NOTE: If you would like to have this weekly news update e-mailed to you for free, please e-mail your e-mail address to NORML at "NATLNORML@AOL.COM". If you would like to receive information on how to join NORML, please e-mail your street address to:

NORML. NATIONAL ORGANIZATION FOR THE REFORM OF MARIJUANA LAWS

1001 CONNECTICUT AVENUE, NW

SUITE 1010 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20036 E-MAIL NATLNORML@AOL.COM

. . . a weekly service for the media on news items related to Marijuana Prohibition.

September 8, 1994

- POTENCY MONITORING PROJECT RELEASES QUARTERLY FINDINGS: MEAN POTENCY OF MARIJUANA REMAINS ESSENTIALLY UNCHANGED

NORML has obtained the most recent data from the Mississippi Monitoring Project, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), on the potency of marijuana samples seized by law-enforcement agencies.

In stark contrast to the prohibitionist party line of a dramatic increase in marijuana potency-usually repeated uncritically by the media-the NIDA quarterly report indicates a consistent mean potency average of 3.32% delta-9-THC (tetrahydrocannabinol, one of the primary psychoactive ingredients). Even domestic seizures of sinsemilla (seedless flowers) have remained constant at 5.5% delta-9-THC.

According to John Morgan, M.D., author of the "Drugs of Abuse" section in the Merck Manual and Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the City University of New York, "Despite pronouncements of DEA officials and other fear mongers regarding marijuana's potency, there has been no change in American marijuana potency as reflected in the samples analyzed by the Mississippi Project."

Dr. Morgan further explains that "Dr. ElSohly of the University of Mississippi is preparing a review article of the Mississippi Project for the last 10 years." The NIDA grant which has made the project possible is soon due to expire. Dr. ElSohly is expected to reapply for continued federal funding. According to Dr. Morgan, "It will be very interesting to see if NIDA will continue to fund this effort which consistently counters the lies of the Drug Enforcement Administration."

MEDIA ALERT: Expect a call from DEA agent Wayne Roques saying that "potency is up again." (He is already calling.) Ask him about averages, not extremes, and if he says that domestic potency has increased by 50%, ask him about the number of samples. Only 62 samples were tested during this quarter, less than 6% of the previous full year total. Is the DEA trying to manufacture results by testing only a few selected samples?

[For a copy of the Mississippi Potency Monitoring Project Quarterly Paper #50, please contact Dr. Mahmoud A. ElSohly, Ph.D., at the Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy, University of Mississippi, MS 38677. To contact Dr. John Morgan of C.U.N.Y., please call 212-650-8255.]

- U.S. REPRESENTATIVE BARNEY FRANK DELIVERS KEYNOTE ADDRESS AT NORML NATIONAL CONFERENCE: PROMISES CONGRESSIONAL HEARINGS ON THE NEED FOR FEDERAL MEDICINAL MARIJUANA LEGISLATION

On September 3, U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts) delivered a rousing keynote address at NORML's national conference in Washington, D.C. Rep. Frank was the first sitting congressman in 20 years to address a NORML conference. He delivered a powerful speech that affirmed his opposition to Marijuana Prohibition. Rep. Frank told the audience that he will call for congressional hearings in the near future to address the immediate need for federal legislation to allow physicians to prescribe marijuana for certain health conditions. Rep. Frank pledged to be an agent of change on this issue despite the inherent difficulties in the advocacy of reforming this country's policies regarding marijuana.

Along with Rep. Frank, Richard Brookhiser (Senior Editor, National Review) spoke to the conference about his illegal use of marijuana to help combat the nausea associated with his cancer chemotherapy treatment. Harvard Associate Professor Lester Grinspoon, M.D., author of Marihuana, the Forbidden Medicine (1993, Yale University Press), addressed the audience about the history of marijuana as a valuable and safe therapeutic agent.

[For details about the 1994 NORML National Conference, please contact NORML.]

- LIFE SENTENCE FOR MARIJUANA DISTRIBUTION OVERTURNED A SECOND TIME BY FEDERAL APPEALS COURT

On September 7, according to The Indianapolis Star, "For the second time, a federal appeals court has thrown out the life sentence of an Indianapolis man convicted on marijuana charges. The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the judge [Sarah Evans Barker] who sentenced Mark Young made a mistake when she decided how much marijuana he should be accountable for." This will be the third time Judge Barker must decide what sentence to impose.

Young is still subject to a life sentence because (1) this is his third offense and (2) he must be found responsible for growing and distributing at least 1,000 plants or 1,000 kilograms of marijuana (for sentencing purposes, a single plant is equal to one kilogram). Young, whose case has been featured for the last 2 months in a cover article in the Atlantic Monthly magazine, was found guilty in 1991 of conspiring to cultivate and distribute marijuana. He didn't grow the marijuana, but he did line up customers according to the Star's article.

The Appeals Court ruled in part, "Because the government failed to demonstrate how many plants the defendant could have reasonably foreseen, the district court should have sentenced Mr. Young based on the weight for which it found him responsible in the first place-700 pounds."

The Star reported that "based on federal sentencing guidelines, Young could face a term of at least nine years: he already has been locked up for three years."

Young's attorney, Thomas M. Dawson, told the Star that Young should not worry about receiving another life sentence. "I don't see how you comply with that opinion and impose a life sentence," he said.

[For more information on Mark Young's case or on other marijuana consumers who have received excessively long prison sentences, please contact either NORML or Families Against Mandatory Minimums at 202-457-5790.]

- NORML CHAPTER IN CLEVELAND DENIED THE ABILITY TO ADVERTISE ON CITY BUSES

On September 7, Northcoast (Ohio) NORML has been denied the ability to advertise information about NORML on city buses by a private contractor employed by Cleveland's Regional Transit Authority.

NORML contends that it is being discriminated against and will be seeking legal intervention with the help of the ACLU. Northcoast NORML spokesperson John Hartman says, "NORML is not in the business of promoting marijuana as a product! We only want to raise public awareness about the issue of the effects of Marijuana Prohibition."

There will be a rally and march September 10 to demonstrate public support for changing Cleveland's policy of jailing marijuana consumers. The rally will start at 2:00 p.m. on Cleveland's Public Square (northwest quadrant). The march to City Hall will begin at 5:00 p.m.

[For more information on the denial of advertising for NORML on Cleveland's city buses or the rally/march in Cleveland, please contact Northcoast NORML at 216-521-9333.]

- FEDERAL COURT IN WASHINGTON STATE RULES REAL ESTATE SEIZURES, FOLLOWED BY INCARCERATION FOR SAME CRIME-VIOLATES CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION AGAINST DOUBLE JEOPARDY

On September 2, in United States v. McClasin, Judge William Dwyer of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington ruled that seizure of real estate based on its use to cultivate marijuana precludes separate prosecution of the homeowner who grew the marijuana.

According to McClasin's attorney, NORML Legal Committee member Jeffrey Steinborn, Washington's ability to seize real estate has been severely limited. Steinborn believes the impact on federal criminal law may be equally dramatic, since Judge Dwyer's ruling appears to be retroactive. It therefore could apply to literally thousands of citizens who are in prison or on probation, whose homes or other property have been seized by the government in separate civil proceedings.

[For further information on this ruling and its possible effects on the government's ability to seize the property of marijuana consumers, please contact attorney Jeffrey Steinborn at 206-622-5117.]-- end --