Daniel Samper Pizano has turned his column in the Bogota daily El Tiempo into a megaphone rallying the public against U.S.-backed antidrug spraying in Colombia's 49 national parks. His writing led to a two-day deluge of more than 1,100 angry messages on El Tiempo's Web site. It sparked a March 18 protest in Bogota outside the agency that oversees the parks. And it threatens to turn an upcoming Senate debate on the spraying into another protest scene.
Samper, whose brother Ernesto served as the nation's president from 1994 to 1998, has been been shining the spotlight on this issue since February, exposing the conflict of interest between newly appointed Minister of the Environment Suarez with the U.S.-funded antidrug program.
He ratcheted up the public outcry with susequent columns urging his readers to take action. The response emboldened the newspaper of record there, El Tiempo, to take for the first time an editorial stand against the fumigation and also solicit comments. They received 1,167, some with new information.
The parks fumigation order, for example, came from former Col. Alfonso Plazas Vega, head of the narcotics council. Plazas helped plan and carry out the 1985 bombing of Colombia's Palace of Justice, occupied by members of a guerrilla group called M-19. The bombing killed at least 76 civilians, including the country's 11 Supreme Court justices. Plazas also helped form Death to Kidnappers (MAS), a forebear of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), the country's main paramilitary federation.
Don't have to look hard to see a private agenda there. The US gives them guns and other artillery in addition to the herbicide deliveries. They routinely pass M-16s out to kids there.
There are 800,000 indigenous Colombians living in the parks and countless species of flora and fauna. Not to mention the cities that depend on them for their water supply. All are threatened.
Quote of the day on this issue goes to El Tiempo!'s editorial.
"To not fumigate the national parks would be, for one honorable time, to put the national interest of a country with the second greatest environmental wealth on the planet before the interest of the United States." [emphasis added]
"There won't be any spraying in the parks until other alternatives are examined, such as manual eradication," said Environment Minister Sandra Suarez.
Colombia's spectacular national parks, which cover 25 million acres of jungle and mountainside, harbor some of the most diverse populations of plant, bird, and animal species in the world. They also reportedly harbor guerrillas and coca plants.
Environmentalists criticized Plan Colombia from the start, saying its herbicides damage the environment and harm peasants.
The government has dismissed those claims and said drug producers destroy jungle to plant coca and poison water with chemicals used to refine cocaine.
The government's claim is absurd of course. While clear cutting and chemical contamination does occur in the processing of coca paste, it does not approach the ecological damage being done by the widescale aerial spraying of herbicide.
Eradication is a problem, not a solution. The answer as always, is to legalize the plant for it's agricultural uses and legalize the drug to destroy the need for clandestine jungle labs.
Think about it. If it were being manufactured under industry regulations, it would eliminate the need for a black market, the chemicals would be disposed of safely and the addicts could be clinically treated instead of caged.
Pete's an idea man, the entrepreneur's entrepreneur. Among his other marketing services, he buys cool phone numbers and domain names and resells them. He owns every permutation of his own name of course but I was surprised to hear that nobody had ever scooped up the CoC address for Springfield.com, what with all the Springfields in the country. I had always thought there was one in every state. I was astonished to find out there are only 25 of them but still a smart investment, no?
He's led an interesting life, from working as a photojournalist for major publications to speechwriting for Janet Reno and as you can see from the graphic -- he is photogenic.
Guess it's not that surprising since they certainly can't find anything substantive to defend in Bush administration policy. When in doubt, they throw the facts out and focus on the inane.
It's going to a long election year.
UPDATE: I'm surprised at the reaction I'm getting on this post. To all of you who are accusing me of excusing thuggery, let me clarify my position.
Don't be ridiculous. I don't condone violence, but neither will I condemn it when Margolis deliberately provoked it. By his own account he continued to engage this man in uninvited debate, even when he saw that he was upsetting him.
Margolis, enjoying the privilege of an expensive college education, verbally pushed this guy first. The union guy probably didn't get the same advantage, so he fought back with what he had, his fists - and Margolis is, or should have been, smart enough to know that he was likely to do so.
There's a difference between voicing your opinion and abusing your First Amendment right by inciting violence and Margolis crossed the line. Further, he admits that the injuries were minor. By his own description of the event, it appears to have been on the level of a bar scuffle and judging from the photograph, I have no doubt that if the union guy had wanted to, he could have seriously injured any one of those kids.
That aside, what irritated me initially was the right's rush to turn this into a big incident. They would have ignored it or dismissed it had the players' political affiliations been reversed. Instead they turn it into another toy for Tim Blair, who is probably getting very tired of chewing on that plastic turkey by now.
This is actually a post about the meetup last night, but Grace does figure into this story eventually. Anyway, the only bloggers on the MassLive blogroll that I recognized by name, Henning and Suki, weren't there. I was sorry to miss them but was glad to meet Greg Saulmon of Life On State along with his lovely wife Mary, and Pete Deville of Group DeVille. I was particularly glad to meet Debbie from Craftytown. I had read her yesterday for the first time and I thought our writing style was kind of alike and we have the same kind of earthy energy in person.
In any event, all of us of in this Lovely Downtown Noho contingent realized before the end of the evening, that the common thread in our vague recollection of each other was the Baystate Hotel. I passed them a drink from behind the bar more than once as a bartender there, but they weren't regulars like Henning who ran part of the music operation.
Meanwhile the Springfield contingent didn't know quite what to make of me. I kind of came in charged from the walk over, and drinking coffee, even decaf at that hour was not a great move. I should have asked for water but the Woodstar Cafe smells so good. How could I not order coffee. I was buzzed in three sips and I must admit I got just a little boisterous. I think I may have scared them.
Jennifer Adams of West Side Story apparently wasn't that impressed. She didn't link to me in her account of the event but she may just forgotten my name. There were a lot of people. Kristen of Sound CheckandSigh Club and I didn't get to spend much time together either, but I wished we had after chatting with her briefly at the end of the evening.
Meanwhile, gently is MassLive revenged for my taking pot shots at Scott Brodeur's butt. Scott posted a photo of me in full harangue mode, one of the rare times I wasn't smiling and at my absolute worst camera angle, (thank you very much to the photog), blasting away at Mr. Big, Greg Movie Boy Tulonen, for dissing my blog and ignoring my correspondence. I noticed I was getting a little jowly in my old age. I swear, next lifetime, I'm going to be photogenic.
In any event I want to say thanks to the guys for putting me on their blogroll so quickly. I hope we can call it even now for my earlier post. They really do seem to be nice guys who are trying to make a blog thing happen on the local level and deserve some support.
So what does this have to do with Grace Kelly, you may ask. I'm going to tell you. I really do wish I looked like her. My friend Ron owned the Baystate Hotel when I bartended there and met all these Northampton bloggers. Ron and I used to watch old movies together when the bar was slow and we spoke often of this. I had other choices as well, Ingrid Bergman, Audrey Hepburn, Kathleen Turner... but Grace was definitely my first choice.
The Baystate is long gone now but Ron and I have maintained a solid friendship and every now and then, in our warmer moments, he still calls me Grace.
Graphic courtesy of www.thebroadroom.net, a site by and for women..., often imitated, never equaled.
Enjoy and I'll be back after dark with the gory details from last night's meetup and of course, the late breaking drug war news. Right now I going to sit in the sun.
The aptly named Pete Holiday is the host of the Carnival of the Vanities this week. I love Pete and not just because he gave us the number four slot in the Carnival. He claims to be an asshole, but he can't really hide the nice guy behind the sardonic quotes, which are my favorite part of his page. I don't know how he does it but the quotes in the header change every time you click into a different screen.
He's got quite a rotating roster of these. I'm giving him quote of the day with my favorite:
Someday we'll all look back on this, laugh nervously and change the subject.
Dramatic corroboration of the massacre of Afghan prisoners by the US-backed Northern Alliance at the start of the war in 2001 was last night provided by American pathologists commissioned to investigate the claims by the UN.
A vivid account of the slaughter was provided to The Observer last week by three Britons who were released from the US detention camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba more than two years after they were first seized in Afghanistan. They told how they narrowly escaped the massacre before being handed over to American forces and flown to Guantanamo Bay.
Forensic anthropologist William Haglund further confirms the facts of the detainees allegations.
'I uncovered one small corner, exposing 15 remains which were quite complete, and did autopsies on three. There were no signs of trauma and these were all young men. This is consistent with death by asphyxiation.
'I told Dostum's security chief that they had died from suffocation, and there was this big silence hanging over the desert.'
The details about elements of the Tipton Three's story assumed a new importance last week, after the Sun published claims by a US Embassy spokesman, Lee McClenny, that the three had trained at an al-Qaeda camp in 2000. They told The Observer last week that they had all confessed to this accusation only after months of solitary confinement and 200 separate interrogation sessions, only to have it finally disproved by MI5, which brought documents showing they had been in Britain at the time.
After making his claims in the Sun, McClenny refused to answer further questions from journalists, while Lt Col Leon Sumpter, the US spokesman at Guantanamo Bay, said any allegations concerning detainees were highly classified, even after their release: 'I don't know how the Embassy got this,' he said. 'It didn't come from us, and we knew nothing about it.' McClenny's letter was widely criticised as an attempt to nullify the Tipton men's stories of abuse at American hands.
If they all have such damning stories to tell, it's small wonder our government not only doesn't want to release these prisoners but isolates them from any meaningful public contact.
This just in from Tim Meehan on Marc's situation. The court has still not set bail in this very serious matter and thus our indefatigable hero languishes in a jail cell at the expense of the government. I am certain the good citizens of Canada are sleeping more soundly tonight in the knowledge that this nefarious trafficker of three cannabis cigarettes is safely behind bars.
BULLETIN
MARC EMERY STILL IN CUSTODY IN SASKATOON - BAIL DECISION TO BE
ANNOUNCED TOMORROW AT 2PM
Marc Emery is still in custody, on the charge of trafficking less than 3kg of marihuana. When arrested, it is alleged Marc had 2.3 grams (2 joints) in his pocket.
According to Justin McGowan, the Crown prosecutor is arguing that Marc coerced people into joining him to smoke, that he will re-offend, and that he should be held until trial on that basis Marc's partner Cheryl, as well as local activists and a large contingient of local media was present in the courtoom. Marc looked tired, but in good spirits, at many times smiling. The only statement Marc made to the court was after being asked if he would like to sit or stand. His reply: "I've been standing through much of this so far, and I'll continue to stand, thank you."
Marc's duty counsel made it clear to the judge that Marc was not selling cannabis not making any profit, and that everyone participating was a consenting adults. On one occasion, the judge chastised the Crown for implying that underage children were participating, and the Crown reluctantly admitted that all were adults.
During the hearing, the Crown read excerpts from Justin McGowan's arrest statement. The judge was concerned about the Crown's selective use of the statement and will review the entire record overnight. Justin also noticed that there were 3 other people present in court for show cause hearings on cannabis possession at the same time as Marc for unrelated matters.
The judge seemed cautious and didn't express any opinion, but according to Justin was conscious of the number of reporters and the high profile of the case. He didn't seem too happy at the Crown for bringing such a trivial case before him. He has reserved decision and will reconvene tomorrow at 2pm. While an amount of bail was not mentioned, the amount of $2,000 was mentioned.
You can't buy publicity like this. Marc is largely responsible for giving this issue legs in the media. We're sending him a big hug tonight for enduring his currently dismal accommodations in order to keep it standing up front.
"This story is not unique," [Dr. L] writes. "It is being repeated across the United States every day. Our country seems to be slipping into a fascist regime with dictatorial, uncontrolled, coercive state power."
Over a period of several days, the two women, who were wired, "visited Dr. L’s office, complaining of symptoms that were consistent with migraine headaches." After listening to their history, he gave each of them 30 Tylenol codeine tablets until he could obtain their previous records.
This was a medically appropriate and humane response to the women's complaints. Unfortunately, the DEA thought otherwise.
Some weeks later, agents with drawn guns served a search warrant. They were from the DEA, BNA (a state agency comparable to the DEA) and the local police. ...The raid had a terrible effect on the economic health of Dr. L’s family practice, a standard mix of obstetrics, pediatrics and internal medicine. A story was planted in the local media–via press releases from those government agencies–stating that he was a drug-dealing doctor and would lose his license. He was shunned by colleagues.
"Several weeks later," he writes, "I was arrested at my office while many startled patients watched in utter disbelief as their doctor was handcuffed and led away. The arresting officers would not let me take off my clinic coat or stethoscope–this picture was worth more with them on. I was booked and subsequently released on bail."
The case took six years to come to trial. He was ultimately found guilty. He was sentenced to six months in jail, fined more than $11,000 and required to perform 200 hours of community service. He lost everything and is now in hock for legal fees in excess of $300,000. His family suffered along with him and his patients lost a good and obviously caring doctor.
Former San Francisco district attorney Patrick Hallinan "says that honest doctors all over the country are being targeted by the DEA. "There isn’t any doubt," he added, "that these prosecutions are increasing under the Bush administration. It is like busting a car dealer because somebody runs off the road and kills somebody."
Ironically in the interim, another doctor lost a malpractice case for under-prescribing medication.
Conversely, a California jury recently awarded $1.5 million to the family of an 85-year-old man whose doctor failed to treat him adequately for pain for a few days as he lay dying of lung cancer. That verdict was only the third in American history for the undertreatment of pain, and the first against a doctor. It was also the first time a jury awarded such a verdict under elder abuse laws instead of a medical negligence lawsuit.
We've been talking about this war on doctors for a many months here and our opinion has not changed. Doctors are mandated to treat pain and the DEA should stop meddling in medical protocols.
If there was any real justice in this country, the DEA agents would be on trial for "shooting ducks in a barrel" instead of going out in the world and doing their real job, which should be arresting so-called king pin dealers. Leave the doctors to be policed by their own licensing agencies who are more than equipped to make the judgments as to whether their members are practicing appropriately.
According to eyewitnesses, Emery showed up at a gathering of college students who were hanging out at the Vimy Memorial near Emery's hotel about two hours after the speech.
Emery and about 40 students smoked some "very potent weed," according to eyewitness Justin McGowan.
"About 20 minutes after Marc showed up, three or four cops arrived and said 'We smell marijuana.' They asked if anybody had marijuana and Marc said he had some. They arrested him.
Marc is no stranger to jail cells of course, having been arrested several times on his "Summer of Legalization Tour" last year. This is a little different in that he was charged with possession for holding the joint and trafficking for passing to another person. The possession charges were subsequently dropped but the trafficking stands. One wonders how you could be guilty of one without the other, however the real point is how can they justify a trafficking charge for merely passing a joint.
According to a press release issued yesterday, this is a major flaw in the pending Canadian decrim bill.
Canadians should be reminded that even if Bill C-10, the so-called marijuana decriminalization bill, is passed, police would still retain the criminal power to arrest people and brand them drug dealers -- for simply sharing a joint. "Currently, even simply giving marijuana for no money ("passing a joint") is considered trafficking. Bill [C-10] should be amended so that non-commercial transfers of up to 30 grams of marijuana not be considered trafficking," according to a New Democratic Party statement.
The political motivation behind the arrest seems all too apparent and stands as a testament to Emery's effectiveness as an advocate for legalization.
"According to bystanders, a group of people were peacefully assembled for an hour before Marc Emery showed up," said Tim Meehan, of Toronto-based Ontario Consumers for Safe Access to Recreational Cannabis. "Many questions remain about the circumstances of Emery's arrest. Among them, was he targeted because of the political nature of his speaking tour? Emery has not faced any legal troubles at other speaking stops during his current tour." Emery was the primary target of police action when they arrived on the scene. Along with Emery, local supporter Justin McGowan was also searched, detained, and charged with cannabis possession.
Emery's team is urging his supporters to "inundate Saskatoon police, the Department of Corrections, and media outlets with pro-Emery letters and phone calls that put pressure on the police and convince media to report on Emery's plight." A list of contacts is available here, [scroll to the bottom].
Marc is to appear in court this morning on a show cause hearing. The remainder of his speaking engagements are still on, however noted medical marijuana crusader Grant Krieger will speak in Marc's place on the next date.
Here's a timely story in light of our recent discussions on finding refuge in Canada. The author is anonymous but the story is all too familiar. Just as conscientious objectors to the Vietnam war made Canada their home in the 60s, now we have a new brand of refugee - drug defendants. The article details this man's flight but also offers a practical guide on How to Flee to Canada.
The circumstances behind the flight are inevitably sad.
After that final garage sale, after I'd given away treasured possessions I'd had ever since I was a teenager, I sat in an empty house smoking a bowl of White Widow, contemplating the logistics of fleeing my home country, the United States.
In my backpack was a round-trip ticket to Vancouver, Canada, but I had no intention of using the entire ticket. There would be no return flight to the USA for me. Once I arrived in Canada, I was there to stay.
Difficult decisions
My decision to leave America was complex and bittersweet. It had its genesis in 1998, when I was arrested for growing 28 medical marijuana plants in an indoor grow room at my home.
I'd had sports injuries and surgeries that caused severe pain; marijuana was my best medicine, and I grew it because I could not afford to buy it. Yet even though I lived in California and helped Dennis Peron pass Proposition 215 – the first voter-approved medical cannabis legalization law in the US – I learned during my arrest that American police were a law unto themselves. I found out that the drug war was a real war, and that people like me, even though I had a medical marijuana recommendation from a doctor, could too easily become casualties.
For those who feel they have no choice but to follow in this guy's footsteps there is help.
Two informal organizations have formed to help these reefer refugees. One, based in Toronto, is called the deGaulle Project, named after French General Charles deGaulle who fled France for the safety of England during World War II, returning after the war to help rebuild his country.
Cannabis Culture publisher Marc Emery and activist David Malmo-Levine have also set up a website, called "The Underground Railroad," that offers information for Americans who wanted to flee north.
"We aren't smuggling people across the border," Malmo-Levine explained, "but we are providing information that helps people understand how to get into Canada and stay in."
Marc and David also dispense practical advice on how to deal with leaving your old life behind.
There was talk of "safe houses" and how much money and identification to bring with me when I made the trip north. Malmo-Levine advised me to work through the financial, logistical and emotional issues related to leaving my home country, before I left.
"Once you come over, it's not likely you can get back," he counseled. "You will probably be leaving family and friends behind, as well as assets. You have to be ready to start a new life. Make sure you can handle it. We've had too many cases of Americans coming here and then falling apart because of homesickness and the difficulty of being a pot refugee."
Even if you're not thinking of making Canada your refuge, the article is an interesting read. It goes on to tell the stories of pot refugees that are making it work on the "other side".
It's my Dad's birthday so I expect to be on the phone for a long time tonight and I may not post more than this op-ed from 1999 that my friend and neighbor unearthed today. He wrote it in response to an editorial in the The Amarillo (TX) Globe-News.
The Globe-News criticized Gary Johnson, who was governor of New Mexico at the time, for daring to suggest legalization and regulation was a better solution to the war on drugs than the policies that still being employed today. The original editorial is archived here.
Bob's response is not archived, so I post it in full. Considering Amarillo just paid five million dollars out of their own municipal coffers to settle the Tulia case, his words still cut to the chase.
3 November 1999
The Amarillo Globe-News
Johnson has the right to speak
by Robert Merkin
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. -- Your Oct. 20 editorial, "Law enforcement 'drug' into Johnson mess," isn't about drugs, drug laws, drug policy or law enforcement. It's a demand by an American newspaper that an American citizen and elected official be silenced.
Ten years ago, nobody minded when the occasional hippie on a San Francisco sidewalk said, "Legalize it." No one in mainstream political power recognized the slightest obligation to respond.
Five years ago, it was still possible to ignore an increasing number of former public officials and ivory-tower academics, like Joseph D. McNamara, former police chief of San Jose, Calif., and Kansas City, Mo.; former Secretary of State George Shultz; and Nobel economist Milton Friedman when they wrote "Legalize it" in obscure journals.
Even their credentials weren't enough to lure mainstream politicians and policy-makers into a public debate.
Baltimore Mayor and Rhodes scholar Kurt Schmoke's challenge to national drug policy was also marginalized. He is, after all, the African-American mayor of an inner city, and national drug policy is an overwhelmingly Caucasian invention of the suburbs.
We now have two elected governors calling for fundamental debate about the war on drugs. One belongs to a third party and became famous as a professional wrestler, in the tradition of Gorgeous George -- he's easy to marginalize.
New Mexico's governor, however, is a Caucasian Republican, straight-arrow triathlete and self-made financial success. His public critiques of the war on drugs have triggered all the alarm bells. Prison construction companies, private prison corporations, prison guard unions, prosecutors and police should be screaming bloody murder. Under current national drug policy, they're all guaranteed careers, financial security, enormous profit, and growing political power forever.
A true, open national debate threatens the keystone of the war on drugs: the mass imprisonment and disenfranchisement of annually increasing numbers of mostly non-white Americans.
But an American newspaper should be ashamed to demand that Gov. Gary Johnson be silenced. Its editorials should debate the truth and wisdom of what he really says, but applaud and celebrate Johnson's right to use his experience, as a young man and as a successful politician and public official, to speak his mind.
His right to speak out is precisely the Amarillo Globe-News' right to speak out: the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
If you succeed in stifling Gov. Johnson's freedom of speech, your "success" will surely come back to haunt you.
Messages in Internet chat rooms, where drug smugglers in Latin America can arrange cocaine deliveries in London or Berlin, are almost impossible to intercept and cellular phone text messages cannot be tracked by authorities, Mark Malcolm, intelligence analyst at the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, told an international drug conference in Lima.
"We are at a great disadvantage because we cannot intercept text messages or instant messaging. The only real possibility is by using undercover officers, who put their lives at risk," Malcolm told delegates.
Isn't that their ridiculous job or is it just that the undercover agents prefer the safer targets like bong makers and medical marijuana patients? God knows they are unlikely to shoot back when wrongfully arrested.
And here's a dangerous sentiment. Is it me, or does this look like the build up to further unconstitutional surveillance and requests for more funding?
Cocaine smuggling to Europe is on the rise as cartels find new ways to evade authorities, shipping drugs via Africa, according to European anti-drug officials. Latin American authorities also concede they are no closer to beating the drug trade because of a lack of resources and intelligence.
"As wireless technology develops there are now a multitude of avenues to surf the Internet anonymously and our attempts at surveillance are tenuous at best," he said.
Many Latin American cartels use free electronic mail services to communicate with drug ring members around the world and hook up illegally to wireless Internet routers in cities to avoid being tracked to a land-based server, Malcolm said.
And this chilling remark sounds like a veiled threat to me.
Malcolm said the DEA needed governments around the world to work more closely to track and intercept traffickers, because the U.S. drug agency "cannot do the job alone."
It's absurd to suggest these can't be tracked. I read in the last few months about a man who was caught hijacking wireless service while driving around in his car, in order that he could download kiddy porn. In light of the DEA routinely setting up field offices in foreign countries, the recent interrogation of Haitian refugee Oriel Jean in the absence of his attorney, and their meddling in Ghana just to name a few instances, their protestations sound rather disingenuous to me.
The trouble is, this 1,800-page goldmine of information has been incredibly hard to find. The Memory Hole's copy was given to me by a friend of the family; Lorenzo Hagerty; who told me an interesting story. As soon as the Kerry Report was published in 1988, Lorenzo ordered a copy from the Government Printing Office. When it arrived, he began reading it and realized how important it was. He immediately called the GPO to order another set. He was told that the report was already out of print and would not be published again. It had been available to the public for one single week.
The Memory Hole will be posting the transcripts in their entirety, 20 pages at a time. Part One is available now at the site. The front page and the email updates will contain notifications when new portions are posted.
Russ has also posted a link to another volume published in 1988, that was based on the same hearings. It's available in PDF format here.
It's quite fascinating. Here's an excerpt from the page one.
I think all of us know that the effort to stem the illicit flow of drugs into the United States has become an insurmountable problem.
Law enforcement officials across our country and elsewhere have become increasingly frustrated over the seeming inability to be able to stop the flow of drugs or to deal effectively with what is essentially a war that is being waged against the citizens of this country.
From page two:
Among the issues which we want to address in these hearings is not only our own policy but the extent to which our Government ranks the drug problem in the overall scheme of a relationship with other countries. Do we on any occasion overlook a drug law enforcement problem that develops in our relationship with a foreign government in order to protect perceived national or international security or political concerns?
If so, what are the political and national security objectives, which take precedence over the responsibility to our citizens to stop the flow of drugs. This subcommittee will also attempt to evaluate the impact of the drug industry on countries where narcotics have become an integral part of their economies. Only by doing that can we make judgments about what our relationship with those countries ought to be.
Are we facing a situation where the economies of some countries are becoming reliant on revenues generated by narcotics trafficking? Are the actions of drug traffickers increasingly destabilizing the institutions of those countries which succumb to the temptation to permit traffickers to operate in them? Is drug money being used to support political parties, incumbent governments, or even revolutionary movements?
This afternoon we will send out a press release for the launch of springtime campaign, including a short impression from the CND Meeting in Vienna. Thanks for sending that further to your press contacts.
Herewith I would like to pass on a message from an association of Peruvian coca growers who organised an event in Cuzco the beginning of this month. The message is from Genaro Cahuana, secretary of the Peasants' federation of La Convención y Lares, in southern Peru, who asked me to let you all know the following."
The event was assisted by 500 peasant representatives from the entire region. The purpose was to unite coca leaf producers and consumers to discuss common strategies to face the increasing threat of erradication operations by Peruvian government backed by the United States.
It was decided to organise a campaign to defend the right to produce and consume coca leaves, propose industrialisation of coca leaves into benefitial products as a potential option for development, and increase collaboration with other coca leaf producers in Colombia and Bolivia."
I can add that ENCOD is involved in efforts to facilitate the import of traditional coca leaf products in Europe. If people are interested in how to support these efforts, please let me know.
EUROPEAN NGO COUNCIL ON DRUG POLICY
Lange Lozanastraat 14
2018 Antwerpen
Belgium
Tel. 00 32 (0)3 237 7436
Fax. 00 32 (0)3 237 0225
E-mail:encod@glo.be
Website: www.encod.org
I got up with the best of intentions but as usual, got lost in cyberspace. I spent the morning exploring the blogs hosting the Carnival of the Vanities in the next few weeks and then for balance, some unrelated left wing ones I've been meaning to read. I discovered two things. First, there's a lot of right wing bloggers who actually post intelligent and well reasoned commentary instead of harping on some inconsequential point. Second, fully half the of the population of the blogosphere appears to be 28 years old. A lot of smart kids out there.
Meanwhile, a week from tomorrow, Last One Speaks will have been posting for a year. It started as an open letter to my family, just an online diary where they could check on me. I had three daily readers. It evolved over the weeks into an open conversation with a goal to spread one meme - Cannabis consumers are not criminals. It's become a lifestyle choice. If I'm not blogging, I'm thinking about content.
On New Year's Day we had 2000 hits. Last Thursday we broke 10,000. Our focus has grown to include First Amendment issues, and the odd political commentary but this little milestone felt like a good time to reiterate the meme - cannabis consumers are good citizens who contribute to their communities and consumption of a plant with a 5000 year old history of beneficial use, should not be a criminal act.
Power of the Pen
Spray Planes Grounded
Silver and Gold
The Right Whines
Wish I Really Looked Like Grace Kelly
Sunny Day
Carnival #79
Freep this Poll
Long Way Home
More Ethnic Cleansing
Ethnic Cleansing?
Emery Still In the Slammer
Prince of Pot Pinched Again
Retroactive
Safe Haven
Strike Up the Band
Did They Listen, Nooooooo...
Drugs, Law Enforcement and Foreign Policy
Peruvian Coca Growers
Lazy Sunday
