Article Index      Subscribe to DrugWar Discussion and News List      News Archive      Preston Peet       How Drug Money Works      Save the Akha      You Are Being Lied To Excerpts      Drug Testing News      The Light Side     Great Links      Link To Us!      Bookstore      Home

Order "Underground- The Disinformation Guide to Ancient Civlizations, Astonishing Archeology and Hidden History" Edited by DrugWar.com editor Preston Peet- On Book Store Shelves Now!

Order "Under the Influence- the Disinformation Guide to Drugs" by DrugWar.com editor Preston Peet- On Bookstore Shelves

Gunmen kill 17 people at a drug rehab in Mexico (Sept. 3, 2009)
"Authorities had no immediate suspects or information on the victims. Ciudad Juarez, across the border from El Paso, Texas, is Mexico's most violent city, with at least 1,400 people killed this year alone. Most of the homicides are tied to drug gang violence, which has taken a heavy toll across Mexico. Earlier the same day, gunmen ambushed and killed a senior security official in the home state of President Felipe Calderon."

Burma's Opium Production Back on Rise (Sept. 2, 2009)
"A Feb. 2 report by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime found that the price of opium in Burma, also known as Myanmar, increased by 15% last year. As a result, Burmese land dedicated to poppy cultivation actually expanded in 2008, despite promises by the country's ruling junta to combat its reputation as one of the world's most notorious narco-states."

Is the Taliban Stockpiling Opium? And If So, Why? (Sept. 2, 2009)
"If international drug- and law-enforcement officials are right, the Taliban might be hiding up to $3.2 billion worth of opium inside Afghanistan, potentially causing huge complications for NATO's decision this month to attack Afghanistan's opium laboratories and smuggling networks. If it exists, the drug stockpile would also have a major bearing on Afghan officials' tentative peace talks with the Taliban, which are favored by U.S. Central Command chief General David Petraeus and both U.S. presidential candidates."

Report: Afghanistan's Opium Boom May Be Over (Sept. 2, 2009)
"But there is a twist. Afghan poppy crops are now high-yield, say U.N. officials, thanks to better irrigation methods and especially good rains over the past year. While acreage devoted to the flowers fell, production of opium itself dropped only 10% in Afghanistan last year, to about 6,900 tons. Each hectare of poppies yielded about 123 lb. (56 kg) of opium — 15% more than last year."

Mexico is safer than in the past, minister says (August 25, 2009)
"Mexico decriminalized the use of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine and heroin [Friday, August 21, 2009]. The move will help focus on major traffickers, officials said."

AP Source: Michael Jackson's death ruled homicide (August 25, 2009)
"While the finding does not necessarily mean a crime was committed, it means more likely that criminal charges will be filed against Dr. Conrad Murray, the Las Vegas cardiologist who was caring for Jackson when he died June 25 in a rented Los Angeles mansion."

Marines assault Taliban town in Afghanistan (August 12, 2009)
"Marines said they killed between seven and 10 militants in Wednesday's push and seized about 66 pounds (30 kilograms) of opium, which the militants use to finance their insurgency. Troops hope to restore control of the town so that residents can vote in the election."

U.S. Military Base Plan Puts Colombia in Hot Water (August 12, 2009)
"As one of the few surviving pro-U.S. conservative heads of state in a continent that has swung left, Colombia's President, Alvaro Uribe, is used to being at odds with his neighbors. But accustomed though he may be to swimming against Latin America's political tide, Uribe is scrambling to explain his less-than-transparent decision to allow the U.S. military to use air bases on Colombian soil to track drug traffickers and even rebels."s

Phony Stats on Cocaine Prices Hide Truth About War on Drugs (July 22, 2009)
"John Walters had some data he wanted to make public, but he also had a credibility problem. Just two years earlier, in 2005, Walters, the country’s drug czar, had cited a hike in the price of cocaine as a battlefield victory in the war on drugs—only to see the price fall just as he was touting the increase. He was ridiculed in some quarters of the press; others decided to stop listening to him. This time around, in the summer of 2007, Walters went looking for the most receptive audience he could find. So he zipped down New York Avenue to the headquarters of The Washington Times, the conservative daily based in the outskirts of Washington, D.C. Walters, according to a staffer present at the briefing, came with a small staff and a stack of glossy pages making the case that the United States had turned a corner in the war on drugs. Prices for cocaine, he said, were rising fast. And that, he explained, can only mean a decline in supply. The Times wouldn’t bite. The data were suspiciously thin."

Foreign Policy Magazine Exposes Folly of Marijuana Ban (July 22, 2009)
"The reason why the editor of Foreign Policy magazine Moises Naim's recent column is significant is because for far too long the foreign policy community has been a willing conduit for exporting America's wrongheaded and failed cannabis prohibition around the globe. But, the American dominance of the drug policy debate has started to wane over the last 8-10 years in quarters like the United Nations, and columns like Mr. Naim's underscore the myriad reasons why America's elected policymakers need to adopt a reform mindset--notably under an Obama administration--not status quo retrenchment into an unyielding, prohibition-centric cannabis policy."

Drug czar: Feds won't support legalized pot (July 22, 2009)
"The federal government is not going to pull back on its efforts to curtail marijuana farming operations, Gil Kerlikowske, director of the White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy, said Wednesday in Fresno. The nation's drug czar, who viewed a foothill marijuana farm on U.S. Forest Service land with state and local officials earlier Wednesday, said the federal government will not support legalizing marijuana. 'Legalization is not in the president's vocabulary, and it's not in mine,' he said. Kerlikowske said he can understand why legislators are talking about taxing marijuana cultivation to help cash-strapped government agencies in California. But the federal government views marijuana as a harmful and addictive drug, he said. 'Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit,' Kerlikowske said in downtown Fresno while discussing Operation SOS -- Save Our Sierra -- a multiagency effort to eradicate marijuana in eastern Fresno County."

Who Are the Drug Lords? (July 21, 2009)
"Who are the drug lords? They are every politician who lives and breathes war, drugs, terror or otherwise. They are the corrupt corporate heads, malicious media barons, venomous judges and cretinous cops, who, knowing full well the truth, choose to follow their nose to riches, to embrace a lie, to feed their evil cornucopia with the lives of their fellow man."

Something Is Happening Down There (July 21, 2009)
"The battle against the drug gangs is a complicated one. A lot of money is involved, and the drug lords are pretty smart. They now keep a lot of their processing (opium into morphine or heroin) labs mobile. The vehicles travel with armed guards, but force is a last resort. The security detachment is also armed with a lot of cash, and the first weapon to be deployed is a bribe. That usually works. But the U.S. intelligence troops are after the drug gangs now, and this makes concealment more difficult. The U.S. military isn't releasing any play-by-play of these operations, lest they provide useful information to the enemy. It won't be until the end of August that an initial assessment is possible, and not until the end of the year until one can check the trends in wholesale and retail prices for heroin. As Afghanistan heroin production grew since the 1990s, the world supply has doubled, and prices have come down by about 50 percent. More people are using, and dying from, heroin. And now we can add many of the victims of the fighting in southern Afghanistan to that toll."

Worldwide production of heroin and cocaine falling, says UN drug chief (July 20, 2009)
"Drug use should be treated more as an illness than a crime, the head of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime said today as the body's annual report announced a worldwide decline in the production of cocaine and heroin. The report for 2009 called for traffickers to be targeted rather than users and announced that there was a worldwide growth in synthetic drugs.""

Chavez Attacks US Report Naming Venezuela a ‘Narcotics State’ (July 20, 2009)
This is a great way of making one's unliked leftist darker-skinned President of a South American country look bad to the US public while simutaneously helping justify the spending of US tax money to maybe, just maybe, do things like, say, destabilize Venezuala, the country Chavez currnetly heads? Chavez has long been a very irritating thorn in the Us' side. How long he will remain as President, well, let's all wish him the best.

Revolutionary Latin America and Today's Nexus of Terror (July 20, 2009)
"The irony of the narcotics scourge alone is how the massive accrued wealth of the narco-terrorist’s hierarchy is at the expense of the citizenry and the victims, as a nation must struggle with the overwhelming massive resources needed to defend their homeland. It has been reported that Mexican drug syndicates “generate more revenue than at least 40% of Fortune 500 companies.” And let’s face it – Mexico remains under siege.

Marijuana Legalization: CBS News Poll Has Support at 41% Nationwide (July 19, 2009)
"A CBS News poll conducted over the weekend has found that 41% of Americans support marijuana legalization, while 52% oppose, and 7% are undecided. The figure matches that of a January CBS News poll. Support dropped to 31% in an April CBS News poll before rebounding this month."

Most ‘Trusted Man In America’, Also Supported Marijuana Law Reform (July 19, 2009)
"RIP Walter Cronkite! In the summer 1992, I was told by an assistant that I had a phone call, and that 'unless the person on the phone was kidding, that it was someone claiming to be Walter Cronkite.'..."Drug war is a war on families By Walter Cronkite Article Published: Sunday, August 08, 2004"
" In the midst of the soaring rhetoric of the recent Democratic National Convention, more than one speaker quoted Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address, invoking 'the better angels of our nature.' Well, there is an especially appropriate task awaiting those heavenly creatures - a long-overdue reform of our disastrous war on drugs. We should begin by recognizing its costly and inhumane dimensions."

State helps ease drug offenders’ release (July 19, 2009)
"NEW YORK STATE — In the fall, low-level drug offenders will begin trickling out of state prisons and into treatment programs under the landmark state drug law reforms passed earlier this year. Legislation dismantling most of the state’s strict Rockefeller drug laws was signed into law in April by Gov. David Paterson. The bill repealed many of the state’s mandatory minimum prison sentences for lower-level drug offenders."

World drugs in graphics (July 19, 2009)
"A UN agency has published a comprehensive report on the worldwide illicit drugs market, the World Drug Report 2009. The graphs and maps below show the extent of the problem and measures to tackle it."

DEA boosts its war in Afghanistan (July 19, 2009)
"The move is seen as a recognition that the war in Afghanistan cannot be won with military force alone. Until near the end of its eight years in office, the Bush administration failed to link the drug traffickers in Afghanistan with the rising insurgency, basing its anti-drug campaign primarily on an effort to destroy the vast fields of poppy that produce more than 90 percent of the world's heroin....After Sept. 11, the Bush administration's focus on counterterrorism and, later, the war in Iraq, extensively depleted U.S. global counternarcotics efforts, especially in South Asia, they say. The DEA also suffered from hiring freezes, budget cuts and a lack of political support despite its intelligence showing ever-closer links between drug traffickers and terrorist groups."

La Familia cartel kills 12 federal agents in Mexico drug war attack (Jully 19, 2009)
"A powerful Mexican drug cartel has unleashed a killing spree against the authorities in a challenge to the leadership of the President in his home state....The perception that the war against drugs is being lost is pervasive. A poll published in Milenio said that only 28 per cent of Mexicans believed that the Government was winning, and more than half thought that it was losing."

Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories (July 17, 2009)
"It's a corrupt cops twofer for New Jersey, another twofer for Indiana, a two-for-one special on Texas deputies, and a lone prison guard in Florida. Let's get to it...."

Heroin is "Good for Your Health": Occupation Forces support Afghan Narcotics Trade (May 10, 2007)
"The occupation forces in Afghanistan are supporting the drug trade, which brings between 120 and 194 billion dollars of revenues to organized crime, intelligence agencies and Western financial institutions."

U.S., allies seen as losing drug war (May 7, 2007)
"The United States and its Latin American allies are losing a major battle in the war on drugs, according to indicators that show cocaine prices dipped for most of 2006 and U.S. users were getting more bang for their buck."

101-year-old Zambian man nabbed over cannabis cultivation, trafficking (May 3, 2007)
"DEC spokesperson Rosten Chulu confirmed the arrest of Timothy Chilekwa, a peasant farmer of Namembo village in Southern province who was born in 1906. Chulu said the old man was nabbed for alleged unlawful cultivation of cannabis weighing 1.2 tons. He was also found trafficking two sacks of cannabis weighing 6. 95 kg, Chulu said. The spokesperson said the 101-year-old would appear in court soon."

Was Timothy Leary Right? (May 3, 2007)
"Are psychedelics good for you? It's such a hippie relic of a question that it's almost embarrassing to ask. But a quiet psychedelic renaissance is beginning at the highest levels of American science, including the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and Harvard, which is conducting what is thought to be its first research into therapeutic uses of psychedelics (in this case, Ecstasy) since the university fired Timothy Leary in 1963. But should we be prying open the doors of perception again? Wasn't the whole thing a disaster the first time? The answer to both questions is yes."

The Farce of the War on Drugs (May 1, 2007)
"My brother Howard Wooldridge served as a decorated police officer and detective in Lansing, Michigan for 18 years. During that time, he collared killers, drunk drivers, child molesters, rapists, wife beaters and drug dealers. What he learned launched him on a crusade to stop the federal government’s useless 35 year 'War on Drugs.'"

Coca Growers Shake the Andes Once Again (April 27, 2007)
"During the last few days, coca growers, especially in Peru and Colombia, have been in the news again, as their actions have given the media something to talk about."

LSD as Therapy? Write about It, Get Barred from US (April 27, 2007)
"BC psychotherapist denied entry after border guard googled his work."

No Jail for Willie Nelson on Drug Charge (April 25, 2007)
While the editor of DrugWar.com applauds this decision by the judge, I can't help but wonder how hard the judge would have thrown the book at me for the exact same offense.

The War on Salvia Divinorum Heats Up (April 14, 2007)
"Middlebury, Vermont, this week declared a public health emergency to prevent a local business from selling it. It's already illegal in five states -- Louisiana, Missouri, Tennessee, Oklahoma and Delaware -- and a number of towns and cities across the country, and now politicians in at least seven other states have filed bills to make it illegal there. For the DEA, it is a 'drug of concern.'"

Book Offer: Lies, Damn Lies, and Drug War Statistics (April 14, 2007)
"Normally when we publish a book review in our Drug War Chronicle newsletter, it gets readers but is not among the top stories visited on the site. Recently we saw a big exception to that rule when more than 2,700 of you read our review of the new book Lies, Damned Lies, and Drug War Statistics: A Critical Analysis of Claims Made by the Office of National Drug Control Policy."

Plant growers served search warrant (April 11, 2007)
"Three WSU students were surprised when a plant they were growing in their closet was mistaken for marijuana."

California in bid to impose 7.25% sales tax on cannabis (April 10, 2007)
"For decades, smoking marijuana has been an illicit affair, a key anti-establishment ritual for America's counter-culture underground. But the legalisation of the drug for medicinal purposes in California has presented its advocates with a dilemma: to remain firmly on the wrong side of the law or accept a demand to pay taxes on its sale."

The Other War: Democratic Candidates are Deafeningly Silent on the Drug War (April 9, 2007)
"There is a major disconnect in the 2008 Democratic race for the White House. While all the top candidates are vying for the black and Latino vote, they are completely ignoring one of the most pressing issues affecting those constituencies: the failed War on Drugs, a war that has morphed into a war on people of color."

Ex-officer likens drug war to Prohibition (April 8, 2007)
"Retired police officer Peter Christ on Tuesday compared the contemporary war on drugs to National Prohibition of the 1920s."

Minnesota drug laws: Are they too harsh? (April 8, 2007)
Momentum gathers for review of sentencing rules

Drug Czar Blasted for Lack of Leadership (April 8, 2007)
"During the course of research for this series, it became apparent that many prominent players in the war on drugs don't have many compliments for the current drug czar, John Walters."

Is the Drug War Nearing an End? (April 8, 2007)
"Little by little by little there is some hope that the "war" on drugs is becoming a political issue - the first step in undoing a set of policies that make little sense no matter how you look at them."

Law Enforcement Group Visits Maine To Advocate For Legalization Of Drugs (April 8, 2007)
"LEAP, or Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, says it has 5,000 members, made up mostly of retired and active law enforcement professionals. The group tours the country speaking to various civic groups about what they call a $60 billion failed war on drugs."

Afghans pin hopes on a new economy (April 8, 2007)
"As a competitive economy awakens in one of the world's poorest countries, the residents of Kabul are jockeying to get ahead in a city flush with cash from US soldiers, foreign aid workers, new investors, parliamentarians, and drug traffickers."

Salvadoran Murders in Guatemala (April 8, 2007)
"If the trip to Guatemala was a fiasco, Colombia was no better, Bush's arrival in Bogotá couldn't have happened at a worse time as every moment ticked off another scandal, some of them leading in the direction ofo President Uribe's office, and nothing that Bush or Uribe president could say concealed the fact that the Colombia phase of the U.S. anti-drug war was more dead than alive, which was even more certain when it came to extraditing Colombian suspected felons to the U.S."

Analysis: U.S. anti-drug war in Afghanistan (April 8, 2007)
"In a bluntly worded letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the lawmakers said inter-agency rivalry and U.S. policy failures in Afghanistan risked allowing it to slide back into chaos."

Law Enforcement: This Week's Corrupt Cops Stories (April 7, 2007)
"A Georgia fire captain gets caught peddling coke, a pair of New Haven narcs lose their jobs, a former Mississippi police chief cops a plea, and a former Ohio cop goes back to prison. Let's get to it...."

Methamphetamine: Feds Make First Cold Medicine Bust Under Combat Meth Act (April 7, 2007)
"An Ontario, New York, man last Friday won the dubious distinction of being the first person arrested under the 2005 Combat Meth Epidemic Act. According to a DEA press release, William Fousse was arrested for purchasing cold tablets containing more than nine grams of pseudoephedrine within a one month period."

Harm Reduction: New Mexico Governor Signs Overdose Death Reduction Measure (April 7, 2007)
"New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D) Wednesday signed innovative legislation that would protect friends or family members who seek medical attention for drug overdose victims. The law is the first of its kind in the country."

Pot-Growing Takes Root in the Suburbs (April 1, 2007)
"In Coldwater Creek, a middle-class housing development outside Atlanta, the neighbors mind their own business and respect each other's privacy - ideal conditions, it turns out, for growing marijuana in the suburbs."

Bob Barr Flip-Flops on Pot (March 28, 2007)
"Bob Barr, who as a Georgia congressman authored a successful amendment that blocked D.C. from implementing a medical marijuana initiative, has switched sides and become a lobbyist for the Marijuana Policy Project."

What the heck is Sibel Edmonds' Case about? And why should I care? (March 28, 2007)
"Essentially, there is only one investigation – a very big one, an all-inclusive one... But I can tell you there are a lot of people involved, a lot of ranking officials, and a lot of illegal activities that include multi-billion-dollar drug-smuggling operations, black-market nuclear sales to terrorists and unsavory regimes, you name it... You can start from the AIPAC angle. You can start from the Plame case. You can start from my case. They all end up going to the same place, and they revolve around the same nucleus of people."

Mexican Envoy Highly Critical of U.S. Role in Anti-Drug Effort (March 23, 2007)
"The United States has contributed 'zilch' to Mexico's efforts to combat the nations' joint problem with criminal narcotics gangs, Mexico's new ambassador to Washington said yesterday."

Colorado Has Song in Its Heart, and Not Drugs on Its Mind (March 14, 2007- Free NYTimes registration required)
"The Colorado General Assembly wants to be quite clear on this point: When the singer-songwriter John Denver praised the joys of Colorado and sang about 'friends around the campfire, and everybody’s high,' in 1972, he was not referring to illicit drugs. Definitely not. Don’t even think it. The high in question, lawmakers say, is really about nature and the great outdoors — the tingly feeling you get after a nice hike, perhaps."

U.S. faults friends, foes in drug war (March 5, 2007)
"The United States said top anti-terror allies Afghanistan, Pakistan and Colombia had fallen short in the war on drugs despite enhanced counter-narcotics efforts and it criticized perennial foes Iran, North Korea and Venezuela for not cooperating."

Cuba’s War on Drugs (March 5, 2007)
"A review of the main results of the Cuban efforts against illegal drug trafficking as well as prevention during 2006, shows a marked reduction in the presence of drugs on the island, with 1.7 tons of narcotics seized, the lowest figure of the past 11 years and almost four times less than the amount detected in 2003."

Drug War Corrupting Cops In Hawaii and Elsewhere (March 5, 2007)
"Claiming to be the 'world’s leading drug policy newsletter,' the Drug War Chronicle publishes a regular online feature called, 'This Week’s Corrupt Cops Stories.' The typical Hawaii newspaper reader probably comes across these cops-gone-bad stories pretty rarely. But, when hundreds of reports compiled over the past year from around the nation are read at one sitting, they add up to a hidden cost of America’s ill-fated drug war -- widespread corruption inside local police departments, prisons and jails."

Drug war rips apart Mexico (March 5, 2007)
"More than 250 people were executed last year in Acapulco as the sweltering Pacific resort became the latest battleground between rival cartels battling for supremacy of the multibillion-dollar drug trade."

In Guatemala, officers' killings echo dirty war (March 5, 2007)
"The two sets of brazen killings set off a vicious diplomatic conflict between Guatemala and El Salvador — heightened by news reports suggesting that the congressmen were indeed drug dealers — and ignited a political scandal here. It shed light on how corrupt the National Police has become, and raised questions about links between drug dealers and high-level police officials, as well as whether the government can contain drug trafficking without international help."

Collision Course: Bolivia's "Coca, Si; Cocaine, No" Policy Runs Afoul of the International Drug Control Board and, Probably, the United States (March 1, 2007)
"A confrontation is brewing over Bolivian President Evo Morales' effort to rationalize coca production in his country and expand markets for coca-based products....Now, the Morales government is also pushing for expanded legal markets for coca products and, in a joint venture with the Venezuelan government, is preparing to begin coca product exports to that country."

Ga. Reconsiders No - Knock Warrant Rules (March 1, 2007)
"A group of lawmakers wants to make it harder for police to use ''no-knock'' warrants in the wake of a shootout that left an elderly woman dead after plainclothes officers stormed her home unannounced in a search for drugs."

Here we go again (Feb. 22, 2007)
"We're happy we could help with that, Mr. Vice President, but Colombian cocaine is still readily available in U.S. cities, so we have a difficult time thinking we got a good deal for our $4 billion. In fact, we don't believe Americans are getting their money's worth for any of the cash the government has thrown into the bottomless pit of the drug war. Court dockets are packed and prisons are overcrowded, yet illicit drugs are still readily available to anyone who wants them."

Latin America: Mexico Moves to Decriminalize Drug Possession -- So It Can Concentrate on Drug Traffickers (Feb. 22, 2007)
"Legislators from Mexican President Felipe's Calderon's National Action Party (PAN -- Partido de Accion Nacional) have introduced a bill in the Mexican Senate that would decriminalize the possession of small amounts of drugs for 'addicts.'"

DPS officials were told of lax lab security (Feb. 22, 2007)
"Texas Department of Public Safety officials were aware of security breaches in the handling of their drug evidence as recently as 2006 and as far back as at least 2003 — problems such as failure to log evidence out of storage, containers of marijuana left open and the lack of a monitoring system for a high-security drug vault — according to the agency's internal audits."

'Safest city' now has drug war (Feb. 22, 2007)
"From the shopping malls and the fashionable clothes of its residents, this could be any affluent U.S. suburb. Residents pride themselves on their prosperity. But in recent weeks, drug-related violence has shattered the tranquillity."

Mexican president gives soldiers pay hike as drug war intensifies (Feb. 22, 2007)
"Soldiers waging a nationwide offensive against drug traffickers will get a pay hike of nearly 50 percent this year in a bid to insulate them from corruption, Mexican President Felipe Calderon announced Monday."

New Federal Study Shows Methamphetamine Use Decreased Between 2002 and 2005 (Jan. 31, 2007)
"A new analysis of data from The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) shows that past-year use of methamphetamine, a highly addictive stimulant, declined between 2002 and 2005 among persons age 12 or older....The study also shows that the number of persons who used methamphetamine for the first time in the 12 months before the survey remained stable between 2002 and 2004 but decreased between 2004 and 2005."

Tell Governor Spitzer to Support Rockefeller Drug Law Reform (Jan. 31, 2007)
"The Rockefeller Drug Laws require extremely harsh prison terms for the possession or sale of relatively small amounts of drugs. Most of the people incarcerated under these laws are convicted of low-level, nonviolent offenses, and many of them have no prior criminal records. Today 14,139 people are locked up for drug offenses in NY State prisons, comprising nearly 38% of the prison population. This costs New Yorkers over half a billion dollars a year. Send a message to Governor Spitzer now, urging him to support real reform."

Mexico eyes Colombian experience in drug battle (Jan. 27, 2007)
"Mexico's top prosecutor on Thursday looked to Colombia's experience in counter-narcotics and conflict for lessons to help his government battle drug cartels whose violence has engulfed parts of the country."

Rio gang kills seven as drug war spreads (Jan. 27, 2007)
"The mutilated bodies of seven youths, some with their heads and legs chopped off, have been found in an abandoned car in a notorious Rio de Janeiro slum. They appeared to be the latest victims of a long-running drug war that has made Rio, which depends heavily on tourism, one of the most violent cities in the world."

Drug Policy Reform Group to Partner with State of New Mexico in Federally-Funded Meth Prevention Education Program (Jan. 27, 2007)
"In a first for drug reform organizations, the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) New Mexico office has been designated to create a statewide methamphetamine education and prevention program directed at high school students, thanks to a $500,000 grant obtained by US Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) as part of a Justice Department appropriations bill. The grant is the result of years of close collaboration between DPA and New Mexico state and local officials dating back to the administration of former Gov. Gary Johnson (R), a prominent voice for drug law reform."

Spot in brain may control smoking urge (Jan. 27, 2007)
"Damage to a silver dollar-sized spot deep in the brain seems to wipe out the urge to smoke, a surprising discovery that may shed important new light on addiction. The research was inspired by a stroke survivor who claimed he simply forgot his two-pack-a-day addiction - no cravings, no nicotine patches, not even a conscious desire to quit."

Case highlights medical-pot dilemma (Jan. 23, 2007)
"'If they didn't arrest me with 1,500, it's not likely they're going to come back and arrest me for 50,' said Sarich, whose advocacy group, CannaCare, says it has provided marijuana plants for 1,200 patients all over the state. Some of his new plants, delivered by patients in Longview, Federal Way and Vancouver, Wash., are descendants of the plants he lost."

Alleged cartel members extradited to Texas (Jan. 23, 2007)
"A suspected Mexican drug lord whose cartel allegedly smuggled more than 4 tons of cocaine a month over the U.S. border will stand trial in Texas. Osiel Cardenas-Guillen, the alleged kingpin of the Gulf Cartel, and three other alleged drug lords appeared in a Houston court Monday. Mexican authorities delivered Cardenas-Guillen and 14 other alleged Mexican drug dealers and criminals to Houston late Friday and early Saturday, the Drug Enforcement Administration said."

Burdened U.S. military cuts role in drug war (Jan. 22, 2007)
"Stretched thin from fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military has sharply reduced its role in the war on drugs, leaving significant gaps in the nation's narcotics interdiction efforts."

S.F. area is No. 1 for regular drug use, study says (Jan. 21, 2007)
"The San Francisco metropolitan area has a higher percentage of people who are regular drug users than any other major metropolitan area in the USA, a study from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found."

Executive Order 13420 -- Dismantling the DEA (Jan. 21, 2007)
"This is the order I will sign after delivering my inaugural address," says Steve Kubby, who is again running for office this time seeking the nomination from the Libertarian Party as their Presidential candidate.

Cocaine found on 99.9% of UK banknotes (Jan. 21, 2007)
"Pretty well every banknote in the UK shows traces of cocaine, forensic scientists have claimed. According to a report in the Sunday Telegraph, 99.9 per cent of the two billion notes currently in circulation have come into contact with Bolivian marching powder."

A Legacy of Torture: From Cointelpro to the Patriot Act (Jan. 21, 2007)
"In today's world, the US government's use of torture and complicity in its clients' use of it is part of the headlines on a regular basis. Yet very few US citizens believe that methods like waterboarding, beating, and electrical shocks could be -- and have been -- used on US citizens." But the fact that torture is used profusely in US jails and prisons is unsurprising to those who've been inside the US "justice" system.

Reefer Madness (Jan. 21, 2007)
"I was never an activist until I got busted [noted Tommy Chong]. But it ’s not so much my efforts as the substance itself. Pot lives and dies on its own reputation....Years ago, people would do booze jokes. Then they start dying of cirrhosis of the liver and all these alcohol-related car accidents. Alcohol started out as a fun thing and ended up as this evil thing that kills people. Pot is the opposite...."

In the Costly War on Drugs, Who's To Say What Is Right? (Jan. 21, 2007)
"It seems like you lack a certain enthusiasm for the war on drugs, I said. I do lack enthusiasm for the war on drugs, he said. I asked about legalization. He shrugged. 'Monday, Wednesday and Friday I think they should be legalized. Tuesdays and Thursdays I think they should be illegal. I don't like drugs. I strongly disapprove of them. The costs are great. But it's expensive to incarcerate somebody. The costs are enormous either way. I don't know what's right.'"

Democracy and Plan Colombia (Jan. 21, 2007)
Just what effects are the massive spraying in anti-cocaine and poppy efforts that are one of the main tenents of Plan Colombia, not to mention all the arms and training given to the Colombian military and governments to combat Colombian peasents...errr, I mean, dastardly narco-terrorists? No major advancement of democracy it appears.

Drug mafia, CIA blamed for sacking of Afghan governor (Jan. 21, 2007)
"As The Washington Post has plainly summarized, 'corruption and alliances formed by Washington and the Afghan government with anti-Taliban tribal chieftains, some of whom are believed to be deeply involved in the trade, [have] undercut the [counter-narcotics] effort.'"

PAST NEWS ARCHIVE

Proponents of medical use say war on marijuana isn't working (Sept. 30, 2002)
"Supporters of the medical use of marijuana defied sometimes rainy and cold weather Sunday to take a stand against what they argue are more frequent government attacks on patients' rights," reports Alma D. Sharpe for The Olympian.

War on fungi may lead to more chocolate, fewer coca farms (Sept. 30, 2002)
"Florida is playing a big role in a program to ensure production of the world's supply of chocolate - and it may be a new tool in the battle against narcotics," writes Georgia Tasker for Knight Ridder Newspapers.

Incarceration aids drug fight (Sept. 30, 2002)
Read what this former US Attorney, a prohibitionist prosecutor, has to say in his editorial for the USAToday about how Clinton "de-escalated" the War on Drugs, and how the obvious solution for people using and selling drugs is to lock 'em up with even longer, more draconian sentences than those metted out now.

Judge may force center to cooperate in Bush case (Sept. 30, 2002)
"Calling it a private matter, the governor has refused interview requests about his daughter’s drug problems. But his wife, Columba, is the state spokesperson on drug prevention. Questions about Noelle have brought him to tears at campaign appearances," notes this report from the Florida Today wires detailing some complications in deciding whether or not treatment facility employees must comply with police insisting the treatment facility must allow the police to criminally prosecute her for possessing 0.2 grams of crack in her shoe recently.

Scientists Sharply Criticize Conclusions of New MDMA (Ecstacy) Report (Sept. 30, 2002)
"The crucial point is that there are direct human data from two brain scan studies and one post-mortem autopsy of a heavy Ecstasy abuser showing NO impact of MDMA on dopamine levels. There are also several spinal tap studies conducted by George Ricaurte that show NO affect of MDMA on dopamine metabolite levels in spinal fluid (Ouch- I was tapped twice for two of these studies)." So notes this press release from the Multi-Disciplinary Association of Psychedelic Studies noting the problems with the latest "MDMA is dangerous" report. Also be sure to read the Washington Post article today, On Ecstasy, Consensus Is Elusive.

Student group prepares push for a ‘sensible drug policy’ (Sept. 30, 2002)
A new Students for Sensible Drug Policy chapter is now in operation at Brown University.

Course tackles ethical issues (Sept. 30, 2002)
"As post-Sept. 11 America engages in the war on terrorism, there are some other wars that are at risk of being pushed to the back burner, some social activists argue. Among them is the war on poverty, the war on drugs and the fight for civil rights." Students at the Holy Ghost Prepratory school can now take a course to discuss these important issues before moving on into the adult world.

"Say no" message focused on youth pot use (Sept. 30, 2002)
These are very expensive ads, just like the like last series of ONDCP National Anti-Drug Media Campaign anti-drug ads, ads which were decried as totally ineffective at decreasing drug use in any way, possibly even leading to increased use some scientists and government officials have reported, including ONDCP Chief John P. Walters. The "new" anti-pot commercials for the are just another chapter in a long line of bad ideas.

Report: Moss failed marijuana test last year (Sept. 30, 2002)
"The question of whether Randy Moss is one drug test away from a suspension grew more intense Sunday, after a report that Moss tested positive for marijuana last year and thus entered the NFL's substance-abuse program," notes this report by Kevin Seifert for the Star Tribune. Has Moss really been forced into drug treatment for smoking pot? Is that really necessary?

Agency disavows report on Iraq arms (Sept. 30, 2002)
"The International Atomic Energy Agency says that a report cited by President Bush as evidence that Iraq in 1998 was 'six months away' from developing a nuclear weapon does not exist. 'There's never been a report like that issued from this agency,' Mark Gwozdecky, the IAEA's chief spokesman, said yesterday in a telephone interview from the agency's headquarters in Vienna, Austria." So reports Joseph Curl the Washington Times.

$100K grants will fight youth drug use (Sept. 30, 2002)
"The grant will be used to fund a part-time staff position for the commission and to cover the cost of public policy programs relating to drug abuse, treatment, prevention and education, said Joan McNamara, Compass' chief executive officer. The public policy programs are to assist city and county government in devising drug-abuse-related policy, said Compass Development Director Patricia Young." This report by David L. Teibel for the Tucson Citizen notes that some grant money will also be used to help homeless children.

Black eye for zero tolerance (Sept. 30, 2002)
"Local controversy reflects growing national trend against schools' drug, weapon policies for students."

Challenging the War on Drugs (Sept. 29, 2002)
"A unique coalition of religious leaders, politicians, former prisoners, and addiction specialists gathered at a downtown Los Angeles conference this weekend to discuss the impact of the "war on drugs," which has led to the incarceration of more than half a million Americans. While highlighting the disproportionate impact of the drug war on ethnic minorities, conference organizers and attendees sharply criticized the failure of incarceration as a strategy for controlling drug abuse." So report Brian Awehali and Silja J.A. Talvi for the New Mexican.

Byrd Reveals US Shipments of Biological Weapons to Iraq (Sept. 29, 2002)
"Senator Robert Byrd has torn the lid off some of the darkest and nastiest secrets of the Reagan/Bush I years, and he did so standing in the well of the Senate. Consider well what you read below, and understand: Our entanglements with Iraq, most especially including the Gulf War, are nothing more than damage control. We armed Saddam Hussein. We funded him. We gave him the worst horrors from Pandora's Box. The legacy of Reagan/Bush has fully bloomed, and may God help us all." So note the good folk at TruthOut.org as a preamble to this article from Paul J. Nyden for the West Virginia Gazette.

Ashcroft's Baghdad Connection Why the attorney general and others in Washington have backed a terror group with ties to Iraq (Sept. 29, 2002)
"When the White House released its Sept. 12 "white paper" detailing Saddam Hussein's "support for international terrorism," it caused more than a little discomfort in some quarters of Washington," writes Michael Isikoff for Newsweek.

Thousands, Hundreds of Thousands, or Millions of Demonstrators? (Sept. 29, 2002)
A fascinating look at how various groups tallied and portrayed the huge numbers of anti-War demonstrators in yesterday's enormous protests in London. Also be sure to check out Half Million Peace Demonstrators in London, Rome, Marseilles.

Cop’s Son Dies Week After Drug Arrest (Sept. 29, 2002)
"The son of a veteran police officer died in a Brooklyn hospital Friday of an apparent cocaine overdose, a week after he collapsed while in police custody, police said yesterday," reports Rocco Parascandola for New York Newsday.

Random drug testing for high school smokers (Sept. 29, 2002)
"The number of school districts that test for tobacco is difficult to determine because drug testing policies are enacted locally. But a preliminary case study of nine schools nationwide by the Institute for Behavior and Health in Rockville, Md., showed that four were testing for nicotine," reports Greg Giuffrida for the Associated Press.

2 honor students win zero-tolerance appeals (Sept. 29, 2002)
"Two 15-year-old honor students have won appeals of their expulsions for violating a zero-tolerance drug policy after being caught with a bag of pills found by one of the girls on school grounds," report Bill Kaczor for the Associated Press.

Ecstasy linked to serious brain damage (Sept. 29, 2002)
A new study claims that MDMA can lead to brain damage.

Controlling prescription drug costs (Sept. 29, 2002)
"Jill Stein of the Green Party...would also decriminalize marijuana possession and pay more attention to helping addicts recover instead of putting them behind bars," notes Rick Klein for the Boston Globe about where those politicians running for office stand the campaign issues in Massachusetts.

US Congresswoman Mink Dies (Sept. 29, 2002)
A member of the US House Government Reform Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy, and Human Resources has died.

Keeping our children free of drug abuse (Sept. 28, 2002)
"Officers Gary Self and Jarrod Suth staff the Alameda Police Department's Community Oriented Policing Preventative Services (COPPS) unit," which means that their livlihood depends on promoting drug scare hysteria. They come across sounding sincere and caring in this report, but start their thesis from the position that drug-free is the only way to be, which is ridiculous.

Akha Girl Killed in Drug Raid, Others Robbed by Military- Akha Weekly Journal (Sept. 28, 2002)
Please visit Matt McDaniel's brilliant website, documenting the Akha hilltribe people's lives and travails.

The Week Online with DRCNet issue # 256 (Sept. 28, 2002)
The Tulia lynchings, WAMM suing the federal government to get their medical marijuana back, DRCNet is seeking students to help repeal the Higher Education Act's anti-drug provision, a former British Drug Czar calls for total global drug legalization, these stories and lots more are covered in this week's issue. Check the Reformers' Calendar for upcoming actions and events near you.

Santa Cruz Drug Raid- Letter to the New York Times Editor from DEA Chief Asa Hutchinson (Sept. 28, 2002- free NYTimes registration may be required)
Christopher Krohn, the mayor of Santa Cruz, Calif., asks how he ended up in a tug of war with the Drug Enforcement Administration over his support for medical marijuana (Op-Ed, Sept. 21). But his tug of war is not with the D.E.A. but with the scientific community." So writes DEA head prohibitionist Asa Hutchinson in this utterly brainless letter to the NYTimes.

DEA to help local police fight drugs (Sept. 28, 2002)
"Hutchinson, who met with officers Friday at the request of U.S. Rep. John Sweeney, also offered information, equipment and manpower to make those local arrests happen," reports Jim Kinney for New York's Saratogian.

Apparent ‘Meth’ Lab Found Here After Break-In Report (Sept. 28, 2002)
"Greeneville police officers who responded on Thursday evening to a reported burglary at a residence off South Rufe Taylor Road discovered that it apparently was an illegal methamphetamine 'lab,'" writes Bill Jones for the Greeneville Sun.

Four arrested, $1 million worth of marijuana seized (Sept. 28, 2002)
"A Litchfield couple, Thomas and Marsha VanDenBossche, are charged with aggravated trafficking of marijuana and its cultivation. Charges of trafficking and cultivation have been filed against Thomas Taylor and Louis Ouellette, both of Wales." What in the heck does "aggravated trafficking of marijuana and its cultivation" mean?

Two arrested in marijuana bust (Sept. 28, 2002)
Two men were arrested on suspicion of cultivating marijuana and setting a booby trap after police 'followed their noses' to a home on the 7000 block of Wells Avenue," notes Robert Airoldi for the Argus

Sheriff seizes $35,000 worth of marijuana (Sept. 28, 2002)
"Michael Allen Travis, 49, of Thompson Road in Saluda pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges for manufacturing and maintaining a dwelling for marijuana last week in the Polk County Court," reports Leah Justice for the Tryon Daily Bulletin. Considering some of the horrific sentences some have been handed out by prohibitinist authorities, this guy actually got off fairly easy. Of course, some would insist he shouldn't have been arrested for growing marijuana in the first place.

If Marijuana-Law Passes, Will NV Still Receive Federal $To Fight Drugs? (Sept. 28, 2002)
This is an interesting question posed here. Also, be sure to check out the poll here on how residents of Nevada plan to vote this November on the question of legalizing marijuana. If this poll is to be believed, the prohibitionists don't stand a chance.

Leaders emerge in Nevada campaigns for, against legalizing pot (Sept. 28, 2002)
"The debate about Nevada's marijuana decriminalization initiative escalated Friday as the two sides skirmished over who was backing the measure on November's ballot and what Question 9 would accomplish," reports the Associated Press.

Opinions clash over legalizing marijuana (Sept. 28, 2002)
"There's an age bias in north central Ohio when it comes to loosening laws on marijuana," writes Russ Kent for the Mansfield News Journal.

Judge frees medical-pot patient, returns stash (Sept. 28, 2002)
"Federal prosecutors might not respect the state law that allows people to grow marijuana for medical use, but a judge in Santa Cruz County does," reports Jason Schultz for the Santa Cruz Sentinel.

Another court strikes down anti-drug zone (Sept. 27, 2002)
"A Cincinnati law that bans former drug offenders from Over-the-Rhine is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday," reports Dan Horn for the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Clean Sweep not fully embraced in Lovejoy (Sept. 27, 2002)
"The local head of the New York Civil Liberties Union said that most residents along a stretch of Brinkman Avenue refused to authorize home inspections. The NYCLU sent six legal observers into the neighborhood to tell residents that they had a right to refuse 'warrantless searches,'" writes Brian Meyer for the Buffalo News.

No-fly blacklist snares political activists (Sept. 27, 2002)
No government agency contacted for this article could, or would, say who it is exactly maintaining this watch list.

DEA director speaks on drug war (Sept. 27, 2002)
"Some in the audience said the war on drugs was a waste of time and resources. Hutchinson said the government's policy was on the right track, and less than 5 percent of Americans use illegal drugs _ down by one-third over the last 20 years," reports the Associated Press.

DEA steps up presence in Alaska (Sept. 27, 2002)
The DEA is opening more offices way up north.

State law not a shield to U.S. prosecution (Sept. 27, 2002)
"The federal law that prohibits the cultivation of marijuana supersedes California law – and that allows the U.S. attorney in San Diego to seek criminal charges against McWilliams," report Marisa Taylor and Jeff McDonald San Deigo's Union-Tribune.

To toke or not to toke? What smoking pot does to the body (Sept. 27, 2002)
"The sessions attracted a few of the world's leading psychopharmacologists, whose research reveals that some of our attitudes towards mood-altering substances are not only hypocritical, but absurd," notes this report out of Canada.

Police find 40 pounds of marijuana in Athens bar owner's car (Sept. 27, 2002)
"Arizona state police arrested an Athens bar owner after they found 40 pounds of marijuana in the trunk of the car he was driving."

Odd couple (Sept. 27, 2002)

Gubernatorial hopefuls discuss marijuana, gay marriage (Sept. 27, 2002)
"Minnesota's four major-party gubernatorial candidates ventured onto some new turf during a debate Wednesday night, fielding questions on everything from medicinal marijuana to same-sex marriage to school prayer," writes Jean Hopfensperger for the Star Tribune.

Candidates For Lt. Governor Debate (Sept. 27, 2002)
"The Libertarian Party candidate's Henry Haller said he wants to legalize marijuana to help reduce prison overcrowding," according to this report from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Attorney general candidates disagree on pot initiative (Sept. 27, 2002)
"The two candidates in the Nevada attorney general's race are clashing over how to handle the marijuana ballot initiative."

Inmates Lose Bid in Guinea Pig Case (Sept. 26, 2002)
"Prisoners who were deliberately exposed to diseases and given mind-altering drugs during jailhouse medical experiments from the 1950s through the 1970s cannot sue the city and the university that conducted the tests, a federal appeals court ruled," reports David B. Caruso for FindLaw.com. Seems these victims "waited too long" to file their suit.

Pot co-op sues after confiscation Santa Cruz group pushes for medical use (Sept. 26, 2002)
"Valerie and Michael Corral accuse the DEA of trampling the U.S. Constitution in an effort to shut down their group, the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana. Their attorneys called the suit an 'opening salvo' in a larger effort in challenging the federal government's authority to prohibit the medical use of marijuana." Read more of this report Maria Alicia Guara for the San Francisco Gate Chronicle.

203 would mandate fines for pot smokers (Sept. 26, 2002)
"The initiative will save state millions by keeping harmless users out of jail, proponents say; foes say passage will let drug abuse flourish."

Boy, 11, Says Parents Forced Him To Sell Drugs (Sept. 26, 2002)
If marijuana and other drugs were legal, what lunatic, much less a sane person, would buy their drugs from an 11-year old?

Family demands answers on man who hanged self in cell (Sept. 26, 2002)
This poor guy, picked up on suspicion of marijuana possession and driving without a driver's liscense, hanged himself. Authorities insist he did it because of other drugs in his system, but his family wants all the details.

Marijuana Reform Party of New York (Sept. 25, 2002)
A very short but to the point report on the efforts of Thomas Leighton, running for Governor of New York, to get marijuana issues onto the ballot and into the public's consciousness this November.

Networks Balk at Pot Spots (Sept. 25, 2002)
"One network has rejected two ads for offensive language, and a second has imposed time restrictions on boundary-pushing spots that link pot smoking to violence and date rape." Guess it is more than obvious what the prohibitionists are not smoking. How anyone in the advertising business could create such drivel and dreck for the ONDCP National Youth Media Campaign, and how anyone in Congress can sign off on these commercials is a genuine mystery, unless one takes simple greed at the prospect of millions of US taxdollars flowing into ad agency coffers and Congressional pet projects into consideration.

Drug czar blasts legalization 'lie' (Sept. 25, 2002)
"The national drug czar brought his no-holds-barred message here Monday, calling medical marijuana 'a lie' and arguments for legalizing the drug as a medicine selling snake oil.' Read more of this report by Susan Wright for the Daytona Beach News-Journal.

Justice Department Indicts Colombian AUC Leaders on Drug Charges (Sept. 25, 2002)
"The U.S. Justice Department has indicted the leaders of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC) on drug trafficking charges and seeks their extradition to the United States, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has announced," reports the US Department of State.

Colombia seeks new US aid (Sept. 25, 2002)
"Colombian President Alvaro Uribe is in Washington to meet US President George W Bush and is hoping for an extension of US assistance under the anti-drugs 'Plan Colombia'," reported the BBC on Monday, Sept. 23.

Local Pot Advocate's Home Raided (Sept. 25, 2002)
"What led up to the raid goes back to last week, when members of medical marijuana advocacy group Shelter From The Storm distributed marijuana in front of San Diego City Hall. McWilliams serves as head of Shelter From The Storm. The move was similar to one that took place in San Jose. In both cases, marijuana was only distributed to patients with a doctor's approval," reports SanDiegoChannel.com.

U.S. sent Iraq germs in mid-'80s (Sept. 25, 2002)
"American research companies, with the approval of two previous presidential administrations, [Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush] provided Iraq biological cultures that could be used for biological weapons, according to testimony to a U.S. Senate committee eight years ago," reports Douglas Turner for the Buffalo News.

Vladimir Putin Signs Decree on Combating Trafficking in Illegal Drugs (Sept. 25, 2002)
"Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday signed a Decree on Improving the State Control of Trafficking in Illegal Drugs and Psychotropic Substances." So notes the Russian Information Agency Novosti.

Drug dispositions for August (Sept. 25, 2002)
The Herald-Mail has compiled a list of all the victims of drug prohibition (though they don't call these people victims) who appeared in court on drug charges in Washington County District Court and Washington County Circuit Court in Maryland, for the month of August, listing exactly what the charges were, and what their sentences are.

Davis veto of industrial hemp study draws criticism (Sept. 25, 2002)
"Industrial hemp supporters on Tuesday criticized Gov. Gray Davis' veto of a bill to study the profitability of growing the fibrous crop for use in textiles, food and fuel," writes Paul Payne for the Press Democrat.

UK- Café sold cannabis to seriously ill, owner claims (Sept. 25, 2002)
"A man 'put his head on the line' to open an Amsterdam-style coffee shop where seriously ill people could get cannabis to ease their pain, a court was told yesterday. Colin Davies was charged with a string of drug offences after opening the Dutch Experience café in Stockport, Greater Manchester, last year." Read more of Laura Scott's report for the Independent.

Robot finds another pyramid puzzle (Sept. 25, 2002)
The editor of drugwar.com admits a fascination with ancient archeological puzzles, so finds thrilling the news of not just one, but two previously unknown doorways being found hidden deep within the Great Pyramid of Egypt, and well worth passing on.

Global Eye -- Dark Passage (Sept. 25, 2002)
"In September 2000, PNAC updated the original Cheney plan in a published report, "Strengthening America's Defenses." In this and related documents, the earlier precepts were reiterated and refined. The plans called for unprecedented hikes in military spending, the plantation of American bases in Central Asia and the Middle East, the toppling of recalcitrant regimes, the militarization of outer space, the abrogation of international treaties, the willingness to use nuclear weapons and control of the world's energy resources," reports Chris Floyd for The Moscow Times.

An Assassination, A Failure to Act, A Painful Parallel (Sept. 25, 2002)
"Now we have obtained a series of State Department and CIA records that cast a disturbing new light on the Letelier assassination, revealing that the United States had extensive awareness of a secret assassination operation and suggesting that U.S. officials called off actions that might have stopped it." So report John Dinges and Peter Kornbluh for the Washington Post.

Recession Cut Incomes and Swelled Poverty Rolls, U.S. Says (Sept. 25, 2002)
"The number of poor people in the United States rose by about 1.3 million last year, while household income declined significantly as the country struggled through a recession, the Census Bureau said today," reports David Stout for the New York Times.

US Suppressed Gas Charge Report (Sept. 25, 2002)
"US Army War College (USAWC) undertook a study of the use of chemical weapons by Iran and Iraq in order to better understand battlefield chemical warfare. They concluded that it was Iran and not Iraq that killed the Kurds," reported Raju Thomas for the Times of India last week.

Executed search warrants turn up small amounts of illegal drugs (Sept. 25, 2002)
Yet another example of prohibitionist enforcers appearing to be doing something about illegal drugs, but really only picking up the little people and filling jail space with non-violent offenders.

Marijuana Protest Leads to Arrests at White House (Sept. 24, 2002)
"Two people were arrested Monday after handcuffing themselves to the White House fence to protest recent federal government raids on "medical marijuana" cooperatives in California," notes this report by Todd Zwillich for Reuters.

Celebrate Cognitive Liberty and the Freedom to Read: Banned Books Week and the CCLE’s Readers’ Rights Project (Sept. 24, 2002)
"This year’s Banned Books Week: Celebrate the Freedom to Read—is the twenty-first anniversary of the ALA’s annual celebration of intellectual freedom. Events and read-outs will be held nationwide to raise awareness about censorship and the right to access books. As Judith Krug, director of the ALA's Office for Intellectual Freedom, says, 'The ability to read, speak, think and express ourselves freely are core American values.'” So notes this page at the Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics.

The Black Commentator - The Good Heroin Man is Back (Sept. 24, 2002)
Check out the cartoon gracing the homepage of the Black Commentator.

Dozens Arrested During Medical Marijuana Protest (Sept. 24, 2002)
"29 medical marijuana supporters were arrested Monday after they blocked the entrance to Sacramento's federal courthouse. Earlier in the day, hundreds of people gathered at the State Capitol, demanding federal authorities stop raiding medical marijuana clinics," reports Fox affiliate KTXL of Sacramento, California.

Federal stance on state's medical marijuana law protested (Sept. 24, 2002)
"Declaring the war on drugs has unjustly been extended to the seriously ill in California who use marijuana on the advice of their physicians, hundreds protested at the state Capitol on Monday, calling on the federal government to leave people's medicine alone," reports Chris Rizo for the Mercury-Register.

Editorial: Friends of meth? (Sept. 24, 2002)
"Some wit once defined a fanatic as a person who redoubles his effort just as he loses sight of his objective. That wit must have been thinking of U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and Drug Enforcement Administrator Asa Hutchinson," according to this editorial in the Sacramento Bee pointing out that the recent federal crackdown on medical marijuana only benefits dealers in harder, much more dangerous drugs.

White House Hails Hemispheric Cooperation in Fighting Illicit Drugs (Sept. 24, 2002)
"Governments from the Western Hemisphere's 34 democratic nations are cooperating more than ever to reduce the supply and demand of illicit drugs in the region, says the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)," in this official US government press release.

The Cetacean Litigation (Sept. 24, 2002)
"On September 18, 2002, the Cetacean Community filed suit in Federal District Court, Honolulu, Hawaii seeking to prevent President George W. Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld from deploying Low Frequency Active Sonar (LFAS) without adequate analysis of this sonar’s environmental effects." Whales have filed suit against the US government, along with dolphins and more over the extremely destructive LFAS system that has already killed numerous of their kin around the world.

Scotland- Elite Drug Squad Net £11M Haul (Sept. 24, 2002)
"Drugs worth more than £11million have been captured by Scotland's elite crime squad in the past six months," writes Andrew Walker for the Daily Record.

Canada- Medical marijuana rules rile city man (Sept. 24, 2002)
Bob LeDuc, "who uses marijuana to control a number of serious ailments, fears he will soon have to choose between breaking the law and becoming severely ill," reports Scott Tracey for guelphmercury.com.

Rise Up for Medical Marijuana! (Sept. 23, 2002)
Just a reminder to get yourselves out into the streets today in Washington, DC, and Sacramento, California, to show your displeasure over the federal war on medical marijuana patients and users. For that matter, while you are out there, let everyone know that the entire War on Drugs stinks to high heavens.

U.S. Drops Bid to Strengthen Germ Warfare Accord (Sept. 23, 2002)
The Bush administration has decided in their infinite wisdom to throw out international treaties on development and inspection of biowar programs. While the US has been illegally developing such pathogens as Anthrax and other killing germs and chemicals too for years, they are also at the very same time insisting that reforming the laws governing the use of medical marijuana and other currently illegal drugs sends the wrong message to kids. What aren't these maniacs smoking?

Feds Raid Steve McWilliams' Medical Marijuana Garden (Sept. 23, 2002)
Drawing the attention of prohibitionist federal anti-pot agents by handing out free medical marijuana at the Santa Cruz city hall last week, Steve McWilliams has now been raided, and had his small, side-yard garden destroyed.

John Ashcroft and Your Child (Sept. 23, 2002)
The warmongers are not pretending. They want War, 24 hours, 7 days a week, and they want your kids to wage it. But remember, these same warmongers chaising after kids in school also wage drug prohibition "for the very same children" as they need your kids to kill and die for them without having any pesky, mind-expanding illicit substances coursing through their veins. Unless of course they are going to be pilots, then they'll be given plenty of methamphetamines and downers during their service to their country.

Weed Wars (Sept. 23, 2002)
CNN has put together a webpage dealing with the issue of medical marijuana. "With more states considering approving the use of marijuana for medical purposes, the gray zones in this debate are becoming increasingly evident - especially since it's still against federal law to use, sell or grow marijuana."

Medical-pot supporters fight feds (Sept. 23, 2002)
Medical marijuana users in Oregon are suffering severe trepidations about federal plans for their state after seeing the insane raids on medical marijuana growers and patients in California.

Official Reports and Marijuana (Sept. 23, 2002)
"Many official reports and studies have been conducted to display the harms of marijuana; all of them came to the same conclusion: 'Marijuana poses no great risk to society and should not be criminalized.'' So notes the opening lines of this page, outlining the positives of pot, and the negatives of prohibition against pot.

Legalizing marijuana: Five major sticking points (Sept. 23, 2002)
"There are five major areas of disagreement between proponents and opponents regarding the initiative and its potential impacts," writes Steve Kanigher for the Las Vegas Sun. He then goes on to list some of the areas of contention.

Elections In America - Assume Crooks Are In Control (Sept. 23, 2002)
This is a most disturbing look at voting in the US. Not a cheerful article at all, nor is it very reassuring to those who want to effect change though the voting booths.

100 people gather in Manchester to support legalizing pot (Sept. 22, 2002)
"NHORML, the New Hampshire chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, sponsored the all-day festival, which featured live bands, guest speakers, food vendors offering fried dough, sausages and lemonade, and booths selling bongs, tie-dyed T-shirts and “pet” pot plants. (They were plastic, but realistic enough to temporarily fool both eager customers and concerned police officers)," writes Shawne K. Wickham for the Union Leader and the New Hampshire Sunday News.

Drug Economies of the Americas (Sept. 22, 2002)
"In the Americas, the production and sale of illicit drugs generates tens of billions of dollars a year—perhaps far more. Though exact figures are impossible to come by, for reasons we discuss below, it’s clear that many Latin American nations now earn as much, or more, from the drug trade than they do from any other single legal commodity or industry." This is a fascinating report from the folks at the North American Congress on Latin America.

UK-Legalise all drugs worldwide, says Mowlam (Sept. 22, 2002)
"Mo Mowlam, the former cabinet minister responsible for drugs policy, is calling for the international legalisation of the drugs trade as part of a more effective drive to combat terrorism," reports Guardian UK political affairs correspondent Patrick Wintour.

Chretien led cabinet initiative in 1981 to reform marijuana laws: documents (Sept. 22, 2002)
"Cabinet documents from the government of then-Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau show that Chretien pressed cabinet to lower fines, reduce jail sentences and eliminate the criminal records of Canadians convicted of possessing small amounts of marijuana," writes Dean Bee for the Canadian Press at Canada.com.

Jamaica- Pregnant woman gets six months for ganja (Sept. 22, 2002)
"Indira Campbell was yesterday [Friday] sentenced to six months at hard labour in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court after she was found guilty of possession of and taking steps to export ganja."

The Week Online with DRCNet, issue #255 (Sept. 21, 2002)
Pain docs under prohibitionist attack, the new federal anti-marijuana campaign, Swedish prohibitionists spout irrational anti-drugs hysteria, Washington Dc's medical marijuana bill is yanked from this year's ballot, a Mexican Senate panel takes a look at medical marijuana, these stories and more are covered in this week's issue of the Week Online. Don't forget the ever comprehensive Reformers' Calendar

'Weedman' Seeks Relief from Higher Court (Sept. 21, 2002)
"Believing that he is being held in jail unconstitutionally, Forchion petitioned the federal district court in Camden for a 'writ of habeas corpus' -- lawyer-speak for a federal judge to determine whether an inmate is being imprisoned lawfully. Judge Joseph Irenas accepted Forchion's petition, and now the state has until Oct. 28 to explain to the judge why Forchion is sitting in the clink," reports Jeff Edelstein for the New Jersey Trentonian.

Unintended Effect of War on Drugs Found in Study (Sept. 21, 2002)
"The study by the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based advocacy group that promotes alternatives to prison, offers a detailed look at state-incarcerated drug offenders, who made up almost a quarter of all inmates. It is based on information collected in 1997, when the last federal survey of state drug prisoners was conducted. An estimated $5 billion is spent each year to keep drug offenders locked up," reports Eddy Ramirez for the Los Angeles Times.

Special Ops (Sept. 21, 2002)
Mark Fiore take a hard look at federal cops "serving and protecting" US citizens from oh so dangerous medical marijuana patients.

Barriers To 9/11 Inquiry Decried (Sept. 21, 2002)
"Lawmakers from both parties yesterday protested the Bush administration's lack of cooperation in the congressional inquiry into Sept. 11 intelligence failures and threatened to renew efforts to establish an independent commission," reports Dana Milbank for the Washington Post.

Cop Smashes Handcuffed Man in Face With Walkie-Talkie (Sept. 21, 2002)
Cops from the same precinct that brutalized Abner Louima with a broaken plunger handle up his butt have once again "hit" the news, this time by spraying this asthmatic guy with mace full in the face, splitting his lip open with a radio, after an argument during a softball game in Prospect Park, NYC.

Feds Tell San Diego Medical Marijuana Patient Steve McWilliams to Destroy His Caregiver Garden (Sept. 20, 2002)
A press alert from NORML about the feds latest move to crack down on harmless people growing marijuana for patients, this time focused on the guy who gave out medical marijuana at the Santa Cruz city hall this week to protest federal arrests of patients and growers, and the destruction of gardens.

Exploring solutions to city drug problems (Sept. 20, 2002)
"The U.S. war on drugs is a miserable failure, New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson said" in Vancouver, Canada this past Wednesday.

Medical marijuana advocates go to court to fight Ottawa's rules on pot (Sept. 20, 2002)
"A motley band of seriously ill people crowded into court Thursday to do battle with Ottawa over a scheme to permit the use of medical marijuana they say violates their constitutional rights," reports James McCarten for Canada.com.

For Noelle Bush, a different kind of justice (Sept. 20, 2002)
"In Florida, drug offenders face hard time -- unless you have money or connections," notes Michelle Goldberg in this report for Salon.com.

Progress Made on Net Drug Dealers (Sept. 19, 2002)
"Authorities say they are making inroads against Internet drug trafficking in more than 70 U.S. cities, announcing a series of arrests and raids on dealers who are selling the 'date rape' drug GHB," reports Pete Yost for the Associated Press.

Rock planned to release pot, letter says (Sept. 19, 2002)
Court documents show that Allan Rock was poised to distribute medicinal marijuana just as he was replaced by Anne McLellan as Health Minister, say lawyers who are suing the government for acting in bad faith.

Santa Cruz Gives Medical Marijuana Away as the Feds Send Bryan Epis Away (Sept. 19, 2002)
Adam Eidinger sent this letter out to various California papers, alerting them to the case of Bryan Epis, the first US citizen to be sentenced to federal prison for medical marijuana and who will be sent off to prison on September 23, 2002. If you live in Sacarmento, California or nearby, try to get out and let the feds know how you feel about this insanity.

US Drug War in Colombia hearings now online (Sept. 19, 2002)
Listen to the 75-minute hearing, held Sept. 18, wherein three witnesses, including Iran-Contra participant Richard Armitage, urged yet more US involvement in the jungles and mountains of Colombia. War, destruction, and protecting their cronies seem to be the primary focuses of the Bush administration.

Bush Backs States' Right on Marijuana (Sept. 19, 2002)
This is another blast from the past, from the October 20, 1999, Dallas Morning News, which reported that "Gov. George Bush said he backs a state's right to decide whether to allow medical use of marijuana, a position that puts him sharply at odds with Republicans on Capitol Hill. 'I believe each state can choose that decision as they so choose,'" said Bush at the time. Now his federal prohibitionist forces are trampling the rights of California voters who voted to legalize medical use of marijuana way back in 1996.

U.S. Failed to Act on Warnings in '98 of a Plane Attack (Sept. 19, 2002)
So National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice went on US national TV and and lied through her very big teeth to the American public, and the world, in May 2002, when she said no one in the US intelligence services had every imagined terrorists might hijack planes to use as missiles. But hey, US rulers have been lying about their Drug War for years, so why should yet one more lie be surprising to anyone?

Cronies in Arms (Sept. 19, 2002)
Read about some of US Army Secretary Thomas White's, and Vice-President Dick Cheney's, sordid business dealings and retirement packages. These are the men who are telling the rest of us they are going to send Us citiznes to kill and die in foreign countries, while they make off with millions in crooked profits.

Sheriff's Department Using Technology to Let Defendants Get Out of Jail Before Trial (Sept. 19, 2002)
This article is about defendents who have not yet been convicted in any court of law being forced by police to wear surveillance braclets, just in case they go out and committ "more" crimes. Can anyone say "pre-crime?" Can anyone say, "1984?"

Huchinson and Walters are full of it (Sept. 19, 2002)
This is an editorial comment from the good folk at the Ontarios Consumers for Safe Access to Recreational Cannabis, in responce to the absolutely fallacious "new" assertions on the part of US federal prohibitionists about the so-called dangers of marijuana.

Drug czar to lobby in Nevada (Sept. 19, 2002)
"Walters urged parents against trivializing for their children the dangers of marijuana, and he said the drug is more potent today than what mom and dad may have smoked in their youth," writes Steve Tetreault for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, in this report of Walters planning on going on a tour of states where voters will vote on either legalizing marijuana for personal use, as in Nevada, or medical use of marijuana.

Thailand Cops Find 308 Pounds of Heroin (Sept. 19, 2002)

Brutal Cop Tricks (Sept. 19, 2002)
This is an except from the 1992 book L.A. Secret Police, by former LA police officer Mike Rothmiller, and co-author Ivan. G. Goldman, graphically detailing the mindset of some officers in the LAPD.

Hotel Drug Sweep Surprises Drug Treatment Experts (Sept. 18, 2002)
"Boyd-Young, who is staying in an Elk Grove Village hotel with some 60 of her colleagues for a drug treatment training convention, found herself on the wrong end of an increasingly common practice in suburban hotels: unannounced police drug sweeps. Boyd-Young and others at the conference say the practice is ugly and intrusive," reports Dave Orrick, Daily Herald Legal Affairs writer.

City leaders help in marijuana giveaway at City Hall in Santa Cruz, California (Sept. 18, 2002)
Calling Santa Cruz a sanctuary from federal authorities, medical marijuana advocates — joined by city leaders — passed out pot to about a dozen sick people at City Hall," reports Martha Mendoza for the Associated Press. There's also this report by Andrea Orr for Reuters, titled Californians Get Pot in Medical Marijuana Protest.

Parents warned that risks of marijuana use greater than thought (Sept. 18, 2002)
"Marsha Rosenbaum, director of the Safety First Project of the Drug Policy Alliance, disputed some of [Drug Czar] Walters' figures. 'What can he possibly be talking about?" she said. "Alcohol dwarfs marijuana in terms of use. It's true that half of high school students have experimented with marijuana, but 80 percent have used alcohol.'" Read more of this report by Eun-Kyung Kim for the Associated Press.

Transcript of call to an Orlando police dispatcher (Sept. 18, 2002)
Read the transcript of the phone call by a hostile fellow resident at the drug rehab facility in Florida, who was pissed off at the preferential treatment Noelle Bush seems to be receiving from the staff despite Noelle Bush's valiant efforts to get herself arrested.

Cocaine Trade Causes Rifts in Colombian War (Sept. 18, 2002)
Paramilitary discord imperils the US-backed and funded anti-drug plan, as well as overall peace efforts, reports Scott Wilson for the Washington Post.

White House Drug Czar and Public Health, Prevention and Parenting Leaders to Inform Parents about Harms of Marijuana (Sept. 18, 2002)
This is the latest shrill screed from the Office of National Drug Control Policy, uring us all, particularly parents, to remember that no matter what the science and medical facts actually say, marijuana is simply a dangerous drug and the War against it should continue unabated, regardless of the facts that not only has the already decades long war done absolutely nothing to curtail marijuana use in the US, but that prohibition itself obviously empowers the cartels themselves and causes ever so much more harm than do any actual sales or use of marijuana.

Briton, 73, arrested with £2 million in drugs (Sept. 18, 2002)
"French customs officials have seized almost £2 million worth of ecstasy, marijuana and amphetamines from the truck of a 73-year-old Briton."

Evil GOP Bastards (Sept. 18, 2002)
Remember while reading this fantastic but more than a wee bit slanted website that it was both the Democrats and the Repubilcans that ratcheted up the War on Some Drugs (not to mention allowed Enron and more to committ widespread fraud and cause severe blackouts in California while doing so) while the Clinton Administration was in office, headed by an admitted [former] pot toker.

Medical pot rallies held across state Patients protest U.S. raids on supplies (Sept. 18, 2002)
"Medical marijuana patients and advocates held protests in San Francisco and several other cities Monday against the latest federal raids on their supplies," reports Bob Egelko for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Rise Up for Medical Marijuana! (Sept. 17, 2002)
"All medical marijuana patients, supporters, organizers, and activists in California are needed for what is shaping up to be a major medical marijuana mobilization to Sacramento on the 23rd" of September, says this press release from the Americans for Safe Access. Make sure the feds know they have better and much more important things to focus on than arresting medical marijuana users, not to mention simply ending the entire war on marijuana users in this country who use it for any reason. Show up in person.

Blagojevich admits smoking marijuana, doubts he inhaled (Sept. 17, 2002)
Do the voters in Illinois really want a guy for Governor who not only still promotes the idea that marijuana is a gateway drug but admits to being so "inept" that he doesn't even know if he inhaled the two times he tried marijuana, as is the case for Rod Blagojevich?

Speaking Out Against Drug Legalization, or; How To Hold Your Own In a Drug Legalization Debate (Sept. 17, 2002)
This is a blast from the past, written back in 1994 by the US DEA for those poor prohibitionists who must actually defend their backing such destructive and damaging policies as those that drive the US War on Some Drugs. There's also a responce to How to Hold Your Own here, by Clifford A. Schaffer.

New Drug War- Will The New Batch of Anti-Drug Ads Work? (Sept. 17, 2002)
The new ONDCP National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign commercials focusing on pot are now airing across the US, and they are just as bad and insulting, if not more so, than any that have come before. "'I will say, unfortunately, a lot of young adults and college students will say 'you are right, this does support a crime network; if the drug was legal, you wouldn't have that,'" Dr. Drew Pinsky said in this article at ABCNews.com.

First Federal Medical Marijuana Conviction (Sept. 17, 2002)
Just in case anyone still thinks the feds aren't targeting sick patients, have them read this horrific article about Bryan Epis, who is getting 10 years in federal prison on medical marijuana charges.

How Warmongers Exploit 9/11 (Sept. 17, 2002)
"In the 12 months following 9/11, Bush junior's administration has cynically seized upon and exploited the terror attacks to launch a drive to achieve the US ruling class dream of an 'American century' or 'New World Order' -- an unchallenged global US military, political and economic empire," writes Morm Dixon for CounterPunch.org.

Pot raid angers state, patients (Sept. 17, 2002)
"Suzanne Pfeil understands why federal agents burst in just after dawn with guns drawn and handcuffed her. That's routine in drug busts. What she can't understand is why agents kept ordering her to stand up after they saw her crutches and leg braces next to the bed." John Ritter reports for USAToday on recent federal insanity in California, perpetrated against obviously sick people.

Should the federal authorities leave California's medical marijuana growers alone? (Sept. 16, 2002)
Vote in CNN's poll Sept. 16, 2002. Then listen to the audio of today's CNN report on Santa Cruz planning to hand out medical marijuana to certain patients on the city hall steps Sept. 17, 2002, and a short debate on the matter, at Ethan's Drug Policy Audio Archive.

A Crack House Divided (Sept. 16, 2002)
Arianna Huffington points out in her latest column that "Of course, Jeb's [Bush, Gov. of Florida] wildly inconsistent attitude on the issue -- treatment and privacy for his daughter, incarceration and public humiliation for everyone else -- is part and parcel of the galling hypocrisy that infects America's insane drug war on every level."

After four days of U.N. speeches, only Britain supports unilateral U.S. action against Iraq (Sept. 16, 2002)
"Nations large and small want the United Nations to find a solution and to determine any consequences if Iraq refuses to allow U.N. weapons inspectors to return," reports Edith M. Lederer for the Associated Press.

The Deadliest Drug (Sept. 16, 2002)
This sure is a scary report, but what should be done about the meth scare? Should we Americans allow our federal prohibitionists to create even more strife while combating this drug? Will that lead to better lives for the addicts, users, and fellow citizens who do not use methamphetamines? Take a look at the rest of the War on Drugs and its results before answering that question.

Delay in reporting drugs puts boy on suspension (Sept. 16, 2002)
"The problem here is the bigger picture," said the boy's mother in this article by Angie Brunkow for the Omaha World-Herald. "He was just taught a valuable lesson: When you tell, you get in trouble."

Nevada plans to legalize marijuana (Sept. 16, 2002)
"In Nevada, they love gambling and tolerate prostitution. Now they are talking about legalizing pot," reports CNN.

Pro-cannabis groups gather for annual rally on Common (Sept. 16, 2002)
"Dozens of people were arrested yesterday as a crowd of more than 35,000 gathered for the annual pot rally on Boston Common. By 5 p.m., police had arrested 50 people, mostly for drug possession, processing them at a tent set up on the park's perimeter," reports Marie Szaniszlo for the Boston Herald.com. Also check out the coverage from the Boston Globe, Thousands gather for marijuana rally.

Patients Seek State Refuge on Capitol Lawn (Sept. 16, 2002)
A protest against the recent outrageous raids by feds on medical marijuana growers and users is planned for September 23, 2002, in Sacramento, California.

Medical Marijuana at City Hall (Sept. 16, 2002)
The city of Santa Cruz will be handing out medical marijuana at City Hall to select patient members of WAMM this Tuesday, Sept. 17, 2002, to protest the DEA raids on medical marijuana using and growing patients and their caregivers.

Cultural Baggage Radio Show with Senator Nolin, Eugene Oscapella, Valerie Corral, and Call In Listeners Now Online (Sept. 15, 2002)
Check out these very informative and interesting links.

Who is the Madman Here? Bush's UN Non-Sequiturs (Sept. 15, 2002)
Tom Gorman rips into GW Bush's UN speech urging a world attack upon Iraq, illustrating quite clearly that the reasons so far stated for an invasion of Iraq are bologna, not to mention the postulations of a veritable madman and his fellow greedhead warmongerers. After reading this, check out how
Bush planned Iraq 'regime change' before becoming President, written by Neil Mackay for the Sunday Herald.

Canada- Why stop at pot? Legalize all drugs (Sept. 15, 2002)
"The sole problem with the committee's recommendations is that they apply only to cannabis. When it comes to drugs, the only humane policy is to legalize them all. Ecstasy, cocaine, heroin, PCP; prohibition has failed in equal measure for all of these substances. Prohibition has enormous social costs and does more harm than good. It's time to junk the entire approach," writes Andy Lamey for the National Post.

Noelle Bush's Counselors Subpoenaed; Lawyer Says They Won't Talk (Sept. 15, 2002)
Noelle Bush was turned in by one of her fellow treatment patients, but the facility will not cooperate with the local authorities. The editor of DrugWar.com must voice his agreement with their policy of non-cooperation with the drug cops. He's surprised by their stance, but happy to hear about it.

Marijuana club owner charged in federal court (Sept. 15, 2002)
"The maximum penalty for the drug charges is life in prison and a $4 million fine; the assault charge carries a maximum sentence of three years plus a $250,000 fine, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mathew Jacobs said in a statement Friday," about the oh so dangerous medical marijuana club owner Robert Schmidt. What is wrong with the Feds? What have they NOT been smoking enough of?

Grass roots protesters to rally for legalized pot (Sept. 15, 2002)
"A smokin' time is guaranteed today when the 13th annual ``Let Freedom Grow'' love-in for the legalization of marijuana lights up Boston Common," wrote Laurel J. Sweet for the Boston Herald.com. The protest festival was held Saturday, Sept. 14, 2002.

Online Petitions Gather Steam on the Internet (Sept. 15, 2002)
There's no excuse not to be active in this day and age, what with the advances of technology allowing one and all to make their voices heard, without even leaving the safety of their own home.

Letter to the Editors of the Seattle Times- Someone is Lying to You...(Sept. 15, 2002)
"First, you say that 'medical marijuana has widespread support from people of many political stripes, despite its unfortunate, high-profile support from groups who want to decriminalize all marijuana use.' But why should support from those of us who want to legalize – not just 'decriminalize' -- marijuana bother you?" Richard Cowen asks this and other very pertinent questions in this letter.

Studying the Violence of Cannabis Prohibition (Sept. 15, 2002)
“'Oops' is not a sufficient response. Clearly, this has been a major violation of human rights. Six hundred thousand Canadians – and over 14 million Americans – have been arrested, and many have been imprisoned, for cannabis 'crimes.' Hundreds of thousands more have been arrested in other democracies," write Richard Cowen as he rips into cannabis prohibition and takes a long, hard look at the recent Canadian Senate report recommending flat-out marijuana legalization.

Top US Official Lied About Al Qaida-FARC Link (Sept. 14, 2002)
"US Assistant Secretary of State Rand Beers has admitted that he did not speak the truth when he last November declared under oath that Colombian guerrillas had received training in terrorist camps in Afghanistan," reports Maria Engqvist, for ANNCOL in Stockholm.

Hunter Thompson is still all-Gonzo (Sept. 14, 2002)
"Thompson said he was stunned by the attention stemming 'from a conversation a woman overhears in some diner in Calhoun, Ga.' She then phones her fear in to 'some tip line.' Thompson didn't even try to conceal his amazement that the police would go so far as to 'shut down the interstate highway and BLOW UP PEOPLE'S LUGGAGE!" Thompson had a lot more to say, in both this article and the two part interview that can be read here. Thompson also urged President Bush to quit, and the American people to get off their asses and vote.

The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue #254 (Sept. 14, 2002)
A Missouri man takes pot shots at anti-drug chopper and brings it down, Afghan farmers vow to grow marijuana, Montana Drug War reform activists hold their first meeting, various marijuana intitiatives and the state of their progress around the country, these stories, plus the ever useful Reformer Calander can be found in this week's Week Online with DRCNet.

Tuolumne D.A. Promises to Dismiss Myron Mower Case (Sept. 14, 2002)
Myron Mower and his wife are relieved to hear their case may be dismissed October 1, 2002.

Westward the course of Empire (Sept. 14, 2002)
"The aftermath of the terrorist attacks has revived imperialist ideology in the United States, rather than caused it to query its world role. Writers do not hesitate to draw parallels between their nation and ancient Rome, which they hold to be a model for world domination in the 21st century." So notes Philip S. Golub, a journalist and lecturer at the Institute of European Studies, University of Paris VIII - Saint-Denis.

Ecstasy begets empathy (Sept. 13, 2002)
"Psychiatrist and drug researcher Dr. Charles Grob sees value in MDMA -- when it's taken in therapy, not at a rave," writes Sheerly Avni for Salon.com. Dr. Grob is one of three authors of a recent MDMA study falsely claimed to have stated MDMA was not dangerous by some newspapers last week.

FBI Grabs More Wiretap Power (Sept. 13, 2002)
"Senators complained Tuesday that the Justice Department is trying to assert more authority in federal wiretap cases than it was authorized to have under last year's USA Patriot Act," reports Fox News.

DEA Raid in Petaluma (Sept. 13, 2002)
The feds have completely lost their minds, raiding yet another medical marijuana grow-op in California instead of concentrating on terrorists, rapists, killers, and other real, dastardly criminals. Protests are planned for September 16 in various cities around the country over this and other recent federal raids on medical marijuana users and growers.

Legal pot would mean tighter borders (Sept. 13, 2002)
"The U.S. drug-enforcement czar on Thursday criticized a movement to legalize marijuana use in Canada, saying it would force officials to tighten border security even more," report Canadian Press.

Marijuana TV Ads Debut in Nevada (Sept. 13, 2002)
The Marijuana Policy Project has unveiled two television new ads explaining what will happen when the Mariajuana Initiative passes this November.

UK- One in three fear mental health laws (Sept. 13, 2002)
"The new laws would give doctors the power to force people with severe mental health problems to take medication, even if they did not want to," notes the BBC.

U.S. Violent Crime Rate Declines (Sept. 13, 2002)
"The nation saw violent crimes except murder fall by 9 percent last year, marking the lowest level since the government began surveying victims in 1973," reports the Associated Press.

Iraq course set from tight White House circle (Sept. 13, 2002)
"President Bush's determination to oust Iraq's Saddam Hussein by military force if necessary was set last fall without a formal decision-making meeting or the intelligence assessment that customarily precedes such a momentous decision," reports USAToday.

Hundreds of pot plants found growing near Descanso (Sept. 13, 2002)
"Investigators serving a warrant at a remote home in the East County highlands came across a well-organized marijuana growing operation Thursday and arrested a group of people suspected of tending the illicit crop," report the SignOnSanDiego.com News Service.

Officials seek missing drugs (Sept. 13, 2002)
"Detectives from the Illinois State Police are investigating the disappearance of a large quantity of what was believed to be cannabis from a storage building at the Franklin County Sheriff's Department," writes Danny Malkovich for the Benton Evening News.

Canada- Red tape choking pot study (Sept. 13, 2002)
"The medical-marijuana clinical trials required by federal Health Minister Anne McLellan could take more than five years to complete, according to the McGill University researcher whose groundbreaking study into pot and pain is entangled in red tape," notes Lynn Moore for the Gazzette.

City Plans Protest With Pot Giveaway (Sept. 12, 2002)
"DEA spokesman Richard Meyer was surprised at the plan. 'Are you serious? That's illegal. It's like they're flouting federal law,' he said. 'I'm shocked that city leaders would promote the use of marijuana that way. What is that saying to our youth?'" Well, it could be saying to the youth that the city leaders in Santa Cruz are sick and tired of the War on Patients who use Medical Marijuana, as well as the fact that the city leaders are a lot more humane than those folk in the federal government who insist on endlessly waging this destructive war.

Afghan Farmers to Harvest Marijuana (Sept. 12, 2002)
"Obeying a Taliban edict, many marijuana cultivators in Afghanistan stopped growing their crops when the hardline Islamic militia was in power. Now some of those farmers are back in business," notes the Associated Press.

Libertarians: Pardon all drug offenders (Sept. 12, 2002)
"The Libertarian Party has called on Florida Gov. Jeb Bush to pardon all of the state's non-violent drug offenders after his daughter made headlines again for allegedly abusing rock cocaine while in a rehabilitation center in Orlando," writes Jon Dougherty for WorldNetDaily.com.

Police spy files stir an uproar in Denver (Sept. 12, 2002)
"People should be able to participate in a peaceful rally without fear their names will wind up in police files, falsely branded as criminal extremists," he said. "Individuals will be less likely to join a protest or rally if they fear they will be branded and smeared with these false labels as being considered sinister, dangerous or deviant." So reports Tom Gorman for the Los Angeles Times.

Second Birthday in a Row Ruined by Terrorism (Sept. 11, 2002)
"My birthday's gonna suck for the rest of my life," Bachman said on the eve of his 29th birthday. "Every year, I'm going to want to go out and have fun, but it's always going to be inappropriate in light of the meaning of this most tragic of days." So notes the Onion in this hilarious look at September 11 birthdays.

Overview of Changes to Legal Rights (Sept. 11, 2002)
Last week, the Associated Press took it upon itself to list the changes to our legal rights here in the US since the War on Terror began. To freedom loving Americans raised on the ideas that this is the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, and that fellow Americans have killed and died in war after war supposedly to protect these Constitutionally guaranteed and protected rights, this list will quite possibly instill unhappiness and trepidation, not to mention a bit of anger.

Updates on MDMA-Related Scientific Literature (Sept. 11, 2002)
"These updates of publications appearing after the comprehensive review was completed are intended to keep the literature review current by providing summaries of all papers that discuss MDMA or ecstasy, with a focus on human clinical trials and studies in ecstasy users."

Government Poses Greater Threat (Sept. 11, 2002)
Terrorism is scary and dangerous, notes Steve Dasbach, executive director of the Washington-based Libertarian Party, "But we need to remind ourselves that far more lives are lost every year due to the misguided policies of our own government."

Utah Was The First State To Ban Marijuana, In 1915 (Sept. 11, 2002)
Here's a very short history lesson on marijuana prohibition.

Marijuana Proponent Kills Himself (Sept. 11, 2002)
"Keith Whitaker, a Garden Valley man who has appeared in El Dorado County Superior Court numerous times on marijuana charges, committed suicide by hanging himself on a tree branch, authorities said," reports William Ferchland for the Tahoe Daily Tribune.

Making Friends Into Felons (Sept. 11, 2002)
"A look at the law's actual effects, however, shows that very few drug dealers have been charged for drug-induced deaths. Rather, the majority of those caught have been friends of the victims and in some cases the people who sought emergency care for them. In the words of one prosecutor, the accused is often 'the last person who wanted the decedent to die.'" So writes Jim Edwards for the New Jersey Law Journal.

Misjudging Marijuana (Sept. 11, 2002)
This editorial for the Seattle Times notes the one of the main problems with the medical marijuana laws around the country is that "The problem is ensuring that marijuana actually is used for medical, not recreational, purposes," missing the point that yes, patients should not be going to jail for using pot medicinally, but then, no one should be going to jail for using pot in this editor's mind at drugwar.com.

Police investigate Jeb Bush's daughter (Sept. 11, 2002)
"Orlando police said Tuesday that Noelle Bush, the daughter of Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, is under investigation after staff at a drug treatment facility said she was found with a 'white rock substance' that tested positive for cocaine," reports CNN.

Sources: Hijackers' ex-landlord was FBI informant (Sept. 11, 2002)
"A former landlord of two of the September 11 hijackers was an FBI informant at the time, knowledgeable sources confirm to CNN."

Snoops Dog Kicks the Chronic, Gin and Juice (Sept. 11, 2002)
"As Snoop told me, prior to his decision to clean up his act he had been going through between three and four ounces of pot a day, spiking his high with liberal doses of alcohol. So much of Snoop's mythology has been based on his being perpetually loaded (he was awarded the Stoner of the Year Award by High Times magazine some months back) that the notion of his opting to live the straight life takes some getting used to," writes Tom Sinclair for Entertainment Weekly.

Canadian Senate Recommending Marijuana be Legalized Online Now (Sept. 11, 2002)
Read the recommendations today, then ponder why the Canadians are reaching these conclusions, while our own leaders in the US are still promoting endless War.

Children duped by cannabis (Sept. 10, 2002)
"The charity Life Education Centres surveyed 56 of its specialist teachers who promote drugs awareness through group discussions and role play, in 2,000 schools across the UK." Unless a reader is paying attention to the preceding paragraph, they might not realize that the only teachers making the claim this title alleges are those who specialize in scaring the bejesus out of children with drug horror stories. This is a rather blatant example of what has been very typical fare for decades when it comes to much mainstream reporting on the War.

Police seize £750,000 drug haul (Sept. 10, 2002)
A brief report about a large bust in Scotland.

Terrorism, drugs, and you (Sept. 10, 2002)
"There were no references to the growing piles of documentation of the cynical role U.S. agencies have played in the drug trade," writes Bill Berkowitz about the DEA's new terror museum.

DEA Continues to Derail Democracy (Sept. 10, 2002)
"American democracy is dying rapidly. Although Californians voted in the majority for medical marijuana in their state in 1996's Proposition 215, the federal government refuses to recognize their will, and is using its DEA agents to counter the progressive wishes of Californians by repeatedly harassing and dismantling legitimate medical marijuana distribution organizations. The federal government has completely forgotten one of the most important and relevant events in its history: the Boston Tea Party," writes Meme Sous Rature for the Center for Cognitive Liberty.

How did Iraq get its weapons? We sold them (Sept. 10, 2002)
"The US and Britain sold Saddam Hussein the technology and materials Iraq needed to develop nuclear, chemical and biological wea pons of mass destruction. Reports by the US Senate's committee on banking, housing and urban affairs -- which oversees American exports policy -- reveal that the US, under the successive administrations of Ronald Reagan and George Bush Snr, sold materials including anthrax, VX nerve gas, West Nile fever germs and botulism to Iraq right up until March 1992, as well as germs similar to tuberculosis and pneumonia." This is a most disturbing article by Meil Mackay and Felicity Arbuthnot for the Sunday Herald.

Wake-up call (Sept. 10, 2002)
"If the US and Iraq do go to war, there can only be one winner, can't there? Maybe not. This summer, in a huge rehearsal of just such a conflict - and with retired Lieutenant General Paul Van Riper playing Saddam - the US lost. Julian Borger asks the former marine how he did it."

Acid Rock- A Flashback (Sept. 10, 2002)
"Nick Bromell is a brave man. At a time when 'zero tolerance' is inscribed on the national currency, when you can go to prison for twenty years if some jailhouse snitch says you were part of a drug-selling operation with him, Bromell argues that 'there was something rigorous and instructive in getting stoned and listening to music as if it really mattered.'" So notes Jon Wiener in this look at Bromell's new book.

Can Canada Can Cannabis Canards? (Sept. 9, 2002)
"'We have come to the conclusion that [marijuana] should be regulated by the state much as we do for wine and beer, hence our preference for legalization over decriminalization,' the committee says. 'Whether or not an individual uses marijuana should be a personal choice that is not subject to criminal penalties.'" So writes Jacob Sullum for REASON.

Senators admit trying cannabis in distant past (Sept. 9, 2002)
"This is a highly contentious issue. We're not marijuana activists. We're looking at the facts and life the way it is. We're giving people criminal records for having a joint in their pockets. It's patently absurd." So said Edmonton, Canada, Senator Tommy Banks in this article by Kim Lunman, with Jane Taber.

Annual Household Survey Finds Millions Of Americans In Denial About Drug Abuse (Sept. 9, 2002)
"It also indicated that too many American drug users -- more than 4.6 million -- who meet the criteria for needing treatment do not recognize that they have a problem," reports USNewswire.com. Be sure to read "Treatment vs. Jail- Is This Really a Choice" for another view of this sort of unthinking statement on the part of the prohibitionist-minded types.

Making His Case (Sept. 9, 2002)
"Intentionally or not, by pushing lawmakers to focus on Iraq, the Administration is deflecting issues that might have caused trouble for the Republicans this election season, like the shaky economy, shrinking 401(k)s and a litany of ceo wrongdoing," writes Karen Tumulty for Time.

The Informant Who Lived With the Hijackers (Sept. 9, 2002)
"At first, FBI director Bob Mueller insisted there was nothing the bureau could have done to penetrate the 9-11 plot. That account has been modified over time—and now may change again. NEWSWEEK has learned that one of the bureau’s informants had a close relationship with two of the hijackers: he was their roommate," reports Michael Isikoff for Newsweek.

Five members of rural family arrested (Sept. 9, 2002)
"Agents seized 129 marijuana plants and six pounds of harvested illicit crop from the residence of Timothy and Glenda Howe, just east of the Franklin County line on the Akin Blacktop, according to COMIT coordinator J.R. Moore," according to Becky Maslkovich of the American News Service.

Dark Alliance (Sept. 8, 2002)
Gary Webb's groundbreaking series for the San Jose Mercury News is back online. Read it and save it now. As long as reformers refuse to address and discuss the fact that some US intelligence forces work with drug traffickers around the world while US prohibitionist forces arrest drug users for selling and using the same drugs those traffickers are importing by the ton into the US, Drug War reform is not going to get very far. There are very serious complications arising from trying to reform a system that has built into it an extremely powerful secret intelligence apparatus that utilizes both the traffickers, and the trade itself, to further its aims.

SEE PAST NEWS LINKS HERE

The Week Online with DRCNet Issue #253 (Sept. 8, 2002)
A Tennessee town fires its sheriff for paying too much attention to meth-labs, the game of international competitive bridge fends off drugs menace, US feds go after pipes, bongs, and patients instead of pesky terrorists, Cristiania in Copenhagen, Denmark is raided by police, these are just a few of the stories in this week's issue. Be sure to check the Reformers' Calendar.

Ill Americans Seek Marijuana's Relief in Canada (Sept. 8, 2002- Free New York Times registration required)
"Over the last year or so, a new generation of Americans has flocked into western Canada, fleeing the Bush administration's crackdown on the clubs that say they provide marijuana to sick people, particularly in California," writes CLifford Krauss for the NYTimes.

California Attorney General Calls for Meeting with Federal Authorities About Unprecedented Medical Marijuana Raids (Sept. 8, 2002)
"I must also question the ethical basis for the DEA's policy when these raids are being executed without apparent regard for the likelihood of successful prosecution. Whether or not the U.S. Attorney decides to file in the Santa Cruz case, my Department is aware of other recent DEA-initiated raids involving as few as six marijuana plants in which no charges were ever filed, and no convictions were obtained. Conversations with DEA representatives in California have made it clear that the DEA's strategic policy is to conduct these raids as punitive expeditions whether or not a crime can be successfully prosecuted." So noted California Attorney General Bill Lockyer in his letter requesting the meeting.

Run Drugs Out of Town (Sept. 8, 2002)
"Our aim is not to teach them about drugs. DARE has already failed at that. Our aim is to help them grow up responsibly, to learn how to make choices and set goals and to accept responsibility for those. We are currently working on a program that will do just that and hopefully will either supplement DARE or replace it altogether. The Run Drugs Out of Town Run despite its name is not opposed to drugs. It is a drug abuse prevention program," says Dr. Bill Gallagher, DC, the Director of Run Drugs Out of Town, Inc. A fresh, and seemingly rare perspective in the US, this website is not exactly news, but it is a pleasant change from the usual rhetoric coming from the "drug use is not good" side of things. Reducing the harms associated all drugs through education, including harms from leading killers alcohol and tobacco, is stressed here repeatedly as much more effective than simple prohibition and its associated interdiction policies.

Unequal Before The Law (Sept. 8, 2002)
"This just in: The Alabama federal judge who sentenced a black nonviolent first-time drug offender to three concurrent sentences of life without parole in 1993 just has sentenced a white lawyer-turned-drug-dealer to four months in a work-release facility," writes Debra J. Saunders, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Chickenhawk Vs. Chicken Little Many Iraq Hawks Have Never Seen Military Service (Sept. 8, 2002)
"In an interview with Newsweek, conservative Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) said, 'It is interesting to me that many of those who want to rush this country into war and think it would be so quick and easy don't know anything about war,'" reports Washingtonpost.com staff writer Terry M. Neal.

Judge Sentences Mobster Gravano (Sept. 7, 2002)
"Mob turncoat Sammy "The Bull" Gravano was sentenced Friday to the maximum 20 years in prison for running a multimillion dollar Ecstasy ring in Arizona," while in the US federal Witness Protection Program there, reports the Associated Press.

In war, some facts less factual (Sept. 7, 2002)
"'This administration is capable of any lie ... in order to advance its war goal in Iraq,' says a US government source in Washington with some two decades of experience in intelligence, who would not be further identified," reports Scott Peterson, a staff writer for the Christian Science Monitor.

U.S. OKs $520M in Weapons to Taiwan (Sept. 7, 2002)
Remember, it is illegal drugs that support terrorism, not the massive US arms trade. At least, according to the US government ok'ing these massive sales of arms around the world.

The Cat and the Canary- Army Visits and Daring Escapes? Akha Weekly Journal (Sept. 7, 2002)
Mathew McDaniel gives an update on "friendly" visits to his home by Thai military officials.

The Troubling New Face of America (Sept. 6, 2002)
"Formerly admired almost universally as the preeminent champion of human rights, our country has become the foremost target of respected international organizations concerned about these basic principles of democratic life," writes former US President Jimmy Carter for the Washington Post.

Federal Agents Raid Marijuana Farm (Sept. 6, 2002)
"Medical marijuana activists said they would protest a federal raid on a marijuana farm operated by a couple who helped write the state law legalizing medical use of the plants," reports Martha Mendoza for the Associated Press.

Drug sentence puts Adler out of race (Sept. 6, 2002)
"Gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Adler was sentenced to at least six months in jail Wednesday for convictions on five drug charges. The state's chief election officer said the felony convictions make Adler, a Natural Law candidate, ineligible to hold office," writes Chris Loos for the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.

WAMM Update- DEA Terrorists Rob Patients of Medicine- WAMM Director Valerie and Mike Corral Released (Sept. 6, 2002)
"The Wo/Mens Alliance for Medical Marijuana was raided by a team of armed DEA agents early this morning with no prior warning to the local sheriff. Agents woke patients residing on the property at gunpoint and handcuffed them," notes Dale Geringer of California NORML in this update on Thursday's insane raid by DEA forces in California.

DEA Raids/Canada/DEA and MPP Museums (Sept. 6, 2002)
Short updates from the Marijuana Policy Project on current happenings in the War, including the DEA's insane raids on medical marijuana patients on Sept. 5, 2002, just one more nutty, destructive, un-American action on the part of the Nazi SS-like DEA.

Washington Could Use Drug-Terrorism Link as Pressure Point (Sept. 6, 2002)
"A recent statement by the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration directly links illicit drug trafficking in the United States to Middle Eastern militant groups. The U.S. administration could use the issue to put more diplomatic pressure on Middle Eastern governments such as Syria and Iran," postulates Stratfor.com.

Legalization can no longer be snickered away (Sept. 5, 2002)
"It is rational, rigorous, comprehensive, lucid, thoughtful and scientifically sound. And unless there are cabinet ministers with more vision and courage than their predecessors, the Senate's magnificent report on marijuana will quickly disappear into the Parliamentary Library and be forgotten," writes Dan Gardner for the Ottawa Citizen in this great editorial about the Senate report released September 4 that calls for flat out legalization of marijuana in Canada.

US Is Set to Step Up Drive to Destroy Coca in Colombia (Sept. 5, 2002)
The US and Colombian governments are busy increasing the damaging and cartel-empowering chemical warfare against poor peasent farmers...make that, coca crops in Colombia, as well as 10,000 or so Ecuadorans currently suing Dyncorp, Inc., the US-based mercenary corporation who sprayed the Ecadorans while carrying out the US/Colombian contracts to conduct widespread operations, dumping massive amounts of anti-drug crop herbicides from the air.

Survey- Drug Use Up in the US (Sept. 5, 2002)
"About 15.9 million people used drugs illegally in the United States last year, representing 7 percent of the population aged 12 or older, according to a government survey that found increases in the use of marijuana, cocaine and pain relievers," reports the Associated Press.

Supreme Court to rule on pot law (Sept. 5, 2002)
Yet more from Canada, about the "Lawyers for three convicted pot smokers [who] will argue that a federal law banning possession of the fiercely debated herb for personal use is unconstitutional," this coming December 13, 2002.

Facts about marijuana (Sept. 5, 2002)
"The government should erase the criminal records of 300,000 to 600,000 Canadians convicted of simple possession of marijuana," is just one of the points covered in this list of "facts" about pot in Canada, this one from the Senate committee that recommended that pot be Legalized in Canada on Sept. 4, which also noted that simply decriminalizing marijuana wouldn't go far enough.

Bulgaria’s élite forces arrested in drugs raids (Sept. 5, 2002)
Elite soldiers turned drug cartel assassins. Prohibition could be said to lead directly to such activities, being so profitable for those ruthless enough to use the system.

Canada- Legalize pot, Senate committee says (Sept. 4, 2002)
"A Senate committee said in a report Wednesday that marijuana use should be legalized for adults," notes this article from CBC News.

12 years in a giant oak tree, now they're told to leave (Sept. 4, 2002)
Steve Rubenstein of the San Francisco Chronicle reports on the upcoming eviction of this couple who are harming no one, but unfortunately have been living on a tree the local officials recently discovered is growing on county owned land, not state owned as previously thought. Why this makes a difference after 12 years is not addressed by the county, but they are kicking the couple out, already having arrested the man on a 5 year old misdemeanor warrant.

Veterans for Peace (Sept. 4, 2002)
"Veterans Working Together for Peace and Justice Through Non-Violence. Wage Peace!"

Denver police open `spy files' _ a little (Sept. 4, 2002)
"Hundreds of political activists and others were first in line at police headquarters Tuesday to check if their names were in the 3,200 so-called "spy files" that city officials concede went too far in tracking dissidents," reports Judith Kohler for the Associated Press.

Marijuana reform group files suit against officials (Sept. 4, 2002)
"State and local advocates of decriminalizing marijuana are accusing Ashland officials - for the second time in a decade - of violating free speech rights by prior restraint." So reports Jenn Abelson, a Boston Globe staff correspondent.

Marijuana suspect arrested after tip (Sept. 4, 2002)
"A Noblesville man who once showed his marijuana plants on national TV was arrested Tuesday and charged with growing marijuana in a crawl space at his South Harbour home," reports Scott L. Miley for the Indianapolis Star.

Help the Nevada Marijuana Initiative Pass (Sept. 4, 2002)
The Marijuana Policy Project is asking for your help in countering the well-funded prohibitionist campaign to stop the Nevada marijuana legalization initiative. There's only 9 weeks to go before the November vote.

Dr. William Hurwitz, Leading US Pain Specialist, Leaving Practice (Sept. 3, 2002)
"Dear Patients and Colleagues, I am writing to advise you of my decision to close my pain practice by the end of the year and of my reasons for doing so. When I resumed pain practice in 1998, there seemed to be a growing acceptance of the use of opioid medications in the management of non-cancer pain. But over the last few years, and especially since press reports concerning OxyContin diversion and abuse, there has been a growing official backlash against this treatment," writes Dr. Hurwtiz, explaining why he is retiring from practicing medicine. He goes on to decry the US government's harsh and merciless policies against doctors and their patients in desperate need of opiate pain medications.

Ecstasy not dangerous, say scientists (Sept. 3, 2002)
"Three leading psychologists have provoked an outcry by claiming that the dance drug ecstasy may not be dangerous and that some of its ill-effects may be imaginary," reports Sarah Boseley, health editor for The Guardian.

Marijuana Today - Setting The Record Straight (Sept. 3, 2002)
US Drug Czar John Walters spouts the usual shrill and rabid prohibitionist line in this editorial for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Peru general close to Montesinos shoots himself (Sept. 3, 2002)
This general was working hand in glove with one of the CIA's main men in Peru, Vladimiro Montensinos, who is himself rotting in a Peruvian prison cell for corruption and other henious crimes.

Feds Expand War on Medical marijuana to Patients and Small-Scale Growers (Sept. 3, 2002)
Despite their repeated assurances that they weren't interested in small time patients and growers, the federal prohibitinists are giong after them with a gusto now, taking their insane and completely evil War to new depths of depravity.

Alleged Drug Gang Leader Arrested (Sept. 1, 2002)
"Mexican police arrested the alleged leader of a powerful Texas-based gang that distributed cocaine across the United States, the Mexican attorney general's office said in a statement Saturday," reports the Associated Press.

Drug czar says drug-smuggling gangs help fund terrorist groups (Sept. 1, 2002)
The Associated Press is reporting that "There is no difference between the U.S. war on drugs and its war on terror because a large chunk of the dlrs 60 billion Americans spend on illicit drugs each year goes to fund terrorist groups, U.S. Drug Czar John P. Walters said Friday." Seems Walters forgot to mention that trade in Oil, Arms, and the US Drug War itself also help fund terror and terrorists. According to the AP, Walters did says that "the U.S. State Department reports that 12 of the world's 25 largest terrorist groups have ties to drug traffickers around the globe," which means that less than half of them get their money from the drug trade, leaving one to wonder where the other thirteen get their cash.

What's Next...Concentration Camps? (Sept. 1, 2002)
"This is the season of demystification. What people of my generation never understood about the mass delusions of recent history--Nazism, Stalinism, holocaust, genocide, thought crimes, totalitarian spying--is all becoming crystal clear," writes Anis Shivani for Counter Punch.

Feds eye 'spy files'- 22 cases may involve U.S. criminal probes (Sept. 1, 2002)
"Buried among the thousands of 'spy files' that Denver police are accused of wrongly compiling on innocent citizens are 22 that may involve secret federal investigations of serious criminals," reports Karen Abbott for the Rocky Mountain News.

CNN chief claims US media 'censored' war (Sept. 1, 2002)
"US news organisations 'censored' their coverage of the US campaign in Afghanistan in order to be in step with public opinion in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, a CNN senior executive has claimed." So reports Julie Tomlin for the Press Gazette Online.

ShamanShop.net Salvia, Shrooms, Smokes, Pipes & More!
Check out ShamanShop for:
Salvia  Sacramental Herbs  Shrooms  Smokes  Kava  Pipes  Seeds  Live Plants  Stimulants  Sedatives  DrugTest

Our Bookstore
Check out our bookstore for:
Drug Politics Books  Grow Books  Marijuana Books  Psychedelics Books  Shroom Books 

Become a Drugwar.com Affiliate!
 Affiliates Login Here

Illustrated bibliographies on:
Drug Politics  Ethnobotany  Grow Books  Herbalism  Marijuana  Psychedelics  Shamanism  Shrooms

Illustrated Excerpts
Read illustrated excerpts from Drug War by Dan Russell, with rave reviews & ordering info.

Illustrated Excerpts
Read illustrated excerpts from Shamanism and the Drug Propaganda by Dan Russell, with rave reviews and ordering info.

Our Bookstore
Check out our bookstore for:
Drug Politics Books  Grow Books  Marijuana Books  Psychedelics Books  Shroom Books

Become a Drugwar.com Affiliate!
 Affiliates Login Here

If you have credentials as either a writer or webmaster/marketeer, and would benefit from free use of this site, please click here.

Illustrated bibliographies on:
Drug Politics  Ethnobotany  Grow Books  Herbalism  Marijuana  Psychedelics  Shamanism  Shrooms

Illustrated Excerpts
Read illustrated excerpts from Drug War by Dan Russell, with rave reviews & ordering info.

Illustrated Excerpts
Read illustrated excerpts from Shamanism and the Drug Propaganda by Dan Russell, with rave reviews and ordering info.


Yaje: El Nuevo Purgatorio by Jimmy Weiskopf

Search:
Drugwar.com
Search WWW
Search Drugnews from The Media Awareness Project
Some other powerful search sites:
American Journalism Review Newslink
Drugtext Libraries
Drug Reform Coordination Network
MAPS Bulletin
Mario's Cyberspace Station
NORML
National Library of Medicine
Schaffer Library of Drug Policy
Stratfor Global Intelligence Update
USDA Plants Database
Editor     Webmaster     Copyright/Disclaimer     Privacy Policy