NORML E-zine Friday the Thirteenth

[ReformMaryJaneLaws]

NORML E-Zine
Volume 4
Issue 16
April 13, 2001

The NORML E-Zine is a free weekly compilation of major news
items regarding marijuana policy. Text of archived stories
are available
on NORML's website at:
http://www.norml.org/news/archives/index2001.shtml

TOP STORIES

* Economists Slam War on Drugs: Cost-Effectiveness of
Incarceration Doubtful,
National Academy of Sciences Report
Says

* NORML Responds to Canadian Plan to License and Regulate
Medical Marijuana


######

Economists Slam War on Drugs:
Cost-Effectiveness of Incarceration Doubtful, National Academy
of Sciences
Report Says

Washington, DC: America now spends twice as much money
annually to
combat illegal drugs as it spent fighting the
Persian Gulf War, yet there
is no evidence indicating that
existing policies are either working or
cost-effective, charge
authors of a newly released study by the National
Research
Council.

"It is unconscionable for this country to continue
to carry
out a public policy of this magnitude and cost without any way

of knowing whether, and to what extent, it is having the desired
result,"
said Charles Manski, chief author of the report, and
a Board of Trustees
Professor in Economics at Northwestern
University. The White House Office
of National Drug Control
Policy (ONDCP) commissioned the study in 1998.

According to the report, drug enforcement activities - which
comprise
the bulk of federal and state anti-drug efforts - have
grown exponentially
since 1980. Authors note that there are now
12 times as many drug offenders
in state prisons than there were
in 1980, and that police arrest approximately
1.6 million
Americans per year on drug charges, three times as many as
they
did 20 years ago. Government funding to pay for these activities

has grown from 1.5 billion in 1980 to nearly 20 billion today.
Nevertheless, "the nation is in no better position to evaluate
the effectiveness
of enforcement than it was 20 years ago, when
the recent intensification
of enforcement began," the report said.

Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of The NORML Foundation,
cited
these conclusions as further evidence that existing anti-drug
strategies
- particularly criminal penalties on the use and
possession of marijuana
- must be re-evaluated. "Taxpayers
spend between $7.5 and $10 billion
annually arresting and
prosecuting individuals for marijuana violations,"
St. Pierre
said. "Almost 90 percent of these arrests are for marijuana

possession only. This is a clear misapplication of the criminal
sanction
and a tremendous waste of fiscal resources."

Prepublication copies of the report, entitled "Informing
America's
Policy on Illegal Drugs: What We Don't Know Keeps
Hurting Us," are available
online from the National Academy
of Sciences at: http://www.nas.edu. The
National Research
Council is a branch of the NAS.

For more information, please contact Allen St. Pierre,
NORML Foundation
Executive Director, at (202) 483-8751.


######

NORML Responds to Canadian Plan To License and Regulate
Medical Marijuana
-
U.S. Government Could Learn By Example, NORML Says

Washington, DC: Canadian regulations issued last week which
authorize
the use and cultivation of medical marijuana are a
positive step for patients
who need it to relieve their pain
and suffering, NORML Executive Director
R. Keith Stroup, Esq.
said today.

"This proposal, though far from perfect, is a legitimate
attempt by
Parliament to license and regulate the use of medical
marijuana for seriously
ill patients," he added. "It is ironic
that Health Canada issued these
regulations only days after our
own government told America's highest court
that marijuana has
no acceptable medical value, a position that runs contrary
not
only to the scientific evidence, but also to worldwide public
opinion.
U.S. officials would be better advised to follow
Canada's lead and reschedule
marijuana to permit its licensed
use and distribution to those patients
whose doctors recommend
it."

According to statements published in Friday's Canada Gazette,
the proposed
regulations will "provide seriously ill Canadian
patients with access to
marijuana while it is being researched
as a possible medicine." Health
Canada issued the regulations
in response to a recent Ontario Court of
Appeals ruling that
found marijuana prohibition to be unconstitutional
because it
failed to provide an exception for medical use. The Court

ordered Parliament to implement rules allowing for patients
to use marijuana
by July 31, 2001.

The proposal authorizes patients to grow and use marijuana
under "special
medical circumstances only." Qualifying patients
must suffer from a terminal
illness or suffer from symptoms
associated with a serious medical condition
such as AIDS or
multiple sclerosis. Patients who find symptomatic relief
from
marijuana, but who are not terminal, must possess the
recommendation
of a general practitioner and a medical
specialist certifying that they
have found all other alternative
therapies to be ineffective.

Stroup said it was unfortunate that Canadian health officials
were
holding marijuana up to a higher standard than other
medications. "The
traditional yardstick for legal medications
is that they demonstrate safety
and medical efficacy. Marijuana
should not be held up to a different standard."

Under the guidelines, qualifying patients will be allowed to
possess
a 30-day supply of marijuana at one time. Either the
patients or their
recognized caregiver will be permitted to
grow marijuana for medical use.

In the past year, Canadian officials have implemented
several policy
changes to address the medical marijuana issue.
Last year, Parliament
issued a contract to a private Saskatoon
firm to grow marijuana for medical
research, and began issuing
legal exemptions to individual patients who
use marijuana as
a medicine. Health Canada will no longer issue exemptions

once the proposed regulations take effect.

The public has 30 days
to comment on the proposed rules,
which appear online at: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hpb-dgps/therapeut/
zfiles/english/schedule/gazette.i/marihuana_e.pdf.

For more information, please contact either Keith Stroup
or Paul Armentano
of NORML at (202) 483-5500.


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