Date: Sat, 06 Jul 2002 19:08:10 -0700

Subject:SD: Hemp Cultivation, Pot Decriminalization Initiatives Up TOC

Newshawk: http://www.lp.org/issues/drug-war-task-force.html
Pubdate: Thu, 20 Jun 2002
Source: Haleakala Times (HI)
Copyright: 2002 Haleakala Times
Contact: editor@mauisfreepress.com
Website: http://www.mauisfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2283
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hemp.htm (Hemp)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/props.htm (Ballot Initiatives)

HEMP CULTIVATION, POT DECRIMINALIZATION INITIATIVES APPEAR LIKELY ON
NOVEMBER STATE BALLOTS

South Dakotans will likely vote this fall on an initiative to lift state
criminal restrictions on the possession and production of industrial hemp.
The Secretary of State's office notified initiative proponents that they
had turned in sufficient signatures to place the question on the November
ballot, according to Bob Newland of SoDakNorml and the South Dakota
Industrial Hemp Council, which sponsored the measure.

If approved by the voters, the South Dakota Industrial Hemp Act (certified
as Initiated Law No. 1) would allow farmers to possess and cultivate
marijuana consisting of no more than one percent THC for fiber, food and
other commercial purposes. A 2001 statewide voters' poll showed that 85
percent of South Dakotans support allowing farmers to grow hemp. The South
Dakota Farmers Union also supports the measure.

Over 30 nations, including Canada, Japan and the European Union, license
farmers to grow hemp for industrial purposes. Presently, three states -
North Dakota, Montana and West Virginia - have enacted laws legally
defining industrial hemp as an agricultural crop distinct from marijuana.

Federal law, however, makes no such distinction and prohibits any
cultivation of hemp without federal authorization.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Ariel

 
 


**




web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
Date: Sat, 06 Jul 2002 19:09:57 -0700

Subject:OR: Drug Find Prompts Officer's Resignation Up TOC

Newshawk: Terry Liittschwager
Pubdate: Sat, 06 Jul 2002
Source: Register-Guard, The (OR)
Webpage: http://www.registerguard.com/news/2002/07/06/3b.cr.digest.0706.html
Copyright: 2002 The Register-Guard
Contact: rgletters@guardnet.com
Website: http://www.registerguard.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/362
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/corrupt.htm (Corruption)

DRUG FIND PROMPTS OFFICER'S RESIGNATION

BEAVERTON - A longtime Beaverton police officer resigned Friday after
narcotics investigators reported finding marijuana and methamphetamine in
his house.

Sgt. Dan E. Kendall, 51, had worked for the Beaverton Police Department
since 1978, mostly in patrol.

Kendall has not been arrested or charged in the case, which has been
referred to the Washington County district attorney's office for further
investigation.

The Westside Interagency Narcotics Unit searched Kendall's home in Aloha on
Monday, Beaverton Police Chief David Bishop 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: Jay Bergstrom

 
 


**




web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
Date: Sat, 06 Jul 2002 19:09:19 -0700

Subject:UK: Police Will Keep Powers To Arrest Cannabis Users Up TOC

Newshawk: Free the Weed
Webpage: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=312785
Pubdate: Sun,  7 Jul 2002
Source: Independent on Sunday (UK)
Copyright: Independent Newspapers (UK) Ltd.
Contact: letters@independent.co.uk
Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/208
Author: Colin Brown
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)

POLICE WILL KEEP POWERS TO ARREST CANNABIS USERS

Police will retain the power to arrest cannabis users to protect children,
under reforms to be announced this week by David Blunkett.

The Home Secretary was consulting ministers this weekend on his final plans
to reclassify cannabis from a class B to a class C drug, which will abolish
police powers of arrest in most cases. The police warned that total
abolition could lead to humiliation of the police by drug users.

Kate Hoey, a former minister, led Labour backbench criticism of the
experiment in Brixton of a ''softly-softly'' approach to cannabis. Residents
said it had made the streets more unsafe.

Mr Blunkett will announce that police will have the power to arrest cannabis
users where they feel public order or the interests of children could be put
at risk.

Whitehall sources said it would mean the police could arrest people flouting
the law by openly smoking cannabis on the steps of a police station.

Mr Blunkett also will reject calls to lower the classification of ecstasy to
a soft drug. He has also rejected a cross-party recommendation for
''shooting galleries'' to be provided for heroin addicts.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk

 
 


**




web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
Date: Sat, 06 Jul 2002 19:08:51 -0700

Subject:Canada: Charges Stayed For Man Eating Medicinal Pot Up TOC

Newshawk: http://www.canadianmedicalmarijuana.com/
Pubdate: Sat, 06 Jul 2002
Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB)
Webpage: http://www.mapinc.org/cancom/82B232D5-EB7D-478E-A687-14232B8B193D
Copyright: 2002 The Edmonton Journal
Contact: letters@thejournal.southam.ca
Website: http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134
Author: Allan Chambers, of the Edmonton Journal
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/mmjcn.htm (Cannabis - Medicinal - Canada)

CHARGES STAYED FOR MAN EATING MEDICINAL POT

An Edmonton man who ate two grams of marijuana a day for about 10 years to
deal with lower back pain is in limbo after a judge stayed possession
charges against him, his lawyer said Friday.

Meanwhile, advocates of decriminalization called on the federal government
to end the confusion surrounding the medical use of marijuana by legalizing
the substance.

Brian Oates, the 45-year-old welder at the centre of the case, wasn't
available for comment Friday.

But his lawyer, Barry McMullan, said his client "is in a bit of limbo"
after police seized 71 plants and a growing operation from his modest
north-end home.

The trafficking charge was dismissed and the possession charge stayed
recently by provincial court judge P.G.C. Ketchum, who accepted a defence
argument that Oates' constitutional rights were violated by hitches in a
new federal program which grants exemptions permitting the medical use of
marijuana.

Oates' lawyer argued that delays in federal clinical trials, combined with
the reluctance of doctors to sign exemption forms because of opposition by
their professional associations, made it impossible for Oates to obtain an
exemption.

The judge agreed. "In my judgment, it is not in accordance with the
principles of fundamental justice to criminalize this accused (Oates) while
he waits for a medically approved source of raw marijuana to be made
legally available to him," he wrote.

Munir Ahmad, director of the Edmonton Compassion Network, called on Ottawa
to clear up confusion by ending delays and moving towards legalization.
Ahmad speculated Ottawa is purposely creating delays in its exemption
program in order eventually to kill it.

Federal health spokesperson Andrew Swift said the ruling, similar to an
Ontario court ruling in a case involving Toronto resident Terry Parker,
won't sway Ottawa from the process it's developed.

The federal government intends to do clinical trials on high-grade
marijuana to determine its medical benefits. But the trials have been
delayed because of problems in producing the right grade of marijuana.

Ketchum ruled the delays have thwarted Oates' right to treatment. The judge
said he accepted Oates' testimony that he had tried unsuccessfully to treat
severe pain in his lower back and legs by conventional means.

On the advice of friends, Oates also experimented with marijuana by smoking
it. That proved unsuccessful, then followed other advice and began to eat
it. "This time it had an effect," the judge wrote. "He found he could sleep
at night."

He was also able to resume work -- a vast improvement in a condition that
left him barely able to walk at times.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Ariel

 
 


**




web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
Date: Sun, 07 Jul 2002 11:29:32 -0700

Subject:US: Smoking in the Boardroom Up TOC

Smoking in the Boardroom
 From corporate America to suburbia, pot makes its mark on the mainstream

By Jenifer Hanrahan
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
http://www.uniontrib.com/news/features/20020614-9999_mz1c14pot.html

June 14, 2002

He lives with his wife and kids in an tidy, old San Diego neighborhood. His=
two children, both in elementary school, play soccer. He takes them to
games on Saturdays in his minivan.

He also has a secret: Several nights a week, when the homework is finished=
and the kids are in bed, he slips outside to the dark space between his
garage and his neighbor's hedge.

He plucks a dried, green marijuana bud from a Ziploc bag, packs a pipe and=
inhales deeply. Then he goes upstairs, showers and changes his clothes so
the kids won't smell smoke if they wake up and want their Daddy.

"In my social circle, lots of people smoke pot," said the 40-something
communications executive who asked that his name not be used because he's
afraid of losing his job. "They are all professionals. Most have children.=
If we have a dinner party, a few of us will go outside and have a toke."

Damon and Brenda van Dam's admission they smoked marijuana the night their=
7-year-old daughter, Danielle, disappeared ignited a debate in the
courtroom and the community about their fitness for parenthood. In his
opening statement, David Westerfield's defense attorney used their
pot-smoking to create an image of a cavalier attitude toward caring for
their children.

But not everyone was shocked to learn a respectable telecommunications
engineer earning a good living enjoyed smoking dope in the evenings.

The van Dams are in the company of doctors, lawyers, stock brokers and even=
members of law enforcement who furtively get high in their garages and on
their decks, all the while terrified they'll be found out by their
neighbors, employers and children.

They are America's most secretive potheads a vast underground of
otherwise upstanding citizens secretly subverting the nation's drug laws.

President Bush's TV commercials link buying drugs with supporting
terrorism. The U.S. government spends hundreds of millions on border
patrols and overseas drug interdiction.

But to these upscale stoners, the drug war has nothing to do with them=
it's as remote from their Neighborhood Watch-protected streets as drug
cartel shootouts in Tijuana.

They believe smoking weed is about as serious as fudging on your taxes, on=
the level of claiming the computer you bought for your kid was a business
expense.

And scoring good pot is a lot like popping open a '94 reserve cabernet: a
harmless little indulgence that takes the edge off a stressful day.

"To me, casual marijuana use is really no different than the casual
drinking of hard alcohol," said the communications exec. "As long as you're=
doing it responsibly, at times when you're not caring for your children or=
driving, it's really no big deal other than that it's illegal."

Social acceptance Gauging the prevalence of marijuana-smoking among
otherwise well-behaved, middle-class adults isn't easy. Most current
research focuses on usage among teens or people arrested for other crimes.

In one recent survey by Partnership for a Drug Free America, 15 percent of=
couples with children admitted to smoking marijuana in the last year.

They're not all mean-street dysfunctionals or '60s burnouts. "We see the
casual use of marijuana in all socioeconomic environments," said Alex
Groza, a San Diego police sergeant and member of the Drug Enforcement
Agency's Narcotics Task Force. " ... It's more accepted by society than=
 ever."

A 2000 Gallup poll found 34 percent favor legalizing marijuana, up from 12=
percent when the question was first asked in 1969.

Voters in eight states have approved medical marijuana initiatives. And
polls show more than 70 percent support medical marijuana.

Has pot smoking once feared as a dangerous habit of the counterculture
become an unremarkable part of mainstream America?

Pot smokers would have you believe it.

"I mow my lawn on Saturdays. I put chlorine in the pool. I put gas in my
SUV. I go to my kid's plays at school and the stupid bake sales," said Bob,=
a 40-something Web designer from Vista. "I also happen to enjoy marijuana.=
And there are a lot of people out there just like me."

The National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws (NORML) is trying to
prove it. Their goal: get 100 prominent Americans CEOs, CPAs, MDs to=
publicly proclaim they smoke pot in an open letter to major newspapers. So=
far, few have agreed.

"Once people see how common it is, you are going to see marijuana legal in=
very short order," said Dale Gieringer, president of the NORML's California=
chapter. "The stereotype will fall away and people will realize marijuana
isn't the dire threat they think it is."

The trend toward marijuana acceptance troubles some doctors. A marijuana
joint has more cancer-causing compounds than a tobacco cigarette, said Dr.=
Herbert Kleber, a professor of psychiatry and director of the division of
substance abuse at Columbia University in New York City. Studies show heavy=
use can permanently impair the memory and that people who use marijuana are=
more likely to try harder drugs such as cocaine and heroin.

As many as 200,000 people a year seek treatment for marijuana addiction,
according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

"The data is increasingly clear that marijuana can cause physical
dependence and there is a withdrawal syndrome," Kleber said.

Not only that, pot smokers who contend smoking a joint is the same as
having a couple of drinks are wrong, said Dr. Daniel Valentine, director of=
substance abuse services at Sharp Vista Pacifica in Kearny Mesa.

The reason? Marijuana is illegal. Alcohol isn't. Whether or not you agree
with the law, "you're giving the message to your children that illegal drug=
use is OK," Valentine said.

Risk management
In 2000, there were 1,579,566 drug arrests nationwide, according to FBI
statistics. Nearly half 734,497 were for marijuana.

Of those, 646,042 people were arrested for possession.

But upper-middle-lass stoners aren't worried about getting busted by
police. Police admit it: There's little chance they're going to arrest
suburbanites quietly smoking a joint in the privacy of their own tract home.

"The police department doesn't go around snooping in people's houses to see=
if they're smoking a joint at the kitchen table," said Groza, the San Diego=
police sergeant.

Upstanding stoners are discreet. They don't buy dope on street corners.
They have connections friends or business associates who deal or grow=
 the
marijuana themselves.

To keep their risk down, they buy in small quantities. Possession of less
than an ounce marijuana in California is a misdemeanor that carries little=
more than a $200 fine. (The fine for running a red light is higher.)

Nor do upscale marijuana connoisseurs smoke ordinary Mexican pot. They
smoke premiums strains with names such as "Chronic" and "BC Bud" highly=
potent pot that's often cultivated using a sophisticated system of
hybridized plants, artificial lights and a soil-less growing system called=
hydroponics.

"BC Bud" takes it's name from British Columbia, where much of it comes
from. Premium pot can contain 15 to 25 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC),=
pot's psychoactive ingredient, compared with about 2 percent for the
marijuana available to their hippie forebears in the '70s.

Primo pot can sell for as much as $6,000 a pound.

One former parole agent said he spends as much on marijuana as a car
payment on a Beemer: $400 a month. He lights up most mornings with his cup=
of coffee.

He and his wife frequently host parties attended by prominent members of
San Diego government and business. The former parole agent supplies the
pot. Whoever wants it simply smokes it discreetly in the back yard, out of=
respect for those who don't.

Jeff Jarvis and his wife, Tracy Johnson, a 40-year-old couple from a
Portland suburb, are among the few suburbanites actually trying to promote=
their pot smoking.

They have a pro-pot Web site called jeffandtracy.com. Their motto: "We're
your good neighbors. We smoke pot."

The couple said they were turned down when they tried to buy pro-pot
advertising space on city buses, park benches and in their state's largest=
paper, the Oregonian. Nor would any radio station in their area run their
ad even the station that carries the "Howard Stern Show."

"We set out to counteract the propaganda being put forth by groups like the=
Partnership for Drug Free America that portray drugs in general and pot
smokers in particular as losers and bums," said Tracy, a homemaker.

Since he started his campaign, Jeff Jarvis, a self-employed software
engineer, said he hasn't lost a single client.

But others fear they have much to lose.

The communications exec believes he'd be fired if he made it known that he=
smokes pot. "If anyone found out, my life would be ruined," he said.

His paranoia is well-founded. Corporate America, largely out of liability
concerns, does not tolerate drug use.

In 2001, 67 percent of companies surveyed by the American Management
Association tested their employees for drugs. Of those, 61 percent did
pre-employment testing of job applicants and 50 percent drug-tested=
 employees.

Marijuana can be detected in the urine for two to four weeks, depending on=
the potency and how much was smoked, Kleber said.

Phil Blair, executive officer of Manpower Staffing Services, which provides=
some 15,000 workers to 600 companies, said he deals with only one company
that does random drug testing.

However, nearly every large firm he deals with has a "for cause"
drug-testing policy, enabling employers test workers suspected of using
drugs. It's also routine to drug test anyone who has an accident on job or=
who files a worker's compensation claim.

The punishment for people who test positive for marijuana is
straightforward: "If you're caught, you are instantly fired."

The communications exec believes there's almost no chance of that happening=
to him. His company doesn't do random tests. He said he could, and would,
stop immediately if that was the case.

"It doesn't affect me as a husband or a father. It certainly doesn't affect=
my job," he said. "It's just a way to relax and kick back for the night."




=


**




web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
Date: Sun, 07 Jul 2002 11:33:01 -0700

Subject:CA: Petaluma Pot Grower Seeks Asylum in Canada Up TOC

From: Dale Gieringer (415) 563-5858  // canorml@igc.org
2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114

Petaluma pot grower seeks asylum in Canada

July 6, 2002

By JEREMY HAY
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT (Santa Rosa, CA)

A Petaluma man wanted by federal authorities on marijuana trafficking and
money laundering charges has applied for political asylum in Canada.

Kenneth E. Hayes, who successfully fought Sonoma County pot charges last
year, would face persecution for his political opinions should he be forced=
to return to America, his Canadian attorney said.

Hayes, 34, was arrested in April in Vancouver, British Columbia, for
alleged immigration violations.

His attorney, Alex Stojicevic, said U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
agents were present when Hayes was arrested and asked to interview him, but=
Hayes refused.

Hayes fled to Canada in January, shortly before DEA agents seized 200 pot
plants from his northwest Petaluma ranch.

The DEA operation included raids on a San Francisco marijuana buyers club
that DEA agents said was a front for "large-scale" drug dealing. Hayes
supporters say the club -- which continues to operate -- supplied pot under=
Califor-nia's medical marijuana law.

Stojicevic said Hayes sought asylum "because he's being persecuted for his=
actions and singled out."

Canadian immigration authorities will hold hearings in the next six to 12
months to determine whether Hayes is a political refugee under the
guidelines of the U.N. convention on refugees, Stojicevic said.

The charges against Hayes carry possible sentences of 20 years to life in
prison.

Stojicevic represents two other California men who face U.S. charges and
have applied for political refugee status.

Steve Kubby, the 1998 Libertarian gubernatorial candidate, and former
Humboldt County medical marijuana activist Steve Tuck also applied,
Stojicevic said.

"They have a well-grounded fear of persecution," he said.

All three men claim to need marijuana for medical purposes. Hayes and Tuck=
said they also grow pot for use by other medical users.

Kubby, 56, was convicted of misdemeanor possession of peyote and acquitted=
of marijuana charges in Placer County two years ago. He faces a four-month=
sentence but says he would die without access to marijuana.

The state Justice Department is trying to upgrade his conviction to a=
 felony.

Tuck, 36, faces six felony marijuana trafficking charges in Humboldt
County, where authorities rejected a medical claim he had successfully used=
in a separate, earlier case.

Hayes and Kubby also face lesser charges of pot cultivation in Canada that=
are awaiting outcomes in British Columbia courts.

You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 762-9667 or jhay@pressdemocrat.com.

Copyright =A9 2002 The Press Democrat




=


**




web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
Date: Sun, 07 Jul 2002 20:59:45 -0700

Subject:HI: Green Harvest Up TOC

Newshawk: http://www.lp.org/issues/drug-war-task-force.html
Pubdate: Sat, 06 Jul 2002
Source: Garden Island (HI)
Copyright: 2002 Kauai Publishing Co.
Contact: http://www.kauaiworld.com/kauai/letterstoeditor.nsf/webletter?openform
Website: http://kauaiworld.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/964

GREEN HARVEST

The Kauai Police Department earlier this week cut down almost 10,000
marijuana plants of varying size. They were assisted by state and federal
agencies in spotting the plants using a helicopter and in eradicating the
plants.

The good news is the number of plants located and destroyed. The bad news
is word that the sale of ice, which requires no growing of plants and it
thus less obvious, is the drug of choice now to sell.

However, continuing to fly Green Harvest operations is an important part of
the battle to keep the Island free of drug abuse.

Beyond problems caused through the generation of illegal income gained from
selling illicit drugs, is the impact on our society through drug use. A
vast majority of criminals in our overcrowded jails are locked up on crimes
that have links to abuse of drugs and/or alcohol. Striking at the source of
illegal drugs is one of the strongest deterrents possible.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth

 
 


**




web:     http://www.crrh.org/

------------------------------
End of Restore-Digest V2002 #127
********************************