* This message forwarded from private area of Rich Woods
  * Original message dated 25 Feb 97  15:09:04, from Marijuana Policy Project 
 
 Apparently-to: rich.woods@245.genesplicer.org
Date: Tue, 25 Feb 1997 18:09:04 -0500
From: Marijuana Policy Project 
at today's news conference organized by the National Drug 
Strategy Network along with the Drug Policy Foundation and 
Common Sense for Drug Policy.
Organization: Marijuana Policy Project
Reply-To: MPP@MPP.ORG
Subject: MPP Responds to 1997 National Drug Control Strategy
To: MPPupdates@igc.apc.org
Sender: owner-mppupdates@igc.apc.org
Precedence: bulk
=====================================================================
           1997 National Drug Control Strategy:
            Putting a Friendly Face on Tyranny
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the Office of National Drug Control Policy --
led by former Army General Barry McCaffrey -- plans to release its 1997
National Drug Control Strategy (NDCS). A leaked draft of the report
indicates that Drug Czar McCaffrey is continuing the Clinton
administration's trend of speaking softly while beating the American
people with a big stick.
    McCaffrey plans to put a friendly face on the drug war by rejecting
the "war" metaphor in favor of a "cancer treatment" analogy. THIS IS NOT
NEWS. McCaffrey said the same thing when he first took office in March
1996 and in last year's NDCS. Clinton's first drug czar, Lee Brown, also
rejected the war metaphor in 1993.
    "Sadly, Drug Czar McCaffrey's annual rejection of the 'war' metaphor
is hollow rhetoric," said MPP Director of Communications Chuck Thomas.
"All of Clinton's drug czars reject the use of the word 'war,' yet the
war continues. McCaffrey says that drug control efforts are more
analogous to treating cancer. But doctors do not arrest and imprison
cancer patients in order to cure them."
    "According to the FBI, marijuana arrests have increased during every
year of the Clinton administration, to a record high of 588,964 in
1995," said Thomas. "And 85% of these marijuana arrests were for
small-scale possession!" [1]
    "A war by any other name is still a war. The United States
government continues to hunt down and imprison its own citizens. It's a
war, plain and simple," explained Thomas. "Just look at the proposed
drug control budget: Once again, the vast majority of the funding is for
law enforcement."
*** MPP Director of Communications Chuck Thomas will be speaking at a
multidisciplinary news conference to be held at 1:30 EST today in the
Holeman Lounge, National Press Building, Washington, D.C.
*** At the news conference today, Chuck Thomas will release the
Marijuana Policy Project's "1997 Marijuana Control and Regulation
Strategy."
    Most disturbingly, the NDCS includes the continued persecution of
patients who use marijuana for medicine. Under the leaked draft's
subheading, "Addressing misguided attempts to advance the acceptability
of marijuana," the strategy states that marijuana has "no currently
accepted medical use in treatment" and that "relaxing the controls ...
could be disastrous."
    "The only solution to the medicinal marijuana dilemma that General
McCaffrey offers is to waste a million dollars of taxpayers' money to
commission a book report of existing data -- focusing primarily on
marijuana's health risks rather than benefits," said Chuck Thomas.
"Meanwhile, the federal government continues to block large-scale
clinical research and to arrest and imprison patients who are already
using medicinal marijuana."
    "How can anyone seriously say that medicinal marijuana would
increase availability to children, when nearly 90% of high school
seniors already consider marijuana easy to obtain?", asked Thomas. [2] 
    In a classic good-cop, bad-cop routine, Republicans will attack the
report's rhetoric for being too soft, while the punitive,
counter-productive drug war continues unabated. "Drug Czar McCaffrey is
simply putting a friendly face on tyranny," said Chuck Thomas. "The
general speaks softly while beating the American people with a big
stick."
  1. "FBI Uniform Crime Reports, Crime in the United States: 1995,"
published in October 1996.
  2. "National Survey Results on Drug Use from the Monitoring the Future
Study, 1975-1995," L. Johnston, J. Bachman, and P. O'Malley (HHS,
National Institute on Drug Abuse); Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government
Printing Office.
                              - end -
=====================================================================
HOW TO SUPPORT THE MARIJUANA POLICY PROJECT:
To support the MPP's work and receive the quarterly (hard-copy) 
newsletter, "Marijuana Policy Report," please send $25.00 annual 
membership dues to:
    Marijuana Policy Project (MPP)
    P.O. Box 77492
    Capitol Hill
    Washington, D.C. 20013
    202-462-5747   TEL
    202-232-0442   FAX
    MPP@MPP.ORG
    http://www.mpp.org
--- GIGO+ sn 132 at genesplicer vsn 0.99 pl3
--- DLG Pro v1.16g1/PDQMail v2.60
(1:209/245)
---------------