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  DEA Chief Tough on Medical Marijuana
Posted by FoM on August 20, 2001 at 22:10:23 PT
Cheryl W. Thompson, Washington Post Staff Writer 
Source: Washington Post 

medical The new head of the Drug Enforcement Administration said yesterday that he would enforce the federal ban on medical marijuana, wants to improve the accountability of paid confidential informants and intends to increase technology used in the war on drugs.

Asa Hutchinson, a former Republican congressman from Arkansas, said he wants to "send the right signal" on medical marijuana. Federal law prohibits the sale of marijuana for medicinal purposes.

But several states, including California and Oregon, allow people to grow it, dispense it and use it without fear of prosecution, which is considered a federal responsibility under a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision.

"Currently, it's a violation of federal law," Hutchinson told reporters, who had gathered at DEA headquarters in Arlington for his swearing-in ceremony. "The question is how you address that from an enforcement standpoint.

"You're not going to tolerate a violation of the law, but at the same time there are a lot of different relationships . . . a lot of different aspects that we have to consider as we develop that enforcement policy."

Hutchinson, 50, a former federal prosecutor, takes over a federal agency with 9,000 employees and a $1.5 billion budget. As a congressman, he was a conservative who supported local drug courts, which offer alternatives to prison. He won the support of Republicans and Democrats during his confirmation hearings last month.

Hutchinson was a House manager during the Senate impeachment trial of President Bill Clinton and was considered this year as a possible deputy attorney general. But ties to his alma mater, Bob Jones University, hurt his chances. The school, which awarded Hutchinson a bachelor's degree in 1972 and an honorary law degree in 1999, prohibited interracial dating until March 2000.

Hutchinson said that he wants to improve relationships with international law enforcement agencies to curb drug smuggling, and was encouraged by a decline in the use of cocaine in the United States. Cocaine use has decreased 75 percent in the last 15 years, he said.

Hutchinson also said that he wants to implement a stronger "check and balance" system for the use of confidential informants and other DEA activities. He cited the case of informant Andrew Chambers as the "perfect example" of why such a system is needed.

Chambers worked as a paid DEA confidential informant for 16 years. During that time he wrecked dozens of prosecutions of street-level drug traffickers by giving false testimony, but he received about $1.8 million from the government. He was removed from the DEA payroll in early 2000.

The DEA now has a central registry for informants so the agency knows when the informant is being used by other jurisdictions and where each person has testified, Hutchinson said.

Note: Hutchinson Will Focus on Enforcing Ban, Improving Informant Accountability.

Source: Washington Post (DC)
Author: Cheryl W. Thompson, Washington Post Staff Writer
Published: Tuesday, August 21, 2001; Page A04
Copyright: 2001 The Washington Post Company
Contact: letters@washpost.com
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Related Articles & Web Site:

Medical Marijuana Information Links
http://freedomtoexhale.com/medical.htm

New Drug Enforcement Chief Pledges a Tough Fight
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10675.shtml

DEA Head Says No to Medical Marijuana
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10674.shtml

DEA Shielded Tainted Informant
http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10347.shtml


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Comment #9 posted by FoM on August 21, 2001 at 07:23:42 PT
quietcrusader
If I can find the link I'll do my best to fix it. I'm looking for it now and I'll do my best!

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Comment #8 posted by natural_mystic on August 21, 2001 at 07:06:48 PT
Mixed Signals
"Asa Hutchinson, a former Republican congressman from Arkansas, said he wants to "send the right signal" on medical marijuana."-snip

Send the right signal to whom? To our children? What signal might that be? That jailing and killing sick people for using a natural herbal medicine with recorded medical usage going back thousands of years is laudable?

Oh, wait that's right, that signal isn't intended for the kids, that ones for big pharmaceuticals, oil, tobacco, cotton, and logging...

Thanks Asa, i'm sure you'll fit in just fine at DEA.


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Comment #7 posted by quietcrusader on August 21, 2001 at 02:47:06 PT:

Hey FoM,
Could you fix the links that don't work if you can. Especially the one from the drug library that is "The History of the Marijuana Laws" by a guy named Whitebread. thanx

[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #6 posted by quietcrusader on August 21, 2001 at 02:39:13 PT:

Rebuttal (Part 1)
Rebuttal to “New DEA Chief Opposes Medical Marijuana”

Title: New DEA Chief Opposes Your Inalienable Right to the Use of Your Own Body

Can you say puppet for petro-chemical? Might you suggest marionette for Mellon? Or perhaps dancing doll for Dow? People everywhere in America just do not seem to get the Big Picture. Wake up and smell the exhaust fumes through all the propaganda being fed to you by “supposed” truthful American journalism. And let’s not forget the Anslinger/Hearst shuffle that the government has been dancing to for roughly 64 years. There is a very telling tale on the internet at the following address:

http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/whiteb1.htm/

If your even the slightest bit computer savvy, or know someone who is, I strongly suggest for you, the general pubic, to read it. If not, you can prance along, oblivious to the truth for a bit longer before the rest of the world hits you in the face.

So the latest DEA thief, I mean chief would strive to enforce the federal ban on medical marijuana. Oh yea, I could see that right now. There is only one simple problem. It’s roughly analogous to the Unstoppable Force meets the Immovable Object. “Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Oregon and Washington allow sick people to receive, possess, grow or smoke marijuana for medical purposes without fear of state prosecution”, a recent article from Salon.com states. One sight, which was particularly insightful had this to say:

“All available evidence suggests the medical prohibition of marijuana has no support among the American people. Indeed, public repudiation of the medical prohibition is now nearly universal. Despite two decades of bureaucratic misinformation the American people view the medical prohibition as an irrational outgrowth of misdirected War on Drugs zealotry.”

Also, a recent national poll out of Canada estimated to be accurate to +- 3% states that 47+% of the entire population wants to (now sit down) “ legalise” the private, adult consumption of cannabis.

The beginning of the end of marijuana prohibition is nearer than anyone can realize. All it will take is just one moment of the major media’s time tip the balance. The industries and the “secret elite” in society that pull the American political strings(as well as major media) for the moment prefer the profligately profitable black-market on drugs. Wait one minute here. Were talking about plant substances that are free to the person with a bit of soil, water, and time. It takes one cent to produce an average dose of heroine (So what, maybe I’d even throw in a couple of Big Macs a day out of the tax trough for them to eat). At least they would leave my car stereo alone. Under government sponsored Prohibition II, what is relatively worthless becomes almost as expensive ounce-per-ounce as platinum! Kind bud is $400.00 per ounce in my neighborhood (Or so the nearest 18 year old would tell you), and regular commercial is half that.

The article goes on:

“Hutchinson, a former federal prosecutor who served as a House prosecutor in former President Clinton's impeachment trial, said the scientific and medical communities have thus far determined there is no legitimate medical use for marijuana.”

This is quite arguable if you happen to read on the subject today publications widely available on the internet which suggest otherwise. Much suggestive reading can be found including:

http://www.newscientist.com/hottopics/marijuana/news.jsp

http://www.medmjscience.org/Pages/reports/jyp1.bhtml The last paragraph reads, “The administrative law judge recommends that the Administrator conclude that the marijuana plant considered as a whole has a currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States, that there is no lack of accepted safety for use of it under medical supervision and that it may lawfully be transferred from Schedule I to Schedule II. The judge recommends that the Administrator transfer marijuana from Schedule I to Schedule II.”


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Comment #5 posted by quietcrusader on August 21, 2001 at 02:36:19 PT:

Rebuttal (Part 2)
http://www.fcda.org/judge.young.htm

This site flatly states, “ Nearly all medicines have toxic, potentially lethal effects. But marijuana (cannabis) is not such a substance. There is no record in the extensive medical literature describing a proven, documented cannabis-induced fatality.”

http://www.marijuana-as-medicine.org/overview_iii.htm#Medical Prohibition Under

One gem from this site is this paragraph:

” A more recent polling of physicians was conducted in 1991 by Harvard University's J.F.K. School of Public Policy. More than 2,000 cancer specialists were surveyed about their attitudes towards marijuana's medical utility. An astonishing 89% of those physicians with an opinion said marijuana is an effective antiemetic treatment.” Sounds like it has a medical use to me.

Another is:

“The first reliable polling information on this question appeared in the late 1970s from surveys conducted in Pennsylvania and Nebraska. Both polls disclosed more than 80% of those randomly questioned favored marijuana's prescriptive medical availability. A very sizable majority of all those questioned -- whether segmented by age, party identification, religion, education or income -- supported marijuana's medical use. Both polls, conducted by different polling organizations, found opposition to marijuana's medical use was limited to a scant 12% of the population.”

I really could go on and on. But somehow I know there are people out there that would be able to read all of the valuable, insightful information that I just shared with you(if you can do the minimum of the one-finger plink on a keyboard) and still believe that hell is nigh on the end of a passing joint. Well, at least maybe 12% of you.
So, in closing, I would like to emphasis the petty size of the minority that pull the puppet strings in Washington, and appeal to the good sense of people everywhere; and for them to take the opportunity to call, write, AND e-mail your reps to tell them were here to pull a few strings of our own. However, if you choose to just stick your head continually up your butt and not take the time to read this stuff (if you haven’t already), you can just keep your nose to the global-warming grindstone until one day you see it on your electric bill. Of course, you could conceivably find , give or take , 12% of the population that would support fascism, or totalitarianism. Just remember that the whole world is against you, and that you WILL ultimately face up to the reality that surrounds us everywhere, even here in Amerika.




[ Post Comment ]
 
Comment #4 posted by Digit on August 20, 2001 at 23:01:45 PT:

check and balance
i hope this check and balance thing is done independantly, recieving no "funding" from government agencies or fromits co-conspirators.

my bet is, it will be another gimick to give the appearance of a corruption free enforcement agency and administration.

Digit.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #3 posted by Digit on August 20, 2001 at 22:57:12 PT:

stop sending the "right signal" MORONS!
Shoot first, think never. thats the method of the law enforcement agencies and those that make the laws.

increased technology where?????????
why not increase the technology to find out the truth if you still don't believe us, you morons!!!!!!! grrrrr

some day i'm gonna invent a nuke that kills all republicans and the like, and only them, as they have no productive roll in society.

Digit.

[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #2 posted by dddd on August 20, 2001 at 22:52:32 PT
Does anyone know
..where this Andrew Chambers creep is now?Is he
behind bars?Did he get to keep our 1.8 million dollars?


dddd


[ Post Comment ]

 
Comment #1 posted by The GCW on August 20, 2001 at 22:41:17 PT
Is this an illustration?
"was considered this year as a possible deputy attorney general. But ties to his alma mater, Bob Jones University, hurt his chances."

But as a Bob Jones type racial mentality is not good enough for attorney general,

BUT, IT IS JUST FINE FOR THE RACIAL WAR, which is the war for profit, which is the war on some drugs, which is the war on citizens, which is the war on freedom & liberty, which is the war on,,,



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