Researchers have found that marijuana-like chemicals in the brain help animals and people under extreme stress suppress pain and keep going despite a severe injury. "This shows for the first time that natural marijuana-like chemicals in the brain have a link to pain suppression," said Daniele Piomelli, a professor of pharmacology at the University of California, Irvine , and senior author of a study published yesterday in the journal Nature. "Aside from identifying an important function of these compounds, it [the study] provides a template for a new class of pain medications that can possibly replace others shown to have acute side effects," said Piomelli, who directs the Center for Drug Discovery at the school [end]
Attorney General John Ashcroft is becoming a prolific writer of memos to the 94 U.S. attorneys. His latest instructs them to pursue the toughest possible charges and seek the severest sentences possible. And he also ordered them to limit the use of plea bargains. The goal, he said, was to bring uniformity and consistency to federal criminal prosecutions. By itself, the order is not unreasonable. It reflects the Bush administration's stand on law enforcement, and it returns to a similar order the department issued in 1989 during the administration of Bush senior. The order was relaxed during the Clinton administration. And Ashcroft's order has reasonable exceptions on plea bargaining, for example, to reward cooperation and clear overcrowded dockets. [continues 289 words]
Law Enforcement Efforts Paying Off Crime rates in America, which for demographic, economic and other reasons were supposed to either level off or bounce back up in 2002, have surprised the sociologists making the predictions. The fact is they are down again, according to an Associated Press account of a Justice Department report. They haven't been this low since the keeping of national records on property and violent crimes began in 1973, and here is the further news that ought to bring cheer: The decline over the past 10 years has been 50 percent. [continues 262 words]
NEW YORK -- Last Monday, the FBI warned that "a planned attack may occur in the United States or against U.S. interests on or around Feb. 12," thanks to 12 terrorists led by Fawaz Yahya al-Rabeei, a Saudi-born Yemeni. Suspecting this, federal officials should have deployed as many agents as possible to protect high-profile targets such as San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge or the pyramidal Transamerica Tower. Think again. Washington instead chose Feb. 12 to unleash gun-toting Drug Enforcement Agency officers against AIDS and cancer patients. These federal agents raided a suspected cannabis cultivation center in Petaluma, Calif., and medical marijuana dispensaries in San Francisco and Oakland. [continues 443 words]
WASHINGTON -- After a two-decade decline in drug abuse, the U.S. military now is confronting a surge in GI use of the club drug Ecstasy, the nation's fastest-growing illegal intoxicant. While only a tiny portion of the 1.4-million-person active-duty force is believed to have used the amphetamine-related substance, a series of recent arrests has focused the Pentagon's attention on the matter. Among the Ecstasy cases surfacing in the armed services in recent months: [continues 371 words]
Chatham County, N.C., sheriff's deputies seized 5,000 pounds of marijuana in an undercover sting last year, stacked it high, called the media and showed it off. But now the marijuana is missing, the alleged dealers have vanished, the FBI is investigating and the department can't explain what happened. The big drug bust has turned into a big embarrassment. "It's the sort of situation where it's hard to know whether to laugh or cry," commissioners' chairman Gary Phillips said. "It's really absurd as far as it goes." [continues 505 words]
Speculation is rife over possible replacements for Vice President Dick Cheney should he be forced to retire because of persistent heart problems. The leading candidate in GOP circles is the man who reportedly was President Bush's first choice for the job - Secretary of State Colin Powell, who bowed to his wife's wishes and demurred. But there's a difference, some note, between campaigning for the job and having it handed to you. Also mentioned is Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, originally passed over because of his position in favor of abortion rights, and former Sen. Slade Gorton, R-Wash. [continues 959 words]
Critics ask: How low can he go? During his eight years in office, President Clinton pardoned about 400 people, on a par with the number President Reagan pardoned during his two terms, but consider: 140 of those, over a third of the total, were pardoned during Clinton's last night in the White House. He was up all night -- and kept the Justice Department up all night - -- doing so. It is impossible to escape the conclusion that the pardons -- and 36 commutations -- were done as Clinton headed out the White House door to avoid the political consequences. [continues 386 words]
WASHINGTON - The White House said Wednesday that its drug office has been ordered to stop secretly collecting information on people who visit its anti-drug Internet sites. "We will take steps necessary to halt these practices now," the White House said in a statement released through the press office. The statement said that contractors working with the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy also have been directed to destroy all information collected clandestinely from visitors to the anti-drug sites [continues 258 words]
Safety: Researchers say that statistical difference is small but disturbing.Activists say the abstention message needs to be renewed. Drunken driving and deaths from drunken driving are down as the result of a concerted two-decade campaign. But a new study suggests that drinking and driving or riding with someone who is drunk might be increasing among high school seniors. Researchers at the University of Michigan say their review of annual surveys of seniors indicates a "recent leveling and, perhaps, an upturn in rates of driving after drinking by students." [continues 521 words]
Social Issues: The military admits no fault in the shooting of an American teen in Texas by a Marine last year. The U.S. government has agreed to pay $1.9 million to the family of an American teenager killed by a Marine along the Texas-Mexico border last year. Bill Weinecht, attorney for the family of 18 year-old Esequiel Hernandez Jr., announced the settlement with the Justice Department and the Navy on Tuesday. The settlement is in the form of a $1 million annuity that,when paid out over the course of several years, will total approximately $1.9 million, Weinacht said. [continues 307 words]
The Guardian LONDON -- The first human trials of the medicinal properties of marijuana will controversially involve inhaling substances made from the entire weed, not derivatives, it became clear Tuesday. Dr. Geoffrey Guy, chairman of GW Pharmaceuticals, a company he set up with a license from the British Home Office to explore the medical uses of marijuana, told the House of Lords select committee on science and technology in London that he expected to move to clinical trials, probably with multiple sclerosis sufferers, within the next few years. He hoped the drug would be licensed as a medicine within five. [continues 411 words]
POLITICS: The House approves legislation to make Clinton keep his word that he won't use federal funds for exchange programs. WASHINGTON-The House on Wednesday approved a bill designed to prevent President Clinton from doing something he has said he won't do-use federal funds for needle-exchange programs. Republicans said the bill-which bars the government from subsidizing local programs that provide clean needles to drug addicts in an attempt to reduce the spread of the AIDS virus - sends a message of "zero tolerance" for drug use. [continues 418 words]
WASHINGTON - The U.S. and Mexico on Friday unveiled a comprehensive drug fighting strategy that promises closer cooperation on firearms trafficking,extradition of druglords and intelligence gathering. It was released less than a month before the Clinton administration is scheduled to decide whether to renew Mexico's certification as a cooperative partner in the anti-drug war. The strategy is aimed at reducing the $50 billion flood of illegal drugs purchased in the united States each year,much arriving across the 2,000-mile-long U.S.-Mexico border. [continues 203 words]
