Socially Acceptable

SOCIALLY ACCEPTABLE I'D LIKE to express my heartfelt condolences to anybody who has lost a loved one as the result of the illegal drug operations and their products in this great country. That being said, I'm not sure that putting the hammer down on cannabis production and use is going to ensure that lives will be saved as a result. Marijuana, although illegal ( unless you have a prescription ), is the most widely used and socially acceptable contraband on the market. It doesn't matter how much more it is policed, it will still continue to be available and people will still use it. I think harsher penalties for production will mean that the only people left growing and selling it will be the ones with the most disdain for the law. Carl Tory ( It's always a controversial topic. )





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Premier Announces Crystal Meth Funding

PREMIER ANNOUNCES CRYSTAL METH FUNDING Premier Gordon Campbell brought his chequebook to the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention Thursday, announcing $7 million in new funds to combat crystal meth addiction, and a boost to provincial grants for small rural communities. Calling meth a "dirty, filthy drug" that permanently wrecks people's lives and health, Campbell told a capacity crowd of civic politicians that $2 million of the money will go directly to municipalities to support their own programs, patterned after successful initiatives like the "meth-kickers" program in Kamloops. Another $1 million is to fund an awareness program in schools, and $3 million will be spent on TV and other advertising to get the warning message out about the dangers of the drug. Municipal leaders gave the premier a standing ovation at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre, but after the speech NDP leader Carole James scoffed at the treatment funding and local grants that amount to $10,000 in one-time "seed money" for local anti-meth groups. James said parents of addicted youth are already working on the problem with their own resources. "Now for them to hear the little amount of money, $10,000 for each community, only $2 million for addiction services for detox beds, I think it's an insult to the people who've been working hard in communities to address this problem," James said. Asked about the criticism, Campbell said the government can't just "throw money out and see if it works," but there is more to come once effective strategies are identified. "This is part of what we intend to do, it's not all of what we intend to do," Campbell said, adding that new legislation to control the ingredients for meth manufacturing is also being studied. Campbell received his loudest applause from civic leaders for a promise to double unconditional grants for small communities and regional districts, starting in next year's B.C. budget. He did not specify how many years it would take to increase the fund from $27 million to $54 million. The premier also had a warm reception to his announcement that the province will donate land for a new "municipal house" to showcase B.C. communities in Victoria. Campbell congratulated the UBCM on its 100th anniversary, and for putting municipal issues on the federal map. Prime Minister Paul Martin was scheduled to take over the premier's usual Friday morning keynote speech to announce his "new deal for cities" initiative, returning fuel tax revenues directly to municipalities. "For 635 million bucks, I'll move back to Monday if you want me to," Campbell quipped.







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US WA: Pot Production On The Rise

POT PRODUCTION ON THE RISE Border Crackdowns And Increased Enforcement In Other States Make Remote Spots Of Washington Ideal For Growing Marijuana. ENTIAT - Wary eyes search for rattlesnakes in the desert grasses covering the dry hills. The scorched remains of pine trees from an old wildfire loom overhead. Then, hidden beneath a thicket of brush, bright green plants stand out. In terraced dirt, nurtured by an elaborate irrigation system, 465 marijuana plants are tucked away, obscured by the winding branches of vine maple and brush. It's a remote area of north central Washington's Wenatchee National Forest bordering the Entiat Wildlife Refuge to the south and an apple orchard to the east. It's also a small plot. Law enforcement officials have seized thousands of plants in the state in recent months, forcing them to abandon their ongoing battle against methamphetamine for days at a time. Some blame the post-Sept. 11 border crackdown that slowed the flow of marijuana from western Canada. Others say increasing enforcement efforts in California and Oregon are pushing pot production by Mexican nationals north. Regardless, the gardens, as those who hunt the plants call them, are proliferating in counties where huge tracts of open space stretch law enforcement resources thin. Chelan County, home to the largest number of busts this year with about 35,000 plants confiscated, covers nearly 3,000 square miles - 80 percent of it forested federal land. "This is reality. A marijuana plant averages about 6 feet tall in its maturity. We're not going to be able to find it all," said Mike Harum, Chelan County sheriff. "We've done as much as we can financially - our staff and our helicopters - to do the best we can. We need help from the federal government, state government." Federal officials have recognized the increase in activity. The U.S. Department of Justice noted in July that Mexican drug traffickers were expanding their areas of operation, with continued growth expected in isolated areas of Idaho, Oregon and Washington. In particular, federal officials warned local police that central Washington's I-90 corridor on the east slope of the Cascade Mountains was a growing drug route. The numbers bear that out. In 2004, law enforcement officials confiscated a record 133,936 marijuana plants, pushing the state to No. 5 nationally in the number of domestic plants seized. The largest, a field of more than 60,000 plants on the Yakama Indian Reservation, was traced to organized crime in Mexico. Valued at more than $35 million, the grow remains one of the largest busts in the nation. So far this year, police have confiscated more than 82,000 plants entering the fall season, when wandering hikers and hunters are likely to stumble onto the fields and report them to police.













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Seven in 10 Scots Teens Try Dope

SEVEN IN 10 SCOTS TEENS TRY DOPE SEVEN out of ten 14-year-olds have tried cannabis at least once. Research by drug workers has also revealed half of all teenagers claim they are regular users of the drug. Drug support groups including Crew 2000, Streetworks and the Edinburgh Drug and Alcohol Project were involved in the research exposing the widespread availability of hash. One source involved in the research said: "Teenagers don't see it as being a drug partly due to the debate about its medicinal qualities and the relaxation of cannabis laws. Seventy per cent of youngsters have tried it at least once." Tom Wood, chairman of Edinburgh's Drug and Alcohol Action Team and former deputy chief constable of Lothian and Borders police, said: "It's a very worrying figure but it confirms our information that use of cannabis is widespread among teenagers." "One of the problems is that many young people don't see cannabis as a dangerous drug. We have a lot of work to do."













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US MA: Column: Drug Problem Hides Among the Mundane

DRUG PROBLEM HIDES AMONG THE MUNDANE We've got numbers. We just don't have statistics. "It's right under your nose, but you can't see it," said State Police Lt. Dennis Brooks. As leader of the Middlesex District Attorney's office special investigations unit, he's trained to notice drug deals going down. He's also trained to notice shifts in drug use. He can tell you how many methamphetamine labs have been discovered in the region this year. Three. One in Lowell, one in Everett, one in Chelmsford. He can tell you "New England is the number one region for heroin addicts" and "the traditional cocaine and heroin routes are clearly entrenched here." He can tell you "most of your heroin addicts out there are 18 to 25." And he can tell you "it's just sad to see a whole new generation of addicts." But drug dealers don't release quarterly sales reports, police don't know about every user, and hospitals don't have to report all overdoses to police. That makes it hard to see the big picture. What's out there? What's changed in the past year or two, since we first noticed our suburban high schoolers turning to heroin because it was cheap and easy to get? "The biggest things right now are Ecstacy and Oxy( Contin )," said Bill Phillips, president of New Beginnings, a Framingham-based "comprehensive wellness education initiative for schools, parents and the community." "Things go in cycles," said Phillips. When parents, police and school officials take the heroin threat seriously, "heroin goes down" but cocaine use goes up. Alcohol and pot are a constant. "Kids don't think beer and pot are dangerous," said Phillips. Then there are "over-the-counter drugs, Coricidin, cough medicines." Kids "go in there, get a bottle of NyQuil, chug it down. Kids are chewing five or six ( Coricidin pills ) and buzzing their brains out." Even alcohol-heavy vanilla extract can be used as a drug. "Kids chug it down and it smells like they've had the best breath mint in the world." But how can you measure how much vanilla extract is going into cakes and how much is going into kids' mouths nationwide? Local cops can tell you what's on the streets. "We see a lot of crack," said Marlborough Detective Sgt. Stephen McCurley. "It's gone back from powder cocaine to crack." Heroin use has also increased, "which has a huge effect on crime in the city," he said. Crack and heroin addicts need money to feed their habit, bringing more burglaries and armed robberies. In Ashland, "what's mainly used here is marijuana and cocaine," said Police Chief Roy Melnick. "We still see some marijuana, some cocaine, crack, some heroin," said Milford Chief Thomas O'Loughlin. But if there's a trend in Milford, it's less marijuana and "more of the harder drugs," he said, and they're "very inexpensive and much more potent." Down the road, "our guys are coming in with a lot of marijuana arrests," said Franklin Deputy Police Chief Stephan Semerjian. "Marijuana and alcohol." "Marijuana, in the past, it was get the giggles, get a Number 2 Meal at McDonald's," said Phillips, the Framingham counselor. Now, "it's psychoactive. It's a higher grade of marijuana." "Marijuana is the most frequent drug found" by police in Sudbury, said Detective Sgt. John Harris. Framingham and Blackstone police both said there's heroin, marijuana and cocaine around. "We'd be sticking our head in the sand if we said it isn't around here," said Holliston Chief James Peterson. "The sad reality is anything you want is available," said Franklin's Semerjian. "You go to any barroom in America and someone will hook you up," said Brooks. So what's the answer? Like the figures on drugs, there isn't one. There are many. Brooks likes Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey's proposal to require hospitals to report all overdoses to the state, "so we can get a true picture of what's going on." Phillips would like more education and support programs. "The whole thing is prevention and education," he said. "It takes everyone" to fight drugs, said Brooks. It takes parents. It takes police. It takes programs in schools and laws on the books that make it tougher on drug dealers and easier for those who sincerely want help. But the first step in the fight is to realize how big the problem is. Every addiction "affects nine or 10 people in the family," said Brooks. Add in the crime victims. That adds up to a pretty big problem indeed.












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Stemming the Meth Epidemic

STEMMING THE METH EPIDEMIC MAT-SU - The escalation of methamphetamine production throughout the Valley has become such a serious problem that the Mat-Su Drug Enforcement Team has made busting clandestine labs its number-one priority. The problem has become so bad, according to U.S. Attorney Timothy Burgess, that police agencies in the Valley have uncovered more methamphetamine labs this year than they found during all of 2004. In an attempt to address the growing problem, the Mat-Su Borough Assembly is asking voters to go to the polls Tuesday and pass Proposition No. 6, which would grant to the borough limited health and social service powers. If voters approve the proposition, the borough would be able to enforce a borough code, passed Aug. 2, requiring cold and allergy medicines containing pseudoephedrine to be sold from behind the counter, in limited quantities. Local law enforcement officials believe the laws will result in a notable decrease in the production and use of meth locally. "The way I look at it is that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure," Houston Police Chief John Rhyshek said Tuesday. "I support any action that inhibits access to precursors for the development of meth. It will definitely put a monkey wrench in the thinking of those who manufacture and use meth." Investigator Mike Ingram with the Alaska State Troopers Drug Unit on Tuesday said national statistics show a dramatic decline in production and the total number of labs, in particular the small mom-and-pop labs that are the primary mode of operation for labs in the Valley. Ingram also said other crimes related to meth use might also see a decrease. "Sex-related crimes should go down," Ingram said. "Meth increases your libido and is involved in a number of the rape and sexual-assault cases reported. "The number of thefts and burglaries should also go down as access to the drug is reduced. A large number of users are those who are committing the associated property crimes." The law adopted by the borough is similar to one in effect in Kansas, Oklahoma and Iowa, where it has been successful in decreasing the number of meth labs and occurrences of related crimes. "The program is working quite well," said T.J. Ciaffone, response unit chief with the Kansas Meth Watch Program. "The communities that are action-oriented have seen the number of meth-related crimes drop drastically. The number of users and manufacturing operations has been going down since the limits have been put in place." The greatest success of the limitations on the sale of pseudoephedrine, according to Ciaffone, has been seen in Kansas' rural counties. Rice County has had the best results, an 80-percent reduction in meth-related crimes and a 50-percent reduction in labs in operation. Overall, Kansas has seen a decrease of 263 manufacturing labs since enacting the limitation in 2001, with the total number of lab seizures being reduced from 846 in 2001 to 583 last year. "We're really starting to see tangible results," Ciaffone said. "We are seeing the success that was hoped for when the limits on the precursor medicines" were passed. Similar laws have succeeded in the other states. Oklahoma, which enacted a Meth Watch program and placed limits on cold medicine purchases, recorded a drop from 427 labs seized in 2004, to 69 to date this year. Iowa, one of the first states to adopt a law limiting cold medicine purchases, has seen a 75-percent reduction in the number of clandestine meth labs, down from 478 in 2004 to 120 this year. Rhyshek said limiting the access to cold medicines won't bring an end to the meth problem. "A criminal is a criminal is a criminal. People who are determined will find a way around this," he said. "They will travel to Anchorage and possibly look to other criminal endeavors to get a hold of the medicines. They said no one would ever break out of Alcatraz, so I hope people don't view this as the final solution to the problem."












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Meth: It's Still a Problem

METH: IT'S STILL A PROBLEM BENTONVILLE -- Methamphetamine has a hold on Benton County area officials are hoping to shake. The addictive drug costs Benton County employers $21.1 million a year, residents $500 each in taxes and children their parents. Benton County law enforcement officials raided more than 30 meth labs in 2004 and 11 as of August, according to Benton County Sheriff Office figures. "It has impacted the area and it's going to continue," Benton County Sheriff Keith Ferguson said of meth while seated in a chair at Decision Point-Bates Campus. Area law officers, government officials, prosecutors and chamber of commerce representatives met Friday to hear a Benton County proclamation naming October as Methamphetamine Awareness and Prevention Month. Methamphetamine abuse rates second to alcohol in the state for treatment admission, according to the proclamation. The proclamation, signed by Benton County Judge Gary Black, challenges residents to fight against the drug. Increasing law enforcement efforts isn't enough, although the sheriff's department will soon have eight officers whose main concern will be combating drugs in Benton County. A new state law limiting access to cold medicine has had an effect on decreasing meth labs in Arkansas, but the amount of available drugs increases because meth is being imported to the state, said Bob Balfe, U.S. Attorney for the Western District. "There's not one answer to this," he said. To take a stand against meth, Benton County employers need to have prevention programs in the work place, he said. Drug testing can prevent an employee from using drugs or plant the thought not to do it because of fear of job loss. Prevention programs need to have a place in school so children learn early about the dangers of drugs, he said. Benton County also needs more rehabilitation alternatives with a focus on transitional living. Bentonville will soon be home to a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program at Decision Point's new Bates Campus. Pregnant women will be treated sometime this fall and the building will later open to residential treatment. "It's not somebody else's problem. It's your problem," Balfe told the officials who gathered Friday. Benton County has 1,369 adult felony drug cases, according to Prosecutor Robin Green. Last week, a Bentonville firefighter who is also Cave Springs fire chief was arrested after suspected meth was found in a fire department bathroom. "Everyone should care and have some compassion because, if it hasn't impacted your family yet, it soon will," Balfe said after recounting emotional stories local people have told him about the drug's human toll. Benton County Circuit Judge Jay Finch has seen a spike of cases where children are being removed from homes because of meth. "It's a life destroyer and it destroys the innocent as well as the culpable who make the choice to mess around with this drug," Finch said. The judge is seeing younger and more people affected by meth. Benton County started a juvenile drug court pilot program this year and Finch hopes to have a real system in place next year. Although use of the drug has become an epidemic, Benton County is fortunate to have proactive law enforcement, community members and organizations, said Benton County Prosecutor Robin Green. "When Benton County sees a problem, recognizes a problem, Benton County addresses a problem," Green said. Methamphetamine Awareness Month was started last year by Drug Free Rogers Lowell and the Benton County Methamphetamine Task Force. A University of Arkansas study showed that meth use costs employers $21 million last year in worker absenteeism, productivity loss, employee turnover, theft and health costs.














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New Zealand: Rasta La Vista Baby: Tanczos Bites the Bullet

RASTA LA VISTA BABY: TANCZOS BITES THE BULLET The Greens have fallen short of getting another MP into parliament and the house has lost its only Rastafarian member. Nandor Tanczos missed out on returning to parliament as the Greens' seventh list MP by 1246 votes after the special votes were counted yesterday. Tanczos said he had been optimistic of making it back and felt mixed emotions at missing out. "I did want to do another term, I have a lot of unfinished business but at the same time I can spend more time with my family and I have other things I want to do. I will still be involved in politics, of which parliament is only one form, and not necessarily the best." Greens co-leader Rod Donald said the failure of Tanczos to win a seat was a big loss to the party. "And not just because one more vote would have made a real difference ( to coalition prospects ) but because he has contributed an awful lot to parliament and worked hard. "He helped to make it a genuine house of representatives by bringing a lot of colour and a unique style," Donald said. Tanczos said his proudest work was his clean slate legislation that means people convicted of minor crimes have their criminal record wiped after seven years without offending. "It affected half a million New Zealanders and I have people coming up to me on the street and thanking me for it," Tanczos said. "My biggest disappointment is that we did not complete cannabis law reform. There are 20,000 cannabis convictions a year and it's an absolute waste of police and court time and young people's lives, for what is essentially just a herb." Tanczos said there was a certain irony that if a portion of the 5748 people who voted for the Aotearoa Legalise Cannabis Party had voted Green, he an advocate for reform would have been back in parliament. "But I have been really proud and humbled to be part of the Green caucus and I really thank them for the opportunity. I am now going to go bush for a little while, do some meditation, clear my head and see what comes."














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Philippines: Scarcity Raises Shabu Prices

SCARCITY RAISES SHABU PRICES ZAMBOANGA CITY: The price of the illegal drug methamphetamine hydrochloride ( shabu ) has increased due to its low supply in the region, said Supt. June Jamolo, Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency regional director. Jamolo said the drug-abuse problem in the region is now manageable, due to the scarcity of the prohibited drug. He said the price of shabu has gone up, from P3,500 to P5,000 a gram. However, notwithstanding the scarcity of the illegal drug, the agency is pursuing its antidrug operation because shabu remains a common drug used by addicts in the city, Jamolo said. Marijuana is also available in some parts of Zamboanga del Sur and Zam-boanga del Norte. He said the low supply of shabu has reduced the problem in the city, but his team is still focusing on "hot spot" barangays to capture well-known drug pushers in these communities. The agency is taking precautionary measures to prevent the establishment of a shabu laboratory in Western Mindanao.

















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The Strange And Seedy Case Of Marc Emery, Canadian

THE STRANGE AND SEEDY CASE OF MARC EMERY, CANADIAN Facing Life In A U.S. Prison, The 'Prince Of Pot' Sparks An Extradition War That Could Test The Limits Of The War On Drugs - And Legalize Pot In Canada At Last Looking back, Marc Emery says it was like a scene out of Bonnie and Clyde. The publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine and Canada's leading marijuana rabble-rouser, Emery was sitting in Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia - the Lawrencetown Restaurant, in fact - getting himself together to speak at a legalization rally. It was July 29, 2005, and the second annual Atlantic Hemp Fest was already in full swing, with bands and speakers organized by Maritimers United for Medical Marijuana already entertaining a crowd of about 400-500 people. Suddenly, the lunchtime crowd vanished. The air changed. "Then I notice the waitresses getting jittery, and oddly encouraging me to leave in an unfriendly way that you never find on the East Coast," Emery says. Not connecting this weirdness to himself - he wasn't breaking any laws - he paid his tab and walked outside to his car. Which, oddly, he found boxed in; ordinary-looking cars were right on his bumper in front and behind. As he stood there, looking around for whoever needed to move their cars, a large black man got out of another car parked nearby. Ever polite, Emery quipped, "Hello." "Marc Emery?" said the man, not waiting for an answer, "you are under arrest -" This was a mild shock, even though Emery has intentionally had himself arrested 11 times since 1994 on pot-related charges as a form of protest. The man Canadians call the "Prince of Pot" knew such arrests to be mostly pro forma exercises in his country, which he'd used to prove that pot was de facto legal there. But nothing prepared him for the remaining clauses of this stranger's brief proclamation. "- for extradition to the United States, on charges of Conspiracy to Manufacture Marijuana, Conspiracy to Distribute Marijuana Seeds, and Conspiracy to Engage in Money Laundering." This was no exercise. Cars with flashing lights screeched to a halt all around him, and 10 members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police - the Mounties - swarmed him in full tactical gear and ski masks over their faces. As he spent the night in a Halifax holding tank, the reality hit him cold turkey: He wasn't under any charges in Canada, and never would be. Canada's federal Justice Ministry didn't think his crime - selling marijuana seeds to fund activist causes - was worth prosecuting. But it was the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration ( DEA ) that had nailed him, and they'd also grabbed two of his comrades at Emery Seeds in Vancouver - Michelle Rainey-Fenkarek, 34, and Greg Williams, 50 - on the same charges. All three - now known as the "B.C. 3" - face the same sentences. The DEA had reached across the border into Canada, exerting heavy pressure on that country's federal law enforcement, and were going to drag them all to a hellish federal prison in the United States. Possibly for life. The conflicting attitudes regarding pot could not be framed in more stark terms: Canada, no charges; U.S., 10 years to life. Canadian response to the arrest has turned the spotlight back on the U.S. federal government's ruthless prosecution of marijuana users and activists. It also mirrors the conflict between the feds and the various states, like California, which have legalized pot for medical use. The disparity between state laws and federal mandatory minimum sentences are often so huge that activists say they violate the 8th Amendment guarantee against disproportionate punishment. Emery Seeds is one of about 50 seed companies operating in Canada, most of which continue to operate today. In her bizarre press release of July 29, DEA chief Karen Tandy left little doubt as to why they singled out Emery's operation. "Today's DEA arrest of Marc Scott Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture magazine, and the founder of a marijuana legalization group - is a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also the marijuana legalization movement," it begins, adding: "Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery's illicit profits are known to have been channeled to marijuana legalization groups in the United States and Canada. Drug legalization lobbyists now have one less pot of money to rely on." Last anyone checked, funding ballot initiatives wasn't illegal in the U.S., and this kind of hubris has threatened to turn Emery's extradition proceedings into a slugfest. Under treaty, the Canadians are bound to turn him over. But the Prince of Pot might prove the exception to the rule. The Canadian press has erupted in a campaign of vitriol against the U.S. for targeting Emery, who was already a kind of national antihero for opening up the country's outdated censorship laws with Cannabis Culture and his British Columbia Marijuana Party Bookstore. Now he's morphing into a symbol of Canadian sovereignty. Members of Parliament have taken up his case, angry over high-handed efforts by U.S. Drug Czar John Walters to force the Canadians to join the U.S.'s failed Drug War. The former mayor of Vancouver has lashed out. The Canucks are pissed. The U.S. government insists that it is not engaging in a "war on marijuana." But marijuana, it seems, is going to test the relationship between the U.S. and Canada. Overgrowing The Government One thing is very clear about Marc Emery: He definitely broke the law, and on both sides of the border. And he did it on purpose, in front of God and everyone else, making a point of calling attention to his lawbreaking activities in his magazine, on his celebrated web video channel, Pot-TV, and in the Canadian press. But where the Canadians saw an activist, the U.S. government evidently saw a guy with a target painted on his back. "'Overgrowing the government,' that's my phrase for 10 years," Emery says by phone from the Cannabis Culture offices in Vancouver. "The idea is that we'd sell seeds, people would grow lots of pot, empower themselves by not needing to buy on the black market, by being self-sufficient in marijuana and medical marijuana. Hopefully, people would grow so much pot that the DEA could never eradicate it all, and it would be futile spending all that money. Then Americans would simply say, 'Well, why should we spend all this money when it's impossible to stop? We should legalize it.' That was the strategy on one hand. "And then, from the money people sent me," he adds, "we would give that away to organizations and groups advocating peaceful democratic change and an end to the Drug War. So the money would be totally useful at both ends." "You might want to get the press release from our office, as opposed to Karen Tandy's," says Todd Greenberg, Assistant U.S. Attorney from the Western District of Washington, distancing his office from the overzealous DEA chief, "because I want to emphasize this: He's entitled to publish his magazine. He's entitled to run for mayor, or do whatever the hell he wants with his Marijuana Party [chuckles]. It has nothing to do with this case. He 's being prosecuted because he's a one-stop shop for large marijuana grows that we have busted throughout the U.S." And that's in every state in the union, according to the U.S. Justice Department. Here's where Emery's unique political strategy becomes problematic. His enterprise is what Allen St. Pierre, a Washington, D.C.-based spokesman for the National Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws, or NORML, affectionately calls a "seed wrap." Emery Seeds began in 1994, selling high-potency marijuana seeds via mail order and using his magazine and his well-made Internet site to hawk them to customers. Those sales are illegal in both the U.S. and in Canada. And business is good. A single marijuana plant might yield 4,000 to 5,000 seeds, which are sold for anywhere from $2 to $20 apiece. Do the numbers. They add up quick. He's been doing it for 11 years, and in 2003 alone, Emery estimates, the seeds pulled in about $2.2 million Canadian. But, apparently, Emery keeps almost none of it. He pays out $1 million a year to suppliers, he says, about $400,000 to support the magazine, the website, and to advertise ( his last paid advertisement was in the San Francisco Chronicle, in June, for his "Medical Marijuana Pak" ), and another $300,000 for staff. That leaves about $300,000 to $400,000. Which he gives away. He even paid taxes on that money in Canada before giving it away, and on his revenue forms he marked his business as "Marijuana Seed Vendor." He says he doesn't own a car, a house, investments, or any property, and luckily all his ex-wives and his four adopted children are self-sufficient now. "I gave away, over a period of 10-11 years, close to $4 million Canadian," Emery says now, "to various activists, organizations, ballot initiatives, politicians, political parties, conferences, rallies - you name it." That includes $19,000 for a medical marijuana ballot initiative in Arizona. And $7,000 for one in Alaska. Then $5,000 for one in Washington, D.C. He's tabulating this stuff now, but says his U.S. contributions total "probably no more than half a million." He's also given loads of money to Canadian politicians and political parties - even when he was running for mayor or Parliament himself. "Politicians of every stripe both took my money and showed up at conferences to speak on legalizing marijuana," he notes. "Jack Layton, the leader of the New Democratic Party, came to my home 18 months ago and filmed an interview to be broadcast on Pot-TV. The mayor came to a conference that I put on with seed money last year called 'Beyond Prohibition 2004.' Every politician in Parliament had a subscription to our magazine for the last eight years. And in all that time, I never had a complaint from anybody about selling seeds." Nobody in the U.S. has ever worked like this. In fact, says NORML's St. Pierre, we haven't seen anything like this since a cat known only as Neville first started selling seeds via mail order in the Netherlands in the 1980s. "Nobody has ever been as plotting and as pragmatic about trying to combine commerce, politics, and rabble-rousing, than Marc has," says St. Pierre. "He is a complex individual. In this country, the closest example are Yippies. But Marc has taken it further. Unlike a number of folks that are about enriching themselves personally, in a semi-Messianic way he's developed a wont to give as much as he can back towards the politics of changing the laws." The U.S. Justice Department is unmoved by these facts. U.S. Attorney Greenberg says not only have they connected Emery Seeds to big commercial grows - more than just DIY medical marijuana patients - but Emery's website ( now shut down ) also offered all the other paraphernalia one would need to grow or smoke pot. "He would send 8- to 10-page instruction booklets on how to grow," says Greenberg. "Then he had a part of his business on the website called the Little Grow Shop. He sold the large apparatus to grow marijuana . plus lights, fans, fertilizer, irrigation-type systems." Plus, he used the Internet to solicit worldwide. Any money that went across the Canadian border, in either direction, constitutes money laundering. Jeff Eig, spokesman for the DEA in Seattle, says he doesn't expect any problems getting Emery extradited out of Canada. "The bottom line is that he's facing three significant charges in federal court," Eig says. "He faces significant exposure to the law, facing in anywhere from 10 to 40 years, or up to life, on those charges." Blame Canada! "Oh, I'm outraged, I see this as a purely political maneuver by the U.S. government and the Drug Czar. It's political pressure," says Libby Davies, Member of Parliament - the equivalent of a U.S. member of Congress - from East Vancouver. Emery's bookstore office, where he sold the seeds, is near her district. "What is he guilty of - selling marijuana seeds on the Internet. He's been doing that for over a decade, and no one in Canada has prosecuted him. "There's not a shadow of a doubt in my mind that this is entirely politically motivated, and it is to back Canada into a corner," she adds, "sort of the old adage from Bush, 'Are you with us or are you agin' us?'" Canada has been softening its laws regarding marijuana possession for years, and some of the most progressive harm reduction policy has been implemented in Vancouver. Davies backed heroin maintenance studies and helped create the country's first safe injection site for IV drug users there, where HIV and hepatitis were ballooning out of control. The current mayor of Vancouver, Larry Campbell, has championed a "Four Pillars" drug strategy which prioritizes harm reduction, prevention, and treatment, using law enforcement specifically "targeting organized crime, drug dealing, drug houses," and "problem business involved in the drug trade." Drug users are not listed as targets, like they are in the U.S., where they are the focus of the overwhelming majority of prosecutions. Nor did "problem business" evidently include Emery Seeds. Campbell's office says it is not currently discussing the Emery case. For several years, a federal bill to decriminalize marijuana possession has plodded through the Canadian Parliament, and U.S. Drug Czar John Walters has campaigned through the Great White North to try to squash it. In 2002, Rep. Mark Souder ( R-IN ), chair of a key congressional drug-policy committee and infamous anti-pot crusader, told Toronto's Globe and Mail that Canada is free to make its own laws but passage of the decriminalization bill could cause Congress to tighten the border with Canada - thus threatening the flow of goods to that country's biggest trading partner. These threats are not laughed off. There is a caucus within the ruling Liberal Party who believe Canada ought to liste Walters. But many find his efforts there offensive. Former Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer in August that he met with Walters on one of his pro-Drug War tours in 2002, and called it "the most unsatisfactory meeting of my life. The pressure was intense." "I feel that, politically, they cannot sanction the fact that Canada is taking a different perspective, and that we're much closer to a European model when it comes to drug policy reform," says MP Libby Davies. "I think there are a lot of Americans "16 who would like to . adopt more of a Canadian approach on a number of things, whether it's health care or equal marriage rights for same-sex couples, or drug policy." Davies says she and other members of government will lobby Canadian Justice Minister Irwin Cotler to refuse extradition of Emery. Under treaty with the U.S., Cotler was apparently required to provide Mounties to execute the U.S. arrest warrant, and will be required to present Emery for extradition hearings. Even if a judge decides to send him to the U.S., however, Cotler still has broad discretion to say no. Vancouver Sun columnist Peter McKnight, in a September 10 piece laying out the several options for refusing extradition, wrapped it up with the idea that Emery's "persecution" might actually advance the legalization cause, writing: "That leaves Cotler with one last way to refuse extradition, and it 's a way that, for both legal and moral reasons, Cotler ought to take. Whether he wants to admit it or not, selling viable cannabis seeds is de facto legal in Canada, and Cotler can therefore refuse to surrender Emery on the grounds that what he is charged with in the U.S. is not an offence [sic] in Canada." Chris Girouard, a spokesman for the Justice Ministry, says selling viable pot seeds is a crime in Canada, but that the U.S. can determine what conduct should be treated as a crime in the U.S., "so the frequency of the prosecution in Canada is not a factor." The Prince Of Pot The fact that mainstream Canadian columnists like McKnight are going to bat for a pothead is attributable, in many ways, to the work of Marc Emery himself. When he launched Emery Seeds in 1994, Canadian laws were more strict than the U.S. Even distributing literature about pot could get you six months in jail. No store dared to carry bongs or pipes. Or a pair of hemp shoes. He opened a bookstore and began importing Jack Herer's hemp bible, The Emperor Wears No Clothes, then went door-to-door selling High Times and books about industrial hemp and medical marijuana. He started the BC Marijuana Party, which spawned a U.S. equivalent, and ran for mayor twice, the provincial legislature three times, and federal Parliament once. His Cannabis Culture magazine and website enjoy heavy readerships and his Pot-TV programs have received as many as 10 million viewers - including, he says, the children of Justice Minister Cotler. Coconspirator Michelle Rainey was the financial agent for the BC Marijuana Party, and worked out of the bookstore. Greg Williams, an employee of Pot-TV, was also arrested there. These new institutions notwithstanding, Emery built his reputation through Yippie-like national campaigns that put the pot issue on Canada's front pages. In 2003, he launched the Summer of Legalization Tour, contending that pot was legal and demonstrating this by smoking a bong or a huge joint in front of police stations in 18 cities across Canada. Ultimately, he was charged in six cities and five provinces. "All those charges were dropped because I was right, pot really was legal and their courts just hadn't acknowledged it," crows Emery. He operated so openly, and with such impunity, that it came as a bit of a shock when he was actually convicted on a similar offense in 2004. He was barreling along on a 22-city speaking tour of university campuses, once again making a show of a few token tokes, when he was busted flat in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, for passing a joint. It seemed a laughable charge, but the judge was upset, saying Emery was arrogant and flouting the law - which he clearly was - and gave him 92 days in the pokey. He served 62 - a fairly severe sentence in Canada. In 11 years, it has been his only custodial conviction. The other 10 sentences were either fines or probation. "I've been very, very busy, and we've gotten books and magazines legalized, hemp stores are everywhere in the country, pipes and bongs are everywhere - we have legal medical marijuana and a vibrant hemp industry, in the space of 11 years," says Emery. "On the ground, too, people have gone from 26 percent support for legal marijuana to 57 percent in Canada." After all that living way out front, Emery has earned some support from the Canadian people. But not all of his rapid-fire extemporizing has worked. After his arrest in July, he called Cotler a "Jewish Nazi" and compared marijuana prohibition to the Holocaust, drawing howls from online commentators. He has also made a habit of telling reporters that, since selling 60,000 seeds would make him a "kingpin" under Newt Gingrich's draconian federal drug statute, he could be subject to the death penalty. U.S. Attorney Todd Greenberg insists he is not subject to that charge, which would make extradition illegal. "If I'm extradited, Canadians will never see me alive again," Emery says. "And even if the Canadian government tried to make an arrangement to have me sent back to a Canadian prison, I am certain that I'd be murdered or damaged mentally by the time I got to Canada, so I could never actively work against the government again." In the battle of bluster, he and DEA head Karen Tandy seem made for each other. Do Not Respond to the Blue Letters! Then again, Emery has plenty of strange evidence to fuel his conspiratorial fears. First of all, the DEA statement seems to indicate they're investigating not only his customers but also the activists and politicians who've taken his money. Then, shortly after his arrest, customers who had ordered seeds from Emery received mysterious letters, printed on blue stock, which seemed like a sting operation. The letters, printed on the Cannabis Culture website ( http://www.cannabisculture.com/ ), acknowledge the shutdown of Emery Seeds, offer a hip-hooray to Emery himself with some weird cult-of-personality cheers - "Smoke For Our Leader! Overgrow The Government!" - then ask for another $100 to fill the already-paid order. Customers are instructed to go to either Western Union or Wal-Mart to send the $100 to someone in Vancouver, using a different name each time, like Mike Wong or Patrick Oliver, and to use a specific password, "SWAP." In order to complete the order and receive seeds, customers were required to e-mail a confirmation of their order, the Money Control Number, the real name of the sender, and their home address ( no P.O. box accepted ) to a Yahoo e-mail. Which would give an agent every piece of information they would need to arrest and convict someone for buying pot. Evidently, no one was fooled. Instead, scores of customers all over the world simply sent the letters back to Emery as evidence. The splash page on his now-closed seed company website barks in huge block letters: "DO NOT RESPOND TO THE BLUE LETTERS!" Todd Greenberg laughs at the idea that this is a sting: "You've gotta think: His customers, many of them, are engaged in criminal activity," he says. "Would it shock you that they'd seize upon this as a way to make some money? I think he's paranoid." Asked if this is a DEA operation, Jeff Eig says, "Not that I know of." For his part, Emery is girding for political battle. He is terrified, but also energized. He's accustomed to the bittersweet quality of his notoriety: Every time he's been profiled by major media, he's been busted - a month after appearing on the cover of The Wall Street Journal, a month after a profile in Rolling Stone, two months after being the subject of a CNN Special. This time, the situation is flipped. The DEA has given him a mighty tall soapbox. But now he's trying to save not just the weed, and not just his own ass, but those of Rainey and Williams, too. "The whole business proposition was to raise money to start a revolutionary botanical movement to destroy the U.S. drug war and to stop this vicious gulaging that goes on with our people," he says, adding, "So I was very good at what I do, 'cause the DEA noticed."










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More Police Isn't The Answer

MORE POLICE ISN'T THE ANSWER I don't know if there is anyone anywhere who hates drugs more than I do or knows the devastating effects to a family. But, I really question the motive behind a measure that hires more policemen to put these people away. The money should be for treatment and treatment for the whole family. I realize the drug addict has to be caught before he or she gets treatment, and that's a no-brainer. More policemen would fill the beds in our new jail, but these people don't quit because they are put in jail. They just can't do drugs while they are locked up. Do you ever notice that people coming out of prison who haven't smoked, drank or done drugs, sometimes for years, will obtain a cigarette from someone as soon as they exit. They didn't quit; they just couldn't get what they wanted. The drugs and alcohol come a little later, when they can reconnect. I have the utmost respect for most policemen, but I don't think they are God. I don't think we can afford more officers. They will not go away after eight years, there will be retirement, disability and many other benefits that will have to be funded. They have a terrific union. We will be back here again in eight more years voting on an even higher budget. I really don't think it will deter the meth problem. P.J. Wasson Kelso









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Agencies Sharing Spoils Of Drug War

AGENCIES SHARING SPOILS OF DRUG WAR

A 1999 Dodge Durango sport utility vehicle parked in the garage at the Fairfield Police Department and more than $22,000 in cash sit waiting to be claimed -- not by the former owner, but by police and prosecutors.

The heavy V-8 Magnum SUV and the cash all could end up being public property, split among several agencies if local authorities can prove to a judge that they were obtained by selling illegal drugs.

In Winthrop, a single sweep of a marijuana-growing operation netted Police Chief Joseph Young and his department more than $8,000 in drug forfeiture money.

Kennebec County commissioners accepted $1,600 in cash and three firearms seized this year in an arrest in Litchfield. A Fayette man agreed to forfeit more than $30,000 to the state, half the amount of cash seized from his vehicle in a search for drugs by a sheriff's deputy on Feb. 28 in Manchester.

The picture is the same across the state, drug money is seized by police and "plowed back" into eradication efforts. Call it the spoils of the war on drugs; proceeds, in fact, that can ease the burden of local taxation.

"In the Fairfield drug case, we filed a petition to forfeit the money on the belief that the cash and the vehicle were derived from the illegal sale of drugs," said Evert N. Fowle, district attorney for Somerset and Kennebec counties. "After we have terminated the drug dealers' interest in the property, we'll need a court order to turn it over to the state, an agency or town, approved by the attorney general.

"As to how that money or property is distributed, that is up to the attorney general."

Drug forfeiture money can be used by police departments toward the purchase of new weapons, a police cruiser or to buffer the overtime police account. Prosecutors can use the money to fund various offices around the state, supplement pay increases and provide local matches for juvenile prosecution efforts.

Forfeiture cases begin in Superior Court, then are sent to the attorney general for approval. After the attorney general decides how much each agency involved in a drug-forfeiture case gets as a cut, the paperwork is submitted back to Superior Court for a final order for distribution.

Fowle said his office handled more than $114,000 in forfeited cash, one vehicle and three firearms last fiscal year in Kennebec and Somerset counties. He said the money, once divvied up among the agencies that participated in the drug raid and subsequent seizure, normally is used to combat drug sales or for general law enforcement purposes.

Guns and motor vehicles either are sold, or kept and used by various police agencies for drug work, including undercover hours, he said. Confiscated drugs either are incinerated or "crushed and flushed" after the case has been adjudicated.

"When monies are forfeited to a county, municipality or state agency, it is hoped that this money will be plowed back into fighting our serious drug problem," Fowle said. "We make no requirement of this, it is up to the county commissioners, city council or state agency supervisors to determine how the money is spent.

"Our goal is to separate these assets from the drug dealers to the maximum extent possible."

Roy McKinney, director of the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency agreed, saying once a judge and the attorney general sign off on confiscated money, it is then up to the various agencies to collect their share.

"The drug proceeds are split; X amount will go to a local department, X amount will go to the county, some to MDEA, some to the DA's office," he said.

"We're out looking for drug dealers. If we can take some of their blood money away from them, then all the better. Most of the drug money forfeited in cases where the Maine Drug Enforcement Agency is involved actually goes to county, city and town governments in recognition for their help in these cases."

The Dodge Durango and the cash sitting as evidence at the Fairfield Police Department were confiscated following a raid Aug. 15 on Ohio Hill Road. Three people were arrested and police seized cocaine, crack and marijuana.

Fairfield Police Chief John Emery said his department, along with police from Waterville, Oakland, and Kennebec and Somerset counties, participated in the raid and therefore will be parties to the cut when the proceeds are divided, as will Fowle's office.

Fowle said 20 percent of all forfeiture money goes to what is called the District Attorney's Budget Line, which is maintained by the attorney general. The rest is awarded to the city or town where the search warrant originated and is then divided up among the various police agencies.

Emery said the sharing of the proceeds is based on participation in a given raid. That would include overtime hours, the number of police officers and equipment used.

From the top line of the forfeited drug money, the department where the search warrant originated must also pay its bills, he said.

"Last summer we cut a check to Waterville for $4,000," Emery said. "We'll cut checks from the drug forfeiture account to the agencies for whatever their share is in the forfeiture."

The controlling agency also must pay for laboratory testing on the drugs.

Assistant Attorney General James Cameron said his office handles all of the drug cases in Franklin County. During fiscal 2004-05, $3,263 in cash was seized -- and used -- by the Franklin County Sheriff's Department.

He said his office confiscated more than $125,000 last fiscal year statewide, most of it in Cumberland, Penobscot and Oxford counties. Cameron said his forfeiture figures in Kennebec County include guns and money not include in Fowle's account.

Waterville Police Chief John Morris said that by state law, the money goes to the city or town council or board of selectmen in each community for disbursement later. Proceeds can be used to purchase new equipment, new firearms, overtime pay, officer education, narcotic identifying kits -- even for so-called "buy" money, marked bills in a drug sting.

"We use a minimal amount of taxpayers money on our battle with drugs," Morris said. "It gives me great pleasure to buy drugs in our drug efforts with money seized from other drug dealers."

Noting that each municipal or county agency receives varying amounts of drug forfeiture money, Emery said his department received nearly $18,000 during the last fiscal year. Of that money, about $3,000 was left after the bills were paid. He said Fairfield's share of the money will go toward a new police cruiser.








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Storm Chaos Cuts Help For Addicts

STORM CHAOS CUTS HELP FOR ADDICTS

Recovery Programs, Clinics Jammed By Patients Set Adrift

At the Baton Rouge Treatment Center, people suffering a unique, hurricane-related misery have poured in by the hundreds, waiting as long as two hours each day for relief.

The center is one of the few places remaining in Louisiana where they can get methadone, a medication given to those addicted to heroin or other opiate drugs. Without it, they face a harrowing withdrawal certain to compound their already considerable despair.

The suffering of drug addicts might not garner much public sympathy in the face of the overwhelming agony stirred by Hurricane Katrina, but some say it's a plight not to be ignored.

"They're people. Don't we care about the people?" said Kathleen Kane-Willis, a Roosevelt University researcher who has pushed for greater aid for displaced heroin addicts. "Why should we make a judgment that the people who use drugs aren't deserving of care?"

Among the estimated 1 million people left homeless by Katrina are thousands of drug abusers and alcoholics, some who have never been in treatment but many who have been torn from recovery programs.

Doctors, counselors and treatment centers across the country are trying to fill the void left by the disaster, bringing in supplies, volunteering their services, even offering free residential care to refugees.

"We are admitting a 19-year-old girl who was in a treatment center in New Orleans and was displaced," said John Schwarzlose of the Betty Ford Center in California, where a 30-day stay normally costs $20,000. "She went from there to a shelter. I don't know if she's been drinking and using. We'll find out when she gets here."

Even before the hurricane, Louisiana suffered a dearth of treatment options for drug and alcohol abusers. As many as 1,800 clogged waiting lists on any given day, said Samantha-Hope Atkins of Hope Networks, a recovery advocacy group in Baton Rouge.

"Very few people realized that Louisiana had 32 medical detox beds for 4 million residents," she said. "Twenty are in [New Orleans'] Charity Hospital, which is gone."

Katrina wiped out other recovery options as well. The New Orleans area hosted dozens of 12-step meetings every day, and the city's methadone clinics served about 1,300 patients.

Some were able to find help after evacuating. The Baton Rouge Treatment Center picked up an extra 200 methadone patients, but infusions of staffers from other clinics have allowed the center to persevere despite long lines that promise only to get longer.

"We know they're just going to keep coming," said clinic director Carl Kelley.

A spokesman for Alcoholics Anonymous in Houston said the group has offered meetings in the Astrodome and George R. Brown Convention Center, and federal officials said the same is happening in shelters across the country.

Some addicts appear to be treating their addictions in other ways. A Reuters reporter in New Orleans earlier this week found several opiate addicts buying or bartering for looted morphine, prescription painkillers or sleeping pills outside a Bourbon Street bar.

Charles Curie, head of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said the federal government has released $600,000 to help pay for treatment for displaced people. More will be available as Congress provides additional funds, he said.

Curie said the hurricane could harm more than those who lost their treatment programs. History shows that trauma causes drug and alcohol problems for others--including police and medics--to increase.

"We can anticipate . . . spikes in abuse after an event like this," he said.

Recovery specialists from across the country have vowed to help.

Hope Networks' Atkins said some of the nation's largest treatment centers have offered to provide free transportation and accommodations, while smaller groups have donated Big Books--the bible of AA.

Dr. Sarz Maxwell, medical director for the Chicago Recovery Alliance, is hoping to provide relief in person. She said a drug manufacturer has released $50,000 worth of Suboxone, a methadone-like medication for heroin addicts, and she is trying to get federal permission to distribute the drug to those not yet in treatment programs.













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Professor Addresses Addiction In Iraq

PROFESSOR ADDRESSES ADDICTION IN IRAQ

Keith Humphreys spoke no Arabic. He also knew little of Iraqi culture. Nonetheless when offered a position as the lead U.S. adviser to Iraq on addiction issues, he decided to take on the challenge.

"I'm of the belief that if you want to be useful, when opportunities come along, you have to take them," Humphreys said.

An associate professor of psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Humphreys specializes in addiction.

But he was still surprised to learn that stigmas around addiction are reversed in Iraq, compared to the United States. While heroin and opium usage are accepted, alcohol is not.

And he discovered that Iraqi doctors have far fewer resources for dealing with addiction than American physicians. In general, the Iraqi health care system is in disarray. Approaches toward mental health care lag far behind that of the Western world.

So Humphreys says much of what he's doing is "small deed democracy." That is, he's supporting his Iraqi colleagues in whatever way he can as they try to piece together a new health care system and play catch-up to modern medicine.

Q What is your role as the addiction adviser to Iraq?

A I just wanted to be helpful in any way that I could. I guess that's probably what my role is. I'm helpful in any way that I can be. Sometimes it's been things like giving them advice in how they should spend money for their budget, or telling them about medications that have been developed for addiction that they didn't know about. Or the importance of policing the borders. You probably know, but most of the world's heroin comes from Afghanistan.

Q How have you been working with the Iraqis?

A In December, we had a meeting in Washington of principals, the lead Iraqi and American mental health people. That's where the plan came together that we wanted to have an annual mental health conference in Iraq.

The original hope was it would be in Iraq. But they had some concerns about safety. Doctors are assumed to have money, so they can become targets for kidnappers.

They moved the March meeting out of Baghdad and into Amman, Jordan.

We were arguing in the group, as people will do. This one guy was really quiet during the two days, but he talked to me afterward and he said, "So you guys just argue and then you go home," and I said, "Yeah, that's right." And he got this big smile on his face and he said, "That's wonderful."

I asked people why it was such a big deal. They told me this famous story. At some point during the Iran-Iraq war, Hussein called a cabinet meeting. He said, "Tell me your candid opinion of the war." The health minister said, "Well, lots of Iraqis have been killed. Maybe we should pull back. Maybe we should step aside until this blows over." Hussein said, "Thank you for your opinion," and then he had the guy executed immediately.

The Iraqis have all heard this story. It's all part of the legend of Saddam Hussein. If that's the most powerful doctor in the country, if that can happen to him, then you have no protection.

Q What was the most surprising thing that you learned about addiction?

A They think alcohol is worse than drugs. There would be these disconnects when I would talk about ( alcohol ) services. They had this really negative reaction. They would say there is no alcohol abuse in Iraq. But they had no problem saying that lots of people are smoking opium and taking benzodiazepines on the street.

Q What is the stigma associated with alcohol?

A It goes back to the Quran. You're not supposed to be under the effect of alcohol when you pray, and you pray five times a day. It's been a part of Islamic teaching for 1,500 years.

Q How bad is the heroin problem?

A That's one of the more severe problems. Heroin and opium, both. Religious pilgrims smoke it. They would never drink alcohol, but they have no problems smoking opium.

Most people say the most widespread problems are prescription drugs.

If you wanted to go out in Baghdad and get pain pills, you could do it pretty easily. You could get it from a pharmacy. You could get it from the street.

Q What was your advice to the Iraqis? They must have a limited budget, limited resources.

A Their mental health system is like our mental health system was 40 years ago. It's like the old state hospital system where you send your strange old uncle up to the hospital and that's where he spends the rest of his life.

There are still not enough beds for all the patients. There are patients who sleep on the floor. The guy who heads it says the average patient is there for at least a decade. The staff doesn't even know all the patients' names. There's only a very small number of psychiatrists for these patients.

One piece of advice coming from everyone is to try and build a modern system around primary care. There are primary care centers being built all over Iraq.

So there's that, and consultation stuff around the development of drug laws. The draft laws were way too weighted toward law enforcement, the lock-'em-up approach. It's just terribly ineffective. Who knows whether or not they will listen, but I encouraged ( the Iraqis ) to develop an alcohol and tobacco policy, as well as drug laws. But I don't think that it has gone very far.

Q Is there enough methadone in the country for heroin treatment?

A No. That was one of the first things I brought up. You can imagine the problems of trying to run a methadone program. The pharmacy system is not secure enough to do that.

What I've been trying to do, I'll be taking with me Arabic Narcotics Anonymous materials to Jordan. It's been Arabized and Islamized. I'm trying to get long-term support for addictive people.

Q How would you start an NA program?

A They are Arabic pamphlets for patients and how to run an NA meeting. All I can do is give them to them. I've presented all the evidence about it, and of course, everyone likes the fact that it's free. You can start running groups, ask people to meet. I think that would be a great legacy.

Q Would you say that the doctors are discouraged or excited about doing something different with regards to rebuilding their health care system?

A First off, everyone is so happy that Saddam Hussein isn't there any more. The idea that this is a new era is exciting to everyone.

But there are also people who find that frightening. The decisions you make will be more consequential. There are people who aren't quite ready to step into those roles because they're so beaten down and oppressed under Hussein, all they really know how to do is complain. It may take awhile for them to feel you can do this, you have a right to do it, and now do it.

That's the whole thing, will there be a civil war? Will there be restoration? If civil war happens, everything I'm doing is a waste of time. But in Iraq, you have to take risks. Because if everyone sits back and says, "As soon as it's all fine, I'll do something," it will never be fine.

* Name: Keith Humphreys

* Age: 39

* Title: U.S. adviser to Iraq on addiction, associate professor of psychiatry at Stanford University School of Medicine, and staff member of the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System

* Location: Palo Alto

* Career: Humphreys has been a professor of psychiatry at Stanford since 2002. Before that, he was a visiting senior policy fellow for one year at the Office of National Drug Control Policy for the White House. Humphreys has also served as a consultant on addiction for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as well as for Gov. Gray Davis.

* Education: Humphreys graduated from Michigan State University with a B.A. in psychology in 1988. He went on to earn his Ph.D. in clinical/community psychology from the University of Illinois in 1993.










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'I've Lost My Sight, But I See Things Clearly'

'I'VE LOST MY SIGHT, BUT I SEE THINGS CLEARLY'

Belief Puts Ex-Prostitute, Addict On New A Path.

FLINT, Mich. -- Rita Willingham-Person, a former prostitute and drug addict, is blind, but now she sees.

"I've lost my sight, but I see things clearly," said Willingham-Person, 40, of Flint. "God has given me a different kind of sight now." Blindness is the latest chapter in Willingham-Person's remarkable life, a survival story that includes homelessness, rapes, jail sentences, shootings and drug addiction.

Willingham-Person, a big, softhearted woman with a throaty chuckle, began living on Flint's streets after she ran away from home at 12. Soon, she was selling sex to shop workers and others who cruised Dort Highway.

She turned tricks in her customers' cars and brandished a steak knife at those who were reluctant to let her go. Over the years, she was jailed, raped and threatened. She began smoking crack cocaine and, in 1988, was shot at a drug house.

"Every car I got in, I wondered, 'Am I gonna get out?' " she said. "Every rape, I'd wonder, 'Is he gonna kill me after he's done?' "

Her family never gave up on her and, in 1989, they persuaded her to enter Detroit Teen Challenge, a Christian training center for troubled youths. The program helped her get off drugs and earn a high school diploma. But later, when a series of jobs fizzled, she returned to drugs and prostitution.

God, she said, had other plans for her. So did her next-door neighbor.

Lessie Jackson, pastor of Ephesus Baptist Church in Flint, moved next door to Willingham-Person in 1996.

"I'd sit and watch Rita from my window," Jackson said. "I saw how she was dressed and that she was in and out of different cars all the time. I'd say, 'Lord, there's got to be a better way for her than this.' "

Jackson, a recovered drug addict for 17 years, saw herself in Willingham-Person. Instead of passing judgment, she prayed. One day, she felt God tell her to approach her neighbor.

"I called to her, 'Miss Rita, how're you doing?' She said, 'I'm doing fine.' I said, 'I just want to pray with you.' Then, as I began to talk to her and pray with her, she started to cry."

Eventually, Willingham-Person visited Jackson's church. Her experience there was so dramatic that she returned home and made a poster declaring, "This house is no longer a crack house," and taped it to her front door.

"From that point on, Rita's life was no longer the same," Jackson said.

Old ways didn't disappear overnight. At one point, Willingham-Person was turning tricks and going to church.

"I remember one night turning a trick and another girl said to me, 'Are you going back out?' I said, 'No, I gotta go to church now.' She looked at me like I was crazy."

Gradually, God's way won.

"Rita began to come to church every Sunday and for every meeting," Jackson said. "She was there singing and helping with the children. She said, 'Miss Lessie, I've been in this program and that program, but it took God to change me."'

The right man didn't hurt, either. Willingham-Person met her future husband, Ronald Person, at a Super Bowl party. They have been married for two years.

Free of drugs and prostitution, Willingham-Person got a job at the Pentecostal Tabernacle Church in Flint, where she and her husband became members.

Every once in a while, someone from her old life made an appearance.

"I was walking around the church one day when I saw a girl I used to smoke crack with. She came up to me and said, 'Girl, I expected to see you on a street corner but not the corner of a church."'

Last year, Willingham-Person began to have trouble seeing out of her right eye. During months of glasses, tests and appointments with specialists, she became totally blind in her right eye and began losing sight in her left.

Doctors still are puzzled about the cause of her blindness, which is now complete. Willingham-Person has her own theory.

"When I was on the street, I was valuable to the devil's kingdom. I think after 20 years of trying to kill me, the devil is angry and figures that blindness will kill me. But I know that God is more powerful."

With the support of her husband, family, friends and church, Willingham-Person is facing new challenges with a new sense of peace.

"I'm happier now than when I could see," she said. "I don't have to worry anymore about turning tricks to get money for crack. When I go to bed at night, I sleep like a baby."

Willingham-Person can no longer work and receives Social Security disability payments. She remains involved with her church, family and neighborhood, where she and Jackson sit on the porch, visit with neighborhood children and "keep the peace."

She still loves to dance, "and if I was sure I wouldn't fall off, I'd dance every day on the porch."

When she's not listening to the Bible on audiotape, Willingham-Person has a weakness for television, especially the soap opera "General Hospital."

"I love that one because me and Bobbie, one of the characters, were both hookers. Now she's the top nurse."

Willingham-Person's next challenge will be to attend what she calls "blind people school," something her family and friends are encouraging her to do, even while hoping that her blindness will reverse itself as mysteriously as it occurred.

Willingham-Person's strongest desire is to help turn young women from the kind of life that held her hostage for so long.

"Rita has a lot to say to young people about life on the streets," said Marvin C. Pryor, pastor of Pentecostal Tabernacle. "She's vibrant and faithful and is living proof of the transformation that Christ can do.

"Rita has lost her sight, but gained her vision."




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Give Youth Positive Choices

GIVE YOUTH POSITIVE CHOICES

How can we as a society even consider legalizing and controlling street drugs? Does the need for some people to feel high come before our responsibility to their health and safety of our society?

Methamphetamines are dangerous even when supervised by the medical profession -- there is no guaranteed safe dose. Who at the drug control board is going to decide what dose is reasonably safe for each client?

People come in all sizes and have varying tolerances for medications.

Even in their pure form drugs like ecstasy have the potential to cause severe adverse reactions -- for example, schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease and cardiac collapse.

We are unsure what they do to a fetus. Can the control board keep young women from becoming pregnant? What about the effects of frequent drug use on a person's drive and ambition? There is evidence of brains shrinking with chronic use.

Addiction is a disease in itself -- a disease that the government "control boards" have clearly been unable to control or effectively manage with alcohol. Why would it be different with drugs? We need to invest in our youth in more positive ways!

Ensure that there is excitement and recreational possibilities available in our communities that don't involve risk or the need for drugged highs.

Mostly, we have to look at teens in a positive manner, value them and treat them with respect.

People usually strive to meet expectations. Our teens are often prejudged to be vandals, thieves and drug addicts. Are they striving to meet these expectations? I, for one, hope not.

Doreen Sullivan,

Victoria.

















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