Sanity In Chicago (Sept. 30, 2004)
"A major American city proposed marijuana decriminalization and no one expressed serious opposition. Not even the federal drug czar himself."

The war's littlest victim (Sept. 30, 2004)
"He was exposed to depleted uranium. His daughter may be paying the price."

Pot Shows Promise as Cancer Cure (Sept. 30, 2004)
"Not familiar with clinical research about marijuana's potential anti-cancer properties? You're not alone."

Tourists freed in Peru coca siege (Sept. 30, 2004)
"Peru is the world's second largest producer of cocaine and its government is implementing a US-funded programme to eradicate the coca crop. However, coca growers say their livelihood depends on the plant they hold to be a vital part of indigenous Andean culture. They have been demanding talks with the government over its policy towards the crop."

Reefer Madness (Sept. 30, 2004)
"The government says Clayton Jones shouldn't smoke marijuana. He says it's the only thing that keeps him from blowing his brains out."

U.S. Trial Against Tobacco Industry Opens (Sept. 29, 2004)
"The U.S. government yesterday accused the nation's largest tobacco companies of conspiring over the past 50 years to deceive the public about the proven dangers of smoking to protect billions of dollars in profits the industry earned from cigarette sales. On the opening day of the largest civil racketeering trial ever brought by the Justice Department, government lawyers repeatedly cited industry officials' own words from confidential documents to demonstrate that tobacco companies lied to the public even as the companies privately confided the truth to each other."

Truths Worth Telling (Sept. 29, 2004)
"'Rumsfeld was making this point this morning,' Haldeman says. 'To the ordinary guy, all this is a bunch of gobbledygook. But out of the gobbledygook comes a very clear thing: you can't trust the government; you can't believe what they say, and you can't rely on their judgment. And the implicit infallibility of presidents, which has been an accepted thing in America, is badly hurt by this, because it shows that people do things the president wants to do even though it's wrong, and the president can be wrong.'"

Flexible pain relief with morphine-free poppy (Sept. 28, 2004)
So what's wrong with the morphine laden poppies we have now?

Long Trip for Psychedelic Drugs (Sept. 28, 2004)
"Psychedelic drugs are inching their way slowly but surely toward prescription status in the United States, thanks to a group of persistent scientists who believe drugs like ecstasy and psilocybin can help people with terminal cancer, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder, to name just a few."

White Collar Prison- What Awaits Martha Stewart (Sept. 27, 2004)
"'When I reported to Federal Prison Camp Eglin, in Florida, I was shocked to find out that not only as a Caucasian, but as a white-collar offender, I was in a very small minority. Fully 80 percent of the people in any federal institution are there as a result of the war on drugs. That's not to say they are any better or worse, but it is something that is often quite shocking to white-collar offenders,' he says."

Inmate: 'It's an epidemic' (Sept. 27, 2004)
"They [inmates] read the Dispatch's earlier meth series with an insider's perspective and they disagreed with certain facts. They questioned a story of jail inmates who were reported to have sucked on fresh sores of the newly incarcerated inmate in hopes of getting last traces of meth as it leached through the skin. They found the story unbelievable themselves and scoffed at the notion." The Dispatch actually printed such a story? That is scary in and of itself.

'Breathing While Non-White' - Racial Profiling in the USA (Sept. 27, 2004)
"Amnesty International’s study also described how racial profiling often diminishes trust people have in law enforcement. In Donato Garcia’s story, told in the report, his children began to mistrust the police after witnessing officers harass their father."

Editorial- Afghanistan's Poppy Trade (Sept. 27, 2004)
"While arguments continue over which presidential contender can win the 'war on terror,' not enough is being said about another 'war' on one of its battlefields. In Afghanistan, long a focal point and problem spot of the 'war on drugs,' the situation has gotten worse."

Contra Campaign (Sept. 26, 2004)
"Vice President Dick Cheney, who was then a congressman, played a key role in the disinformation campaign. He led the effort to squelch various Iran-contra investigations, especially when it came to drug allegations. And George W. Bush? Well, he seems to have no qualms about Iran-contra, since he has hired several of the scandal's central figures -- including Elliott Abrams, Otto Reich, and John Negroponte -- to serve under him."

FDA to Decide on Antidepressant Warning (Sept. 26, 2004)
"Also Thursday, a government epidemiologist said his bosses asked him to soften his recommendation that most anti-depressant use by children be discouraged because of increased suicidal behavior among young people who took the drugs."

The Story that Didn't Run (Sept. 26, 2004)
"In its rush to air its now discredited story about President George W. Bush's National Guard service, CBS bumped another sensitive piece slated for the same '60 Minutes' broadcast: a half-hour segment about how the U.S. government was snookered by forged documents purporting to show Iraqi efforts to purchase uranium from Niger."

Narc Hates Free Publicity (Sept. 26, 2004)
When one is a stinking rat by trade, locking up others to put bread on one's own table, one has to expect to be outted publicly for one's status as a Blue Meanie.

Decades of Colombian Drug War Brings... New, More Efficient Drug Organizations (Sept. 26, 2004)
"Colombia's decades-long effort to wipe out the drug trade at the insistence and with the assistance of the United States has mainly succeeded in creating new, more efficient drug trafficking organizations, according to one of that country's top cops."

For Second Year, John W. Perry Fund Helps Students with Drug Convictions Afford College (Sept. 26, 2004)
"According to the US Department of Education, more than 153,000 persons have lost eligibility to receive student loans, grants, even work-study jobs to further their education, under the infamous drug provision of the Higher Education Act. The John W. Perry Fund, a scholarship fund sponsored by DRCNet Foundation to assist such would-be students, has begun its second year by awarding scholarships to four new and one returning grantee."

This is Just Sic and Deployable (Sept. 26, 2004)
"SSDP media director Tom Angell points to a hysterical exchange he initiated after reading a letter to the editor in the Metrowest Daily News, a local paper serving towns just outside of Boston."

Study: Alcohol tied to 75,000 deaths a year in U.S. (Sept6. 26, 2004)
"Alcohol abuse kills some 75,000 Americans each year and shortens the lives of these people by an average of 30 years, a U.S. government study suggested Thursday."

Big growth in Afghan poppy crop (Sept. 26, 2004)
"The US has confirmed a big increase in Afghanistan's opium poppy crop and says the illicit drugs trade is endangering efforts to rebuild the country."

Safe injection site saving lives: report (Sept. 26, 2004)
"The one-year assessment of Vancouver's safe injection site shows the Downtown Eastside clinic is saving lives, and helping heroin addicts change their lives."

Illinois Officials to Weigh Merits of Pot Fines (Sept. 26, 2004)
One might think getting a ticket is infinitely preferable to going to jail even for a few hours, but as Richard Lake at MAPInc.org puts it, "But the real question should be 'Is this better?' Based on Australian states that have done the same, it is a good question. There three times the number of cannabis users are being punished thru tickets as there were before they changed the law."

Motorcycle Gangs and Police Propaganda (Sept. 26, 2004)
"Is the whole 'outlaw motorcycle gang' phenomenon a police tool to increase their budgets? Vancouver Hell's Angels spokesperson Rick Ciarniello debates author Julian Sher who wrote a book on the Hell's Angels -- based on information supplied by police -- saying that he's simply repeating their propaganda." Listen in Real Audio to the interview here.

Eddy Lepp Busted by DEA (Sept. 24, 2004)
This article is a month old now, but still, Lepp is a very interesting charactor and needs everyone's support in the upcoming battle against the US federal government's prohibitionist forces.

Best Radio Talk Show - Dean Becker's Cultural Baggage (Sept 24, 2004)
"In his personal fight for the liberation of pot and all its users, Dean talks to doctors, politicians, cops and anyone who'll face his microphone. Much of the time he confronts the people who could do something about the war but don't, and boy, does Dean have some suggestions for them."

Lawyers Start Their Defense of Tobacco (Sept. 23, 2004-Free NYTimes registration required)
"Lawyers for the nation's biggest tobacco companies mounted an aggressive defense against the government's racketeering charges on Wednesday."

Drug Czar Attacks the Alliance's Nadelmann in National Review; Nadelmann Replies (Sept. 22, 2004)
"This led National Review to do something truly remarkable: the magazine gave Walters a forum to air the Bush administration's views on marijuana while also allowing Nadelmann the opportunity to rebut Walters's erroneous claims."

Some Texans Lose Faith In Bush Justice (Sept. 22, 2004)
"Brookins believes that once Tom Coleman, the undercover narcotics agent who falsely accused him of selling cocaine, stands trial on perjury charges, the slate will be wiped clean."

The War Comes to Essex County, NY (Sept. 20, 2004)
This border checkpoint keeps on killing.

Mexico Shuts Down Three "Youth Treatment" Centers, Deports Kids Back to US (Sept. 17, 2004)
"Mexican immigration officials, acting on complaints of abuse and mistreatment, shut down three US-based 'youth treatment' centers and began deporting some 590 youths back to the United States, Reuters reported Saturday. The youths were in the country illegally -- as tourists, not residents of a treatment program -- Mexican officials said, and at least one of the centers was run by an American also on a tourist visa who had no legal right to run a business in the country."

In Gotham Shocker, New York Post Calls for Repeal of Rockefeller Laws (Sept. 17, 2004)
"In a surprise move, the right-leaning tabloid The New York Post editorialized Monday in support of repealing the Empire State's draconian Rockefeller drug laws. A light sentence for a student the Post had dubbed a 'Pot Princess' finally got the Post upset over unequal justice."

Editorial: What Is It About Opium? (Sept. 17, 2004)
"Therefore, say Portman and his ilk, reducing drug demand and disrupting drug trafficking organizations is part of the war against terrorism. Translation: Anti-drug agencies and their supporters are afraid of seeing their budgets cut in favor of other law enforcement priorities. And, they're anxious to get themselves back in the headlines. So it's business as usual for the drug warriors -- stretch the facts as much as necessary, ignore the key issues, and hope no one notices -- or if some people do notice, hope that no one else notices them...Why is that opium destined to be processed into heroin is a funding source for crime and terrorism, but opium intended for pain medicines or anesthesia isn't?"

Drug law reformers see victory in Albany DA primary results (Sept. 17, 2004)
"The surprisingly lopsided loss by Albany County's district attorney in a Democratic primary was seized upon Wednesday by proponents of drug-law reform as a sign of popular support for easing mandatory sentencing statutes."

How Denying the Vote to Ex-Offenders Undermines Democracy (Sept 16, 2004- Free NYTimes registration required)
"Pundits blame apathy for the decline in voter turnout that has become a fact of life in the United States in the last several decades. But not everyone who skips the polls on Election Day does so by choice. This November, for example, an estimated five million people - roughly 2.3 percent of the number of people eligible to vote - will be barred from voting by state laws that strip convicted felons of the franchise, often temporarily but sometimes for life."

Johnny Ramone of 'The Ramones' Dies at 55 (Sept. 15, 2004)
"Johnny Ramone, guitarist and co-founder of the seminal punk band 'The Ramones' that influenced a generation of rockers, has died. He was 55."

Retiree Found Guilty, Juror Found Tipsy, and Verdict Stands (Sept. 15, 2004-Free NYTimes registration required)
"Yesterday, Justice Ellen M. Coin of State Supreme Court in Manhattan issued her ruling: the verdict should stand. The reason? There is apparently no law against drinking while serving as a juror and deliberating the fate of a fellow New Yorker."

Doctors Say They Will Cut Antidepressant Use (Sept. 15, 2004-Free NYTimes registration required)
"Psychiatrists, pediatricians and family practice doctors said in interviews that they would restrict their use of antidepressants in the wake of a federal advisory committee's decision that the medicines should contain severe warnings about the risks of suicide."

F.D.A. Links Drugs to Being Suicidal (Sept. 14, 2004- Free NYTimes registration required)
"Top officials of the Food and Drug Administration acknowledged for the first time on Monday that antidepressants appeared to lead some children and teenagers to become suicidal."

‘If You See Something, Say Something’: Paranoia Rides the IRT (Sept. 14, 2004)
"Thanks for a nation of finks...”

Cannabis study encouraging for MS (Sept. 11, 2004)
"The biggest UK study of cannabis-based drugs has shown evidence for a long-term benefit in easing the symptoms of multiple sclerosis (MS)."

Why Chile is Hopeful (Sept. 11, 2004-Free NYTimes registration required)
"What a convoluted road to justice for General Pinochet. It took the murder of 3,000 innocent Americans by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist fanatics to create the conditions that would force a Chilean general, who had murdered more than 3,000 of his fellow citizens, to answer in a court of law for his own acts of terrorism."

Continuing the fight against drugs (Sept. 10, 2004)
"Grand Island Youth Congress session focuses on 'gateway drugs'...Alcohol received the bulk of the attention during Thursday afternoon's session of the Grand Island Youth Congress."

DEA Agent’s Whistleblower Case Exposes the “War on Drugs” as a “War of Pretense” (Sept. 10, 2004)
"Former DEA agent Richard Horn has been fighting the U.S. government for the past 10 years trying to prove the CIA illegally spied on him as part of an effort to thwart his mission in the Southeast Asian country of Burma."

A pitch for less government (Sept. 10, 2004)
"An Orange County judge advocating the legalization of marijuana brought his long-shot U.S. Senate candidacy to Marina on Wednesday, drawing a respectful reception from 30 Marina Rotary Club members."

Follow the Money (Sept. 10, 2004)
"In 1990, when the Bush administration gave the bank a minor slap on the wrist for its money laundering practices, Kerry went on national television to slam the decision. "We send drug people to jail for the rest of their life," he said, 'and these guys who are bankers in the corporate world seem to just walk away, and it's business as usual…When banks engage knowingly in the laundering of money, they should be shut down. It's that simple, it really is.'"

County gets NORML on pot (Sept. 10, 2004)
"Two local Libertarians got word last week from the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws that their Boulder County chapter is official. Longmont resident Paul Tiger and Boulder resident Jeff Christen-Mitchell are hoping to grow the chapter beyond its current five members."

Full disclosure on drug research (Sept. 10, 2004)
"Health care in Canada, and around the world, is set to improve following an announcement that 11 leading medical journals are tightening their rules on publishing studies. Editors of these journals say they will refuse to print results of human clinical trials that are not publicly registered early in the process, well before an outcome could be known."

Denver Post Says Legalize It (Sept. 10, 2004)
"In an editorial last Sunday, Colorado's largest and most influential newspaper has called for the legalization of marijuana, a radical review of the nation's drug laws, and an end to mandatory minimum sentences."

They're Back! Two DEA Raids on California Medical Marijuana Operations in Two Weeks (Sept. 10, 2004)
The maniacs are at it again, this time bringing Asset Forfeiture laws into the mix. When are the feds going to realize they're committing evil acts on fellow citizens and human beings?

Recalling Rainbow- Downpour doesn't snuff memorial vigil (Sept. 8, 2004)
"'It's straight up a murder,' said Morel Moses Yonkers, who lived at Rainbow Farm for 10 years leading up to the standoff. 'They have non-lethal ways to stop people from doing things. They didn't intend on using them. They flat murdered my friends.' Yonkers, who runs the Hemp Center on West Marion Street in Elkhart, believes that more of his friends will die in the same fashion that Crosslin and Rohm did."

DNC Chairman: George W. Bush Lied or He Has Severe Memory Loss (Sept. 8, 2004)
"General McPeak, who led the Air Force in the first Gulf War and who supported Bush in 2000, said, 'At a minimum, the President and his spokesmen have not been candid with the American people.'" But the important thing to remember is that Kerry was a coward for going off to fight in Vietnam, and to totally ignore all third party candidates and the issues as well. What's important is what the two leading candidates did in the military (or didn't do) 35 years ago, because those actions have a direct impact on all our lives tod...oh, hold on, that's not right. What's important to remember is that George W. Bush is a lying, warmongering greedhead, and so are many serving in his administration. And the Kerry camp isn't much better, with rabid anti-drug warrior Rand Beers serving in a top-level advisory capacity.

Authorities Clamp Down on Drug Cultivation (Sept. 7, 2004)
"The [Russian] government order will forbid the cultivation of more than one mescaline cactus, 10 opium poppies and ephedra plants, 20 hemp plants and mushrooms containing psilocin and psilocybin."

The Epistemology and Technologies of Shamanic States of Consciousness (Sept. 7, 2004)
"Shamanism can be described as a group of techniques by which its practitioners enter the 'spirit world,' purportedly obtaining information that is used to help and to heal members of their social group. The shamans' epistemology, or ways on knowing, depended on deliberately altering their conscious state and/or heightening their perception to contact spiritual entities in 'upper worlds,' 'lower worlds,' and 'middle earth' (i.e., ordinary reality)."

Bush 'Took Cocaine at Camp David' (Sept. 6, 2004)
"George W. Bush snorted cocaine at Camp David, a new book claims. His wife Laura also allegedly tried cannabis in her youth."

Prison Guards Find Basketball Full of Pot (Sept. 6, 2004)
"Oklahoma State Penitentiary officials cut into an exercise-yard basketball and found nearly two pounds of what is believed to be marijuana stuffed inside."

Graham Book: Inquiry into 9/11, Saudi Ties Blocked (Sept. 5, 2004)
"Two of the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers had a support network in the United States that included agents of the Saudi government, and the Bush administration and FBI blocked a congressional investigation into that relationship, Sen. Bob Graham wrote in a book to be released Tuesday."

LIFE WITH BIG BROTHER Bush to screen population for mental illness (Sept. 5, 2004)
"President Bush plans to unveil next month a sweeping mental health initiative that recommends screening for every citizen and promotes the use of expensive antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs favored by supporters of the administration."

Ninety-nine Percent of All Marijuana Eradicated in US is Feral Hemp, Federal Data Reveals (Sept. 5, 2004)
"According to the DEA data, of the estimated 247 million marijuana plants destroyed by law enforcement in 2003, more than 243 million were classified as 'ditch weed,' a term the agency uses to define 'wild, scattered marijuana plants [with] no evidence of planting, fertilizing, or tending.'"

Marijuana Policy Ads Return to DC Following Court Victory (Sept. 5, 2004)
"The marijuana reform group whose controversial ads on Washington Metro buses and subway stops spawned a congressional effort to effectively censor them is back at it, and this time it has partners."

In Indiana, Gubernatorial Candidates' College Marijuana Use Provides Opening for Discussion of Higher Education Act Drug Provision (Sept. 5, 2004)
"The Indiana gubernatorial campaign between incumbent Democrat Joe Kernan and Republican challenger, former Bush administration head of the Office of Management and Budget Mitch Daniels, is tight and heated. But when Democrats in mid-August tried to raise questions about Daniels' long-acknowledged marijuana-related arrest in 1970, it backfired."

The Well-Oiled Bush Twins: Cheap and Boozed Up, Just Like Dad's Salad Days When Other Young People Were Dying in Wars (Sept. 5, 2004)
Level Vodka is doing promotional efforts in NYC, so did the Bush twins pay boocoo bucks for Vodka the bar Club 17, was given free? That would be typical. But in defense of the twins, to say they only tipped "one percent" by leaving a $48 tip at the second bar mentioned here, (Avalon) is missing the main point, that they already almost certainly paid a much larger gratuity to the bar, usually 20 percent, which is one hundred percent normal for the bar to tack on in NYC if the table is running a tab on bottle after bottle of alcohol. So by leaving an additional $48, they did good.

George Jr sent out of Texas by father as a 'drunken liability' (Sept. 4, 2004)
"The US president, George Bush, was transferred to the Alabama National Guard during the Vietnam war because his drunken behaviour was a political liability to his father in Texas, the wife of one of his father's former confidants revealed yesterday."

The Attica of the Americas (Sept. 4, 2004)
"At first glance, the U.S. government's policy of black mass incarceration and its policy of undermining democracy in Haiti don't seem to have much in common, but on a basic level, they have nearly everything in common."

Fischer fears 'conviction, prison, torture and murder' in US (Sept. 4, 2004)
Dropping bombs on foreigners, then invading their country, starting a war or two based almost entirely on lies, this sort of behavior is perfectly ok for the US government. But the very same US government- currently engaged in killing on massive scale foreigners in their own foreign countries, as well as sending nearly a thousand US servicemen and women to their deaths in those foreign countries- is planning on trying Bobby Fischer and giving him a ten year prison sentence- for playing chess in a foreign country behind the Iron Curtain, more than ten years ago.

Ala. Doctor Starts 'Mothers Against Meth' (Sept. 4, 2004)
She [Dr. Mary Holley] said a religious approach to treating addiction is the only solution." Dr. Holley is seriously mistaken. Do all those who quit smoking tobacco, the most addictive substance we have today, have to take a "religious approach" to succeed in kicking that particular habit?

Feel the Hate (Sept. 3, 2004)
"'I don't know where George Soros gets his money,' one man said. 'I don't know where - if it comes from overseas or from drug groups or where it comes from.' George Soros, another declared, 'wants to spend $75 million defeating George W. Bush because Soros wants to legalize heroin.' After all, a third said, Mr. Soros 'is a self-admitted atheist; he was a Jew who figured out a way to survive the Holocaust.' They aren't LaRouchies - they're Republicans."

Bush Wants to be Your Shrink (Sept. 3, 2004)
"The New Freedom Initiative proposes to screen every American, including you, for mental illness. To this end, the president established a New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, to study the nation’s mental health delivery service and make a report. It’s interesting to note that many on the staff appointed to the Commission have served on the advisory boards of some of the nation’s largest drug companies."

No Scientific Support For "Reefer Madness" Myths (Sept, 2, 2004)
"As prohibitionist politicians scramble to peddle 'reefer madness' myths and stereotypes, the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) today presented reports of recent studies that show, once again, that there is no causal link between cannabis use and developing mental illness, and that in fact cannabis may have a powerful neuroprotective effect."

Medical Pot Issue May Go to Court (Sept. 2, 2004)
"A grassroots organization has the necessary signatures to place a medical marijuana question on the November ballot, the Minneapolis Elections Office confirmed Monday, but its supporters still have a fight on their hands.The Minneapolis City Council has voted not to allow the proposed charter amendment on the ballot, and local and national advocates for reform of marijuana laws say they may have to take the issue to court."

Groups press for needle exchange (Sept. 2, 2004)
"Local proponents of needle exchange programs said they hope legislators and the governor will act quickly to amend state law in favor of the programs after a Superior Court judge upheld a challenge to Atlantic City's proposed clean syringe program Wednesday."

Faulty Speaker (Sept. 2, 2004)
"George Soros is demanding an apology from a Republican politician who apparently accused him on prime time TV of receiving money from drug cartels. The idiotic Dennis Hastert, the Speaker of the House, made the blunder when he questioned the source of the Soros riches."