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D. Paul Stanford

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Mar 6, 2000, 3:00:00 AM3/6/00

restore Mon, 6 Mar 2000 Volume 1 :
Number 424

In this issue:

HI: Hawaii Plants Hemp Hopes
US: High On Hemp: Ditchweed Digs In
"protect the kids"
CA: Caretaker Of Hall Ousted For Ending Marijuana Clinic
WA: Medical Pot Smokes Police
Fw: IH35 Medical Marijuana March
free posters, free ibogaine & corrected may 6 march listings
OR: Locally, pot growers flourish -- in secret

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

Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2000 10:09:57 -0800
From: "D. Paul Stanford" <stan...@crrh.org>
To: res...@crrh.org
Subject: HI: Hawaii Plants Hemp Hopes
Message-ID: <4.2.0.58.2000030...@mail.olywa.net>

HAWAII PLANTS HEMP HOPES

Oahu plants first sanctioned hemp crop on U.S. soil since 1957

Hempsters ended the century on a high note in December, when political,
business, and spiritual dignitaries gathered in Hawaii to ceremoniously
plant the first sanctioned hemp crop on U.S. soil since 1957. But
because of
financial limitations and biological frustrations, the tiny plot-a
quarter
of an acre in Oahu's Whitmore Village-will hardly satisfy hemp
proponents'
dreams.

The project is funded by Alterna Applied Research Laboratories, Los
Angeles,
which has used hemp seed oil in its hair-care products since 1998.
Because
the Drug Enforcement Administration insists that the crop be treated as
a
Schedule I narcotic-its term for any plant containing even a hint of
marijuana's active ingredient, THC-$25,000 of the $200,000 had to be
spent
on security, including a 10-foot-high barbed wire fence, round-the-clock

guards, and infrared surveillance cameras.

That the DEA sanctioned the effort at all was a major coup, testament to
the
tenacity of Hawaii state representative Cynthia Thielen, who spent three

years pestering officials. Although Hemp Industries Association
spokesperson
Mari Kane says Thielen's legalization efforts are as much pro-family as
pro-business (Thielen's son owns the Hawaiian Hemp Company), the growth
of
industrialized hemp could help reduce the state's 5.4 percent
unemployment
rate and reverse the downturn caused by the loss of its largest export,
sugar cane, to Caribbean and Central American competition.

But that isn't likely to happen soon. For one thing, the project is
short-term, entirely dependent on the funds allotted. Alterna may be
participating "just for the publicity," suggests Kane. Indeed, the
company,
which now obtains hemp ingredients from France, acknowledged that the
planting event "helped get the word out to Americans about hemp's vast
environmental and economic benefits," thus boosting its own hemp
education
campaign, said Alterna's Kimberlee Mitchell. No future funding is
promised.

Nor will there really be a crop. Because Kentucky Hemp, once hemp's most

prolific strain, is now extinct, the plot will be used for seed trials
in an
attempt to recreate its genetic information. " All that remains of this
genetic resource is [the "ditchweed" that grows throughout the
Midwest],"
says David West, the plant geneticist overseeing the project. "It is a
long
way from ditchweed to an agricultural crop." The main goal now is to
cultivate a viable strain of Cannabis sativa L through ongoing
plantings-and
to continue legalization efforts. "Hemp's progress has been made by a
series
of domino effects," says West. "This is another domino."
__________________________________________________________________________

Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in
receiving the included information for research and educational
purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Don Beck
www.mapinc.org

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

Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2000 10:10:39 -0800
From: "D. Paul Stanford" <stan...@crrh.org>
To: res...@crrh.org
Subject: US: High On Hemp: Ditchweed Digs In
Message-ID: <4.2.0.58.2000030...@mail.olywa.net>

Newshawk: John Smith, Eric Ernst and MAP's Editing/Posting Team
Pubdate: Mar-Apr 2000
Source: Utne Reader (US)
Copyright: 2000 Utne Reader
Contact: edi...@utne.com
Website: http://www.utne.com
Forum: http://www.utne.com/cafe/index.html
Author: Ted Williams, Audubon Magazine
Note: Originally published in Audubon Magazine, Nov-Dec. 1999, and
archived
at http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n1233/a01.html.
Bookmark: MAP's link to Hemp articles is: http://www.mapinc.org/hemp.htm

HIGH ON HEMP: DITCHWEED DIGS IN

Miracle crop? Dangerous drug? Political football? Exploring America's
on-again, off-again love affair with hemp

I confess that I am a user of hemp.

For example, I just quaffed a Hempen Ale and a Hempen Gold beer, shipped
to
me by Frederick Brewing Company of Frederick, Maryland. Both beverages
are
brewed with the seeds of hemp-Cannabis sativa-a plant native to central
Asia
and grown all over the world as various selected strains, some of which
are
known as marijuana. I'm feeling a faint buzz, but only from the alcohol.

Neither brew contains any of the narcotic delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol
(THC), which makes pot so popular. In fact, recent Pentagon tests
invalidate
the "Hempen Ale defense" by showing the ale to be THC-free, so military
personnel can no longer claim it as the source of THC in their urine.
But
some hemp products do contain trace amounts of THC-as intoxicating as
the
opiates you get from a poppy seed bagel-so to make sure it knows where
the
THC comes from, the Air Force in 1999 banned all foods and beverages
made
with hemp. Somehow the news didn't make it to the commander in chief,
who,
less than a month after the ruling, allowed Hempen Gold to be served on
Air
Force One. According to one reporter, the president "tasted but didn't
swallow."

After I finished ingesting hemp, I slathered it on my hair-in shampoo
made
with hemp seed oil, which, according to its producer, Alterna Applied
Research Laboratories of Los Angeles, restores dry and damaged (but,
unfortunately, not missing) hair. While perky hair is not something I
normally seek, the hair I have left definitely feels that way.

What I just indulged in-according to Glenn Levant, the nation's
best-funded
and most-heeded marijuana educator-is an internal-external marijuana
orgy.
Levant is president and founder of Drug Abuse Resistance Education
(DARE), a
16-year-old program taught by local police in nearly 75 percent of the
nation's schools. "Hemp is marijuana," he informed me, ending the
interview
when I cited sources that prove otherwise. Last year Levant was outraged
to
see Alterna's hemp-leaf logo on shampoo ads at bus stops around Southern

California, and he mounted a successful crusade to get them removed. "My
big
objection is that public property was being used to promote an illegal
substance," he told the Los Angeles Times. "The shampoo is a subterfuge
to
promote marijuana." In July 1999, he paid Alterna an undisclosed sum to
settle a lawsuit it had filed against him for making what it called
"false
and malicious public comments" about its product and motives.

Hemp and marijuana can cross-pollinate, but if one is the other, then a
Pekinese is a Doberman. Plant a hemp seed, and no substance or force on
earth can turn it into marijuana. If you smoke hemp, it will give you
only a
headache; it doesn't contain enough THC to affect your brain. And unlike

marijuana, it is high in cannabidiol-an anti-psychoactive compound that
inhibits THC. Because of this, says David West, a plant breeder hired by
the
University of Hawaii to grow an experimental plot of hemp under special
permit from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), hemp "could be
called
anti-marijuana."

Hemp products are not illegal. In fact, the U.S. hemp-products industry
takes in $100 million to $125 million in retail sales a year. Not only
is
hemp harmless, it has enormous versatility. Added to worthless fibers
that
are currently burned-such as straw from oats, rice, and wheat-hemp can
produce superb paper and construction materials lighter and stronger
than
lumber. American cropland, 60 to 65 percent of which is stuck on a
soil-depleting, chemical-dependent treadmill of corn, wheat, and soybean

production, could be released and renewed if hemp were used as a
rotation
crop. In England and Hungary, hemp grown in rotation with wheat hiked
the
wheat harvest 20 percent. Hemp seeds, better tasting and more digestible

than soy, could be rendered into hundreds of foods, thereby taking
pressure
off America's bottomland hardwood forests, which are being replaced with

soybean plantations.

Hemp fibers can be woven into cloth more durable than and as comfortable
as
cotton. Cotton is much more difficult to grow; it's addicted to chemical

elixirs, requiring massive fixes of artificial fertilizers,
insecticides,
and herbicides. And when cotton ripens, the leaves have to be knocked
off
with defoliants before the bolls can be harvested. Hemp, which
outcompetes
weeds, requires no herbicides. In one study, hemp grown in rotation with

soybeans knocked down cyst nematodes by more than half.

Hemp paper is naturally bright, but wood-based paper pulp turns brown
during
the cooking process. The pulp is then bleached with chlorine, which,
when
released into the environment, produces dioxin and other nasty poisons.
If
American farmers were allowed to grow hemp-which produces twice as much
fiber per acre as an average forest-the nation could reduce
nonsustainable
logging, and the carbon tied up in the living timber would remain there
instead of contributing to global warming.

Practically anything we make from a polluting, nonrenewable hydrocarbon
like
oil or coal can be made from a relatively clean, renewable carbohydrate
like
hemp. Henry Ford used to preach this in the 1940s. "Why use up the
forests,
which were centuries in the making, and the mines, which require ages to
lay
down, if we can get the equivalent of forests and mineral products in
the
annual growth of the fields?" he asked. Ford, who had a vision of
"growing
automobiles from the soil," even produced a demonstration model with
body
parts partially made with hemp.

So it should come as no surprise that hemp has enormous appeal to those
committed to protecting and restoring the planet. Three years ago Oregon

environmentalist Andy Kerr helped set up the North American Industrial
Hemp
Council, an alliance of farmers, scientists, industrialists, and
environmentalists whose mission is decriminalizing hemp. Members who
even
associate with advocates of marijuana decriminalization are summarily
dismissed. And no one can call the directors potheads: Two are
consultants
for International Paper; one headed the board of Alternative
Agricultural
Research and Commercialization Corporation, a research firm chartered by
the
U.S. Department of Agriculture; and the chair is in charge of
agricultural
development and diversification for the state of Wisconsin.

When Kerr was running the Oregon Natural Resources Council and agitating
for
old-growth forests, the loggers kept getting in his face, shouting:
"What
are you going to wipe your ass with?"

"What they meant," he says a bit more delicately, "was, 'With what are
you
going to wipe your ass?' It's a legitimate question. So I kept searching
for
alternatives to wood and kept coming back to hemp. 'God,' I said,
'because
of its association with marijuana, we don't need this. There's got to be
a
better fiber.' Well, there isn't."

Hemp advocacy isn't new. Our first hemp law, enacted in Virginia, made
it
illegal for farmers not to grow the stuff. That was in 1619. The same
law
took effect in Massachusetts in 1631, Connecticut in 1632, and the
Chesapeake colonies in the mid-1700s, at which time hemp was the world's

leading crop. Legend has it that early drafts of the Declaration of
Independence and Constitution were written on hemp-based paper. (Final
versions were on animal parchment.) During the Revolutionary War, Old
Ironsides, our most formidable battleship, carried 60 tons of hempen
sail
and rope. The first American flag was made out of hempen "canvas," a
word
derived from cannabis. "Make the most of hemp seed and sow it
everywhere,"
declared George Washington in 1794.

Never has there been a federal statute outlawing the cultivation of
hemp,
just the DEA's insistence that hemp is an illegal drug. Law enforcement
officials in other countries harbor no such fantasies. Hemp is lawfully
grown in 32 nations, and in the European Union it's a subsidized crop.
It is
not practical to distill hemp's THC or separate it from the cannabidiol
that
neutralizes it, but Americans are so afraid of hemp that they even want
to
prevent people from wearing it. Consider the case of Angela Guilford,
who
sells hempen products in Hoover, Alabama, and who aroused the suspicions
of
the community by carrying Grateful Dead memorabilia. In June 1997, when
she
was eight months pregnant, police raided her shop, seizing 168 items and

charging her and her husband, Jeff Russell, with "felony marijuana
trafficking." Facing mandatory minimum jail terms of three years, the
couple
spent a stressful, suspenseful summer. But in late September charges
were
dropped when lab work failed to turn up THC in any of the shirts, bags,
or
jewelry.

Why such paranoia? There's no smoking bong, but hemp may be the victim
of a
conspiracy by special interests that stood to lose billions in the
1930s,
when hemp-fiber-stripping machines came on line. Among the suspects:
synthetic textile producer DuPont, which had just patented a process for

making plastics from oil and a more efficient process for making paper;
Hearst newspapers, which owned vast timberlands; and Andrew Mellon, an
oil
and timber baron as well as partner and president of the Mellon Bank of
Pittsburgh, DuPont's chief financial backer.

In 1930, nine years after President Warren Harding made him treasury
secretary, Mellon created the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (the DEA's
precursor) and ensconced Harry Anslinger, the future husband of his
niece,
as its commissioner. Anslinger charged out after hemp, which he and the
Hearst papers defined as a drug, using it interchangeably with the more
sinister and less familiar term marihuana (the spelling changed later).
Anslinger and Hearst whipped each other, the public, and Congress into
prohibitionist frenzy. Anslinger testified before the Senate that no
less an
authority than Homer had revealed that the plant "made men forget their
homes and turned them into swine" and that a single joint could induce
"homicidal mania" sufficient to cause a man "probably to kill his
brother."
The Hearst papers claimed that under the influence of marihuana,
"Negroes"
transmog-rified into crazed animals, playing anti-white,
"voodoo-satanic"
music-jazz-and committing such crimes as stepping on white men's
shadows.
The hype created an insatiable market for low-budget movies like
Marihuana:
Weed with Roots in Hell. Posters for the film featured a man thrusting a

hypodermic needle into a woman in a low-cut dress and promised: "Weird
orgies. Daring drug expos=C8! Horror. Shame. Despair. Wild Parties.=
Unleashed
Passions! Lust. Crime. Hate. Misery."

Emerging from the hoopla was the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937, which made
no
chemical distinction between hemp and marijuana. It was all "cannabis,"
but
the smokeable parts-the leaves and flowers-were taxed at $100 an ounce,
effectively outlawing them. Had marijuana been the real target,
Anslinger
would have dispatched his agents to the border of New Mexico, where the
drug
was coming in. Instead, he unleashed them on the newly expanded hemp
fields
of the Midwest, swaddling farmers in red tape, busting them if a leaf
remained on a stalk, running them out of business.

Only five years later hemp farmers got a reprieve when Japan seized the
Philippines, cutting off America's supply of "Manila hemp"-not true hemp
but
an excellent fiber for rope, boots, uniforms, and parachute cording. Now
the
Feds executed a crisp about-face, encouraging Americans to be patriotic
and
grow "hemp." (No longer did they call it "marijuana," except on the
"Producer of Marijuana" permits issued to farmers.) The Department of
Agriculture even produced a promotional film entitled Hemp for Victory,
featuring footage of workers harvesting pre-Anslinger hemp in Kentucky
to a
maudlin rendition of "My Old Kentucky Home." With no change in federal
law,
some 400,000 acres were planted to hemp, the stalks of which were
processed
by 42 hemp mills built by the War Hemp Industries Corporation. After the

war, with the synthetic-fiber industry booming, Anslinger resumed his
witch-hunt virtually unopposed.

Now he dropped the allegation that hemp/marijuana inspired violent
crimes
and asserted instead that it left its victims so dazed and passive that
they
could be easily converted to communism. America's last hemp field was
planted in Wisconsin in 1957.

More recently, the problem has been a succession of rigid,
frontal-assault
"drug czars." General Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House
Office of
National Drug Control Policy, appears to have learned everything he
knows
about hemp from Anslinger. Two years ago, when a chemical engineer paid
by
the University of Wisconsin but working at the Forest Service's lab in
Madison, Wisconsin, circulated a marketing analysis demonstrating that
Wisconsin farms could profitably produce hemp, and that they could meet
the
entire demand for chlorine-bleached, wood-based writing paper in the
state,
the Forest Service had the document withdrawn under pressure from the
Clinton administration. Since then the author's conclusions have been
confirmed by multiple independent review. The crusade to bring hemp
back,
McCaffrey charges, is "a thinly disguised attempt to legalize the
production
of pot." Moreover, "legalizing hemp production would send a confusing
message to our youth concerning marijuana." But the only confusing
messages
about hemp issue from McCaffrey's office, the DEA, and their
private-sector
drug-war constituency.

Because McCaffrey is the voice of the Clinton administration, the DEA
parrots him. The effort to decriminalize hemp is "no more than a shallow

ruse being advanced by those who seek to legalize marijuana," proclaims
Philip Perry, special agent in charge of the DEA's Rocky Mountain Field
Division. The DEA and the drug czar maintain that American law
enforcement
agents can't tell the difference between marijuana and hemp; but the
Mounties, the gendarmes, the bobbies, and the police of 29 other nations

have no trouble at all. A Keystone Kop, boots in the air and helmet in
the
mud, could tell the difference. Hemp, grown for stalks, is the spindly
stuff
that towers over your head; marijuana, grown for flowers, is the bushy
stuff
down below your knees. The drug czar and the DEA claim that pot
producers
will use hemp fields to hide their illicit crops. If they do, their
marijuana will be ruined: Cannabis is one of the most prolific pollen
producers of all cultivated plants, and if the high-THC variety is
planted
within seven and a half miles of a hemp field, the hemp pollen will
render
the next generation of marijuana less potent. "Hemp is nature's own
marijuana-eradication system," declares James Woolsey, former director
of
the CIA and now a lobbyist for the North American Industrial Hemp
Council.

If the war on drugs were really about reducing supply, drug controllers
would be promoting hemp. But the war has taken on a life of its own,
become
an industry unto itself. For example, DEA reports that it spends $13.5
million a year to eradicate marijuana, and it also ladles out millions
more
for this purpose to local jurisdictions, including police departments
and
National Guard units. According to some estimates, the entire effort
costs
American taxpayers half a billion a year. But the DEA's own figures
reveal
that 98 percent of the "marijuana" eradicated is hemp-the harmless,
feral
stuff that escaped during Hemp for Victory days. "Ditchweed," it's
called.
That's the "marijuana" you see getting burned in all the photos. If
you're
caught with ditchweed, you're in big trouble, as Vernon McElroy
discovered
in 1991 when he got convicted for possessing 10.9 pounds that he says a
friend picked and gave him as a joke. Now he's doing life without parole
at
the overcrowded maximum-security penitentiary in Springville, Alabama.
In
Oklahoma, ditchweed is sprayed with herbicides from helicopters. And in
1998
Congress authorized $23 million for research into a soilborne fungus
that
attacks and kills marijuana, poppy, and coca plants. U.S. Senator Mike
DeWine, an Ohio Republican, calls it a "silver bullet" in the war on
drugs,
but David Struhs, secretary of the Florida Department of Environmental
Protection, calls it a threat to the natural environment.

The only parties affected by ditchweed eradication are future hemp
farmers
and birds. Ditchweed, warns hemp researcher David West, "represents the
only
germ plasm remaining from the hemp bred over decades in this country to
achieve high yields and other important performance characteristics."
And
while hemp is alien to the continent, wild birds have come to depend on
it
as a major food source. Birds so relish hemp seed, in fact, that it is
sterilized and sold as commercial bird food. As Vermont state
representative
Fred Maslack puts it, the DEA and its pork-addicted drug-war contractors

"would be better off pulling up goldenrod."

Consider also the self-perpetuation of hemp's facts-be-damned
enemy-DARE.
That DARE is recognized as a failure in reducing drug use among
adolescents
is not a consideration in the high-finance drug-war business. Virtually
every study ever undertaken reveals that DARE graduates are about as
likely
to abuse drugs as kids who don't go through the program. Such were the
results of a two-year, $300,000 analysis by the Research Triangle
Institute
of Durham, North Carolina, of eight studies involving 9,500 DARE
students in
200 schools. The Justice Department commissioned the analysis, but after

intense lobbying by DARE, the agency invited the authors to "re-examine"

their conclusions, then declined to publish the full report, claiming it
was
bowing to "concerns" of peer reviewers. Despite its known
ineffectiveness,
DARE thrives because every year it gets about $212 million in government

grants and private donations (mostly the latter), which it ladles out to

ravenous communities. Millions more are donated by businesses and police

departments directly to local DARE programs.

Anti-hemp brainwashing by DARE works better on parents and school
bureaucrats than on kids. In 1996 Donna Cockrel invited hemp activist
and
Hollywood actor Woody Harrelson to talk to her fifth graders in
Simpsonville, Kentucky. While Harrelson also advocates the legalization
of
medicinal marijuana, he spoke only about hemp's history and potential.
Immediately Cockrel came under attack by the local DARE officer, who
sounded
the alarm to school officials and television audiences, proclaiming that

hemp and marijuana were the same thing. Parents were apoplectic.
Cockrel-with past awards for excellence and called a "dynamo" by The New

York Times-was given an unsatisfactory performance report, investigated
by
the state professional standards board (which dismissed the complaint),
then
fired. "I believe that all children should say no to drugs," she says.
"But
I want them to say yes to the truth."

Lately America's war on hemp seems to be flagging under a counterattack
of
reason. Legislation to effect or encourage hemp's declassification as an

illegal drug has been introduced or attempted in Colorado, Hawaii, Iowa,

Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North
Dakota, Oregon, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia. In March 1999, under
growing political pressure, McCaffrey made the first conciliatory noise
to
The New York Times about maybe working with hemp advocates. But in
August
the DEA ordered the U.S. Customs Service to seize a Kenex trailer
bringing
in 40,000 pounds of hemp birdseed from Canada, alleging it was a
Schedule I
narcotic. Seventeen other loads of hemp products, including granola bars
and
horse bedding, were recalled. After Kenex was threatened with a $500,000

fine, president Jean Laprise commented: "It seems the DEA could be
spending
drug-war money in better ways than chasing after birdseed and horse
bedding." Now McCaffrey is saying hemp can't be grown economically.

It struck me as odd that the responsibilities of the drug czar have been

extended to protecting American agriculture from its own bad business
decisions, so I contacted a farmer, one David Monson, who works 1,050
acres
in Osnabrock, North Dakota, and who says he and his neighbors aren't
even
breaking even on barley, wheat, and canola. "All the fungicides,
herbicides,
and insecticides we have to use are pushing the cost out of sight," he
told
me. "The bottom line is that we need to find some alternative crops that
we
can make money on." Monson has been forced to work at other jobs-as
insurance agent and state representative, in which capacity he
introduced
the nation's first bill to decriminalize the cultivation of hemp, signed
by
the governor in April 1999.

Monson, a Republican, also serves as superintendent of schools for the
nearby community of Edinburg. Drug abuse isn't much of a problem in
northern
North Dakota, but Monson works to discourage what little there may be by

arranging seminars for students and training for teachers. And despite
the
drug czar's and the DEA's pronouncements, the people of North Dakota
somehow
remain unconvinced that he's trying to legalize pot.

While hemp could make things lots easier for this tired old planet and
the
farmers who till its soil, no one in North Dakota will be growing it
anytime
soon, because anyone there or elsewhere who plants the seeds will get
busted
by the DEA. Monson doesn't think that's fair, especially when hemp
farmers
20 miles away in Manitoba are legally making $250 an acre. But until the

feds recognize hemp for what it is (a versatile crop) instead of what it

isn't (an illegal drug), McCaffrey will be correct when he warns that
growing hemp is not economical.
__________________________________________________________________________

Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in
receiving the included information for research and educational
purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Don Beck
www.mapinc.org

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

Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2000 08:20:41 -0700
From: JT Barrie <rimch...@zdnetonebox.com>
To: res...@crrh.org
Subject: "protect the kids"
Message-ID: <38C27B...@zdnetonebox.com>

My personal opinion of those whose self proclaimed motivation is to
"protect our kids": they don't give an aeronautical copulation for the
welfare of our kids - otherwise they would remove the drug trade from
the hands of the scumbags and put it into regulated pharmacies or hard
liquor stores [where kids don't get them so easily]. As it is the self
proclaimed protectors are tripping over themselves advocating stiffer
sentences for younger and younger "offenders".
--
<a href>http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/5059></a>
The "war on drugs": waged nearly exclusively in poorer communities for
the benefit of public safety budgets - not public safety. With 2
million people behind bars and ten times plus terrorized by police, when

will we learn?

<a href>http://www.geocities.com/rimchamp77/taxhelp.html></a>
Your employer's tax tables work great for the
IRS; why not get
personalized withholding tables that work for you instead.
<
COMMENT: (3-4)

The major reason offered for continued government
sponsorship of profitable illegal drug markets is concern for "the
kids." As usual, there was evidence that while such anxiety might be
well founded, actions taken to address the problem are self-defeating.

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

Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2000 12:42:09 -0800
From: "D. Paul Stanford" <stan...@crrh.org>
To: res...@crrh.org
Subject: CA: Caretaker Of Hall Ousted For Ending Marijuana Clinic
Message-ID: <4.2.0.58.2000030...@mail.olywa.net>

Newshawk: Shasta Patient's Alliance
Pubdate: Tue, 29 Feb 2000
Source: Redding Record Searchlight (CA)
Copyright: 2000 Redding Record Searchlight - E.W. Scripps
Contact: let...@redding.com
Address: PO Box 492397, Redding, CA 96049-2397
Website: http://www.redding.com/
Forum: http://www.redding.com/disc2_frm.htm
Author: David Benda
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n292/a01.html
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n285/a02.html
Cited: Dr. Tod Mikuriya: http://www.mikuriya.com/althealth/

Red Bluff IOOF Leader Evicted

CARETAKER OF HALL OUSTED FOR ENDING MARIJUANA CLINIC

RED BLUFF -- A leader of a fraternal organization has been evicted from
his
quarters for breaking up a medical marijuana clinic Friday at the club's

hall here.

''Richard (Atchison) knew what was going on. I regret it turned out the
way
it did.''

John Ennis, Independent Order of Odd Fellows member

Richard Atchison, noble grand for the Independent Order of Odd Fellows'
(IOOF) Red Bluff chapter, was removed Sunday as live-in caretaker of the

club's Oak Street hall, IOOF member John Ennis said Monday.

Atchison stormed into the hall Friday night after he said he heard
complaints from downtown merchants about a medical marijuana clinic
being
conducted by Dr. Tod Mikuriya of Berkeley. Atchison ordered Mikuriya and

his patients to leave.

Mikuriya then saw patients from Weed to Chico on Saturday at a home in
Red
Bluff. The doctor said he gave about 45 medical marijuana
recommendations
Friday and Saturday. Proposition 215, approved by voters in 1996, makes
it
legal for those with certain illnesses to smoke marijuana with a
doctor's
recommendation.

Ennis said he called IOOF district deputy Harlan Hart of Red Bluff on
Saturday and reported what happened on Friday. On Sunday, Atchison was
removed.

''I told him (Hart) we got a couple of complaints that Richard got a
little
belligerent and threw everybody out,'' Ennis, the Odd Fellows'
secretary, said.

Ennis remains mystified by Atchison's actions. He said the two had
agreed
to allow Mikuriya to practice at the hall.

''Richard knew what was going on. I regret it turned out the way it
did,''
Ennis said.

Atchison was elected noble grand last month, said Ennis, who didn't know

where Atchison is living now.

Atchison didn't return a phone message left Monday at his father's house
in
Red Bluff.

On Saturday, Atchison defended his actions and said he was forceful but
not
obnoxious on Friday night when he confronted Mikuriya and his patients.

''I was a little loud. I know that,'' Atchison said Saturday.

According to Ennis, the Odd Fellows will hold a meeting next week to
discuss Friday's incident. Ennis wouldn't say whether the group will
consider removing Atchison from office.

A message left Monday at Hart's Red Bluff home wasn't returned.

The Red Bluff IOOF chapter has about 28 members. Odd Fellows is a
nationwide nonprofit organization. Its goals include visiting the sick
and
relieving distress, Ennis said.

Red Bluff Police cmdr. Ed Sisneros said his department received one call

Friday complaining about Mikuriya's visit.

''We were aware that they were meeting somewhere, but we didn't take any

action or get directly involved,'' Sisneros said.
__________________________________________________________________________

Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in
receiving the included information for research and educational
purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Richard Lake
www.mapinc.org

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

Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2000 12:46:32 -0800
From: "D. Paul Stanford" <stan...@crrh.org>
To: res...@crrh.org
Subject: WA: Medical Pot Smokes Police
Message-ID: <4.2.0.58.2000030...@mail.olywa.net>

Newshawk: Sledhead
Pubdate: Sat, 04 Mar 2000
Source: Everett Herald (WA)
Copyright: 2000 The Daily Herald Co.
Address: P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206-0930
Contact: let...@heraldnet.com
Telephone: (425)339-3000
Author: Cathy A. Logg

MEDICAL POT SMOKES POLICE

Officers Operating In Fog Of 'Very Vague' Legislation

The medical marijuana law passed by Washington voters in 1998 has police
in
a haze as they try to enforce it.

"The Legislature needs to go back to work and tighten things up, and
that's
fine," Mountlake Terrace Police Chief Scott Smith said Friday. "They do
that all the time."

The confusion was exemplified this week in Marysville when police had to

block the street and evacuate the area around State Avenue and Eighth
Street NE, including the City Center Motel, 810 State Ave. During the
evacuation, officers encountered one room at which no one answered the
door, but officers wanted to ensure no one was inside, Marysville police

Cmdr. Ralph Krusey said.

The manager provided a key for officers to check inside. Police found no

one, but discovered about 30 marijuana plants in the bathroom, Krusey
said.

Officers seized the plants and left behind a police business card to let

the occupants know where the plants were. The room was registered to a
30-year-old man, police said, but a 64-year-old woman also may have been

staying there. Motel personnel said the room had been occupied for about

two weeks.

Later, the man and woman went to the police station to claim the
marijuana,
saying they were entitled to use it under the new medical marijuana law,

Krusey said. Police did not return the plants because the two could not
provide documentation of their medical authorization, he said.

Officers did not arrest the two, but referred the case to prosecutors,
Krusey said.

"The new marijuana law just came into effect last year," he said. "Prior
to
that, it was illegal to possess any amount."

Krusey wasn't sure exactly what documentation was necessary to prove
authorization, so he consulted state law books.

"I think they have to have a prescription for it. I'm not sure that they

can legally grow the marijuana," he said.

Other police also said those authorized to use marijuana medicinally
aren't
allowed to grow it, but have to go to a pharmacy to get it and make sure

it's free of contaminants.

Some police think it has to be in a prescription container with the
patient's name on it, like other controlled drugs.

Everett police Sgt. Boyd Bryant said generally, people who qualify for
medical marijuana are not in the initial phases of an illness.

"You obviously want to be compassionate to the people who are terminally
or
seriously ill," Bryant said. "All of us are concerned about what happens

when that happens and make sure the doctor is able to help you maintain
some sense of dignity and mental acuity. (Police) are not out there
looking
to make a statistic on the backs of someone who is terminally ill."

If officers are unsure about whether to arrest someone who possesses
marijuana but who cannot provide the proper medical authorization, they
can
write an informational report that will be reviewed by supervisors or
prosecutors, and the information can be verified with the person's
physician the next day, Bryant said. They probably will confiscate the
drugs until the issue is settled, he added.

Everett has encountered few such cases, he said.

Mountlake Terrace and Marysville haven't encountered any previously,
authorities said.

That's a good thing, since other questions remain unanswered or
ill-defined
by the law, police say.

"It's very vague," Krusey said.

The law does not specify how approved patients were to obtain marijuana,

which remains illegal to buy or sell under state and federal drug laws.

Some people grow their own marijuana, while others get it from
organizations formed to provide it for medical needs, such as Capitol
Hill
Compassion in Action or Green Cross.

Patients don't get it from pharmacies, according to the staff at
Providence
Everett Medical Center's Pacific Campus pharmacy. It's not a legal
prescription item in Washington because it hasn't received federal Food
and
Drug Administration approval.

The law allows an authorized person or their primary caregiver to have
up
to a 60-day supply. The person with the marijuana has to have an
authorizing statement from a licensed physician, must have a valid
identification and must be at least 18 years old.

And just because marijuana may be legal for some people to use doesn't
mean
they have carte blanche with it, police said.

Marysville's jail doesn't allow smoking, and no exception would be
granted
for marijuana smoking by inmates in their cells, although the issue
hasn't
arisen there, Krusey said.

Similarly, while alcohol is legal to possess and consume, people are not

allowed to drive under the influence, nor would they be allowed to drive

under the influence of marijuana, Bryant said.

"They've got to know that just because they're in possession of it for
medical therapy, it doesn't legitimize other illegal conduct," he said.

The law has not defined how many plants constitute a prescription or
what a
daily supply is, Snohomish County sheriff's spokeswoman Jan Jorgensen
said.

"Somebody may smoke three (marijuana cigarettes) a day; somebody else
may
smoke many more," she said.

The state's law enforcement community didn't give the law a lot of
support
because the bill was loosely written, Smith said.

The average street officer is not going to know exactly what the law
says,
he said.

That's why the law needs to be more specific, he said.

"You've got to give the officers the tools to be able to do the job
right.

"In this case, absent something that gives the person authority to
possess
the marijuana, the officers have to rely on their judgment on what to do

and whether to arrest the person. They're going to confiscate it and
should.

"I would not tell my officers that if someone says to you, 'I need that
for
medical purposes,' just because they say it's so, doesn't make it so,"
Smith said.
__________________________________________________________________________

Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in
receiving the included information for research and educational
purposes.
---
MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart
www.mapinc.org

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

Date: Sat, 4 Mar 2000 14:01:14 -0500
From: "Kay Lee" <KL...@vitel.tzo.com>
To: "Joe Hart" <KL...@vitel.tzo.com>
Subject: Fw: IH35 Medical Marijuana March
Message-ID: <070401bf860c$1c4e8260$b4d74cd8@THEJAMESGANG>

From: Zeal Stefanoff <zeal...@YAHOO.COM>
To: DPF...@TAMU.EDU <DPF...@TAMU.EDU>
Date: Sunday, March 05, 2000 11:28 AM
Subject: IH35 Medical Marijuana March

Press Release
IH35 Medical Marijuana March
March 4, 2000
Day Four

Journey For Justice Grows

San Marcos, TX- Despite sore muscles and a few new
calluses on their feet, the participants in a walk
from San Antonio to Austin, grew in number and
determination to bring home to Texas Governor George
W. Bush their message of compassionate use of medical
marijuana.
As the sun-drenched and wind blown procession slowly
meandered through San Marcos on the northbound HI-35
access road, a car stopped.
“Who’s in the stretcher?" The driver asked.
“Millions of people suffering in jail and clinics
without access to their medicine here in Texas”,
responded the medical marijuana marchers.
With voters poised to make their Presidential Primary
choices on “Super Tuesday”, the states of California,
Connecticut, Georgia, Massachusetts and Vermont, where
medical marijuana is legal, pressure is building on
Gov. Bush to clarify his position about putting the
issue on the ballot and allowing Texans to decide.
“Gov. Bush said he supports state’s rights to decide
this issue, but here in Texas he passed a law that
makes it illegal to hold a medical marijuana
referendum anywhere in Texas. What’s up with that?”
stated Joe Gaddy, one of the marchers.
“If he wants to win in California and other
compassionate states, he needs to come out for medical
marijuana in Texas now. In California, medical
marijuana won by 55% in 1996. If he showed his
support for Texas’ patients to receive medical
marijuana, he would win those states easily.” added
Zeal Stefanoff.
The march continues to draw enthusiastic support from
horn-tooting cars and trucks. The number of walkers
also continues to grow.
Two marchers left San Antonio Wednesday, one more
joined Thursday, two more joined Friday. Saturday
found 15 people marching along Northbound IH-35,
taking turns carrying the scroll which reads,
“Governor George Bush-What about Medical Marijuana in
Texas?”
The growing group is gaining momentum coming out of
San Marcos and plans to culminate the march, Saturday,
March 11, with a rally at the State Capital at “high
noon.”
The law did stop. A New Braunfels police officer,
concerned for their safety as they marched through
heavy road construction, bade them, “Safe travels” and
wished them luck.
They will resume around noonish near the SH 123 exit
of IH 35 on Sunday March 5, 2000.
CONTACT: David Leder @ 512-557-0475
Or Joe Ptak @ 512-754-0264

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

Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2000 14:35:32 -0400
From: Dana Beal <da...@cures-not-wars.org>
To: ekwa@msncom
Cc: kni...@nypress.com, sal...@aol.com, gonn...@voice.com,
pcor...@earthlink.net, Tracey Eaton <tea...@dallasnews.com>,
rum...@newsday.com
Subject: free posters, free ibogaine & corrected may 6 march listings
Message-ID: <v04220802b4e57f426272@[209.51.173.233]>

--============_-1259841035==_ma============
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1) MARCH ORGANIZERS: YR POSTERS ARE READY. PLEASE SEND US A
U.P.S.-ABLE ADDRESS (A STREET ADDRESS WHERE SOME ONE IS AROUND ALL
DAY) SO THAT YOUR CITY CAN GET POSTERS. JUST HIT "REPLY" TO THIS POST.

2) CURES NOT WARS ANNOUNCES FREE IBOGAINE TREATMENTS IN CONJUNCTION
WITH THE MILLENNIUM MARIJUANA MARCH

Sunday, May 5 --

Today Cures not Wars announces that in order to further dramatize our
worldwide demand to SEPARATE CANNIBIS FROM HARD DRUGS, all city
organizations participating in the Millennium Marijuana March may now
offer FREE IBOGAINE TREATMENTS to anyone who can afford travel
expenses.

Ibogaine is a naturally-occurring substance from African rain forest
that in a majority of cases "interrupts" addiction to hard drugs,
"turning crack-heads and junkies into potheads." It is not a
maintenance drug (being administered only once); it is also effective
against alcohol and cigarettes.

We urge eveyone organizing an event May 6 to hold a press conference
asap announcing that the Millennium Marijuana March has beaten the
U.S. gov't to the punch in releasing an actual cure for addiction
which is being withheld by federal bureaucrats just like medical
marijuana. Take a stand for a Public Health approach to the pot
issue. Don't pass up this chance to trash the feds for heartlessly
withholding the Ibogaine cure from addicts while locking up hundreds
of thousands in pursuit of the War on Drugs.

Contact Dana Beal, 212-677-7180, or 9 Bleecker St., N.Y.C. for more
details.

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

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n307.a07.html
Pubdate: Thu, 2 Mar 2000
Author: Nick Davies

ANTI-DRUGS CHIEF LED DOUBLE LIFE AS DEALER

Agency In Disarray As Operation Ends In Jailing Of Former Team
Leader

One of the biggest anti-drug agencies in the country was in
disarray last night after a former
manager admitted being in possession of half a kilo of heroin
with intent to supply and was
jailed for seven years.

Addaction - formerly known as the Association for the
Prevention of Addiction - had
investigated complaints that Dave Francis, 37, who ran their
crack awareness team in
Nottingham, was an active professional dealer. They
disciplined staff who complained about
his behaviour and attacked the Guardian which exposed Francis
as a dealer in May 1997.

Sentencing him at Nottingham crown court, Judge Dudley Bennett
told Francis: "You more
than anybody else should have known the misery of people who
have become addicted. I
have to deal with people day after day in this court who appear
before me after committing
crimes to fund their drug habit." A second charge of conspiracy
was left to lie on the file.

Although the events which led to Francis's arrest occurred
after he left the agency, evidence
collected by the Guardian and by Nottingham detectives leaves
no doubt that Francis was
dealing under cover of the agency for nearly four years, and
continued to deal on a
city-wide scale after the Guardian forced him to resign in 1997.

While Francis managed the crack awareness team, posing as a
crusader against drugs, he
organised regular supplies of crack cocaine and heroin to
addicts in the city, including those
who had come to the team for help. He also dealt in stolen
goods, firearms and prostitutes.
He employed a second dealer, Henry Warner, as his deputy and
allowed the team's office to
be used for drug-taking.

Police believe that, while he was running the agency, he became
one of the biggest dealers
in the Midlands, controlling an illegal organisation of more
than 100 workers in Nottingham.

In the summer of 1996, a group of Francis's colleagues made
written complaints to the
agency about his activity. Twenty other professionals in the
city expressed anxieties about
him.

His lifestyle ran far ahead of his income. He earned A321,000
a year from the agency and
yet he drove a A349,500 Mercedes, had two homes in Nottingham,
wore a A330,000 watch
and sported diamonds drilled into his front teeth.

The then head of the city's major crimes unit said publicly
that he was 100% certain that
Francis was an active dealer. But when the parent agency,
Addaction (then APA), finally
held an internal inquiry, they concluded in March 1997 that
there was no evidence against
him.

"He's a good guy as far as we're concerned," the agency's then
chairman, Sir Geoffrey
Errington, said at the time. "These things were rumours.
There was no hard evidence."

Addaction, which still receives annually UKP3.5m of public and
charitable funds, continues
to claim that there is no evidence that he committed any
offence while he worked for them.

Since Francis was exposed, the agency, which includes the wife
of the former home
secretary, Michael Howard, on its board, has won new home
office contracts to work with
drug users in prison. After being exposed by the Guardian,
Francis resigned from the crack
awareness team and continued to deal on a huge scale, flaunting
his wealth and power.

Nottingham police reacted by setting up a "total surveillance
operation", codenamed Odin,
which was of such unprecedented scale that finally it not only
arrested Dave Francis but
took out 134 of his alleged associates and dealers.

Detectives say that Francis's role in the crack awareness team
directly assisted his rise to
power. According to one detective: "It gave him a perfect
excuse if he was ever caught
with drugs or with people in possession of drugs. It also made
it much more difficult for us
to hassle him, because he had political connections in the
city." Tapes from Francis's house
showed he had been running crimes in the city for years.

Before he was hired by Addaction, he had headed a team of armed
robbers from the
Meadows estate and he had already been convicted of more than
30 offences involving
burglary, theft, firearms, unlawful sexual intercourse and
possession of drugs. He told
Addaction that he had become a Christian and he was given
access to some of the most
vulnerable people in the city and a budget of more than
A3170,000 of public money. He
attended planning meetings with senior police and was invited
to give evidence to a
parliamentary select committee.

'Bags and bags of weed'

In the autumn of 1995, five current and former staff filed
written allegations, accusing
Francis of dealing in heroin and cocaine, of trading in
firearms and supplying women for
prostitution. Witnesses detailed incidents where Francis had
been seen with "bags and bags
of weed" and huge quantities of cash; where he had used heroin
to buy stolen goods and
helped one of them to sell a firearm.

Staff complained that the subsequent inquiry was serviced by
managers who had already
defended Francis and that it failed to call key witnesses.
Addaction produced a report which
exonerated Francis, and threatened leading witnesses with legal
action if they repeated their
allegations. One staff member who complained was suspended for
supposed racism, even
though neither Francis nor his deputy had been suspended when
accused of systematic
criminal activity.

It was only when the Guardian exposed Francis and the local
health and social services
withdrew their funding that Addaction was forced to withdraw
from its schemes in the city.

Addaction's chief executive, Peter Martin, told the Guardian
that "any allegation that APA
or Addaction knew of, approved or condoned in any way any such
inappropriate behaviour
by David Francis while he was at APA or that we neglected our
duty of care is categorically
denied."

Caught red-handed by surveillance squad

During the huge Odin operation, detectives planted electronic
bugs inside one of Francis's
homes with six officers manning a listening post around the
clock, set up video cameras to
record his movements, clamped tracking devices on his cars,
trawled through his bank and
telephone records, used army special forces for surveillance,
followed him to Jamaica and
back (even bugging his seat on the plane), hired informers on
weekly wages and, most
destructive of all, used a mixed-race officer from another
force to infiltrate the community,
recording sound and pictures of numerous drug deals.

By monitoring Francis so intensely, the police exposed his
operation, which turned out to be
a highly organised corporate structure, headed by Francis and a
group of lieutenants who
formed what police call an army council. Each lieutenant was
responsible for supplying a
different area of the city through his own network of middle
men and street dealers.

Francis organised the supply: sometimes through his Nigerian
contacts in London,
sometimes through a Midlands gypsy who has become a millionaire
from armed robbery
and drug deals, sometimes through delivery "mules" whom he
escorted to Jamaica. In a
six-week period just before his arrest, Francis moved seven
kilos of heroin into Nottingham.

The police bugs recorded Francis playing the part of the
conventional entrepreneur, urging
his men to be the quickest, the cheapest and the most reliable
suppliers in the city.

He and his lieutenants held monthly board meetings at safe
houses on the Meadows estate,
where many of them had been born, to discuss supply lines and
pricing. He warned his
men: "Be paranoid."

But the bugs recorded his every move recruiting new workers,
haggling over money,
organising supply, plotting to cut out the competition and then
spending hours watching old
soaps on cable television.

Finally, on February 23 last year, detectives heard Francis
discussing the sale of a load of
heroin that was due from London that night. They sent one
surveillance team to follow the
London suppliers as they drove up the motorway, and another
team to Francis's flat in the
city centre. With the key players all in place, the detectives
took the door off its hinges and
found their target with a carrier bag containing half a kilo of
67% pure heroin. Francis also
had a roll of cash which were so heavily stained with heroin,
cocaine, amphetamines and
ecstasy that the traces went off the scale of their laboratory
equipment.

Police arrested a total of 134 suspected dealers, including
Francis's former crack awareness
team deputy, Henry Warner, who last year admitted possessing
heroin with intent supply.
_________________________________________________
From: SIMPA...@webtv.net (PAUL)
Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2000 05:31:46 -0500 (EST)
To: c...@cures-not-wars.org
Subject: live in NY and searchin for help
Status:

Dear cnw,
First you have a great name, and i wish i
would of thought of, after much searching
for a club in NY . Happy to find cnw.
Suffering from 2 genetic diseases-muscular dystrophy and skin
cancer-that i have a rash and skin that has a burning feeling and
methadone is not helping much and doctors are getting as frustrated as
i. with chronic pain, muscle pain
tension spasms, cramps, sleep disturbed,
and nauseous an headaches. slowly degenerative disease,arthritic joints.

With looking into marijuana and trying some -It is very beneficial
and relieves
my nausea an pain better than any other
prescribed medicines. But with being on
disability and financially unable to afford
therefore i needlessly suffer. Doctor to
recommend marijuana-all i asked would but are afraid. and the legal
aspect has
some bearing, but I would choose marijuana anyhow and looking for help..

And after all the doctors and 2 hip operations and nausea and pain for

over 20 yrs. ,it has been so painful-I am
at the end of my rope...I just want some
relief and marijuana is very beneficial in
greatly improving my nausea pain, spasms, and also appetite an better
mood which meditation helps also.
But one other difficulty other than cost
is being able to get a routine amount needed for one with legitimate
approval to use and sufficient for at least a month before a refill...
I certainly appreciate any help.

Have a good day-bless all -best wishes
sincerely Paul
PS hope to be at may, 6 2000 rally in NYC. Where will it start and can I

come with my wheelchair? With A legalize medical marijuana flag and it
being
a peaceful and that will do good forall.

Life; a continuous mystery to behold. Keep
faith in troubled times. Love others and
love thyself. Being kind and help others
when i can.
_________________________________________________
From: SON...@aol.com
Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2000 00:46:42 EST
Subject: Black Males arrested for a joint.
To: c...@cures-not-wars.org
Status:

Peace,

I want to tell the truth to the world that in NYC if you are stopped by
the
cops you go "Through The System" as they place you under arrest for as
little
amount that they can see. I kid you not right now in NYC in the jails
are
filled to the brim with Black And Latino, and White people of all walks
of
life. I mean regular men with good jobs, spending the night in jail for
a bag
of weed. Now you have to loose your job for a dime bag of weed. This
has to
end, now look at the prices going up.

Peace
_________________________________________________
DRACONIAN DRUG POLICY

Regarding "Entering Colombia's Civil War Won't Solve the U S Problem'.
(Opinion, Feb.21) by William Pfaff.

Mr. Pfaff mentions a need to explore alternatives to the failed drug
war. I
agree, but I was wondering what exactly were the "unforeseen
consequences"
of the Dutch experiment with marijuana decriminalization? The worst I
can
think of is the abundance of American tourists who visit Amsterdam eager
for
a taste of freedom.

Drug use in the Netherlands is roughly half the U.S. rate of drug use.
The
Dutch homicide rate is a quarter. By decriminalizing marijuana Dutch
policymakers have separated the hard and soft drug markets. In the
United
States, marijuana users come into contact with pushers of hard drugs due
to
marijuana's black market status.

It makes no sense to perpetuate draconian drug policies that facilitate
the
introduction of hard drugs to youth. President Bill Clinton would be
wise to
emulate the Dutch model rather than fund civil war in Colombia.

ROBERT SHARPE.
Washington.
____________________________________________________________
Millenium Marijuana March Seattle
Saturday, May 6th
Meet at Noon in Volunteer Park.
March to King County Courthouse via Broadway, to Pine to Second Ave.

Speakers include:

Allen St. Pierre, NORML
Don Wirtshafter, Attorney at Law
Nora Callahan, November Coalition
Krist Novoselic
Robert Lunday, Hemp.Net
Magic, WHEN
and more

More Information:
The Hemp Coalition
206.781.5734
<http://www.thehempcoalition.org>www.thehempcoalition.org
<http://www.cannabis2000.com>www.cannabis2000.com
<mailto:m...@thehempcoalition.org>m...@thehempcoalition.org

Y'all take care,

Dominic

********************
CITIES

CURRENT COUNT: 18 confirmed countries on six continents, 77 cities
with contacts.
(see below)

Adelaide
Albuquerque
Amsterdam
Atlanta
Auckland
Austria
Austin
Barcelona
Belo Horizonte
Berlin
Birmingham
Boston
Brussells
Burlington
Camden
Cassopolis
Castries
Chapel Hill
Chicago
Chico
Cleveland
Denver
Des Moines
Detroit
Eureka
Flint
Frankenthal
Grand Forks, B.C.
Grand Rapids
Hamburg
Hilo
Houston
Kansas City
Kingston
Johannesburg
Lansing
Louisville
London
Los Angeles
Lyons
Madison
Madrid
Maui
Melbourne
Minneapolis
Montreal
Moscow
Nashville
New Orleans
New York
Omaha
Oklahoma City
Oslo
Portland
Prague
Rio de Janeiro
San Francisco
Santa Barbara
Sao Paulo
Seattle
St. Petersburg
Tampa
Tel Aviv
Toronto
Traverse City
Tucson
Vancouver
Vienna
Washington D.C.
Wellington
Windsor

____________________________________________________________________

Here's a panorama of last year's events-- (You could put this on the
"Historical view" section.
<http://homepages.go.com/~marthag1/million.htm>http://homepages.go.com
/~marthag1/million.htm

WORLD WIDE CANNABIS ACTION, Saturday, May 6th, 2000. (list updated Feb
27th)

USA

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico. Delta-9 Coalition Hotline: 505/281-6277. (Bruce

Bush) Personal number: 505/256-0810=20
<http://www.writch.com/freedom/mmm99/>http://www.writch.com/freedom/mmm99/

ATLANTA, Georgia. CAMP. Tel: 404 522-2267 (Paul Cornwell) Fax
404-523-3712
<pcor...@earthlink.net>=20
<http://www.cannabis2000.com>http://www.cannabis2000.com

AUSTIN, Texas. Tel: 512-493-7003. (Tracy) <mmmt...@hotmail.com>
Assemble High noon at Congress Bridge,
March on the Capitol and to Governor's Mansion

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama. LeAnne Owen, 1248 22nd St. S G3, Birmingham, Al.
35205. Tel: 205-933-6698.

BOSTON, MA, USA Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition Tel:
1-781-944-2266 (Bill Downing)
or epe...@aol.com (Steve Epstein)
<http://www.masscann.org>http://www.masscann.org
Candlelight Vigil outside the JFK Federal Building, home to the DEA,
on May 5 beginning at 7:30 PM:
and a Planters Picnic at the Arnold Arboretum on May 6.

BURLINGTON, Vt. (Dr. Robert Melamede), J6 Stonehedge Drive, South
Burlington VT 05405 Tel: 802 658-2059 <rmel...@zoo.uvm.edu>
<http://www.uvm.edu/~rmelamed/>http://www.uvm.edu/~rmelamed/

CAMDEN, New Jersey. Ed "njweedman" Forchion - The Legalize Marijuana
Party Ph: 609-893-1893
http://www.420times.com/lmp Upcoming NJ Jury Nullification Trial-
March 13th http://www.420times.com/lmp/powerto_the_jury.htm

CASSOPOLIS, Mich. TBA

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. TBA

CHICAGO, Ill. Caren 773-935-5446 fax 935-1496 <cmm...@hotmail.com>

CHICO, California. Tel: (530) 345-5753

CLEVELAND, Ohio. Ph 216-521-9333. (John Hartman)
<NCN...@aol.com> Assemble High Noon Public Square, rally & speakers
1:30 PM March on the Justice Center

DENVER Contact: Megan Swisher home phone number

DES MOINES, Iowa. Iowa NORML, Post Office Box 4091, Des Moines, Iowa
50333
(Carl Olsen) Ph 515-262-6957 <iowa...@home.com>

DETROIT (and Windsor), Mich. Tel: 313-438-1668. APHASIC PRESS
c/o "The HappyhouseChurch" link to THC-ULC:
<http://www.geocities.com/happy_hempster/pages/mmm.htm>

EUGENE, Oregon. TBA

EUREKA, California. <B8...@aol.com> or
<http://www.soulfirst.com>

FLINT, Michigan. TBA

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan. TBA

HILO, Hawai . Tel: (808) 328-9794 or (808) 956-7008. (Dennis Shields/
Roger Christie) <paka...@gte.net>

HOUSTON, Texas. (James Partsch-Galvan) <galv...@hotmail.com>

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. TBA

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Patch @ the Global Peace Cafe 816-931-7876
<globa...@email.com>

LANSING, Michigan. Contact: Kathy Kennedy Ph 517-628-3915

LOS ANGELES, Ca. Project Hemp is Hep, 824 West 40th Place, Los
Angeles, CA 90037
Ph 323-232-0935 (Sister Somayah) <hemp...@successnet.net>

LOUISVILLE, Ky. <g...@hemprock.com> Roland A. Duby Ph 606-342-5954

MADISON, Wisconsin. Tel: 608-257-5456 (Ben Masel).
<bma...@ministryoftruth.org>
Assemble 1 PM - Miflin Marijuana March from the Capitol farmer's
market thru Mifland to Britingham Park

MAUI, Hawaii. TBA

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota - Contact: Grassroots Party - Chris Wright or
Dale Wilkinson 612-789-5696; High Noon Rally(music & speakers) 1:30
March from Loring Park to Washburn Fair Oaks (where the progenitors
of narcotics prohibition "Dr. Hamilton Wright & Elizabeth Washburn"
were married.)
NOML MN (612)871-8780=20
<mailto:nor...@normlmn.com>nor...@normlmn.com or Third Stone
(612)825-6120 Terry or Bruce; or David Lach Collins, State Director/
NORML MN (612)871-8780=20
<mailto:nor...@normlmn.com>nor...@normlmn.com
<http://www.normlmn.com>www.normlmn.com

NASHVILLE, Tennessee. Contact: Howard Linoff 615-262-4283 -- Music
City TORML / A-HEMP Address: POB 68409, Nashville, TN 37206 email:
<mis...@weedmail.com>

NEW ORLEANS, La. contact: Ashley "the Fearless" Kennedy (504)
824-1027 <fearle...@hotmail.com>

NEW YORK, NY. Cures Not Wars, 9 Bleecker, N.Y.C. 10012. USA. Tel:
212-677-7180
(Dana/cnw). Fax: 212-353-1670. Media:
212-677-4899.<c...@cures-not-wars.org>
<http://www.cures-not-wars.org/mmm>
Pickets are held 4 pm - Wednesday. Trainings 12 noon - Saturday.
Meetings 6 pm - Sunday.

OKLAHOMA CITY Contact email: DLM74...@cs.com or Bryan
<bry...@mailexcite.com>

OMAHA, Nebraska. TBA

PORTLAND, Oregon. MMM-PdxNORML. P.O. Box 86694, Portland, Oregon,
USA, 97286-0694. Tel: (503) 777-908-8503/235-4524 (Floyd Landrath)
<pdxn...@teleport.com> Updates: 503/777-9088=20
<http://www.PdxNORML.org> Assemble at
Sunnyside Park, SE 34th Ave & Yamhill St, Noon-1pm, March at 1pm.

SANTA BARBARA, California. TBA

SAN FRANCISCO, Ca The Drug Peace Campaign, 190 El Cerrito Plaza, PMB
313,
El Cerrito, CA 94530. Tel: (415) 971-3573=20
<<mailto:m...@drugpeace.org>m...@drugpeace.org>
<http://www.drugpeace.org/mmm>

ST. LOUIS, Mo. Contact: Jeff, 314 995-1395, <mo-norml.org> Saint
Louis NORML, Box 243, St.Louis MO 63122

SEATTLE, Washington. Hempfest. Tel: 206-781-5734 <hemp...@hemp.net>
<http://www.seattlehempfest.com>
Contact: Vivian McPeak <v...@hemp.net>
www.scn.org/crisis Seattle Peace Heathens, Seattle Hempfest, Seattle
Events Inc.

TAMPA, Fl. - AMERICAN CANNABIS SOCIETY, POB 17162 , Tampa, Fl 33682,
USA. Tel: 727-467-0159 (Melissa Ann) <melac...@hotmail.com> Or
813-631-8915. (Bob Quail)<bqua...@aol.com> Or 727-347-6245 or at
forml...@yahoo.com

TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan TBA

TUCSON, Arizona. (Travis Klein) <Tra...@U.Arizona.EDU>

AUSTRALIA

ADELAIDE. Australia Legaliseit <lega...@marijuana.com.au> (Mike)
<http://www.marijuana.com.au/the_wall/messages/23.html>
<http://www.marijuana.com.au>
<http://www.marihuana.com.au>
<http://www.cannabis.com.au>

NIMBIN MMM Contact: Gary J Gray, Web Master for the Nimbin HEMP
Embassy, & the Australian Cannabis Law Reform Movement [actual
address is www.nrg.com.au/~hemp/mardigrass/mardigrass2000.htm].
http://mardigrass.webjump.com reply to rebe...@gasgroup.com

MELBOURNE. Australia. Infofreako 613 9 432 5832

CANADA

GRAND FORKS, British Columbia. Canadian Cannabis Coalition, P.O.Box
1481, Canada V0H 1H0. (Pavel Dimotoff, Director)
<pdim...@yahoo.co> P.O.Box 2342 Grand Forks, British Columbia,
Canada V0H 1H0
<http://www.drugsense.org/ccc>
http://www.sunshinecable.com/~gfhc/hemptea.html

MONTREAL Quebec. Bloc-Pot party of Quebec. Tel: 514-528-1POT
(528-1768).
(Marc-Boris St-Maurice) <Blo...@blocpot.qc.ca> Our mailing adress
in montreal: MMM c-o BLOC-POT P.O. Box 361, station C, Montreal Quebec,
Canada, H2L 4K3 www.blocpot.qc.ca The event starts at 1 pm at
St-Louis square (carr=E9 St-Louis) at the Sherbrooke subway station
(Sherbrooke metro) RAIN OR SHINE!
<http://www.blocpot.qc.ca>

TORONTO, Ontario. The Toronto Millennium Marijuana March.
<toront...@hotmail.com>
<http://torontomarch.iwarp.com/>

QUEBEC. Tel: 418-336-3159. (Paul Giroux) <gir...@globetrotter.qc.ca>

VANCOUVER, B.C. Contact: "Cop rodeo clown David Malmo-Levine is
co-ordinating the Vancouver Millennium March. Contribute to the
organizing in the Activists and Activism thread at
www.cannabisculture.com, or contact him privately at
dagreen...@excite.com."

WINDSOR, Ontario. TBA

CARIBBEAN

CASTRIES, ST. LUCIA
Info-TBA

KINGSTON, JAMAICA
Paul Chang pa...@alme.com www.bem.alme.com - P.O. Box 24,
Laughlands, St. Ann (until Feb. 22/00)
Tel: (876) 972-0817 voice; (876) 794-8086 Fax: (876) 794-8087
[in CANADA - P.O. Box 69010, 2 St. Clair Avenue East, Toronto,
Ontario M4T-3A1 (after Feb. 22/00)
Tel: (416) 755-5225; (416) 759-7130 Cell: (416) 318-5940
fax: (416) 755-8049]

EUROPE

AMSTERDAM. Legalize! Event at: International Court of Justice in The
Hague,
the famous Vredespaleis(Peace-Palace).<ra...@casema.net> The two
Saturdays
following May 6 Legalize! we will have similar demonstrations in two
more Dutch
towns. On May 27th we will stage our yearly (4th!) 'Legalize!
Streetparty against
the Global War on Drugs' in Amsterdam with a number of mobile sound
systems.
We will also do our normal parade across the Amsterdam centre of town!
<http://www.legalise.org>

BARCELONA, Spain. ARSEC - Asociacion Ramon Santos de Estudios Sobre
El Cannabis Placa Sant Josep Oriol, 4, 08002 - Barcelona, Spain.
email: <ar...@pangea.org> http://www.pangea.org/org/arsec

BERLIN, Germany HANFPARADE (Hemp-parade) bureau. Tel: 0049-30-24720233.

(Martin Muncheberg: 0049-30-29 49 02 01 - every working day from
noon to 8 p.m.)
fax: 0049-30-24720234. <mar...@africandance.de> Hemp Museum: Tel:
0049-30-2424827. http://www.hanflobby.de/hanfparade

BRUSSELS, Belguim. Mastah <y...@notme.com>

FRANKENTHAL MMM-Rally through the city in the afternoon (time t.b.a.)
on Feb., 6th special topic: the many uses of medical marijuana after
the rally will be a open air concert of some local pro-hemp-bands c/o
Helmut Holzheimer <mov...@gmx.de>

HAMBURG: MMM-Day at the "Kulturhaus Eppendorf" w. discussion forum
and hempy video shows (time t.b.a.) c/o Tom Rocker:
<kulurha...@t-online.de> and Martina: <Han...@karo4tel.de>

LISBON, Portugal. TBA

LONDON, UK. International Cannabis Coalition (UK), PO Box 2243 , London
W1A
1YF, UK. Tel: 0171-637-7467. (Chris Sanders) Fax: 0870 054 8646.
<may...@schmoo.co.uk>
<http:www.schmoo.co.uk/may2000.htm>
A 'End the Cannabis Prohibition March' leading to a one day 'Cannabis
Carnival' followed by an all night indoor 'Cannabis Party' is planned.
The
march assembles 1pm, Kennington Park, London.

LYONS, FRANCE. Nous proffitons de ce mail pour rappeler, et/ou
annoncer qu'un des objectifs du Calumet de la Paix est de re-creer
une coalition entre association et mouvemments Europ=E9ens.
Un semblant de site est disponible pour plus de renseignements:
<http://www.multimania.com/lecalumet/index.html>
OU
<http://www.ifrance.com/lecalumet/index.html>
Il est en construction, mais donnera les
<http://www.multimania.com/lecalumet/pourquoi.html>status et les
motivations du Calumet. * CIRC Pro :
<mailto:cir...@club-internet.fr>cir...@club-internet.fr * Le
Calumet de la Paix:
<mailto:le-calume...@voila.fr>le-calume...@voila.fr *
* Ligne Blanche: <mailto:lbla...@cybercable.fr>lbla...@cybercable.fr *

MADRID, Spain. Madrid Association for Cannabis Studies.Tel/Fax (call
first): 91
530 33 64. <am...@ctv.es>

OSLO, Norway. contact: freddie <freddi...@c2i.net>
http://home.c2i.net/freddiefreak/go.htm NORM(A)L Norway. Tel: 47 90
54 17 80. <email...@aol.com> <http://fly.to/inn>

PARIS, France. Personal address : GHEHIOUECHE FARId 5, rue de
Tombouctou 75018
PARIS - FRANCE. Phone : 01.42.51.50.85 ( not after 22 PM, paris hour)
Mobile
: 06.14.81.56.79. Fax : 01.40.38.01.92

PRAGUE, CZ Tel: +420-603-872631, +420-2-33355668, +420-603-228948
(Michail
Polack) <sokr...@arachne.cz>

TEL AVIV, Israel. TBA

VIENNA/Austria Michi: <rasta...@yahoo.com>

AFRICA

JOHANNESBURG: TBA

NEW ZEALAND

AUCKLAND. Albert Park, Auckland City. National Organisation for the
Reform
of Marijuana Laws in New Zealand, 60 Queen Street, Auckland, New
Zealand.
Mail: PO Box 3307, Shortland St, Auckland 1015. Ph +64 9 302-5255.
fax +64 9 303-1309
<hemp...@ihug.co.nz><http://www.norml.org.nz>
WELLINGTON TBA

SOUTH AMERICA

BELO HORIZONTE contact: Paulo Henrique de Matos Almeida address
Afonso Abreu & Silva 72, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais - Brazil zip
30870-110

RIO, Brazil. TBA

SAO PAULO, Brazil. TBA

______________________________________________________________________
___________________

Cannabis cities e mail list (extracted from above)

wri...@writch.com,
mmmt...@hotmail.com,
epe...@aol.com,
rmel...@zoo.uvm.edu,
cmm...@hotmail.com,
iowa...@home.com,
B8...@aol.com,
paka...@gte.net,
galv...@hotmail.com,
globa...@email.com,
hemp...@successnet.net,
g...@hemprock.com,
bma...@ministryoftruth.org,
Chris Wright <T...@genesis-computer.com>
<mis...@weedmail.com>
c...@cures-not-wars.org,<fearle...@hotmail.com>
pdxn...@teleport.com,
m...@drugpeace.org,
<mo-norml.org>
hemp...@hemp.net,
melac...@hotmail.com,
Tra...@U.Arizona.EDU,
<lega...@marijuana.com.au>
rebe...@gasgroup.com
pdim...@yahoo.com,
pcor...@earthlink.net,
Blo...@blocpot.qc.ca,
<toront...@hotmail.com>
gir...@globetrotter.qc.ca,
pa...@alme.com
ra...@casema.net,
<ar...@pangea.org>
mar...@africandance.de,
y...@notme.com,
<mov...@gmx.de>
<kulurha...@t-online.de>
<Han...@karo4tel.de>
may...@schmoo.co.uk,
cir...@club-internet.fr
<am...@ctv.es>
freddi...@c2i.net>
email...@aol.com,
sokr...@arachne.cz,
<rasta...@yahoo.com>
hemp...@ihug.co.nz,
lega...@marijuana.com.au,

--============_-1259841035==_ma============
Content-Type: text/enriched; charset="us-ascii"

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS:

1) MARCH ORGANIZERS: YR POSTERS ARE READY. PLEASE SEND US A U.P.S.-ABLE
ADDRESS (A STREET ADDRESS WHERE SOME ONE IS AROUND ALL DAY) SO THAT
YOUR CITY CAN GET POSTERS. JUST HIT "REPLY" TO THIS POST.

2) CURES NOT WARS ANNOUNCES FREE IBOGAINE TREATMENTS IN CONJUNCTION
WITH THE MILLENNIUM MARIJUANA MARCH

Sunday, May 5 --

We urge eveyone organizing an event May 6 to hold a press conference
asap announcing that the Millennium Marijuana March has beaten the U.S.
gov't to the punch in releasing an actual cure for addiction which is
being withheld by federal bureaucrats just like medical marijuana. Take
a stand for a Public Health approach to the pot issue. Don't pass up
this chance to trash the feds for heartlessly withholding the Ibogaine
cure from addicts while locking up hundreds of thousands in pursuit of
the War on Drugs.

Contact Dana Beal, 212-677-7180, or 9 Bleecker St., N.Y.C. for more
details.

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

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n307.a07.html

Pubdate: Thu, 2 Mar 2000

Author: Nick Davies

ANTI-DRUGS CHIEF LED DOUBLE LIFE AS DEALER

Agency In Disarray As Operation Ends In Jailing Of Former Team
Leader

One of the biggest anti-drug agencies in the country was in
disarray last night after a former

manager admitted being in possession of half a kilo of heroin
with intent to supply and was

jailed for seven years.

Addaction - formerly known as the Association for the Prevention
of Addiction - had

investigated complaints that Dave Francis, 37, who ran their
crack awareness team in

Nottingham, was an active professional dealer. They disciplined
staff who complained about

his behaviour and attacked the Guardian which exposed Francis as
a dealer in May 1997.

Sentencing him at Nottingham crown court, Judge Dudley Bennett
told Francis: "You more

than anybody else should have known the misery of people who have
become addicted. I

have to deal with people day after day in this court who appear
before me after committing

crimes to fund their drug habit." A second charge of conspiracy
was left to lie on the file.

Although the events which led to Francis's arrest occurred after
he left the agency, evidence

collected by the Guardian and by Nottingham detectives leaves no
doubt that Francis was

dealing under cover of the agency for nearly four years, and
continued to deal on a

city-wide scale after the Guardian forced him to resign in 1997.

While Francis managed the crack awareness team, posing as a
crusader against drugs, he

organised regular supplies of crack cocaine and heroin to addicts
in the city, including those

who had come to the team for help. He also dealt in stolen
goods, firearms and prostitutes.

He employed a second dealer, Henry Warner, as his deputy and
allowed the team's office to

be used for drug-taking.

Police believe that, while he was running the agency, he became
one of the biggest dealers

in the Midlands, controlling an illegal organisation of more than
100 workers in Nottingham.

In the summer of 1996, a group of Francis's colleagues made
written complaints to the

agency about his activity. Twenty other professionals in the
city expressed anxieties about

him.

His lifestyle ran far ahead of his income. He earned A321,000 a
year from the agency and

yet he drove a A349,500 Mercedes, had two homes in Nottingham,
wore a A330,000 watch

and sported diamonds drilled into his front teeth.

The then head of the city's major crimes unit said publicly that
he was 100% certain that

Francis was an active dealer. But when the parent agency,
Addaction (then APA), finally

held an internal inquiry, they concluded in March 1997 that there
was no evidence against

him.

"He's a good guy as far as we're concerned," the agency's then
chairman, Sir Geoffrey

Errington, said at the time. "These things were rumours. There
was no hard evidence."

Addaction, which still receives annually UKP3.5m of public and
charitable funds, continues

to claim that there is no evidence that he committed any offence
while he worked for them.

Since Francis was exposed, the agency, which includes the wife of
the former home

secretary, Michael Howard, on its board, has won new home office
contracts to work with

drug users in prison. After being exposed by the Guardian,
Francis resigned from the crack

awareness team and continued to deal on a huge scale, flaunting
his wealth and power.

Nottingham police reacted by setting up a "total surveillance
operation", codenamed Odin,

which was of such unprecedented scale that finally it not only
arrested Dave Francis but

took out 134 of his alleged associates and dealers.

Detectives say that Francis's role in the crack awareness team
directly assisted his rise to

power. According to one detective: "It gave him a perfect excuse
if he was ever caught

with drugs or with people in possession of drugs. It also made
it much more difficult for us

to hassle him, because he had political connections in the city."
Tapes from Francis's house

showed he had been running crimes in the city for years.

Before he was hired by Addaction, he had headed a team of armed
robbers from the

Meadows estate and he had already been convicted of more than 30
offences involving

burglary, theft, firearms, unlawful sexual intercourse and
possession of drugs. He told

Addaction that he had become a Christian and he was given access
to some of the most

vulnerable people in the city and a budget of more than A3170,000
of public money. He

attended planning meetings with senior police and was invited to
give evidence to a

parliamentary select committee.

'Bags and bags of weed'

In the autumn of 1995, five current and former staff filed
written allegations, accusing

Francis of dealing in heroin and cocaine, of trading in firearms
and supplying women for

prostitution. Witnesses detailed incidents where Francis had
been seen with "bags and bags

of weed" and huge quantities of cash; where he had used heroin to
buy stolen goods and

helped one of them to sell a firearm.

Staff complained that the subsequent inquiry was serviced by
managers who had already

defended Francis and that it failed to call key witnesses.
Addaction produced a report which

exonerated Francis, and threatened leading witnesses with legal
action if they repeated their

allegations. One staff member who complained was suspended for
supposed racism, even

though neither Francis nor his deputy had been suspended when
accused of systematic

criminal activity.

It was only when the Guardian exposed Francis and the local
health and social services

withdrew their funding that Addaction was forced to withdraw from
its schemes in the city.

Addaction's chief executive, Peter Martin, told the Guardian that
"any allegation that APA

or Addaction knew of, approved or condoned in any way any such
inappropriate behaviour

by David Francis while he was at APA or that we neglected our
duty of care is categorically

denied."

Caught red-handed by surveillance squad

During the huge Odin operation, detectives planted electronic
bugs inside one of Francis's

homes with six officers manning a listening post around the
clock, set up video cameras to

record his movements, clamped tracking devices on his cars,
trawled through his bank and

telephone records, used army special forces for surveillance,
followed him to Jamaica and

back (even bugging his seat on the plane), hired informers on
weekly wages and, most

destructive of all, used a mixed-race officer from another force
to infiltrate the community,

recording sound and pictures of numerous drug deals.

By monitoring Francis so intensely, the police exposed his
operation, which turned out to be

a highly organised corporate structure, headed by Francis and a
group of lieutenants who

formed what police call an army council. Each lieutenant was
responsible for supplying a

different area of the city through his own network of middle men
and street dealers.

Francis organised the supply: sometimes through his Nigerian
contacts in London,

sometimes through a Midlands gypsy who has become a millionaire
from armed robbery

and drug deals, sometimes through delivery "mules" whom he
escorted to Jamaica. In a

six-week period just before his arrest, Francis moved seven kilos
of heroin into Nottingham.

The police bugs recorded Francis playing the part of the
conventional entrepreneur, urging

his men to be the quickest, the cheapest and the most reliable
suppliers in the city.

He and his lieutenants held monthly board meetings at safe houses
on the Meadows estate,

where many of them had been born, to discuss supply lines and
pricing. He warned his

men: "Be paranoid."

But the bugs recorded his every move recruiting new workers,
haggling over money,

organising supply, plotting to cut out the competition and then
spending hours watching old

soaps on cable television.

Finally, on February 23 last year, detectives heard Francis
discussing the sale of a load of

heroin that was due from London that night. They sent one
surveillance team to follow the

London suppliers as they drove up the motorway, and another team
to Francis's flat in the

city centre. With the key players all in place, the detectives
took the door off its hinges and

found their target with a carrier bag containing half a kilo of
67% pure heroin. Francis also

had a roll of cash which were so heavily stained with heroin,
cocaine, amphetamines and

ecstasy that the traces went off the scale of their laboratory
equipment.

Police arrested a total of 134 suspected dealers, including
Francis's former crack awareness

team deputy, Henry Warner, who last year admitted possessing
heroin with intent supply.

_________________________________________________

From: SIMPA...@webtv.net (PAUL)

Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2000 05:31:46 -0500 (EST)

To: c...@cures-not-wars.org

Subject: live in NY and searchin for help

Status:

Dear cnw,

First you have a great name, and i wish i

would of thought of, after much searching

for a club in NY . Happy to find cnw.

Suffering from 2 genetic diseases-muscular dystrophy and skin

cancer-that i have a rash and skin that has a burning feeling and

methadone is not helping much and doctors are getting as frustrated as

i. with chronic pain, muscle pain

tension spasms, cramps, sleep disturbed,

and nauseous an headaches. slowly degenerative disease,arthritic
joints.

With looking into marijuana and trying some -It is very beneficial
and relieves

my nausea an pain better than any other

prescribed medicines. But with being on

disability and financially unable to afford

therefore i needlessly suffer. Doctor to

recommend marijuana-all i asked would but are afraid. and the legal

aspect has

some bearing, but I would choose marijuana anyhow and looking for
help..

And after all the doctors and 2 hip operations and nausea and pain
for

over 20 yrs. ,it has been so painful-I am

at the end of my rope...I just want some

relief and marijuana is very beneficial in

greatly improving my nausea pain, spasms, and also appetite an better

mood which meditation helps also.

But one other difficulty other than cost

is being able to get a routine amount needed for one with legitimate

approval to use and sufficient for at least a month before a refill...

I certainly appreciate any help.

Have a good day-bless all -best wishes

sincerely Paul

PS hope to be at may, 6 2000 rally in NYC. Where will it start and can
I

come with my wheelchair? With A legalize medical marijuana flag and it
being

a peaceful and that will do good forall.

Life; a continuous mystery to behold. Keep

faith in troubled times. Love others and

love thyself. Being kind and help others

when i can.

_________________________________________________

From: SON...@aol.com

Date: Sun, 5 Mar 2000 00:46:42 EST

Subject: Black Males arrested for a joint.

To: c...@cures-not-wars.org

Status:

Peace,

I want to tell the truth to the world that in NYC if you are stopped by
the

cops you go "Through The System" as they place you under arrest for as
little

amount that they can see. I kid you not right now in NYC in the jails
are

filled to the brim with Black And Latino, and White people of all walks
of

life. I mean regular men with good jobs, spending the night in jail for
a bag

of weed. Now you have to loose your job for a dime bag of weed. This
has to

end, now look at the prices going up.

Peace

_________________________________________________

DRACONIAN DRUG POLICY

Regarding "Entering Colombia's Civil War Won't Solve the U S Problem'.

(Opinion, Feb.21) by William Pfaff.

Mr. Pfaff mentions a need to explore alternatives to the failed drug
war. I

agree, but I was wondering what exactly were the "unforeseen
consequences"

of the Dutch experiment with marijuana decriminalization? The worst I
can

think of is the abundance of American tourists who visit Amsterdam
eager for

a taste of freedom.

Drug use in the Netherlands is roughly half the U.S. rate of drug use.
The

Dutch homicide rate is a quarter. By decriminalizing marijuana Dutch

policymakers have separated the hard and soft drug markets. In the
United

States, marijuana users come into contact with pushers of hard drugs
due to

marijuana's black market status.

It makes no sense to perpetuate draconian drug policies that facilitate
the

introduction of hard drugs to youth. President Bill Clinton would be
wise to

emulate the Dutch model rather than fund civil war in Colombia.

ROBERT SHARPE.

Washington.

____________________________________________________________

<bold>Millenium Marijuana March Seattle

</bold>Saturday, May 6th

Meet at Noon in Volunteer Park.

March to King County Courthouse via Broadway, to Pine to Second Ave.

Speakers include:

<bold>Allen St. Pierre, NORML

Don Wirtshafter, Attorney at Law

Nora Callahan, November Coalition

Krist Novoselic

Robert Lunday, Hemp.Net

Magic, WHEN

and more

</bold>More Information:

The Hemp Coalition

206.781.5734

<<http://www.thehempcoalition.org>www.thehempcoalition.org

<<http://www.cannabis2000.com>www.cannabis2000.com

<<mailto:m...@thehempcoalition.org>m...@thehempcoalition.org

Y'all take care,

Dominic

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

CITIES

CURRENT COUNT: 18 confirmed countries on six continents, 77 cities

with contacts.

(see below)

Adelaide

Albuquerque

Amsterdam

Atlanta

Auckland

Austria

Austin

Barcelona

Belo Horizonte

Berlin

Birmingham

Boston

Brussells

Burlington

Camden

Cassopolis

Castries

Chapel Hill

Chicago

Chico

Cleveland

Denver

Des Moines

Detroit

Eureka

Flint

Frankenthal

Grand Forks, B.C.

Grand Rapids

Hamburg

Hilo

Houston

Kansas City

Kingston

Johannesburg

Lansing

Louisville

London

Los Angeles

Lyons

Madison

Madrid

Maui

Melbourne

Minneapolis

Montreal

Moscow

Nashville

New Orleans

New York

Omaha

Oklahoma City

Oslo

Portland

Prague

Rio de Janeiro

San Francisco

Santa Barbara

Sao Paulo

Seattle

St. Petersburg

Tampa

Tel Aviv

Toronto

Traverse City

Tucson

Vancouver

Vienna

Washington D.C.

Wellington

Windsor

____________________________________________________________________

Here's a panorama of last year's events-- (You could put this on the

"Historical view" section.

<<http://homepages.go.com/~marthag1/million.htm>http://homepages.go.com

/~marthag1/million.htm

WORLD WIDE CANNABIS ACTION, Saturday, May 6th, 2000. (list updated Feb
27th)

USA

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico. Delta-9 Coalition Hotline: 505/281-6277.
(Bruce

Bush) Personal number: 505/256-0810=20

<<http://www.writch.com/freedom/mmm99/>http://www.writch.com/freedom/mmm99/

ATLANTA, Georgia. CAMP. Tel: 404 522-2267 (Paul Cornwell) Fax
404-523-3712

<<pcor...@earthlink.net>=20

<<http://www.cannabis2000.com>http://www.cannabis2000.com

AUSTIN, Texas. Tel: 512-493-7003. (Tracy) <<mmmt...@hotmail.com>

Assemble High noon at Congress Bridge,

March on the Capitol and to Governor's Mansion

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama. LeAnne Owen, 1248 22nd St. S G3, Birmingham,
Al.

35205. Tel: 205-933-6698.

BOSTON, MA, USA Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition Tel:
1-781-944-2266 (Bill Downing)

or epe...@aol.com (Steve Epstein)
<<http://www.masscann.org>http://www.masscann.org

Candlelight Vigil outside the JFK Federal Building, home to the DEA, on
May 5 beginning at 7:30 PM:

and a Planters Picnic at the Arnold Arboretum on May 6.

BURLINGTON, Vt. (Dr. Robert Melamede), J6 Stonehedge Drive, South

Burlington VT 05405 Tel: 802 658-2059 <<rmel...@zoo.uvm.edu>

<<http://www.uvm.edu/~rmelamed/>http://www.uvm.edu/~rmelamed/

CAMDEN, New Jersey. Ed "njweedman" Forchion - The Legalize Marijuana
Party Ph: 609-893-1893

http://www.420times.com/lmp Upcoming NJ Jury Nullification Trial- March
13th http://www.420times.com/lmp/powerto_the_jury.htm

CASSOPOLIS, Mich. TBA

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. TBA

CHICAGO, Ill. Caren 773-935-5446 fax 935-1496 <<cmm...@hotmail.com>

CHICO, California. Tel: (530) 345-5753

CLEVELAND, Ohio. Ph 216-521-9333. (John Hartman)

<<NCN...@aol.com> Assemble High Noon Public Square, rally &
speakers

1:30 PM March on the Justice Center

DENVER Contact: Megan Swisher home phone number

DES MOINES, Iowa. Iowa NORML, Post Office Box 4091, Des Moines, Iowa
50333

(Carl Olsen) Ph 515-262-6957 <<iowa...@home.com>

DETROIT (and Windsor), Mich. Tel: 313-438-1668. APHASIC PRESS

c/o "The HappyhouseChurch" link to THC-ULC:

<<http://www.geocities.com/happy_hempster/pages/mmm.htm>

EUGENE, Oregon. TBA

EUREKA, California. <<B8...@aol.com> or

<<http://www.soulfirst.com>

FLINT, Michigan. TBA

GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan. TBA

HILO, Hawai . Tel: (808) 328-9794 or (808) 956-7008. (Dennis Shields/

Roger Christie) <<paka...@gte.net>

HOUSTON, Texas. (James Partsch-Galvan) <<galv...@hotmail.com>

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. TBA

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Patch @ the Global Peace Cafe 816-931-7876

<<globa...@email.com>

LANSING, Michigan. Contact: Kathy Kennedy Ph 517-628-3915

LOS ANGELES, Ca. Project Hemp is Hep, 824 West 40th Place, Los

Angeles, CA 90037

Ph 323-232-0935 (Sister Somayah) <<hemp...@successnet.net>

LOUISVILLE, Ky. <<g...@hemprock.com> Roland A. Duby Ph 606-342-5954

MADISON, Wisconsin. Tel: 608-257-5456 (Ben Masel).

<<bma...@ministryoftruth.org>

Assemble 1 PM - Miflin Marijuana March from the Capitol farmer's

market thru Mifland to Britingham Park

MAUI, Hawaii. TBA

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota - Contact: Grassroots Party - Chris Wright or

Dale Wilkinson 612-789-5696; High Noon Rally(music & speakers) 1:30

March from Loring Park to Washburn Fair Oaks (where the progenitors

of narcotics prohibition "Dr. Hamilton Wright & Elizabeth Washburn"

were married.)

NOML MN (612)871-8780=20

<<mailto:nor...@normlmn.com>nor...@normlmn.com or Third Stone

(612)825-6120 Terry or Bruce; or David Lach Collins, State Director/

NORML MN (612)871-8780=20

<<mailto:nor...@normlmn.com>nor...@normlmn.com

<<http://www.normlmn.com>www.normlmn.com

NASHVILLE, Tennessee. Contact: Howard Linoff 615-262-4283 -- Music City
TORML / A-HEMP Address: POB 68409, Nashville, TN 37206 email:
<<mis...@weedmail.com>

NEW ORLEANS, La. contact: Ashley "the Fearless" Kennedy (504)

824-1027 <<fearle...@hotmail.com>

NEW YORK, NY. Cures Not Wars, 9 Bleecker, N.Y.C. 10012. USA. Tel:
212-677-7180

(Dana/cnw). Fax: 212-353-1670. Media:
212-677-4899.<<c...@cures-not-wars.org>

<<http://www.cures-not-wars.org/mmm>

Pickets are held 4 pm - Wednesday. Trainings 12 noon - Saturday.

Meetings 6 pm - Sunday.

OKLAHOMA CITY Contact email: DLM74...@cs.com or Bryan

<<bry...@mailexcite.com>

OMAHA, Nebraska. TBA

PORTLAND, Oregon. MMM-PdxNORML. P.O. Box 86694, Portland, Oregon,

USA, 97286-0694. Tel: (503) 777-908-8503/235-4524 (Floyd Landrath)

<<pdxn...@teleport.com> Updates: 503/777-9088=20

<<http://www.PdxNORML.org> Assemble at

Sunnyside Park, SE 34th Ave & Yamhill St, Noon-1pm, March at 1pm.

SANTA BARBARA, California. TBA

SAN FRANCISCO, Ca The Drug Peace Campaign, 190 El Cerrito Plaza, PMB
313,

El Cerrito, CA 94530. Tel: (415) 971-3573=20

<<<<mailto:m...@drugpeace.org>m...@drugpeace.org>

<<http://www.drugpeace.org/mmm>

ST. LOUIS, Mo. Contact: Jeff, 314 995-1395, <<mo-norml.org> Saint

Louis NORML, Box 243, St.Louis MO 63122

SEATTLE, Washington. Hempfest. Tel: 206-781-5734
<<hemp...@hemp.net>

<<http://www.seattlehempfest.com>

Contact: Vivian McPeak <<v...@hemp.net>

www.scn.org/crisis Seattle Peace Heathens, Seattle Hempfest, Seattle

Events Inc.

TAMPA, Fl. - AMERICAN CANNABIS SOCIETY, POB 17162 , Tampa, Fl 33682,

USA. Tel: 727-467-0159 (Melissa Ann) <<melac...@hotmail.com> Or

813-631-8915. (Bob Quail)<<bqua...@aol.com> Or 727-347-6245 or at

forml...@yahoo.com

TRAVERSE CITY, Michigan TBA

TUCSON, Arizona. (Travis Klein) <<Tra...@U.Arizona.EDU>

AUSTRALIA

ADELAIDE. Australia Legaliseit <<lega...@marijuana.com.au> (Mike)

<<http://www.marijuana.com.au/the_wall/messages/23.html>

<<http://www.marijuana.com.au>

<<http://www.marihuana.com.au>

<<http://www.cannabis.com.au>

NIMBIN MMM Contact: Gary J Gray, Web Master for the Nimbin HEMP

Embassy, & the Australian Cannabis Law Reform Movement [actual

address is www.nrg.com.au/~hemp/mardigrass/mardigrass2000.htm].

http://mardigrass.webjump.com reply to rebe...@gasgroup.com

MELBOURNE. Australia. Infofreako 613 9 432 5832

CANADA

GRAND FORKS, British Columbia. Canadian Cannabis Coalition, P.O.Box

1481, Canada V0H 1H0. (Pavel Dimotoff, Director)

<<pdim...@yahoo.co> P.O.Box 2342 Grand Forks, British Columbia,

Canada V0H 1H0

<<http://www.drugsense.org/ccc>

http://www.sunshinecable.com/~gfhc/hemptea.html

MONTREAL Quebec. Bloc-Pot party of Quebec. Tel: 514-528-1POT
(528-1768).

(Marc-Boris St-Maurice) <<Blo...@blocpot.qc.ca> Our mailing adress

in montreal: MMM c-o BLOC-POT P.O. Box 361, station C, Montreal
Quebec,

Canada, H2L 4K3 www.blocpot.qc.ca The event starts at 1 pm at

St-Louis square (carr=E9 St-Louis) at the Sherbrooke subway station

(Sherbrooke metro) RAIN OR SHINE!

<<http://www.blocpot.qc.ca>

TORONTO, Ontario. The Toronto Millennium Marijuana March.

<<toront...@hotmail.com>

<<http://torontomarch.iwarp.com/>

QUEBEC. Tel: 418-336-3159. (Paul Giroux) <<gir...@globetrotter.qc.ca>

VANCOUVER, B.C. Contact: "Cop rodeo clown David Malmo-Levine is

co-ordinating the Vancouver Millennium March. Contribute to the

organizing in the Activists and Activism thread at

www.cannabisculture.com, or contact him privately at

dagreen...@excite.com."

WINDSOR, Ontario. TBA

CARIBBEAN

CASTRIES, ST. LUCIA

Info-TBA

KINGSTON, JAMAICA

Paul Chang pa...@alme.com www.bem.alme.com - P.O. Box 24,

Laughlands, St. Ann (until Feb. 22/00)

Tel: (876) 972-0817 voice; (876) 794-8086 Fax: (876) 794-8087

[in CANADA - P.O. Box 69010, 2 St. Clair Avenue East, Toronto,

Ontario M4T-3A1 (after Feb. 22/00)

Tel: (416) 755-5225; (416) 759-7130 Cell: (416) 318-5940

fax: (416) 755-8049]

EUROPE

AMSTERDAM. Legalize! Event at: International Court of Justice in The
Hague,

the famous Vredespaleis(Peace-Palace).<<ra...@casema.net> The two
Saturdays

following May 6 Legalize! we will have similar demonstrations in two
more Dutch

towns. On May 27th we will stage our yearly (4th!) 'Legalize!

Streetparty against

the Global War on Drugs' in Amsterdam with a number of mobile sound
systems.

We will also do our normal parade across the Amsterdam centre of town!

<<http://www.legalise.org>

BARCELONA, Spain. ARSEC - Asociacion Ramon Santos de Estudios Sobre

El Cannabis Placa Sant Josep Oriol, 4, 08002 - Barcelona, Spain.

email: <<ar...@pangea.org> http://www.pangea.org/org/arsec

BERLIN, Germany HANFPARADE (Hemp-parade) bureau. Tel:
0049-30-24720233.

(Martin Muncheberg: 0049-30-29 49 02 01 - every working day from

noon to 8 p.m.)

fax: 0049-30-24720234. <<mar...@africandance.de> Hemp Museum: Tel:

0049-30-2424827. http://www.hanflobby.de/hanfparade

BRUSSELS, Belguim. Mastah <<y...@notme.com>

FRANKENTHAL MMM-Rally through the city in the afternoon (time t.b.a.)

on Feb., 6th special topic: the many uses of medical marijuana after

the rally will be a open air concert of some local pro-hemp-bands c/o

Helmut Holzheimer <<mov...@gmx.de>

HAMBURG: MMM-Day at the "Kulturhaus Eppendorf" w. discussion forum

and hempy video shows (time t.b.a.) c/o Tom Rocker:

<<kulurha...@t-online.de> and Martina: <<Han...@karo4tel.de>

LISBON, Portugal. TBA

LONDON, UK. International Cannabis Coalition (UK), PO Box 2243 , London
W1A

1YF, UK. Tel: 0171-637-7467. (Chris Sanders) Fax: 0870 054 8646.

<<may...@schmoo.co.uk>

<<http:www.schmoo.co.uk/may2000.htm>

A 'End the Cannabis Prohibition March' leading to a one day 'Cannabis

Carnival' followed by an all night indoor 'Cannabis Party' is planned.
The

march assembles 1pm, Kennington Park, London.

LYONS, FRANCE. Nous proffitons de ce mail pour rappeler, et/ou

annoncer qu'un des objectifs du Calumet de la Paix est de re-creer

une coalition entre association et mouvemments Europ=E9ens.

Un semblant de site est disponible pour plus de renseignements:

<<http://www.multimania.com/lecalumet/index.html>

<<http://www.ifrance.com/lecalumet/index.html>

Il est en construction, mais donnera les

<<http://www.multimania.com/lecalumet/pourquoi.html>status et les

motivations du Calumet. * CIRC Pro :

<<mailto:cir...@club-internet.fr>cir...@club-internet.fr * Le

Calumet de la Paix:

<<mailto:le-calume...@voila.fr>le-calume...@voila.fr *

* Ligne Blanche: <<mailto:lbla...@cybercable.fr>lbla...@cybercable.fr
*

MADRID, Spain. Madrid Association for Cannabis Studies.Tel/Fax (call

first): 91

530 33 64. <<am...@ctv.es>

OSLO, Norway. contact: freddie <<freddi...@c2i.net>

http://home.c2i.net/freddiefreak/go.htm NORM(A)L Norway. Tel: 47 90

54 17 80. <<email...@aol.com> <<http://fly.to/inn>

PARIS, France. Personal address : GHEHIOUECHE FARId 5, rue de
Tombouctou 75018

PARIS - FRANCE. Phone : 01.42.51.50.85 ( not after 22 PM, paris hour)
Mobile

: 06.14.81.56.79. Fax : 01.40.38.01.92

PRAGUE, CZ Tel: +420-603-872631, +420-2-33355668, +420-603-228948
(Michail

Polack) <<sokr...@arachne.cz>

TEL AVIV, Israel. TBA

VIENNA/Austria Michi: <<rasta...@yahoo.com>

AFRICA

JOHANNESBURG: TBA

NEW ZEALAND

AUCKLAND. Albert Park, Auckland City. National Organisation for the
Reform

of Marijuana Laws in New Zealand, 60 Queen Street, Auckland, New
Zealand.

Mail: PO Box 3307, Shortland St, Auckland 1015. Ph +64 9 302-5255.

fax +64 9 303-1309

<<hemp...@ihug.co.nz><<http://www.norml.org.nz>

WELLINGTON TBA

SOUTH AMERICA

BELO HORIZONTE contact: Paulo Henrique de Matos Almeida address

Afonso Abreu & Silva 72, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais - Brazil zip
30870-110

RIO, Brazil. TBA

SAO PAULO, Brazil. TBA

______________________________________________________________________

___________________

Cannabis cities e mail list (extracted from above)

hemp...@successnet.net,

g...@hemprock.com,

bma...@ministryoftruth.org,

Chris Wright <<T...@genesis-computer.com>

<<mis...@weedmail.com>

c...@cures-not-wars.org,<<fearle...@hotmail.com>

pdxn...@teleport.com,

m...@drugpeace.org,

<<mo-norml.org>

hemp...@hemp.net,

melac...@hotmail.com,

Tra...@U.Arizona.EDU,

<<lega...@marijuana.com.au>

rebe...@gasgroup.com

pdim...@yahoo.com,

pcor...@earthlink.net,

Blo...@blocpot.qc.ca,

<<toront...@hotmail.com>

gir...@globetrotter.qc.ca,

pa...@alme.com

ra...@casema.net,

<<ar...@pangea.org>

mar...@africandance.de,

y...@notme.com,

<<mov...@gmx.de>

<<kulurha...@t-online.de>

<<Han...@karo4tel.de>

may...@schmoo.co.uk,

cir...@club-internet.fr

<<rasta...@yahoo.com>

hemp...@ihug.co.nz,

lega...@marijuana.com.au,

--============_-1259841035==_ma============--

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

Date: Sun, 05 Mar 2000 14:33:56 -0800
From: "D. Paul Stanford" <stan...@crrh.org>
To: res...@crrh.org
Subject: OR: Locally, pot growers flourish -- in secret
Message-ID: <4.2.0.58.2000030...@mail.olywa.net>

Medford Mail Tribune
Locally, pot growers flourish -- in secret
Sunday, March 5, 2000

By Paul Fattig of the Mail Tribune

GRANTS PASS -- The massive marijuana gardens once found in Southern
Oregon
have disappeared, but that doesn't mean the illegal weed is no longer
being
planted in local national forests.

"The problems have definitely not gone away," said Mark Tarantino. "If
anything, we've seen a little bit of a resurgence."

That resurgence has taken root in the form of smaller plots of
heavier-producing plants, said Tarantino, the Forest Service's top law
enforcement officer for the Rogue River, Siskiyou and Umpqua national
forests.

Gone are the plantations with thousands of pot plants once found on
local
forests, he said.

"The trend here has been for growers to go to smaller sites," he said.
"Smaller plant clusters are more difficult to detect from the air. The
growers have spread their plants out to compensate for not having large
plantations."

Tarantino knows of what he speaks, having been a pot hunter for Uncle
Sam,
in conjunction with his other law enforcement duties, on the national
forests since 1983.

The initial plantings begin as early as March, sometimes as late as
June,
with harvest following 90 to 120 days afterward, he said.

Last year, because of unusually mild fall weather, the marijuana growing

season continued into late November, he said.

"The emphasis now is on the quality, not the quantity," he said of pot
plantations in the region. "It's sad but true that growers have learned
a
lot about growing pot. Most plants are produced by clones. The plant
quality is up. These growers are very, very good at what they do. They
often bring soil and fertilizer to the sites.

"Coupled with that, we have ideal growing conditions," he added. "The
key
is the value. The quality of marijuana produced in the Northwest is
very,
very good."

With an average 2,000 plants seized annually in the local forests and an

average mature plant producing at least two pounds of dried dope, which
sells on the street for $3,000 to $5,000 a pound, the average seized
harvest would be worth some $12 to $20 million, according to Forest
Service
estimates.

"These are plants that are manicured and cared for," Tarantino said. "We

don't get it all but it's always in the several thousand plant range.

"And those lesser numbers are yielding a tremendous value," he added.

Like pot growers in Southern California, those in Southern Oregon cause
environmental damage, often trashing the area as well as poisoning
animals
to keep them away from their plantations, officials say.

And, like his counterparts in California, Tarantino has only a limited
staff to battle the stealthy pot growers.

He and his nine officers are spread thin throughout the forests.
However,
they are backed by forest deputies contracted from sheriff's departments
in
Jackson, Josephine, Coos, Curry and Douglas counties.

The agency also works closely with Bureau of Land Management officials.

In addition, the Forest Service sometimes relies on the Oregon Army
National Guard to help in its hunt for marijuana plants scattered in the

forests.

"We use the military component as needed and available," he said,
adding,
"We're always actively looking for resources in this fight."

The agency also gets help from the public, he said, noting that many
forest
users often tip officials when they see what appears to be illegal
activity.

"They are our best eyes and ears," he said, although adding that the
public
should never investigate a potential marijuana site because of the
potential danger.

Assistance comes periodically from Mother Nature.

"When we had the Silver Fire (in 1987), that burned up a lot of dope,"
he
said of the fire that burned some 100,000 acres in the Siskiyou forest.

While the size of the plantations have changed in the local forests,
it's
more difficult to accurately describe an "average" grower, Tarantino
said.

"We get all range of ages, from juveniles to people over 60 years old,"
he
said, although noting that some are repeat offenders. "But there are
some
first-timers, too," he added.

But booby traps, sometimes found in pot gardens of the past, are now
largely unknown locally, he said.

"We haven't seen any significant booby trap activity in the last few
years," he said. "I think the issue there is that federal penalties for
booby traps are so severe. They know it's just not a wise thing for them
to
do."

The illegal growers have also grown wise to the ways of law enforcement
officers.

"When we didn't have as active an aerial program to look for the plants,
I
noticed that bigger sites were coming back," he said. "But that quickly
seemed to vanish, with a few exceptions, when we became more active in
the
aerial program again."

Growers have become stealthier about where they put individual plants,
he said.

"They are often very well concealed from above," he said. "A lot of them

(plantations) are remote. But those that are close to a transportation
source like a road may be covered with brush. We're seeing a tremendous
variety of methods used to conceal them.

"We used to just look on a south slope by a water source," he added.
"Now
we find dope at higher elevations. It's just not always consistent where

you find them like it used to be."

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

End of restore V1 #424
**********************
*
------
CRRH's Oregon petition now has over 36,000 signatures and needs 66,786
valid voters' signatures by July 7th to qualify for a Nov. 7, 2000 vote.

------
To subscribe, unsubscribe or switch to immediate or digest mode, please
send your instructions to <restor...@crrh.org>.
------
*Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp*
CRRH ; P.O. Box 86741 ; Portland, OR 97286
Phone:(503) 235-4606 Fax:(503) 235-0120 Web: http://www.crrh.org/

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