The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue #257

[DRCNet]

The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue #257 - October 4, 2002
A Publication of the Drug Reform Coordination Network

"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"

Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psm...@drcnet.org
David Borden, Executive Director, bor...@drcnet.org

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This issue on the web: http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. DEA to California Medical Marijuana Patients: Drop Dead
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#calmedmj

2. Federal Parole Bill Orphaned with Death of Sole Sponsor --
Activists, Prisoners Look to Other Bills, Other Sponsors
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#patsymink

3. Canadian Government Announces Parliament to Consider Marijuana
Decriminalization -- US Worries, Blusters
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#parliament

4. Widely Hyped Ecstasy Study Full of Holes, Critics Say
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#fullofholes

5. In Brazil, "Parallel Power" of the Narcos Flexes Muscle on Eve
of Elections
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#parallelpower

6. Montana Drug Policy Task Force Calls for More Treatment and
Prevention, War on Meth
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#montanataskforce

7. The November Coalition Hits the Road: Journey for Justice
Aims to Mobilize Support for Freeing Drug War Prisoners
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#journeyforjustice

8. Newsbrief: Peruvian Coca on Rise as Country Revamps Coca
Eradication Effort
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#peruviancoca

9. Uribe Wants to Recriminalize Drug Possession in Colombia
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#recriminalization

10. Newsbrief: California Governor Vetoes Bill Allowing Syringe
Sales, Vetoed Industrial Hemp Study Earlier
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#graydavis

11. Newsbrief: California Town to Pay $3 Million, Apologize for
Drug Raid Death
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#mariopaz

12. Newsbrief: And the Killing Continues
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#itcontinues

13. Newsbrief: Nevada -- The Survey Says... Legalize It!
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#nevada

14. Newsbrief: University of Missouri SSDP, NORML in Marijuana
Decriminalization Petition Drive
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#umissouri

15. Newsbrief: US Explores Drugging Rioters
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#druggingrioters

16. Newsbrief: Drug Warrior Maginnis Leaves Family Research
Council
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#maginnis

17. Newsbrief: DPA Campaign Provides Tools to Fight School Drug
Testing
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#drugtestingfails

18. Calling on Students to Raise Your Voices for Repeal of the HEA
Drug Provision
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#studentcampaign

19. Do You Read The Week Online?
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#doyouread

20. Action Alerts: Rave Bill, Medical Marijuana, Higher Education
Act Drug Provision
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#actionalerts

21. The Reformer's Calendar
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#eventcalendar

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

1. DEA to California Medical Marijuana Patients: Drop Dead
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#calmedmj

In the wake of the DEA raid on the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical
Marijuana (WAMM) dispensary in Santa Cruz a month ago, California
Attorney General Bill Lockyer bestirred himself long enough to
dash off a letter to DEA administrator Asa Hutchinson and his
boss, US Attorney General John Ashcroft, asking the feds to please
butt out. The letter, which also went to all US Attorneys in
California and the three DEA offices in the state, called the
raids "wasteful, unwise and surprisingly insensitive," since
California law allows the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

The WAMM raid, Lockyer wrote, called into question the federal-
state partnership to fight drug trafficking. "The apparent
decision by the DEA to put any kind of priority on such raids
demonstrates a lack of good judgment and seriously threatens to
wreck the historic productive partnership of the DEA and
California's state and local law enforcement, undermining our
efforts to fight dangerous drugs and the major narco-terrorist
organizations that manufacture and distribute them," Lockyer told
the feds.

Lockyer asked for a meeting with federal officials to discuss the
problem. He hasn't gotten a meeting, but he has now received a
response from Hutchinson, and neither Lockyer nor the state's
medical marijuana community will be pleased. The DEA will
continue to raid marijuana operations, Hutchinson said, and will
refuse to recognize any distinction between recreational and
medical marijuana. "As long as marijuana remains a Schedule I
controlled substance, (the Drug Enforcement Administration) will
continue its enforcement efforts targeting groups and individuals
involved in its distribution," Hutchinson wrote in a September 30
letter to Lockyer.

Hutchinson also repeated the agency's dogmatic denial that such a
thing as medical marijuana even exists. "Your repeated references
to 'medical' or 'medicinal' marijuana illustrate a common
misperception that marijuana is safe and effective medicine,"
Hutchinson wrote. "The scientific community has never determined
this to be the case."

Hutchinson added that the DEA is "obliged by law" to seize
marijuana even if no prosecution results, as is apparently the
case with WAMM and with San Diego cultivator Steve McWilliams,
whose garden was seized last week with no charges filed. He also
contended that California's medical marijuana law is being "abused
to facilitate traditional illegal marijuana trafficking and
associated crime."

But medical marijuana advocates pointed out that many patients
grow for themselves with no money or drugs changing hands and that
some dispensaries, including WAMM, accepted no payment for
providing medicine. Lockyer spokesperson Hallye Jordan told the
San Diego Union Tribune Lockyer's office was still reviewing the
letter but was pleased to get a response, no matter what the
content. "The lines of communication are open," she said. "At
least we're talking."

That may be good enough for Lockyer, but it's not good enough for
the state's large and increasingly angry medical marijuana
community. The stage appears to be set for a messy confrontation
pitting the federal government against the state government, the
federal government against the medical marijuana movement, and the
medical marijuana movement against the state government, at least
to the degree it refuses to protect the state's estimated 30,000
medical marijuana users.

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

2. Federal Parole Bill Orphaned with Death of Sole Sponsor --
Activists, Prisoners Look to Other Bills, Other Sponsors
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#patsymink

It's been a rough week for drug war prisoners and their advocates.
Just as prisoners were beginning to get excited about Rep. Patsy
Mink's bill to reinstate parole in the federal system, the 74-year
old Hawaii Democrat succumbed to complications from the chicken
pox in Honolulu on Saturday.

"This is terribly sad news, and so sudden," said Monica Pratt,
director of legal affairs for Families Against Mandatory Minimums
(http://www.famm.org). "We applaud Patsy Mink for what she did.
She showed leadership on an issue that is important but not
popular, and that is courageous," Pratt told DRCNet.

"Patsy Mink believed in social justice and that bill was her swan
song," said the November Coalition's (http://www.november.org)
Nora Callahan. "The prisoners are disappointed, naturally, but
there is hope in the prisons that her fellow compassionate
Democrats will step up. Any representative who recognizes the
injustice of the drug war can honor Patsy Mink's bravery and
memory by cosponsoring her bill," she told DRCNet.

But they will need to fix it first, said Pratt. In an indication
of the complexity of writing sentencing legislation, jailhouse
lawyers, activists and Mink's staff have been wrestling over
whether the Mink bill as written would or would not actually have
an impact on the thousands of prisoners serving mandatory minimum
drug sentences and whether it would be retroactive.

"Our reading of the bill is that it would not be retroactive and
would not apply to anyone sentenced under the mandatory minimums,"
said Pratt. "Mink intended for it to be retroactive and to affect
those with mandatory minimum sentences, but there were technical
errors in drafting the bill. We were talking to folks in Minks'
office about improving the bill, and FAMM will do our part to make
a new version the best bill it can be so it impacts the most
people," she said.

The November Coalition's Callahan wasn't so sure the bill was
flawed, but said, "if it isn't retroactive, then let's fix it.
Bills are improved all the time." Callahan said that the
Coalition had faxed some suggestions to Mink's office before the
veteran legislator died. While Mink's bill was the most striking
attack on the gluttonous growth of the federal gulag, it is not
the only bill pending that addresses sentencing reform:

* H.R. 1978, the Major Drug Trafficking Prosecution Act of 2001,
sponsored by Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) with 44 cosponsors, would
eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for simple possession,
distribution, manufacture or importation of drugs. The Waters
bill would also require the Attorney General's approval for
federal prosecutors to take any drug case.

* H.R. 697, the Crack-Cocaine Equitable Sentencing Act of 2001,
sponsored by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) with three cosponsors,
would eliminate some mandatory minimum sentences for crack cocaine
offenses.

* H.R. 765, the Safety Valve Fairness Act of 2001, sponsored by
Rep. Albert Wynn (D-MD) with 23 cosponsors, would make the 1994
safety valve law retroactive. Under this bill, the courts could
apply sentencing guidelines instead of mandatory sentences to drug
offenders who meet specified criteria.

* S.B. 1874, the Drug Sentencing Reform Act of 2001, sponsored by
Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL), would amend the
Controlled Substances Act to decrease the amount of powder cocaine
and increase the amount of crack cocaine necessary to trigger
mandatory minimum sentences. The bill would also limit sentences
for minor players and would establish a pilot program of home
detention for certain elderly prisoners.

Both FAMM and the November Coalition criticized the Sessions-Hatch
bill for addressing the crack-powder sentencing disparity by
increasing powder cocaine penalties. "FAMM doesn't support and
can't support the bill because of the way it tinkers with the
sentencing ratios," said Pratt, "but there are some good
provisions that would address some of those outrageous conspiracy
cases we see where girlfriends with minimal involvement get longer
sentences than major players. And the fact that two Republican
senators introduced the bill is important; they've had a change of
heart on mandatory minimums."

November's Callahan wasn't so charitable. "This bill is simply
two drug warriors crying about injustice and doing nothing to stop
it," she said. "According to the Sentencing Commission, this bill
would have provided relief to only 67 prisoners sentenced on crack
charges in the last three years."

The November Coalition also has reservations about the Waters
bill, Callahan said. "It is not retroactive and wouldn't help
anyone already sitting in prison," she said. "And while it is
good that it eliminates mandatory minimum sentences except for
'kingpins,' we believe that kingpins are made in the courtroom,
not on the street. As long as there is a flourishing black market
in banned substances, people will deal in those substances, and as
long as a person can take the stand and incriminate others in
exchange for his own freedom, petty drug dealers will magically
turn into kingpins in the courtroom."

The Rangel bill has the support of both FAMM and the November
Coalition, but has been introduced in three consecutive sessions
and gone nowhere, Pratt said. And all of the bills will die at
session's end. Still, said Pratt, they can be revived next year.
"It is very important for people who support these bills to write
their representatives now and let them know the support for reform
is out there. Lawmakers tell us that just 25 letters from
constituents is enough to make a difference," she said.

It is tough and depressing work, said Pratt, even for lawmakers.
"When we have legislators sticking their necks out, we need to
support and encourage them. Even Maxine Waters gets discouraged
sometimes; she feels like she can't even get support from the
constituencies that would benefit the most from her bill. We have
to do a better job of letting these folks know we stand behind
them. We have to be more strategic in our support of
legislation."

Pratt counseled patience and fortitude. "I'm afraid I don't think
the laws are going to change that quickly," she said. "Even
though mandatory minimums are an issue of fundamental fairness, we
still have a lot of work to do in educating the public. People
should not lose hope, but they also need to get serious, because
change won't happen without their help. People need to take their
outrage and turn it into something productive. Our movement has
not been effective enough in harnessing this outrage and anger in
a way that actually affects the political process," she said.

"The sad thing is that for people working on these issues, in FAMM
and in November, the people doing time in prison, the families
doing time with them, it just seems impossible sometimes," Pratt
continued. "These are dark times, but we have to keep working for
a more positive future. And if you look at the history of the US,
every social movement for change relied on the people to actually
make the difference. We have to rally our people to get out and
go to work to make the decision-makers get off their butts," she
said.

The November Coalition's Callahan plans to kick some butt herself,
she said, adding that the coalition's petition to end drug war
injustice is becoming an organizing tool that is drawing in new
blood and energizing existing members. The petition, which is not
linked to any particular piece of legislation and which asks for
some form of early release for drug war prisoners, is designed to
show Congress that public support for sentencing reform exists and
is growing, she said.

"Our petition will unite an entire federal prison population
constituency," Callahan explained. "When you look inside the
prisons, you see many people who are redeemable, most of whom are
also nonviolent. For them to have no hope of earning early
release is inhumane. We have one woman, a physician, sitting in a
federal prison camp for seven years while her husband sits at home
alone trying to raise three children. How dangerous is she?
Well, there are no walls around her prison, yet we're keeping her
family and thousands of others divided for no good reason. What's
the sense in that?

[Ed: DRCNet is saddened by the untimely passing of Rep. Mink.
Mrs. Mink spoke at our HEA reform press conference last May,
sounding strong on the need to fully repeal the HEA drug
provision, and as a prominent member of the House Education and
the Workforce Committee was a key supporter of that effort. Her
work helped advance many drug and justice reform causes, and she
will be missed.]

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

3. Canadian Government Announces Parliament to Consider Marijuana
Decriminalization -- US Worries, Blusters
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#parliament

Canada's governing Liberal Party announced Monday that it will
consider decriminalizing the possession of marijuana. The move
fell short of a recent Senate select committee report recommending
outright legalization and regulation of Canada's multi-billion
dollar pot trade, but was still enough to elicit grunted warnings
from US drug warriors.

Representing Prime Minister Jean Chretien, Adrienne Clarkson used
the occasion of the Throne Speech, where the government lays out
its annual agenda, to tell a packed Senate chamber that a new
government drug strategy will emphasize treatment, but will also
move on the marijuana issue. "The government will expand the
number of drug treatment courts," Clarkson told the assembled
lawmakers. "It will act on the results of parliamentary
consultations with Canadians on options for change in our drug
laws, including the possibility of the decriminalization of
marijuana possession."

The mention of marijuana law reform in the Throne Speech was
remarkably tentative -- mentioning only the "possibility" of
decrim -- and is certain to please few, but signals that the
Liberals may be ready to decriminalize. Justice Minister Maurice
Cauchon had called for decrim weeks before being upstaged by the
Senate committee call for outright legalization, but was vague
when questioned after the Throne Speech. "We'll see," he told the
Toronto Globe & Mail. "It's going to be part of an overall
position from the government."

The Canadian government is certain to face renewed opposition from
the US government and from groups such as the Canadian Police
Association if it indeed moves to decriminalize. But neither have
they pleased Canadian marijuana advocates and drug policy
reformers. Like the British government of Tony Blair, the
Chretien government may be headed for a middle-of-the-road policy
where users could escape with citations, but their suppliers would
remain criminalized. According to recent polls, almost half of
Canadians support outright legalization, while as many as seven
out of ten support decriminalization.

"The decriminalization scheme is not satisfying to anyone in the
marijuana movement in Canada," said Vancouver marijuana seed maven
Marc Emery. "Even the mayor of my city has called for full
legalization. Still, it's a sign the world is changing," he told
DRCNet.

Eugene Oscapella of the Canadian Drug Policy Foundation
(http://www.cdpf.ca) was similarly less than overwhelmed. "Our
position is that it should not be a criminal offense for an adult
to possess, produce, or transport small quantities of cannabis, or
any other drug, for that matter. Larger amounts should be
regulated, with age limits," he told DRCNet. "This doesn't go as
far as we would like to see it go," he said. "Many people in the
reform community here agree that decriminalization addresses only
one small issue -- the issue of criminal records for possession.
All of the police powers associated with the enforcement of
marijuana prohibition would remain. The only real advance would
be the lack of the criminal penalty," he said.

Without question, decriminalization would have an impact. Roughly
25,000 Canadians are arrested for marijuana possession each year,
accounting for almost half of all drug arrests. While actual
penalties vary widely depending on location, pot users face a
criminal record, a $700 fine and up to six months in jail.

"Knowing the impediments that a criminal record can cause, the
lack of a criminal penalty would be an advance," said Oscapella,
"but will that become an excuse for not doing anything else?"

That's a question that also concerns Emery, who mixes marijuana
entrepreneurship with activism as founder and president of the
British Colombia Marijuana Party (http://www.bcmarijuanaparty.ca).
"We've been lobbying to amend the law to allow the growing of up
to ten plants, he said. "I had a three-hour lunch the other day
with the vice chair of the House committee examining the drug
laws, and I hope the committee will go further than this decrim in
its report." That report is due in November.

The Bush administration isn't waiting until then to weigh in
against any liberalization of Canada's marijuana laws. "We
recognize Canada's sovereignty, but caution the Canadian people
not to fall for the same myths about marijuana that far too many
Americans have fallen for," US drug czar John Walters said in
statement delivered Tuesday to the Globe & Mail. "We have learned
through hard experience that marijuana is a dangerous drug with
serious public health and social consequences, and I hope the
Canadian government does not head down the risky path of
decriminalization or legalization."

While Walters played good cop, Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN), chairman
of the US House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and
Human Resources, played bad cop, threatening Canada with border
hassles if it moved to liberalize the marijuana laws. "Obviously
Canada can do whatever it wants with its laws," Souder told the
Globe & Mail. "But to the degree there's less harmonization with
our laws, it means that the border traffic is going to slow down.
"If there's a higher risk of illegal drugs moving, because
decriminalization functions as de facto legalization... we're not
going to sit idly by and not check."

"Thank you for your interest, Mr. Drug Czar," replied Oscapella,
"but most Canadians would say let us make our own mistakes.
Canadians don't like being pushed around. We are economically
vulnerable and we can't always challenge the US, but we do get our
backs up a bit when pushed. Don't misunderstand," he continued,
"our quarrel is not with the people of the US, who very much like
us realize how futile and destructive this drug war is. Our
quarrel is with the US administration."

"Comments like those from your drug czar only create resentment
toward the US," added Emery. "Every time the drug czar threatens
to tighten the border, that means he's fucking with us, and that
gives more people the courage to oppose him because they resent
the interference. But we have to consider the US position. I
tell the Senate and Commons committees that if we move forward
here, that will likely help lead to change in the US."

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

4. Widely Hyped Ecstasy Study Full of Holes, Critics Say
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#fullofholes

special to DRCNet by John Calvin Jones

(Jones is a PhD candidate writing his dissertation on US and Dutch
drug policy at Panamerican University in Edinburg, TX.)

In 1974, a Tulane University researcher, Dr. Robert Heath,
declared that marijuana was dangerous, caused brain damage and
even death -- when taken in standard doses. Heath's evidence was
from autopsies of monkeys that he "exposed" to marijuana. Heath
had placed gas masks on the creatures and pumped the equivalent of
63 joints into their lungs in five minutes. Of course the monkeys
had brain damage -- it was due to oxygen deprivation and carbon
monoxide poisoning.

Thirty years later "science" is at it again. The September 27
issue of Science presented an ecstasy study headed by John's
Hopkins' neurologist Dr. George Ricaurte, in which the authors
claim that ecstasy causes brain damage, leads to Parkinson's and
can kill -- when taken in standard doses. Again the evidence was
found in 10 dead primates, two that died from the ecstasy alone.

While the study is earning well-deserved criticism on
methodological grounds (see below), it also smells of politics.
The National Institutes of Health funded Ricaurte's study -- a
proposal that sought to explain why ecstasy is a bad drug. Alan
Leshner, the former chief at NIDA, now heads the American
Association of the Advancement of Science, which publishes
Science. So what looks like a scholarly study, published by a
group of disinterested scientists, turns out to be a PR piece
written and promoted by politically astute PhDs with a financial
interest in touting pro-drug war messages.

Ricaurte's team planned to inject five squirrel monkeys and five
baboons with three doses of ecstasy, 2mg/kg body weight, at three-
hour intervals, for a total of 6mg/kg in six hours. The dose,
6mg/kg, is supposedly typical. "Partygoers... consume multiple
doses [of MDMA] during the night," said Ricaurte and company,
citing Erica Weir for this fact. In truth, the cited article made
no mention of how much MDMA ravers consume in one night. Dr.
Weir's only reference to ecstasy use was that European data (n=69)
found that up to 57% of the pills sold as ecstasy contained no
MDMA, and pills with MDMA had anywhere from 2-150mg.

Ricaurte and colleagues could have used American data to make
dosage estimates. In three million pills seized by the DEA in
1999, the ecstasy content was about 90mg per pill. Although, as
groups like the club scene hard reduction outfit DanceSafe
(http://www.dancesafe.org) and Australian pharmacologist Rod
Irvine have shown, there is no way to know how much MDMA people
take in one night, using the DEA sample one might assume that
average ecstasy dose about 1-1.5mg/kg. Regardless Ricaurte chose
three doses at 2mg/kg for the "typical dose." To justify the
6mg/kg further, Ricaurte et al. added that such was less than the
amount typically taken by humans. Of course the authors had no
way to know that.

So the animals were injected. What were the results of the heavy
and repeated doses? The first set of five monkeys were all given
the first two injections, then four got a third. One of the four
died and the fifth "became less mobile and had an unstable
tentative gait after the second dose," and was not given a third
injection. For the five baboons, it was worse as one "baboon
appeared unstable after the second dose," and one died after only
two injections.

Of the initial survivors, the four monkeys and four baboons were
killed two and eight weeks later for autopsy. Ricaurte's team
found that MDMA-exposed animals had "lasting reductions" in
serotonin levels and damaged dopamine synapses. They concluded
that MDMA caused motor dysfunction, could lead to Parkinson's or
kill.

A number of neurologists and researchers took issue with the
Science piece. Critics challenged the MDMA-Parkinson's link, and
claims that typical human self-administration of ecstasy causes
permanent brain damage or death.

The nonprofit research and advocacy group Multidisciplinary
Association for Psychedelic Studies" (MAPS--http://www.maps.org)
obtained reaction to the Science article from neurologists in the
US and abroad. Robert Meadowcroft of the UK's Parkinson's Disease
Society told New Scientist that despite the significant rise in
MDMA use, "there is no evidence early-onset Parkinson's disease is
on the increase or that MDMA users [show] Parkinson's symptoms."
"If [ecstasy], used in large quantities, were responsible for the
young-onset of Parkinson's disease, we might have expected to see
some early evidence of this," Adrian Williams, a neurologist at
the University of Birmingham, UK, told MAPS.

MAPS added that the scientific integrity of the paper was so bad
that Ricaurte failed to cite his own previous studies that found
long-term MDMA users showed no sign of lower dopamine production.
As well, when interviewed by Time magazine in 2000, Ricaurte said
that "the vast majority of people who have experimented with MDMA
appear normal, and there's no obvious indication that something is
amiss."

By far the study was condemned most strongly because of the high
death rate, 20%, in the test subjects. Death rates this high tell
us that ravers and others commonly take much lower doses.
Research from England, Australia and the US shows that MDMA
fatalities are exceptionally rare. Many supposed ecstasy deaths
are, as Time reported, from kids taking mega-doses of
dextromethorphan (DXM) or paramethoxyamphetamine (PMA).

We all know that no drug is "perfectly safe." You can wreck your
liver on Tylenol. Too much aspirin causes gastrointestinal
bleeding. Too much lithium damages the thyroid. Marijuana aside,
too much of any substance, be it water, gasoline, alcohol or
uranium, will damage tissues and cause death. It matters how much
you take - the difference between a poison and a cure is the dose.
And thanks to prohibition, no one from the raver to the scientist
to the parent can know what is in a dose of ecstasy.

Like he used to do at NIDA, once again Leshner has failed to
condemn more problematic and destructive recreational substances,
tobacco and alcohol. To Leshner, Ricaurte and other agents of the
drug war, we should recite the words of President Bush, "fool me
once, shame... shame on you. And you're not gonna fool me again."

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

5. In Brazil, "Parallel Power" of the Narcos Flexes Muscle on Eve
of Elections
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#parallelpower

When the social pathologies generated by prohibition and the black
market drug trade intersect with the social pathologies of mass
poverty, bizarre social phenomena can occur. Mix in an election on
Sunday where a charismatic left populist leader loathed by the US
government is poised to take control of South America's largest
country, and things start getting downright weird.

It's happening in Brazil right now. Brazil is riding a wave of
cocaine consumption, according to press and official accounts.
The US State Department estimates that Brazil is now second only
to the US in cocaine consumption, with Brazilians now snorting or
smoking more of the drug than Germany or France. And consumption
has been democratized: Where once powder cocaine was the fun drug
of Rio's and Sao Paolo's jet set, now drug sellers market crack in
the favelas of Sao Paolo and $1.50 lines of powder coke heavily
cut with aspirin or caffeine. And while consumption per capita
remains well below that of the US, the UN estimated that nearly a
million Brazilians -- 0.7% of the population -- are coke users.

And drug trafficking groups grown rich off the trade have
organized into various "commands" that are effectively governing
many of the vast favelas, or slums, of Rio de Janeiro and Sao
Paolo, the mega-cities where nearly one out of five of Brazil's
170 million inhabitants reside. The phenomenon is so widespread
that the traffickers have become known as the Parallel Power,
competing with -- perhaps defeating -- the power of the state to
govern the lives of millions. Or perhaps that's a bit unfair:
The Brazilian state has never really tried to govern or even
provide basic services to the favelas, which originated as
squatter communities, effectively ceding their control to whoever
stepped in to fill the vacuum.

The Parallel Power has been flexing its muscle of late, murdering
a popular investigative reporter, instigating bloody riots in
Brazil's swollen prisons, and recently engaging in internecine
warfare with murderous shoot-outs in the streets of Rio and Sao
Paolo. This week, the Parallel Power called for a general strike
in Rio and pulled it off, with schools and businesses across the
city closing their doors on Monday. Even the world-famous luxury
zones of Ipanema and Copacabana were affected, according to press
reports.

The question of the day is why. The few US press reports on the
rather astonishing power play by the traffickers emphasized the
theory that the strike was an effort by imprisoned Red Command
leader Fernando da Costa (known as Fernandinho Beira-Mar or
"Seaside Freddy") to improve his prison conditions. Da Costa, who
was arrested in Colombia while apparently dealing with the FARC,
has been accused of orchestrating the recent wave of prison and
street violence from his cell.

But the strike takes on a decidedly darker cast in non-US
accounts. Argentine investigative journalist Stella Calloni,
writing for the Mexico City newspaper La Jornada, reported that
Rio "lived a day of terror when the narcos ordered a massive
closing of businesses and many schools in an evident effort to
terrorize voters just as polls showed the rise of Benedita da
Silva," a left-wing candidate for the governorship of Rio. Da
Silva had angered the traffickers by attempting to combat them,
Calloni wrote.

Calloni also noted that some Brazilians analysts thought this
"conspiracy of narcos" was linked to "political groups with
'external' links," an apparent reference to a possible US role in
destabilizing the country in order to prevent the election of
Ignacio Da Silva, known universally as Lula, as president. Lula,
a former union leader, heads the Workers Party and opposes the US
on economic issues and the war in Colombia. He is so far ahead of
the divided opposition that the main question in Sunday's election
is whether he will the 50% plus one of all votes cast, enabling
him to avoid a runoff election.

Whether or not the move by the Parallel Power was aimed at Lula
and fellow Workers Party candidate Da Silva in Rio, the notion
that the strike had political motives was not the exclusive domain
of left-leaning journalists. Reuters reported on Tuesday that the
state of Rio de Janeiro had requested federal troops to ensure
safe voting. "State officials said gangs had threatened to lead
an uprising in Rio to keep slum-dwellers from reaching the ballot
box," the news agency reported.

Some Brazilians wonder who is the power behind the Parallel Power.
The lines between politics and criminality have recently been
blurred as Brazilians ponder the results of an 18-month
congressional investigation into the drug trade. That
investigation tied more than 800 prominent political, law
enforcement and commercial figures to the drug trade, including
two congressmen, 15 state legislators, four mayors, six bank
directors and hundreds of police officers and judges.

In a just published article in the NACLA Report on the Americas
special issue on the drug economies of Latin America
(http://www.nacla.org/issue_disp.php -- full disclosure: This
issue also contains work by your writer and DRCNet executive
director Dave Borden), researcher Rob Neuwirth interviewed a
veteran Rio police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"Our country is dominated by the drug traffic. Our federal
government, our state governments, everything is dominated by the
traffic. It may sound like theater to you, but it's true," said
the policeman. "When we go to favelas and we find an arms
stockpile, we see boxes from the Air Force, Army, Navy. They are
very new weapons. The military is very serious about making sure
all weapons are accounted for. How can three or four boxes of
grenades, pistols and rifles simply disappear from the military
and reappear at the favela? I am almost certain that the guys
that really run the drug commands are big military guys from the
army, air force and even politicians."

Although the Brazilian government opposes US policy in Colombia,
the Brazilian military has been cooperating with the US in the
region and the US military is assiduously polishing its ties with
its Brazilian counterparts. No one has produced any evidence of a
nefarious plot a la Ollie North and the Contras, but the
Brazilians are suspicious. "Nobody here believes that the strike
was only because of [raids on them by da Silva], and some analysts
suggest that the traffickers have entered into politics,
supporting groups of the ultra-right," wrote Calloni. "Few
believe that the narcos can act as they did on Monday without the
complicity of politicians and police, and their actions appear
destined to support the arguments of those in Washington who are
already attempting to Colombianize Brazil with the intention of
pushing for a larger US military intervention here."

Brazil is in economic crisis, and it is that crisis that will
impel Lula to power, it is that crisis that intensified the
country's slide into repressive violence, it is that crisis that
makes possible the rise of the Parallel Power. And it is the
children of the favelas who are its soldiers and its victims.
Between gang warfare and police killings, nearly 4,000 young
people have been killed in Rio since 1987. By comparison, 467
children and adolescents were killed by weapons fire in the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the same period, said the
report, "Child Combatants in Armed Organized Violence in Rio de
Janeiro." The study's author, British anthropologist Luke
Dowdney, reported that some 6,000 youngsters between the ages of
10 and 18 are working as "soldiers" for the various commands that
constitute the Parallel Power.

But the Parallel Power delivers what the state can't or won't. In
the favelas controlled by the various commands, the traffickers
provide basic services -- transportation, utilities, food baskets,
entertainment, and most of all for crime-plagued Brazilians,
security. When the only presence of the state is that of trigger-
happy policemen, gun-toting gangsters who actually provide
services and security don't seem so bad. Welcome to the 21st
Century in the Third World.

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

6. Montana Drug Policy Task Force Calls for More Treatment and
Prevention, War on Meth
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#montanataskforce

In January, Montana Governor Judy Martz (R) announced the
formation of a state Drug Policy Task Force to ponder the state's
drug problems and its responses and to look for more effective
solutions (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/219.html#montanataskforce).
Top-heavy with representatives from law enforcement, victims'
rights and drunk driving groups, as well as treatment
professionals, the group met throughout the summer to devise a new
plan. Last week, the group issued its final report, a strong call
for increased attention to prevention and treatment, one that buys
into the addiction as "brain disease" theory, but one that also
includes significant old-style drug war components.

"The Task Force concluded that instead of 'getting tough on crime'
related to alcohol, tobacco and other drug issues in Montana, we
need to be 'effective on crime,' which means Montana needs to be
effective in treatment and effective in prevention," said the
report's executive summary.

Among the Task Force's recommendations:

* Create a state drug czar "with the responsibility, authority,
and resources to integrate the currently divergent alcohol,
tobacco, and other drug control programs."

* Go after underage drinking with stiffer penalties and other
measures, such as requiring beer keg registration.

* Budget adequate funding for and support for prevention programs.

* Evaluate treatment programs for effectiveness.

* Allow first- and second-time drug offenders "alternative
programming" (drug treatment) in lieu of jail time.

* Tighten drunk driving laws.

* Reduce the number of parole or probation revocations for drug
use by allowing for alternative, intermediate sanctions.

* Meth War: Make being under the influence of meth a crime.

* Meth War: Make the presence of a meth lab prima facie evidence
of child endangerment or abuse.

* Meth War: Give the state Highway Patrol new "interdiction
abilities," increase its size and place a patrol member on each
regional drug enforcement task force.

For drug reformers, the report is clearly a mixed bag. "I would
like to have seen things approached from different perspective,
but I was happy to see a lesser emphasis on law enforcement
overall, said Vicki Peterson, a Missoula-based harm reductionist
who consults with the state Health Department on injection drug
use issues. "But when you deal with the Montana mindset, this is
progress. The law enforcement lock 'em up isn't in there --
except with the meth," she told DRCNet.

Common Sense for Drug Policy's Kevin Zeese, who visited Missoula
last month as part of the reformer-led Montana Drug Policy Summit,
had a similar take. "Overall, there is a lot of sensible stuff
there," he told DRCNet. "Prevention, treatment instead of prison,
reducing parole revocations, those are all steps that need to be
taken." But Zeese, too, criticized the proposed new anti-meth
measures. "From visiting rural areas where meth is an issue, it
seems to me that meth is the new crack. I mean that it engenders
the same panic, the fear, the overreaction that resulted in those
terrible crack laws," he said. "When we look back on this with
meth, we'll see those same terrible mistakes repeated over and
over again."

"There is a lot of hysteria over meth," Peterson agreed. "But we
have to look at underlying causes, the poverty in this state.
Hell, people want to feel good and meth makes you feel good," she
said. "We need a real conversation about drug use in America."
Peterson pointed out that Montana got only $125,000 in asset
forfeiture revenues last year. "Speed freaks don't have any
money," she snorted.

Neither Peterson nor Zeese thought much of the drug czar idea,
with Peterson dismissing it as "brain dead," and Zeese arguing
that "it has not been an effective tool anywhere in the country."

While Task Force member Jerry Archer, Deputy Chief of Police in
Billings warned of the meth menace, he wanted mainly to talk
treatment with DRCNet. "I think we all realized that if we don't
do prevention and treatment, we can throw law enforcement
resources at the problem all day and it won't do any good," said
Archer. "We have to get more attention paid to prevention and
treatment and that's that," he said. "That's why we suggested
getting these guys under supervision some treatment instead of
throwing them back in jail. They shouldn't get away with it 19
times, but we're looking at a financial crisis here and we need to
look at mandated treatment instead of prison."

According to the Task Force report, Montana spent $256 million in
1998 on anti-drug programs, but less than 1% of that was invested
in treatment and prevention. And therein lies a great big
problem. With the state facing a $250 million budget deficit this
year, any new funding is going to be hard to come by. And despite
his talk about treatment, Deputy Chief Archer suggested that no
one should look to cuts in law enforcement to make up the
difference. Archer sidestepped a question about whether he would
give up funds for treatment, noting that that police department is
funded locally, not by the state. "But if you asked the Highway
Patrol, I think the answer would be no," he conceded.

For Peterson, the state fiscal crisis is a clarion call for
financial independence. "We need to work with our communities to
develop goals, and we need to look for outside funding sources.
Otherwise, we are at the mercy of the state, which is broke and
can cut your funding with the stroke of a pen," she said.

"Funding is the key" for implementing the recommendations, Archer
agreed, but warned that the state government and legislature would
have to prioritize and that some recommendations would not make
the cut.

One topic notably absent from the Task Force recommendations was
marijuana. When asked if the Task Force had paid any attention to
reform noises coming from north of the border and even within the
state or whether it had considered decrim or legalization of
marijuana, Archer told DRCNet that "we didn't recognize that as a
viable way for us to reduce our drug problem." Most members
believe marijuana is a gateway drug, he said. "It probably is a
gateway drug," he added. "We did not feel that legalizing a
particular substance was a good way to combat drug abuse."

While reformers at the Montana Drug Policy Summit were making the
case for precisely that, the Montana Drug Task Force was, for the
most part, embracing the now enlightened conventional wisdom that
treatment is the answer. Next time, Montana drug reformers need
to get a place at the table where the decisions are made.

The Task Force report and related docs may be viewed online at:
http://www.discoveringmontana.com/gov2/css/drugcontrol/default.asp

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

7. The November Coalition Hits the Road: Journey For Justice Aims
to Mobilize Support for Freeing Drug War Prisoners
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#journeyforjustice

Frustrated by the lack of progress in Congress on undoing drug war
sentencing policies that have left nearly half a million Americans
behind bars, a hundred thousand of them in the federal prison
system alone, the prison activist group the November Coalition is
hitting the road this weekend to energize the group's membership,
seek new support, and add thousands of signatures to its ongoing
petition campaign asking Congress to "redress drug war injustice."

November Coalition leader Nora Callahan and her husband and fellow
activist Chuck Armsbury are departing from their home headquarters
in Colville, WA, on a low budget, high energy journey that will
take them across the Rockies and the Northern Plains, into
Michigan, and on to the East Coast, where they will join in an as
yet unspecified action with other drug reform leaders in
Washington, DC, on November 1 before turning around and heading
West again.

"This is the first of a series of journeys for justice," said
Armsbury. "In the Gandhian tradition, we are going from town to
town, prison to prison, camp meeting to camp meeting to fortify
our membership and strengthen our movement."

"Our members live all over the country," said Callahan. "Not only
the prisoners scattered across the land, but their families trying
to raise children for them, the elderly couples whose sons and
daughters are locked up, they are all devastated by the burdens
this mad rush to incarceration has imposed on them. These people
are forced to use precious money and vacation time to visit their
loved ones," she explained. "So we are traveling to those
communities and to those prisons to meet the people. We should be
planning for freedom together, not standing alone in motels
wondering if that other person is also there to visit a prisoner."

If Callahan and Armsbury are hoping to energize the grassroots,
early indications are that they are succeeding. Iowa resident
Larry Schulenberg, whose son Martin is serving a 9-year sentence
on drug charges at a federal prison camp in Yankton, SD, told
DRCNet he couldn't wait for the journey to come to his area.
"This is a great opportunity to educate the public and the media
about what's going on," said Schulenberg. "There will be a vigil
at the prison, then a meeting at a local motel with families and
friends of prisoners," he said. For Schulenberg, the journey is
about ending an injustice that has hit home. "My son deserves to
be punished," he said, "but not for 110 months in jail. There's a
two-time loser in the same bust; he should have been serving more
time than Martin, but he had names to give the feds."

Another November Coalition member, Debra Wright of Ann Arbor, MI,
shares the enthusiasm and the desire for justice. "We're very
excited here," she told DRCNet. "The journey is officially
starting here in the Detroit area, and we are honored. We've got
all kinds of events lined up, including a meeting with Congressman
John Conyers, and we will hopefully get people talking about these
issues," she said.

Common Sense for Drug Policy's Kevin Zeese is going to Detroit for
the Journey, he told DRCNet. "The Journey for Justice is a big
step," he said, "and we'll give it a good kickoff in Detroit.
This is building the grassroots, and the Journey will be doing
that at events across the Midwest, the Northeast, and the Mid-
Atlantic area. This tour will build, educate, and activate
people, and it has a great mix of public events, private meetings
with family members, media appearances, demonstrations and more."

Debra Wright is an example of what the Journey hopes to stir up.
Acting on her own, she contacted Zeese last year to help form the
Drug Policy Forum of Michigan. "I'm a former prisoner and a
former heroin addict clean now for 10 years," she said. "My
interest lies in reforming the prison system and helping addicts."
Now she is a regional coordinator for the November Coalition.

"We seek to inspire popular resistance to drug war injustice to
help us empower people in the grassroots," said Callahan. "We
hope to find a hundred Debras."

How to measure the success of such an effort is a question with
which the November Coalition has been grappling. "When we get
back, we'll sit down and try to evaluate qualitatively and
quantitatively where we succeeded and where we need to rethink,"
said Armsbury. "We'll be looking at the number of signatures we
get on our petitions, the number of new regional leaders, the
number of new chapters formed to prepare for future journeys," he
said. "We'll also look at the feedback we get. With this
journey, what we would ordinarily hear secondhand at a conference,
we will hear directly from the people and the communities
involved," he said.

"We have to recognize that in any grassroots movement, there are
grass bottoms and grass tops," said Callahan. "We have to learn
from each other."

Although the November Coalition is seeking relief -- any relief --
for the hundreds of thousands of drug war prisoners, Callahan and
Armsbury said their ultimate goal is much broader. "We want to
end the war on drugs," said Armsbury. "We take a hard stand
against this war waged on our people -- everyone knows this isn't
about drugs. Of course we would accept some relief for our people
behind bars, but we need to start talking about dismantling the
whole drug war superstructure. This is a discussion that needs to
begin taking place among reform leaders, too, and soon," Armsbury
continued. "As our organizers in Michigan wrote on their flyers,
'it's time for a change.'"

For information about Journey events in your area, visit the
November Coalition Journey for Justice web site at
http://www.journeyforjustice.org online. And don't forget to sign
the petition to redress drug war injustice at
http://novemberjustice.org/petition/index.htm online.

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

8. Newsbrief: Peruvian Coca on Rise as Country Revamps Coca
Eradication Effort
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#peruviancoca

Despite increasing acreage devoted to the crop in the last two
years, Peru's coca eradication program came to a screeching halt
earlier this summer in the face of peasant protests
(http://www.drcnet.org/wol/249.html#perucoca). But this week
Peruvian drug czar Nils Ericsson announced that a revised
eradication program was now underway. Ericsson told reporters in
Lima on Tuesday that Peru and the US had signed a September 12
agreement to streamline alternative development programs and that
the US had agreed to provide $300 million for the program over the
next five years.

Under the new voluntary eradication program, launched last week,
farmers would be paid $15 per day to uproot their coca crops. It
would take about 10 days for a farmer to clear a 2.5 acre field,
Ericsson said. The peasant farmers would then be guaranteed an
income for the next six months. "They're going to have an income
deriving from their job in works that favor the community -- road
construction, sanitation works, school building," Ericsson added.

But eradication cannot keep up with cultivation as peasants rocked
by low prices for commodities like coffee and fruit turn back to
coca, their most reliable cash crop. The area under cultivation
last year was somewhere between 84,000 acres (US figure), 115,000
acres (UN figure), and 150,000 acres, according to some Peruvian
drug experts. Ericsson told reporters a "conservative estimate"
would be about 125,000 acres under cultivation this year.
Ericsson said he expects Peru to eradicate about 17,000 acres this
year, or less than one-seventh of the crop.

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

9. Uribe Wants to Recriminalize Drug Possession in Colombia
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#recriminalization

Since 1994, the possession and use of illicit drugs has not been a
crime in Colombia, but new hard-line President Alvaro Uribe wants
to go back to the bad old days. Fresh from last week's visit to
Washington, DC, where he met with President Bush and congressional
drug warriors, Uribe announced Saturday that his government would
move to recriminalize drug possession and would make it a priority
in the constitutional reform package it will be presenting before
the Colombian congress. Making drug use a criminal offense once
again is necessary to prevent "the youth [from falling] to the
horror of drugs," Uribe told a Bogota press conference.

"I am in favor of clarifying within constitutional norms that the
congress can criminalize personal doses by statute," Uribe said.
"I suggest that we apply that law and that the Minister of the
Interior, Fernando Londono, introduce an article for the
punishment of personal doses in the constitutional reforms that we
are attempting to create with the legislators."

The Colombian Supreme Court ruled eight years ago that
criminalizing personal possession or consumption of illicit drugs
was an unconstitutional contravention of "human dignity, personal
autonomy, and the free development of the personality." At that
time, the court held that "the obligation of the state is to
educate the population and move beyond repression as a method of
controlling and reducing the use of drugs." In that ruling, the
court defined a personal quantity as "a quantity of marijuana that
does not exceed 20 grams; of hashish that does not exceed 5 grams;
of cocaine or cocaine base that does not exceed one gram."

In announcing the effort to recriminalize drug possession, Uribe
allied himself not only with Colombian conservative groupings such
as the Colombian Institute of Family Wellness and drug war
bureaucracies such as Colombia's equivalent of the drug czar's
office, the National Drug Directorate, but also with the drug
warriors of Washington. The move has provoked a strong reaction
from some other sectors of the Colombian polity, including former
Supreme Court justice Carlos Gaviria. Gaviria told Deutsche
Presse Agentur that Uribe's plan only ratifies the fact that
Colombia is now ruled by the "most conservative government in 50
years." And Gaviria pointed the finger of blame at Washington.
"It is clear that this is one of the agreements that President
Uribe reached in his recent visit to the White House," he said.

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

10. Newsbrief: California Governor Vetoes Bill Allowing Syringe
Sales, Vetoed Industrial Hemp Study Earlier
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#graydavis

Hugging the middle of the road as tightly as he can, California
Gov. Gray Davis has now vetoed two progressive drug policy
measures in as many weeks, even as he finally provided tepid
support to the state's embattled medical marijuana patients. On
Monday, Davis vetoed a bill that would have allowed pharmacies to
sell syringes to adults without a doctors' prescription. The bill
was pushed by harm reductionists who argued that the measure would
reduce the spread of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C. Opponents argued
that the bill would encourage drug use. In vetoing the bill,
Davis cited its lack of a provision mandating one-for-one needle
exchanges. "This bill," he said, "could potentially increase the
amount of contaminated needles and syringes in parks, beaches and
other public areas." Needle exchangers widely regard one-for-one
requirements as a danger to public health.

Two weeks earlier, Davis applied his veto power to kill a bill
that would have authorized a University of California study of the
economics of hemp in the state. Davis cited concerns that the DEA
would block any hemp production. "There are a number of
significant concerns regarding the legality of producing
industrial hemp in the United States," Davis wrote. "For these
reasons, I am returning this bill without my signature."

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

11. Newsbrief: California Town to Pay $3 Million, Apologize for
Drug Raid Death
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#mariopaz

The city of El Monte has agreed to pay $3 million and apologize to
the family of Mario Paz in order to settle a wrongful death suit
filed after the 64-year-old grandfather was shot in the back and
killed during a 1999 drug raid in nearby Compton. The city also
agreed to begin training officers in Spanish and to begin audio-
taping the execution of all "high risk" search warrants.

Paz was killed during a drug raid in which no drugs were found.
An El Monte SWAT team of 13 officers, all masked, burst into the
home in the early morning hours, detonating flash bang grenades.
Many of the officers spoke no Spanish, according to plaintiffs'
attorney Johnny Cochran. According to police, Paz was reaching
for a weapon when an El Monte police officer, Sgt. George Hopkins,
shot him in the back.

Neither the US Department of Justice nor the Los Angeles County
District Attorney's Office found sufficient grounds to prosecute
the police shooter. El Monte city officials continued to deny any
wrongdoing even as they settled. "We will make a formal apologyto
the Paz family," said city attorney Eugene P. Ramirez, "but
nowhere do we admit any wrongdoing. The economic realities were
uncertain. We could win big or lose big. It would have been a
crap shoot. This is not an admission of liability."

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

12. Newsbrief: And the Killing Continues
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#itcontinues

Even as El Monte settles with the family of its latest drug raid
shooting victim, at least three more questionable drug war police
shootings occurred in the last week. In Perkins, OK, on Saturday,
a reserve police officer shot and killed 22-year-old Kenneth W.
Bailey. Bailey was one of four men police encountered as they
staked out an oilfield where meth cooks had been stealing
anhydrous ammonia. He was shot after the pickup truck he was
driving ran over police "stop sticks," but continued to move.
There is no indication that Bailey posed a threat to police
officers.

A day earlier, Clayton J. Helriggle, 23, of West Alexandria, OH,
was shot and killed by a Lewisburg, OH, police officer during a
drug raid on a farmhouse. Police SWAT team members had entered
the house and encountered Helriggle coming down the stairs when he
was shot. Preble County Sheriff's Captain Mike Simpson told the
Dayton Daily News that Helriggle was armed with a pistol, but
Helriggle's father, Michael Helriggle, said his son was carrying a
glass of water, not a weapon. He also accused police of "high-
fiving" each other after the raid.

"They were so busy celebrating and everything," he said. "It was
like a carnival to them. They all got to use their new guns and
stuff." And Helriggle faulted the police for their SWAT assault
tactics. "There was no reason for them to come in there that
way," he said. "I lost my son over this. It's turned my family
upside down. He absolutely wasn't a drug dealer."

Captain Simpson said police were executing a marijuana warrant
involving another resident of the house. Police seized a small
amount of pot, some unknown pills and drug paraphernalia.

By this Monday, local newspapers reported dozens of people
protesting the killing at the Montgomery Courthouse. Helriggle's
roommates carried blue plastic cups similar to the one he was said
to be carrying when shot. Roommate Ian Albert described to the
Dayton Daily News how Helriggle was killed: "They threw me down
onto the stairs with my head on the second step up. I wanted to
yell at Clay, but I looked up and saw him, rounding the stairway,
and he had this look on his face, like, 'What's going on?' and the
cops yelled, 'Get down' and then 'boom,'" said Albert. "The cops
are smoking and joking, high-fiving each other. Wow, I think,
they took down a farm of unarmed hippies. "If they would have
come to the door and said, 'Give us your dope, hippies,' we'd have
gotten about a $100 ticket."

And three days before Helriggle's killing, a Pinellas County, FL,
sheriff's deputy shot and killed "suspected drug dealer" Dustin
Dean, 21, of New Port Richey. Dean and a companion, Jonathan
Whitlatch, had agreed to sell cocaine to an undercover deputy, but
when police converged to make the arrest, both men fled. Dean ran
into a wooded area, where he was spotted by Deputy Kenneth Kubler.
According to Kubler, Dean "didn't cooperate" and Kubler could not
see one of his hands. Then, also according to Kubler, Dean lunged
forward, forcing Kubler to shoot him. Dean was unarmed.

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

13. Newsbrief: Nevada -- The Survey Says... Legalize It!
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#nevada

The topsy-turvy, down and dirty fight over the Nevada marijuana
initiative, which would eliminate criminal penalties for up to
three ounces of marijuana, is swinging back in favor of the
measure, according to the most recent survey of Nevada voters.
Polls earlier this year had shown an even split, but after the
brouhaha over a police organization's "here today, gone tomorrow"
endorsement of the initiative and the subsequent mobilization of
anti-initiative forces, another poll found opponents with a
substantial lead.

But in the most recent statewide poll, done by Survey USA for
KVBC-TV in Las Vegas on September 26, 56% of registered voters
surveyed said they planned to vote yes on Question 9 (the
marijuana initiative), with 43% opposed and only 2% undecided.
Surveyors contacted 800 registered Nevada voters for the poll.
There is no word on the margin of error for the poll, but it shows
a solid majority in favor of the initiative and very few undecided
voters with one month left to Election Day.

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

14. Newsbrief: University of Missouri SSDP, NORML in Marijuana
Decriminalization Petition Drive
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#umissouri

Columbia, Missouri, home of the University of Missouri, could
decriminalize the possession of up to 35 grams of marijuana and
legalize the use of medical marijuana if student activists have
their way. Members of the campus chapters of Students for a
Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) and the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) have drafted and are a
circulating a petition that would make simple possession
punishable only by a ticket and a fine -- $25 for a first offense,
$50 for a second, $100 for a third and $500 for a fourth and
consecutive offenses.

Campus SSDP head Amy Fritz told DRCNet that petitioners have until
mid-December to gather 1,191 signatures and that they currently
have about 500. If the organizers gather enough valid signatures,
the measure will go before the city council. If the city council
votes against the petition or refuses to act, the matter will go
before voters in an April election. The effort is generating both
media attention and voter registrations, said Fritz.

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

15. Newsbrief: US Explores Drugging Rioters
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#druggingrioters

As part of its research into non-lethal weapons, the Pentagon has
been exploring the use of drugs such as Valium to incapacitate
unruly crowds. Officials in the Defense Department's Joint Non-
Lethal Weapons Directorate have been discussing the use of
chemical "calmatives" for at least two years, and British military
officials have also joined in the discussions. Pennsylvania State
University researchers have also prepared a 50-page report saying
calmative weapons are "achievable and desirable" and suggesting
drugs like Valium for further research.

The chemical warfare plan came to light thanks to the Sunshine
Project (http://www.sunshine-project.org), a chemical and
biological weapons watchdog group that acquired the Penn State
study and hundreds of pages of other non-lethal weapons documents
under the Freedom of Information Act. According to the Sunshine
Project's Edward Hammond, the research violates international
treaties and federal laws against chemical weapons.

"It is a rotten idea to drug rioters," Hammond told the Associated
Press. "Beyond being a horrible idea, it's illegal. If the US is
going to denounce countries around the world for violating
chemical and biological arms control treaties, it better make sure
its own house is in order first," he said.

The chemical weapons treaty allows security forces to use
temporary irritants, such as pepper spray and tear gas, as riot
control weapons, but bans the use of chemicals that incapacitate
people.

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

16. Newsbrief: Drug Warrior Maginnis Leaves Family Research
Council
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#maginnis

Robert Maginnis, a leading proponent of war against Iraq,
traditional military values and the war on drugs, announced last
week that he has resigned from the arch-conservative advocacy
group the Family Research Council. Maginnis, a retired Army
lieutenant colonel, has been a ubiquitous presence on television
talk shows and source for harried newspaper reporters seeking a
Neanderthal perspective on military and drug issues.

In recent months, Maginnis has pronounced against medical
marijuana, against industrial hemp, against Canada providing
sancturary to persons fleeing US drug policy, against the
Unitarians for their progressive stand on drug policy. But he is
not just a naysayer. Maginnis is a strong supporter of US war in
Colombia. He also supports widespread drug testing in the
nation's schools.

Maginnis, who was vice president of policy for the Family Research
Council, told the Washington Times last week that he was leaving
because the council was dropping military and anti-drug issues
from its agenda. But a spokesman for the council told DRCNet that
report was "inaccurate." Council media coordinator Bill Murray
said that drug policy was "no longer in our top tier of issues,
but is something we will continue to monitor and speak out on."
Murray said the council had other spokespersons available to
address drug policy, but was unable to name one.

But Maginnis isn't going away. "I'm clearly hoping to stay very
much involved, and I'm making rounds in the city looking for folks
who are interested in these issues from a conservative
perspective," he told the Times. Maybe he should hook up with
that other unemployed drug warrior, former Clinton deputy drug
czar Bob Weiner, whose lack of a sinecure has not prevented him
from sending out press releases whenever the mood strikes.

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

17. Newsbrief: DPA Campaign Provides Tools to Fight School Drug
Testing
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#drugtestingfails

Reacting to the June Supreme Court decision allowing school drug
testing of any students involved in athletics or other
extracurricular activities (even including driving one's own
vehicle to school), the Drug Policy Alliance announced this week a
new campaign to provide tools for students, parents, teachers and
administrators to find better, less intrusive, alternatives to
making children and young people urinate in a cup.

The campaign, "Drug Testing Fails Our Youth: An Action Program for
Concerned Parents" (http://www.drugtestingfails.org), pulls
together information on the Supreme Court decision in Potawatomie
v. Earls, provides an overview of the drug testing issue,
discusses alternatives to drug testing, and most importantly,
presents a virtual how-to on organizing a successful "Drug Testing
Fails Our Youth" campaign.

Kudos to DPA for providing resources and a template for political
action that can be applied in school districts around the country.

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

18. Calling on Students to Raise Your Voices for Repeal of the HEA
Drug Provision
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#studentcampaign

With the new school year already upon us, and Congressional
elections just over a month away, we at the Drug Reform
Coordination Network are writing to ask you to help turn up the
heat on the student-led campaign to repeal the Higher Education
Act's drug provision.

During the 2001-2002 school year, more than 47,700 students were
denied access to federal college aid because of drug convictions,
loans, grants, even work-study programs. This number doesn't
account for people who didn't bother applying because they assumed
they would be ineligible. The current academic year, the third in
which the drug provision is in force and the second in which it is
being fully enforced, is expected to see just as many young people
forced out of school or they or their families plunged into
financial hardship because of the HEA drug provision.

In 2002-2003, there is more hope than ever. A bill in the US
House of Representatives to repeal the drug provision, H.R. 786,
has 67 cosponsors, and ten members of Congress spoke at our press
conference last May to call for the provision's full repeal, a
stunning success. And Students for Sensible Drug Policy now
stretches across more than 200 campuses, with hundreds more in the
works. Your voice is again needed, to continue to move this issue
forward and repeal the provision in 2003 or 2004 when the Higher
Education Act is reauthorized by Congress.

We have just finished updating our HEA activist packet, so please
visit http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com to learn about the issue,
download the packet, and to sign our petition telling you want
them to remove the drug war from education and repeal the anti-
drug financial aid ban. When you're done, please call your US
Representative on the phone to make an even stronger impact -- you
can call them via the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121,
or visit http://www.house.gov to look up their direct numbers.

Students, visit http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com/students.html to
find out how to get involved with the campaign on your campus --
more than 90 student governments so far have endorsed our
resolution calling for repeal of the drug provision. If you're
already at work on this, please write us at hear...@drcnet.org
and let us know what's happening. Also, visit
http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com/download.html for an online copy of
the activist packet. Leave your e-mail address if you want to
receive occasional updates on the HEA campaign.

Please forward this alert to your friends or use the tell-a-friend
form on RaiseYourVoice.com, and please consider making a donation
-- large or small -- to keep this and other DRCNet efforts moving
forward at full speed. Visit http://www.drcnet.org/donate/ to
help, or mail your check or money order to DRCNet, P.O. Box 18402,
Washington, DC 20036. (Contact us for instruction if you wish to
make a donation of stock.)

Again, visit http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com to write to Congress
and get involved in the campaign! In the meantime, here are some
more reasons why the HEA drug provision is wrong:

* The vast majority of Americans convicted of drug offenses are
convicted of nonviolent, low-level possession.

* The HEA drug provision represents a penalty levied only on the
poor and the working class; wealthier students will not have the
doors of college closed to them for want to financial aid.

* Judges already have the power to rescind financial aid
eligibility as individual cases warrant. The HEA drug provision
removes that discretion.

* The HEA drug provision has a disparate impact on different
races. African Americans, for example, comprise 13% of the
population and 13% of all drug users, but account for more than
55% of those convicted of drug possession charges.

* No other class of offenses, not even rape or murder, carries
automatic loss of financial aid eligibility.

* Access to a college education is the surest route to the
mainstream economy and a crime-free life.

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

19. Do You Read The Week Online?
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#doyouread

Do you read the Week Online? If so, we'd like to hear from you.
DRCNet needs two things:

1) The Week Online needs to raise another $18,000 between now and
year's end to secure its future as we await word from major
donors. Please visit http://www.drcnet.org/donate/wol.html to
make a tax-deductible donation by credit card or read below for
info on how to donate by check or in stock.

2) Please send quotes and reports on how you put our flow of
information to work, for use in upcoming grant proposals and
letters to funders or potential funders. Do you use DRCNet as a
source for public speaking? For letters to the editor? Helping
you talk to friends or associates about the issue? Research? For
your own edification? Have you changed your mind about any
aspects of drug policy since subscribing? Do you reprint or
repost portions of our bulletins on other lists or in other
newsletters?

Please send your response -- one or two sentences would be fine,
more is great, too -- to alert-f...@drcnet.org
(mailto:alert-f...@drcnet.org). Please let us know if we may
reprint your comments, and if so, if we may include your name or
if you wish to remain anonymous.

At 23,000 subscribers, The Week Online is the world's most widely
read drug policy newsletter. With the pulse of reform quickening
around the globe, an election season filled with drug policy
initiatives, and a rapidly growing confrontation between the
federal government and the medical marijuana movement, the Week
Online and the news it reports are more critical than ever.

So please help us keep it alive! Again, please visit
http://www.drcnet.org/donate/wol.html to support the Week Online
at this important time -- or send your check or money order to:
DRCNet, P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036. Make your check
payable to DRCNet Foundation to make a tax-deductible donation for
The Week Online -- or make a non-deductible donation for our
lobbying work, check payable to Drug Reform Coordination Network,
http://www.drcnet.org/donate/nondeductible.html by credit card.
We can also accept contributions of stock -- our brokerage is
Ameritrade, account #772973012, company name Drug Reform
Coordination Network, Inc, contact bor...@drcnet.org for info.

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

20. Action Alerts: Rave Bill, Medical Marijuana, Higher Education
Act Drug Provision
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#actionalerts

Visit http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com to tell Congress to repeal the
Higher Education Act's drug provision in full and let tens of
thousands of young people with drug convictions go back to
college.

Support States' Rights to Medical Marijuana: Visit
http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/medicalmarijuana/ to write to
Congress today!

Demand Freedom for the Tulia Victims
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/254.html#demandfreedom

Help stop S. 2633, the "Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to
Ecstasy Act of 2002" -- call your Senators at (202) 224-3121,
visit http://www.emdef.org for information.

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

21. The Reformer's Calendar
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/257.html#eventcalendar

(Please submit listings of events concerning drug policy and
related topics to cale...@drcnet.org.)

October 5, Michigan, "ScareCrow Burning," festival benefiting
Flint Marijuana March, Green Party of Michigan, Red Shed,
Happyhouse Church and Michigan Marijuana Movement, featuring
speakers, bands and more. For further information, visit
http://www.geocities.com/legalizemichigan/events/SCB/ or contact
(989) 222-6969 or e-mail happy...@excite.com.

October 5-6, noon, Madison, WI, "Weedstock," rally and festival
for legalization. At Memorial Library Square, University of
Wisconsin campus, concludes Sunday with march on capitol.

October 7-9, San Diego, CA, "Inside-Out: Fostering Healthy
Outcomes for the Incarcerated and Their Families." Contact Stacey
Shank of Centerforce at (559) 241-6162 for information.

October 8, 6:00-8:00pm, Hartford, CT, Community Discussion on
Drugs and Violence, sponsored by Efficacy and the Upper Albany
Collaborative. At Liberty Christian Center, International, 23
Vine St., contact Efficacy at (860) 285-8831 or effi...@msn.com
or Pat or Mikhail at (860) 724-6703 for further information.

October 9, 1:00pm, New York, NY, "Drop The Rock" demonstration
outside Gov. Pataki's office on the theme "Healing Ourselves:
Successes in Treatment and Recovery." E-mail al...@yahoo.com for
further information.

October 10, 5:00pm, Higganum, CT, Community Forum on the "War on
Drugs." Featuring Cliff Thornton and Adam Hurter of Efficacy, at
the gazebo in town center, contact Kevin at (860) 345-3387 or
treelo...@aol.com for further information.

October 10, 5:00-7:30pm, San Francisco, CA, "The Politics of
Medical Marijuana," forum with the Drug Policy Alliance and the
San Francisco Medical Society. At the First Universalist Church,
1187 Franklin St., refreshments served, admission free, call (415)
921-4987 or e-mail s...@drugpolicy.org to reserve a space, or visit
http://www.drugpolicy.org/events/event.cfm?eventID=120 for info.

October 12, 6:30pm, San Francisco, CA, NORML Benefit Party. At
the SomArts Gallery, 934 Brannan St., minimum requested
contribution $100, featuring the Extra Action Marching Band and a
silent art auction. Advance registration recommended, visit
http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5400 or call (202) 483-
5500 for further information.

October 16, 1:00pm, New York, NY, "Drop The Rock" demonstration
outside Gov. Pataki's office on the theme "Invest in Our Youth:
Build Schools not Prisons." E-mail al...@yahoo.com for info.

October 19, Portland, OR, "PottyMouth Comedy Competition: Flushing
Away the DEA," $5,000 first prize. Visit
http://www.jeffandtracy.com or call (503) 605-5182 for info.

October 23, 1:00pm, New York, NY, "Drop The Rock" demonstration
outside Gov. Pataki's office on the theme "Stop Racial Profiling:
Are You a Target?" E-mail al...@yahoo.com for further info.

October 25-29, Albuquerque, NM, "International Conference on
Altered States of Consciousness." At the Crowne Plaza Pyramid,
visit http://www.bizspirit.com/alteredstates/aspeakers.html for
further information.

October 27, 10:00am-4:00pm, London, England, "A Modern Inquisition
-- the General Medical Council," conference on the targeting of
addiction practitioners by British regulatory authorities,
featuring Dr. John Marks, Prof. Arnold Trebach, an unidentified
senior British politician and others. Sponsored by the Health and
Law Foundation, at the University of London Union, Malet Street,
call (0)20 7274 5008 or e-mail j...@worldhealth-ol.com for
information or to register.

October 30, 1:00pm, New York, NY, "Drop The Rock" demonstration
outside Gov. Pataki's office on the theme "Reunite Families:
Families of the Incarcerated Speak Out." E-mail al...@yahoo.com
for further information.

November 2, 9:00am-5:00pm, Kansas City, MO, NORML/SSDP Drug Law
Conference. At UMKC, education building, featuring Keith Stroup,
Debbie Moore, Alex Holsinger and others. Visit
http:/www.mohemp.org or e-mail moh...@hotmail.com for information.

November 2, Davis, CA, "Confessions of a Dope Dealer," solo
theatrical performance by Sheldon Norberg. At the Varsity Theater,
not recommended for children under 13, call (415) 666-3939 or
visit http://www.adopedealer.com for further information.

November 6-8, 2002, St. Louis, MO, "2nd North American Conference
on Fathers Behind Bars and on the Street." Call (434) 589-3036,
e-mail f...@fcnetwork.org or visit http:/www.fcnetwork.org for
information.

November 8-10, Anaheim, CA, combined national conference of
Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the Marijuana Policy
Project. Early bird registration $150, $45 for students with
financial need, visit http://www.mpp.org/conference/ for further
information.

November 9, Anaheim, CA, Bill Maher benefit show for Students for
Sensible Drug Policy and the Marijuana Policy Project. Admission
$50, or $1,000 VIP package including front-row seat and private
reception with Bill Maher. Visit http://www.mpp.org/conference/
for further information.

November 9-10, 10:00am-6:00pm, London, England, European
Conference of The Libertarian International and Libertarian
Alliance. At the National Liberal Club, Whitehall Place,
admission #75.00 ($111 or 115 EURO), for information contact Dr.
Chris Tame at +020 7821 5502 or e-mail ad...@libertarian.co.uk.

November 22-24, Amsterdam, Netherlands, "Psychoactivity III,"
speakers including Arno Adelaars, Hans Bogers, Jace Callaway PhD,
Hilario Chiriap, Piers Gibbon, Luis Eduardo Luna PhD, Dr. phil.
Claudia Mueller-Ebeling. Visit http://www.psychoactivity.org for
further information.

November 22-24, Toronto, ON, Canada, Canadian Harm Reduction
Conference, conference for current and former drug users, peer
educators and front line workers to respond to critical and
emerging issues through skills building and education, policy
development and networking. Sponsored by the Canadian Harm
Reduction Network, visit http://www.canadianharmreduction.com for
further information.

December 1-4, Seattle, WA, "Taking Drug Users Seriously," Fourth
National Harm Reduction Conference. Sponsored by the Harm
Reduction Coalition, featuring keynote speaker Dr. Joycelyn
Elders, former US Surgeon General. For information, e-mail
confe...@harmreduction.org, visit http://www.harmreduction.org
or call (212) 213-6376.

February 12-15, 2003, Mirida, Yucatan, Mexico, "Out from the
Shadows: Ending Drug Prohibition in the 21st Century," sponsored
by the DRCNet Foundation in partnership with organizations around
the world. Visit http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/shadows/ or e-mail
sha...@stopthedrugwar.org for further information.

April 6-10, 2003, Chiangmai, Thailand, "Strengthening Partnerships
for a Safer Future," 14th International Conference on the
Reduction of Drug-Related Harm, sponsored by the International
Harm Reduction Coalition in partnership with the Asian Harm
Reduction Network. For further information, visit
http://www.ihrc2003.net or contact confe...@ihrc2003.net or
(6653) 223624, 894112 x102.

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

DRCNet needs your support! Donations can be made by credit card
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PERMISSION to reprint or redistribute any or all of the contents
of The Week Online is hereby granted. We ask that any use of
these materials include proper credit and, where appropriate, a
link to one or more of our web sites. If your publication
customarily pays for publication, DRCNet requests checks payable
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materials, you are free to use the materials gratis. In all
cases, we request notification for our records, including physical
copies where material has appeared in print. Contact: Drug Reform
Coordination Network, 2000 P St., NW, Suite 210, Washington, DC
20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice), (202) 293-8344 (fax), e-mail
drc...@drcnet.org. Thank you.

Articles of a purely educational nature in The Week Online appear
courtesy of the DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

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