News briefs

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• DISCONTINUED IN APRIL 1996
• 28 March 1996 -- The U.S. and Mexico agreed on a common strategy to combat drug trafficking, at a high-level meeting of U.S. and Mexican officials.

• 25 March 1996 -- U.S. President Clinton met with state attorneys general to endorse lawsuits brought by states against tobacco companies.

• 21 March 1996 -- Sixty more drug convictions were overturned in Philadelphia, bringing the total to 116, in a police corruption scandal in which six former officers have confessed to planting drugs on suspects, stealing their money and falsifying police reports. Hundreds more cases are being re-investigated.

• 19 March 1996 -- Testimony released by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration includes William A. Farone, director of applied research at Philip Morris from 1976 to 1984, saying that "It is well recognized within the cigarette industry that there is one principal reason why people smoke -- to experience the effects of nicotine."

• 16 March 1996 -- The New York Times on new U.S. Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey's rejection of "war" as a metaphor for the anti-drug effort: "The analogy of cancer is far more adaptive and useful as a model to a way of thinking and talking about the problem," the general said. War, he said, was focused violence directed toward an achievable end, with a unity of command an element of surprise. "None of those associated military concepts are useful to us talking and thinking about this problem."

• 15 March 1996 -- The Ligget Group, the fifth-largest cigarette manufacturer in the U.S.A., settled lawsuits brought against it by five states who were suing to recover millions of dollars paid out through medicade to people with smoking-related illnesses. Not all states with lawsuits pending settled, and other cigarette manufacturers are also targeted by similar suits. The U.S. government estimates that 400,000 citizens die from smoking-related illnesses each year.

• 8 March 1996 -- Two years after California's "Three Strikes You're Out" sentencing law went into effect, twice as many defendants have been imprisoned under the law for marijuana possession as for murder, rape and kidnapping combined, according to a report issued today by the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice in San Francisco.

• 8 March 1996 -- President Clinton on drugs: "They are illegal and therefore wrong, but they are also dangerous."

• 7 March 1996 -- U.S. President Clinton, Vice President Gore, and Drug Czar McCaffrey were among the speakers at The White House Conference on Youth Drug Use and Violence, designed to emphasize the Clinton administration's commitment to the drug war in the face of evidence showing that children of the DARE generation are using drugs in large numbers.

• 6 March 1996 -- Canada's "Bill C-7" was revived as "Bill C-8."


• 6 March 1996 -- Retired General Barry McCaffrey became the new "drug czar," as head of the U.S. War on Drugs. President Clinton expanded the Office of National Drug Control Policy from 21 members to 150 members, and promoted redirecting $250 million in Defense Department spending to the Drug War effort, saying "Drugs are as much a threat to our security as any outside enemy is today."

• 6 March 1996 -- The U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime is holding a hearing to investigate the adequacy of existing federal penalties for marijuana-related offenses in the wake of sentencing reforms initiated by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and an upcoming medical marijuana bill. The committee was told that the average age of a first-time marijuana user is now 13.5 years, and that marijuana use among 14- and 15-year-olds doubled between 1992 and 1994.

• 5 March 1996 -- The United States government, citing reports of abuse and use as a tool in facilitating sexual assault, banned imports of the sedative Rohypnol, and said it would seize the substance from individuals, in the mail, or in commercial shipments.

• 4 March 1996 -- The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the government may use civil forfeiture to confiscate and sell property owned by innocent people who had no idea that the property was being used during the commission of a crime. In this case a car that the woman co-owned was seized after her husband had sex with a prostitute in the car. Dissenters in the 5-4 ruling protested that "fundamental fairness prohibits the punishment of innocent people," but Justice Thomas, who backed the court ruling, said "the Federal Constitution does not prohibit everything that is intensely undesirable."

• 4 March 1996 -- The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to decide whether motorists stopped for traffic violations must be told that they are free to go before police inquire about contraband or ask to search the vehicle.

• 2 March 1996 -- Canada's Liberal government annouced its intention to revive bill C-7, the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, which died when Parliament ended its session on February 2nd.

• 1 March 1996 -- The U.S. refused to extend certification as drug war allies to six countries: Afghanistan, Iran, Burma, Nigeria, Colombia, and Syria.