How
the Press & the CIA Killed Gary Webb's Career
Today's
Stories
December
18 / 19, 2004
Joshua Frank
The
Spin Doctor: an Interview with Mickey Z.
December
17, 2004
Dave Lindorff
Racism:
Philly Style
Dan Bacher
Bush Abandons Salmon Restoration
Marisa Jacott
NAFTA and the Environment: Trade Still Runs Roughshod
Francis Thicke
How Now, Industrial Cow?
Rupert Cornwell
The Inuit Strike Back
Cockburn /
St. Clair
CounterAttack:
How the Press and the CIA Killed Gary Webb's Career
Website of the Day
Franz Boas Unrolls Over in His Grave
December
16, 2004
Michael
Neumann
How We Became Barbarians
Merlin
Chowkwanyun
An Interview with Ralph Nader
Gabriel
Espinoza Gonzales
The Dubious Career of John Bolton
Christopher
Brauchli
Louis Freeh's New Gig: Usurer
Patrick
Cockburn
Allawi's Pre-Election Ploy: Putting "Chemical Ali"
on Trial
Mike
Whitney
Gearing Up for a Draft?
Walter
Brasch
Hillbilly Humvees and Rumsfeld's New Physics
Bill
Conroy
How Gary Webb Saved My Ass from the FBI
Website
of the Day
Saturday Memorial for Gary Webb
December
15, 2004
Robert
Fisk
Who Killed Baha Mousa?
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Monster Under the Bed
Heather
Gray
Will the Real Christians Please Stand?: a Personal Testimony
Dave
Lindorff
The DNC, Albright and the Iraq Elections
Luis
Hernandez Navarro
To Die a Little: Migration and Coffee
in Mexico and Central America
Joshua
Frank
The Ohio Recount: an Exercise in "Dumbocracy"
Greg
Moses
Eighty-Sixing Civil Rights in Ohio?
George
Caffentzis
The Petroleum Commons
December
14, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
DNC Meddling in the Ukraine Elections
Larry
Birns / Seth DeLong
Haiti is Unraveling and No One is Saying
Anything
Richard
Thieme
My Last Talk with Gary Webb: "I Knew It Was the Truth and
That's What Kept Me Going"
Patrick
Cockburn
A Year After Saddam's Capture, Iraq
is Getting Worse
Chris
Floyd
Client State: Moral Values and Voluntary Servitude in Bush's
America
Akiva
Eldar
A One-time Hanukkah Miracle
Burbach
/ Cantor
The Legacy of Pinochet: Kissinger
and the Teflon Tyrant
December
13, 2004
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Gary Webb: a Great Reporter, Trashed
by the CIA's Claque
David
Phinney
"Contract Meal Disaster" for Iraqi Prisoners: Rancid
Food Sparked Abu Ghraib Riots
Paul
Craig Roberts
A Dose of Non-Delusional Reality
for Douglas Feith
M.
Junaid Alam
The War is the War Crime
Robert
Jensen
The US Has Lost the Iraq War...and That's a Good Thing
Richard
Oxman
Kafkaesque Lessons for the Left
Greg
Moses
Send No Messengers of Defeat
Douglas
Lummis
The Pentagon's Neurosis: Fallujah
Gulag
December
11 / 12, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Running an Empire on the Cheap
Ron
Jacobs
The Drugs of War: Getting High in the Green Zone?
Saul
Landau
Listening and Talking to God About
Invading Other Countries
Gary
Leupp
Bush's Capital
Sharon
Smith
The Horrible Toll on US Troops
Dave
Lindorff
Deja Vu All Over Again: 5,000 Desertions and Counting
Uri
Avnery
The Boss Has Gone Crazy
Jude
Wanniski
The Neo-Con Smear on Kofi Annan: What Food-for-Oil Scandal?
Heather
Gray
How the South Became Republican: an Interview with John Egerton
Patrick
Cockburn / Ken Sengupta
Fallujah: the Homecoming and the Homeless
John
Pilger
Return to Kosovo: Calling the Humanitarian Bombers to Account
Joshua
Frank
All the Rage: Mr. Solomon, Say You're Sorry
Ben
Tripp
O Canada!: the Truth About the Election of 2004
John
Stanton
God Speaks!
Laura
Nathan
Porn Stars are People, Too: a Talk with Christi Lake
Poets'
Basement
Capaccio, Davies, Louise, Ford and Albert
Website
of the Day
Fallujah Photos: Killed in Their Beds
December
10, 2004
Ralph
Nader
President Bush, Stop Destroying the
Mosques of Iraq
Greg
Moses
Whitewashing Voter Fraud
Nicole
Colson
Rebellion in the Ranks: Grunts Are Resisting Stop-Loss Orders
Frederick
B. Hudson
"They Still Got Those Dogs": A New Book Probes Old
Civil Rights Lessons
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraq's Insurgents Oppose the Occupation, Not the Elections
Kathy
Kelly
From Haiti to Iraq: Burying Water
December
9, 2004
Greg
Moses
Ask Not Who Bankrolled Fallujah
Joshua
Frank
Cobb and the Ohio Recount: Vote Fraud as Fundraiser!
Ralph
Nader
An Open Letter to Bush: It's Time to
Disclose the Real Casualty Figures
Lee
Sustar
Bhopal: the Making of a Disaster
Tom
Barry
Restrictionist Resurgence
Mickey
Z.
Sander Hicks and the 9/11 Truth Movement
Christopher
Brauchli
Bush in the Bubble
Mark
Donham
Why are House Democrats Trying to
Deny Cynthia McKinney Seniority?
Gary
Corseri
On the Anniversary of John Lennon's Death, 2012
Paul
de Rooij
The Voices of Sharon's Little Helpers
December
8, 2004
Ralph
Nader
Will the Real Michael Moore Ever Re-Emerge?
Ann
Harrison
The Ohio Recount: Reluctant Officials
and Few Rules
Paul
Craig Roberts
War Crime
Dave
Lindorff
They've Got a Secret: Inside the $40 Billion Black Budget for
Spying
Patrick
Cockburn / Andrew Buncombe
CIA Warning on Iraq: Fallujah Did Not Break the Back of the Insurgency
Col.
Dan Smith
Rules of Engagement in Iraq
Emily
Alves / Michael Johnson
Paradise Lost: Corruption and Clientelism in Costa Rica
Richard
Oxman
The Dylan Bob Wouldn't Mention: Up With Dylan Thomas
Ron
Jacobs
In Fallujah, Freedom Isn't Free
December
7, 2004
Patrick
Cockburn
Running Battles in Baghdad
Behrooz
Ghamari
Lost Muslim Voices of Dissent
Dave
Lindorff
American Fantasies: Psst! Hey Buddy,
Did You Hear How Well the War's Going?
Joshua
Frank
Dean at the DNC?
Richard
Oxman
Down with Dylan: the Insufferable Interview
Ray
McGovern
All Mosquitoes, No Swamp
John
Chuckman
The Invasion of Hallifax: The Imperial Wizard Visits Canada
James
Petras
Latin America: the Empire Changes Gears
Website
of the Day
ToxMap: Who's Poisoning You
December
6, 2004
Paul
Craig Roberts
Paranoia and Pre-emption: Is the
Bush Administration Certifiable?
December
4 / 6, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
Politicize the CIA? You've Got to
be Kidding
Joe
Bageant
Dining with the Rhinos
Alan
Maass
Reporting from the Ground in Iraq: an Interview with Patrick
Cockburn
Brian
Cloughley
Democracy, Bush-style, in the Gulf
Laura
Carlsen
Latin America Shifts Left
Lenni
Brenner
Jefferson, Madison, Bush and Religion
Anna
Ioakimedes
Brazil's Haitian Mission: Doing God's Work or Washington's?
Uri
Avnery
Widow of Opportunity?
Fred
Gardner
Supreme Court Hears Medical Pot Case
Dave
Zirin
Steroids to Heaven
Jackie
Corr
Mining Camp Blues: the Red State Variation
Don
Fitz
Will Greens Abandon IRV?
Lucy
Herschel
"Art can be a Weapon of the Oppressed": an Interview
with Artist Anthony Papa
Richard
Oxman
No Angels in America: Bashing the Gay Play
Ron
Jacobs
Holiday Greeting Card
Poets'
Basement
Collins, Albert, LaMorticella
December
3, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Lie Then Escalate
Ben
Tripp
Fun With Boycotts: How to Shop in a
Time of Crisis
Joe
Allen
Murder in El Salvador: the Assassination of Teamster Organizer
Gilberto Soto
Matthew
B. Riley
Human Rights Court Fails Lori Berenson
Meir
Shalev
In the End, It is the Violin that Wins
Bob
Wing
The White Elephant in the Room: Race and Election 2004
Christopher
Brauchli
When McCain Bit His Tongue
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
The EU, the US, Israel and Iran
December
2, 2004
Tito
Tricot
No Justice in Chile: I'm a Torture
Survivor in a Country Where Torturers Still Run Free
Behzad
Yaghmaian
The Murder of Theo Van Gogh and Muslim Migration
Dr.
Susan Block
Lana and Me: Meetings with Remarkable Apes
Frank
/ Chowkwanyun
Liberalism and Its Bounds
Lee
Sustar
Standoff in Ukraine: the Bad v. the Corrupt
Patrick
Cockburn
Another Grim Record in Iraq
Mark
Engler
Seattle at Five
Michael
Donnelly
Something Stinks in South Bend: the Firing of Tyrone Willingham
Nate
Collins
The Bay Area Mall on an Ohlone Burial Grounds
Saul
Landau
The Assassination of Danilo Anderson
December
1, 2004
Phillip
Cryan
Associated with Whom? Rightist Bias
in Wire Coverage of Colombia
Dave
Zirin
What's the Matter with "Leon"?:
Budweiser's Racist Commercial
Ghali
Hassan
Iraq's Health Care Under the Occupation:
200 Children Die Every Day
Donna
J. Volatile
Beware Western Nations Threatening "Democracy"
Patrick
Cockburn
How Saddam Tried to Arm the Insurgency
Nick
Meo
Chemical War Over Afghanistan
Mike
Ferner
The Battle of Toledo
Mokhiber
/ Weissman
Shame and Determination on Global AIDS Day: 40 Million and Rising
Kathy
Kelly
Looking the Other Way: the Real Crimes
of the UN in Iraq
November
30, 2004
Jennifer
Van Bergen
The Veil of Secrecy
Toni
Nelson Herrera
Meeting Kurtz: When Art is a Crime
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Bush Delusions: Successful at Incompetence
Patrick
Cockburn
The Insurgency Strikes Back: There Are No Safe Havens in Iraq
Chuck
Munson
WTO Protests Five Years Later: Seattle Weekly Trashes Anti-Globalization
Movement
Adam
Williams
Citizenship Sold: Back to Business in Indiana
Gregory
Elich
A Dangerous Turn in the US Plans for
North Korea
Website
of the Day
Read Lynne Cheney's Lesbian Novel Online!
November
29, 2004
Dave
Lindorff
Blowback in Ukraine: The Hand of
the CIA?
Omar
Barghouti
"The Pianist" of Palestine:
Roadblock Concerto at Gunpoint
Mike
Whitney
The US Media and Fallujah: How to
Market a Siege
Uri
Avnery
The Abu Mazen Style: "Give Me
Some Credit!"
Matt
Vidal
Globalization and Economic Inequality: a Look at the Numbers
Patrick
Cockburn
An Interview with Iraq's Foreign
Minister
Alan
Farago
Sex Change and Salvation: God, Girly Men and Endocrine Disrupters
Justin
Huggler
Bhopal 20 Years Later
Antony
Loewenstein
How Australia Reported Arafat's Death and Legacy
Gary
Leupp
Ukraine: Poll Results Aren't the Real
Issue
Website
of the Day
Mosul: Images from a Kill Zone
November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
Sycorax in Iraq
Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
November
26, 2004
Peter
Feng
Gavin Newsom: Man or Machine?
Greg
Moses
It's the White Vote, Stupid
Liaquat
Ali Khan
The Devil's Work: Bush's Minority Appointments
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should Be Banned from Canada: a Memo to the Ministry
of Immigration
Dave
Lindorff
Nation of Sheep, Turkey of an Election: Urkrainians Show the
Way
Gary
Corseri
When Black Friday Comes...
Paul
Craig Roberts
Whatever Happened to Conservatives?
Website
of the Day
Iraq Pipeline Watch
November
25, 2004
Willliam
Loren Katz
Giving Thanks to Whom?: "Thanks
to God We Sent 600 Heathen Souls to Hell Today"
Mitchel
Cohen
Why I Hate Thanksgiving
Mike
Ferner
An Uncommon Mom
November
24, 2004
Gila
Svirsky
License to Kill: the Example of Violence
is Set by the State
Winslow
T. Wheeler
The
Other Mess in Congress
Christopher
Brauchli
The Company He Keeps: the Syndicate of Tom Delay
Dave
Lindorff
Double Standards on Exit Polls: Hypocrisy Sans Irony
Ron
Jacobs
The Occupation of Iraq is the Root of t he Problem
Ken
Sengupta
Witnesses: War Crimes in Fallujah
Diana
Barahona
The Final Holocaust or Why I Voted for Ralph Nader
John
L. Hess
Safire the Shameless
Jason
Leopold
Did Harvard Hire (Another) War Criminal?
Jeffrey
St. Clair
The Mark of McCain: the Senator Most Likely to Start a Nuclear
War
Map
of the Day
Now and Then: 2004 v. 1860
November
23, 2004
Forrest
Hylton
Bush and Uribe at the Beach
November
22, 2004
Dave
Zirin
Fight Night in the NBA: Selective Outrage
in Detroit
Paul
Craig Roberts
On to Iran: We Won't Get Fooled Again?
Michael
Mandel / Gail Davidson
Why Bush Should be Banned from Canada
Kathie
Helmkamp
Our Son: a Marine Who Won't Kill
Ken
Sengupta
The Triangle of Death: "This is Now the Most Dangerous Place
in Iraq"
Mike
Whitney
Greenspan's Hammer
Roger
Burbach
Why They Hate Bush in Chile
Website
of the Day
Fed Up with Government Lies and Corporate Spin?
November
20 / 21, 2004
Alexander
Cockburn
The Poisoned Chalice
Todd
May
Religion, the Election and the Politics of Fear
Abbas
Ahmed Ibrahim
The Horrors of Fallujah: a First-Hand Account
Kevin
Zeese
Mishandling Nader
Landau
/ Hassen
After Arafat
Tom
Barry
The Vulcans Consolidate Power: The Rise of Stephen Hadley
Fred
Gardner
Pot Shots: Ask Dr. Todd
Justin
E.H. Smith
Triumph of the Will: the Sequel
Carl
Estabrook
Where We Are Now
Gary
Leupp
Imperial History-Making vs. Reality-Based Thought: a Dialogue
Dave
Lindorff
Apocalypse Soon
Jenna
Michelle Liut
Plans Colombia and Patriota: Wanton Wastes of Money, Manpower
and Lives
Mickey
Z.
The Granma Moses of Radical Writing: an Interview with William
Blum
Greg
Moses
The Same Old Struggle Against Imperial America
Sharon
Smith
Abortion Rights and the Election: What Now?
Ron
Jacobs
Sandwiches and Car Bombs
Ben
Tripp
Raising d'Etre: Finding Money in Hollywood These Days
Richard
Oxman
Basketbrawl Two Pointer: Iraq Rules!
Gilad
Atzmon
Politics and Jazz
Poets'
Basement
LaMorticella, Albert, Ford, & Anon.
Website
of the Day
Voice of the Forest
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
December 18 / 19, 2004
Pot Shots
DEA
Upholds Grower's Marijuana Monopoly
By
FRED GARDNER
The Drug Enforcement Administration
has turned down an application by a University of Massachusetts
botanist seeking to grow cannabis for research purposes.
Mahmoud ElSohly, PhD, remains
the only DEA-licensed cannabis grower in the U.S. ElSohly, who
supervises a l.5-acre garden at the University of Mississippi,
provides cannabis to the National Institute on Drug Abuse for
use by researchers allowed to test it in clinical trials, and
to patients in the federal "compassionate use" program
begun by President Carter in the late '70s (and closed to new
patients by George H.W. Bush when the AIDS epidemic hit). ElSohly
also holds the patent on a suppository that delivers cannabinoids
up the... but we won't go there.
Patients who have compared
ElSohly's cannabis to cannabis grown for medical use in California
say the latter is highly preferable -no sticks and seeds and
much higher potency, meaning you can use less. Seriously ill
people want the best medicine obtainable. The perceived inadequacy
of NIDA's cannabis has resulted in several FDA-approved clinical
trials funded by California's Center for Medicinal Cannabis Research
failing to attract test subjects. Why smoke ElSohly's when you
can get "Blueberry?"
In 2000 an activist academic,
Rick Doblin, PhD, encouraged botanist Lyle Craker, PhD, to apply
for a DEA license to cultivate cannabis at UMass, Amherst. Doblin
founded and runs a non-profit called the Multidisciplinary Association
for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS). Craker is Director of the Laboratories
for Natural Products, Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Department
of Plant and Soil Sciences at UMass.
Their application was filed
in the spring of 2001. When at last the evaluation process began
(after a year of various petty stalls), ElSohly claimed in a
letter to the DEA that his Mississippi operation produced "enough
cannabis, both qualitatively and quantitatively, to satisfy any
possible needs of the research community."
Doblin responded: "Unfortunately,
that statement is false. For example, Chemic Labs requires marijuana
with higher levels of THC and CBD than Dr. ElSohly can provide.
Chemic Labs is conducting MAPS-sponsored laboratory research
into the constituents of vapors produced when marijuana has been
heated but not burned in a device known as a vaporizer. As you
are probably aware, Chemic Labs has applied to DEA for a permit
to import 10 grams of marijuana from the Dutch Office of Medicinal
Cannabis of the SIMM 18 variety. This product contains 13.2%
THC and 7.6% CBD, cannabinoid levels that NIDA does not have
available.
"In a rather humorous
indication of just how unaware NIDA and Dr. ElSohly are about
what some members of the research community require, Dr. ElSohly
acknowledged that he and NIDA didn't consider it a significant
issue that for over 20 years, low-potency material was provided
that included seeds and sticks! At least Dr. ElSohly said that
seeds and sticks have supposedly been eliminated from current
production.
"Even assuming that NIDA
could satisfy any possible needs of the research community, NIDA's
monopoly serves to obstruct privately-funded research. As long
as NIDA and Dr. ElSohly retain a monopoly on the supply of marijuana,
sponsors of privately-funded research are prevented from choosing
the strain of marijuana they would prefer to research. Different
strains have different ratios of the cannabinoids, THC and CBD,
with NIDA offering low-potency, low-quality material.
"NIDA's monopoly also
makes privately-funded sponsors dependent on NIDA for price and
availability. This is problematic since NIDA has twice refused
to provide marijuana to protocols it didn't like even though
FDA approved the protocols. Furthermore, NIDA is limited by law
to providing marijuana for research but cannot provide it for
prescription use. As a result, NIDA's monopoly forces sponsors
to conduct research with a plant strain provided by NIDA that
cannot be guaranteed to be available for prescription use.
"No rational private sponsor
will invest the millions of dollars needed to conduct the research
required by FDA with the limitations imposed by NIDA's monopoly
on supply. Dr. ElSohly also didn't comment on how NIDA's monopoly
is inconsistent with US law requiring competition in the production
of scheduled materials for use in research.
* *
*
Keep a-knockin' but you can't
come in
Keep a-knockin' but you can't come in
Keep a-knockin' but you can't come in
Come back tomorrow night and try it again.
-American folk song
As of this summer, the DEA
still had not acted on the Craker application. MAPS and Valerie
Corral of the Wo/man's Alliance for Medical Marijuana filed a
suit charging "unreasonable delay." The DC Circuit
Court of Appeals gave the DEA until Dec. 22 to justify the delay.
Instead, on Dec. 10 the DEA issued an Order denying Craker's
application as "not consistent with the public interest."
The main reason:
"Current marijuana research
has not progressed to Phase 2 of the clinical trials because
current research must utilize smoked marijuana, which ultimately
cannot be the permitted delivery system for any potential marijuana
medication due to the deleterious effects and the difficulty
of monitoring the efficaciousness of smoked marijuana."
Doblin comments, "DEA
is saying that since it can prejudge the outcome of FDA-approved
research and knows that smoked marijuana ultimately cannot be
permitted, denying us the opportunity to do the research in the
first place isn't against the public interest. What makes this
all the more ludicrous is that the DEA lawyers don't even understand
the FDA drug review process enough to know that there are currently
several Phase II studies with smoked marijuana underway and already
approved by DEA!
"DEA focus on 'smoked
marijuana' also ignores the whole concept of vaporization as
an alternative non-smoking delivery system that MAPS has already
studied. Vaporization uses the marijuana plant and heats it to
less than the temperature of burning, sufficient to generate
a steam that contains cannabinoids but without the products of
combustion which are of health concern. For the last 17 months,
DEA has been blocking our efforts to import 10 grams of marijuana
from the Dutch, and HHS/NIDA has been blocking our efforts to
purchase 10 grams of marijuana from NIDA, both requests seeking
marijuana for further laboratory research with vaporizers."
The DEA Order also asserted,
" In accordance with the Single Convention (treaty), the
Federal Government has to limit marijuana available for clinical
research to one source."
U.S. narco-diplomats promoted
this treaty and bullied other countries into signing. It could
be revised to reflect current understanding of the benignity
of cannabis. Or, as is the Bush Administration's wont, abrogated
unilaterally. Moreover, as Doblin points out, "GW Pharmaceuticals,
a private producer of marijuana in England, which is also a signatory
to the same international treaties that the US has signed. The
International Narcotic Control Board, which monitors compliance
with the treaties, has never once objected to the British Home
Office licensing of GW's production facility, which took place
more than six years ago in 1998."
The DEA's third basis for rejecting
Craker's application was: "FDA has not received any new
drug application for the development of a prescription drug containing
marijuana or a constituent of marijuana... DEA should not register
another marijuana manufacturer at this time on such a speculative
basis."
Doblin explains the Catch-22:
"We are saying that unless we can have access to our own
independent source of marijuana, we can't even do the research
necessary to present an NDA to the FDA. DEA says that unless
there is a need for marijuana for prescription use, it doesn't
see a need to make marijuana available for research. It is possible
to get permission for research, the FDA is open to research.
It's the NIDA monopoly which is the key factor obstructing research."
Craker and his backers are
planning to appeal the DEA rejection to an administrative law
judge. They have 30 days to do so. Doblin defines the DEA's rejection
as progress towards the ultimate showdown, the hearing before
the ALJ. He has asked Covington and Burling, an elite D.C. law
firm that, for free, helped draft Craker's argument with respect
to U.S. treaty obligations to stay involved. He has also asked
the ACLU to come in.
If you think we've been to
this movie before, you're right. In the late 1980s a DEA administrative
law judge named Francis Young conducted a hearing on a petition
by NORML and a patient named Robert Randall to have marijuana
moved from Schedule 1 (harmful drugs with no medical use) to
Schedule 2. After extensive testimony and evidence presented
by doctors, patients and public officials, Young called for immediate
rescheduling. "Marijuana in its natural form is one of the
safest therapeutically active substances known to man,"
he wrote in his opinion. "Many people find marijuana to
have... accepted medical use in treatment in the United States."
But administrative law judges
don't rule, they weigh the evidence and recommend a course of
action to the agency involved. DEA Administrator Jack Lawn formally
rejected Young's recommendation (after 15 months of not acting
on it at all). Some of the doctors and patients who testified,
Lawn observed, were affiliated with NORML and supported full
legalization -as if that discredited their testimony! Rescheduling
marijuana, Lawn ruled, "would be unreasonable, arbitrary
and capricious."
In the late '90s Francis Young's
daughter sent a letter to a journalist who had written about
her father's futile recommendation to reschedule marijuana. Young
had died a protracted, painful death from cancer, she wrote,
aware all the while that marijuana might provide relief. But
he didn't want any obtained for him; he had always been a man
of the law and he chose to abide by the law till the end.
Fred Gardner can be reached at journal@ccrmg.org
Weekend Edition
Features for November
27 / 28, 2004
Peter
Linebaugh
Torture & Neo-Liberalism with
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Alexander
Cockburn
What Happened to O'Reilly's Loofa?
Fred
Gardner
Ashcroft v. Raich: Medical Marijuana and the Supreme Court
Kathy
Kelly
What We Can Control
Diane
Christian
The Other Cheek: "Empire Doesn't Analyze, It Acts"
Gary
Leupp
One More Neocon Target: South (Yes, South) Korea
Lenni
Brenner
Equality and Rights of Return: Jefferson Instructs the New York
Times
Ron
Jacobs
Death Squads and Iraq's Elections: the Mysterious Murders of
the AMS Clerics
Joshua
Frank
An Interview with Kevin Zeese on Nader, Kerry and the ABB Crowd
Toni
Solo
The Murder of Danilo Anderson
Saul
Landau
Fallujah, the 21st Century Guernica
JoAnn
Wypijewski
Matthew Shepard Case 6 Years Later: Why Hate Crimes Laws are
No Cure for Homophobia
Justin
Taylor
Empire's Lawless Opportunities
Amos
Harel
The Case of Captain R.
Walter
A. Davis
Tabloid Justice
Stephen
Hendricks
God's Kind of Men
Poets'
Basement
Albert, LaMorticella and Ford
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