Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 17:02:01 -0700
Subject:NV: State At Front Line In Pot Debate Up TOC

Newshawk: Krissy www.mpp.org
Pubdate: Tue, 23 Jul 2002
Source: Las Vegas Sun (NV)
Webpage: www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-gov/2002/jul/23/513752229.html
Copyright: 2002 Las Vegas Sun, Inc
Contact: letters@lasvegassun.com
Website: http://www.lasvegassun.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/234
Author: Ed Koch
Cited: Marijuana Policy Project (www.mpp.org)

STATE AT FRONT LINE IN POT DEBATE

Nevada Could Become 'Nation's Marketplace For Marijuana

Nevada is shaping up as a national battleground in the war to make
possession of small amounts of marijuana legal.

The Marijuana Policy Project, a Washington-based group that advocates the
decriminalization of marijuana, collected enough signatures to put an
initiative to legalize possession of less than three ounces of pot on the
fall ballot.

As Secretary of State Dean Heller held televised forums Monday and today to
come up with the language for the question, White House drug czar John
Walters prepared to step into the fray Wednesday with a visit to Las Vegas.

"If the measure passes here, Director Walters feels that it will make
Nevada the nation's marketplace for marijuana," Walters' spokesman Tom
Riley said. "So this is not just a state issue, but one of national
importance."

Walters is speaking to 3,000 law enforcement officers attending the
national DARE conference this week at the Las Vegas Hilton. His visit is
primarily to promote President Bush's National Drug Control Policy
Strategy, which calls for a 10 percent reduction in drug use over two years
and 25 percent over five years.

Walters will also address the implications of Nevada's marijuana ballot
question at a news conference Wednesday, and he would have come to Nevada
just to address the issue, Riley said.

Billy Rogers, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, said opponents
are full of "a lot of hot air" in criticizing the petition.

"Nevadans are independent and are sick and tired of the federal government
stepping in and telling them what to do and how to vote on Nevada laws,"
Rogers said.

Rogers said there are safeguards in place because the marijuana measure
also calls for strict penalties for people who smoke marijuana in public,
sell pot to minors or drive under the influence.

"The public is pretty smart. It knows the difference between marijuana and
hard drugs," he said. "And those who say our ballot question is aimed at
opening the floodgates to legalizing all drugs are telling outright lies."

Clark County District Attorney Stewart Bell said he agrees that Nevadans
are independent, but he said they also are aware of potentially dangerous
ideas.

Bell said he would hope Walters' message in Las Vegas this week "will make
it clear that the use of marijuana can lead to serious consequences that
people should consider before (supporting those) giving its use credence."

Walters will hold a news conference Wednesday after visiting with drug
treatment specialists and officials of the Drug Court program, which offers
treatment options for minor offenders.

At Monday night's forum in Reno, meanwhile, proponents of the state's
marijuana initiative had the stage nearly all to themselves. Heller said he
invited the Washoe County district attorney to send a representative, but
no one from the office appeared.

Most of the callers to the hourlong program agreed, voicing their approval
of the plan that would also allow the state to open a system of shops to
sell small amounts of marijuana.

Rogers said scientific evidence shows marijuana is not a "gateway drug"
that leads to heroin and cocaine. He said his organization is not in favor
of legalizing all drugs, and that it is concerned only with marijuana.
Rogers said marijuana is less harmful than cigarettes to a person's health,
and that studies show only a small percentage of pot users become addicted.
"It is one of the least addictive drugs," he said.

Employers, Rogers said, would still be able to conduct random drug tests
and make their own decisions on whether to retain or dismiss workers who
test positive.

Rogers said decriminalizing small amounts of pot would free up the police
to concentrate on serious crimes.

Only one opponent of the initiative showed up Monday. Betty Kruk of Carson
City said she signed the petition but only because she thought it was for
medical marijuana. She said she approves of medical marijuana but not
recreational use of the drug.

Changes in state law made Nevada fertile ground for the war to
decriminalize pot, said Rogers, who also serves as spokesman for Nevadans
for Responsible Law Enforcement.

Voters twice passed a ballot initiative to make medical use of marijuana
legal, and in the last Legislature the law was changed to make possessing
less than one ounce of pot a misdemeanor, instead of a felony. Before that
action Nevada had one of the strictest marijuana laws in the nation.

"Because of the action at the last Legislature we believe Nevada's citizens
and legislators do not want to not waste tax dollars arresting and
prosecuting people for small amounts of marijuana," Rogers said.

The current ballot question would change Nevada's constitution to allow a
person to possess up to three ounces of marijuana and not be charged with a
crime.

The question must be approved in November and again in 2004 to become law.

Rogers said nationwide, 750,000 arrests were made for marijuana possession
in 2000, with each arrest taking four to eight hours in booking and court time.

Bell disagreed, saying "these cases are not clogging the system. A number
of them go to Drug Court and others are settled with the payments.
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Beth
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 12:40:22 -0700
Subject:Canada: U.S. pot users seem unlikely to get asylum Up TOC

Wednesday, July 24, 2002

U.S. pot users seem unlikely to get asylum

Kim Lunman
Globe and Mail

OTTAWA -- Pot-smoking political asylum seekers from the United States are 
unlikely to receive refugee status in Canada, immigration experts said 
yesterday.

At least three Americans living in British Columbia are arguing that they 
have been persecuted in their homeland because of their attempts to grow, 
cultivate, or use marijuana for medical purposes.

But, despite a long history of Canada accepting U.S. fugitives, such as 
British loyalists and draft dodgers, today's marijuana fugitives will have 
a tough time finding a welcome north of the border.

As many as 90 Americans claim asylum in Canada each year, among them are a 
number who are fleeing prosecution rather than persecution.

But no U.S. citizen has ever been granted refugee status in Canada -- the 
two cases that were initially successful were overturned on appeal -- and 
the cannabis cases are unlikely to make a breakthrough, said Raoul 
Boulakia, president of the Refugee Lawyers' Association of Ontario.

"I would be really surprised," he said. "The refugee board members aren't 
likely to be that radical. No one from the U.S. has ever been successful in 
Canada."

The marijuana users seeking refugee status in Canada are three 
Californians, Steve Kubby, Ken Hayes and Renee Boje. They were embroiled in 
high-profile court cases in the U.S. and have made persecution allegations 
as a result. All three are fighting extradition orders from the U.S. to be 
tried on drug charges.

There have been reports that hundreds of U.S. citizens have moved to Canada 
in recent months, after U.S. Attorney-General John Ashcroft ordered law 
enforcement officials to clamp down on medicinal marijuana clubs.

Janet Dench, executive director of the Canadian Council for Refugees, said 
she doubts the persecution claims will be successful.


------------------------------
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 12:41:24 -0700
Subject:Canada: U.S. pot users seem unlikely to get asylum Up TOC

Wednesday, July 24, 2002

The grass is greener

EDITORIAL
Globe and Mail

When Canada accepted the medical use of marijuana for pain relief last 
summer, it made no friend of the U.S. government. The Bush administration 
views any relaxation of the war against drugs, even for medicinal purposes, 
as anathema, and was already unhappy over the amount of marijuana being 
smuggled into the U.S. from this country.

Canada went ahead anyway, believing it could restrict the availability of 
legal marijuana to those in real pain. But even benign actions have 
consequences, and one of them made the news this week: a threatened influx 
of Americans who want the freedom to smoke marijuana without being hauled 
off to jail. At least three Americans living in British Columbia have 
claimed refugee status, arguing that denying them cannabis amounts to 
political persecution under the Geneva Conventions.

It's hard to buy that claim. However worthy their argument that cannabis is 
medicine, Americans are not being jailed for holding their opinions, but 
for acting on them against U.S. law, a law that applies to everyone. It's a 
slippery climb from there to the threshold of cruel and unusual punishment 
under the Geneva rules.

But the episode emphasizes the trickiness of setting an independent course 
in so controversial an area. Justice Minister Martin Cauchon was right to 
suggest recently that Canada should decriminalize the simple possession of 
marijuana, to remove the criminal record that attaches to so many Canadians 
for a relatively minor offence. At the same time, such a move would upset 
the Bush administration, which made its feelings clear earlier this year. 
Told that judges and politicians in Washington State were thinking of 
easing up on people convicted of marijuana possession, the policy director 
of the Office of National Drug Control responded: "I regret to hear that. . 
. . I will tell you that during this administration we are not going to 
give up."

What are Canadians in for? At the very least, from the U.S. side, tougher 
border controls to keep Canadian marijuana at bay. From our side, the 
prospect of receiving, or fighting back, waves of Americans who see this 
country as a medical sanctuary or, if decriminalization comes, a safer 
place to smoke dope. Trying to do the right thing can be very complicated.

Contact: letters@globeandmail.ca

globeandmail.ca


------------------------------
Date: Wed, 24 Jul 2002 18:13:37 -0700
Subject: CA: Marijuana? In San Francisco? Just Say Grow

Newshawk: MCAGiraffe
Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jul 2002
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Webpage:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2002/07/24/MN244090.DTL
Copyright: 2002 Hearst Communications Inc.
Contact: letters@sfchronicle.com
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/388
Author: Rob Morse
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?115 (Cannabis - California)

MARIJUANA? IN SAN FRANCISCO? JUST SAY GROW

Ah, San Francisco. The city can't provide potties, but it can provide pot.

Frustrated by federal resistance to medical marijuana, Supervisor Mark Leno
wants San Francisco to go into the business of growing its own marijuana in
empty city lots.

This raises several questions:

How much will the city have to spend on chain-link fence and armed guards to
protect its crop? Why not use eminent domain to take over all the existing
pot patches? If the city grows its own pot, will it be better or worse than
the stuff already available?

Who's going to give up Acapulco Gold for San Francisco Brown?

Planting marijuana in empty lots beats the mayor's idea of planting
high-rises -- a better kind of high. And if San Francisco can become a
drug-exporting nation, the city won't have to raise taxes. Medical marijuana
is just the thing to treat Nasdaq panic attacks, Dow Syndrome and
portfoliophobia.

Just say grow.

Union Square reopens Thursday, and this space that had gone to pot (in the
nonmedicinal sense) is looking very sharp. The large expanse of green and
tan granite makes it look like a postmodern St. Mark's Square.

The polished curved granite at each corner of the square makes the space
inviting to the public, but it'll probably be inviting the shopping-cart
brigades and kids with skateboards, too. As in Yerba Buena Gardens, all
wheeled vehicles except wheelchairs eventually may be banned.

Linda Mjellem of the Union Square Association says skateboarders will be
repelled from the many granite steps by handrails -- so many it looks like
the city is raising handrails as a cash crop.

"I don't think there are many challenges for skateboarders here -- other
than the challenge of being asked not to skateboard," said Mjellem. But
isn't that the main challenge?

Heard on a documentary on the X-Games: Some skateboarder says, "The only
degree I have is a master's in anger management."

That's what I'd like to get because of all the crooks with masters in
business management.

What's underneath a chocolate model of Union Square? What else? A delicious
parking garage for candy. Otto Eckstein, executive pastry chef at the Pan
Pacific Hotel, has put his 50 years experience in sweets into providing
guests with these models, complete with the Dewey monument, Alma Spreckels
and little palm trees. No pigeons.

In other food news: The great Fleur de Lys restaurant will be reopening the
first week of August, 11 months after it was shut down because of a fire.
Welcome back, Hubert Keller, Chantal Keller and Maurice Rouas.

It's odd how mean people can be on the Internet. Soon after the fire,
someone posted a message on the Web saying he had been dining at Fleur de
Lys when the fire broke out and management charged him for his dinner
anyway. Never mind that the fire started at 5 a.m. The Kellers managed to
get the posting taken down. Congratulations on getting the restaurant back
up.

Other cash crops: Jeff Mauk says he called DPW last week to report a pile of
more than 100 liquor bottles on the corner of Buchanan and Grove streets.
DPW informed him that the empties couldn't be removed because they were a
"memorial shrine."

"This intersection must have a couple of these 'shrines' a month," says
Mauk. "The following day when there was broken glass all over the street, I
started to wonder exactly when does a shrine mysteriously convert to trash
status?"

The whole city is a shrine, Jeff.

A missing cow can't be put on milk cartons, so the organizers of the Sonoma
"COWS!" public arts program are looking for help from the media. If you see
a cow painted with brown hillsides and clumps of oaks with blue skies, it's
Yayoi West's "Above Sonoma," one of 30 painted cows intended to be auctioned
on Aug. 4.

"In actual fact, there is a detective handling this rather large case," says
Norman Gilroy of the COWS! program.

The cow was taken from Tallgrass Ranch on Highway 121, probably as a prank.
Anyone with information should call Detective Dave Iverson at (707)
565-2185.

Got cow?
__________________________________________________________________________
Distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Doc-Hawk
------------------------------
End of Restore-Digest V2002 #145
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