May 2003 Ibogaine Forum in NYC (April 30, 2003)
The leading edge researchers and scientists and other experienced people gather in NYC to discuss and present evidence about this promising tool in helping people get off mentally and physically addictive drugs.

Bush the Elder's: Iraq-gate, the Unresolved Questions (April 30, 2003)
"In the early 1990's much was made of improprieties between key Reagan and Bush I administration members and their ties to Iraq and key financiers. Many of the questions from this era have yet to be answered and many key players figure more prominently today."

Company Chosen By Pentagon To Extinguish Iraqi Oil Well Fires Has History Of Supporting Terrorist Regimes (April 30, 2003)
Vice President Dick Cheney's chums at Halliburton and some of its subsidiaries have a bad track record of ripping off US taxpayers while working hand in glove with some of the Earth's worst human rights offenders and planet rapers.

Did our leaders lie to us? Do we even care? (April 30, 2003)
"But we're heading for big trouble as a nation if we aren't even concerned that our heads of state may be manipulating us by manipulating the truth. In a nation where hypocrisy is rewarded, expect more lies."

Mapping the Real Deal: The American Tapeworm (April 30, 2003)
"The investment economics of American imperial conquest work more along the lines of the tapeworm than of the Romans."

African shrub may help drug withdrawal (April 30, 2003)
"Ibogaine is a compound that comes from the root of the plant Tabernanthe iboga, found in Gabon, West Africa. Followers of the Bwiti religion use it in ceremonies for its vision-giving properties. But in the early 1960s, ibogaine became associated with reducing drug cravings among heroin addicts attempting to withdraw."

Ten years since the Waco massacre (April 30, 2003)
"April 19 marked the tenth anniversary of the Waco massacre, one of the most brutal acts of domestic state repression and mass murder in US history."

Risky business... (April 29, 2003)
"But critics say the [$43 million] grant [given the Taliban by the GW Bush administration in May, 2001] was the latest example of how the U.S. fight against drugs has clashed with foreign policy to make foreign dictators and despots wealthy. And, when combined with prices driven up by prohibition, they say it has helped terrorists kill people."

High death toll in Thailand's drug war (April 29, 2003)
"A three month war on drugs in Thailand ends on Wednesday, with a likely death toll of over 2,200."

Fitzgerald: War on drugs lost in Colombia (April 29, 2003)
"The war on drugs is not working in Colombia and could drag America into a civil war, U.S. Sen. Peter Fitzgerald told students Wednesday."

Coffee-growing crisis in Colombia threatens war on drugs, insurgents (April 29, 2003)
"With coffee prices near historic lows, the economic crisis facing thousands of small farmers in this picturesque region also is feeding Colombia's civil war and could threaten an intensive U.S.-funded antinarcotics program."

UN Body Presses on With War on Drugs Despite Opposition (April 29, 2003)
"The United Nations has decided to press ahead with its controversial war on drugs despite opposition from European countries favoring a more liberal policy."

Lula: The Drug War is a Class War (April 29, 2003)
"Brazil's President Opens the 'Black Box' of Narco-Corruption."

O Cannabis (April 27, 2003)
"Canada has all this freedom. It seems so progressive. And here we are coming from the United States which was supposedly built on freedom and progression but instead, in comparison now, it's like we're from a very conservative, backward country."

U.S.: Guantanamo Kids at Risk (April 26, 2003)
"Secretary Rumsfeld called those detained at Guantanamo the "worst of the worst,"" said Jo Becker, child rights advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. "It's hard to believe that a 13 year old could fit that category."

Bush Shows 'Pattern of Hostility' Toward Civil Rights (April 26, 2003)
"The report, entitled 'The Bush Administration Takes Aim: Civil Rights Under Attack,' charges that the administration is not only rejecting the next generation of civil-rights protections, such as providing more sanctions for racial profiling by police, it is also actively eroding existing civil rights protections."

Amy Goodman Interview with Robert Fisk (April 26, 2003)
"Somebody or some institution or some organization today now is actively setting out to destroy the cultural identity of Iraq and the ministries that form the core of a new Iraq government."

Turner Calls Rival Media Mogul Murdoch 'Warmonger' (April 26, 2003)
"Ted Turner said on Thursday too few people owned too many media organizations and called rival media baron Rupert Murdoch a warmonger for what he said was Murdoch's promotion of the U.S. war in Iraq."

Just Say No To a Drugs Policy That Doesn't Work (April 24, 2003)
"America's strong arm reaches deep into the interstices of every policy. It is America's war-on-drugs policy, pushed by Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr, that imposes rigid prohibition on the rest of the world. No softening of internal laws is permitted."

Sacred Sexuality and the Psychedelic Experience (April 24, 2003)
"In the proper environment, psychedelic lovers can be transported to heavenly realms beyond description. In the best of situations, this can actually become a truly sacred event, a genuine mystical or religious experience."

Health Canada considers abandoning highly potent marijuana strain (April 24, 2003)
"A strain of government-certified marijuana is extremely potent but difficult to grow, and may eventually be abandoned as too much trouble, officials say."

Six UGA athletes arrested on marijuana charges (April 24, 2003)
"An anonymous phone call to the UGA campus police resulted in the arrests of six Georgia athletes Tuesday and severely altered the outlook of the Bulldogs' football opener against Clemson on Aug. 30."

No Tax Deduction for Medical Marijuana (April 24, 2003)
"A Canadian woman with multiple sclerosis is upset that the government won't allow her to deduct marijuana as a medical expense on her tax return, the Halifax Herald reported April 16."

Santa Cruz, Calif., sues feds over medical marijuana raid (April 24, 2003)
"Local officials filed a lawsuit Wednesday demanding that federal agents stay away from a farm growing marijuana for sick and dying people."

Gephardt says he would repeal tax cuts to subsidize health care (April 24, 2003)
"Gephardt said his plan would provide health care to most of the 41 million uninsured Americans."

Dixie Chicks 'get death threats' (April 24, 2003)
"In an interview on US network ABC's Primetime show, which is being aired on Thursday, Maines said she regretted the remark but remained passionately against the war."

Mich. Judge Bars Peyote Use for Boy (April 23, 2003)
"A 4-year-old boy must wait until he is physically and emotionally ready before he can ingest sacramental peyote at American Indian ceremonies, a family court judge said."

4:20 Drug War News (April 23, 2003)
Interviews with many of the folk who attended the recent national NORML conference in California.

US Companies Quietly Caught Trading with the Enemy Commentary: U.S. Companies Risk Only a Wrist Slap (April 23, 2003)
"When individual Americans are accused of helping terrorists, they're thrown in jail and their names are dragged through the mud. But when major U.S. corporations are caught trading with the enemy, they get just a slap on the wrist from the government."

Bill Moyers on Privatizing Democracy (April 23, 2003)
"What's emerged full-blown is the military-industrial complex famously predicted and feared by President Eisenhower fifty years ago. It's no longer possible to tell where the corporate world ends and government begins."

The unfortunate poster boy (April 23, 2003)
"The U.S. military airlifted 12-year-old Iraqi orphan Ali Abbas to Kuwait for better medical care. But he's still angry that we killed his family. What's his problem?"

MPs favour legalisation of soft drugs (April 23, 2003)
"A large parliamentary majority, with the exception of the Christian Democrat CDA, supports a plea from the president of the Maastricht court to legalise soft drugs."

Free Speech Fight In New Mexico (April 23, 2003)
Teacher is suspended in New Mexico for allowing students to take part in an after-school poetry reading of anti-war poetry at a local book store, instead of insisting they stay home sucking up more tv.

So where are they, Mr Blair? (April 23, 2003)
"Not one illegal warhead. Not one drum of chemicals. Not one incriminating document. Not one shred of evidence that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction in more than a month of war and occupation."

Fake whistleblower memos on media bias in the Iraq war (April 23, 2003)
"An anti-Semitic web site called the Barnes Report is distributing fake whistleblower memos on media bias in the Iraq war that play on public skepticism about the accuracy of U.S. news coverage."

Calif. Locale to Sue Feds Over Medical Marijuana (April 22, 2003)
"A California county and its major city plan to sue the federal government on Wednesday to allow the use of medical marijuana in a lawsuit they said will mark the first legal challenge over the issue brought by a local government."

Medical marijuana user speaks about treatment (April 22, 2003)
"A day following April 20, or 4-20, a number associated with marijuana use, George McMahon spoke on campus about his involvement with medical marijuana."

Federal marijuana too potent to use (April 22, 2003)
"Health Canada's medical tests delayed again; first crop inconsistent, second crop may be abandoned as too strong, too hard to grow."

Hundreds Rally In Boulder For Legalization Of Marijuana (April 22, 2003)
"A crowd estimated by police at 800 gathered at Farrand Field at the University of Colorado on Sunday to support the legalization of marijuana, and smoke a little weed."

Planned marijuana demonstration forces closure of Albuquerque park (April 22, 2003)
"Officers closed Roosevelt Park Sunday. In past years, the park has drawn hundreds of people each April 20th to celebrate marijuana use."

Marijuana for MS (April 22, 2003)
"Researchers from the Institute of Neurology in London are now experimenting with marijuana to treat the symptoms of multiple sclerosis."

Drug gangs take poppy growing to US doorstep (April 22, 2003)
"Mexico's Pacific coast has become the new front-line in the US war against hard drugs after farmers switched from marijuana to a deadly new product: high-grade opium poppies."

Poppies replace marijuana in Mexican hills (April 22, 2003)
"Marijuana has long been the main illegal crop on Mexico’s Pacific coast, but now growers are switching to a more deadly and profitable product: high-grade opium poppies used to make heroin."

New Haven Police Lieutenant Faces Charges in Marijuana Case (April 22, 2003- Free NYTimes registration required)
"A New Haven police lieutenant was arrested yesterday after officers executing a search warrant found a pound and a half of marijuana in the apartment she shared with her boyfriend, the authorities said."

Local Officials Rise Up to Defy The Patriot Act (April 22, 2003)
"The Arcata ordinance may be the first, but it may not be the last. Across the country, citizens have been forming Bill of Rights defense committees to fight what they consider the most egregious curbs on liberties contained in the Patriot Act."

House Speaker Signals Opposition to Medical-Marijuana Bill (April 22, 2003)
Heartless US politicos oppose having hearts and compassion, prefering to promote their tough law and order stance, to the detriment of patients in dire need of the help medical marijuana gives them.

Topsy-turvy times for pot advocates Medical use has wide support, but government cracking down (April 22, 2003)
"While most Americans say they support medical marijuana, the federal government has won several high-profile criminal cases against cannabis clubs and pot growers in the past year."

Profiting From War (April 22, 2003)
"The blatant war-mongering followed immediately by profiteering inevitably raise questions about the real reasons American men and women have been fighting and dying in Iraq."

U.S. Links Illegal Drug Production, Environmental Damage (April 22, 2003)
US prohibitionists utilizing crap reasoning to continue justifying their evil war on some drugs and users.

Anisq' Oyo' Park Goes Up in Smoke (April 22, 2003)
"Music from several bands and the words of pro-hemp activists mingled with swirling wisps of marijuana smoke in the air above Anisq' Oyo' Park on Easter Sunday."

Marijuana ads prove unnecessary and a waste of American tax dollars (April 22, 2003)
"Instead of using the billions of taxpayer dollars to give facts about marijuana effects and abuse, they decided to go back to the government’s 'reefer madness' approach of the 1930s. However, their approach is failing."

Getting High for Science (April 22, 2003)
"So, even as the Feds spend $20 billion a year on the drug war, scientists in the US and abroad have begun studying the potential benefits of X, marijuana, and psychedelic mushrooms. Here's a look at the whys behind the highs."

Candidate For Cannabis (April 22, 2003)
"To be honest, not many showed up in support of the pro-marijuana rally on the Texas Tech campus. But Dr. Chip Peterson did. Peterson is the Libertarian candidate for congress in the special election to replace Larry Combest. And while Peterson does not recommend marijuana use, he also doesn't condone the current ban."

Tattered but triumphant (April 22, 2003)
"The authorities wanted it. The bookstore owner concealed it...Exactly what book did suspected methamphetamine maker Chris Montoya buy from her bookstore to create all the fuss? A book on Japanese calligraphy, of course." Yet another example of a completely useless watste of US taxpayer money on the part of intrusive, un-American feds working overtime to overturn our Constitutionally protected rights.

Why did 420 come to mean that? (April 20, 2003)
"True story? Well, it's at least the most elaborate..: According to Steven Hager, editor of High Times, the term 420 originated at San Rafael High School, in 1971, among a group of about a dozen pot-smoking wiseacres who called themselves the Waldos."

What time is it? It's 4:20! (April 20, 2003)
What are stoners talking about using this phrase?

4/20 an underground marijuana holiday (April 20, 2003)
"Internationally, it's become known as the 'universal smoke day,' and even the occasional weed smoker will light up to commemorate its underground culture."

HUD's Financial Woes Continue (April 20, 2003)
"In 1999 the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) was unable to account for $59 billion and, at the time, placed much of the blame on the federal agency's financial-management computer systems. Four years later, despite hundreds of millions of dollars being paid to federal contractors to fix the problem, HUD still cannot rely on these systems to account for its funds."

For the People on the Streets, This Is Not Liberation But a New Colonial Oppression (April 19, 2003)
"America's war of 'liberation' may be over. But Iraq's war of liberation from the Americans is just about to begin."

"Why We Didn't Remove Saddam" by George H.W. Bush (April 19, 2003)
Time magazine has removed this article from their website, but Russ Kick at Memory Hole hasn't forgotten it, and posts it here.

Hunter S. Thompson Engaged! (April 17, 2003)
Not only is the guy engaged to his assistant, but he still smokes pot, hash, and takes LSD-25, "real LSD." He also sees a bit of the ol' Nazism in the current War on Marijuana and Users thereof.

Some Peace Activists Won't Pay Fed Taxes (April 17, 2003)
"Thousands of Americans chose not to pay their federal income tax this year as a political statement, many because they don't want their money supporting the U.S. military."

Key Republican Not Sure on Patriot Act (April 17, 2003)
"The Bush administration's plans to expand a post-Sept. 11 anti-terrorism law face resistance from a powerful House Republican who says he's not even sure he wants the government to keep its new powers."

Freedom from War and Strife is a Human Right (April 17, 2003)
"US drug war policy for three decades has been more like the carpet bombing required in the Vietnam War to achieve a desired objective. And just like a policy of 'destroy the village to save it', it's also been an utter failure."

Hemp: Wonder food or contraband? (April 17, 2003)
"The U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) has been trying for more than a year to prohibit the use of hempseed and hemp oil in food products, and the agency recently published 'final rules' addressing the legal status of products derived from the cannabis plant."

Home-grown cannabis 'is lesser crime' (April 17, 2003)
"People who grow their own cannabis should escape with a police warning if they only cultivate the drug on a small scale, a think-tank has said."

A new window on drug blight (April 17, 2003)
"It's not your standard bus tour. For three hours, passengers on the Drug War Reality Tour ride through North Philadelphia's neighborhood of Kensington, seldom disembarking to see the sights on this trail of smuggling and addiction."

''Colombia: another front in broader U.S. war'' (April 17, 2003)
"The United States' other war in Colombia -- not the other 'war on terror' but the 'war on drugs' -- is quickly becoming embarrassing for Washington."

Tall tales muddy the drug war (April 17, 2003)
"The thicker the baloney the more likely our youth will reject the message. So it is no wonder the White House's current drug-and-terror ad campaign failed. It is a cynical, opportunistic series of exaggerations that attempt to capitalize on the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."

‘Just Say Know’ (April 17, 2003)
"Although an entire generation of Americans has now been raised on Nancy Reagan’s simple anti-dope 'Just Say No' mantra, they’re still just as likely to say yes."

The other war that should be stopped (April 17, 2003)
"We must recognise that prohibition, rather than curtailing use, generates crime, because it makes trading in illicit drugs a lucrative business. As politicians everywhere remain loath to be seen as 'soft on drugs,' something must be done to call attention to this remorseless failure," says Italian activist and politician Emma Bonino.

Protest war begun long ago (April 17, 2003)
"The most unjust and self-destructive war being fought by America today is not in the Middle East, it is fought right here in the U.S.A.. It is the drug war."

U.S. War on Drugs Called a Failure (April 17, 2003)
"Critics of a U.S.-led global crackdown on illicit drugs declared the policy a failure Tuesday, calling it "the war that America cannot win" and urging a United Nations commission to consider other approaches to the problem."

Casualties rising in Thailand's war on drugs (April 17, 2003)
"The death toll in Thailand's 10-week war on drugs has reached 2,275 - or more than 30 killings per day."

Tim Robbins: 'A Chill Wind is Blowing in This Nation ...' (April 17, 2003)
This is the text of the speech given by actor Tim Robbins to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on April 15, 2003.

Criminalizing personal behavior fills jails (April 17, 2003)
"As we win the war in Iraq, we should take a moment to consider another war here at home, a war we are losing and will always lose: the drug war."

Brazil Health Ministry Writes Decriminalization Law (April 17, 2003)
"According to the Ministry, the current law treats the consumer as a criminal and impedes access to treatment."

N.Y. Committee OKs Medical-Marijuana Bill (April 16, 2003)
"The New York Assembly Health Committee voted in favor of a bill that would legalize marijuana for medical purposes, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle reported April 9."

In black press, war skepticism runs high (April 16, 2003)
"Although there has been debate in the mainstream media over the wisdom and tactics of the fighting in Iraq, many black journalists and commentators - reflecting a black America that, polls said, was overwhelmingly opposed to going to war - have been considerably more outspoken and skeptical about the decision that put US troops onto a Middle East battlefield."

Lawsuit against DEA gets OK (April 16, 2003)
"A federal judge paved the way for three undercover agents, who claim they are being punished for whistle-blowing, to go forward with a lawsuit against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration."

Carving Up The New Iraq (April 16, 2003)
"This isn't a selfless exercise. In a special Sunday Herald investigation, we have charted the network of financial kickbacks, political pay-backs, cronyism, self-interest and ferocious ideology that underpins the entire reconstruction scheme."

State trooper indicted for stealing seized drugs (April 16, 2003)
"A state trooper was indicted Tuesday on charges he stole about 13 kilos of cocaine destined for the incinerator and tried to sell it through a friend, Attorney General Thomas Reilly said Tuesday."

Companies Penalized for Doing Business with Enemy States (April 16, 2003)
"Prominent companies listed include Amazon, Bank of New York, Caterpillar, Chevron/Texaco, Citibank, Dow Agrosciences, ESPN, ExxonMobile, the New York Yankees, Wal-Mart Stores, and Wells Fargo."

Library books, letters and priceless documents are set ablaze in final chapter of the sacking of Baghdad (April 16, 2003)
"So yesterday was the burning of books. First came the looters, then the arsonists." As someone very interested in archeology and history, the editor of DrugWar.com finds this to be totally sickening. Of course, all the death and mayhem in Baghdad isn't too cool either, but this is the icing on the whole bloody, rotten cake.

Over 65 Arrested in International Methamphetamine Investigation (April 16, 2003)
"The arrests are the result of an 18-month international investigation targeting the illegal importation of pseudoephedrine, an essential chemical used in methamphetamine production."

Court Says Man Can Legally Bark at Police Dog (April 16, 2003)
"The 4th Ohio District court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of charges against a man who returned the barks of police dog Pepsie in Athens, Ohio, in September 2001."

The War at Home (April 15, 2003)
"Our jails overflow with nonviolent drug offenders. Have we reached the point where the drug war causes more harm than the drugs themselves?"

The war on drugs (April 15, 2003)
"So, the United States plays the ugly American as it pushes its Latin neighbors to adopt policies of interdiction, eradication, and crop-switching from drug plants like marijuana to staples like cotton. But, it reaps grief, including guerrilla warfare...."

COOK: Marijuana does not contribute to terrorism (April 15, 2003)
"Unlike the racist religious right who criminalized marijuana in the first place (Harrison Act of 1916), I would like to point out that while marijuana does not contribute to terrorism, the purchase of cocaine does serve to fuel the senseless, decades-long war in Columbia."

Bill Would Allow Medical-Marijuana Defense (April 15, 2003)
"Legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives would allow residents living in states with medical-marijuana laws to use "medical necessity" as a defense against federal drug charges, Reuters reported April 10."

Producer fired for view on Bush (April 15, 2003)
"Gernon stated his belief that fear fuelled both the Bush administration's adoption of a pre-emptive-strike policy and the public's acceptance of it."

Marijuana Compounds May Act Without Causing a High (April 15, 2003)
Certain companies would love to bottle or put into pills these compounds to sell, while leaving current users of natural whole pot at the mercy of prohibitionist enforcers.

The Failed Education 'Reforms' (April 15, 2003)
"In Inverness, Florida, a 12-year-old boy was cuffed, arrested, and taken in a patrol car to jail where he was held for two hours...," for stomping in water puddles.

Writer admits marijuana possession (April 15, 2003)
"Prizewinning writer Ramo Nakajima pleaded guilty Monday to possessing marijuana at his home in Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture."

Vanishing Liberties -- Where's the Press? (April 12, 2003)
"But the media, with few exceptions, are failing to report consistently, and in depth, precisely how Bush and Ashcroft are undermining our fundamental individual liberties."

Eyeballing the DEA (April 12, 2003)
Take a space-based peek at various offices of the DEA around the US.

Anthrax Source Probably Domestic (April 12, 2003)
"The findings reinforce a theory that has guided the FBI's 18-month-old investigation -- that the mailed anthrax was probably produced by renegade scientists, not a military program such as Iraq's."

Medical Marijuana "Truth in Trials Act" Introduced (April 11, 2003)
"The Truth in Trials Act would allow individuals accused of violating federal marijuana laws to introduce evidence in federal court that they followed state law for the purpose of alleviating suffering. Defendants could be found not guilty if the jury found that they followed state medical marijuana laws."

Lansing pursues local marijuana ordinance (April 11, 2003)
"Cook County Circuit Court judges in the 6th District in Markham would prefer not to adjudicate many cases involving the possession of such small amounts, considered a Class C misdemeanor, Police Chief Dan McDevitt said."

Federal court strikes down welfare drug-test program (April 11, 2003)
"A federal appeals court Wednesday struck down Michigan's program to test welfare recipients for drug use."

Pot-smoking refugee claimant would be prosecuted at home: California judge (April 11, 2003)
"A man seeking asylum in Canada because he smokes pot to fight a rare form of cancer would do well to stay out of the United States, where the 'corrupt system' would prosecute him, a California judge testified Thursday."

'Federal aid law is unfair to poor' (April 11, 2003)
"A law that denies financial aid to drug offenders punishes those who are trying to improve themselves, URI President Robert L. Carothers says."

The Anti-Smoking Ads That Philip Morris Forced off the Air (April 10, 2003)
"Part of the settlement agreement gives the tobacco industry the right to yank an ad off the air if it 'vilifies' tobacco companies. That's exactly what they've done to at least two of the ads from the truth campaign."

Panel approves bill lowering marijuana charges (April 10, 2003)
"A measure that stiffens fines for marijuana possession of an ounce or less of marijuana while reducing the seriousness of a second offense passed the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday."

Officer's Star Searches Raise Liability Worries (April 9, 2003)
"For six years, Officer Kelly Chrisman used Los Angeles Police Department computers to look up confidential law enforcement records on celebrities and other high-profile people, including Sharon Stone, Courteney Cox Arquette, Sean Penn and Halle Berry."

Prison Guards Suspected in Plots to Smuggle Drugs (April 9, 2003- free LATimes registration required)
"Two correctional officers at the California State Prison in Lancaster have been suspended for their suspected involvement in plots to smuggle drugs into Los Angeles County's only maximum-security prison, officials said Monday."

Crown appeals marijuana ruling (April 9, 2003)
"The federal Crown is appealing a Nova Scotia judge's ruling that there is no valid law in place governing simple possession of marijuana."

NY panel OKs medical marijuana bill (April 9, 2003)
"A campaign to legalize medical marijuana gained steam Tuesday, as a legislative committee took the first step in sending the issue to a vote by the Legislature."

Columbia voters reject marijuana proposition (April 9, 2003)
"A proposition to soften penalties for marijuana possession and allow pot by prescription in this college town was rejected by voters Tuesday."

GOP wants to keep anti-terror powers (April 9, 2003)
"Broad spying tools would become permanent."

Parents fear today's marijuana (April 9, 2003)
"Experts say the drug is increasingly seen as harmless but is more potent than ever."

Police open fire at anti-war protest, longshoremen injured (April 8, 2003)
"Police opened fire Monday morning with wooden dowels, 'sting balls' and other non-lethal weapons at anti-war protesters outside the Port of Oakland, injuring at least a dozen demonstrators and six longshoremen standing nearby." There's photos here of wounded protestors.

Cronies Set To Make A Killing (APril 8, 2003)
Profiting off killing and death.

Kids forced to grow up quickly as rebel warriors in northern Iraq (April 8, 2003)
Get to them when they're young, they'll support the death and destruction for the rest of their lives. "Hakar did not come to the front line by himself. His father brought him. Kurdish commander Bahram Shirvani said he thought it was a good idea to teach his son to like war the way he himself likes it. Hakar was old enough, Shirvani said. He was already 7."

Justice in a Small Town (April 7, 2003)
"After three years, lawyers' tenacity may pay off for Tulia defendants."

US prisons hold record 2 million inmates (April 7, 2003)
"The number of people in US prisons and jails last year topped 2 million for the first time, driven by get-tough sentencing policies that mandate long terms for drug offenders and other criminals, the government reported."

Prison Rates Among Blacks Reach a Peak, Report Finds (April 7, 2003-Free NYTimes registration required)
"An estimated 12 percent of African-American men ages 20 to 34 are in jail or prison, according to a report released yesterday by the Justice Department."

Crude Vision (April 7, 2003)
Just what did Donald Rumsfled discuss after flying to Iraq and shaking hands with alleged mad gasser Saddam Hussein in 1983? Oil deals, of course.

Prime Time Payola (April 7, 2003)
Take a look with GNN at US media giant "Clear Channel and the current state of mainstream media under FCC Chairman Michael Powell."

An Ominous Attack on Judges (April 7, 2003- Free NYTimes registration required)
"House Republicans, aided by the Bush Justice Department, are trying to severely curtail federal judges' discretion in sentencing."

Nostalgic Small Town Puts Cannabis On Its Flag (APril 7, 2003)
"Some 250 kilometers southwest of Moscow in the Bryansk region, a yellow, green and white flag now flies above the town hall. In the top left-hand corner is the plant more widely known for its hallucinogenic qualities and for being depicted on T-shirts and student posters."

Our Flag, Too (April 3, 2003)
"If you do not support the war, you do not support the troops and are therefore un-American and possibly a terrorist. This is a scurrilous skewing of rhetoric with one purpose alone: To intimidate dissenters into silence."

'War' Singer Edwin Starr Succumbs To Heart Attack (April 3, 2003)
"The singer, at the helm of Number One hits for Motown, was known for his own Number One song, "War," released in 1970. Bruce Springsteen (news) performed the Anti-Vietnam song during the opening of his Australian set on March 20."

Super squid surfaces in Antarctic (April 3, 2003)
"A colossal squid has been caught in Antarctic waters, the first example of Mesonychoteuthis hamiltoni retrieved virtually intact from the surface of the ocean."

White House to End Drugs and Terror Ads (April 2, 2003)
"Also Stops Study That Found Campaign Wasn't Working."

Cult church censured on drug ads (April 2, 2003)
"A Church of Scientology advert claiming that its programmes had 'salvaged' 250,000 people from drug abuse has been censured by the Advertising Standards Authority as unproved, following a complaint by the Church of England."

Tulia- Texas to Toss Drug Convictions Against 38 People (April 2, 2003)
"In a stunning reversal, the state agreed with defense lawyers that the former officer, Thomas Coleman, was an unreliable witness even though his testimony was the only evidence used to convict the defendants, some of whom are serving sentences of 90 years or more."

The Truth about D.A.R.E. (April 2, 2003)
Yet another official US General Accounting Office report illustrating quite clearly how wasteful and misguided the US War on Some Drugs and Users really is, particularly the D.A.R.E. program.

Johnny Appleseed of LSD (April 2, 2003)
"For such a pivotal character in recent history, Al Hubbard is remarkably little known. He is the unsung man who almost single-handedly introduced the world to LSD, as well as (to a lesser degree) mescaline and psilocybin."

Offensive Interference (April 2, 2003)
"The war in Iraq might not be going quite as smoothly as the Bush administration hoped, but the war at home is going just swimmingly. War is silencing debate not just on the wisdom of Bush's foreign policy but on a host of other issues that would normally be front-page news."

Marine obeys his conscience- Reservist didn't ship out with his unit to Iraq (April 2, 2003)
"A 20-year-old Marine reservist showed up at the gates of his San Jose base Tuesday -- conscientious objector papers in hand -- ready for punishment for not joining his unit's deployment to Iraq."

The Rave Act Returns (April 2, 2003)