment of severe head trauma patients. Highlights of the study included a
significant reduction in intracranial pressure, a 26% reduction in
mortality, and a higher percentage of patients able to resume a normal life
(``Good Neurological Outcome'') among the treated group. No drug is
currently approved to treat severe head trauma, the leading cause of death
among children and young adults in the U.S.
``These study results are promising and open the door to a Phase III study
in the U.S. and Europe next year,'' said Dr. Haim Aviv, Pharmos Chairman and
CEO.
``The demand for a product like dexanabinol is difficult to overstate, since
there is no drug currently available for the treatment of head trauma. In
the U.S. alone, about 370,000 cases of severe head trauma are hospitalized
every year, with the global incidence more than twice that amount,'' said
Dr. Nachshon Knoller, the study's principal investigator and a neurosurgeon
at the Sheba Medical Center in Israel.
Dexanabinol Shown to be Safe and Well-Tolerated
Clinical endpoints established an excellent safety profile of the drug in
the treated patients. There were no unexpected adverse experiences reported
for either the drug treated or placebo group. Intracranial pressure above a
threshold of 25 mmHg, an important risk factor and a predictor of poor
neurological outcome, was significantly reduced in the drug-treated patients
through the third day of treatment, without concomitant reduction in
systolic blood pressure. The incidence of low blood pressure, which may
worsen the patient's condition, was also significantly better in the treated
group at 13%, compared to 38% in the placebo group. The mortality rate of
10% (3/30) in the dexanabinol group compared favorably with a 13.5% rate in
the placebo group (5/37). The investigators concluded that dexanabinol was
shown to be safe and well-tolerated in severe head trauma patients.
Neurological Outcome Measures Established a Trend of Efficacy
Neurological outcomes in the study, assessed periodically up to 6 months
after injury, established a trend of efficacy. The percentage of patients
achieving Good Neurological Outcome, the highest score on the five level
Glasgow Outcome Scale used to assess the recovery of head trauma patients,
was higher in the drug-treated group at each measurement. Among the most
severely injured patients in the study, a better outcome was consistently
observed among the treated group than among the non-treated group. However,
no difference was observed at six months after treatment between the treated
and non-treated groups in the top two levels of the Glasgow Outcome Scale,
combining patients who resumed normal life with those requiring some
assistance in daily life.
Study Subjects Characteristic of Severe Head Trauma Patient
The multi-center, double-blind, placebo controlled, randomized study was
carried out in all six trauma centers in Israel. Patients received an
intravenous injection of either dexanabinol or placebo within 6 hours of the
injury. Demographically, all 67 patients were fairly representative of the
characteristics describing the severe head trauma patient, which are often
young men injured in motor vehicle accidents.
The drug (30 patients) and placebo (37 patients) groups were found
essentially to be balanced for all known important baseline parameters
including age, severity of coma, and brain computerized tomograph (CT)
classification.
``I am very excited that dexanabinol was beneficial to this initial group of
patients and I look forward to confirming these findings in a Phase III
trial,'' said Dr. Anat Biegon, Pharmos Vice President of Research &
Development.
Dexanabinol is one compound in a family of synthetic analogs of marijuana
invented by Prof. Raphael Mechoulam of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
and licensed to Pharmos for commercial development. The market for
dexanabinol in the treatment of severe head trauma may reach $500 million
annually and could exceed $1 billion if other neurological conditions such
as stroke are treated with the drug.
Dr. Knoller will present the Phase II trial results later today at the
Congress of Neurological Surgeons' Conference in Seattle.
Pharmos Corporation is a pharmaceutical company engaged in the redesign,
development and commercialization of proprietary products that enhance the
efficacy of existing compounds and reduce their side effects. The Company
focuses primarily on drugs for post-surgery and allergy related eye-care,
neuroprotective agents for the treatment of central nervous system
disorders, newly designed molecules for the treatment of cancer and unique
drug delivery products. In March 1998, the Company, together with its
marketing partner Bausch & Lomb Pharmaceuticals Inc., received approval from
the Food and Drug Administration to manufacture and market two ophthalmic
products, Lotemax(R) and Alrex(R). Both products were launched in June 1998.
This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risk and
uncertainties. The development of the company's products may differ
materially from the company's expectations. Among the factors that could
result in a materially different outcome are the inherent uncertainties
accompanying new product development, action of regulatory authorities and
the results of further trials.
SOURCE: Pharmos Corporation
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Peter McWilliams Sues Dan Lungren (The AIDS and cancer patient, medical
marijuana activist and best-selling author says he has filed a lawsuit today,
requesting that a Superior Court order California Attorney General Lungren
to uphold his oath of office and fulfill his duties under the California
Constitution concerning Proposition 215 by defending McWilliams against
the federal government.)
From: "Peter McWilliams" (peter@mcwilliams.com)
To: "Peter McWilliams" (peter@mcwilliams.com)
Subject: Peter McWilliams Sues Dan Lungren
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 19:22:43 -0700
Hello.
Please help get this to as much media as possible.
Thank you.
Peter
***
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 7, 1998
AIDS Patient and Federal Medical Marijuana Defendant Peter McWilliams Sues
Attorney General Lungren for His Failure to Enforce Proposition 215
McWilliams Calls for Lungren's Impeachment
PRESS CONFERENCE: 10:00 AM FRIDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1998, HOLLYWOOD ROOSEVELT
HOTEL, ACADEMY ROOM
Los Angeles. AIDS patient and recent cancer survivor Peter McWilliams filed
a lawsuit today, requesting that the Superior Court order California
Attorney General Lungren to uphold his Oath of Office and fulfill his duties
under the California Constitution concerning Proposition 215.
The suit asks for no monetary damages. It asks the judge to instruct
Attorney General Lungren to fulfill his Oath of Office to "support and
defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the
State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will
bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States and
the Constitution of the State of California."
McWilliams' attorney, Thomas Ballanco, commented: "The lawsuit is simply
asking Attorney General Lungren to do his sworn duty, nothing more."
The suit charges AG Lungren with four breaches of the California
Constitution:
1. The California Constitution, Article III Section 3.5 (c) states: "An
administrative agency...has no power. . . (c) To declare a statute
unenforceable, or to refuse to enforce a statute on the basis that federal
law or federal regulations prohibit the enforcement of such statute unless
an appellate court has made a determination that the enforcement of such
statute is prohibited by federal law or federal regulations."
AG Lungren likes to brush aside Proposition 215 by saying, "Federal law
supercedes state law." According to the California Constitution, however,
the Attorney General must fight such federal encroachment (a "domestic"
"enemy") until "an appellate court has made a determination." No "appellate
court" has made such a "determination" as to the federal government's power
to interfere with Proposition 215, a law specifically designed to protect
the sick of California from governmental interference in medical treatment.
Indeed, AG Lungren urged federal authorities to override Proposition 215 and
arrest medical marijuana users. McWilliams is but one of them.
2. The California Constitution, Article III Section 3 states: "The powers of
state government are legislative, executive, and judicial. Persons charged
with the exercise of one power may not exercise either of the others except
as permitted by this Constitution."
The suit argues that AG Lungren overstepped his executive-branch duties and
acted both judicially and legislatively by giving his own extremely narrow
and limited interpretation of Proposition 215 the full force of law.
3. The California Constitution, Article V Section 13 states: "It shall be
the duty of the Attorney General to see that the laws of the State
are...adequately enforced."
The lawsuit argues that a quick review of the basic tenants of Proposition
215 illustrates how inadequately AG Lungren has enforced the law. To quote
from Proposition 215, now the California Health and Safety Code Section
11362.5, the 1996 California Compassionate Use Act:
(A) To ensure that seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and
use marijuana for medical purposes.... (B) To ensure that patients and their
primary caregivers who obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes upon
the recommendation of a physician are not subject to criminal prosecution or
sanction. (C) To encourage the federal and state governments to implement a
plan to provide for the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all
patients in medical need of marijuana.
The lawsuit maintains this law is clearly not being "enforced" in
California, although it has been almost two years since 56.4 percent of
California voters made Proposition 215 California law. (450,000 more
Californians voted for Proposition 215 than voted for Lungren as Attorney
General.)
4. The California Constitution, Article V Section 13, states: "It shall be
the duty of the Attorney General to see that the laws of the State are
uniformly...enforced."
The lawsuit claims that one need only compare AG Lungren's vigorous defense
of affirmative-action-ending Proposition 209, which AG Lungren personally
supported, with his open suppression of Proposition 215-both Propositions
voted into law in the same election-to illustrate that AG Lungren has not
"enforced" Proposition 215 "uniformly."
McWilliams, 49, a writer and publisher for 31 years, whose books have
appeared five times on the New York Times Bestseller List, was diagnosed
with AIDS and cancer in March 1996. He successfully used medical marijuana
under his doctor's supervision to treat the side-effects of prescription
medications until July 23, 1998, when he was arrested by the DEA on federal
medical marijuana charges. Since that date, he has been denied medical
marijuana by the federal government and undergoes drug testing.
All of McWilliams' actions-cultivating, possessing, and using medical
marijuana-fall well within the protection of Proposition 215.
"If Attorney General Lungren had stood up to the federal government rather
than encouraging it to arrest the sick of California," said McWilliams, "my
life would not be in danger today."
The lawsuit maintains AG Lungren has placed McWilliams' life is at risk in
two ways. First, McWilliams faces a mandatory 10-year minimum sentence in
federal prison-a virtual death sentence to someone with AIDS. Second,
without medical marijuana McWilliams suffers extreme nausea, a side effect
of the prescription "combination therapy" used to treat his AIDS.
"If I can't keep down the medications that are keeping me alive, I will die.
I am a California citizen. I deserve better than this from California's
Attorney General."
The lawsuit also compares AG Lungren's actions with two other West Coast
Attorneys General, Colorado's Attorney General Gale Norton and Oregon's
Attorney General Hardy Myers.
Attorney General Norton made a vigorous defense of the Colorado State
referendum measure, Amendment 2, taking the battle all the way to U.S.
Supreme Court. Amendment 2 limited gay rights. Attorney General Norton's
personal belief and political stance, however, is pro-gay rights.
Nevertheless, she did her duty as Attorney General and fought to fulfill the
will of the people of Colorado.
Oregon's Attorney General Myers has boldly defended his state's assisted
suicide referendum, stating, "In the question of who has the authority to
control the practice of medicine-the federal government or the states-Oregon
voters have made the decision that assisted suicide is a legitimate medical
purpose." AG Myers even stood up to the DEA. "Our view is that this agency
[the DEA] does not have the authority to interpret medical purpose in a way
that interferes with Oregon's assisted-suicide law." Attorney General Reno
agreed, and prohibited the DEA from interfering with the doctor-patient
relationship in Oregon.
McWilliams sent a letter to AG Lungren on August 31, 1998, asking AG Lungren
for protection from federal intervention into McWilliams' medical treatment,
protection McWilliams thought Proposition 215 provided him. The AG's office
refused the request.
In addition to the lawsuit, McWilliams will be contacting the State
Legislature, calling for the impeachment of AG Lungren based on the
allegations in the lawsuit.
"Attorney General Lungren has lately been praising his 'character,'
presumably because he claims to have never cheated on his wife," said
McWilliams. "But doesn't fulfilling your Oath of Office have something to do
with character, too?"
A web site has been established (www.lungrendoyourduty.com), containing
documents relevant to the case. This web site is for both press and public.
CONTACT: Ed Hashia 213-650-9571 x125
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday Night With The Camo Buddies (The Anderson Valley Advertiser,
in Boonville, California, describes a Mendocino County controversy over
a judge ordering the release of a prisoner on her own recognizance. What's
interesting is the account of how the Mendocino Marijuana Eradication Team
busted and terrorized Helen Ochoa, an ailing 68-year-old Leggett woman.)
Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 18:25:59 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US CA: Saturday Night With The Camo Buddies
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: d9 http://www.civilliberties.org
Pubdate: 07 October 1998
Source: Anderson Valley Advertiser (Boonville, Mendocino County, CA)
Copyright: (c) 1998 Anderson Valley Advertiser
Contact: ava@pacific.net
FAX: (707) 895-3355
Author: Bruce Anderson, Editor, Anderson Valley Advertiser
SATURDAY NIGHT WITH THE CAMO BUDDIES
Helen Ochoa is a 68-year-old Leggett woman in failing health. For many
years, she and her husband, Bill, devoted many thousands of volunteer hours
to the safety and welfare of people living and traveling the northern
reaches of Mendocino County. For most of three decades, the Ochoas' Leggett
home served as emergency central for Mendocino County's deepest outback.
Ambulances and fire trucks got their directions from the Ochoas' command
center. Both Helen and her husband would often rouse themselves in the
middle of the night to aid a stranded motorist or transport an injured
neighbor to the hospital. Name the go-to people in your community and
substitute the name Ochoa and you will understand the Ochoas' standing in
the Leggett-Laytonville area.
When Bill Ochoa died a few years ago, a neighbor who doesn't seem to have
anything better to do than monitor the property of the widowed senior
citizen next door, sicced the county's Department of Environmental Health
on Mrs. Ochoa because, the neighbor alleged, the old lady's septic tank
wasn't working properly. Environmental Health, conveniently among the
missing when it comes to the toxic behavior of the county's largest
employers, wasted no time visiting the widow's modest property on the banks
of the Eel, only minutes from Highway 101. Environmental Health also
managed to visit Mrs. Ochoa's theoretically confidential file sequestered
at the Department of Mental Health, a second highly politicized agency
whose craven, incompetent staff has managed to kill three of its "clients"
in as many years as one of its psychiatrists goes unprosecuted for beating
his wife.
As you see, we are neck deep in the usual Mendo morass of official
misconduct, wholesale snitching, tax-funded bullying, and random
confirmations that the authorities themselves are, likely as not,
completely ape shit.
Mrs. Ochoa's worldly goods consist of her small piece of Eel River property
and her meager monthly Social Security stipend. But she's got billions of
friends and support.
Helen Ochoa's home parcel is small but, it seems, highly coveted, which may
account for the ongoing harassment she faces in what might gave been her
golden years. Beset by the relentless neighbor and the neighbor's allies in
what passes for legitimate authority in Mendocino County, Mrs. Ochoa
scraped up enough money to hire an attorney to defend herself against the
official onslaught and her neighbor's hyper-vigilance. Her septic system
works perfectly; there is no evidence it has ever malfunctioned. That case
is at the deposition stage and just may be related to what happened two
Saturday nights ago.
About ten o'clock, Saturday night the 26th of September, comes the
cop-style jackhammer knock on the Ochoa door, just west of the Leggett
School. Mrs. Ochoa and her 19-year-old granddaughter, Leeann St. Clair, are
confronted by Bruce Smith and elements of the Mendocino Marijuana
Eradication Team. The Camo Buddies were at the door! It was Old Ladies
Night in Leggett! Deputy Smith and his fellow tax-funded commando
fantasists were picking up some serious OT picking off senior citizens to
pad their annual devil weed stats.
The Great Crusade against cannabis being no respecter of age, what
followed, I understand from outraged neighbors, was an hour or so of
low-intensity bullying by the forces of law and order. But Helen Ochoa is
not easily intimidated at remarks from publicly-funded cartoon cops like
"Jail is a hard place for people your age," and "If you don't admit the
marijuana garden is yours we'll add on the guns and your bail will be a lot
higher." The guns were old hunting rifles belonging to the late Bill Ochoa.
They were locked up in a gun cabinet. Smith and his overtime banditos are
alleged to have busted open the gun cabinet and made its antique contents
sound like a Mexican Mafia's pot field arsenal of AK-47s.
Helen Ochoa didn't budge. Neither did Miss St. Clair who just happened to
be visiting her gran's house when the camo clowns arrived. The young woman
and the senior citizen were cuffed, stuffed and sped south to the County
Jail in Ukiah where they spent most of the next three days.
Judge Joe Orr used to live with the Ochoas. Orr is the sitting justice
court judge for the large but sparsely settled area from Laytonville north
to the county line and east to where the Eel meanders north to Alder Point,
and marijuana grows in great visible fields like Kansas corn. Alerted that
his old friend Helen Ochoa had been hauled off to the County Jail on a
Saturday night, Orr called the jail and asked that Mrs. Ochoa be released
on her own recognizance.
Doing the right thing isn't necessarily doing the legal thing, although Orr
quickly backed off when a lot of indignant harumphing about judicial
favoritism began in the local media, and even though presiding judge of the
county's courts, Eric Labowitz, said Monday that a judge had every legal
right to call the jail to suggest a person held there be released on his or
her own recognizance.
But Mrs. Ochoa stayed in jail on the original warrant auto-signed by Cindee
Mayfield, Lousiana-Pacific's and Jared Carter's contribution to California
jurisprudence, and confirmed by Judge Ron "Hum Baby" Combest of Covelo,
neither of whom had either the sense or the ordinary humanity to see an
elderly woman of years of upstanding citizenship in the dock on a
comprehensively phony beef. Bail was kept at $40,000 for both Mrs. Ochoa
and Miss St. Clair. The late Bill Ochoa's hunting rifles became an
additional felony charge, you see, because the Overtime Banditos claim the
North County senior citizen was not only growing pot, she had guns on the
premises, adding up to felony cultivation plus felonious possession of
firearms at a place where devil weed is believed to be cultivated.
From Saturday night until late Monday the Ma Barker of Leggett and her
menacing granddaughter were off the streets of Mendocino County, and solid
citizens from Rockport to Yorkville rested easier in their beds.
An indignant editorial in the Ukiah Daily Journal marveled at how local
judges and the judges' protection agency called the State Commission on
Judicial Performance stonewalled the Journal when staffers tried to find
someone in authority to talk to about Orr's call to the County Jail on
behalf of his friend, Helen Ochoa.
Where's the surprise?
Federal, state, and certainly Mendocino County fudges have been beyond all
but electoral accountability for years, and electorally they are also all
but a demagogic line or two beyond even that slim tether.
Just in the last year we've seen DA Susan Massini dispatch Judge Henry
Nelson to expel Joel Steed, last year's Grand Jury foreman, from the Grand
Jury room of the County Courthouse. A judge will run a political errand
expelling a former Grand Juror from his work site for the DA because she's
unhappy with the Grand Jury's assessment of severe dysfunction in her
office? Yes, he ran it and they both got away with it.
On the heels of that one, presiding judge Eric Labowitz issues a barely
coherent statement that future county grand juries should include the
self-serving rebuttals of the public agencies the grand jury criticizes.
Why Labowitz's sudden public appearance on the teensy issue of grand jury
report format? Think collegiality; several powerful county department heads
(by the standards of Mendo-Lilliput, anyway) didn't like the fact that for
the first time since the berserk reverend from Redwood Valley, Jim Jones,
Mendocino County saw Mr. Steed and company render a competently critical
report on several public bureaucracies--including the DA's ever-bubbling
caldron.
Of course, Labowitz isn't going to censure or otherwise add to the
discomfort of Joe Orr on the Ochoa matter, After all Labowitz, and much of
the rest of the local judicial posse, just got their lawyer-colleagues in
the state legislature to elevate their outback, once-a-week justice court
sinecures to Superior Court status, complete with a lucrative raise. The
reason? Why, to ensure "the quality of justice" of course. These guys (and
their token gal Mayfield) have a terrific deal going here -- life jobs at
big pay with no supervision. (Conrad Cox was the only judge to resist the
in-house promotion of his junior colleagues.) None of them are about to go
out and blab to the papers about one of their co-beneficiaries, even though
they are definitely not fond of one another.
Adding to this only-in-Mendoland farce, is the fact that most of the
County's judges were themselves committed pot smokers during that period of
the late sixties and early seventies when the secure middle-class dropped
out for a while to take dope and engage in serial hepatitis sex. When the
counterculture fad ended in a sort of mass national amphetamine psychosis,
the people who now occupy all levels of Mendocino County's public powers
apparantly dropped back in as blithely as they'd dropped out. In other
words, we've got pot smokers sending other pot smokers to jail.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Choctaw Women File Suit After Mistaken Drug Raid On Their Home
(The Oklahoma Gazette says two traumatized women whose home was raided
during "Operation Red Rain," spearheaded by the state Bureau of Narcotics
and Dangerous Drugs, have filed a lawsuit. The raid was prompted when a
prohibition agent in a helicopter spying on their back yard thought he saw
marijuana growing. It turned out to be be a plant called vitex, which one of
the victims bought nearly a decade ago from the state Forestry Commission.)
Date: Sat, 10 Oct 1998 07:05:34 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US OK: Choctaw Women File Suit After Mistaken Drug Raid On
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Michael Pearson (oknorml@swbell.net)
Source: Oklahoma Gazette (OK)
Contact: editor@okgazette.com
Pubdate: 7 Oct 98
Author: Phil Bacharach
CHOCTAW WOMEN FILE SUIT AFTER MISTAKEN DRUG RAID ON THEIR HOME
Kathleen Huffman and Teresa Sweeden came home from work one night in late
July to discover that someone else had been in their house in rural Choctaw.
"The drawers had all been opened," Huffman said.
"Doors that normally would have been shut were open. All the hall closets
were still open."
They inspected the area outside and noticed that part of a wire fence
around the back yard was bent, as if someone had climbed over it.
The women thought their house had been burglarized, but were confused
because nothing was missing.
"We were scratching our heads," Huffman said.
"We were, like, 'Obviously, somebody's been here, but nothing's stolen.' We
didn't understand what happened."
A neighbor then told the women about a bizarre scene earlier that day. A
group of law enforcement agents and police officers, the neighbor told
them, had descended on the house shortly after 10 a.m.
Huffman couldn't believe what she was hearing. She phoned the sheriff's
office, but was told that no outstanding warrant had been issued for a
search of the house.
As it turned out, their house had been targeted as part of a marijuana
eradication program, "Operation Red Rain,," spearheaded by the state Bureau
of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs.
OBNDD spokesman Mark Woodward confirmed that a drug agent in a helicopter
July 30 mistakenly identified plants in the women's yard as pot.
"This was just one of several targets they investigated that morning,"he said.
"In this instance, it would appear they simply made a mistake. We have
rarely ever made aerial mistakes when it comes to identifying marijuana.
This is a highly unusual case."
But that hardly placates Huffman and Sweeden. They have filed a claim
against the agencies involved in the sweep -- OBNDD, the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agency, the Norman Police Department and state Department of
Public Safety. The women's attorney declined to reveal the monetary figure
they are seeking in compensatory and punitive damages.
What the OBNDD agent initially thought was marijuana proved to be a plant
called Vitex, which Huffman had bought nearly a decade ago from the state
Forestry Commission.
OBNDD general counsel Scott Rowland said law enforcement agents entered the
Choctaw house, but he said they departed as soon as they realized the
plants were legal.
Moreover, he said agents had "probable cause" to go inside. Rowland said
the officers believed people were home because two cars were parked in the
driveway, the front door was ajar and a television and fan were on inside.
"When no one came to the door, these officers got concerned," Rowland said.
"There have been situations in the past where our officers have been shot
at through the windows of a house. There was every reason to think somebody
was home. There was every reason to think the people at home were tipped."
Rowland said two officers not with the OBNDD swept through the house in
search of occupants, but did not look through any cabinets or drawers.
Around that time, agents outside determined there was no marijuana on the
property.
"I think we did everything right," Rowland said.
"Sometimes when we do things right, it has negative consequences for
people, and I regret that."
In cases in which there is no search warrant to leave, he said, agents
typically leave a business card with a phone number to call.
"It would have been better in this case if we had left a business card or
something," said Rowland.
"I think there wouldn't have been the hard feelings involved."
Huffman said the experience has left her paranoid and fearful, currently is
on medication to calm her verves. Their home now is protected by a burglar
alarm system.
"This has been terrifying," Huffman said.
"I don't know what these people did. I don't know why they did it. I don't
know who they are. We're private people. I'm going to be forever changed,
whatever the outcome is. Nothing like this has even happened in my life."
The women's attorney, Julie Kelley, said OBNDD has refused to offer
monetary compensation or even issue a formal apology for the mistake.
Rowland disputed that contention, but he declined to be more specific.
The incident has led to an internal OBNDD probe, according to Woodward.
"We're not in any way going to brush this under the rug," he said.
"We're going to see what happened and if something needs to be changed, as
far as how we handle things."
Woodward said that "Operation Red Rain," slated to continue until winter,
has resulted in the destruction of about 52,000 cultivated marijuana
plants, which have a combined street value of about $78 million.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Two Accused In City Hall Drug Ring (The Associated Press says the FBI taped
three telephone conversations that led to the arrest of the chief computer
programmer and a payroll clerk for the city of Gary, Indiana, who ran a
$1,000-a-day cocaine business.)
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 18:44:45 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US IN: WIRE: Two Accused In City Hall Drug Ring
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: GDaurer@aol.com
Pubdate: Wed, 7 Oct 1998
Source: (AP)
TWO ACCUSED IN CITY HALL DRUG RING
GARY, Ind. (AP) -- The city's chief computer programmer and its
payroll clerk ran a $1,000-a-day cocaine business, even taking calls
in City Hall, authorities alleged.
FBI agents arrested Arthur L. Harris, 46, and Karen Laverne Shivers,
41, at their apartment Monday and said they seized five ounces of
cocaine, six ounces of crack cocaine and $6,000.
Federal agents said they taped three telephone conversations in which
Harris, speaking from a phone in City Hall, arranged to sell crack.
Harris, the computer programmer, was charged with distributing and
possessing cocaine, and maintaining a crack house. Shivers, the
payroll clerk, was accused of maintaining a crack house.
Both were suspended from their jobs, and hearings were planned to
determine if they would be fired.
``This is tragic ... to have a couple of bad apples here. It just
really makes it tough on the city,'' Mayor Scott King said.
Copyright 1998 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
400 Applicants Caught Attempting to Cheat Drug Test, SmithKline Beecham Drug
Testing Index Reveals (A press release from SmithKline Beecham on PRNewswire
provides some comprehensive statistics on the results of urine tests in the
United States workforce from 1988 through the first six months of 1998.
Surprise - not a single false positive is recorded, nor anyone using alcohol.
Workplace drug testing procedures now include the option of an analysis for
the use of adulterants as well as "substances of abuse." If surveys that
suggest illegal drug use is increasing are correct, such users must be
getting smarter - among the more than 2.7 million tests performed in the
first six months of 1998, the overall positivity rate was 4.9 percent,
compared to 5 percent for all of 1997.)
From: GDaurer@aol.com
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 10:37:55 EDT
To: "DRCTalk Reformers' Forum" (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Subject: Marijuana Accounts for 60% of All Positives
Reply-To: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: owner-drctalk@drcnet.org
400 Applicants Caught Attempting to Cheat Drug Test, SmithKline Beecham
Drug Testing Index (C) Reveals
Overall Positivity Continues to Decline:
Marijuana Accounts for 60% of All Positives
COLLEGEVILLE, Pa., Oct. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- In the first 10 weeks of
screening for adulterants in workplace drug testing samples, approximately
400 job applicants were reported as positive for the use of nitrites, as
reported by the SmithKline Beecham Drug Testing Index(C). Nitrites are used
as a masking agent to prevent the detection of drug use.
"We detected an average of eight cases of nitrite use per work day," said
John B. Okkerse, Jr., Ph. D., President, SBCL. "In reviewing the data from
the first group of employers requesting adulterant testing, we find there is a
definite pool of job applicants who are still using drugs and attempting to
defeat the testing process." Workplace drug testing procedures now include
the option of an analysis for the use of adulterants as well as substances of
abuse.
From the more than 2.7 million tests performed in the first six months of
1998, the overall positivity rate was 4.9%, as compared to 5% for all of 1997.
Among confirmed positive samples, marijuana was detected most frequently at
60%. Cocaine was detected in less than 17% of all positive test results, and
opiates (including heroin) were found in less than 10% of all positives.
Those who are tested fall into one of two categories; workers in
safety-sensitive positions and all others (referred to as the "general
workforce"). Among those samples from workers in safety-sensitive positions,
3.4% of all tests were positive for drugs, as compared to 2.8% for tests done
on a random basis. In the general workforce, 5.1% of all tests were positive
for drugs, as compared to 7.6% for tests done on a random basis. For those
samples submitted from the general workforce for testing on a "for cause"
basis (at the request of a supervisor), more than 25% were positive for drugs.
Maps of the U.S. depicting overall drug test positive rates and positive
rates by specific drug have been created to provide more localized workplace
drug test data. The maps will be available at the SmithKline Beecham web site
today. Some of the regional differences in the detection of specific drugs
among U.S. workers show above average detection rates of amphetamines and
opiates in western and northwestern states, while southeastern and
southwestern regions were above average for the detection of cocaine.
The SmithKline Beecham Drug Testing Index(C) is released every six months
as a service for government, media and industry.
SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories is part of SmithKline Beecham
Healthcare Services -- a unit of SmithKline Beecham. SmithKline Beecham --
one of the world's leading healthcare companies -- discovers, develops,
manufactures and markets pharmaceuticals, vaccines, over-the-counter medicines
and health-related consumer products, and provides healthcare services
including clinical laboratory testing, disease management and pharmaceutical
benefit management.
Color graphics of the SmithKline Beecham Drug Testing Index(C), including
regional maps, which show positivity rates by type of drug, will be available
online today at http://www.sb.com/news/dti.html. For company information,
visit SmithKline Beecham on the World Wide Web at http://www.sb.com.
Annual Positivity Rates
Year Drug positive Rate
1988 13.6%
1989 12.7%
1990 11.0%
1991 8.8%
1992 8.8%
1993 8.4%
1994 7.5%
1995 6.7%
1996 5.8%
1997 5.0%
Six months 1998 4.9%
Prevalence Rates
Testing Category First six 1997 1996 1995
months 1998
Federally Mandated, Safety-Sensitive
Workforce 3.4% 3.5% 3.6% 3.4%
General Workforce 5.1% 5.2% 6.4% 7.5%
Combined U.S. Workforce 4.9% 5.0% 5.8% 6.7%
Positive Drug Test Results By Testing Category
(For Federally Mandated, Safety Sensitive Workforce)
(More than 320,000 tests from January to June 1998)
Testing Reason 1997 January-June 1998
For Cause 14.4% 15.5%
Periodic 1.9% 1.3%
Post-Accident 4.3% 4.3%
Pre-Employment 3.8% 3.8%
Random 2.9% 2.8%
Returned to Duty 5.9% 4.3%
Positive Drug Test Results By Testing Category
(For General Workforce)
(More than 2.7 million tests from January to June, 1998)
Testing Reason 1997 January-June 1998
For Cause 26.7% 26.4%
Periodic 5.2% 5.5%
Post-Accident 6.8% 6.5%
Pre-Employment 4.7% 4.7%
Random 8.3% 7.6%
Returned to Duty 6.1% 7.2%
Positive Result By Drug Category
(For Federally Mandated, Safety-Sensitive Workforce,
as a percentage of all such tests)
(More than 320,000 tests from January to June, 1998)
Drug Category 1997 January-June, 1998
Amphetamines 0.30% 0.25%
Cocaine 0.73% 0.75%
Marijuana 2.0% 1.9%
Opiates 0.53% 0.56%
PCP 0.04% 0.05%
Positive Result By Drug Category
(For General U.S. Workforce, as a percentage of all such tests)
(More than 2.3 million tests from January to June, 1998)
Drug Category 1997 January-June, 1998
Amphetamines 0.26% 0.23%
Barbiturates 0.35% 0.34%
Benzodiazepine 0.59% 0.57%
Cocaine 0.90% 0.90%
Marijuana 3.4% 3.3%
Methadone 0.07% 0.06%
Opiates 0.50% 0.51%
PCP 0.01% 0.01%
Propoxyphene 0.27% 0.28%
Positive Result By Drug Category
(For Combined U.S. Workforce, as a Percentage of All Positives)
(More than 2.7 million tests from January to June, 1998)
Drug Category 1997 January-June, 1998
Amphetamines 4.9% 4.4%
Barbiturates 3.0% 2.8%
Benzodiazepines 3.9% 3.6%
Cocaine 16% 16.8%
Marijuana 60% 60%
Methadone 0.41% 0.35%
Methaqualone 0.0002% 0.0%
Opiates 9.4% 9.7%
PCP 0.34% 0.35%
Propoxyphene 1.6% 1.6%
Positive Result By Drug Category
(For Federally Mandated, Safety-Sensitive Workers,
as a percentage of all positives)
(More than 320,000 tests from January to June, 1998)
Drug Category 1997 January-June, 1998
Amphetamines 8.1% 7.1%
Cocaine 20% 20.8%
Marijuana 56% 54.9%
Opiates 15% 15.5%
PCP 1.2% 1.5%
SOURCE SmithKline Beecham
CO: SmithKline Beecham
ST: Pennsylvania
IN: HEA CHM FIN MTC
SU:
10/07/98 10:01 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Guilt By Aspiration (The Washington Post notes a 66-page pamphlet
called "How Parents Can Help Children Live Marijuana Free"
says the "Social Signs of Regular Users" include "Excessive preoccupation
with social causes, race relations, environmental issues, etc.")
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 16:17:15 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US WP: Guilt By Aspiration
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Patrick Henry (resist_tyranny@mapinc.org)
Pubdate: Wed, 7 Oct 1998
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Contact: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: Al Kamen
GUILT BY ASPIRATION
Washington may be focused on the House Judiciary Committee these days,
but other issues still stay on the front burner for many Americans.
One of those issues, of course, is drug use, especially among teenagers.
And there's a handy, 66-page pamphlet to be had on this matter called
"How Parents Can Help Children Live Marijuana Free." The primer was
published last year by Gerald Smith, director of the criminology
program at the University of Utah, and others.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), in a
prefatory "Letter to Parents," says "a morally deprived society . . .
has chosen to embrace, rather than attack, this plague" of marijuana
abuse.
But "this book serves as a primary resource to help guide you" in
giving kids a "marijuana-free life," he says, so "carefully study this
book . . . and look for the many warning signs of any children who are
using marijuana or drugs of any kind."
On page 28, there's a listing of the "Social Signs of Regular Users,"
including traditional ones like staying out all night and unexplained
needs for money. Beware if your kid "avoids the family while at home,"
and watch carefully for any "interest in Ras Tafari religion
(Marijuana use is part of that religion.)"
Then there is this most troubling sign indicating drug use: "Excessive
preoccupation with social causes, race relations, environmental
issues, etc."
So if your kid comes home talking about things like clean air, do you
check for dilated pupils?
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Monica Backs Perot on Clinton Drug Charge (NewsMax.com
says Monica Lewinsky and Ross Perot think President Clinton's using
illegal drugs in the White House. What's really in those allergy shots?)
From: "Bob Owen @ WHEN, Olympia" (when@olywa.net)
To: "-News" (when@hemp.net)
Subject: Monica Backs Perot on Clinton Drug Charge
Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 20:37:54 -0700
Sender: owner-when@hemp.net
Newshawk: ccross@november.org
Source: NewsMax.com
Pubdate: October 7, 1998
Online: http://www.newsmax.com/contact.html
Writer: Carl Limbacher
Monica Backs Perot on Clinton Drug Charge
Larry King, Tim Russert, and Wolf Blitzer were aghast this past week
when Ross Perot told them he suspected that President Clinton may be
using drugs in the White House. But when Perot levels that allegation,
he's not as far out on a limb as the TV talk hosts pretend.
Saturday's New York Post reported that transcripts of phone
conversations between Monica Lewinsky and Linda Tripp reveal that
Lewinsky thought "Clinton sometimes seemed to 'zone out' on her." Then
Monica got more specific, telling Tripp, "I think he's on drugs."
In a column published in the New York Times Magazine section just before
the 1996 election, Max Frankel quoted author Richard Reeves, who said
that Clinton, while president, was sometimes "so punchy he has trouble
thinking coherently." Reeves said that these episodes followed Clinton's
regular injections of allergy medicine, after which the president "tries
to avoid heavy lifting or meetings."
There have been substantial questions raised about the true nature of
those injections. The New York Post's Andrea Peyser reported in
September 1996 that during the first week of Clinton's presidency an
unusual package with an Arkansas postmark turned up in the regular White
House mail. It contained a vial of "mystery serum," as Peyser described
it, labeled as allergy medicine. White House physician Burton Lee was
instructed by Clinton's appointments secretary, Nancy Hernreich, to
inject the president with its contents.
But the world-renowned Lee refused to do so. He told Peyser that the
vial was inadequately labeled and that, in any event, he would not
inject the president with anything without first checking Clinton's
medical records.
Lee was told that Clinton's Arkansas doctor, Susan Santa Cruz, had his
medical file. But when he called Santa Cruz she told him she would have
to check with Hillary Clinton first before she could release the records
to Lee. Lee expected that Santa Cruz would do just that, and that
Hillary would quickly order her husband's file released to him.
He was wrong. Just one hour after his phone call to Santa Cruz, Burton
Lee was fired from the Clinton White House. An unnamed Army doctor
relieved Lee and apparently injected Clinton with the "mystery serum"
without checking his medical file. Lee told Andrea Peyser, "There isn't
any doubt in my mind that the person who fired me was Hillary."
In March 1996, the Washington Times reported that Clinton's Little Rock
allergist, Dr. Kelsey Caplinger, had told the press in 1992 that Clinton
is allergic to cat dander, weed and grass pollen, and beef. Yet Clinton
has a cat, spends half his life on pollen-laden golf courses, and loves
McDonald's hamburgers.
At the same time, Santa Cruz revealed that Clinton's surgical history
included "a procedure to open his sinuses in 1979," according to the
same Washington Times report. Cocaine abuse can sometimes make sinus
surgery necessary.
Now that Monica Lewinsky has seconded Ross Perot's suspicion about the
president's White House drug use - based on firsthand experience, no less -
perhaps it's time Clinton made his full medical file available to the public.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Canadian hemp isn't going to pot (An update on Canada's new industrial hemp
industry in USA Today says the DEA and the White House have found themselves
increasingly isolated in their refusal to grant licenses for low-THC hemp.
Farm bureaus in 17 states now support hemp, and since July, agricultural
experts at three universities - North Dakota State University, Oregon State
University and the University of Kentucky - have completed studies that
concluded hemp can be a valuable niche crop.)
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 16:23:50 -0600 (MDT)
From: "Colo. Hemp Init. Project" (cohip@levellers.org)
Reply-To: "Colo. Hemp Init. Project" (cohip@levellers.org)
To: "Colo. Hemp Init. Project" (cohip@levellers.org)
Subject: Hemp in USA Today (10/7/98)
USA TODAY
October 7, 1998
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nwswed05.htm
Canadian hemp isn't going to pot
[Photo: Farmer Jean-Marie Laprise (in a hemp field) has invested
millions in getting agricultural cannibis off the ground in Canada]
By Dennis Cauchon
USA TODAY
PAIN COURT, Ontario - The cannabis sativa plants rise tall and sunward
under a blue Canadian sky. The plants sway wheatlike in the wind,
hundreds of thousands of plants, acre after acre of professionally grown
cannabis, so thick you can't walk through the fields.
"I'm very pleased with this crop," says farmer Jean-Marie Laprise, who
is Ontario's largest grower of cannabis and Brussels sprouts. His
brother starts a big John Deere combine, ready to harvest a cannabis
field just 15 miles north of the U.S. border.
And it's all legal - for the first time since 1938.
In a new policy being closely watched by farmers and law enforcement
officials in the USA, Canada is letting farmers grow cannabis sativa,
best known as the source of marijuana. By the end of October, 251
farmers will have harvested 5,930 acres of cannabis for its ancient use
as hemp, a source of fiber and food oil.
This cannabis hemp can't get a person stoned. It's bred to have too
little THC, the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana, to produce a high,
no matter how much is smoked. Some disappointed locals have tried.
But the Canadian hemp crop could reshape the contentious debate over
whether farmers should be allowed to grow hemp in the USA.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) bans growing hemp, saying
it would make enforcing drug laws harder because hemp and marijuana look
alike. The White House and its drug czar support the ban.
Hemp and marijuana are essentially varieties of the same plant. It would
be impossible to tell them apart, outside of a chemical analysis for THC
content, if they were not bred and cultivated differently. Hemp is grown
densely - 300 plants a square yard - for low THC, high fiber content and
a minimal amount of branches and leaves. Marijuana is grown one
or two plants a square yard to be rich with branches, leaves and THC.
The DEA and the White House have found themselves increasingly isolated
in their refusal to grant licenses for low-THC hemp.
Since 1990, hemp has been legalized in most of Western Europe, including
Great Britain, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Australia joined Canada
in legalizing hemp this year.
In the USA, hemp has gone mainstream, too. Originally pushed by
marijuana legalization activists, hemp has won growing support from
farmers, agricultural researchers, environmentalists and large
corporations. They say hemp is an environment-friendly fiber that could
reduce demand for timber and synthetic fibers.
Farm bureaus in 17 states now support hemp. A cooperative of Kentucky
farmers has sued the DEA in federal court over the issue.
The North American Industrial Hemp Council's board of directors includes
executives from 3M, the giant materials manufacturer; Interface, a large
carpet maker; and the former head of the National Corn Growers
Association.
Since July, agricultural experts at three universities - North Dakota
State University, Oregon State University and the University of Kentucky
- have completed studies of hemp that reached the same conclusion: Hemp
can be a valuable niche crop.
"Among people in agriculture, the myth of its being the same thing as
marijuana is long gone," says North Dakota state agricultural economist
David Kraenzel, who did a study for that state's Legislature. "You'd
croak from smoke inhalation before you'd get high on hemp."
Hemp excites farmers mostly as a crop that can be rotated with plants
such as soybeans, wheat and potatoes. They say hemp's deep roots aerate
the soil. After the harvest, its roots and discarded leaves replenish
the soil with nutrients. Its early growth and thick canopy
choke off weeds, and it breaks disease cycles that reduce the yields of
other crops. It also can be grown largely without pesticides and
herbicides.
"North Dakota desperately needs a good rotation crop," Kraenzel says.
"Even if hemp isn't profitable itself, it is profitable as a rotation
crop. Farmers need to take some money off the land in years when they
can't grow wheat or potatoes."
North Dakota potato farmers take fields out of production every few
years because potatoes, while exceptionally profitable, drain nutrients
from the soil. Farmers plant tall grass or sunflowers to improve the
soil. But tall grass produces no revenue, and sunflowers only break
even. Hemp would turn a modest profit of $73 an acre while improving the
soil better than either tall grass or sunflowers, the North Dakota study
predicts.
Hemp opponents maintain the crop is a loser both economically and
politically. White House drug czar Barry McCaffrey says that the push to
grow hemp is "a subterfuge" for efforts to legalize marijuana and that
hemp is unlikely to be a profitable crop anyway.
"Legalizing hemp sends the wrong message about marijuana," says David
Des Roches, an aide to McCaffrey who specializes in hemp. "These poor
farmers are being conned by the marijuana legalization groups. If hemp
were a viable crop, we'd have a harder time putting forward our agenda.
Thankfully, it's not."
The critics note that world hemp production has fallen from 1 million
acres in 1960 to 250,000 acres today. The traditional big growers -
China, Romania, Hungary - have always relied on cheap labor for a
profitable crop while the new Western European farmers depend on
government subsidies worth $222 an acre in 1998.
But Canadian farmers operate much as U.S. farmers would: They are
heavily mechanized, unsubsidized and are building a processing industry
from scratch.
The success of the crop won't be known for five years, Canadian farmers
say, but this year's crop looks profitable.
Neil Strayer, who farms 1,000 acres in Saskatchewan, says his 40 acres
of hemp will return double the $200 to $300 Canadian ($128 to $192 U.S.)
an acre he makes on barley. He was thrilled by the hardiness of his
Finnish dwarf hemp, which grows 4 feet tall: "The hemp came through
beautifully despite many obstacles."
Strayer's government license was delayed, so his crop wasn't planted
until July 1, late in Saskatchewan's growing season. The spring weeds
had already come in, a problem for Strayer, an organic farmer who
doesn't use herbicides.
"Lo and behold, the hemp came in right on schedule - 70 days," he says.
His hemp will be turned into oil and sold mostly in U.S. health food
stores. He plans to plant 600 acres of hemp next year.
To get a hemp license, a clean police record is required. A farmer pays
$25 (about $16 U.S.) for a check.
The farmer provides the location of hemp fields to the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police (RCMP), who may inspect in person or by helicopter. Hemp
fields must be at least 10 acres for easy identification.
Hemp must have a THC content of less than 0.3% - the same requirement as
in Western Europe and about one-tenth that of average marijuana. Health
Canada, the government health ministry, conducts random audits of THC
levels.
In Canada, the hemp program has been largely free of controversy. The
agriculture ministry spent $500,000 ($321,000 U.S.) to research the crop
before it was legalized.
The Mounties raised no objections. "It's Health Canada's decision, not
ours. We enforce drug laws. We don't make them," says Corporal Gilles
Moreau, spokesman for the RCMP.
Jean Pert, hemp project manager at Health Canada, says no problems with
illegal marijuana have been reported.
The Canadian farmer taking the biggest risk on hemp is Laprise, whose
family has farmed in Pain Court for 145 years. The 44-year-old
entrepreneur has invested $4 million ($2.6 million U.S.) in hemp,
including money for a new processing plant, research and a breeding
operation.
Laprise's 1,500-acre farm has a 9.5-acre greenhouse that is one of the
region's biggest suppliers of vegetable transplants. His plant breeding
operation generates sales of $65 million ($42 million U.S.) a year,
one-third of his farm's revenue. He expects to be a major hemp seed
supplier.
In addition to hemp, Laprise harvests corn, soybeans, sugar beets and
8,500 tons of tomatoes a year for Heinz ketchup.
He's not an organic farmer, but he became interested in hemp in 1995
when Claude Pinsonnault, a farmer he works with, read an article about
hemp in Earthkeeper, an environmental magazine.
"The first thing I thought is: what a great rotation crop," Pinsonnault
says. "Farmers are getting killed by soybean cyst nematodes (small worms
that attack the plants). You see fields where the yield has gone from 50
to 15 bushels an acre. Hemp breaks this disease cycle."
The two farmers began researching hemp on their own, including several
trips to Europe to visit hemp farms.
They got permission to test (but not sell) a hemp crop: one-tenth of an
acre in 1995, 15 acres in 1996, 122 acres in 1997.
This year, Laprise grew 300 acres of hemp and contracted with 50 local
farmers to grow another 2,000 acres. He hopes to double that next year
to supply his processing plant.
Laprise smiles at the suggestion that he's being manipulated by
marijuana activists.
"It's a different crop. Any farmer knows that," he says. "The plants are
bred differently, grown differently, used differently."
Cannabis pollen is light and blows freely in the wind, giving this area
the distinctive smell of cannabis on a breezy day. Laprise requires that
hemp fields be 3 miles apart so different varieties do not contaminate
one another.
Pollen from marijuana bred for high THC would damage his low-THC hemp
bred for thick stocks, and vice versa.
"To put a marijuana plant in a hemp field would be ridiculous: First,
because we told the RCMP where it is, and second, because it would hurt
the hemp crop," he says.
He expects hemp to be unusually profitable in the next few years, partly
because the U.S. ban on growing it gives Canadian farmers an edge.
But long term, he predicts, hemp will become a niche crop - about
100,000 acres a year in Canada - and produce profits similar to corn and
soybeans.
"It's a new market," he says. "But, hey, somebody started growing
soybeans just a few decades ago, and now it's our second-biggest crop."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Pioneer harvests hemp idea into business (USA Today notes a new edition
of Jack Herer's book, "The Emperor Wears No Clothes," was released Thursday.
The publication of the first edition in 1985, after 11 years of research,
argued that cannabis sativa is a wonder crop which could save the world,
and sparked a movement that led to the rebirth of hemp.)
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 16:23:50 -0600 (MDT)
From: "Colo. Hemp Init. Project" (cohip@levellers.org)
Reply-To: "Colo. Hemp Init. Project" (cohip@levellers.org)
To: "Colo. Hemp Init. Project" (cohip@levellers.org)
Subject: Hemp in USA Today (10/7/98)
USA TODAY
October 7, 1998
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/nwswed06.htm
10/07/98- USA Today
By Dennis Cauchon, USA TODAY
Pioneer harvests hemp idea into business
The rebirth of hemp began in 1985 when counterculture activist/entrepreneur
Jack Herer published his eccentric book, The Emperor Wears No Clothes.
Printed on cheap newsprint, the self-published book
argued that cannabis sativa is a wonder crop that
could save the world. Only a conspiracy of drug
agents and powerful corporate interests had prevented
this glorious plant from clothing the poor, saving the
environment and helping end famine, Herer wrote.
"I had a vision about hemp in 1974 when a bunch of us
were stoned," Herer recalls. "I thought when we came
down, the idea would be ridiculous. Instead, I
realized it was even a better idea than I'd thought."
He opened the nation's first hemp store in Venice
Beach, Calif., in 1981. For his book, he researched
hemp for 11 years, harvesting a wealth of U.S.
Agriculture Department material on the wonders of
cannabis hemp and a now well-known government
propaganda film, Hemp For Victory, that encouraged
farmers to grow cannabis for fiber during World War
II. The 1942 film echoes Herer's claims about hemp.
The Emperor Wears No Clothes has sold 600,000
copies since 1985, including 150,000 in German and
French. A new edition was released Thursday.
Although still self-published, the book, subtitled The
Authoritative Historical Record of Cannabis and the
Conspiracy Against Marijuana and How Hemp Can
Save The World!, is now available in major
bookstores for $24.95 and printed on high quality
paper (made from trees, excluding 1,000 copies on
hemp available for $100 each).
In the early 1990s, farmers and agricultural
researchers began examining Herer's ideas. Although
most found his claims overstated, a consensus
developed that he was right about his most important
point: hemp was a valuable crop, long used for fiber
and oil, that answered many of today's environmental
concerns because it replenishes the soil and can be
grown with few herbicides or pesticides.
"Jack kept the idea of hemp from being lost in the
dustbin of history," says David West, who has a Ph.D.
in plant breeding and was one of the first agricultural
professionals to re-examine hemp. "But many farmers
squirm at this counterculture connection."
West says the Drug Enforcement Administration
makes the same mistake Herer made in his original
1985 book: "They both see hemp and marijuana as the
same thing. To an agricultural professional, this just is
not so."
Herer expresses disappointment that marijuana
legalization has lost its importance as hemp has gone
mainstream. In their desire to separate hemp and
marijuana, many farmers ignore excellent hemp that is
above the legal THC limit, he says. THC is the
psychoactive ingredient in marijuana that causes a
high.
But Herer lives to fulfill a pledge he first made in
1974 with his now deceased best friend and business
partner, "Captain Ed" Adair: "We'd swear to work
every day to legalize marijuana and get all pot
prisoners out of jail, until we were dead, marijuana
was legal, or we could quit when we were 84. We
wouldn't have to quit, but we could."
Herer, 59, is founder and director of Help End
Marijuana Prohibition, or H.E.M.P.
***
Re-distributed as a public service by the:
Colorado Hemp Initiative Project
P.O. Box 729, Nederland, CO 80466
Vmail: (303) 448-5640
Email: (cohip@levellers.org)
Web: http://www.welcomehome.org/cohip.html
http://www.levellers.org/cannabis.html
"Fighting over 60 years of lies and dis-information
with 10,000 years of history and fact."
ARE YOU REGISTERED TO VOTE?
***
To be added to or removed from our mailing list,
send email with the word SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE in the title.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Amnesty report slams US prisons (The Toronto Star version of Sunday's news
about Amnesty International focusing on human rights abuses in the United
States during the next year.)
Date: Wed, 07 Oct 1998 09:18:20 -0400
To: mattalk@islandnet.com
From: Dave Haans (haans@chass.utoronto.ca)
Subject: TorStar: Amnesty report slams U.S. prisons
Newshawk: Dave Haans
Source: The Toronto Star
Pubdate: Wednesday, October 7, 1998
Page: A20
Website: http://www.thestar.com
Contact: lettertoed@thestar.com
Amnesty report slams U.S. prisons
Rights group pushes for end to juvenile death penalty
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The human rights group Amnesty International has
launched a one-year campaign for penal reform in the United States, which
has more prisoners known to be awaiting execution than any other country.
The group called on U.S. authorities to abolish the death penalty for
juveniles, ban restraint devices such as stun belts, stop jailing asylum
seekers and set up independent bodies to investigate allegations of police
brutality.
In Rights for All, a 153 page report released for the campaign launch
yesterday, Amnesty said it saw a "persistent and widespread pattern of
human rights violations."
"Across the country thousands of people are subjected to sustained and
deliberate brutality at the hands of police officers. Cruel, degrading and
sometimes life-threatening methods of restraint continue to be a feature of
the U.S. criminal justice system," it added.
"In U.S. prisons and jails, inmates are physically and sexually abused by
other inmates and by guards ... Sanctions against those responsible for
these abuses are rare," it said.
A state department official said the United States welcomed scrutiny by
Amnesty but believed its political and judicial systems were "the envy of
the world."
The report said prison guards restrain the inmates with electric shock stun
guns, leg irons, pepper spray and restraint chairs. Some women prisoners
have given birth in shackles.
Amnesty International said it calculated that U.S. prisons for adults also
hold at least 3,500 child convicts in violation of an international
convention on civil rights.
People convicted for crimes committed as children can even face the death
penalty, putting the United States in the same category as Iran, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.
U.S. states have executed more than 460 prisoners since the Supreme Court
reinstated the death penalty in 1976. Unlike in most industrialized
countries, the trend is toward more and more executions. About 3,300 people
wait on death row.
Some of those executed have been mentally disabled. Blacks who kill or rape
whites are far more likely to face execution than if the criminals are
white or their victims black, the report said.
"The death penalty is often enacted in vengeance, applied in an arbitrary
manner, subject to bias because of the defendant's race or economic status,
or driven by the political ambitions of those who impose it," the report said.
A similar pattern emerges for America's 1.7 million prisoners, over 60 per
cent of whom are from racial or ethnic minorities. Half of them are African
Americans, who make up 12 per cent of the population.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
US Human Rights Abuse 'Widespead' (The version in The Independent,
in Britain)
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 18:22:43 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Us Human Rights Abuse 'Widespead'
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Martin Cooke (mjc1947@cyberclub.iol.ie)
Source: Independent, The (UK)
Contact: letters@independent.co.uk
Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/
Pubdate: Wed, 07 Oct 1998
Author: Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
US HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE 'WIDESPEAD'
UNITED STATES police forces and criminal and legal systems have "a
persistent and widespread pattern of human rights violations," and the
country fails "to deliver the fundamental promise of rights for all,"
according to a harsh report published by Amnesty International today.
The report will be a shock for a country that prides itself on the
protection of human rights and which regularly deplores abuses in other
countries.
Amnesty has published reports on the United States before, campaigning to
bring an end to the death penalty. But the approaching campaign is the
first comprehensive review of the state of human rights in the US, or any
other Western country. The group's most recent campaigns have focused on
China and Turkey.
"Across the country thousands of people are subjected to sustained and
deliberate brutality at the hands of police officers. Cruel, degrading and
sometimes life-threatening methods of constraint continue to be a feature
of the US criminal justice system," the report says, according to advance
leaks of the 150-page document.
The death penalty is "often enacted in vengeance, applied in an arbitrary
manner, subject to bias because of the defendant's race or economic status,
or driven by the political ambitions of those who oppose it" it says.
It examines the use of electric shock stun belts to tame unruly inmates,
which according to Amnesty can be fatal, and says that some illegal
immigrants suffer summary confinement in jails and police custody for long
periods without legal redress.
The report is expected to be particularly scathing of California's
maximum-security state prison, in Corcoran. Home to the killer Charles
Manson and Bobby Kennedy's assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, it houses numerous
convicted murderers, rapists and violent gang members.
But it is the officers and prison guards that have been causing most
concern. Around 50 prisoners have been shot by staff at Corcoran in the
past nine years, seven fatally.
The prison has already been investigated for an incident in 1995 when 36
black inmates were kicked, punched, slammed against walls and grabbed by
the testicles as they came off a bus in shackles.
Most disturbing of all were allegations that attempts to investigate such
incidents were covered up at the highest state level. An official inquiry
led to a cursory disciplinary response, and three official investigators
later reported that their efforts had been directly hampered by political
decisions in Sacramento, the state capital.
Amnesty says it does not want to equate the problems in the US with those
in countries that routinely arrest and abuse dissidents, but it believes
there are some areas in which the US "competes" with other countries in the
seriousness of violations.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
DrugSense Focus Alert No. 84 - Amnesty International Focuses on US Abuses
(DrugSense asks you to write a letter to The New York Times or any of the
dozen papers who covered the story. Amnesty International taken a bold step
in at long last recognizing the human rights abuses in the United Sates by
various enforcement agencies carrying out the war on some drug users.)
Date: Thu, 08 Oct 1998 17:51:39 -0700
To: mgreer@mapinc.org
From: Mark Greer (MGreer@mapinc.org)
Subject: FOCUS Alert #84 Amnesty Intn'l Focuses on US Abuses
PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE
DrugSense FOCUS Alert #84 10/7/98
Amnesty International Focuses on US Abuses.
***
Amnesty International made a bold step in at long last recognizing the
human rights abuses in the United Sates by various enforcement agencies
nationwide. This is a big step in uncovering and bringing attention to
various patterns of abuse that directly relate to drug issues. Examples
include asset forfeiture without due process, imbalance in racial
enforcement, sentencing, and incarceration rates, police brutality, failure
to recognize individual rights, and weak enforcement of offending officers.
Please write a letter on the subject to the New York Times or any of the
dozen papers who covered this story. All these stories can be found by
visiting
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews
and searching on "Amnesty International" (no quotes).
IMPORTANT Please encourage Amnesty International by sending a CC of your
letter to them at the email address provided below.
Thanks for your effort and support.
You CAN make a big difference
WRITE A LETTER TODAY
It's not what others do it's what YOU do
***
PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID ( Letter,
Phone, fax etc.)
Please post your letters or report your action to the MAPTalk list if you
are subscribed, or return a copy to this address by simply hitting
REPLY to this FOCUS Alert and pasting your letter in or by E-mailing a copy
directly to MGreer@mapinc.org
***
CONTACT INFO
Letters
letters@nytimes.com
Please CC your letter of encouragement to Amnesty International to:
Email: admin-us@aiusa.org
URL: http://www.amnesty.org/aisect/email.htm
NOTE There are a more than a dozen related articles to choose from at
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/
search on "Amnesty International" (no quotes)
***
Original Editorial:
US: Amnesty Finds 'Widespread Pattern' of U.S. Rights
[snipped to avoid duplication. - ed.]
***
ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts
3 Tips for Letter Writers
http://www.mapinc.org/3tips.htm
Letter Writers Style Guide
http://www.mapinc.org/style.htm
SAMPLE LETTER
Note: This letter was in response to the Calgary Herald (Canada) piece at
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n876.a07.html
Date: Tue, 06 Oct 1998 20:38:22
To: letters@theherald.southam.ca
From: Kathy galbraith
Subject: Yanks are Brutes Too
Editor:
Ms. Ford's commentary on the U.S. "biting the hand that feeds it", it
full of reversals and contradictions. Of course Amnesty International
does NOT ignore the "real" brutes of the world, that is who they are
fighting against constantly. Because they are honest enough to reveal
that some of these "real" brutes are AMERICANS- she gasps in so-called
shock and horror. Is this a polite, pretend gasp of horror, or is it
"real"?
Surely she must know that the U.S. have their own little repressive
regime stationed at the borders, where they delight in oppressing
Mexican Nationals, blacks, and anyone they "don't like the looks of",
subjecting them to tortuous waits, inspecions, skin-searches including
women and young people who have done nothing wrong. A 1990 study of
pregnant drug users found that a black woman was ten times more likely
to be reported than a white woman. Over 90 percent of the drug-trafficking
defendants in the nation's courts were African-American. Not even
South Africa under apartheid at its worst had a higher percentage of
black males in prison. The drug war is really a race war Catherine.
How can you think A.I. is offensive when State Dept. spokesman Foley
welcomes the scrutiny? There's some bad and wrong stuff going on
that shouldn't be and he knows there is. Sorry Ms. Ford, A.I. is fighting
for the rights of all and bottom of the list or not, the U.S. is still
on that list, whether we like it in our own back yard or not. It's
very real, and we,too, should be fighting against it.
Kathy Galbraith
Raymond, Alberta
***
Kathy Galbraith
e-mail: GALBRAITH@upanet.uleth.ca
Public Access Internet
The University of Lethbridge
***
WRITE AWAY!
Mark Greer
DrugSense
MGreer@mapinc.org
http://www.DrugSense.org/
http://www.mapinc.org
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Tory Party Conference - Fowler Attacks Blair On Drugs (The Independent,
in Britain, says Sir Norman Fowler, the shadow Home Secretary, accused
the ruling Labour Party yesterday of wasting money on illegal asylum seekers
while cutting down on police officers. Sir Norman also called for "zero
tolerance" on illegal drugs and took a swipe at Tony Blair for receiving
Noel Gallagher of the band Oasis, who said last year that taking drugs
might be as normal as getting up and having a cup of tea in the morning.)
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 16:24:19 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: UK: Tory Party Conference - Fowler Attacks Blair On Drugs
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Martin Cooke (mjc1947@cyberclub.iol.ie)
Source: Independent, The (UK)
Pubdate: Wed, 07 Oct 1998
Contact: letters@independent.co.uk
Mail: The Independent, 1 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5DL England
Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/
Author: Sarah Schaefer
TORY PARTY CONFERENCE - FOWLER ATTACKS BLAIR ON DRUGS
Sir Norman Fowler, the shadow Home Secretary, accused the Government
yesterday of wasting money on illegal asylum seekers while cutting
down on police officers.
Calling for tough measures on law and order, Sir Norman also insisted
that sex offenders should be kept behind bars indefinitely if
necessary to protect children.
"The Government estimates that over the next three years the taxpayer
will spend at least UKP1bn in supporting asylum applicants, the vast
majority of whom are bogus. It is ludicrous to see the police cut
back while we are planning to spend this amount of money on illegal
immigration," he said.
Sir Norman told representatives at the conference that people "do not
want to see sex offenders released to go free until there is some
sensible belief that they will not offend again.
"We will therefore be consulting on how our sentencing system can be
strengthened to meet that aim, including the use of more indeterminate
sentences," he said.
Sir Norman added he did not believe that the early release of more
convicted offenders into the community was the answer "to all our problems".
On drugs, Sir Norman called for "zero tolerance" and in a swipe at
Tony Blair's association with pop artists, he said: "The Prime
Minister needs to be cautious about his guest list. Frankly, Mr Blair,
you don't invite to No 10 people who support drug use."
Roger Gale, the Tory MP for Thanet North, warned, to warm applause
from representatives, that there could be social unrest if immigration
was not curbed.
"I am all for supporting those in genuine need. Quite another thing is
to see our social security system, hospitals and schools used by those
whose chief ambition is to spin it hard at the taxpayers' expense
while others in greater need have to go without," he said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Officer Stole Cannabis In 'Drugs Sting' (The Independent says Detective
Constable Terence McGuinness of Scotland Yard and two fellow officers
were filmed breaking into an east London flat and stealing 80 kilograms
of cannabis in December 1996 in a trap set by anti-corruption police.)
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 1998 18:20:53 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: UK: Officer Stole Cannabis In 'Drugs Sting'
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Martin Cooke (mjc1947@cyberclub.iol.ie)
Source: Independent, The (UK)
Contact: letters@independent.co.uk
Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/
Pubdate: Wed, 07 Oct 1998
OFFICER STOLE CANNABIS IN 'DRUGS STING'
A SCOTLAND Yard detective and two former Flying Squad officers were filmed
stealing 80kg of cannabis in a trap set by anti-corruption police, an Old
Bailey court heard yesterday.
Detectives from the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) planted the drugs
in a flat in east London and then videotaped the three defendants breaking
in and stealing the cannabis.
Detective Constable Terence McGuinness, 41, from the CID unit of Limehouse
police station and retired Flying Squad Officer Detective Constable Kevin
Garner, 38, have pleaded guilty to burglary and conspiracy to supply class
B drugs, the jury was told.
Former detective sergeant Keith Green, 41, who retired from the Flying
Squad in July 1996 on the grounds of ill health, pleaded not guilty to
aggravated burglary and conspiracy to supply class B drugs.
David Waters, for the prosecution, said the CIB "set a trap" and left the
cannabis at a flat in Silvertown in December 1996. They set up several
video cameras inside and outside the property and kept it under 24-hour
surveillance
Eighty blocks of the drug were wrapped in green plastic bags and left in a
cabinet in the bathroom. The jury was shown the video of the three men
breaking into the flat above a shop.
McGuinness forced the door open and was followed up the stairs by Mr Green,
who was carrying his old police truncheon, and Garner. Mr Green acted as
"look out".
The prosecution said that the supplying of drugs is "hardly unique", but
the circumstances of this case are "unusual" because it involves police
officers.
The court heard that all the men had served together in the Flying Squad,
which is responsible for targeting armed robbers, between 1988 and 1993.
They were stationed in Rigg Approach in Walthamstow, east London.
Garner and Mr Green both retired and McGuinness later transferred to CID.
The court heard that McGuinness was on duty at the time and drove to the
flat in a CID vehicle, a blue Vauxhall Astra, after the men had met up
outside Limehouse police station. Garner and Mr Green travelled in a
separate car.
The three arrived at the flat after 10 pm on 4 December 1996. They all left
carrying bags of the drugs, but they were not arrested immediately because
McGuinness is a serving officer and the three defendants were "very
surveillance sensitive," said the prosecution.
The drugs were later transferred to a another car. McGuinness then returned
to duty and finished his shift.
The men were arrested four days later and 54 kilos of the drug were recovered.
Mr Green allegedly told police after his arrest that he had no idea he had
removed drugs from the property. He said that Garner had arrived "out of
the blue" at his home at in Ilford, east London.
He claimed that Garner asked him to help recover "some property". He said:
"I went to the premises and thought I was involved in a lawful activity. I
believed Garner ran a debt recovery business."
Mr Green complained after his arrest that he had been "set up".
The trial continues.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Random Drug Tests At 100 Independent Schools (According to The Daily
Telegraph, in Britain, the Headmasters' Conference said yesterday that random
drug testing - of pupils - had been introduced by more than 100 leading
independent schools. Heads now assumed that, in line with national
statistics, at least 25 per cent of their pupils had experimented with
illegal drugs and about 10 per cent took them regularly. However, the number
of schools that automatically expel children for a first offence is
declining.)
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 22:26:55 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: UK: Random Drug Tests At 100 Independent Schools
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: mistyron@bigfoot.com (Misty)
Source: Daily Telegraph (UK)
Contact: dtletters@telegraph.co.uk
Website: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/
Pubdate: Wednesday 7th October 98
Author: By John Clare, Education Editor
RANDOM DRUG TESTS AT 100 INDEPENDENT SCHOOLS
RANDOM drug testing of pupils has been introduced by more than 100
leading independent schools, the Headmasters' Conference said yesterday.
Heads now assumed that, in line with national statistics, at least 25
per cent of their GCSE pupils had experimented with illegal drugs and about
10 per cent took them regularly.
The number of schools that automatically expelled children for a first
offence was now declining, they said.
The Rev Dr John Barrett, head of The Leys School in Cambridge, who led a
conference working party on drugs, said: "We are recommending heads to adopt
a more flexible approach.
We think the rules should be that any pupil involved in drugs loses
the right to be a member of the school community but may remain,
subject to random tests."
He was speaking after the conference in Jersey had been told by Trevor
Grice, an international expert on the effects of drugs, that the jury on
marijuana was back and their verdict was "guilty".
"We now know that short-term memory - which is what young people need when
they are learning - is the first thing to go when they take dope," he said.
"In the same way as sunburn doesn't disappear when the sun goes down, so 50
per cent of the effect of smoking dope over the weekend is still there
between four and six days later.
The second thing to go is the drug-taker's ability to think about the
future which is followed by disrespect for authority, lying, secret
phone calls and stealing from their parents."
Some heads disagreed with the flexible approach that the conference was
recommending. Ian Templeton, head of Glenalmond, near Perth, said:
"Our policy is one offence and you're out. That's it."
Michael Mavor, head of Rugby, said: "Our aim is to reduce the number of pupils
who experiment with drugs.
So we expel anyone we catch. We also use random testing if pupils'
behaviour or academic performance leads us to suspect that they may be
taking drugs.
It's proved to be very effective. We used to have quite a lot of
people smoking cannabis; now there are almost none."
However Mark Pyper, head of Gordonstoun, where Princes Philip, Charles,
Andrew and Edward were pupils, said drugs were so freely available that
taking them was equivalent to smoking cigarettes in the Sixties. "We
use random testing after a first offence."
Edward Gould, the head at Marlborough, where urine testing is used after a
first offence and if staff have reason to be worried about a pupil's lifestyle,
said: "In this respect, we mirror society. Drugs affect every school in
this conference."