>From: "Peter McWilliams" >Subject: More Mac >Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2000 08:58:26 -0800 >X-Mozilla-Status: 8001 >X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000 > > >Date: Wed, 8 Dec 1999 14:55:40 -0800 >DRUG BUSTS > >THE ECONOMIST: Allowing medical use [of marijuana] is seen by Mr. McCaffrey >as a smoke-screen for ideas of that sort. Before the Maine vote he wrote in >the Maine Sunday Telegram that the proposed new law was "unnecessary and >dangerous". He pointed out that the psychoactive component of marijuana, >tetrahydrocannabinol, has long been available as a drug under the brand name >Marinol. "Just as people who are ill don't grow their own penicillin from >moldy bread," wrote Mr. McCaffrey, "individuals can't guarantee the purity >and dosage of THC by growing crude marijuana." Marinol has its drawbacks, >however. Nauseous patients find it hard to keep down; others find it >ineffective or, by contrast, too potent. "It turns you into a zombie," says >one AIDS patient for whom it was prescribed. Patients smoking marijuana find >it easier to regulate their dosage themselves. Marinol is also expensive, at >$10 a tablet (normal dosage is two tablets a day), and s not covered by >health insurance. It has recently been reclassified as a Schedule III drug, >meaning that it is available on repeat prescription. This is not the first >time, says Sam Smith, editor of the liberal Progressive Review, that "a drug >has been legalized after the pharmaceutical corporations figured out how to >do artificially and at a big profit what nature once offered for the >picking." > >A recent Bristol University study shows that law enforcement officers in >England view marijuana as harmless. Ninety-five police officers were asked >to rank 11 substances in order of addictiveness and marijuana was considered >the least addictive, just behind coffee. Crack, heroin, cocaine, tobacco, >and alcohol were the top five most addictive substances. Marijuana ranked >10th (out of 11) in being considered a harmful substance by the officers, >just behind alcohol and ahead of coffee. Crack, heroin, and cocaine were >considered the top three most harmful. > >The California Coalition Against Prohibition and other community groups are >fighting the pending eviction of 69-year-old Vernolia McCullough from her >Oakland home. McCullough herself has never been charged with a crime, though >police say they have recorded numerous marijuana sales in front of her >property, some of them by her numerous relatives. She is scheduled to be >evicted on December 2nd under the federally sponsored Community Prosecutor >Program, aimed at conglomerating federal, state and local resources against >alleged sources of public nuisance and blight. In addition to the eviction, >the government is seeking to forfeit McCullough's home under federal law, >which unlike state law does not require a criminal conviction. California >NORML coordinator Dale Gieringer says the Community Prosecutor Program is >promoting "the cowardly and disgraceful tactic of civil forfeiture in its >bankrupt war on marijuana. The government is seeking to render an old lady >homeless for failing to prevent activity that its own police have been >unable to prevent, without even charging her with a crime. In effect, it is >trying to shift the burden of its own failed prohibitionist policy onto the >shoulders of local property-owners." > > > > >================================================================ > >This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to > the mailing list . >To unsubscribe, E-mail to: