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DRUGSENSE WEEKLY

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DrugSense Weekly,                 May 22, 2009                     #601

Read This Publication On-line at:  http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm

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TABLE OF CONTENTS:

* This Just In

   (1) Victoria's Top Cop Vows To Catch Drug Dealers
   (2) Drug Education In Schools Panned
   (3) Column: Reefer Sadness
   (4) Ending Disparity In Cocaine Sentencing Laws Has Support In NC

* Weekly News in Review

Drug Policy-

   (5) Inspections Of Mexico-Bound Traffic Rise
   (6) Victoria Man To Pitch Pot On Reality TV Show
   (7) Legalization? Now for the Hard Question
   (8) Editorial: Make Us Drug Laws More Realistic

Law Enforcement & Prisons-

   (9) Mexico's Next War On Drugs
   (10) Sheriff Busted On Pot Charges
   (11) Ex-Customs Agent Pleads Guilty to Role in Coke-Smuggling Caper
   (12) Accused Peel Officer To Testify

Cannabis & Hemp-

   (13) Supreme Court Upholds California Medical Pot Law
   (14) Medical-Pot Advocate-Grower Gets 10 Years
   (15) Colleges Dragged Into Pot Debate
   (16) Olympic Toke?

International News-

   (17) Rise In Use Of Drug Tests To Sack Staff Without Redundancy Pay
   (18) Long Sentences For Drug Mules Were Never Going To Act As A Deterrent
   (19) 'Tough' Drug Bill Politicized
   (20) 10 Reasons Why We Need To Decriminalize Drugs

* Hot Off The 'Net

   Will Obama End The War On Drugs? / Arianna Huffington
   Tancredo Says It's Time To Legalize Drugs
   FBI Director Gets Schooled On Marijuana
   Drug Truth Network
   Jesse  Ventura  Calls  For  The  Decriminalization  Of  Marijuana
   Prohibition  Doesn't  Work,  So  Lets  Have  More  Prohibition!
   ONDCP Director Kerlikowske NPR Interview
   Autumn  Of  The  Capo:  The  Diary  Of  A  Drug Lord / Ioan Grillo
   The History Of Weed

* What You Can Do This Week

   Get And Proudly Wear A LEAP Badge Lapel Pin
   Praise  Rep.  Steve  Cohen  For  Questioning  Cannabis Prohibition

* Letter Of The Week

   Don't Fear Change / Chris Conrad

* Feature Article

   Riding  the  Information  Superhighway  into  the  Oval  Office  
   / Don E. Wirtshafter

* Quote of the Week

   William Allen White

DrugSense  needs  your  support  to  continue this newsletter and many
other important projects - see how you can help at
http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm

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THIS JUST IN
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(1) VICTORIA'S TOP COP VOWS TO CATCH DRUG DEALERS

Pubdate: Fri, 22 May 2009
Source: Victoria News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Black Press
Author: Rebecca Aldous

Drug Dealers Be Warned: Your Days Are Numbered.

Victoria police chief Jamie Graham is out to get you.

"We  will  continue to target those who infiltrate our communities and
undermine everything decent we stand for," said Graham.

"Drugs  and  violence  go  together,  that's  why we are targeting the
most violent dealers."

Last  week,  police  seized $300,000 worth of drugs after 100 officers
raided  six  suspected  drug  trafficking  locations  in  the  Capital
Region.

The  two-month-long  case  involved  eight police organizations making
it the South Island's largest co-ordinated investigation.

The  bust  eliminated  a  possible  1,800  drug  deals  from  Victoria
streets,  said  Graham.  In less than 90 days, Greater Victoria police
departments  have  taken  more  than $1 million worth of illicit drugs
out of the system.

From  the  search  warrants executed in Victoria, Esquimalt and three
in  the  Westshore area, two kilos of cocaine, 32 grams of heroin, 125
ecstasy  pills,  615  grams of crystal methamphetamine and 1,099 grams
of marijuana were confiscated. No firearms were found.

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n547/a01.html

===

(2) DRUG EDUCATION IN SCHOOLS PANNED

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n547/a11.html

Pubdate: Fri, 22 May 2009
Source: New Zealand Herald (New Zealand)
Copyright: 2009 New Zealand Herald
Author: Andrew Laxon

Today is the final of a six-part series on the damage
methamphetamine  is  doing  to  New  Zealand and what we can do to fix
it.

Traditional  drug  education  in  schools  has  little or no effect on
young  people's  tendency  to  take  drugs such as P, researchers have
warned.

A  Massey  University  review  says bringing in experts to teach about
the  dangers  of drugs and alcohol does not lead to a long-term change
in  student  behaviour  - mainly because teenagers have other stronger
influences in their lives.

The  research  was  dismissed  by one of the country's longest-running
providers, the Life Education Trust, as irrelevant academic
criticism.

But  the  newly  formed Stellar Trust, which aims to promote education
about  methamphetamine,  says  it  is  aware  of  the  findings and is
planning a more community-based approach.

===

(3) COLUMN: REEFER SADNESS

Pubdate: Thu, 21 May 2009
Source: FFWD (CN AB)
Copyright: 2009 FFWD
Author: Patrick Boyle

The Dutch Start Getting All Uptight And Shit

We've  all  heard  tales  of  Amsterdam:  the  great  European city of
bacchanalia.  Arriving  by  train, weary travellers walk along a canal
that  radiates  outward  from Centraal station and venture down any of
the  many  narrow  side  streets  that  splay  forth  from each canal,
leading  to  the  city's  best-known  attractions.  From  the live sex
shows  and  scantily clad prostitutes of the red light district to the
so-called  "coffee  shops"  where  modest  portions  of  cannabis  and
hashish  can  be bought and smoked, the city's core is brimming with a
degree  of  naughtiness  that  comparatively  puritan  North Americans
find jaw-dropping.

Nevertheless,  as  any  recent visitor can tell you, there's something
strange  in  the  Amsterdam  air  these  days - a distinctly different
kind  of  stink  than  the  acrid  odour  of an expertly rolled blunt.
While  the  culture  of  permissiveness  remains  intact,  it has been
thoroughly  rattled  by  a  recent  series  of  legal reforms. Nestled
alongside  policies  that would see the red-light district scaled back
by  half,  new  rules designed to restrict the sale and consumption of
soft  drugs  are  on  their  way  down  the  pipe;  some  have already
arrived.

"I  don't  think  there will ever be no coffee shops in Amsterdam, but
there  will  be  less  in the future," says Prem Chitaroe, who manages
Youth  Hostel  Meeting Point on Warmoesstraat, a bustling thoroughfare
dotted  with  weed-friendly  establishments. "There has been and there
still  is  a lot of pressure from other European countries to stop the
semi-legalization  of  soft  drugs.  But also in the last few years we
have  a  [leading]  party in the federal government that does not like
the use of soft drugs in Holland."

Indeed,  the  centre-right  Christian Democratic Appeal ( CDA ) party,
largest  of  the  four-party  coalition that currently leads the Dutch
national  government,  has  been  the  driving force behind the recent
backlash  against  the acceptance of soft drugs that has been the norm
in  Dutch  politics  for  almost  four decades. Nevertheless, the most
crushing  blow  to  coffee  shop culture is legislation that has broad
support  in  countries  throughout  the  western world: a smoking ban.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n544/a01.html

===

(4) ENDING DISPARITY IN COCAINE SENTENCING LAWS HAS SUPPORT IN NC

Pubdate: Thu, 21 May 2009
Source: News & Observer (Raleigh, NC)
Copyright: 2009 The News and Observer Publishing Company
Author: Thomasi Mcdonald, Staff Writer

RALEIGH  -  Some  state  criminal  justice  advocates  say  they would
welcome  an  end  to  the  disparity  in  federal  sentences for crack
cocaine and powder cocaine crimes.

The  issue  has  spawned  several  fair  sentencing bills and received
national  attention  after  the Obama administration recently signaled
its  support,  particularly  the  elimination  of  harsh penalties for
low-level drug offenses. "We wholeheartedly support those
proposals,"  said  Katy  Parker,  legal director of the North Carolina
chapter  of  the  American Civil Liberties Union in Raleigh. "There is
no  medical  or  scientific  distinction in powder cocaine or the base
form  known  as  crack. There's no research proving that crack is more
addictive than powder cocaine."

Wake  County  District Attorney Colin Willoughby said a public hearing
on Capitol Hill today on the issue is "a step in the right
direction."  The  U.S.  Attorney's Office in Raleigh, which prosecutes
federal  cases,  declined to comment on the issue. Wake County Sheriff
Donnie  Harrison  also  declined  to  comment, saying he has not had a
chance to review the proposed legislation.

There  are  several  ways  a  local  drug  case  may end up in federal
court.  Speaking  during  a  national teleconference Wednesday, former
Western  Tennessee  federal  prosecutor Veronica F. Coleman-Davis said
a  joint  task  force  consisting of local and federal authorities may
make  a  drug  arrest  and  the  suspect may bargain with police to be
prosecuted  at  the  state level, where there are lesser penalties, if
he  or  she  cooperates.  Willoughby  said there also are instances in
Wake  County  where  local  prosecutors  ask the federal government to
prosecute  a  case, particularly if the drugs have been intercepted at
the  airport  or on an interstate highway, or for cases "that may have
a larger impact."

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n543/a02.html

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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW
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Domestic News- Policy
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COMMENTS (5-8)

At  the  U.S.-Mexico  border,  there's  more  U.S.  law  enforcement
presence,  but  an article out of the Dallas Morning News suggests it
may not make much difference.

As  the  international  debate  over drug policy increases, seemingly
more opinions turn toward reform in a number of forums.

===

(5) INSPECTIONS OF MEXICO-BOUND TRAFFIC RISE

Pubdate: Mon, 18 May 2009
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2009 Associated Press

Newly  Intensified  Search  For Cash, Weapons Being Smuggled From U.S.
Yields Uneven Results

NOGALES,  Ariz.  (  AP  ) - Hawks circle above the lines of traffic at
the  hot,  arid border crossing into Mexico. Sagebrush catches clothes
tossed  by  fence  climbers.  Three  curious,  dusty  horses watch the
federal  agents  who  are  tapping  on  car  windows,  opening trunks,
looking in vain for contraband.

"We're  sucking  up  a  lot  of exhaust out here," supervisory Customs
and Border Protection officer Edith Serrano says.

This  is  what  the  Obama  administration's  new  commitment  to help
Mexico fight its drug cartels looks like.

President  Barack  Obama this spring promised his Mexican counterpart,
Felipe  Calderon,  that  the  U.S.  would  fight  two  of  the biggest
contributions  U.S.  residents make to drug cartels: cash and weapons.
The latter is hard to come by in Mexico.

For  the  past five weeks, hundreds of agents participating in a newly
intensified  $95  million  outbound  inspection  program  have  been
stepping into southbound traffic lanes and stopping
suspicious-looking cars and trucks.

Associated  Press  reporters fanned out to the busiest crossings along
the  Mexican  border  -  Laredo  and  El Paso; Nogales, Ariz.; and San
Diego - to see how effective the inspections are.

The  findings?  Wads  of  U.S. currency headed for Mexico, wedged into
car  doors,  stuffed under mattresses, taped onto torsos, were sniffed
out by dogs, seized by agents and locked away for possible
investigations.  No  guns  were  found  as the reporters watched; they
rarely are.

"I  do  not  believe we can even make a dent in [southbound smuggling]
because  that  assumes  the cartels are complete idiots, which they're
not.  Why  in the world would they try to smuggle weapons and currency
through  a  checkpoint  when  there  are  so many other options?" said
Border  Patrol  Agent  T.J.  Bonner,  president  of the agents' union.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n534/a08.html

===

(6) VICTORIA MAN TO PITCH POT ON REALITY TV SHOW

Pubdate: Thu, 21 May 2009
Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Times Colonist
Author: Matthew Pearson, Times Colonist

A  Victoria  man  might  soon  learn  if there is smoke where there is
fire.

Ian  Layfield,  an  entrepreneur in the mail-order marijuana business,
is  in  Toronto  this  week  to pitch his product to the sharp-toothed
judges  on  the CBC's Dragons' Den. Tomorrow, he hopes to persuade the
panel  of  successful business people to invest in medicinal-marijuana
distribution via mail.

"I  think  we  have  a  very  viable company and we would benefit from
having  at  least one of the Dragons partner with us to make sure this
company  becomes  the  success  we  all want it to be," said Layfield,
who  uses  the  locally  grown  marijuana  daily  to  treat arthritis.

Layfield  launched  the  company,  Canada's Medicinal Marihuana Store,
last  November  to  distribute  products  to  people  registered  with
Health Canada to legally use the substance.

He  said  he  initially  went  to an audition for the show in April at
the  University  of Victoria to help a friend, but while he was there,
he  read  over  the  forms  and decided his idea might have potential.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n543/a07.html

===

(7) LEGALIZATION? NOW FOR THE HARD QUESTION

Pubdate: Sun, 17 May 2009
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2009 The New York Times Company
Author: Michael Winerip

ETHAN  NADELMANN,  executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance, has
been  advocating  for  legalization of marijuana for 20 years and says
he's  seen  more progress in the last four months than in the previous
two  decades.  "It's  starting to cascade," he said. "Our model is the
gay  rights  movement  and  their  recent string of successes with gay
marriage."

Mr.  Nadelmann  is  a  smart  guy; he has a law degree and a doctorate
from  Harvard.  He  so  impressed  George  Soros  that the billionaire
investor  became  the  biggest  financial  backer  for Mr. Nadelmann's
advocacy.  The  Drug  Policy  Alliance  has  45 staff members in seven
offices nationwide working for legalization.

In  the  25  years  since  Nancy  Reagan advocated just saying no, Mr.
Nadelmann  has  seen  a  progression through four public stages out of
the five he believes are needed to achieve legalization.

Stage 1. Bill Clinton: I smoked but I did not inhale.

Stage  2.  Al  Gore: I smoked, it was wrong, I regret it, shame on me.

Stage  3.  Michael  Bloomberg  ( asked if he'd tried pot ): "You bet I
did and I enjoyed it."

Stage  4.  Barack  Obama: "I inhaled frequently - that was the point!"

Stage  5.  Public  Figure to Come: Yes, I smoke the occasional joint.

"We  need  to  drop  the 'd' from 'smoked,' " Mr. Nadelmann said, "and
move from past to present."

For  many  reasons,  the  advocates  are  feeling  hopeful.  The Obama
administration  has  reversed  a  Bush  policy  of prosecuting medical
marijuana  use,  which  is now legal in 13 states; a recent Field poll
in California showed for the first time that a majority of
registered  voters  in  that  state  favors legalizing and taxing pot;
Gov.  Arnold  Schwarzenegger,  who  has opposed legalization, now says
he'd like to see a study done.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n520/a06.html

===

(8) EDITORIAL: MAKE U.S. DRUG LAWS MORE REALISTIC

Pubdate: Wed, 20 May 2009
Source: State Journal-Register (IL)
Copyright: 2009 The State Journal-Register

PRESIDENT  Barack  Obama's  request  that  Congress  eliminate  the
disparity  between  sentences  for  crack  cocaine  and powder cocaine
offenses would abolish a clearly discriminatory law.

In  general,  the  Obama  administration  seems  to  be  taking a more
fact-based  and  less  ideological  approach  to  drug  enforcement, a
welcome  change  from  decades of elected officials upping the ante on
sentencing  to  prove  who's  the  toughest on crime at election time.

The  result  of  that has been 500,000 people imprisoned in the United
States  for  drug  crimes,  more  than  all  of more-populated Western
Europe  combined  for  all  other crimes, according to the Drug Policy
Alliance Network, a critic of U.S. policy.

A  rethinking  of  the  war  on  drugs  ( a term rejected last week by
Obama's  drug  czar  ) has been slowly occurring since the late 1990s,
as  many  have  questioned  its  efficacy at reducing drug use and the
human cost of sending so many to prison.

EVEN  SPRINGFIELD  has  been forward-thinking, with aldermen approving
an  ordinance  in  February  allowing police the discretion of whether
to  charge  those  with  less than 2.5 grams of marijuana with a crime
or simply cite them for an ordinance violation.

The  change,  endorsed  by  Springfield  Police  Chief  Ralph Caldwell
after  the  department  discovered  it  worked  in  similar  Illinois
cities,  allows  officers  to  spare  those who have a few joints from
the  stain  of  a  criminal record for a mistake that's been a rite of
passage for millions of Americans.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n541/a11.html

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Law Enforcement & Prisons
-------------------------

COMMENTS: (9-12)

What  happens  when  one  country tries to crack down on illegal drug
exports?  According  to  the  Christian Science Monitor, that country
might  experience increased domestic use. Elsewhere in the U.S., drug
war corruption continues.

===

(9) MEXICO'S NEXT WAR ON DRUGS

Pubdate: Sun, 17 May 2009
Source: Christian Science Monitor (US)
Copyright: 2009 The Christian Science Publishing Society
Author: Sara Miller Llana

Addiction  Skyrockets  As  Drugs  Bound  The  U.S.  Circulate  Within
Mexico.

Mexico  City  -  Gerardo  Flores  was  16  when  he  first was offered
marijuana,  and  by  the time he was 19 he had tried ecstasy, LSD, and
cocaine.  He  had been arrested for stealing and expelled from school.

This is the new face of drug addiction in Mexico.

Today  the  country  finds  itself  not  just  in  a  battle with drug
traffickers  vying  for  lucrative  routes  into  the  US,  but with a
domestic  consumption  problem  that  is  ensnaring youngsters such as
Mr.  Flores.  Fortified  borders and a fracturing of drug cartels have
led  to  a  glut  of  drugs  in  Mexico,  causing  prices  to drop and
addiction  rates  to  skyrocket.  The  number  of addicts has grown in
just  six  years  by  more  than  50 percent, from 300,000 to 465,000,
according to government statistics.

"There's  been  a  big change in society; consumers are as young as 10
years  old,"  says  Lina  Raquel Sotres, a social worker and head of a
government-run  recovery  clinic  in  Mexico  City.  "All of the drugs
that  aren't  accepted  up north are consumed here. The drugs get used
one way or another."

Mexico  is  the  main  transit  point  for  drugs  from South America:
Roughly  90  percent  of  cocaine  consumed  in the United States goes
first  through  Mexico,  according  to  the  U.S.  State  Department.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n538/a07.html

===

(10) SHERIFF BUSTED ON POT CHARGES

Pubdate: Tue, 19 May 2009
Source: Southern Illinoisan (Carbondale, IL)
Copyright: 2009 Southern Illinoisan
Author: Becky Malkovich

BENTON  -  Federal  drug  trafficking  and  weapons charges led to the
Monday  arrest  of  veteran Gallatin County Sheriff Raymond M. Martin,
who  is  accused in a criminal complaint of dealing marijuana while on
duty and in uniform.

Martin, sheriff since 1990, is charged with three counts of
distribution  of  marijuana  and  two  counts  of  carrying  a firearm
during  and  in  relation  to  drug  trafficking,  according  to  the
complaint filed in federal court in Benton.

The  distribution  charges  allege  Martin, 46, distributed a total of
more  than  1,000  grams  of  marijuana  between  April 27 and May 11,
while  the  weapons  charges  allege  he  carried  a  stainless  steel
revolver during the drug sales.

Martin,  who  was  arrested  at  his office in Shawneetown, became the
target  of  investigators with Illinois State Police/Southern Illinois
Drug  Task  Force and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in November
2008  when  a person identified only as a confidential source reported
being  given  two  pounds  of marijuana by Martin, who allegedly asked
the source to "get rid of that," court documents said.

An  alleged  distribution  deal  would  result  in  a  50-50  split of
proceeds  between  the sheriff and the source, court documents allege.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n536/a08.html

===

(11) EX-CUSTOMS AGENT PLEADS GUILTY TO ROLE IN COKE-SMUGGLING CAPER

Pubdate: Wed, 20 May 2009
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2009 Canwest Publishing Inc.
Author: Paul Cherry, The Gazette

Could Face Decade In Prison: Following Admission, Trial Of
Co-Accused Goes Ahead In Montreal Courthouse

A  former  customs agent is facing the possibility of a 10-year prison
term  after  pleading guilty to taking part in a conspiracy to smuggle
cocaine into Canada by recruiting another agent.

The  guilty  plea  came  just as Omar Riahi, 33, and four other people
were  set  to  begin  their trial at the Montreal courthouse in a case
related  to  Project  Colisee, the joint police investigation into the
Montreal Mafia and its associates.

Riahi  worked  briefly as a customs agent in 2004, but was employed as
a  military  police  officer  in  Halifax  when he became a suspect in
Project Colisee in August 2005.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n539/a04.html

===

(12) ACCUSED PEEL OFFICER TO TESTIFY

Pubdate: Wed, 20 May 2009
Source: Mississauga News (CN ON)
Copyright: The Mississauga News 2009
Author: Louie Rosella

A  Peel  Regional  Police  officer  facing  drug-related  charges will
testify in his own defence this summer.

Cst.  Sheldon  Cook,  40,  has  pleaded  not  guilty to seven criminal
offences,  most  of those in connection with a botched RCMP-controlled
drug delivery on Nov. 16, 2005.

Cook  appeared  in  court  today,  but  the trial has essentially been
adjourned  until  the  week  of Aug. 17 due to the availability of all
parties  involved  in  the  case. Cook will testify for at least a few
days in August.

Court  recently  heard  that Cook never explained in a series of calls
or  meetings  what  happened  on the night he's alleged to have stolen
15 bricks of a substance believed to have been cocaine.

Cst.  Warren  Williams  said  Cook  told  him  the  next  day  that he
discovered  the  bricks in the trunk of his cruiser and had taken them
home.  He  was  going to take them back to the morality squad the next
day.

"Mistakes  happen.  Then  they  get corrected," said Williams, who was
with  Cook  when  he and other officers found what they believed to be
102  bricks  of  suspected  cocaine  hidden  in  boxes of mangoes in a
courier delivery truck.

The  drugs  turned  out  to be white flour, part of an RCMP-controlled
delivery  from  Peru  to  Canada  that  went  missing 12 hours earlier
after arriving at Pearson International Airport.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n542/a04.html

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Cannabis & Hemp
------------------------

COMMENTS: (13-16)

On  Monday,  the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a joint lawsuit
by  San  Bernardino  and San Diego counties that argued they did not
need to comply with California's medicinal cannabis laws.

Nonetheless,  Eddy  Lepp  has  been sentenced to a federal mandatory
minimum  of  10  years  in prison for cultivating over 1000 cannabis
plants for medicinal purposes.

Safer  Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation, or SAFER, is cultivating
its  campaign  to equalize the penalties for consuming and possessing
alcohol and cannabis on college campuses.

Vancouverites  could  not  help  but  notice  that the Olympic torch
fashioned for the winter games in 2010 resembles a joint.

===

(13) SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS CALIFORNIA MEDICAL POT LAW

Pubdate: Tue, 19 May 2009
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2009 Los Angeles Times
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/bc7El3Yo
Author: David G. Savage, Reporting from Washington

Justices  turn down appeals from San Diego and San Bernardino counties
seeking  to  throw  out the state's 13-year-old medical marijuana law.

The  Supreme  Court  on  Monday  rejected  appeals  from  two hold-out
counties  in Southern California that objected to the state's 13-year-
old  medical  marijuana  law  and  claimed it should be struck down as
violating the federal drug control act.

Without comment, the court turned down the pair of appeals.

The  action  probably will clear the way for patients in San Diego and
San  Bernardino  counties  to  seek county-issued identification cards
that show they are eligible to possess and use marijuana.

[snip]

Last  year,  a  state  appeals  court  upheld  the  California medical
marijuana  law  and  said it was not rendered void by the federal drug
law.  The  California Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal from the
two counties.

The counties then appealed to the Supreme Court.

Graham  Boyd,  director  of  the  ACLU's Drug Reform Law Project, said
Monday's  order  "marks  a  significant  victory for medical marijuana
patients  and  their  advocates  nationwide." It dispels any remaining
doubts  that  the  state laws are valid, he said, and it "leaves ample
room  for  states  to  move  forward  .  .  . with independent medical
marijuana policies."

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09.n536.a04.html

===

(14) MEDICAL-POT ADVOCATE-GROWER GETS 10 YEARS

Pubdate: Tue, 19 May 2009
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Copyright: 2009 Hearst Communications Inc.
Author: Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Eddy+Lepp

SAN  FRANCISCO  -- A medical-marijuana advocate who grew 32,000 plants
on  his land in Lake County was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday
by a federal judge who criticized the law she was applying.

"I  think  that  amount  of time is excessive, but it's not up to me,"
U.S.  District  Judge  Marilyn  Hall  Patel said in sentencing Charles
"Eddy"  Lepp in a San Francisco courtroom crowded with his supporters.

Patel  gave  Lepp  until July 6 to report to prison and said she would
reconsider  the sentence if Congress changed the law, which requires a
10-year term for growing at least 1,000 marijuana plants.

Lepp,  56,  was  arrested  in 2004, after federal agents said they had
found  more  than  32,000 marijuana plants in gardens near his home in
Upper Lake, most of them in plain view of Highway 20.

He  said  the  plants  were  all  for  patients who had a right to use
marijuana  with  their  doctors' approval under California law. Courts
have  ruled,  however,  that  the  state  law  does  not  bar  federal
prosecutions.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09.n534.a02.html

===

(15) COLLEGES DRAGGED INTO POT DEBATE

Pubdate: Sun, 17 May 2009
Source: Record Searchlight (Redding, CA)
Copyright: 2009 Record Searchlight
Author: Rick Callahan, Associated Press

INDIANAPOLIS - Hey dude, can we talk?

Marijuana advocates who say pot is safer than alcohol want colleges to
wade  into a hazy debate over whether schools' tough pot penalties are
actually worsening their drinking woes.

They  argue  that  stiff punishments for being caught in a campus dorm
with  pot  steer  students to booze and add to binge drinking, drunken
brawls and other booze-soaked troubles.

"You  know, when you get high on marijuana you don't act violent - you
just  kind  of  sit there," said Mason Tvert, leader of a Denver-based
group stoking the debate of pot vs. booze.

His  group,  Safer  Alternative  For  Enjoyable Recreation, has helped
students  at 13 colleges pass measures calling on their schools to set
pot  penalties  no  worse than those faced by underage students caught
drinking  or other alcohol violations. So far, no schools have changed
their pot penalties, he said.

SAFER calls its nonbinding referendum push the "Emerald Initiative," a
play  on  the  Amethyst  Initiative  more  than 130 college presidents
signed  last  year.  The  presidents  want  lawmakers  to  rethink the
national  drinking  age of 21, arguing that current laws drive college
drinking into the shadows and encourage binges.

The  leader  of the Amethyst Initiative, John McCardell Jr., president
emeritus  of  Vermont's  Middlebury  College,  says  there's  a  big
difference between the two debates.

"The  fact  is  marijuana  is  prohibited across the board. It's not a
matter of age discrimination, as where alcohol is concerned," he said.

Tvert  argues  the  pot-vs.-booze  question  is  still a valid debate.

"If they're willing to talk about letting 18-year-olds use a seriously
harmful  drug,  why  shouldn't  we  talk  about whether they should be
allowed to use a drug that's far less harmful?" he asked.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09.n537.a09.html

===

(16) OLYMPIC TOKE?

Pubdate: Wed, 20 May 2009
Source: Metro (Vancouver, CN BC)
Copyright: 2009 Metro Canada

2010 Torch Reminds Many Of Marijuana Joint

All hail - or inhale - the 2010 Olympic Torch.

Or,  as  it's  jokingly  known  around  Vancouver,  the  Olympic Toke.

Composed  of  stainless  steel, aluminum and sheet moulding, the torch
was designed to invoke snow, ice, skiing and skating, but to many, the
metre-length  white  torch  looks suspiciously like a marijuana joint,
especially when lit.

That  the  torch  bears a resemblance to Vancouver's biggest cash crop
was  evident  right  away  to  Jodie Emery, editor of Cannabis Culture
magazine.

"A  lot of people come to Vancouver because it's marijuana-friendly so
I think people who already enjoy a joint themselves will feel a little
more  kinship  to  the  Olympics," said Emery, who ran this month as a
Green Party candidate in the provincial election.

"I'm  sure  the  organizers didn't intend for it to look like a joint,
but that's what a lot of people are seeing."

The  association between toking and the Olympics didn't begin with the
torch, of course.

At  the  1998  Games  in Nagano, Japan, Whistler skier Ross Rebagliati
won,  then lost, the gold medal in snowboarding after testing positive
for  marijuana.  The  medal was returned after Rebagliati explained he
had inhaled second-hand smoke.

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09.n540.a03.html

======================================================================

International News
---------------------------

COMMENTS: (17-20)

Drug  tests  to save the children? To prevent workplace accidents? To
promote  health and drug-free wholesome clean living? Oh sure: that's
what  they're  for,  of  course. But the Guardian newspaper this week
documents  use  of  drug  tests  to circumvent government regulations
which  otherwise make employers give "redundancy payouts" to laid off
employees.  Since  cannabis is the most widely used illicit drug, and
"can  remain  detectable  for  several  weeks after use," such "drug"
tests  are  really  a  way  for  companies  to  save  money by firing
otherwise undetectable cannabis-users.

Impoverished  drug  mules  may  be given a break under new sentencing
guidelines  suggested  a  U.K.  Sentencing  Advisory Panel. "They are
very  often  naive,  vulnerable  men  and  women  from  third  world
countries  whose fates are totally disregarded by those at the top of
the  drug  supply  chain...  Filling  prisons  with  vulnerable women
serving  up  to  15  years  while their children starve abroad should
become a thing of the past."

An  editorial  in  the Nanaimo News Bulletin in Canada this week shed
some  light  on C-15, a mandatory minimum drug bill, following in the
footsteps  of  failed  mandatory  minimum  laws in the U.S. While the
Conservatives  are  keen  to push through mandatory minimum drug laws
(which make the prosecutor the real judge in drug cases) to fill up
for-profit,  private  prisons,  others  are  having  second thoughts.
Cowed  Liberals  "acknowledge  in  private" C-15's mandatory minimums
are  not  "sound  policy" - "Rather, the Liberals do not want to give
the  Conservatives  an  opening  to  accuse  them  of being 'soft' on
crime. This is craven politics at its worst."

And  finally this week, from NOW Magazine in Canada, a piece entitled
"10  Reasons Why We Need To Decriminalize Drugs." Starting with "Drug
laws  are  unconstitutional" (especially so in Canada), and ending up
at,  "The  majority  of  Canadians oppose drug laws." Most "Canadians
support  the  legalization  of  pot,  according to an Angus Reid poll
last  year.  More  than  90  per  cent believe it should be legal for
medical  purposes.  The  powers  that be are messing with the will of
the people."

===

(17) RISE IN USE OF DRUG TESTS TO SACK STAFF WITHOUT REDUNDANCY PAY

Pubdate: Sun, 17 May 2009
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2009 Guardian News and Media Limited
Author: Diane Taylor

Employers  are  increasingly  using  drug  testing to get rid of staff
without  having  to  make  redundancy  payouts,  as  a way of -cutting
costs during the recession, a charity has said.

Release,  which  focuses  on drugs, the law and human rights, reported
a  four-fold  increase  in calls to its drugs team about problems with
workplace  testing  in  the  first  three months of 2009 compared with
the same period last year.

In  the  first quarter of 2008, the team received 493 calls, with just
31  (6.2%)  related  to  testing at work. In the first three months of
this  year,  548  calls  were  received  with  145  (26.4%) about this
issue.

In  many  cases  callers  have  been  getting  in  touch in a state of
distress,  having  been  tested  for the first time after years in the
same job.

[snip]

Sacking  employees  who  test  positive  for  illicit  drugs  allows
employers  to  avoid  making  redundancy  payouts. Cannabis, which can
remain  detectable  for  several  weeks  after  use,  is the substance
causing the biggest problems for employees.

[snip]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09.n532.a05.html

===

(18) LONG SENTENCES FOR DRUG MULES WERE NEVER GOING TO ACT AS A
DETERRENT

Pubdate: Thu, 14 May 2009
Source: Guardian, The (UK)
Copyright: 2009 Guardian News and Media Limited
Author: Olga Heaven, The Guardian

[snip]

It  was  heartening  to  read that prison sentences for "drug mules" -
men  and  women  who  are  used  to carry drugs into the UK - could be
reduced  to  less  than  two  years (Long jail terms do not deter drug
barons,  say  advisers,  23  April).  As the Sentencing Advisory Panel
members  said:  "They  are  very often naive, vulnerable men and women
from  third  world  countries  whose  fates are totally disregarded by
those at the top of the drug supply chain."

[snip]

Our experience, working for over 20 years with these women,
sentenced  for  importation, shows that they are typically poor, badly
educated  single  mothers  who  become  drug mules out of desperation.
The Sentencing Guidelines Council now recognises this.

Long  deterrent  sentences  handed  out  in  the UK to drug mules from
abroad  were  always  going  to  be  ineffective,  as  the  women were
ignorant  of  the  risk before leaving their homes. In addition, these
women  were  often coerced and/or informed that, if caught, they would
simply be deported.

[snip]

Filling  prisons  with  vulnerable  women serving up to 15 years while
their  children  starve  abroad  should  become  a  thing of the past.

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09.n529.a06.html

===

(19) 'TOUGH' DRUG BILL POLITICIZED

Pubdate: Thu, 21 May 2009
Source: Nanaimo News Bulletin (CN BC)
Copyright: 2009, BC Newspaper Group

After  35  years  of  experience  with mandatory minimum sentences for
drug  crimes,  Americans  are  beginning  to  abandon this discredited
approach.

Yet  Stephen  Harper's  Conservative  government  now  wants to saddle
Canadians with these expensive and ineffective laws.

Now  before  a  Commons  committee,  Bill C-15 would impose a two-year
mandatory minimum for dealing drugs like cocaine and
methamphetamines  in  places  where  young people congregate. It would
also  impose  a  six-month  jail  sentence  for  growing even a single
marijuana plant for the purpose of trafficking.

These  minimum  sentences  may  sound  reasonable  to  most Canadians.
Indeed,  federal  Justice  Minister  Rob  Nicholson  told  the Commons
committee last month that the bill targets "serious drug
traffickers,  the  people  who  are  basically  out  to  destroy  our
society."

But  the  committee  also  heard  ample  evidence  that  the mandatory
minimums  would  fill  our prisons with petty drug felons, creating an
even greater backlog in our overwhelmed court system.

When  questioned,  Nicholson  refused  to  provide two vital pieces of
information:  What  evidence is there that this law will reduce crime?
How much will it cost?

Of  course,  in  a  minority  Parliament, the opposition parties could
kill  this  initiative.  But  while  the  New  Democrats  and the Bloc
Quebecois  have  voiced  strong  opposition to Bill C-15, the Liberals
have indicated they will support it.

Why?  Not  because  they think it is sound policy; they acknowledge in
private that it is not.

Rather,  the  Liberals  do  not  want  to  give  the  Conservatives an
opening  to  accuse  them  of  being  "soft"  on crime. This is craven
politics at its worst.

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09.n545.a12.html

===

(20) 10 REASONS WHY WE NEED TO DECRIMINALIZE DRUGS

Pubdate: Wed, 20 May 2009
Source: NOW Magazine (CN ON)
Copyright: 2009 NOW Communications Inc.
Author: Enzo Di Matteo

1. Drug laws are unconstitutional.

Yeah,  you're  reading  right. Courts at every level have ruled on the
fact  that  drug  use  and  addiction  are  health  issues,  not legal
infractions.  It's  image-conscious  politicians  who  have  chosen to
wilfully  ignore  those rulings. Yet the courts have been unwilling to
hold  lawmakers  accountable.  It's  a  vicious  circle - a conspiracy
even.

It's  not  clear  how  marijuana  even  got  on the list of prohibited
drugs  back  in 1923. It mysteriously appeared on the schedule without
a debate in Parliament.

[snip]

10. The majority of Canadians oppose drug laws.

Calls  to  end prohibition aren't just coming from weed advocates. The
Globe  and  Ottawa  Citizen  called for the decriminalization of drugs
more than a decade ago. The right-wing Fraser Institute has
advocated  legalization,  calling  the  war  on  drugs  a  "complete
failure."  A  majority  of  Canadians support the legalization of pot,
according  to  an  Angus  Reid  poll  last year. More than 90 per cent
believe  it  should  be legal for medical purposes. The powers that be
are messing with the will of the people.

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09.n542.a08.html

***********************************************************************

HOT OFF THE 'NET
-------------------------------

WILL OBAMA END THE WAR ON DRUGS?

By Arianna Huffington

Is Obama really committed to a fundamental shift in America's approach
to drug policy or is this about serving up a kinder, gentler drug war?

http://drugsense.org/url/GvURWfIG

===

TANCREDO SAYS IT'S TIME TO LEGALIZE DRUGS

Former Congressman Says Drug War Lost

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/politics/19519306/detail.html

===

FBI DIRECTOR GETS SCHOOLED ON MARIJUANA

http://drugsense.org/url/NKtLGy8h

===

DRUG TRUTH NETWORK

Century of Lies - 05/17/09 - Francisco Santos Calderon

Francisco  Santos  Calderon,  Vice  President  of Colombia at the 39th
Conference of the Americas, courtesy of Americas Society

http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/?q=node/2418

Cultural Baggage Radio Show - 05/20/09 - Ethan Nadelmann

Ethan  Nadelmann,  director  of the Drug Policy Alliance + Afghan Army
use of hashish estimated at 75% per Guardian report

http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/?q=node/2426

===

JESSE VENTURA CALLS FOR THE DECRIMINALIZATION OF MARIJUANA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvQuyJEmZUM

===

PROHIBITION DOESN'T WORK, SO LETS HAVE MORE PROHIBITION!

Kathy Gyngell, author of a new Centre for Policy Studies report - 'The
phoney  war  on  drugs',  is  wrong  to  say we are losing the `war on
drugs';  it  is  a  rhetorical  war  that  could  never be won. And in
(somewhat reluctant) defence of the UK Government, they have been
distancing  themselves  from  the  terminology 'war on drugs' for some
years,  even the US is now moving away from the term. On that basis it
is a somewhat strange rhetorical point to take issue with.

http://drugsense.org/url/XFOhaueS

===

ONDCP DIRECTOR KERLIKOWSKE NPR INTERVIEW

KUOW 'Weekday' is a Public Radio news show in Seattle, WA.

http://www.kuow.org/podcast/WeekdayA20090522.mp3

===

AUTUMN OF THE CAPO: THE DIARY OF A DRUG LORD

By Ioan Grillo / Mexico City

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1899404,00.html

===

THE HISTORY OF WEED

No  wonder  all  these  beloved  historical  heroes  never amounted to
anything.

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1911961

***********************************************************************

WHAT YOU CAN DO THIS WEEK
--------------------------------------------------

GET AND PROUDLY WEAR A LEAP BADGE LAPEL PIN

http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php?name=Content&pid=57

===

PRAISE  REP.  STEVE  COHEN  FOR  QUESTIONING  CANNABIS  PROHIBITION

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SY0TQ1uOn3k

His number is 202-225-3265.

***********************************************************************

LETTER OF THE WEEK
------------------------------------

DON'T FEAR CHANGE

By Chris Conrad

Your  editorial  Friday  against legal, regulated commerce in cannabis
did  not  explain  why  you  think consenting adults should be sent to
prison  for  growing or selling marijuana in the first place. Instead,
you  blow  smoke  screens:  federal tyranny, alcohol-related problems,
fear of change.

This  is  your rationale for 2,500 or so Americans to be arrested each
day,  with  many  put  through  personal and financial devastation and
locked  away  for years amid murderers, thugs and rapists. That is the
status quo you promote.

I  beg  to  differ.  California  writes  its  own  laws, not the feds.
Cannabis  is  safer  than alcohol. Alcohol abuse may well go down when
marijuana  is  legal  for  adults, reducing the very problems to which
you referred.

As  for  facing  change:  Police  focusing  on  violent  and  property
crimes.  New  jobs  and  revenue throughout the state. Industrial hemp
farmed  to  clean  the environment and revive the economy. Responsible
adults  being  left  alone. Maybe even balanced reporting and analysis
instead of drug war fever. We can handle that.

California  needs  to  make  this  change,  not  fear it. Our state is
better  for  having legalized medical marijuana. We can make it better
yet by ending cannabis prohibition.

Chris Conrad
El Cerrito

Pubdate: Tue, 12 May 2009
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n500/a01.html

***********************************************************************

FEATURE ARTICLE
-------------------------------

Riding the Information Superhighway into the Oval Office

By Don E. Wirtshafter

This  winter,  President  Obama and his staff encouraged the public to
contact  the  White  House with their ideas and to vote on those ideas
at their website, www.whitehouse.gov.

With  help  from  the  thousands of organizations and individuals that
are  supported  by  DrugSense,  the  top  suggestions  were  about how
cannabis  legalization  could  help  the economy, create jobs, address
global warming, and meet the health care crisis.

DrugSense  -  the  Internet  home of the drug policy reform movement -
had  long  been  ready  for  the  inevitable  democratic  approach  to
governing  that  has  been  pressing  on  Washington  since  the  last
election in 2004.

Almost  one  hundred  thousand  people,  using  the  viral  tools  for
advocacy  and  communication  pioneered by DrugSense, practically took
over  the  Oval  Office and overwhelmed the usually cool Barack Obama.

The  flustered  President,  when  asked  if  legalizing cannabis could
boost  the  economy,  could  only sputter "no, I don't think that is a
good strategy . [laughter] . to grow our economy."

Donate  Now!  If  you  were  as thrilled as I was that our issues were
the  top  issues  on  the agenda set by the public, then please make a
donation  to  DrugSense  now.  The  national  conversation  about drug
policy  is  changing,  and  DrugSense is the platform that most of the
reform community uses for communication and advocacy.

If  you  were as outraged as I was that Barack Obama made a joke about
the  dynamic  online  engagement of drug policy reformers, then please
make  a  donation  to  DrugSense  now. Your contribution amplifies our
voice  throughout  the nation, and enables activists to reach the news
media  and  their  political  representatives quickly and effectively.

Help stop this war on our personal rights and freedoms.

Get involved. Write. Join. Donate.

Don E. Wirtshafter is the Chair of the Board, DrugSense

***********************************************************************

QUOTE OF THE WEEK
------------------------------------

"Liberty  is  the  only  thing  you  can't  have unless you give it to
others." - William Allen White

***********************************************************************

DS  Weekly  is  one  of  the  many free educational services DrugSense
offers  our  members.  Watch  this  feature  to  learn more about what
DrugSense can do for you.

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===

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===

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