JUST ABOUT EVERYONE HATES THE WAR ON Drugs. Public officials and pundits at every point along the political spectrum, from the governors of New Mexico and Minnesota to the former mayor of Baltimore, have railed against its wastefulness; Detroit Police Chief Jerry Oliver blames it for exacerbating inner-city crime. William F. Buckley calls it a "plague that consumes an estimated $75 billion per year in public money"; Christopher Hitchens has labeled it "grotesque, state-sponsored racketeering." According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center last year, three-quarters of the country believes the drug war is failing. Enter the words "end the war on drugs" into Google, and you'll get some 2,400 links, leading to the Web sites of religious groups, corporate-media sources and drug-legalization advocacy groups. [continues 1242 words]
In the editorial "The terrorist connection" (Nov. 18), you state, "the alleged drugs-for-arms scheme failed. But how many succeed?" The only case that springs to mind is that of Ollie North and John Poindexter. How many others succeed as well is just about anyone's guess. The question is what to do about it. Nixon declared war on drugs in the early '70s. Next came Reagan, who renewed the war effort. Then Gen. Barry McCaffrey joined the battle, and asked for more money. [continues 132 words]
"I think I've felt better." "Can I do anything?" "Nope. I'll get some pot, and it'll be better." We were on the wet street outside Memorial Sloan-Kettering in New York where she had just had a transfusion. She is Rosemary Dunne, a relative from Connecticut, and she has been living on blood transfusions every two weeks for several years. She has a low red count, and nobody knows why. That's all there is. "I'm mad at myself," she said. [continues 706 words]
When San Jose high school principal Jacklyn Guevara was offered a chance to enroll some of her students as guinea pigs for a novel online drug and alcohol treatment program, she jumped at it. Guevara has only three drug counselors on her staff. And drug programs for youths are notoriously ineffective. An Internet service that employs techno music, chat rooms, interactive features, videos and real-time counseling to help teens beat their habit? That sounded terrific. Where do I sign Foothill High School up, she asked? [continues 546 words]
"What do you think?" I asked her. "I think I've felt better." "Can I do anything?" "Nope. I'll get some pot and it'll be better." We were on the wet street outside Memorial Sloan-Kettering where she had just had a transfusion. She is Rosemary Dunne, a relative from Connecticut, and she has been living on blood transfusions every two weeks for several years. She has a low red count and nobody knows why. That's all there is. [continues 708 words]
Washington's crusade against terrorism is pushing the drug war to the sidelines and causing a sharp reduction in resources and financial assistance available to many Latin American countries for whom anti-drug initiatives were the primary source of U.S. aid. Some members of Congress and former anti-drug officials fear that the problem is becoming worse as the administration's interest wanes-- even as President Bush has declared governmental corruption in Latin America a major enemy. There have been several critical changes in the White House's war on drugs. At the end of September, Bush signed legislation that effectively eased the criteria by which the United States identifies nations as friends or foes in the international drug war. For more than a decade Washington threatened sanctions against those it placed on the wrong side. The change is appreciated in Latin America. [continues 634 words]
AT 6:30 SHARP ON A THURSDAY NIGHT IN MID-October, a crowd gathered quickly at the entrance to 6769 Lexington Ave., a half-block east of Highland in Hollywood. Aside from the shuffling of feet and the usual sniffles brought on by the plummeting temperatures of an early fall evening, there was little commotion until a couple of minutes past the half-hour, when a skinny guy in a watchman's cap and overalls began to bang insistently on the door. "Hey, man, you guys gotta open up!" he shouted. A minute or two later, a young woman with a ring of keys came downstairs, and the "clients," as they're called by the volunteers of Clean Needles Now, filed into a line that stretched up the stairs and spilled into the tiny space where volunteers manned a few folding tables. [continues 1219 words]
On drug policy, the voting public has proven ready to lead spaniel-like politicians by the nose, voting for one liberalization measure after another. But government, state and local officials have begun a crusade to scuttle reform initiatives around the nation. Three wealthy drug reform proponents have backed a string of successful state ballot initiatives across the nation. Focusing initially on medical marijuana measures out west, billionaires George Soros and Peter Lewis and multi-millionaire John Sperling have won 12 of 13 ballot measures since 1996. Their handiwork also includes Proposition 36, which mandates treatment rather than prison for low-level drug offenders and was passed overwhelmingly in California in 2000. Other activists have similarly outflanked the officials who lag behind public opinion, and the reform movement as a whole has won 17 of 19 ballot measures -- much to the chagrin of drug warriors. [continues 3917 words]
The Action Speaks Lecture Series Probes The War On Drugs Despite growing evidence that treatment is a less costly and more effective response than locking up nonviolent drug offenders, American politicians remain addicted to the war on drugs. Two-thirds of the $19.2 billion federal anti-drug budget is spent on interdiction and law enforcement, which has done nothing to reduce the availability of dope, and presidents ranging from Bill Clinton to George W. Bush have proved unwilling to back a different approach for fear of being seen as soft on crime. [continues 1324 words]
"We have created an American gulag," declared former drug czar Barry McCaffrey in 1996, describing the widespread and accelerating incarceration of drug offenders. Unfortunately, the American drug gulag has grown even larger since then. And it is a phenomenon that has a human and financial cost. In 1990, the entire federal prison system held a total of 56,989 inmates for all offenses combined. By the time McCaffrey made his observation in '96, there were 55,000 drug offenders in federal prisons. In 2000, federal prisons held almost 130,000 inmates, of which 75,000 were drug offenders. [continues 1369 words]
New Mexico has been more progressive in tackling some aspects of drug reform than virtually all other states, today's author reports, but further progress will depend mostly on the next governor. Although he's never used it himself, Kevin Santry can teach you how to shoot up heroin. Packed into his SUV, Santry has everything you need (well, almost) to do the job: the little round metal cups you use for cooking the drug, dental cottons to strain out the gunk, alcohol swabs, rubber tourniquets for tying around your arm and, of course, needles. [continues 2975 words]
Now that Nevada is asking voters to decide the issue of marijuana legalization, talk shows are buzzing. Asa Hutchinson, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration; John Walters, current drug czar; Barry McCaffrey, former drug czar; and other government officials too numerous to mention would have you believe that marijuana is a demon weed with no benefits, not even medical. What they don't tell you is According to a Reuters report on March 25, Dr. Manuel Guzman of Complutence University in Madrid, Spain, released evidence that THC destroys tumors in rats thus verifying results from 1974 Virginia published in the September 1975 Journal of National Cancer Institute. [continues 133 words]
On September 5, D.E.A. agents arrested epileptic patient Valerie Corral and her husband Michael in Santa Cruz, Calif., on charges of cultivating marijuana for distribution. The Corrals have made no secret of the fact that their Women's Alliance for Medical Marijuana cooperative serves the needs of seriously ill Californians who have recommendations from their doctors to use marijuana for medicine. W.A.M.M. operated under state law and with the blessing of local officials, but has become the latest victim of an alarming pattern of heavy-handed federal interference in state policy. [continues 851 words]
Medical marijuana's history began thousands of years ago in China and India. In India, marijuana has had a solid position in Ayruvedic medicine and is still prescribed today. The world's first encyclopedia of medicines, compiled in 1 A.D. by Chinese authors, suggests marijuana for over 100 conditions such as malaria and absentmindedness. Even in the United States, pharmaceutical companies produced marijuana-based drugs until 1937, when high taxes and extensive paperwork discouraged doctors from treating patients with marijuana. [continues 2101 words]
Drug initiative backers with the contumacy to flank a laggard government by appealing directly to the people are met yet again with a covert, multi-state gathering of government officials planning partisan electioneering on the public dime. And, given the presentation by the Bush Administration's drug policy second-in-command - a job senior enough to require Senate confirmation - the White House-backed effort will apparently include government propaganda to sway the vote of those who pay for it. [continues 6661 words]
By Frances Robles BOGOTA - The amount of land under coca cultivation in Colombia dropped substantially last year, the first time in a decade that reflected any progress in the nation's drug war, according to United Nations figures released Thursday. U.N. surveillance photos taken Nov. 2001 show 355,824 acres committed to the growth of coca -- the plant that is used to manufacture cocaine. The year before, it was 11 percent higher at 402,773 acres. "There's no reason to be euphoric," said Klaus Nyholm, head of the UN's Drug Control office in Bogota. "Colombia remains the world's No. 1 cocaine producer -- 80 percent of the cocaine in the world." [continues 408 words]
This time, reefer rebels not so dazed and confused In the fifth grade, one of the best things was the government-issue films on everything from flossing and hygiene to sexuality and interstellar space. Not only were they hilarious, but they were always a welcome reprieve from the monotony of class. I'll always remember the one about human genetic experiments that benefit humanity by giving them plantlike skin that turns sunlight into energy. Then there's the one about drugs. [continues 593 words]
Christine Logslett's Aug. 13 letter, "Culture harmful to our children," included some assertions about marijuana that must be challenged. In March 1999, the Institute of Medicine released a report, "Marijuana and Medicine, Assessing the Science Base," commissioned by drug czar Barry McCaffrey. It reported: "There is no conclusive evidence that the drug effects of marijuana are causally linked to the subsequent abuse of other illicit drugs." While Logslett is correct that "marijuana is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for a reason," the reason is political, not scientific, and has nothing to do with the safety or medical efficacy of marijuana. [continues 130 words]
Gary Storck of Madison uses marijuana to relieve the chronic pain of Noonan syndrome, which he was born with 47 years ago. He's had heart surgery three times, has never driven a car due to extremely limited vision and is on medical disability. He's a member of several groups that advocate for reform of drug laws. "I've come to the conclusion, like a lot of other people, that the drug war is causing way more harm than it's preventing," Storck says. "It's unjust. It targets minorities, it targets a lot of good people." [continues 1085 words]
Nicole Kidman and action movie hero Vin Diesel, who stars in "XXX," had dinner together at the Polo Lounge in Beverly Hills on Sunday night, reported the New York Daily News, which said she was giggling at his witticisms. Kidman's PR person said they were talking about working together. Could be he was witty; could be there's a project; could be this scene took place in public to enable columnists describing it to give Diesel's new movie a boost. So there. [continues 699 words]
