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MAPTalk-Digest Wednesday, December 27 2006 Volume 06 : Number 150

001 James Brown
    From: Herb <>
002 Families welcome Christmas sentence cuts
    From: Herb <>
003 History Shows That Legalized Drugs Do Not Cause Problems
    From: R Givens <>
004 I wonder how long my comment will last at China Daily?
    From: Herb <>
005 US OH: OPED: We Have Lost Drug War
    From: Allan Erickson <>


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Subj: 001 James Brown
From: Herb <>
Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2006 08:52:04 -0800

FYI -

He said he smokes marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Brown told the newspaper: ``I have bad eyes. It was just a little 
tiny bit. It wasn't even a misdemeanor...it should've been in 
recorder's court.''

			- 
http://www.marijuananews.com/marijuananews/cowan/james_brown_arrested_

James Brown - I Feel Good

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bs1HUbMCZKc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6zP7FkaovA&NR 

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Subj: 002 Families welcome Christmas sentence cuts
From: Herb <>
Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2006 09:24:24 -0800

FYI -

"THE families of convicted Australian drug traffickers Schapelle 
Corby and Renae Lawrence have welcomed a one-month cut to each of 
their jail terms but say they wish it could be more."

         - Families welcome Christmas sentence cuts: 
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20974792-401,00.html

Herb

p.s.

So this is Christmas...

sarah mclachlan - wintersong

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lZwI5wXU1z4&mode=related&search

Sarah McLachlan -River

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udkaq7odKJo&mode=related&search

Fairytale of New York

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Q-IGdmLKiY&mode=related&search

John Lennon War Is Over

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1EoQYGJrdU

Twisted Sister - Oh Come All Ye Faithful

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yPmu-uqQX9s&mode=related&search

Enya- Silent Night

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAJnrKwAcW4

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Subj: 003 History Shows That Legalized Drugs Do Not Cause Problems
From: R Givens <>
Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2006 15:33:04 -0800

(letters following this outline have been published in several newspapers)

Proof that legal regulated drugs are the best 
policy comes from the history BEFORE drug 
prohibition. Search the archives in vain trying 
to find cases of "drug crimes" or accidental drug 
deaths BEFORE drug prohibition. There are no such 
cases in the records.

ALL of the crime associated with illegal drugs 
comes from drug laws, not drug intoxication. I 
searched The New York Times microfilm archives 
from 1910-1914 looking for "drug crimes" and 
accidental overdoses- neither was found. I have 
also done dozens of searches of
newspaperarchive.com  for these subjects without 
finding a single report of a "drug crime" and all 
of the "drug deaths" were suicides. Reports of an 
accidental drug deaths and drug crimes are not 
found in the historic records.

Drug warriors constantly make the absurd claim 
that drug prohibition is "keeping the public 
safe" when the obvious truth is that America's 
drug crusade is the largest single cause of 
disease, death and crime in the nation.

Contrary to what drug crusaders claim there are 
no benefits to drug prohibition whatsoever. Only 
people with a profound ignorance of history think 
drug laws are protecting anyone from anything. 

There was no such thing as "drug crime" before 
harsh drug laws went on the books. When drugs 
were legal, addicts held regular employment, 
raised decent families and were indistinguishable 
from their teetotaling neighbors. 

History shows that no one was robbing, whoring 
and murdering to get drugs when addicts could buy 
all of the heroin, morphine, cocaine and anything 
else they wanted cheaply and legally at the 
corner pharmacy.  A legal heroin habit cost less 
than tobacco addiction (50¢ per week in 1910) and 
"drug crime" was unknown. Drug fueled crime never 
happened before drug prohibition went on the 
books. The term "drug crime" is an invention of 
prohibitionists trying to cover the effects of 
their failed drug policy.

A 1994 US Department of Justice study revealed 
that  "Illegal drugs and violence are linked 
primarily through drug marketing: disputes among 
rival distributors, arguments and robberies 
involving buyers and sellers, property crimes 
committed to raise drug money and, more 
speculatively, social and economic interactions 
between the illegal markets and the surrounding 
communities.  ....  alcohol is the only 
[psychoactive substance] whose consumption has 
been shown to commonly increase aggression"

Accidental overdoses were virtually unheard of 
when addicts used cheap pure morphine and Bayer 
Heroin instead of the expensive toxic potions a 
long failed drug crusade puts on the streets. 
Unintentional opiate overdose deaths were 
extremely rare before drugs were outlawed. Most 
drug deaths before the Harrison Narcotic Act were 
suicides. Nowadays, Drug Czar John Walters tells 
us there are more than 30,000 accidental drug 
deaths in the United States every year. The term 
"drug death" is used to hide the fact that drug 
laws are responsible for these fatalities.

Absolute proof that hard line American style drug 
prohibition causes drug deaths and drug crimes 
comes from the Swiss Heroin Maintenance Program 
where addicts are supplied with cheap, pure 
heroin and cocaine. Overdose deaths and 
injection-transmitted diseases (HIV/AIDS, Hep C 
etc) are now a rarity in Switzerland . The Swiss 
have not had a single overdose death in the 
program. Crime among Swiss addicts has dropped 
97-percent and the criminal drug black market has 
vanished since the Swiss began providing addicts 
with cheap legal drugs. Swiss policy has also 
resulted in an 82-percent decrease in heroin 
addiction since 1990. Almost all addicts in 
Switzerland are gainfully employed and 
self-supporting.

America's drug crusade has not achieved similar 
success using jail cells to treat addicts 
anywhere in the world since 1914. Anyone truly 
concerned about the victims of drugs, will work 
to end an immoral death dealing drug crusade that 
murders more than 30,000 people every year and 
spawns a multitude of criminal activity.
R Givens

sources:

Should the amphetamines be prohibited? 
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/studies/cu/cu40.htm
The Consumers Union Report on Licit and Illicit 
Drugs 
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/cu/cu5.html)
Some eminent narcotics addicts 
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/Library/studies/cu/cu5.html
Psychoactive Substances and Violence 
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/GOVPUBS/psycviol.htm
Status Report On The Medical Prescription Of Narcotics.
http://www.drugpolicy.org/library%5Ctlcswiss.cfm
Swiss Heroin Maintenance Program Declared a 
Success http://www.ndsn.org/AUGUST97/SWISS.html
Swiss Voters Overwhelmingly Support Heroin 
Maintenance Program 
http://www.ndsn.org/novdec97/swiss.htm
Programme for a Medical of Narcotics: Final 
Report of the Research Representatives 
http://www.cfdp.ca/switz.htmlPrescription
http://www.emedicine.com/news.asp?name060601plcy001.xml&page=eMedicine
Did Alcohol Prohibition Reduce Alcohol Consumption and Crime?
http://www.druglibrary.org/prohibitionresults.htm 
and 
http://www.druglibrary.org/prohibitionresults.htm#a2)
DARE Doesn't Work 
http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/InTheNews/UnderageDrinking/1080070451

In reading yet again "anti-legalization" LTE 
which ran in this morning's St Pete Times and 
another item from former Drug Czar lackey Kevin 
Sabet, I was struck by the refrain therein where 
Sabet submitted that "legalization efforts have 
been a failure (remember Switzerland's 'Needle 
Park'??).

Well we all know that three years after shutting 
down the Needle Park venture, the Swiss 
instituted a more regulated safe injection and 
heroin maintenance program which almost ten years 
later has exceeded all expectations for 
increasing public health and safety while 
relieving their criminal justice system of 
property crime and drug-possession cases.

But upon further reflection, I submit that in 
fact "Legalization is tried and true and has a 
proven track record."

As evidence I point to the system used in the 
United States for the past 72 years.

99.9% of the pharmacopia and other intoxicant 
drugs (alcohol and tobacco) are LEGAL and their 
production and commercial distribution is subject 
to various forms of regulation at the federal, 
state and local levels.

This system has been approved of and supported by 
communities, states and federal policymakers for 
over seven decades.
As mentioned above, it is the preferred system 
for production and distribution of the dangerous 
and often addictive drugs alcohol, tobacco and 
also includes risky and potentially abusable 
drugs from Vicodin to Celebrex to Oxcyodone to 
Morphine and hundreds of other in-demand Rx drugs.

It's time for reformers to wrest further control 
of the "DrugSpeak" from status quo 
Prohibitionists.

For decades, they've attempted to say, "Street drugs = BAD, Other Drugs = OKAY"

Next time someone suggests to you, in person or 
in writing, that "legalization won't work", 
remind them that legalization does in fact work 
for 99.9% of the current list of in-demand drugs.

And further, legalization and movement into a 
regulated free market will almost entirely end 
street dealing for any drug, as proven by the 
current distribution rates of legal drugs.

Alcohol - 99.9% of all alcohol transactions are 
conducted by a legal, regulated dealer (retailer, 
bar or restaurant).

Tobacco - 99.8% of all tobacco transactions are 
conducted by a legal, regulated dealer.  In the 
past few years there has been a very tiny spike 
in interstate smuggling from states with possibly 
excessive taxation to states with lower taxation.

Rx Pharms - According to the DEA, "Upwards of 3% 
of pharmacueticals in the U.S. are 'diverted' 
illegally from legal distribution channels and 
onto the street."

That translates into "97% of all Rx pharm 
transactions are conducted by legal, regulated 
drug dealers."

And the 3% diversion could quite likely be 
reduced by our addressing the gross disparities 
in pricing for Rx drug consumers. (insured vs 
non-insured etc).

Fun Fact #1 A Legal, Regulated system for drug 
production and distribution is NOT WITHOUT 
PROBLEMS.

IFun Fact #2 A Legal, Regulated system for drug 
production and distribution can be exploited by 
those intent on same.

But regardless of both these facts, it remains a 
far preferable system to that of drug Prohibition 
and the associated societal damage and 
destruction which is stimulated by Prohibition.

Three cents plus a nickel from Clearwater

S

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Subj: 004 I wonder how long my comment will last at China Daily?
From: Herb <>
Date: Mon, 25 Dec 2006 18:23:16 -0800

I wonder how long my comment will last at China Daily?

http://comment.chinadaily.com.cn/articlecmt.shtml?id=767347

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Subj: 005 US OH: OPED: We Have Lost Drug War
From: Allan Erickson <>
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2006 08:51:37 -0800

US OH: OPED: We Have Lost Drug War
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n1739/a02.html?397

Besides a great Oped, on the Repository's source page there is a
comments section and so far we are up 5 - 0...

http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=3D326959&Category=3D14&subCatego
=3D

registration is required.

=E6=

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End of MAPTalk-Digest V06 #150
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