US WA: Jack-Pot

JACK-POT Federal law lets the cops pocket anything seized in a drug bust--cars, boats, cash--and use it to fund the war on drugs. But when Jane Gerth found a half-million dollars in the Okanogan woods, the rules got more complicated. The white ford pickup truck rolled onto a gravelly pullout next to Highway 97, about 15 minutes south of the Canadian border, and stopped, motor running. It was 7:20 p.m. on Friday, March 5, 2004, in the orchard-lined Okanogan Valley of north Central Washington, an expanse rimmed by pine-dotted hills and rocky ridges. A stocky male figure stepped down from the four-door pickup, his breath exposed by the icy night, and waded into the woods behind a mailbox post. The driver felt his way through the scrub trees and high grass. About 10 steps in, he froze, reached down, and lifted a heavy black and gold backpack. Staggering, he returned to the truck and dumped the pack onto the passenger seat. The man then slid behind the wheel and eased the pickup back onto 97, a notorious drug pipeline from Canada to California. As the truck began moving, Deputy Dennis Irwin slowly turned his Okanogan County sheriff's cruiser from the side road where he'd been on stakeout and onto the highway, falling in a safe distance behind the pickup. Irwin backed off as the driver briefly pulled over, apparently checking the backpack's contents. Moments later, he pulled over again. Game's up, an anxious Irwin thought, according to a report he'd write later. He flipped on his emergency lights. "Sheriff's office!" Irwin announced, after stopping the big pickup. "Turn off your engine. Place your hands outside the window." With no resistance, the driver stepped out and dropped to the pavement. He was cuffed, patted down, and read his rights. Inside the truck, Irwin found the black and gold bag. Its contents were exposed and partially spilling onto the floor--a rolled-up blanket, two boxes of latex gloves, and two military gas masks. That was all Okanogan deputies had been able to scrounge up when they filled the backpack that morning in preparation for their sting. Ten hours earlier, on that same Friday, Jane Gerth was taking a walk along the woody edge of a Highway 97 turnout near her home south of Oroville. Her morning walks were a habit, and she'd notice the slightest alterations in scenery, she later told authorities. A black and gold bag poking up in the weeds was something that instantly caught her eye. Gerth, then 52, stepped through the weeds and tugged on the backpack. She couldn't lift it. She untied some straps, and then unzipped the main compartment. She stood back in amazement as bundles of $20 bills oozed out. There she stood, alone with her dogs and, clearly, hundreds of thousands of dollars. Now what? Gerth today won't talk about the discovery, but she obviously faced a number of choices: take the bag home, hide it elsewhere in the woods, or call the cops, among others. The wife of a retired U.S. Border Patrol agent, Gerth would later tell authorities she wasn't naive about what she had found. Given the weight and size of the bag, stashed in the brush here along a stretch of highway known to be a Smuggler's Alley--clearly, this had to be drug money. Turning the cash in would probably be the right thing to do. Then again, she could keep the cache herself and still deprive some trafficker of his ill-gotten gains. In one marvelous move: justice and a Lexus. But Gerth didn't hesitate. She rushed the short distance home and told her husband. They quickly returned to the scene and, within minutes, Dan Gerth was on the phone with the sheriff. When Deputy Kevin Kinman arrived at the pullout, Dan Gerth, a slight, 5-foot- 8-inch man who was preparing to celebrate his 55th birthday in a few weeks, waited anxiously with his wife. On Kinman's advice over the phone, Gerth had driven his own pickup into the pullout to occupy the scene and would later tell deputies he was feeling uncomfortable about protecting the bag. Like his wife, Gerth suspected the cash was crime money--and that someone could show up to reclaim it at gunpoint. Returning to headquarters with the backpack, Okanogan deputies removed 55 pounds of money--$20 bills in $2,000 bundles, bound up in nine vacuum-sealed packages and a blue Wal-Mart bag. The bills, many in serial-number sequence, just kept coming, until they reached $497,920. ( A later recount brought the final tally to $507,070. ) Eyes widened: a half-million in cash, found in the toolies. Sheriff Frank Rogers, a solidly built, 22-year law-enforcement veteran, who calls Okanogan drug smuggling "an epidemic," was delighted to hear of the find: If, as everyone suspected, it was drug money, his department could, by law, take it for themselves. A federal law passed in 1984 allows government agencies to seize money and other assets associated with drug crime and use them to fund the long and often futile war on drugs. The seizures can provide law-enforcement windfalls: Just last month, the federal bust of a Northwest ring allegedly running pot and Ecstasy out of Canada included $5.2 million in seized homes, vehicles, land, and cash. After concluding the stash was drug money, Okanogan deputies decided they should return the backpack and stake out the drop site. The backpack was refilled with the gas masks and other items, and then dropped back into the woods. That night, David L. Taber, 35, of Oroville, arrived at the scene in his white Ford pickup. He was arrested and eventually charged with money laundering. Okanogan County looked ready to collect on its biggest drug forfeiture ever. But three days after the bust, Dan Gerth sat down and penned a note to Sheriff Rogers. "Dear Sheriff," he wrote, "On March 05, 2004, while walking near Highway 97 south of Oroville, Washington, Jane Gerth discovered a gold and black backpack along the road at a location locally known as the Thorton Rest Area. Subsequent to this discovery, the backpack was found to contain $497,000 in cash money. Presently, this money has not been claimed by the owner( s ). As finders of this property we are making an official claim to the $497,000 cash. Please consider this claim made with this letter as prescribed by section 63.21.010 Revised Code of Washington State. . . . Thank You." Until he retired a few years ago, Gerth patrolled the border crossing near Oroville. It's one of 12 entry points on Washington state's 300-mile border with Canada, ranging from a major crossing at Blaine to remote eastern ports of entry such as Danville and Laurier in Ferry County. Smugglers favor Highway 97, a two-lane pipeline that runs from Osoyoos, B.C., through isolated Okanogan County, and into, appropriately enough, Weed, Calif. They come bearing marijuana shipments, bags of cocaine, and boxes of Ecstasy, among other narcotics, but four-wheeled traffickers most frequently haul potent B.C. bud to the States before ferrying back bags of money. Officials say the Canadian drug industry is a multibillion-dollar business, about equal the cost to combat it. There are more than 20,000 marijuana grow operations in British Columbia alone, according to Canadian federal authorities, and most of the product heads south. Active distributors include outlaw bikers and ethnic gangs. Last month, a two-year, cross-border drug probe ended with the arrests of almost 50 suspects, including members of a Seattle Vietnamese street gang. ( Federal officials in Seattle unabashedly named the investigation "This Bud's Pho You." ) The most popular import is red-tipped B.C. bud--which is to hard-core potheads what single malt is to Scotch connoisseurs. Shippers buy it in British Columbia for up to $1,500 a pound and resell it for a $1,000 per unit markup in Washington ( $2,000 in California ). On the street, it can go for $300 an ounce. Some smuggling operations have the cash flow of small countries. Frank Tran, a multimillionaire financial kingpin based in Vancouver, B.C., got 10 years in the slammer this past May for his involvement in a cross-border money-laundering operation. At one point, Tran was exchanging U.S. and Canadian currency at a rate of $300,000 a day. It's the kind of money that attracts crowds. In June, four dozen accused smugglers were indicted in Seattle and Spokane for delivering tons of marijuana and cocaine across the border via helicopter. Among those nabbed were former Edmonds municipal court judge and state Supreme Court candidate James White, as well as onetime assistant Seattle city attorney Mark Vanderveen. The two, now imprisoned, were working as criminal defense attorneys when they decided a $100,000 drug-money payment from a client was worth risking their careers. In July, demonstrating the global nature of Canadian drug exports, authorities busted a ring of Alaskans and Canadians alleged to have trafficked $10 million in B.C. bud while arranging international money transfers in locales as varied as Alabama and Latvia. Canadian drugs are constantly on the move by sea, air, and especially land, using ATVs, RVs, and SUVs. There is a small smuggler air force of planes and helicopters, adding to the smugglers' risks--three people have died in two drug-chopper crashes in Canada since March 2005. The drug flights are especially annoying to the smugglers' foes. Leigh Winchell, Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( ICE ) special agent in charge of the Seattle office, told reporters that smugglers took a Playboy magazine writer on a drug sortie over B.C. last year and bragged their dope delivery system was better than FedEx. "I would be lying if I said we didn't take it as an affront," Winchell said. New surveillance and identification technology, including motion detectors, is used at the border. But authorities have also resorted to throwback horse patrols in the wild terrain to contain a growing invasion of drug-toting foot soldiers. They are often seen, according to veteran ICE agent Tyler Morgan, walking "on farm roads, through raspberry fields, and on logging roads." They bear knapsacks, duffle bags, and hockey bags stuffed with marijuana and others drugs. Still others go underground--literally. Last year, at a cost of $400,000, a trio of tunnelers burrowed from a Quonset hut on the Canadian side of the border into the living room of a house in Lynden, Wash. The three men, who got nine-year prison terms, had hoped to smuggle 300 pounds of dope a day, for starters. Then there's the smuggler navy. When not floating the coastal waters off Washington state and B.C., they take to the isolated lakes of the North Cascades. Among them: Ross Lake, which ranges from Canada into Skagit County, and 14-mile-long Lake Osoyoos, which flows from deep in Canada to a state park on the edge of Oroville. ICE agent Morgan, with a degree in accounting from the University of Washington, says kayaks and inflatable boats are common drug conveyances of small-time couriers who get anywhere from $100 to $300 per pound of dope they carry. Of course, Washington also grows its own. Federal and local law-enforcement officers last year seized 135,000 marijuana plants in the state, worth $270 million, according to the Washington State Patrol. As an agricultural product, dope ranks as Washington's eighth-largest crop, just ahead of sweet cherries. Most of last year's busts were made in arid Eastern Washington. As Jane Gerth discovered, it's a bountiful region for the fruits of crime. Okanogan officials suspected that Taber, an orchardist and part-time used-car salesman, planned to haul the cash in the backpack to Canada or wash it through a commercial bank account. Those are the two most common methods buyers and sellers use to transfer funds: They enlist intermediaries to physically smuggle the cash across the border or to mix it into the accounts of a business front and then wire the money to Canada. Before Taber could be accused of money laundering, Okanogan County Prosecutor Karl Sloan, a Seattle University law grad and two-term prosecutor, had to link the money to drugs. He relied in part on two notes found in the black and gold bag. One, handwritten, contained assorted calculations. The second, typed, appeared to list a variety of payments for drugs, and seemed to indicate that the delivery came up a few lids light: "Less shortages 20 + 18 + 21 + 34 grams," the note stated. Receipts of quantity and price are commonplace in drug deals, authorities said. Both prosecutors and defense agreed that Taber picked up a bag that had earlier contained $507,070 and that a dope smell filled the counting room at the sheriff's office--along with the scent of Febreze, commonly used to cover such odors. Experts told the court that Taber's was a classic drug-money case, similar to others in the past decade where seized backpacks contained hundreds of thousands of dollars in vacuum-sealed bundles. But Taber's attorney, Mark Watanabe of Seattle, argued that everyone overlooked a simple point: The sheriff's department emptied the backpack before Taber arrived. How could Taber launder money he never had in his possession? Okanogan County Superior Court Judge Jack Burchard seemed to agree, noting that Taber "never received, possessed, or disposed of illegal proceeds," and that the state couldn't cite a case of a person being convicted of money laundering in similar circumstances. After a bench trial, Burchard found Taber not guilty. Never definitively answered was why Taber picked up the money in the first place. Drug-money couriers are typically paid up to 4 percent of the cash they carry--in Taber's case, this would have been around $20,000. Would that have been worth the risk for a successful married man who runs 12 fruit orchards in Okanogan County and who, according to court papers, had a gross income of $124,000 in 2000? Taber declined to comment, and his attorney, Watanabe, says his client has moved on. An acquaintance, who preferred not to be named, says he never thought Taber was involved in drugs and, in this case, was probably just doing a favor for someone. "I can see someone enlisting Taber to do this," says the acquaintance. "He's this really good-natured country boy who reminds me of Jethro from The Beverly Hillbillies." All parties agreed that the $507,000 was proceeds of a crime. The question now was: Who gets it? If Sheriff Rogers got the money, he said, it would be earmarked, by law, to fight drug crime in his far-flung county, where 30 sworn personnel cover 5,280 sparsely populated miles of sageland, hills, and mountains. Though it is comprised mostly of government land and the Colville Indian Reservation, Okanogan County is the third-largest county in the lower 48 states, featuring a 90-mile border with Canada. "We've taken some [budget] cuts, and we have a lot of drug problems here," Rogers says. But the Gerths argued that the case was governed not by federal drug forfeiture law but by Washington's 1979 "found property" law, which says, in essence, that if the owner fails to turn up, finders keepers. The Gerths' case, officially titled Okanogan County v. $507,070, was heard in Okanogan County Court by visiting Judge T.W. "Chip" Small of Chelan County. Small may be best remembered as the judge who recused himself from the 2005 civil case brought by the Republicans challenging the Washington gubernatorial election of Democrat Christine Gregoire--in part because he was appointed to his seat by a Democratic governor, Booth Gardner ( though Small's wife is a registered Republican and GOP national committee donor ). Small made clear he sided with the Gerths. They had found the stash before it was deemed by a court to be drug-related. Therefore, he ruled in January this year, "under the [state] lost-and-found statute . . . they are entitled to the funds." When asked outside court that day what she'd do with the money, Jane Gerth just smiled at the prospect. The Gerths would have to pay income tax, which could lop more than $100,000 off the amount. Nonetheless, after two anxious years, she and her husband were officially, if accidentally, half-millionaires. It could have ended there, with the Gerths living happily ever after. But euphoria turned to disappointment with the arrival of the next morning's newspaper, and the headline: "County vows to appeal decision awarding money to couple." Deputy prosecutor Steve Bozarth said Small's ruling deserved review by a higher court. The conflict between laws regarding found property and drug-money seizures "needs to be fleshed out," he said. Bozarth's boss, Sloan, said in a recent interview that "even given the fact these were innocent finders, it's troubling that drug money doesn't go to the agency that interdicts drugs. We felt another court should be asked whether a finder has an interest in that money." At that point, the case seemed headed for the state Court of Appeals in Spokane, and a likely appeal to the state Supreme Court thereafter. It looked like the Gerths might not see the money for years. But, unknown to all but a few people, a few weeks after Judge Small's ruling, Sheriff Rogers quietly handed the money to the Gerths. "I never announced it because they didn't want a lot of press," Rogers told the Weekly last month. The payment has not been publicly revealed until now. Neither of the Gerths will talk about the payment today. "There's nothing more to say," Jane Gerth responds. The Gerths' attorney also would not comment. His choice wasn't all that complicated, the sheriff indicated, once the court ruled. "The bottom line is, the decision rested with me," says Rogers, 49, a Republican who recently was elected to a second term. "They're good folks, they did nothing wrong, and I just said, 'I'm not going to drag these people through this court stuff again.'" On Feb. 17, Rogers signed the papers releasing the $507,070--plus about $10,000 interest--to the Gerths. "They came by later and expressed their appreciation," Rogers says. "I'd say they were pretty happy."













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US MO: OPED: Legal Marijuana Would Help Millions

LEGAL MARIJUANA WOULD HELP MILLIONS Have you heard the news? There is now a low-cost drug proven to ease a cancer patient's suffering. Not only does this drug reduce the physical and psychological pain of cancer, but, more importantly, it restores a chemotherapy patient's appetite. The drug, of course, is marijuana. Unfortunately, in a 6-3 ruling last year, the U.S. Supreme Court turned thumbs down on the drug, overturning laws in 11 states which allowed doctors to prescribe the medication to their cancer patients. Pouring salt into the wound, the U.S. House of Representatives -- in a preposterous 273-152 vote -- opted likewise to outlaw the drug for cancer patients. Representative Roy Blunt, R-Mo., turned his back on cancer victims, as did Rep. Jim Ryun, R-Kan., and Rep. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. Rep. John Boozman, R-Ariz., also agreed that marijuana had no earthly medical benefits, despite the anecdotal evidence from thousands of cancer patients. ( Maybe I'm missing something, but I don't see M.D. behind any of these congressmen's names. ) One of the amendment's co-sponsors, Rep. Rohrabacher, R-Calif., broke down in tears during his speech in support of the bill. Talking of his mother who died of cancer, Rep. Rohrabacher questioned the rationale of jailing people whose only crime was the overpowering need to relieve their pain. I'm guessing none of the shortsighted lawmakers voting against the amendment has ever been attached intravenously to a chemotherapy drip. Probably never been in a room full of bone-weary cancer patients -- expressions grim, hair thinning -- stretched out on recliners as the chemo-poison drips into their vein. ( Oncologists don't like to talk about it, but a chemotherapy patient can die from the complications of starvation. The thing is, you don't have an appetite when you're on chemo. Patients often lose 20 percent of their body weight thanks to an unwelcome companion: debilitating nausea. Marijuana helps to restore this loss of appetite. ) This archaic intolerance for doctor-prescribed marijuana is even more difficult to swallow given the results of a recent Gallup Poll. The poll revealed 80 percent of Americans favor doctor-prescribed marijuana for cancer patients. Apparently, neither the U.S. Supreme Court nor the U.S. House of Representatives are reading polls these days. Or they simply don't care. Remember, this is doctor-prescribed marijuana. I'm not talking about a cancer patient making a desperate, late-night drug buy in some seedy downtown Joplin alley. It is prescribed by a doctor in a clinically controlled environment like any other drug. Why is this concept so difficult to accept? I've heard the argument against condoning doctor-prescribed marijuana. It goes something like this: Providing medical marijuana to cancer patients is the first step toward legalizing the drug. Nonsense! That's like saying morphine should be outlawed as a pain reliever for fear it, too, will become legalized. Both arguments are classic examples of circular logic. A person makes an assumption that can't be proven, then derives a result from this assumption to prove a point. Political doublespeak. To say the argument for outlawing medical marijuana is dangerously flawed is like saying the sinking of the Titanic was an unfortunate accident -- a towering understatement. I'm not suggesting marijuana be legalized. Not now. Not ever. But honestly, can't our elected officials show some compassion for the 1.4 million new cancer patients each year who have no voice of their own. To deny medical marijuana to cancer patients is simply wrong. The objections are irrational. The suffering is needless.












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US: Nevada Will Vote on Legalizing Pot

NEVADA WILL VOTE ON LEGALIZING POT RENO, Nev. -- Organizers of a measure on Nevada's November ballot hope that voters in a state in which almost everything goes already will go one better and legalize marijuana. If voters approve, Nevada would become the first state in the nation in which adults could legally possess up to 1 ounce of marijuana and conceivably purchase it at government-regulated and -taxed pot shops. The Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana, which has pushed medical marijuana and decriminalization laws around the country, thinks a state that embraces gambling, allows prostitution in rural counties and prides itself on its Western independence, is a perfect venue to legalize marijuana. "All we're saying is, our marijuana laws completely do not work," said Neal Levine, executive director of the committee, which is largely funded by the Washington D.C.-based Marijuana Policy Project. The group argues that the legal system wastes time and money on low-level marijuana offenses, and that taxing and regulating pot would put drug dealers out of business while freeing law enforcement to focus on violent crime and trafficking in narcotics, such as methamphetamine. "Anyone who wants it can get it," Levine said. "Put it into a tightly controlled and regulated environment. We think that makes a lot of sense." Opponents, including law enforcement, the nation's drug czar, and civic and business groups, argue the measure sends the wrong message. They say it will encourage the use of other drugs, and they question proponents' contentions that marijuana could be Nevada's newest cash cow because they say the state doesn't have the authority to regulate such substances. "The fact is, growing, distributing and warehousing marijuana will still be a federal offense," said Todd Raybuck, a Las Vegas police officer and volunteer spokesman for the Committee to Keep Nevada Respectable, which opposes the measure. Question 7 allows people 21 and older to possess 1 ounce of marijuana in their homes -- the same amount allowed under Nevada's medical-marijuana law. Includes Excise Tax Twelve states have decriminalized small amounts of marijuana and 12 allow its use for medical purposes. Possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana at home is legal in Alaska under a court decision, but appeals are pending. In November, South Dakota will vote on authorizing medical marijuana. Colorado voters will vote on a ballot measure that would legalize possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana by those 21 and older, similar to an ordinance Denver voters approved last year. But the Nevada measure goes further. It also directs Nevada's Department of Taxation to set up procedures to license and regulate marijuana growers, distributors and retailers. At the same time, it doubles penalties for selling or giving pot to minors and for vehicular manslaughter while under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The legislation also imposes a $45 per ounce excise tax, the proceeds of which would be used to defray administrative costs. Remaining tax dollars would go to the state general fund, with 50 percent earmarked for alcohol, tobacco and substance abuse programs. Revenue Estimate Questioned A 2002 study by researchers at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas estimated taxing and regulating marijuana would generate $28.6 million in new state revenue. But opponents counter that the touted benefits are pipe dreams, flawed by the reality of federal law, and they point out that since 2001 possession of an ounce or less in Nevada has been reduced to a misdemeanor punishable by a $600 fine. A spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Nevada said the office doesn't comment on policy issues and referred questions to the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., which didn't respond to several phone calls and e-mails seeking comment. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled people who smoke marijuana for medical reasons can be prosecuted under federal drug laws. Though officials have said it's unlikely federal authorities would target medicinal users, Raybuck said it's doubtful that federal agents would tolerate commercial pot ventures. "The big question is, this goes beyond legalizing 1 ounce," Raybuck said. "How many pounds will they have in their warehouse? What community is going to open their streets and highways to tractor-trailer loads of weed? "Even if we could set up pot farms and pot shops, it's not going to happen overnight," Raybuck added. That gap, he said, would invite criminal elements. "It'd be a heyday," he said. Here is a look at the status of marijuana laws in various states, including those that have decriminalized possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana and approved use of marijuana for medical reasons: . DECRIMINALIZED ( 12 ): Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon. . MEDICAL MARIJUANA ( 12 ): Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington. . LEGAL ( 1 ): It currently is legal in Alaska to possess up to 1 ounce in the privacy of your own home but an appeal is pending in the state court system. . NOVEMBER BALLOT: Colorado voters will vote on a ballot measure in November that would legalize possession of up to 1 ounce of marijuana by those 21 and older, similar to an ordinance Denver voters approved last year. South Dakota votes on medical marijuana. . LOCAL ORDINANCES: Several local jurisdictions across the country also have measures on the ballot that would make possession the lowest law enforcement priority, something already adopted in Seattle and Oakland, Calif., among other places. Sources: Committee to Regulate and Control Marijuana and the Ballot Initiative Strategy Center.











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US CO: Marijuana Propaganda

MARIJUANA PROPAGANDA Amendment 44 Backers Seek Gramnet Records The campaign director for a Denver-based group leading the charge for pro-marijuana legislation said his organization "anxiously" awaits the response from a local drug task force that may have violated state campaign laws. So far, that response hasn't come. "Our response to that is 'no comment,'" said Dusty Schulze, task force commander of the Greater Routt and Moffat Narcotics Enforcement Team. In late September, GRAMNET released a statement urging residents to vote against Amendment 44 -- a question on the November general election ballot that, if approved, would legalize the possession of up to one ounce of marijuana for anyone 21 or older. The eight-page release, which included information titled "The Truth about Marijuana," was attributed to eight officials in Moffat and Routt counties, including the sheriffs from both counties and the district attorney, who prosecutes cases in both counties. On Friday, the Alcohol-Marijuana Equalization Initiative committee, a branch of the group Safer Alternative for Enjoyable Recreation, filed an open records request with GRAMNET. The group is trying to learn whether the drug task force broke state law by spending more than $50 preparing and distributing the release. "It's against the law," said Mason Tvert, a campaign director for SAFER. "When the police break the law, it's a big deal. ... And I would think our government using our tax dollars to break the law is a big deal." Schulze said attorneys for GRAMNET would review the request before moving forward. The agency is composed of Moffat and Routt counties' law enforcement agencies. SAFER contends that GRAMNET may have violated the Colorado Fair Campaign Practices Act, which prohibits state or local government from making campaign contributions to an issue committee advocating passage or defeat of a ballot initiative. "Putting together such extensive materials must have taken many, many hours," Tvert said on Friday. "Based on the response to our records request -- along with any other information we receive in the meantime about GRAMNET's involvement in the campaign -- we will determine whether to bring this case before the Secretary of State." The committee's request for information, filed under the Colorado Open Records Act, seeks access to all writings, public records and criminal records relating to GRAMNET's press release urging opposition to Amendment 44. The request also seeks annual or hourly salary information for those who drafted, signed, reviewed or spent time working on the release. It also asks that the materials sought be made available as soon as possible. As of Tuesday afternoon, SAFER had not received any of the information requested, Tvert said. Robert J. Corry, a Denver attorney representing the SAFER committee, said GRAMNET has three days to respond to the request. He said the committee would move forward with litigation if it does not have a response to the request by today. Polling information suggests the November vote on Amendment 44 may be a close one. According to a poll released in late September by Survey USA, which gauged 532 likely Colorado voters, there are still a large number of undecided voters. According to the poll, 29 percent of voters said they would vote in favor of the amendment, versus 36 percent in opposition; 35 percent said they were uncertain. Proponents of Amendment 44 say the proposed legislation's aim is to stimulate debate, educate the public and free adults from the risk of breaking the law for a relatively harmless activity -- using marijuana. They also said that marijuana is less harmful than alcohol and adult possession should be treated the same under the law. Opponents contend that the measure hinders both law enforcement and families, provides a gateway to more serious drug abuse and gives drug dealers access to youths. They also say that marijuana is a dangerous and addictive drug.


















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US CO: OPED: Hippie-Hating And -Baiting

HIPPIE-HATING AND -BAITING Possession of an ounce of marijuana by adults will be legal if Colorado's Amendment 44 wins. On one side are legalization activists fresh from a victory in Denver; on the other is the federal Drug Enforcement Agency, mobilizing Coloradoans to resist. The voters stand between in what may be the most important issue on this fall's ballot. Amendment 44 is about more than marijuana: It's about civil rights and America's future. "Yeah, the '60s are over with," the man growls, "but they forgot to tell them that up in Boulder." Or, apparently, in a good portion of Colorado. Today, hippies aren't supposed to exist; yet, look around, and there they are, the majority of whom had yet to be born when the '60s ended. I'd estimate that nationally, hippies comprise about 10 percent of the population; in Colorado, that figure is probably higher. We tend to recite the cliche that hippies no longer exist because powerful forces in America want us to think just that. They consider the counterculture a menace to Western civilization, something with no rightful place in today's America. Well, particular drugs have always had ethnic identifications. And historically in America, if the powers-that-be wanted to persecute an ethnic group, they went after their drugs. America's first anti-drug laws, according to John Helmer's Drugs and Minority Oppression, targeted opium as a way of persecuting Chinese immigrants. In the 1930s, our first marijuana laws were imposed to harass Mexican-Americans; an Alamosa newspaper editor's pleas were made congressional testimony: "I wish I could show you what a small marijuana cigarette can do to one of our degenerate Spanish-speaking residents." Early cocaine laws were fueled by racist stereotypes of intoxicated black men raping white women. And today, marijuana laws are aimed primarily at the counterculture -- we're filling our prisons with hippies. But hippies aren't criminals: they're a people criminalized as part of a drive to, as drug warrior and former Attorney General John Mitchell put it, "take the country so far to the right you won"t recognize it." So, it's not just hippies getting hurt; it's all of America. To the extent a society has an official pariah group, it tends to become ugly and repressive -- could Hitler have come to power, for instance, without widespread and institutionalized anti-Semitism? For 40 years, America has treated hippie-Americans as illegitimate, second-class citizens. The results have been catastrophic: The Bill of Rights, particularly the Fourth Amendment, has been shredded. Often, our elections have been driven by hippie-hating, and they've been tainted by hippie-baiting ( Newt Gingrich, for example, returned the GOP to Congressional power in 1996 largely by branding the Clintons "counterculture McGoverniks" ). Neoconservatives blame hippies for everything from urban decay to abortion to our loss in Vietnam; when a minority is scapegoated, a nation turns from the true source of its problems and thus from solving them. A sober look at today's counterculture, by the way, shows not an overdosed junkie but a cultural dynamo. Its contributions range from the personal computer to a thriving natural-foods industry to the Muppets to winning a slew of U.S. medals in the 2006 Winter Olympics, among many others. We stereotype hippies as losers and parasites, but like all stereotypes, this accentuates the negative, eliminates the positive and forgets Mr. In-Between. What about star entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson? What about Dr. Andrew Weil, increasingly the nation's most trusted source on health and healing? Coloradoans will hear manipulative appeals about "protecting our children from drugs," but it's alcohol that's killing our kids; pot-is-dangerous arguments are pretexts for repression. No, not all hippies are pot smokers, and not all pot smokers are countercultural, but essentially, Amendment 44 is part of a struggle by a relatively new ethnicity, the counterculture, for social equality. Only the most bigoted still doubt the African-American Civil Rights Movement made America a better place; ultimately, civil rights movements help societies. As part of a movement to secure the civil rights of hippie-Americans, Amendment 44 is something Colorado and this nation needs.















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US IA: Column: Mayor's Pot Bust Has Some Thinking

MAYOR'S POT BUST HAS SOME THINKING If you found out one of your best friends was selling marijuana, would it change your opinion of your friend or the marijuana? It sounds like some people in little Wilton, Iowa, are struggling with the news that their mayor, Dick Summy, has been arrested and charged with trafficking marijuana. It's a pretty serious deal for the 56-year-old. Trafficking is a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Violating the state's tax-stamp law is a Class D felony and carries a maximum sentence of five years. And Sean McCullough, a supervisor for the Iowa Department of Public Safety's Narcotics Enforcement Division, said Monday that more charges could be coming. He didn't get into the specific evidence the state has against Summy but said, "We have enough evidence to lead to the arrest. "His drug network spread over the Des Moines area," he added. The mayor's alleged drug dealings still are under investigation, he said, but the Polk County end of things is wrapped up. "Additional arrests, if any, would be closer to home," McCullough said, referring to the Wilton area. Some of the mayor's peers had a surprising reaction to the news. Richard Garrison, the councilman who is filling in for him as mayor, called Summy "a nice, honorable person" and said he would "give him a hug" if he could. The city attorney reminded folks the mayor's only been charged -- not convicted. It's a safe bet that the mayor of a town the size of Wilton ( about 2,900 ) has friends and enemies. In fact, we know from recent history that he got sideways with the former police chief over an incident involving another cop. Ultimately, the chief resigned. And surely there are residents of Wilton, about 40 miles west of the Quad-Cities, who have some kind of bone to pick with the mayor. That's just how it works in small towns. But it's the people who are rushing to Summy's defense that interest me. It's a get-in-their-heads kind of desire, wondering how a person decides whether to stand by somebody who's accused of doing something they ordinarily would find disdainful. Are some of the people of a town that the U.S. Census Bureau says is almost entirely white and has only a 12.6 percent divorce rate now reconsidering their views on marijuana? Is it possible that a crime once instantly dismissed as worthy of a decade in prison could now seem somehow explainable? Somehow not so bad? It'll probably depend on the details. If the cops say Summy was delivering pounds of pot to an elderly group of glaucoma sufferers in Des Moines, he may get some backing. If it turns out he was dealing to college students in Iowa City, things could go the other way. A year-long investigation by state narcotics agents is a fairly generous investment that will no doubt produce even more town tongue-wagging as details emerge. The mayor will no doubt keep some friends. Maybe he'll lose some, too. A 56-year-old mayor from a small Iowa town doesn't fit the dope dealer profile. And maybe that's what some find forgivable?













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US: Chemical Enlightenment

CHEMICAL ENLIGHTENMENT Line Up for the Scientific, Psychedelic Mystical Tour The comfortably furnished room in a corner of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore seems an unlikely setting for spiritual transcendence. Yet one after another, volunteers last year entered the living room--like space, reclined on the couch, swallowed a pill, and opened themselves to a profound mystical journey lasting several hours. For many of them, the mundane certainty of being a skin-bounded person with an individual existence melted away. In its place arose a sense of merging with an ultimate reality where all things exist in a sacred, unified realm. Participants felt intense joy, peacefulness, and love during these experiences. At times, though, some became fearful, dreading unseen dangers. The pills that enabled these mystical excursions contained psilocybin, the active ingredient in so-called magic mushrooms that some societies have used for centuries in religious ceremonies. Psilocybin boosts transmission of the brain chemical serotonin, much as LSD and some other hallucinogenic drugs do. Johns Hopkins psychopharmacologist Roland R. Griffiths and his colleagues have taken psilocybin out of its traditional context and far from the black-light milieu of its hippie-era heyday. Griffiths' team is investigating the drug's reputed mind-expanding effects in a rigorous, scientific way with ordinary people. In the group's recent test, psilocybin frequently sparked temporary mystical makeovers in volunteers who didn't know what kind of pill they were taking. What's more, some of these participants reported long-lasting positive effects of their experiences. As a control in the test, the researchers used methylphenidate--an amphetamine known as Ritalin when used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Methylphenidate rarely produced a mystical experience, although the researchers were intrigued that a few people did have that response. Griffiths' study, published in the August Psychopharmacology, combines research on psychedelic-drug effects--which have received little attention in the past 40 years--with a burgeoning scientific interest in the roots of spirituality ( SN: 2/17/01, p. 104: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20010217/bob7.asp ). The new findings put psychedelic studies on the road back to respectability, Griffiths says. In the 1950s and 1960s, preliminary research had suggested that LSD and related substances--now regarded as powerful but nonaddictive drugs--aided in psychotherapy, addiction treatment, and creativity-promoting programs. However, the excesses of researchers such as the late Harvard University psychologist Timothy Leary, as well as widespread illicit use of psychedelic drugs, led to legal restrictions that halted most psychedelic research. Now, the scientific and clinical promise of drugs such as psilocybin can be fully explored, in Griffiths' view. "With careful preparation, you can safely and fairly reliably occasion a mystical experience using psilocybin that may lead to positive changes in a person," he says. "Our finding is an early step in what we hope will be scientific work that helps people." Spirit Trips Griffiths' recent work was inspired by an unusual 1963 investigation conducted by physician and minister Walter Pahnke. Half of 20 Protestant seminarians randomly received psilocybin before listening to a radio broadcast of a Good Friday service. The rest took a B vitamin that caused the skin to flush. After the service, many members of the psilocybin group reported unusual spiritual experiences. Four of them had full-blown mystical reactions, which they said included ecstatic visions and a feeling of oneness with God. In interviews conducted 6 months and 25 years later, members of the psilocybin group attributed many more positive changes in attitude and behavior to the Good Friday service than vitamin takers did. Psilocybin-induced mental states had apparently triggered lasting improvements in people's lives, researchers concluded. During Pahnke's study, however, participants sat together during the broadcast and could easily tell whether others were acting out of character. Such observations could have affected their reactions to what they had ingested. Griffiths' team tried to minimize the power of expectation by not telling most participants which drug they were taking and by administering pills to one volunteer at a time. The team recruited 36 physically healthy adults, ages 24 to 64, who had no serious mental disorders themselves or in their immediate families. All but one volunteer had graduated from college. None cited any previous use of psychedelic drugs. Each reported at least occasional participation in religious or spiritual activities, including church services, prayer, and meditation. At the start of the study, each volunteer met several times with a psychologist or social worker, who later sat with participants during drug sessions and offered support if needed. Each of 30 randomly selected volunteers attended two 8-hour drug sessions, the second occurring 2 months after the first. At one session they received a strong dose of psilocybin and at the other a high dose of methylphenidate. No participant was told which drug he or she ingested--only that it might be either of the two substances. The remaining six participants received methylphenidate at the two sessions without being told what the pills contained. At a third session, they took psilocybin pills after being told what was in the tablets. After taking psilocybin, 22 of the 36 volunteers described having mystical experiences, the scientists say. All but three of these cases occurred in volunteers who didn't know what kind of pill they were taking. Mystical events typically included a sense of merging with an overarching reality, perceiving unity in all things, transcending time and space, and basking in overwhelming feelings of love and other positive moods. At the end of psilocybin sessions, 25 participants--including 3 who hadn't reported mystical encounters--rated the experience as among the five most meaningful and spiritually significant events in their lives. After taking methylphenidate, four volunteers reported mystical experiences as well. They, too, ranked the experience among the top five in their lives. Feelings of extreme fear or dread emerged in 11 of the 36 volunteers after taking psilocybin and in none after taking methylphenidate. Those who encountered negative reactions nonetheless completed the sessions with assistance from the psychologist or social worker. Positive effects of psilocybin seemed to last beyond the sessions. Two months after their last drug session, 29 participants reported moderately or greatly increased well-being and satisfaction with their lives as a result of psilocybin experiences. The others cited no such changes, but none described any declines in well-being in response to the psilocybin use. Interviews with family members, friends, and coworkers of each volunteer confirmed the reports of long-lived improvements in mood, attitudes, and behavior. The researchers are now analyzing results of a 1-year follow-up of participants. Griffiths also plans to explore how brain processes unleashed by psilocybin compare with neural activity in people who experience drug free spiritual epiphanies. "There's good reason to believe that similar brain mechanisms are at work during profound religious experiences, whether they're produced by fasting, meditation, controlled breathing, sleep deprivation, near-death experiences, infectious disease states, or psychoactive substances," he says. Deep Hypnosis Although it's not news that psilocybin stimulates mystical experiences, Griffiths' study offers important improvements over earlier studies, asserts psychologist Etzel Cardena of the University of Lund, Sweden. First, in most instances, neither the participants nor those assisting them knew which drug was being administered. This approach enabled researchers to distinguish genuine drug effects from placebo reactions. Second, the researchers verified participants' reports of psilocybin-induced improvements by talking to their families, friends, and coworkers. Cardena studies yet another way that people enter life-changing spiritual realms. Some folks spontaneously undergo mystical experiences during periods of "deep hypnosis," he contends. From a group of 147 college students, Cardena identified eight women and four men who entered trance states with ease. Dubbed hypnotic virtuosos by Cardena, such individuals can direct their thoughts inward and, in no more than a minute or two, become hypnotized on their own. None of the 12 students in the study reported being in a meditation program or currently using psychedelic drugs, although 3 had ingested such substances years ago. In a silent, dimly lit room, each participant induced a self-hypnotic state under three conditions--while lying on a bed, pedaling a stationary bicycle at a comfortable rate, and sitting on a stationary bicycle equipped with a motor that propelled the pedals, moving participants' feet at a moderate rate. Sessions ran for 17 minutes. Participants reported an initial period of moderate hypnosis characterized by spinning sensations, a feeling of lightness, loss of touch with the external world, and perceived bodily changes, such as enlarged hands. They then reached a state of deep hypnosis, which became more intense when the students were lying still, Cardena says. The experiences while in deep hypnosis closely resembled mystical journeys taken in Griffiths' psilocybin sessions. Reports included a sense of floating or flying, of one's mind leaving one's body, of merging with a light, and of being one with everything, as well as powerful feelings of love, wonder, and freedom. In another parallel to Griffiths' findings, participants occasionally noted that the unusual occurrences of deep hypnosis scared them. Still, at the end of the experiment and 8 months later, the volunteers mentioned only positive effects of the deep hypnosis, Cardena reported in the January 2005 International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis. Favorable results included increased personal insight, fewer nightmares, and enhanced inner peace. In other words, these people enjoyed the inner benefits of a self-induced mystical encounter without ingesting any mind-altering drugs. "It's about time that psychology and related fields started taking seriously mystical and other anomalous experiences," Cardena says. Life Changers In 1935, a man named Bill Wilson cofounded Alcoholics Anonymous. He had recently undergone a self-described spiritual revelation that caused him to stop drinking alcohol. Two decades later, before legal restrictions largely ended studies on psychedelic drugs, Wilson backed research that suggested a use for drug-induced mystical experiences as part of alcoholism treatment. Griffiths and his colleagues now plan to follow up on that research. They will try to determine whether psilocybin indeed fosters a spiritual insight that people can use to break alcoholism's grip. They also want to examine whether psilocybin sessions ease depression and anxiety in end-stage cancer patients. A few treatment-focused investigations of psilocybin are already under way. In pairs of 6-hour sessions separated by 1 month, psychiatrist Charles Grob of the University of California, Los Angeles administers either psilocybin or placebo pills to patients with life-threatening cancer. Patients then typically lie still with their eyes covered while listening to relaxing music. Grob and two assistants sit with each patient during these sessions. Grob has studied six patients so far, tracking them for 6 months after completing the sessions. He plans to investigate six more patients before publishing his findings. "Even without having a classic mystical experience, these patients do pretty well after psilocybin sessions, and their anxiety often decreases," Grob says. Another study, directed by psychiatrist Francisco Moreno of the University of Arizona in Tucson, is examining psilocybin as a treatment for obsessive-compulsive disorder. This condition is marked by anxiety and a need to perform repeatedly certain behaviors, such as hand washing. Results are promising, Moreno says, although he won't discuss the findings in detail until their upcoming publication in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. In the meantime, Griffiths' paper has attracted some surprising supporters. Psychiatrist Charles R. Schuster of Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit says that the new investigation will hasten explorations of the neural basis of drug-induced altered states of consciousness. Schuster, the former director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, calls the treatment of drug addiction with psychedelic substances "entirely conceivable." Psychiatrist Herbert D. Kleber of Columbia University in New York City agrees. Former director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Kleber cautions that only well-prepared individuals--such as those in Griffiths' study--are likely to reap lasting benefits from drug-related mystical states. Kleber looks forward to investigations of whether mystical experiences triggered by methylphenidate and psilocybin activate the same brain regions. Activity in the brains of people who show minimal reactions to psilocybin should also prove intriguing, he says. Not everyone finds Griffiths' study enlightening, however. The new data simply confirm the longstanding knowledge that psychedelic substances disturb perception, cause disorientation, and sometimes instigate fear and paranoia, remarks David Murray, special assistant to the current director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy. Clinical benefits of psilocybin have yet to be demonstrated, he asserts. "Psilocybin might grow hair on bald men--we just don't know," Murray says with a chuckle. Even ardent proponents of psychedelic-drug research acknowledge that, after lying dormant for decades, the field faces many unanswered questions. It's been a long, strange trip, and it's far from over. References: Cardena, E. 2005. The phenomenology of deep hypnosis: Quiescent and physically active. International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Hypnosis 53( January ):37-59. Abstract available at http://taylorandfrancis.metapress.com/link.asp? id=3Dta2j5ayye2l3109p Griffiths, R.R., et al. 2006. Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance. Psychopharmacology 187( August ):268-283. Abstract available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00213-006-0457-5 Kleber, H.D. 2006. Commentary on: Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance by Griffiths, et al. Psychopharmacology 187( August ):291-292. Schuster, C.R. 2006. Commentary on: Psilocybin can occasion mystical-type experiences having substantial and sustained personal meaning and spiritual significance by Griffiths, et al. Psychopharmacology 187( August ):289-290. Further Readings: Bower, B. 2001. Into the mystic. Science News 159( Feb. 17 ):104-106. Available at http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20010217/bob7.asp Strassman, R. 2001. DMT: The Spirit Molecule--A Doctor's Revolutionary Research into the Biology of Near-Death and Mystical Experiences. Rochester, N.Y.: Park Street Press. Sources: Etzel Cardena Department of Psychology University of Lund P.O. Box 213 SE-221 00 Lund Sweden Roland R. Griffiths Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine 5510 Nathan Shock Drive Baltimore, MD 21224-6823 Charles S. Grob University of California, Los Angeles Psychiatry & Biobehavioral Sciences 1000 West Carson Street Los Angeles, CA 90095-1768 Herbert D. Kleber Division on Substance Abuse New York State Psychiatric Institute 1051 Riverside Drive Unit 66, Room 3713 New York, NY 10032 Francisco Moreno University of Arizona Department of Psychiatry 1501 North Campbell Avenue P.O. Box 245002 Tucson, AZ 85724-5002
















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