The above items were purchased at a local mall in a kiosk near the Food Court last week.

At a time when marijuana use is soaring in the Omaha metropolitan area, teens can purchase items such as this hemp bag and marijuana leaf necklace. The lip balm is called “Body Dope,” an obvious reference to the slang term for the marijuana that gets a person “high”. Also purchased, but not pictured, was a bar of peppermint “Hemp and Essential Oils,” also called “Body Dope.”

The kiosk is decorated with cloth hangings featuring several marijuana leaves and also pictures of High Times Magazine with Bob Marley smoking marijuana. “Society,” says Susie Dugan, PRIDE-Omaha, Inc. Executive Director, “cannot promote drug use and prevent drug use at the same time.”

If you would like to communicate with this mall, contact PRIDE-Omaha, Inc. at 397-3309.

After reviewing 39 past clinical studies, scientists found no substantial proof of the effectiveness of marijuana in easing pain, Reuters reported July 6, 2001.

“It hasn’t turned out to be a great success. There are, at the moment, much better alternatives,” said Dr. Eija Kalso, associate professor in the Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care Medicine at Helsinki University Hospital.

Kalso stated that current information indicates that adverse effects outweigh any possible benefits.

Lester Grinspoon, M.D., often quoted as an “independent” proponent of “medical” marijuana, now admits his longtime use of the illicit drug.

According to the August, 2001 edition of High Times Magazine, Grinspoon made the announcement at the annual conference of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) in April, 2001 in Washington, DC.

According to the magazine, Grinspoon stated in a speech to the conference, “I was 44 years old in 1972 when I experienced my first marijuana high.” He explained, “Because I found it both useful and benign, I have used it ever since.”

Grinspoon is a retired Harvard Medical School professor. He has written books and articles in many medical journals extolling smoked marijuana’s virtue as a “medicine”. His professional status and writings have earned him countless appearances on national television and radio, in books, and in magazines. During these many public appearances, his personal use was not discussed as a mitigating factor in his enthusiasm for this harmful drug. Grinspoon’s professional endorsement of “medical” marijuana has been quoted in many state campaigns to legalize marijuana as “medicine”. To date, eight states have passed legislation to sanction “medical” marijuana.

www.jointogether.org

Owners of buildings where RAVES are held can now be prosecuted under federal crack-house laws. In June, a New Orleans company that leased a building for dance parties known as RAVES, pleaded guilty to violating the law. The prosecution of the company, Barbecue of New Orleans, is one of the first using the new law.

Under provisions of the law, businesses are prohibited from maintaining a building where drugs are sold or used.

Undercover law enforcement agents bought about 13 grams of Ecstasy at eight RAVES at the company’s “State Palace Theatre” last year. The company was recently fined $100,000. RAVES are all-night dance parties closely associated with drug use.

Liquor license holders in Papillion who sell to minors are required by a new city ordinance to answer to the City Council for each violation. If a business has multiple sales to minors or fails to appear before the Council, they can be required to re-apply for their license. This process, referred to as the “long form,” subjects retailers to closer scrutiny than the usual automatic renewal.

One grocery store recently had its third sale-to-minor violation and will soon be held accountable at a Council hearing. Past excuses have focused on the difficulty in hiring good cashiers. The unfairness of compliance checks is also a common complaint, though it is typical-looking teens, using their own ID’s, who work with law enforcement and attempt to purchase alcohol. PRIDE-Omaha, Inc. spoke to the Council at a public hearing to support the city’s efforts and to remind everyone that retailers who receive a liquor license agree that they can, and will, obey the law not to sell to minors.

On November 6, 2001, Washington state voters approved a 60 cent increase in the excise tax on cigarettes.

Initiative 773 passed handily and takes effect on January 1, 2002. I-773 will also increase the tax on all other tobacco products, including cigars, snuff, and chew.

Washington will now have the highest cigarette tax in the nation at $1.45 per pack.

The new tax is expected to raise $130 million in revenue. Most of that income will be dedicated to health care for low-income populations. About 10% will go to prevent tobacco use and other programs.

Tobacco industry internal documents show that Phillip Morris deliberately designed an advertising campaign in order to forestall federal legislation aimed at regulating the tobacco industry.

In 1990, Senators Henry Waxman and Edward Kennedy introduced a bill to curb tobacco sales to minors. This legislation had the potential to dramatically restrict tobacco sales to America’s children.

In a 20-page report that can be found on the Internet at: www.tobaccodocuments.org, Phillip Morris discussed the pending legislation among other topics. Under “Advertising”, it states that one purpose for the tobacco industry’s “It’s the Law” program was to “undercut” the public health legislation introduced by the two senators. Since the industry was now “aggressively” working to prevent sales to minors, tobacco lobbyists argued that no federal legislation would be needed. The legislation failed to pass.

“It’s the Law” is an advertising campaign still found in stores throughout the Omaha area and across the country. It features store signs reminding young people that clerks will check ID because children aren’t old enough to buy tobacco products. The tobacco industry advertises this campaign as its voluntary good-faith effort to do all it can to keep children away from tobacco.

Drug preventionists have long criticized the campaign as ineffective. Telling children that smoking is an adult behavior re-enforces their desire to be considered grown up. Such campaigns subtly encourage youth tobacco use.

The American Lung Association of Colorado

and Tobacco Documents Online, 11-15-01.

To subscribe to Doc-Alert, send a message to doc-alert-subscribe@smokescreen.org

Sponsored by the Metropolitan Omaha Tobacco Action Coalition (MOTAC), the group formed in June of 2001.

Since that beginning, G.I.F.T. has accomplished much:

• Met with one South Omaha convenience store and asked the management to remove a life-size poster of Joe Camel. (This type of advertising was outlawed by the Master Settlement Agreement of 1998.) The poster came down within a few days.

• Recorded a 60-second radio spot called Victims that aired on two local stations in November.

• Met with Senator Don Preister and City Council member Garry Gernandt on the date of the Great American Smokeout, November 15, to discuss their concerns.

• Attended the Youth-to-Youth International Drug Prevention Conference in Ohio in June.

• Worked with a marketing firm to design the G.I.F.T. logo.

• Participated in an all-day media/spokesperson’s training in Lincoln in November.

Adult sponsors are: Kathy Burson/PRIDE-Omaha, Inc., Coordinator; Marcy Harrington/Region VI; Athena Ramos/Chicano Awareness Center; German Vargas/ UNMC; Hiroko Stratton/Charles Drew Health Center; Doyle Bryant/Charles Drew Health Center; and Dawn Vosteen/American Cancer Society.

For more information on how you, too, can get involved to fight tobacco, contact Kathy Burson at PRIDE-Omaha, Inc., 397-3309.

Clubs that distribute “medical” marijuana in several states are now under heavy scrutiny from law enforcement officials. Following the Supreme Court ruling in May that federal laws make no exception for marijuana to be used as a so-called “medicine”, crackdowns have begun.

In California, the DEA has shut down several cannabis clubs for breaking federal laws forbidding the trafficking of marijuana.

The manager of Oregon’s state “medical” marijuana program was dismissed after an internal audit found substantial management problems.

The program was established as a result of the passage of Oregon’s Medical Marijuana Act passed in 1998. The Act allows marijuana use for patients who say they are suffering from any number of ailments.

The program allows 2,100 Oregonians to hold cards that allow them to grow and possess marijuana. Among the problems uncovered by the audit:

San Francisco Chronicle, 11/13/01

(With thanks to Cathy Shipp, former PRIDE-Omaha, Inc. Administrative Assistant, now residing in California.)

The Body Shop chain of retail stores has launched a nationwide “Save Hemp” campaign at its 285 stores in the United States.

Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, was among the first people to support the campaign to legalize marijuana as it was launched by the British newspaper, The Independent.

Hemp and marijuana are the exact same plant.

The Body Shop has stores in the Midwest, including one store in Omaha.

-Hassela Nordic Network, July 12, 2001

In a ruling published in the Federal Register, the DEA issued an interim ruling that effectively bans hemp meant for human consumption.

Although the ruling is listed as “interim”, it takes effect immediately. Since all hemp products containing THC (the psychoactive ingredient in marijuana) are technically now banned the ruling will now allow some exemptions. These exemptions include such non-edible items as clothing, paper and rope.

However, the DEA made its position very clear that the ban is in force for any products meant for human consumption.

A check around Omaha malls and stores has found numerous food products, including candy, tea and beer containing THC. Such products will now be outlawed. Drug prevention experts are hailing this ruling as a victory. It re-enforces the fact that THC is dangerous to the human body.

For a copy of the complete DEA Federal Register ruling, contact PRIDE-Omaha, Inc., 402-397-3309.