"Locked up in a federal prison in Durango, Mexico, is a short, slight, frightened farmer with a pencil mustache and an ugly growth on the side of his neck. I was allowed to interview him, and I'll never forget his face. Nor will I forget that this small bewildered man is at the same time villain and victim in the growing efforts of the Mexican government to find and destroy the sources of the burgeoning drug traffic from Mexico to the United States. [continues 951 words]
I read with interest about the Costa Mesa police "bursting" into the Back Bay High School classroom of teacher Marc Katz a couple of weeks ago in pursuit of the war on drugs. As in most wars, civil rights go down the tubes when the troops are ordered into action. So the question becomes whether or not the suspension of those rights in this instance belonging to a classroom full of kids warrants such police action. [continues 854 words]
While I was off examining my navel in Indiana, the results of two important studies that arrived at uncomfortable conclusions were made public. The first, conducted by the National Academy of Sciences, said flatly that marijuana eases pain and quells nausea in cancer and AIDS patients and that there is no clear evidence that smoking it leads to consumption of heroin, cocaine or other narcotics. The "drug war" commandos are going to have a tough time ignoring this study since it was commissioned by Barry McCaffrey, head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and its findings are backed by an impressive panel of 35 experts who spent 18 months taking public testimony and evaluating scientific studies on marijuana. [continues 739 words]
Some years ago, I attended a Kiwanis Club luncheon meeting in Corona del Mar to accept a gift on behalf of an organization with which I was involved. The speaker that day was a deputy sheriff whose mission was to enlighten local businessmen about the "drug problem." Although I was certainly no expert on substance abuse, I had written enough about it that I knew most of what he was saying was baloney. [continues 808 words]
