Drug War Chronicle, Issue #493 (fulltext version)

A Publication of Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
David Borden, Executive Director, borden [at] drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"

ALERT: Major Medical Marijuana Vote in Congress Next Week:
http://stopthedrugwar.org/medicalmarijuana

WE WANT PARDONS: Petition to Save Bush's Legacy by Persuading
Him to Pardon Thousands of Nonviolent Drug Offenders:
http://stopthedrugwar.org/wewantpardons

Table of Contents:

1. FEATURE: MEDICAL MARIJUANA -- A PROGRESS REPORT
Eleven years ago, no Americans had the protection of a state
medical marijuana law. Now, some 50 million do, but that means
some 250 million don't. While progress has been made, it has
been slow, and there is plenty more to do.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/medical_marijuana_progress_report

2. DRUG WAR CHRONICLE BOOK REVIEW: "HIGH SOCIETY: HOW SUBSTANCE
ABUSE RAVAGES AMERICA AND WHAT TO DO ABOUT IT," BY JOSEPH
CALIFANO (2007, PUBLIC AFFAIRS PRESS, 270 PP., $26.95 HB)
Joe Califano's "High Society" is a strange brew of legitimate
concerns, hype, distortions, and what look to us to be misguided
policy pronouncements. We review it this issue.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/joseph_califano_high_society_book_review

3. WE WANT PARDONS: PETITION TO SAVE BUSH'S LEGACY BY PERSUADING
HIM TO PARDON THOUSANDS OF NONVIOLENT DRUG OFFENDERS
While President Bush has pardoned 12 Thanksgiving turkeys in an
annual White House ceremony since taking office 6 1/2 years ago,
he has commuted only four people's prison sentences, one of them
Scooter Libby's. We want more!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/petition_to_pardon_thousands_of_nonviolent_drug_offenders

4. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @ THE SPEAKEASY
Rudy Giuliani hates medical marijuana, Ann Althouse insults
medical marijuana, positive drug tests don't prove impairment,
home state blues, a better mayor, dog cloning for the drug war,
opposing the drug war doesn't make us pro-drug, more...
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/blogging_at_the_speakeasy_every_day

5. APPEAL: A VICTORY IS IN THE WORKS, WITH YOUR HELP
Our multi-year campaign to repeal an infamous law that denies
financial aid to students because of drug convictions may soon
ride to a successful conclusion.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/hea_victory_is_in_the_works

6. FEEDBACK: DO YOU READ DRUG WAR CHRONICLE?
Do you read Drug War Chronicle? If so, we need your feedback to
evaluate our work and make the case for Drug War Chronicle to
funders. We need donations too.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle

7. THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
The allure of Oxycontin (and its profits) snags two cops, a
deputy can't keep his paws off the meth, and a South Carolina
cop gets charged with drug dealing. Just another week in the
drug war.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/police_drug_corruption

8. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: RUDY GIULIANI JUST SAYS NO
Republican presidential nomination contender Rudy Giuliani has
rejected medical marijuana, claiming it is a a stalking horse
for legalization.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/rudy_giuliani_just_says_no_to_medical_marijuana

9. THE DRUG DEBATE: AMERICAN MAYORS URGE "A NEW BOTTOM LINE" AND
A PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH FOR DRUG POLICY
The US Conference of Mayors last month adopted a resolution
calling the war on drugs a failure and urging "a new bottom
line" on drug policy.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/united_states_mayors_conference_resolution_drugs_new_bottom_line

10. MARIJUANA: CALIFORNIA SUPERIOR COURT UPHOLDS SANTA BARBARA'S
"LOWEST ENFORCEMENT PRIORITY" LAW
A California Superior Court judge has thrown out an effort by
the city of Santa Barbara to undo the city's voter-mandated
policy making adult marijuana possession offenses the lowest law
enforcement priority.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/california_court_throws_out_santa_barbara_lowest_priority_marijuana_slapp_suit

11. DRUG TESTING: TENNESSEE SUPREME COURT HOLDS OFF-DUTY
MARIJUANA USE NO REASON TO DENY WORKMAN'S COMP CLAIM
The Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled that merely because a
worker admitted to smoking marijuana the night before he
suffered a workplace injury was no reason to deny him workman's
compensation.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/494/tennessee_supreme_court_workmans_comp_marijuana_ruling

12. CANADA: A MAJORITY FAVORS MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION, BUT
ARRESTS ARE RISING
A new poll shows a majority of Canadians favor marijuana
legalization, the UN says that Canadians are avid pot smokers,
and now that the Liberal decrim proposal has faded, police are
arresting more Canadians than ever for the weed.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/canadians_support_marijuana_legalization_but_arrests_increase

13. BARRY BEYERSTEIN: WE HAVE LOST ONE OF THE BEST
Memorial for academic and pioneering drug reformer Barry
Beyerstein, by long-time friend Arnold Trebach.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/tribute_to_barry_beyerstein

14. WEB SCAN
PBS on Lakota hemp, marijuana and religion, SSDP Voice, Heroin
Times, NPR on DC needle exchange, Exodus Transitional Community,
Cannabinoid Chronicles, LEAP web site relaunched
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/drug_policy_links

15. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of
years past.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/drug_war_history

16. JOB OPPORTUNITY: HARM REDUCTION COALITION, OAKLAND
The Harm Reduction Coalition hiring Syringe Exchange Program
Specialist for its Oakland, California office.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/harm_reduction_coalition_syringe_exchange_job

17. JOB OPPORTUNITIES: MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT, WASHINGTON
MPP is hiring a Director of Federal Policies and a Web Developer
for its DC headquarters.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/mpp_web_fed_jobs

18. ANNOUNCEMENT: DRCNET CONTENT SYNDICATION FEEDS NOW AVAILABLE
FOR YOUR WEB SITE!
Support the cause by featuring automatically-updating Drug War
Chronicle and other DRCNet content links on your web site!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/drug_policy_content_syndication_feeds_now_available

19. ANNOUNCEMENT: DRCNET RSS FEEDS NOW AVAILABLE
A new way for you to receive DRCNet articles -- Drug War
Chronicle and more -- is now available.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/drug_policy_RSS_feeds_now_available

20. ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW FORMAT FOR THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
Visit our new web site each day to see a running countdown to
the events coming up the soonest, and more.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/drug_reform_calendar

(Not subscribed? Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org to sign up
today!)

================

1. Feature: Medical Marijuana -- A Progress Report
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/medical_marijuana_progress_report

A little more than a decade after California voters passed
Proposition 215 in 1996, making it the first state to approve
the use of medical marijuana, the movement continues its slow
spread across the country. Now, medical marijuana is legal in 12
states (with varying degrees of protection), and roughly 50
million people -- or about one out of six Americans -- live in
those states.

On the Pacific Coast, medical marijuana is legal from the
Canadian border to the Mexican border (Washington, Oregon,
California), as well as in Alaska and Hawaii. In the
intermountain West, Colorado, Montana, and Nevada were joined
this year by New Mexico as states where medical marijuana is
legal. The other regional medical marijuana hotbed is the
Northeast, where Maine, Rhode Island, and Vermont allow its use,
and only a veto from Republican Gov. Jodi Rell kept Connecticut
from joining those ranks this year.

While it may be a bit of an exaggeration to speak of a pincer
movement aimed at the heartland, medical marijuana is on the
move. In addition to the 12 states where it is legal, a number
of other states, including Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, New
Jersey, and New York have seen progress in state legislatures
and are inching closer to approving medical marijuana.
Meanwhile, a medical marijuana initiative is getting underway in
Michigan, and activists are eyeing similar initiative campaigns
in a handful of other states.

But at the same time, the federal government remains staunchly
opposed to medical marijuana. The Justice Department and the DEA
continue to harass patients and providers, especially in
California, where a loosely-written Prop. 215 has led to the
most wide-open medical marijuana scene in the country. While the
DEA, sometimes working with recalcitrant state and local law
enforcement officials, has been raiding dispensaries for years,
this week the agency unveiled a new tactic against them: It sent
letters to dozens of Los Angeles area landlords who rent to
dispensaries, threatening them with civil forfeiture and
possible criminal action if they continue to rent to what the
DEA considers criminal drug trafficking organizations.

Similarly, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)
regularly sends out its shock troops to attempt to defeat
medical marijuana legislation and initiatives at the state
level. The DEA, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the
Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) all attempt to
block independent research on the therapeutic uses of cannabis
and throw whatever obstacles they can imagine in the path of
medical marijuana.

But the federal government is under attack by medical marijuana
advocates coming from several different angles. In Congress, the
most significant piece of medical marijuana-related legislation
is the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, which would bar the use of
federal funds to persecute patients and providers in states
where it is legal. Hearings and a vote in the House on
Hinchey-Rohrabacher are expected in the next week or two. While
approval appears unlikely this year, supporters, including the
group spearheading the effort, the Marijuana Policy Project
(http://www.mpp.org), expect to pick up votes and edge ever
closer to the needed majority.

In the meantime, there are three legal challenges to the federal
hard line on medical marijuana:

* Aided by the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic
Studies (http://www.maps.org) and the ACLU Drug Law Reform
Project (http://www.aclu.org/drugpolicy), University of
Massachusetts-Amherst researcher Dr. Lyle Craker is suing the
DEA in an attempt to break the government monopoly on the
production of medical marijuana for research purposes. In
February, a DEA administrative law judge ruled that Craker's
request would be "in the public interest."
(http://www.maps.org/mmj/DEAlawsuit.html#favorable) The DEA is
appealing that ruling.

* Apparently acting on the notion that the best defense is a
good offense, the medical marijuana defense organization
Americans for Safe Access, or ASA (http://www.safeaccessnow.org)
is suing HHS and the FDA over their position that "marijuana has
no accepted medical value." Using the little-known Data Quality
Act, which mandates that federal agencies set policies on the
basis of sound science, ASA filed suit in February after two
years of fruitless petitioning at the agencies. Yesterday, a
federal judge heard arguments in a government motion to dismiss
the case. An ASA motion for summary judgment will be heard next
month.

* A 2002 petition to reschedule marijuana as a Schedule III,
IV, or V drug (http://www.drugscience.org/petition_intro.html),
filed by marijuana scholar and activist Jonathan Gettman that
has been languishing for years awaits a government response this
month. Current federal law considers marijuana a Schedule I drug
with no accepted medical value.

Clearly, the medical marijuana movement is trying to advance on
many fronts, and while the disparate groups that make up the
movement may be on the same page, they aren't always reading the
same paragraphs. With a movement that includes groups like MPP,
the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
(http://www.norml.org), which seek an end to marijuana
prohibition outright, and groups like the Drug Policy Alliance,
or DPA (http://www.drugpolicy.org), which seeks broader drug
policy reform, as well as organizations like ASA and Patients
Out of Time, or POT (http://www.medicalcannabis.com), which
focus exclusively on medical marijuana, it is little surprise
that while there is broad strategic agreement, there are
tactical differences.

Groups differ on the utility of acting at the state versus the
federal level, over whether initiatives or legislative action is
preferable, and over who should be the public face of the
movement, among other issues. For some, even winning more
victories at the state level is not as important as changing the
parameters of the debate.

For MPP, which is hard at work in the states as well as on
Capitol Hill, meaningful change will result from continuing to
hammer away at the federal level, said Dan Bernath, MPP
assistant director of communications. "There will probably be a
vote on Hinchey-Rohrabacher within a week or two, and we think
we will pick up at least 20 votes," he said.

But with the amendment having garnered 163 votes last year, an
additional couple of dozen votes would still leave it well short
of the 218 votes needed to ensure passage in the House. "It is
not likely to happen this year," Bernath conceded, "but it is
important that we continue to build momentum for the future. The
safer it looks for politicians, the easier it is for them to
vote for it."

While passage of Hinchey-Rohrabacher would not change the
federal marijuana laws, it would effectively protect patients,
Bernath said. "If the Department of Justice loses funding to go
after medical marijuana in the states, that would be 100%
protection for patients."

ASA, while supporting Hinchey-Rohrabacher, was quick to point
out that the protection provided by Hinchey-Rohrabacher would
only apply to patients in states where medical marijuana is
legal. "Hinchey has been something for certain drug reform
organizations and proponents to rally around to help turn the
tide on medical marijuana," said ASA spokesman Kris Hermes, "but
it is certainly not the be all and end all. It would
unfortunately only protect patients and providers in those 12
states, but does little to address the concerns of doctors,
patients, and caregivers in the rest of the country."

More promising for ASA, Hermes said, are the federal lawsuits.
"The ruling by the DEA judge in the Craker case certainly adds
to the growing chorus in support of doing further research on
the subject," he argued. "And if we can win our case against HHS
and the FDA, that would only build pressure on the government's
position that marijuana has no medicinal value."

Some patient-oriented groups would rather concentrate on
medium-term movement-building than short-term political
victories. "While we accept the strategy of most people working
within the movement, which is to change the law and get the
patients their medicine, we don't always agree with the
tactics," said Al Byrne, spokesman for Patients Out of Time,
which has concentrated on educating the public and especially
the medical profession about medical marijuana. "We need to let
educators lead the movement into the future, not lobbyists,
lawyers, and legislators," he argued. "Picking up the states one
by one is worthwhile, but after a while it's sort of redundant.
We don't think we will see real meaningful change until the
medical community accepts marijuana as medicine."

Patients Out of Time has for the past several years worked to
bring the medical community on board through its series of
conferences on cannabis therapeutics, which bring together
scientists, researchers, and medical professionals from around
the country and the world to discuss the latest advances. POT's
Fifth National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics
(http://www.medicalcannabis.com/conference.htm) is set for next
April in California.

Winning more medical marijuana victories at the state level is
not redundant for MPP. To get change at the federal level will
require more states getting aboard the medical marijuana
bandwagon, said Bernath. "The way change will happen is that
when enough states adopt their own medical marijuana laws, the
federal government will no longer be able to ignore this."

To that end, MPP will continue to push for passage of state
medical marijuana laws, sometimes through the initiative and
referendum process and sometimes through the legislative
process. In Illinois, Minnesota, New Hampshire, and New York,
medical marijuana legislation got some traction this year. "We
can pick up next year where we left off," said Bernath.

DPA executive director Ethan Nadelmann, whose organization is
working on medical marijuana bills legislation in Connecticut
and New Jersey, was quick to add those states to the list. DPA
sees more bang for the buck in legislative efforts than
initiatives, he said. "Legislative campaigns cost money, but not
as much as ballot initiatives, and they have the advantage of
generating enormous amounts of free media," he said. "Since a
major part of the medical marijuana effort is about public
education, the more hearings you have and the more media they
generate, the better."

Bernath also pointed to MPP involvement in a Michigan medical
marijuana initiative campaign that is just getting underway and
suggested there may be more initiatives in other states. "The
polls are looking pretty good in Arizona, Idaho, and Ohio," he
said.

"This is where MPP and DPA have a slightly different
philosophy," said Nadelmann. "I hope the Michigan initiative
wins, and it would be helpful if it did, but as a matter of
resource allocation, I'm skeptical about the value added of
spending all that money to win one more state. But that's a
judgment call," he added.

NORML executive director Allen St. Pierre drew a distinction
between states that accepted medical marijuana through the
initiative process and those that accepted it through the
legislative process. "The initiatives covered a greater number
of stakeholders and are more functional than the ensuing laws,
which are very narrow in scope, serve fewer stakeholders, and
haven't changed the federal dynamic of those states'
representation in Washington," he argued. "If you look at who is
supporting Hinchey-Rohrabacher, it is the delegations from the
Western and Rocky Mountain states where support is strongest --
the states where medical marijuana came about through the
initiative process."

On the other hand, St. Pierre acknowledged, states that have
legalized medical marijuana through the legislative process have
fewer problems with recalcitrant law enforcement. "In large
parts of initiative states like California, Washington, and
Oregon, the police simply ignore the law," he pointed out. "But
when a medical marijuana bill goes through the legislature, law
enforcement is part of the process. The police got to have their
say. They lost, but at least they were sitting at the table."

Eleven years ago, no patients were protected by state medical
marijuana laws. Now, some 50 million Americans live in states
where they could be, and that's progress. But it also means that
some 250 million Americans continue without the protection of
state medical marijuana laws, and despite tentative advances in
the South and the Midwest, today those areas remain without any
such laws. In the last few years, progress has been made, but at
a painfully slow pace. Perhaps that will change next year, with
a number of states well into legislative consideration of
medical marijuana bills.

And perhaps things will change at the federal level the year
after that, especially if the Democrats extend and deepen their
control of Congress. But at this juncture, the only likely
federal changes will come if one of the lawsuits turns out
victorious, and that means going back to the states and
whittling away at medical marijuana prohibition one statehouse
or one popular vote at a time.

================

2. Drug War Chronicle Book Review: "High Society: How Substance
Abuse Ravages America and What to Do About It," by Joseph
Califano (2007, Public Affairs Press, 270 pp., $26.95 HB)
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/joseph_califano_high_society_book_review

There's an old saying that there's nothing worse than a reformed
smoker, and Joe Califano is making a strong bid to be the mother
of all reformed smokers. The former four-pack-a-day,
chain-smoking Secretary of Health Education and Welfare in the
Carter administration who helped orchestrate the country's first
major anti-smoking campaign has since gone on to create the
National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA),
nominally at Columbia University, which for the past 15 years he
has used as a base for lecturing the nation on the dangers of
drug and alcohol use.

For Califano, it seems, there is no such thing as non-harmful
drug use. Oh, he will, hidden far down in some paragraph deep in
the middle of a chapter, admit that most teen smokers or
drinkers don't become pot smokers or most pot smokers don't end
up as heroin addicts, but such a tiny admission comes only after
he has besieged the reader with a relentless barrage of factoids
suggesting just the opposite. One gets the impression that if
Joe Califano had his way, it would be a tee-totaling world.

"High Society" is both Califano's argument for a massive
offensive to reduce substance use and his blueprint for how to
get it done. As a self-appointed leading advocate for public
health adept at getting public attention, he deserves to be read
by people interested in drug law reform, not least because they
will invariably encounter his ideas among those too often on the
other side of the issue.

Importantly for drug reformers, Califano explicitly articulates
what is perhaps the most serious obstacle to ending drug
prohibition: The argument that drug use is immoral because it
enslaves drug users and robs them of free will. While that
argument is rarely articulated in policy circles, one gets the
sense that it is percolating beneath the surface. How can you
legalize drugs when drug use is just "wrong"? (Forget for now
the inconstancy and hypocrisy of arguing that pot-smoking is
"wrong" but beer-drinking isn't, or it's only "wrong" if you're
an alcoholic.)

But Califano deserves attention too because although he is often
wrongheaded, he isn't always wrongheaded. Yes, substance abuse
is a serious social problem. Yes, alcohol and tobacco kill lots
of people. Yes, we can't arrest or imprison our way out of the
problem -- for certain. Yes, drug treatment is under-funded,
under-studied, and too often little more than a money-making
racket. He's spoken out against mandatory minimum drug
sentencing and called for repeal of the Higher Education Act's
infamous drug provision.

Unfortunately for the cause of scientific rigor (and
science-based drug policy), Califano and his CASA caliphate have
proven more adept at advocacy and press release-writing than
statistics. Califano has been famously caught out distorting
youth drinking figures
(http://www.alcoholfacts.org/CASAAlcoholStatisticsAbuse.html)
and over-hyping college drug use figures
(http://www.stats.org/stories/2007/is_there_college_crisis_mar21_07.htm).
Just last week, he was on CNN falsely warning that prescription
drug abuse could be more popular than marijuana among kids
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maia-szalavitz/reality-check-pills-not_b_55192.html).

With its barrage of factoids disguised as argumentation, "High
Society" suffers from some of the same flaws as Califano's and
CASA's other work. Some of his factoids are just plain
deceptive, as when he lumps the cost of enforcing the drug laws,
which is a policy choice, in with the costs of substance abuse
or when he notes the rapid increase in teenagers in drug
treatment for marijuana without mentioning that a majority of
them were sent there by courts or schools as a reflexive
response to getting caught smoking pot. Some are simple truisms
disguised as scientific breakthroughs. "Alcoholics are likely to
abuse other drugs!" he exclaims. That's more exciting (and
scary) than noting that people who like one drug might like
other drugs too.

Califano uses his onslaught of statistical half-truths and
deceptions to push for more prevention, more and better
treatment, more law enforcement (and certainly not drug
legalization!), and a general crusade against substance abuse.
No one is going to argue against more drug prevention -- if it
imparts accurate information and not just scare tactics -- or
more access to better drug treatment -- as long as it is not
coerced treatment. But while Califano criticizes programs like
DARE as ineffective, his own work suggests a certain
susceptibility to the propagandistic impulse. And he is
certainly a proponent of forced treatment. He thinks we have too
many people in jail for drugs, but while we have 'em, we might
as well force drug treatment on them, parole them on the
abstinence model, and throw them back in the clink if they fall
off the wagon.

He would also like to see more marijuana arrests. In fact, he
points to former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani's jihad
against pot-smokers, when New York accounted for almost 10% of
pot arrests nationwide, as a good model.

Califano deserves to be read by drug reformers because he is
going to be widely read by well-meaning people with an interest
in substance abuse. His exaggerations, distortions, and
hyperbole will need to be countered. And, as I noted above, he
isn't all wrong. Still, he and CASA are pernicious enough that
if you're going to read "High Society," I encourage you to do so
at the library or to order a used copy. Califano has vowed to
turn all profits from the book over to CASA, and we don't want
to encourage them.

================

3. We Want Pardons: Petition to Save Bush's Legacy by Persuading
Him to Pardon Thousands of Nonviolent Drug Offenders
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/petition_to_pardon_thousands_of_nonviolent_drug_offenders

(Please visit http://stopthedrugwar.org/wewantpardons to send a
copy of this petition in your own name to President Bush,
Vice-President Cheney, and your US Representative and Senators
if you live in the US.)

We, the undersigned, ask you to save your legacy by releasing
thousands of nonviolent drug offenders from federal prison
before you leave office. Short of taking such a measure, you
will be doomed to go down in history as a hypocrite.

Unlike President Clinton, you cannot point to a record of mercy
toward people caught in the criminal justice system. While the
overall Clinton record in criminal justice was not lenient, he
did commute the sentences of 63 people, most of them neither
wealthy nor powerful, including 29 nonviolent drug offenders
(http://www.usdoj.gov/pardon/clinton_comm.htm).

You, by contrast, commuted only three prisoners' sentences prior
to helping Scooter Libby, one every two years. You have pardoned
four times as many Thanksgiving turkeys
(http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DebraJSaunders/2006/11/23/pardon_more_than_the_turkey)
as people you've released from prison.

Even worse, in 2003 your attorney general, John Ashcroft, issued
guidelines requiring federal prosecutors to always seek the
maximum possible amount of prison time
(http://www.crimelynx.com/ashchargememo.html) for defendants,
with only limited exceptions permitted.

The measure we've called for will undoubtedly be controversial,
but you will have defenders from across the political spectrum
(http://www.nationalreview.com/12feb96/drug.html). Advocates
will assist your staff in finding appropriate cases
(http://www.famm.org/ExploreSentencing/TheIssue/FacesofFAMM.aspx)
-- reopening cases you've previously rejected would give the
project a good head start. Clemency petitions
(http://www.cjpf.org/clemency/federal.html) will undoubtedly
start to pour in once you put the word out. You can answer
critics by saying we need to redirect our resources
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/347/report.shtml)
toward national security instead. And it will be consistent with
the sympathy you've expressed in the past, based on your
personal experiences, for people who have struggled with
substance abuse.

In the nation that is the world's leading jailer
(http://www.sentencingproject.org/IssueAreaHome.aspx?IssueID=2),
which incarcerates a far greater percentage of its population
than any other nation yet calls itself "land of the free," the
president who helps to reverse that pattern will ultimately be
recognized for it. Indeed, the "tough-on-crime" laws that have
led us to this situation were mainly enacted for political
reasons (http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/incarcerex.cfm). Please
pardon or commute the sentences of thousands of nonviolent drug
offenders; please rescind the aforementioned Ashcroft directive;
renounce your support for the drug war (at least in its current
form); and call on Congress to repeal mandatory minimum
sentences and authorize downward revision of most federal
sentencing guidelines.

You have a year and a half left to prove that justice is for
everyone -- not just for your friends. Will you rise to the
occasion? History is watching.

(Please visit http://stopthedrugwar.org/wewantpardons to send a
copy of this petition in your own name to President Bush,
Vice-President Cheney, and your US Representative and Senators
if you live in the US.)

================

4. Weekly: Blogging @ the Speakeasy
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/blogging_at_the_speakeasy_every_day

Along with our weekly in-depth Chronicle reporting, DRCNet has
since late summer also been providing daily content in the way
of blogging in the "Stop the Drug War Speakeasy"
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy), as well as Latest News
links (upper right-hand corner of most web pages), event
listings (lower right-hand corner) and other info. Check out
DRCNet every day to stay on top of the drug reform game!

This week:

* Scott Morgan brings us "Ann Althouse Insults Medical
Marijuana," "They're Trying to Clone Drug-sniffing Dogs!,"
"Positive Drug Tests Don't Prove Impairment," "Rudy Giuliani
Hates Medical Marijuana, But He Loves OxyContin" and "Opposing
the Drug War Doesn?t Make Us 'Pro-drug.'"

* Phil Smith pens "Home State Blues, or What's an Itinerant
Activist To Do?" (Phil moves around a lot) and promises an
examination of Rudy Giuliani's drug war record shortly.

* David Borden writes about "A better mayor, on drug policy at
least" and posts an extensively-linked version of our new "We
Want Pardons" petition.

David Guard has been busy too, posting a plethora of press
releases, action alerts, job listings and other interesting
items reposted from many allied organizations around the world
in our "In the Trenches" activist feed
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy/trenches).

Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy/reader to join our
Reader Blogs.

Thanks for reading, and writing...

================

5. Appeal: A Victory is In the Works, With Your Help
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/hea_victory_is_in_the_works

Years of work have brought DRCNet and our allies near to an
historic victory in Congress. Since 1998 DRCNet has campaigned
for repeal of an infamous law, authored by drug warrior
congressman Mark Souder, that delays or denies federal financial
aid to would-be students because of drug convictions. Last month
a committee of the US Senate approved a bill that among other
things would remove the "drug question" from the federal
financial aid form -- not quite full repeal, but close -- the
fight is not over yet, though, and we need your donations to
help us finish the job. Please visit
http://stopthedrugwar.org/donate to donate today!

DRCNet's most recent work to bring this about include organizing
sign-on letters under the banner of the Coalition for Higher
Education Act Reform (CHEAR), including one sent to US Senators
and signed by 120 organizations including many of the nation's
largest advocacy groups. We founded CHEAR in 1999 -- a few
months after the law was passed, but before it took effect --
and have built it up ever since -- just one part of the
multi-faceted effort we've put in to bring things to this point.
(Visit http://www.raiseyourvoice.com to learn more.)

Your donations will enable us to lobby hard the next few months
to protect this victory and to push to turn it into something
even bigger -- full repeal of a federal drug law, something that
hasn't happened in the US since 1970. And your donations will
turn this already successful campaign into a larger one taking
on more "collateral consequences" of the drug war -- mobilizing
the groups we've worked with already to repeal similar bans in
welfare and housing and voting law, to get sentencing laws
changed and more. We've been "pounding the pavement" going to
the places we need to be to find the partners we need for this
expanded effort, and we need your donations to pay for staff
hours to continue and to put those connections to work.

So please make a generous donation to DRCNet today, to support
this campaign, and to help us take it into the next stage. Visit
http://stopthedrugwar.org/donate to make a donation online, or
send your check or money order to: DRCNet, P.O. Box 18402,
Washington, DC 20036. Donations to Drug Reform Coordination
Network to support our lobbying work are not tax-deductible.
Tax-deductible donations to support our educational work can be
made payable to DRCNet Foundation, same address. We can also
accept contributions of stock -- email borden [at] drcnet.org for the
necessary info. Thank you in advance for your support.

Sincerely,

David Borden, Executive Director
P.O. Box 18402
Washington, DC 20036
http://stopthedrugwar.org

================

6. Feedback: Do You Read Drug War Chronicle?
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle

Do you read Drug War Chronicle? If so, we'd like to hear from
you. DRCNet needs two things:

* We are in between newsletter grants, and that makes our need
for donations more pressing. Drug War Chronicle is free to read
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make a donation by credit card or PayPal, or to print out a form
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* Please send quotes and reports on how you put our flow of
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your own edification? Have you changed your mind about any
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involved in the cause? Do you reprint or repost portions of our
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those too. Please send your response -- one or two sentences
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Again, please help us keep Drug War Chronicle alive at this
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lobbying work -- online or check payable to Drug Reform
Coordination Network, same address. We can also accept
contributions of stock -- email borden [at] drcnet.org for the
necessary info.

================

7. This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/police_drug_corruption

The allure of Oxycontin (and its profits) snags two cops, a
deputy can't keep his paws off the meth, and a South Carolina
cop gets charged with drug dealing. Just another week in the
drug war. Let's get to it:

In Louisville, Kentucky, a Lebanon Junction police sergeant was
arrested June 25 on charges he planned to sell Oxycontin
(http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070626/ZONE10/706271202).
Sgt. Daniel Carr, 33, and his girlfriend were both arrested by
DEA agents on charges of conspiracy to possess with the intent
to distribute the popular narcotic pain reliever. Federal
officials said the arrests came after a months-long
investigation that resulted in several purchases of the drug
from an informant, culminating with a final buy attempt that
ended with the pair going to jail. Carr, a career law
enforcement officer, was fired immediately upon arrest. He and
his girlfriend face up to 20 years in federal prison.

In Newark, New Jersey, a former Newark narc was sentenced to
nearly seven years in federal prison June 26 for his role in an
Oyxcontin distribution ring
(http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2007/06/newark_excop_sentenced_for_rol_1.html).
John Fernandez, 37, pleaded guilty in September to one count of
conspiring to possess the drug with the intent to distribute.
According to federal officials, Hernandez sold more than 3,000
of the pills between September 2004 and September 2005. His
defense attorney said Hernandez got the pills legally for
injuries suffered on the job, but was persuaded to sell them by
another Newark police officer who has also been charged in the
case, but has been cooperating with authorities. Hernandez must
report to federal prison by July 23.

In Deming, New Mexico, a former Luna County sheriff's deputy got
a year's probation for stealing methamphetamine from a motorist
(http://www.lcsun-news.com/latest/ci_6282102). Former Deputy
Tommy Salas pleaded guilty June 25 to a misdemeanor count of
attempted possession of meth after being arrested in July 2006
for taking the dope off a driver at a traffic stop, but failing
to log it in. Salas, who had been on leave since his arrest,
resigned his position July 2 as part of the plea agreement, with
his attorney saying "he needs to move on."

In Lake City, South Carolina, a Lake City police officer was
charged July 2 with drug trafficking and other offenses
(http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=6719240&nav=0RaPTa6M).
Officer Shanita McKnight, 34, went down after an investigation
by the FBI, the State Law Enforcement Division, and the Florence
County Sheriff's Office. She is also charged with extortion, and
faces from 10 years to life in prison on the drug counts. Little
other information has been forthcoming.

================

8. Medical Marijuana: Rudy Giuliani Just Says No
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/rudy_giuliani_just_says_no_to_medical_marijuana

Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani rejected medical
marijuana when asked about it at a campaign stop Tuesday
(http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,288844,00.html), saying its
supporters really just want to legalize the weed. The comment
was not a major surprise, given the former New York City mayor's
previous pronouncements on the subject.

"I believe the effort to try and make marijuana available for
medical uses is really a way to legalize it. There's no reason
for it," Giuliani said during a town hall-style meeting at New
Hampshire Technical Institute. He added that there was no need
for it. "You can accomplish everything you want to accomplish
with things other than marijuana, probably better. There are
pain medications much superior to marijuana," he said.

According to Granite Staters for Medical Marijuana
(http://www.granitestaters.com), an advocacy group sponsored by
the Marijuana Policy Project that seeks to take advantage of New
Hampshire's key role in the presidential primary process to get
the candidates on the record on medical marijuana, Giuliani has
never said anything favorable about medical marijuana. That
would put him right beside the other first-tier Republican
contenders, among whom only Sen. John McCain has made the most
tepid remarks about "states' rights" when asked about the issue.
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney simply starts talking
about marijuana as a gateway drug when asked about it.

The Democratic field has been much friendlier to medical
marijuana, with no candidate rejecting it outright and several
going on the record saying they would end federal raids on
medical marijuana patients and providers in states where it is
legal. Rep. Dennis Kucinich is on the record as strongly
supporting medical marijuana, while former Sen. Mike Gravel
simply wants to legalize drugs.

In the Republican pack, Rep. Ron Paul is a strong supporter,
and, somewhat surprisingly, Rep. Tom Tancredo, mostly known for
his anti-illegal immigration stance, has consistently voted for
the Hinchey-Rohrabacher amendment, which would bar the use of
federal funds to raid patients and providers.

For a look at all the candidates' positions and pronouncements,
visit the GSMM voters' guide pages
(http://www.granitestaters.com/candidates).

================

9. The Drug Debate: American Mayors Urge "A New Bottom Line" and
a Public Health Approach for Drug Policy
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/united_states_mayors_conference_resolution_drugs_new_bottom_line

Meeting at its annual convention in Los Angeles late last month,
the US Conference of Mayors (http://www.usmayors.org) passed an
historic resolution putting America's chief elected municipal
officials on record urging a fundamental rethinking of the
country's drug policies. The mayors called for a public health
approach to drug use and abuse and "a new bottom line" in
assessing how and whether drug policies reduce harms associated
with drugs and society's effort to deal with them.

The US Conference of Mayors represents more than 1,100 mayors of
cities with a population over 30,000. The non-partisan group
plays a significant role in advocating for and setting national
urban policies. Resolutions passed at its conventions become
official policy.

The drug policy resolution, "A New Bottom Line in Reducing the
Harms of Substance Abuse
(http://usmayors.org/75thAnnualMeeting/resolutions_full.pdf),"
was introduced by long-time drug reform advocate Mayor Rocky
Anderson of Salt Lake City. It was adopted after debate at the
convention.

After a long series of "whereases" in which the resolution
recites a now-familiar litany of drug war failures and excesses
-- the huge number of drug war prisoners, the lack of spending
on drug treatment, the failure of expensive law enforcement
programs to affect drug price and availability, differential
racial impacts, the ineffectiveness of the drug czar's office,
massive marijuana arrests in the face of rising violent crime --
the resolution gets down to business:

"The United States Conference of Mayors believes the war on
drugs has failed and calls for a New Bottom Line in US drug
policy, a public health approach that concentrates more fully on
reducing the negative consequences associated with drug abuse,
while ensuring that our policies do not exacerbate these
problems or create new social problems of their own; establishes
quantifiable, short- and long-term objectives for drug policy;
saves taxpayer money; and holds state and federal agencies
accountable," the mayors resolved. "US policy should not be
measured solely on drug use levels or number of people
imprisoned, but rather on the amount of drug-related harm
reduced."

The mayors identified a number of specific policy objectives
they supported, including:

* Provide greater access to drug abuse treatment on demand,
such as methadone and other maintenance therapies;

* Eliminate the federal ban on funding sterile syringe access
programs;

* Establish local overdose prevention policies; and

* Direct a greater percentage of drug-war funding toward
evaluating the efficacy and accountability of current programs.

While the mayors did not explicitly call for an end to the drug
prohibition regime or even for an end to imprisoning drug users,
the resolution identified the large number of drug law offenders
behind bars and the racial disparities created by drug law
enforcement as examples of "drug-related harm."

"The mayors are clearly signaling the serious need for drug
policy reform, an issue that ranks in importance among the most
serious issues of the day," said Daniel Abrahamson, director of
legal affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance
(http://www.drugpolicy.org).

The drug prohibition regime appears increasingly hollow and
rotted from within. The resolution adopted last month by the US
Conference of Mayors is one more indication that what once was
fringe thought is now going mainstream.

================

10. Marijuana: California Superior Court Upholds Santa Barbara's
"Lowest Enforcement Priority" Law
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/california_court_throws_out_santa_barbara_lowest_priority_marijuana_slapp_suit

A California Superior Court judge Tuesday rebuffed an effort by
the city of Santa Barbara to undo the city's voter-mandated
policy of making the enforcement of the laws against marijuana
use the city's lowest law enforcement priority. Voters approved
the law, known as Measure P, last November with more than 65% of
the vote, but recalcitrant city officials sued local activist
Heather Pope, the initiative's proponent of record, in a bid to
get the measure overturned.

The city argued that the law should be overturned because it
interfered with state and federal marijuana law enforcement, but
Judge Thomas Anderle disagreed, dismissing the case. "Nothing in
[Measure P] prohibits enforcement of state law... Police
officers can still arrest those who violate drug possession laws
in their presence. The voters have simply instructed them that
they have higher priority work to do," he said in his ruling
(http://www.aclu.org/drugpolicy/medmarijuana/30447lgl20070710.html).
"Santa Barbara is free to decline to enforce federal criminal
statutes," he added. "Indeed, the Tenth Amendment to the United
States Constitution prohibits the federal government from
impressing 'into its service - and at no cost to itself - the
police officers of the 50 states.'"

Judge Anderle also cited California's ban on SLAPP suits, or
strategic lawsuits against public participation, which bars
officials from suing individuals for their political activities.
Although the city claimed in court filings that it sued Poet
only because it needed someone to sue to challenge the law,
Anderle found that the lawsuit arose from "her constitutional
right to participate in the process of formulating laws" and
thus violated the SLAPP suit law.

"Today's ruling is a major victory for the democratic process
and a resounding affirmation of voters' right to de-prioritize
marijuana enforcement," said Adam Wolf, an attorney with the
ACLU Drug Law Reform Project (http://www.aclu.org/drugpolicy),
which represented Poet in the proceedings and which filed the
successful motion to dismiss
(http://www.aclu.org/drugpolicy/decrim/29627lgl20070507.html).
"The people of Santa Barbara would rather local law enforcement
focus on combating serious crime than policing marijuana use.
Today's ruling confirms that the voters can make this
fundamentally local decision about their community's safety."

"It was terrifying to be sued by my own government, and for a
fleeting moment it made me feel maybe I shouldn't have gotten
involved in the democratic process," said Poet. "But this
decision proves we do have a voice and we should never be afraid
to use it. It also affirms that people in Santa Barbara, and
throughout America, can protect their communities by having
police focus on serious crime, rather than marijuana offenses."

Measure P makes "investigations, citations, arrests, property
seizures, and prosecutions for adult marijuana offenses, where
the marijuana was intended for adult personal use, the city of
Santa Barbara's lowest law enforcement priority." At least six
other California jurisdictions have enacted lowest law
enforcement priority initiatives as part of a broader effort to
end marijuana prohibition in the state.

================

11. Drug Testing: Tennessee Supreme Court Holds Off-Duty
Marijuana Use No Reason to Deny Workman's Comp Claim
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/494/tennessee_supreme_court_workmans_comp_marijuana_ruling

The Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled that a machine-shop worker
whose fingers were smashed in an on-the-job accident could not
be denied workman's compensation benefits for admitted
off-the-job marijuana use. His employer had sought to deny his
claim, arguing that he had violated the company's drug-free
workplace policy and that his off-duty pot-smoking had impaired
his reaction time, causing the injury.

The ruling came in Interstate Mechanical Contractors v. Billy
McIntosh
(http://www.tsc.state.tn.us/OPINIONS/dtSearch/dtSearch.html), in
which McIntosh's left hand was caught in a power roller machine
after a new employee he was teaching to operate it engaged the
rollers while McIntosh was setting a piece of metal. McIntosh
lost parts of his middle and index fingers. While hospitalized,
he tested positive for marijuana and admitted smoking it the
night before he was injured.

Tennessee's drug-free workplace law presumes that any injuries
to an employee who tests positive for illicit drugs are caused
by drug use, but the law also allows employees to enter evidence
to rebut that assumption. McIntosh successfully did just that.
Although a state medical toxicologist testified "that the level
of THC in McIntosh's system at the time of the injury would have
impaired his reaction time," both McIntosh's co-worker and his
shop foreman testified that he did not appear impaired. The
injury he suffered was caused not by pot-smoking but by an
inexperienced employee, McIntosh argued.

The trial court agreed, the company appealed, and now the state
Supreme Court has upheld the original verdict. "In this case,
the undisputed evidence... was that there would be no time to
react if a person had a hand next to a roller when it was
engaged," Justice William M. Barker wrote in the opinion. "The
rollers immediately grabbed McIntosh's hand. McIntosh had no
time to react."

Mark this down as a victory for workers.

================

12. Canada: A Majority Favors Marijuana Legalization, But
Arrests Are Rising
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/canadians_support_marijuana_legalization_but_arrests_increase

Even as new polling shows a majority of Canadian adults favors
legalizing marijuana and a United Nations survey shows that
Canada is one of the most pot-happy countries on the planet,
marijuana arrests up north are on the rise. Most observers
credit the increase in marijuana arrests to police forces no
longer dispirited by the prospect of imminent decriminalization,
as appeared to be the case under the former Liberal government.

In an Angus Reid poll
(http://www.angus-reid.com/admin/collateral/pdfs/polls/ARS_Drugs.pdf)
conducted in mid-June, 55% of respondents said marijuana should
be legalized. And while the Conservative government of Prime
Minister Steven Harper has rejected the marijuana
decriminalization proposal brought forward by the Liberals when
they were in power, only 38% agreed with that policy, with 52%
supporting the never-enacted Liberal proposal.

(The poll also found little support for the legalization of any
other drugs, with 9% supporting legal heroin, 8% supporting
legal cocaine, and 7% for legal methamphetamine. And while a
surprisingly high 71% favored mandatory minimum prison sentences
for large marijuana grow operators and drug dealers, only 37%
favored eliminating harm reduction programs such as needle
exchanges and safe injection sites.)

This week, Canadian newspapers ran a spate of stories based on
the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime 2007 World Drug
Report (http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/world_drug_report.html)
highlighting high marijuana usage levels in Canada. According to
the UN report, Canadians smoke pot at four times the global
rate, and, with 16.8% of adults reporting past year usage,
Canada has the fifth highest use rate, behind only Zambia (17.7%
in 2003), Ghana (21.5% in 1998) and Papua New Guinea and
Micronesia, which tied for first place at 29% each in 1995.

The report inspired the National Post to call for a change in
the country's marijuana laws in a Wednesday editorial bluntly
titled "Legalizing Pot Makes Sense
(http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/editorialsletters/story.html?id=0fbef1e0-fd5a-41b9-bd4d-97d90da5d975)."
After noting that if Canada had alcohol or tobacco use rates
four times the world average, the results would be starkly
apparent in illness and mortality figures, the Post wondered:

"But where is the health 'footprint' of our love for the weed?
Maybe it's hidden in our labor productivity statistics; it
certainly doesn't seem to have any impact on our life expectancy
or our other measurable health outcomes. Despite dauntingly high
ostensible rates of use, and despite the hazards of adulteration
and intensification that are attendant upon cannabis's illegal
status, we don't seem to be doing ourselves any major harm from
a long experiment in comparative weed tolerance.

"This is a strong datum in favor of the view that marijuana is
fundamentally innocuous compared with the 'historical' drugs of
abuse that enjoy broad social and legal acceptance, and a blow
to those who contend that it is a 'gateway' to harder drugs,
since there is nothing in the UN data on those drugs to suggest
that we are passing through that gate in particularly large
numbers. That would seem to leave very little, aside from the
omnipresent trade and travel considerations that come from being
a neighbor of the US, to stand logically in the way of
decriminalization."

But the views of the Post and numerous commissions and
parliamentary panels notwithstanding, Canada under the Harper
government is not moving in that direction. Instead, the
Canadian Press reported Tuesday that arrests for marijuana
possession had jumped between 20% and 50% in several major
Canadian cities last year
(http://www.thestar.com/News/article/233760). As a result,
thousands of Canadians now have criminal records for an offense
that just a few years ago was on the verge of extinction.

"Everybody was waiting for what was going to happen... There'd
be no use clogging up the court system with that
decriminalization bill there. When that was defeated, I'd say it
was business as usual," Terry McLaren, president of the Ontario
Association of Chiefs of Police, told The Canadian Press.

"They may charge more people, but they're not deterring youth,
they're not putting in funds for education or prevention. The
(Tories) have a very regressive policy that's in line with what
the US is doing in its so-called war on drugs -- which is a
total failure," noted New Democratic Party Member of Parliament
Libby Davies.

Another drug policy reformer, attorney and criminology professor
Eugene Oscapaella of the Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy
(http://www.cfdp.ca) noted that regulation and public health
education have succeeded in driving down cigarette and alcohol
consumption, where prohibition has failed. "Going into the 21st
century, we should know better than to bludgeon the use of this
drug with criminal law," he said. "It doesn't work, hasn't
worked, there's no prospect that it ever will work. Yet we
continue to do it."

And Canada will continue to do it as long as the Conservatives
hold power. But even a change in governance does not mean
substantive marijuana law reform will come to Canada. In the
previous Liberal government, although every party except the
Conservatives supported the decriminalization proposal, the
government failed to bring it to a vote. Somehow, the majority
of Canadians who favor legalization need to translate that
support into political action.

================

13. Barry Beyerstein: We Have Lost One of the Best
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/tribute_to_barry_beyerstein

(reprinted from The Trebach Report, http://www.trebach.com)

When I say one of the best, I mean that in every sense of those
words. Barry, who just died
(http://www.straight.com/article-97169/sfu-professor-barry-beyerstein-dies-of-a-heart-attack)
at the young age of 60, was a superb scholar
(http://www.crhp.net/article.html), teacher, social activist
(http://www.pointofinquiry.org/?p=59), and human being
(http://lippard.blogspot.com/2007/06/barry-beyerstein-rip.html).
He was wise, compassionate, and kind to everyone with whom he
came in contact. I cannot remember in all of the years I knew
him -- almost half of his life -- any action on his part that
was not gentle and caring and very, very wise.

My condolences to his wife, Susie, and his children, daughter
Lindsay (http://www.flickr.com/people/majikthise/) and son
Loren. Thanks to Ethan Nadelmann and Kevin Zeese for telling me
about this sad but important news.

Here are my reflections, somewhat meandering but that is how I
am feeling this morning -- that and traumatized and a bit pissed
at the sometimes cruel vagaries of fate.

It has been easy to follow Lindsay's progress because she has
become one of the new breed of internet experts or bloggers
(http://majikthise.typepad.com/majikthise_/2007/06/barry-l-beyerst.html),
affiliated with, I believe, Google. Why do I remember those
years ago, when a much younger Lindsay intrigued a visiting
scholar from France because the French she learned in school and
in which she was fluent -- was, well, classical and a modern
French person rarely heard it anymore? Barry and Susie chortled
as they told me that story. I am sure I do not have it exactly
correct and hope I will be straightened out soon.

I first met him and his wife, Susie, when they attended one of
my comparative drug policy seminars in London at Imperial
College (http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/). This must have been in
the early 80s or late 70s. My memory is not the best but I
recall quite well that Bruce Alexander was also at the seminar.
At any rate, I can recall that we had great Canadian
professionals in attendance and that we all stayed in student
housing at Imperial in the heart of London, or close to the
heart. It was a fine time and we kept in contact ever since. By
then I am sure that I had completed my first monograph on drug
policy, The Heroin Solution
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/486/book_review_arnold_trebach_heroin_solution).
It covered the comparative history of drug control in the US and
the UK -- and of course the history of heroin. Soon I went to
work on the next one, which dealt with the then-current
situation in the US, with a bit of comparative info on Canada
and also of course on Britain. I wanted to title it The War on
Us. The frontispiece quote would be "We have met the Enemy and
it is Us." I am sure Barry liked that idea. My publisher
convinced me to title it The Great Drug War
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/410/greatdrugwar.shtml).
Even today, I do not particularly like that title. The biggest
point here is that I could count on Barry and also Bruce to
react to every twist in my research and to read all of the
manuscript. What dedication and what enormous help! I quoted
Barry extensively in an important footnote in that book.

Barry and Bruce were quite helpful as I later went about the
process of setting up the Drug Policy Foundation, with the
constant close help of Kevin and my wife, Marjy. Both Barry and
Bruce were on the Advisory Board and provided wonderful
guidance.

My family considered Barry and Susie's family an extension of
ours, even though we did not keep constantly in touch. When our
middle son, Paul, married Joanne Hughes in Seattle, Barry and
Susie were in attendance.

Barry's interests went far beyond drug policy and in more recent
years he was heavily involved in the skeptical
inquiry/paranormal
(http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/beyerstein-obit/)
arena. This is a field beyond my ken and I cannot talk sensibly
about it. However, I will attach links to other comments on him
and I plan to write more about him in the near future. I will
also issue corrections when anyone sends in information
contradicting my chancy memory.

In closing this rambling memoir I recall a note Steve Jobs just
sent out to the effect that we are all going to die and while we
are here we damned well better live our lives so that we do that
which is closest to our hearts and our souls and to our personal
sense of ethics. All that -- and I would say without fear. Of
life or of death. I would also say that Barry did just that, all
of it.

Arnold Trebach

================

14. Web Scan
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/drug_policy_links

PBS report on Alex White Plume and the Lakota hemp case:
http://www.pbs.org/pov/pov2007/standing/update.html

High Times interview with Carl Olsen, discussing his recently
filed federal lawsuit seeking legal protection for the religious
of marijuana, conducted by Jon Gettman:
http://www.hightimes.com/ht/legal/content.php?bid=672&aid=3

summer 2007 issue of The SSDP Voice:
http://www.ssdp.org/newsletter/200707/

July issue of Heroin Times:
http://herointimes.com/jul07/content.html

NPR report on lifting of DC needle exchange funding ban:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11664095

"Hard Road Home," Tony Papa on Julio Medina and the Exodus
Transitional Community:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-papa/hard-road-home_b_55986.html

summer issue of the Cannabinoid Chronicles:
http://www.thevics.com/publications/vol4/VICSNews4_10.pdf

LEAP web site relaunched:
http://www.leap.cc

================

15. Weekly: This Week in History
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/493/drug_war_history

July 13, 1931: The "International Convention for Limiting the
Manufacture and Regulating the Distribution of Narcotic Drugs"
is convened in Geneva.

July 18, 1956: The Narcotics Control Act/Daniel Act is passed,
establishing mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders.

July 14, 1969: President Richard Nixon sends a message to
Congress entitled "Special Message to the Congress on Control of
Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs." The message asks Congress to
enact legislation to combat rising levels of drug use.

July 17, 1980: Financed by wealthy ranchers and drug lords under
Roberto Suarez Gomez, the "Cocaine Generals" of the Bolivian
"cocaine coup" seize power. Within months it is learned that
Pierluigi Pagliai and Stefano Delle Chiaie were right-wing
Propaganda Due (P-2) terrorists with suspected kills on three
continents and Klaus Altmann was none other than fugitive Nazi
war criminal Klaus Barbie, the Butcher of Lyons. Barbie, who had
sent hundreds of Jews to their deaths, had avoided prosecution
when Americans in occupied Germany recruited him as an informer
in 1947 and engineered his escape.

July 17, 1984: The Drug War and Cold War collide when the
Washington Times runs a story detailing DEA informant Barry
Seal's successful infiltration of the Medellin cartel's
operations in Panama. The story was leaked by Oliver North and
purported to show the Nicaraguan Sandanistas' involvement in the
drug trade. Ten days later, Carlos Lehder, Pablo Escobar, Jorge
Ochoa, and Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha are indicted by a Miami
Federal grand jury based on evidence obtained by Seal. In
February 1986, Seal is assassinated in Baton Rouge, LA, by
gunmen hired by the cartel.

July 13, 1995: The New York Times reports the FDA has concluded
for the first time that nicotine is an addictive drug that
should be regulated.

July 13, 1998: The Associated Press reports that