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75% OF DRUG USERS JUST SMOKING POT NORML - Three out of four illicit drug users in the United States are marijuana smokers, according to survey data released by the Department of Health and Human Services. According to the department's annual "National Survey on Drug Use and Health," an estimated 19.5 million Americans currently use illicit drugs (as defined as use within the past month). Of these, 14.6 million - or 75 percent - self-identify as marijuana smokers. By comparison, only 2.3 million Americans reported using cocaine, approximately one million reported using LSD, and fewer than 120,000 said that they currently use heroin. In addition, an estimated 97 million Americans - slightly more than 40 percent of the US population age 12 or older - have used marijuana during their lifetimes, the study noted. MEDIA PERPETUATES CRACK BABY MYTH MARIAH BLAKE, COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW - Crack hit the streets in 1984, and by 1987 the press had run more than 1,000 stories about it, many focusing on the plight of so-called crack babies. The hand-wringing over these children started in September 1985, when the media got hold of Dr. Ira Chasnoff's New England Journal of Medicine article suggesting that prenatal cocaine exposure could have a devastating effect on infants. Only twenty-three cocaine-using women participated in the study, and Chasnoff warned in the report that more research was needed. But the media paid no heed Soon, images of the crack epidemic's "tiniest victims" - scrawny, trembling infants - were flooding television screens. Stories about their bleak future abounded. One psychologist told The New York Times that crack was "interfering with the central core of what it is to be human." Charles Krauthammer, a columnist for the The Washington Post, wrote that crack babies were doomed to "a life of certain suffering, of probable deviance, of permanent inferiority." The public braced for the day when this "biological underclass" would cripple our schools, fill our jails, and drain our social programs. But the day never came. Crack babies, it turns out, were a media myth, not a medical reality. This is not to say that crack is harmless. Infants exposed to cocaine in the womb, including the crystallized version known as crack, weigh an average of 200 grams below normal at birth, according to a massive, ongoing National Institutes of Health study. . . A group of doctors and scientists was already lobbying The New York Times to drop terms like "crack baby" from its pages. . . Assistant Managing Editor Allan Siegal refused to meet with the researchers, saying via e-mail that the paper simply couldn't open a dialogue with all the "advocacy groups who wish to influence terminology." After some haggling, he did agree to publish a short letter to the editor from the researchers. While the paper hasn't used "crack baby" in the last several months, it has referred to babies being "addicted" to crack, which, as the researchers told the editors, is scientifically inaccurate, since babies cannot be born addicted to cocaine. The researchers later circulated a more general letter urging all media to drop the term "crack baby." But the phrase continues to turn up. Of the more than 100 news stories that have used it in the last year, some thirty were published after the letter was distributed in late February. CRONKITE COMES OUT AGAINST WAR ON DRUGS Retired TV news anchorman Walter Cronkite has used his latest syndicated column to blast the federal government for conducting a useless "war on drugs." BRITISH YOUTHS PRETEND TO TAKE DRUGS SOCIAL ISSUES RESEARCH CENTER, UK - 20% of teenagers say their mates pretend to take drugs, according to new research. Almost half of UK teenagers (49%) say the need to fit in with their 'tribe' dictates their group's behavior, according to new research by FRANK, the free and confidential drugs helpline, with a fifth of teens claiming that peer pressure leads their friends to pretend to take drugs to look 'cool'. Dr. Peter Marsh, Director at the Social Issues Research Centre, and co-author of the FRANK report, says: "Like their tribal ancestors, teenagers today learn to understand who they are by defining themselves through social bonds and affiliations with a peer group. As they make the hormone-laden journey from child to adult, they forge a personal identity by first creating a social identity. Music tastes and appearance are the obvious ways to define oneself, but the ways in which young people talk about themselves to their peers also helps them to create a sense of self. To be an individual, we first need to be one of the lads or lasses." REPORT JULY 2004 WALTERS ADMITS LATIN AMERICAN DRUG WAR A FAILURE BBC - US drugs czar John Walters has admitted that Washington's anti-narcotics policy in Latin America has so far failed. Mr Walters said in Mexico that billions of dollars of investment over many years have failed to dent the flow of Latin American cocaine onto US streets. "We have not yet seen in all these efforts what we're hoping for on the supply side, which is a reduction in availability," he said in Mexico City. But he predicted positive results would be seen within a year. . . However, in an interview with the Associated Press news agency, he defended the Plan Colombia aid package and insisted that it should continue. "We have a history in the United States of not following through on programs like this," he said. DRUG CZAR TRIES HYSTERIA TO BOOST FAILED WAR ON DRUGS [Note that despite sending tens of thousands of people to prison for pot use, "The number of children and teen-agers in treatment for marijuana dependence and abuse has jumped 142 percent since 1992." It looks like Walters is getting even more desperate than usual] REUTERS - Alarmed by reports that marijuana is becoming more potent than ever and that children are trying it at younger and younger ages, U.S. officials are changing their drug policies. Pot is no longer the gentle weed of the 1960s and may pose a greater threat than cocaine or even heroin because so many more people use it. So officials at the National Institutes of Health and at the White House are hoping to shift some of the focus in research and enforcement from "hard" drugs such as cocaine and heroin to marijuana. While drug use overall is falling among children and teens, the officials worry that the children who are trying pot are doing so at ever-younger ages, when their brains and bodies are vulnerable to dangerous side effects. . . The number of children and teen-agers in treatment for marijuana dependence and abuse has jumped 142 percent since 1992, the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University reported in April. . . For National Institute on Drug Abuse director Dr. Nora Volkow the final straw was a report her institute published in May in the Journal of the American Medical Association (news - web sites) showing the steady growth in the potency of cannabis seized in raids. According to the University of Mississippi's Marijuana Potency Project, average levels of THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, rose steadily from 3.5 percent in 1988 to more than 7 percent in 2003. [The potency level of pot historically rises and falls with the desire to make marijuana a political issue] Walters is quick to stress he does not want to overreact. "We shouldn't be victims of reefer madness," he said, referring to the 1930s propaganda film "Reefer Madness" that became a 1970s cult classic for its over-the-top scenes of marijuana turning teens into homicidal maniacs. LA COPS HITTING SCHOOLS WITH MINOR DRUG BUSTS JASON FELCH, LA TIMES - The Los Angeles Unified School District has decided to launch a review of the police program of sending undercover officers into high schools to buy drugs amid questions over whether the busts are fair and effective. The School Buy program, which is conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department on campuses across the city, caught 252 students selling drugs over the last year. Police officials declared the campaign a success, noting that it caught 105 more students than last year's program. But critics said success should not be measured by the number of students caught. They question whether the officers are actually targeting serious dealers. They also point to the rise in special-education students caught in recent years. . . Drug availability in Los Angeles schools has remained largely unchanged over the last seven years, according to a recent survey by the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study found that of students asked, 37.5% said they had been offered, sold or given an illegal drug on school property in the last 12 months, compared with 27.8% nationally. The Los Angeles number has changed little since 1997, when 36.2% reported being offered. RIGHTWING GOVERNOR ADVOCATES DRUG TREATMENT OVER JAIL http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A473-2004Jul20.html JOHN WAGNER, WASHINGTON POST - Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) yesterday touted drug treatment as an alternative to prison for nonviolent offenders as he launched a panel designed to coordinate Maryland's fight against substance abuse. "As regard to treatment, I believe in it," Ehrlich said during a morning visit to a parole and probation office in Gaithersburg. "We know treatment works. The facts are treatment works." Ehrlich introduced Andrew L. Sonner, a retired judge of the Maryland Court of Special Appeals and former Montgomery County prosecutor, as chairman of his new Maryland State Drug and Alcohol Abuse Council. The panel is intended to oversee the efforts of county drug and alcohol abuse councils that were established by the General Assembly. The signature provision of the law seeks to divert nonviolent drug offenders into treatment rather than prison. The bill, which called for spending $3 million to set up treatment programs, passed in this year's session with widespread bipartisan support. It is expected to save money on incarceration WILLIAM BUCKLEY JOINS POT REFORM MOVEMENT WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY, NATIONAL REVIEW - Today we have illegal marijuana for whoever wants it. An estimated 100 million Americans have smoked marijuana at least once, the great majority, abandoning its use after a few highs. But to stop using it does not close off its availability. A Boston commentator observed years ago that it is easier for an 18-year old to get marijuana in Cambridge than to get beer. Vendors who sell beer to minors can forfeit their valuable licenses. It requires less effort for the college student to find marijuana than for a sailor to find a brothel. Still, there is the danger of arrest (as 700,000 people a year will tell you), of possible imprisonment, of blemish on one's record. The obverse of this is increased cynicism about the law. We're not going to find someone running for president who advocates reform of those laws. What is required is a genuine republican groundswell. It is happening, but ever so gradually. Two of every five Americans, according to a 2003 Zogby poll cited by Dr. Nadelmann, believe "the government should treat marijuana more or less the same way it treats alcohol: It should regulate it, control it, tax it, and make it illegal only for children." Such reforms would hugely increase the use of the drug? Why? It is de facto legal in the Netherlands, and the percentage of users there is the same as here. The Dutch do odd things, but here they teach us a lesson. JUNE 2004 'JUST SAY NO' ADS DON'T WORK http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/2595607 SK BARDWELL, HOUSTON CHRONICLE - Anti-drug ads, which the government plans to spend $145 million to produce this fiscal year, do little to dissuade young people from taking drugs, according to research conducted by Texas State University at San Marcos psychology professors. Even worse, the ads may actually prompt some teens to experiment with drugs -- a reaction diametrically opposite that sought by the White House Office of National Drug Policy. The study, which researchers will present Friday at a meeting of the American Psychological Society in Chicago, is part of a larger, ongoing project sponsored by the Marijuana Policy Project, a national marijuana policy reform organization. . . Three of every four students reported the ads sparked thoughts that ran counter to the ads' message, the study showed. "For example, in response to ads linking drug use to the war on terror, the most frequent unanticipated thoughts were that marijuana should be legalized, the war on drugs has been ineffective, and that marijuana users should grow their own," said Czyzewska. MAY 2004 RUSSIA EASES DRUG LAWS CARL SCHRECK MOSCOW TIMES - Under a new law, drug users can possess a greatly increased amount of an illegal substance -- for instance, 20 grams of marijuana or 1.5 grams of cocaine -- without the risk of being thrown in jail. The law has been criticized by the Federal Anti-Drug Service, which says it hampers the battle against drugs, but praised by those who work to rehabilitate drug addicts, who predict more addicts will now seek help. President Vladimir Putin signed an amendment to the Criminal Code in December stipulating that possession of no more than 10 times the amount of a "single dose" would now be considered an administrative infraction rather than a criminal offense. Punishment would be a fine of no more than 40,000 rubles ($1,380) or community service. It then took five months to hammer out what would be considered the single dose of various drugs. Ten times the amount of a single dose, as set in the government resolution that came into effect Wednesday, is 20 grams of marijuana, 5 grams of hashish, mescaline or opium, 1.5 grams of cocaine, 1 gram of heroin or methamphetamine, and 0.003 grams of LSD. Anyone caught in possession of these amounts or less cannot legally be detained, a spokeswoman for the Moscow branch of the Federal Anti-Drug Service said. Instead, a report will be filed and the fine will be determined by a court. This is a major change. Under the old standards, someone caught with 0.1 grams of marijuana, for instance, could be punished by incarceration. WAR ON DRUG INCREASES HOMICIDE RATE, DOESN'T REDUCE DRUG USE THE "WAR ON DRUGS" has not reduced drug use, crime, or poverty as its proponents claim, says Boston University economist Jeffrey Miron. In fact, the criminalization of drugs has actually increased the homicide rate in this country, says Miron his new book, Drug War Crimes. Drug prohibition in the U.S. is now almost eighty years old. In recent years, government expenditure for prohibition enforcement has exceeded $33 billion annually, with law enforcement authorities making more than 1.5 million arrests per year on drug-related charges. Jeffrey Miron, a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute, reports that: - A study of sample precincts in New York City found that three-quarters of drug-related homicides resulted from drug-trade disputes. Eliminating drug prohibition would probably reduce homicide in the United States by 50 to 75 percent. - In the U.S. there are now more than 318,000 people behind bars for drug violations, more than the total number of people incarcerated for all crimes in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain combined. - The price of illegal drugs has actually declined over the past two decades, reflecting their greater availability. Adjusting for inflation and drug purity, the price of cocaine fell in real terms from $450 per pure gram in 1981 to about $100 by 1996. - Although there are more than 1.2 million possession arrests each year, there are more than 28 million drug users who face minimal risk of arrest or other sanctions. Miron argues that prohibition also creates new health risks for drug users, enriches criminals, and threatens our civil liberties. Prohibition, he forcefully argues, is a poor method of reducing drug use and an poor goal for government policy. Drug War Crimes argues that modifications of current prohibition, such as reduced enforcement, decriminalization, medicalization, or legalization of marijuana only, are moves in the right direction, but they are inferior to a fully legalizing these substances. ORDER POT USE RATES UNAFFECTED BY LEGALIZATION IN RESEARCH PUBLISHED in the May issue of the American Journal of Public Health, Craig Reinarman, a UC Santa Cruz sociologist, said he found there was no difference between drug-use rates in Amsterdam, where marijuana is freely bought at licensed coffee shops, and San Francisco, where pot-smokers still can get busted. "Drug policy doesn't appear to have much relevance," Reinarman said in an interview Monday. "There is not a lot of evidence to suggest that criminalization has a deterrent effect." In the late 1990s, Reinarman conducted random door-to-door surveys of 265 adults from San Francisco who had used marijuana 25 times or more. The research team, including two scientists from the Center for Drug Research in the Netherlands, then compared the data with identical survey information gathered from 216 adults in Amsterdam. The results showed no difference between the cities for key factors such as age of first use, and age and duration of maximum use. Dutch marijuana users also were less likely to use other illicit drugs such as cocaine, crack, amphetamines or opiates such as heroin. DRUG WAR A TOTAL FAILURE FOX NEWS - Use of marijuana abuse or dependence climbed from 1.2 percent of adults in 1991-92 to 1.5 percent in 2001-02, or an estimated 3 million adults 18 and over. That represents an increase of 800,000 people, according to data from two nationally representative surveys that each queried more than 40,000 adults. Among 18 to 29-year-olds, the rate or abuse or dependence remained stable among whites but surged by about 220 percent among black men and women, to 4.5 percent of that population, and by almost 150 percent among Hispanic men, to 4.7 percent. Among all adults ages 45 to 64, the rate increased by 355 percent, to about 0.4 percent of that population. SOME PEOPLE ARE NEVER SATISFIED DENNIS BUECKERT, CANADIAN PRESS - Nearly a third of the patients who got marijuana through Health Canada's medical access program have returned the product, says an activist who sees that as proof that federal pot isn't worth smoking. "High school students in a cupboard could grow a product that is better and safer than what we're getting," said Philippe Lucas, who obtained the figures through the federal access to information law. "I think it's much weaker than the government claims. I'd really suggest their testing is off." ~~~ "Visibly, it's horrible. There's visible stock and stem and it's ground far too fine to actually roll so you're forced to use it in a pipe and when you do it burns very black with dark, acrid ash. 480 DUTCH TOWNS OPPOSE STIFFER DRUG PENALTIES ANTHONY DEUTSCH, SCOTSMAN - Plans to tighten up the Netherlands' famously liberal attitude towards cannabis have met with strong resistance by local authorities across the country. . . The prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende's cabinet proposed to reduce the number of "coffee shops" where marijuana is sold and to ban sales of cannabis to foreign tourists in border areas. For nearly 30 years, small quantities of marijuana and hashish have been sold at coffee shops. Though the practice is tolerated, cannabis remains a controlled substance and technically its sale and use is illegal. . . A joint statement issued by 483 municipalities said the proposed measures would force the marijuana business underground. . . Roughly 780 coffee shops exist in the Netherlands, but half are in the three big cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. About 80 per cent of municipalities do not permit coffee shops. Government figures say the number of people who have tried marijuana in the Netherlands ranks in the middle of a range of EU countries, the United States and Australia. SOUTH AFRICA HAS PRO-POT MOVEMENT APRIL 2004 DRUG BUSTS WELCOME TO THE ABUSIVE APPLE DRUG WAR CHRONICLE - Responsible for nearly 10% of all marijuana arrests in the entire country, the NYPD typically hauls people in for possessing a joint or two, an offense usually punished with a small fine, but gets its pound of flesh by detaining those arrested in dirty, cramped holding cells for an average of nearly an entire day. For jaded New Yorkers, it's just business as usual, especially in the police state atmosphere that pervades the city since the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. But for visitors from more civilized climes, the NYPD's behavior is shocking and scandalous. Ask Canadian couple Paul Dehler, 45, and his wife, Caroline Gudz, 41, of Ottawa. According to a report in the Ottawa Citizen this week, the couple is officially complaining to Mayor Michael Bloomberg over a run-in they had with some of the city's finest during a January visit to the city. Dehler and Gudz were sitting eating a bagel in Cooper Square Park in Manhattan's Lower East Side when they were set upon by undercover narcs who claimed they were smoking marijuana. They were not, said Dehler and Gudz, only having lunch before a trip to the Museum of Modern Art, when two scruffy looking men in civilian clothes rushed them, yelling something about smoking marijuana. Thinking they were being mugged, Gudz screamed for help. According to Dehler, the undercover cops punched him in the face and threw him to the ground. Although no marijuana was found, both Gudz and Dehler were arrested and jailed at the 9th Precinct for nearly 24 hours. "I got brought in front of this big bull sergeant who looks at me and says, 'Do you like to fight with cops up in Canada?' I said, 'I don't know what's going on. I'm willing to apologize to the arresting officer,'" Dehler told the Ottawa Citizen. "He interrupts me and says: 'If that was me arresting you, you would be in the hospital right now.' He said, 'Take him in the back and strip search him and give him the whole nine yards.'" The NYPD strip-searched Dehler and Gudz and repeatedly blocked their efforts to contact friends, family, or attorneys, Dehler said, but a good Samaritan who witnessed the encounter contacted the Canadian consulate. Gudz was charged with resisting arrest and obstructing justice, while Dehler was charged with attempted assault, resisting arrest, harassment and disorderly conduct. All the charges have since been dropped, but the couple is out $5,000 in legal expenses and has, for good reason, developed a jaundiced view of the Big Apple and the United States. In their letter to the mayor, they wrote: "Every Canadian who has heard our story has been horrified that law-abiding, well-intentioned tourists can suffer such a terrifying experience at the hands of NYC law enforcement authorities," Dehler wrote. POLICE IN ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico, have found a unique way to block a pro-marijuana event: Simply close down the park where the event is scheduled. That's what happened for the second year in a row, the Albuquerque Tribune reported last week. Roosevelt Park in the city's Southeast Heights neighborhood had been the traditional venue for the annual celebration of marijuana culture, with 4-20 events in previous years drawing as many as 400 people, the newspaper reported. BARBARA ADRIAENES, 39, of suburban Denver admits she sometimes used methamphetamine. She concedes that she was in possession of a small personal amount of the drug when the Metro North Drug Task Force broke in her window and kicked in her door as she was studying for an art class one morning last year. But she denies that she was cooking meth in a home lab, and police concede as much -- they found no lab, no toxic chemicals. So why did they force her to strip naked in the parking lot of her condo behind a windblown tarp that only intermittently hid her from ground level observers and left her fully exposed to upper floor residents, not to mention the three male officers and two female officers ogling her from inside the tarp's perimeter as part of a "meth lab decontamination procedure"? FEDERAL JUDGE RULES FOR POT GROWERS Howard Mintz, mecury news, ca - Adding another puff of hope to the medicinal marijuana movement, a federal judge on Wednesday sided with a Santa Cruz cannabis cooperative, issuing an order allowing pot to be grown for the sick and dying without fear of a raid by federal drug agents. San Jose U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel blocked federal agents from enforcing drug laws against the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana in Davenport, prompting founders Valerie and Michael Corral to immediately begin planting marijuana seeds for a fall harvest. The cooperative, known as WAMM, has nearly 200 members who say they've got a doctor's recommendation to use marijuana to relieve the painful symptoms of diseases such as cancer and AIDS. The ruling marked the first lower court interpretation of a recent federal appeals court decision that crafted an exemption to federal drug laws for seriously ill patients who grow their own marijuana or get it for free. MARCH 2004 THE CASE AGAINST DRUG TESTING MARSHA ROSENBAUM, FRESNO BEE - Random drug testing does not deter drug use. The same large survey Bush cited that showed declines in illegal drug use this year also compared 76,000 students in schools with and without drug testing. It turned out there was no difference in illegal drug use among students from both sets of schools. . . Random drug testing alienates students. Students must be observed (by a teacher or other adult) as they urinate to be sure the sample is their own. The collection of a specimen is a humiliating violation of privacy, especially embarrassing for an adolescent. Testing can have the unanticipated effect of keeping students from participating in after-school, extracurricular programs -- activities that would fill their time during the peak teenage drug-using hours of 3-6 p.m. Sitting on the sidelines A student in Tulia, Texas, summed it up: "I know lots of kids who don't want to get into sports ... because they don't want to get drug tested. That's one of the reasons I'm not into any [activity]. I'm on medication, so I would always test positive, and then they would have to ask me about my medication, and I would be embarrassed. And what if I'm on my period? I would be too embarrassed." Drug testing is expensive and inefficient. As in Fresno, school districts across the country are in financial crisis. The millions of dollars proposed for random drug testing could be used more wisely, having a real rather than symbolic impact on high school drug abuse. School administrators in Dublin, Ohio, for example, calculated that their $35,000 per year drug-testing program was not cost-efficient. Of 1,473 students tested, at $24 each, 11 tested positive, for a total cost of $3,200 per "positive" student. They canceled the program and, with the savings, were able to hire a full-time counselor and provide prevention programs that reached all 3,581 students. Testing is not the best way to detect problems with alcohol and other drugs. Though it may provide a false sense of security among school officials and parents, who believe it tells which students abuse drugs, in fact testing detects only a tiny fraction of users, many of them without problems, and misses too many who are in trouble. If we are truly intent on helping students, we should listen to drug-abuse professionals who know that detection of problems requires careful attention to signs such as truancy, erratic behavior and falling grades. Some will argue that students need drug testing to help them say "no." But in 2003, the "State of Our Nation's Youth" survey found that, contrary to popular belief, most teens are not pressured to use drugs. The same survey found, much to the surprise of many parents, that 75% of teenagers actually enjoy spending time with their parents and feel they have a good relationship with them. Drug testing actually has the effect of undermining parental influence, forcing adults to say, in essence, "I don't trust you," to teenagers. FEBRUARY 2004 DRUG WARRIORS EVEN WANT MORE INVASION OF CITIZEN RIGHTS NORML- State DUID (driving under the influence of drugs) laws should allow police expanded authority to randomly draw bodily fluids from drivers in order to deter people from driving while impaired by illicit drugs, recommended panelists at this week's two-day symposium on drugged driving, sponsored by The Walsh Group, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy. Panelists proposed allowing law enforcement officials to collect blood, saliva, and/or urine samples from drivers during roadside stops to test for either illicit drugs or, in some cases, drug metabolites (inert compounds indicative of past drug use). Panelists agreed that an ideal policy would allow police the authority to test drivers both with cause (i.e. drivers believed by the officer to be impaired) and without cause (i.e. drivers not believed to be impaired). "America's experience with workplace drug testing (where suspicionless drug testing is allowed) has prepared us for drugged driving testing," former NIDA director Robert DuPont said. "We must move away from the concept of 'You can't drive impaired by drugs,' to 'You can't drive on drugs at all.'" Currently, eight states (Arizona, Georgia, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Rhode island, and Utah) have enacted so-called "zero tolerance" per se laws which make it a criminal offense to operate a motor vehicle while having a drug or metabolite in one's body or bodily fluids. Under such statutes, individuals can be found guilty of violating the law if the driver is found to have been operating a motor vehicle with any amount of a prohibited substance present in their system. In the case of marijuana, the inactive metabolite remains identifiable in the urine for days and sometimes even weeks after its use FEDERAL AGENTS TERRORIZE INNOCENT FAMILY AARON SMITH STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE - When armed federal agents raided North Shore homes and arrested a dozen suspected members of two rival crack gangs yesterday morning, they may have stepped on some innocent toes in West Brighton in the process. Members of the Carter family said their Cary Avenue house was raided by submachine-gun-toting feds looking for a suspected gang member -- Kinte Carter -- who had no connection to them or their address. "I was shaking like a leaf," said Lillian Carter, whose family has lived in the house for 60 years. "I was afraid that they were going to hurt my kids." Mrs. Carter said police stormed into her home and woke up her teen-age sons -- aged 14 and 18 -- at gunpoint, demanding their identification. "Police were all over," said Mrs. Carter, who was brewing coffee and cleaning her stove at about 6 a.m. when she heard noises outside. "I think they had the house surrounded. They knocked in the door." ... Mrs. Carter's 18-year-old son, Terrance Wilson, said he was still in bed, about to get up to go his job at a tile warehouse, when the agents barged into the house... Mrs. Carter said the agents left after they realized they had stormed into a house full of innocent people. "My nerves are shot," said Mrs. Carter, who was unable to go to her nursing job after the incident. STOP THE DRUG WAR - One of Britain's police chiefs told the BBC last week that heroin ought to be legalized and was nicely reamed for his efforts by some of his colleagues, who all but called him a traitor to the cause. The brouhaha came about when North Wales Police Chief Constable Richard Brunstrom told the BBC Wales' political talk show Dragon's Eye on February 5 that current drug laws "do more harm than good" and he was prepared to see heroin sold openly. "Heroin is a very, very addictive substance, extremely addictive, far more so than nicotine, but it's not very, very dangerous. It's perfectly possible to lead a normal life for a full life span and hold down a job while being addicted to heroin," Brunstrom told the BBC. "I don't advocate anybody abusing their body with drugs but clearly some want to. What would be wrong with making heroin available on the state for people who wanted to abuse their bodies? What is wrong with that?" . . . As for public support for change, he said: "I've had overwhelming support at the very least for a no-holds barred, all-options considered, total review of the drugs laws. There is an enormous number of people of all age groups and all sections of our society who are ready to see a root and branch change to our drugs laws." DRUG POLICY - More than 128,000 students have been adversely affected by the Higher Education Act provision that denies financial aid to college students with minor drug convictions POT DRIVERS AREN'T BAD SAYS STUDY Volunteers who had previously consumed cannabis performed better than non-users on a driving simulator test, according to findings of a study published this week by Britain's Evening News. A group of 20 volunteers participated in the study, which tested respondents' performances on a video game that simulated driving. Half of the drivers played the game after smoking the equivalent of half a marijuana cigarette. "The results showed that for those who had smoked ... cannabis: 80 percent demonstrated superior reaction times; 60 percent finished a lap faster; 70 percent experienced a lower number of collisions; 60 percent reached a higher level in the game," the Evening News reported. In head to head match-ups versus non-users, cannabis users performed better in eight out of ten match-ups. However, when the dosage was increased to the equivalent of two marijuana cigarettes, non-users won the majority of one-on-one contests. Previous driving simulator studies have yielded similar results, demonstrating that marijuana intoxication mildly impairs psychomotor skills, but that drivers are generally aware of their intoxication and compensate for it accordingly. Most recently, a Canadian Senate report concluded, "Cannabis alone, particularly in low doses, has little effect on the skills involved in automobile driving." NORML - The nation's most widely used school-based substance abuse prevention program does not influence graduates to refrain from experimenting with illicit drugs, according to a General Accounting Office report evaluating the long-term effectiveness of the DARE program. DARE receives an estimated $230 million in federal and corporate subsidies to offer its curriculum in approximately 80 percent of public schools. Despite the program's popularity, the GAO found no significant differences in illicit drug use between students who received DARE in the fifth or sixth grade and students who didn't. . . The GAO also noted that DARE curriculum urging students to resist peer pressure had no long-term impact in discouraging youth from using drugs. The DARE program continues to receive federal funding from both the Department of Justice and the Department of Education despite its notably poor performance. MINNESOTA COULD SAVE $30 MILLION A YEAR WITH DRUG TREATMENT RATHER THAN PRISON DRUG WAR CHRONICLE - The Minnesota Sentencing Guidelines Commission has found the state could save $30 million a year if nonviolent drug offenders were sent to treatment instead of prison. Since 1989, Minnesota has embarked an ever-harsher war on drugs, with the percentage of drug prisoners rising from 9% in 1989 to 23% in 2002. That year, for the first time ever, Minnesota sent more people to prison for drug offenses than for either violent or property offenses, and for longer. Average drug sentences more than doubled in length between 1988 -- the last year before the state's current harsh drug laws went into effect -- from under two years to over four years in that period, the report found. METHADONE KILLING MORE IN DENMARK THAN HEROIN [It was known from the start that methadone was a dangerous drug like heroin, but its name made it more socially acceptable than, say, supervised heroin treatment, which would work as well] AGENCE FRANCE PRESSE - Methadone killing more than heroin use: researchers Methadone, once seen as the safe drug to help addicts kick the habit, is now killing more people in Denmark than heroin itself, a survey shows. Poisoning by methadone, a synthetic narcotic, was blamed for the deaths of 47 people in 2002 against 36 who died from heroin overdoses, the survey in Nordisk Rettsmedisin shows, a Scandinavian legal medicine review. JANUARY 2004 DRUG WARRIORS TRY TO CENSOR THEIR OPPONENTS TED GALEN CARPENTER, CATO INSTITUTE - Representative Ernest Istook (R-Okla.) has discovered a mortal threat to the republic. The threat is a display ad placed by a pro-drug legalization group, Change the Climate, Inc., on Washington D.C.'s bus and subway system. The ad showed a young couple, with the caption: "Enjoy Better Sex! Legalize and Tax Marijuana." And to deal with this outrage, Istook has introduced a measure to financially penalize Washington's Metro transit authority for running the ad. Moreover, Istook's bill would prohibit any transit system that receives federal funds from running advertising from a group that advocates decriminalizing or legalizing marijuana. . . The most ominous proposal for repressing pro-drug reform speech comes (not surprisingly) from the United Nations. The UN's International Narcotics Control Board has issued a report implicitly calling on member states to criminalize opposition to the war on drugs. Citing the 1988 UN Convention Against Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, the INCB asserts that all governments are obligated to enact laws that prohibit "inciting" or "inducing" people to use illegal drugs and to punish such violations as criminal offenses. If such a vague and chilling restriction on freedom of expression were not odious enough, the UN board contends that any portrayal that shows illicit drug use "in a favorable light" constitutes incitement and therefore should be banned as well. Since the report also repeatedly denounces medical marijuana initiatives as well as decriminalization or legalization proposals, even the most sedate advocacy of changing prohibitionist drug laws might run afoul of the censorship regime being pushed by the United Nations. It is not reassuring that the U.S. government has pledged to cooperate with the UN group's global anti-drug efforts. Although Washington has not explicitly endorsed the censorship recommendations, neither has it stated that the United States rejects such proposals -- even though it certainly could have added that caveat. Indeed, one official pledged "absolute cooperation" with the UN's drug control programs. DECEMBER 20003 HOUSE BILL WOULD PUNISH LOCALITIES FOR PERMITTING CRITICISM OF DRUG LAWS COMMON DREAMS - A little-known provision buried within the omnibus federal spending bill that the U.S. House of Representatives approved yesterday would take away federal grants from local and state transportation authorities that allow citizens to run advertising on buses, trains, or subways in support of reforming our nation's drug laws. . . Meanwhile, this same bill gives the White House $145 million in taxpayer money to run anti-marijuana ads next year. "The government can't spend taxpayer money promoting one side of the drug policy debate while prohibiting taxpayers from using their own money to promote the other side," said Bill Piper, Associate Director of National Affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance. "This is censorship and not the democratic way." The provision raises both constitutional and political concerns. Courts have generally ruled that public transportation authorities cannot legally discriminate against any political viewpoint. Thus, local and state authorities could soon be put in an impossible position: if they reject advertising in support of drug policy reform they risk running afoul of the First Amendment; but if they accept drug reform advertising they lose federal money. Civil libertarians warn the provision also sets a dangerous precedent. Special interest groups could lobby for federal bans on advertising with pro-life or pro-gun messages, or in support of or against gay marriage or abortion. CANADIAN GOVERNMENT BOARD ADMITS MARIJUANA COULD SAVE LIVES NORML - The Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board denied refugee status to American Steve Kubby and his family, and ordered their return to California where Kubby is expected to be sentenced to four months in jail for drug-related charges. Kubby has said he will appeal the ruling. . . Kubby fled to Canada in 2001 rather than serve time in jail, where he would be denied access to medicinal marijuana, which he requires to treat symptoms of a rare, life-threatening form of adrenal cancer known as pheochromocytoma. . . Though the Board recognized that "marijuana continues to be the best treatment available to Mr. Kubby," and that he could potentially suffer a heart attack or stroke without cannabis, it nevertheless ruled, "The claimant is not a person in need of protection in that his removal to the United States would not subject him personally to a risk to his life." The Board based this decision, in part, on the premise that Kubby would likely have access to medicinal marijuana while in jail. However, California law does not compel the state to allow inmates access to medical cannabis. BOARD RULING STUDY: POT DECRIMINALIZATION WOULD SAVE VIRGINIA $43 MILLION A YEAR NORML - Marijuana possession offenses cost Virginia taxpayers a combined $43.4 million per year for arrests and prosecution - a total that accounts for more than five percent of local law enforcement budgets, according to a new study by the George Mason University Center for Regional Policy Analysis. "The cost of marijuana possession arrests diverts police resources from the investigation and prosecution of other crimes viewed with more severity by criminal justice officials," authors determined. "[Also,] the cost of marijuana possession arrests are unevenly distributed throughout the state due to differences in local arrest rates and local law enforcement budgets." As a result, authors of the report recommend reclassifying first-time marijuana possession to a Class 3 misdemeanor punishable by a fine and no jail time. In twelve states - Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio and Oregon - the possession and use of small amounts of pot is no longer punishable by a criminal arrest and/or jail time. . . According to the study, police arrested 11,384 Virginians on marijuana possession charges in 2001 at an average cost of $3,003. Among those arrested, 64 percent of arrestees were under age 25. A similar state study released by Boston University in November estimated that the decriminalization of marijuana in Massachusetts would produce an annual savings in law enforcement resources of approximately $24.3 million annually. STUDY MARIJUANA DECRIMINALIZATION ONE BRIT IN SIX UNDER 25 HAS USED MAJOR DRUG; COCAINE TRIPLES IN PAST SEVEN YEARS CITY OFFICIALS WANT TO USE TERRORISM EXCUSE TO GET AROUND SUNSHINE LAWS http://www.ljworld.com/section/stateregional/story/154322 AP, OVERLAND PARK, KS - City officials plan to ask the Kansas Legislature to amend the state's sunshine laws so that local governments' meetings and documents about homeland security are shielded from public access. But some advocacy groups question the need for creating a special terrorism exception in the state's laws on open meetings and open records. Overland Park officials are refining a draft of a proposal to permit the closing of records for "matters relating to preparing or preventing and responding to any act of terror or threatened act of terror." It's not yet clear just what kind of records would be covered or how "terror" would be defined. . . A freedom-of-information advocacy group warns that governments could use such a law to restrict access to information under the guise of fighting terrorism. "We're beginning to see the 'terror' word used in a very broad sense to anything that would threaten a community," said Rebecca Daugherty, director of the Freedom of Information Service Center at the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. For instance, she said, a prosecutor in South Carolina claimed the sale of methamphetamine was a terrorist action because it would be so disruptive to the community. DRUG CARTELS MOVING INTO NATIONAL PARKS FOR POT FARMING MARIJUANA VIEWS SHIFTING COCAINE USING MOTHER SENTENCED TO 12 YEARS FOR STILLBIRTH RESEARCH ON ECSTASY CLOUDED BY ERRORS DONALD G. MCNEIL JR, NY TIMES - In September, the journal Science issued a startling retraction. A primate study it published in 2002, with heavy publicity, warned that the amount of the drug Ecstasy that a typical user consumes in a single night might cause permanent brain damage. It turned out that the $1.3 million study, led by Dr. George A. Ricaurte of Johns Hopkins University, had not used Ecstasy at all. His 10 squirrel monkeys and baboons had instead been injected with overdoses of methamphetamine, and two of them had died. The labels on two vials he bought in 2000, he said, were somehow switched. The problem corrupted four other studies in his lab, forcing him to withdraw four other papers. It was not the first time Dr. Ricaurte's lab was accused of using flawed studies to suggest that recreational drugs are highly dangerous. In previous years he was accused of publicizing doubtful results without checking them, and was criticized for research that contributed to a government campaign suggesting that Ecstasy made "holes in the brain." NOVEMBER 2003 DRUG USERS SUDDENLY BECOME ACCEPTABLE TO ARMY AP - Twenty-one Iowa National Guard troops who tested positive for drug use on the eve of their deployment were sent overseas anyway, despite the Army's "zero tolerance" policy. Now the Army must decide how to deal with them when they return. Officials at Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, which serves as a multi-state jumping-off point for Reserve and Guard troops, said about 13 soldiers from other states who tested positive for drugs were also sent to Iraq. Fort McCoy officials said some of the soldiers apparently used the drugs with the intention of getting caught and sent home. COPS RAID SCHOOL WITH GUNS DRAWN, FORCE STUDENTS TO LIE ON FLOOR - NO DRUGS FOUND PARENTS ANGRY, PRINCIPAL CALLS IT A 'VALUABLE EXPERIENCE' The school's principal says the raid sends a clear message to the students that those who bring drugs to school could wind up in jail. Principal George McCrackin stands behind the decision, "The high school has always had a reputation for being a safe, clean school. And I'll utilize whatever forces I deem necessary to keep this campus safe and clean." McCrackin says several students were cuffed when they refused to get on the floor, "I don't think it was an overreaction on our part. I'm sure it was an inconvenience to those individuals who were in the hallway, but there is a valuable experience there." THE ECONOMICS OF DRUGS MARK A. R. KLEISMAN - One idea about drug law enforcement is that by making the illicit traffic more expensive and dangerous for the people who sell drugs, enforcement can push up the prices of drugs and therefore reduce consumption. The old criticism of this approach, based on the notion that demand for illicit drugs was highly inelastic, turns out to be incorrect; cocaine and heroin, at least, seem to have greater-than-unit elasticity, so a price increase will actually decrease the total amount consumers spend. So increasing drug prices would seem to be a useful goal. The bad news is that, in the face of mass distribution, enforcement has a very hard time increasing prices. When I learned about the illicit drug markets around 1980, heroin traded at wholesale for about $250,000 per kilogram and at retail in New York for between $2 and $2.50 per pure milligram, reflecting a kilo-to-street markup of about 10x. Now, after twenty years of intensified drug law enforcement, the wholesale price is about $70,000 a kilo and the retail price in New York about 20 cents per pure milligram, a factor-of-three reduction at wholesale and a factor-of-ten reduction at retail, reflecting a greatly reduced markup. The general price level, as measured by the CPI, has roughly doubled over that period, so the inflation-adjusted price of a pure milligram of heroin is actually down about 95%. The price drop for cocaine has been a little bit smaller: from about 80 cents per pure milligram in 1980, the price fell very rapidly until about 1988, and has since stabilized (in nominal-dollar) terms at about 15 cents per pure milligram, which adjusted for inflation is a decline of about 90%. All of this happened in the face of an enforcement effort that increased the number of drug dealers behind bars from about 30,000 in 1980 to about 450,000 today. The policy implication would seem to be that enforcement has limited capacity to increase the prices and thus decrease the consumption of mass-market illicit drugs, and ought to focus instead on reducing the violence and neighborhood disruption associated with the illicit trade, by targeting the meanest dealers and the ones whose trafficking is most flagrant, rather than the largest. THREE-TOED SLOTH - One wants to know how this massive improvement in the satisfaction of consumer demand came about. Increased competition dissipating monopolistic or oligopolistic rents? (If so, the massive jailing of dealers amounts to price support for those who don't get busted; besides, one has the impression that there are, shall we say, credible barriers to entry at the wholesale level). Cost-savings in raw materials being passed along to the consumer? Or is this pure productivity growth - improved communications leading to more flexible, streamlined, network organizations and better logistics (just-in-time dealing?), together with a highly motivated workforce? How much of the increased total factor productivity of drug dealing will show up in the national accounts? DRUG LEGALIZER ELECTED MAYOR OF BOGOTA DRUG REFORM COORDINATION NTWK - In a stunning rebuke to Washington and administration ally Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, voters in Bogota, Colombia's capital and largest city, elected former communist union leader, harsh critic of US policy toward Colombia, and avowed drug legalization advocate Luis Eduardo "Lucho" Garzon as their mayor. The Sunday vote came a day after voters nationwide handed Uribe another defeat by rejecting his referendum on a package of "reforms" - which initially included re-criminalization of drug possession until that provision was struck by the Supreme Court - and austerity measures designed to raise money to further prosecute his policy of unrelenting war against guerrilla armies, drug traffickers, and coca-growing farmers. Garzon, the son of a cleaning woman who climbed through the ranks of the leftist trade unions to come in third in the 2001 election that brought Uribe to power, garnered 46% of the vote against 40% for his chief rival, Uribe ally Juan Lozano. BRITISH DOWNGRADE POT POSSESSION NORML - Members of Parliament voted this week 316 to 160 to downgrade marijuana from a Class B to a Class C scheduled drug so that its possession is no longer an arrestable offense under British law. The legal change, initially announced by Home Secretary David Blunkett two years ago, is expected to be implemented next January. Under the pending legal change, individuals found in possession of "personal use" amounts of marijuana will be cautioned by police, but no longer arrested. (Police will retain the discretion to make an arrest under special "aggravated" circumstances, such as if marijuana is smoked on school grounds.) Presently, about 80,000 Britons are arrested annually for possessing cannabis. Class C is the least harmful category of illegal drugs under British law. Although possession of Class C drugs technically carries a two-year maximum prison term, only offenses punishable by at least five years imprisonment are arrestable in England. However, those caught supplying Class C drugs, including cannabis, may be subject to as many as 14 years in jail. In recent years, several European nations - including Belgium, Croatia, Portugal and Luxembourg - have decriminalized the use and possession of marijuana. Earlier this month, French Prime Minister Jean Pierre Raffarin also announced plans to downgrade marijuana possession in France to a fine-only offense. England's impending policy will be similar to the laws in 12 US states where the possession and use of small amounts of marijuana is no longer punishable by criminal arrests and/or jail time. OCTOBER 2003 DRUG CARTELS MOVING INTO NATIONAL PARKS FOR POT FARMING MARIJUANA VIEWS SHIFTING MARIJUANA SMOKING FOUND TO DAMAGE SPERM BBC - Men who smoke marijuana frequently damage their fertility in several different ways, research suggests. Scientists at Buffalo University found regular smokers had significantly less seminal fluid, and a lower sperm count. Their sperm were also more likely to swim too fast too early, leading to burn-out before they reach the egg. Lead researcher Dr Lani Burkman said: "The bottom line is, the active ingredients in marijuana are doing something to sperm." POT SUBSTANCE FOUND TO REDUCE CHRONIC PAIN NORML - Administration of the CT-3 cannabinoid significantly reduces chronic pain in humans compared to placebo, according to the results of clinical trial data published in the current issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. The results of the study indicate that "CT-3 may be an effective analgesic for poorly controlled resistant neuropathic pain," researchers at the Hanover Medical School in Germany concluded. Neuropathic pain is often resistant to standard pain medications, including opioids. ABSTRACT CAPITAL'S WAR ON DRUGS A COSTLY, DEADLY FAILURE FIGURES published in the Washington Post provide additional confirmation that the city's war on drugs has been a costly, deadly failure. The statistics show that there were only 121 fewer emergency room drug cases in 2001 than in 1992, Between those years, the city: - lost 35,000 residents - lost 46,000 residents under the age of 25 - lost 26% of its adults with less than a 9th grade education - spent several billion dollars on its war on drugs - had about 3,000 homicides, many of them drug related - put approximately half of the young male population within the judicial-prison system - greatly increased the spread of AIDS owing to unhealthy conditions in prisons and the rotation of infected prisoners into the community. In short, despite a substantial decline in population the incident of drug cases at emergency rooms remained virtually unchanged. ust in the past year, the city spent an estimated $356 million on all its drug related programs - only 15% of it on treatment. Here's how ubiquitous the drug war is - described in a report form the Drug Reform Coordination Network: "Prosecutors in the 4th police district filed 196 criminal charges [in one month], 40 for crimes of violence and 32 for property crimes. A full 36% of all charges filed - 72, equal to the number of violent and property crimes combined - were for drug law violations. Leading the way was cocaine possession (20 charges), followed by marijuana possession (15), heroin possession (9), possession of drug paraphernalia (8), drug distribution (7), violation of a drug free zone (4), PCP possession (2), and marijuana distribution (2). By themselves, marijuana prosecutions constituted 9% of all prosecutions that month in a police district that averages a rape every two weeks, a murder every two weeks, two burglaries a day and two assaults a day, and a hundred stolen cars each month, according to Metropolitan Police records." Since the federal takeover of the city in the mid 1990s, marijuana arrests in DC have soared - increasing 40% between 1995 and 1999. The figures, compiled by NORML, place DC 19th among the country's counties and cities with over 250,000 population. Half the young black men in DC are under the supervision of the criminal justice system on any day according to the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives. By the time a black man reaches the age of 35 the chance that he will have spent time locked up exceeds 80% A 1999 report from Drug Strategies found the city paying $42 per capita for drug prevention and treatment and $1257 per capita on criminal justice. In 1997 half of D.C. high school students had tried marijuana -- a dramatic increase over the 12 percent of 1991. One in four D.C. high school students said they were offered, sold or given an illicit drug while on school property in 1999, up 56 percent since 1993. The Metropolitan Police Department has made nearly 72,000 arrests for drug offenses since 1990, an average of 150 drug arrests every week. The war on drugs got its big push in Washington - as elsewhere - with Ronald Reagan's crusade that began in the mid-1980s. An early target was marijuana. The result was that the price of pot went up, leaving a market vacuum that was soon filled by crack cocaine. In five years the city's murder rate soared from around 150 annually to nearly 500. The war on drugs has since killed the innocent, broken up families, ruined young males' lives, taken money from needed programs in education, health and recreation, and laid the groundwork for the anti-democratic and post-constitutional rule under which we now live. In the end it was the war on drugs, rather than the use of drugs, that proved to be the real crime. SEPTEMBER 2003 SEATTLE VOTERS SUPPORT DOWNGRADING POT ENFORCEMENT NORML - Seattle voters overwhelmingly passed a citywide initiative this week minimizing the amount of time local police may spend enforcing marijuana possession laws. Nearly six out of ten voters backed the measure, known as Initiative 75, which requires the Seattle Police Department and the City Attorney's Office to make the "investigation, arrest and prosecution" of adults for pot possession the city's "lowest law enforcement priority." Sponsors of the initiative, the Sensible Seattle Coalition, maintain that the ordinance will save money and allow law enforcement to focus on more serious crimes. Similar marijuana "deprioritization" laws have been previously enacted in other metropolitan areas, including San Francisco and Oakland, California; Amherst, Mass.; Ann Arbor, Michigan; and Madison, Wisconsin, among other places. LINK BETWEEN CANNABIS AND DEATH STILL NOT ESTABLISHED BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL - Although the use of cannabis is not harmless, its link with death is still not established, argues a senior researcher in this week's BMJ. Two large studies reported no increase in death associated with the use of cannabis. Even diseases that might be related to long term cannabis use are unlikely to have a sizeable public health impact because, unlike users of tobacco and alcohol, most people who try cannabis quit relatively early in their adult lives, writes the author. Exposure to smoke is generally much lower in cannabis than in tobacco cigarette smokers, even taking into account the larger exposure per puff. Existing studies do not support a link between the use of cannabis and heart disease, the leading cause of death in many Western countries, he adds. Furthermore, cannabis does not contain nicotine, a chemical contained in tobacco that is addicting and contributes to the risk of heart disease. However, two caveats must be noted regarding available data, warns the author. Firstly, the studies to date have not followed cannabis smokers into later adult life so it might be too early to detect an increase risk of chronic diseases that are potentially associated with the use of cannabis. Secondly, the low rate of regular cannabis use and the high rate of discontinuation during young adulthood may reflect the illegality and social disapproval of the use of cannabis. This means that we cannot assume that smoking cannabis would continue to have the same small impact on mortality if its use were to be decriminalized or legalized. MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION COULD SAVE BIG BUCKS DRUG POLICY NEWS - As Massachusetts cities and towns struggle to keep teachers in public schools and police officers on the streets, a Boston University study shows $121 million could be made available to local communities if the state stopped arresting and prosecuting people for marijuana trafficking and use. The study, commissioned by Change the Climate also shows that an additional $17 million could be raised if marijuana sales were regulated and taxed. Economics Professor at Boston University, Jeffery Miron, conducted the research. "My study looks at real expenses associated with marijuana prohibition," says Professor Miron. Marijuana prohibition entails direct enforcement costs and prevents taxation of marijuana production and sale. Whether marijuana legalization is a desirable policy depends on many factors other than the budgetary impacts. Yet these impacts should be included in a rational debate about marijuana policy, particularly in this time of state budget crises and increasing support for medical marijuana and legalization. DRUG ABUSE FOUND HIGHER THAN PREVIOUSLY ESTIMATED REUTERS - A redesigned survey of who uses and abuses drugs in the United States has found millions of "missed" users and addicts, with an estimated 22 million Americans suffering from alcohol or drug abuse. The study, released by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration on Friday, finds that 19.5 million Americans used illicit drugs in 2002. This works out to 8.3 percent of the population age 12 or older. Last year's survey found that 15.9 million Americans used an illegal drug in 2001 -- but SAMHSA stressed that the latest survey used new methods and turned up many hidden drug users. The survey found that marijuana remains the most widely used illegal drug, with an estimated 14.6 million users in the past month. "In 2002, an estimated 2 million persons were current cocaine users," the report adds. Of these, 567,000 used crack. Hallucinogens such as Ecstasy were used by 1.2 million. The report found that 54 million people, based on survey projections, would have been binge drinkers in the previous month - defined as five or more drinks on the same occasion. Nearly 16 million were heavy drinkers, downing five or more drinks a day for at least five days in the past month. The report also measures tobacco use and found that 71.5 million Americans used tobacco in 2002 -- about 30 percent of the population. Of these, 26 percent or 61 million smoked cigarettes -- much higher than the current CDC estimate of 46 million. SO LET'S RECAPITULATE. . . [Can you find the illegal drug users here? For extra points, can you figure out why?] Tobacco users: 71.5 million Heavy drinkers: 16 million Marijuana users: 14.6 million Cocaine users: 2 million Ecstasy users: 1.2 million In Order of Lethality Tobacco Heavy drinking Cocaine Ecstasy Marijuana STUDY ON DANGERS OF ECSTACY FOUND TO BE FALSE NY TIMES - Dr. Ricaurte's laboratory has received millions of dollars from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and has produced several studies concluding that Ecstasy is dangerous. Other scientists accuse him of ignoring their studies showing that typical doses do no permanent damage. At the time Dr. Ricaurte's study was published, it was strongly defended against those critics by Dr. Alan I. Leshner, the former head of the drug abuse institute, who had just become the chief executive officer of the American Academy for the Advancement of Science, which publishes Science. Dr. Leshner had testified before Congress that Ecstasy was dangerous, and Dr. Ricaurte's critics accused him of rushing his results into print because a bill known as the Anti-Rave Act was before Congress. The act would punish club owners who knew that drugs like Ecstasy were being used at their dance gatherings. Dr. Ricaurte yesterday called that accusation "ludicrous." His laboratory made "a simple human error," he said. "We're scientists, not politicians." Asked why the vials were not checked first, he answered: "We're not chemists. We get hundreds of chemicals here. It's not customary to check them." One out of every twelve civilian employees currently working for the federal government is on the payroll of the Department of Homeland Security, according to a special study by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. The study also pinpointed the work stations where the 160,201 employees of this very new agency are based. About 90 percent of them are concentrated in just 166 of the nation's 3,000-plus counties. The map above shows where they are. AUGUST 2003 PRESCRIBING HEROIN CAN HELP ADDICTS BRITISH MEDICAL JOURNAL - Supervised prescription of a combination of methadone plus heroin is feasible, safe, and effective in reducing the many physical, mental, and social problems of heroin addicts, according to Dutch researchers in this week's BMJ. Researchers in the Netherlands carried out two separate trials involving 549 heroin addicts who were not responding to methadone maintenance treatment. One trial used inhalable heroin and the other used injectable heroin. Participants received either 12 months of methadone alone (control group), 12 months of methadone plus heroin (experimental group), or six months of methadone alone followed by six months of methadone plus heroin (comparison group). Psychosocial treatment was offered throughout. In both trials, 12 month treatment with heroin plus methadone was significantly more effective than treatment with methadone alone. Many physical, mental, and social problems improved and few serious adverse events occurred. JUNE 2003 STUDY: POT DOESN'T CAUSE PERMANENT BRAIN DAMAGE DEENA BEASLEY, REUTERS - Smoking marijuana will certainly affect perception, but it does not cause permanent brain damage, researchers from the University of California at San Diego said on Friday in a study. [The] team analyzed data from 15 previously published, controlled studies into the impact of long-term, recreational cannabis use on the neuro-cognitive ability of adults. . . The results, published in the July issue of the Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, show that marijuana has only a marginally harmful long-term effect on learning and memory. No effect at all was seen on other functions, including reaction time, attention, language, reasoning ability, and perceptual and motor skills. MAY 2003 CANADA MAY ALLOW SMALL AMOUNTS OF MARIJUANA WHY DO WE HAVE THE WAR ON DRUGS, ANYWAY? DRUG WAR FACTS AN IMPORTANT NEW BOOK ON DRUGS DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE GIN, THE POT OF THE 18TH CENTURY STATES EYE DRUG TREATMENT INSTEAD OF PRISON ERIN MADIGAN, STATELINE - State budgets are starved for cash and many state prisons are stuffed to capacity, causing policymakers to hunt for money-saving alternatives to incarceration. Several states have taken note of policy actions in Arizona and California and are considering sending non-violent drug offenders to substance abuse programs rather than prison. In Kansas, a drug treatment diversion bill recently won legislative approval, and the issue is on the radar in Wisconsin, Washington, Arkansas, Hawaii, Maryland, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and New Mexico. If signed by Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), the Kansas bill would require some non-violent offenders to undergo drug treatment for up to 18 months instead of prison. It would go into effect November 1, 2003. THE TRUTH ABOUT DARE DARE DARES ANYONE TO STOP IT DESPITE CONSISTENT FAILURE DRUG DEALERS GO ON STRIKE IN COPENHAGEN BELGIUM TO LEGALISE CANNABIS NYC MAKES CIGARETTE SMOKING A BIGGER CRIME THAN POT JUDGE CHANGES MIND, FREES MEDICAL POT ACTIVIST SWISS EXTEND LEGAL PRESCRIPTION OF HEROIN DRUG POLICY ALLIANCE - The National Council has voted 110-42 to extend Switzerland's pioneering program to provide heroin to severely addicted people until 2009 despite attempts by right-of-center parties to end the public health initiative. Around 1,300 Swiss drug addicts benefit from the legal prescription of heroin under medical control. CIA BACK IN DRUG BUSINESS THE SMOKING GUN: With the arrest of the Dell Dude on pot charges, we have to ask: Who says marijuana is a Gateway drug? JUROR REPENTS VERDICT IN CALIFORNIA MEDICAL MARIJUANA CASE LAST week, I did something so profoundly wrong that it will haunt me for the rest of my life. I helped send a man to prison who does not belong there. ANOTHER STUDY SHOWS 'DARE' ANTI-DRUG PROGRAM IS A BUST DELL DUDE ARRAIGNED ON POT CHARGE MARIJUANA JURORS DENOUNCE OWN VERDICT; CLAIM JUDGE MISLED THEM RELEASING FIRST TIME, NONVIOLENT DRUG USERS FROM PRISON MAY SAVE MICHIGAN NEARLY HALF ITS BUDGET DEFICITY DETROIT NEWS - The legislature last month repealed Michigan's controversial 1973 drug sentencing law that forced judges to impose long mandatory minimum sentences based on the quantity of drugs involved in the crime. The crackdown was aimed at drug kingpins, but also imprisoned were hundreds of first-time non-violent offenders. . . Many received longer prison terms than violent career criminals. . . The prison system, almost at its 50,000-bed capacity, is threatened by a budget deficit that could reach $80 million in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1. The release of 1,250 drug inmates, each of which cost taxpayers $28,000 annually to house and feed, will save $35 million. BELGIUM TO LEGALISE POT SWISS ALSO CONSIDER RELAXING LAW DRUG BUSTS A grand jury in Baltimore Thursday released a report recommending that the government and medical institutions distribute hard drugs in limited doses to addicts as an alternative to unsuccessful current drug policies. The non-binding report calls first for an academic study of the idea to see if it is feasible. "Conventional modes of attacking the drug problem simply aren't working," wrote 23 grand jurors in a special panel convened in January by Judge Althea Handy. "Regulated distribution begins with the recognition that addiction is a continuing, progressive illness rather than a crime." With the US Supreme Court all too often deferring to the needs of the national security state, aggrieved citizens are increasingly turning to state courts and state constitutions for protection from overzealous authorities. With a ruling last week, the Minnesota Supreme Court becomes the latest to grant protections to citizens that the federal courts have been unwilling to extend. In its ruling in the case of Minneapolis teenager Mustafa Naji Fort, who was arrested after consenting to a search when the vehicle in which he was riding was pulled over for a traffic violation, the Minnesota high court held that police who stop motorists for traffic violations cannot ask to search the vehicle or question drivers and passengers about unrelated items, such as guns or drugs, without a reasonable suspicion that a crime is being committed. HEROIN MAKING COMEBACK SCOTLAND YARD OFFICIAL SAYS LEGALIZE DRUGS DRUG REFORM COORDINATION NETWORK - One of Britain's most senior police officers has joined the legalization chorus. Chief Superintendent Anthony Wills, borough commander of Hammersmith and Fulham in London, called for the government to take over the drug trade since it cannot stop it. In an interview with the Hammersmith and Shephards Bush Gazette last week, Wills said even hard drugs, such as crack cocaine and heroin, should be legalized. 'I would have no problems with decriminalizing drugs full stop,' said Mr Wills. 'There have to be very stringent measures over the production and supply of drugs, and we have got to remove the drug market from criminals. I do not want people to take drugs, but if they are going to, I want them to take them safely, with a degree of purity and in a controlled way.'   SENTENCING BY JUDGES VARIES WIDELY JASON SCHULTZ, SANTA CRUZ SENTINEL, CA - A Federal prosecutors might not respect the state law that allows people to grow marijuana for medical use, but a judge in Santa Cruz County does. Medical-marijuana user Greg Brown walked out of the courthouse a free man with a legal bag of marijuana. Superior Court Judge Kathleen Akao threw out two felony charges against the Santa Cruz man after he proved he had a doctor's recommendation to use medical marijuana. She ordered police to return Brown's pot. . . Proposition 215, passed by voters in 1996, allows state residents to grow and smoke marijuana if they have a recommendation from a doctor. A recent decision by the state Supreme Court backed up that law, saying people arrested on marijuana charges can use their doctor's recommendation as a defense in court. DONALD G. MCNEIL JR, NY TIMES - The amount of the drug ecstasy that some recreational users take in a single night may cause permanent brain damage and lead to symptoms like those of Parkinson's disease, a study in primates has found. But critics say that the monkeys and baboons in the study were given huge overdoses of the drug and that the kind of damage the researchers found has never been found in autopsies or brain scans of humans who took large amounts. . . A psychiatrist from Bellevue hospital in New York and the leader of an organization that wants to test the psychiatric benefits of ecstasy said [the] doses - delivered by injection, not tablet - were far greater than a human user could stand. Two of the 10 monkeys and baboons died of heatstroke, they noted, and 2 more were in such distress that they were not given a third shot. Though heatstroke and dehydration are problems at dances where ecstasy is used, human deaths from the drug are relatively rare. If 20 percent of all users died, these critics said, it would not be as popular as it is. Three shots in six hours "was like 10 tablets in six hours, and the bulk of ecstasy users at raves take 1.5 to 2.5 doses a night," said the Bellevue psychiatrist, Dr. Julie Holland, who is the editor of a book on ecstasy. "Also, that's about $250 to $300 worth at street prices, and that's a lot of money."` DAILY BLEED ** NORML: Casual drug use has no significant impact on employment status and therefore should not be the focus of workplace drug testing programs, according to a study published in the Southern Economic Journal. "Non-chronic drug use was not significantly related to employment or labor force participation," researchers at University of Miami's Health Services Research Center found. "These findings suggest that workplace policies for illicit drug use should consider chronic or problem drug users apart from light or casual users." Authors did conclude that chronic illicit drug use contributed negatively to workplace performance. They suggested that ideal workplace drug testing procedures should focus chiefly on problem users similar to the way many offices differentiate between casual drinkers and alcoholics. According to the federal Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration, seventy percent of illicit drug users age 18 to 49 are employed full time. The Miami study is one of several calling into question the effectiveness of standard drug testing programs. A 1994 study by the National Academy of Sciences concluded, "If an organization's goal is to avoid work decrement (e.g. accidental injuries, performance level) due to impairment, then research should be conducted on the utility of performance tests prior to starting work as an alternative to alcohol and other drug tests." Researchers further added, "Despite beliefs to the contrary, ... [there exists] no evidence from properly controlled studies that employment drug testing programs widely discourage drug use or encourage rehabilitation." In addition, a 1998 study by the Le Moyne College Institute of Industrial Relations of 63 "high-tech" firms found that pre-employment and random drug screening procedures resulted in a significant loss of worker productivity and appeared to create "a negative work environment" for employees. Recent drug testing data compiled by Quest Diagnostics indicate that more than 60 percent of all positive workplace drug tests are for marijuana only. Because urine tests detect a metabolized by-product of marijuana and not the drug itself, pot-smokers may test positive days or even weeks after using it. By comparison, cocaine - the second most commonly detected drug - typically will wash out of the system within 48 hours. ABSTRACT *** LONG-TERM MARIJUANA smokers who abstain from the drug for one week or more perform no differently on cognition tests than nonusers, according to findings published in the current issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. Researchers said that test subjects comprised of long-term daily smokers "showed virtually no significant differences from control subjects (those who had smoked marijuana less than 50 times in their lives) on a battery of 10 neuropsychological tests. Former heavy users, who had consumed little or no cannabis in the three months before testing, [also] showed no significant differences from control subjects on any of these tests on any of the testing days." Authors did claim that current heavy smokers tested more poorly than controls for up to seven days after discontinuing the drug on one test measuring "memory of word lists." TEXT NORML INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE reports that data collected by the United Nations Drug Control Programmed tends to show that the grater part of Afghan drug cultivation is located in areas under Northern Alliance control. DER SPIEGEL says that the Taliban enroll hundreds of young Pakistanis to fight against the West by luring them with drug money.IN A SIX-TO-ONE DECISION, the Ohio Supreme Court has held that Chapter 755 of the Cincinnati Municipal Code - which designates "drug zones" - violated the right to intrastate travel under the U.S. Constitution. The court also declared the law invalid under the Ohio Constitution, because it allowed the city to impose what in effect is a criminal sentence not authorized under state law. Chief Justice Moyer was sharply critical of the ordinance, noting that "a person subject to the exclusion ordinance may not enter a drug-exclusion zone to speak with counsel, visit family, attend church, receive emergency medical care, go to the grocery store or just stand on a street corner and look at a blue sky." *** JOHNNY DIAZ, KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS: Where college students in the past drank pots of coffee or popped diet pills to stay awake while cramming for exams, a growing number are now illegally using Ritalin. Since 1995, the drug - widely prescribed to treat attention deficit & hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD - has ranked on the Drug Enforcement Administration's list of most stolen medications, said Gretchen Feussner, a pharmacologist with the federal DEA. "It's like speed," Feussner said. "(Students) know it's going to keep them awake. They know they can party hardy. What they don't know (is) if you took cocaine and put it in a pill and took it at a low dosage, it would do exactly the same thing. It's a serious drug." National statistics are not available on illegal Ritalin use among college-age students, partly because Ritalin abuse tends to be dwarfed by more visible issues, such as alcoholism, smoking, AIDS awareness and abuse of drugs such as Ecstasy. But a 1998 University of Wisconsin-Madison survey found that one in five of 100 students who responded misused the drug. MORE *** GLOBAL HEMP: The DEA has just posted interpretive and interim rules effective immediately that ban hemp food products that use ingredients (hemp seed/oil) with any THC and requires hemp body care companies to file for exemptions with DEA to secure hemp oil imports ensuring who knows what kind of bureaucratic nightmare. Hemp food companies have a 120-day grace period to dispose of inventories, and all consumption is immediately banned. The Vote Hemp legal committee and representatives of the Hemp Industries Association, are in Washington DC with our lawyers right now to coordinate the filing of a temporary restraining order to stop these regulations from taking effect. These regulations come despite the fact that the hemp industry has established the science based Test Pledge program through which hemp companies assure consumers that they will not confirm positive in a workplace drug-test even when eating an unrealistically absurd amount of hemp foods daily. MORE THE BRITISH HOME OFFICE says that Brits spend almost as much on illegal drugs as they do on tobacco: $6.6 billion for the drugs, $8 billion for the smokes. Biggest sales are for alcohol: $20 billion. EUGÉNE DE MONTGOLFIER, district attorney for Nice, France, says "We no longer prosecute cannabis users because we are in tune with social evolution. Now let parliament say its part". AUGUST 2001 NORML: Three out of four Americans oppose jailing minor drug offenders, including those convicted of purchasing drugs, according to a recently released American Civil Liberties Union poll. The study also found that more than 60 percent of the public support changing current laws so that fewer non-violent offenses are punishable by prison. An equal percentage of respondents said they opposed mandatory sentences for non-violent crimes. RECOVERED HISTORY Before the Drug War DC Gazette, November 22, 1970 The Public Safety Committee of the [DC] City Council held two days of hearings this month to hear scientific and public testimony month to hear about marijuana. Most of what it heard was expectable: scientifically, marijuana is a mild conscious-altering drug; it is not addictive, nor does it lead to the use of addicting drugs; it has been known and used and studied for literally thousands of years, and no physiological damage whatsoever has been discovered; instances of adverse mental effects from its use are extremely rare. Most significant to the council's hearing -- and to a good number of kids who are in prison on pot convictions -- was the fact, reiterated by Surgeon General Jesse L. Steinfeld, that "in the case of marijuana, legal penalties were originally assigned with total disregard for medical and scientific evidence of the properties of the drug or its effects. I know of no clearer instance in which the punishment for infraction of the law is more harmful than the crime." . . . [Activist Petey] Greene "testified" on behalf of his grandmother, whose opinions on marijuana are based on practical experience. She once told her grandson to quit: "Petey, you gotta stop smoking those reefers because they make you too hungry, and I can't buy all that extra food. Later, on comparing its effects with those of alcohol, "She said she'd rather me smoke reefers and just sit and smile at people than drink that old wine and come in throwing chairs around. " . . . The testimony of representatives of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs was notable for its meekness. Although the narcs still refer to marijuana as a killer drug before high school audiences, and still try to imply that pot inevitably and immediately leads to heroin, and still pass out 1930's posters of marijuana as the Grim Reaper -- they backed off under Council questioning. The narc's Dr. Milton Joffe even allowed that although "legalizing simply for hedonistic purposes" was not warranted, "I'm not against pleasure. . . Judge Charles Halleck recommended more realistic penalties, since present laws tend to cause the community "to lose faith in the entire system of justice." James H. Heller of the National Capital Area Civil Liberties Union called for the legalization of pot. He said he saw no reason that it should be treated any different from alcohol. (He admitted to having tried grass once, "but it didn't have any effect." "Maybe you just didn't know how to smoke it," Councilwoman Polly Shackleton consoled him) . . . Terry Becker, a Quicksilver Times reporter, surprised everyone by calling for more stringent penalties and stricter enforcement. Becked wanted "everyone to turn on everyone to get busted;" it would hasten the revolution, he said . . . Noting that Surgeon General Steinfeld had referred to the famous Alice B. Toklas marijuana or hash brownies but claimed the recipe was not to be found Alice's cookbook, [the Council's Republican chairman] Hahn opened the second day of hearings by setting the record straight. You will find the recipe on page 273 of Alice B. Toklas, announced Hahn, and having fulfilled his public responsibility, he ordered the proceedings to proceed.