TABLE OF CONTENTS: * This Just In http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2006/ds06.n451.html#sec1 (1) Fentanyl Causing Series Of Fatal Overdoses In U.S. (2) Heroin: The Solution? (3) Schoolchildren Face Random Drug Test Threat (4) Editorial: A Flagging Commitment On AIDS * Weekly News in Review http://www.drugsense.org/dsw/2006/ds06.n451.html#sec2 Drug Policy (5) Drug Cocktail Causing Overdoses From Philadelphia To Chicago (6) Meth-Lab Litter Poses Hazard for Road Crews (7) Violence From Its Twin City Spilling Into Laredo (8) Column: Misguided DEA's Witch Hunt Leaves Patients Hurting [continues 267 words]
Just a short note to let you know how very pleased I was to read Mick Farren's article, published May 11, on the recent anti-medical-marijuana pronouncement by the FDA [Re: "The 4/20 Advisory"]. The article, in my opinion, was well-researched, skillfully written, hard-hitting, and very helpful. I applaud you and your newspaper for having the courage to speak truth to power. Please continue to publish articles that matter. Lou Vierling, Michigan NORML Via E-Mail [end]
A former Bloomingdale elementary and middle school counselor claims that he has been targeted for unfair prosecution on a drug charge because he has been a vocal advocate of legalizing drugs. "This is very much about my standing up against an unreasonable search and standing up against harassment," said Greg Francisco. Francisco, 48, of Michigan Highway 43, Paw Paw, will face a jury trial within the next several months for misdemeanor charges of possession of marijuana on May 5 in Bloomingdale. [continues 670 words]
Ex-Bloomingdale School Counselor Has Called for Legalizing Drugs SOUTH HAVEN - A former Bloomingdale elementary and middle school counselor claims he has been targeted unfairly for prosecution on a marijuana charge because he has been a vocal advocate of legalizing drugs. "This is very much about my standing up against an unreasonable search and standing up against harassment," said Greg Francisco. Francisco, 48, of Michigan 43, Paw Paw, will face a jury trial within the next several months on a misdemeanor charge of possession of marijuana on May 5 in Bloomingdale. [continues 615 words]
SOUTH HAVEN -- A former Bloomingdale Public Schools counselor arrested on a marijuana-possession charge said he has been targeted for prosecution because he has been a member of national groups critical of drug laws. Greg Francisco is a former board member of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and a former member of Educators for Sensible Drug Policies. Van Buren District Judge Arthur Clarke III ordered during a hearing Wednesday that a trial be scheduled within 60 to 75 days to decide Francisco's guilt or innocence on the misdemeanor charge, connected to a May 5 incident in the Bloomingdale Junior High School parking lot. [continues 332 words]
PAW PAW - "Cops say legalize drugs. Ask me why," reads the message on a T-shirt being worn by an unlikely advocate for drug law reform, former Bath and DeWitt Township, MI, police officer, Howard Wooldridge. Wooldridge, a member of the organization, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, is riding his horse, Misty, across the country this summer spreading the group's message that drug abuse is bad, but prohibition makes the problem worse. Wooldridge passed through Van Buren County this week, riding Misty along Red Arrow Highway. He began his ride March 4 in Hermosa Beach, Calif., and plans to finish in New York City around Oct 1. Along the way, Wooldridge is voicing his opinion that the current law enforcement "war on drugs" is a catastrophe, and that legalizing drug use could be the answer to illegal trafficking. "Drug prohibition is costing this nation in excess of $70 billion annually. That is money that could be spent on schools, roads, protecting the public from violent criminals," says Wooldridge. He feels that prohibition actually takes control out of the hands of government and gives it to the criminals. [continues 453 words]
FLINT - Flint could follow Detroit and Ann Arbor in symbolically legalizing the use of marijuana for medical purposes, if leaders at a march and festival Saturday in downtown Flint get their way. Charles Synder III, 28, of Flint, chairman of the Flint Coalition for Compassionate Care, said a drive to put the issue on the Nov. 8 ballot could begin June 1. Synder said the group would have 60 days to collect about 1,500 valid signatures in order to present the issue to voters in a referendum. [continues 354 words]
Ann Arbor residents passed a ballot proposal, to allow the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes, yesterday. Proposal C will waive fines for medical marijuana patients and their caregivers who receive the recommendation of a physician or other qualified health professional to use marijuana for medical treatment. The proposal also changes the current law in Ann Arbor to lower the fine for the third and all subsequent marijuana offenses for non medical users to $100. These fines include possession, control, use, giving away or selling of marijuana. [continues 500 words]
M.S. Patient Would Have to Produce Records TRAVERSE CITY - Grand Traverse County Prosecutor Dennis LaBelle filed a motion to suppress any talk of medical marijuana in future criminal proceedings of Matthew Barber. Barber, diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2001, was arrested in June after officers found two ounces of marijuana - equivalent to a month's supply for his symptoms, he said - in the vehicle his wife, Laura, was driving during a traffic stop. Barber, 30, says he has exhausted all legal, and expensive, forms of treatment for the disease that affects the central nervous system and turned to marijuana for relief after it was suggested to him by a neurologist. [continues 236 words]
Thousands of merry 'hempsters' descended on Ann Arbor, Michigan April 3rd for the 33rd annual Hash Bash. This year those in attendance were treated to great weather, good speakers, and great parties. Hash Bash has a long and colorful history beginning with the 1969 incarceration of Ann Arbor resident and activist John Sinclair. Sinclair was sentenced to 10 years in prison for two marijuana cigarettes. This injustice caused a huge public outcry. In December 1970, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Alan Ginsberg and other popular political activists came to Chrysler Arena for a freedom rally in support of Sinclair. Several members of this rally decided that on April 1 of the following year they would all converge on the University of Michigan campus for a national 'smoke-in.' This event is now known throughout the country as 'Hash Bash'. In 1972, Ann Arbor voters approved a ballot initiative that made marijuana possession a mere civil infraction punishable by a $5 fine. Since then the fine has been raised to $25. Largely due to Ann Arbor's lenient pot laws, the Hash Bash has grown in size and scope over the years. [continues 585 words]
FLINT - Erich Schmitz takes his marijuana seriously. "I don't like using the word pot,' " said Schmitz, 21, of Mt. Morris. "To me, it sounds juvenile." Schmitz, who said he smokes marijuana "on occasion," and dozens of other supporters of legalizing marijuana attended the third annual Marijuana March held by the Flint National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. "Just like you can drink alcohol responsibly, you can smoke marijuana responsibly," Schmitz said. "I do believe marijuana is safer (than alcohol)." [continues 167 words]
Two Years Later, Supporters Rally, Look for Meaning in Deaths of Men. Cassopolis -- There's something to be said for having friends. They're there to provide support when it's needed. They don't point fingers and judge. And, as a group of friends of the late Grover "Tom" Crosslin and Rolland "Rollie" Rohm proved Monday, they'll stand on the sidewalk in a driving rain to make sure people don't forget. More than 20 supporters of the former owners of the Rainbow Farm Campground braved the soggy afternoon to stand outside the Cass County Courthouse, hoisting placards and waving tie-dyed flags in observance of the second anniversary of a lethal standoff at the Vandalia campground that left both Rohm, 28, and Crosslin, 46, dead of police-inflicted gunshot wounds. [continues 493 words]
The recent statements made by Farmington Hills Police Chief William Dwyer and Sheriff Michael Bouchard in The Oakland Press regarding marijuana are, like many pot smokers, completely wasted. The "gateway" theory - that it will lead to harder drugs - is a tired, old argument. It was soundly refuted in a study completed in December of 2002 by RAND, a nonprofit research institution created by the U.S. military. While today's pot is stronger than that of a few decades ago, the increase is hardly dramatic. Not one single fatal marijuana overdose has ever been recorded in human history. Alcohol, and even aspirin, can't boast that claim. Donna Paridee New Baltimore (Editor's note: Paridee is the communications director for the Michigan chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.) [end]
Thank you for the help you gave me when we were starting up MINORML. The advice, offer of E-mail list and news links were of great benefit to our goals. MAP has been instrumental in getting the news out to the public in a responsible way. If more of the drug policy reform groups followed your lead, I believe that much of what is happening in the movement would be better off. Again thank you for your time and effort. We look forward to working with you and your group in Michigan. Larry Bonner Lippert, Director http://www.MINORML.org [end]
Arrived down a dusty country lane to the Rainbow Farm in south-central Michigan about noon Saturday of Memorial Day weekend for Hemp Aid 98! A peaceful gathering of over 3,000 people in support of The Rainbow Farm Initiative and other legalization efforts across the country. I was met at the gate by the Rainbow Farm's computer guru, TP Doug, who brought me to the Activist's Booth and Hemp Center. The Rainbow Farm's information center always plays host at the Rainbow Farm events as well as traveling to nearly 20 hemp shows and festivals around the country each year. [continues 925 words]
