restore Fri, 30 Jun 2000 Volume 1 : Number 540 In this issue: OCTA count: 71,136 sigs CA init. leads 64-20 in first Field Poll Can Initiatives Include Digital Signatures? Won't you please come to Anaheim..... Re: REPLY Articles on use of National Guard Libertarians Battle / Kubby Rocks Airwaves electronic double standard? High Times on CIA Drug Symposium/Issue SFChronicle/Huffington: Drug War Spells Racism ABC's 20/20 report on the DEA's $2million snitch Re: Memo to the Marijuana Reform Movement ALERT: Penthouse Exposes Mindless War On Marijuana NORML WPR 6/29/00 (II) LA's CBC? Blood On Their Hands/Peter's words Netherlands: Dutch cannabis vote irks cabinet ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 19:04:20 -0700 From: "D. Paul Stanford" To: restore@crrh.org Subject: OCTA count: 71,136 sigs Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20000629184655.04d79c00@mail.olywa.net> CRRH's Oregon Cannabis Tax Act initiative has over the minimum required number of signatures needed to qualify for a vote in Oregon. OCTA now has 71,136 signatures turned in to our Portland office. We are now working on a buffer of additional signatures needed to ensure qualification. An initiative here requires 66,786 valid registered Oregon voters' signatures to qualify for a vote in Oregon. Because some folks sign when they aren't registered to vote, or they have moved, or sign illegibly, we need to turn in over 80,000 voters' signatures to the Oregon Secretary of State's office by July 7th to qualify for a vote this November. CRRH is happy to announce that the new feature film, "Steal This Movie," about the life of Abbie Hoffman , has named CRRH as it's 1st featured political site of the week. The movie's producer, Robert Grenwald, has written a nice introduction to CRRH at this webpage: http://www.stealthismovie.com/featuredsite.html CRRH has received quite a bit of media coverage of our '"first in the world" digital signature drive. If you are a registered Oregon voter, go here to sign on-line: http://www.crrh.org/octa/sign.html To read the article in yesterday's Oregonian, the largest newspaper in the Pacific Northwest, about the electronic signature breakthrough, go here: http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/news/oregonian/00/06/cu_41sigs28.frame To see a TV report on digital signatures, go here: http://www.crrh.org/hemptv/news_kgwesig.html CRRH needs donations now to pay petitioners. Please donate to CRRH so we may force a vote in Oregon to end adult and medical marijuana prohibition and restore industrial hemp. We need donations to pay petitioners. We need to pay for thousands of more signatures. You can make a difference by making a secure, encrypted donation using your Visa, Mastercard or Discover credit & debit cards on our website, linked from: http://www.crrh.org/donate/secure.html Credit & debit card donations appear on your bank statement simply as CRRH; Portland, OR. Anyone, anywhere in the world is welcome to donate. Every dollar donated means we can pay petitioners to gather 2 more signatures. Oregon state income tax filers get a 100 percent refund on donations of up to $50 a person or $100 for married couples filing jointly when filing the state tax form next year. Please make a contribution by mailing a check to: CRRH P.O. Box 86741 Portland, OR 97286 We're having a big petition event on the 4th of July. We hope to gather over 10,000 signatures that day, just before our July 7th petitioning deadline. There will over a hundred thousand people out that afternoon getting ready to watch the fireworks displays that night (more than twice that if the weather is nice), and we hope to have over a hundred petitioners to each gather over 100 signatures apiece in 5-6 hours that night. This will be a way to ring in real freedom and justice for all on the US Independence Day at the cusp of the new millennium. Call us if you can petition at 4th of July celebrations in Oregon. Be a freedom fighter! Please be certain, if you have petition signatures, remember to mail your signed petition back to us as soon as possible. Don't delay, mail them in today. Our deadline is July 7th, so after the 30th of June, be sure to either use express mail or turn your petitions in to the OCTA representative in your area. Please help us restore hemp. Thank you! Yours truly, D. Paul Stanford CRRH is working to regulate and tax the sale of cannabis to adults like alcohol, allow doctors to prescribe cannabis through pharmacies and restore the unregulated production of industrial hemp. *Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp* mail: CRRH ; P.O. Box 86741 ; Portland, OR 97286 USA email: crrh@crrh.org phone: (503) 235-4606 fax: (503) 235-0120 web: http://www.crrh.org/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 19:17:56 -0700 From: "D. Paul Stanford" To: restore@crrh.org Subject: CA init. leads 64-20 in first Field Poll Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20000629150514.04d66a80@mail.olywa.net> FOR RELEASE: CONTACT: June 29, 2000 Dave Fratello at (310) 394-2952 First Field Poll Shows Drug Treatment Ballot Initiative Ahead 64-20 LOS ANGELES, June 29 - The first public poll for the November ballot initiatives in California shows strong support for one that would offer treatment instead of jail time to people convicted of illegal drug possession. Results of the Field Poll published today show the initiative with support from 64 percent of voters, with only 20 percent opposed. Dave Fratello, spokesman for the Campaign for New Drug Policies, said, "The strong public support for our initiative stems in part from broad dissatisfaction with the war on drugs. For 30 years, this nation has pursued a strategy that has obviously failed to control drug availability, drug dealing or drug abuse. As a result, the public craves a new approach that emphasizes treatment rather than jail for non-violent offenders." "At the same time," Fratello continued, "solid support like this is only possible for a proposal that is well-crafted and limited, as our initiative is. This measure has already attracted the support of top legislative leaders, law enforcement professionals and drug treatment counselors and program operators. It is an idea whose time has come." (For the list of endorsers, click here: http://www.drugreform.org/endorsers.tpl) "Though today's poll numbers are encouraging, no one is celebrating early," Fratello said. "We know there are more than four months to go. And we know there will be a vigorous opposition campaign funded by the deep-pocketed state prison guards' union, which seems needlessly worried about protecting jobs." Fratello continued, "The opponents have already shown they will do what 'no' campaigns always do - use scare tactics to suggest that a popular initiative will have negative, unintended consequences. They have to do that because they know they cannot win this argument on the merits. So this campaign will be a fight. But we are ready to make our case before the voters, and we believe we can succeed." ### -- please see: http://www.drugreform.org -- ---- Dale Gieringer (415) 563-5858 // canorml@igc.org 2215-R Market St. #278, San Francisco CA 94114 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 14:26:58 -0800 From: "J. Colman-Pinning" To: letters@news.oregonian.com Cc: lte@mapinc.org, restore@crrh.org Subject: Can Initiatives Include Digital Signatures? Message-ID: <395BCD02.BEE296CE@fbo.com> --------------C45C311E27FEA765A31A7895 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit US OR: Can Initiatives Include Digital Signatures? URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n894/a09.html Newshawk: http://www.crrh.org Pubdate: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 Source: Oregonian, The (OR) Copyright: 2000 The Oregonian Contact: letters@news.oregonian.com Address: 1320 SW Broadway, Portland, OR 97201 Fax: 503-294-4193 Website: http://www.oregonlive.com/ Forum: http://forums.oregonlive.com/ Author: Tomoko Hosaka of The Oregonian staff Dear editors, Please consider publishing my response to Tomoko Hosaka's important article referenced above. As the fourth of July nears, the topic of increasing citizens' participation in the democratic process is both timely and of profound importance. Thank you for your consideration. J. Colman-Pinning (contact information below) SILENCE DENOTES ASSENT Silence, whether by a person or a law, denotes assent. If something is not prohibited, then it is allowed. If digital signatures are legally binding on documents used in commerce and government, then it follows that they be sufficient for initiative petitions and for voting. Our society mythologizes democracy and freedom, yet a high percentage of elegible citizens do not vote. If digital signatures facilitate voting via the internet and increase citizen participation in their own governance, then is this not highly desirable in a democratic nation? In their concern for security, elections officials and Secretary of State Bill Bradbury need to recognize state and federal law on this subject and consider that the internet is secure enough for millions of people and businesses to spend billions of dollars online using digital verification of identity. Internet enabled devices provide individual citizens an immediate way to be aware of politcal issues and to participate in decisions by exercising their freedom of speech and by voting . This opportunity for virtually immediate awareness and feedback has never existed prior to now. This is the real story. The internet allows the possibility of true participatory democracy. Legislators who dislike the initiative process and seek to thwart it are the real threats to the security of participatory democracy in Oregon. Remember, elected representatives are a holdover from a time when communication over distances was difficult and information movedby horse or by sail. Now communication is instantaneous. The relatively small number of elected legislators can be subverted from their duty to all the people by the influence of money from a few. It is far more difficult for moneyed interests to subvert the will of an informed and engaged citizenry. Informed Oregonians need to rid the legislature of representatives who resist the will of the people and to embrace the power afforded them by the internet to take an active role in government. J. Colman-Pinning Waldenport Farm Waldport, Oregon 541.563.4689 waldenport@fbo.com ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 22:05:20 -0700 From: "RLRoot" To: Subject: Won't you please come to Anaheim..... Message-ID: <144601bfe187$a2e7d480$9f24ff3f@oemcomputer> This is a multi-part message in MIME format. ------=_NextPart_000_1442_01BFE14C.F688FC80 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Though your brother's bound and gagged And they've chained him to a chair Won't you please come to Anaheim Just to sing In a land that's known as freedom How can such a thing be fair Won't you please come to Anaheim For the help that we can bring ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Libertarian Party of Orange County will be sponsoring a Drug War Awareness March on Monday, July 3, 2000. Participants in this march will include Libertarian Party delegates from all over the country who will be assembled in convention at the Anaheim Marriot Hotel June 29 through July 3. Also participating will be prominent medical marijuana and anti-drug war activists. The march will take place at 5:00 PM, and travel along Harbor Boulevard between the convention site and the Disneyland park entrance. The Libertarian Party is resolute in its condemnation of the drug war, and its campaigns through the November election will emphasize this position. This march is a part of Decriminalization Day activities. Decriminalization Day, which has been celebrated annually by Libertarians since 1976, is meant to honor and show support for victimless "criminals," and to advocate the repeal of laws that serve to create this class of people. This year's march will focus on honoring Peter McWilliams, whose recent death is directly attributable to drug war policy. Peter McWilliams was a widely honored and best-selling author who suffered from AIDS and cancer. He died as a result of being prohibited by court order from using medical marijuana to relieve nausea caused by the "cocktail" of prescription medicines required to sustain his life. While Peter McWilliams is certainly not the first to die due to drug war policy, his life and his work had a significant effect on a great number of people from all walks of life. They are outraged over his death. "Peter McWilliams touched many lives with his lifelong commitment to non-violent change," said Steve Kubby, the party's 1998 California gubernatorial candidate, who praised the political legacy of his friend and fellow Libertarian. "Peter McWilliams was a brilliant author and American patriot who stood up for freedom and was ultimately murdered for his beliefs - by an overdose of government." Decriminalization Day reminds individuals that the essence of Americanism is contained in the very first sentence of the very First Amendment which says: "Congress shall make no laws regarding ...." Nowhere else in the history of civilization has a government unilaterally denied itself as much power over its citizens as did the original Founders. Because present day government has claimed those powers that our Founders intended be denied, Libertarians intend to remind their fellow citizens that "when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future Security." ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 04:24:28 EDT From: PEELDAVID@aol.com To: chessinternational@yahoo.com, restore@crrh.org Subject: Re: REPLY Message-ID: <43.6cf6106.268c61bc@aol.com> HI TO YOU -- FIRST THINGS FIRST -- DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM -- DO YOU KNOW WHAT KIND OF WORK THAT I DO -- PROFESSIONALLY. PLEASE ADVISE. THANKS, DMP ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 06:26:25 -0700 (PDT) From: paul david richmond To: restore Subject: Articles on use of National Guard Message-ID: Hi I'm trying to track down articles, photos video of National Guard use in drug seizure Appreciate any referrals you could give me. Paul Richmond Seattle National Lawyers Guild ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 06:41:54 -0700 From: Kubby for V-P To: Kubby Announce List Subject: Libertarians Battle / Kubby Rocks Airwaves Message-ID: ******************************************************** Kubby for Vice President Joe Cobb, Treasurer 26 Sea Star Court Dana Point, CA 92629-3219 ******************************************************** 6/29/00 ANAHEIM, CA -- America's most energetic and successful grassroots third party -- the Libertarian Party -- will nominate a presidential and vice presidential candidate at its national convention in Anaheim, California this coming weekend. Up for grabs will be one of the most coveted prizes in American politics: Guaranteed 50-state ballot access for the party's nominee - worth millions of dollars. This year's race is proving to be quite a battle, with surprising, last minute filings and hard fought campaigns. "This November, only three or four presidential candidates will be on the ballot in every state -- and one of them will be the Libertarian Party's presidential candidate," said party chairman David Bergland. "Every American will have an opportunity to vote for the positive, small-government solutions offered by the Libertarian Party - - - vigorous defense of the Bill of Rights, free enterprise, civil liberties, free trade, private charity, and no meddling overseas -- instead of the recycled, big-government agendas of Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore." Up to 1,400 Libertarian delegates from across the USA will converge on the Anaheim Marriott Hotel, June 29-July 3, where -- amidst noisy floor demonstrations, balloons, and speeches -- they will select among four presidential contenders, consider changes to the party platform, and elect new party leadership. Battling for the party's presidential nomination are: * Harry Browne, author and the party's 1996 presidential candidate. * Don Gorman, a former four-term New Hampshire state legislator. * Barry Hess, an Arizona businessman. * David Hollist, a past candidate for U.S. House from California. * Jacob Hornberger, the controversial president of the Future of Freedom Foundation (FFF), has just made a surprise, last minute entry. Vying for the party's vice presidential nomination are: * Steve Kubby, author, activist and1998 California gubernatorial candidate. * Art Olivier, a former Mayor of Bellflower California. * Ken Krawchuk, the LP's 1998 candidate for governor in Pennsylvania. The winners of these two contests will get one of the "most valuable commodities in American politics," said Bergland: A spot on every state's ballot in November. "How valuable is that? It's worth at least $14 million -- that's what billionaire Ross Perot spent to get on the ballot in all 50 states in 1992." The Libertarian Party is already on the ballot in 34 states, and is knocking off the remaining states at a faster pace than any of its third-party rivals, he said. "When we qualify for that final state in August or September, the Libertarian Party will become the first third party in American history to achieve 50-state ballot status three presidential elections in a row," he noted. And unlike the Reform Party, which is expected to run only a few dozen candidates this year, the Libertarian Party expects to run up to 2,000 candidates for local, state, and federal office -- including more than 218 candidates for U.S. House. When it achieves that latter goal, the Libertarian Party will become the first third party in 80 years to contest a majority of U.S. House seats. There are currently over 270 Libertarians serving in public office in 36 states, including more than 30 city or town council members. Other Libertarians serve on school boards, as county commissioners, as selectmen, and on town budget committees. The party has also elected State Representatives in Vermont, Alaska, and New Hampshire, and mayors in California and Utah. ------------------------------ KUBBY ROCKS THE AIRWAVES! by Rick L. Root For the second day in a row Steve Kubby was on the airwaves. This time on KABC Los Angeles with Larry Elder between 6 and 7 PM. Larry Elder has the most popular talk show in Southern California. www.kabc.com for internet listening. The focus of the hour was on Peter Williams, libertarian philosophy, the drug war, and the LP convention. It was a very powerful hour as there was a lot of information brought out about Peter of which Larry was really clueless. The capper to the show was the last five minutes when the host who follows Larry came on (goes by Mr. KABC, and is an avowed liberal) and spoke of how he had Peter on his show 5 or 6 times in the past, and how impressed he was with the man. He noted that he could tell a marked difference in Peter before and after being able to use marijuana to help with his treatments. It was truly a fantastic hour of promoting libertarian causes, and educating people (with many testimonials) of how it was government and it's drug war policies that killed Peter. Media interest over Steve's last minute bid for vice president has been impressive and includes two great articles this week by the Orange County Register and the Libertarian Party News. Steve was also interviewed this week on KUCI, 88.9 FM in Orange County, with Web-cast on kuci.org/listen.html and on POT-TV at: http://www.cannabisculture.com/pottv/archive/archive.cgi?q=Kubby&bool=OR&med ia=&order=d ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 07:42:09 -0700 From: JT Barrie To: restore@crrh.org Subject: electronic double standard? Message-ID: <395B603D.3DD3@zdnetonebox.com> Sounds like they want it both ways: it's[electronic signatures] OK when they take your money from you, but not OK when you try to take your freedoms back through an initiative that's not "politically correct". -- The "war on drugs" is not about public safety - it's about increasing public safety budgets. The anti drug campaign is not about public service - it's about using public hysteria to protect the profit margins of those who are legally allowed to promote dangerous drugs to your children. Social, political, and religious commentary not sanctioned by the lapdog media.

JT for state rep district 34; the only candidate who: 1] cares about public safety 2] has a proven plan to reduce crime, violence, and teenage drug abuse 3] will have a mandate for positive change The only meaningful vote for a candidate in district 34. ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 09:53:38 -0700 From: "David Crockett Williams" To: ".GeneralAgencyServices" Subject: High Times on CIA Drug Symposium/Issue Message-ID: <009a01bfe1eb$1adcb7e0$8e18a5d1@rain.org> Lots of links in this article online. From: To: Subject: [CIA-DRUGS] Tracking the CIA Through Snowdrifts of Drugs-by Preston Peet Date: Thursday, June 29, 2000 6:13 AM http://www.hightimes.com/News/2000_06/drugs.tpl TRACKING THE CIA THROUGH SNOWDRIFTS OF DRUGS Filed 6/28/00 'The FARC guerrillas in Colombia are receiving their arms from the Russians, and they're paying for it all with cocaine. And guess what? The Russians are laundering their drug money back through the Bank of New York!' - Mike Ruppert EUGENE, OR-"Economically, America is much more hooked on drug money than it is on drugs," said the former LAPD narcotics officer. The never-ending, all-American War on Some Drugs, he stressed, "affects everything in our current economic picture." THE SECRET HISTORIANS: Clockwise from Left, Dedon Kamathi, Celerino Castillo, Tim Bosker, Chris Melligan, Mike Ruppert (squatting). There were nine different speakers who addressed the disparate audience at the historic "CIA-Drugs Symposium" here at the Lane County Fairgrounds in Eugene last weekend. All presented searing accounts and first-hand testimony demonstrating that yes indeed, the CIA and top levels of the US Government have been aware of political drug trafficking for years, and complicit in it. First, Daniel Hopsicker's shocking, eye-opening film on drug-running and corruption in the US government's security services, THE SECRET HEARTBEAT OF AMERICA, set the tone of the event. Organizer Kris Millegan welcomed the audience to the Wheeler Pavilion: "I'm just really tired of the situation we've got here, and I don't want my children to have to deal with it.... I am intent on bursting the media bubble of silence surrounding this issue." Millegan presented a documented historical review of political drug trafficking by many governments throughout history, focusing on China and the Opium Wars, which Britain forced on it in the 1800s. Millegan also discussed Yale's secret Skull and Bones crypto-plutocratic society, initially set up there by American opium traffickers. 'The Best Enemies Money Can Buy' Mike Ruppert, who publishes the seminal FROM THE WILDERNESS newsletter dealing with CIA-US Government-Drugs issues, gave a very moving presentation of his own history as a former LAPD narcotics officer, and his first-hand experience in the 1980s of CIA drug-running, and the horrid conclusions he has drawn. "The model of the CIA dealing drugs is exactly like a model wherein a family has a father who is molesting the youngest daughter, and everyone else in the family conspires to keep silent, to keep the family together, to scapegoat one member of the family 'so Daddy won't pick on me.' For that we must all share the blame, and we must all share in the responsibility. Arguing for the lesser of two evils is still arguing for evil. There's no other way." Ruppert ran down the particulars of why the US War on Some Drugs perpetually continues, using the forthcoming US incursion into the 50-year-old civil war in Colombia as an urgent economic example: "I have information that the FARC guerrillas in Colombia are receiving their arms from the Russians, and they're paying for it all with cocaine," related Ruppert. "The cocaine is then sold in Russia, but guess what? The Russians are laundering their money back through the Bank of New York on Wall Street. Isn't that amazing?" US financial interests, he diagnosed, "protect, create, and arm both sides of the conflict so they can profit from both sides. We have the best enemies that money can buy." Ironically, the same multi-billion Congressional appropriation to fight the "Drug War" in Colombia also contains millions to support US troops in Kosovo: "We make money by destroying things, as in Kosovo," Ruppert noted." We destroyed all the oil refineries in a 500-mile radius there. They all have to be rebuilt. American companies will rebuild them. We have a search-and-destroy economy." Who Benefits From Crack? The Jailers! "When you think Crack, don't think Black, think CIA," admonished Dedon Kamathi, a producer with Motown Records (Conscious Rap as opposed to Gangsta Rap) and co-chair of the California-based Crack the CIA Coalition. Kamathi spoke to the US Government's strategic targeting of minority and poor communities, reviewing the FBI's various generations-long suppression operations against groups and individuals such as the Black Panther Party, RAMPARTS magazine, Stokely Carmichael and others from the 1960s. Then in the 1980s, crack cocaine inundated poor and minority neighborhoods throughout America when, charges Kamathi, "a conscious decision was made to attack conscious rappers, to destroy African-American strugglers, and music promoting gangsterism began to be promoted by the music industry." FBI guiding angel J. Edgar Hoover, Kamathi noted, "made his name and reputation busting Marcus Garvey, yet denied the existence of the Mafia almost his entire life and career. We have been programmed in this country to think 'Crime' equals 'Black.'" Kamathi enumerated the aims of the Crack the CIA Coalition, whose "mission statement stresses that we demand full disclosure and prosecution of all CIA officers and assets complicit in drug trafficking; dismantle the CIA, halt all covert wars and operations, all their dastardly deeds; divert CIA funds to domestic programs that benefit all the people, demand reparations, racial sentencing disparities, and ALL drug sentences--and end the cover-up of CIA drug-trafficking complicity!" Speaking of dope-infested L.A. neighborhoods, Kamathi pointed out that "before crack cocaine was introduced to Compton, Goodyear and Firestone were the two biggest employers of African-Americans in the area. Then the US Government enticed the companies to move operations to Indonesia, leaving thousands unemployed in California. At the exact same time these companies left, crack was introduced as an alternative source of income." Not at all coincidentally, he noted, "The most powerful lobbyist group in California now is the California Corrections Officers Union. Every jailed prisoner generates $35,000 a year. Money is being taken right out of education and put into the prison-industrial complex. Profits over people, over spirituality, over Mother Earth and the environment." Freed From The Rule Of Law Catherine Austin Fitts, former Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner under President George Bush from 1989 to 1990, agrees. Fitts was fired for her outspoken attempts to cut official corruption costing massive amounts of taxpayer money. In Eugene, Fitts spoke of how international drug lords use Wall Street and investment banks to launder massive amounts of drug proceeds. "Who will control our neighborhoods, organized crime or the locals?" Fitts asked. "Whatever system we are living under, it is not a democracy, and we are not protected by the rule of law." There was a presentation of another of Hopsicker's films, titled IN SEARCH OF THE AMERICAN DRUG LORDS. about Barry Seal, the infamous CIA dope pilot who flew drugs for the US government from the Bay of Pigs to the heyday of the Nicaraguan contras, before his 1986 assassination. After a quick presentation regarding the class-action lawsuits against the CIA and others filed in California, Celerino Castillo, URL: http://www.wbaifree.org/earthwatch/ciapns.html a 12-year veteran of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, gave a presentation of his career, which culminated in his assignment as Special Agent in Central America from 1985 to 1990. Castillo's 1994 book, POWDERBURNS: COCAINE, CONTRAS AND THE DRUG WAR, exposed CIA drug-running out of El Salvador in support of the Nicaraguan contras. Castillo told the audience, "I hope that when you leave here today you will have a better understanding of what really happened with our government, and the deals they cut with criminals and drug traffickers. I was there and I saw it. I kept journals. I took pictures of the good, the bad, and the ugly, and I have them. I found out we were the Bad Guys." Castillo described some of his close calls and misadventures while in service of the DEA, and explained why more officers do not come forward with accounts of their own eyewitness of corruption: "They're not about to report anything as they have a wife, kids, house, mortgage, and don't want to do anything to jeopardize their pensions." Castillo also stressed that the War on Some Drugs is essentially political, because "if the Drug War ended now, our whole banking system would collapse." He was not overly optimistic. "There is no way the US Government is ever going to legalize drugs," he counseled. "There is too much money being made now. It is going to get a lot worse before it gets better, but we know who did this to us." Rodney Stich, who began his attempts to expose US government corruption 40 years ago while an FAA flight-accident investigator, described his ever-continuing fight to expose official crimes. Author of the books DRUGGING AMERICA (1994) and DEFRAUDING AMERICA (1999), Stich has collected case after case of official drugrunning and corruption, detailed by government insiders and participants. "There are way more agencies and departments involved than just the CIA," said Stich, "a lot more government insiders and participants." Ruppert came back out and played a video clip of former CIA Director John Deutch at a nationally televised town-hall meeting in August of 1996 with South Central Los Angeles residents who were demanding answers to CIA drug-running allegations. The clip showed Ruppert telling Deutch that he, Ruppert, had information to supply on the topic. After the clip, Ruppert gave a very warm welcome to Peter Dale Scott, the prolific author of COCAINE POLITICS (1991, with Jonathan Marshall), and DEEP POLITICS AND THE DEATH OF JFK (1993). Scott first wrote of US- government-sanctioned drug trafficking in 1970, in his rare book on Vietnam, THE WAR CONSPIRACY. The Latest Crock Of Lies Scott, a former Canadian diplomat, UC Berkeley English professor, and co-founder in the 1970s of the Coalition on Political Assassination, was the keynote speaker of the evening. He drew special attention to the report issued on May 11 by the US House of Representatives Select Committee on Intelligence, which asserted that the committee had "found no evidence" that employees or assets associated with any US security service, including the CIA, have ever been complicit in running drugs into the US, or in covering up for those who had. "The May 11th report basically says there is nothing to worry about," asserted Scott. "This report is full of lies, flat-out lies, in terms of what they've already admitted to in other reports." Scott proceeded to rip the Committee's findings apart, point by eloquent point, illustrating vividly how many of the US Government's own previously released reports refute the farcical conclusion that there is "no evidence" to connect both the CIA and the US Government to drug trafficking. In a letter offering support for the Symposium and its aim to shine a light on officially sanctioned drugrunning and other corruption, Representative Peter DeFazio, (D-OR) wrote, "I have fought for years to lift the dark veil of secrecy shrouding the US Intelligence bureaucracy. Unfortunately, the intelligence establishment is given vast deference by many of my colleagues, which has led to little accountability and virtually toothless oversight by Congress." The massive secret computer spy system Echelon was brought to public attention not by Congressional oversight, but by independent journalists and researchers, DeFazio noted, bemoaning the ability of the CIA to "slap the label of national security on something as innocuous as a budget number." DeFazio concluded his letter, "Given the low likelihood that enough elected officials will rise to challenge the intelligence bureaucracy, it is up to concerned citizens such as yourselves to reveal possible misconduct. Good luck with your symposium. by Preston Peet , Special to HT News -----------end forwarded post-------- -dcw David Crockett Williams gear2000@lightspeed.net Chemical Physicist Chartered Life Underwriter Independent US Presidential Candidate w/ Leonard Peltier for VP http://www.egroups.com/group/williams-peltier General Agency Services http://www.angelfire.com/on/GEAR2000/genagency.html Offering "The Legal Revolution" http://www.prepaidlegal.com/go/dcwilliams Global Peace Walk 2000 http://www.globalpeacenow.org Updates/Voicemail 415-267-1877 Global Emergency Alert Response http://www.angelfire.com/on/GEAR2000 Science & Technology in Society & Public Policy List http://www.egroups.com/group/dcwilliams The Vision of Paradise on Earth, DCWilliams http://www.angelfire.com/on/GEAR2000/vision.html Nuclear Disarmament & Economic Conversion Act http://www.PetitionOnline.com/prop1/petition.html Easy way to Email Media and Government http://congress.nw.dc.us/wnd "An Agenda for Peace", one Global Peace Walk support letter http://www.angelfire.com/on/GEAR2000/agenda.html ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 09:54:02 -0700 From: "David Crockett Williams" To: ".GeneralAgencyServices" Subject: SFChronicle/Huffington: Drug War Spells Racism Message-ID: <009b01bfe1eb$259a5a20$8e18a5d1@rain.org> Keep in mind that author Arianna Huffington is one of convenors of the "Shadow Convention" in Los Angeles during DNC with August 15th day focused on the Drug War. Subject: DRUG WAR SPELLS RACISM Date: Thursday, June 29, 2000 4:42 AM Dans un courrier daté du 6/27/2000 8:50:30 PM Romance Daylight Time, vignes@monaco.mc a écrit : << Pubdate: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA) Copyright: 2000 San Francisco Chronicle Contact: chronletters@sfgate.com Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/ Forum: http://www.sfgate.com/conferences/ Author: Arianna Huffington IN THE NAME OF THE DRUG WAR, CHILLING RACIAL INJUSTICE Throughout the 20th century, which saw more than its share of inhumanity, the most common excuse about why such things were allowed to happen was ``We didn't know.'' Well, after the report that Human Rights Watch produced on June 8, we will no longer be able to use ignorance to shield us from the reality of the racial injustice being perpetrated every day in America in the name of the drug war -- completely ignored by national political leaders and barely acknowledged by the media. The report, ``Punishment and Prejudice: Racial Disparities in the War on Drugs,'' features a groundbreaking state-by-state analysis of the role race and drugs play in prison admissions. When 10 states -- including Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio and West Virginia -- send black men to prison on drug charges at a rate 27 to 57 times higher than white men, how can we continue to boast about our ``equal protection under the law'' when it's so obviously not true for so many people? The cookie-cutter excuse is that the unequal sentencing reflects an unequal use of drugs. Well, that excuse has also expired -- in fact, five times as many whites use drugs as blacks, yet 62 percent of drug offenders sent to state prisons nationwide are black. In certain states, that number climbs to an almost unbelievable 90 percent. So much for equal protection. But the depth of this tragedy cannot be adequately communicated through statistics -- no matter how outrageous. It can only be conveyed through the personal stories of what this injustice has wrought not only on the nonviolent offenders but on their families and especially their children. Groups like Families Against Mandatory Minimums, Family Watch and the November Coalition perform a great public service by putting flesh and blood on the statistics. ``Dear judge, I need my mom. Would you help my mom,'' reads a note written in the 9-year-old scrawl of Phillip Gaines, just before his mother was sentenced to nearly 20 years after associates of her crack-dealing former boyfriend testified against her in exchange for lighter sentences. ``My birthday's coming up in October the 25 and I need my mom to be here on the 25 and for the rest of my life. I will cut your grass and wash your car everyday just don't send my mom off. Please please please don't.'' Phillip is only one of an estimated 1.5 million children who currently have a parent in jail. Sharvone McKinnon is another African-American mother whose boyfriend -- in her case, an abusive crack dealer who threatened to kill her if she left him -- helped land her in jail. She's also a particularly chilling case study of the madness our drug laws have led to: a nonviolent, first-time offender sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for conspiracy to distribute cocaine -- even though the government concedes she played only a tangential role and never actually used or sold drugs. But such are our draconian drug laws that even the least-culpable member of a ``conspiracy'' can be saddled with the most egregious acts of all the other conspirators. So based on the testimony of three of her 31 co-defendants that she was present at a single ``organizational meeting'' of her boyfriend's drug ring -- testimony that earned the trio serious sentence reductions -- this 34-year-old mother, a gainfully employed school-bus driver at the time of her arrest, will now spend the rest of her life in prison (at a cost to taxpayers of approximately $21,000 per year). ``One of the problems of our justice system,'' a U.S. District Court judge told me, ``is that the government is settling for very small fish that are easy to catch and easy to punish. The big ones aren't being pursued.'' Indeed, the inequality of the legal representation available to most poor defendants makes further mockery of the promise of equal justice for all. The silence of both major parties and their nominees on this widespread injustice is the starkest example of the bankruptcy of the two-party system. Even the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who has endorsed Al Gore and will be campaigning for him, is not pulling his punches. ``On this matter,'' he told me, ``we have one party with two names, or two parties with one assumption. The assumption is that these lives can be thrown away. The change we seek can only come outside the two parties. In the same way that it took a movement to bring about the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, it's going to take a movement to put an end to this tragic undermining of hard-fought civil rights victories.'' The Human Rights Watch report makes it impossible for our leaders to claim they didn't know. Now it's up to us to demand some answers and an end to the inhumanity. >> ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 10:46:32 PDT From: "kim hanna" To: DPFT-L@TAMU.EDU Cc: maptalk@mapinc.org Subject: ABC's 20/20 report on the DEA's $2million snitch Message-ID: <20000629174632.7254.qmail@hotmail.com> Quite a slam on the DEA by 20/20, with more fallout to come, prosecutors dropping cases because of this case. The chat transcript does not show any reformers though; they must have screened them tightly. http://abcnews.go.com/onair/2020/2020_000628_deainformant_feature.html ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 11:39:57 PDT From: "kim hanna" To: restore@crrh.org Subject: Re: Memo to the Marijuana Reform Movement Message-ID: <20000629183957.28545.qmail@hotmail.com> John, is right on the money with this but fails to tell us what happened to his rescheduling petition for marijuana. We've been waiting YEARS for him to bring the rescheduling of marijuana forward. What happened to the petition John? What's the status and what's the plan to get it rescheduled? If You can PROVE in court that it's improperly scheduled, than what's the problem. MOST of America think that marijuana is schedule #l and could care if 10 million a year are arrested. they think we deserve it. So go prove they are WRONG. To: The Marijuana Reform Movement From: Jon Gettman Re: Focus and Revival Date: June 26, 2000 The primary focus of the marijuana reform movement is the subject of marijuana arrests, and we can revive our movement, indeed we can once again take control of our movement, if we return our focus to this fundamental issue. One way to accomplish these objectives is explained in this memo. A lot of activists, advocates, aspiring political operatives, and self-labeled reform organizations profess to be in favor of marijuana law reform, but how many of them actually keep focused on the problem at hand -- marijuana arrests? Instead they pay lip service to the issue to the extent that it advances their personal or organizational career objectives. This may seem like a blanket accusation, but instead it is a straightforward acknowledgement. Most of the people involved in the drug policy reform movement have their own personal agendas that are a mixture of their values, personal positions on issues, and their own career strategies. Me too, for that matter. All of us have to find a way to pay the rent/mortgage. I am not trivializing anyone's contribution to a better society, just their leadership decisions when it comes to the subject of marijuana law reform. We are active in a very big tent. snip ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 13:54:58 -0700 From: Mark Greer To: alerts@drugsense.org Subject: ALERT: Penthouse Exposes Mindless War On Marijuana Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20000629134643.049ff140@mapinc.org> Penthouse Exposes Mindless War On Marijuana ------- PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE ------- DrugSense FOCUS Alert # 176 Thursday June 26, 2000 The number of problems created by marijuana prohibition make it difficult=20 to give a good overview in a single article, but writer Michael Simmons=20 makes a nice attempt in Penthouse this month. His article (below) shows how= =20 many people are getting hurt by the war on pot, and how activists are=20 working to stop it. Please write a letter to the magazine to thank editors for distributing=20 this important information. WRITE A LETTER TODAY If not YOU who? If not NOW when? *************************************************************************** PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID ( Letter,Phone, fax etc.) Please post a copy your letter or report your action to the sent letter list (sentlet@mapinc.org) if you are subscribed, or by E-mailing a copy directly to MGreer@mapinc.org Your letter will then be forwarded to the list with so others can learn from your efforts and be motivated to follow suit This is VERY IMPORTANT as it is the only way we have of gauging our impact and effectiveness. ************************************************************************** CONTACT INFO Source: Penthouse (US) Contact: penthouse.editors@generalmedia.com *************************************************************************** ARTICLE US: Reefer Mindless URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n884/a06.html Newshawk: Jo-D and Tom-E Pubdate: Tue, 01 Aug 2000 Source: Penthouse (US) Section: Cover story Copyright: 2000 General Media Communications, Inc. Contact: penthouse.editors@generalmedia.com Address: 11 Penn Plaza, Twelfth Floor, New York, NY 10001 Fax: (212) 702-6262 Website: http://www.penthouse.com Author: Michael Simmons REEFER MINDLESS [On the cover: Special Report: Reefer Mindless - It's time to end the=20 vicious, stupid, losing war on pot] As we enter a new century, the decades-long war against marijuana=20 continues, with pot busts doubling in the past decade, and tens of=20 thousands of Americans behind bars for possessing, growing, or selling the= =20 nation's third favorite recreational drug. When will this official Reefer=20 Madness end? Possibly sooner than anyone thinks. "We are locking up this country!" the boyish-looking man in a suit=20 thundered from the podium. "Should drug use in the privacy of your own home= =20 =85 end you up in jail?" The packed crowd in a conference room at the Pyramid Crowne Plaza Hotel in= =20 Albuquerque, New Mexico, answered the question with an emphatic "NO!" "Does anybody want to press a button and retroactively punish the 80=20 million Americans who have done illegal drugs?" the man asked. "NO!" the=20 crowd roared back again. "And did I mention that I'm one of those people?=20 I'm one of the 80 million!" This impassioned speech, delivered last November before a group of drug-law= =20 reformers attending a panel discussion on "The Drug War: Who Is Winning?,"= =20 could have been made by any one of 70 million Americans who have smoked=20 pot, or the millions more who've tried harder stuff. But here was Gary E.=20 Johnson, second-term Republican governor of New Mexico, denouncing the war= =20 on drugs as "a miserable failure." The 47-year-old triathlete, who now=20 abstains from all mind-altering substances, including sugar, admitted prior= =20 to winning his first term in 1994 to using both marijuana and cocaine=20 during his college days. After declining to run for higher office following= =20 his second and last term (which expires January 2002), Johnson began to air= =20 his maverick views. He has received enthusiastic praise from those who see= =20 the drug war as an attack by the government on its own citizens. He's also= =20 become the whipping boy for everybody from White House drug czar Barry=20 McCaffrey, who claimed that school kids were referring to the governor as=20 "Puff Daddy" Johnson ("This is goofy thinking that's harmful to New=20 Mexico," remarked the czar -- "He ought to be ashamed of himself"), to=20 fellow New Mexican politicos and law-enforcement officials, to a=20 middle-school cheer leading team that refused to meet with Johnson because= =20 of his views. In a conversation after the conference, Johnson discoursed upon the "reefer= =20 madness" scare tactics prevalent in his own youth, today's ludicrous=20 brain-on-drugs-equals-fried-eggs analogy, and the inability of rule makers= =20 to differentiate between substances as disparate as pot and heroin. "We=20 lived the lie," he said. "Kids continue to live it, see it played out on=20 them. Take the [Partnership for a Drug-Free America] advertisement, 'Here's= =20 your brain, here's your brain on drugs.' Well, okay, so that means=20 marijuana. We experienced the same thing. We did marijuana. And it's not=20 what it's been portrayed. You don't lose your mind. You don't have a=20 propensity to do crime. It's okay. It's not a bad experience. So does that= =20 mean what the rest of the government is telling us is also a lie?" [snip] Johnson is a mind-blowing anomaly -- a politician who tells the truth,=20 consequences be damned. And the core truth he speaks is that at the heart=20 of the multibillion-dollar drug war and its thousands of related jobs in=20 law enforcement and the prisons system is the nonsensical demonization of=20 marijuana. For 63 years, since the passage of the Marihuana (sic) Tax Act=20 of 1937, Americans have been told that pot is an addictive narcotic that=20 causes everything from amotivational syndrome to sociopathic behavior to=20 premature death. (The Controlled Substances Act of 1970 classified=20 marijuana as a Schedule I drug, along with heroin and L.S.D., thus=20 categorizing it as a substance with a high potential for abuse and no=20 medicinal applications.) Yet as we enter the twenty-first century, pot is=20 the third favorite recreational drug of choice in the United States after=20 alcohol and tobacco. Unlike alcohol and tobacco, however, marijuana cannot= =20 be bought legally for pleasure or relaxation by Americans who run to the=20 corner store. Unlike alcohol or tobacco, marijuana found in the possession= =20 of adults can result in criminal sanctions ranging from the equivalent of a= =20 parking ticket to, in the case of a federal statute governing the import or= =20 growing of more than 50,000 plants or pounds, the death penalty. But the truth is that, slowly and inexorably, the Berlin Wall of=20 Prohibition is crumbling. The millions of Americans who have either tried=20 or continue to smoke marijuana know that its negative side effects are=20 either overstated or outright lies, and public outrage at the=20 constitutional violations perpetrated in the name of the drug war is=20 increasing exponentially. Medical marijuana has enjoyed majority support=20 wherever it's been on a ballot. And farmers looking for a profitable crop,= =20 entrepreneurs looking for an environmentally and financially green product,= =20 and young people looking for a cause have transformed hemp -- the non=20 psychoactive cousin of marijuana, with hundreds of beneficial uses -- into= =20 a $200-million-a-year industry. Still, there is a dangerous disconnect at work in America regarding=20 marijuana. Viewers guffaw when the gang in That '70s Show paints a=20 marijuana leaf on the town's water tower -- cultural code that marijuana is= =20 a relatively harmless drug as well as a rite of passage for youth. Reefer=20 jokes are cracked on The Simpsons and by Jay Leno on the Tonight Show, and= =20 weed is smoked to hilarious effect in such major studio movies as Dazed and= =20 Confused and The Big Lebowski. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Americans=20 are arrested annually, imprisoned, and made to face forfeiture of their=20 homes and belongings because of its use, cultivation, or sale. Furthermore,= =20 draconian mandatory minimum sentencing (the least amount of prison time to= =20 be served by law) passed by Congress and many states is grossly=20 disproportionate to the alleged crime, as well as leaving judges no leeway= =20 to take into consideration the particulars of each case. [snip] Last November, Time magazine ran a tongue-in-cheek but factually accurate=20 breakdown of the particular social groups that prefer certain drugs. For=20 pot smokers, the social group was described as "everyone." According to recent studies, more than 70 million Americans have smoked=20 marijuana at least once in their lifetime, 11 million use it monthly, and=20 about half of those inhale almost daily; this means that about five percent= =20 of people over the age of 12 can be loosely defined as pot smokers, and=20 between five and six million of them are dedicated stoners. Of course these figures must be gauged against the reality that many=20 potheads will not 'fess up to illegal behavior, even when guaranteed=20 anonymity. With "zero tolerance" the watch-phrase of the antidrug forces=20 and corporate policy makers, such paranoia is completely justified. If you= =20 factor in expanded police power to search and seize, payments to=20 informants, snitching for plea bargains, aggressive conspiracy charges, and= =20 mandatory urine testing, the pot smokers' dilemma becomes abundantly clear.= =20 Their jobs and their families, not to mention their very freedom from=20 imprisonment, are constantly at stake. As R. Keith Stroup, the 56- year-old= =20 founder and director of the Washington-based National Organization for the= =20 Reform of Marijuana Laws, observes, "People are in the closet; they're=20 intimidated after 20 years of the war on drugs. They can't be honest; they= =20 might lose their jobs, or they might get drug-tested. There are all kinds=20 of reasons why people are not necessarily honest about how they feel about= =20 marijuana smoking -- including those of us who smoke." [snip] Although domestic pot production has been rising steadily over the years,=20 with increasing amounts being grown indoors under scrupulous conditions=20 aimed at producing high-potency, high-priced weed, it is imported=20 marijuana, primarily from Mexico, that remains the toker's mainstay,=20 especially in locales where there is no pot-growing culture and=20 high-quality strains are hard to find or afford. Debate rages over whether marijuana is stronger than it was 20 years ago.=20 The antidrug warriors say yes, maintaining it's so much more potent that=20 it's a different drug, thereby justifying their zero-tolerance tactics. To= =20 bolster their contention, they point to research done at the University of= =20 Mississippi, the home of the federal government's pot farm. The Potency=20 Monitoring Project at Ole Miss has found that pot is stronger now than in=20 the early seventies, though its average strength has been consistent since= =20 the early eighties. On the other hand, independent analyses have detected=20 higher THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, pot's psychoactive cannabinoid) content=20 in such seventies strains as Maui Wowie and Thai Stick than in most=20 currently avail- able strains, bolstering the contention of pot advocates=20 that today's weed presents no unique danger. Not content to attack marijuana alone, zero-tolerance zealots also target=20 its "delivery systems." Most states have some form of anti paraphernalia=20 laws on the books, and while there are no available statistics on how many= =20 candy-store owners get raided for carrying Bambu rolling papers, the=20 paraphernalia laws come in handy when prosecutors want to "pile on" years=20 to a drug offender's prison sentence. Furthermore, the paraphernalia laws=20 are often used by the local police as a pretext for an assault in what is=20 at its core a cultural war. Says NORML's deputy director Allen St. Pierre,= =20 "It's literally town by town by town. If a shop owner has things such as=20 NORML information, or High Times or other countercultural magazines at=20 hand, or if there are T-shirts or other cultural affectations in the store= =20 that would lead a reasonable person to believe that marijuana was part of=20 the culture within, then that's the standard that one would probably use to= =20 arrest somebody for selling paraphernalia. That's why most prudent=20 paraphernalia stores strew their displays with tobacco and insist on 18'=20 and over, as they should, and have zero discussions beyond the obvious." From sea to shining sea, and contrary to popular perception, the war=20 against marijuana is increasing in intensity. According to available data,= =20 pot busts have accelerated in the 1990s, most notably during the=20 phony-liberal Clinton administration. F.B.I. statistics for 1998 record=20 682,885 marijuana arrests, 88 percent for mere possession, belying law=20 enforcement's conventional spin that the enforcers are mainly concerned=20 with large-scale growth and distribution rackets. These figures are=20 slightly lower than those of the year before, when NORML noted that the=20 Clinton administration had already out busted the kinder, gentler George=20 Bush by 30 percent on an average yearly basis. In fact, pot busts have more= =20 than doubled since 1990, while those for heroin and cocaine fell by more=20 than 50 percent. In 1998, 44 percent of all drug arrests were for=20 marijuana; one out of every 25 criminal arrests was for marijuana=20 possession; and one in seven persons in prison for drugs had been convicted= =20 on marijuana charges. (Interestingly, the number of pot arrests has risen=20 steadily while the estimated number of smokers has fallen off from a=20 reported high in 1979.) Approximately 43,000 Americans are presently behind= =20 state or federal bars for marijuana, at an estimated social cost of $7.5=20 billion annually. More Americans get popped annually for marijuana (and=20 many receive harsher sentences) than for murder, rape, robbery, and=20 aggravated assault combined. According to current federal mandatory=20 minimum-sentencing law, you can be imprisoned for 15 to 21 months and fined= =20 $1 million for delivery or sale of a single joint, and slapped with five to= =20 40 years and a $2 million fine for possessing more than 100 plants.=20 Cultivating or selling more than 1,000 plants or 1,000 kilograms can earn=20 you a life sentence in a federal penitentiary. [snip] Matters are far from laid-back for pot enthusiasts in California. Last=20 October, the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, an interagency=20 eradication effort, announced that it had already seized 241,164 plants for= =20 the year 1999. The confiscated plants had an estimated value of $965=20 million, up 80 percent over the '98 tallies, and 40 percent higher than the= =20 previous record year of 1985. And while law-enforcement figures warned that= =20 the passage in 1996 of Proposition 215, the initiative that legalized=20 medical marijuana in California, would tie their hands and create a de=20 facto legalization of recreational marijuana use in the state, there were=20 nearly 2,000 state pot prisoners in California is July of '99, an increase= =20 of ten percent since the proposition passed with the support of 56 percent= =20 of voters. In fact, while possession of less than an ounce is punishable by= =20 a relatively light $100 fine, the state's cops and prosecutors see red when= =20 it comes to anything greater than an ounce, especially where cultivation=20 and/or distribution are concerned, with the possible exemption (thanks to=20 Proposition 215, as we shall see) of some medical marijuana operations. New York State tops the United States for the greatest number of pot busts= =20 per 100,000 smokers (at 6,294 as of 1997), but regionally most take place=20 in Mid-western states (for sales/manufacture) and the Midwest and South=20 (for possession). Justice in some of these states is often wildly=20 disproportionate to the alleged crime, even when compared with the national= =20 standard. Oklahoma, for example, has what are overall probably the harshest= =20 pot penalties in the United States. Possession of any amount (such as the=20 residue of a joint) can bring up to a year in jail and a $500 fine. A=20 second offense (a second bust for the residue of a joint) warrants two=20 years to life and a $20,000 fine. Possession of paraphernalia (say, a=20 single rolling paper) is punishable by a year in jail and a $1,000 fine.=20 Four years to life imprisonment is mandated for sale or delivery of under=20 25 pounds, and the minimum penalty increases with larger quantities.=20 Punishments are doubled for sale to a minor or within 1,000 feet of a=20 school. And, as in several other states, you can have your driver's license= =20 suspended as penalty even if you're not driving while nabbed. Will Foster is the most well-known victim of Oklahoma's zero-tolerance=20 legislation. The 42-year-old Tulsa father of three was given a 93-year=20 sentence in 1997 for 60 plants (said the prosecutor; 10 plants and 50=20 seedlings and clones, Foster maintained). Foster has advanced rheumatoid=20 arthritis, precisely the kind of ailment for which pot has been shown to be= =20 an effective medicine in numerous studies, including six presented to the=20 Society for Neuroscience in Washington, D.C., in 1997. In the summer of=20 1998, Foster's sentence was reduced to 20 years, but Governor Frank Keating= =20 has ignored repeated pleas and declined to pardon him. In fact, Keating is= =20 pushing the Oklahoma legislature to toughen its marijuana laws. Latter-day frontier injustice is not limited to state law, however. Current= =20 federal mandatory-minimum (or "man-min") sentencing, codified by the=20 Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, prevents judges from using their discretion=20 and orders lopsided sentences disproportionate to the alleged crimes. A=20 man-min sentence can be reduced only if the defendant cooperates with the=20 prosecution and snitches others out in the pursuit of questionable=20 conspiracy convictions. It's a quid pro qua deal: You give us the names of= =20 fellow travelers in order to notch our belts with more guilty verdicts, and= =20 you'll do less time or none at all. Often, far more culpable informants=20 receive lighter sentences than the people they inform on. Throw in=20 forfeiture laws, according to which, until recently, a drug offender -- or= =20 even anyone suspected prior to trial -- forfeits his or her assets to be=20 divvied up among the law-enforcement agencies involved in the case, and the= =20 result is incentive for cops and prosecutors to use the Constitution as=20 toilet paper. Consequently, the number of conspiracy prosecutions against Americans=20 arrested for the sale or manufacture of weed has soared, wreaking havoc on= =20 thousands of lives. Take, for example, the horror visited upon the Tucker=20 family of Georgia. [snip] In some cases, alleged marijuana transgressors face a far more deadly=20 penalty than prison. Donald Scott, a 61-year-old wealthy Malibu rancher,=20 was murdered in 1992 by a joint task force (comprised of members of the Los= =20 Angeles County Sheriff's Department, L.A.P.D., Park Service, D.E.A., Forest= =20 Service, California National Guard, and California Bureau of Narcotics)=20 conducting an early-morning raid on the pretense that Scott was growing pot= =20 on his property. Responding to his wife's screams, a clueless Scott grabbed= =20 a gun and confronted the intruders. Two bullets were pumped into him. No=20 pot was found. Ventura County District Attorney Michael D. Bradbury=20 released a report criticizing the task force for using false information to= =20 secure a search warrant. Bradbury characterized the effort as an attempt to= =20 use forfeiture laws to slice up Scott's considerable assets between the=20 participating agencies. "Clearly one of the primary purposes was a land=20 grab by the Sheriff's Department," Bradbury wrote. While no law-enforcement= =20 agency or officer was ever charged with a crime, Los Angeles County and the= =20 feds tentatively agreed to pay $5 million to Scott's survivors earlier this= =20 year. More recently, Mario Paz, a 65-year-old father of six and grandfather of=20 14, was shot dead in his Compton, California, home last August by officers= =20 from the nearby El Monte Police Department who were engaged in an ongoing=20 investigation. Again, it was an early-morning putsch on an uncomprehending= =20 victim. It turns out a suspected pot dealer had used Paz's address as a=20 mail drop. And once again no marijuana was found, nor was any police=20 officer charged with murder. In January, Q. J. Simpson attorney Johnnie=20 Cochran filed a suit on behalf of Paz's survivors, accusing the cities of=20 El Monte and Compton of wrongful death and conspiracy to violate Paz's=20 civil rights. [The article has been cut here and snipped above to keep this mailing to a= =20 reasonable size. To read the rest of the article, visit=20 http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n884/a06.html] ****************************************************************************= ** SAMPLE LETTER To the editor: Thank you for your article Reefer Mindless. It's heartening to see more and more people come forward to try to stop the drug war fascists. It's clearer than ever that the marijuana user isn't the bad guy in this war, that role falls to our own government. The article was probably written some time ago, so did not mention the unfortunate death of author and medical marijuana activist Peter McWilliams. Peter had been arrested on marijuana charges and was forbidden to mention his illness, Aids and cancer, or the legality of medical marijuana in his state at his trial. Left with no defense he was forced to plead guilty. As a term of Peters bail he was required to submit to urine tests for marijuana, the only drug that helped him keep down his medication. His mother was told that she would lose her house if he failed the test, so Peter obeyed his masters. On June 14th Peter choked to death on his own vomit as a direct result of being forbidden to use marijuana by Federal judge George King. We've lost another good man to the will of petty dictators. Jeff Flanagan IMPORTANT: Always include your address and telephone number Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify it at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous copies of the same letter and so that the original author receives credit for his/her= work. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts 3 Tips for Letter Writers http://www.mapinc.org/3tips.htm Letter Writers Style Guide http://www.mapinc.org/style.htm **************************************************************************** TO SUBSCRIBE, DONATE, VOLUNTEER TO HELP, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL SEE http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm TO UNSUBSCRIBE SEE http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm *************************************************************************** Prepared by Stephen Young - http://home.att.net/~theyoungfamily Focus Alert Specialist === Please help us help reform. Send drug-related news to editor@mapinc.org See http://www.mapinc.org/hawk.htm for details === NOW YOU CAN DONATE TO DRUGSENSE ONLINE AND IT'S TAX DEDUCTIBLE DrugSense provides many services to at no charge BUT THEY ARE NOT FREE TO PRODUCE. We incur many costs in creating our many and varied services. If you are able to help by contributing to the DrugSense effort visit our convenient donation web site at http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm ********************* Just DO It!! ********************************** Mark Greer Executive Director DrugSense MGreer@mapinc.org http://www.drugsense.org/ http://www.mapinc.org/ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 18:48:42 EDT From: NORMLFNDTN@aol.com To: undisclosed-recipients:; Subject: NORML WPR 6/29/00 (II) Message-ID: <4c.78b308d.268d2c4a@aol.com> NORML Foundation 1001 Connecticut Ave., NW Ste. 710 Washington, DC 20036 202-483-8751 (p) 202-483-0057 (f) www.norml.org foundation@norml.org June 29, 2000 House Committee To Hold July 11 Hearing On ONDCP Payola Scandal Salon.com Writer Who Broke The Story Will Face-Off Against Drug Czar Washington, DC: The House Committee on Government Reform's Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources will hold a hearing about the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign at 9 am on July 11 in room 2247 Rayburn House Office Building. Scheduled to testify at the hearing is Dan Forbes of Salon.com, who broke the payola scandal story and drug czar Barry McCaffrey. The NORML Foundation filed a complaint in February with the Federal Communications Commission alleging the ONDCP's program offering millions in advertising dollars to networks that include anti-drug messages embedded in programming without public disclosure may violate federal anti-payola laws. The FCC sent formal inquiries to five major networks in April and after reviewing the network's responses, the FCC asked NORML to provide formal comments. NORML filed those comments this week. For more information, please contact Tom Dean, Esq., NORML Foundation Litigation Director or Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director at (202) 483-8751. Supreme Court Lets Stand Ruling That Louisiana Drug Testing Law Is Unconstitutional Washington, DC: The U.S. Supreme Court today rejected an appeal by the State of Louisiana to overturn an appeals court holding that mandatory drug testing for elected officials is unconstitutional. In December, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 1998 U.S. District Court decision that found a Louisiana drug testing statute violates the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment protection against illegal search and seizure. The Louisiana law, which would have required 10 percent of state and local officials to be randomly drug tested each year, was passed in 1997 but has never been implemented due to the legal challenge. Under the law, results of the first test would have remained private. If drugs were detected, a second test would have been conducted within six months. In the case of a second positive test for drugs, the results would have been made public and a refusal to submit to a drug test would result in a $10,000 fine and censure. In a similar case in 1997, the Supreme Court held a Georgia law requiring candidates for statewide office to take drug tests was unconstitutional. "The Louisiana legislature consistently spits in the face of the Constitution, and inevitably ends up wasting the taxpayers' money in the process," said William Rittenberg, Esq., a NORML Legal Committee attorney who challenged the Louisiana law on behalf of a state legislator. For more information, please contact William Rittenberg, Esq., at (504) 524-5555. Oregon and Washington Add Ailments To Approved List For Medical Marijuana Seattle, WA: Medical marijuana boards in both Washington and Oregon have added new ailments for which patients are legally permitted to use marijuana medically. Washington State's Medical Quality Assurance Commission this week added diseases that cause severe gastrointestinal symptoms and seizures or muscle spasms to the list of terminal or debilitating medical conditions for which marijuana can be used if the patient possesses a doctor's recommendation. The commission rejected a request to include insomnia and post-traumatic stress disorder to the list. In the past, the board has added Crohn's disease and hepatitis C to the list of approved ailments. "They've (the commission) done more than any other state in the country in listening to patients' needs and allowing truly suffering people to have access to marijuana," said Rob Killian, M.D., who filed the petition to include the recent additions to the medical marijuana law. Last week, Oregon's Health Division added agitation from Alzheimer's disease to its list of medical conditions covered by the state's medical marijuana law. According to the state's health officer, marijuana won't help patients with the loss of memory and other intellectual capacities associated with the disease, but it may ease patient's agitation, which is the inability to settle down, restlessness and pacing which leads to the patient's combativeness. The Oregon board rejected petitions to include anxiety, bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, schizo-affective disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, insomnia and adult attention deficit disorder. "Both Oregon and Washington can be commended for making an honest and credible attempt to make functional recently passed medical marijuana laws," said Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director. For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director at (202) 483-8751. Dutch Parliament Approves Resolution To Allow Regulated Marijuana Cultivation Amsterdam, Netherlands: The Dutch Parliament narrowly adopted a resolution this past Tuesday to allow regulated marijuana cultivation, which the government hopes will curb the illicit export of marijuana, an estimated $8.5 billion business. Legislators passed the resolution by a 73-72 vote. The resolution now awaits the cabinet's consideration, which will likely come on Friday. Coffee shops in the Netherlands are permitted to openly sell marijuana and hash, but it remains a crime to grow marijuana. "One of the main objectives is to fight crime," said Labor Party parliamentarian Thanasis Apostolou, who drafted the resolution. "By regulating the supply we would know who is selling what and where it is going." "The Dutch are clearly in the lead in creating a more workable marijuana policy," said Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director. "This is in stark contrast to the U.S. where most elected officials continue to look for new ways to punish marijuana smokers." For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre, NORML Foundation Executive Director at (202) 483-8751. -End- ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 19:51:57 -0700 From: "Ann" (by way of "D. Paul Stanford" ) To: restore@crrh.org Subject: LA's CBC? Blood On Their Hands/Peter's words Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20000629195039.04da3680@mail.olywa.net> I have received many inquiries on Peter's statement (below) - rather than answer everyone individually, here are my somewhat random thoughts on the matter - forward as you feel appropriate. I guess it is time (You were absolutely right, Chuck.) for ALL of this to have a public airing. All other concerns aside, it's time to get tot he bottom of things. It will not bring Peter back. It may help his soul rest more peacefully to know that the truth will get out, despite the loss of his final writings. For what it is worth... In my opinion..... Blame, as credit, deserves to be placed where it is due, not just where it is convenient. The sole and star witness in Todd and Peter's case - Scott Imler, continues growing and SELLING cannabis in Los Angeles - AND he is being subsidized by the City of West L.A. to do it. After betraying his friend (Peter) and condemning a well-known activist, researcher, writer and cancer-survivor (Todd), Imler remains untouched. I hold Scott Imler second only to George King in responsibility for Peter's death. The US Attorney's office comes in a not too distant third. The prosecutors owed nothing to Todd or Peter. They were 'doing their job' - The judge was supposed to temper the prosecutors' demands - He did not. The judge was supposed to find the truth. Instead, he imposed a gag order. I give the LAPD/County and DEA drugwarriors - the rank and file - 4th place on my list of killers. Imler BETRAYED Peter McWilliams, who thought of Imler as a friend. THAT - by my standards - is UNFORGIVABLE. We have to question where the cannabis stolen by the authorities from the "Mj Mansion" went. Did Imler get any or all of it? --Has he received monetary or in-kind compensation from the feds or local authorities? Why the LACRC is the only club in California not shut down or facing debilitating legal expenses... Did he, and/or his associates receive copies of Todd's research notes and records which they are now using for their own gain? The innocent members of the LACRC should be up in arms. They are the ones being hurt in this. The wolves in sheep's clothing are financially raping them while smiling to their faces and placing arms around their shoulders. Peter THOUGHT these people were his friends, too. He trusted them. He was their most generous benefactor. Take heed by how they rewarded Peter. Who stole Todd's passport and bank records from the house at a time when ONLY the drugcops had access to the premises? Who closed Todd's bank account while Todd was in custody? Why wasn't this investigated with the same zealousness the prosecutor displayed in going after Todd and Peter? Why have we not seen bank surveillance tapes of the person who impersonated Todd and withdrew his money from the bank? What about personal (non-mj related) items stolen from the house that never appeared on 'official' lists. ONLY the drugcops had access - or - was the informant allowed access, too? After the raid... Their bird, Tashi, was dead. Indy, their dog, was in 'doggy-jail' Their home, ransacked. Everything of value removed. All their hard work destroyed. Todd's failure to "surrender his passport" was used by the prosecutors to request the high bail - much higher than bail set for violent criminals. Who pocketed/destroyed the passport? There were 2 separate projects running under the Medical Botanical Foundation, a non-profit Peter set up. Todd was in charge of writing a cultivation and use guide for Californians under Prop 215. A separate group was exploring ways to distribute organically grown cannabis to medical patients through the buyers' clubs. There were no distribution or intent to distribute indictments brought against anyone involved in the Bel Air raid. The distribution charges were inherited through the CONSPIRACY indictments handed down after Peter's arrest in '98. The men involved in the exploration of distribution methods for buyers clubs were not doing anything wrong, either. They were trying to fill in a gap left open by the poor wording of Prop 215 and to PROTECT mj patients from the prices and lack of quality controls of the black market. Most of the California growers are honorable, caring people. As in any business, some are not. Novices, buying mj on the streets do not know whether the mj they are buying is adulterated or pure. Peter's concern was for consistent purity from toxic chemicals. Someone whose health is already compromised does not need to smoke chemical fertilizers or insecticides. Imler has presented himself as a 'victim' dragged before the grand jury, forced to testify. This is blatantly untrue. He was neither a victim, nor was he dragged. We have to look at the timing of the initial raid. Imler told Peter in May of 1997 that he wanted "the pot the guy is growing in Bel Air". Peter reluctantly agreed to relay that message to Todd. Todd emphatically told Peter to tell Scott NONE OF IT WAS FOR SALE. IT WOULD BE GIVEN -FREE - TO BONA FIDE MED MJ PATIENTS IN CALIFORNIA. The timing of the raid was AFTER most of the cultivation research had been compiled and a week BEFORE the initial harvest and FREE distribution to cannabis patients in California. The judge who approved the warrant on the Stone Canyon house was not told of the MEDICAL association. The cops who grabbed Renee an hour BEFORE entering the house were well aware that this was a MEDICAL marijuana garden and under THEIR OWN STATE LAW they had no legal right to proceed with the raid. It would appear that their motives were less than law-abiding and honest when they chose to proceed anyway. The raid was conducted by LA city/county authorities. The DEA was called in AFTER the fact. WHO has copies of Todd's and Peter's work? WHERE did the harvested cannabis go? With Peter's death, Todd's captivity and Renee's quest for asylum - these questions scream out for answers. with sadness, ann (Who sincerely wishes Imler had taken time to THINK of ALL the possible tragedies his actions would cause BEFORE dropping the dime to destroy his perceived 'competition', protect his profits and destroy so many innocent lives with his own greed and jealousy) That's my 2 cents. I now, individually, need to let this anger go- I leave it in God's hands - and yours. Subject: Rev. Imler & Richard Nixon From: "McWilliams Main" To: "Peter McWilliams" Date: Thu, 21 Jan 1999 20:39:09 -0800 From: Peter McWilliams... What a piece of work is Scott Imler. I nominate him for the Richard Nixon Chutzpa Award. Remember when Nixon was cornered about Watergate and the Supreme Court ordered him to turn over the transcripts of his taped White House conversations? Nixon did so, on national television, proudly gesturing to the stack of dozens of volumes of transcribed tapes behind him. "This will prove my innocence!" he proclaimed. In fact, it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt his guilt. I guess Nixon figured nobody would actually read the thousands of pages to find the smoking guns hidden in the text. Yesterday, Rev. Imler circulated the federal indictment in my case far and wide. One can almost hear the voice of Richard Nixon in Imler's introduction to the federal prosecution's case against me: "Attached is the federal indictment of Peter, Todd, and friends. People can judge the allegations and facts for themselves and Hoping [sic] get a better sense of the overall context." In other words, Rev. Imler is using a federal document as his defense. We are asked to believe the feds in a drug case, something no drug-reform person is likely to do. Rev. Imler concludes his introduction: "I apologize for the appalling length, but you'll have to take that up with Peter. "Scott Imler" So I am to blame for the length of the federal indictment? All I can say is that if Imler talked less, it would be a lot shorter. But let us assume for a moment that everything in the indictment were absolutely true. The indictment contains no evidence of drug dealing, no cash seized, no firearms, no income unaccounted for, no exchange of money for drugs, and no drugs other than marijuana. All indicted parties were vocal medical marijuana advocates and had either a physician's permission or were caregivers. All "alleged acts" took place in California after the passage of Proposition 215. And it absolves Imler of nothing. After wading through 200 paragraphs of its eight counts, what the indictment describes is (a) medical marijuana patients and caregivers growing medical marijuana for their own use, well within the limits of Proposition 215, (b) lots of transfers of money from me to Todd McCormick for a book he was writing for my publishing company ("How to Grow Medical Marijuana," see www.growmedicine.com) and (c) severance pay to Andrew Scott Hass, a medical marijuana patient who ran my publishing company, Prelude Press, for a while. Rev. Imler presented the full indictment in three long e-mails, knowing full well very few people are going to wade through page after page of dreary federal prose. His implication is that SOMEWHERE IN HERE we see that McCormick and McWilliams are BAD and Imler is somehow vindicated from being a snitch. But even a casual reading reveals Rev. Imler as the informant that he is. I maintain that most of what he said is false, but even if it were true, the fact that this information came to the feds through Imler is indisputable. To save you the time of reading it all, I have excerpted the best bits below. The following points of the federal indictment, circulated by Rev. Imler, came entirely from Rev. Imler's testimony and the testimony of two of his "employees" at the Los Angeles Buyer's Club, both named Jeff. "11. Defendant PETER McWILLIAMS would attempt to negotiate contracts for the sale of harvested marijuana and marijuana plant clones." My plan, in fact, was (and still is) to use my nonprofit 501(c)3 company, the Medical Botanical Foundation, to get medical marijuana into pharmacies, just like any other medication. When I told Rev. Imler this, he turned white. It would, after all, put his "Club" out of business. Were I to guess, I would say this had something to do with Rev. Imler's more-than-enthusiastic desire for my arrest. That meeting with Mr. Imler in May or June 1997 at my house appeared again at: "36. In or about May, 1997, in Los Angeles, California, defendant PETER McWILLIAMS asked an employee of the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyers' Club whether the club was interested in buying marijuana." The "employee," as you may have guessed, is Rev. Imler. As there were only two people there, and as I have not talked to the feds about it, the only place the feds could have gotten this information is from Rev. Imler himself. As anyone following federal drug cases knows, that statement alone from Rev. Imler is enough to put me away for ten-year-to-life for "conspiracy." No drugs need to change hands for a "conspiracy" count to stick. But Rev. Imler was far from vague in his accusations, as the following point from the indictment circulated by Imler clearly reveals: "55. In or about June, 1997, in Los Angeles, California, defendant PETER McWILLIAMS told an employee of the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyer' s Club that he was funding defendant TODD McCORMICK's marijuana grow at the Stone Canyon residence, that he wanted to become the "Bill Gates of medical marijuana," that "they" intended to become and distribute high quality marijuana clones through the mail, and that he wanted to enter into a grow contract with the club for the sale of marijuana at $4,800 per pound." What I said was that I wanted to be the Larry Flynt of medical marijuana; that I wanted to do for green what Larry had done for pink. Through the Medical Marijuana Foundation I intended (and still do) to be "the largest supplier of medical marijuana in the country..." but only legally and only though pharmacies after medical marijuana had been made a Schedule II prescription drug. The rest of it, right down to the price per pound, is all from Rev. Imler's imagination. One can just imagine DEA agents and federal prosecutors pressing Imler for more incriminating details, and Imler provided them. Yes, not only is he a snitch, but he is a dishonest snitch. After Todd's bust on July 29, 1997, the first federal medical marijuana bust since the passage of 215 in November 1996, I immediately donated everything I had to an organization I still believed was dedicated to getting medical marijuana to the sick, the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyer's Club. "110. On or about August, 1997, in Los Angeles, California, defendant PETER McWILLIAMS attempted to distribute numerous marijuana plants, grow lights and other equipment to the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyer's Club in order to prevent the discovery of the marijuana grow at the 8165 Mannix residence. "111. In or about August, l997, at the 8165 Mannix residence, defendants PETER McWILLIAMS and ANDREW SCOTT HASS, distributed processed marijuana, numerous grow lights, light movers, fans, timers and electrical equipment to employees of the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyer's Club in order to prevent the discovery of the marijuana grow at the 8165 Mannix residence." Here's I'm giving Imler all this stuff for free, and all the while he's freely talking to the DEA about my donations. The lights, light movers, etc. I donated, but no "processed marijuana." More Imler-DEA-federal invention. "112. In on or about August, 1997, in Los Angeles, California, defendant ANDREW SCOTT HASS discussed with employees of the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyer's Club his role in setting up the indoor marijuana cultivation room at the Stone Canyon residence, the creation of an electronically controlled, indoor, hydroponic marijuana grow at the club's office, and the distribution of defendant PETER McWILLIAMS' marijuana plants to the club." I can guarantee you that Andrew Scott Hass never told the feds any of this, which leaves the source of information as "employees of the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyer's Club." What I had offered to do, in fact, was install a state-of-the-art hydroponic system at the Club as a donation. Andrew Scott Hass and I were researching the most efficient ways of cultivating medical marijuana for the Medical Botanical Foundation. As Imler at that time had had several disasters in growing marijuana for his Club, I offered assistance. Although I was not part of the conversation described in 112, I have a feeling Imler invented much of it. Hass, for example, seldom went to Todd's house ("the Stone Canyon Residence"), so "his role in setting up the indoor marijuana cultivation room at the Stone Canyon residence" at Todd's strains my credulity. "113. In or about August, 1997, in Los Angeles, California. defendants PETER McWILLIAMS and ANDREW SCOTT HASS offered to sell the Los Angeles Cannabis Buyer's Club marijuana at $4,000 per pound." Reduced from $4,800, apparently. More Imler DEA-induced fantasy, as far as I can tell. Note the inconsistency in the stories. At 111 I "distributed processed marijuana" to the Club for no money, then I turn around and try to sell marijuana for $4,000 a pound. At what point did I turn from being one of the Club's most generous benefactors to being a greedy supplier? And why was this sale never consummated? Where's the money? But, again, this is not about what I did or did not do. A jury will determine that, and I will either spend the rest of my life in prison or I will not. (A 10-year mandatory minimum is a death sentence to anyone with AIDS.) The point is that Imler gave enough information about Hass, McCormick, and me to put us all away. And all this is from the "evidence" supplied by Imler to prove his innocence as an informer. Todd McCormick, the other co-defendants, and myself face a possible life prison sentence, with a mandatory minimum of ten years. Even were all charges dropped tomorrow, the past year-and-a-half has been a living hell for all of us. Nevertheless, Rev. Imler chooses to refer to the indictment that might destroy the lives of nine harmless medical marijuana advocates as "McDictment." Oh, he's so clever. Finally, there has been some talk about violence against Rev. Imler. I am wholly opposed to this. I doubt if anyone seriously intends to harm Imler. I tend to think the rhetoric just get a bit heated at times. After all, the name of a popular sitcom is "Just Shoot Me." Those of us in the medical marijuana movement are motivated by healing, not violence. It's time to declare peace on drugs, not war on snitches. At the same time, consider Imler armed and dangerous: he is armed with home phone numbers of DEA agents and he will use them to report any contact you may make with him. Sincerely, Peter McWilliams peter@mcwilliams.com www.mcwilliams.com www.marijuanamagazine.com ------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2000 21:06:37 -0700 From: "D. Paul Stanford" To: restore@crrh.org Subject: Netherlands: Dutch cannabis vote irks cabinet Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20000629210607.04d8fa60@mail.olywa.net> Newshawk: Leigh Hallingby Pubdate: Wed, 28 Jun 2000 Source: Financial Times (UK) Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 2000 Contact: letters.editor@ft.com Address: 1 Southwark Bridge, London, SE1 9HL, UK Fax: +44 171 873 3922 Website: http://www.ft.com/ Author: Gordon Cramb DUTCH CANNABIS VOTE IRKS CABINET The Dutch parliament yesterday voted to decriminalise the wholesale trade in cannabis, in a surprise outcome that has wrong-footed the cabinet. A narrow majority backed a motion aimed at removing the anomaly under which licensed "coffee shops" are allowed to hold and sell small quantities of the drug, while their suppliers remain open to prosecution. The move is likely to draw renewed international scrutiny of the Netherlands' liberal drugs policy. Benk Korthals, justice minister, said: "This sends the wrong signal, and is contrary to international treaties." The centre-left cabinet is to discuss the issue on Friday, at its last meeting before the summer recess. But he indicated that he would not draw up legislation to comply with the vote. As many as 60 Dutch local authorities, which regulate the coffee shops, are in favour of the change. Edumond d'Hondt, mayor of the eastern city of Nijmegen, said he would fight any resistance by the cabinet, threatening a lawsuit if it did not comply with the wish of parliament. The best hope of ministers appeared last night to be the holding of a fresh parliamentary debate later in the year, at which the 73-72 vote could be reversed. After a review of policy on "soft" drugs, Mr Korthals said in April that enforcement efforts would be aimed mainly at illegal cultivation within the country as well as imports. Greenhouse cultivation has been on the rise, although the International Narcotics Control Board, a United Nations agency, in February said the country's initiatives in curbing the growing of the drug were exemplary. Unlicensed points of sale, such as private houses and delivery services, were spreading rapidly in cities, according to the justice ministry. That came amid a fall in the number of coffee shops, to a national total of 840 from 1,200 five years ago. __________________________________________________________________________ Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck www.mapinc.org ------------------------------ End of restore V1 #540 ********************** * ------ CRRH's Oregon petition now has over 70,000 signatures and needs 66,786 valid voters' signatures by July 7th to qualify for a Nov. 7, 2000 vote. ------ To subscribe, unsubscribe or switch to immediate or digest mode, please send your instructions to . ------ *Campaign for the Restoration and Regulation of Hemp* mail: CRRH ; P.O. Box 86741 ; Portland, OR 97286 USA email: crrh@crrh.org phone: (503) 235-4606 fax: (503) 235-0120 web: http://www.crrh.org/