This section of my page is directed toward current events containing material about Cannabis Law, World Wide Events,Celebrity Profiles, Medical Facts & A-LOT more. Most of this is good news for the debate to decriminalize Cannabis.
British Tobacco Company Considers Cannabis in
Cigarettes
According to Britain's The Observer newspaper,
the British American Tobacco (BAT, the largest
tobacco company in the United Kingdom)
considered "exploiting" cannabis by adding it to
cigarettes. The newspaper reported that it recently
uncovered internal documents showed that BAT
was preparing itself for the future possible
legalization of the drug.
Cigarette companies have already registered brand
names with links to the drug, like Acapulco Gold,
Red Leb (short for Red Lebanese), and Marley
(although the company claimed at the time there
was no relation to Bob Marley and Marley
cigarettes). The document "considers the main
threats to the smoking habit... and draws attention
to the undoubted opportunities which exist in the
development of future products... In the illicit use
of marijuana, relatively large doses of the active
principal are involved. If the use of such drugs was
legalized, one avenue for exploitation would be the
augmentation of cigarettes with near subliminal
levels of the drug."
The future use of drugs in cigarettes was not
company policy, BAT told The Observer.
- R.J. Cote, HT Web News Crew, filed 5/3/98
Frontline Takes on Mandatory Minimums
Last month, PBS's Frontline program focused on
the issues surrounding crime and punishment of
marijuana growers in America during a one-hour
broadcast called Busted: America's War on
Marijuana. The issue of cannabis relegalization
was not debated. Instead the program aired
interviews with victims of the federal mandatory
minimums sentencing guidelines as well as
proponents of the War on Marijuana in an attempt
to present the facts in an unbiased way.
Did they succeed? Well, nobody can be sure.
Busted took the middle road between the drug
warriors and the legalization movement, asking
some very provocative questions and leaving many
unanswered along the way. Here are some of the
high points:
- A former DEA agent talked about his
experiences with marijuana offenders.
- A San Francisco federal judge talked about
his dissatisfaction with mandatory minimum
sentencing.
- A family dealt with the economic and
personal devastation due to running afoul of
marijuana laws.
- Senator Orrin Hatch (UT) talked about his
desire for harsher sentencing.
- There is an official document distributed by
state/federal agencies detailing the typical
profile of a grower for use by informants.
One of the traits listed was "subscribes to
HIGH TIMES magazine."
- One in six people in prison today is in for
marijuana law violations.
- Mandatory minimums have marijuana
growers or distributors actually being
sentenced to "life" sentences--no pardon, no
parole.
- The law enforcement community has been
increasingly encouraged to "conspire" to build
cases with the help of extremely well paid
informants through the incentives created by
forfeiture laws. In one instance, one
informant turned in another informant.
- We are spending no less than 10 billion
dollars a year to fight marijuana specifically.
The discussion lacked the usual hysteria and bias
found in other reports, and was a good introduction
to the issues and questions surrounding the U.S.
Government's war on marijuana.
If you visit the PBS website
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/dope
you can add your view to discussion groups,
examine reports on the issue of mandatory
minimums, view a timeline of the history of
marijuana in the U.S. (including the founding of
HIGH TIMES in 1974). There are also links, press
reaction to the program, a critical appraisal of the
D.A.R.E. program, and background material from
the show.
Special Update: Having talked to Frontline about
his feelings and taking the cameras inside his
growing operation, Doug Keenan, a grower/activist
who was interviewed at length on the program,
was busted in his home shortly after the April 28th
program was aired.
