NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR THE REFORM OF
MARIJUANA LAWS
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Internet http://www.norml.org/
... a weekly service for the media on news items related to Marijuana Prohibition.
May 16, 1996
Hawaii State Legislature Passes Hemp Resolution
May 1996, Honolulu, Hawaii: For the
first time in its history, the Hawaii State Legislature has
passed a resolution to conduct a study on the economic potential
of growing industrial hemp as an agricultural product.
House Resolution 71 and House Concurrent Resolution 63 describe
the study as a fact-finding and information-gathering forum that
would examine the following aspects of industrial hemp: 1) the commodity
value, 2) economic potential and other benefits, 3) comparison of
the economic potential with that of similar crops, 4) interest of
Hawaii landowners, businesses, and other parties in growing
industrial hemp, 5) federal procedures for obtaining a permit to
grow hemp, and 6) the barriers that prohibit the growing of hemp.
"Thousands of acres of former sugar plantation land still
await the arrival of a viable alternative crop," stated Rep.
David Tarnas (D-6th District), a chief backer of the
measure. "Industrial hemp should be allowed to prove
itself as a successful commodity here in Hawaii -- as it is doing
in other places around the world."
The joint Senate Committees on Agriculture, Labor, and Employment
and Ways and Means stated in their committee report that
"given the State's current economic crisis, the viability of alternative
cash crops should be explored to the fullest extent
possible."
The Hawaii Agribusiness Development Corporation will be
initiating the research project at the University of Hawaii,
College of Tropical Agriculture.
Earlier this year, Rep. Tarnas introduced legislation to amend
the state law to authorize the production, possession, and
commerce of non-psychoactive industrial hemp in Hawaii.
However, the House Agriculture Committee voted to postpone
deciding on that bill until next year.
For more information, please contact Rep. David Tarnas @ (808)
586-8510.
California Secretary Of State Issues Raw Count For Medical Marijuana Petition
May 15, 1996, Santa Monica: A raw
count by the California Secretary of State demonstrates that a
state-wide initiative to legalize marijuana for medical use has
well over the necessary number of signatures to appear on the
November 1996 state ballot. Although the total number of
signatures will not be certified by the State for another six or
seven weeks, the Secretary of Sate announced that raw count
figures indicate that more than 758,000 signatures were collected
-- well over the 433,269 required to qualify the initiative for
the 1996 ballot.
California's medical marijuana initiative came about in response
to Governor Pete Wilson's decision to veto legislation passed by
the California Legislature in 1995 that would have allowed for
the controlled compassionate use of marijuana for those diagnosed
by a physician to be suffering from the diseases of AIDS, cancer,
glaucoma, and multiple sclerosis. The 1996 initiative maintains
that patients or defined caregivers who possess or cultivate
marijuana for medical treatment recommended by a physician are
exempt from the general provisions of law which otherwise
prohibit possession or cultivation of marijuana. In
addition, the initiative declares that physicians shall not be
punished or denied any right or privilege for recommending
marijuana to a patient for medical purposes.
If the initiative is passed by California voters this fall, the
measure will become law immediately and cannot be vetoed.
For more information, please contact either Dale Gieringer of
California NORML @ (415) 563-5858 or Dennis Peron of Californians
for Compassionate Use @ (415) 621-3986. Additional
information regarding the 1996 Medical Marijuana Initiative may
be accessed via the Internet @: http://www.marijuana.org/
Oregon Marijuana Initiative Approaches
Required Number Of Signatures
To Be Placed On Ballot
May 9, 1996, Portland, OR: An Oregon
state campaign to regulate the sale of marijuana to adults
appears to be well on its way toward qualifying for the November
1996 general election.
Headed by local NORML activists and the Political Action
Committee Pay for Schools by Regulating Cannabis (PSRC), a
proposal to comprehensively reform marijuana laws in the state has
gathered in excess of 65,000 signatures -- more than three
quarters of the number needed to place the initiative on the
ballot. The PSRC must gather at least 73,261 registered
Oregon voters' signatures by July 5, 1996 to qualify.
Known as the Oregon Cannabis Tax Act (OCTA), the PSRC proposal
would tax and regulate the sale of marijuana to adults, license
farmers to cultivate the drug for sale to the state, permit physicians
to prescribe marijuana as a therapeutic agent to seriously ill
patients, and allow farmers to grow industrial hemp for fiber,
oil, and protein production.
The OCTA would authorize the sale of marijuana to take place in
state-run liquor stores where the age limit of 21 can be strictly
enforced. The PSRC estimates that the profits generated
from the regulated sale of marijuana could amount to $500 million
a year or 20 percent of Oregon's total state budget. The
OCTA would direct 65 percent of that money toward funding primary
and secondary education. In addition, 30 percent of the
revenue would go to state and community colleges, four percent
would go to fund drug abuse treatment programs, and the remaining
one percent would be used to implement realistic drug education
programs in the schools.
According to Chief Petitioner Paul Stanford, the pending Oregon
legislation is drafted to effectively stand up to the barrage of
court challenges that it will presumably face. The OCTA is written
in compliance with the restrictions imposed by several
international anti-drug treaties and the bill provides numerous
constitutional protections in its comprehensive preamble to
ensure that the act will be upheld in court. Moreover, the
OCTA even provides funding for the inevitable legal battles that
await it by collecting revenue through the issuing of cannabis
license fees, Stanford notes.
Preliminary surveys indicate that the OCTA has a realistic chance
of passing. School funding is a very urgent issue in Oregon
and a poll conducted by the state's largest television station, KATU-TV,
showed that 55 percent of the respondents answered yes when
asked, "Should marijuana be sold in liquor stores to fund
education?"
"The war on drugs is the issue on which the future of
freedom in America swings," stated Stanford.
"Families and individuals are being destroyed by this
misguided civil war. The war on drugs is not about drugs,
it's about money and the continued centralization of economic and political
control. The Oregon Cannabis Tax Act is the first big step
toward a solution."
For more information, please contact the PSRC @ (503) 235-4606
or write P.O. Box 86741, Portland, OR 97286. The
organization may also be contacted via the Internet @: http://www.pantless.com/~octa/
Railroad Accident Data Shows Few Benefits From Random Drug Testing
May 13, 1996, San Francisco, CA: An
examination of Federal Railroad Administration accidents
statistics demonstrates that random drug testing has had no
apparent effect on railroad accident safety, reports California
NORML. The FRA data shows that prior to the introduction of random
drug testing in 1990, the number of accidents due to human error
declined steadily, from 3.8 per million rail miles in 1978 to 1.4
in 1986. Since then, however, the accident rate has held steady
at around 1.4 to 1.8.
"This data calls into question the supposed safety benefits
of random drug testing," said California NORML coordinator
Dale Gieringer. Unlike alcohol tests, drug urinalysis tests
cannot detect actual impairment, but only whether a drug was used
in the past. In the case of marijuana -- the drug detected
in the overwhelming majority of positive tests -- urine tests can
register positive for days or weeks after last use, long after
the euphoric affects of the drug have faded.
Random drug testing was imposed on the nation's railway workers
in the wake of a highly publicized 1987 Amtrak-Conrail collision
in which the crew were determined to have smoked marijuana.
The responsibility of marijuana for the accident was never
clearly determined, however. An investigation by the
National Transportation Safety Board determined that better equipment
and personnel management would have prevented the accident, but
did not recommend drug testing. Nonetheless, Congress
promptly rushed to require drug testing for all of the nation's transportation
workers following the accident.
"The effectiveness of this regulation has never been
scientifically proven," states Gieringer. "While
proponents say that testing has reduced the number of
transportation workers testing positive for drugs, there is no
indication this has had any [significant] safety benefits.
Poblems include: substitution of alcohol and other untested drugs
for tested drugs such as marijuana; unreliability of tests in
discriminating drug abuse; cheating and evasion by drug abusing
workers; and lack of relation between test result and job
performance."
For more information, please contact Dale Gieringer of
California NORML @ (415) 563-5858 or via e-mail @: CANORML@igc.apc.org
Drug Czar Critical Of Amount Of Money Spent
Fighting Drugs: Calls Record
Setting FY 1997 Budget Lean
May 8, 1996, Washington, DC:
Responding to criticism that the federal government isn't spending
enough money to fight drugs, Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey admitted
that he believed President Clinton's record high $15.1 billion
budget proposal for Fiscal Year 1997 to be "a lean ... request."
"Could more money be used on international and interdiction
programs? There is no question," McCaffrey told a
House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight.
McCaffrey's remarks were made despite the fact that Clinton's
budget request allocates nearly $10 billion to be used in 1997
solely for law enforcement here and abroad.
"How much is enough," questioned NORML's Deputy
Director Allen St. Pierre. "Twenty billion, 30
billion, when will it end? Despite claims that this new,
anti-drug strategy focuses on youth prevention and education, the
Office of National Drug Control Policy will spend a record high
$10 billion dollars on law enforcement -- a figure that the Drug
Czar now claims to be too little.
"Since 1988, federal spending on anti-drug programs has
increased more than 300 percent, yet according to government
statistics illicit drug use has remained virtually unchanged
among adults and has actually increased among adolescents.
We cannot continue to keep throwing money at the problem and
expect any sort of positive results."
For more information, please contact either Allen St. Pierre
or Paul Armentano of NORML @ (202) 483-5500.
Dealers Caught Close To Churches To Face Stiffer Penalties
May 7, 1996, Springfield, IL:
Legislation that will stiffen penalties for those convicted of selling
marijuana or other illicit drugs within 1,000 feet of a place of
religious worship will take effect in 1997 under a measure signed
by Gov. Jim Edgar.
"This legislation takes our efforts to take drug dealers off
the street a step further by creating another safe zone where
those dealers know they will pay an even bigger price for their
crimes," Edgar said.
The measure, sponsored by Rep. John Jones (R-Mount Vernon) and
Sen. William O'Daniel (D-Mount Vernon), increases the penalty by
one level for selling drugs within 1,000 feet of a place of
religious worship. The legislation is similar to current
laws providing enhanced penalties for those convicted of selling
drugs on the grounds of schools, public parks, and public
housing, or within 1,000 feet of them.
-END-
MORE THAN 10 MILLION MARIJUANA ARRESTS SINCE 1965 ... ANOTHER EVERY 65 SECONDS!