Reality Bites in Drug Debate

It looked like the first drop of rain in the desert of drugs policy. Last week, the executive director of the United Nations office on drugs and crime, Antonio Maria Costa, said what millions of liberal-minded people have been waiting to hear. "Law enforcement should shift its focus from drug users to drug traffickers ... people who take drugs need medical help, not criminal retribution."

Drug production should remain illegal, possession and use should be decriminalised. Many will have toasted him with bumpers of peppermint tea, and, perhaps, a celebratory spliff. I didn't.

I believe that informed adults should be allowed to inflict whatever suffering they wish on themselves but we are not entitled to harm other people. I know people who drink fair-trade tea and coffee, shop locally and take cocaine at parties. They are revolting hypocrites.

Every year cocaine causes about 20,000 deaths in Colombia and displaces several hundred thousand people from their homes. Children are blown up by landmines, indigenous people are enslaved, villagers are tortured and killed, and rainforests are razed. You'd cause less human suffering if instead of discreetly retiring to the toilet at a party, you went into the street and mugged someone.

But the counter-cultural association appears to insulate people from ethical questions. If commissioning murder, torture, slavery, civil war, corruption and deforestation is not a crime, what is?

I am talking about elective drug use, not addiction. In the United States, casual users of cocaine outnumber addicts by about 12 to one. I agree that addicts should be helped, not prosecuted. I would like to see a revival of the British program that was killed by a tabloid witch-hunt in 1971: until then all heroin addicts were entitled to clean, legal supplies administered by doctors. Cocaine addicts should be offered residential detox.

But, at the risk of alienating many, I maintain that while cocaine remains illegal, casual users should remain subject to criminal law. Decriminalisation of the products of crime expands the market for this criminal trade. We have a choice of two consistent policies. The first is to sustain global prohibition, while helping addicts and prosecuting casual users. This means that the drugs trade will remain the preserve of criminal gangs. It will keep spreading crime and instability around the world, and ensure that narcotics are still cut with contaminants.

As journalist Nick Davies argued during an investigation of drugs policy, major seizures raise the price of drugs. Demand among addicts is inelastic, so higher prices mean they must find more money to buy them. The more drugs the police capture and destroy, the more robberies and muggings addicts will commit.

The other possible policy is to legalise and regulate the global trade. This would undercut the criminal networks and guarantee unadulterated supplies to consumers. There might even be a market for certified fair-trade cocaine.

Costa's new report begins by rejecting this option. If it did otherwise, he would no longer be executive director of the UN office on drugs and crime. The report argues that "any reduction in the cost of drug control ... will be offset by much higher expenditure on public health ( due to the surge of drug consumption )". It admits that tobacco and alcohol kill more people than illegal drugs, but claims that this is only because fewer illegal drugs are consumed.

Strangely, however, it fails to supply any evidence to support the claim that narcotics are dangerous. Nor does it distinguish between the effects of drugs themselves and the effects of the adulteration and disease caused by their prohibition.

Why not? Perhaps because the evidence would torpedo the rest of the report. A couple of weeks ago, Ben Goldacre drew attention to the largest study on cocaine ever undertaken, conducted by the World Health Organisation in 1995. I've just read it, and this is what it says. "Health problems from the use of legal substances, particularly alcohol and tobacco, are greater than health problems from cocaine use. Few experts describe cocaine as invariably harmful to health. Cocaine-related problems are widely perceived to be more common and more severe for intensive, high-dosage users and very rare and much less severe for occasional, low-dosage users ... occasional cocaine use does not typically lead to severe or even minor physical or social problems."

This study was suppressed by the WHO after threats of an economic embargo by the Clinton government. Drugs policy in most nations is a matter of religion, not science.

The same goes for heroin. The biggest study of opiate use ever conducted ( at Philadelphia General Hospital ) found that addicts suffered no physical harm, even though some of them had been taking heroin for 20 years. The devastating health effects of heroin use are caused by adulterants and the lifestyles of people forced to live outside the law. Like cocaine, heroin is addictive, but unlike cocaine, the only consequence of its addiction appears to be ... addiction.

Costa's half-measure, in other words, gives us the worst of both worlds: more murder, more destruction, more muggings, more adulteration. Another way of putting it is this: you will, if Costa's proposal is adopted, be permitted without fear of prosecution to inject yourself with heroin cut with drain cleaner and brick dust, sold illegally and soaked in blood; but not with clean and legal supplies.

However, his report does raise one good argument. At present the trade in class A drugs is concentrated in rich nations. If it was legalised, we could cope. The use of drugs is likely to rise, but governments could use the extra taxes to help people tackle addiction. But because the wholesale price would collapse with legalisation, these drugs would for the first time become widely available in poorer nations, which are easier to exploit ( as tobacco and alcohol firms have found ) and which are less able to regulate, raise taxes or pick up the pieces.

The widespread use of cocaine or heroin in the poor world could cause serious social problems: I've seen, for example, how a weaker drug khat seems to dominate life in Somali-speaking regions of Africa. "The universal ban on illicit drugs," the UN argues, "provides a great deal of protection to developing countries."

So Costa's office has produced a study comparing the global costs of prohibition with the global costs of legalisation, allowing us to see whether the current policy ( murder, corruption, war, adulteration ) causes less misery than the alternative ( widespread addiction in poorer nations ). The hell it has.

Even to raise the possibility of such research would be to invite moves by the Congress to shut off the UN's funding. Drug charity Transform has addressed this question, but only for Britain, and the results are clear-cut: prohibition is the worse option.

As far as I can discover, no one has attempted a global study. Until that happens, Costa's opinions on this issue are worth as much as mine or anyone else's: nothing at all.









URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n667/a12.html
Newshawk: Media Contact On Demand! www.mapinc.org/mcod/
Votes: 1
Pubdate: Tue, 30 Jun 2009
Source: Canberra Times (Australia)
Copyright: 2009 Canberra Times
Contact: letters.editor@canberratimes.com.au
Website: http://www.canberratimes.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/71
Author: George Monbiot
Note: Also printed in The Guardian (UK) http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09.n668.a05.html
Referenced: World Drug Report 2009 http://drugsense.org/url/dhSmEL2y
Referenced: The WHO report http://www.tdpf.org.uk/WHOleaked.pdf
Referenced: A Comparison of the Cost - effectiveness of the Prohibition and Regulation of Drugs http://drugsense.org/url/l4lH1McU
Referenced: Ben Goldacre's column http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n627/a07.html
Cited: Transform http://www.tdpf.org.uk/

Supreme Court Says School Strip Search of Student Wrong

Safford Middle School officials violated the constitutional rights of Savana Redding when they strip-searched her Oct. 8, 2003, while looking for ibuprofen pills, the United States Supreme Court decided June 25.

"It was a big relief," Redding said in a phone interview. "I'm really happy about the fact that it's less likely to happen to anyone else ( because of the Supreme Court decision )."

At issue was the right of school officials to strip-search a student in an attempt to find contraband. Redding alleged her constitutional rights were violated and sued the school district. The Safford School District contended it had a right to strip-search students.

Redding, then a 13-year-old student, was taken to the school office and subjected to the strip search after a classmate told Assistant Principal Kerry Wilson that she obtained a prescription-strength ibuprofen pill from Redding.

Ibuprofen is a non-narcotic pain reliever that comes in prescription and over-the-counter doses. It is sold under the the brand names of Advil and Motrin.

In an 8-1 decision, the high court determined that SMS Assistant Principal Kerry Wilson had no reason to suspect Redding concealed drugs in her undergarments when he ordered the school nurse and an administrative assistant -- both women -- to conduct the search.

Justice Clarence Thomas was the lone dissenting justice of the court's nine-member panel.

"The Supreme Court saw this exactly as the public did," said Adam Wolf, the American Civil Liberties Union attorney who argued Redding's case before the Supreme Court. "Eight of the nine justices had no problem coming to the same conclusion as the public."

Wolf added that the court's decision "will protect the well-being and constitutional rights of schoolchildren."

He added that children who find themselves in a situation similar to Redding's -- being forced to comply with a strip search -- will have legal recourse.

The Supreme Court also ruled that Wilson, the nurse and the administrative assistant were immune from liability because there was no clear legal precedent established that a strip search of a child, based on little evidence, was wrong.

"It should have been set six years ago. The Supreme Court decision makes it wrong," Wolf said.

Still at issue is the school district's liability. The Supreme Court remanded that determination to a lower court.

Safford School District Superintendent Mark Tregaskes said he could not comment because part of the Supreme Court decision was remanded. As for the remainder, Tregaskes said he could not comment because he had not read the entire decision.

Safford Middle School Principal Clay Emery, who was not the principal at the time of the Redding incident, said he hopes the school can begin to heal.

"In the interest of our school and community, I hope this can be put behind us," Emery said. "I feel for everyone involved in this issue. There are so many good things happening at Safford Middle School -- I hope this doesn't leave a scar."

The decision, however, does not erase the trauma of the search. Redding says she suffered several long-term repercussions from the incident, including stomach ulcers and a tendency to become ill at school.

"I didn't want to go to school at all," Redding said. "It's something that's pretty hard not to think about."

Although her family was supportive, Redding had to receive counseling. When she learned that the nurse who participated in the search was assigned to her high school, she left school to go home when she became ill instead of going to the nurse's office.

Eventually, Redding dropped out of school and took a placement test at Eastern Arizona College, where she is working on her general education diploma.

As Redding struggled to complete her education, her complaint against the School District slowly wound its way through the federal court system.

In a July 11, 2008, ruling, an 11-judge panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said Safford Middle School officials violated Red-ding's Fourth Amendment rights when they forced her to strip to her underwear in search of ibuprofen tablets. This ruling came nine months after a Sept. 21, 2007, decision by the appellate court's three-judge panel that ruled in favor of the School District. The 2007 ruling upheld a federal district court's summary judgement that Wilson, the nurse and the administrative assistant did not violate the girl's Fourth Amendment rights.

The Safford School District appealed the appellate court's 2008 decision in Redding's favor to the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court heard the appeal in April.










URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n664/a04.html
Newshawk: Reform Conference! http://www.reformconference.org/
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Sun, 28 Jun 2009
Source: Eastern Arizona Courier (AZ)
Copyright: 2009 Eastern Arizona Courier
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/3qxecMIL
Website: http://www.eacourier.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1674
Author: Diane Saunders, Staff Writer
Photo: Savana Redding's name will go down in history as the one behind the Supreme Court ruling that will better protect students from being forced to submit to strip searches. [Contributed photo] http://www.mapinc.org/images/SavanaRedding.jpg
Referenced: The ruling http://drugsense.org/url/ewgAsKhd
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Savana+Redding
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/strip+searches

Editorial: Reform Justice System

REFORM JUSTICE SYSTEM

Criminal-justice reform has long been a cause championed by civil libertarians. Now that business leaders, taxpayer watchdogs and law-enforcement veterans in Florida have joined in, Gov. Charlie Crist and legislators have no good excuse for ignoring this imperative.

A group calling itself the Coalition for Smart Justice addressed an open letter last week to Mr. Crist and legislators calling for comprehensive reform in the state prison system and corrections policies. The coalition is made up of business, academic, religious, government, law-enforcement and social-service leaders.

As the coalition argues, Florida spends too much to put nonviolent offenders in prison. By diverting them to cheaper and better alternatives, the state could free more dollars to invest in programs to rehabilitate violent offenders behind bars before their release. Taxpayers and public safety both would benefit.

Signatories on the letter include Barney Bishop of Associated Industries of Florida, Dominic Calabro of Florida TaxWatch, three former state attorneys general, a former corrections commissioner and the head of the state's police benevolent association.

Florida does a bang-up job of putting away convicted criminals. Its current prison population of almost 101,000 has jumped nearly a quarter in the past five years. Rising crime explains part of the increase, but so do tougher state sentencing laws.

With the average cost of keeping an inmate in prison more than $20,000 a year, the bill for running the system tops $2 billion annually. And if the inmate population keeps growing at its current pace, the cost of building and operating new prisons will siphon billions more from taxpayers. Meanwhile, basic services like education, health care and environmental protection have been on the chopping block in Tallahassee.

Many people would argue that public safety is worth almost any price But Florida's prison system doesn't do a very good job of protecting citizens once inmates get out. Of those released, a third commit crimes again within three years. Within five years, 65 percent do.

The state's juvenile-justice system, another target for reform from the coalition, turns out to be an apprenticeship for the big house. About half the kids incarcerated in the system wind up in prison as adults.

Given the growing drain on tax dollars from the prison system and its shortcomings in keeping ex-cons from re-offending, it's no wonder business and law-enforcement leaders have joined the call for reform.

Currently, about half the inmates packing Florida's prisons were convicted for nonviolent crimes. Steering them ""especially the ones whose crimes stem from drug addiction or mental-health problems "" to less expensive but more effective alternatives would diminish the need to build new prisons at $100 million a pop.

State legislators got a good start on this goal this year when they directed circuit judges to avoid sending nonviolent criminals to prison and bolstered the state's drug courts. After taking these steps, lawmakers put off $300 million worth of prison construction.

More efforts to divert nonviolent offenders from prison could make more money available to beef up programs like education, drug treatment and mental-health counseling for those violent offenders who belong behind bars "" services that would make them more likely to be law-abiding, productive members of society when they are released. Over time, that also would bring down the prison population.

For years, Florida legislators have been more interested in being tough than smart on crime. As a state senator, "Chain-gang Charlie" Crist cultivated a reputation for cracking down on criminals.

But Florida has long since run out of money to pump into a prison system that burdens taxpayers yet falls short on protecting public safety.










URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n663/a06.html
Newshawk: http://www.novembercoalition.org
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Fri, 26 Jun 2009
Source: Orlando Sentinel (FL)
Copyright: 2009 Orlando Sentinel
Contact: insight@orlandosentinel.com
Website: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/325
Note: Rarely prints out-of-state LTEs.

San Bernardino County Supervisors OK Medical Marijuana

Final Score: Medical Marijuana 5, San Bernardino County Supervisors 0.

But despite their victory Tuesday, the medical marijuana proponents are still angry because it will be almost two months or perhaps longer before the county begins issuing identification cards to people with doctors' prescriptions.

"Our concern is seeing that the medicine gets out to our patients," said Ron Downey, a proponent who spoke at Tuesday's board meeting. A half-dozen others also spoke.

That's how the years-long duel ended, with the supervisors voting unanimously to implement a medical marijuana identification card program.

The proposed ordinance authorizing the program will go before the board again on July 14 for adoption, and the program should be in full swing 30 days after that, on Aug. 14.

If all goes according to plan, that's when patients can start submitting applications for identification cards, said Lynne Fischer, county spokeswoman.

The board also imposed a temporary ban on dispensaries until the county's development code can be updated to include provisions and design standards for them.

"That doesn't prohibit them ( patients ) from the other options they have under the law," Fischer said.

For further information, contact the San Bernardino County Public Health Department at ( 800 ) 782-4264. Applications will be distributed by appointment only.










URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n651/a01.html
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jun 2009
Source: Contra Costa Times (CA)
Copyright: 2009 Knight Ridder
Contact: letters@cctimes.com
Website: http://www.contracostatimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/96
Author: Joe Nelson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

Heroin: A Curse or a Source of Meaning?

FOR a substance that started out as a family-friendly cough suppressant and non-addictive morphine substitute, heroin has certainly gained a fearsome reputation since the late 1890s, when Germany's Bayer Company first marketed it.

There are still some elderly retired midwives around who fondly recall heroin ( available legally here until the mid-1950s ) as a near-perfect sedative for labour pains.

From pain-free birth to painful death, heroin has become one of our most reviled and misunderstood substances.

I continue to meet people who assure me that heroin isn't just a drug, it's an open invitation to crime and degeneracy, a squirt of anarchy concentrate in a hypodermic.

Despite the fact that it is other substances such as alcohol and speed that tend to fuel violent behaviour, it is heroin that has acquired the sinister status.

And this is why many people become edgy when it is suggested ( as it is every year or two ) that heroin is making a comeback.

In the late 1990s, as many as 80 per cent of the people we met sleeping rough on the streets were heroin-dependent. Their homelessness was often a byproduct of their addiction and these were the days when the drug flowed so freely that the heroin overdose toll was printed alongside the road toll in the local tabloid.

Collingwood's Smith Street was dubbed Smack Street, many young women took to street sex work to support their dependency, and middle-class families made a concerted effort to avoid the corner of Russell and Bourke streets, then Melbourne's epicentre of drug dealing.

Are those days returning? Did we learn anything from the last heroin crisis?

This decade, heroin has had more putative comebacks than John Farnham, but open street dealing has never quite returned with the same vigour. Until now.

Many community workers are reporting a notable increase in heroin use among clients of housing and health services.

Evidently, the poppy fields of Burma and Afghanistan are fertile with product and the road of supply is open again. Some commentators believe that in recent weeks the purity of the drug has risen from 30 per cent to 70 per cent.

Heroin is stupidly expensive: five kilograms of it has a street value of $9 million ( although according to one drug educator I know, the substance would cost about as much to manufacture commercially as sugar ).

For the user, a single hit or "point" usually costs about $50. Because the purity varies, they never know what they've got until it's inside them. Sometimes they overdose, sometimes they die. A regular user may need to raise somewhere between $800 to $2000 a week to support their addiction. Hence the rise in prostitution, petty crime and dealing during heroin's ascendancy.

It's this expense that creates many of the drug's social problems. Scoring and paying for heroin becomes the user's entire focus. Finding money for food, clothing or housing may no longer be a priority. Homelessness and malnutrition are frequent side-effects for long-term users.

But all this has been said before. What isn't understood often enough is why some people find heroin so seductive. Heroin may have been conceived as a painkiller, but it is also extremely effective in killing emotional pain. Users I know have described the drug, not as a curse, but as a source of meaning. "Without it, I would have topped myself years ago," one 26-year-old woman told me.

Society is fragmented and it's painful to acknowledge that many people experience sexual, physical and emotional abuse. Overcoming such trauma may be a lifetime's journey. Some never manage it. I have no doubt that the stoned serenity heroin promises is seen as a solution, a tangible pathway out of despair. When he was director of Jesuit Social Services, Peter Norden memorably observed that young people use drugs in response to pain, suffering and isolation -- not because they are aiming to be villainous.

In other words, heroin addiction may be best understood as the consequence of profound social dislocation, rather than an individual's weakness. Children do not ask to be traumatised and they do what they can to survive the despair. This is why we've got to reach out to users and offer more constructive therapies to address their psychological injuries.

Ten years ago, widespread heroin use created pervasive outrage in Melbourne and many people were contented with the short-sighted premise that all problems begin and end with the drug user. Heroin users I knew were bashed, spat on and called names such as "junkie" and "dero". Ironically, the perpetrators were often young intoxicated males.

It might help if we abolished words like "drug addict" and "junkie" from the lexicon of social comment. Pejoratives do nothing but efface the humanity from a situation where compassion, not condemnation, would better suit the debate.

If heroin is back to stay, we need to be prepared to look past the substance itself and recognise that this addiction is really a symbol for more formidable problems. Heroin use isn't just the product of crime, it's also the product of family breakdown, neglect and intense feelings of hopelessness.









URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n651/a07.html
Newshawk: MAP's News by email www.mapinc.org/lists/#news
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Mon, 22 Jun 2009
Source: Age, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2009 The Age Company Ltd
Contact: letters@theage.com.au
Website: http://www.theage.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5
Author: Chris Middendorp
Note: Chris Middendorp is a program co-ordinator at Sacred Heart Mission.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

Pot 'Consultant' Reports Plant Theft

Someone Stole His Marijuana And He Wants Police To Get It Back.

So, an officer found himself in the unusual position yesterday of taking a report for the stolen weed. Weed worth anywhere from $850 to $17,000. Depending on who you ask.

Usually when someone's stash is ripped off, the last person they think of calling is a cop. But Derek Pedro figures his legal property was taken and he deserves the assistance of police, just like anybody else.

First, let's get a few things straight about Pedro.

He calls it his "medicine." Not his pot.

He refers to himself a "gardener." Not a cultivator.

He says he is a "consultant." Not a dealer.

And he doesn't have customers. They're his "patients."

Since 2003, Pedro, 37, has had a licence through Health Canada that allows him to use and grow marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Since childhood, Pedro has been plagued by excruciating migraines, he says. He also has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, an incurable problem with his collagen production, which causes severe joint pain.

At 16, Pedro discovered smoking dope made him feel better.

These days, "I need to medicate at least once an hour," he says. He does it with the government's blessing.

He also grows his own with the federal government's approval.

In the back yard of his east Mountain home, Pedro has a small greenhouse. In there he grows his "mother plants," the cannabis genetically designed to meet his specific medical needs. From those, he takes cuttings to grow the crop that thrives in his basement.

Pedro is not just gardening for himself. It would be against the law for Pedro to grow cannabis for someone else. Or sell to them. So he doesn't do that.

What he does is rent space in his house for others to grow. He charges them for hydro. And his consultation fee.

"I have a great following of people who need help," he says.

Pedro says he has eight patients, but hopes to expand to 80.

His fee and overhead works out to about $50 a plant, which he says is the dollar value Health Canada sets for a pot plant.

Cops go by a different calculation. Street value for weed in Hamilton is usually set at about $1,000 for a mature plant.

Early yesterday morning, someone cut the lock on Pedro's greenhouse and stole 11 mother plants. Then they broke into a basement window and stole seven more plants. They went up to the first floor and stole a computer and a bag of marijuana.

All the while, Pedro was asleep on the second floor.

Health Canada says medicinal pot growers must have security. Pedro has a security camera, but the images from the break-in are so grainy they are useless. He says he has a security company, but the alarm didn't go off and the company didn't respond. He has a guard dog. Abby is a 13-year-old boxer who expects strangers to pet her.

This is the second time Pedro's marijuana has been stolen. Two years ago he reported a break-in at his home and wound up being arrested for running a grow-op. He spent two days in jail before the charges were dropped. Now he has a $4.3-million lawsuit filed against Hamilton police, claiming unlawful arrest and mental anguish.

His wife -- also a licensed medical marijuana user -- left him soon after that. They share custody of their children, aged four and 13.

Lego blocks and toy dinosaurs are scattered between a few young pot plants that remain in the back yard. The precious branch of a mother plant floats in a child's wading pool, in the hopes of rehydrating it.

The children, says Pedro, "know it as my medicine."

Yesterday, it took much of the day for police to get to Pedro's house. He says it's because of the lawsuit and the pot. Police say Pedro's break-in was just one in a long list after a busy weekend.

Pedro says he will use every bit of marijuana he has left to ensure his patients are taken care of. That will mean his own doses will be jeopardized.

Unless, of course, police are able to recover his stolen pot and hand it back.









URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n652/a04.html
Newshawk: CMAP http://www.mapinc.org/cmap
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Tue, 23 Jun 2009
Source: Hamilton Spectator (CN ON)
Copyright: 2009 The Hamilton Spectator
Contact: letters@thespec.com
Website: http://www.thespec.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/181
Author: Susan Clairmont
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)

Lynden Resident Grows Marijuana - Legally

LYNDEN - On May 9, officers from the Lynden Police Department visited a house in town and discovered a number of marijuana plants growing under lights in the basement.

The residents of the house did not attempt to hide the plants and the police issued no citations.

No one was arrested - it was all legal.

In 1998, 59 percent of Washington voters approved Initiative 692, which allowed marijuana to be grown and used for certain medical conditions.

For law enforcement agencies, encountering medical marijuana now requires them to step lightly.

"We work very closely with the prosecutor's office," said Lynden Deputy Chief John Billester. "We don't want to cross a line and step on someone's rights."

Even though originally the law outlined only a legal defense for medical growers and users to use in court, law officers aren't likely to make an arrest if they suspect the case will get thrown out of court.

Billester said it can make for an uncomfortable situation when people ask officers why they are taking away someone's medication.

Working closely with the prosecutor's office is the preferred course for most law enforcement agencies in Whatcom County, in order to make sure any case brought forward is clear-cut.

Sumas Police Chief Chris Haugen said his department recently assisted federal customs agents who encountered someone with medical marijuana.

The Sumas Police validated the certificate in that case, but forwarded the information to the prosecutor's office for confirmation, Haugen said.

Everson Police Chief Erik Ramstead said his officers, whose work also covers Nooksack, haven't dealt with medical grow operations in the Nooksack Valley cities, but they would be careful to examine documentation closely.

"It's not an issue we run into a lot," Ramstead said.

That doesn't mean he would be surprised to see cases in the future, Ramstead said, since trends indicate to him that the state legislature will only become more receptive to medical marijuana use.

The four main residents of the Lynden house, contacted in May, will not be named in this article because of their concern over what publicity might bring, such as extra attention from "criminal elements."

Jack ( not his real name ), the 40-year-old primary resident, said he is a grower for a cancer patient who also suffered several car accidents, causing him chronic pain as a result.

The marijuana Jack grows is meant mainly to help his patient cope with the nausea associated with chemotherapy, he said.

Jack said he sees himself as part of an expanding movement of patients, providers and doctors in Whatcom County, and the state in general, who struggle to pave the way for people who could benefit from the unorthodox treatment.

Although he admits he used the drug recreationally in the past, he now insists his usage is limited to his own medical condition. His diagnosis is for chronic pain associated with several car and work accidents.

However, police keep a close eye on the house, Jack said, and officers often pull over visitors after they have left to check for illegal possession.

Most of Jack's visitors are people who are interested in the information he provides to help patients obtain legal status - a task Jack, who is on disability, considers a personal mission.

"There are incredible things it can do," he said, noting that he has personally seen patients suffering from Tourette syndrome, AIDS and chronic pain find relief with the drug.

Jack's documentation is provided through the Washington THCF ( The Hemp and Cannabis Foundation ) Medical Clinic in Bellevue, where annual clinic fees are $200 at the door and $150 in advance.

One of the other residents at the house is a medical marijuana user, with two others working toward their own documentation, a process Jack explains using a stack of several dozen papers containing everything from information on the law to instructions on preparing medical marijuana.

Even though it is not a qualifying condition, Jack said the marijuana has helped him in his struggle with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, which he faults for his difficulty controlling his temper.

"It's like I'm trying to think 20 thoughts at a time," Jack said of the ADHD. "You don't want me working on your car."

The list of qualifying illnesses includes cancer, HIV or AIDS, epilepsy, glaucoma, intractable pain, and multiple sclerosis.

Over the years, some of the haze regarding the state's rules has been lifted by lawmakers, and some specifics have been laid out in the Washington Administrative Code and Revised Code of Washington.

For example, a 60-day supply was originally listed as the limit of what could legally be grown or possessed for medical purposes.

Now, this has been clarified in the WAC as "no more than 24 ounces of usable marijuana, and no more than 15 plants," between the "designated provider" and a patient.

Jack said the state law, as of November, allows him to be a provider for two others as well as a patient himself, but that he doesn't even approach the plant limit because of space issues. If he grows too much, he wouldn't be able to keep it out of sight as the law requires.

The early difficulty of defining a 60-day supply has hurt the Lynden Police Department in the past.

Billester said a case several years ago involved someone who had a certificate from a physician, but had abused it by growing more than he was allowed.

"I finally just called the doctor on the certificate to get the proper amount," Billester said.

The police then confiscated all but that amount and cited the man for possession of 40 grams or less of marijuana.

"In that case, ( the law ) was abused," Billester said, adding that he believes the abuse is widespread.

"You have documents that are copies of documents and no way to verify them," he said. "It's difficult for law enforcement, doctors and patients alike."

That's made harder by the technical difficulties of avoiding violation of the federal laws that still apply to marijuana.

According to the Washington State Medical Association, doctors still cannot "prescribe" marijuana. They can merely be "advising a qualifying patient about the risks and benefits of the medical use of marijuana and providing a qualifying patient with documentation that the medical use of marijuana might be beneficial."

In addition, marijuana still can't be bought or sold, with most clinics that provide marijuana operating as non-profits, taking donations in order to keep the clinic open, Jack said.

Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney David McEachran said the county will only press charges when violations of the state law are obvious.

Avoiding prosecution is high on Jack's list of priorities, even though he believes marijuana should be legal and he is a regular attendee of the Seattle Hempfest, an annual gathering of marijuana activists.

Jack said he has become a Christian in recent years and has learned to see marijuana simply as another gift from God. As proof, he quotes Genesis 1:29: "And God said, "See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food." ( NKJV )










URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n652/a05.html
Newshawk: Just Say Know: http://www.efsdp.org
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jun 2009
Source: Lynden Tribune (WA)
Contact: editor@lyndentribune.com
Copyright: 2009 Lynden Tribune
Website: http://www.lyndentribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2618
Author: Mark Reimers
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)

Police Raid Nets 8,000 Pot Plants

A massive marijuana grow-operation was raided yesterday morning near Hatzic Lake in Mission.

Close to 8,000 plants were discovered in the outdoor grow-op on a rural property near the end of Eagle Road.

Police monitored the area for nearly a week before executing a search warrant on the farm. They seized the budding crop, along with a cache of firearms.

The majority of the plants were in outdoor "natural" greenhouses, while almost 200 were discovered in the home's basement. Vegetables were planted in and around the greenhouses to disguise the operation.

Eight people were arrested and are facing charges.









URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n653/a01.html
Newshawk: CMAP http://www.mapinc.org/cmap
Votes: 0
Webpage: http://www.theprovince.com/news/todays-paper/Police+raid+nets+plants/1729961/story.html
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jun 2009
Source: Province, The (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Contact: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476

Prosecution Tries to Show Pot Garden Link At Hearing

OROVILLE - Prosecutors Wednesday tried to show a link between a series of allegedly illegal medical marijuana gardens in Butte County.

A judge is hearing evidence in the complicated case to determine whether 13 accused defendants should stand trial on felony charges of marijuana cultivation and possession of pot for sales.

A Butte County sheriff's investigator testified Wednesday that officers found medicinal marijuana scripts with many of the same patients' names on them posted during raids last September on five indoor and outdoor grows in the foothills near Berry Creek and Concow and a single residence in Chico.

Assistant district attorney Helen Harberts has essentially divided up her case between those gardens and about six others in and around Chico and Forest Ranch.

She has used business records, photos and interviews with witnesses and some of the arrested suspects to try to show a common link between the far-flung grows.

The defense, which is scheduled to resume its cross-examination of the sheriff's investigator today, contends these were lawful medical marijuana collectives or co-ops.

Chico attorney Jesus Rodriguez pointed out Wednesday the 48 plants for which his client is being accused of growing illegally had the requisite number of medical marijuana recommendations posted.

Nor was any evidence found of marijuana sales, such as heavy traffic in an out of the grow-site or pay-owe sheets, scales or packaging material, the defense attorney noted.

The case, which was set to conclude today, now could go into early next week because of the sheer volume of evidence and number of defendants involved.

On Wednesday, Butte County sheriff's anti-marijuana detective Jacob Hancock testified in detail about the raids on five gardens in the eastern foothills surrounding Berry Creek and Concow and a abandoned home in Chico.

He said officers found scripts with many of the same names of medical marijuana patients at several of the grow sites.

Patients with whom he spoke later denied either being part of a collective, or giving permission to have their scripts posted at more than one garden, the detective told the judge.

Hancock also said Chico resident Casey James Wilkins was the listed property owner at two of the sites raided, and that personal papers and other evidence allegedly tied him to at least three of the other grow sites.

The detective quoted one of the arrested men, Arthur Jenkins, as saying that Wilkins hired him to tend a 48-plant medical marijuana garden on a rural property off Danville Circle in Concow.

Initially, Jenkins, who had moved earlier that month into a small camp trailer on the site after being burned out during last summer's wildfires, claimed Wilkins also purchased medical marijuana recommendations for him and his girlfriend, and initially offered to pay him $5,000 to tend the plants and provide security at the grow site, but wound up agreeing to take six plants as compensation instead.

Hancock said two of the patients listed at the Concow site were also posted at a 45-plant outdoor pot garden near a home on George Cameron Drive in Berry Creek.

During a search of that residence, officers came upon a rattlesnake in a bucket containing pot downstairs, which an arrested tenant, Keith Oshea, told them he had placed there to prevent the reptile from harming his animals.

Under questioning by Harberts, the detective said officers also seized a digital camera containing photos showing Wilkins and three others arrested in the case together, along with a spiral notebook in a pickup on the property listing their names and phone numbers.

Wilkins was the listed owner of a home on Castle Rock Road also in Berry Creek, where officers reportedly found an elaborate indoor grow room in addition to a nine-plant medical marijuana garden outside.

Hancock testified records indicated the Chico suspect had purchased the two-story home with the lakeside view for $750,000, paying $40,000 down and agreeing to make monthly $900 payments on the residence.

A total of 29 more pot plants were found at a separate medical marijuana grow off Simpson Ranch Road in Berry Creek.

During questioning, Hancock said that one of two people arrested at that site, Matthew Herrick, initially denied knowing Wilkins. But when confronted with evidence, including photos showing the two men together, he insisted they were "just friends."

The detective testified that officers found records pertaining to businesses reportedly owned by Wilkins during a raid on another medical marijuana garden on nearby Pam Court.

One of the patients whose name was posted at both the Pam Court and Concow grow sites later was quoted by Hancock as claiming she had given her medical marijuana script to the Wilkins in exchange for two ounces of pot.

Sheriff's officers also served another search warrant at a residence on Normal Avenue in Chico, but said any plants that were being grown there had been uprooted prior to the raid.

Hancock quoted a witness whose boyfriend was snared in one of the raids, as claiming the following morning, Wilkins had showed up at her door with two equally "disheveled" men, smelling of marijuana, and saying that "all of his properties had been raided, but adding, "they were all legal and he shouldn't have a problem."









URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n653/a04.html
Newshawk: http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jun 2009
Source: Chico Enterprise-Record (CA)
Copyright: 2009 Chico Enterprise-Record
Contact: http://www.chicoer.com/feedback
Website: http://www.chicoer.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/861
Note: Letters from newspaper's circulation area receive publishing priority
Author: Terry Vau Dell, Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

CANADA TOP SOURCE FOR 'PARTY' DRUGS

Canada has become a major producer of illegal "party" drugs, a United Nations report released yesterday says.

Asian gangs and outlaw bikers stepped up their production of methamphetamine -- a very addictive stimulant drug that affects the central nervous system -- from 2003 to 2006, says the 306-page survey.

Asian organized crime groups primarily on the West Coast also focused on ecstasy, a psychoactive drug that is chemically similar to the stimulant methamphetamine and the hallucinogen mescaline.

They had turned "ecstasy" laboratories into "large scale facilities" by 2007, World Drug Report 2009 says.

"Since 2003-2004, Canada has emerged as the primary source of ecstasy-group substances for North American markets," according to the report, produced by the Vienna-based UN Office on Drugs and Crime.

The gangs also "increasingly" exported it to other parts of the world, the report says.

"In 2007, it was estimated that 50 per cent of domestically produced ecstasy was trafficked outside of Canada," the report says. "Most of this was thought to be destined for the United States, Australia and Japan."

In that year, Japan identified Canada as the single biggest source for ecstasy, the researchers say.

Australia said methamphetamine from Canada accounted for 83 per cent of total seized imports.









URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n653/a09.html
Newshawk: CMAP http://www.mapinc.org/cmap
Votes: 0
Webpage: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/todays-paper/Canada+source+party+drugs/1730652/story.htm
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jun 2009
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Times Colonist
Contact: http://www2.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/letters.html
Website: http://www.timescolonist.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481
Author: Steven Edwards, Canwest News Service

South River Grant Will Help Meth Task Force Efforts To Stamp

Since late 2003, the Sampson County Meth Task Force, Inc. has been working to confront the methamphetamine crisis head-on, providing intervention opportunities designed to prevent or break the cycle of drug abuse caused by those who manufacture, sell or use the highly addictive drug.

The group, that got its initial start with a $500 donation from Star Telephone Membership Corporation, Inc., has grown over the years and has been able to meet the needs of those who suffer from the disease and train those who can help with treatment and recovery.

Thanks to a recent grant from South River EMC, the Sampson County Meth Task Force, Inc. will be able to continue to help save those lives.

Catherine O'Dell, manager of member and public affairs for South River, presented the group with a $5,000 grant at last week's meeting.

"We just thank you, South River, and the members," said Meth Task Force chairman J.W. Simmons. "As you know, this thing called methamphetamine continues to grow in our county. It not only continues to be a menace to us, but it is part of a larger issue of addiction . We are really making a huge push to do the process right and that process starts with not even doing it ( meth ) once. That is the message we are trying to get out. If we can get it out, I think we can take a major step in saving not only lives, but we also hope that it will save some tax dollars in the long run."

The grant came from South River's Community Assistance Corporation, a charitable foundation of the company that has recently awarded over $39,000 in grants to the community through the Operation Round Up program. In the past year, the Community Assistance Program has awarded over $173,000 in grants to organizations and families in the area.

But in actuality, it all comes from South River's members.

Through Operation Round Up, South River EMC members agree to have their bill "rounded up" to the next dollar each month. If their bill is $96.87, the remaining 13 cents will be put into an account managed by the Community Assistance Corporation. Currently, over 77 percent of the Cooperative's members are helping change the lives of their neighbors, friends and fellow-cooperative members through this program.

"Small change makes a big change," said O'Dell.

The funds are then given to organizations that are serving the health, safety, educational or historical needs of the community or to families who have fallen on unusually tough times.

"All applications are reviewed by a board," said O'Dell. "They looked at this application and realized that meth addiction is having a profound impact on our community from children to adults. The work already done by the Meth Task Force has just been phenomenal, and if there was anything that we could do to help them increase the awareness, they wanted to do it."

O'Dell said that she was proud to be part of the presentation.

"We started Operation Round Up because South River wants to give our members an avenue to contribute to the well-being of their community - -- that is exactly what this program does," she said. "We believe in the community. This is where we live, this is where we work, so it is our responsibility to make sure our community remains healthy."

"In these times, when the economy is tightened and you see a lot of corporations pulling back their support, it only compounds the problem. South River is making every effort not to do that because we don't want to make the already difficult times more difficult. We will continue our support of programs like this in the community."

Officials from the group's other major sponsor, Star Telephone, agree.

"I think that the Meth Task Force is a very vital asset to the community," said Jeff Shipp, community relations manager for Star Telephone, who also serves on the group's board. "I think that getting this grant is great, and it is a testament to what the group has been doing in this community."

Shipp said the grant is a great way to help the group help others in need.

"It is really important to try and fight the problems associated with meth addiction," said Shipp. "I am happy to see the Meth Task Force get this grant and it is going to go a long way in helping to start to work as a conduit between addiction, the rehabilitation and the judicial system. I am just proud to be part of the group because it is a tremendous asset to the community."

The Meth Task Force will meet again in the Harrells community on Sept. 15.

For more information on the group, click on to methdeath.org.









URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n654/a03.html
Newshawk: chip=09
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jun 2009
Source: Sampson Independent, The (NC)
Copyright: 2009, The Sampson Independent
Contact: smatthews@intrstar.net
Website: http://www.clintonnc.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1704
Author: Doug Clark

No Rise In Drug Markets

WASHINGTON —- In its annual report on world drug use, the United Nations concludes that global markets for cocaine, opiates and marijuana are holding steady or in decline.

Yet about 28 million people are heavy drug users likely to be physically or psychologically dependent on drugs, the report said.

Opium cultivation in Afghanistan, where 93 percent of the world’s opium is grown, dropped by 19 percent last year, the Vienna-based U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime reported Wednesday. And there was a 28 percent decline —- the report called it staggering —- in production of cocaine in Colombia, which produces half the world’s cocaine, the report said.

Global production of coca hit a five-year low at 845 tons despite some increased cultivation in Peru and Bolivia. Marijuana remained the most widely used and cultivated drug in the world and it is more harmful than commonly believed, the report said.

The estimated cost of the world’s illicit drug market is about $320 billion, said Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. office.

“This makes drugs one of the most valuable commodities in the world,” he said.









URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n654/a09.html
Newshawk: Jim
Votes: 0
Webpage: http://www.ajc.com/none/content/printedition/2009/06/25/drugs0625.html?cxntlid=inform_artr
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jun 2009
Source: Atlanta Journal-Constitution (GA)
Copyright: 2009 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Contact: http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/letters/sendletter.html
Website: http://www.ajc.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/28
Author: Barry Schweid, Associated Press

Second Chance For Methadone Clinic

Clinic Finds New Location After Being Shunned In Other Spots

Despite fears that Second Chance Recovery, one of Calgary's two methadone clinics, would be forced to close, it has found a new location - in a vacated Medicentre in Braeside.

The clinic's current location on 41 Avenue NE is not zoned for a medical facility, forcing them to move. Dr. Ian Postnikoff, an addiction psychiatrist at the clinic, expects a not-in-my-backyard backlash from the Braeside community. The clinic has been searching for a new location for months but was being shunned by various communities because residents don't want it in their area.

"People's attitudes tend to be quite negative towards treatment of patients with addiction," Postnikoff says. "There is this belief these people are raving mad and out of control, but these are people wanting help, they don't want to be involved in the illegal drug life."

Sherry Morrison, the owner of Shuckaluck's Public Ale House in Braecentre, the mall of the new location, doesn't think there will be an issue with the clinic movies in July 6. "They have to go somewhere," she says. "If they run them out of every neighbourhood, where are they going to go?" adding that with a police station down the street, it is as good a location as any.








URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n654/a05.html
Newshawk: CMAP http://www.mapinc.org/cmap
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jun 2009
Source: FFWD (CN AB)
Copyright: 2009 FFWD
Contact: info@ffwd.greatwest.ca
Website: http://www.ffwdweekly.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1194
Author: Lindsey Wallis

Prison Beds Bill Set To Top $1.75b

The prison population is growing exponentially and will require 4900 new beds at a cost of $1.75 billion in the coming seven years, Budget documents reveal.

The prisons are virtually full now, but the Treasury's Budget documents show that Corrections forecasts the present population of 8000 to grow to 11,000 by 2016. The documents say the bulk of the $1.7 billion will hit next year's Budget.

Growth in the prison population will require the construction of 3500 new beds and the replacement of 1400 - a total of 4900 beds.

The documents show that as well as the prison being considered for Wiri, there is building at another two sites planned - although details are deleted. The Budget included $385.4 million for double bunking at existed prisons, with Corrections Minister Judith Collins saying without it prisons will be full by February.

The Government is looking at other alternatives, such as adding on converted shipping containers or prefabricated "concrete pods" to existing prisons.











URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n655/a05.html
Newshawk: http://www.norml.org.nz
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Fri, 26 Jun 2009
Source: New Zealand Herald (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2009 New Zealand Herald
Contact: http://info.nzherald.co.nz/letters/
Website: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/300
Author: Patrick Gower

Wasting Time

As a retired police detective, I heartily agree with Dr. Fraser that my profession is addicted to the war on drugs. While rape kits are never opened and known possessors of child pornography are not arrested, drug task forces go about the useless exercise of arresting drug dealers who are replaced within a week. Why? With drug dealers we can seize their home, car and cash. With child molesters we get no money, just the satisfaction of saving our children.

Save our children. End Modern Prohibition.

Howard Wooldridge-Founding Member of LEAP Washington, D.C.









URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n655/a01.html
Newshawk: Jim
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Thu, 25 Jun 2009
Source: Macon Telegraph (GA)
Copyright: 2009 The Macon Telegraph Publishing Company
Contact: letters@macontel.com
Website: http://www.macontelegraph.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/667
Author: Howard Wooldridge, Founding Member-Leap

Speakers Tackle Medical Marijuana Issue At Forum

Current drug enforcement laws and a government system for the provision of medical marijuana are failing Canadians, residents heard from an expert panel last week.

Rielle Capler, of the Centre for Addiction Research B.C., and Tony Smith, from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, presented information about medical marijuana, regulations governing it, and problems within the current legal system to the crowd of over 40 people ranging in age from 20 through 80 at the Thursday, June 18 meeting. The forum was hosted by the city at a cost $1,100. Capler spoke about the use of medical marijuana in treatment of symptoms related to specific conditions, methods of use and possible harms before delving into the current regulatory process for legal access to medical marijuana and the development of compassion clubs as a response to gaps in the current system.

" The regulations are unconstitutional, and there are too many barriers," said Capler. "The ( marijuana available through the government program ) is marked up 1,500 per cent, they mark it up after paying for it to be grown, and people who are sick have to pay for it. Some people pay up to $500 a month for their medicine."

Smith stayed focused on the overall lack of success in the existing drug enforcement programs. Smith retired after 28 years on the police force, spending much of his time working in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. He says that 90 per cent of crime is done by addicts while only one to three per cent of the population is addicted. With a cost of over $2.5 billion annually, drug enforcement is still not winning, said Smith. City Councillor Joy Davies, who initiated the forum says the fight for change must come from the local level. Davies called on the community to make their support for change heard at city council prior to their next meeting, on June 29 where the vote to move a motion forward to the provincial municipalities meeting in the fall.

"If you, the local population, are sincere that you want the local politicians - and I believe it has to be the grassroots politicians up to the provincial and federal - to organize and work together you have to make your voice heard," said Davies. "Council said they want the community to tell them that you want this vote to go down to Vancouver. If you want to get political, this is political."

While people inside continued to ask questions, a Vancouver businessman Sam Mellace, addressed people outside the doors. Mellace says that marijuana helped him as he battled leukemia. As a permitted user, Mellace wants to see legal sources of marijuana which he says compassion clubs are not. "There is a big difference between compassion and the law," said Mellace. My idea and concept is to open up viable medical clinics and also supply the marijuana. If I can get people to grow the supply wouldn't that be an economic boost?"










URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n655/a08.html
Newshawk: Herb
Votes: 0
Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jun 2009
Source: Grand Forks Gazette (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Sterling Newspapers
Contact: editor@grandforksgazette.ca
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/525
Author: Mona Mattei

US WA: Drug Testing Bill Faces 'Uphill Struggle'

DRUG TESTING BILL FACES 'UPHILL STRUGGLE'

For the second year in a row, it looks like random drug-testing for police could be a nonstarter in Olympia.

The version of the bill in the state House, sponsored by Naches Republican Charles Ross, isn't dead, but it is stalled.

And the fate of an identical bill in the state Senate, sponsored by Yakima Republican Curtis King, could hinge on support from a Seattle Democrat who signed on as a co-sponsor but now says he's not sure whether he'd vote for it.

"It's turned into kind of an uphill struggle," said bill co-sponsor Rep. Bruce Chandler, R-Granger. "But we still have time to hear the bill and we're still working on it,"

The bill is similar to the one by Ross last year, which never came to a vote.

It would allow residents of cities and counties to vote on whether to randomly test law enforcement personnel. City of Yakima officials asked for the bill after an arbitrator ruled in 2007 that the city couldn't impose random drug testing without negotiating it into the contract with the police guild.

Yakima police believe the matter should have ended there and view the city's push for state legislation as an end-run to avoid bargaining the issue. City officials began pushing for the legislation after losing in arbitration.

"We're just saying that you need to meet us at the table," said Detective Mike Nielsen, president of the Yakima Police Patrolman's Association.

Chandler is the only one of the House bill's six co-sponsors with a seat on the Commerce and Labor Committee, where the bill has been mired since Ross introduced it last month. Whether it gets a hearing largely depends on the chairman of that committee, Steve Conway, D-Tacoma.

It may have faced an easier path in the Public Safety Committee, Ross said. The opposition to it within Commerce and Labor "illustrates the union pressures around here that some people feel," he said. Yakima police Chief Sam Granato, who has pushed for random drug testing since 2004, was more pointed, saying the Washington Council of Police and Sheriff's is applying that pressure.

"Rep. Conway will not move on it because he fears WACOPS," Granato wrote in an e-mail response to the Herald-Republic.

Conway did not respond to a call seeking comment for this story Friday.

WACOPS is working against the Senate version of the bill, too. No Washington cities Yakima's size or larger have random drug testing for police, although a few smaller cities such as Sunnyside do.

"The only place it's been an issue is in Yakima, with the fight between the guild and the chief," said Lee Reaves, director of governmental affairs for the organization. "We're going to fight it."

Reaves said he spoke with Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle, on Thursday to try to quash the bill. Kline is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, where the Senate version of the bill awaits scheduling for a hearing.

"He's always been really good for us to work with," said Reaves.

Talking with Reaves gave Kline new perspective on the whole random-testing issue, leaving him undecided as of Friday.

"I was unaware that drug testing was a bargainable issue within police contracts," Kline said.

That realization left him torn between competing notions. On one hand, he believes police, like pilots or interstate truck drivers, hold a position in which public-safety concerns could override employee-privacy rights and call for random testing.

"Then there's another allegiance," Kline said. "And that is to the right of all people who work for a living -- including police officers -- to bargain with their employers the terms of their employment."

King spoke with Kline about the latter's new concerns on Thursday night and is hopeful he'll be able to keep Kline's support.

"Unless he's changed his mind," King said. "But we'll see."














drug test
pass a drug test
how to pass your drug test
pass drug testing

US: Web: Obama Is Against Pot Raids, the Public Is Against Pot Raids, and Yet ..

OBAMA IS AGAINST POT RAIDS, THE PUBLIC IS AGAINST POT RAIDS, AND YET ... THE DRUG COPS' RAIDS CONTINUE

What gives? Let's see Obama be the one who personally rains on the DEA's eight-year parade that has crushed the lives of thousands.

Okay, try and stay with me if you can.

While campaigning for the US presidency, Barack Obama pledged not to "use Justice Department resources to try and circumvent state ( medical marijuana ) laws."

Nearly three-quarters of the American public agrees with this position. According to a new national poll of 1,053 likely voters by Zogby International and commissioned by the NORML Foundation, seventy-two percent of voters say that President Obama should "stop federal raids against medical marijuana providers in the 13 states where medical marijuana has become legal."

But since President Obama took office two weeks ago, the US Drug Enforcement Administration has undertaken at least seven separate raids of state-authorized medical marijuana providers in California and Colorado. Most recently, on Wednesday DEA officials - acting without the cooperation of state or local law enforcement agencies - served federal search warrants on at least four Los Angeles based medical marijuana collectives. Agents seized medicine, cash, financial records, and computers, but did not make any arrests.

Still with me? Good, because things are about to get even more confusing.

Today, in a front page article in The Washington Times White House spokesperson Nick Shapiro said, "The president believes that federal resources should not be used to circumvent state laws, and as he continues to appoint senior leadership to fill out the ranks of the federal government, he expects them to review their policies with that in mind."

Huh?

Okay, maybe I missed something but last time I checked Barack Obama is, in fact, the 44th President of the United States - which means he has the authority to tell both the US Department of Justice and DEA Acting Administrator Michele Leonhart: "No more raids. Period!" ( NORML podcaster Russ Belville has already drafted Obama the requisite memo here. http://stash.norml.org/dea-continues-pot-raids-obama-opposes/ )

Or, if Obama doesn't want to be the one who personally rains on the DEA's eight-year parade, then he can demand his newly sworn in U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to tell Ms. Leonhart and the DEA: "When President Obama says 'no more raids,' he means no more raids! Any more 'smash and grabs' in California - or any other state that's legalized the medical use of cannabis - and you're all out of your jobs. Got it?"

Of course, given the likelihood that President Obama won't be making such demands of his new Attorney General any time soon, why don't you?

Click here ( http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=12591396 ) and tell US Attorney General Eric Holder to uphold the will of the President and the public. It's time for the DEA to stop circumventing state medical marijuana laws. It's time for the raids to come to an end.


http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n134/a03.html?1140









pass drug testing
drug test
pass a drug test
how to pass your drug test

US: Phelps Image As Hero Hurt By Photos

PHELPS IMAGE AS HERO HURT BY PHOTOS

During the Beijing Olympics, Michael Phelps's sports agent said the gold medalist could earn $100 million in endorsement deals over his lifetime. Now, with Mr. Phelps photographed smoking marijuana, that figure may have to be adjusted, though for the time being most brands say they are standing by the swimming champion.

Mr. Phelps was caught up in a torrent of bad publicity Sunday when photos of him appeared in a British tabloid.

Although he apologized immediately for the incident, sports-marketing experts expect some fallout.

"There is no arguing that this will definitely impact his future earnings and marketing," says Kevin Adler, chief solutions officer at Engage Marketing, a New York sports-marketing firm. "The guy has been marketed as Captain America, and now this has materially damaged that image." Drew Johnson, a spokesman for Mr. Phelps's agent Octagon, a unit of Interpublic Group of Cos., said the swimmer has spoken with all current sponsors and apologized. "The response we've received has been very positive, and we are encouraged," Mr. Johnson said.

Mr. Phelps earns an estimated $5 million a year by endorsing big name brands such as Visa Inc., Nike Inc., Speedo International Ltd., Kellogg Co., PureSport and Doctor's Associates Inc.'s Subway restaurants. Sports experts point out that marketers have the legal right to terminate their contracts because most endorsement deals contain a "morality clause." Subway is planning to use Mr. Phelps in a high-profile marketing event this summer and is now monitoring the situation to see if the sandwich chain will have to scrap those efforts, according to a person familiar with the matter. A spokeswoman for Subway declined to comment.

Many of the companies whose brands Mr. Phelps endorses have expressed support for him. Watchmaker Omega, owned by Swatch Group AG, said the "story in the press involves Michael Phelps's private life and is, as far as Omega is concerned, a nonissue." But many also remained tight-lipped about whether the incident will affect the contracts they have with the swimmer. "Speedo would like to make it clear that it does not condone such behavior and we know that Michael truly regrets his actions," the swimwear maker said in a statement. "Michael Phelps is a valued member of the Speedo team and a great champion.

We will do all that we can to support him and his family."

Still, a spokeswoman for the company declined to comment on whether its contract with Mr. Phelps, which comes up for renewal at the end of the year, would be affected.

Speedo has been sponsoring Mr. Phelps since he was 16 years old. Speedo gave him a $1 million bonus for his record eight gold medals at the Beijing Olympics.

The photos appeared in News of the World, which is owned by News Corp. News Corp. also owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal. This isn't the first time the 23-year-old Mr. Phelps's image has been dented. In 2004, he pleaded guilty to drunken driving and was sentenced to 18 months' probation.

But sports experts say this incident could be more damaging because it was caught on camera.

It also broke on Super Bowl Sunday, the biggest sports and advertising day of the calendar.

Some fans have expressed their disappointment on the Web. On Mr. Phelps's site, swimroom.com, one commenter said: "And I look up to u?? As a little 13-year-old girl I'm now very sad." Others expressed their support.

One wrote: "In bad times is when you know your true friends, you are an ordinary human being and as such can make mistakes."

PureSport, a performance-drink brand, said in a statement that it isn't going to discuss the terms of its contract with Mr. Phelps. "Suffice to say, Michael is one of the best performing athletes in the world and we are very proud that he believes strongly in and endorses our product," Chief Executive Mike Humphrey said in the statement. "While we certainly do not condone his recent behavior, he is a key part of our PureSport family, will remain a member of our family and we are supporting him during this difficult time.


ref: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n123/a10.html?1119










pass drug test
passing drug test
how to pass a drug test
how pass drug test
Paternity testing in dallas
HIV testing in dallas