-------------------------------------------------------------------

Public gathering to kick off the OCTA 2000 petition drive (A news release
from the American Antiprohibition League, in Portland, publicizes the opening
of the signature-gathering campaign for the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act
initiative petition 2 pm Tuesday, April 20, at Mt. Tabor Park in Portland.
Speakers include the three chief petitioners: Dr. Phillip Leveque, a retired
professor of pharmacology and toxicology; Portland attorney Paul Loney; and
D. Paul Stanford of the Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp,
the organization promoting OCTA.)

Date: Sun, 04 Apr 1999 23:55:13 -0700
To: (Recipient list suppressed)
From: Amer Antiprohibition Lg (AAL@InetArena.com)
Subject: Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, 2000

The AMERICAN ANTIPROHIBITION LEAGUE
"Drug War, or Drug Peace?"
3125 SE BELMONT STREET PORTLAND OREGON 97214
503-235-4524/fax:503-234-1330/Email:AAL@InetArena.com

"Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an
individual than the use of the drug itself." - President Jimmy Carter, 8/2/77

***

Monday, April 5, 1999

TAX & REGULATE CANNABIS

Activists unite in support of comprehensive cannabis law reform
Event planned to start the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act, 2000

What: Public gathering to kick-off the OCTA2K petition drive.

When: 2 pm, April 20th, 1999

Where: Mt Tabor Park in Southeast Portland, picnic area "A"

Why: To end this deadly, destructive, hypocritical and expensive
prohibition through regulation. (*)

Who:

* OCTA Chief Petitioners: Dr. Phillip Leveque (retired professor
of pharmacology & toxicology, AARP) Paul Loney (attorney), D. Paul
Stanford for Campaign for the Restoration & Regulation of Hemp
(CRRH), official sponsors of the OCTA2K.

* Floyd F. Landrath - Antiprohibition Lg., OCTA2K co-sponsor and
volunteer coordination.

* Portland Chapter National Organization for the Reform of
Marijuana Laws (NORML), education and outreach.

* Mr. Charles Fall - Oregon Pacific GREENS party.

* Mr. Bruce Knight - Oregon Libertarian Party Multnomah Co.

* other speakers TBA

Press and media opportunities: 2pm - 3pm in Picnic Area "A"

OCTA2K petition sheets will be available and can also be ordered by
calling 503/235-4606, we need both paid and volunteer petitioners.
More information is also available on the world wide web at
www.crrh.org/octa/.

Thank you,

Floyd Ferris Landrath - Director

* -- The OCTA2K is endorsed by the Oregon Liquor Stores Association.

***

"If drug abuse is a disease, then drug war is a crime."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Hemp Farming: Learning From The Past - Saving The Next Generation's Future
(The spring issue of the Central Oregon Green Pages features a plug for the
restoration of industrial hemp farming.)

Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 17:45:30 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US OR: Hemp Farming: Learning From The Past--Saving The Next
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Curt Wagoner
Pubdate: Spring Issue 1999
Source: Central Oregon Green Pages
Section: Enlightened Living
Page: 23
Contact: cogp@empnet.com
Website: www.cogp.empnet.com
Author: Elaine Charkowski

HEMP FARMING: LEARNING FROM THE PAST--SAVING THE NEXT GENERATIONS' FUTURE

Hemp is happening--Canadian farmers are growing it once again! This
versatile crop could also help American farmers and create thousands
of jobs.

Industrial hemp was grown in the thirteen colonies, even George
Washington grew it. Today, its economic potential is being
rediscovered. Bills allowing test plantings were introduced in
Minnesota, New Mexico, Virginia and Hawaii. A North Dakota bill (HB
1428) would reclassify industrial hemp (with a maximum three tenths
of one percent THC) as a oilseed crop, and allow its cultivation.

The U.S. and Canada both grew hemp in the past. It was falsely labeled
as marijuana and outlawed about 60 years ago due to a misinformation
campaign funded by the oil, timber and other industries threatened by
competition from industrial hemp. According to HEMPTECH, a global
network of hemp industry consultants, more than 25,000 products can be
made from hemp!

Unlike its counsin marijuana, industrial hemp is not a drug because it
lacks enough THC to produce a high. "Industrial hemp and marijuana
aren't the same thing," said Jeff Gain, chairman of the board of the
U.S. Agriculture Department's Alternative Agricultural Research And
Commercialization Corp.

Gain, who also worked for the Illinois Farm Bureau and National Corn
Growers Association said hemp could give Midwest economies a boost.
"There are concerns about the enviroment. We must have diversity crops
like hemp that grow without pesticides," he said. Hemp also out grows
persitent weeds like Johnson grass.

Ed Saukkooja of Washington State assessed logs for Weyerhauser for 22
years. He worked in logging camps and mills throughout Washington,
Oregon and Alaska. His grandfather Wally was also a logger. As
executive director of HempLobby, Saukkooja travels around the country
speaking about hemp. Hemplobby provides online lobbying materials and
maintains a database of hemp information. Its mission is to inform the
public, business community and government about hemp's economic and
enviromental benefits. Hemplobby's motto is, "Promoting the economy
while protecting the enviroment."

As Hemplobby points out, "Washington state's major industry is
logging and timber products including paper pulp. This industry is
non-sustainable and has been fading in recent years. Hemp is a natural
to replace wood as raw fiber in many products made with wood. Further,
hemp growth is beneficial to reclaim and restablize lands which have
been over-logged, eroded or over-fertilized." The group educates law
enforcement about the difference between industrial hemp and marijuana.

"The Economic Impact of Industrial Hemp in Kentucky," an eighteen
month study, was co-written by economics professor Mark Berger,
director of the University of Kentucky' Center for Business and
Economic research. Berger said Hemp ia a viable crop which can be used
in paper products, textiles, cosmetics, pharaceuticals and as a
fiberglass substitute. Returns per acre could range from $220 for hemp
grown for grain or straw to $600 for raising certified seed for other
hemp growers. Though less than the $1000 per acre return from dark,
fine-cured tobacco, hemp yeilds higher returns than soybeans, hay,
corn, wheat and grain sorghum.

Horse bedding is a lucrative hemp product now manufactured in England.
If only ten percent ot thoroughbred owners bought American-made hemp
horse bedding, a yearly market for 55,000 tons would be created in and
around Kentucky and 300,000 tons in the U.S.

Urge your legislators to legalize non-narcotic industrial hemp-for
jobs and our enviroment!

Hemp Resources:

* Hemp, Lifeline to the future" by Chris Conrad

* Consolidated Growers and Processors: www.congrowpro.com

* HempLobby: www.hemplobby.com

* HEMPTECH: wwwhemptech.com

* North Americam Industrial Hemp Council: www.naihc.org

* Hemp Industries Association: www.thehia.org

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Small Farm Town's SWAT Team Leaves Costly Legacy (The Los Angeles Times says
a federal jury last month ordered Dinuba, California, to pay out $12.5
million for brutality after its elite special-weapons-and-tactics squad shot
a 64-year-old farm worker, Ramon Gallardo, 15 times, killing him. With
insurance covering only $9.5 million, and its annual budget less than half
the size of the award, residents now face the very real prospect of crippling
cuts in public services. Now, everyone wonders why Dinuba, known as
Raisinland U.S.A., with a dozen cops on the beat and not a single murder on
the books in 1997, thought it needed a paramilitary police unit complete
with submachine guns and head-to-toe combat gear. A 1996 survey of small-town
police departments nationwide showed that 65 percent boasted a fully
operational paramilitary unit.)

From: "Bob Owen@W.H.E.N." (when@olywa.net)
To: "_Drug Policy --" (when@hemp.net)
Subject: Farm Town's SWAT Team Leaves $$$ Legacy
Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 07:58:00 -0700
Sender: owner-when@hemp.net

Monday, April 5, 1999
Copyright 1999 Los Angeles Times. All Rights Reserved

Small Farm Town's SWAT Team Leaves Costly Legacy

Court: Dinuba, Calif., was among communities forming elite units. But a
$12.5-million brutality award followed.

By MARK ARAX, Times Staff Writer

DINUBA, Calif.--The question hangs everywhere in this quiet little farm
town. Why did Dinuba, known as Raisinland U.S.A., with a dozen cops on the
beat and not a single recent murder on the books, even need a SWAT team?

Back in 1997, with scarcely a dissenting voice, Dinuba created a
special paramilitary police unit complete with submachine guns and
head-to-toe combat gear. It was a choice that this San Joaquin Valley town,
population 15,269, would almost immediately regret.

Early one morning, just a few months into training, the new squad set
upon the house of Ramon Gallardo looking for a hot gun. Officers in black
masks and camouflage burst into the bedroom where the 64-year-old farm
worker and his wife were asleep.

Before Carmen Gallardo knew for sure that the intruders were police and
not some deranged militia, her startled husband allegedly had picked up a
folding knife and was shot 15 times. He died in his underwear. The
gun - supposedly belonging to one of Gallardo's sons - was never found.

A federal jury in Fresno last month awarded the Gallardo family $12.5
million in civil damages, one of the largest judgments ever in a police
brutality case.

Tiny Dinuba, its annual budget not even half the size of the jury
award, isn't sure how it will come up with the money. With insurance
covering only $9.5 million, residents now face the very real prospect of
crippling cuts in public services.

"If we're on the hook for $3 [million] or $4 million, it would be
devastating, no doubt about it," said Ed Todd, the city manager. "That money
would have to come directly out of police, fire and parks and recreation."

In a last-ditch legal maneuver, Dinuba's lawyer has asked a judge to
throw out the wrongful death verdict or at least grant a new trial.

Rudy Gallardo, the family's spokesman, said the city's attempt to dodge
the judgment is one more indignity thrown in the face of his mother and 12
brothers and sisters. "The money that is going to come from my dad, really I
don't feel happy about it. Because it comes with blood. That money comes
with blood. But it's the only justice we're going to receive," said
Gallardo, 40.

"Sometimes I am driving and I think, 'Why? Why did they kill him?' Then
all the questions come back. 'Why didn't they just keep knocking on the door
until someone answered? Why so many bullets?' I can still hear his voice in
the backyard. I can't get rid of it. He was a good man."

The six-member Special Enforcement Team, or SET as the squad was known
here, has been disbanded in the wake of the killing, its techno warrior
outfits and weapons donated to another police department still bullish on
SWAT.

Although the size of last month's court verdict certainly sets this
Tulare County town apart, Dinuba is far from unique in the impulse to
militarize its police force. A 1996 survey of small-town police departments
nationwide showed that 65% boasted a fully operational paramilitary unit.

Like Dinuba, many towns felt compelled to start up the squads after the
U.S. military began enticing local police agencies with a shopping list of
free hardware, everything from surplus tanks to ninja suits.

"SWAT teams have been proliferating beyond anyone's wildest
imagination," said Peter Kraska, a criminologist at Eastern Kentucky
University who conducted the survey and wrote a scholarly article titled
"Militarizing Mayberry and Beyond."

"The biggest problem in small towns is the SWAT team is extremely
bored. You've got this neat unit with all this equipment and training, and
nothing is happening. So you start using them in situations where they're
really not needed, like routine search warrants. And pretty soon, you've got
an ordinary situation turn deadly."

Tucked away on the eastern flank of the nation's richest farm belt,
Dinuba once seemed airtight from fear. Residents in their 40s and 50s recall
a carefree youth of unlocked doors and midnight raids through Farmer
Sarkissian's melon patch and riding inner tubes down the irrigation canals.

Sometime around 1990, the town turned vigilant. It seemed every time
nearby Fresno cracked down on its gangs, a transplant or two landed in
Dinuba. Here and there, the words "shots fired" began appearing in the
police blotter of the local Sentinel. Many of the Armenians, Okies and
Asians who built Dinuba were dying off or moving away, replaced by poor farm
workers from Mexico. Old-timers blamed the newcomers for crime.

Dinuba turned to Los Angeles for its new police chief in 1994. By then,
the city had already had one brief marriage to a SWAT team. It ended when
city fathers concluded that a squad devoted strictly to special operations
was too much of an extravagance.

"The town was too small, and we really didn't need the unit," Mayor
John de la Montanya said.

But in the spring of 1997, after a spate of nonfatal gang shootings,
the unit was brought back--this time with the new acronym, SET. Half the
city's 12-member patrol force enlisted. The new team was given a broader
role. In addition to the occasional surprise raid, the unit would watch over
Cinco de Mayo and Raisin Day festivals.

"I felt the SET team was different from SWAT," said Police Chief Emilio
Perez, a 26-year LAPD veteran. "It was formed to deal with special problems,
from curfew checks to enforcement of bicycle helmet laws to drunk driving.

"We had gone through the proper training to do search warrants. And in
the event of a hostage situation or a riot, we would have called on the
Tulare County Sheriff's [Department]."

The events that triggered the July 11, 1997, tragedy actually began in
nearby Visalia, where police were searching for a sawed-off shotgun used in
an attempted murder. An informant told officers that the gun now belonged to
18-year-old Jesus Gallardo, a Dinuba resident who wore baggy pants and
flashed gang signals.

After securing a search warrant, 16 officers from Visalia, Tulare
County and Dinuba surrounded the small house on Golden Way. But family
members said Jesus was never a gang member and didn't buy any gun. He had
had a few minor run-ins with the law, they said, but he also was working and
not even home that morning.

While the other police agencies manned the perimeter, Dinuba's SET team
approached the front door at 7 a.m. with the stealth they had picked up in
three training sessions. Officers yelled, "Search warrant, search warrant,"
a videotape shows, and then burst through the unlocked front door.

Armando Gallardo, 16, was sleeping on the living room floor. He later
testified in the trial that one of the officers stepped on his back, put a
gun to his head and muttered, "Don't move."

Carmen Gallardo, the mother, said she didn't discern any badges on the
men who rushed inside the master bedroom. She saw only hoods and masks and
guns. "I thought they were robbers," she testified. "I became very
frightened."

She said one of the men threw her onto the bed and pushed a weapon into
her back. That's when she heard the rapid fire of the MP5 submachine gun, a
weapon that discharges three bullets each burst and is a favorite of the
Navy SEALS. "I turned and saw my husband," she told jurors. "He was leaning
on a dresser and then I heard another gunshot, and he looked at me as if I
had been killed too."

The decision to shoot Ramon Gallardo, police said, was a matter of
self-defense. He had picked up a large folding knife from atop the dresser
and was moving forward to strike them, they said. But family members contend
that the knife wasn't his and allege that officers planted it to legitimize
the shooting.

Carmen Gallardo was arrested and taken to police headquarters in bare
feet and nightgown. Detectives questioned her for five hours about a
sawed-off shotgun she said she knew nothing about.

The Tulare County district attorney determined that the Dinuba officers
had acted properly and the shooting was justified.

"The law is very clear that an officer who is threatened can do
whatever is necessary to stop the threat," said Carol Turner, the deputy
district attorney who reviewed the shooting. "We had no evidence of a knife
being planted."

The matter might have ended there if not for Arturo Gonzalez, a San
Francisco attorney named one of America's 40 finest young lawyers by the
National Law Journal. A fiery offspring of migrant farm workers and Harvard
Law School, the 38-year-old Gonzales devotes a good chunk of his practice to
cases that no one else wants.

In a valley where jurors often defer to law enforcement and civil
judgments in police cases are almost always paltry, Gonzalez had already
distinguished himself. Three years earlier, he won a $1.4-million verdict on
behalf of four Latino voting rights advocates who were subjected to an
unlawful strip-search in the Tulare County Jail.

Gonzalez said the Gallardo case underscored what he believed to be a
frightening trend: police departments big and small employing paramilitary
tactics against the citizenry on the thinnest of grounds, and constitutional
safeguards against unlawful searches being damned.

"They took a handful of patrol officers and gave them camouflage
uniforms, automatic weapons and a few days of training and said, 'Now you
are a paramilitary unit,' " he said. "This town didn't need a SWAT team. But
if you're going to have one, why turn them loose without the proper
training?"

Gonzalez said he worried how the jury of mostly white blue-collar
workers, a truck driver and oil rig operator among them, would respond. Last
month, after the $12.5-million verdict was read, Gonzalez stood outside the
federal courthouse in Fresno and paid tribute to the jury.

The award dwarfs other excessive force judgments in California and
elsewhere. In the Rodney King beating case, for instance, the judgment
against Los Angeles officers was $3.8 million.

"There are some people who think that justice cannot be obtained by
Mexican Americans in this building, and they are wrong," Gonzalez said.

Ramon Gallardo's widow and children, aware that the city's insurance
won't cover the entire judgment, recently offered to settle the case for $11
million. The insurance carrier--an association of valley cities--never
responded to the offer. In May, both sides will return to federal court to
argue the city's motion for a new trial or a reduced verdict.

Rudy Gallardo said he only wishes he could turn back the clock.

"I feel good that this case might save some lives," he said. "But if
someone came up and said, 'Rudy, you can have $100 million or you can have
your father alive again for 30 days,' I would take the 30 days. There is no
money that can buy his life."

***

When away, you can STOP and RESTART W.H.E.N.'s news clippings by sending an
e-mail to majordomo@hemp.net. Ignore the Subject: line. In the body put
"unsubscribe when" to STOP. To RESTART, put "subscribe when" in the e-mail
instead (No quotation marks.)

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Nearly 5,000 Gather For 27th Hash Bash (The Michigan Daily, at the
University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, says about 5,000 people attended
Saturday's festival, including Tommy Chong of Cheech and Chong and Steve
Hager of High Times. Some at the rally raised the issue of using marijuana as
medicine. Belleville resident Rachel Gagnon is epileptic and has spent much
of her life suffering from seizures. For years she was on a prescription drug
that caused her to lose her hair, lose control of her bowels and even stop
breathing one day. "I quit taking that drug and now I smoke marijuana,"
Gagnon said. "I feel normal. It keeps me calm so I don't have seizures.")

Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1999 11:46:32 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US MI: Nearly 5,000 Gather For 27th Hash Bash
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Richard Lake (rlake@mapinc.org)
Pubdate: Mon, 5 Apr 1999
Source: Michigan Daily (The University of Michigan)
Copyright: 1999 The Michigan Daily
Contact: daily.letters@umich.edu
Address: 420 Maynard Street, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1327
Website: http://www.michigandaily.com/
Author: Amy Barber Daily Staff Reporter

NEARLY 5,000 GATHER FOR 27TH HASH BASH

Smokers, Preachers Attracted

Carrying fliers, bongs full of marijuana and signs reading "HEMP: Help
Educate More People," "Relegalize Marijuana" and "Save The Trees -
Plant Hemp," participants in the 27th Hash Bash smoked pot freely and
protested hemp's illegal status Saturday on the Diag.

The annual festival brought about 5,000 people to the center of campus
at "high noon."

A number of speakers inspired the crowd, including Tommy Chong of the
infamous weed-smoking, movie-making duo Cheech and Chong.

"I'm so stoned I don't know what to say," Chong said.

But he had plenty to say.

"If the important people were stoned, there'd be less violence in the
world," Chong said.

Chong denied the potentially negative consequences of smoking
marijuana, saying he has been smoking nearly all of his life and at
60-years-old he can still "get it up," referring to theories about the
effects of marijuana on the body.

Another crowd favorite was Steve Hager, the editor in chief of High
Times Magazine.

"High Times officially declared that Ann Arbor is the coolest place in
the universe," Hager said.

Like Hager, many Hash Bashers came from out of town to participate in
the festivities.

"I drove down here from Clark Lake," said Rod Munch, a Michigan
resident. "I just wanted to bake out and support the local hempsters.
I love this place."

SNRE senior Dana Jonson handed out fliers promoting the cultivation of
hemp.

"It's a wonderful plant," Jonson said. "It can be used in more than
50,000 products. And it's much less dangerous that alcohol. There has
never been a death resulting from marijuana, but drinking leads to
problems like drunk driving and domestic violence."

Some at the rally also raised the issue of using marijuana as medicine.

Belleville resident Rachel Gagnon is epileptic and has spent much of
her life suffering from seizures. For years she was on a prescription
drug that caused her to lose her hair, lose control of her bowels and
even stop breathing one day.

"I quit taking that drug and now I smoke marijuana," Gagnon said. "I
feel normal. It keeps me calm so I don't have seizures. I couldn't
come out today if I couldn't smoke. I'd be in bed."

But not all participants were interested in the political aspect of
Hash Bash.

"We just came out here to get high and enjoy the day," Westland
resident Jon Boshand said. "It's nice and relaxing. Everybody's just
here to have a good time and it's a mellow vibe going on."

While most of the crowd members were held in sync beliefs about
marijuana, a few expressed dissenting opinions.

"Pot's great and all, but some of the speakers were unrealistic," said
one participant, who did not want to be named. "Nothing's going to
change. If you legalize pot, no one will go to work.

"And people will use any excuse to get marijuana as medicine," he
added. "I have glaucoma so hook me up with a bag."

Among the smokers, there were also a handful of preachers promoting
abstinence from marijuana because, they said, smoking is against God's
will.

But the preachers and others who spoke out against the legal use of
marijuana seemed to be in the minority Saturday.

Onlookers booed the preachers and one man interrupted a preacher to
argue against his teachings.

"Have you ever talked to God?" the man asked. "Because I've done
shrooms, and I talked to God. And he told me to smoke weed!"

"God was the first stoner," Chong said. "That's why he's the most high."

Several students who asked not to be named said they neither condemned
or condoned Hash Bash, but came out to take in the scene and people
watch.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

City's Marijuana Ordinance Gets Rehashed (According to the Detroit Free
Press, Ann Arbor Mayor Ingrid Sheldon said Sunday that she and other
Republican council members are studying whether to put the city's $25
marijuana possession penalty on the local ballot again. The city's pot
penalty has come under attack recently as too lenient by Republican Wisconsin
state senators Mike Rogers and Beverly Hammerstrom, who are backing a bill to
prevent local communities from levying drug penalties less stringent than the
state law. The bill passed the Senate 36-1 last month and is headed to the
House. Sheldon said that while she does not oppose the state penalty, she is
concerned that lawmakers are "trying to interfere with what Ann Arbor
citizens have voted on.")

Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1999 22:22:44 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US MI: City's Marijuana Ordinance Gets Rehashed
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
Pubdate: 5 April 1999
Source: Detroit Free Press (MI)
Copyright: 1999 Detroit Free Press
Contact: editpg@det-freepress.com
Website: http://www.freep.com/
Forum: http://www.freep.com/webx/cgi-bin/WebX
Author: MARYANNE GEORGE Free Press Ann Arbor Bureau

CITY'S MARIJUANA ORDINANCE GETS REHASHED

On the day after the 28th Annual Hash Bash, Ann Arbor Mayor Ingrid
Sheldon said Sunday that she and other Republican council members are
studying whether to put the city's $25 marijuana possession penalty on
the ballot again.

The city's pot penalty has come under attack recently as too lenient
by Republican state Sens. Mike Rogers of Brighton and Beverly
Hammerstrom of Temperance. They are backing a bill to prevent local
communities from levying drug penalties less stringent than the state
law. The bill passed the Senate 36-1 last month and is headed to the
House.

Under state law, marijuana possession is a misdemeanor punishable by
up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine. For a first offense, a person
typically receives six months probation, a $200 fine, substance abuse
screening and treatment, if necessary, said Washtenaw County
Prosecutor Brian Mackie.

Sheldon said that while she does not oppose the state penalty, she is
concerned that lawmakers are "trying to interfere with what Ann Arbor
citizens have voted on." She would prefer that local voters decide to
keep the penalty as is, or change it on their own.

Rogers and Hammerstrom could not be reached for comment.

Hash Bash started in 1972 to promote marijuana use. Two years later,
Ann Arbor voters approved a charter amendment making marijuana
possession a civil infraction punishable by a $5 fine. In 1990, voters
increased the penalty to $25 for a first offense, $50 for a second
offense and $100 for subsequent offenses.

However, on the University of Michigan diag, where a large part of the
event takes place, state law is enforced because it's considered state
property. The $25 penalty applies to adjacent city property and
surrounding neighborhoods.

Mackie said he believes Ann Arbor's law "fosters an image of Ann Arbor
as a haven for drugs."

"One of the best things we could do to improve the image of our
community and send a message to young people is to repeal that
ordinance and prosecute under state law," Mackie said.

Thirty people were arrested Saturday on U-M property for marijuana
possession, said university spokeswoman Julie Peterson.

Ann Arbor Hemp, a group pushing for the legalization of marijuana,
sponsored Saturday's Hash Bash, which drew 5,000 people.

Others oppose stiffer marijuana penalties, including the Hammerstrom
bill, which Ann Arbor Hemp member Lori Sasfy called "ridiculous."

"The lawmakers should not be spending time trying to push this through
when there are so many other pressing issues," said Sasfy, 20, a U-M
junior from Monroe.

State Sen. Alma Wheeler Smith, D-Salem Township, was the only senator
who voted against the Hammerstrom bill.

Smith said the bill made a scapegoat of the Hash Bash and did not
address "substance abuse problems that exist statewide 365 days a
year." Focusing on treatment rather than shifting penalties is a
better way to reduce substance abuse, she said.

U-M officials have challenged the Hash Bash unsuccessfully in court
several times. Washtenaw County Circuit Judge Donald Shelton ruled in
1992 that sponsors had a constitutional right to hold the
pro-marijuana rally.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Conveyor-Belt Justice (Syndicated columnist William Raspberry writes in the
Washington Post that one of the recurring gags on the old "I Love Lucy"
television show had Lucy working on an assembly line, when the boss sped up
the line. Suddenly there was no way for the frantic Lucy to keep up. She
wrapped or boxed as quickly as she could, obviously determined to do her best
under dreadful circumstances, but the packages always overwhelmed her - until
someone thought to pull the switch. It was funny when it happened to Lucy.
It's not funny when it happens in the criminal justice system. In state after
state, jailers are overwhelmed. It is the incarceration rate, not the crime
rate, that is the problem.)

Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 13:39:00 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: OPED: Conveyor-Belt Justice
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Richard Lake (rlake@mapinc.org)
Pubdate: Mon, 05 Apr 1999
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Page: A17
Copyright: 1999 The Washington Post Company
Address: 1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071
Feedback: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: William Raspberry

CONVEYOR-BELT JUSTICE

One of the recurring gags on the old "I Love Lucy" show had Lucy
working on an assembly line -- boxing candy, wrapping packages,
whatever -- when the boss sped up the line. Suddenly there was no way
for the frantic Lucy to keep up. She wrapped or boxed as quickly as
she could, obviously determined to do her best under the dreadful
circumstances, but the packages always overwhelmed her -- until
someone thought to pull the stop switch.

It was funny when it happened to Lucy. It's not funny when it happens
in the criminal justice system.

America has been accelerating the flow of inmates into prison cells,
and, in state after state, the hapless jailers are overwhelmed. Robert
Presley, the state cabinet secretary responsible for California's
prison system, knows precisely when somebody will have to pull the
switch. "April 2001," he told the Associated Press the other day. "By
then, we will have exhausted every cranny and nook."

If you're thinking that's the price the state will have to pay for its
burgeoning criminality, you're wrong. In California as in most of
America, it is the incarceration rate, not the crime rate, that is the
problem. The biggest foot on the accelerator: mandatory sentences for
drug offenders.

A recent report from the Justice Policy Institute says we locked up
more than a million nonviolent offenders in 1998.

It's madness on a range of counts. First, it's not making us any safer
and, in fact, may be making us less safe, with prisoners often
returning to society in worse shape than before. Further, since those
incarcerated are disproportionately minority men, it perpetuates the
male removal that has devastated so many minority communities. Perhaps
worst of all, the fiscal scrambling to produce enough prison cells
eats up funds urgently needed for other purposes -- including crime
prevention. California, with its nation-leading 160,000 inmates,
already has crossed that disastrous line that has it spending more on
incarceration than on higher education.

So guess what: State Assemblyman Bill Leonard has introduced a bill
calling for $4 billion in new prison construction. Somebody needs to
pull the switch.

At the least, we ought to be looking at sentencing alternatives short
of prison, particularly for nonviolent offenders. But the best way to
slow down this grim assembly line is to reach the children before they
go bad. That means money spent on early childhood education, parent
training, improved schools and day care.

Nor is that as radical an idea as it once was. Listen to these two
formulations. First:

"Prison should not be the catchall solution to all of the social
problems that we have -- to mental illness, to homelessness, to lack
of health care, to the lack of education."

Then: "Given the abused, neglected and otherwise severely at-risk life
circumstances of most youth who go on to become serious offenders . . . it
is a profound mistake to think that violent crimes by and against juveniles
can be prevented or controlled simply or mainly by increasing the
punitiveness of the juvenile justice system."

The first quote is from Angela Davis, the '60s radical now working at
prison reform. The second is from John DiIulio, who has advocated the
tough anti-crime policies -- including incarceration -- that he
believes have produced the recent downturn in the rate of violent
crime. But the Princeton professor thinks we've gotten about all we
can get from tougher sentencing and that we now are looking at a law
of "rapidly diminishing returns."

DiIulio warns that we shouldn't be misled by the relative lull in
youthful violence. Demographic trends, he believes, will "exert strong
upward pressure on crime rates in the years ahead unless we take
strong steps to prevent juvenile crime."

Angela Davis, John DiIulio and thousands of thoughtful, if less
famous, observers are coming to the same conclusion Lucy Ricardo
reached in the days of black-and-white TV: It's time somebody turned
this thing off.

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High Court Says Police Can Search Passengers In Vehicle (An Associated Press
article in the Seattle Times says the U.S. Supreme Court voted 6-3 today in a
Wyoming methamphetamine case that police can search the personal belongings
of all passengers inside a car when lawfully seeking criminal evidence
against the driver.)

Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 19:10:27 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: High Court Says Police Can Search Passengers In Vehicle
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: John Smith
Pubdate: Mon, 5 Apr 1999
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 1999 The Seattle Times Company
Contact: opinion@seatimes.com
Website: http://www.seattletimes.com/
Author: Richard Carelli, The Associated Press

HIGH COURT SAYS POLICE CAN SEARCH PASSENGERS IN VEHICLE

WASHINGTON - Police can search the personal belongings of all passengers
inside a car when lawfully seeking criminal evidence against the driver, the
Supreme Court ruled today.

By a 6-3 vote in a Wyoming case, the court expanded the already considerable
police power to search motor vehicles without a court warrant.

"Effective law enforcement would be appreciably impaired without the ability
to search a passenger's personal belongings when there is reason to believe
contraband or evidence of criminal wrongdoing is hidden in the car," Justice
Antonin Scalia wrote for the court.

In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said, "Today, instead of adhering to
the settled distinction between drivers and passengers, the court fashions a
new rule." Under that rule, Stevens said, police might be able to search a
taxi passenger's briefcase if they had reason to believe the driver had a
syringe somewhere in his vehicle.

Other decisions today:

Right to silence: Criminal defendants who plead guilty have a constitutional
right to remain silent at sentencing without judges imposing harsher
punishment on them, the justices said. The 5-4 ruling in a Pennsylvania drug
case reverses a lower-court decision.

Prior restraint: The justices refused to review a South Carolina judge's
order that barred pretrial reporting on a secretly recorded conversation
between a murder defendant and his lawyer. Without comment, they rejected a
Columbia, S.C., newspaper's arguments that the judge's 1997 "prior
restraint" on publication was unconstitutional.

Lawyers' rights: Prosecutors cannot be sued for having lawyers searched and
interfering with their ability to advise a client appearing before a grand
jury, the justices said. The court ruled unanimously that such action by
California prosecutors in the Menendez brothers' murder case did not violate
a lawyer's constitutional right to practice his profession.

"We hold that the Fourteenth Amendment right to practice one's calling is
not violated by the execution of a search warrant, whether calculated to
annoy or even to prevent consultation with a grand-jury witness," Chief
Justice William Rehnquist wrote for the court.

Death sentence: The court agreed to review the death sentence of a convicted
Virginia killer whose execution, which had been scheduled for tomorrow, was
postponed last week. The justices said they will decide whether death-row
inmate Terry Williams should get a federal-court hearing on his claims that
he was denied adequate legal help during his sentencing trial.

Libel case: The justices refused to revive a Waco television reporter's
libel lawsuit over coverage of a federal raid on the Branch Davidian
compound in 1993. Without comment, they let stand a Texas Supreme Court
ruling that threw out John McLemore's lawsuit against Dallas-Forth Worth
station WFAA-TV. The lawsuit accused the station of airing reports implying
McLemore had tipped the religious sect about the raid. A Treasury Department
investigation cleared McLemore of any misconduct.

The peculiar Wyoming case that spurred today's decision on car searches
began as a routine traffic stop, a situation that arises countless times
daily across the nation.

A car driven by David Young was stopped for speeding on Interstate 25 in
Natrona County in the early-morning hours of July 23, 1995. After a Highway
Patrol officer saw a hypodermic syringe in Young's pocket, Young candidly
said he had used it to take drugs.

During the ensuing search, two other officers asked the car's two passengers
to get out of the car. One of them, Sandra Houghton, left her purse on the
car's back seat. Inside it, police found drug paraphernalia and liquid
methamphetamine.

She was convicted on a felony charge but appealed.

The Wyoming Supreme Court threw out her conviction last year, ruling that
police were justified only in searching the car for drugs Young may have had
with him - and therefore could not search Houghton's purse.

Today's decision reversed the state court's ruling.

"The sensible rule . . . is that such a package may be searched, whether or
not its owner is present as a passenger or otherwise, because it may contain
the contraband that the officer has reason to believe is in the car," Scalia
said. He added that car passengers "will often be engaged in a common
enterprise with the driver, and have the same interest in concealing the
fruits or the evidence of their wrongdoing."

Joining Scalia in reinstating Houghton's conviction were Rehnquist and
Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Stephen
Breyer.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Ruling Expands Scope Of Traffic-Stop Searches (The version in the Omaha
World-Herald)

Date: Tue, 6 Apr 1999 08:22:37 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Ruling Expands Scope Of Traffic-Stop Searches
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: General Pulaski
Pubdate: Mon, 05 Apr 1999
Source: Omaha World-Herald (NE)
Copyright: 1999 Omaha World-Herald Company.
Contact: pulse@owh.com
Website: http://www.omaha.com/
Forum: http://chat.omaha.com/

RULING EXPANDS SCOPE OF TRAFFIC-STOP SEARCHES

Police can search the personal belongings of all passengers inside a
car when lawfully seeking criminal evidence against the driver, the
Supreme Court ruled Monday.

By a 6-3 vote in a Wyoming case, the court expanded the already
considerable police power to search motor vehicles without a court
warrant.

"Effective law enforcement would be appreciably impaired without the
ability to search a passenger's personal belongings when there is
reason to believe contraband or evidence of criminal wrongdoing is
hidden in the car," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the court.

In dissent, Justice John Paul Stevens said, "Today, instead of
adhering to the settled distinction between drivers and passengers,
the court fashions a new rule."

Under that rule, Stevens said, police might be able to search a taxi
passenger's briefcase if they had reason to believe the driver had a
syringe somewhere in his vehicle.

In other cases Monday, the court:

Said criminal defendants who plead guilty have a constitutional right
to remain silent at sentencing without judges holding it against them.
Judges cannot impose harsher punishment if such defendants refuse to
give details about the crime, said the justices' 5-4 decision in a
Pennsylvania drug case.

Ruled that prosecutors cannot be sued for having lawyers searched and
for interfering with their ability to advise a client appearing before
a grand jury. The court ruled unanimously that such action by
California prosecutors in the Menendez brothers' murder case did not
violate a lawyer's constitutional right to practice his profession.

Agreed to review the death sentence of a convicted Virginia killer
whose scheduled Tuesday execution it postponed last week. The justices
said they will decide whether death-row inmate Terry Williams should
get a federal court hearing on his claims that he was denied adequate
legal help during his sentencing trial.

The Wyoming case that spurred Monday's decision on car searches began
as a routine traffic stop, a situation that arises numerous times
daily across the nation.

A car driven by David Young was stopped for speeding on Interstate 25
in Natrona County in the early-morning hours of July 23, 1995. After a
Highway Patrol officer saw a hypodermic syringe in Young's pocket,
Young candidly said he had used it to take drugs.

During the ensuing search, two other officers asked the car's two
female passengers to get out of the car. One of them, Sandra Houghton,
left her purse on the car's back seat. Inside it, police found drug
paraphernalia and liquid methamphetamine.

She was convicted on a felony charge but appealed.

The Wyoming Supreme Court threw out her conviction last year, ruling
that police were justified only in searching the car for drugs Young
may have had with him - and therefore could not search Houghton's
purse.

Monday's decision reversed the state court's ruling.

"The sensible rule ... is that such a package may be searched, whether
or not its owner is present as a passenger or otherwise, because it
may contain the contraband that the officer has reason to believe is
in the car," Scalia said.

He added that car passengers "will often be engaged in a common
enterprise with the driver and have the same interest in concealing
the fruits or the evidence of their wrongdoing."

Joining Scalia in reinstating Houghton's conviction were Chief Justice
William H. Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony M.
Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Stephen G. Breyer.

Joining Stevens in dissent were Justices David H. Souter and Ruth
Bader Ginsburg.

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Crackdown on Corruption (The Washington Post says the U.S. Customs Service,
faced with concerns that its inspectors are increasingly vulnerable to bribes
by drug smugglers, plans to make the fight against corruption a priority for
agency officials. Customs Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly has started to shake
up his top management, strengthen disciplinary procedures, improve training
for employees and revise hiring procedures. He also has asked for authority
to use polygraphs when hiring new agents. However, the Customs Service is
already embroiled in internal conflicts such as that between criminal
investigators and Internal Affairs agents.)

Date: Mon, 5 Apr 1999 13:45:57 -0700
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
Subject: MN: US: Crackdown on Corruption
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Richard Lake (rlake@mapinc.org)
Pubdate: Mon, 05 Apr 1999
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Page: A15
Copyright: 1999 The Washington Post Company
Address: 1150 15th Street Northwest, Washington, DC 20071
Feedback: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Author: Stephen Barr, Washington Post Staff Writer

CRACKDOWN ON CORRUPTION

The U.S. Customs Service, faced with concerns that its inspectors are
increasingly vulnerable to bribes by drug smugglers, plans to make the
fight against corruption a priority for agency officials.

Customs Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly has started to shake up his top
management ranks, strengthen disciplinary procedures and improve
training for employees. He also has asked for authority to use
polygraphs when hiring new agents.

"We will not hesitate to fire people," Kelly told a House subcommittee
last month. A recent Treasury Department review found no evidence of
systematic corruption in the Customs Service but said "individual acts
of corruption have occurred and continue to occur."

The Treasury report said the Office of Internal Affairs at Customs,
which investigates allegations of misconduct by agency employees, had
failed to take aggressive steps to combat corruption and had been
wracked by infighting with the agency's criminal investigators, who
collect intelligence on drug and contraband smugglers and manage the
agency's air and sea drug interdiction programs.

The concerns about corruption among Customs employees comes at a
particularly sensitive time. The Senate Finance Committee, which held
blockbuster hearings on taxpayer abuses by the Internal Revenue
Service in 1997 and 1998, has started an investigation of Customs,
leading to fears among Clinton administration officials that the
agency may be in for a similar battering.

At the House hearing, Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) praised Kelly, who
took charge of Customs in August, for taking steps to shake up
Customs. In contrast, Hoyer said, the IRS "was not perceived as acting
internally. . . . If they had, the public would have had more
confidence in their leadership."

Treasury's Office of Professional Responsibility conducted its review
at the request of the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees
Customs, chaired by Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), who called for "zero
tolerance" of corruption at the agency.

The review, which provided a rare glimpse into the workings of a
federal law enforcement agency, portrayed Customs as a contentious
workplace.

For example, the Treasury report said, agents assigned to criminal
investigations believe that agents working for Internal Affairs "are
incompetent, overzealous and spend too much time investigating matters
that are unrelated to corruption."

Internal Affairs agents, for their part, said criminal investigators
"interfered, impeded and compromised ongoing Internal Affairs
investigations." The infighting, Treasury said, "has reached critical
proportions."

To address issues raised by Treasury, Kelly said he has replaced the
head of Internal Affairs with a career prosecutor who will report
directly to him. Kelly also has started his own review of Internal
Affairs "and will be directing reassignments when and where
appropriate," he said.

In addition, Kelly said, he has begun new procedures for the reporting
and tracking of employee violations and will establish agency-wide
"discipline review boards," strengthen the agency's whistleblower
office and publish a plain-English "code of conduct" for employees.

Kelly also plans to revamp hiring practices at the agency. Rather than
recruit inspectors and canine officers through field offices, Customs
will hire through a centralized, nationwide office. Job applicants
will take tests to assess reasoning and writing skills, undergo
rigorous interviews to determine their maturity and undergo a
background investigation and drug screening, Kelly said. The new
recruitment program will provide a "systematic approach that includes
ways to gauge integrity in potential new employees," Kelly said.

What remains unclear, however, is the extent of potential corruption
problems facing Kelly. The 98-page Treasury report provides only one
case study, describing how two agents were caught and prosecuted for
their part in a $1 million bribery scheme arranged to smuggle cocaine
from Mexico into the United States.

Asked to provide a tally of how many Customs employees have been
convicted of drug-related crimes in recent years, the agency said its
antiquated computer systems provided "inconclusive data."

Meanwhile, Robert M. Tobias, president of the National Treasury
Employees Union, which represents Customs employees, opposes a
proposal that Customs rotate border inspectors on a regular basis to
reduce the chances that family friends or acquaintances can influence
them to look the other way when contraband or narcotics move through
ports of entry.

Tobias cited the case of Virginia Rodriguez, a Customs inspector and
single parent in Brownsville, Tex., who arrested one of the FBI's top
10 suspects at a border crossing. "She told me recently that she
probably pays more for child care than anyone else in Brownsville in
order to have quality care available for the ever-changing day and
night shifts she works in order to keep the port staffed around the
clock," Tobias said.

He said Customs would have trouble retaining such employees "if they
would have to face the daunting tasks of uprooting their families,
searching for affordable housing and quality child care every couple
of years."

-------------------------------------------------------------------

[End]