HaCKeRz KrOnIcKLeZ 3/HaCKeRz_KrOnIcKLeZ.iso/drugs/wod.refs

Text File | 1996-05-06 | 14KB | 326 lines

Article:  Edmonds, Patricia.  "A Quick Fix for the Drug War".  Seattle Times.
          June 3.  Page A16:

Focus:    Drug war in general.  Good information on Crack Babies.

Excerpt:    Still, those interviewed for this article generally agreed
          on one thing:  its a perilous mix when leaders try to make war
          on drugs, law on drugs and political hay on drugs at the same
          time.  On this point, a favorite cautionary tale concerns the
          375,000 crack babies.
            The story begins with Ira Chasnoff, a Chicago pediatritian,
          and his 1988 study of 154,856 births in 36 hospitals.  Through
          interviews and tests, he learned that in 11 percent of the
          births, the babies had been exposed to some quantity of some
          illegal drug at some time during pregnancy.
            Chasnoff did not say the babies were born addicted, or
          afflicted.  He did not say which mothers used cocaine daily
          and which used marijuana one weekend.  He said:  some quantity
          of some illegal drugs was used during pregnancy.
            Then Chasnoff did the arithmatic.  If there was drug exposure
          in even 10 percent of the 3.75 million births in the U.S.
          annually, that would be 375,000 babies.
            "That," Chasnoff said, "is as far as it went".

          [...goes on to detail how William Bennett used this study to
          show that there were 375,000 crack babies in the U.S./year...]

------------------------------

Article:  Berke, Richard L.  "Can the rich and famous talk America out of
          Drugs?".  New York Times.  November 12 1989.  sec 4 page E5 col 4.

Focus:    Gung-ho pro-PDFA article.

Excerpt:    Beyond the advertisment, the networks have all adopted formal
          or informal guidelines to avoid glorifying drug use on their
          programs.  On NBC shos, for example, every drug-related criminal
          has to suffer serious consequences in the end, said Rosalyn
          Weinman, the network's vice president for program standards and
          community relations.
            "We've returned scripts where we very specifically say, 'this
          particular character has to suffer more in the end,'" she said.

------------------------------

Article:  Cohen, Roger (New York Times).  "Zurich Gives Up, Closes Its Needle
          Park For Addicts", S.F. Chronicle.

Focus:    Closing of Platzspitz ("Needle Park") in Zurich -- Reasons and
          reactions pro and con.

------------------------------

Article:  Sharpe, Kenneth E.  Blachman, Morris.  "The Panama 'drug bust'
          goes bust.  Dealers there thriving as never before 2 years after
          the US invasion."  Boston Sunday Globe.  Jan 5, 1992.  pg 56.
          [adapted from an article written by Sharpe and Blachman along
          with Peter Andreas and Eva Bertram in "the current issue of
          Foreign Policy].

Focus:    War on Drug failures in Panama and Latin America.

Excerpt:    When most US officials are confronted by the failure of
          Washington's drug-war efforts elsewhere in Latin America, their
          stock response is: Give us the time and the money to restructure
          these governments and militaries so they'll be willing and able
          to carry out US counter-narcotics strategy.  But Panama is the
          best-case scenario: The United States rebuilt the government and
          military from scratch -- and the will to fight is still not
          there.
            It's time we face up to reality.  Our southern neighbors are
          simply not going to make a dent in the supply of cocaine coming
          into the United States, no matter how much aid and training we
          give them.  Let's stop busting drugs abroad and bring this
          wasted money back home to tackle the domestic roots of drug
          abuse, addiction and violence in our own cities.

------------------------------

Article:  Cornell, Timothy.  "In subsidized housing, drug suspicions suffice
          to evict", The Philidelphia Inquirer, Feb 8, 1992 B1

Focus:    contains a description of a case where the government evicted
          someone from a house, after simply recieving a *tip* that a relative
          was dealing drugs.

------------------------------

Article:  Shafer, Jack.  "Flashback".  The New Republic.  Mar 2, 1992

Focus:    Attacks LSD hysteria.  See Newsweek Mar 3 1992 for opposite
          viewpoint.

Excerpt:    The odd thing about the recent wave of LSD reporting is
          that most of today's editors were on campus in the '60s
          and '70s, and many of them staged their own blitzkriegs
          through the pharmacopoeia.  They know from experience
          that drug busts are exaggerated by the police, that not
          every drug user becomes a Charles Manson, and that not
          all drug use constitutes drug abuse.  But many of these
          '60s people now have their own children, children they
          hope to send to fine schools like UVA.  As the minds of
          these journalists sclerose, the thought of Jason and
          Heather tripping is scarifying.

------------------------------

Book:     Thorton, Mark.  "The Economics of Prohibition"

Focus:    Why Prohibition is and always must be an abject failure.

------------------------------

Book:     Wisotsky, Steven.  "Beyond the War On Drugs"

------------------------------

Book:     Hamowy, Ronald (ed).  "Dealing With Drugs:  Consequences of
          Government Control".

------------------------------

Book:     Boaz, David (ed).  "The Crisis in Drug Prohibition"


From: [e-mail] (Gary Hughes - VMS Development)
Date: 6 Mar 92 17:31:04 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Subject: Re: A call to arms (Partnership for a Drug-Free America)


In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (John C. Baez) writes...
>PDFA writes somewhere:
>>To find out without cost how to mobilize your neighbors or talk to your
>>kids, call the Office for Substance Abuse Prevention's National
>>Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information at 1-800-729-6686.  Tell
>>them the Partnership sent you.
[...]
>Let's all call the toll-free number and post descriptions of the results
>of this exercise!  It's free!  It's fun!

I'm not sure that calling up NCADI and harrassing them is going to achieve
anything. As their name implies, they are a clearing house for publications
produced by OSAP and NIDA. If you want to read the "government reports" that
are endlessly referred to in the media, this is the place to get them.

[...]
gary

****************************** Article Separation *****************************

From: [e-mail] (Gary Hughes - VMS Development)
Date: 6 Mar 92 17:41:40 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Subject: Re: A call to arms (Partnership for a Drug-Free America)


In article <lamontg.699839223@milton>, [e-mail] (Lamont Granquist) writes...
>I you call that number get them to name some statistics which are *NOT*
>self-reported...
>
If you call that number you can ask for a copy of the 1991 National Household
Survey of Drug Use, Population Estimates. They are probably as close to
unbiased estimates of usage as you will find. It is interesting to run them
against PDFA claims.

(* note: number is for NCADI 1-800-729-6686 *)

****************************** Article Separation *****************************

From: [e-mail]
Date: 6 Mar 92 16:54:35 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Subject: US incarceration rate world's highe


/* Written  9:23 pm  Mar  1, 1992 by [e-mail] in peg:misc.activism.progressive */
/* ---------- "US incarceration rate highest in th" ---------- */
/** justice.usa: 137.0 **/
** Topic: UNITED STATES: INCARCERATION RATE H **
** Written  4:38 am  Feb 25, 1992 by mphillips in cdp:justice.usa **
~From: Margaret B. Phillips <mphillips>
~Subject: UNITED STATES: INCARCERATION RATE H

/* Written  7:24 pm  Feb 22, 1992 by newsdesk in cdp:ips.englibrary */
/* ---------- "UNITED STATES: INCARCERATION RATE H" ---------- */
Copyright Inter Press Service 1992, all rights reserved.  Permission to re-
print within 7 days of original date only with permission from 'newsdesk'.

~Title: UNITED STATES: INCARCERATION RATE HIGHEST IN THE WORLD

new york, feb 19 (gin/ips) -- the united states once again ranks
number one in the global community for its rate of incarcerations,
according to the washington-based 'sentencing project' in its
newly released annual report.

the report says that the u.s. incarceration rate for the past
year stood at 455 per 100,000 citizens -- a figure which
represents a 6.8 percent increase over 1990.

at second place was south africa, with a rate of 311
incarcerations per 100,000, which was 6.6 percent less than their
1990 rate.

criticising the u.s. penal system, representative john conyers
jr. of michigan said: ''we are not stopping crime, we are not
curbing drugs, we are not helping victims, and we are not
rehabilitating criminals.''

the cost of incarcerating the 1.1 million americans in prisons
and jails is estimated to be 20.3 billion dollars a year.

referring to this figure, senator edward kennedy of
massachusetts said ''it's time to try an ounce of prevention -- 20
billion of cure isn't working''.

the u.s. rate is as much as 10 times higher than that of japan
and of the netherlands. also, there are currently twice as many
americans imprisoned than there were a decade ago.

marc mauer, assistant director of the 'sentencing project' said
here that the increase in the prison population is not explained
by the fluctuation of national crime rates alone. instead, he
attributes the 6.8 percent rise to ''get tough'' policies which
focus on punishment for crimes rather than on reducing felonies
through social policies.

for example, current federal policies direct 70 percent of anti-
drug funding towards law enforcement, and 30 percent towards
treatment and prevention.

but mauer recommends a four-part strategy for reducing crime
and rehabilitating criminals.

firstly, he believes that drug abuse must be  treated as a
public health problem, not a criminal justice predicament.
secondly, he says that mandatory sentencing laws must be repealed.

united states: incarceration rate highest in the world(2-e)

new york state's mandatory sentencing law, known as the second
felony offender law, requires that a felon who commits a second
offence within 10 years of the first must be imprisoned. it is
felt that such laws contribute to prison overcrowding.

the third part of mauer's strategy would be the development of
employment and education programmes to serve as ''crime control''
mechanisms. and fourthly, he proposes a national commission on
crime, which would study lawbreaking and its causes, and
alternatives to imprisonment.

mauer said that ''the only beneficiaries of (current) distorted
criminal justice policies are prison constructing companies.''

according to mauer, the united states is faced with a choice:
to continue in the present downward spiral, or ''develop policies
that will do what jail time hasn't -- cut crime''.
(end/ips-gin/ps/ak/yjc)

** End of text from cdp:justice.usa **

/** justice.usa: 137.1 **/
** Written  4:39 am  Feb 25, 1992 by mphillips in cdp:justice.usa **
The report may be ordered for $5.00 from The Sentencing Project,
918 F St. N.W., Suite 501, Washington, DC 20004, 202/628-0871, Fax [phone].

Margaret Phillips

** End of text from cdp:justice.usa **

****************************** Article Separation *****************************

From: [e-mail] (Michael G. Goldsman)
Date: 3 Mar 92 22:14:55 GMT
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Subject: GERMAN COURT VOIDS ANTI-DRUG LAWS

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution                           March 3, 1992


                   GERMAN COURT VOIDS ANTI-DRUG LAWS

   Germany:  From the country that guarantees its citizens the right to drive
as fast  as they dare, now  comes  the  right  to  use marijuana and hashish.
Declaring Germany's  laws  against  drug  use  unconstitutionsal becuase they
infringe  on  the "free  development of personality," an appellate court said
Germans have the  same  right to alter their mental state on cannabis as they
do by using liquor or cigarettes.
[...]

****************************** Article Separation *****************************

                               The New York Times
                  March  3, 1992, Tuesday, Late Edition - Final
SECTION: Section A; Page 5; Column 1; Foreign Desk
LENGTH: 559 words
HEADLINE: A Pro-Drug Ruling Stirs the Pot in  Germany
BYLINE: By STEPHEN KINZER, Special to The New York Times
DATELINE: BONN, March 2
BODY:
   A German judge has set off a national debate by ruling that laws against
possession of  marijuana  and hashish are unconstitutional.

   Leaders of Chancellor Helmut Kohl's governing coalition have condemned the
decision, but many senior opposition figures have endorsed it. A final ruling
from  Germany's  highest court is expected later in the year.

    The decision was handed down last week by Wolfgang Nescovic, an
appeals-court judge in Lubeck. The case concerned a woman who had been
sentenced to two months in prison for possession of 1.12 grams of hashish
-- about one-twenty-fifth of an ounce.
[...]
   "The physical effects of  cannabis  use are relatively limited," Judge
Nescovic wrote. He cited a German medical study that concluded that smoking one
or two joints of  marijuana  a day is harmless, "or at a minumum, less
dangerous than the daily consumption of alcohol or 20 cigarettes."

[...]
   Even if the German high court rules that current drug laws are
constitutional, the political debate over  legalization  is likely to go on.
Officials in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia said last weekend that they
would submit a bill in the German Parliament to  legalize  possession of small
amounts of hashish and  marijuana.