The DrugSpot

Japan roasted for planting drugs to test airport sniffer dogs

2008-05-28T17:54:00.000-07:00

Dispatchonline

2008/05/27

Japanese customs officers were sharply criticised today for planting 142 grams of cannabis in the bag of a Hong Kong passenger to test a sniffer dog that then failed to find the drugs.

The unsuspecting Cathay Pacific passenger walked out of Tokyo’s Narita International Airport with the drugs after an officer stuffed it into the side pocket of a black suitcase to test the animal.

The unauthorized test on Sunday went embarrassingly wrong when the dog failed to detect the cannabis and the officer responsible forgot which bag he had put it in.

An appeal had to be issued asking the passenger to return the drugs. The official involved was reprimanded for planting the drugs.

Officials said today that the drugs had been recovered but did not give details of whether the passenger involved was traced or whether he or she contacted customs officers to return the cannabis.

Hong Kong Secretary for Security Ambrose Lee said the incident was a breach of all customs protocol and said the government would express its concern to Japanese officials.

The executive director of the Hong Kong Travel Industry Council, Joseph Tung, said such acts would endanger passengers and said a strong letter or protest would be written to the Japanese government.

“We are shocked at this,” Tung told the government-run radio station RTHK.

”Such training exercises should be stopped at once. It is totally unacceptable.”

A spokeswoman for Hong Kong’s Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd also expressed concern over the incident and said the airline should be informed of any such drill or exercise in the future.

The 38-year-old Japanese customs officer responsible for the planting of the drugs told reporters in Tokyo the dogs had always been able to find the drugs when similar exercises had been done in the past.

The officer was quoted by a television network as saying: “I knew that using passengers’ bags is prohibited, but I did it because I wanted to improve the sniffer dog’s ability.” - Sapa

Molecular Fingerprint Of Cocaine Addiction Revealed

2008-05-28T17:45:00.000-07:00

ScienceDaily

ScienceDaily (May 27, 2008) — The first large-scale analysis of proteins in the brains of monkeys addicted to cocaine reveals new information on how long-term cocaine use changes the amount and activity of various proteins affecting brain function.

The identified changes are more numerous and long-lasting than previously thought, which may provide a biological explanation for why cocaine addiction is so difficult to overcome, according to Scott E. Hemby, Ph.D. of Wake Forest University School of Medicine, senior author of the study.

Results from the study are reported online May 27 in the journal Molecular Psychiatry and detail the effect of long-term cocaine intake on the amount and activity of thousands of proteins in monkeys. Monkeys are an ideal animal for studying addiction because they share considerable behavioral, anatomical and biochemical similarities with humans. About 2.4 million Americans currently use cocaine, according to estimates.

The researchers used state-of-the-art "proteomic" technology, which enables the simultaneous analysis of thousands of proteins, to compare the "proteome" (all proteins expressed at a given time) between a group of monkeys that self-administered cocaine and a group that did not receive the drug. Leonard Howell, Ph.D., with Emory University School of Medicine, who conducted the monkey studies, was a co-researcher. The study provides a comprehensive assessment of biochemical changes occurring in the cocaine addicted brain, Hemby said.

"The changes we identified are profound and affect the structure, metabolism and signaling of neurons," said lead author Nilesh Tannu, M.D. "It is unlikely that these types of changes are easily reversible after drug use is discontinued, which may explain why relapse occurs."

Hemby said that the development of medications to treat addictive disorders is guided in large part by our understanding of the brain mechanisms that produce the euphoric effects of the drugs. It is equally important to understand the damage that long-term drug use causes to brain cells so medications can be developed to reverse those effects and restore normal cell function in the brain.

The changes identified in the current study point to significant and likely long-lasting damage to brain cells as a result of cocaine abuse. "The duration of use and the amount of drug consumed that lead to such damage is currently not known, but is critical for understanding the long-term health consequences of cocaine abuse and determining the necessary modes of treatment," said Hemby. "We hope that the information generated from the study will also serve an educational purpose as a deterrent to cocaine use."

Currently, there are no FDA approved treatments for cocaine addiction. The research was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Cocaine on 94 Percent of Spanish Banknotes

2006-12-25T21:19:00.000-08:00

The New York Times

Madrid (Reuters) - Traces of cocaine can be found on 94 percent of banknotes in Spain, a country that has one of the world's highest rates of users, according to a study published on Sunday.

The 100 notes tested were collected in gyms, supermarkets and pharmacies across Spain, where increased affluence and falling street prices have made the drug more and more accessible.

Cocaine now sells for as little as 60 euros ($80) a gram, or 5 euros ($7) a line, and it is regularly used by 1.6 percent of Spaniards, up from 0.9 percent in 1999, a government report said this month.

Law enforcement agencies say cocaine is getting cheaper and more popular in Europe because of efforts to boost production by Colombian paramilitaries and rebels who need money for weapons. Spain is a major entry point to Europe for the smugglers.

It was not clear how many of the notes had been used to snort cocaine and how many had picked up traces from other bills, according to the study by the Sailab laboratory, published in the daily El Mundo.

Afghanistan Opium Crop Sets Record

2006-12-01T23:47:00.000-08:00

WashingtonPost.com

Opium production in Afghanistan, which provides more than 90 percent of the world's heroin, broke all records in 2006, reaching a historic high despite ongoing U.S.-sponsored eradication efforts, the Bush administration reported yesterday.

In addition to a 26 percent production increase over past year -- for a total of 5,644 metric tons -- the amount of land under cultivation in opium poppies grew by 61 percent. Cultivation in the two main production provinces, Helmand in the southwest and Oruzgan in central Afghanistan, was up by 132 percent.

White House drug policy chief John Walters called the news "disappointing."

The administration has cited resurgent Taliban forces as the main impediment to stabilization and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan, and the U.S. military investment has far exceeded anti-narcotic and development programs. But U.S. military and intelligence officials have increasingly described the drug trade as a problem that rivals and in some ways exceeds the Taliban, threatening to derail other aspects of U.S. policy.

"It is truly the Achilles' heel of Afghanistan," Gen. James L. Jones, the supreme allied commander for NATO, said in a recent speech at the Council on Foreign Relations. Afghanistan is NATO's biggest operation, with more than 30,000 troops. Drug cartels with their own armies engage in regular combat with NATO forces deployed in Afghanistan, he said. "It would be wrong to say that this is just the Taliban. I think I need to set that record straight," he added.

"They have their own capability to inflict damage, to make sure that the roads and the passages stay open and they get to where they want to go, whether it's through Pakistan, Iran, up through Russia and all the known trade routes. So this is a very violent cartel," Jones said. "They are buying their protection by funding other organizations, from criminal gangs to tribes, to inciting any kind of resistance to keep the government off of their back."

Any disruption of the drug trade has enormous implications for Afghanistan's economic and political stability. Although its relative strength in the overall economy has diminished as other sectors have expanded in recent years, narcotics is a $2.6 billion-a-year industry that this year provided more than a third of the country's gross domestic product. Farmers who cultivate opium poppies receive only a small percentage of the profits, but U.S. officials estimate the crop provides up to 12 times as much income per acre as conventional farming, and there is violent local resistance to eradication.

"It's almost the devil's own problem," CIA Director Michael V. Hayden told Congress last month. "Right now the issue is stability. . . . Going in there in itself and attacking the drug trade actually feeds the instability that you want to overcome."

"Attacking the problem directly in terms of the drug trade . . . would undermine the attempt to gain popular support in the region," agreed Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency. "There's a real conflict, I think."

The Afghan government has prohibited the aerial herbicide spraying used by U.S. anti-narcotic programs in Latin America. Instead, opium poppy plants in Afghanistan are destroyed by tractors dragging heavy bars. But only 38,500 of nearly 430,000 acres under cultivation were eradicated this year.

Because of security concerns and local sensibilities, all eradication is done by Afghan police, and corruption is a major problem at every level from cultivation to international trafficking. Although the drug trade is believed to provide some financing to the Taliban, most experts believe it is largely an organized criminal enterprise. According to a major report on the Afghan drug industry jointly released last week by the World Bank and the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, key narcotics traffickers "work closely with sponsors in top government and political positions."

The report drew specific attention to the Afghan Interior Ministry, saying its officials were increasingly involved in providing protection for and facilitating consolidation of the drug industry in the hands of leading traffickers. "At the lower levels," the report said, "payments to police to avoid eradication or arrest reportedly are very widespread. At higher levels, provincial and district police chief appointments appear to be a tool for key traffickers and sponsors to exercise control and favor their proteges at middle levels in the drug industry."

Opium cultivation was outlawed during Taliban rule in the late 1990s and was nearly eliminated by 2001. After the overthrow of the Taliban government by U.S. forces in the fall of that year, the Bush administration said that keeping a lid on production was among its highest priorities. But corruption and alliances formed by Washington and the Afghan government with anti-Taliban tribal chieftains, some of whom are believed to be deeply involved in the trade, undercut the effort.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently noted that "once we thought terrorism was Afghanistan's biggest enemy" but said that now "poppy, its cultivation and drugs are Afghanistan's major enemy."

Eradication and alternative development programs have made little discernible headway. Cultivation -- measured annually with high-resolution satellite imagery that is then parsed by analysts using specialized computer software -- is nearly double its highest pre-Karzai level.

"There is supposed to be a tremendous energy associated with this," Jones said of the counter-narcotics programs, "but it needs a fresh look because . . . we're losing ground.

Marijuana-like Drugs Help Treatment of Nervous System Diseases

2006-12-01T23:46:00.000-08:00

Sofia News Agency

Many scientists believe marijuana-like drugs might be able to treat a wide range of diseases.

Researchers have already presented evidence that cannabinoid drugs can help treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as ALS, Parkinson's disease and obesity. Other researchers are studying whether the compounds can help victims of stroke and multiple sclerosis.

Although the chemicals work on the same area of the nervous system, the new drugs are much more refined and targeted than marijuana, with few of its side effects.Like all neurotransmitter networks, the cannabinoid system consists of a series of chemical pathways through the brain and nervous system.

Marijuana produces its effects by activating this pathway, primarily through the effects of tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, the drug's main active ingredient.

Researchers have learned that endogenous cannabinoids play a role in tissue protection, immunity and inflammation, among other functions. The cannabinoid system also appears to exert wide influence, modulating the release of dopamine, serotonin and other neurotransmitters.

Cannabinoids might slow down ALS, which destroys neurons that control muscles until victims become paralysed, research showed. Marijuana treatment delays disease progression by more than three years and may extend survival. That's a significant improvement over the only existing ALS drug, riluzole, which extends life by two months.

Researchers at the Institute of Neurology in London announced results showing cannabinoids have also helped some human ALS patients in one small trial. If cannabinoids can shield human neurons from harm, researchers say, they might prove useful against other neurological diseases, including mental illness. Scientists are looking at whether cannabinoids can treat multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and Huntington's disease.

Test Strips For The Rapid Detection Of Cocaine

2006-12-01T23:40:00.000-08:00

Medical News Today

Saving the life of a poisoning victim is often a matter of minutes. It is best when the emergency doctor can perform a reliable diagnosis on the spot to determine which poison or what type of drug overdose a patient is suffering from. Complicated laboratory analyses and a complex apparatus are out of place in the emergency room. A team at the University of Illinois in Urbana has now laid the foundation for a new generation of rapid diagnostic tests that are as easy to handle as a pregnancy test: just dunk them in the sample and see if a colored band appears. These test strips are as reliable as laboratory methods. As a prototype, the researchers led by Yi Lu developed a test strip for the detection of cocaine in biological samples such as saliva, urine, and blood serum.

"Our method is based on tiny gold spheres and aptamers," reports Lu. Aptamers are single-stranded nucleic acid molecules that bind to certain target molecules with the same strength and specificity as antibodies. From a large number of DNA strands with random sequences (a library), it is basically possible to find a suitable aptamer for almost every target molecule. Says Lu: "The broad practical application of aptamers has thus far not realized its promise in practical diagnostics because the corresponding tests could not be made sufficiently user-friendly for the average user, who has not had laboratory training."

The new test strips for cocaine are different. When the end of the strip is dipped into a sample, the liquid travels along the strip to reach a zone with small gold-aptamer clumps. The trick lies in the special structure of these clumps: they are aggregates of nanoscopic gold spheres coupled to short DNA strands, some containing the biomolecule biotin. The DNA sequences are complementary to two regions of the cocaine-specific DNA aptamer. The aptamers bind to these strands, linking the gold spheres into larger aggregates. When the cocaine-containing liquid reaches these aggregates, the cocaine molecule instantly binds to the aptamers and removes them from the network; the aggregates fall apart into individual gold spheres. These free spheres are red. When the liquid travels further along the strip, it reaches a membrane. While the larger gold aggregates are stopped by the membrane, the red gold spheres are small enough to pass through it. They end up stuck to a narrow strip of streptavidin, a biomolecule that grabs onto the biotin on the gold surface like a hook onto an eye. The gold spheres get concentrated on the narrow strip and become visible as a distinct red stripe on the test strip.

"Our method is universal," stresses Lu. "Based on this principle, we should be able to develop rapid tests for the emergency diagnosis of a large number of drugs and poisons, as well as physiological molecules. The same method is also applicable to environmental monitoring."

Marijuana fan wants to roll the biggest joint

2006-12-01T23:32:00.000-08:00

IOL

Los Angeles - A medical marijuana user plans to see in the new year on an all-time high - by rolling the world's biggest joint.

Los Angeles resident Brett Stone said he aims to usher in 2007 by rolling a 91cm cigarette using around 112 grams of marijuana.

Stone said he was inspired to try for a record after learning that the previous biggest joint was made with 100 grams.

"I thought the world's largest joint would have been a lot larger," said Stone, 48.

Medical marijuana use has been legal in California since 1996, when voters passed a law allowing the drug to be used as a pain reliever.

Stone said he would be careful to ensure that his record attempt would remain legal, indicating that the joint would be smoked in a local medical marijuana collective.

"We're probably going to do it as a fundraiser," he said. "And the mayor and police chief would be most welcome if they have a doctor's note to consume cannabis."

Stone said he plans to roll an even bigger joint to mark the US football final at the Super Bowl next February - and has asked companies if they can provide custom made rolling papers to help the attempt.

"I think a metre would be a good, smokeable size joint," Stone said. "I'm not looking to make a torpedo... I'm looking to make a smokeable joint."

Ecstasy study turns dance floor into lab

2006-12-01T23:27:00.000-08:00

ABC Science Online

The idea of being followed around a nightclub by a researcher bent on taking a blood sample and measuring your temperature may not be your idea of a good time.

But 'field' studies like this may be the only way to get the full picture of the effects of the drug ecstasy, or MDMA, says University of Adelaide pharmacologist Professor Rod Irvine.

Irvine, whose unique recreation-setting study of ecstasy was presented at the Australian Health and Medical Research Congress in Melbourne today, says real-life studies of ecstasy paint a very different picture to conventional, controlled, low-dose laboratory studies.

"I'm not saying that we must go out into clubs and do naturalistic studies and that they're the only things to do, but those sorts of studies must be included in the spectra of what we're doing," he says.

"People out there will use much higher doses of the drugs than would ever be allowed ethically in a controlled clinical setting.

"So it gives you the opportunity ... to perhaps pick up data that you could never replicate in a laboratory."

Taking the lab to the club

Irvine's study, conducted with the PhD student Kate Morefield, analysed 10 people who took ecstasy in a party setting.

The subjects, aged around 27, had taken one to five pills.

Blood samples were collected just before taking the ecstasy and once an hour for the next four hours. Heart rate, temperature and blood pressure was also regularly monitored.

The study showed that using the drug in a recreational setting produced higher elevations in heart rate, blood pressure and skin temperature than previous laboratory studies had shown.

The concentration of MDMA, or methylenedioxymethamphetamine, in clubbers' blood also exceeded those reported in clinical research, Irvine says.

"In recreational settings, individuals experience or tolerate physiological effects of greater magnitude and achieve considerably higher blood concentrations of MDMA ... than those reported in controlled clinical studies," the research, contained in a poster presentation, says.

By Judy Skatssoon

Marijuana petition drive for 2008 ballot is under way

2006-12-01T22:04:00.000-08:00

WLNS

Lansing, Mich. Michigan residents could legally use marijuana on private property for under a measure proposed for the 2008 ballot.

The Board of State Canvassers today approved the form of a legislative petition proposed by an Eaton Rapids-based group backing the proposal.The measure would make it legal for those 18 and older to use marijuana on private property. Those found using the drug in public would be guilty of a civil infraction punishable by a 50-dollar fine.The measure also would allow people to grow marijuana at their residences.Supporters of the measure must gather about 304-thousand valid petition signatures to get on the 2008 ballot.
Previous signuture-gathering attempts failed in 2000, 2002 and this year.

15 Arrested at Calif. Marijuana Clinics

2006-07-18T09:45:00.000-07:00

Red Orbit

California (UPI) - Recent raids on marijuana dispensaries in the San Diego area have angered people who use the drug as medicine.

Federal and state law enforcement agencies arrested 15 people Thursday, the San Diego Union-Tribune reported. On Friday, protestors gathered at the San Diego County Courthouse.

How can you bust people for breaking the law when there are no rules? asked Dion Markgraaff, one of the organizers of the protest. That's what everybody wants -- regulation.

Marijuana became legal in California for people whose doctors recommend it, after voters approved a referendum. But the federal government has refused to recognize medical marijuana, and the state law and regulations remain confusing.

District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis has said that she will continue to raid and close marijuana dispensaries.

Many people who are undergoing chemotherapy for cancer or who have AIDS say marijuana relieves pain and allows them to have an appetite for food.

ACLU Seeks to Intervene in Suit Challenging Medical Marijuana Use

2006-07-18T09:43:00.000-07:00

Metropolitan News

The American Civil Liberties Union, Drug Policy Alliance and Americans for Safe Access moved Friday to be allowed to intervene in a state lawsuit brought by three California counties seeking to overturn Proposition 215, the alliance said Friday in a release.

Proposition 215, the Compassionate Use Act — which allows medical use of marijuana upon a doctor’s recommendation — was passed by California voters in 1996.

In the lawsuit, the counties of San Diego, San Bernardino and Merced sued the state and others, claiming that federal laws prohibiting marijuana use preempt state laws such as Proposition 215.

The suit cites the U.S. Constitution’s Supremacy Clause and a 1961 U.S. treaty with 150 other nations outlawing marijuana.

The suit also challenges the state’s Medical Marijuana Program Act, which provides for an identification card program that would allow police to identify legitimate medical marijuana patients.

The groups believe Proposition 215 is not preempted by federal law and seek an order requiring San Diego County to begin issuing medical marijuana identification cards.

Daniel Abrahamson, director of legal affairs for the alliance, said in the release,
“We are confident the court will require the state’s medical marijuana program to be implemented in San Diego, as required by law. Renegade politicians in San Diego are simply postponing the inevitable, while thousands of sick people suffer.”

The groups seek to intervene to represent medical marijuana patients, patients’ groups, caregivers and doctors. “Our motion to intervene will allow the court to recognize the harm done to patients by the county’s frivolous lawsuit,” Abrahamson said.

Wendy Christakes, a medical marijuana user represented by the groups, said in the release, “The county supervisors are playing politics while we struggle to survive. They should be ashamed.”

The groups also represent Dr. Stephen O’Brien, a physician who specializes in HIV/AIDS treatment in Oakland and believes that many of his seriously ill patients benefit from marijuana use, the release said.

San Diego County originally filed the lawsuit in federal court this January, but dismissed it and refiled, along with the other counties, in state court in February.

Last month San Diego Superior Court Judge William R. Nevitt Jr. rejected the State’s contention that counties are precluded from challenging state law, and allowed the case to proceed.

The Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project has reported that a January poll of San Diego County voters conducted by Evans/McDonough Company, Inc. showed that 67 percent said they support Proposition 215, while only 30 percent said they oppose it, and 80 percent agreed that the suit “is wasting taxpayers’ money.”

California is one of 11 states which allows the use of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

Kenya: Why Fresh Cocaine Probe is Necessary

2006-07-18T09:39:00.000-07:00

All Africa

Nairobi - Attorney General Amos Wako should immediately order fresh investigations into the Sh6.4 billion cocaine case.

The full significance of Nairobi Chief Magistrate Aggrey Muchelule's judgment in the case is yet to be appreciated by the public.

There should be no illusion that the police, on their own, intercepted the massive cocaine haul and made the subsequent arrests in December 2004.

At some point, the police even suggested that they had been tracking the cocaine shipments for some time before the televised interception. The fact is that the police intercepted the drug haul following specific information from Dutch drug enforcement agencies.

After receiving the information, police did not act for several days, during which the drug barons, who are believed to have been staying at the Rocky House in Malindi, calmly packed their bags, flew to Nairobi through the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on December 11 where they spent the night at a city hotel, and the next day, left the country.

The drug barons left in circumstances that suggest they were given safe passage. Subsequent evidence indicated that some of the foreign suspects may have received preferential treatment at the Immigration Department.

After the barons' departure, it took a further two days for the police, accompanied by journalists, to move into the Embakasi and Malindi premises where the cocaine was found abandoned.

Questions remain unanswered as to what may have taken place between the time the police received the information and moved in, including whether all the cocaine intercepted was declared. After all, the stuff had been abandoned.

Shortly after the June 28 court ruling, Security minister John Michuki, in a speech at a United Nations function, stated that the drugs supply had increased tenfold in Kenya.

Mr Michuki may not have realised the significance of his admission in relation to the cocaine bust in December 2004, or noticed a report in the Daily Nation of March 4 in which a US State Department report is quoted as stating: "Official corruption is allowing international drug gangs to expand their operations in Kenya and also enabling greater use of narcotics by Kenyans."

Surveys indicate that the collapse in the street value of cocaine coincided with the seizures of December 2004.

The same reports indicate that the price of cocaine has remained at this depressed level, possibly due to oversupply. This might suggest that there could have been more cocaine than the 1.1 tons declared and or intercepted by the police on December 14, 2004.

Africa Confidential in its June 9 edition claimed that there are a further 1.8 tons hidden in the country that are being smuggled out to Europe and the USA in small parcels.

In the two subsequent prosecutions by the police, 15 people were hauled to court even before the investigation files were forwarded to the Attorney General's office for competent assessment on the adequacy of evidence.

The police rejected the appointment of a competent and specially trained prosecutor in anti-narcotics investigations and prosecutions.

Skeleton investigation files finally received reflected shoddy investigations with vital evidence missing.

At some point, police resisted an attempt to bring in experts from the United Nations to assist in the investigations and prosecutions.

The final open destruction of the narcotics should be credited to all those who fought to ensure the drugs were not re-routed into the market.

The Attorney General finally directed that the two cases be consolidated, after which all evidence be reviewed to determine whether there was sufficient evidence to sustain the prosecution.

Apart from driver David Mugo Kiragu, whom the court convicted of drug trafficking; all other suspects were acquitted. Mr Kiragu, who was sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment and a Sh20 billion fine, does not fit the profile of a drug baron.

Therefore, it follows that the police are yet to arrest the kingpins of the cartel operating between South America, Kenya and Europe. Conclusion: The cartel remains intact and fully operational.

Mr Wako needs to take charge and order fresh investigations into the case this time with the assistance of international drug enforcement agencies. In addition, Mr Wako needs to ensure the urgent enactment of the outstanding Anti Money Laundering legislation to stop Kenya from becoming a leading money laundering centre.

Afghanistan reels under bumper harvests

2006-07-18T09:30:00.000-07:00

Asia Times Online

Afghanistan boasts two bumper crops this season, and both could be lethal to the already fledgling authority of its government. Western officials expect the largest-ever opium crop in the face of a toothless US$1 billion eradication campaign. And contrary to earlier pronouncements by military officials, the Taliban are gaining steam in the volatile southern provinces, where fighting has raged at levels not seen since the US-led invasion that toppled the al-Qaeda-allied Islamic fundamentalist movement five years ago.

Forty thousand tons of narcotics were burned last week at a ceremony in Kabul to show the state's determination to stamp out illegal drugs that now account for nearly half of its gross domestic product. This came just one week after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made a five-hour pit stop for a meeting with President Hamid Karzai to affirm Washington's full support of his efforts to steer reconstruction and defeat a reconstituted Taliban.

But if US President George W Bush's surprise visit to Baghdad last month to look the new Iraqi prime minister "in the eye" and give reassurances is held to measure, gestures of this scale are exceeded only by the turmoil they betray.

As the war in Iraq usurps the brunt of US military might, the insurgent and narco threats in Afghanistan have arisen at the flank. After diminished harvests under the Taliban, the country now produces about 90% of the world's opium, making it the number one global heroin producer and trafficker. Recent estimates indicate that the poppy crop in Helmand province, a militant stronghold, will more than double from last year, despite the presence of 3,300 British troops.

This comeback is trumped by that of the Taliban, which is waging a fierce campaign to destabilize the south as North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) forces complete a takeover of peacekeeping responsibilities there from the US by the end of July. Since mid-May, more than 700 people have been killed in sporadic clashes. Said Jawad, Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States, estimates there are 20-25 heavily armed militias operating in five southern provinces for a total of 3,000-5,000 men spoiling to test the resolve of Western security forces - hardly a "spent force" as some officials have described.

Lieutenant-General Karl Eikenberry, head of US forces in Afghanistan, said at a Pentagon news conference last month he was "confident the situation will improve by the end of this year". This view is not shared by retired General Barry R McCaffrey, who last week issued a troubling report after his second trip to inspect US military operations in which he argued circumstances would grow worse before they improved.

According to his report, the Taliban operated in small units three years ago; last year, they grew to company-sized units of 100-plus men; and for this year's summer fighting season they are maneuvering in 400-strong battalion-sized units. When fighting broke out May 18 in Helmand, 300-400 militants bearing assault rifles and machine guns reportedly attacked a police and government headquarters, killing 16 officers, an American civilian and a Canadian soldier. "They appear to have received excellent tactical, camouflage and marksmanship training," McCaffrey noted. The militants have become "very aggressive and smart in their tactics".

That month, Taliban commander in Helmand, Mullah Mohammed Kaseem Farouqi, bragged to The Times of London newspaper by satellite phone of having "between 2,500 and 3,000 men" with "thousands more ... in their homes waiting for [his] message to fight". He also claimed to have "hundreds" of volunteers ready to become suicide bombers, a method new to Afghanistan that, along with a 30% influx of roadside bombs compared to last year, denote imitation of the Iraqi insurgency. More than suicide bombings have been recorded in the past three months.

Karzai is sometimes called the "mayor of Kabul" since his authority is tenuous at best in regions outside the capital. The pro-Western leader nominally heads a democratic regime with a stable currency, but fault lines plague the country. "Afghanistan has never had a stable government," Marina Ottaway, an expert on democracy and rule of law at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Asia Times Online. "An extremely weak government in a large country with a $600 million budget is just not capable of doing enough for the country in the foreseeable future."

Unconfirmed coalition death tolls reveal roughly 20 insurgents are killed for every Afghan or Western casualty, but the frequency of Taliban attacks has increased as it seeks to expand its influence in the northern and western provinces. Eroding security has scaled back UN operations to just six out of 50 districts nationwide. There are further reports that militants have crept within 25 miles of Kabul itself, which has experienced unprecedented spasms of violence recent weeks.

For the second day in a row, multiple bombs exploded in the capital last Wednesday, killing one bystander and wounding 47. The latest attack took place during rush hour, targeting government workers and security forces, according to witnesses. Such emboldened tactics indicate Kabul is no longer an exception to the turmoil that has paralyzed vast swathes of the country, as Afghans frustrated with a corrupt government's failure to deliver on promises of security and economic development look elsewhere.

In the absence of viable economic alternatives, some NATO officials and experts say the war on drugs has reinforced the Taliban's power. Militants have offered to protect lucrative crops, using kickbacks from drug smugglers to fuel their campaign. "Like it or not, the opium trade is a huge part of the Afghan economy," Ted Galen Carpenter, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, told Asia Times Online. "Warlords and farmers may support Karzai in the abstract, but not when he is compelled to target their only reliable source of livelihood.

"Even supporters of the war on drugs need to wake up and smell the coffee ... The anti-drug-effort needs to be put on the back burner at least until we can fight off the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces."

Jawad insists the Taliban relies on intimidation tactics to subdue Afghanis living in the countryside. They include killing moderate tribal leaders and clergy to create a climate of fear, and burning down schools and medical clinics. A United Nations report confirms that on average, a school is torched or a female teacher is killed every day somewhere in the country. In a recent bout of fighting near Kandahar, the US military said several insurgents "used innocent Afghan civilians as shields" to escape to nearby villages.

The latest counter-offensive waged by international troops, dubbed Operation Mountain Thrust, kicked off in mid-June to beat back Taliban forces. The effectiveness of the 10,000-man sweep has received conflicting reports, but Afghan Defense Minister Rahim Wardak recently said insurgents had been "coming out with bigger groups and confronting us directly" since the beginning of the operation. Afghan officials say the Taliban wanted to discourage the further deployment of NATO forces (now at 21,000 troops), spearheaded by Britain and Canada, as they take over security responsibilities from the US, which is drawing down its presence to 17,000 troops from 23,000.

Washington has spent $1.3 billion on reconstruction projects over the past four years and will remain Afghanistan's largest benefactor, but anti-Americanism continues to percolate at a grassroots level. The US military has relied heavily on air strikes to pound Taliban enclaves in rugged terrain, an approach experts say tends to backfire and foster support for insurgents in bombed areas. "Air power works against you, not for you. It kills lots of people who weren't your enemy, recruiting their relatives, friends and fellow tribesman to become your enemies," military analyst William S Lind wrote in a June 23 United Press International story. "In this kind of war, bombers are as useful as 42-centimeter siege mortars."

Fifteen innocent villagers were killed in a May air strike, setting the stage for mass riots that rocked the capital the following week when a US military truck hit civilians in a traffic accident. Official reports put the death toll as high as 20 people; aid agencies were burned and looted; and protesters shouted "Death to America" in the streets.

Karzai has long opined that the West has not provided enough resources to hasten economic and political reform in his country, while ignoring the alleged sanctuary given to Taliban and al-Qaeda operatives by Pakistan inside its lawless border region. Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf, a key Washington ally in its global "war on terror", has been accused of allowing Islamist militants - including Osama bin Laden - to infiltrate and recruit from remote Pashtun tribal areas, a charge he denies.

Pakistan has already deployed more than 80,000 troops along its western border, adding 10,000 more during Rice's visit, and officials in Islamabad counter the Taliban are regrouping on the Afghan side.

According to McCaffrey's report, the Afghan Army is "miserably under-resourced" to be effective against a Taliban bent on "waiting us out" in the coming years. He said they possessed "shoddy small arms", if any at all, relaying that Afghan field commanders told him they tried to seize weapons from the Taliban for their own troops to use.

The national police, whose US-sponsored training program is three years behind schedule, is in tatters as well, "badly equipped, corrupt, incompetent, poorly led and trained, riddled by drug use" and without infrastructure.

The former Gulf War commander recommends the US provide "at least five years of continued robust ... military presence" or six ground combat battalions and extensive air and armored support, along with special forces permitted "unilateral action" in counter-terror operations.

"The Afghan national leadership," he writes, "is collectively terrified that we will tip-toe out of Afghanistan in the coming few years - leaving NATO holding the bag - and the whole thing will again collapse into mayhem.

"They do not believe the US has made a strategic commitment to stay with them for the 15 years required to create an independent, functional nation-state, which can survive in this dangerous part of the world."

Other experts are less sanguine about the future and argue the US has already paid dearly. Indeed, half of the 141 American servicemen killed in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion died last year, Defense Department records show. The BBC has also reported that Pakistan-based foreign militants with links to al-Qaeda have been offering large bounties to Afghans to kill US soldiers.

"This becomes increasingly expensive in terms of blood and treasure," said the Cato Institute's Galen Carpenter, urging a 10-15 month timetable for the Karzai government to take responsibility for its own national security. "Otherwise this could become an endless mission where we're slowly bled. We can't make Afghanistan into a model of stability."

By Jason Motlagh

Use of heroin and crack soars

2006-07-18T09:28:00.000-07:00

Times Online

The number of people using crack cocaine and heroin has risen by more than a third over the past two years, according to a Home Office report, writes Daniel Foggo.

The study shows that more than 90,000 extra people are taking the drugs in England, which now has 340,000 crack and heroin users.

The report, by scientists at the Centre for Drug Misuse Research in Glasgow, which has yet to be published, has stunned drug-care professionals.

It has also provoked debate about whether the new figures reflect a recent steep rise in drug use, or whether they point to a high level of usage that had previously gone undetected.

Either way, the report indicates that the country has a much greater drug-abuse problem than was formerly considered to be the case.

The government claims that levels of hard-drug usage have been relatively stable over the long term, although figures released in February showed that drug-related deaths rose for the first time in six years. The number of injecting drug users with HIV has hit a 14-year high.

Martin Barnes, chief executive of Drugscope, the independent drug policy think tank, said the report was of “extreme concern”. He added: “We have seen record amounts of money going into drug treatments recently and would have expected that to have had some impact.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “There is no evidence to suggest the number of problematic drug users is increasing. ”

More Spiked Heroin in Delaware?

2006-07-18T09:25:00.000-07:00

WPVI

Newark, Del. (AP) - Five heroin overdoses in a 24-hour period are leading to suspicions that heroin laced with a powerful painkiller has resurfaced in Delaware.

State police spokesman Corporal Jeff Oldham says investigators are looking into whether the heroin involved was laced with fentanyl.

Police say there have been two single-vehicle crashes that appear to be the result of overdoses.

Last night, paramedics revived two men who overdosed on heroin outside a gas station on Christiana Road. The men were in cardiac arrest when paramedics arrived. They told police they bought heroin in Wilmington and passed out shortly after they used it.

Oldham says another person overdosed today. None of the overdoses have been fatal.

Heroin laced with fentanyl has been linked to dozens of deaths in the Northeast this year.

Deadly heroin has likely hit area

2006-07-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

Times Leader

County coroner says pain killer fentanyl mix is probably cause of Luzerne man’s death.

Wilkes-Barre - Fentanyl is the new rat poison for heroin addicts.

Spicing up heroin with rat poison, strychnine or other chemicals has long been a practice of dealers seeking to attract customers looking for an even greater high. But sometimes the mix can be deadly – especially if the cut is fentanyl.

Daniel Dominick, 27, died Friday at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital after taking what was likely a fentanyl-heroin mix, according to Luzerne County Coroner’s Office. The Luzerne man’s death placed Wilkes-Barre on a growing list of cities where the deadly heroin concoction has been circulating in recent months.

More than 70 people have died from fentanyl-laced heroin in the Philadelphia area since April, and it’s the same in other major cities. Officials in Detroit have reported more than 80 fentanyl-related fatalities and Chicago has had 60, according to respective law enforcement agencies.

In Pittsburgh, fentanyl-laced heroin is being sold on the street under the name “get high or die tryin’, ” and an increasing number of users are doing just that.

Just 125 micrograms is enough fentanyl to kill an adult – that’s the equivalent of five or six grains of salt. Law enforcement experts say lacing heroin with the painkiller has only come in vogue this year, especially in the past three months.

An undercover narcotics agent for the Philadelphia police said addicts will seek out brands of heroin reputed to be the most potent, and in recent months have been traveling to Philadelphia from all over the state to get heroin laced with fentanyl.

“If there’s an extra kick in it, they look for that brand,” said the agent, who declined to be identified for safety reasons. “They’ll ask for ‘Dracula’ or ‘Nike’ or another brand. The dealers know when it’s cut with fentanyl but they don’t care; not all the customers know.”

According to the agent, users from the Wilkes-Barre area have been getting fentanyl-laced heroin from Hispanic communities on the East side of Philadelphia. “They come from everywhere to get this stuff. They’ll get two or three bundles so they don’t have to make the trip again.”

Although heroin cut with fentanyl has been claiming lives in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh since April, law enforcement officials weren’t sure if it had hit the streets of Wilkes-Barre until a string of overdoses last week culminated in a death Friday. City police and medics responded to approximately 15 drug overdoses last week, including five Friday.

Luzerne County Coroner Dr. John Consalvo can’t prove it was fentanyl that killed Dominick until he gets back a toxicology test in a couple weeks, but he suspects it was.

Fentanyl, some strains of which are hundreds of times more potent than heroin, affects people differently when cut with other drugs. In Friday’s incident, Dominick shared a needle with another man, who took a hit from the same batch of heroin, police said. That man, whose name was not released, showed no signs of a negative reaction.

By John Davidson

Marijuana use ‘is highest in 30s’

2006-07-12T17:03:00.000-07:00

The Border Mail

Australia - Marijuana use is highest among those aged in their 30s, while teenagers are taking notice of advertising campaigns warning of the drug’s harmful effects.

The statistics were used by the Federal Government’s drug policy adviser to highlight the work still needed to be done in the Government’s war on drugs.

“The interesting thing is that there are fewer young people smoking marijuana now,” John Herron said.

“It’s an older cohort.

“In fact, the main cohort is the 30 to 39-year-olds ... the dominant ones, who I think escaped that sort of era of being concerned about it.”

He said one of the problems was the availability of marijuana and the number of people who used it in association with other illicit substances.

“There’s something like a 40 per cent overlap in the sense that not only are they on marijuana, they might be taking ecstasy or amphetamines, drinking alcohol as well, and all this is contributing to things like road deaths.”

Ineptitude rescues would-be LSD maker

2006-07-12T17:01:00.000-07:00

Delaware Online

Wilmington - A former chemistry student's lack of skill in chemistry saved him from a harsh prison sentence Friday, according to a federal judge.

Paul G. Little had attempted to make LSD in a makeshift lab set up in a state park as a way to pay for college. But he failed in his effort to make the illegal hallucinogen and then was caught by police.

"It is only by the luck of your ineptitude that you are not going to jail for a long time," said District Judge Joseph J. Farnan Jr.

Little, 23, a former student at Widener University, was sentenced to time served -- 10 months -- and three years of probation. He pleaded guilty in April and could have faced up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.

Little, who was released to his family shortly after Friday's proceedings, apologized for his actions and said he was glad he did not succeed.

He said that while he was in prison, he saw the ill effects of drug addiction.

Little, who had no criminal record, told Farnan that his attendance and grades suffered when he tried to work and go to school at the same time. So while working at the Nature Center in White Clay Creek State Park near Newark, he hit on the idea of making money by making and selling LSD -- lysergic acid diethylamide.

He was never successful -- despite many attempts -- and was caught in September when a park employee discovered the makeshift lab in a park barn.

Sentencing guidelines called for a sentence of probation to six months in prison, but Farnan could have also imposed a fine or ordered restitution for the lab cleanup.

Farnan did not, however, tell Little he was giving him a break and that he should use this second chance to get his life back on track and work on improving his maturity and judgment.

By Sean O'Sullivan

Medical marijuana dispensaries charged with drug trafficking

2006-07-12T17:00:00.000-07:00

The Mercury News

San Diego (AP) - Federal prosecutors accused six people Thursday of illegally trafficking pot under the cover of California's medical marijuana laws - in some cases processed into baked goods, "Reefer's" peanut butter cups and "Splif" peanut butter.

Federal and state search warrants were executed at more than 11 locations throughout San Diego in a morning raid, and at least five people were arrested, authorities said. Federal charges were expected to be filed Friday, according to U.S. Attorney Carol Lam.

"They made thousands of dollars every day," Lam said. "Their motive was not the betterment of society. Their motive was profit."

One federal indictment accuses John Sullivan, 38, of growing more than 100 marijuana plants for distribution and distributing marijuana or processed marijuana-based goods from his two dispensaries, the Purple Bud Room in Pacific Beach and THC in San Diego.

Five managers of the Co-op San Diego were indicted separately on similar allegations. Wayne Hudson, 42; Christopher Larkin, 34; and Ross McManus, 39, are alleged to have distributed marijuana products through the co-op. Scott Wright, 40, and Michael Ragin, 34, are accused of growing hundreds of plants for the co-op at their homes.

Messages left at the dispensaries were not immediately returned.

Also, the San Diego County District Attorney has filed state charges against one of the men named in the federal indictment and nine others for selling marijuana and possessing marijuana for sale.

State charges were filed against Sullivan's THC dispensary and four other independent operations in San Diego. Prosecutors alleged that these dispensaries sold marijuana or marijuana-based products with little concern for legitimate medical need.

"The party is over," District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis said at a news conference with federal prosecutors. She added that Proposition 215, the ballot measure that legalized marijuana for medical purposes, has been "severely abused by neighborhood pot dealers opening up storefronts."

Complaints from residents living near dispensaries precipitated an investigation beginning in September 2005 by the San Diego police, the county sheriff's department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Dumanis said.

Dumanis said that her office has "no intention" of preventing people who suffer chronic illnesses like AIDS, glaucoma or cancer from using medically prescribed marijuana to ease their pain.

But San Diego County has fought an ongoing battle to limit the impact of the medical marijuana law, which was approved in 1996 by 55 percent of voters.

San Diego has ignored a state requirement that counties issue identification cards to registered medical marijuana users and maintain a registry of people who apply for the cards.

In December, county supervisors sued the state of California and its director of health services in federal court, saying federal law that prohibits marijuana use trumps the state law. The county moved that lawsuit to state court in February to avoid bringing the case to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has sided in recent rulings with medical marijuana supporters. That suit is still pending.

The men indicted by the federal grand jury face a maximum of 40 years in prison and $2 million in fines for each of the allegations listed in the indictment, authorities said.

The San Diego County District Attorney's office released a complaint sent last week to the state medical board against four physicians alleging that they wrote "recommendations" for medical marijuana use - doctor's notes required by state law - to apparently healthy individuals.

By Allison Hoffman

Namibia: Now Human Hair Joins Cocaine Smugglers' Bag of Tricks

2006-07-12T16:58:00.000-07:00

All Africa

A joint operation by Namibian and South African customs authorities and the Namibian Police's Drug Law Enforcement Unit this week foiled an attempt to smuggle cocaine into Namibia inside a consignment of human hair.

A 21-year-old Angolan national who is studying at the University of Namibia was arrested at the Hosea Kutako International Airport on Wednesday in connection with the alleged plan to smuggle the suspected cocaine into the country, Detective Chief Inspector Barry de Klerk of the Drug Law Enforcement Unit said yesterday.

The suspect is set to appear in court today.

The method that he is accused of using to import cocaine into the country is the first of its kind yet to have been detected in Namibia.

De Klerk said the suspect was at the airport to pick up supposed excess luggage that was sent to his mother, who had visited the Brazilian city of São Paulo - a notorious link in the cocaine-smuggling route between Southern Africa and South America - a month ago.

Contained in the luggage were 76 packets of human hair, which is used as hair extensions in the hairstyling trade.

A test on the hair showed, however, that the packets also contained cocaine, De Klerk said.

According to him, one of the latest methods used by drug traffickers in a bid to escape detection is to dissolve cocaine and then to soak some other supposedly innocent product - such as human hair in this case - in it.

At the end destination of the smuggling journey, the cocaine is retrieved from the objects used to conceal the drug, De Klerk said.

He said it had not yet been possible to determine the weight or the value of the cocaine allegedly contained in the packets of human hair that were intercepted on Wednesday.

These have been sent to the National Forensic Science Institute of Namibia for analysis.

By Werner Menges

Flower power, love-ins - and lies

2006-07-12T16:55:00.000-07:00

The Guardian

50-somethings embellish experiences in 1960s to impress children

History records that it was the Swinging Sixties. A decade that included the summer of love, the Beatles, hippies and outrageous drug-taking.

And if it ever seemed odd that everyone who was around at the time seemed to be indulging in all of the above, a survey today reveals why.

Fibs. Lots of them.

Parents who have been trying to impress their children have resorted to exaggeration and outright lies over what they did during the flower power decade. Claims of liberated teenage years at love-ins and being at live Beatles gigs have led to the coining of a new phrase - generational gazumping - to describe 50-somethings desperately trying to appear cool.

The number of false claims also raises wider questions about the supposed scale of drug taking in the 1960s, which emerges as almost innocuous by today's standards. Although a quarter of respondents admitted boasting that they had been "too stoned to remember the sixties", only 8% had actually taken cannabis and fewer than 1% acid or LSD.

The 60s generation also emerges as being as starstruck as any other, with large numbers pretending that they met famous figures of the decade. The favourite fantasy friends by far were the Beatles, with Paul McCartney top at 12%. The model Twiggy came next at 5%, followed by Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones two points behind.

The survey questioned 3,000 adults including control groups who were teenagers in the 1970s and 80s, and whose flair for invention was notably more controlled. They were on average a third less likely to come up with whoppers comparable to "The 1966 World Cup Final - I was there" or "Sure I was at the Isle of Wight rock concert, and I took off all my clothes."

One of the 1960s respondents, Matthew Coughland, 59, said: "I have always told my family that during the 60s I was a bit of a mover and shaker. I had told them that I was an avid music fan, attending gigs and festivals, and even seeing the Beatles live.

"But a couple of years ago my son called my bluff when he bought me a ticket for the Reading festival. Apart from being the oldest person there, I was completely unprepared for the experience. It was loud, muddy and I hated the music. I'll be sticking to classical concerts from now on."

By contrast, 1980s teenager Elizabeth Evans, now 37, admitted that she airbrushed her youth because her children's generation would find it extremely uncool. She said: "Our family were all glued to the royal wedding in the 80s but my son wouldn't be too impressed with me if he found out I shed a tear at the time. The royals don't interest him at all."

The survey was carried out for UKTV History in advance of the channel's series on The Beatles Decade, which examines the divide between real and superficial social change at the time.

Professor Sheila Whiteley, who studies rock and pop culture at Salford University, said: "The reality of growing up in the 60s for many people would seem to be more akin to Cliff Richard than Keith Richards.

"It is common for people to look back on their younger, rock'n'roll days through rose-tinted glasses."

The legendary reputation of the decade, and the continued playing of much of its popular music, created irresistible temptations to embroider in just over a third of those surveyed. A quarter of the total admitted that their flexibility with the truth was prompted by wanting "to appear cool to my children and gain the respect of friends and family".

Chief exaggerations included supposed membership of the hippy movement - of the quarter who claimed to be hippies in the 60s, only 6% actually were - and meeting Beat Generation icons they had actually seen only on TV. A third have told their children that they shopped in London's Carnaby Street when only 5% actually did so.

The survey bore out the magic nature of the sixties, however, by finding that teenagers from the 1970s and 80s fibbed because they were ashamed rather than proud of their decades' fads. Seventies respondents privately regretted "ill-advised fashion decisions and a misguided love of indulgent prog rock". Eighties teenagers wanted to forget their dalliance with Thatcherism, shoulder pads and "an uncool fixation with the royal family".

"They clearly preferred to tone down their youthful antics, due to embarrassment at their fashion faux pas, political leanings and taste in music," said Prof Whiteley.

27% say they were hippies

20% say they experimented with soft drugs, but when questioned only 8% had tried cannabis and fewer than 1% had tried LSD

12% say they had met someone from the Beat Generation

11% knew someone who had taken part in a love-in

9% claim they saw the Beatles live

33% say they were regulars in the disco

17% wore platform shoes and boots

11% say they hated prog rock

11% said they had met someone famous

9% say they avoided orange or brown interior furnishings

35% say they didn't watch Charles and Diana's wedding on TV. Official viewing figures say 28.4 million of us did watch it

29% say they didn't wear shoulder pads

15% didn't vote Tory

11% owned a computer

2% say they attended Live Aid. This would have meant more than a million people crammed into Wembley stadium

By Martin Wainwright

State's meth lab drop tops nation

2006-07-12T16:53:00.000-07:00

KTEN

Oklahoma (AP) - A new federal study shows the drop in meth labs in Oklahoma from 2004 to 2005 was the largest decrease in the nation.

The report released by the Drug Enforcement Agency's El Paso Intelligence Center shows the number of meth labs decreased more than 67 percent during that time.The study shows the number of drug labs raided, found abandoned or found dumped dropped from one-thousand-58 in 2003, to 667 in 2004 to 217 in 2005.Oklahoma enacted a law in April 2004 restricting the sale of pseudoephedrine - a key ingredient in making methamphetamine. The law took effect in April 2004.

Half U.S. ecstasy comes from B.C.

2006-07-12T16:49:00.000-07:00

The Tri-City News

Ecstasy smuggling across the B.C. border has exploded, according to a cross-border team of law enforcers.

“Blaine is a hotspot for ecstasy smuggling,” said Roy Hoffman, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement assistant special agent in charge. “We’re seeing a huge amount of ecstasy heading for points in the U.S.”

He was among the officers who briefed the Cascadia Mayors Council meeting June 30 in Surrey on the work of the Integrated Border Enforcement Team (IBET), which pools policing efforts from both sides of the border to bust smugglers.

Hoffman said it’s estimated 52 per cent of the ecstasy tablets smuggled into the U.S. arrive from B.C.

He said it’s a shift from the typical smuggling pattern of Canadian marijuana heading south and cocaine, guns and other chemicals going north.

Ecstasy is easier to transport than marijuana, Hoffman noted.

Methamphetamine component chemicals are increasingly arriving in Vancouver from China, he added.

IBET officials recounted major drug busts of recent years – from this year’s discovery of a tunnel crossing the border at Aldergrove to the break-up of a helicopter pot smuggling operation based in the Okanagan.

Smugglers sometimes drive stolen vehicles at high speeds across raspberry fields across the border, they said. Others use pleasure boats, kayaks or drop contraband from airplanes.

But most busts involve cars or trucks crossing at points like the Peace Arch crossing, where in 2003 officials seized 1,871 pounds of marijuana that had been smuggled into Blaine amid frozen raspberries.

The cargo isn’t always drugs.

Surrey RCMP Superintendent Bill Ard cited a human smuggling case a year ago where people landed in Toronto, were moved to safe houses in Vancouver and were then taken across the border, sometimes at Peace Arch park.

“That group is now out of business,” Ard said.

Better technology used to find illicit cargo is making a difference, officers said.

Scanners can now detect different densities of materials inside sealed trucks or containers, Hoffman said. But he said adept smugglers are finding ways to defeat the devices.

The challenge of getting the cargo across may be increasingly leading pot growers to shift operations south of the border, he added.

Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts said IBET has been a success.

“They’re working very closely together, which is just tremendous for us because they’re sharing intelligence,” she said.

Judge hears arguments over new state marijuana law

2006-07-12T16:47:00.000-07:00

KTVA

A Superior Court judge heard arguments Wednesday in a constitutional challenge of a new law to recriminalize marijuana possession in the home.

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union of Alaska say the law usurps 30 years of Alaska Supreme Court right-to-privacy decisions and should be struck down.

Chief Assistant Attorney General Dean Guaneli counters that the new law includes findings by the Legislature on the dangers of marijuana that were not considered when the court made its past decision.

Guaneli and the ACLU presented their arguments to Juneau Superior Court Judge Patricia Collins. Both sides are asking for Collins for a summary judgment ruling in their favor. In addition, the ACLU wants Collins to issue an injunction blocking the new law, while the case is being decided and the attorney general's office has asked the judge to dismiss the case. Collins said she expects to issue a written order on those motions by Monday.

The law took effect on June 3. It makes marijuana possession of 4 ounces or more a felony. Possession of 1 to 4 ounces is a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail; less than 1 ounce is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail. The new law does not affect medical marijuana patients who are on the state's registry.

LSD Set To Remain Class A Drug

2006-07-12T16:46:00.000-07:00

NewsWire

New Zealand - LSD is set to remain a Class A drug following discussion by the country's Expert Advisory Committee on Drugs.

Minutes from a March meeting of the Committee - released to Radio New Zealand under the Official Information Act - show it will not make any recommendation on the number of Class A drugs.

Nor will there be any recommendation on LSD "at this time".

A report to the committee comparing LSD and Methamphetamine, which was made a Class A drug three years ago, showed the latter has more severe health effects and links to serious criminal offending.

It says no research has been done on whether a lower classification for LSD would lead to greater use or whether such a move would be "tolerated by society".

Russia Will Not Legalize Marijuana — Putin

2006-07-12T16:44:00.000-07:00

Mosnews.com

“Russia is a member of international agreements under which marijuana is a prohibited drug. Russia will adhere to its international obligations in this sphere,” Putin said during a Web cast. He said the legalization of soft drugs in a number of countries had not reduced the use of hard drugs such as heroin.

Russian President stressed that drug dealers faced tough penalties under Russia’s Criminal Code.

“The question is not about tougher punishment but ensuring that punishment is inevitable,” RIA Novosti quotes Putin as saying.

About 100,000 Internet users voted for the question about legalizing soft drugs in Russia.

According to ITAR-TASS news agency Russian President Vladimir Putin has began news conference where he addresses audiences over Internet at around 17:00 hours Moscow time Thursday (13:00 hours GMT).

The global audience had an opportunity to send questions to him over the past seven days. Almost 160,000 questions came in.

Organizers of this web conference believe it will last for almost two hours, during which time the anchors representing the BBC and the Russian Internet portal Yandex.ru will hand over to him the most interesting questions. He will personally select a few questions, too, and answer them.

Putin appeared in his first questions time event on the web in 2001, when the BBC and a number of Russian Internet portals received almost 10,000 questions for him.

Marijuana martyr

2006-07-12T16:42:00.000-07:00

Straight.com

Toronto - It wasn’t the marijuana that made Tommy Chong paranoid. It was the jail time. The world’s most famous stoner figures he was busted by the U.S. government for being the world’s most famous stoner.

When half of the counterculture comedy duo Cheech & Chong had his Los Angeles–area home raided by the DEA in 2003, his first response beat the late-night comics to the inevitable punch line. Asked if there were any drugs on the premises, he replied, “Of course—I’m Tommy Chong.”

A/K/A Tommy Chong, Josh Gilbert’s documentary about the comedian’s trial and transformation into marijuana martyr and reluctant activist is more chilling than funny as it looks at the lengths the U.S. government went to set the comedian up and send him to jail.

Chong, wife Shelby, and their friend and video biographer Josh Gilbert, are sharing a couch in a corner of the bar at the Hotel InterContinental at the Toronto International Film Festival, and when they hear I’m from the Georgia Straight they smile like I’m a long-lost B.C. bud.

Chong drawls the name and laughs like he’s about to launch into a routine. Shelby turns to him and asks, “Didn’t Cheech try to get a job writing for them when he came to Vancouver?” Then she turns to me to make sure I know she and her husband are both from Vancouver and share a few stories about running nightclubs in the ’60s before we talk about the movie.

The first shock to anyone who followed Chong’s case is that he didn’t go to jail over drugs: he was busted for selling bongs to states where they’re illegal. It was less like charging Al Capone with tax evasion than nailing him for spitting on the sidewalk. Or going into Iraq looking for weapons of mass destruction and finding…um, whatever it was they found.

In A/K/A Tommy Chong (playing Friday to Thursday [July 7 to 13] at the Vancity Theatre), Tommy says prison changed him but doesn’t talk much about how. When I ask in person, he starts with the standup response: “I saw God in prison. They say when you go to prison you will find God. And I found Him. Unfortunately, I left Him in prison.”

We all laugh as he continues the riff. “He’s still in prison. Well, they need Him in there. And God’s a stoner. It changed me; it made me more humble. In fact, I’m the most humblest guy you’ll ever meet. You can’t get any more fucking humble than me.”

Shelby’s continues with: “It made him better-looking, as you can see in the movie—before and after. That shows you what no drinking and a lot of sleep does for you.”

Chong chimes in that it made him “more needy”.

Shelby grins at him and doesn’t miss a beat. “No, you always were needy.” They both laugh, then Shelby stops laughing, her smile vanishes, and she switches gears. “I think it changes how we feel about America. That anybody can come and do whatever they want to you, it made us much more fearful.”

Chong nods. “Well, yeah, we’re rape victims basically.”

“Yeah,” says Shelby. “And we’re paranoid. I’m a lot more paranoid now.”

She and Chong share a look. Chong’s case is full of ironies. A much bigger one was that he wasn’t actually directly connected to the crime he was charged with.

Says Tommy: “First of all, it was my son’s company. So he was the one that actually committed the crime, his company.”

Then Shelby adds: “But I signed the cheque for the company.”

“She signed a cheque,” says Tommy with a sigh.

“So that means that I…” and Shelby’s voice trails off.

“That she was part of the conspiracy,” says Tommy. “I was actually the only one that could have walked because there was no paper on me.”

That gets to the biggest irony. Chong pleaded guilty to a crime he wasn’t involved with in exchange for his wife and son’s freedom. Says Gilbert: “When this was happening to him and when they were holding his wife and his son’s freedom hostage and weren’t allowing him to speak about what was going on I said: ‘I’ll speak for you. This story needs to be told.’ I was infuriated.”

The Chongs say they considered moving home to Canada after Tommy’s stint in jail but decided there was no point. “Look at Marc Emery and the seeds,” says Tommy. “You can run, but you can’t hide from these guys. If they wanna getcha, they getcha. I figured out if they wanted to off me, they would off me.”

Gilbert was given almost complete access to the Chongs’ life during the trial and jail term—but he’d had plenty of access before that too. They’d been friends for almost 15 years, meeting when Chong was working on Far Out Man.

“One of my quirks is that I collect weird but talented people, like Cheech,” says the comedian. “Cheech was up in Canada, dodging the draft and delivering carpets for a living and we met—it was like a very cosmic meeting. Josh, it was the same thing. I met Josh at a film company that we did a film with.”

Tommy’s most cosmic connection, though, has been with Shelby. He was playing in a band in White Rock when he first saw her. He almost blushes as he says, “When she walked in, my heart and my mouth fell open. I was literally stunned.”

Shelby’s eyes are locked on his as she adds, almost under her breath, “and he got me, and he got me.”

“It took a lot of years,” Chong says. “But what happened—we became friends. Because I was married, we were just friends. I owned a nightclub and her and her sister couldn’t get into any other nightclub and we were friends for years and the friendship just developed.”

Shelby continues the story. “He was so crazy. I liked him because he was as crazy as me.”

They both laugh before Chong adds: “She’s always been my guiding brain. I could be as crazy as I wanna be because she would encourage me.”

Then Shelby laughs again. “Yeah. Look where it ended up. You went right to jail.”

By Mark Leiren-Young

Drug stand angers Democrat

2006-07-12T11:29:00.000-07:00

The Australian

Australian Democrats national president Richard Pascoe may quit the party over his South Australian parliamentary leader's controversial views on the illegal drug ecstasy.

In comments that have placed the floundering party in further turmoil, Sandra Kanck said on Wednesday she would rather attend a rave party where "happy people" consume ecstasy than go to a hotel where aggressive drunks were "puking all over the place".

Her statement has reignited anger within the party over her position on the drug and follows earlier comments in May that put her at odds with Mr Pascoe, who is the party's South Australian president and took on the job of national president last month.

Mr Pascoe is now considering quitting the party, which performed poorly in the March state election.

"I have not made a final decision on my future with the party yet," Mr Pascoe said. He refused to comment further.

Ms Kanck is to be hauled before an emergency state executive meeting on Monday night.
It will be the third time she has been asked to appear before the party hierarchy and explain her public statements on ecstasy.

In her latest comments, Ms Kanck admitted she had attended a rave party last weekend and that users told her if ecstasy was in a "reasonably pure form" there was no health problem.
Ms Kanck has been accused of endorsing a drug that can cause mental illness.

She previously told parliament in May that ecstasy was not a dangerous drug in its pure form of MDMA and could be used to treat victims of post-traumatic stress.

Ms Kanck gave two media interviews this week about the rave party she attended, saying it had "a lot of happy people".

"People get very talkative when they are on these pills and they almost won't go away sometimes.

"It's nothing like being in a hotel bar ... if I had a choice between being at a rave party and a hotel bar, I'd go to the rave party every time."

She had "no problems with it (rave parties) at all".

Ms Kanck is the sole Democrats MP in South Australia's parliament, after the party secured just 1.8 per cent of upper-house votes.

She has resisted pressure to stand aside, but has confirmed she will not run again when her current term expires in 2010.

The Democrats' state policy during the last election supported a trial to test pills at rave parties and harm-minimisation.

Her previous state colleagues have advocated marijuana coffee-houses and doctor-prescribed cannabis.

While party sources have complained Ms Kanck's stance breached party policy, the federal party does not specifically outline its drugs policy platform on its website.

Ms Kanck did not return The Australian's calls.

By Michelle Wiese Bockmann

More marijuana and cocaine but fewer party drugs

2006-07-08T08:52:00.000-07:00

cbc.bb

Barbados - Marijuana and cocaine seizures have increased, but law enforcement officials have not seen any signs of party drugs like ecstasy recently.

That's according to Inspector Elliott Bovell of the southern division.

He made the disclosure at the Grantley Adams Airport during an operation to destroy a large quantity of marijuana and other contraband by incineration.

Drug enforcement officials in Barbados say they have not had any recent discoveries of party drugs like ecstasy.

However, they say they know it exists and are still keeping their eyes open for it in the same way they maintain their vigilance for marijuana and cocaine

Inspector Bovell admits though that ecstasy is a difficult product to spot.

Just over 26 hundred cannabis plants, about 16 hundred kilos of marijuana and nearly 20 kilos of cocaine were destroyed in the operation along with camouflage clothing.

The drugs were intercepted between October last year and 2006 at the island's beaches and airports.

Inspector Bovell says in the last five years there has been a major increase in the flow of drugs to Barbados from St. Vincent, St. Lucia and Jamaica.

He reveals that Barbados is also used as a transshipment point for drugs from Guyana and Suriname enroute to the United States and the United Kingdom.

Acting Police Public relations Officer David Welch says lawmen remain concerned about the incidence of people cultivating cannabis as well as the novel methods being used to import drugs to the island.

It is known that drugs and firearm use seem to go hand in hand nowadays.

Inspector Bovell says while lawmen have not encountered many gun battles in their drug operations they are always adequately prepared for any situation.

Drug smugglers 'getting more creative'

2006-07-08T08:50:00.000-07:00

The Nation Newspaper

Drug smugglers are using ingenious ways to bring illegal drugs into this country.

This warning has come from acting Police public relations officer, Station Sergeant David Welch.

However, despite these measures, he noted police had been able to seize an increased quantity of the illegal drugs.

"We found them in artifacts, we found them in different suitcases, in personal luggage and in shoes. There are many ingenious ways that people are trying to get them into the country," he said.

His comments came yesterday at Seawell, Christ Church, where police incinerated over 1 500 kilogrammes of illegal drugs which consisted of 2 606 marijuana plants, 19.77 kilogrammes of cocaine and 1 629.2 kilogrammes of cannabis.

The illegal drugs represented seizures made at Grantley Adams International Airport, drug landings on beaches around the island, as well as cases adjudicated between 2003 to the present.

"We realise there is an effort by people to cultivate cannabis plants and we are quite concerned about this.

"We realise the seizures have increased over the period of last year. We will be moving to stop people from growing and try to eradicate these plants," he said.

Welch pointed out that police found a high concentration of cannabis plants in St John and St Peter, but added "they were not the main cultivation areas".

Inspector Elliott Bovell of the Drug Squad said they had seen an increase in marijuana and cocaine over the last five years "from Jamaica, St Lucia and St Vincent.

"We have also seen an increase of drugs coming from Guyana, Suriname and going up to the UK [United Kingdom], United States and Canada," he added.

By Tracy Moore

Opinion: Campos: Prohibition hangover colors view of all drugs

2006-07-08T08:42:00.000-07:00

Rocky Mountain News

My office at the University of Colorado is a three-minute walk from the Coors Events Center, built by the makers of Coors beer. That this seems completely unremarkable illustrates the remarkable rehabilitation alcohol has undergone since the collapse of legal attempts to ban it. And that rehabilitation exemplifies the astonishingly arbitrary way in which we deal with mind-altering substances.

Consider, for example, that we reflexively speak of "drugs and alcohol," as if somehow alcohol was something other than a drug. But of course alcohol is a drug - a particularly, powerful, addictive, and potentially dangerous drug.

One measure of a drug's dangerousness is the gap between the typical effective dose and the typical fatal dose. By this measure alcohol, which is fatal at a dose about 10 times greater than that which produces the initial desired effect in users, is about as dangerous as cocaine and heroin, and vastly more dangerous than LSD or marijuana.

Several hundred Americans per year die from simple alcohol overdoses; perhaps 20,000 die in car accidents in which the drug is a contributing factor; tens of thousands die from diseases connected to alcoholism; and alcohol plays a role in enormous numbers of violent crimes, reckless sexual behavior, and other socially destructive acts.

Given such statistics, it's hardly surprising that alcohol was the first serious target of the war on drugs. Yet the standard story of why Prohibition failed itself fails to explain what was wrong with the attempt to make America an alcohol-free nation.

The standard story is that Prohibition was a bad idea because it couldn't "work." It's said the attempt to make America dry was doomed to failure because our legal system lacked the resources to stamp out alcohol use, at least at an acceptable price.

The problem with this story is it assumes that, if it were possible to eliminate alcohol use in America at an "acceptable" cost, then this would be a desirable thing. And that is a seriously wrongheaded belief.

The truth about alcohol is that, for all the damage it does, its net effect on society is strongly positive. Alcoholic beverages bring both simple and sophisticated pleasures to the 75 percent of American adults who drink them at least occasionally.

Alcohol encourages conviviality, making otherwise tedious social events palatable, and pleasant occasions even more enjoyable. Alcohol enhances meals, relationships, sporting events, and many other aspects of life. Human beings have recognized this for thousands of years. (For example, the ancient Greek dramas, which remain among the greatest artistic achievements of our civilization, were composed specifically for an annual festival to honor the god of wine.)

In other words, to make America a completely sober nation, even if it were possible, would be a terrible thing. And this point applies to many other mind-altering substances as well, to greater and lesser extents. In particular, the socially harmful effects of marijuana are almost wholly a product of the fact that its use is prosecuted as a crime, while the drug's beneficial effects may well be comparable to those of its far more dangerous legal cousin, alcohol.

It's not even clear that it would be desirable to completely eliminate heroin and cocaine use, assuming such a thing could be done, which of course it can't (one of the dirty little secrets of the drug war is that many people use these drugs recreationally for years on end with little or no adverse effect).

All drugs have both good and bad effects. Alcohol, whose compulsive use plays a part in a certain amount of human self-destruction, enhances the lives of most people who use it. And what is true for alcohol is also true for substances that are no more (and often less) dangerous, but which our government now demonizes, just as liquor was demonized not that long ago.

By Paul Campos

Cannabis effects on MS trialled

2006-07-08T08:34:00.000-07:00

BBC News

Patients are being recruited for a trial to determine whether chemicals in cannabis can slow the impact of multiple sclerosis.

Evidence suggests the drug may relieve symptoms but the three-year national trial is also to determine whether it slows the disease's progress.

It is estimated that 85,000 people in the UK have multiple sclerosis (MS).

Prof John Zajicek, of the Peninsula Medical School and Derriford Hospital in Plymouth, will lead the research.

Far-reaching implications

One component of cannabis, called THC, is now being tested in a trial, funded by a £2m grant from the Medical Research Council, along with charities the MS Society and MS Trust.

"This trial will build on our previous study which, coupled with our work in the laboratory, suggested that THC could have a protective effect on nerves," said Prof Zajicek.

"Multiple Sclerosis is a very unpredictable disease. Currently there are few medicines which are effective in treating MS and none have been shown to have any effect in the progressive stages of the disease."

MS is caused when the patient's own body damages the protective covering of the nerves - affecting signals from the brain.

Progressive MS is thought to be caused by damage to the nerves themselves.

"If this study demonstrates that cannaboids do have a longer term effect on the progression of disability, there are potentially far-reaching implications, not only for the health of people with MS, but also for those with other neurodegenerative conditions."

Prof Zajicek is trying to recruit 500 patients with progressive MS through 30 centres across the UK.

The research follows on from a previous trial carried out by the same team, which focused on testing the benefit of cannabis derivatives over a 15-week and 12-month period.

Derivatives of cannabis are known as cannabinoids.

The study is taking place in collaboration with Professor Alan Thompson at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (part of University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust) and Institute of Neurology, University College London.

Vicious drug war looms for Mexico election winner

2006-07-08T08:31:00.000-07:00

Reuters

Tijuana, Mexico - Hitmen strafe two women with machine guns, severed heads are dumped in garbage bags near the U.S. border and outside public offices in Acapulco, a police chief is gunned town in a Caribbean tourist resort.

The grisly murders, all in the past week, are among the latest in an increasingly savage and spectacular wave of drug gang violence sweeping across Mexico as the country heads to the polls in a presidential vote on Sunday.

The dead are victims of an all-out war between rival gangs for control of the multibillion-dollar cocaine, marijuana and amphetamine trade to the United States which has killed more than 1,000 people in the past year.

While jailing drug kingpins has been a main goal for outgoing President Vicente Fox during his six years in office, the issue has been placed firmly on the back burner during campaigning.

Mexicans are appalled by the violence but most of the deaths appear to be a settling of scores between rival gangs and corrupt police officers linked to them. That reduces the immediate pressure on politicians to fix the crisis, and the cartels are so powerful it is unclear how they can beaten.

Nowhere is spared. The butchers struck in the swank coastal resort of Acapulco on Friday, where two severed heads were dumped outside state offices, and in the tin-roofed shanty towns ringing gritty cities on the U.S. border.

This week, two women were killed in burst of assault rifle fire in Tijuana, south of San Diego, while days earlier 70 heavily armed enforcers lured three policemen and a civilian into an ambush and chopped off their heads.

"It's tough going out on the streets. You just don't know what's going to happen," said Tijuana dentist Maritza Salcido. "Almost every day there are robberies, kidnaps and executions like those of the policemen."

Leftist front runner Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and ruling party rival Felipe Calderon have sparred over job creation, graft and the economy, while plans to crack down on Mexico's rampaging drug outlaws have been left until later.

BACKLASH

Fox himself vowed in March to extradite several jailed cartel bosses to the United States within weeks and warned that it could lead to a violent backlash. But he has yet to do anything as polling day looms.

As the killings mount, with the deputy police chief in the Caribbean playground of Cancun the most high-profile victim picked off in recent days, analysts say it is an issue that will confront whoever wins on Sunday.

"Even though drug trafficking violence hasn't figured large in the campaign, at some point in the next administration it will reemerge as a very urgent problem," analyst Jorge Chabat told Reuters.

Experts say the daily round of blood letting stems from Fox's success in jailing leaders of the powerful Tijuana and Gulf cartels, Benjamin Arellano Felix and Osiel Cardenas, which created a power vacuum on the U.S. border.

The ruthless Sinaloa cartel led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman stepped up to the plate, winning control of much of the jailed drug lords' crumbling empires in a spiraling war that has left bullet-riddled bodies in the streets of cities nationwide.

As the battle rages on, analysts say Fox may have decided to put off extraditing the capos to avoid a repetition of the bombings and shootings that convulsed Colombia after it opted to send its cocaine barons to the United States in the 1980s.

"In Colombia, (the cartels) reacted very violently to extraditions, and if President Fox extradited these guys before the elections, the possibility of some kind of incident would be very high," Chabat said.

The man who replaces Fox as president will have to grasp that nettle, and also figure out how to curb the Sinaloa cartel, emerging amid a blaze of gunfire as the dominant force across the U.S.-Mexico border -- a region jealously watched by Washington.

"Whereas the Colombian cartels have lowered their profiles, and are less violent since the 1990s, the opposite is happening in Mexico," said Victor Clark-Alfaro an academic and analyst in Tijuana.

"We have one powerful gang emerging, and carrying out ever- more ruthless acts of violence right on the U.S.' doorstep, and that will not sit well with Washington," he added.

By Tim Gaynor

Press Release: New Radio Ad Calls Out Politicians Who Have Used Marijuana

2006-07-08T08:28:00.000-07:00

Marijuana Policy Project

Washington D.C. - A potentially controversial new ad campaign from the Marijuana Policy Project names prominent public officials, including President George W. Bush, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, former Vice President Al Gore, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as having admitted to using marijuana. The ad then asks, "Is it fair to arrest three quarters of a million people a year for doing what presidents and a Supreme Court justice have done?"

The spot will hit the airwaves on July 3 on 141 radio stations nationwide, and will air through the summer during Jim Hightower's syndicated "Common Sense Commentary," carried by Air America and other stations, as well as the "Downsize DC" radio show. To listen to the advertisement, click here, or contact MPP Assistant Director of Communications Rebecca Greenberg at 202-462-5747 ex. 115.

"Nearly 100 million Americans, including the politicians named in the ad, have used marijuana -- and the vast majority have gone on to lead successful lives," said Rob Kampia, executive director of the Marijuana Policy Project in Washington, D.C. "Our government has spent hundreds of millions of tax dollars on ads claiming that the use of marijuana leads to addiction, illness, and destruction, but for the overwhelming majority of responsible, adult marijuana users -- just as for responsible, adult alcohol users -- that simply isn't true.

"Marijuana prohibition has completely failed to stop marijuana use, while giving unregulated criminals a monopoly on the marijuana market," Kampia continued. "Instead of continuing our failed system of marijuana prohibition, it's time to consider a new system of regulation and control that would generate tax revenues and take marijuana out of the criminal market."

Alcohol and tobacco, the two most commonly abused drugs in the U.S., have both been successfully taxed and regulated. Research shows that marijuana is safer than both of these drugs.

Afghans Bonfire Consumes 40 Tons of Drugs

2006-07-05T16:48:00.000-07:00

Newsvine

Kabul - Afghan officials destroyed more than 40 tons of confiscated narcotics worth an estimated $500 million on Wednesday in a giant bonfire on the outskirts of Kabul.

Afghan counter narcotics police have also arrested more than 600 drug traffickers, including 19 government officials, over the last year, said Deputy Interior Ministry Gen. Mohammad Daud Daud. Some 63 traffickers have been given long-term jail sentences for drug smuggling, according to the ministry.

"This is a very big achievement, not only for us, but for the international community, too," said Daud.

Afghanistan produces more than 90 percent of the world's opium and heroin. Much of the drugs are thought to be smuggled through Iran and Pakistan to Europe and elsewhere.

The international community has pumped hundreds of millions of dollars (euros) into anti-drug campaigns to train police units to destroy laboratories, arrest smugglers and eradicate opium crops, as well as fund projects to help farmers grow legal crops.

The country's bumper crop of opium last year — enough to make about 450 tons of heroin — has sparked fears Afghanistan is becoming a "narco-state."

The drugs that were burned included 4.1 tons of heroin, 12 tons of opium, and 24 tons of hashish confiscated over the last year. Another 24 tons of chemical ingredients used to make illegal drugs was also destroyed.

Daud praised the work of counter narcotics officials, but said much work remains to be done.

"We eradicated 15,000 hectares of poppy land this year, which is three times more than last year," he said. "Still we have a long way to go before reaching our goal."

It is the third time that the government has staged an event this year to destroy confiscated drugs and alcohol. Last month, 1.5 tons of drugs and 7,000 liters of alcohol were destroyed. More than 20 tons of chemical ingredients were destroyed in May.

UC cops find pot garden above campus

2006-07-05T16:39:00.000-07:00

SFGate

Berkeley - UC Berkeley police have discovered a marijuana garden in the hills above campus and arrested two suspects, authorities said today.

The plants were found at about 2:20 p.m. Monday off Grizzly Peak Boulevard in the Berkeley hills, authorities said.

Further investigation led to the arrests Wednesday of Jose Diazmendez, 45, and Jose M. Diaz, III, 20, neither of whom is affiliated with the campus, police said. Both were booked at Berkeley City Jail.

University police said they believed it was one of the first instances in which they found a marijuana garden in the hills above campus. Patrol officers who navigate the winding Grizzly Peak Boulevard said they usually deal with illicit activity in parked cars and car crashes in the hilly ravines.

By Henry Lee

Hinchey’s medical marijuana amendment fails again

2006-07-05T16:34:00.000-07:00

Hudson Valley News

It was the fourth time that Hudson Valley Congressman Maurice Hinchey and fellow House Member Dana Rohrabacher of California introduced an amendment to shield from federal prosecution patients who use medical marijuana in compliance with state law.

The lawmakers offered a bipartisan amendment to the spending bill that funds the U.S. Department of Justice that would prohibit the agency from spending any money in its budget to prosecute people who use medical marijuana in states that allow such use or doctors who recommend the drug in those states.

While the Hinchey amendment was defeated, the 163 votes in favor of the measure represented the most support it has ever received.

“It’s about compassion for people who are seriously ill or dying and it’s about states’ rights,” he said. “We have 11 states in our country that have stipulated, either by actions by the legislature, or in nine of those 11 cases, by referendum, votes of the people, that they want medical marijuana to be available to people who are seriously ill, people who have HIV/AIDS, who have cancer, who have glaucoma, who have multiple sclerosis.”

Medicinal benefits of marijuana are well documented, Hinchey said. At the request of the White House, the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine conducted a study in 1999, which indicated that marijuana can relieve severe pain, nausea, and appetite loss. The AIDS Action Council, the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Nurses Association, and the American Public Health Association all support access to medical marijuana based on the fact that the drug can help patients.

Rural Meth Addicts Have Trouble Getting Treatment

2006-07-05T16:31:00.000-07:00

Arkansas News Bureau

Washington - Methamphetamine use has hit rural communities the hardest, and those also are areas where treatment programs are most limited, experts told Congress on Wednesday.

A common, but untrue, myth is that meth users can't overcome their addictions, said Richard Rawson, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. Rawson said his UCLA clinic treats people addicted to alcohol, cocaine, heroin and meth. Meth users have similar success rates.

But those addicts who most need help can't get to it, said Leah Heaston, a director of treatment centers in rural Indiana, told the House Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources.

Finding and retaining qualified staff is difficult in rural areas, Heaston said. She described constant job openings at her clinics, and pointed out the high cost of training new staff.

Arkansas is among 12 states with nearly one percent or more of the population over the age of 12 having used meth in 2001, 2002 or 2003, according to a study released last fall by Department of Health and Human Services.

Seven percent of high school girls in Arkansas and 10 percent of high school boys reported using meth in a U.S. Center for Disease Control survey released earlier this month.

One positive sign for rural areas is the decrease of home-cooking meth labs, said Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., the subcommittee chairman. The reductions can be attributed to laws limiting the sale of cold medications containing psuedoephedrine, an ingredient in home-cooked meth, said Bertha Madras, a deputy director in the White House's drug control policy office.

But Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., said police in his rural district have seen addicts circumventing these laws. He asked Madras how law enforcement and drug treatment programs could better cooperate.

Madras lauded drug courts, which she said provide the best means of providing users with incentive to attend treatment. McHenry agreed, but said in rural areas there aren't enough of them.

Heaston also described transportation problems - many rural communities have no public transit system, so patients can't get to treatment. Rural communities also often don't have the bed-space to offer enough in-patient treatment or detoxification, she said.

Cost for treatment is another problem. The treatment program touted to congressmen on Wednesday, the Matrix Model, costs $6,000 per person, Heaston said. Many users are not able to afford it. They have often been in jail, have felony drug records, and have lost their homes, cars and jobs due to drug use, she said.

Her description was confirmed by two recently reformed meth addicts who testified. Darren and Aaronette Noble, of St. Louis, described years of jail time, drug use, arrests and living out of their car.

"When I was using meth, I felt dead most of the time," Aaronette Noble said. "My teeth and my hair were falling out and other people had custody of my children."

The Nobles and another former meth addict, Russell Cronkheit of Fairfax County, Va., described the transformation that treatment and recovery meant for their lives. Their message: meth addiction can be treated, but it is difficult.

Meth abusers will need frequent treatment, and may relapse before the treatment is effective, said Dr. Nora Volkow, the director of the National Institute of Drug Abuse.

"Relapse is not a sign of failed treatments," she said.

By Maria Hegstad

Leonardo DiCaprio to develop film on Timothy Leary

2006-07-05T16:26:00.000-07:00

EntertainmentWise

Leonardo DiCaprio’s film production company is set to develop a film based on the life of LSD advocate Timothy Leary.

DiCaprio knew Leary prior to his death in 1996 and has been anxious to make a film about him for sometime.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, DiCaprio’s company has now employed the talents of the award winning playwright Craig Lucas to develop a screenplay.

The film will reportedly focus on Leary’s life between his enrolment at West Point military school in the 1940’s to his escape from prison in the 1970’s.

Heroin traders to be banned from suburbs

2006-07-05T16:17:00.000-07:00

National Nine News

Heroin addicts and dealers loitering in nine Melbourne suburbs will be forced to find a new home elsewhere under radical tactics to break down the drug trade's network, according to newspaper reports.

Those evicted will risk jail if they break court orders banning them from Footscray and surrounding drug-plagued suburbs, the Herald Sun reported.

Police are set to round up dealers and addicts who don't live in the area and request that magistrates stop them from returning to the 31 sq km area.

Project Reduction, which begins on Saturday, is aimed at protecting residents and businesses that have been putting up with heroin-related assaults and burglaries over the last 20 years.

Project Reduction covers Footscray, Braybrook, Yarraville, Maidstone, Tottenham, Seddon, Kingsville, West Footscray and Maribyrnong.

If the plan is successful, it may be adopted in other problem areas across Australia.

Afghan opium increasingly smuggled north

2006-07-05T16:16:00.000-07:00

United Press International

Washington - Heroin smuggling from Afghanistan to Russia has increased from 10 to 25 percent of Afghanistan's illegal output, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency.

Tajikistan is the primary trans-shipment country for opiates destined for Russia, according to Karen Tandy, DEA administrator, who testified to the House Armed Services Committee Wednesday. About half the heroin that moves through Tajikistan is consumed in Russia, she said. The rest moves through Russia to Europe.

Drug traffickers in Afghanistan primarily use trucks to more their product north, where Tajik criminal organizations take over the operation.

The DEA will be establishing an office in Dushanabe, Tajikistan in the spring of 2007 to begin combating that traffic, Tandy said.

Eradicating poppy production -- the base ingredient for opium and heroin -- is complicated by an upswing in Taliban-related violence in southern Afghanistan, where most of the poppies are grown and where most laboratories that process poppy into opiates are located.

U.S. officials believe narcotraffickers are giving Taliban fighters funding and safe harbor in an attempt to frustrate Kabul and Washington's anti-narcotics campaign.

Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, head of coalition forces in Afghanistan, told the committee simple eradication can not work unless the farmers are given another crop to grow, irrigation for it, and a transit system to bring that product to market.

"If you gave me a choice between having another infantry battalion or $50 million to build roads, I'd take the $50 million for roads," he told the committee.

Afghanistan is the world's leading producer of illicit opium. Under the Taliban's rule in 2001 -- when poppy growing was banned but heroin production encouraged -- Afghanistan produced only 63 tons of opium. By 2004, Afghanistan produced 4,950 metric tons of opium. It declined slightly in 2005, but -- according to the United Nations -- is expected to rise again in 2006.

Eat To Live: Cannabis tea for two?

2006-07-05T16:14:00.000-07:00

United Press International

London - Get your taste buds ready for a whole ream of new flavors. If the predictions of research analysts Mintel are right, it's out with standards like vanilla and chocolate and in with exotica you may not know how to pronounce.

Foodies who follow the fashions of high-end restaurants in New York and San Francisco are probably familiar with the Japanese citrus fruit yuzu, even if they haven't actually had any.

But açai, pronounced 'ah-sah-ee' (apparently another sour)? And pomelo, a Quatermass version of the grapefruit? From Southeast Asia, it's the source of yet a further sour tang.

These and other uncommon flavors could be seeping into a bottled tea near you.

Highly unlikely to make the transition, however, is the flavor in a tea sold in 25 countries in Europe and just launched in the United Kingdom: hemp-blossom syrup.

C-Ice was developed by the Austrians. Although the words "sweet cannabis tea" are bannered on the label, it doesn't actually contain the government-agitating THC, the chemical that delivers marijuana's psychotropic effects.

What it does deliver, the UK commercial director told NutraIngredients.com, is a natural immune enhancer. Apparently it contains protein, omega oils, amino acids, enzymes, vitamins and minerals, along with the antioxidant properties of the black tea that it flavors.

Members of a therapy group for sufferers of multiple sclerosis in a town north of London have been drinking the stuff for the past three months. It seems that between 69 and 75 percent of them say it has helped their symptoms, though C-Ice's commercial director does admit that this might be because they were hoping it would.

Regular Brits may be reluctant to swallow the idea of hemp as a health ingredient. Certainly it's wonderful fodder for the country's scandal-mongering, alarmist tabloid press.

The possibility of it appearing on supermarket shelves in the U.S seems even less likely. And not just because of the already established resistance by officialdom to the suggestion that MS sufferers and others should be prescribed undoctored cannabis to relieve some of their symptoms.

Food products that trumpet added boosts of vitamins to promote general health haven't been doing nearly as well in the United States as they have in Europe and Japan.

Prebiotics, which are healthy non-digestible food substances, and inulin, both of which are said to aid digestion, go down well in Europe. But they haven't caught on in the United States

Europeans have also taken to the Glycemic Index on labeling with enthusiasm. This ranks carbohydrates for their immediate effect on blood glucose levels.

Lynn Dornblaser, an analyst at Mintel, told BrandWeek.com, "American consumers don't seem to have the same 'food-equals-good-health' mindset that Europeans or Japanese have." She also made the point that marketers are forced to move more slowly in launching healthier products, "due to FDA regulatory limits that other countries don't have."

So American food producers are likely to switch their focus to specific ingredients targeted at particular health benefits. Kellogg's Frosties, for example, formulated to contain energy-boosting, muscle-building amino acids, according to FoodNavigator.com, are selling very well in Japan.

By Julia Watson

Meth addicts reduce drug use with new treatment

2006-06-29T17:31:00.000-07:00

Reuters

New York - A new treatment that can be given on an outpatient basis resulted in a statistically significant reduction in methamphetamine use by addicted individuals, according to the first clinical study of the protocol.

Of the 50 patients who entered the study, 36 men and women completed the study. The subjects reported using meth on 80% of the 90 days prior to treatment, but only 28% were using methamphetamines 84 days following the first day of treatment, representing a 65% reduction in drug use.

"I think we've found the first clinically effective treatment for methamphetamine addiction," the study's lead author, Dr. Harold C. Urschel III, told Reuters Health. Urschel, an addiction psychiatrist, works for Research Across America, a Dallas-based company that performs independent clinical research, reported the findings last week at the annual meeting of the College on Problems of Drug Dependence in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Previously, he noted, if he had got a 25% to 30% reduction in drug use among meth addicts with treatment, "I'd be just jumping for joy. Urine tests showed that the study participants were telling the truth about their use or abstinence about 85% of the time.

PROMETA consists of a series of intravenous and oral treatments given in a doctor's office over the course of 30 days. Developed by the for-profit company Hythiam, Inc., it consists of FDA-approved drugs used "off-label," meaning the FDA has not approved their use for this condition.

PROMETA consists of an anti-anxiety drug from the class known as benzodiazepine antagonists, and a drug that modulates one of the brain's main signaling systems, GABA. Also included are nutritional supplements.

Among the 31 people who completed a series of questionnaires measuring their drug craving, 30 reported a reduction in craving, while one reported no change.

Meth addicts often drop out of treatment in the first few days, Urschel noted, largely because the drug has damaged their brain so concentration is extremely difficult. But in the current study, he said, "the patients' memory and concentration almost uniformly across the board came back," as soon as the first day of treatment. "That alone allows the people to focus on sitting in intensive outpatient treat and learn the skills necessary to staying sober."

While the mechanism for the protocol's effectiveness is not clear, Urschel said the main hypothesis is that it somehow restores the function of the GABA system, which has been damaged by drug or alcohol use. In healthy people, he noted, the neurotransmitter helps people to stay calm and relaxed. Treatment may restore its function, reducing anxiety.

The current study did not include any psychosocial interventions, which are usually part of the PROMETA protocol. Urschel said that the results would probably be better if the drug compound was given with these interventions.

By Anna Harding

Indians among highest opium users

2006-06-29T17:23:00.000-07:00

Times of India

New Delhi - Punjab has emerged as a major transit point for drugs coming in from Afghanistan to India, which has one of the highest numbers of opium users in the world, an UN report said.

The supply of drugs, especially heroin, has increased in India in the recent years even though licit opium cultivation has shown a decline, the 'World Drug Report' released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said.

The availability and consumption of drugs have increased in Punjab in the recent years with cities like Gurdaspur, Hoshiarpur, Amritsar, Ludhiana, Chandigarh and Patiala emerging as hotspots, it said.

The arrival of cocaine, a costly drug, in the country has also increased manifold with anti-narcotics sleuths recovering 200 kgs of the contraband so far this year as compared to 14 kgs seized in the last four years, the report said.

The fashion of drug smuggling and supply in India is also changing rapidly, posing a major challenge to authorities and the primary focus now was to understand their fast-changing modus operandi, officials said.

"To grapple with the beast, you need to know its shape and form," said Gary Lewis, the South Asia representative of the UNODC after releasing the report yesterday.

Apart from the Punjab route, drugs reach India from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh through the southern and eastern states.

According to the report, India has 25 million drug users, which makes the country account for 1/10th of the problem drug users in the world.

Opinion: One soccer mom's take on the drug war

2006-06-29T17:20:00.000-07:00

The Denver Post

I hope my daughter will never smoke marijuana. Regardless of whether she does one day, I know one thing for sure: Keeping it illegal can only harm her future.

Since 1998, the Office of National Drug Control Policy has spent more than $2 billion in taxpayer dollars on twin advertising campaigns seeking to discourage marijuana use. The first speaks to parents, calling them the "Anti-Drug." It fails before it begins. Good parents are going to talk to their children about drugs. All the feel-good ads in the world aren't going to get indifferent parents to engage in such an awkward but essential dialogue.

The second campaign fails as well. In these, youthful but sophisticated graphics tell kids not to use marijuana. If there is one sure way to get adolescents to smoke pot, tell them that the government and their parents don't want them to. In fact, a recently published national study indicates that after viewing commercials for this campaign, young people were more likely to exhibit positive responses about the drug.

Politicians whisper quietly behind closed doors about the insanity of the drug war. Neither party, however, has had the courage to take a stand against prohibition publicly. Just imagine if the $2 billion invested in these ads - or the billions more spent prosecuting peaceful marijuana users every year - had been diverted instead into tuition grants for needy students or back to taxpaying parents who could directly invest in college funds.

Earlier this year, many Colorado Republicans - myself included - expressed outrage against a new statewide smoking ban, saying it runs contrary to our American ethos of individual rights, private property rights, and personal responsibility. But where is the GOP's outrage now as the government spends billions to tell people they can't make the decision to use marijuana, a drug proven to be less harmful than cigarettes?

Democrats are no less guilty. They silently watch as our government's addiction to prohibition becomes a national epidemic, taking money out of the pockets of working families and sending thousands behind bars every year.

Both parties do nothing because they believe in the same urban myth. They know they must get the "soccer mom" vote if they want to win, but they are confused on how to achieve this. Their logic goes like this: Moms don't like drugs. Moms don't want their kids to use drugs. Do not advocate legalization or decriminalization if you want moms to vote for your party.

This strategy is tied to reliable studies demonstrating that women are now the decisionmakers in most American families. Just as mom decides which brand of toilet paper to buy for her family, she increasingly plays decisionmaker when it comes to voting. Democrats and Republicans alike believe they would gain nothing by advocating an end to prohibition, but both have failed to consider that they might just gain votes if they could learn to speak to mothers about drugs in a way that they could relate to.

Parents across America are trying to find a way to fund college. By legalizing marijuana, taxing it, and turning this revenue into college scholarships and treatment programs, the future of every child could be just a little bit brighter.

Compare this with the system we have now. Marijuana prohibition, violated by millions every year, has become the laughing stock of American public policy. Kids have seen first-hand that it's not as damaging as they've been led to believe. In the process, they begin to believe that some laws aren't meant to be obeyed. This is by far prohibition's most damaging side effect and only makes the job of being a mom that much tougher.

When I sit my daughter down to talk about marijuana, I'm not going to sugar-coat the facts. Marijuana can be addictive and destructive - just as alcohol can be - when abused. I'm going to let her know that life is exciting enough without turning to drugs for fun. She will learn that every law should be respected and that she should work to change those she believes are unjust.

At the end of the day, our government knows it cannot enforce marijuana prohibition. In the absence of being able to do so, it sends the damaging message to our young people that marijuana should be illegal simply because "I'm the government, and I said so." Moms know better - and may ultimately be the single key to bringing sanity back to American drug policy.

By Jessica Peck Corry

Review: Through Chong's case, 'a/k/a' examines the drug war

2006-06-29T17:18:00.000-07:00

The Boston Globe

In 2003, the comedian Tommy Chong began serving a nine-month sentence for selling bongs over the Internet. In his movies and stand-up routines with Cheech Marin , Chong gave us the archetypal stoner. So prison time for helping other people get stoned has a robust irony. According to `` a/k/a Tommy Chong," Josh Gilbert's occasionally enlightening new documentary that opens today at the Brattle, Chong's arrest was also a Justice Department conspiracy to punish the comedian's on-screen persona. As someone in the film deduces, the war on marijuana was a war on the '60s and its ethos.

The movie, though, is only sort of about the alleged plot against Chong, mixing highlights from his career and snapshots of his seemingly loving and tranquil family life with dismay over federal law enforcement's misplaced priorities. This isn't a great piece of nonfiction filmmaking, but it has its moments. The access to Chong, for one thing, contributes a serene counterpoint to the minor farce Gilbert makes of the Justice Department, which, when Chong was arrested, was run by Attorney General John Ashcroft . (Hilariously, the feds' plan to nab Chong and his family-run bong business was called ``Operation Nice Dream.")

The film spends time with Chong, who was 66 during filming, in the weeks before he went off to a minimum-security California prison. Gilbert visits him as an inmate and is with him and his wife, Shelby , after his release. And throughout `` a/k/a," Chong remains affable and resigned to his bad luck, leaving the conspiracy weaving to Gilbert and the gaggle of talking heads the director rounds up, including the journalist Eric Schlosser , whose book ``Reefer Madness" offers more focused and cogent dissections of the drug war's punitive excesses.

`` a/k/a" isn't sure what to do with its wealth of access. So, amid its jammin' rock-instrumental score, it tries some of everything. There are interviews with Chong celebrity pals and supporters like George Thorogood, Peter Coyote, and Bill Maher. Indeed, Ashcroft's moralistic approach to the drug war seems out of touch here. And Gilbert shows President Bush making his equation of drugs and terrorism -- stoners and dealers are terrorists by association. For the hell of it, there are man-on-the-street interviews, too, with Californians discussing the bliss of their homemade bongs (the potato is a new one for me).

But the movie does succeed in showing us the graying cult star as a gratuitous drug-war casualty -- though not a complete victim. His arrest was a telling blip in his life, where his reputation had gotten him, belatedly, into trouble. Still, his rebellious and rambunctious days seem behind him. He hasn't forsworn pot (when the government staged its major raid on his Pacific Palisades home, all it turned up was a pound of marijuana), but the years, and maybe his recreational pursuits, have conferred upon him a surprising aura of wisdom.

Court tosses marshal's claim CIA drugged him with LSD

2006-06-29T17:15:00.000-07:00

The Mercury News

San Francisco (AP) - A federal appeals court dismissed a lawsuit Monday by a former U.S. marshal who claimed the CIA slipped LSD into his drink in 1957, causing him to act irrationally and rob a bar.

Wayne Ritchie, also a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, claimed he was part of a project in which government operatives tested LSD and other psychoactive drugs on unwitting subjects. He sued after reading a 1999 newspaper account about the program.

Ritchie claimed the drug, allegedly given to him at an office Christmas party in the San Francisco federal building, made him feel "overcome by a sense of worthlessness that compelled him to engage knowingly in self-destructive conduct."

After the party, he tried to rob the Shady Grove bar in San Francisco's Fillmore district before getting beat up. He pleaded guilty to attempted robbery and in March 1958, was sentenced to five years' probation and resigned from his job.

On Monday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the July decision by U.S. District Judge Marilyn Patel, who dismissed the case following a four-day, non-jury trial in April.

Ritchie appealed.

Patel noted the government conceded CIA operatives drugged some individuals without their knowledge in December 1957 during testing of the drug. But she said Ritchie failed to prove the drug was slipped into his drinks or that the robbery was the result of an LSD-induced psychotic disorder.

Judge upholds constitutionality of Tennessee meth law

2006-06-29T17:13:00.000-07:00

WMCTV.com

Jasper, Tenn. (AP) - A judge disagreed with a challenge to Tennessee's methamphetamine law Monday but told attorneys for dozens of people charged with promoting manufacture of the illegal drug that he would listen to other complaints about the law at a July 20 hearing.

The law restricts large purchases of cold and allergy tablets that contain pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient in making meth, as well as other common products such as coffee filters or matches, if they are knowingly purchased to make the drug.

Circuit Judge Thomas Graham said that provision of the law is not vague and does not violate the due process right of innocent consumers. He said there is a violation of the law if someone buying those products "knew, or should have known this is going to end up in methamphetamine use." After a two-hour hearing he invited attorneys to return July 20.

The judge suggested that additional language in the law allowing charges for such purchases made "with reckless disregard of its intended use" might be subject to questions.

Phil Condra, public defender in the 12th Judicial District, told Graham during the hearing that the vagueness of the March 2005 law puts innocent consumers in jeopardy because it allows law officers too much discretion in making arrests.

"We are asking someone to predict a result," Condra said, speaking on behalf of Gary Kouns. "We are asking police officers in the start to be clairvoyant."

Officials said 80 people charged in a meth sweep with promoting manufacture were arrested after allegedly buying illegal quantities of pseudoephedrine, not coffee filters.

The law's threshold is buying at least 9 grams of pseudoephedrine decongestant - four boxes of 10 tablets that each contain 240 milligrams - or other methamphetamine precursor. Possession of more than 20 grams is considered evidence of intent to violate the law.

Condra did not challenge investigators using pharmacy records to get information on the purchases.

Preston Shipp, an assistant Tennessee attorney general, said in a court filing that there is "no possibility of conviction of an innocent person who purchases, as the defendant suggests, two packages of coffee filters, with neither knowledge that it will be used to produce methamphetamine nor reckless disregard of its intended use."

District Attorney Mike Taylor said questions about the law could possibly delay other similar pending cases.

Editorial: Losing the Drug War -- Decriminalization would be more effective than drug eradication

2006-06-29T17:11:00.000-07:00

The Monitor

There is an old saying: “There are none so blind as those who will not see,” which comes to mind when we see news reports about expanding the international drug war. Two stories from Colombia last week support that belief.

The first was a United Nations report that noted that despite record-setting eradication measures in 2005, the country’s coca production increased 8 percent. A day later, Colombian Interior Minister Sabas Pretelt said that despite the U.N. report, the aerial spraying campaign is working and should be stepped up.

Aerial spraying to kill coca crops is the cornerstone of the drug war in Colombia, the largest producer of cocaine used in the United States. It allows the Colombian drug warriors, with U.S. support, to reach remote jungle areas. The program is a joint effort between Colombia and the United States and is part of Plan Colombia, a drug interdiction program that has cost U.S. taxpayers $4 billion since 2000.

A report from the Office of National Drug Control Policy in April also found that the area under coca cultivation had grown, despite the spraying. So here we have two reports in recent months clearly showing that what we’re doing in Colombia isn’t working, and Pretelt’s plan is to throw even more of our money at the problem?

Actually, the main problem isn’t that the aerial eradication program isn’t successful. It’s that the drug war itself is failing. Born of the flawed idea that if drug users have trouble obtaining drugs, they’ll stop using, the drug war has been going on for decades with little success. That’s not to say federal and local law enforcement officials haven’t done their jobs. Hardly a week goes by, it seems, that the media don’t report a large bust somewhere in which thousands of dollars of drugs are confiscated. For every pound of illegal drugs they stop, however, you can be sure that many more get through to U.S. users. If they weren’t, the price would be much higher than it is. The police are doing what they’re supposed to, but they’re fighting a losing battle because the drug war ignores economics and common sense.

Making a substance illegal doesn’t make it go away; it merely increases the price. Higher prices mean more profits. Suppliers risk jail and violence to get those profits. Those risks demand even higher prices and profits to make supplying drugs worthwhile.

If officials are serious about lowering the rates of crime and drug use, they should curtail their efforts to keep consumers from getting what they want.

Decriminalization of drugs would remove the risk suppliers now face, which would lower prices. That would, in turn, lead to a decrease in robberies and burglaries because users would not need as much money to buy their drugs. That’s not to say such crimes would disappear; they’ve always been with us because not all crimes are a result of drug use.

The easy availability of illegal drugs in the United States is proof the drug war isn’t working, despite the billions we spend on it every year. That’s a pretty high price tag for a policy that’s not working.

Fake cops steal 100 kg of cocaine from Milan lab

2006-06-27T11:12:00.000-07:00

Reuters

Milan - Four thieves disguised as policemen stole 100 kg (220 lb) of cocaine worth some 10 million euros (6.9 million pounds) from a medical laboratory in Milan on Tuesday, Italian police said.

Police said the robbers had pretended to be carabinieri, Italian police, to gain access to the laboratory, then asked two medics to accompany them to the room where the cocaine was stored, wrapped in individual parcels.

There, they tied up the medics with plastic tape, snatched the cocaine parcels and left the laboratory, police said. Police were unable to give details on how the robbers managed to smuggle such a large amount out of the building.

UN sounds alarm over cocaine use in Europe

2006-06-26T17:29:00.000-07:00

CTV.ca

Cocaine consumption has reached alarming levels in Europe, with an estimated 3.5 million using the drug, a United Nations report warned Monday.

European users accounted for 26 per cent of the worldwide total in 2004, the largest concentration of which is in Western and Central Europe, the UN's 2006 World Drug Report said.

"Demand for cocaine is rising in western Europe to alarming levels," United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said.

"I urge European Union governments not to ignore this peril. Too many professional, educated Europeans use cocaine, often denying their addiction, and drug abuse by celebrities is often presented uncritically by the media, leaving young people confused and vulnerable."

However, the world's largest cocaine market continues to be the Americas, especially North America, which accounts for almost half the global total with its 6.5 million users in 2004.

The annual prevalence of abuse as a percentage of the population aged 15-64 was the highest in the United States with 2.8 per cent in 2004, followed by 2.7 per cent in Spain in 2003. Canada was not far behind with 2.3 per cent of the 15-64 population in 2004.

The report also found that marijuana consumption continued to rise while opium poppy cultivation worldwide was down 22 per cent in 2005.

Cannabis was used by an estimated 162 million people at least once in 2004, equivalent to some four per cent of the global population aged 15 to 64.

Costa warned that it would be complacent to dismiss cannabis as a "soft" and relatively harmless drug.

"Today, the harmful characteristics of cannabis are no longer that different from those of other plant-based drugs such as cocaine and heroin," Costa said.

"National policies on cannabis vary and sometimes change from one year to the next. With cannabis-related health damage increasing, it is fundamentally wrong for countries to make cannabis control dependent on which party is in government."

The report attributed the decline in opium poppy cultivation to declines in Afghanistan, Myanmar, and Laos, the three main source countries of illicit opium.

Laos, which until the mid-1990s was the third largest illicit opium producer in the world, cut opium cultivation by 72 per cent in 2005.

Meanwhile in Afghanistan, the area under opium poppy cultivation decreased for the first time since 2001.

Still, the UN watchdog pointed out that the war-torn country still accounted for 89 per cent of the worldwide production of opium, which is the main ingredient for heroin.

"Afghanistan's drug situation remains vulnerable to reversal because of mass poverty, lack of security and the fact that the authorities have inadequate control over its territory," Costa cautioned. "This could happen as early as 2006 despite large-scale eradication of opium crops this spring."

The report concluded that drug controls overall appear to be working as levels of cultivation and addiction are much lower than they were 100 years ago.

"Even more importantly, in the past few years, worldwide efforts to reduce the threat posed by illicit drugs have effectively reversed a quarter-century-long rise in drug abuse that, if left unchecked, could have become a global pandemic," Costa said.

However, he stressed that governments need to take action to curb both supply and demand.

"After so many years of drug control experience, we now know that a coherent, long-term strategy can reduce drug supply, demand and trafficking," Costa concluded.

"If this does not happen, it will be because some nations fail to take the drug issue sufficiently seriously and pursue inadequate policies. Many countries have the drug problem they deserve."

The UN watchdog also reported that:

Some 25 million people used amphetamines at least once in 2004, while some 10 million used ecstasy.
The U.S. authorities again busted the largest number of methamphetamine laboratories -- over 17,000 in 2004, more than 90 per cent of the global total.
While methamphetamine abuse remained even or declined among secondary students over the last few years, treatment demand for abuse of the drug has risen dramatically in the United States.

Burma junta claims anti-drug success

2006-06-26T17:20:00.000-07:00

Bangkok Post

Rangoon - The Burmese military regime - marking International Day Against Drug Abuse on Monday with a 148 million dollar drugs bonfire - claimed that the country was on track to be completely drugs-free by 2014.

Interior Minister Major General Maung Oo, presiding over the destruction of 148.4 million dollars worth of seized opium, heroin, marijuana and other drugs, claimed the regime destroyed 10,250 acres of opium last year and was weaning opium farmers from growing the illicit crop through crop-substitution programmes.

"The whole nation will be drugs-free by 2014 whether foreign assistance is obtained or not," said Maung Oo, presiding over the drugs-destruction ceremony in Rangoon.

Less than a decade ago Burma was the world's largest producer of opium, and the leading exporter of its derivative heroin.

Burma's ruling junta has vowed to eradicate opium cultivation nationwide by the year 2014. A crop-substitution programme, run by the United Nations, is one of the few development programmes to have received foreign assistance in the country, which remains a pariah abroad despite its drug-eradication efforts.

Most international organizations and western democracies ended their aid programmes to Burma in the wake of a bloody military crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in 1988 that left thousands of protestors dead.

While most anti-narcotics organizations acknowledge that Burma has made progress in cracking down on opium cultivation, the country is still deemed a major producer of methamphetamines.

Maung Oo, who is also chairman of the Central Committee for Drug Control, noted that local heroin prices had jumped 14 times between 2001 and 2006, opium prices had quadrupled while methamphetamine prices have shot up 12 times.

"Prices are high, so public awareness is heightened," said Maung Oo. "With cooperation of neighbouring countries precursor (chemicals) routes have been tightened...The situation is not threatening. It can be kept under control."

Cannabis tea goes on sale in UK

2006-06-26T10:21:00.000-07:00

Brand Republic

London - An ice tea containing cannabis extract will go on sale in UK health food shops this week, targeted at the soft drinks market with the tagline 'Refreshment for the enlightened'.

C-Ice Swiss Cannabis Ice Tea, originally from Austria, is already very popular in mainland Europe. The narcotic element of the plant, THC, has been removed from the drink, making the product legal.

The company is marketing the product, first seen at the 2006 Bar Show in London, as a healthy soft drink and with the health benefits associated with the hemp plant, including vitamins, minerals and fatty acids.

Harinder Kohli, C-Ice commercial director, said: "We are not keen to be a brand just based on cannabis.

"Our strapline is 'Refreshment for the enlightened', so if you are enlightened you will know about the health benefits of cannabis."

The £1.29 cans will be sold in health food shops and distributed by Marigold Health Foods and other health food distributors.

Point of sale activity, branded merchandise, promotions in clubs and a revamped website are planned in the near future.

The company currently has no plans to launch an advertising campaign because the PR surrounding the launch had "caught them by surprise and is creating more than enough interest".

By Joanne Oatts

DrugScope: Charity surprised by UN chief's cannabis remarks

2006-06-26T10:15:00.000-07:00

politics.co.uk

Leading UK drugs charity DrugScope today expressed surprise at remarks made by the Executive Director of the UNODC that cocaine and heroin are no more harmful than cannabis. The comments were made at the launch of the 2006 World Drug Report.

"The UK government, education system and charities have worked hard in recent years to ensure our young people are given factual information about the relative harms of drugs. International evidence is clear that cocaine and heroin cause much greater health and social harms than cannabis and it is misleading and irresponsible to suggest otherwise. Cannabis is a harmful substance but the greater harms caused by cocaine and heroin should not be downplayed.

"European evidence shows that although stronger strains of cannabis are available than 20 years ago, there has not been a significant increase overall in the use of more potent forms of the drug."

Responding to other key issues raised by the report, Barnes continued:

"Although we should not be complacent, cocaine use in the UK has remained stable in recent years, with last year's figures showing a slight drop to levels seen in 2000.

"Opium production in Afghanistan continues to be a concern, but it would be unrealistic to expect a significant reduction in levels of production without improvements in the country's infrastructure and better access to alternative sources of income or employment."

Man Says He's on Heroin to Avoid Jury Duty

2006-06-26T10:08:00.000-07:00

Fox News

Columbus, Ohio — A man made a mockery of the justice system when he tried to get removed from a jury pool in a death penalty case by claiming he is a heroin addict and a killer, a judge said.

Benjamin Ratliffe, 21, of Columbus, was charged with contempt of court and obstruction of justice and ordered to spend a night in jail.

Ratliffe filled out a questionnaire form for potential jurors and professed to having a"bad jonesin'for heroin."When asked if he had ever fired a weapon, he wrote,"Yes. I killed someone with it, of course. Right."

Ratliffe doesn't believe in the death penalty and wanted to be excused from the trial, said his attorney, Scott Weisman.

The potential jurors were being screened for the trial of Quarran S. Covington, who is charged with aggravated murder in the slayings of two Georgia men in May 2005.

In court, witnesses said, Ratliffe shrugged his shoulders when questioned by Covington's attorney and refused to answer any questions seriously.

On Thursday, Ratliffe apologized to Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Julie M. Lynch, who had ordered him to jail the day before.

"He didn't try to defend his responses, and he lied under oath and he was insubordinate,"said Lynch, who ultimately removed Ratliffe from the jury pool and dismissed the charges against him."You do not make a mockery of the process."

Global Drug War Is Being Won, Illegal Use `Contained,' UN Says

2006-06-26T09:30:00.000-07:00

Bloomberg

The world is winning the war on drugs, according to a United Nations report that said opium production might soon be eradicated in Asia's notorious ``Golden Triangle'' and coca cultivation in the Andean region of South American has decreased 25 percent since 2000.

``Drug control is working and the world drug problem is being contained,'' Antonio Maria Costa, head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime said in a statement accompanying the release today of the agency's 2006 World Drug Report. ``In the past few years, worldwide efforts to reduce the threat posed by illicit drugs have halted a quarter-century-long rise in drug abuse.''

The report said opium production decreased 5 percent in 2005, and described cocaine production and the global market for amphetamine-type stimulants as ``stable.'' Illegal drug use has been limited to 5 percent of people aged 15 to 64, about 200 million users worldwide in a year, including 25 million addicts, according to the UN.

Continuing concerns include rising global use of marijuana, signs that opium production will increase in Afghanistan this year, cocaine abuse in Western Europe and the manufacture of methamphetamines in Southeast Asia. Marijuana and hashish are the most widely used drugs in the world, by an estimated 162 million people, the UN agency said.

Skepticism

The UN's optimism should be viewed with skepticism, according to Jeffrey Miron, processor of economics at Boston University and a drug policy analyst for the Independent Institute, an Oakland, California-based research organization.

``If you read these reports over time from the UN or the U.S. drug czar, you see a constant up and down, from claims of victory to statements that things are horrible,'' Miron said in an interview. ``You tend to find that a problem that is solved one place shifts to another. There will always be some uses going up and some going down, and these reports don't address issues like the costs of drug use from diseases spread by needles or infringements on civil rights from the drug war.''

Sandeep Chawla, the report's co-author, credited a combination of education, enforcement and eradication programs begun in 1909, when the U.S. organized the first international conference on illegal drugs in Shanghai.

``The drug control system began there,'' Chawla said. ``World opium production was 30,000 tons then; now it's around 5,000 tons. If the drug market had been as unregulated since then as tobacco, it would have spread well beyond 5 percent perhaps to the 30 percent that use tobacco now.''

Opium Production

Opium poppy cultivation decreased 22 percent last year, to 374,634 acres (151,609 hectares), due to lower cultivation in Afghanistan, Myanmar and Laos, the UN said. With an estimated opium production of 14 tons, Laos might soon be ``opium poppy free,'' according to the report.

In Afghanistan, where opium poppy cultivation decreased last year for the first time since 2001, when the radical Islamist Taliban regime was deposed, planting increased early this year.

``Afghanistan's drug situation remains vulnerable to reversal because of mass poverty, lack of security and the fact that the authorities have inadequate control over its territory,'' Costa said.

The area of Bolivia, Colombia and Peru under coca cultivation was unchanged last year, and well below levels recorded in 2000, the UN said. Cultivation decreased 8 percent in Bolivia and 4 percent in Peru last year, while it increased by 8 percent in Colombia.

By Bill Varner

Green Party Connecticut governor hopeful: Let's end drug war

2006-06-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

Norwich Bulletin

Colchester - No one will ever accuse Clifford Thornton of shyness.

The 61-year-old retired businessman and Green Party candidate for governor is passionately blunt in describing what he sees as the failure of government -- and unconcerned if some find his sharp and pointed criticisms offensive.

"That's because I'm not a politician," he said during lunch last week at Peg's Vintage Diner in Colchester. "I'm not going to cater to you just to get your vote. I'm going to tell you the truth. And all great truths start as blasphemy.

"What we need are politicians so committed to the job that they're willing to lose it," he said.

Thornton, the first African-American to run for governor, is centerpiecing his gubernatorial bid on what he believes is the single most important issue facing the state -- and the nation. He advocates decriminalizing illegal drugs, and bringing an end to the 40-year war on drugs he said has done nothing to stem the tide of illegal drug sales or use.

"The war on drugs is meant to be waged, not won," he said, adding billions have been spent building prisons and fighting the drug war with no tangible evidence of success. "That's money that could have been spent on education, transportation infrastructure, housing, economic development and myriad other programs."

Decriminalizing illegal drugs, he contends, will have a positive impact on every other problem.

"Do you know what the definition of insanity is?" he said. "It's doing the same thing over and over again, and each time expecting to get a different result. The war on drugs isn't working, but we keep fighting it. That's insanity."

Being the first African-American to run for governor, Thornton said, means nothing unless it serves as motivation to other minorities to seek elected office. Race, however, is something different, and very much a part of his campaign. And he is particularly critical of organizations such as the NAACP, Urban League and black clergy that he claims have sold out their communities by turning a blind eye to the problem.

"You've got to talk about race," he said. "Seventy percent of the people in jail on drug charges are minorities. And 70 percent of the drug overdoses are white people. The drug problem is in the headlines every day. And where are we seeing the problem? In the poor, mostly minority, inner-city areas.

"Drugs are two degrees from everything in society," he said. "If you don't understand racism, classism, terrorism, white privilege and the war on drugs, then everything else will only confuse you."

Thornton's radical views are not the rantings of a one-issue candidate seeking to shock voters. On the contrary, he is a well-respected authority and drug reform advocate who has lectured extensively across the country and the world. His mother died of a heroin overdose when he was 18, and he now believes if heroin use had been legal and supervised by doctors, she might have been able to lead a safe and healthy life.

He is the founder of Efficacy, a 10-year-old nonprofit Hartford-based group focused on reforming the nation's drug policy, and he taught a graduate level course titled "Illegal Drugs and Public Policy" at Trinity College in 2002.

He hopes his gubernatorial campaign will provide yet a larger platform and broader audience for his message.

"I've been waiting 10 years for someone to step forward, but no one has," he said when asked why he accepted the Green Party nomination for governor. "This is a natural evolution for someone like myself."

By Ray Hackett

Presbyterians Call for Medical Marijuana

2006-06-25T20:49:00.000-07:00

BeliefNet.com

The Presbyterian Church (USA) on Wednesday (June 21) became the seventh major religious organization in the nation to support the use of medical marijuana.

The consensus vote of the church's General Assembly in Birmingham, Ala., comes as the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to take up the issue next week.

In explaining its reasoning for the policy shift, a church committee wrote that marijuana may alleviate the pain that some patients who are confined to "ineffective" prescription drugs are forced to endure.

"Medical marijuana is an issue of mercy," said the Rev. Lynn Bledsoe, a Presbyterian minister in Alabama. "It is unconscionable that seriously ill patients can be arrested for making an earnest attempt at healing by using medical marijuana with their doctors' approval."

Eleven states have passed laws allowing medical uses of marijuana following a doctor's prescription, but federal law enforcement officials can arrest people in those states.

A proposal by Reps. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., and Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., that will be considered next week would prohibit the federal government from using any of its budget money to pursue medical marijuana users who comply with their state laws and doctors' orders.

Similar amendments, including another by Rohrabacher and Hinchey, were defeated twice in the last two years, and a separate bill died in a House committee in 2005.

But Hinchey's chief of staff, Wendy Darwell, is optimistic that the amendment will fare better this year.

"There has been at least one other state that has expanded its own medical marijuana rules," Darwell said. With the growing number of states with provisions for medical marijuana, "that should only draw the support of more members of Congress who represent those states."

In 1982, the Episcopal Church became the first to endorse the use of medical marijuana, according to the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative, a Washington-based advocacy group. In more recent years, the United Methodist Church, the United Church of Christ, the Union for Reform Judaism, the Progressive National Baptist Convention and the Unitarian Universalist Association have announced similar support.

New lobbying group presses for medical marijuana use

2006-06-25T20:48:00.000-07:00

The Hill

On the one-year anniversary of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision allowing the federal government to overrule state medical-marijuana laws, a new lobbying group is trying to persuade some of the House’s most conservative members to protect the terminally ill’s right to use the drug.

Americans for Safe Access (ASA), a nonprofit group funded by patients, doctors and researchers who support exploring marijuana’s therapeutic potential, opened its Washington office last month and completed its first grassroots lobbying visits yesterday.

ASA’s two lobbyists and seven members, dubbed “citizen experts,” met Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.), who will offer his traditional medical-marijuana amendment to the Justice Department appropriations bill when it hits the floor next week, and 20 more House members, most from the California delegation. California permits cannabis use for medical reasons, but the Supreme Court ruled last year in Gonzales v. Raich that the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) could legally raid the supply of state-sanctioned users.

“Eventually we do see legislation being put forth” to end the federal ban on marijuana research, said ASA’s government-affairs director, Caren Woodson, “but the first thing we need to happen is that patients and doctors in states with laws stop being harassed by DEA agents.” Hinchey’s amendment, co-sponsored by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), would bar Justice from spending federal money on raiding stashes in California and nine other states with legalization laws.

Along with Woodson, a former lobbyist for the pro-legalization Drug Policy Alliance, ASA sent a past president of the American Association of Psychiatric Administrators and Garry Silva, a nerve-damaged California man whose home was raided by the DEA in March, to meet with lawmakers. ASA’s grassroots team met with senior aides to Reps. Jim Leach (R-Iowa), John Doolittle (R-Calif.) and Steven LaTourette (R-Ohio) and Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo (R-Calif.), among others.

Though the politically incendiary debate over medical marijuana has made strange bedfellows out of the left-leaning Hinchey and the conservative Rohrabacher, their amendment faces long odds on the House floor. For Woodson, however, the week has been a golden opportunity to position ASA as a new player in the debate dominated by often-stereotyped players like NORML, the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, and the George Soros-funded Marijuana Policy Project.

“There is a lot of back-and-forth about medical marijuana being a stalking horse for something greater, but what ASA is going to be able to provide is … a fresh perspective,” Woodson said. “We don’t have any mission or scope beyond medicine.”

Hinchey and Rohrabacher already have taken the fight for therapeutic cannabis to the Bush administration. Along with 22 other House members, they wrote to new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) chief Andrew von Eschenbach in April protesting an agency release that said no scientific evidence exists to prove marijuana’s medical value.

By Elana Schor

B.C. pot activist says Conservatives, Liberals want him extradited to U.S.

2006-06-25T20:44:00.000-07:00

Yahoo! News

Vancouver (CP) - Mark Emery, Canada's so-called Prince of Pot, says the Conservative government wants him extradited to the United States on marijuana charges so he can languish in an American jail for eternity.

"I'm a menace to the establishment," Emery said outside B.C. Supreme Court, where he'll be returning Aug. 21 to set a date for his extradition hearing.

"Both the (previous) Liberal government and the Conservative government are really opposed to ending prohibition and in the 12 years I've been active in British Columbia in this regard we've made tremendous strides towards legalizing marijuana."

Emery credits his efforts for the legalization of medical marijuana and a positive shift in Canadians' attitudes toward pot. He called himself a leader for the pro-pot movement across North America.

Emery, 48, heads the B.C. Marijuana party and publishes Cannabis Culture magazine.

The pot crusader has mostly been fined after being arrested 21 times in Canada. But in 2004, he spent 62 days in a Saskatoon jail for trafficking after passing a joint at a marijuana rally.

Emery is currently charged with selling marijuana seeds to Americans through the mail, conspiracy to manufacture pot and conspiracy to engage in money laundering.

He was arrested last July along with Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek and Greg Williams after police raided Emery's pot paraphernalia store in Vancouver following an 18-month investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Williams will appear in court Aug. 4 for a funding application.

Lawyer Kirk Tousaw, who is representing Rainey-Fenkarek, said Williams's application for legal aid was denied on the basis that he didn't provide adequate information.

The decision was upheld on appeal because Williams's income wasn't low enough, Tousaw said.

The trio's bail conditions, which stipulate they can't associate with each other outside work, were relaxed in court Wednesday so Williams and Rainey-Fenkarek can attend Emery's wedding on July 23.

Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm also allowed Rainey-Fenkarek to attend a three-day Toronto conference that started Wednesday.

Emery said Rainey-Fenkarek would be meeting with former justice minister Irwin Cotler on Thursday.

"Now that he's the justice critic we're going to discuss with him the opportunity to represent us in Parliament on the opposite side of the fence since we hope to impress upon him that what he has originally done is completely wrong," Emery said.

In January, Emery criticized the Liberal government's decision not to proceed with drug charges, clearing the way for his possible extradition to the United States.

That was after the Liberals stayed three conspiracy charges filed against Emery by a private citizen to thwart the United States' efforts to extradite him to that country.

David McCann filed the charges in September 2004, saying it would be hypocritical of Canada to participate in U.S. officials' efforts to prosecute Emery for activities condoned here for years.

At the time, Tousaw said the extradition hearing wouldn't have gone ahead if Emery and his co-accused were prosecuted in Canada.

Emery's fiancee, Jodie Giesz-Ramsey, said she's prepared to marry Emery knowing he may spend years in a U.S. jail.

"It's very scary but I figure being together we might as well get married and enjoy the time we have, however long it is," she said. "And if he goes away, I'll continue to work and do what he does."

Giesz-Ramsey said the two have known each other for years and that she became better acquainted with Emery while she transcribed his blogs from a Saskatoon jail.

Emery said his lawyers have told him he has a 98-per-cent chance of being extradited, adding he's a soldier who's prepared to do battle for others victimized by the American drug war.

"I've never been to the United States so the fact that I'd be taken away to their justice system for delivering seeds in the mail is an absurd infringement of Canadian law and Canadian sovereignty and I think that's the thing that Canadians should focus on - if it can happen to me it can happen to anybody."

Emery also disputed claims that much of the pot seized by police has been laced with crystal meth and other substances.

By Camille Bains

China faces pincer attack of drug from Golden Triangle, Afghanistan

2006-06-25T20:41:00.000-07:00

People's Daily Online

China is facing pincer attack of narcotics from neighboring Golden Triangular region and Afghanistan with an increasing inflow of "ice" and heroin from the regions, an anti-drug official said on Thursday.

The northern region of Myanmar at the "Golden Triangle" is still the main source of drugs and poses the biggest menace to China, said Chen Cunyi, deputy secretary-general of the National Narcotics Control Commission.

"Although the planted area of opium poppy in the Golden Triangle has reduced, most of the heroin produced in the region is trafficked to China," Chen said at a press conference of the Information Office of the State Council.

He said the production and smuggling of new drugs such as methamphetamine, or "ice", have been increasing in recent years. Many regions in China have reported finds of "ice" produced in Myanmar.

A total of 2.6 tons of "ice" were seized in southwest China's Yunnan Province in 2005, up 154 percent over the previous year, the highest figure in history, said Chen.

Chen also warned that there is a growing threat of drug trafficking from the Golden Crescent region of central Asia, especially Afghanistan.

The acreage sown to poppy in Afghanistan in 2005 was about 104,000 hectares, and the opium yield reached 4,100 tons, accounting for 87 percent of the world total, Chen said.

In China, police in Xinjiang, Beijing, Guangdong and other places have ferreted out trafficking cases involving Afghan heroin, he said.

In addition, ketamine from India and Southeast Asian countries as well as cocaine from South America were seized in China occasionally. About 55 percent of the 2.6 tons of ketamine seized in China last year came from India, Chen said.

In November 2005 and March 2006, more than 300 kilograms and 140 kilograms of cocaine from South America were seized respectively in China, Chen added.

Drug war's 'dirty little secret'

2006-06-25T13:01:00.000-07:00

Des Moines Register

Oversight scarce in Dallas County's interstate seizures of $1.75 million

Jesus Quinonez-Jimenez's first encounter with the Dallas County sheriff's department was bathed in flashing red lights as he drove along Interstate Highway 80 in March. His last came a short time later, after he denied ownership of the Illinois-registered 2000 Audi and more than $781,000 was found wrapped in plastic and hidden in secret compartments behind the car's rear wheels.

Quinonez, who gave deputies a California address, was allowed to leave - without the cash; without the car.

He also left state authorities with a slew of questions - about a packet of money that apparently disappeared while in the hands of Dallas County sheriff's deputies, and about whether Iowa needs more oversight of the way police agencies handle seized property and cash.

The Des Moines Sunday Register's three-month review of public documents and about 300 court files shows that Sheriff Brian Gilbert and his deputies seized $1.75 million in cash and vehicles over the past four years, much of it from black and Latino drivers who were stopped for traffic violations in vehicles with out-of-state plates.

The campaign, part of a five-year-old effort to reduce the flow of drugs through suburban Des Moines, has taken hundreds of pounds of cocaine and marijuana off the highway in what is described by lawyers and other police agencies as among the state's most aggressive drug interdiction efforts.

Success has come with little public oversight, however.

The Register's review also found that $1.3 million of the seized money came from cases like Quinonez's, in which suspects relinquished the cash and left town. No court files exist for $380,000 in seized cash, and there are no easily accessible records that document how the money was taken.

Iowa law requires that state authorities track all money and property taken from crime suspects via the courts - nearly $3 million in cash and 221 cars last year - but no one tracks the amount of cash police are handed by suspects who just want to get away.

State authorities say Dallas County's approach is rare but not innovative.

"We don't see very much unclaimed property at the county level that's walked away from," said Andy Nielsen, deputy auditor for the state. "Most of the noninterstate counties, I would bet you wouldn't have very much at all."

In Dallas County, the investigation involves one packet of money taken from Quinonez that disappeared before another 26 bundles were counted. Investigators won't comment on the case, which is now in the hands of Polk County prosecutors. Quinonez apparently is in no danger of criminal charges.

Gilbert, who took a two-month vacation while state agents and auditors searched his home and pored over the department's evidence records, defends his agency's pursuit of narcotics. He acknowledges that Dallas County deputies look for drugs and money every time they stop a driver along I-80. In fact, because traffic duties traditionally fall to state troopers, deputies seldom patrol the interstate unless they are searching for drugs.

"It allows us, we believe, to take ill-gotten proceeds off the street and put our small dent in the illegal drug trade," Gilbert said.

It also has allowed the department to buy laptop computers, stun guns, training classes and repairs to an oversized, inflatable deputy used to entertain children at community parades.

F. Montgomery Brown, a Dallas County lawyer who has both defended accused drug dealers and advised Gilbert during the state investigation, calls such seizures, in Dallas County and elsewhere, "the dirty little secret of the war on drugs."

Money seized and money lost

Law enforcement agencies have taken $2.4 million in cash and property from accused criminals in Dallas County over the past four years. Nearly 90 percent came from a 24-mile stretch of I-80. The total, which also includes seizures by the Iowa State Patrol and eight local police departments, might be higher, since many documents and details don't become public until the final stages of court proceedings.

One statistic is clear - about three-quarters of the take was by Gilbert's deputies.

The list includes:

• $197,690 found in the secret compartment of a Hummer driven by Eric Louis Powell. Powell, who claimed he had been paid $2,000 to drive it from Illinois to his home in California, was put on probation for money laundering.

• $98,190 found in a van driven by Stacy Alise Hill of Detroit. Hill denied any knowledge of the money and was released without charges.

• $74,955 found hidden in a Michigan woman's van driven by Ruben Delgado of Las Vegas. Delgado denied any knowledge of the money and was released without charges.

• $40,015 bundled in three duct-taped packages found in the center console of a 1999 Ford Expedition driven by Hoscar Castillo-Rodriguez. Charges against Castillo, of Los Angeles, were dropped due to lack of evidence. But Dallas County kept the cash and the SUV.

Dallas County deputies took a per-stop average of $11,206 in the court files reviewed by the Register. That figure is nearly double the $5,766 average from cases in Polk County, where most of the drug raids were on addresses rather than automobiles.

Recent questions about the missing money began with a March 15 afternoon traffic stop by Deputy Scott Faiferlick, who spotted what he believed to be illegally tinted windows on Quinonez's car.

Faiferlick, according to court documents, found a discrepancy in information provided by the driver and a female passenger. He also smelled fresh paint and body putty near the rear of the car, which convinced him the Audi should be searched.

Faiferlick and Deputy Adam Infante took the car to a nearby Department of Transportation garage, where they removed the wheels and discovered the 27 packages of cash. Gilbert and two other officers arrived to take photographs of the money, which Quinonez and the woman said they knew nothing about.

The money was loaded up for a caravan trip to the sheriff's department, just down U.S. Highway 169 in Adel. Gilbert drove the vehicle with the cash.

According to court records, Gilbert later told investigators that he can see his home from the highway and noticed that his garage door was open. Gilbert said he was concerned that neighborhood dogs would get inside and create a mess, so he stopped at home to shut the door.

His was the last vehicle to arrive at the sheriff's department.

Documents say Faiferlick noted immediately that one of the bundles of cash appeared to be missing, but he didn't press the issue. The money was counted the following afternoon: $781,724.

While doing paperwork three days later, Faiferlick "started to think about different things that took place" after the traffic stop, according to court records. He reviewed photos taken at the garage, then compared them to photos taken the following afternoon.

Faiferlick and two other deputies approached Gilbert on March 21 and asked for an independent examination. Gilbert called the Dallas County attorney, then the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.

West Des Moines police were put in control of Dallas County's evidence room. Auditors came in. State agents went to Gilbert's house.

But after eight weeks passed without charges, Gilbert returned to work from his self-imposed vacation. He made the announcement at a news conference, surrounded by cheering supporters.

The state's evidence-room audit likely won't be finished for months.

Waivers keep seizures out of courts

Iowa law allows police agencies to seize property if it's been used in the commission of a crime or purchased with the profits from criminal activity. The law, routinely invoked in drug cases, requires court approval before authorities can legally take ownership of what they seize.

Court documents say some of the property seized in Dallas County - $320,000 in cash and cars - was returned, either because a judge ruled there was no connection to crime, or because authorities cut a deal to keep only a portion.

But records show that many of those involved in high-dollar seizures give up their property long before their cases make it to a courtroom.

In Dallas County, for example, more than $1.3 million became sheriff's department property over the four-year period because motorists such as Quinonez signed waivers and disavowed ownership. The waivers, printed in English and Spanish, allow county authorities to treat the money as abandoned property and bypass the court process.

Instead of a formal hearing, Dallas County deputies simply buy newspaper advertisements that urge people to come forward within a month if they want to claim an unspecified amount of money seized on a particular date. The ads, printed in an Adel paper, have yet to generate a serious inquiry, Gilbert said.

Dallas County officials initially refused to release copies of the waivers, calling them investigative documents. Gilbert subsequently provided them when he returned to duty.

Records show much of the $1.3 million ended up in court cases anyway, apparently as part of efforts to take vehicles when legal owners weren't present to sign the waivers. The Register's review found no court files to account for $380,000, only the waivers and the ads.

"I don't deal with unclaimed property files," Dallas County Attorney Wayne Reisetter said. "We get what we get, and if they don't bring us things, I don't know they exist."

Most of the waivers include no dollar amounts, except those added by Gilbert at the Register's request. Deputies, citing safety concerns, say the documents frequently are signed before the cash is counted.

"You can't expect a deputy to sit out at the side of the interstate counting money," Chief Deputy Kevin Frederick said.

State authorities say the Dallas County investigation has sparked talk among government auditors and lawyers of new statewide rules to require court oversight in every case. Authorities say they have no way to know how many other law enforcement agencies use waivers to pocket seized money.

A spokesman for the Iowa attorney general's office said any proposal will wait for the outcome of the Dallas County probe. But Nielsen, the deputy state auditor, conceded that "it probably makes sense to have essentially the same kind of controls in place" for both types of seizures.

For Dallas County, it also makes sense to have waiver forms available in two languages.

The Register's review found that most drivers stopped along I-80 were in out-of-state vehicles. More than half were black or Latino.

"That's been going on for years," Polk County Public Defender John Wellman said. "At one point, I was willing to bet that if you took a black or Hispanic guy and put him in a rental car ... he wouldn't make it through Dallas County."

County authorities argue that metropolitan Des Moines is at a major crossroads for the cross-country shipment of drugs and cash, so it's logical that many of the seizures involve vehicles from outside Iowa. Gilbert and his deputies dismiss any suggestion that drivers are targeted by race.

"You get dark-tinted windows on a car, you can't tell if they're white, black, green, brown or red," Frederick said.

"I wouldn't say one way or the other" whether racial profiling is at work, said Des Moines attorney Alfredo Parrish, who represented Powell. "We just don't know how many of these people, they don't find anything, and they just keep going."

Dallas County statistics show nonwhites received 14.5 percent of the 1,703 traffic citations and written warnings issued on I-80 in 2004. For 2005, the number was 15.8 percent of 1,490 citations and warnings.

Gilbert estimates that seizures result from 1 in every 100 traffic stops.

Forfeited money used for equipment

State auditors say they raised questions for at least four years about how Dallas County handles forfeited drug money. In 2003, then-Sheriff Art Johnson agreed to move the cash into a publicly controlled account instead of a private checkbook maintained at the sheriff's department.

Gilbert says a department checkbook is still used, but only as a temporary means to transfer money to the county treasury.

Nielsen called the arrangement unusual and described transferring the money via checkbook as "an extra step that probably shouldn't have been taken. It belongs in the county treasury."

However, state audit reports have voiced no qualms about Dallas County's practices since 2003. Nor do they raise any doubts about how the money was spent.

Financial records show a long list of equipment purchases from the account: squad-car computers, video cameras for the sheriff's department, vehicle expenses, food for the county's two drug dogs, and maintenance on Deputy Dallas, an inflatable mascot that apparently sprang several leaks over the past few years.

Cases reviewed by the Register also show that nearly four of five people suspected of drug trafficking on I-80 eventually face criminal charges, although most see charges reduced. Fewer than one in four of those cases have ended with motorists behind bars for any substantial amount of time.

Drug forfeiture laws have created problems for law enforcement agencies throughout history, said Cecil Greek, an associate professor at the University of South Florida College of Criminology and Criminal Justice. The problem comes, he said, when police start to depend on seized cash.

"You go after the money instead of the criminals ... because people start putting line items in their budgets," Greek said.

Gilbert contends that grabbing the cash is sometimes the only thing authorities can do. In cases where deputies find money but no drugs, there can be scant evidence on which to base a charge.

"We have to investigate with whatever tools we've got," he said. "Oftentimes, we're left with little or nothing at all."

Gilbert said he welcomes any new oversight from the state. But Dallas County has no plans to back away from what he considers a valuable law enforcement tool.

"There are some areas that we probably could use some guidance on," Gilbert said. "But I will stand at the mountaintop and say that we've done the best we can with the situation that we've been given. Ultimately, our efforts are going toward doing the best we can to put a dent in the drug trade."

Repeated attempts by reporters to contact Quinonez and his relatives were unsuccessful. The registered owner of the Audi, Uriel Ochog of Chicago, also could not be reached.

In May, Dallas County authorities filed court papers to formally take ownership of the car and the $781,724. As of Friday, court records contained no indication that anyone had objected.

Beijing curbs disco to cramp "crazy" drug takers

2006-06-23T10:02:00.000-07:00

Yahoo! News

Beijing (Reuters) - Beijing has banned disco and other dance music in private rooms of nightclubs and karaoke bars to curb the flood of illegal drugs into the capital's entertainment venues, Chinese newspapers reported Friday.

"Because many drug takers regularly dance and go crazy to upbeat 'disco' music in private rooms, police have specially requested karaoke machines not have this music," the Beijing Times newspaper said.

Club owners were now expected to delete disco and "other forms of vulgar entertainment" from karaoke machines in private rooms, the Beijing News said, as part of a "responsibility agreement" written up by police.

The agreement, signed by more than 1,100 club owners, is the latest in a general crackdown on crime in nightlife venues launched this month, prompted by a sharp rise in drug trafficking and violence involving customers and staff.

The Beijing News said Thursday police were planning random urine tests for employees at Beijing's clubs, citing employees' "addiction" as a major source of drug trafficking.

Vietnam sentences two men to death for heroin dealing

2006-06-23T08:03:00.000-07:00

Mainichi Daily News

Hanoi, Vietnam (AP) - A court in northern Vietnam sentenced two men to death for selling 5.3 kilograms of heroin, a court official said Friday.

Bui Xuan Thai and Nguyen Van Chinh were given the death penalty after being convicted in a one-day trial Thursday in Thai Binh province, about 100 kilometers southeast of Hanoi, said presiding judge Tran Van Loan.

Two other men received life imprisonment and another was given 20 years in jail for involvement in the ring, he said.

Loan said Thai and Chinh were arrested in January while transporting 1.4 kilograms of heroin in Thai Binh's Dong Hung District.

The five confessed to the court that they had traded a total of 5.3 kilograms of heroin from last September until their arrests, the judge said.

Separately, two American citizens of Vietnamese origin were sentenced to 20 years in jail each for selling the party drug Ecstasy, Friday's Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper reported.

The two men from Texas identified as Quach Phan Phuoc and Le Dinh Duy were convicted of selling 3,800 Ecstasy tablets last year, it said, adding that three other Vietnamese men were sentenced to between eight years and 15 years in prison for involvement in the case.

Vietnam has some of the world's toughest drug laws. Possessing, trading or trafficking more than 600 grams of heroin or 20 kilograms of opium are punishable by the firing squad.

About 100 people are sentenced to death each year in Vietnam for drug-related offenses.

Cannabis farming plan scuppered by minister

2006-06-23T07:57:00.000-07:00

The Guardian Unlimited

Amsterdam (AP) - The Netherlands' justice minister yesterday fended off further liberalisation of the country's cannabis policy. Under Dutch law, "coffee shops" sell cannabis, but police crack down on growers. In December the minister, Piet Hein Donner, reluctantly agreed to MPs' requests to consider allowing the large-scale farming of cannabis in a pilot project near Maastricht. But yesterday he told MPs that if they wanted to allow cultivation, "then you need to find a different kind of justice minister". The key coalition party VVD appeared to swing behind him in order to avert a cabinet crisis.

Court: Drivers with marijuana in body can be charged

2006-06-22T22:20:00.000-07:00

WOOD TV

Lansing, Mich. (AP) - The state Supreme Court has made it easier to prosecute people who drive after smoking marijuana.

The court says drivers with a long-lasting chemical found in the body after marijuana use can be charged with driving while intoxicated.It came in a 4-to-3 decision released yesterday.The ruling says that a chemical that is released when the body breaks down the marijuana's active ingredient T-H-C is a schedule one controlled substance.

It also says that prosecutors don't have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person is intoxicated, only that the chemical is in the body.

Jury deadlocks in baby's breast milk meth poisoning case

2006-06-22T22:17:00.000-07:00

SFGate

Corona, Calif. (AP) - A judge declared a mistrial Thursday after jurors said they were deadlocked in the case of a woman accused of killing her baby by nursing with methamphetamine-laced breast milk, a district attorney's spokeswoman said.

The jury deadlocked 6-6 in the case against the baby's mother, Amy Leanne Prien, which has drawn national attention for its unusual circumstances, said Ingrid Wyatt, spokeswoman for the Riverside County district attorney's office.

"It's certainly a disappointment. The goal is always to try and get a verdict in any case," she said. "It was a very difficult case with complicated issues involved."

Prien had faced 15 years to life if she had been convicted.

The district attorney's office has until July 11 to decide on retrying the case, which began when Prien was arrested in January 2002 and was charged with murdering 3-month-old Jacob Wesley Smith.

Prien was convicted of second-degree murder in 2003, but an appeals court overturned the conviction in September, citing flawed jury instructions from the trial judge.

The prosecution was believed to be the first of its kind in California.

Prien said she woke up and found her son dead in her bed on Jan. 19, 2002. The prosecution argued during the trial that Prien, who had smoked meth for 10 to 15 years, would breast feed her child after smoking even though she knew it could damage him.

"She continued to breast feed that baby because she didn't care," Supervising Deputy District Attorney Allison Nelson argued during last week's closing arguments. "She was responsible to protect him, to protect him. The choices the defendant made cost him his life."

When Prien was arrested, blood tests showed the methamphetamine levels in her blood were within a potentially lethal range, but police never tested her breast milk.

Her attorney, Los Angeles-based Joe Reichmann, argued that the charges were based on "make believe science" because authorities never knew how much of the drugs were in her milk.

"A really vital piece of evidence was not taken — preventing the defendant from really getting a fair trial," Reichmann said during his closing argument.

The jury began deliberating on June 15 after a 2 1/2-month trial.

Reichmann did not immediately return calls for comment Thursday.

Police Beheadings Reflect Drug War

2006-06-22T22:11:00.000-07:00

The Los Angeles Times

Tijuana, Mexico - The caller painted an ominous scene: A convoy of 40 vehicles filled with 70 heavily armed and masked men, witnesses said, was prowling the streets of Rosarito Beach. Three police officers responded to the quiet neighborhood and were quickly abducted. A day later, their mutilated bodies turned up in an empty lot.

Their heads were found in the Tijuana River.

The attack was the latest in a series of paramilitary-style operations that have plagued Mexican cities as warring drug cartels escalate their battles to control key smuggling routes.

With Mexican authorities relying more heavily on the military to combat drug smuggling, traffickers have responded in kind, forming large forces of assailants and arming them with frightening arrays of weaponry.

Nearly two dozen heavily armed gunmen in April tried to assassinate Baja California's top-ranking public safety official in a wild shootout on a Mexicali street. The attackers launched grenades and fired more than 600 rounds, wounding three bodyguards.

Over the past year, commando-style raids have been regular occurrences in Tijuana, with convoys of masked gunmen snatching victims from restaurants and street corners in brazen daylight raids.

"It's a disturbing manifestation of latest drug war frenzy. ... The militarization of the drug war in many ways on the side of law enforcement has corresponded with the militarization of tactics and personnel on the criminal side," said David Shirk, director of the Trans-Border Institute at the University of San Diego.

The situation, Shirk added, "has heightened the competition and raised the stakes in a way that has led to extreme violence, at a level we have not seen before in Mexico."

In Nuevo Laredo, on the Texas border, a raging turf war between the Gulf Cartel and Sinaloa drug gangs has killed more than 230 people in the last 18 months.

The defection of a military commando unit, the Zetas, to the Gulf cartel in the late 1990s became the model for military-style assaults, experts say. Federal officials say they killed or captured the original group, but they say they believe jailed Gulf cartel leader Osiel Cardenas still had at least 120 cadres trained by the Zetas at his command as recently as last August, and was using them increasingly to battle the rival cartel led by Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

But the violence is not limited to cities along the U.S.-Mexico order. In Apatzingan, in the central state of Michoacan, last Aug. 18, four men were killed and a policeman and four bystanders wounded in a shootout between rival drug gangs that involved dozens of paramilitary gunmen in 10 vehicles.

Two weeks earlier, police in nearby Uruapan, also in Michoacan, had arrested a group of 10 alleged drug gang members armed with 50-millimeter rifles, AK-47s and AR-15s.

Cartels also are using increasingly brutal methods to intimidate their enemies. The Rosarito Beach beheadings followed the decapitation in April of a police commander in Acapulco, whose head was found in a public plaza.

Jose Luis Santiago Vasconcelos, the top organized crime prosecutor in the Mexican attorney general's office, has taken over the investigation of the Baja California beheadings. In an interview for Friday's editions of the Mexico City newspaper El Universal, Santiago said the abductions and beheadings were characteristic of the brutal Central America-based Mara Salvatrucha gang, which has become increasingly involved in the Mexican drug trade in recent years.

"Acts like the ones we have just seen are manifestations of groups related to the Maras," he said. "We have seen the phenomenon of decapitation in El Salvador, a brutal act of intimidation that is occurring here as (Mexican) drug gangs are worn down and resort to recruiting this kind of group."

Jeffrey McIllwain, a criminal justice professor at California State University, San Diego, who studies border security issues, believes the violence is a sign that pressure from law enforcement is affecting the cartels' bottom line.

"The fact is that it has hurt operations, severely in some cases ... so it makes sense that the cartels would step up their game," McIllwain said.

In Baja California, the crime wave could signal an escalation of the fierce war to control the lucrative Tijuana smuggling corridor, which has been traditionally controlled by the Arellano-Felix Cartel. Several top-ranking members of the cartel have been killed or arrested in recent years, and other cartels may be sensing weakness, say experts.

Some recent attacks were shocking for their audacity, say experts. Last month, three men armed with AK-47s stormed into an office of the Mexican Federal Attorney's office in Tijuana and shot two agents, killing one. In December, assailants attacked the Tijuana home of a state police commander, killing two of his bodyguards. In October, Tijuana's chief of homicides narrowly escaped an attack by assailants who fired more than 50 bullets at his car.

"It's a more aggressive form of violence, with new ingredients," said Victor Clark, a border expert and director of Tijuana's Binational Center for Human Rights.

By Richard Marosi

Thousands arrested in drug war

2006-06-22T19:18:00.000-07:00

China Daily

Despite police arresting 58,000 suspected traffickers and seizing 6.9 tons of heroin last year, China's drug situation remains grave.

Chen Cunyi, deputy secretary-general of the National Narcotics Control Commission (NNCC), yesterday said the war on drugs faced expanding drug sources as well as a rising number of addicts.

While the Golden Triangle especially the northern part of Myanmar remains the main source of heroin, the Golden Crescent area in Central Asian, particularly Afghanistan, is now supplying the drug trade in China with an increasing flow of "ice," or methamphetamine, and heroin, Chen told a news conference organized by the State Council Information Office.

There were only two or three cases involving heroin from the Golden Crescent several years ago, but last year saw nine, he said.

He said in 2005 about 104,000 hectares of Afghanistan was sown with poppies, with an opium yield of 4,100 tons, or 87 per cent of the world total.

Police last year cracked cases involving Afghan heroin in Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, South China's Guangdong Province and even in Beijing, said Chen.

In addition, ketamine from India and Southeast Asia, as well as cocaine from South America were seized in China.

About 55 per cent of the 2.6 tons of ketamine seized in China last year came from India.

In November 2005 and March 2006, more than 440 kilograms of cocaine from South America was seized, said Chen.

Also, "new types of drugs are found to have been trafficked from European countries," he added.

In one case Chinese police seized 463 kilograms of ecstasy from the Netherlands.

"Suspects from home and abroad have colluded with each other, with drug lords running operations from other countries," said Liu Yuejin, deputy director of the Narcotics Control Bureau of the Ministry of Public Security (MPS).

"This is the distinct character of cross-border drug trafficking."

Liu noted that foreign drug lords were behind every one of the eight major drug cases handled by the MPS last year.

He said the drug lords provided funds as well as organizing smuggling and sales rings in China.

Moreover, weapons are becoming more prominent in drugs cases, added Chen.

In April 2005 China's top leadership declared a "people's war on drugs," asking the public to help the fight against addiction.

Chen said enthusiasm for the campaign has been extremely high, with some 250,000 tips on drug activity pouring in.

China recorded 785,000 drug addicts at the end of 2005, about 700,000, or 89 per cent, of whom were addicted to heroin.

Police across the country have vowed to step up the fight against drugs, following a recent series of drug seizures and arrests.

In Guangdong Province, police yesterday announced the smashing of a big cross-border drug manufacturing and trafficking gang in Shenzhen early last week.

A total of four Hong Kong residents were detained for further investigation after a secret drug production base was discovered in Shenzhen's Luohu District on June 11.

More than 36 kilograms of methamphetamine, or Ice, plus raw materials and production equipment were seized.

Yang Jianghua, director of Drug Crime Investigation Department under Guangdong Provincial Bureau of Public Security, said the crackdown has demonstrated the police's determination to fight drug crimes and bring illegal drug manufacturing and trafficking under control in the province.

Yang promised to further expand co-operation with Hong Kong and Macao counterparts, other international anti-drug organizations and customs departments in fighting drug related crimes in the coming months.

Guangdong police have uncovered more than 2,200 drug-related cases in the first five months this year.

More than 2,900 suspects, including a large number of foreigners and Hong Kong and Macao residents, have been detained or arrested, up 16.8 per cent year-on-year. Another 24,000 drug addicts were sent to drug rehabilitation centres, a 17 per cent increase year-on-year.

In Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province, anti-drug officials have expressed concerns about drug use among white-collar workers and young people.

In the city's Nanjing-1912 entertainment area, drug dealing or use was discovered in 12 of the 22 bars and clubs during a recent check-up.

According to Teng Jianmin, a member of the city's anti-drug team, white-collar workers under 35-years-old and teenagers from well-off families are the main drug users in the bars.

"Most of them are not fully aware of the harm that the drugs might do to them. They said they took soft drugs just for fun and relaxation," said Teng. "But they usually lose self-discipline after taking drugs, which might harm both themselves and society."

During the past six months, the team has arrested 300 drug abusers and dealers, confiscated 5,000 ecstasy pills, and 3.2 kilograms of soft drugs like Ice from public entertainment venues across the city.

In Beijing, police said they are taking firm measures against the problem of drug use in entertainment venues.

Bars, KTV and disco venues are attractive destinations for a growing number of new types of drugs, Fu Zhenghua, deputy director of Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, told an anti-drug working conference yesterday.

He revealed that while trafficking and use of conventional drugs like heroin has been controlled, the abuse of ice and ecstasy pills in some entertainment venues is rampant.

"The new types of drugs are becoming our chief concern in our unremitting fight against drugs," Fu said.

Statistics show about 40 kilograms of Ice and ecstasy pills were confiscated last year in Beijing, more than half of the total amount of seized drugs.

By Jiang Zhuqing

Fallon newspaper endorses Nevada marijuana initiative

2006-06-21T18:40:00.000-07:00

Las Vegas Sun

Nev. (AP) - A newspaper in rural northern Nevada has given a surprising endorsement to a ballot measure to decriminalize adult possession of limited amounts of marijuana through regulation and taxation.

"In a state where prostitution is legal in certain counties, bars are not required to close and children can legally possess and use tobacco, objections to marijuana legalization on a moral basis seem hypocritical," the Lahontan Valley News and Fallon Eagle Standard said in a Tuesday editorial.

"Those who view marijuana as a blight on society have yet to offer an effective solution of how to stop its spread through society or better fund law enforcement. Continuation of the ill-funded, halfhearted campaigns of the past is little more than veiled acceptance of its current widespread and illegal use."

State Sen. Mike McGinness, R-Fallon, said he was surprised by newspaper's support for the Nov. 7 ballot question.

"It surprised me that a rural newspaper would do that," he said, noting northern Nevada's typical conservative political leanings.

But Eric Herzik, a political science professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, said rural Nevada often shows its independent backbone.

"I wouldn't have predicted it, but it's not one where I'm shocked," he said.

"Rural Nevada, while often thought to be conservative, is often more libertarian. They don't like government intervention," Herzik said.

"They're not endorsing the use of marijuana, but instead saying 'Why don't we treat this as we do many other vices in Nevada' - which is to accept them," Herzik said.

Nevada voters approved a constitutional amendment allowing marijuana use for medical purposes in 1998 and 2000. Two years later, they rejected efforts by national advocates to allow adult possession of up to 3 ounces for non-medical use.

The latest proposal would allow adults to possession up to 1 ounce.

The newspaper's endorsement was hailed by the Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana, which was thwarted in a first attempt for a constitutional amendment by not gathering enough signatures to qualify for the 2004 ballot.

After that, the organization took another route, gathering enough signatures to present the issue to the 2005 Legislature. The measure automatically qualified for this year's ballot after lawmakers failed to act within 40 days.

"Rather than spending millions of taxpayer dollars arresting marijuana users, the state of Nevada should instead generate millions of dollars by taxing and regulating marijuana, and earmark part of these revenues to prevent and treat the abuse of marijuana, tobacco, alcohol and other drugs," the initiative says.

The state would license wholesalers and retailers to sell the drug. Each would pay $1,000 for an initial license and $1,000 annually for the permit.

It also would increase penalties for driving under the influence and restrict where pot could be sold.

Neal Levine, campaign manager for the sponsoring committee, said if approved by voters, Nevada would be the first to tax and regulate marijuana statewide.

"What we're proposing is really sort of a mainstream, common sense policy," Levine said, adding that the endorsement supports the group's argument that prosecuting pot smokers doesn't work and is a waste of police resources.

McGinness said he opposes the idea, and thinks most rural voters will too. He said he believes marijuana is an entry drug that leads some people to other drugs with harsher consequences, like cocaine and methamphetamine.

"I know there are people out there who scoff at the idea that one leads to another," McGinness said.

The editorial dismissed the argument.

"The same could be said of caffeine, tobacco, alcohol, gambling, sex or any other activity that stimulates the brain's pleasure zones," it said. "Some of the above mentioned activities are legal and regulated in Nevada. In fact, the state's most powerful industry caters to those same visceral pleasures."

By Sandra Chereb

Hit the books for opium-like high: study

2006-06-21T18:39:00.000-07:00

The Discovery Channel

What do a heroin user and a library-bound scholar have in common (other than bleary eyes)? According to a University of Southern California neuroscientist, both are just trying to satisfy the craving for a very similar 'fix.'

Lead researcher Irving Biederman admits that "trying to understand a difficult theorem...is not fun," but says, "Once you get it, you just feel fabulous."

This "A-ha!" moment - when a complicated concept finally makes sense - releases a natural biochemical cascade in your brain similar to that released by opiate drugs.

Once you've experienced this pleasure, your brain is motivated to maximize the rate at which it absorbs knowledge.

Perhaps, at this point the learning spirals "out of control." You're lost to the library and the influences of other scholars and information - addicts trying to feed the need to understand increasingly complex theorems.

Having smarts is cool

Your need to be accepted - especially by the opposite sex - may be the reason for your determined drive to learn. Researchers theorize that this intense motivation to make it all "click" is just evolution at work, as intelligence influences mate selection.

Only the more pressing necessities - like the quest for food - trump the need for knowledge, Biederman says.

Repeated doses not enough

This research is closely linked to Neural Darwinism: the concept that after repeated exposure to information that at one time caused a lot of excitement in your brain, neurons eventually adapt, making the concept less interesting.

Biederman used fMRI technology to test this idea. He exposed a group of volunteers to a number of images and observed that neurons initially engaged by certain compelling images were eventually "freed up" upon repeated exposure, allowing these parts of the brain to pursue other challenging or stimulating concepts.

"The system is essentially designed to maximize the rate at which you acquire new but interpretable [understandable] information. Once you have acquired the information, you best spend your time learning something else," Biederman says.

The theory is presented in an article in the latest issue of American Scientist

No fines for motorists using ecstasy

2006-06-20T10:34:00.000-07:00

The Advertiser

Australia - Motorists testing positive to ecstasy will escape penalty when the state's new drug-driving laws come into effect on July 1.

This is despite the fact equipment to be used by South Australian police can detect ecstasy and that Victorian police will begin random testing for the party drug on July 1.

Under the SA testing regime, drivers pulled over for a random test will have their saliva tested but will be charged only for driving under the influence of cannabis (THC) and methamphetamine.

This fact was detailed in a pamphlet circulated to more than 400,000 homes yesterday.

The Opposition yesterday warned the new laws were an incentive for drivers to use ecstasy rather than other illegal drugs.

The outcry comes after a national survey released today by insurance group AAMI found one in four men aged 25 years and under admitted to having driven while under the influence of recreational drugs, including ecstasy.

A recent report from the National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre shows ecstasy is killing more than one person every fortnight across Australia, with almost a third of the deaths caused by car crashes.

Opposition police spokesman Rob Lucas said ecstasy could be detected in the on-the-spot saliva tests with positive results being recorded by police but no penalties involved.

"What this bizarre policy means is that for those people who use illicit drugs there will be a clear incentive to use ecstasy rather than speed or marijuana," he said. Mr Lucas said it would be simple to change the laws to include ecstasy.

Legislation clarifying police powers to prevent drivers continuing to drive after testing positive should pass Parliament this week.

Road Safety Minister Carmel Zollo slammed the Opposition comments as irresponsible for "eagerly promoting the use of an illicit substance to avoid a law designed to save lives".

"Roadside testing will be carefully monitored over the initial 12-month trial period which targets the two most commonly used illegal drugs THC (found in cannabis) and methamphetamine," she said.

Ms Zollo said methamphetamine was a common ingredient in street-grade ecstasy and police said the detection of pure ecstasy was extremely rare.

A Government source said the aim of the new laws was to target the most common drugs found in the systems of drivers and eventually would be followed by other drugs.

The source said the most common drugs were cannabis and amphetamines and "we want to make sure we get it right with these two first and as technology advances others can be included".

Under the new laws, motorists would be hit with on-the-spot fines of $300 and the loss of three demerit points for a first offence. Refusal to take a drug test would result in a $700 penalty with the loss of three demerit points.

Mr Lucas accused Transport Minister Patrick Conlon of "another stuff-up" for not being aware of what drugs would be detected. He said Mr Conlon had been asked last week if ecstasy would be detected and the minister had answered he was not an expert on recreational drugs and police should be asked about the actual scientific basis of the tests.

Mr Lucas said Mr Conlon needed to explain urgently why drivers detected with ecstasy would not face the same penalties as those detected with marijuana and speed. A spokesman for Mr Conlon referred questions about the drug testing to Ms Zollo as she was responsible for the operation of the new laws.

By Greg Kelton

Lines drawn in drug war

2006-06-20T10:11:00.000-07:00

The Washington Post

Mexico City (AP) - The main candidates in Mexico's presi- dential election in two weeks are trying to look tough on the drug war, a central issue in the race, though they disagree whether U.S.-style solutions are needed.

The candidate who speaks most closely to Washington's concerns is conservative Felipe Calderon. He advocates extraditing more drug lords to the United States and replacing Mexico's secretive court system with open, U.S.-style trials.

Roberto Madrazo of the former ruling party claims the toughest law-and-order platform. One of his campaign ads depicts a criminal wetting his pants out of fear of Mr. Madrazo's proposals for stiffer sentencing. "Criminals can't play around with me," the candidate tells voters.

Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a liberal running neck and neck with Mr. Calderon in the polls, has broken with the left's anti-military tradition by suggesting a bigger role for the army in fighting the drug trade. But he says poverty reduction is the only real way to fight crime, and remains largely silent about U.S.-style trials and extradition.

Taking on the cartels, even in campaign rhetoric, is a risky business in Mexico. With shootouts, executions and beheadings becoming more common in border cities such as Nuevo Laredo and resort areas such as Acapulco, candidates have to watch their backs.

Ana Maria Salazar, a former Pentagon counternarcotics official, noted that the candidates have refrained from singling out any cartels by name.

"There's a certain amount of reluctance to talk about drug-trafficking organizations," she said. In part, she said, that is because by talking about them "you increase the threat level against the candidate enormously."

U.S. border communities have been caught up in the war with Mexican cartels, as well as the booming industries of migrant-smuggling and kidnapping for ransom. All this has led the Bush administration to accuse Mexico's government of not fighting back hard enough.

Mr. Calderon, of the ruling National Action Party, seems to speak to those concerns. He also advocates a more unified police command and increased investigation and intelligence work, like police in the United States.

"We can free cities like Tijuana, Nuevo Laredo or Acapulco from this cancer before it eats away our society," he said during a televised debate on June 6.

Mr. Calderon urged life sentences for kidnappers. Mexico currently does not impose life sentences for any crime.

Mr. Madrazo of the former ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, running third in polls, echoes Mr. Calderon's call for changing the trial system so attorneys can argue cases in open court.

Under the current system, attorneys submit documents to a judge who reads them and reaches a verdict behind closed doors. The secrecy is prone to corruption and bungling, and doesn't inspire public confidence.

Mr. Lopez Obrador, candidate of the Democratic Revolution Party, argues for creating jobs, reducing poverty and sending more Mexicans to college to reduce the lure of crime.

"I don't think you can make much progress with prisons or threats of heavy-handed approaches and tougher laws," he said. He adds that the drug cartels are so well-armed that the army is the only force that can handle traffickers.

In April, suspected drug hit men in Acapulco decapitated two police officers who had participated in a shootout with traffickers, and left the severed heads at the scene with a note saying: "So that you learn some respect."

The most recent police figures for federal crimes show that drug trafficking and weapons possession rose 12 percent between 2001 and 2004. Police are widely perceived to be ineffective and corrupt.

When Mexico City businessman Hugo Alberto Wallace was kidnapped last July, it was his mother, Maria Isabel Miranda, who led the investigation into his disappearance, frustrated with the slow pace of the official search. She even led police to suspects.

Analysts say the main problem is disorganization and lack of investigative powers among Mexico's municipal, state and federal police agencies, most of which are ill-trained and uncoordinated.

Genaro Garcia, head of the Mexican equivalent of the FBI, highlighted the problem last month in a book sarcastically titled "Why 1,661 Police Forces Are Not Enough."

Mr. Madrazo and Mr. Calderon have floated proposals to unify police forces and create intelligence centers. Outgoing President Vicente Fox made a similar promise while campaigning for office six years ago, but made little progress.

By Mark Stevenson

Bridgeport Mayor Won't Quit Over Drug Use

2006-06-20T10:08:00.000-07:00

Chicago Tribune

Bridgeport, Conn. (AP) - Mayor John M. Fabrizi admitted Tuesday he had abused cocaine while in office and said he wanted to apologize "to all the people of the city" but had no plans to resign.

The admission followed the inadvertent release of an FBI document in which an alleged drug dealer claimed an associate had a videotape of the mayor using cocaine.

In a tearful speech to about 200 city employees and residents in City Council chambers Tuesday, Fabrizi said he had not used drugs in 18 months and had sought help for a drug addiction that he had hoped to handle privately.

"I thought that these were personal, private matters to me and my family, that I could deal with these issues with my family and myself," Fabrizi said. "I now recognize my actions affected many others, and I want to apologize to my family, my friends, and all of the people of the city of Bridgeport for my actions, my past actions."

Fabrizi, a Democrat who took office after former Mayor Joseph Ganim was convicted of corruption in 2003, said he hopes to move forward and continue running Connecticut's largest city.

"I will do everything, and I mean everything I can, to redeem the respect and the support that you the employees of the city of Bridgeport, and of you my friends, and of you the great people of the city of Bridgeport," Fabrizi said.

Many employees cheered while Fabrizi spoke, though there were some boos. He also said he stopped drinking alcohol four months ago.

"I have put this personal struggle behind me and it has never, ever affected my job performance," Fabrizi said. "The tremendous progress Bridgeport has made over the past three years is a testament to that. Folks, my record speaks for itself."

U.S. Attorney Kevin O'Connor said last week that Fabrizi was not a target of the drug investigation, which led to the FBI report being filed in court. He said FBI reports, which summarize statements made by witnesses but are not always corroborated, are typically filed under seal and apologized to Fabrizi for the release.

Fabrizi first admitted he had used cocaine to the editorial board of the Connecticut Post, which reported the admission in Tuesday's editions.

Fabrizi would not tell the Post how he obtained cocaine, but said he occasionally spent $20 or $40 to purchase it. The mayor offered to take periodic drug tests if anyone doubts he has stopped using cocaine.

Bridgeport, a city of about 140,000 residents on Long Island Sound, has struggled with violent drug dealers who gave the city a reputation as the murder capital of the state in the 1990s before the homicide rate plummeted.

Cecil Young, a city sheriff who listened to Fabrizi's address Tuesday, said the mayor had misled voters for nearly two years and should resign.

"He needs help," Young said, adding that he wants proof that Fabrizi sought treatment from a licensed professional. "If I was busted for something like that, I would lose my job."

Others were more forgiving.

"I think he can continue on in his job as mayor as long as he's sought treatment," said Matthew Krol, a Bridgeport resident who works in a record store. "I think he should be given a second chance."

By John Christoffersen

Gallagher admits to affair in the 70's and marijuana use

2006-06-20T10:07:00.000-07:00

WTSP Tampa

Tallahassee, Florida - Republican Gubernatorial Candidate Tom Gallagher admitted that he used marijuana as a young man Monday.

During a conference call with reporters, Gallagher also admitted to cheating on his first wife, and breaking into her home to retrieve a dog during their messy divorce.

Gallagher is currently the state's chief financial officer. He made the announcement after The Tampa Tribune obtained transcripts from his 27-year-old divorce proceedings.

The documents reportedly detailed the incidents. Gallagher said the paper contacted his campaign over the weekend.

The documents are partial transcripts from hearings during his 1979 divorce from Ann Louise Gallagher. At the time he was a member of the Florida House of Representatives.

The 62-year-old reportedly told the Tallahassee Democrat his life and political leanings turned around when remarried and became a Christian in 1998.

Currently, Gallagher is seeking to align his campaign with the Republican Party's most ardent, socially conservative voters.

Police Find Marijuana In Fold Of Fat

2006-06-20T10:06:00.000-07:00

WJAC TV

Omaha, Neb. (AP) - Talk about a pot belly!

Police in Omaha, Neb., report finding a man's pot stash hidden in a roll of stomach fat.Officers said they stopped the 5 foot 8 inch , 250-pound man because his car was blocking traffic.According to authorities, when an officer smelled marijuana in the car, he searched the man and found a baggie of the illegal weed.

The man was ticketed on suspicion of possessing less than an ounce of marijuana and obstructing traffic.

New numbers show U.S. meth use plunging

2006-06-20T09:57:00.000-07:00

Chicago Sun-Times

Washington (AP) - Good news in the fight against meth abuse came on two fronts Monday, with reports showing a major drop in methamphetamine lab seizures nationwide and a similar decline in the spread of the drug into the workplace.

Local law enforcement officials say there is still a strong appetite for the highly addictive drug and warned that meth makers in Mexico and other countries are moving to fill the supply void.

The number of meth lab busts plummeted more than 30 percent last year as most states put in place laws to restrict the sale of over-the-counter cold medicines used to make meth, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Meanwhile, the nation's largest drug testing company said the number of job applicants and workers who tested positive for meth plunged 31 percent over the first five months of this year.

Those figures are based on the results of more than 7 million drug tests in 2005 and about 3 million tests from January to May 2006, conducted by New Jersey-based Quest Diagnostics.

White House drug policy director John Walters called the data an encouraging sign of progress. ''The practices that have been taking place in our states are working, not only on small toxic labs but also what we're trying to do with demand,'' said Walters, head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Illinois seizures down 15 percent

Meth lab seizures fell from 17,562 in 2004 to 12,185 last year, with states like Oklahoma, Montana and Washington seeing some of the sharpest declines. In Illinois, lab seizures fell 15 percent to 931.

Meanwhile, a study last week by the Sentencing Project -- a nonprofit group that supports alternatives to prison terms for convicted drug users -- concluded that reports about meth use are exaggerated.

Citing figures that show less than 1 percent of the nation's population uses meth, the group said meth abuse remains a ''highly localized'' problem compared with abuse of other drugs like cocaine.

West Hollywood To Vote On Marijuana Laws

2006-06-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

KFMB News

The city council in West Hollywood will vote Monday on a resolution that would ease the enforcement of marijuana laws.

The resolution would make it okay to possess small amounts of marijuana in West Hollywood and allow people to smoke it in private.

Minors and drug dealers would still be subject to arrest, and using the drug in public would still be prohibited.

Fatboy Slim gig overshadowed by drug arrests

2006-06-20T09:46:00.000-07:00

PR Inside

Fatboy Slim's concert in Northern Ireland at the weekend was blighted when eleven people were arrested on suspicion of drug possession with intent to supply.

By the end of the dance event in County Antrim on Saturday (17JUN06) night, police had seized several hundred tablets of ecstasy, amphetamines and cannabis. Two further arrests were made outside the gig for suspicion of drug possession. A number of people were fined for breaching street drinking by-laws.

Walters: Meth Lab Seizures Drop in 2005

2006-06-20T09:42:00.000-07:00

Chron.com

Washington (AP) - Police seizures of illegal meth labs dropped more than 30 percent last year, the Bush administration said Monday, as more states and drugstore chains began limiting access to ingredients used to make the highly addictive drug.

Also Monday, the nation's largest drug testing company said the number of job applicants and workers who test positive for meth plunged 31 percent over the first five months of this year.

White House drug czar John Walters said the two reports are evidence that the "one-two punch" to restrict chemicals and educate the public about the horrors of meth addiction are finally paying off.

"What this information shows is, on supply and demand, we are making a dramatic difference," said Walters, head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

But some federal lawmakers give most of the credit to state and local governments, saying the decline in meth abuse has come despite the absence of national direction.

Rep. Mark Souder, chairman of the House drug policy subcommittee, said the administration has refused to make combatting meth a priority. He criticized a White House budget proposal to slash federal spending for state and local law enforcement to fight meth.

"Efforts to continue to downplay the threat, after working to cut funding for anti-meth efforts, are only making those who fight the meth epidemic daily more angry at this administration," said Souder, R-Ind.

Meth lab seizures declined from 17,562 in 2004 to 12,185 last year, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration's El Paso Intelligence Center, which compiles information on clandestine laboratories seized within the United States.

The drop was steepest in the Western and central western regions of the country, particularly states that were among the first and hardest hit by meth abuse and the dangerous makeshift labs where the drug is made from pseudoephedrine _ found in many store-bought cold medicines _ and household chemicals.

Oklahoma, for example, saw a drop of 68 percent, while lab busts in Montana fell by 66 percent and Oregon declined 60 percent. Missouri, which leads the nation in lab seizures, saw a 22 percent decline.

Those states are among at least 37 states with laws that restrict the sale of cold medications in an effort to starve meth manufacturers of their key ingredient. The federal Combat Meth Act, signed into law in March, will enforce similar restrictions across the country by Sept. 30.

In the drug test findings, Quest Diagnostics Inc. said its data showed workplace meth use fell 31 percent since 2005 and 45 percent since a peak in 2004. The Teterboro, N.J.-based company analyzed nearly 7.5 million drug tests in 2005 and about 3 million tests from January to May 2006.

While less than 1 percent of the nation's population uses meth, more than half of the nation's counties report that meth is their largest drug problem.

Earlier this month, the White House drug policy office set a goal to cut meth use by 15 percent by 2009 and increase seizures of meth labs by 25 percent. A priority is stemming the flow of meth from superlabs in Mexico, which supply about 80 percent of the drug to the United States.

At a congressional hearing last week, Democratic and Republican lawmakers called the plan weak and said they remain frustrated that the Bush administration downplays the problem of meth.

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., said it appeared the administration had not spent enough time consulting with local officials before releasing the anti-meth strategy.

In an interview, Walters dismissed the criticism.

"No one's trying to downplay it," Walters said. "There's no drug worse than meth."

But he said his office can't focus too much on a single drug at the expense of other threats like heroin, cocaine, prescription drugs and marijuana.

By Sam Hananel

Two witnesses refuse to testify in meth-sting lawsuit

2006-06-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

The Ledger-Enquirer

Rome, GA (AP) - Two anonymous witnesses refused to come forward Monday, dealing a blow to a lawsuit by defense lawyers who claim that a sweeping drug sting in northwest Georgia unfairly targeted South Asian merchants.

Defense attorneys said the two, who were ordered by a federal judge to testify if their evidence was to be considered, backed out at the last minute.

"It's human," said Graham Boyd, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer. "They're going to get nervous. They're going to get cold feet."

Boyd tried to salvage some of the testimony - outlined in an affidavit that does not identify the witnesses - by trying to call another witness: a government informant named John Edward Ross who volunteered to talk.

Federal prosecutors objected that they weren't prepared to cross-examine Ross, and U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy agreed. He did, however, set another hearing Thursday morning to question him.

The ACLU wants Murphy to toss out the cases against dozens of South Asian merchants indicted last year in Operation Meth Merchant, a sting designed to send a message to retailers knowingly selling methamphetamine-related products to drug makers.

The group contends that prosecutors and police selectively targeted South Asians during an 18-month investigation that aimed to curb the sale of household products used to manufacture methamphetamines, while ignoring white-owned stores in the drug sting.

Beginning in early 2004, 15 undercover agents were sent to small grocery stores, tobacco shops and delis in six remote northwest Georgia counties.

Once there, prosecutors said the informants were sold products ranging from antifreeze to pseudoephedrine even after the informants told the clerks - sometimes using slang terms - that they planned to make meth.

The investigation raised eyebrows when 44 of the 49 retail clerks and convenience store owners indicted were South Asian, including many who shared the last name Patel. All but one of the 24 implicated stores were owned by South Asians.

In an area where roughly 20 percent of the 600 retailers are owned by South Asians, critics said authorities were "scapegoating" minorities.

The ACLU had said previously it would offer testimony from two anonymous witnesses, including a meth manufacturer who claims to have been an informant during the police sting.

That informant said in an affidavit he told police he bought his supplies from white-owned stores but was ordered to make undercover purchases at South Asian stores. He was prepared to testify at the hearing, but Boyd said he decided to stay quiet after his attorney advised against coming forward.

The sting has so far yielded 43 guilty pleas - 30 from individuals and another 13 from corporations. Another 11 cases have been tossed, prosecutors said.

David Nahmias, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Georgia, denied claims that prosecutors intentionally targeted South Asian merchants and said attorneys were assessing each case on its own merits. He said federal law makes clear that it is illegal for merchants to sell products knowing - or with reason to believe - that they could be used to produce drugs.

"The United States Attorney's Office prosecutes cases based on the evidence and the law - not the defendant's race, ethnicity, or last name," Nahmias said in a statement.

By Greg Bluestein

Dozens of bales of marijuana, with a street value of about $2 million, were found Sunday morning in a Southside Tucson home.

2006-06-20T09:32:00.000-07:00

KVOA News

It happened on the 500 block of West Tiger Shark.

Tucson Police Officer Dallas Wilson says, "It was 220 bails, approximately 4,000 pounds." Wilson says the drugs have a street value of about $2 million.

Police officers responded to a family fight at around 1:20 a.m. "When they got in the area, you could smell the raw odor of raw marijuana."

So, officers then used a canine to determine which house it was coming from. The home, is just down the road from Mission Manor Park.

"I take the kids to the park and go walking every evening," says one nearby resident, who adds that she's relieved officers were able identify the home, and clear the drugs, and dealer from the neighborhood.

"You don't know who's living next door. You never know what's going on. It's kind of scary," says the mother of three.

Jose Ortega Mendez, 35, was found inside. He was booked into the Pima County Jail for unlawful possession of marijuana for sale.

Meanwhile, Officer Wilson says it's important to remind residents "that they can report this type of activity and be anonomous."

Anytime such pungent marijuana odors are coming from a nearby home, people are encouraged to report it by calling (520) 88-CRIME or 911.

The suspect is also facing charges of possession of a firearm during a narcotics offense.

Nigeria: Cannabis Farmers Could Be Winning the War on Drugs

2006-06-17T21:05:00.000-07:00

All Africa

A government drug law enforcer has admitted they are struggling to keep up with a booming industry which has seen Nigerian-grown cannabis become "the best in the world". The production, consumption and exportation of cannabis is on the increase in Nigeria.

Farmers can make thousands of Naira for every bale of cannabis grown. Couriers, who may be using vehicles originally bought for government agencies to take the drug to cities, can make at least 400 per cent profit on their purchases. International exports are also on the rise as Nigerian hemp becomes more popular in Europe and the rest of the world, the Daily Trust can reveal. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) is under-funded, poorly equipped and under-staffed. The Edo state command has only one workable car to fight the smugglers. Three years ago a medic and a policeman were arrested after smugglers were found to be using an Ambulance belonging to the Nigerian Supreme Court to transport cannabis to market.

Law enforcement officers suspect that other cars belonging to the government are still being used by smugglers. The Edo state commander of the NDLEA Mr Okey Ihebom, agreed that the agency's war on cannabis in the country falls below standard. He said there is global demand for Nigerian's cannabis which made the control of its production, consumption and exportation very difficult and challenging.

He said: "The drug war in this part of the country is higher than any other place because, essentially, Edo state is a home for the cultivation of cannabis. They plant Indian hemp in large quantity in this state. There are five states that are leading in the production of cannabis in the country. They are Edo, Delta, Ondo, Ekiti and Osun states. But the cannabis being produced in Edo and Ondo states is the best in the world. So, there is a ready market for it anywhere in the world. We also understand that the cannabis from those two states is more expensive. The producers and the pe ddlers are therefore willing to take any type of risk to produce and export the drugs." Lack of cells for detaining suspects is one of the major hitches the Edo state command of the NDLEA is facing, Mr Ihebom said.

Because drug peddlers operate in groups ready to use violence, there is the need for the agency in the state to have a strong jail where suspects could be detained. He said the agency needs money to embark on public enlightment in the state to preach against excessive smoking of cannabis in the state. He said the rate at which people smoke cannabis publicly in the state is becoming very alarming. He said: "People smoke cannabis out of ignorance. When we enlighten the public on the adverse effecting of smoking the drug, I am sure a good number of people will stop the habit and those that are not in the habit of smoking will report to us those they see smoking. We have also realised that a lot of youths are inculcating the habit of smoking cannabis. "We are trying t o see that we discourage people from smoking and exporting the drug. If that succeed, the producers would have to stop farming it because the will not see anybody to buy. I hope it will work. You know right from the state of packaging, there are some package for local consumption with the country and even the neighbouring countries. There are some packages for export. The way they are packaged are different.

"But the ordinary smoker is also very dangerous to the society. The moment one smoke and start thinking he is what he is not, you know there is trouble ahead. So we are out for both the smokers, those trading it, the dealers, the exporters, the producers and the distributors as well," he said. Mr Ihebom said their investigation has proved to them that most communities that produce and consume cannabis are still living in peace. He said: "The perception that cannabis producing or consuming communities are violent, may not be entirely true. Look at Ondo, a leading cannabis producing state in the country and yet it is a peaceful state. "But when you consider the inflow of cash from both within and abroad into cannabis producing communities, you realise that the cash flow encourages crime. That is exactly the case in Edo state. You know because of drug peddling and this international prostitution, there is also a lot of money here and so crime rate is also way high."

"You see, drug war is not a war that should be left for the NDLEA alone to fight. America with all its sophistication, can not be able to stop drug peddling. If you look at the volume of drug that enters America daily, you will be surprise. It is true that with better funding and equipping, we will do more in our struggle with these people," he said. He lamented that his command has made a lot of arrests and has confisticated a lot of cannabis both for local and foreign destinations, but the command has a lot of difficulty confirming the suspects. The NDLEA face problems in getting to the remote farms situated in thick forest which law enforcers would have to cross rivers. Mr Ihebom said: "You can not get a vehicle that can carry you to such farms. The farms are not accessible by any form of vehicle. You will drive into the forest and stop about 20 kilometres away from the farm and trek to the place. "At the farms, the farmers are mostly armed. They know the area better than us. After an exchange of fire, when we over power them, we make arrest and commence the destruction of the farms. It will take us days to destroy a large farm. At times, they will re-group and fight us back with sophisticated weapons. That was how the command lost two of its men recently. In Nigeria, we destroy such farms manually. In abroad, they use helicopters to spray chemicals that kill the plants," he said.

A drug baron who lives at Kwale in Delta state who simply identified himself as Paul, said the society he lives in, does not see anything wrong with the cultivation of ca nnabis. He said it is a trade they inherited from their fore-fathers. Paul said majority of those that buy the cannabis take it as drugs, a good number of other buyers use it to cure different ailments and as animals feeds. He said cannabis is also used in making soap and body and hair cream.

"So, those of us that cultivate the wheat and sell to major dealers, do not even know what they use them for. We cannot ask the buyers what they will do with the wheat after they buy from us. It is true that the cannabis produced in Edo and Ondo are far better than those produced in other states. We also know that the products from those states are the ones they always like exporting. "You should also understand that there is no single farmer that engages in transporting or marketing the production to other states or export abroad. A farmer remains as a farmer. The barons are businessmen and have nothing to do with farming. The barons do not go up to the farms. When they come and book f or the quantity they want, we will deliver the goods to a safe place for them. They will put them in bags or containers as they wish. "A 25 kilogramme bag of cannabis is sold at about N8, 000. I don't know how much they sell the same bag when it gets to Kano or Maiduguri for instance. Those that export, sometimes come with their compressor to compress them. Five kilogram ordinarily looks bulky could be compressed to the size of a loaf of bread and a cellotape is used to scale it. When it is compressed and cello-taped, there is no way one can perceive the odour of the cannabis. In some cases, they take away their goods and do the compressing elsewhere," he said.

Mary Osabolor served a three year jail term for attempting to export cannabis from Nigeria, said drug peddling is a very risky business. Osabolor who said she has resigned from drug business after being a baron for six years, said drug peddling is one of the fast money making venture in the country. "When you buy a ba g N8, 000 from the farmers and you succeed in bringing it out to the town, like Benin, you sell it about N20, 000. When the same bag crosses over to Zaria or any part of the north, they price it from N30, 000 to N35, 000. If you compress and export same to abroad, you start counting your money as from four thousand dollars. The major set back one will encounter in drug peddling in Nigeria is when one is arrested. But if you buy cannabis of N1milion and is confiscated by NDLEA officials, just go back to the farmers, they are ever willing to give you any quantity you can afford on credit. When you sell, you go and pay them." She said.

Daily Trust investigation revealed that cannabis are carefully concealed and in most cases, conveyed in unexpected vehicles from one town to another. Cannabis are put in bags and loaded into compartment of fuel tankers or loaded in empty drums and transported un-suspected. About 3 years ago, the driver of a Supreme Court ambulance and a mobile po lice man were arrested at Auchi in Edo state conveying large quantity of cannabis in the official ambulance of the court with siren pretending to be conveying a corpse. A convey of five official vehicles from the government house of a state in the Niger Delta were also smashed by NDLEA operatives in Edo state.

Four of the five vehicles were intercepted by the operatives and they were found conveying large quantity of cannabis to an unknown destination. The command has also arrested serving, fake military, police officers and men conveying cannabis in marked and un-marked vehicles. The use of expensive and flashy cars by barons who claim to be important personnel conveying cannabis is a common practice. The trade is ever growing.

By Shehu Abubakar

Kate Moss escapes cocaine charges

2006-06-17T00:49:00.000-07:00

The Telegraph

The supermodel Kate Moss will not be charged over allegations that she took cocaine because there is not enough evidence to proceed, prosecutors have announced.

The allegations surfaced after video footage apparently showing the model snorting drugs was released to the press.

In the resulting furore, Moss lost several of her high-profile modelling contracts with brands such H&M and Chanel.

A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said: "Following a detailed and thorough review of all the available evidence, the CPS has decided there is insufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of conviction against the model Kate Moss over allegations involving drugs."

The spokesman said that the Met had conducted all reasonable inquiries into alleged use and supply of drugs by Moss on the night of September 5 last year at a recording studio in Chiswick High Road, west London.

The decision not to press charges was made despite a pledge by Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, to tackle middle-class cocaine users.

He said the decision on whether to charge Moss would take into account her effect on "impressionable young people".

Rene Barclay, CPS London's director of serious casework, said it was clear that Moss was using controlled drugs and providing them to others. But the case highlighted a loophole in the law on dealing with drug-takers.

Video footage of Moss's activities could not prove whether the substance was cocaine, ecstasy or amphetamine, Mr Barclay said.

These drugs are in different categories - Classes A and B - and therefore the prosecution could not proceed because the CPS must prove beyond reasonable doubt which category of substance was being abused.

"The film footage provides an absolutely clear indication that Ms Moss was using controlled drugs and providing them to others," he said.

Parliament to debate medicinal cannabis

2006-06-17T00:48:00.000-07:00

Newstalk ZB

New Zealand - Parliament is to debate whether medicinal cannabis should be introduced as a treatment option for people with serious illnesses.

The concept forms the basis of Green MP Metiria Turei's private member's bill which has been pulled from the ballot.

Ms Turei says the bill will allow registered medical practitioners to prescribe cannabis for specific serious conditions such as Alzheimer's disease, arthritis, glaucoma and those suffering conditions associated with chemotherapy.

She says at present, medicinal cannabis is only available to some patients.

Medicinal cannabis is available in a number of countries - including Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and nine states of the US.

Cocaine Cravings Are Studied

2006-06-17T00:46:00.000-07:00

The Post Chronicle

Washington (UPI) - U.S. scientists say they have found the brain chemistry that underlies "cue-induced" craving in cocaine addicts.

Scientists from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the Brookhaven National Laboratory and the University of Pennsylvania say their finding suggests new targets for medications aimed at treating addiction.

"Drug craving triggered by cues -- such as the sight, smell, and other sensory stimuli associated with a particular drug like cocaine - is central to addiction and poses an obstacle to successful therapy for many individuals," said NIDA Director Nora Volkow, lead author of the study. "If we can understand the mechanisms related to cue-induced craving, we can develop more effective treatment strategies to counteract it."

Study: Meth use rare in most of the U.S.

2006-06-17T00:45:00.000-07:00

Seattle PI

Washington - Methamphetamine use is rare in most of the United States, not the raging epidemic described by politicians and the news media, says a study by an advocacy group.

Meth is a dangerous drug but among the least commonly used, The Sentencing Project policy analyst Ryan King wrote in a report issued Wednesday. Rates of use have been stable since 1999, and among teenagers meth use has dropped, King said.

"The portrayal of methamphetamine in the United States as an epidemic spreading across the country has been grossly overstated," King said. The Sentencing Project is a not-for-profit group that supports alternatives to prison terms for convicted drug users and other criminals.

Overheated rhetoric, unsupported assertions and factual errors about the use of the drug - including frequent, misguided comparisons between meth and crack cocaine - lead to poor decisions about how to spend precious public dollars combating drug addiction, King said.

The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy did not immediately comment on the report.

The report cites statistics compiled by the government to make its case, including a 2004 survey that estimated 583,000 people used meth in the past month, or two-10ths of 1 percent of the U.S. population. Four times as many people use cocaine regularly and 30 times as many use marijuana, King said.

A separate survey of high-school students showed a 36 percent drop in meth use between 2001 and 2005.

The report acknowledged that methamphetamine is more widely used today than it was 10 years ago. Data from the jail populations of a handful of cities on the West Coast also show what King called a "highly localized" problem.

Among men arrested in Phoenix, 38.3 percent tested positive for methamphetamine. Figures for other cities are: Los Angeles, 28.7 percent; Portland, Ore., 25.4; San Diego, 36.2 percent; and San Jose, Calif., 36.9 percent.

But nationally, just 5 percent of men who had been arrested had meth in their systems. By contrast, 30 percent tested positive for cocaine and 44 percent for marijuana, the report said, citing government statistics.

Treatment programs for meth also have been portrayed inaccurately, with news reports suggesting that meth users do not respond as well to treatment as users of other drugs, King said. The Bush administration's recent methamphetamine control strategy also referred to a "common misperception that methamphetamine is so addictive that it is impossible to treat."

Programs in 15 states have had promising results, King said.

"Mischaracterizing the impact of methamphetamine by exaggerating its prevalence and consequences while downplaying its receptivity to treatment succeeds neither as a tool of prevention nor a vehicle of education," he wrote.

King called for a tempered approach to the problem, keeping the focus on local trouble spots and using federal money to beef up treatment programs.

By Mark Sherman

Judge tosses case against meth clinic

2006-06-17T00:43:00.000-07:00

The Raonoke Times

A Roanoke judge has dismissed a lawsuit that sought to shut down the city's controversial methadone clinic, saying he found no evidence the drug treatment center has become the nuisance it was predicted to be.

Seven Northwest Roanoke residents filed suit when the clinic opened in January 2005, claiming that an influx of recovering drug addicts into their neighborhood would increase crime and decrease property values.

But as Circuit Judge Jonathan Apgar wrote in an opinion this week, "merely alleging special or irreparable damages without facts to support the claim, as petitioners have done here, is insufficient."

None of the plaintiffs could say in sworn statements that they saw patients of the clinic causing a disturbance, driving erratically or selling drugs in the area, Apgar noted.

In fact, none of the plaintiffs even live within eyesight of the clinic at 3208 Hershberger Road, the seven-page opinion stated.

Opposition to the clinic -- which dispenses daily doses of liquid methadone to curb addicts' appetites for opium-based drugs such as OxyContin and heroin -- has been fierce at times. Residents have complained that their predominantly black neighborhood was selected as the dumping ground for an unwanted project that was turned back by residents of Southwest Roanoke County.

But in the clinic's first 18 months of operation, resistance has died down as police reported few problems. "It's been pretty quiet," said Aisha Johnson, spokeswoman for the Roanoke Police Department.

Michael Bragg, an Abingdon attorney who filed the lawsuit, could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Among other things, the lawsuit had claimed that the clinic was in violation of a city ordinance because it never obtained a special-exception permit. Such a requirement for methadone clinics was created by the city council in December 2003 -- one month after the clinic was granted a business license, but more than a year before it began operations at the site.

But the question of whether the clinic was violating the ordinance was immaterial, Apgar concluded, because the plaintiffs needed to present evidence of "special and irreparable injury" in order to obtain an injunction shutting the operation down.

Of the 34 times police were called to the clinic in 2005, 70 percent of the calls were for burglar alarms set off accidentally by the staff, police have said earlier. The rest were for minor incidents such as reports of suspicious activity.

By comparison, police were called 49 times during the same time period to a nearby business that authorities declined to identify. Police statistics also show that calls in District 2, the portion of Northwest Roanoke that includes the clinic, decreased during the clinic's first year of operation.

Attempts to reach the clinic's operators and its attorney were also unsuccessful Wednesday.

By Laurence Hammack

War funds include drug interdiction

2006-06-17T00:41:00.000-07:00

The Washington Post

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration gets $9.2 million to combat Afghan drug warlords and the Colombian navy receives $13 million to buy drug-interdiction aircraft as part of the $94.5 billion House-passed emergency spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Our defense funds in the global war on terrorism are finally reflecting the post-Cold War reality that illicit drugs are now a major means of support for nearly half the foreign terrorist organizations," said Rep. Henry J. Hyde, Illinois Republican and chairman of the House International Relations Committee.

"The passage of the war supplement gives our DEA and our good friends in the Colombian navy additional tools to break these ties between narcotics and terrorist organizations," Mr. Hyde said.

The emergency spending bill, which passed Tuesday on a 351-67 vote, provides $65.8 billion for the war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan and $19.8 billion for Gulf Coast hurricane recovery. Avian flu preparedness efforts receive $2.3 billion, and border security receives $1.9 billion.

The Senate is expected to pass the measure today and send it to President Bush.

The additional $9.2 million for the DEA will allow the agency to continue to disrupt drug operations in Afghanistan, especially those that use the drug trade to finance terrorist organizations and attacks on coalition forces, Mr. Hyde said.

Despite the ongoing conflict in that country, Afghanistan has emerged as the world's largest producer of opium and its refined form, heroin. Last year, Afghanistan's opium output was about 5,000 tons. About 90 percent of the world's heroin comes from the war-ravaged country.

The DEA has described opium production in Afghanistan as a significant threat to that country's future and the region's stability, and a threat with worldwide implications. In response, the agency has deployed Foreign Advisory and Support Teams to the country to provide guidance and conduct bilateral investigations to identify and dismantle drug-trafficking and money-laundering organizations.

Rep. Dan Burton, Indiana Republican and chairman of the House International Relations subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, said the $13 million in additional funds to Colombia would be used to purchase one "fully and properly equipped" DC-3 marine patrol aircraft for the maritime interdiction of drugs headed to the United States.

"It will help better monitor and interdict drugs which are killing our kids and financially supporting internal terrorism in Colombia -- often aimed at Americans -- and violence along the Mexican border, where an estimated 90 percent of the cocaine from Colombia is entering our country," he said.

By Jerry Seper

Afghan opium farmer killed in clash with police

2006-06-17T00:40:00.000-07:00

Radio Free Afghanistan

An opium farmer has been killed in a clash between armed farmers and counternarcotics police in Badakhshan Province, Kabul-based Tolu Television reported on June 13. Badakhshan Governor Monshi Abdul Majid told Tolu that counternarcotics authorities sent from the capital "failed to observe local traditions, which unfortunately led to the clash." No one has been arrested in the case, Abdul Majid added. Poppy eradication has been temporarily halted in the Jorm district, where the incident occurred.

Police from many states meet on deadly heroin

2006-06-17T00:39:00.000-07:00

Chicago Tribune

Chicago- Law enforcement officials came from several states that have seen hundreds of fatal overdoses linked to fentanyl-laced heroin to a summit in Chicago Wednesday on the drug scourge.

Authorities from Michigan, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Missouri and other states met at the headquarters of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Chicago. Also present were Chicago police and supervisors from the U.S. attorney's office.

Chicago has seen at least 60 deaths linked to the powerful painkiller in a little more than a year.

Those who attended the conference discussed the history of the drug and the capabilities of the underworld to produce it clandestinely. Investigators also discussed individual cases to look for links, authorities said.

The benefits of Cannabis (sprayed under the tongue)

2006-06-17T00:37:00.000-07:00

Typically Spanish

Spain - Healthcare in Spain is organised on a regional basis. While the region of Cataluña goes to the polls on Sunday to vote on their new regional powers, the Health Service in the region is already well advanced into a study into the use of Cannabis to reduce pain.

The study began at the start of the year using a Cannabis spray, applied under the tongue, called Sativex. The medicine is made by a British company GW Pharmaceutical, and has come imported to Cataluña from Canada where the production is authorised for the control of pain from multiple sclerosis. Now too the Catalan company Almirall has been given a licence to develop the product which contains more than 400 of the active ingredients found in Marihuana.

63 patients are taking part in the therapeutic use of the drug. The volunteers are suffering pain, Aids or Cancer, and feel they have not responded to traditional therapies.

Cannabis also has a reputation for helping to control vomiting and side effects from other treatments, such as chemotherapy. The Catalan study here is much wider with 300 people taking part, but first the doctors have to establish, with a controlled smaller initial group, what dosage of cannabis is needed to be effective, without in itself

Although in the early stages, already eight participants in the study have decided to stop because of the adverse effects they have suffered. Here it seems each person is different, and so each one is keeping a diary where they can record how they are feeling after each treatment. Some are already saying pain is down by some 40%, but that in itself has proven frustrating for some who had hoped for greater relief.

Others say they want to self-medicate themselves, using the real plant or hashish resin, but of course in those circumstances the scientific control goes out the window. There is no control on dosage, or indeed on product quality. Some of the Catalan doctors would like to use cannabis leaves in a study, as has been done in Holland, but that is proving difficult to get past the Spanish Ministry of Health.

Around 90 researchers are taking part in the Catalan project, the first of its type in Spain. The Generalitat, the Catalan Regional Government, says that if the findings are positive they may move to try and change the law in Spain to allow the medicinal use of Cannabis. So far only Canada and Holland have such a law. Here the IU left wing coalition has already put forward a proposal calling for the legal production, distribution and consumption of the drug for therapeutic use.

The first official results from the Catalan study will be published in the Autumn.

"Crystal meth" joins list of most serious drugs

2006-06-17T00:35:00.000-07:00

Reuters

London - Crystal meth, an addictive form of amphetamine used on the fringes of the gay nightclub scene, is to be ranked with heroin in the country's most dangerous group of illegal drugs, the government said on Wednesday.

Methylamphetamine is being reclassified because it poses a risk of "serious social problems," Home Office minister Vernon Coaker said.

"International experience shows it has the potential to be extremely damaging to individuals, families and communities," he added. "Chronic use can lead to psychotic behaviour, characterised by paranoia and hallucinations and violent behaviour."

The drug stimulates the central nervous system, giving a euphoric "rush" which makes users more alert and dulls their appetite.

Health experts say they risk brain damage, heart attacks, depression and a range of other problems.

Police welcomed the move from the legal category "Class B" to "Class A" and said it would allow them to use greater powers to tackle dealers and manufacturers.

"The serious and well documented dangers associated with production and use of this drug in all its forms will now be substantially easier to combat," said London police commander Simon Bray, who leads the Association of Chief Police Officers' fight against the drug.

Drug education charity DrugScope said there was no evidence Britain is on the verge of a crystal meth epidemic, but called the reclassification a sensible precaution.

"Use of the drug in the UK is low and there is no evidence that it is increasing," said DrugScope Chief Executive Martin Barnes. "International evidence shows that the drug can cause serious health and social harms."

Anyone convicted of possessing crystal meth or other Class A drugs can be jailed for up to seven years or face an unlimited fine. Dealers can be jailed for life.

Officials seek hard-hitting anti-meth ads

2006-06-17T00:33:00.000-07:00

The Arizona Republic

A gritty series of advertisements featuring teens discussing the real-life horrors of methamphetamine could soon come to a television screen, newspaper or billboard near you.

The ads got their start as part of the Montana Meth Project, an effort to saturate the airwaves in that state and leave at least one imprint on teens considering trying the drug: Meth ruins lives.

Buoyed by initial research that indicates the effort is having an impact, Arizona officials now hope to bring the ads to this part of the country. Software billionaire Thomas Siebel, who inspired and funded the Montana Meth Project, was in Phoenix on Tuesday to introduce the program to officials from across Arizona.

Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard is one of its biggest boosters. He declared that meth is a "serious problem" for the state, and is calling for a coalition of public and private interests to help fund a homegrown version of the Montana Meth Project.

Arizona could become the first state to adapt and begin running the slate of Montana ads. Spots could be on the air as early as September.

Montana Meth Project ads drew fame initially for their shock appeal: One TV spot shows a young man robbing customers of loose change at a Laundromat. A radio ad features the voice of a Montana teen talking in frank terms about how her pursuit of meth led to prostitution.

The images don't leave you. That's the point.

"It's prime-time," Siebel said. "And it's all kids talking to kids."

But the tone of the ads also has made some Arizona legislators squeamish about funding the program. Others question its effectiveness, especially since a poll of a random-sampling of Montana teens has yet to be conducted. Siebel points to Internet surveys that indicate his message is getting through to teens, young adults and their parents.

"I'm convinced, as a career law-enforcement person, this program is working," said Montana Attorney General Mike McGrath, who also was on hand for Tuesday's demonstration.

"In Montana, it's astonishing what it has done."

The meth project's strategy is simple: Carpet-bomb the airwaves and other media with piercing images and messages that tiptoe the precarious ground in a teen's mind between shock and disbelief. In Arizona, the hope is to connect with 70 to 90 percent of the audience ages 12-17 at least three times a week.

While the Montana Meth Project began as a private effort, funded this year and last by Siebel, he hopes that private and other state interests take over funding in that state by 2007.

The effort is somewhat backward in Arizona. Here, it's expected that government funding will have to get the program off the ground, to the tune of more than $6 million for the first year.

Maricopa County officials have tentatively devoted $2.5 million for the program in the coming year's budget.

Supervisor Don Stapley said he hopes that the state's other 14 counties will contribute an additional $500,000.

Several million dollars also is planned from the state, though its budget talks remain ongoing.

In the meantime, Stapley said, private funding for the project is already beginning to materialize.

The county has even received at least one donation, which it had to return since the non-profit group that will oversee the program in this state hasn't yet been formed.

By Matthew Benson

Hurray for Hollywood: Bigwigs Nabbed by Narcs for Drug and Weapons Trafficking

2006-06-17T00:30:00.000-07:00

Common Voice

The Drug Enforcement Administration announced during a press conference the success of "Operation Director’s Cut," a two-year investigation involving an international ecstasy and weapons trafficking organization with Hollywood connections. Those connections included the granddaughter of film legend Charlie Chaplin.

Seven arrests took place in the case, including those of Limelight Films, Inc. Chief Executive Officer Bruno D’Esclavelles of Los Angeles, Chief Financial Officer David Liberman, and three other associates. The company produced an Oscar-nominated film.

Also arrested was Alexandre De Basseville of Switzerland and Los Angeles. De Basseville is an executive board member of ADB Swiss S.A., a Swiss-based financial, business, and consulting service that owns the L.A.-based Limelight Films, Inc.

Various media outlets have reported that De Basseville is engaged to Kiera Chaplin, granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin. According to the Limelight Films, Inc. website Kiera Chaplin serves as an executive with the motion picture production company.

De Basseville and D’Esclavelles were arrested in Arlington, Virginia and charged with conspiracy to distribute MDMA known as ecstasy. Liberman was charged with conspiring to launder money.

“The men we arrested have laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars -- money used to further their drug and weapons trade to endanger our neighborhoods and bleed our communities," said DEA Administrator Karen P. Tandy during a press conference in Washington.

"This operation demonstrates once again the poisoning influence of drug money, and the greed that causes some people to hurt the lives of the many."

According filed court papers, Alexandre De Basseville met repeatedly with undercover agents over the past two years, posing as international drug traffickers. De Basseville offered to launder drug proceeds, supply weapons and broker ecstasy deals for the undercover agents.

The undercovers met with De Basseville and several of his associates, including the other six suspects who are charged, in various locations, including Arlington, Virginia; Miami, Florida; Los Angeles, California; Amsterdam, the Netherlands; and Geneva, Switzerland.

On two occasions, De Basseville and D’Esclavelles took cash, totaling $300,000, which they believed to be drug proceeds, and laundered it for the undercover agents using their Los Angeles business, Limelight Films, Inc.

In February 2006, de Basseville and d’Esclavelles arranged for the sale of ecstasy from the Netherlands by Thomas Frischknecht to an undercover agent. Frischknecht sent the agent a package containing 10,000 pills, which the agent received in Arlington, Virginia. After that shipment, de Basseville, d’Esclavelles and Frischknecht agreed to sell the agent 500,000 pills in the Netherlands. Frischknecht was arrested in the Netherlands as the undercover agent negotiated for the delivery of 500,000 ecstasy pills.

Thomas Frischknecht, age 26, of Switzerland, was arrested in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and charged with conspiracy to import ecstasy. Authorities also arrested Fabian Pruvot, age 37, Andre Prikazhikov, age 31, and Brian Delansky, age 33, all of Los Angeles, California. Pruvot and Liberman were charged with conspiracy to launder money. Prikazhikov and Delansky were charged with conspiracy to possess firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking.

Keira Chaplin, 23, has not been arrested and is believed to be involved in legitimate film projects. Recent and current Limelight projects include: The Oscar-nominated film “The Professional” (Serbia) and Vladimir Alenikov's "The Gun," both Montreal Film Festival Selections, and a new reality television show “Scavenger Hunt."

One undercover agent, who wished to remain anonymous, quipped, "As far as this Hollywood crowd, they will just 'fade to black' in the justice system."

By Jim Kouri

HU star researchers take Kaye Prizes for innovation

2006-06-17T00:25:00.000-07:00

The Jerusalem Post

A new method for lowering blood pressure with a compound that synthesizes a cannabis (hashish or marijuana) plant component has been developed by a Hebrew University doctoral student in pharmacology.

For his work on the cardiovascular activity of cannabinoids (chemical compounds derived from cannabis), Yehoshua Maor has been named one of the winners of this year's Kaye Innovation Awards, to be presented on Tuesday during the university's 69th annual board of governors meetings.

The Kaye Innovation Awards, established by British pharmaceutical industrialist Isaac Kaye, have been given annually since 1994 to encourage HU faculty, staff and students to develop innovative methods and inventions with good commercial potential to benefit the university and society.

Not all patients respond well to conventional hypertension drugs. But the cannabis plant, through its chemical compounds, has been shown to have a beneficial, hypotensive effect. But a drawback in the therapeutic use of cannabinoids has been the undesirable psychotropic properties such as hallucinatory effects. Attempts to separate the hypotensive action from their psychotropic properties have been only partially successful until now.

Working under the supervision of Prof. Raphael Mechoulam at the HU School of Pharmacy, Maor - a native of Brazil who immigrated to Israel in 1998 - has created a synthetic version of a minor cannabis constituent named cannabigerol, which is devoid of psychotropic activity. In laboratory experiments with rats, in collaboration with Prof. Michal Horowitz, it was found that this novel compound reduced blood pressure when administered in relatively low doses. Additional testing also showed that the compound also brought about another beneficial effect - relaxation of the blood vessels. A further beneficial property observed in work carried out with Prof. Ruth Gallily was that the compounds produced an anti-inflammatory response.

Maor says these qualities could be combined to create a valuable new clinical drug with major market potential, especially for diabetic patients suffering from hypertension, since reductions in blood pressure can decrease the risk of diabetes complications and in others with metabolic irregularities.

Meanwhile, former Russian immigrant Elena Khazanov, 34, will also receive a Kaye Prize for developing a novel method for combining two anti-cancer drugs into a single delivery system, thereby dramatically improving treatment efficacy. Khazanov, who arrived here 12 years ago, developed her drug delivery system as a PhD student under the tutelage of Prof. Yechezkel Barenholz of the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School's biochemistry department.

Khazanov used an approach called combination therapy, in which two or more agents are introduced within a single delivery unit, with the result that the combination has a better beneficial chemotherapeutic effect than otherwise would be possible. Her work was based on the previous success of HU scientists with the delivery system for an anti-cancer drug, doxorubicin (DXR), which resulted in development of DXR delivery through sterically stabilized liposomes (SSL), which are ball-like fatty molecules.

A highly successful medication based on that research has been manufactured by SEQUUS Pharmaceuticals and is marketed as Doxil. Khazanov aimed to combine DXR with ceramides, a family of fatty molecules found in high concentrations within cell membranes. These act as signaling molecules, triggering programmed cell death in many types of cancer cells. However, the physical and chemical properties of ceramides make them unusable by themselves for therapeutic application in vivo. Her efforts ultimately proved successful in formulating a novel drug delivery system consisting of SSL that contained both DXR and ceramides.

In laboratory tests on mice, the synergism between the two drugs resulted in an improved therapeutic benefit over Doxil alone. The fact that both were delivered by one tiny SSL liposome enables long plasma circulation time and liposome-selective delivery to the tumor site by their introduction into the tumor through pores present in the tumor blood vessels.

Additional trials, including therapeutic efficacy studies in mice bearing different tumors, plus toxicology studies of this new liposome formulation, are continuing to ultimately enable human clinical trials. Patents have been secured through Yissum, HU's technology transfer company, to enable further development of the delivery system.

New, non-invasive therapies for treating diseases such as basal cell carcinoma, viral and microbial deep skin infections and erectile dysfunction are being developed by Prof. Elka Touitou, another Kaye Prize recipient from the pharmacy school. The new approach uses a specially designed, patented topical delivery system known as Ethosome for targeting drugs directly to the disease site. Touitou invented the system with a group of her students and postdoctoral fellows.

Ethosome provides a dermal delivery system that overcomes the natural skin barrier that has prevented anti-cancer drugs applied on the skin from reaching their targets. Drugs encased in Ethosome are able to penetrate even into the deep skin layers where basal carcinoma cells occur, thereby providing a non-invasive alternative to surgical intervention. A number of clinical studies, including a recent one on the use of Ethosomalprostaglandin for treatment of impotence, have shown their efficiency, and the delivery system can be used in cosmetic compounds

New and safer compounds for treatment of epilepsy patients and those suffering from other neural disorders have been developed by Prof. Meir Bialer and Prof. Boris Yagen. Their work at the pharmaceutics, medicinal chemistry and natural products department at the pharmacy school is also being recognized by a Kaye Prize they will share.

They developed a potential alternative for valproic acid (VPA), one of the leading anti-epileptic drugs, which has been used as a central nervous system treatment since 1967, but which also has serious safety drawbacks. Its side effects can cause damage especially to children or women of child-bearing age. Patents have been obtained by Yissum.

The Barenholz Prize for Creativity and Originality in Applied Research will be presented to a 29-year-old HU doctoral student at the pharmacy school, for her work in discovering a way to prevent restenosis - recurrent blocking of coronary arteries after angioplasty (balloon therapy).

The award, named for its donor, cancer researcher Prof. Yehezkel Barenholz, will be presented during the board meetings to Hila Epstein-Barash. In her research, she and her colleagues hypothesized that if the macrophages that accumulate in the area of the angioplastic treatment could be inactivated, the problem could be solved. The problem was how to deliver a cell-specific drug that could achieve this.

In their research they found that this could be accomplished through the use of bisphosphonates - bone-seeking agents used clinically to treat osteoporosis - which have high affinity to calcium and are assimilated into bone tissue by osteoclasts - which are closely related to macrophages. The problem before them was how to reach the targeted area of macrophages in the blood vessels, since the drug alone, due to its chemical makeup, is not able to cross cell membranes.

The researchers subsequently found that by encapsulating the bisphosphonates in liposomes, the drug could be delivered to the macrophages in the blood vessels that had been opened by angioplasty. The scientists found that a single injection of liposomes containing bisphosphonates, soon after angioplasty, significantly prevented restenosis in rat and rabbit models, markedly reducing the thickness of the inner wall of the affected arteries and leaving enough room for the blood to circulate.

Pre-clinical trials are now proceeding in Australia, using this procedure which is non-toxic and presents no side effects.

Plumber Finds Drugs in Bathroom Vanity

2006-06-14T18:29:00.000-07:00

SFGate

Southwick, MA (AP) - For the fifth time in a week, a stash of drugs was found in a cabinet at a Home Depot store in Massachusetts or discovered after the fixture was brought home.

A plumber in Southwick discovered 40 pounds of marijuana and three kilograms of cocaine stashed in a bathroom vanity he'd purchased at a Home Depot in Chicopee.

A second stash was found at that store and at least two more were discovered at a Tewksbury Home Depot, Southwick Police Lt. David Ricardi said. One of the Tewksbury stashes was discovered June 8 after a homeowner brought home a cabinet and found 50 pounds of marijuana.

Police also found drugs in a fifth cabinet. Ricardi would not say where or when it was discovered but said it was within the last week.

"It's a smuggling operation gone bad," Ricardi said. "Somebody owes some money."

Ricardi said the plumber discovered the drugs on Monday after he bought the vanity for a home renovation. The man noticed the vanity top hadn't been included in the package and instead found two plastic bags containing the drugs. Ricardi said the drugs are worth $200,000.

Tony Pettigrew, a spokesman for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Wednesday that his agency was investigating, but declined further comment.

Atlanta-based Home Depot said it was cooperating with investigators.

Review: Shroom: A Cultural History of the Magic Mushroom

2006-06-14T16:47:00.000-07:00

The Observer

Mushroom consumption has been a countercultural act since the mid-70s, a psychedelic single-fingered salute to society. Mycophiliacs have argued that, unlike other mind-altering drugs, fungi have a long and rich cultural heritage, one that is rooted in religious ceremonies across the globe. But, as Andy Letcher shows in this extraordinary account, the history of the magic mushroom is beset by culturally contingent myth-making, often introduced by shroomers eager to justify their psychedelic pleasure.

In fact, magic mushrooms didn't emerge until the 1950s, when American scientists were fascinated by LSD and mescaline. Mushrooms - and their constituents - were soon adopted by academics such as Timothy Leary who believed that the psychedelic revolution was imminent. But, unlike LSD, shrooms became more acceptable if they could be justified as nature's drug. Enthusiasts quickly set about establishing a history of these fantastical fungi and read mushroom presence into almost every culture. Legends were quickly born and disseminated in newspapers and documentaries despite the fact that, as Letcher shows, the evidence marshalled was often flimsy at best.

It will probably take more than this well-researched book to change people's minds about mushroom myths but, with its easy style and witty handling of scientific analysis, it makes a fascinating and satisfying read.

By Andy Letcher

Mexican drug war city offers police-escorted tours

2006-06-14T16:30:00.000-07:00

Tiscali News

Nuevo Laredo, Mexico (Reuters) - A Mexican city at the heart of a raging drug war is trying to woo back jittery Texan day trippers by offering free bus tours with an armed police escort.

"The aim is to shake off the bad image that we have and give a boost to the craft markets and restaurants in the centre, where business is almost nil," Nuevo Laredo’s tourism director Ramon Garza told Reuters on Wednesday.

The tourist board in the city, which is across the Rio Grande from Laredo, Texas, is sending charter buses to pick up tourists from San Antonio for day tours escorted by guides and police motorcycle outriders.

The three-times-a-week service began in mid-August and comes after more than 115 people have been gunned down in the Nuevo Laredo this year as rival drug gangs battle for control of the lucrative cross-border trade in cocaine, marijuana and heroin.

The escorted visits are being welcomed by traders in the sweltering border city, where several bars and tourist trinket shops have closed since the troubles began last year.

"Tourists think that gangs are waiting to pick them off as soon as they come over the bridge, so anything that the authorities do to challenge that is welcome," trinket stall holder Pedro Rivera told Reuters at an empty craft market.

Washington has issued repeated travel warnings urging U.S. visitors to stay away from crime-wracked Mexican border cities this year, singling out Nuevo Laredo, where more than 40 U.S. citizens have been kidnapped in the past year, for special mention.

The United States shut its consulate in the city for a week early this month after drug gangs fired bazookas and raked each other with machine gun fire in a street battle.

Nigeria: 14.2 Tons of Cocaine Seized in Lagos

2006-06-14T16:28:00.000-07:00

All Africa

Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Bayo Ojo (SAN) has declared war against drug barons and peddlers in the country, saying all perpetrators of such acts will be apprehended and brought to book.

The declaration came against the recent recovered 14.2 metric tons of cocaine at the Tin Can Island Port, Lagos by the National Directorate of Law and Enforcement of Agency (NDLEA).

The Minister while addressing newsmen in Lagos during his maiden visit to NDLEA said, "I must announce to the drug barons and drug pushers that the agency is now combat ready and it has full backing of Mr. President. We have declared a total war against hard drugs and all perpetrators of this evil act shall be apprehended and brought to book".

According to him, a testimony to the preparedness of the Federal Government to combat and win the drug war is the latest seizure recorded at the Tin Can Island Port which is the largest seizure in the whole of Africa".

He however promised to support the NDLEA Chairman, Alhaji Ahmadu Giade in ensuring that the operation ended successfully, adding that the recovery showed a clear demonstration of professionalism of officers and men of the agency.

Ojo said, "this is just the beginning, and I am optimistic that Nigeria will soon become a no go area to drug barons and pushers".

He said the achievement had demonstrated the relevance of continued collaboration especially at the International level with the role played by the South African Police Service and British Serious Organized Crime Agency (SOCA).

He said, "the NDLEA under my supervision will be given the maximum support it requires to continue to achieve these types of results. My Ministry will work with the agency to ensure that the culprits are unmasked and brought to justice".

He continued, "Let there be no doubt in the mind of any remaining drug barons in this country that the tide is now against them and only one option is left for them is to quit the illegal business. There shall be no sacred cows. No matter how highly placed nay one found trading in hard drug is, he/she shall face the law because it is a battle we are prepared to fight to the end".

He noted there would be no more room for the bad eggs in the Agency, adding that checks and balances will be put in place to expose officers involved in drug pushing and anyone found will be flushed out immediately.