PRESS RELEASE - 15th MARCH, 2004

Edition 33.

Cannabis News Items From Around the World

Press Release: Justin Brash is still hanging in there

Outside Australia's NSW Parliament, Macquarie St. Tuesday 9th March, 12 - 3 pm.

Contact details:

Justin Brash
E-mail: brash@medicalcannabis.info
Mobile: 0421 476 260

Andrew Kavasilas
Mobile: 0427 891 968

After deliberating since 1999, the NSW Premier, Bob Carr said in Parliament on the 20th of May 2003 "With a sensible mixture of compassion and commonsense we can make a medical cannabis regime work in this State". Over 9 months now and the pregnancy has come full term, this baby is well overdue Mr. Carr, what about some compassion & commonsense?

Some people may have noticed the lone protester outside NSW Parliament every sitting day since December. Justin Brash, an HIV positive patient who suffers from cannabis prohibition, said, "I will spend hours daily reminding politicians that patients are still waiting while the Carr Government struggles with the complex issues surrounding the relief of human suffering".

In Oxford St, a geographical location with possibly the highest population of HIV positive persons in Australia, patients continue to be harassed. "Considering over 30% of HIV patients use cannabis medicinally, it's like shooting fish in a barrel" said Andrew Kavasilas, spokesperson for the Medicinal Cannabis Information Service in Nimbin, he added "The night before Mardi Gras I
witnessed sniffer dogs accosting HIV+ patients at random on Oxford Street along with other law-abiding citizens. I watched 3 searches and no drugs were found. After the parade, the dogs were at it again just in case they missed any patients earlier. Why is this area being targeted when hard drugs
are running unchecked elsewhere"

"I have spoken with all sorts of medicinal cannabis patients in Sydney who are deeply frightened to speak out publicly on this issue for fear of police harassment" Mr. Brash said. " Some of us have even had our HIV medications confiscated as well as our medicine of choice" he added.

"We are just doing our job" said NSW Police.

CANADIAN POLICE TRY TO SCARE THE CITIZENS

Canada: Straight Dope On Police Scare Tactics
From: CMAP  http://www.mapinc.org/cmap
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 2004 10:40:50 -0800

Newshawk: CMAP  http://www.mapinc.org/cmap
Pubdate: Wed, 10 Mar 2004
Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB)
Webpage:
http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/news/story.html?id=65720827-af1a-4bf1-8f32-3b6f823537ea
Copyright: 2004 The Edmonton Journal
Contact: letters@thejournal.canwest.com
Website: http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134
Author: Dan Gardner, Ottawa Citizen
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/gardner.htm (Losing the War on Drugs)

STRAIGHT DOPE ON POLICE SCARE TACTICS

Claims that gangsters are setting up grow-ops at an alarming pace are often unproven, exaggerated or misleading From coast to coast, the police are telling Canadians to lock up the kids and be afraid. The quiet streets of suburban neighbourhoods across the country are being stalked, the police say, by a tall leafy plant known as marijuana (or "marihuana," as the police and the criminal law still spell it out, as if determined to demonstrate that their thinking on the subject has not changed since the 1930s.)

The latest threat posed by the insidious weed comes in the form of "grow-ops." They're exploding all across Canada, the police say. Grow-ops are dangerous, jury-rigged contraptions that illegally tap into electrical lines, creating fire hazards. They are often booby-trapped and most are run by organized crime. The uniquely potent product of these pot factories is mainly shipped to the United States, which is being swamped by Canadian bud. Gangsters use the massive profits they earn to buy guns and drugs and spread bloodshed and mayhem on our streets.

And, say the police to any reporter who will listen, this is all happening because the laws and the courts are too soft and the cops don't have the resources to crack down.

It's obvious where this coast-to-coast PR exercise is going: The police want more money and power. No shame in that. All bureaucracies do. But given the self-interest interwoven in police claims about grow-ops, one might think journalists and politicians would treat those claims with due skepticism.

Alas no. The media have repeated every police statement as if it were objective fact. Most politicians, too, have blithely accepted the police claims of a crisis and that crackdowns are the solution.

This blind trust is a serious mistake. Much of what the police are saying is unproven, exaggerated or misleading. Some of it is false. Most importantly, it carefully overlooks the root cause of the problem.

Is there an epidemic of grow-ops?

Aside from anecdotes and self-interested conjecture, the police have rarely attempted to actually prove this central claim. An exception is Ontario, where the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police released a report with the paperback-thriller title of "Green Tide," which contains data showing impressive growth in the number of grow-op busts in Ontario. There, they said. That clinches it.

But as every criminology student knows, more busts does not necessarily mean more crime. It can also be the result of increased police effort. The question is how much of the growth in busts is the result of greater police effort and how much reflects a real increase in the number of grow-ops.
Answer: No one knows.

In fact, the Green Tide report itself notes this key fact in a large "caveat" on the first page and again in the main text. But as far as I can tell, the police chiefs never mention this in interviews. Instead,
they flatly claim the report proves there is an epidemic of grow-ops. And that is simply false.

There are exceptions, such as a British Columbia report that accounted for police resources and found there really had been significant growth in grow-ops. But for the most part, police claims on this score are simply unproven.

Is it controlled by organized crime?

The police constantly insist that the people behind grow-ops are not amateur horticulturalists looking to make some cash. It's big, bad organized crime.

But again, there is precious little evidence to support this claim aside from anecdotes and self-interested conjecture. In Ontario, where the police have repeatedly claimed grow-ops are "mostly" or "largely" or "mainly" controlled by organized crime, the Green Tide report repeated the police line by saying that organized crime is "suspected" of being "largely behind the emergence of the grow-ops." But as for what was known, rather than suspected, it tepidly concluded that it is "likely" that organized crime controls "at least part of" the trade.

And beware of a semantic shell game involving the definition of "organized crime." The public thinks the term means the Mafia, biker gangs and other major bad guys -- an impression the police play off by providing these as examples of "organized crime" to reporters. But the law defines organized crime as any group of five or more working together over time to commit crime. That means five ordinary guys who grow pot in a suburban basement and sell it to friends are "organized crime." Whenever the police issue scary warnings about organized crime, they should say which definition they are using. If they don't, be skeptical.

Is Canadian pot swamping the U.S.?

Not according to the U.S. Department of Justice. In a 2003 report on the American marijuana market, the justice department found Canada was such a negligible contributor to the American supply that this country was scarcely mentioned at all. "Marijuana transported from Canada
clearly amounts to only a small percentage of all marijuana smuggled into the United States," stated another 2003 Justice Department report.

The U.S. Department of Justice has also dismissed the much-publicized idea that the majority of Canadian pot is shipped south. "These estimates cannot be substantiated," concluded a 2001 report.

The Justice Department also dismissed the idea that Canadian pot is uniquely potent and valuable. "Growers in both Canada and the United States have access to the same strains of cannabis seeds and the same cultivation technologies," the department reported in 2001. "Therefore, growers in both countries are capable of producing the same quality of high-grade marijuana." The department also concluded, "reports of a reputed exchanged of Canadian marijuana for U.S. cocaine on a pound-for-pound ratio are false."

It's also important to know that the U.S. government estimates the total marijuana supply is between 10,000 and 23,800 tonnes, while the RCMP estimates that all marijuana grown in Canada amounts to 800 tonnes. In other words, we could ship every bud, leaf and stem of Canadian pot south and it would make no difference to the American supply.

Are prison sentences in Canada too soft?

It's true that sentences for growing marijuana are much tougher in the U.S. than in Canada. But what the police don't say is that tougher sentences have had little or no effect on American pot production. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates the domestic production of marijuana is 5,500 to 16,700 tonnes of marijuana a year -- which makes the U.S. by far the largest source of marijuana to the American market.

The U.S. Department of Justice also found that "96.9 per cent of state and local law enforcement agencies nationwide describe the availability of marijuana as high or medium."

And consider another fact the police don't mention: The number of illegal methamphetamine labs in the U.S. has exploded over the last few years despite the brutal sentences offenders get for running a meth lab. Decades of experience like this proves tough sentences cannot dent the drug trade.

Why do grow-ops exist in the first place?

This is the core question, and yet it's one the police never touch. Marijuana can be grown in any window, right beside the geraniums. It can be grown in any field. So why is it being grown in rickety, dangerous, clandestine operations? Because it's illegal, of course. And why do criminals make money growing pot, and not, say, geraniums? Because pot is illegal and geraniums are not. And why does the growing of pot involve booby traps and ... You see what I'm getting at. Just
as alcohol prohibition put dangerous illegal stills in residential neighbourhoods, marijuana prohibition put grow-ops in the suburbs. And just as the only way to get rid of the illegal stills was to end
alcohol prohibition, the only way to wipe out grow-ops is to legalize, regulate, license and tax the production of marijuana - as a Senate committee recommended in 2002.

What will not work, what cannot work, is yet another crackdown. The police and the criminal law are not the solution to the problem; they are the problem.

Dan Gardner is a senior writer with the Ottawa Citizen

U.S. WAR ON BONG SALES

Pubdate: Tue, 09 Mar 2004
Source: San Antonio Express-News (TX)
Webpage: http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/local_15092819.shtml
Copyright: 2004 San Antonio Express-News
Contact: letters@express-news.net
Website: http://www.mysanantonio.com/expressnews/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/384
Author: Lisa Sandberg, San Antonio Express-News
Cited: National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws
http://www.norml.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/paraphernalia
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Operation+Pipe+Dream
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Headhunter
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Pipecleaner

AUTHORITIES LIGHT A FIRE UNDER 'HEAD SHOPS'

"If you want a bong," a sign at the Cracker Box Palace reads, "go somewhere else."

Storeowner John Lopez insists he sells water pipes, artsy hand-blown contraptions made for smoking tobacco, not bongs for smoking weed.

Though the difference between bongs and water pipes may be as hazy as the smoke they produce, the distinction is stark in the eyes of the law.

Bongs, long associated with marijuana, are illegal; tobacco-associated water pipes are not.

Frustrated by the fine distinctions, authorities say they are tired of playing semantics. On Monday, they declared war on the dozen or so establishments around town that sell what they consider to be drug paraphernalia.

"We're putting them on notice: Stop and desist," Javier Pena, head of the Drug Enforcement Administration in San Antonio, said at a news conference.

No criminal charges have been filed.

Warning letters began arriving Monday morning at Cracker Box Palace and a dozen other so-called "head shops" in San Antonio.

Monday's crackdown by local and federal authorities is part of a yearlong nationwide effort to shut down businesses that traffic in drug paraphernalia.

Last year's Operation Pipe Dream and Operation Headhunter targeted drug paraphernalia sales over the Internet and across state lines, with Tommy Chong, half the comedy team of Cheech and Chong, the most famous target.

Operation Pipecleaner, announced last week, targets mostly mom-and-pop head shops.

Critics call the crackdown misguided.

"It's an unbelievable waste of federal and local resources, especially at a time when we're supposed to be fighting a war on terror," said Kris Krane, associate director of the Washington-based National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

He said the recent crackdowns have largely succeeded in shutting down the targeted businesses but have failed to stop people from enjoying an illicit pastime.

"If somebody wants to smoke pot, they're going to do it," Krane said. "Every college kid knows they can hollow out a soda can and make a bong or go to 7-Eleven and buy some rolling paper."

There's nothing cut and dried about regulating the sale of such items as water pipes, roach clips and rolling paper, San Antonio Police Chief Albert Ortiz acknowledged Monday in announcing the new initiative.

Authorities must prove intent, which means convincing a jury that the average vendor knew the paraphernalia being sold would be used for illicit purposes.

"We'll have to look at the entire context," Ortiz said.

And shop owners such as John Lopez and his wife, Tiffany, have always insisted their colorful pipes are used by law-abiding citizens looking for a cleaner way to smoke tobacco or for a pretty adornment for the coffee table

Tiffany Lopez says she throws in a small sack of tobacco - cherry, vanilla or natural - with each pipe. A reminder, she says, to customers who might consider using the devise for something other than tobacco or art.

Hours after authorities hand-delivered the two-page warning to their doors, targeted shop owners and their employees scrambled to make sense of the fine print.

Mike Valentine, who represents Planet K, an Austin chain with four San Antonio stores, said: "We're still trying to digest everything."

What would become of the Cracker Box Palace?

The Lopezes said they weren't sure. Water pipes, which range in size as much as they do in price, $20 to $325, make up about 30 percent of the merchandise in the small store on Hildebrand.

Maybe they could stock the back room with more of the provocative T-shirts and posters they sell up front. But maybe not.

"Essentially, we're out of business right now," the heavily tattooed John Lopez said. "From steaks to beans."

Burnet Institute says crackdowns are no answer to drug problems.

Newshawk: Peter Higgs Pubdate: Sat, 06 Mar 2004
Source: Age, The (Australia)
Copyright: 2004 The Age Company Ltd
Contact: letters@theage.com.au
Website: http://www.theage.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5
Author: Peter Higgs Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v04/n398/a07.html

THE SMART WAY TO TACKLE DRUGS

The Burnet Institute has carried out health-focused research with drug users for more than 15 years. Much of this has occurred during periods of increased police activity. The recent crackdowns on drug trafficking in Footscray (The Age, 5/3) are old news. Police strategies aimed at controlling the use and availability of heroin provide solutions for only a minority of those involved. These crackdowns will never reduce the amount of heroin available on the streets. Research here and in Sydney shows that they only increase drug users' risk of overdose, HIV and hepatitis C. Crackdowns will clog up our already stretched court and prison systems and send drug users away from the health services that governments provide. Instead, multi-faceted, integrated, co-ordinated and sustainable programs must be resourced and developed to deliver positive outcomes for drug users, local traders and the community.

Peter Higgs, research officer the Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health, Melbourne

SHE STARTED THE ORIGINAL CANADIAN WAR ON WEED

The history of marijuana prohibition in Canada

The history of marijuana prohibition in Canada

1908: The Opium and Narcotic Act creates the framework for prohibiting illicit drug use in Canada.

1922: Social reformer Emily Murphy's book "The Black Candle" sounds an alarm about drug addiction in Canada. One chapter is devoted to 'Marahuana: A New Menace.'

1923: The addition of 'Cannabis Indica' to the federal schedule of prohibited drugs makes marijuana illegal in Canada.

1932: Marijuana cigarettes are seized by police for the first time.

1938: Reflecting the "reefer madness" scare, the Toronto Daily Star runs a story from the U.S. headlined, 'Marijuana Smokers Seized With Sudden Craze to Kill.'

1961: Canada signs the UN Convention on Narcotic Drugs, toughens laws for possessing, cultivating and importing marijuana.

1966: The number of cannabis-related offences nationally exceeds 100 for the first time.

1973: With thousands of young Canadians being convicted annually for smoking marijuana, the federal Le Dain Commission recommends ending criminal charges for possession. The report is not
implemented.

1980: A growing consensus in Canada on decriminalizing marijuana possession is derailed by U.S. declaration of war on drugs under president Ronald Reagan.

1984: New Brunswick premier Richard Hatfield is charged -- but later acquitted -- of possessing marijuana after a small bag of it is found in his luggage just before being loaded onto a plane during a royal visit by the Queen.

1992: Marijuana advocate Umberto Iorfida is charged with promoting use of illicit drugs. The case is thrown out of court two years later by a judge who rules it an infringement of free speech

1992: Federal Conservative government introduces bill to double penalties for marijuana possession, but it dies when they are defeated in 1993 election.

1998: Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati is stripped of his Olympic gold medal after testing positive in Nagano, Japan, for trace levels of THC, marijuana's chief intoxicant. The decision is reversed a day later after Mr. Rebagliati claims he inhaled second-hand smoke at a party.

2000: The Ontario Court of Appeal declares the federal law prohibiting the possession of marijuana unconstitutional and gives the government a year to amend it. The law is deemed a violation of the rights of sick people using marijuana for medicinal purposes.

July 2001: Canada becomes the first country in the world to legalize the use of marijuana for medical purposes.

2002: Special Senate committee on illegal drugs sparks national debate by recommending legalization of marijuana.

2003: An Ontario judge rules Canada's law on possession of small amounts of marijuana is no longer valid, dismisses charges against a Windsor youth.

2004: Liberal government introduces Bill C-10, which decriminalizes possession of small amounts of marijuana

U.K. Drug Shop opens in Bath

Pubdate: Tue, 09 Mar 2004
Source: Bath Chronicle, The (UK)
Copyright: 2004 The Bath Chronicle.
Contact: jmarsden@westcountrypublications.co.uk
Website: http://www.thisisbath.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2700
Note: LTEs must include the writer's full name and address, which will be
published unless specified. If referring to a letter or article, please
state the date it appeared in the paper.
Authors: Emma Cooney, & Tom Bradshaw
Cited: Legalise Cannabis Alliance  http://www.lca-uk.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/cannabis+seeds
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/magic+mushrooms
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/salvia+divinorum
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?207 (Cannabis - United Kingdom)

DRUGS SHOP OPENS IN BATH

A Controversial drug shop has opened in Bath which exploits legal loopholes to sell cannabis seeds and magic mushrooms.

The Appy Daze shop is worrying police - but they are powerless to do anything about it.

The store doubles as the headquarters for aspiring politician Chris Jones, who is planning to stand at the next General Election as a candidate for the Legalise Cannabis Alliance in the city.

Bob Holland's novelty shop in Walcot Street sells magic mushrooms, cannabis seeds and kits to grow both, along with items such as scales and pipes.

Mr Holland says his clients range in age from 18 to 80 and in backgrounds from travellers to lawyers.

He said: "We do not sell to kids wearing school uniform and will not sell a strong hallucinogen to someone who has never done it before. If they enjoy the weakest mushrooms then they move up to stronger ones. We do not sell just to make money. We want people to have a good time.

"If a 16-year-old has not got a clue, we will throw him out. It is not for me to teach people about drugs and it is not for me to promote them.

"We do not advocate anybody going out and breaking the law. The seeds are sold for novelty purposes only."

Although it is illegal to buy, grow or sell cannabis, it is not against the law to sell cannabis seeds or the equipment used to grow it.

Magic mushrooms, which can be picked in fields throughout the country, can be sold as long as they are fresh and not dried out. The shop sells five types of magic mushrooms, ranging from Mexican to the strongest Hawaiian - the hallucinogenic effects of which can last for ten hours.

All are produced in the Netherlands, imported fresh, and sold in 10g or 15g bags.

Mr Holland also sells laughing gas, which is sucked in through a balloon and gives a 30-second giggly high, and a plant from the mint family called salvia divinorum, used for its hallucinogenic effects.

Mr Holland said the cannabis laws were confusing and backs the campaign to legalise the drug. He would sell the substance if it was made legal.

He said: "You can buy drugs as easily as you can buy a newspaper. They are available everywhere and Bath is no different.

"Hopefully the Government will come to its senses and realise it has lost the war.

"If shops like this sold it, people would know what they were getting and would not be sold cannabis pressed with heroin, which some dealers use to get customers addicted and on to the harder stuff."

He added: "Information is the way forward. Let people make an informed choice. I believe no one has the right to tell me what I can or cannot put in my body."

Inspector Paul Mogg, of Bath police, confirmed the shop was not breaking any laws.

He said: "The sale of these items in an unprepared or uncultivated state is not a criminal offence. We are far from happy with the business in question, but there is no action we can take at present.

"We will, however, continue to monitor the situation."

One of his colleagues, Sgt Kevan Rowlands, insisted: "The war on drugs is not lost. Cannabis has not been legalised. It has been reclassified as a Class C drug. It remains illegal to grow cannabis plants or to produce cannabis.

"The reclassification of cannabis to a Class C drug is an attempt by government to focus our efforts on drugs which cause most harm, such as heroin and crack cocaine.

"I would strongly discourage anyone from taking cannabis or magic mushrooms."

Inge Shepherd, manager of the community safety and drug action team at Bath and North East Somerset Council, said it was determined to reduce the harm caused to families and communities by drug and alcohol misuse.

"We cannot prevent the sale of items which are legal, but it is important that people remember cannabis is still illegal and, for some people, heavy use can cause health problems."

A spokeswoman for the Home Office said: "It is difficult to make illegal what can be found in nature, and cannabis seeds can be used for other purposes."

Chris Jones, who works as a shop assistant at Appy Daze on Saturdays, said he was looking forward to taking on sitting Bath MP Don Foster at the next election.

Mr Jones, 37, said: "I will be campaigning on a single issue, but under the umbrella of that single issue there is a whole manifesto that will benefit Britain agriculturally and industrially."

Mr Jones said hemp had a range of applications and could be used as fuel, medicine and for clothing.

"It is a very beneficial plant for the UK," he said. "It's about putting these ideas in people's consciousness and making them more aware about hemp."

Mr Jones said the alliance hoped to field 120 candidates at the next election.

Liberal Democrat Mr Foster, who backed the downgrading of cannabis to a Class C substance so that police could spend more time tackling harder drugs, said: "I welcome anyone who wishes to stand against me and do the job that I currently do and love. In our democracy, there is quite rightly the opportunity for people of quite different views to put themselves forward to represent Bath and the surrounding area.

"I hope very much that Mr Jones will nevertheless have a clear position on some of the other vitally important issues affecting people in the constituency, such as health services, transport, crime
and the fight against terrorism."

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