We apologize for the delay in sending any news out in a
while. Lots has happened, though, and so read on to find out all about it -- and how you can get a free video of Geraldo Rivera's special on the futility of the drug war.

The biggest recent national news on the drug war is Drug
Czar Barry McCaffrey's attempt to rationalize the ongoing
expenditure of billions of taxpayer dollars in a June 29th
editorial in the Washington Post. Here's a short excerpt:

Clearly, drugs themselves harm users. A significant
percentage of all current drug users are addicted to illegal substances.... Removing the threat of criminal sanctions would eliminate the possibility of forced treatment and condemn countless addicts to miserable lives.

McCaffrey is saying that drugs are illegal because they are
harmful, rather than vice versa. As drug reform activist
Keith Sanders said in a letter to the Washington Post, "This claim runs counter to every lesson America learned from alcohol Prohibition. During that "Noble Experiment", deaths from poisoned liquor skyrocketed, cities were controlled by bootlegger gangs, and children had equal access to liquor (because dealers never ask for ID). The parallels to our Drug War are hard to miss..."

McCaffrey only mentions "marijuana" once: "Three-quarters
of the U.S. population opposes the legalization of
psychoactive drugs such as heroin, cocaine, LSD, methamphetamine, and marijuana."

General McCaffrey groups all illegal drugs together like
that in the hopes that the public's fear of the more serious drugs of abuse will bleed over to include marijuana, a plant that has never caused an overdose, is less harmful than cigarettes or alcohol, and has legitimate medical uses for perhaps millions of Americans.

Mr. McCaffrey's editorial is available on the web at the
following address:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1999-06/29/026l-062999-idx.html

Please write a letter to your local newspaper expressing
your views on McCaffrey's editorial. Consider mentioning
that one of McCaffrey's central flaws is the fact that the
war on drugs that may be addictive and harmful has created
an additionally harmful, destructive, and profitable black
market.

In other national news, the U.S. House of Representatives
passed a bill limiting the federal government's power to
seize and confiscate private property. Passage of this bill
is a big victory for the reform of civil asset forfeiture.
The 375 "yes" votes (an 89% majority) included an eclectic
mix of conservative constitutionalists and liberal civil
libertarians.

According the Chicago Tribune, under the current civil asset forfeiture laws, the annual flow of boats, cars, planes, houses, cash, and other assets out of the hands of citizens who may or may not have been accused of a crime has mushroomed from $27 million in 1985 to nearly half a billion dollars. These assets have been seized by law enforcement regardless of whether the person to whom they belonged was convicted of -- or even accused of -- any crime.

The reform measure (HR 1658) that passed the House offers
legal services to indigent people, would allow citizens to
use their property while legal proceedings are underway, and would put the burden on the government to prove that the property was actually gained through or used in the
commission of a crime. Under current law, the property is
presumed "guilty" and the citizen must prove its "innocence" to get it returned.

Montana Representative Rick Hill supported the bill.

The forfeiture reform bill now moves to the Senate, where it faces vigorous opposition from law enforcement groups and the U.S. Justice Department, who have become accustomed to the power to steal property from people at will.

Please consider writing or calling Montana Senators Conrad
Burns and Max Baucus to express your feelings that they
should support the forfeiture reform bill HR 1658. Remind
them that the protections offered by HR 1658 are an
important safeguard for all citizens from well-documented
abuses of civil asset forfeiture. For more information on
asset forfeiture, visit http://www.fear.org on the web.

Conrad Burns
187 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-2644
conrad_burns@burns.senate.gov

Max Baucus
United States Senate
511 Hart Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
http://www.senate.gov/~baucus/EmailMax.htm
(800) 332-6106

Next, a couple of pieces of local issues that Montana NORML
has been working on.

This spring, Montana NORML was contacted by an individual
who claimed to be a state representative in Florida. This
person said that unusual research was going on at Montana
State University - Bozeman. The purpose of the project is to genetically engineer a fungus that will attack and destroy marijuana plants, the idea being that it could be aerially sprayed on whole regions in which marijuana cultivation is suspected. The informant offered the specific name of the fungus and the names of the researchers involved.

A phone call to MSU-B confirmed that these experiments are
indeed being conducted, and the researcher with whom we
spoke also mentioned that, with the cooperation of the
Missoula Police Department, experiments with the
manufactured organism had already been carried out in a
Missoula greenhouse.

Under the Montana Constitution and state law, citizens have
a right to know and inspect all documents held by public
bodies. Therefore, in May, Montana NORML lawfully requested
from MSU-B (a state institution funded by tax dollars that
is subject to our right to know) all information regarding
this project being carried out in secret on public property, using public resources and personnel. In June, MSU's legal counsel completely denied our request. As a result, Montana NORML will file suit in state district court to compel MSU-B to comply with the law and provide us with all the requested public information. We'll offer more news as it arrives.

One other exciting event for Montana NORML was the
successful defense of a medical marijuana patient charged
with possession of dangerous drugs in Missoula. The patient
had the legal recommendation and approval (under Prop. 215)
of a California doctor for medical marijuana to help treat
his chronic pain. While Montana has no specific medical
marijuana law (yet!), we do have statutes that respect the
laws of other states and the judgement of out-of-state
medical doctors. When presented with this argument, a
Missoula prosecutor offered "deferred prosecution", which
essentially means that the case will be put on hold for six
months, and then dropped completely.

While this result is not as strong as an explicit finding of "not guilty", it does allow this patient to go on with his life without any paying any fines, without attending court ordered "substance abuse counseling", and without a criminal conviction on his record.

If you or someone you know requires legal help with a
marijuana charge in Montana, please contact Montana NORML as soon as possible.

Attention, music-loving marijuana law reform activists!
Widespread Panic, a band some have compared to the Allman
Brothers Band, will be in Whitefish, Montana on Friday July
9th, in Bozeman on Saturday July 10th, and Jackson Hole,
Wyoming on July 11th. We don't currently have any Montana
NORML representatives who will be able to attend. These
shows will be a great opportunity to distribute Montana
NORML literature and gather names for our mailing list, to
say nothing of seeing some talented musicians do what they
do best.

If you plan to attend any of these concerts, please contact
Montana NORML today, and we'll get you literature and flyers to hand out. For details on the shows, call the Widespread Panic hotline at (706) 354-2586.

You can call Montana NORML
at (406) 542-8696 or email norml@montananorml.org.

Finally, some of you may have seen Geraldo Rivera's
blistering critique of the drug war in a documentary on NBC
two weeks ago. In it, Geraldo visited coca fields of
Columbia, heroin junkies in San Diego, and a long-time
professional marijuana smuggler serving hard time in federal prison. Throughout, a message is maintained: no matter what law enforcement does, no matter how much tax money is thrown at the issue, no matter how high-tech the tools used, the flow of drugs from fields and laboratories both domestic and abroad into the bodies of Americans continues unabated. The drug war, says Geraldo, is the longest lasting, most expensive, most failure-riddled endeavor the American government has ever engaged in.

Montana NORML taped the show, and now, for a limited time,
we are pleased to offer it free with any donation or
membership fee of $20 or more. If you're on our mailing
list, but haven't purchased an annual membership yet, now is the perfect time. After all, joining the list is free --
creating and sending these mailings is not.

Please join
Montana NORML today, and help us continue to do our
important work to reduce the harm associated with marijuana
laws in Montana. Please print out the form located at
http://www.montananorml.org/join.php3 and send it in with
your generous check today. We truly appreciate your help.

Also, if you're currently also receiving paper mailings, and
would prefer to receive only via email, please visit
http://www.montananorml.org/list.php3 and add your email
address to our email announcement list. There's a special
checkbox there for you to indicate that we should stop
sending you paper mail.

Thanks for your support,

John Masterson
Montana NORML

Montana NORML 2401 Brooks #130
norml@montana.com Missoula, MT 59801
http://www.montananorml.org (406) 542-8696

News supplied by DdC!
Thank You, DdC!

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Lots of people are happy to know that the "government" is trying to "do something" ... until they see through the propaganda, and realize that sometimes the cure is far worse than the disease. That was the case for alcohol prohibition in the 1920's, and it is also the case for drug prohibition right now.

• Historical Research on Drug Policy