DdC

* The Drug War is Lost, Says Ex-Trooper
* Happy, Uh, Uh, Uh, Birthday, Dude
* New UNC Group Wants To Legalize Pot
* Pot-Friendly Politics
* NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- November 13, 2003
* Speaking of Montel...
* Jeb Bush invades Doctor/Patient privacy
* The Strength of the Wolf

The Drug War is Lost, Says Ex-Trooper
Source: Providence Journal, The (RI) Friday, November 14, 2003
Contact: letters@projo.com * Website

Warwick -- After devoting much of his adult life to fighting the war on drugs, retired detective Jack A. Cole says the one thing he knows for sure is that the war has made America's drug problem worse.

In the last three decades, the police have spent half a trillion dollars to arrest and jail mainly nonviolent drug users, he said. Despite that, drugs have never been cheaper, more potent or more available, and are financing a host of criminal and terrorist organizations.

"Not only is the war on drugs a failed policy, it's a destructive policy," he said yesterday, after urging members of the Warwick Rotary Club to support efforts to legalize drugs, then regulate and tax them in the same manner as cigarettes and alcohol.

Cole, a former New Jersey state trooper who worked undercover narcotics investigations for 12 years, heads a speakers bureau of police, prosecutors and judges who favor decriminalizing drugs.



Retired Cop Rides for Drug Legalization

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The Joseph McNamara Collection

(FAMM Foundation) * Drug Sense * M.A.M.A. * F.E.A.R.

November * Human Rights and the WoD

Happy, Uh, Uh, Uh, Birthday, Dude
Source: Reuters November 14, 2003

Amsterdam -- A Dutch cannabis coffee shop, claiming to be one of the oldest in the Netherlands, invited media organizations to its 35th birthday party this month and enclosed a marketing gimmick in the envelope -- a joint.

The invitation from Sarasani, founded in 1968, was received by Reuters Friday and when the envelope was opened it revealed a three-inch rolled joint encased in a clear green, plastic cylinder.

"For the media the anniversary celebration is the chance to look back on the history of Sarasani and the rise of the whole coffee shop phenomenon," said the press release, inviting guests to the party in Utrecht, a small town outside Amsterdam.

While cannabis technically remains illegal in the Netherlands, its use and sale has been tolerated since the 1970s under strict conditions imposed by the government.

Today there are about 800 coffee shops in the Netherlands, drawing a booming tourist trade.

Earlier this year the Netherlands became the first country to make cannabis available as a prescription drug in pharmacies for chronically ill patients.

Related Articles

Dutch Celebrate 30 Years of Legal Pot
First Dutch Cannabis Cafe Marks 30th Anniversary
Marijuana Now Legal in Dutch Pharmacies

New UNC Group Wants To Legalize Pot By Julio Ochoa
Source: Greeley Tribune (CO) November 14, 2003
Contact: letters@greeleytrib. com * Website

With Bob Marley playing in the background, munchies on a side table and a big marijuana plant on an overhead screen, Tryb Ramsay had a hard time believing he was in a University of Northern Colorado classroom Thursday night.

But even with all the distractions, he managed to learn something about legalizing marijuana from the university's newest student group, a chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, or NORML.

Related Articles: NORML
CannabisNews NORML Archives

Pot-Friendly Politics * CN:Comments
By Andrea Chang November 14, 2003

If Richard J. Rawlings puts down the doobie long enough, he just might end up finding himself a member of Congress. He is hoping to head to Washington on behalf of Illinois and make his favorite pastime legal. (Courtesy Illinois Marijuana Party)

Illinois Marijuana Party candidates running for U.S. Congress in 2004 hope their chances won't go up in smoke.

If two members of the new Illinois Marijuana Party have their way -- and make it into office -- it soon may be legal to smoke up between classes.

Richard J. Rawlings and Brian K. Meyer, members of the Illinois branch of the U.S. Marijuana Party, announced their candidacy last week for U.S. Congress in 2004.

Rawlings, who said he has smoked marijuana since he was 12, founded the Illinois Marijuana Party earlier this year. Rawlings, 42, is running against Republican Rep. Ray LaHood in the 18th Congressional District, which includes Peoria and Springfield.

Meyer of Belleville, Ill., is running against incumbent Democratic Rep. Jerry Costello in the 12th Congressional District in southwest Illinois. Meyer served five years in a federal prison for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute after he was arrested in 1992 with 2.4 kilograms of hemp he says he found on the side of the road.

"I lost my wife and my two children -- everything I owned," said Meyer, 40. "I can name a list 200 miles long of benefits that I've lost. Most people are unaware of what they lose because of a simple possession charge."

Meyer, an independent with libertarian values, said he joined the Illinois Marijuana Party because he is a victim of the drug war and he wants to protect marijuana users' civil liberties and rights to privacy.

"I'm against the government being able to incarcerate, remove funding and seize assets based upon personal choices to use marijuana," Meyer said. "There are no government studies and there are no private studies that show that cannabis has more toxic effects than alcohol, nicotine or caffeine, yet those three are legal.

"If they didn't make such a big deal about it, probably a lot less people would use it," he added.

State Rep. Julie Hamos, D-Evanston, said she is against the legalization of marijuana but supports the dialogue regarding the war on drugs that the pro-marijuana candidates will promote.

"We have to recognize that the war on drugs has been a failure," she said. "Because it has, I think we should open discussion about what we could do better and differently. If this candidacy does that, then I think it's very interesting."

Weinberg sophomore Corey Robinson said he would consider a pro-marijuana platform but thinks there are more important issues for politicians to address.

"If alcohol is legal, why isn't marijuana?" Robinson said. "(But) if that's the only basis for their campaign, I'm not interested -- you don't want a pothead for president."

Chris Scheld, a Weinberg freshman, said he does not support the pro-marijuana candidates and does not think the party will become popular.

"I don't think a significant part of our population will support it," Scheld said. "It's just too radical and there are a lot of negatives associated with it."

But Meyer said he has been encouraged by the response people have been giving his pro-marijuana platform.

"I may change my mind and run for president in 2004," he said, "because the support I'm getting is overwhelming."

NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- November 13, 2003

DdC

From:Shishaldin on November 14, 2003
Here's a note from Steph Sherer of ASA
(Bruce Mirken's LTE below her note) Great LTE Bruce...

Speaking of Montel...

I went to the Montel Williams show yesterday as a audience member try to talk to him in NYC. Before the taping of the show the audience was allowed to ask him questions. I told him I was concerned to hear what happened to him Detroit and that I was very glad to see his statement about being an advocate. I also told him a little information about the current federal attacks. I asked him what his plans were as an advocate and gave him a t-shirt and some literature. He then proceeded to explain what had happened to the audience in Detroit and then spent about 5 minutes talking about medical marijuana. Including how ridiculous it is that he can get legal prescriptions for cocaine and morphine but he can't possess something that grows from the earth that makes him feel better. He also said the he thought "Bush's compassion" would change this policy. (Does he know something we don't know?) He told the audience that the medical marijuana issue was soon to come to a head partly because autobiography is coming out in January that will include an entire chapter on medical marijuana! He was sincerely thankful for the t-shirt and literature and told me he would be in touch! He will be a great advocate to work with the MS Patients Union for Medical Marijuana!

You can contact him through his website at...
www.montelshow.com



Washington Post, DC Letters to the editor:
An Entertainer's Medical Marijuana Liability Friday, November 14, 2003; Page A28

The Nov. 6 "Names and Faces" Style column incorrectly suggested that carrying marijuana paraphernalia in Michgian is legal for entertainer Montel Williams because he has been prescribed to take "medical marijuana."

Not true. Michigan does not have a medical marijuana law, and federal marijuana laws also make no exception for medical use. Under both state and federal law, Mr. Williams could have faced up to a year in prison.

Perhaps Detroit officials realize what the White House and Congress don't: To jail a person fighting a terrible illness for using a medicine his doctor believes will help him is insane.

BRUCE MIRKEN
Director of Communications
Marijuana Policy Project
Washington

Steph Sherer Executive Director Americans for Safe Access
1678 Shattuck Ave. #317 Berkeley, CA 94709 phone: 510-486-8083 fax: 510-486-8090

Join the fight for medical marijuana rights! To receive ASA alerts, send a blank email to asa-subscribe@lists.rise up.net

Montel Williams Show: Feedback form
Drug Sense.org
Montel Williams Caught with Medical Marijuana
Talk Show Host Fined For Drug Paraphernalia

The Media Awareness Project
JEB BUSH INVADES DOCTOR/PATIENT PRIVACY
PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #281 Tue, 4 Nov 2003
Less than ninety days after his own daughter was released from a state-sponsored drug treatment program, Florida Governor Jeb Bush is making dire pronouncements about using heavy handed law enforcement against others in Florida who commit the same crime of prescription drug fraud. Continued... /alert/0281.html

War on Drugs
The Strength of the Wolf
The secret History of America's War on Drugs

The Strength of the Wolf presents for the first time a definitive history of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (FBN) from its birth in 1930 until its wrenching termination in 1968. Carefully and extensively documented, the book is based largely on interviews with former FBN agents, and in this respect The Strength of the Wolf represents a new chapter in American history, one that introduces a cast of fabulous characters.

Douglas Valentine tells how the FBN’s premier case-making agents penetrated the arcane world of international drug trafficking and, by uncovering the Establishment’s ties to organized crime, brought about their own demise. As the book reveals in startling detail, the CIA and FBI were often protecting the FBN’s major targets in the Mafia and the French Corsican underworld. The CIA and its Nationalist Chinese allies were found to be the largest drug-trafficking syndicate in the world, but for political and national security reasons, the FBN was prevented from investigating this overarching conspiracy.

“In vivid prose, Valentine excavates the buried history of the US government’s undying preoccupation with drug use . . . exploring the bloody intersection between drug cartels, criminal syndicates and the shadowy world of US intelligence agencies . . . The Strength of the Wolf couldn’t be more timely. With nearly 2 million Americans sitting in prison on drug charges, it’s vital that we begin to radically rethink our approach to anti-drug laws. Valentine’s book tells us how we got to where we are.” — Jeffrey St. Clair

Douglas Valentine has lectured and appeared on TV and radio talk shows, testified as an expert witness, served as a documentary film consultant and worked as a private investigator. His previous books include The Hotel Tacloban, The Phoenix Program and TDY.

The Great Marijuana Hoax By Allen Ginsberg



Counter Punch: Jeffrey St.Clair and Cockburn
Review of Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair's Whiteout
Jeffrey St.Clair books
Google: Jeffrey St.Clair

Cannabis/Hemp The Invisible Prohibition

"Certain American industrialists had a great deal to do with bringing fascist regimes into being in both Germany and Italy. They extended aid to help Fascism occupy the seat of power, and they are helping to keep it there." - William E. Dodd, U.S. Ambassador to Germany, 1937.

Shadow of the Swastika

John Dilulio, Jr. predicted a wave of 'predators' , fuels debate on stricter drug laws...
Writer of Body Count with Secretary of Education William Bennett and ex-federal drug enforcement official John P. Walters. The book was condemned as inaccurate and alarmist...

Law Enforcement Shares the Wealth in War on Drugs
The War on Drugs is Necessitating War on Terrorism
Battlefield Conversions
The Ganjawar is a Product Sold by D.E.A.th to Profit Fascist ... DdC
Statewide billboard campaign against federal war on medical marijuana Billboard pic
featuring 8-year-old daughter of MMJ prisoner Bryan Epis.



Drug War Prisoners
Agent Orange, All Over Again
THE HIGH TIMES INTERVIEW: MIKE RUPPERT copvcia.com

A Doobie Witch Hunt
War on Drugs is unChristian

The Drug War - Back To The Stone Age
Criminal Possession Law is Reefer Madness
We Must End theUnwinnable War on Drugs
Chasing Potheads Called Waste of Time
Time for The U.S. To Honor Prop. 215

__________________

Prophet Saddam

WOW! You never let anyone down when it comes to the information. I'm wondering how you even get all those pictures.

__________________

jamf

How do you obtain a presciption for morphine and coke?

DdC

It takes a triplicate but it can be prescribed, unlike the schedule#1 ganja/hemp. Coke is obtained by permit to make coca cola, they stopped using the active ingredient. Novicaine and protocaine "numb-ers" are still used in Denistry and local anestesia. Morphine for pain instead of the euphoric heroin. Codine is added to tylanol or other OTC pain relievers and cough syrups as a schedule#3, and the other dirivitives are used for pain. Opiates were sold over the counter in Epicak to induce vomiting in the 60's. Heroin is used in England. Speed is common for diet pills, treating ADD and combat units to stay awake. College kids cramming test or truckers driving to get those veggies to the market fresh. Many OTC drugs have speed. Crank is a cut version of crystal meth, the base of most amphetimines.

As long as it takes processing its ok cause it profits. Plants grown in the herb garden don't.

The "cause" of the drugwar has long been lost. The profits come from perpetuating the Ganjawar, not zero tolerance or Peace.

The Ganjawar is a Product Sold by D.E.A.th to Profit Fascist ... DdC



Bayer Aspirin with Heroin!

The fav of the "Puritan" tea toadlers pushing booze prohibition sipping their Laudenum spiked tea...