TEHRAN, Iran (Reuters) -- Iranian police seized 1.3 tons of drugs and arrested 116 traffickers in the central Yazd province, the official IRNA news agency said on Monday. The seized drugs consisted mainly of opium with smaller amounts of heroin and hashish, IRNA said. Iran lies on the main drug transit route from Afghanistan and Pakistan, the so-called "golden crescent," to the lucrative markets of Europe and the oil-rich Arab states. It also suffers from a domestic drug abuse problem with around 2 million addicts and casual users in a population of 63 million. [continues 84 words]
LIMA, Peru (Reuters) -- Thousands of illegal growers of coca, the raw material for cocaine, agreed to suspend protests that included road blockades after Peru promised to stop eradicating their crop, officials said on Thursday. About 35,000 growers in the central Upper Huallaga valley had protested since Monday by putting barricades of rocks and stones across key highways in their biggest protests in a decade. "We have been able to arrive at a consensus ... in which the eradication is stopped," Health Minister Alejandro Aguinaga, who also heads Peru's anti-drug efforts, told local radio news. [continues 318 words]
(Program aired October 22, 2000 - 8:43 A.M. ET) KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Maryland and Hawaii are among the states trying to find a crop to plant in fields once dedicated to tobacco and sugar. Their answer? Hemp. Although hailed for its many uses, hemp was banned in the U.S. many years ago. As Kathleen Koch reports, the hemp debate is growing. KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It grows like a weed, industrial hemp, a cousin of marijuana, but without its narcotic kick. Canadian farmers have planted 100,000 acres of the hardy crop since Canada lifted its ban two years ago. [continues 476 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) -- Colombia's elections for thousands of local and state posts came off peacefully on Sunday, but the outcome was seen as a blow to embattled President Andres Pastrana midway through his four-year term. Pastrana's Conservative Party lost races for governor and mayor in traditional strongholds and Liberal and independent candidates claimed victories across the country. Independents won mayoral elections in four of the country's largest cities including the capital of Bogota. "It was a punishment vote against the current government, which has done nothing to improve the living conditions of Colombians," said Liberal Party leader Horacio Serpa. [continues 390 words]
SULLIVAN, Illinois (AP) -- Police knew it, and Charles McArthur even admits it: If he had had the chance to enter his trailer alone, he would have destroyed any evidence of marijuana. So for the two hours it took to obtain a search warrant, police did not let McArthur re-enter his home unless he was accompanied by an officer. Then they conducted a search, found marijuana and arrested him. That decision -- made three years ago in this small Illinois town over a misdemeanor drug offense -- was to be reviewed Wednesday by the U.S. Supreme Court. [continues 492 words]
Host: Daryl Kagan Guests: Congressman Doug Ose, Betty Ford Center President John Schwarzlose, Yes on Prop. 36 campaign rep. Dave Fratello [begin excerpt] KAGAN: Welcome back to TALKBACK LIVE, continuing our discussion as we turn our attention now to California's proposition 36. It concerns the treatment of people who commit drug-related crimes. Joining us are two representatives from California. Democrat Maxine Waters will be with us in just a moment, and right now, we have Republican Doug Ose. Congressman, good to see. [continues 3278 words]
The trend toward punishing pregnant women for unhealthy behavior has been steadily on the increase for the last few years. Women have been prosecuted in a number of states for either child abuse or delivering drugs to a minor because they used illicit drugs during pregnancy. In a recent Massachusetts case, a pregnant woman was jailed when she refused a prenatal medical exam on religious grounds. The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide a case that represents a showdown over the question of whether preventing harm to future children can trump pregnant womens decision making and even their freedom. The Court heard oral arguments in early October in the case of Ferguson v. City of Charleston, in which pregnant women sued a hospital for releasing results of drug tests to police. The policy and practice at a hospital in Charleston, South Carolina, was to perform a drug test on pregnant women who fit certain criteria. Those who tested positive for cocaine use were reported to the police and offered the option of immediate admission to inpatient drug treatment or arrest and possible jail time. [continues 497 words]
DARYN KAGAN, HOST: In Alaska, they're calling it the "dope and rope initiative." Voters are being asked to decide if the use, sale and possession of hemp products, including marijuana, should be decriminalized. California's Proposition 36 calls for drug treatment rather than jail time for those convicted of nonviolent drug crimes. Proponents say it would relieve overcrowded prisons. Opponents maintain it relieves lawbreakers of responsibility and limits what judges can do. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) [continues 7426 words]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Ecuador is asking the United States for up to $160 million to create an economic buffer zone on its border with Colombia to stop the drug trade from spreading, Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Heinz Moeller said. Ecuador's wish list includes helicopters, fast boats to patrol rivers and reconnaissance equipment to tighten control over the frontier, Moeller said. In meetings with U.S. officials, Moeller said Ecuador needed between $30 million and $40 million a year in U.S. assistance to fund a $300 million, four-year programme of social and economic development in its northern border region. [continues 442 words]
SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- Many people convicted of drug possession in California will no longer go to jail if voters approve a proposed drug-reform law on November's ballot. And that's proving controversial. Proponents of the Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act say the proposed law would make needed changes in drug laws -- keeping most offenders on probation and sending them to drug treatment programs rather than jail. By treating drug use as a disease and not a crime, proponents say Proposition 36, as the measure is called, would save the state millions of dollars. It also would reduce drug-related crime and reserve jail space for violent offenders, they say. [continues 244 words]
LONDON, England -- The U.K.'s opposition Conservative Party has suddenly split between advocates of a tough new policy against marijuana and senior party figures who admit they smoked the drug in their youth. The issue flared up at the party's annual conference, where criminal justice spokeswoman Ann Widdecombe announced a policy of mandatory fines for the first offence of possessing any amount of marijuana. "It means zero tolerance of possession. No more getting away with just a caution, no more hoping that a blind eye will be turned. If someone possesses drugs, the minimum for a first offence will be a fixed penalty of 100 pounds ($150). But not for a second offence. Then it's into court," said Widdecombe, who cited New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's anti-crime policies as her inspiration. [continues 444 words]
LONDON, England (CNN) -- Many European governments are shifting from harsh soft-drug penalties towards a more tolerant approach to drugs such as cannabis. The most dramatic change in policy is likely to come from Portugal, where hard and soft drugs alike are expected to be decriminalised within weeks. Earlier this month, the Swiss government came out in favour of legalising cannabis and is expected to put its recommendations to parliament next year. The legal framework borrowed from -- and still predominant in -- the U.S. that aimed to prevent soft drug usage through strong criminal deterrents has made way for a system focused on the social and medical implications of regular drug use. [continues 768 words]
Washington (CNN) -- Several lawmakers have criticized the Office of National Drug Control Policy for the way it has responded to allegations of fraud in its anti-drug media campaign. "This...whole program of advertising and bringing more awareness to the youth of America about the perils of using drugs is not working as well as we would have hoped," said a frustrated Rep. John Mica, R-Florida, in a congressional hearing on Wednesday. Mica is chairman of the Government Reform Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources. [continues 524 words]
EL PASO, Texas -- Along the United States border with Mexico, district attorneys say they can't afford to prosecute any more federal drug- smuggling cases. The district attorneys say the federal government will have to take over the cases if it wants to see them prosecuted. "These are poor counties," said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-Texas). "They cannot afford to do the federal work when they don't have the resources themselves to do this work." Federal prosecutors take on the felony cases and leave the smaller cases for local prosecutors to try in state courts. But those little cases add up - the average of 500 in El Paso County, Texas, each year cost taxpayers $8 million. [continues 232 words]
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Supreme Court will decide in its next term, which begins in October, whether a 1998 Indianapolis traffic roadblock program, under which police officers searched 1,161 vehicles for drugs, violated motorists' Fourth Amendment right to be free from "unreasonable searches and seizures." The Indiana Civil Liberties Union, which filed a class-action lawsuit against the city in October 1998, argues the roadblock program was unconstitutional because officers did not have "probable cause" to stop or search motorists as required by the Fourth Amendment. [continues 1217 words]
Drug's Cleaner Image Pushes Its Popularity WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Four years ago, Kathryn Logan was 15 and a straight-A student at a suburban high school. Now, at 19, she's at a California treatment center trying to piece together a life shattered by drugs, especially heroin. "I've totaled cars, I've lived on the streets, I've gone through some things in my life that I never thought I'd go through," she says. Heroin, an insidious drug long associated with the inner city, began spreading to the suburbs and towns in the last decade and has been claiming more and more victims like Kathryn Logan. [continues 587 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) -- Protesting coca-leaf farmers set up new roadblocks thursday to interrupt traffic on the country's main highway while soldiers and police used tear gas in response to rock and stone throwing protesters. Only minor injuries were reported in the clash between police and protesting coca leaf farmers in the central Chapare region, 480 miles (772 kilometers) from La Paz, angered by the government's destruction of coca leaf crop. Only 2,000 hectares (4,940 acres) of coca leaf remain in the Chapare, 5 percent of what existed four years ago. President Hugo Banzer says Bolivia will no longer be producing cocaine by the end of the year. [continues 281 words]
Reno Pushes For Post-Prison Release Drug Treatment WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. President Bill Clinton is urging Congress to act without delay to fund a public safety initiative that would provide greater supervision for inmates after they are released from prison. Meanwhile, Attorney General Janet Reno on Monday announced $57 million in grants for state and local prisoner drug treatment programs, but said such programs must be expanded to include treatment of offenders after they are released. Clinton said the public safety initiative is needed because "an unprecedented number of individuals will be released from prison in the coming years." [continues 486 words]
Marijuana Plants Are Grown For Medicinal Purposes In This Story: Lawsuit Prompted Order Lawyer: Threat Had Chilling Effect SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) -- The federal government can't prosecute doctors who recommend marijuana as a medical treatment for patients, a federal judge ruled Thursday in California. U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup, sitting on the bench in San Francisco, issued an injunction permanently banning the government from revoking a physician's license to prescribe medicine "merely because the doctor recommends medical marijuana to a patient based on a sincere medical judgment." [continues 362 words]
The main topic was Colombia's fight against drugs and the ongoing peace talks with two of the country's guerrilla groups. AMANPOUR: Mr. President, President Clinton has recently visited you and brought with him a massive aid package. The American people who are actually spending this money want to know why you think throwing more money at this problem is going to solve what are very profound, profound problems. PASTRANA: We are putting a lot of money in with the United States. We are investing $1.3 billion a year avoiding drugs to go into the United States and to go into Europe. [continues 1602 words]
WASHINGTON (CNN) - - The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) introduced five new programs for treating marijuana addiction in adolescents at the kickoff of its Recovery Month 2000 on Thursday. Researchers said the new programs are more effective than current outpatient treatment plans. "While no treatment is a magic bullet, each is associated with better results than existing treatments," said Michael Dennis, one of the researchers who designed the programs. National Drug Control Policy Director Barry McCaffrey was on hand for the event. He called for $2.6 billion in additional spending [continues 416 words]
HOOVER, Alabama (CNN) -- Schools in a Birmingham, Alabama, suburb have begun testing student athletes for tobacco as well as alcohol and drugs. "It's a strong statement for us athletically to take a stand against the tobacco industry," said Rush Propst, head football coach at Hoover High School, the largest secondary school in Alabama. "I just don't think athletes need to smoke. I don't think any kids need to smoke," said the coach. A new government study indicates that smoking among high school students fell slightly last year and government analysts attributed the drop in part to prevention programs. [continues 477 words]
MARY MATALIN, CO-HOST: Tonight: President Clinton fires new ammunition in the drug war with more than a billion dollars in aid to Colombia. But is this just a waste of money? Can the war on drugs ever be won? On the left, Bill Press; on the right, Mary Matalin. In the CROSSFIRE: in Fort Smith, Arkansas, Republican Congressman Asa Hutchinson, a member of the Judiciary Committee; and in New York, Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation. [continues 3871 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombian President Andres Pastrana says he is hoping U.S. President Bill Clinton's visit on Wednesday will advance relations in two specific areas -- world support for fighting narcotrafficking and increased trade and commerce for his South American country. "Now we know that we are not alone in world, that we have friends that are helping us in this fight against a common enemy," Pastrana, speaking in English, said Tuesday in an interview with CNN. As his country battles cocaine and heroin producers, "sometimes people don't realize that we are fighting the largest business in the world; it's a $500 billion business," Pastrana said. "We are fighting the largest criminal organization." [continues 500 words]
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- The United States asked Peru for information about Soviet-era guns sold by Jordan that ended up in the hands of Colombian Marxist guerrillas, U.S. officials said on Monday. Peru announced last week that it busted a gun-running ring that smuggled 10,000 automatic Kalashnikov rifles from Jordan to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) via the Peruvian jungle. Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori said intelligence services had arrested six people, including three former Peruvian military officers and a Russian. [continues 325 words]
PUERTO ASIS, Colombia (AP) -- Nestling by a broad river that gently flows through the rain forest lies Puerto Asis, a village that subsists on coca, the raw material for cocaine. Villagers carefully tend their coca plants. Every three months they harvest the leaves, and tote them in burlap sacks to rudimentary laboratories where they are processed into coca paste. Every week, buyers come down the river to buy the paste, which is then converted into crystallized cocaine for sale in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. [continues 183 words]
Miguel Ceballos is director of the Colombia Project at the Center for Latin American Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. (CNN) -- Political violence and drug trafficking, while they are part of Colombia's general plight, are actually symptoms of a graver reality. We should realize that the country's social, political and economic conflicts derive from diverse causes. We should realize, too, that Colombia comprises 40 million inhabitants -- 75 percent urban and 25 percent rural -- who want only to be treated with dignity and respect, who hope that one day, as an organized society, they will have a truly democratic future for their country. [continues 1456 words]
Colombia's history of internal warfare is complex and often misunderstood, and one must question whether just throwing more money into the conflict is the answer A political scientist, Laura Garces has worked extensively on U.S. international affairs and is the author of the book, "The Globalization of the Monroe Doctrine." She has lived in the United States since 1988 and has taught at Rutgers and Johns Hopkins universities. For the past two years she has been concentrating on the cultural and social dynamics that fuel conflicts and currently is studying the situation in Colombia. She holds a doctorate from the University of Lausanne, Switzerland. [continues 1106 words]
(CNN) -- Relations between the United States and Colombia have never looked rosier: The U.S. Congress recently voted overwhelmingly to give a record $1.3 billion in emergency aid to Colombia and the surrounding region. Then President Bill Clinton waived most of the human rights conditions imposed on the aid in advance of his landmark visit to Colombia on August 30. But even as the ties between the two governments become increasingly close, a debate is heating up over the escalation of U.S. military involvement in Colombia's battle against narcotics trafficking and guerrilla insurgencies. [continues 1638 words]
As Paramilitaries And Leftist Guerrillas Bring Their War To Town, Citizens Of Colombia's Oil Center Ask, Whose Side Is The Government On? BARRANCABERMEJA, Colombia (CNN) -- Victor Riano Acosta's life ended in a burst of gunfire on a busy riverfront street, 300 meters from the local police station. Taking a break from his job of hawking second-hand clothes from a small kiosk, Acosta sat down for a drink with a friend. An assassin walked up behind him, pumped four bullets into the back of his head and fled on a motorcycle. [continues 1801 words]
Amid The Chaos Of Their Lives, Colombia's Poor Find A Way To Survive And To Generate A Bit Of Hope, If Not For Themselves, Then For Their Children BARRANCABERMEJA, Colombia (CNN) -- Rosalba Gomez would never have believed that a visit to the market with only 500 pesos (25 cents) could spare her son from a life with the guerrillas. Years later, with her son enrolled in a university, while all his former friends have enlisted with rebels or criminal gangs, she feels she never made a smarter investment. [continues 1286 words]
A young guerrilla fulfills her dream of joining the insurgency; an ex-guerrilla switches sides to fight for a right-wing paramilitary squad; a coca grower finds himself caught between rival armed groups and the Colombian police; a boy is evicted from his childhood home and forced to live on the bloody streets of a commune; a mother agonizes over her 3-year-old son kidnapped at gunpoint from their home in an affluent Bogota neighborhood. Latin America's longest-running civil war unfolds through the lives of five people. [continues 1954 words]
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. President Bill Clinton has set the stage for the release of a $1.3 billion aid package for Colombia's anti-drug efforts -- certifying that the war-torn nation has met minimum human rights requirements and waiving conditions it has yet to meet, said an administration official. Human rights groups say Colombia's human rights record does not merit a waiver. But the Clinton administration believes that stance is undercut by Colombia's need to gain the upper hand in its drug war. [continues 755 words]
BRASILIA (Reuters) -- Colombia's armed forces chief, Gen. Fernando Tapias, said a U.S.-backed intensification of its war on drug traffickers and rebels marked "a point of no return" in the country's peace process. In an interview published Sunday in Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo, Tapias said that the U.S.-backed "Plan Colombia" would force Marxist guerrillas to end their three decades of struggle by eroding their main source of income: the lucrative drug trade. "What is clear: there will be peace, but first there will be war," Tapias said. [continues 285 words]
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (Reuters) -- The Honduran Congress has ratified an anti-drug pact with Washington that will allow U.S. forces to patrol Honduran waters and airspace, a legislator said Thursday. The convention will allow the U.S. Coast Guard to board ships in Honduran waters suspected of smuggling drugs. It also allows for joint air and land patrols, said the head of Congress's Foreign Affairs Committee, Ramon Villeda. Since losing its Howard Air Force Base in Panama last year, Washington has been seeking other regional solutions to monitoring and interdicting boat shipments and planeloads of Colombian cocaine heading to U.S. consumers. [continues 77 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Drug dealers say they will begin assassinating Colombian leaders and supreme court judges until the government reverses its decision to allow a notorious drug kingpin to be extradited to the United States. "We won't allow the immoral American drug addicts to try us," reads an advertisement published all this week in newspapers in the sprawling city of Cali, located 185 miles (300 kilometers) from the capital, Bogota, in drug-producing southern Colombia. The ad, paid for by a group know as the Our Country Movement, goes on to directly threaten "judges, government ministers, representatives of the Supreme Court and all others that authorized extradition of the Colombian nationals." [continues 454 words]
Pastrana Vows To Investigate Army's Role PUEBLO RICO, Colombia -- Six children were buried in Pueblo Rico on Wednesday, one day after they died under a hail of bullets while on a school outing. The government and army say the children were caught in cross fire between rebels and soldiers, but townspeople and the children themselves insist there were no guerrillas in the area and that troops were the only ones firing. "Those who fired at us were soldiers. ... There were no guerrillas. ... One soldier started crying and said he had killed innocent children," one young girl, who declined to be identified, told reporters in Pueblo Rico. [continues 474 words]
BOGOTA, (Reuters) -- A car bomb in Bogota at the weekend highlighted why U.S. President Bill Clinton will not come to the capital on a visit to war-torn Colombia this month but instead stay in a coastal resort further from security threats posed by Marxist rebels and narco- traffickers. The Colombian government does not publicly recognize it has lost control over some sectors of Bogota, a city of 6 million inhabitants which is increasingly in the sights of the country's main Communist rebel force. [continues 590 words]
Note: Shadow Convention websites: http://www.drugpolicy.org/ http://www.shadowconventions.com/ LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- With the Democratic National Convention just two days away, political activist Arianna Huffington and an umbrella group of mostly left-leaning organizations are set to play host to another "Shadow Convention," a five-day event that organizers say will focus "on the issues that the parties won't touch." As it did during the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia two weeks ago, the Los Angeles "Shadow Convention" will focus on three issues -- campaign finance overhaul, poverty and the "wealth gap" in America, as well as what organizers say is the failed war on drugs. [continues 608 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia -- U.S. drug czar Barry McCaffrey travels to Colombia on Wednesday to meet with President Andres Pastrana and review a U.S. aid program to help Colombia fight drugs and rebels. U.S. Special Forces have begun training Colombian soldiers at a jungle base, officials said Tuesday, as the $1.3-billion initiative gets under way. "Colombia is in a risky position," said McCaffrey, who is President Clinton's point man on the war on drugs. "They've got a peace process that's going nowhere, and a drug production problem that's skyrocketing." [continues 376 words]
Case Pits Doctor Against Feds SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) -- A federal judge is pondering arguments over California's voter-approved law that allows very sick patients under a doctor's care to use marijuana for medical purposes. Although the state law was passed in 1996, marijuana remains illegal under federal law, and federal authorities have threatened that a doctor who even suggests marijuana use to a patient could lose his license. "That means that a patient walks into my exam room, and I close the door, and I tell them something that the government objects to, they can take away my right to make a living, they can take away my right to practice medicine, they can take away my right to tell you what I honestly believe is true," said Dr. Marcus Conant of San Francisco. [continues 297 words]
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- With $25 and a doctor's note, sick people can get an official city ID card entitling them to use marijuana, the city's maverick district attorney proudly announced Friday. The program shields card-holders caught with the drug from local prosecution -- though marijuana possession remains illegal under federal law. "This represents another stone in the foundation we're building to make people recognize that cannabis is a legitimate medicinal agent," said District Attorney Terence Hallinan. "I'm not really worried we won't be able to work things out with the federal government." [continues 521 words]
Strategy Is To Get Anti-Drug Messages In Movies WASHINGTON (CNN) -- White House drug policy director Barry McCaffrey wants to see a new twist in movie plots: Anti-drug messages. "We are making available to the producers, directors, writers -- the creative community -- the resources, the understanding that the National Institute of Drug Abuse gets out of $600 million a year of taxpayer dollars studying this issue," McCaffrey said Tuesday. For years, some films have shown America's youth consuming drugs and alcohol. [continues 549 words]
WASHINGTON, July 5 (Reuters) -- The United States released estimates on Wednesday pointing to a dramatic rise in the use of cocaine in Europe, bolstering its case for greater European involvement in helping Colombia wage war on drugs. European nations, led by Spain, Germany and Italy, consumed between 194 and 207 tons of cocaine last year, up from 104 to 110 tons in 1996, according to a study prepared by the office of White House drug policy chief Barry McCaffrey. Ninety percent of the cocaine flowing to Europe comes from Colombia, and is mostly smuggled in ships across the Atlantic, partly through Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador, the study said. [continues 442 words]
MADRID (Reuters) -- International officials called Thursday for a bigger European role in efforts to bring peace to Colombia after decades of struggle against drug lords and Marxist rebels. "It's time for Europe to wake up," Jan Egeland, special adviser to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, said on the eve of a one-day conference on Colombia to be attended in Madrid by European Union members and international aid agencies. Inter-American Development Bank chief Enrique Iglesias said European countries needed to participate in the Colombian peace process in the same way they helped resolve conflicts in Central America. [continues 179 words]
BOGOTA (Reuters) -- Colombian police seized more than 3,270 pounds of pure cocaine Tuesday, saying it was apparently earmarked to help bankroll the activities of Colombia's main right-wing paramilitary group. The multimillion-dollar haul was thought to be one of the first directly linked to the outlawed United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), the ruthless militia force headed by paramilitary chieftain Carlos Castano. "This is a blow from the police to the Self-Defense Forces," Gen. Alfredo Salgado, deputy national police chief, told reporters. [continues 304 words]
SAN VICENTE, Colombia (Reuters) -- Marxist rebels and the government will swap proposals Monday for the first bilateral cease-fire in 16 years in Colombia's long-running war, but there is no real chance of an accord for the foreseeable future, guerrilla and diplomatic sources say. The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) is likely to make its cease-fire offer hinge on demands the government drop a U.S.-backed plan to unleash an offensive against drug crops and long-standing rebel strongholds in southern Colombia, rebel sources said. On Friday, the U.S. Congress agreed to $1.3 billion for mostly military aid to this torn Andean nation. [continues 528 words]
HONOLULU - Sick Hawaiians who grow, possess and use marijuana with the approval of their doctors no longer face state-level criminal penalties for doing so. Gov. Ben Cayetano, a Democrat, signed a bill Wednesday decriminalizing the use of marijuana by that group, a spokeswoman said. Though similar laws have been passed in seven states and the District of Columbia since 1996, Hawaii is the first state where the law was enacted by a state legislature rather than through a ballot initiative. [continues 177 words]
BOGOTA, Colombia -- The major rebel army in Colombia plans to crack down on corruption, blaming drugs -- their illegality and the United States' war on them -- for the extensive problems of public bribery in the country. The Revolutionary Armed Force of Colombia, known as FARC, has said it will introduce a "law" to punish corrupt people, said Ivan Marquez, a guerrilla, during a news conference Wednesday. The news conference was held in San Vicente de Caguan, a municipality in the demilitarized zone where peace negotiations between FARC and the Colombian government are taking place. [continues 489 words]
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) -- Bolivia brushed aside threats of strikes and blockades by coca leaf producers and pledged Monday to continue destroying the plantations used to make cocaine. Nearly 10,000 peasants gathered over the weekend in El Chapare in the heart of Bolivia's coca-growing country and set a 30-day deadline for the government to stop the destruction of their crops. Peasant leader Evo Morales warned the peasants would blockade roads, seize villages, go on hunger strikes and organize massive marches on La Paz if the government does not stop targeting their coca crops. [continues 256 words]
