cannabisnews.com: NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- April 3, 2003





NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- April 3, 2003
Posted by CN Staff on April 03, 2003 at 20:18:04 PT
Press Release
Source: NORML
Woody Harrelson Joins NORML Advisory Board -- Expected To Speak At 2003 NORML Conference In San FranciscoWashington, DC: Award winning actor and hemp activist Woody Harrelson has joined the NORML Advisory Board and is expected to appear at this year's National NORML Conference in San Francisco, NORML Executive Director Keith Stroup announced today.
This year's conference will be held from April 17-19, 2003 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, and will also feature a special fourth day on Sunday, April 20, that will feature workshops on campus/activist training techniques. Harrelson is anticipated to make a short address to attendees on Saturday, April 19.Stroup praised the addition of Harrelson to the NORML Advisory Board. "For years Woody Harrelson has been a leading voice for the ecological and economic benefits of using hemp as both food and fiber, and as an advocate for stopping the arrest of marijuana smokers," he said. "This gives us the opportunity to work more closely with Woody on projects of mutual interest."Other members of NORML's Advisory Board include singer/songwriter Willie Nelson; comedian Bill Maher; film director Robert Altman; actor and director Dan Stern; documentary film-maker Ron Mann; retired NFL star Mark Stepnoski; travel writer and television host Rick Steves; San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan; Colorado Sheriff Bill Masters; best-selling author Hunter S. Thompson; ACLU President Nadine Strossen; publisher Bill Regardie; and Harvard Medical School Professor (Emeritus) Lester Grinspoon,M.D.Stepnoski, Stern, Steves, Mann, Regardie, Hallinan, Strossen, and Grinspoon are all scheduled to appear at this year's national conference.Conference agenda, speakers list, and registration information are available online, or call Kris Krane at (202) 483-5500 for more information.DL: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5596 Mann's Eco-Doc Wows Festival http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15691.shtmlFilm Documents Woody Harrelson Bus Trip http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15689.shtmlMissouri Voters To Decide Tuesday On City Wide Marijuana InitiativeApril 3, 2003 - Columbia, MO, USAColumbia, MO: Columbia voters will decide Tuesday on a proposal (Proposition 1) to decriminalize the possession of up to 35 grams of marijuana for personal use, and limit the criminal prosecution of medicinal marijuana patients.Proponents of the initiative, The Columbia Alliance for Patients and Education (CAPE) and Missouri NORML, maintain that its passage would benefit students, who under federal law risk losing their student aid if they have a pot conviction. Under the proposal, all minor marijuana infractions would be directed to municipal not state court, and would be punishable by a fine only. Patients qualified by their physician to use marijuana medicinally would face no penalty. Currently, first time possession of 35 grams or less of marijuana is a misdemeanor in Missouri, punishable by up to one year in jail.According to a recent poll of 523 likely voters by the Center for Advanced Social Research at Missouri University, 45 percent of respondents favor the measure and 40 percent who oppose it. Fifteen percent are undecided.NORML Executive Director Keith Stroup praised the initiative effort. "While Proposition 1 does not trump state law, it would enact significant local legal protections for those who use marijuana for medicinal and personal purposes, and will allow hundreds of students who would otherwise lose their financial aid the ability to continue their higher education," he said.Text of the initiative reads as follows:- THE PROPOSED ORDINANCE WOULD GRANT SERIOUSLY ILL CITIZENS THE RIGHT TO POSSESS UP TO 35 GRAMS OF MARIJUANA FOR MEDICINAL PURPOSES UPON THE RECOMMENDATION OF A PHYSICIAN. THE ORDINANCE WOULD PREVENT POLICE FROM SENDING MOST CASES INVOLVING LESS THAN 35 GRAMS OF MARIJUANA TO ANY PROSECUTOR OTHER THAN THE CITY PROSECUTOR. THE CITY PROSECUTOR WOULD BE PREVENTED FROM REFERRING MARIJUANA CASES TO ANOTHER PROSECUTOR OR AGENCY. MUNICIPAL COURT CASES INVOLVING LESS THAN 35 GRAMS OF MARIJUANA WOULD BE PUNISHED ONLY BY FINES. THE MAXIMUM FINES WOULD BE $25 FOR A FIRST OFFENSE, $50 FOR A SECOND OFFENSE, $100 FOR A THIRD OFFENSE AND $500 FOR SUBSEQUENT OFFENSES.Similar ordinances have been enacted in other cities and counties, including Mendocino County, California; Oakland, California; Boulder, Colorado; and Ann Arbor, Michigan.For more information, please contact either Sarah Duff of The Columbia Alliance for Patients and Education at (573) 424-3551 or Dan Viets, Esq. of Missouri NORML at (573) 443-6866.DL: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5595 Federal Official Issues Pot Warning http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15868.shtmlPot Initiative Draws Federal Attention http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15864.shtmlProp 1 Pits Proponents Against Law Enforcement http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15849.shtmlMarijuana Proposition Worries Law Enforcementhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15845.shtmlWhite House Weighs in on Pot Issue http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15835.shtml Feds To Pull Plug On Failing Drugs-And-Terror Ads -- White House Will Also End Study That Found Ads Weren't WorkingApril 3, 2003 - Washington, DC, USAWashington, DC: The White House is pulling the plug on a series of federal anti-drug ads released after September 11, 2001 that allege recreational drug use aids terrorism. The decision comes four months after an internal evaluation of the ads determined that they had failed to discourage viewers from trying marijuana or other drugs, and in some cases fostered "pro-drug" beliefs among teens.NORML Executive Director Keith Stroup called the alleged link between recreational marijuana use and terrorism "a silly attempt by the Drug Czar to demonize marijuana and marijuana smokers," and claimed it undermines the government's efforts to reduce youth drug use. "There is nothing to be gained by exaggerating marijuana's harmfulness," he said. "On the contrary, by overstating marijuana's potential harm, our policy-makers undermine their credibility, and their ability to effectively educate the public of the legitimate harms associated with more dangerous drugs."Stroup added that NORML has generated more than 6,400 letters to Congress and the Drug Czar's office decrying the ad campaign.Last June, Drug Czar John Walters told Congress that the White House's new "drugs-and-terrorism" ads, which had begun airing earlier that year, would show positive results among target audiences within six months. But an evaluation of the ads in November by Westat Inc. and the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania found "no statistically significant ... improvements in beliefs and attitudes about marijuana use between 2000 and the first half of 2002." In addition, reviewers noted that those teens who were more exposed to the ad campaign tended to "move more markedly in a 'pro-drug' direction as they aged than those who were exposed to less."As part of the White House's decision to deep-six the drugs-and-terrorism ads, the Feds also announced that they would cease funding the $8 million bi-annual Westat and Annenberg evaluation that had been critical of the campaign. Westat and Annenberg had produced regular evaluations of the ad campaign for the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) since 1999. Speaking before Congress last year, evaluation co-author Robert Hornick called the negative results among the worst in the history of large-scale public communication campaigns.Stroup called the White House's decision to stop funding the evaluation predictable. "This is standard operating procedure in the government's war on drugs," he said. "Science has never supported the drug war, so the Feds' just do away with the science. This is a case where the White House doesnıt like the results so theyıre shooting the messenger."According to White House Office of National Drug Policy (ONDCP) spokesman Tom Riley, the final series of drugs-and-terrorism ads will run in June. The ads were produced under the banner of the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign, which Congress funds at an estimated $195 million per year.For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup or Paul Armentano of NORML at (202) 483-5500.DL: http://www.norml.org/index.cfm?Group_ID=5594White House To End Controversial Ad Campaignhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15858.shtmlDrug Office to End Ads Linking Drugs, Terrorhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15852.shtmlWhite House To End Drugs & Terror Adshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15846.shtml Source: NORML Foundation (DC)Published: April 3, 2003Copyright: 2003 NORML Contact: norml norml.org Website: http://www.norml.org/NORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- March 27, 2003http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15810.shtmlNORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- March 20, 2003 http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15767.shtmlNORML's Weekly News Bulletin -- March 13, 2003http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15720.shtml
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Comment #2 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on April 04, 2003 at 05:14:17 PT
Road trip!
500 pounds washes ashore in Miami:http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=573&ncid=757&e=3&u=/nm/20030403/od_nm/crime_beach_dc
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on April 03, 2003 at 20:51:50 PT
Frontline: Drug Wars
Hi Everyone,I was looking for news and found this. I looked and I don't think I can get it on our PBS channel but here it is to check out. I copied a few video clips and posted them too.'Frontline' Pursues Ineffective War on DrugsToday on TVBaltimore Sun: http://www.sunspot.net/Originally published Apr 3, 2003In 1968, the federal drug enforcement budget was $60 million. By the end of fiscal year 1999, that budget was more than $17 billion. Yet despite the United States' vast efforts during the past three decades to stop the flow of illegal drugs, the use of heroin, cocaine, marijuana and other illicit drugs remains essentially unchanged. Frontline: Drug Wars (10 p.m.-midnight, MPT, Channels 22 and 67) looks at the history of America's war on drugs from both sides of the battlefield. Part 1 recounts the origins of the anti-drug campaign, from the Nixon administration's drug control efforts to the rapid rise and fall of the Colombian drug cartels. Part 2 airs at 10 p.m. tomorrow. Article: http://www.sunspot.net/features/lifestyle/bal-to.toptv03apr03.storyhttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/video/money.ramhttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/video/parents.ramhttp://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/drugs/video/cartels.ram
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