Date: Mon, 2 Jan 2006
Subject: #319 2005 – The Year In Review

2005 – THE YEAR IN REVIEW

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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #319 – Monday, 2 January 2006

As we enter a new year, the staff and supporters of DrugSense and MAP
thank the many friends and community activists who have used our
resources during 2005. Together, we have successfully made the print,
radio and television media more aware of both the failures in public
drug policy and of alternatives to status-quo drug war strategies.

Here are links to the most read news clippings for
2005:

Australasia http://www.mapinc.org/find?369

Canada: http://www.mapinc.org/find?366

South America http://www.mapinc.org/find?368

United Kingdom http://www.mapinc.org/find?367

United States http://www.mapinc.org/find?365

2005 saw DrugSense and it’s Media Awareness Project grow in many
ways:

January saw the launch of our Media Activism Facilitator Project
http://www.mapinc.org/resource/ with a goal of providing more
assistance and training for local activists in topics like How To Get
Drug Policy On the Air in Your Community, How to write a Press
Release, Preparing For TV and Radio Interviews, and how to write OPEDs
and Letters to the Editor for publication. Using the MAP Virtual
Conference Room http://www.mapinc.org/resource/paltalk.htm numerous
voice/text training sessions were completed. Current training session
dates and times are found at http://www.mapinc.org/resource/pal_sched.php
As a part of the project, The Drug Policy Writers Group
http://mapinc.org/resource/dpwg/index.php was formed in the Fall to
help folks who wish to write OPEDs market them to newspapers.

As many drug policy reform activists are discovering, the highest and
most direct level of democracy often takes place at the lowest levels
of government. This is reflected in the many successful municipal
audits and initiatives that have taken place over the last few years.
From Seattle’s I-75, to Oakland’s Measure Z, to Syracuse’s Plan B,
these important local actions can expose and erode the faulty
presumptions that underpin the war on drugs, and they often resonate
well beyond their geographical boundaries. Although each municipality
has a different social and bureaucratic make-up, we believe that
future initiatives can benefit from reviewing the tactics of those
that have successfully passed before them. It is with this in mind
that DrugSense developed during the Summer the “Community Audits and
Initiatives” webpages http://www.drugsense.org/caip

The Robert C. Randall Award for Achievement in the Field of Citizen
Action was awarded to DrugSense in November. See the award and listen
to audio excerpts of Mark Greer’s and Matt Elrod’s acceptance speech
at http://drugsense.org/awards/randall.htm

At the year’s end Drug Policy Central, the web design, hosting and
internet services wing of DrugSense http://www.drugpolicycentral.com
was hosting 122 websites and numerous email lists and threaded
discussion forums for the drug policy reform community worldwide.

The DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org website continued to grow, but
perhaps the best kept secret in reform is what is available to users
that actually register at the website. Many pages do not require
registration. For those who do register, for free – over 2,300 by the
end of 2005 – access is provided to audio-visual clips, blogs,
downloads, forums, music and other content not available to those who
do not register.

MAP’s Published Letters Archive http://www.mapinc.org/lte/ saw almost
a 25% increase in pro-reform published letters in 1995, despite war,
floods, famine and a wide variety of national and local issues that
tended to push our issues off of the editorial pages of newspapers.

Our 10th anniversary occurred in November, when, ten years earlier,
Mark Greer founded this ground breaking organization
http://www.drugsense.org/pages/history We will be celebrating this
milestone throughout 2006.

Not mentioned above are a variety of other services to the reform
community, like our DrugSense Weekly, our 25,000 listings media
contact database, and our news clipping feeds to over two hundred
websites worldwide.

All of the above was supported by generous donations and grants from
the reform community. But with all the calls to give from various
other good causes, fund raising is difficult. If we are to survive
through this year financial support from users like you must increase.

Due to the generosity of a long time DrugSense funder, we have secured
a matching funds grant! This means that anything you contribute to
DrugSense and the Media Awareness Project will be matched, thus
doubling the effective amount of your contribution. Please, please,
visit our donations page http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm and give!

“It’s not what others do, it’s what YOU do!”

**********************************************************************
Prepared by: Staff http://www.drugsense.org/pages/whoweare =.

Date: Mon, 05 Dec 2005
Subject: #318 Another Call For Drug Legalization

ANOTHER CALL FOR DRUG LEGALIZATION

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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #318 – Monday, 5 December 2005

On Sunday, Dec. 4th the Seattle Times picked up an OPED written by
former Seattle police chief Norm Stamper in which he makes a firm
declaration that we need to end our current policy of drug
prohibition. His suggestion? Replace prohibition with a legal,
regulated distribution system for all in-demand drugs.

Stamper’s opinions mirror those of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
http://leap.cc , the international group of police, judges and others
with long experience fighting the drug war who believe that drug
prohibition should be replaced with legal regulation.

Please consider writing a short, succinct Letter to the Editor of the
Seattle Times letting them know of your support for Stamper and for
his position on ending drug prohibition.

In Addition, you can help us get this important OPED placed into other
newspapers. See below for details.

Thanks for your effort and support.

It’s not what others do it’s what YOU do

**********************************************************************

The Seattle Times OPED can be seen here:

US WA: OPED: Legalize Drugs — All of Them

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1901/a05.html

Contact: [email protected]

**********************************************************************

Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/

You are welcome to join MAP Media Activism Facilitator Steve Heath and
other LTE writing friends of MAP this Thursday evening, Dec. 8th at 9
pm EST (8 pm CST, 6 pm PST) for a roundtable discussion of how to
write LTEs that get print and how to best respond to this Focus Alert.

See: http://mapinc.org/resource/paltalk.htm for details on how you
may participate in this important meeting of leading minds in
reform. Discussion is conducted with live Voice (microphone and
speakers are all that is needed) and also via text messaging.
The Paltalk software is free and easy to download and install.

The password for this gathering will be: welcome-pal (all lower
case)

**********************************************************************

HELP US get this and other important drug policy reform-minded OPEDs
into print in other newspapers across North America.

Contact Steve Heath at [email protected] for details of how to work
with us in our Drug Policy Writers Group project.

**********************************************************************

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER

Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list ([email protected]) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to [email protected] if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
can learn from your efforts.

Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ([email protected]) will help you to
review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.

To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see

http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form

**********************************************************************

Prepared by: Stephen Heath, MAP Media Activism Facilitator =.

Date: Thu, 27 Oct 2005
Subject: #317 Tell Congress To Stop War On Hurricane Victims

TELL CONGRESS TO STOP WAR ON HURRICANE VICTIMS

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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #317 – Thursday, 27 Sep 2005

The following was provided by the Drug Policy Alliance

Homepage

It has been endorsed by Common Sense for Drug Policy
http://www.csdp.org , Drug Reform Coordination Network
http://stopthedrugwar.org , Harm Reduction Coalition
http://www.harmreduction.org , Human Rights and the Drug War
http://www.hr95.org , National Alliance of Methadone Advocates
http://www.methadone.org, The Sentencing Project http://www.sentencingproject.org
, Students for Sensible Drug Policy http://www.daregeneration.com ,
and nearly a hundred other groups.

**********************************************************************

We Need Your Help to Stop the War on Drugs From Becoming a War on
Hurricane Victims.

Nearly three million people have been displaced from their homes
because of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Many have lost everything. Yet
federal laws prohibit these victims from receiving welfare, food
stamps, public housing, student loans and other benefits if they have
a drug law conviction. People who have lost everything should not be
denied public assistance just because they were convicted of a drug
offense sometime in their past.

The Alliance held a press conference today with Congressman Bobby
Scott (D-VA), ranking member of the House Crime Subcommittee, and
Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX), ranking member of the House
Immigration Subcommittee, to announce the introduction of the
“Elimination of Barriers for Katrina Victims Act,” which would
temporarily suspend federal laws that deny public assistance to
hurricane victims who have drug offenses in their past. If the bill is
enacted, thousands of destitute families that would otherwise be
denied food stamps, public housing and other aid because of prior drug
offenses would be able to obtain benefits to help put their lives back
together.

Fax Congress in support of this important bill: http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/ctt.asp?u=1876&l=109090
.

In addition to holding a press conference, the Alliance released a
statement in support of the bill ( http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/ctt.asp?u=1876&l=109132
) signed by almost 100 state and national drug treatment, civil
rights, and public health groups.

We would like to thank Joyce Ann Brown, president and CEO of Mothers
(Fathers) for the Advancement of Social Systems (MASS), and Lorenzo
Ford, a MASS case worker, for traveling all the way from Texas to
speak at our press conference. We would like to especially thank
Antoinette Samson for coming to DC to speak. Her family was evacuated
from New Orleans, where they lost everything, and her courage in the
face of adversity is amazing.

Introduced by Congressman Bobby Scott (D-VA), the “Elimination of
Barriers for Katrina Victims Act” is co-sponsored by Rep. John Conyers
(D-MI), Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA), Rep.
Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Rep. Sheila
Jackson Lee (D-TX), Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY),
and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS). Since the bill was just introduced,
it does not have a bill number yet.

Now we need you to speak up. Fax your U.S Representative today
http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/ctt.asp?u=1876&l=109090

**********************************************************************

After you have contacted your U.S Representative, please write a
letter on this issue to your local newspaper. The problems of
hurricane victims is daily news now, but few are aware of this issue.
Your letters will help bring the issue to the public.

To see a listing of the newspapers from your state and their contact
information, go to http://www.mapinc.org/media.htm, use the dropdown
menu to select your state and then select CONTACT.

Thanks for your effort and support.

It’s not what others do it’s what YOU do

**********************************************************************

Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/

Or contact MAP Media Activism Facilitator Steve Heath for personal
tips on how to write LTEs that get printed.

[email protected]

**********************************************************************

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER

Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list ([email protected]) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to [email protected] if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
can learn from your efforts.

Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ([email protected]) will help you to
review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.

To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see

http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form

**********************************************************************
Prepared by: Stephen Heath, MAP Media Activism Facilitator =.

Date: Sat, 10 Sep 2005
Subject: #316 Medical Marijuana Does Not Increase Teen Use

MEDICAL MARIJUANA DOES NOT INCREASE TEEN USE

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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #316 – Saturday, 10 Sep 2005

The Wed, Sep 7 edition of the Los Angeles Times carried some great
news. An almost decade-old Prohibitionist bogeyman – “Allowing adults
legal access to medical marijuana will cause teenage use of pot to
skyrocket” – has been demonstrated as just so much claptrap.

The study is based on data from national and state surveys, which show
a drop in marijuana use by teens.

Although debate over medical marijuana is often shaded by concerns
about increasing drug abuse among young people, the report suggested
the opposite has been true.

The study’s authors were Mitch Earleywine, a State University of New
York psychology professor, and Karen O’Keefe, a legislative analyst
with Marijuana Policy Project, the organization that commissioned the
research based on state and federal data.

That data “strongly suggests” that approval of medical marijuana has
not increased recreational use of cannabis among adolescents,
Earleywine and O’Keefe concluded. And the decline in many of the
states with medical marijuana laws is “slightly more favorable” than
trends nationwide, they said.

The MPP study is on line here:

http://www.mpp.org/teens.html

Please consider contacting your local and state newspapers and asking
them to carry this important story.

Many newspapers have picked up the short news blurb, via the
Associated Press, which announced the overall national drop in teenage
marijuana use. But they’re not likely to carry the related and
frankly more important story about this study, unless their local
readers ask them to do so.

**********************************************************************

The LA Times article by Eric Bailey can be seen here:

US: Pot Use Down Where Medical Use OK

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1446/a06.html

**********************************************************************

To see a listing of the newspapers from your state and their contact
information, go to http://www.mapinc.org/media.htm, use the dropdown
menu to select your state and then select CONTACT.

Thanks for your effort and support.

It’s not what others do it’s what YOU do

**********************************************************************

Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/

Or contact MAP Media Activism Facilitator Steve Heath for personal
tips on how to write LTEs that get printed.

[email protected]

And of course, you are welcome to join Steve and other LTE writing
friends of MAP this Sunday evening, Sep. 11th at 9pm EDT for a
roundtable discussion of how to write LTEs that get print and
specifically how to best respond to this Focus Alert. We’ll also be
talking about LTEs directed at Opinion items concerning the Raich
decision from the Supreme Court.

See: http://mapinc.org/resource/paltalk.htm for all details on how
you can participate in this important meeting of leading minds in
reform. Discussion is conducted with live Voice (microphone and
speakers all that is needed) and also via text messaging.
The Paltalk software is free and easy to download and install.

The password for this gathering will be PW: welcome-pal (all lower
case)

**********************************************************************

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER

Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list ([email protected]) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to [email protected] if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
can learn from your efforts.

Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ([email protected]) will help you to
review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.

To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see

http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form

**********************************************************************
Prepared by: Stephen Heath, MAP Media Activism Facilitator =.

Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005
Subject: #315 Feds Escalate War On Activists

FEDS ESCALATE WAR ON ACTIVISTS

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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #315 – Tue, 16 August 2005

It is becoming increasingly clear that the federal government is
seeking to silence marijuana activists in every way possible. When it
appears that a medical marijuana activist may walk under state laws,
the feds step in.

Fred Gardner’s column “Feds Takeover Prosecution of Dustin Costa”
discusses a good example. Please read the column for details:

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05.n1327.a10.html

You would not know the full story without reading Mr. Gardner’s column
by reading the article, below, from the Merced Sun-Star. Please send a
letter to the editor to the Sun-Star focusing on the full story.

Also please consider writing about this issue to the other newspapers
in the valley from Bakersfield to Sacramento. Here is a list of major
newspapers with the contacts for letters:

Bakersfield Californian Contact: [email protected]

Fresno Bee Contact: [email protected]

Lodi News-Sentinel Contact: [email protected]

Modesto Bee Contact: [email protected]

Sacramento Bee Contact: [email protected]

**********************************************************************

Pubdate: Mon, 15 Aug 2005
Source: Merced Sun-Star (CA)
Copyright: 2005 Merced Sun-Star
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.mercedsun-star.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2546
Author: Mike De La Cruz

MARIJUANA SUSPECT’S HEARING SET

FRESNO — A 58-year-old Winton man indicted by a federal grand jury on
marijuana-growing charges is awaiting a hearing in federal court.

Dustin Robert Costa, also known as the Rev. D.C. Greenhouse, was
arrested recently on federal charges of cultivation of marijuana,
possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute, and possession
of a firearm in connection with drug trafficking offenses.

A detention hearing is scheduled Wednesday for Costa in Fresno Federal
District Court and a status conference is scheduled for Aug. 22, said
Assistant United States Attorney Karen Escobar, who is prosecuting the
case.

Court documents indicate Costa reportedly was growing marijuana at his
Winton residence in early 2004.

Merced County Multi-Agency Narcotics Task Force agents reportedly
found 908 growing marijuana plants and 8.8 pounds of processed
marijuana at his home.

According to his Web site, Costa is a cannabis patient and a caregiver
to patients.

United States Attorney McGregor Scott said that although California
voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996, which legalizes marijuana for
medical use, marijuana remains an illegal drug under federal law, as
affirmed by the U.S. Supreme Court last June.

Escobar said Costa faces a mandatory-minimum five years or a maximum
of 40 years in prison and a fine of up to $2,000 for each drug charge.

For the gun charge, Costa is facing a mandatory consecutive term of
five years.

Costa remains in custody at the Fresno County Jail, Escobar
said.

“Costa has been flaunting the law for months now under the guise of
Proposition 215,” Merced County Sheriff Mark Pazin said. “What Costa
has done is take the original intent of medical marijuana and has used
it for his own agenda.”

**********************************************************************

Thanks for your effort and support.

It’s not what others do – it’s what YOU do

**********************************************************************

Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides

Or contact MAP Media Activism Facilitator Steve Heath for personal
tips on how to write LTEs that get printed.

[email protected]

Future media activism sessions in the DrugSense Virtual Conference
Room are announced at http://www.mapinc.org/resource/pal_sched.php

**********************************************************************

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER

Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list ([email protected]) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to [email protected] if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
may learn from your efforts.

Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ([email protected]) will help you to
review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.

To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see

http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form

**********************************************************************

Prepared by: Richard Lake =.

Date: Fri, 05 Aug 2005
Subject: #314 Is Canada A United States Puppet?

IS CANADA A UNITED STATES PUPPET?

*********************PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE*************************

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #314 – Friday, 5 August 2005

Readers of this alert are likely aware of the arrests of Marc Emery,
Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek, and Gregory Williams – Canadians – at the
request of the United States government.

Already much has been published in the Canadian press, and some
articles in the United States press.

Cannabis Culture http://cannabisculture.com/ has posted on line at
http://cannabisculture.com/articles/4471.html a list of “5 things you
can do to help Marc Emery.” While not every action listed is
something those outside of Canada may do, number 3 on the list “Write
to Canadian media” is clearly appropriate. We ask your help in letting
the Canadian media know what you think about these arrests.

Already many newspaper clippings may be found at http://www.mapinc.org/people/Marc+Emery
– with more being added every day.

An extensive list of Canadian media with letter to the editor contacts
is on line at http://www.mapinc.org/cmap/press.htm Media with larger
clipping counts are likely to be better targets for your letter
writing efforts.

On August 3rd the Globe and Mail, one of Canada’s two national
newspapers, printed an OPED by Alan Young which provides a fair view
of the issues in our opinion, so we are providing it below.

Is Canada a United States puppet? We hope not, but in this case only
time will tell.

**********************************************************************

JUST SAY NO TO UNCLE SAM’S DEA

Washington wants to take over the prosecution of those who flout
Canada’s marijuana laws. Ottawa should tell it to butt out, says law
professor ALAN YOUNG

On July 27, in Halifax, RCMP officers arrested Marc Emery, Canada’s
self-styled “Prince of Pot,” after a U.S. federal grand jury indicted
him on charges of conspiracy to distribute marijuana seeds, conspiracy
to distribute marijuana and conspiracy to engage in money laundering.
Mr. Emery, who ran a lucrative marijuana seed business, may not be
everyone’s idea of a hero, but many Canadians are outraged by the
Americans waging their war on drugs within our borders.

There is little doubt that Mr. Emery’s seeds found their way into the
hands of eager U.S. pot-smokers, and U.S. drug agents had a legitimate
concern about the prince’s business activities. However, this concern
should have led to a request that Canadian police enforce our existing
laws to sanction Mr. Emery. Instead, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency
asked Canadian police to execute a wide-ranging search warrant in Mr.
Emery’s home town, Vancouver, and to deliver him and other Canadian
marijuana activists to be prosecuted in the land of mandatory minimum
punishments.

From the Canadian perspective, Mr. Emery’s constant flouting of our
marijuana laws were tolerated and his activities seen as part and
parcel of our continuing debate over marijuana law reform.

I recognize that the sale of viable cannabis seeds appears to be a
crime both in Canada and the United States, and that there may be a
legal basis for seeking extradition as these seeds found their way
onto U.S. soil. But I’m deeply concerned about subjecting a Canadian
citizen to the draconian laws of a foreign nation when we don’t bother
charging this person for violating our laws. A Canadian citizen is now
exposed to U.S. drug sentences which border on cruel and unusual
punishment — for violating a law we rarely enforce in Canada.

Mr. Emery has publicly boasted about the size of his enterprise (“I
sell four million seeds a year”) and the DEA claims that he makes
about $3-million a year from his seed sales.

But the Americans fail to mention that much of this money has been
funnelled into legal challenges, compassion clubs, drug treatment
centres and political activism.

Mr. Emery is not the kingpin of some British Columbian cartel,
breaking the law for personal gain; rather, he is an activist who has
flouted the law as a political statement and in order to acquire
resources to change the law.

Had he had been prosecuted and convicted under Canadian law, he would
probably receive a fine and a short prison term. It’s unlikely that
U.S. courts will respect or understand the political context of Mr.
Emery’s alleged criminality. In many aspects of criminal-justice
policy, the differences between Canada and the United States have
grown exponentially. When we extradite to the United States, we must
recognize that we are sending someone to a very different legal and
political culture.

In Canada we have a medical-marijuana program in which patients can
lawfully use marijuana; in Oklahoma, an army vet who grew pot to cope
with his own crippling arthritis was sentenced to 90 years in prison.

In dealing with the Americans, we must take care that mutual legal
assistance does not become legal domination, as has the U.S. war on
drugs in Latin America. The DEA’s pursuit of the Prince of Pot isn’t
the first instance of Canada’s deferring to U.S. drug-law enforcement
policy.

One summer day in 2004, an off-duty Vancouver policeman was driving
near Hope, B.C., when he was stopped by a Texas state trooper.

Constable David Laing, annoyed by the involvement of Texans on a
Canadian highway, refused to submit to a random drug search.

A minute later, he was stopped by another trooper and an RCMP officer,
who did a thorough search (they found no marijuana). Mr. Laing went to
his lawyers; his civil suit was settled out of court.

The Texans later explained that they were taking part in a
training-exchange program with the RCMP. Although the Texas program is
unconstitutional by Canadian standards, our law enforcement officials
were somehow convinced that there was much to be learned by letting
U.S. officials violate the rights of Canadians on Canadian soil.

Imposing American values, including attitudes towards drugs, on the
global village can only harm the U.S. in the long-term, by fuelling a
growing anti-American sentiment.

In the case of the Prince of Pot, I hope that Canada’s Minister of
Justice will exercise his discretion to block this extradition if a
court finds the request to be technically proper.

At a minimum, Irwin Cotler should refuse to extradite unless an
undertaking is provided that Mr. Emery won’t be subjected to the cruel
minimum sentences if convicted in a U.S. court.

Mutuality dictates that the Americans show some respect for our legal
and political values, as we do for theirs.

But we must show backbone to resist U.S. efforts to enforce their drug
laws on our soil.

**********************************************************************

Thanks for your effort and support.

It’s not what others do – it’s what YOU do

**********************************************************************

Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides

Or contact MAP Media Activism Facilitator Steve Heath for personal
tips on how to write LTEs that get printed.

[email protected]

Future media activism sessions in the DrugSense Virtual Conference
Room are announced at http://www.mapinc.org/resource/pal_sched.php

**********************************************************************

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER

Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list ([email protected]) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to [email protected] if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
may learn from your efforts.

Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ([email protected]) will help you to
review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.

To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see

http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form

**********************************************************************

Prepared by: Richard Lake =.

Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005
Subject: #313 The DEA’s War Against Patients

THE DEA’S WAR AGAINST PATIENTS

*********************PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE*************************

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #313 – Tuesday, 19 July 2005

We’re not referring to the War On Patients where the DEA agents roll
up on medical marijuana hospices all decked out in SWAT paramilitary
gear and poke automatic rifles into the faces of bedridden cancer patients.

No, it’s the OTHER DEA war against otherwise law-abiding medical
patients, where the DEA agents roll up on chronic pain patients who
are simply trying to obtain needed pharms. And this war extends to
law-abiding physicians who are deemed by the DEA to be prescribing
either too many pain meds, or inappropriately prescibing them.

Pain management doctors from across America have been begging the DEA
for a set of minimum guidelines to help assure that they are more in
compliance with government-mandated directives, but the DEA refuses to
issue such guidelines.

This week’s TIME magazine contains excellent coverage about how the
DEA is persecuting doctors. From Tuesday’s NY Times comes an OPED by
John Tierney that gives grim detail to how the DEA’s ambigious
policies trickle down to the state level and put individual patients
at risk – highlighting Richard Paey of Florida who is currently doing
25 years for illegal possession of 28 Percocet tablets.

Please consider writing a succint Letter to the Editor and sending it
to TIME and/or The New York Times.

**********************************************************************

Thanks for your effort and support.

It’s not what others do it’s what YOU do

**********************************************************************

US: Why Is The DEA Hounding This Doctor?

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1136/a06.html

Contact: [email protected]

Letters to Time Magazine should not exceed 100 words for best chance
of publication.

US NY: OPED: Punishing Pain

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1138/a05.html

Contact: [email protected]

The New York Times has a 150 word count limit on LTEs and letters sent
must be exclusive to the NYTimes.

**********************************************************************

Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism
Center:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/

Or contact MAP Media Activism Facilitator Steve Heath for personal
tips on how to write LTEs that get printed.

[email protected]

And of course, you are welcome to join Steve and other LTE writing
friends of MAP for one of our Media Activism Roundtables held in the
DrugSense Virtual Conference Room.

See http://mapinc.org/resource/paltalk.htm for all details on how
you can participate in these important meeting of leading minds in
reform. Discussion is conducted with live Voice (microphone and
speakers all that is needed) and also via text messaging. The Paltalk
software is free and easy to download and install.

The password for these meetings is PW: welcome-pal (all lower
case)

**********************************************************************

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER

Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list ([email protected]) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to [email protected] if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
can learn from your efforts.

Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ([email protected]) will help you to
review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.

To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see

http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form

**********************************************************************

Prepared by: Stephen Heath, MAP Media Activism Facilitator
=

Date: Wed, 06 Jul 2005
Subject: #312 America – A Last Bastion Against Harm Reduction?

AMERICA – A LAST BASTION AGAINST HARM REDUCTION?

*********************PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE*************************

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #312 – Wednesday, 06 July 2005

Tuesday’s Washington Post carried a startling update of new policies
in Iran. Once a staunch co-supporter of U.S.-style zero tolerance
drug policies, the government of Iran appears ready enact some smarter
programs.

Fearing an AIDS epidemic, Iran’s government has dropped a
zero-tolerance policy against increasingly common heroin use and now
offers addicts low-cost needles, methadone and a measure of social
acceptance.

Reports from the past few weeks indicate that other former
zero-tolerance governments are making similar shifts, including China
and Malaysia.

Meanwhile, in the U.S. the Office of National Drug Control Policy
continues to work against nearly every form of harm reduction.

But, perhaps, policies are changing. See ‘U.S. Supports Harm Reduction
in UN HIV Prevention Policy’: http://www.drugpolicy.org/news/070605unaids.cfm

Please consider writing a Letter to the Editor to the Washington Post
about the article, below.

**********************************************************************

Pubdate: Tue, 05 Jul 2005
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Page: A09
Copyright: 2005 The Washington Post Company
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Karl Vick, Washington Post Foreign Service

AIDS CRISIS BRINGS RADICAL CHANGE IN IRAN’S RESPONSE TO HEROIN USE

Health Concerns Given Precedence Over Prosecution

TEHRAN — Fearing an AIDS epidemic, Iran’s theocratic government has
dropped a zero-tolerance policy against increasingly common heroin use
and now offers addicts low-cost needles, methadone and a measure of
social acceptance.

For two decades, Iran largely avoided the global AIDS crisis. But
today, officials are alarmed by a 25 percent HIV infection rate that
one survey has found among hard-core heroin users and worry that
addicts may channel the virus into the population of 68 million.

Supporters of the government’s new approach laud it as practical and
devoid of the wishful thinking and moralism that they contend hampers
policies on drug abuse and AIDS in some other countries, including the
United States. “I have to pay tribute to Iran on this,” said Roberto
Arbitrio, head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime in Tehran.

Bijan Nasirimanesh, who heads a drop-in clinic that dispenses needles,
bleach and methadone in a hard-hit area of south Tehran, said, “It’s
ironic that Iran, very fundamentalist, very religious — very
religious — has been able to convince itself” to embrace such policies.

Opponents often argue that tolerance of life-destroying drugs is
simply unacceptable and in the long run breeds acceptance and higher
drug use. But in the theocracy’s most dramatic rejection of that
approach, the ayatollah who heads Iran’s conservative judiciary issued
an executive order embracing “such needed and fruitful programs” as
needle exchanges and methadone maintenance.

Ayatollah Mohammad Esmail Shoshtari, the justice minister who has shut
more than 100 newspapers and imprisoned political opponents,
instructed prosecutors in a Jan. 24 letter to ignore laws on the books
and defer to Iran’s Health Ministry to counter the spread of AIDS and
hepatitis C.

“This was a very crucial step,” said Ali Hashemi, director of Iran’s
Drug Control Headquarters, a cabinet-level office. “Inevitably we have
to do this in order to reduce the risk of AIDS.”

The policy demonstrates the complexities of Iran a quarter-century
after the Islamic revolution and U.S. Embassy takeover that still
defines its theocratic government for many Americans. Though power
remains concentrated in unelected clerics who brook little political
dissent, the government has demonstrated flexibility on a variety of
subjects, including birth control and sex-change operations, which the
clerics recently authorized.

Until recently, the HIV infection rate among intravenous drug users in
Iran had been estimated at 5 percent. But in blood tests of 900 users
over eight months, the Persepolis clinic headed by Nasirimanesh found
a rate of 25 percent.

“The bomb exploded,” he said.

Officials said that rate was confirmed by a more recent study
conducted through Japan’s Kyoto University. A lower rate, about 13
percent, was recorded among users who get their methadone at the
addiction studies treatment center. Mokri said that was presumably
because the center’s clients are typically better off than the often
homeless junkies at the Persepolis drop-in center and have avoided
time in prisons where dirty needles are far more common.

But the rates in all surveys are headed up. “The potential is very
bad,” said Arbitrio of the U.N. agency. “If you have 160,000
injecting plus 3 million drug users, you have all the elements to have
the spread of HIV/AIDS very quickly.”

How quickly the virus might reach into the general population via
sexual contact is a sensitive issue in Iran. Experts here do not see
transmission though gay sex as an important avenue, but fear HIV will
spread in a big way through heterosexual sex.

Though the government has promoted a puritanical view on premarital
sex, it has tolerated prostitutes, who by many accounts have risen
sharply in numbers in recent years.

“I know some who are drug addicts,” said Sorraya Heidari, 39, as she
waited for methadone at the Persepolis clinic. “To get the money they
need for drugs, they have to work as prostitutes.”

There is also evidence that young people — half of Iran’s population
is under age 20 — are more sexually active than some researchers
believed. Fully 70 percent of capital residents ages 15 to 20 have
had sex outside marriage, and almost none reported using condoms,
according to a survey of 2,000 Tehran young people by Tehran
University and the State Welfare Organization.

“Before, Iran always said this is something from outside,” said Hamid
Reza Setayesh, the UNAIDS officer for Iran. “Now they are accepting
this is not only for drug users, but growing among people who are
sexually active.”

Experts say the official reluctance to promote condom use generally is
a major drawback in Iran’s evolving policy toward AIDS. Another is
the lack of anonymous testing for the virus. “They ask for your name,”
Setayesh said. “And they should not ask.”

Public health specialists also caution that many of the new policies
have yet to be launched on a large scale. “The policies are very
good,” said Gelareh Mostashari, a physician in the U.N. drugs office.
“But there are practical applications that have to be executed.”

Still, many drug experts say the government has shown a consistent
disregard for orthodoxies in this fight. Mokri said he was astonished
to encounter no official resistance when he set out to launch a pilot
program that will dispense actual opium instead of methadone to addicts.

He noted a bill pending in the U.S. Congress calling for imprisoning
Americans who failed to report marijuana dealers. “Sometimes I think
the ayatollahs are more liberal,” Mokri said.

**********************************************************************

Thanks for your effort and support.

It’s not what others do – it’s what YOU do

**********************************************************************

Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides

Or contact MAP Media Activism Facilitator Steve Heath for personal
tips on how to write LTEs that get printed.

[email protected]

Join Steve and other LTE writing friends of MAP this Sunday evening at
9 p.m. EDT for a roundtable discussion of how to write LTEs that see
print.

See: http://mapinc.org/resource/paltalk.htm for details on how you
may join in this important meeting with leading reform
activists. Discussion is conducted with live Voice (microphone and
speakers all that is needed) and also via text messaging.

The Paltalk software is free and easy to download and
install.

The password for this gathering will: welcome-pal (all lower
case)

Future media activism sessions in the DrugSense Virtual Conference
Room are announced at http://www.mapinc.org/resource/pal_sched.php

**********************************************************************

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER

Please post a copy of your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list ([email protected]) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to [email protected] if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
may learn from your efforts.

Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ([email protected]) will help you to
review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.

To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see

http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form

**********************************************************************

Prepared by: Stephen Heath, MAP Media Activism Facilitator
=

Date: Fri, 17 Jun 2005
Subject: #311 John Walters Defends Endless Drug War

JOHN WALTERS DEFENDS ENDLESS DRUG WAR

*********************PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE*************************

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #311 – Saturday, 18 June 2005

National syndicated columnist George Will released a column Thursday
discussing the continued viability of waging a never-ending War on
Drugs. He opens with a pertinent perspective offered by former
Washington policymaker George Schultz wherein Schultz expresses his
belief that as long as there is a demand for illegal drugs, the
criminal market will thrive and never be quelled, regardless of how
many or how big a busts law enforcement achieves.

Then Will turns the discussion over to federal Drug Czar John Walters
and quotes him on a wide range of drug policy opinions. As usual, the
center of the Czar’s focus is on marijuana law enforcement.

The column has already been picked up in numerous newspapers and given
George Will’s wide reach, should run in many other newspapers over the
next few days.

An interesting aspect of this column is that in the numerous outlets
we’ve seen it so far, the wording of the headline – as determined by
the individual newspapers – varies widely. These headlines provide us
with a minor insight into the thoughts of the newspapers about the
content of Walters statements.

Please consider writing at least one succint Letter to the Editor and
sending it to the newspaper closest to your hometown. A similar
letter with some minor modifications, can also be sent to other
newspapers which carried the column, thus increasing your chances of
being printed.

**********************************************************************

To see a listing of the newspapers which have printed the column, go
to http://www.mapinc.org/author/Will+George

The first date of publication is June 16. Remember the varying
headlines.

**********************************************************************

Thanks for your effort and support.

It’s not what others do it’s what YOU do

**********************************************************************

Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/

Or contact MAP Media Activism Facilitator Steve Heath for personal
tips on how to write LTEs that get printed.

[email protected]

And of course, you are welcome to join Steve and other LTE writing
friends of MAP this Sunday evening at 9pm EDT for a roundtable
discussion of how to write LTEs that get print and specifically how to
best respond to this Focus Alert. We’ll also be talking about LTEs
directed at Opinion items concerning the Raich decision from the
Supreme Court.

See: http://mapinc.org/resource/paltalk.htm for all details on how you
can participate in this important meeting of leading minds in reform.
Discussion is conducted with live Voice (microphone and speakers all
that is needed) and also via text messaging. The Paltalk software is
free and easy to download and install.

The password for this gathering will be PW: welcome-pal (all lower
case)

=