Date: Tue, 04 Feb 2003
Subject: Chicago Tribune Flip-Flops On DARE Criticism

Chicago Tribune Flip-Flops On DARE Criticism

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PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE
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DrugSense FOCUS Alert # 261 Feb. 4, 2002

Over three years ago, DARE critics were happy to discover at least one
major newspaper understood that DARE was a massive boondoggle. At the
time, the Chicago Tribune printed an editorial entitled “It’s time to
show DARE the door.” See http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v99/n829/a03.html

The editorial stated, “What a waste! There’s got to be a better way to
educate young people about the hazards of substance abuse, but as long
as a high-profile pseudo-solution is available, there’s little
incentive to find out what might really work.”

Since that time, more studies have confirmed what Tribune editors
seemed to understand: DARE doesn’t deter drug use. Another recent
Tribune story about had an even harsher assessment from a police chief
who said, “I can’t tell you how many kids told me DARE introduced them
to drugs.” See see http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n130/a08.html

Strangely, as the evidence mounts, Tribune editorialists suddenly
suggest that DARE just needs to try harder. In an editorial published
last week (see below), the Tribune accepted the spin of a DARE
spokesman who said the mountain of studies condemning DARE may be
wrong. The editorial went on to say that some local DARE programs work
(though they didn’t mention any specifically) therefore national DARE
just needs to study those local programs. None of it makes sense based
on the Tribune’s own reporting. Please write a letter to the Tribune
to ask just where these “outstanding” local DARE programs exist, and
why the newspaper has flip-flopped on its previous sensible position.

Thanks for your effort and support.

WRITE A LETTER TODAY

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

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

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID ( Letter,
Phone, fax etc.)

Please post a copy your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list ([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 with so
others can learn from your efforts and be motivated to follow suit.

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

This is VERY IMPORTANT as it is one very effective way of gauging our
impact and effectiveness.

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

Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Contact: [email protected]

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US IL: Editorial: DARE America At 20

Pubdate: Sat, 01 Feb 2003
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2003 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact: [email protected]

DARE AMERICA AT 20

DARE America, the nation’s largest in-school drug awareness program,
celebrates its 20th anniversary this year with its image and
reputation in deep jeopardy.

Born out of a partnership between the Los Angeles Police Department
and the L.A. schools, Drug Abuse Resistance Education has suffered
tough times recently. State and local governments facing tight budgets
have cut DARE programs. Studies by the U.S. surgeon general, the
General Accounting Office and others have questioned DARE’s
effectiveness.

Illinois DARE officials predict that half of the state’s schools that
now offer the program will drop it by the end of this year. Skokie,
Chicago Ridge and Peoria police have dropped it and others are
considering similar moves. Chicago Ridge Police Chief Tim Balderman
told a Tribune reporter that, after 13 years of DARE, his department
actually saw an increase in drug arrests, “all DARE graduates.”

In DARE’s defense, national spokesman Ralph Lochridge responds that
the critical studies were either too limited or, in some cases, were
biased against DARE’s methods. The organization points to more
favorable assessments, such as a 2001 survey of Illinois DARE by an
Ohio State University professor. That study found that 86 percent of
school principals thought DARE made students less likely to abuse
alcohol and drugs.

A comprehensive University of Akron study is following more than
20,000 students in various cities for five years to compare students
who participate in DARE and those who don’t. Drawing on the first two
years of research, the study’s director, Dr. Zili Sloboda, observes
that students who have come through DARE are measurably better
informed that drugs are not nearly as popular or commonly used as
their non-DARE peers think they are.

It should surprise no one that the initial research also shows the
short-term benefits of teaching drug awareness and avoidance to
children in lower school grades is lost later if it is not reinforced
by effective follow-up programs. Particularly critical are the early
teen years. If parents and local school districts invest all of their
efforts in DARE’s program for 5th graders, then let the efforts lapse
by the time the youngsters get to high school, they should not be
surprised when the anti-drug message does not stick.

DARE survives largely because so many dedicated police officers and
others who work with students believe in it. Local autonomy is good
when it helps DARE to adjust to local circumstances. Unfortunately, an
organization as big and varied as DARE can find that its effectiveness
is burdened by inconsistent use of the program.

As DARE America enters its third decade, it faces the challenge of
taking what it has learned in its most outstanding local programs and
applying those lessons nationally. Then it can narrow the gap between
local chapters that appear to be producing results and those that are
not.

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

SAMPLE LETTER

(Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please
modify it so that the paper does not receive numerous copies of the
same letter and so that the original author receives credit for
his/her work.)

To the Editors:

I was baffled by the Tribune’s editorial about DARE (“DARE America at
20,” Feb. 1)

As the Tribune’s own reporting illustrates, DARE is nothing but a
massive failure. Merely three years ago, the The Tribune editorial
board had the good sense to call for the end of DARE (“It’s time to
show DARE the door,” Aug. 11, 1999).

Since 1999, a number of major studies have diminished DARE’s already
dismal reputation. But, now in 2003, the Tribune says, “As DARE
America enters its third decade, it faces the challenge of taking what
it has learned in its most outstanding local programs and applying
those lessons nationally. ” Which outstanding local programs is the
Tribune referring to? While the Tribune has highlighted some DARE
officers who are no doubt dedicated to their jobs, this does not
translate to the existence of “outstanding” local programs. Officers
may have all the best intentions, but the finest carpenter can’t build
a sturdy house on a crumbling foundation.

This is a central problem with DARE. Local communities are reluctant
to criticize their own DARE officers, especially when they are
passionate about a difficult job. But this is where the false logic
begins. Because our DARE officer is dedicated, DARE is good for kids
and should not be cut. Or because DARE offers allows positive
interaction between police and youth, it has value, and since we need
to have drug education, it might as well be DARE. Or the worst, DARE
offers positive interaction, and is therefore effective drug education.

None of these assertions are supported by facts or logic. But the mere
existence of DARE seems to make some people feel good, so good that
they are willing to believe that DARE’s many fatal flaws can somehow
be corrected, even if such a process never leads to effective drug
education.

S. Young

IMPORTANT: Always include your address and telephone
number

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TARGET ANALYSIS

With a daily circulation average of 679,327 The Chicago Tribune ranks
7th nationally among all daily newspapers. The Tribune accepts letters
to the editor from everywhere, seeing itself as a national newspaper.

While we recommend aiming letters for 200 words or less, the average
length of pro reform letters printed by the paper, based on an
analysis of the database at http://www.mapinc.org/lte/ is 231 words.
Although rare, the paper has printed letters in the 300 word range.

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

ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts, Please See:

Writer’s Resources http://www.mapinc.org/resource/

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Prepared by: Stephen Young, DrugSense Focus Alert Specialist

Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003
Subject: #260 Stop The Federal Assault On Patients, Clinics Providers!

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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #260 – Tue, 28 Jan 2003

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

As federal prosecutions against medical marijuana patients and
providers escalate, a coalition of patients, care givers, doctors and
public officials have united to launch an outdoor advertising campaign
throughout California. But the billboards are just the start of the
campaign by the Coalition for Medical Marijuana.

Your support is needed to build on this effort. Today the Coalition
(see list below) is asking you to contact your elected representatives
at all levels of government to ask them to support the compassionate
access to medical marijuana by patients in need.

You can write to your Member of Congress through http://www.MedicalMJ.org.
It has a page that allows you to send faxes and emails see:
http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=100506&type=CO. A
particular focus of your letters should be Senator Barbara Boxer. She
is up for re-election in the next election cycle in what will be a
tight race. She need to know that her failure to lead on medical
marijuana — especially her failure to stand up for voters in
California is going to lose her votes.

Please also contact your local and state media – write letters to the
editor to newspapers – contact broadcast media and ask them to cover
the issue.

Is there any doubt that the federal government determined to undermine
the will of the people on this issue? The buyers clubs are being
closed or run underground one by one. Federal prosecutors won’t
permit court testimony concerning why marijuana was used, even though
marijuana is permitted as medicine under the laws of California and
eight other states. And because juries have no way of knowing
otherwise, Federal prosecutors accuse patients and the Good Samaritans
who help supply them with their medicine of being “Drug King Pins.”

The media stories about what happened to Bryan Epis
http://www.mapinc.org/people/Bryan+Epis and what is happening to Ed
Rosenthal http://www.mapinc.org/people/Ed+Rosenthal are glaring
examples of how the federal government is working to end the
compassionate use of medicinal cannabis.

Thanks for your effort and support.

Will You Act? It’s not what others do – it’s what YOU
do.

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LINKS YOU CAN USE TO CONTACT YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS

Some of these links have pre-formatted letters you may modify and
send. But don’t forget that other contacts like phone calls and office
visits may have even greater impact.

Letters you can send to your Congress members by going here
http://capwiz.com/norml2/issues/alert/?alertid=100506&type=CO

Contact information for all your elected officials at every level
http://capwiz.com/norml2/dbq/officials/

You can send a Fax about pending legislation in Congress by going here
http://mpp.org/USA/action.html

Another letter you can modify and send to your Congress members
http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=1213

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

CONTACT LINKS FOR THE MEDIA

Use the dropdown at this link to obtain Letter to the Editor email
addresses for the press in your state http://www.mapinc.org/resource/email.htm

Contact information for many media outlets, including broadcast media
http://capwiz.com/norml2/dbq/media/

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

SAMPLE LETTER TO MEMBER OF CONGRESS

(PLEASE NOTE: If you choose to use this letter as a model please
modify it so that your members of congress do not receive multiple
copies of the same letter. The letter should be addressed to the
member by name.)

Dear Senator/Congressman

In 1996 the people of California voted to allow seriously ill patients
to use marijuana as a medicine. Many local jurisdictions worked with
patients to develop methods of safe access through community-based
dispensaries. The state Supreme Court upheld the law and these
programs of safe access. But the federal government is doing its best
to thwart these efforts.

In recent months the Ashcroft-led Justice Department has made medical
marijuana enforcement a high priority — over thirty federal cases
have been brought in California. When these cases are brought to trial
it results in the jury being told it cannot consider evidence of
medical use and the judge forbids the defendant to tell his side of
the story. As a result statutes designed to incarcerate drug kingpins
like Pablo Escobar with lengthy mandatory minimum sentences are being
used against Good Samaritans who are trying to provide medicine to the
seriously ill. While the actions of these providers is consistent
with California law under federal law they are receiving mandatory ten
year sentences.

Please use your office to defend the rights of seriously ill
Californians. Medical marijuana is supported by 80 percent of
Californians according to recent polls. Even though President Bush
spoke in favor of states rights when he was running for office his
administration is now violating states rights by prosecuting medical
marijuana cases.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

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

FOR ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts please
See: Writer’s Resources http://www.mapinc.org/resource/

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

The Coalition for Medical Marijuana http://www.medicalmj.org/

Sponsors Include:

American Alliance for Medical Cannabis http://www.letfreedomgrow.com/

Americans for Safe Access http://www.safeaccessnow.org/

California NORML http://www.canorml.org/

CannabisMD http://www.cannabismd.org/

Cannabis Consumers Campaign http://www.cannabisconsumers.org/

Common Sense for Drug Policy http://www.csdp.org/

DRCNet http://www.drcnet.org/

Drug Policy Alliance http://www.drugpolicy.org/

DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/

Green Aid http://green-aid.com/

Human Rights in the Drug War http://www.hr95.org/

Patients Out of Time http://www.medicalcannabis.com/

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Prepared by Richard Lake, DrugSense FOCUS Alert Specialist

Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003
Subject: # 259 Speak Out For Ed Rosenthal!!

SPEAK OUT FOR ED ROSENTHAL!!

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

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #259 Wed, 22 Jan 2003

One of marijuana reform’s greatest pioneers and allies is of course Ed
Rosenthal of California.

The jury has been selected and the trial of Rosenthal in federal court
began on Jan 21. A federal judge in San Francisco is blocking a jury
from hearing evidence that could exculpate him. Rosenthal is thus
facing 20 years in prison on federal drug charges, though he believed
himself to be immune from prosecution when he was deputized by the
nearby city of Oakland in 1998 to cultivate cannabis for chronically
ill patients.

Rosenthal, 58, is now facing charges of cultivating more than 1,000
marijuana plants at a San Francisco medical marijuana club, conspiracy
to grow marijuana, and maintaining a place to grow marijuana at an
Oakland warehouse. The warehouse reportedly contained several thousand
tiny starter plants that Rosenthal says were intended for distribution
to medical marijuana patients who want to grow their own cannabis.

During two weeks of hearings prior to jury selection, Rosenthal’s
lawyers engaged in a bitter legal struggle with Judge Breyer, who
sought to block Rosenthal from using Prop. 215 as a defense against
federal charges. Breyer denied defense motions to dismiss the charges
based on selective prosecution, lack of jurisdiction, official
immunity, and 9th and 10th Amendment arguments.

In short, prior to trial, Judge Breyer effectively denied any and all
rational and reasonable defense that Rosenthal’s lawyers might offer,
all of it based on the federal government’s view of medical marijuana
being the sole arbiter with regards to legal defense on medical
necessity grounds.

Now a jury of 12 Californians, eight of whom (based on the 68% yes
vote in S.F.) likely voted for Proposition 215, are forced to decide
his fate subject to this heavy legal instruction.

PLEASE WRITE A LETTER TODAY to the local area newspapers of San
Francisco. A short list of links follows below. If you write a letter
to more than one outlet, please send them individually and do not use
the CC feature of your email. It is also helpful to create unique
messages for each paper due to the tight market. This further
increases your chances for being printed. But remember that
regardless of your being printed, it is URGENT that the media in the
area be kept fully alert to the injustice that is being served in
their own backyard. We need newspapers and readers to editorialize
and express outrage against the federal government is directing its
heavy power of the Justice Dept on Californians who honestly believed
themselves to be respecting state law. And that further, these people
were doing no harm to anyone whatsoever.

Thanks for your effort and support.

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

**********************************************************************
PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID
(Letter, email messages, etc.)

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 and be motivated to follow suit.

This is _Very_ Important as it is one very effective way of gauging
our impact and effectiveness.

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

**********************************************************************
CONTACT INFO

You can get a continually updating link for stories about this trial
that are being printed nationwide by going here:

http://www.mapinc.org/people/Ed+Rosenthal

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ORIGINAL ARTICLES

A good summary of the past week’s events along with some historical
background relating the facts of the case and related rulings can be
found in the following stories. Note that a portion of the
introductory text above was taken from the first article below,
written by Ann Harrison and posted at Alternet.

US: Web: The Trial Of Ed Rosenthal
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n087/a04.html
Pubdate: Fri, 17 Jan 2003
Source: AlterNet (US Web)

US: Clash on Medical Marijuana Puts a Grower in U.S. Court
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v03/n095/a03.html
Pubdate: Tue, 21 Jan 2003
Source: New York Times (NY)

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SAMPLE LETTER
(Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify it
at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous copies of the
same letter and so that the original author receives credit for his/her work.)

Dear Editor:

Federal Judge Charles Breyer may be able to keep all mention of
California law out of his courtroom in the case of medical marijuana
activist Ed Rosenthal (cited article), but he cannot silence the press
and Americans who find the charges against Rosenthal to be
unconscionable.

The Bush administration’s top lawyers know full well that over 75% of
Americans support legal access to marijuana under a doctor’s
direction. Yet in their misguided and Quixotic attempt to rid the
world of any marijuana use whatsoever, they are now expending huge tax
dollars in trying, convicting and then imprisoning Rosenthal for up to
twenty years mandatory. More importantly they are charging a man who
was operating completely within California state law and who had the
support and endorsement of the City of Oakland, local law enforcement
and of course the 68% of San Franciscans who legalized marijuana for
medical use in 1996.

Our federal resources are needed to protect us from real enemies, not
from those who provide medicine to the sick and dying.

PS: Please keep this story on your radar and consider providing
critical editorial comment.

Stephen Heath
Clearwater FL

(Always include your address and phone number for newspaper verification. Most papers will not print your letter otherwise.
**********************************************************************

ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts, Please See:

Writer’s Resources http://www.mapinc.org/resource/
**********************************************************************
TO SUBSCRIBE, DONATE, VOLUNTEER TO HELP, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL SEE
http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm

TO UNSUBSCRIBE SEE http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm

**********************************************************************
Prepared by:
Stephen Heath, Drug Policy Forum of Florida http://www.dpffl.org
Focus Alert Specialist for MAP

Date: Wed, 18 Dec 2002
Subject: #258 Please Help Canadians Understand What We Really Believe

PLEASE HELP CANADIANS UNDERSTAND WHAT WE REALLY BELIEVE

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

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #258 Tue, 17 Dec 2002

Below we are requesting you write Letters to the Editor to Canadian
newspapers to help present the actual views of the public outside on
the question of decriminalizing cannabis. Dr. Joycelyn Elders in the
following OPED best described the situation:

Pubdate: Sat, 14 Dec 2002
Source: Globe and Mail (Canada)
Copyright: 2002, The Globe and Mail Company
Contact: [email protected]
Author: Dr. Joycelyn Elders
Note: Dr. Joycelyn Elders was U.S. surgeon-general from 1993 to 1994. She
currently is distinguished professor of public health at the University of
Arkansas School of Medicine in Little Rock.

CANADA HAS IT RIGHT ON MARIJUANA

On Dec. 12, the House of Commons special committee on the non-medical
use of drugs released a report calling for the decriminalization of
marijuana, and Justice Minister Martin Cauchon has said he plans to
put forth a decriminalization bill early in 2003.

It is a safe bet that the U.S. government reaction will be hostile,
just as it always seems to be when people talk about reconsidering
marijuana laws.

Canadians should understand that on drug policy, the U.S. government
is increasingly out of step with Americans. Canadians should use their
own good sense, make their own judgments, and disregard U.S. bullying,
as most of our drug laws were made on a racist foundation instead of
science.

In September, when the Canadian Senate special committee on illegal
drugs issued a report that recommended replacing marijuana prohibition
with a system of regulation, the official U.S. reaction was swift and
blunt. John Walters, director of the White House Office of National
Drug Control Policy (commonly termed the Drug Czar) was quoted on both
sides of the border expressing his dismay. He even hinted at a border
crackdown that could strangle trade between our nations.

U.S. drug-policy leaders should spend more time talking with
knowledgeable Canadians such as Senate committee chairman Pierre
Claude Nolin to learn why they have reached such dramatically
different conclusions from the U.S. drug warriors. If they did, they
might learn that much of their rhetoric about marijuana being a
“gateway drug” is simply wrong. After decades of looking, scientists
still have no evidence that marijuana causes people to use harder
drugs. If there is any true “gateway drug,” it’s tobacco.

And tobacco, through its direct physical effects, kills many thousands
of people every year. So does alcohol. And it is easy to fatally
overdose on alcohol, just as you can fatally overdose on prescription
drugs, or even over-the-counter drugs, such as aspirin or
acetaminophen (the active ingredient in Tylenol).

I don’t believe that anyone has ever died from a marijuana
overdose.

This is not to say that marijuana is harmless. It’s not, and there are
good reasons not to use it — especially for young people.

But from a public-health perspective, there is a solid case to be made
that arresting marijuana users, giving them criminal records and
disrupting careers and families does more harm to more people than the
drug itself does.

Why do U.S. officials such as Mr. Walters so adamantly resist even
having this discussion? The answer lies in the numbers. We have a
massive antidrug bureaucracy that is largely fuelled by our war on
marijuana: Nearly half of all drug arrests in the United States are
for marijuana-related charges, and 89 per cent of those are for simple
possession. Take away those arrests and massive antidrug budgets are
much harder to justify.

But if our officials start making threats again, Canadians should
remember that those officials don’t represent the views of the
American public. A Nov. 4 Time magazine poll found that 72 per cent of
Americans don’t believe marijuana users should go to jail. Eighty per
cent believe seriously ill people should be able to use marijuana for
medical purposes, despite our government’s rigid opposition to that
humane and sensible idea.

If Canada needs guidance, it can look toward Europe, where many
governments have moved toward enlightened policies, and others are
conducting serious, thoughtful examinations of their marijuana laws.
If we are lucky, Canada will set an example that the United States
will eventually follow.

———————–

The above OPED contains facts you can add to your own to help drive
home your point in letters to as many Canadian newspapers as possible
to let Canadians know that the views of our Drug Czar are not the
views of either science or the public in the United States.

WRITE A LETTER TODAY

Thanks for your effort and support.

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

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

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID (Letter,
email messages, etc.)

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 and be motivated to follow suit.

This is _Very_ Important as it is one very effective way of gauging
our impact and effectiveness.

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

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

CONTACT INFO

Since the House of Commons special committee report recommendations on
cannabis were announced MAP has archived over 100 news items related
to the announcement. Most of these items are worthy targets for your
Letter to the Editor efforts. To review these potential targets please
click this link:

http://www.mapinc.org/mjcn.htm

This will provide a list of the headlines, with the most recent
printed first. A few of the items will be Letters to the Editor, and a
few not related to the announcement. But the majority are.

To obtain more details to help you select potential targets without
before reading the actual article go to the bottom of the page where
you will find the Power Search Drugnews webform. Simply use the Details
dropdown to change the details to High and click the search button. The
resulting pages (be sure to notice that you will be able to move
through ten pages, of which the first six or seven will contain good
targets) should help you select your targets. Then just go to the
actual article to obtain the newspaper’s Contact: line for sending off
your letter.

IF you choose to write to more than one newspaper, and we hope you
will, please consider modifying your letter at least a little for each
one. And email each letter to each newspaper by itself. This will
increase your chances of publication.

Please remember that even if your letters are not selected for
publication, they still have an impact on the newspaper’s editors as
they note reader interest which results in increased coverage of our
issues.

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

SAMPLE LETTER

(Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please
modify it at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive
numerous copies of the same letter and so that the original author
receives credit for his/her work.)

To the editor of ??? Newspaper in Canada:

Noting the criticism by the United States Drug Czar towards Canada’s
proposed reforms in marijuana policies, I find it interesting that any
Canadian leaders are giving John Walters’ opinion serious attention.

Over the past 20 years as the U.S. federal government has escalated
the War on Drugs, I notice they didn’t check first to see what Ottawa
thought.

When we decided to increase drug arrests in our country to the point
where we became the planet’s largest jailer, no one in Washington
sought out Canadian viewpoints. When John Walters formed a plan to
deluge our media with his propaganda about pot smokers funding
terrorists, I’m sure he didn’t care one hoot what Canadians thought.

Why then are some of your leaders worried about whether or not Canada
chooses to follow in lockstep the draconian drug policies endorsed by
the United States? You are on the correct, common-sense track – a
track already in place in several European countries as well as
several U.S. and Australian states. Don’t be knocked astray by U.S.
government fueled hysteria about decriminalizing or even legalizing
responsible adult marijuana use.

Respectfully submitted,

Stephen Heath

(Always include your address and phone number for newspaper
verification. Most papers will not print your letter otherwise.)

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

ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts, Please See:

Writer’s Resources http://www.mapinc.org/resource/

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

Prepared by: Stephen Heath, Focus Alert Specialist, Florida Cannabis

Date: Sun, 01 Dec 2002
Subject: #257 John Walters’ Reefer Madness

JOHN WALTERS’ REEFER MADNESS

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

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #257 1 Dec 2002

As Richard Cowan reminds us, the primary reason for the continued War
against marijuana users is ‘bad journalism’. It appears in recent
weeks that this may be changing.

First, Walters was a speaker in Vancouver at a major gathering of
local business leaders, including the present and incoming mayors of
the city. His speech was interrupted by Marc Emery and friends, but
the main story was afterwards, when both mayors denounced his message
and expressed concern about how he misrepresents marijuana. A number
of Vancouver and Canadian newspapers provided full coverage and also
supportive editorial comments criticizing Walters and the U.S. drug
war.

Then the Pittsburgh PA Tribune-Review printed a scathing review of a
visit their editorial board received from Walters, again denouncing
his lies.

Now the New York Times joins the fray, with a no-punches pulled review
of Walters’ lies and exaggerations about marijuana and it’s impact on
Americans.

The only way we can see this type of journalism increase is to let the
newspapers know that we appreciate it and to encourage them to more
fully investigate and fact-check the words that come out of Walters’
mouth.

While being criticized in Vancouver, Walters’ defended his statements
by maintaining that …”I am subject to the scrutiny of the press…”,
implying that he would not lie in such a case.

The more we encourage the press to call him out, the more he will be
forced to change his message. While expecting the Drug Czar to EVER
tell the whole truth is wishful thinking, we can be confident he will
not be left alone by the press if we reinforce them when they do their
job correctly.

Thanks for your effort and support.

WRITE A LETTER TODAY!

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

**********************************************************************
PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID
(Letter, email messages, etc.)

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 and be motivated to follow suit.

This is _Very_ Important as it is one very effective way of gauging
our impact and effectiveness.

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

**********************************************************************
CONTACT INFO

[email protected]

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

Pubdate: Sat, 30 Nov 2002
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2002 The New York Times Company
Contact: [email protected]
Author: Bill Keller

REEFER MADNESS

We interrupt our coverage of the war on terrorism to check in with
that other permanent conflict against a stateless enemy, the war on
drugs.

To judge by the glee at the White House Office of National Drug
Control Policy, the drug warriors have just accomplished the moral
equivalent of routing the Taliban – helping to halt a relentless jihad
against the nation’s drug laws.

Ballot initiatives in Ohio (treatment rather than prison for
nonviolent drug offenders), Arizona (the same, plus making marijuana
possession the equivalent of a traffic ticket, and providing free pot
for medical use) and Nevada (full legalization of marijuana) lost
decisively this month. Liberalization measures in Florida and Michigan
never even made it to the ballot.

Some of this was due to the Republican election tide. Some was
generational – boomer parents like me, fearful of seeing our teenagers
become drug-addled slackers. (John Walters, the White House drug czar,
shrewdly played on this anxiety by hyping the higher potency of
today’s pot with the line, “This is not your father’s marijuana.”)
Some may have been a reluctance to loosen any social safety belts when
the nation is under threat. Certainly a major factor was that
proponents of change, who had been winning carefully poll-tested
ballot measures, state by state, since California in 1996, found
themselves facing a serious and well-financed opposition, cheered on
by Mr. Walters.

The truly amazing thing is that 30 years into the modern war on drugs,
the discourse is still focused disproportionately on marijuana rather
than more important and excruciatingly hard problems like heroin,
cocaine and methamphetamines.

The drug liberalizers – an alliance of legal reformers, liberals,
libertarians and potheads – dwell on marijuana in part because a lot
of the energy and money in their campaign comes from people who like
to smoke pot and want the government off their backs.

Also, marijuana has provided them with their most marketable wedge
issue, the use of pot to relieve the suffering of AIDS and cancer patients.

Never mind that the medical benefits of smoking marijuana are still
mostly unproven (in part because the F.D.A. almost never approves the
research and the pharmaceuticals industry sees no money in it). The
issue may be peripheral, but it appeals to our compassion, especially
when the administration plays the heartless heavy by sending SWAT
teams to arrest people in wheelchairs. Thus a movement that started,
at least in the minds of reform sponsors like the billionaire George
Soros, as an effort to reduce the ravages of both drugs and the war on
drugs, has become mostly about pot smoking.

The more interesting question is why the White House is so obsessed
with marijuana.

[snipped]

Continues: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02/n2178/a10.html

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

TARGET ANALYSIS

The average daily circulation of the New York Times, available
throughout the United States, is 1.2 million copies, largest of any
seven day a week newspaper. An editorial page ad runs $1,350 per
column inch, so even a short published letter is a donation in ad
value to reform of over $2,000.

The average published letter is short and to the point, only 123
words, with a maximum of 150 words.

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

SAMPLE LETTER

(Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please
modify it at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive
numerous copies of the same letter and so that the original author
receives credit for his/her work.)

Dear Editor:

To the editors of The New York Times:

Columnist Bill Keller does Americans a real service by questioning the
lies spread by drug czar John Walters.

Opening his 2002 advertising campaign with the stating that marijuana
users indirectly finance terrorism, Walters has gone on to misused his
office to lobby against voter initiatives.

He attempts to recreate marijuana as a ‘new super drug.’ The 90+
million Americans who have tired it know that the real danger is
arrest, prosecution and a jail cage.

It is responsible to deliver a message about the true risks of using
marijuana.

But when the facts show that marijuana is clearly less dangerous than
the legal drugs alcohol and tobacco, we know that Walters is just
desperate to provide rationale for police arresting almost 2000
Americans daily (over 1000 per week in NYC alone) for marijuana possession.

(contact info)

(Always include your address and phone number for newspaper
verification.

Most papers will not print your letter otherwise.)

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

ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts, Please See:

Writer’s Resources http://www.mapinc.org/resource/

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

EXTRA CREDIT:

This article was discussed by for 25 minutes on C-SPANs Washington
Journal Saturday morning http://www.c-span.org/journal/ It starts at
1 hour and 35 minutes into the show at this video file:
http://video.c-span.org:8080/ramgen/idrive/wj20021130.rm

Please also send a note to the Washington Journal thanking them for
covering the topic of legalizing marijuana. Contact: [email protected]

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

Prepared by: Stephen Heath, Drug Policy Forum of Florida ,
http://www.dpffl.org, Focus Alert Specialist

Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002
Subject: Time Magazine Says We Move Fast. Let’s Show Them How Fast!

Time Magazine Says We Move Fast. Let’s Show Them How Fast!

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

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #257 Oct. 28, 2002

“Pot people, surprisingly, can move pretty fast when they want to” was
just one of many snide remarks and drug war distortions in the Time
Magazine cover story below.

If you resent the rampant stereotypes and distortions in this article,
we ask you to respond with a Letter to the Editor of Time. There are
so many examples of bias and inaccuracy in this article that could be
addressed that we decided not to provide a sample letter in this Focus
Alert. Please pick any target issue that you like from the article
below and write a short letter in reply.

The key to getting published in Time is writing a very _short_ letters
focusing on a single point. Time seldom prints letters over 70 words.
But we have previously had five sharp short letters printed in single
issue, so the more they have to pick from, the better.

With a total circulation of over FOUR MILLION copies, and a 44% market
share of the weekly news magazine market, Time is a very important
target for letters. If you write only one letter a year this should
probably be it. A single short letter published in Time has an
equivalent advertising value of more than $25,000 so please follow the
MAP motto and _Just DO it_.

Thanks for your effort and support.

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

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

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID (Letter,
email messages, etc.)

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 and be motivated to follow suit.

This is _Very_ Important as it is one very effective way of gauging
our impact and effectiveness.

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

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

CONTACT INFO

[email protected]

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

Pubdate: Mon, 4 Nov 2002
Source: Time Magazine (US)
Copyright 2002 Time Inc.
Author: Joel Stein
Note: With reporting by Matt Baron/ Chicago, Laura A. Locke/San Francisco,
Viveca Novak/Washington and Sean Scully/Los Angeles
This is the Time cover story, with a cover headline “IS AMERICA GOING TO POT”

THE NEW POLITICS OF POT

Can It Go Legit? How the People Who Brought You Medical Marijuana Have
Set Their Sights on Lifting the Ban for Everyone

The drug czar is ready for pro wrestling. He already has the name, and
now he’s got the prefight talk down cold. In every speech he makes in
Nevada, where Bush appointee John Walters has traveled to fight an
initiative that would legalize marijuana, he calls out his three sworn
enemies as if he were Tupac Shakur. The czar has a problem with
billionaire philanthropists George Soros, Peter Lewis and John
Sperling, who have bankrolled the pro-pot movement, and he wants
everyone to know he’s ready for battle. At an Elks lodge meeting in
Las Vegas, he ticks off their names and says, “These people use
ignorance and their overwhelming amount of money to influence the
electorate. You don’t hide behind money and refuse to talk and hire
underlings and not stand up and speak for yourself,” he says. By the
end of a similar speech at a drug-treatment center in Reno, he says,
“Let’s stop hiding. I’m here. Where are you?” The czar is bringing it
on.

Before the new czar was appointed in December, it was the government’s
preference not to address the legalizers. But the pro-pot movement has
gained so much ground they can’t be ignored as a fringe element.
Americans, it turns out, aren’t conflicted in their attitude toward
marijuana. They want it illegal but not really enforced. A Time/cnn
poll last week found that only 34% want pot to be totally legalized
(the percentage has almost doubled since 1986). But a vast majority
have become mellow about official loopholes 80% think it’s O.K. to
dispense pot for medical purposes, and 72% think people caught with it
for recreational use should get off with only a fine. That seeming
paradox has left a huge opening for pro-pot people to exploit. Eight
states allow medical marijuana, and a handful of states have reduced
the sentences for pot smokers to almost nothing.

The midterm election Nov. 5 has lighted up the issue even more. While
control of the House hangs in the balance and the race for the Senate
is a dead heat, the political trend for marijuana is clear support is
gaining. The most interesting battles on the November ballot are over
pot initiatives to allow the city of San Francisco to grow and
distribute medical marijuana, to replace jail with rehab in Ohio and
decriminalize marijuana use in Arizona. Many of these proposals are
relatively modest, but the pro-pot forces are also raising the stakes.
In spite of the electorate’s contentment with the paradox of loose
enforcement, some particularly powerful people on both sides have
taken extreme viewpoints in an effort to end the political stalemate
and force Americans to choose. Either pot is not so bad and should be
legal, or people should be arrested for smoking it. The battlefield
for the showdown is Nevada, where Question 9 would allow adults to
possess up to 3 oz. of pot for personal use. In fact, the state
government would set up a legal market for buying and selling pot. To
almost everyone’s surprise, the race is too close to call.

While the pro-pot forces have pushed their agenda at the polls,
opponents have tried to use legal muscle to fight back. After a
Supreme Court decision last year reiterating that federal drug laws
trumped state ones, the Drug Enforcement Administration sent federal
agents to California to bust medical-marijuana growers, a move that
tended to outrage California voters who had approved this use. In
fact, as the Administration pushes harder against the pro-pot forces,
pot supporters seem to gain ground.

Among the biggest pro-pot players, medical marijuana was actually kind
of a ruse. Sure, there are sick people who really feel they need
marijuana to numb pain, relieve the eye pressure of glaucoma, calm
muscle spasms or get the munchies to help with aids wasting. But they
are not the people who put the debate into high gear. A few years ago,
the Drug Policy Alliance–an organization founded by billionaire
philanthropist Soros, who wants to legalize marijuana and reform drug
laws by replacing jail time with rehab–decided it would fund only
those initiatives that could be won. So the group ran a bunch of polls
to find out how America feels about the drug wars, and the reformers
came up way short on everything but three policies people preferred
treatment over incarceration in some cases, people hated property
forfeiture, and an overwhelming majority felt medical marijuana should
be legal.

So Soros & Co. set out to get medical-marijuana legislation. The fight
has done quite well, especially when, to their surprise, the Federal
Government took the bait and started arresting little old ladies and
storming peaceful pot-growing cooperatives. In fact, the pro-pot
people have done well enough that some of them feel it is time to drop
the ruse and fight for full legalization. Plus, with Britain
experimenting with a “seize and warn” policy instead of arresting pot
smokers and Canada flirting with doing the same, the blunt-friendly
were ready to take off the camouflage and fight. And where else to try
this but in Nevada?

That’s why the czar is in Vegas, sitting in a room at the Venetian
Hotel guarded by U.S. marshals. The czar, a smart, likable, earnest
man who believes he can help Americans by fighting the drug war, is
derided by the opposition as “Bill Bennett’s Mini-Me.” Indeed, he
worked for Bennett under Reagan in the Department of Education and
then as Bennett’s deputy drug czar in the first Bush Administration.
When George W. appointed him, the President told the czar to watch the
movie Traffic as a way to understand the problem. The czar, who told
Time he has never smoked pot, believes marijuana to be not only a
gateway drug but also incredibly detrimental in its own right–causing
driving accidents, domestic violence, health risks and crippling
addiction. He thinks the legalization argument is absurd, especially
when proposed by libertarian Republicans who are so doctrinaire he
finds them to be outside his party. “This is great talk at 2 a.m. in a
dorm room, that all laws should be consistent. But the real world
isn’t consistent. It’s ludicrous to say we have a great deal of
problems from the use of alcohol so we should multiply that with
marijuana,” he says. It doesn’t take long for him to get back to the
three billionaires “It’s unprecedented, the amount of money put in by
such a small amount of people over one issue.”

The marijuana legalizers, including the billionaires Walters vilifies,
don’t have much kinder things to say about him. In fact, for old rich
men, they can sound a lot like Tupac. One of them, Sperling, 81, is
founder of the highly profitable nationwide chain the University of
Phoenix. He has spent $13 million on drug-reform campaigns and lots of
other money on other pet projects, including cloning his cat. “Mr.
Walters is a pathetic drug-war soul who is defending a whole catalog
of horrors he’s indifferent to,” Sperling says from his office in
Phoenix, Ariz. “The government’s drug-reform policy is driven by a
Fundamentalist Christian sense of morality that sees any of these
illegal substances used as evil.” Sperling says he smoked pot to
combat pain associated with the cancer he fought in the 1960s.

Lewis, 68, former ceo of Progressive, an insurance company, doesn’t
despise the czar quite as much, but he has been battling him even
harder. The reasons for Lewis are more straightforward. He has been
referred to by colleagues as a “functional pothead.” He spends half
the year on a $16.5 million, 255-ft. yacht, where he smokes pot
regularly; he even got arrested in New Zealand on drug charges a few
years ago, he told the Plain Dealer. He is one of the main backers of
the radical Nevada proposal, having given heaps of money to the
Marijuana Policy Project, which is running Question 9 there. “The
absurdity of its illegality has been clear to me for some time. I
learned about pot from my kids and realized it was a lot better than
Scotch, and I loved the Scotch. Then I went to my doctor, and he said,
‘I’m thrilled. You’re drinking too much. You’re much better off doing
pot than drinking.'”

Soros (who has smoked pot but no longer does) declined to be
interviewed, and like the rest of the troika, he won’t debate Walters.
They are probably refusing for two reasons 1) they would likely lose,
since none of them are politicians; and 2) if you were going around
the world on a 255-ft. yacht, would you list “Drug Czar” as one of
your ports of call?

So instead they fight federal policy with initiative after initiative,
while also defending local pro-pot laws. Their side got a major media
boost in California in September, when federal agents busted Santa
Cruz’s Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana in an early-morning
raid. The feds dragged the farm’s owners, who were legally growing pot
under California law, to a federal building in San Jose for breaking
federal law and held a paraplegic resident at the farm for hours. “I
opened my eyes to see five federal agents pointing assault rifles at
my head. ‘Get your hands over your head. Get up. Get up.’ I took the
respirator off my face, and I explained to them that I’m paralyzed,”
said Suzanne Pheil, 44, who is disabled by the effects of postpolio
syndrome. Her story was broadcast everywhere, since the pro-pot people
had basically been waiting for her to be harassed, punching every
phone number on their media list minutes after the raid. Pot people,
surprisingly, can move pretty fast when they want to.

The bust couldn’t have gone better for the pot folks. California
attorney general Bill Lockyer fired off an angry letter to DEA chief
Asa Hutchinson, who wrote back saying that federal law allows the feds
to seize pot. “During the Clinton years they didn’t do this,” says
Lockyer. “It disappointed me that they would be using precious
resources to act like a bunch of bullies.” San Jose police chief
William Lansdowne was so annoyed by the raid that he withdrew his
officers from the local dea task force, ending 15 years of close work.
Even Governor Gray Davis, who has been quiet on the marijuana issue,
expressed concern over the feds’ bust. A week after the raid, Santa
Cruz officials gathered at city hall to supervise public distribution
of marijuana to members of the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana
in front of TV crews, a way of giving Washington the finger.

To many Republicans, this looks like bad politics for Bush. “It seems
to me about as far from Compassionate Conservatism as you can get,”
says former Nixon and Reagan aide Lyn Nofziger. “There are an awful
lot of people in their 50s and younger who smoked pot when they were
younger and don’t look on it as something that destroyed their lives.
I think there is a lot more open-mindedness toward pot than there used
to be.”

In Nevada, popular Republican Governor Kenny Guinn refuses to take a
stand on Question 9, the pot-legalization amendment to the state
constitution, saying he’ll go with whatever the people vote for. And
he won’t really have to worry about it for a while, since the
constitutional amendment will go into effect only if Nevadans vote yes
on Nov. 5 and again in 2004. So Guinn may be smart to stay out of the
debate, because the rhetoric from both sides has gone out of control.
The drug czar’s latest commercial, which was actually focus-grouped
with teens and their parents, shows two teens getting stoned in their
father’s study, talking apathetically about a bunch of stuff. One
pulls out a gun from his dad’s drawer, the other asks lazily if it’s
loaded, and the gun-toting teen shrugs and shoots the other kid. “The
suggestion is not to say too many children are being shot in their
dens who are marijuana users,” Walters said. “It’s meant to show that
marijuana alters your ability to use judgment.” In the other camp,
many of the workers lied to voters in the course of gathering
signatures to get Question 9 on the ballot, saying it was a
medical-marijuana proposition, according to several pro-pot Nevadans.
The two camps even fight regularly about how many joints can be made
from 3 oz. of pot, the proposed legal maximum. The pro-pot people
claim 80, while the anti-pot people carry around bags of 250 joints to
illustrate their case. Yes, moms across the state are spending large
parts of their nights rolling parsley and oregano.

The Marijuana Policy Project in Nevada has a chance partly because it
is far better organized than its scattered opposition. The project
made a smart move in hiring Billy Rogers, a Democratic political
consultant from Texas, to run the Nevada campaign. Rogers sends people
door to door daily to target supporters he can call on Election Day
and bus to voting booths. This could make the difference in what the
polls show is an almost evenly split electorate. Rogers’ office is
situated in a Vegas strip mall, just above an Asian massage parlor,
which is right next to a children’s tutoring center, which is all you
need to know to understand why the project is staging this fight in
Nevada. The office looks more like a sorority fund drive than a ’60s
dorm room. Posters drawn by children depict images like a teddy bear
with a heart labeled vote yes on 9. Rogers, wearing a collarless white
shirt, is still at work at 1 a.m., editing a commercial. “In college
we’d sit around and talk about this–that when we grew up we were
going to change these laws. And now we’re doing it,” he says. Rogers,
who says he hasn’t smoked pot in 15 years, doesn’t have a personal
connection to the fight, but it’s pretty easy to get him into a James
Carville mood. When he talks about Walters’ oft repeated claim (an
assertion shared by the National Institute on Drug Abuse) that
marijuana has much higher levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (thc) than it
used to, that, in Walters’ words, “it’s not your father’s marijuana,”
Rogers goes ballistic. “It’s a plant. What–it’s not your father’s
broccoli? Its genetic structure hasn’t changed in 30 years,” he says,
eating steak for a late-night meal. “These guys will say anything. If
I had a billion-dollar budget, I’d say anything to stay in business.”

That’s one of the major conspiracy theories of the pro-legalization
movement–a rant right out of the Eisenhower era, that the government
is keeping pot illegal so it can maintain its giant drug-war
bureaucracy. Its advocates also believe–as put forth directly in the
pro-medical marijuana commercials of billionaire independent New York
gubernatorial candidate Tom Golisano–that politicians are in the
pocket of the pharmaceutical companies, who fear marijuana is such
good medicine that their own products will suffer.

The pro-legalization forces also believe, more convincingly, that the
right wing of the Republican Party connects drug use with sin and
radicalism and the failure of the family. “I’ve known John Walters for
about 10 years, and I don’t think this is about drugs for him,” says
Ethan Nadelmann, head of the Drug Policy Alliance. “John is a
reactionary ideologue. It’s the broader battle about what we tell kids
about life. It’s a vehicle for promoting a tougher, meaner approach to
life and government.” Democratic Congressman Barney Frank of
Massachusetts claims the war on drugs is really a war against the
Other. “Alcohol does more damage in many areas of society than drugs,
particularly marijuana, but we treat marijuana as much worse, and
that’s because it’s associated with the counterculture.”

Some Republicans, however, are ready to legalize medical marijuana.
Texas Congressman Ron Paul, a doctor and onetime Libertarian Party
presidential candidate, has been fighting for medical marijuana. “From
a humanitarian standpoint, people should never be denied this kind of
help,” says Paul. But fellow Republican Hutchinson stands behind the
decision to prosecute. “Why would they want to authorize behavior
under state law that is still a violation of federal law?” he says.
“It endangers a population, to me. It gives the green light on the one
hand and a go-to-jail ticket on the other.”

Among cops and other law enforcers, there are sharp divisions too.
Some, like Joseph D. McNamara, a former San Jose police chief and now
a Hoover Institution fellow, call for an end to the criminalization of
marijuana. “Most of the police officers I hired during the 15 years I
was police chief had tried it,” says McNamara. Like many pot
legalizers, he believes the system, which he says arrests more people
for marijuana than for any other drug, is racist. “Ninety million
Americans have tried marijuana. When you look at who’s going to jail,
it is overwhelmingly disproportionate–it’s Latinos and blacks.” Not
surprisingly, the topic is radioactive in the police profession. Andy
Anderson, who was head of his state’s largest cop organization, the
Nevada Conference of Police and Sheriffs, announced that his board
members unanimously supported the pro-pot initiative so they could
focus on more serious crimes. A few days later, Anderson was forced to
resign. The voice for Nevada cops then became Gary Booker, deputy
district attorney in charge of the vehicular-crimes unit, until he
told members of the press he believed the wild claims of political
extremist Lyndon LaRouche that Soros is pro-legalization because he
bankrolls drug cartels. When talking to Time at the Elks lodge where
he introduced the drug czar, Booker awkwardly tried to explain away
his statement “The word cartel was used, not drug. A cartel is a group
of businessmen who control price, and that’s what we’ve got here.
Three or four guys are controlling the thing.” He too stepped out of
the role of Nevada police spokesman.

The pro-pot people feel that victory–even if it comes not this year
and not in Nevada–is inevitable. Each year there are fewer members of
the pre-boomer generation, who tend not to distinguish between heroin
and pot. In 1983, only 31% of Americans surveyed had tried pot; the
new Time/cnn poll puts the figure at 47%. And though pot use among
teens is down from its ’70s highs, parents sneaking joints when their
kids are asleep is a fresh phenomenon. But the polls show that
Americans still cling to pot’s forbidden status, which is why the
pro-pot people are working so hard. “You would think you would get a
change, but you’re not going to,” says Charles Whitebread, a law
professor at the University of Southern California who has written
extensively on marijuana law. “Even though it did nothing to them, the
fear that it will somehow pollute their children has made some of the
people who used marijuana extremely freely now say, ‘Oh, gee, I
wouldn’t be in favor of the change in the legal status of marijuana.'”
It may be that the major dividing line between the pro- and
anti-legalizers is not party affiliation but parental status. And even
among parents, moms see more against pot than dads.

So, barring another wave of ’60s-like radicalism or a lot more poorly
thought-out co-op busts by the feds, Americans’ complicated feelings
about pot aren’t going to be reconciled overnight. And recent studies
showing that marijuana can have addictive properties, though in a
small percentage of cases, is going to make some parents more nervous
about their kids turning into potheads. While alcohol and cigarettes
may be more dangerous, a lot of parents would rather smell beer on
their kid’s breath than have a 29-year-old living at home, eating
Cheetos and watching SpongeBob.

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

EXTRA CREDIT

Help Get the Nevada Initiative Passed!

Nevadans for Responsible Law Enforcement’s ballot initiative folks are
asking for your help! Folks in Nevada can vote at the polls right now,
as stated at the website http://www.nrle.org/ The results, either way,
will likely depend on less than a thousand votes. Please help by:

(1) Calling everyone you know in Nevada and asking them to vote
now.

(2) If you can, the Las Vegas office needs volunteers to work the get
out the vote phone banks between today and election day. Folks have
driven in to help from as far away as Nebraska, but more volunteers
are still needed. With rooms available nearby with rates as low as $10
per person for three per a room, and good breakfasts as low as 99
cents it does not cost much to stay there and help out. If you are
interested please call Sarah Jaffa, volunteer coordinator for “Yes on
9” at (702) 253-9511 [email protected]

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

ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts, Please
See

Writer’s Resources http://www.mapinc.org/resource/
************************************************************************

TO SUBSCRIBE, DONATE, VOLUNTEER TO HELP, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL SEE
http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm

TO UNSUBSCRIBE SEE http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm

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

Prepared by Richard Lake http://www.mapinc.org/rlake/ Focus Alert
Specialist

Date: Fri, 04 Oct 2002
Subject: #256 Noelle Bush’s Case Highlights Drug War Flaws

Noelle Bush’s Case Highlights Drug War Flaws

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

DrugSense FOCUS Alert # 256 Oct 4, 2002

The continuing sad odyssey of Noelle Bush, the daughter of Florida
Governor Jeb Bush, took another turn earlier this week as a court in
Orlando ruled that the employees of the treatment center she is living
at cannot be forced to testify against her in pending criminal charges
of crack cocaine possession.

It is definitely reasonable to many people that Ms Bush’s time in the
Center for Drug Free Living should be kept from the public eye so as
to better assist her and the professionals there who seek to assist
her in dealing with her drug abuse issues. What is clear to most
everyone is that Noelle Bush’s case highlights the problems associated
with drug prohibition. Since she was forced into treatment by virtue
of her criminal charges last January, she is subject to a solid prison
term should she fail to meet the terms of the drug court. Governor
Bush is thus brought face to face with the reality that prison cells
do nothing to assist drug abusers and so he of course does not want to
see his own daughter subject to such sanctions.

Indeed the situation in Florida prisons is even worse following Bush’s
elimination of state funded in-prison drug treatment this past January
(the legislature later restored 40% of those monies). According to FL
Drug Czar James McDonough, over 80% of Florida’s inmate population of
almost 75,000 (about 60,000) suffer from some form of drug abuse
behavior or habits.

WRITE A LETTER TODAY!

Please consider writing to any of the Florida newspapers and/or the
other newspapers that have carried the recent updates of Noelle’s
story and telling them how you feel about the hypocrisy of protecting
some citizens from jail, while others who have committed equal or
lesser crimes must suffer in jail or prison.

Thanks for your effort and support.

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

***************************************************************************
PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID
(Letter, email messages, etc.)

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 and be motivated to follow suit.

This is _Very_ Important as it is one very effective way of gauging
our impact and effectiveness.

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

***************************************************************************
Following is a list of links to Florida newspapers that have carried
coverage of Noelle’s court case. Unlike many LTEs you need not reference a
specific headline or story. Simply referencing Noelle’s case should be
sufficient to provide proper context to your letter.

The biggest paper in the state(circulation)is the St Petersburg Times
[email protected]

Other major market papers are:
Tampa Tribune: [email protected]
Miami Herald: [email protected]
Orlando Sentinel: [email protected]

Florida Times-Union(Jacksonville): [email protected]
South Florida Sun-Sentinel: [email protected]
Palm Beach Post: [email protected]

Florida Today(Melbourne/SpaceCoast):
http://www.floridatoday.com/forms/services/letters.htm
Bradenton Herald: http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/contact_us/feedback/
Daytona Beach News-Journal: [email protected]

Gainesville Sun: [email protected]
The Ledger(Lakeland): [email protected]
News-Press(Ft Myers): [email protected]

Pensacola News-Journal: [email protected]
Sarasota Herald-Tribune: [email protected]
Tallahassee Democrat: [email protected]
**************************************************************************
EXTRA CREDIT

Please write your local newspapers on this subject as
well.

To find the Letter to the Editor email addresses for your area
newspapers go to http://www.mapinc.org/media.htm Use the “List by
Area” drop down to select and display your area. Then click on
“contact” to obtain the contact information for each newspaper.

***************************************************************************
SAMPLE LETTER
(Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify it
at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous copies of the
same letter and so that the original author receives credit for his/her work.)
Dear Editor:

To the editor:

The Noelle Bush case strongly highlights the hypocrisy and flaws
inherent in Governor Jeb Bush’s drug policies. While it is
appropriate for Noelle to have anonymity in her drug treatment
setting, it is unfortunate that she has access to such protections
while thousands of other non-violent drug offenders rot in jail cages.

This past January, Governor Bush eliminated the entire state funding
for in-prison drug treatment programs (the legislature later restored
about 40% of these monies). With over 80% of Florida jail inmates
having some form of drug abuse problem, most will languish without
needed attention and therefore their chances of recidivism and
continued drug abuse problems will remain upon their release from jail.

It seems that Mr Bush wants it both ways. He harshly slashes drug
treatment options in the prison system but then uses his legal team to
protect his own daughter from such a fate. It seems only right that
he must either allow his daughter to be prosecuted fully or he should
reconsider fully funding in-prison drug treatment for the 60,000
Floridians who lack Noelle’s legal resources.

Or maybe, GASP, Bush could reconsider the entire policy of making
Floridians who have committed no other crime than drug possession be
subject to jail sanctions in the first place.

Respectfully,

Stephen Heath
Clearwater FL

(Always include your address and phone number for newspaper verification.
Most papers will not print your letter otherwise.
***************************************************************************
ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts, Please See:

Writer’s Resources http://www.mapinc.org/resource/
***********************************************************************************************
Prepared by:
Stephen Heath for the Drug Policy Forum of Florida http://www.dpffl.org
Focus Alert Specialist

Date: Wed, 25 Sep 2002
Subject: DEA Destroys 20 Plants In Latest California Raid

DEA Destroys 20 Plants In Latest California Raid

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

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #255 Wed Sep 25, 2002

On Tuesday morning, Sept 23 in San Diego, the DEA conducted yet
another raid on a medical marijuana provider. This time the victim was
Steve McWilliams and his Shelter From the Storm garden, which provides
legal medical marijuana to six patients in the SoCal area. Agents
arrived to seize the plants from his modest garden which had already
been trimmed and the useful medicine distributed.

This action comes on the heels of the Feds previous arrests of
McWilliams for growing in larger quantities and following a warning
last week by letter to McWilliams from the local U.S. Attorney.

Any of the federal raids on legal California medical marijuana
dispensaries are reprehensible, but this latest is likely the most
audacious and heartless move yet by John Ashcroft and Asa Hutchinson’s
agents. With the U.S./Mexico border just miles away providing an
entry point for literally millions of dollars per day in illegal
drugs, the DEA decided to divert agents and valuable resources to
shutting down the Shelter From the Storm garden.

As shown in the article below, this raid is still another direct and
overt attempt by the Feds to punish anyone who might be publicly
critical of U.S. policy.

Additionally, this action took place less than a week following an
extremely strong opinion column in the San Diego Union-Tribune by the
Drug Policy Alliance’s Ethan Nadelmann. In his column, archived at
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v02.n1804.a11.html Nadelmann astutely
and accurately demonstrates why any such raids by federal agents are
foolhardy practice and a sad waste of valuable federal law enforcement
agents.

These DEA actions against medical cannabis users and those who help
them are far from rare, as shown by the list maintained here
http://www.canorml.org/news/fedmmjcases.html

Please contact the San Diego Union-Tribune today and let them know how
you feel about this latest raid. Further, let them know how you feel
about Nadelmann’s column and thank them for their continued coverage
of this very urgent topic.

Thanks for your effort and support.

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

***************************************************************************
PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID
(Letter, email messages, etc.)

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 and be motivated to follow suit.

This is _Very_ Important as it is one very effective way of gauging
our impact and effectiveness.

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

**************************************************************************
CONTACT INFO

Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)

Contact: [email protected]

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

FOLLOWING is the story of the raid from the San Diego Union Tribune
published today, Wednesday, 25 September:

POT GARDEN UPROOTED IN RAID

Federal warrant used to search home of marijuana activists

By Jeff McDonald and Marisa Taylor, Staff Writers

One week after Steve McWilliams handed out medical marijuana outside
San Diego City Hall, drug enforcement agents uprooted his Normal
Heights pot garden and said he may face cultivation charges in federal
court.

The first of its kind ever in San Diego, the raid began at around
11:20 a.m. yesterday when about 10 members of a regional drug
enforcement task force used a federal warrant to search the property.

They confiscated 26 maturing plants – some as tall as 8 feet – and
about 10 pounds of loose marijuana cultivated by McWilliams under a
state law that permits medicinal use of the drug. Officers also carted
away irrigation equipment, fans and other marijuana-growing tools.

No arrests were made. Agents said the decision to bring charges
against McWilliams or his partner, Barbara MacKenzie, would be made by
the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“He claims this is medicine,” said Donald Thornhill Jr. of the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration, which sought the warrant. “From our
perspective, there’s no medical use for this.”

U.S. Attorney Carol Lam said her office is reviewing the case to
decide whether to pursue charges. She declined to comment further.

Medical-marijuana activists across the state contend that the federal
government is cracking down on activists such as McWilliams so that
more people do not attempt to grow marijuana under California’s
Proposition 215.

Thornhill said the seizure had nothing to do with McWilliams’ protest
outside City Hall last Tuesday. “This has been on the agenda for a
while,” he said. “It’s the politics of the time.”

McWilliams had staged his protest to support a similar demonstration
in Santa Cruz, where elected officials joined 1,000 or more people
criticizing the DEA for an earlier raid on a marijuana cooperative
there.

Neither McWilliams nor MacKenzie was home when the narcotics team went
to the Wilson Avenue residence. Agents climbed through an open window
before taking an inventory of the home’s contents.

Television news crews taped the raid as it unfolded, while neighbors
came out of their homes to watch.

McWilliams arrived about 10 minutes later and was told that if he
entered the property he would be detained. He left soon afterward but
not before sharply criticizing the government’s action.

“I don’t know why this is happening,” he said. “I’ve had police
officers out here, probation officers out here, even the city
attorney’s office out here I don’t know how many times.”

The search warrant was executed at the height of the annual harvest.
McWilliams said most of the marijuana seized was not yet useable.

“It might have been 10 pounds with the branches and leaves, but it was
totally unmanicured,” he said.

The action was not entirely a surprise.

McWilliams was hand-delivered a letter from Lam last week warning him
that his plants violated federal drug laws – even though they are
allowed by city and state officials under Proposition 215.

MacKenzie and McWilliams said that over the weekend they trimmed their
plants and delivered marijuana to patients. They said several of the
patients returned the marijuana Monday because they feared reprisals
from the government.

Both marijuana activists have been working closely with local
officials to abide by guidelines being drafted by a city task force.

Those recommendations are scheduled to be debated by a City Council
committee next month.

“I trusted the political process,” said MacKenzie, who was angry after
arriving home to find federal agents searching her home.

“They don’t want to prosecute. They just want to take the
medicine.”

San Diego Councilwoman Toni Atkins, who helped organize the city task
force, called the seizure “unfortunate.”

“It’s a tragedy that the will of the voters of the state of
California, who overwhelmingly passed Proposition 215 in an effort to
help sick people, continues to be subverted,” she said.

The city will push ahead with plans to issue identification cards to
medical-marijuana patients, Atkins said. San Diego attorney Patrick
Dudley is representing McWilliams and MacKenzie for free. Outside the
home yesterday, he said there was little he could do but wait to see
whether his clients are charged.

“I’ve never seen a case with such a small amount (of marijuana),” he
said. “It’s getting ludicrous. They’re being targeted because they’re
speaking out.”

The question now is whether McWilliams will be charged with any crime.
In Santa Cruz, federal prosecutors declined to charge several
activists who were arrested by federal agents earlier this month.

Peter Nunez, San Diego’s U.S. attorney under President Reagan,
predicted that the Justice Department would pursue criminal charges,
especially because McWilliams has refused to back down.

“This guy is begging to be prosecuted,” Nunez said. “I’m sure there
are people who are quietly growing 10 plants in their back yards but
they won’t be prosecuted because they aren’t publicizing the fact.”

Stephen G. Nelson, a former assistant U.S. attorney of 25 years who
headed the office’s drug division, agreed that a prosecution is likely
but said he hoped the U.S. attorney would turn down the case.

“If it’s a small number of plants and they are being grown consistent
with California law, it’s obviously a waste of federal resources to
prosecute this guy,” he said.

McWilliams said medical-marijuana activists are rallying to help him
and are planning protests for today at federal buildings around the
state.

“Everyone knows what kind of place we ran,” he said. “There was no
large amount of patients and no large amount of plants. People are
very upset.”

Copyright 2002 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.

**************************************************************************
EXTRA CREDIT

Every day more stories appear in the press about medical cannabis that
could also make superb targets for Letters to the Editor. Please use
this link to review the articles often, and please, write your letters
http://www.mapinc.org/mmj.htm

To learn about the frequent protests please visit the Americans for
Safe Access website – and consider signing up for their action
announcement list http://www.safeaccessnow.org/

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

SAMPLE LETTER

(Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please
modify it at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive
numerous copies of the same letter and so that the original author
receives credit for his/her work.)

To the editors of the San Diego Union-Tribune:

Thank you for running the astute commentary of Ethan Nadelmann (The
Hospice Raid and The War On Drugs, Sep 19), which accurately decries
continuing federal raids of legal California medical marijuana
dispensaries. How sad and tragic to read less than a week later of
yet another raid, this time on the Shelter From the Storm garden of
Steven McWilliams in San Diego, which provides legal medical marijuana
to a whopping total of six patients. DEA agents stormed McWilliam’s
garden to seize a hand full of plants?

With the U.S./Mexican border just miles away being an entry point for
literally millions of dollars per day in illegal narcotics, the DEA
chose to waste valuable resources and manpower on this petty and
terroristic raid. Considering McWilliams’ history of publicly
criticizing the federal government’s policies on medical marijuana,
such an operation can only be seen as utterly vindictive and yet
another slap in the face to California voters and their law which
permits him to operate legally.

Where are your governor and attorney general? Why are they not on the
front page of every newspaper in the state demanding the end of this
federal harassment and terrorism against your citizens?

Respectfully submitted,

Stephen Heath Clearwater FL (ALWAYS INCLUDE your address and phone
number so the newspaper can verify. Most papers will not print your
letter otherwise.)

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

ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts, Please See:

Writer’s Resources http://www.mapinc.org/resource/

************************************************************************
Prepared by:
Stephen Heath,
Focus Alert Specialist,

Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002
Subject: #250 Telling The Truth About Medical Marijuana Raids

Telling The Truth About Medical Marijuana Raids

——-
PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE
——-

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #250 Wed. September 18, 2002

The outrageous behavior of the DEA has shocked even the mainstream
press. Many newspapers have covered the latest raid of the Wo/Men’s
Alliance for Medical Marijuana (WAMM) in Santa Cruz, and many
reporters seem startled by the brutality and inverted priorities
displayed by the DEA.

An excellent example was published in USA Today this week. The
article, below, starts by describing the shock of a polio sufferer who
was repeatedly ordered to stand up by DEA agents even after they saw
her leg braces and crutches. The article goes on to paint a fair
picture of the club which makes the attempts by the narcs to justify
their raids sound even more absurd.

Please write a letter to USA Today, or other newspapers that have
covered this issue to encourage editors and reporters to keep
reporting the truth about medical marijuana and the vicious actions of
the DEA.

NOTE: USA Today is the largest circulation newspaper in the U.S.Your
letter, if published could be worth _$5,000_ or more in advertising
value!! See the Target Analysis below.

Thanks for your effort and support.

WRITE A LETTER TODAY

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

************************************************************************
PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID
( Letter, Phone, fax etc.)

Please post a copy your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list ([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 with so
others can learn from your efforts and be motivated to follow suit.

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

This is VERY IMPORTANT as it is one very effective way of gauging our
impact and effectiveness.
************************************************************************

CONTACT INFO

Source: USA Today (US)
Contact: [email protected]

Find the email address of any other newspaper you care to send your
letter to at: http://www.mapinc.org/resource/email.htm

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

ARTICLE

Pubdate: Tue, 17 Sep 2002
Source: USA Today (US)
Webpage: http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20020917/4453835s.htm
Copyright: 2002 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nfront.htm
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/466
Author: John Ritter

Pot raid angers state, patients

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — Suzanne Pfeil understands why federal agents
burst in just after dawn with guns drawn and handcuffed her. That’s
routine in drug busts. What she can’t understand is why agents kept
ordering her to stand up after they saw her crutches and leg braces
next to the bed.

Then when her blood pressure spiked and she felt chest pains, the
agents refused to call an ambulance, says Pfeil, 42, disabled by
polio. That she can’t forgive. ”Totally unprofessional,” she says.
”They were brutalizing us.”

Outrage over a Sept. 5 raid at a medical marijuana cooperative in the
coastal hills north of here festers beyond the terminally ill patients
who use marijuana to ease pain, which California law allows.

The raid is the latest, perhaps most controversial collision of
federal law and the nation’s growing medical marijuana movement.

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer condemned the bust as a waste
of law enforcement resources, a cruel step against a group that
presents slight danger to the public and a slap at the state’s voters.
The Santa Cruz County sheriff, whose deputies have worked closely with
co-op managers to ensure that the operation is law-abiding, said he
was ”disappointed” by the raid.

Today, the Santa Cruz City Council will permit the co-op to hand out
marijuana publicly to its patients at City Hall.

”It’s just absolutely loathsome to me that federal money, energy and
staff time would be used to harass people like this,” says Emily
Reilly, Santa Cruz’s vice mayor.

A Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman in San Francisco accused
the council of ”flouting federal law” prohibiting marijuana possession.

In Washington, DEA administrator Asa Hutchinson defends the
raid.

”What the DEA concentrates on is the investigation and prosecution of
major trafficking cases,” Hutchinson says. ”But the DEA’s
responsibility is to enforce our controlled substances laws, and one
of them is marijuana. Someone could stand up and say one of these
marijuana plants is designed for someone who is sick, but under
federal law, there’s no distinction.”

Other states follow

Since California voters approved medical marijuana in 1996, Alaska,
Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington have
enacted similar laws. Federal authorities say no conclusive scientific
evidence proves marijuana’s medicinal benefit, but advocates say a
number of foreign studies do.

”My hope is this bust represents the federal government pushing too
far, the overreach that shocks the conscience of a lot more people,
especially those in Washington who have seemed so callous to date,”
says Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance.
The group promotes alternatives to the drug war, such as treatment
instead of jail for drug offenders.

The DEA has raided eight medical marijuana operations in California,
including one in Sonoma County three days after the Santa Cruz bust.
But Hutchinson denies that California is being targeted. ”It’s one of
the things we’re carrying out all across the country,” he says.

Chris Battle, a DEA spokesman in Washington, says enforcement has been
active in California because the state’s law is loosely worded and
open to abuse.

”California doesn’t say how much you can grow, how much you can have
or what disease you can use it for,” says Allen St. Pierre, executive
director of the NORML Foundation, a pro-marijuana advocacy group.

Laws in Oregon, Washington and Maine specify weight amounts, numbers
of plants that can be possessed and specific diseases marijuana can
treat. Oregon requires a doctor’s recommendation and a photo ID card.
Several bills that would set similar guidelines haven’t been approved
by the California Legislature.

Santa Cruz County sheriff’s deputies closely monitored the co-op that
was raided last week — WAMM, the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical
Marijuana, founded and run by Valerie and Mike Corral. ”Valerie has
been very open and very consistent in what she’s doing up there and
how the marijuana is handled,” sheriff’s spokesman Kim Allyn says.

Valerie Corral is the movement’s ”Mother Teresa,” says Nadelmann of
the Drug Policy Alliance. She served on a task force Lockyer formed to
write guidelines for the Legislature, and her group is seen as a model
nationally.

( snipped – to see the rest of the article go to http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20020917/4453835s.htm
)

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

SAMPLE LETTER

To the Editors:

In Britain, marijuana has been removed from the government’s list of
most-dangerous “Class A” drugs, and possession is no longer an
arrestable offense.

The Canadian Senate has just recommended full legalization and
government regulation of marijuana.

In Portugal, anyone possessing less than ten days’ supply of any
illegal drug is sent to treatment, not jail.

Meanwhile, in the Land of the Free, some 650,000 Americans are
arrested every year for simple possession of marijuana. In the Home of
the Brave, federal DEA agents toting chainsaws and machine guns roust
polio patients from their beds for the “crime” of growing legal
medicinal herbs for other sick and dying patients.

When will we put a stop to this home-grown brand of state-sponsored
terrorism?

Keith Sanders

IMPORTANT: Always include your address and telephone
number

Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify
it at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous
copies of the same letter and so that the original author receives
credit for his/her work.

—————————————————————————-

TARGET ANALYSIS

With a U.S. circulation of over 2.3 million, the readership
demographics are: Total Adult Readers 4.3 million. Male/Female 66/34%.
Median Age 41 years. Attended College 80%. Median HH Income $71, 661.

The average published letter would cost over $5,000 if purchased as an
ad.

The MAP published letter archive has more than 50 letters from USA
Today. A recent sample shows they tend to be short – about 40% being
under 100 words. The average published is 169 words, and the largest
about 300 words.

The published letters can be viewed here:

http://www.mapinc.org/mapcgi/ltedex.pl?SOURCE=USA+Today

—————————————————————————–

TO SUBSCRIBE, DONATE, VOLUNTEER TO HELP, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL SEE
http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm

TO UNSUBSCRIBE SEE http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm

ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing
efforts

3 Tips for Letter Writers http://www.mapinc.org/3tips.htm

Letter Writers Style Guide http://www.mapinc.org/style.htm

****************************************************************************
Please help us help reform. Send drug-related news to [email protected]