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"Random testing appears to curb drug use among
students" (Julia Silverman , Sacramento
Bee, Dec. 30, 2002) --
Student-athletes
subject to random drug testing at an Oregon high school
were almost four times less likely to use drugs than
their counterparts at a similar school who were not
tested, a study shows. The one-year pilot study by
researchers at Oregon Health & Sciences University
compared Wahtonka High School in The Dalles, where all
student-athletes were subject to random testing, and
Warrenton High School, a demographically similar school
near Astoria, where they were not. Of the 135
athletes subject to the random testing at Wahtonka, only
5.3 percent said they were using illicit drugs by the
end of the school year, versus 19.4 percent of the 141
athletes at Warrenton. ID# 6214
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"A Spirited Debate Over DUI Laws" (Ralph
Vartabedian, LA Times, Dec. 30, 2002) -- The
government's effort to compel states to lower
blood-alcohol limits encounters resistance. A senator in
Iowa calls the policy 'blackmail.' A high-pressure
federal effort to toughen drunk driving laws across the
nation is meeting resistance in a third of the states,
where many politicians say the policy is
counterproductive and misguided. Highway safety
regulators in 1998 called on states to lower the
allowable blood-alcohol level for drivers to 0.08%, or
risk losing millions of dollars in federal highway
grants. The majority of the states have conformed,
but 17 states -- from Minnesota to South Carolina and
Nevada to Delaware -- have rejected the approach and
maintain laws that define drunk driving at 0.10%
blood-alcohol. ID# 6213
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"More youths being treated for drug,
alcohol addictions" (Maggie
Fox , MSNBC Online, Dec. 28, 2002) --More
U.S. teens are being admitted to centers to be treated
for alcohol and drug abuse, a new government report
shows. But health officials said this could be good news
an indication that youths are getting treated
instead of being left to spiral into addiction.
"The highest rates of illicit drug
use tend to be in the coastal states...Alcohol use is
higher in rural areas MARK WEBER, SAMHSA spokesman.
THE REPORT, by the Substance Abuse and
Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), shows
that the number of adolescents aged between 12 and 17
admitted to substance abuse treatment increased by 20
percent between 1994 and 1999. ID#
6211
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"Minneapolis school touts addiction
recovery program for young students" (Mary
Jane Smetanka , The Sacramento Bee, Dec.
26, 2002) -- In an Augsburg
College residence hall in Minneapolis, caffeine and
nicotine are the drugs of choice. They fuel conversation
and long study sessions and stoke the quiet times when
people look inward. Not that
these 43 students haven't tried other drugs. Heroin,
cocaine, LSD, Ecstasy, crack - you name it, and someone
here has probably used it. And used it hard. Now, as students in Augsburg's StepUP
program, these recovering addicts are living together on
campus, attending college full time and trying to
rebuild their lives. StepUP is the only such program in
the nation aimed at traditional-aged college students,
officials say. ID#
6210
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"The Beer Necessities" (Steve
Rushin, CNN-Sports Illustrated, Dec.
18, 2002) --
When I was
16, my father, with Wite-Out, rolled forward the
odometer on my birth certificate so that I could sell
beer at Minnesota Twins games, where the official brand
was Schmidt, whose brewery, in St. Paul, bore enormous,
electrified letters that lit up at night. On those
unfortunate evenings when every second letter failed to
illuminate, you could drive by and see, like a beacon on
the side of the brewery, a brazenly honest bit of beer
advertising ScHmIdT... Have there ever been two words
more symbiotic than sports bar? As a kid collecting beer
cans -- the Cincinnati Reds were on cans of Hudepohl,
the Pittsburgh Steelers on cans of Iron City -- I
assumed that beer coursed through the very veins of
athletes. And, in so many cases, it did. ID#
6207
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"America the Irresponsible?" (Oliver
Libaw, ABC News, Dec. 19, 2002) --
After a beer or two, you
still might be legally cruising down U.S. Route 66. But
in countries from Azerbaijan to Turkmenistan, you'd be
driving drunk. As the Bush administration launches a new
crackdown on the problem of driving while intoxicated, a
new study reports the United States has one of the more
lenient definitions of drunken driving in the world.
"The U.S. is, in fact, one of the countries that
has the highest [blood-alcohol limits for drivers]
currently," says Marcus Grant, president of the
International Center on Alcohol Policy., which conducted
the study of different blood-alcohol standards around
the world. ID#
6205
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"Smoking Bill Is Adopted" (Diane
Cardwell, The New York Times, Dec. 19, 2002) --
After months of
negotiations, more than 20 hours of public testimony and
some of the most intense, heated debates of this
administration, the City Council approved Mayor Michael
R. Bloomberg's antismoking bill yesterday at the last of
its voting sessions this year. The bill passed 42 to 7
with 2 abstentions, an unusually large number of
negative votes for a Council that tends to vote in
lockstep with its leaders. It could become law around
the end of March, depending on when Mr. Bloomberg
actually signs it. ID#
6204
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"Alcohol patrols to last longer" (Alcohol
patrols to last longer, Yahoo
News, Dec. 19, 2002) --
Federal safety officials,
frustrated by stalled progress in their fight against
traffic fatalities related to alcohol, are launching
this holiday season what they say is the toughest
crackdown ever on drunken driving. The percentage of
car-crash deaths blamed on alcohol decreased from 60% in
1982 to 40% in 1999. But Wednesday, the National Highway
Traffic Safety Administration (news - web sites) said
progress has stalled. In 2000 and 2001, the number
remained at 41%. Last year, 17,448 people died in
alcohol-related crashes, the safety administration said. ID#
6203
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"CSU, state join to cut alcohol abuse" (Terri
Hardy, The Sacramento Bee, Dec. 19, 2002) --
Sacramento lost Jesse.
Davis lost David. In Chico there were Adrian and John.
In the past two years, at least four university students
in Northern California have died from alcohol abuse and
binge drinking. So severe is the situation across the
country that California State University Chancellor
Charles B. Reed has called it "the No. 1 problem on
university campuses." State officials Wednesday
launched a joint effort between several state agencies
and the California State University system to combat
alcohol abuse, funded by a $1.57 million federal grant. ID#
6202
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"Alcohol Ads on TV Find a Young
Audience" (John Schwartz, The
New York Times, Dec. 18, 2002) --
YOUNG people see more
television commercials for alcoholic beverages than they
do for jeans, sneakers or acne creams, according to a
new study from a health policy group. Although brewers
and distillers say their television pitches are aimed at
those age 21 and older, teenagers are receiving a
disproportionate share of those messages, said the
report from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at
Georgetown University. Of the 208,909 alcohol
commercials on television in 2001 studied by the
researchers, they found that nearly a quarter were more
likely to be seen by teenagers than by adults, despite
the voluntary guidelines minimizing the number of ads
viewed by minors. ID#
6200
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"Indian women in Mexico ban alcohol
in their villages" (Julie Watson, Yahoo
News, Dec. 16, 2002) --
As the Corona beer truck
with its clinking bottles lumbered into this Indian
village high in the mountains of central Mexico, angry
women ran out of their homes, shouting in both Spanish
and their native Teenek language "Get out! Get
out!" Raising their fists, the women, many carrying
babies in colorful shawls tied around their hips,
surrounded the truck and forced the driver back down the
cascading mountains before he could unload even a bottle
much to the chagrin of their husbands. Fed up with
their men stumbling home drunk or falling over in a
stupor in their corn fields, the women of this remote
Indian village in the state of San Luis Potosi have
taken matters into their own hands, refusing to allow
any more alcohol to be sold in their community of 250
people. ID#
6198
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"Alcohol ads spill a message all over kids" (Bob
Condor, The Chicago Tribune, Dec. 15, 2002) --
Watching television at
David Jernigan's home typically is fodder for lots of
conversation. Jernigan is the father of an 18- and
20-year-old and, lucky for them, research director of
the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown
University. The family talks about the TV ads for beer,
distilled spirits and the newer category of sweetened
malt beverages and "lemonades."
"Sometimes I conduct an instant focus group. I ask
who this ad is aiming to reach,"said Jernigan, 46,
an associate professor and sociologist who specializes
in the public health issues of alcohol. ID#
6197
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"U.S. Frets Canada May Ease
Marijuana Law" (Associated Press, The
New York Times, Dec. 13, 2002) --
Getting caught with an
ounce or less of marijuana in Canada should bring fines,
not prison time and a criminal record, a parliamentary
committee said Thursday. The committee was the second in
Parliament that has called for Canada to ease its
marijuana laws -- despite protests from the United
States. Canada's Supreme Court is also preparing to hear
a constitutional challenge to laws that make it illegal
to possess pot, and Justice Minister Martin Cauchon said
this week that legislation to decriminalize marijuana
could be introduced early in 2003. The report by a House
of Commons committee on drugs said too many young
Canadians get a criminal record for the relatively minor
offense of smoking pot. ID#
6193
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"Bloomberg Gets Deal to Expand
Smoking Curbs" (Diane Cardwell, The
New York Times, Dec. 12, 2002) --
New York City will enact a
sweeping ban on indoor smoking that will include nearly
all bars and restaurants, under an agreement announced
yesterday between the Bloomberg administration and the
City Council. The deal means that lawmakers have agreed
to one of the toughest antismoking laws in the country,
and it comes at a time when many localities both here
and abroad are either passing or considering similar
legislation. ID#
6191
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"New program targets club drug abuse" (Amanda
Vogt, The Chicago Tribune, Dec. 10, 2002) --
In response to an alarming
increase in the use of club drugs such as Ecstasy among
young suburbanites, one of the Chicago area's largest
substance-abuse treatment agencies is launching a new
education program, officials said. Haymarket Center West
in Schaumburg, an outpatient center that treats drug and
alcohol abuse, plans to launch its Club and Other Drug
Awareness program Jan. 7. The three-week program, which
has received a one-year, $100,000 grant from the
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services
Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, will have about 100 clients
from the courts in northwest Cook, Lake, DuPage and
McHenry Counties. ID#
6186
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"Smoke signals" (Alison
Neumer, The Chicago Tribune, Dec. 10, 2002) --
A City Council hearing
Tuesday to address an aggressive proposal to ban smoking
in Chicago restaurants and bars attached to restaurants
is expected to draw dozens of foes and supporters. Under
a measure introduced by Health Committee Chairman Ald.
Ed Smith, smoking would be prohibited in all
restaurants, as well as in bars that sell more food than
liquor. Another, more strict proposal being offered by
Ald. Edward Burke, a longtime proponent of anti-smoking
measures, would prohibit smoking in all public places
and the workplace ID#
6185
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"AMA goes after beer ads aimed at
underage drinkers" (Peggy Peck,
Reuters, Dec. 9, 2002) --
The American Medical
Association (AMA) wants to ban beer and wine ads from
prime-time television and is asking both network and
cable TV to veto all ads that feature "mascots,
celebrities or sports figures promoting alcohol
products." Dr. J. Edward Hill, chairman of the
AMA's board of trustees, said the AMA is asking both
networks and cable outlets to sign onto a voluntary
agreement to hold off beer and wine ads until after 10
PM or initiate a total ban during programs that are
aimed at youth--defined as a viewing audience that is at
least 15% adolescents. He announced the new initiative
at a press conference held in conjunction with the AMA's
office of alcohol and other drug abuse. ID#
6184
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"Targeting the Social Drinker Is
Just MADD" (Radley Balko, The Los
Angeles Times, Dec. 10, 2002) --
The
percentage of traffic fatalities caused by drunk drivers
has dropped more than 40% since 1982, and the number of
people killed by drunk drivers has leveled off at 16,000
a year. During that period, anti-alcohol advocacy has
become something of a niche nonprofit industry. Now,
instead of focusing on rounding up real threats to
highway safety -- the hard drinkers -- groups like
Mothers Against Drunk Driving have decided to wage war
on social drinkers. ID#
6183
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"Colleges' mixed messages legitimize
sports-booze ties" (Henry Wechsler, USA
Today, Dec. 9, 2002) --
Following recent riots at
Ohio State University and other schools after football
games, and with most of the basketball season still to
come, colleges are scrambling to find fast solutions to
an all-too-familiar part of today's sports scene
drunkenness, vandalism, fights and assaults. But quick
fixes won't work; needed are drastic changes in the cozy
relationship among colleges, the NCAA and the alcohol
industry. For too long, schools have looked the other
way as a beer blitz of television ads swirls around
college sporting events, alcohol engulfs the
neighborhoods surrounding colleges, and alcohol-laden
traditions such as tailgating take over campuses. Rather
than set limits, the watchdogs have helped legitimize
alcohol as a necessary ingredient of sports by
partnering with the industry. ID#
6182
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"Seattle Proposes Crackdown on
Downtown Drunkenness" (The New
York Times, Dec. 6, 2002) --
Tacoma instituted the
state's first so-called alcohol impact area, in March,
in a downtown area, and residents there have reported a
modest drop in public drinking. The law has also drawn
the attention of officials in Olympia and Spokane, which
are now pondering its use. In Seattle, the proposed ban
would cover an area that reaches north from the city's
sports stadiums to the core of the business district. It
straddles Yesler Way, long a nexus for all things sinful
and battleground between proponents of an "open
town" and those hoping to suppress vice. Now the
neighborhood is known more for its cluster of handsome
red brick buildings and public plazas, and its problem
of chronic public inebriates, or C.P.I.'s in
bureaucratic parlance. The city estimates there were
more than 1,800 citations for public drunkenness in
Pioneer Square in 2000. In 2001, the city's "detox
van," which transports homeless drunks to a shelter
to sober up, logged more than 1,300 transfers in the
area. ID#
6176
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"Slight rise seen in drunk driving
deaths since 1997" (Reuters, Dec. 6, 2002) --
The number of young people
who have died in alcohol-related automobile crashes in
the United States decreased substantially over the last
two decades, thanks largely to tougher new laws on
drinking and driving, according to a new report by the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). But
the rate of such deaths among people aged 18 and older
has risen slightly since 1997. "Public health and
traffic safety professionals should collaborate to
ensure that every community has a comprehensive and
effective strategy to resume the downward trend in
alcohol-impaired driving," the CDC notes in the
December 6th issue of its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly
Report. ID#
6175
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"UMass targets alcohol abuse" (Cheryl
B. Wilson, The Daily Hampshire Gazette, Nov.
26, 2002) --
Concluding that alcohol
abuse is a major problem at the University of
Massachusetts, a task force is calling for immediate and
long-term measures to control the culture of drinking
and violence on campus. "It is crucial that alcohol
abuse and its harmful consequences on campus and in the
neighboring community be identified in its true
perspective namely a major impediment to achieving the
teaching, research and public service mission of the
University," says the three-page report of the
Chancellor's Task Force on the Prevention of Alcohol
Abuse. ID#
6169
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"Deadlock Ends on Tightening D.W.I.
Laws" (James C. Mckinley, The New
York Times, Dec. 2, 2002) --
The Senate majority leader
said today that his chamber would pass an Assembly bill
that tightened the definition of drunkenness, breaking a
deadlock that had cost the state tens of millions in
federal highway subsidies and assuring that the state's
drunken-driving laws would become tougher before the end
of the year. In the same breath, the Republican majority
leader, Senator Joseph L. Bruno, promised an all-out
effort to persuade the Assembly's Democratic majority to
pass separate legislation that would increase penalties
for people arrested repeatedly for drunken driving. ID#
6167
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"EU Nations to Ban
Tobacco Ads in 2005" (The Associated Press, The
New York Times, Dec. 2, 2002) --
The 15-nation European
Union on Monday outlawed tobacco ads in newspapers and
magazines, on the Internet and at international sporting
events beginning in 2005. The new restrictions were
approved by 13 EU nations, which was enough to push
through the bill drawn up by the EU's executive
Commission after a court struck down an earlier ban.
Britain and Germany opposed them. The rules already were
approved by the EU parliament. ID#
6161
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"Norway
unveils plan on unprecedented smoking ban" (Reuters
Health, Nov. 29, 2002) --
Norway presented a white
paper on Friday aiming to make it the first country in
the world to ban smoking in all restaurants and bars
nationwide from 2004. "The main purpose of the
legislation is to protect employees, as well as guests
from passive smoking," Health Minister Dagfinn
Hoybraaten said in a statement. Some states and cities
in the United States and Canada have imposed smoking
bans in public places, but Norway would be the first
country to outlaw smokers from restaurants and bars in
the entire country.
ID#
6160
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"Rehab Center Looks for New Home" (Sandra
Murillo, The Los Angeles Times, Nov. 29, 2002) --
For 17 years, staffers at
the Rainbow Recovery Center have gone about the painful
task of repairing the lives of women ravaged by drugs,
alcohol and mental illness. By all accounts, it has been
a quiet, successful operation, located at Oxnard's
College Park. But in the fast-growing city, the
"Rainbow Ladies," as employees and patients of
the center are often called, are in the wrong place at
the wrong time. Last week, a divided City Council
adopted a $20-million renovation for the 75-acre park
that does not include the recovery center. ID#
6156
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"Slim hope for alcohol bill in
Pennsylvania legislature" (Rose
Ciotta, Yahoo News, Nov. 27, 2002) --
An effort to bring
Pennsylvania's drunken-driving law into line with 31
other states' tougher limits was struggling to stay
alive last night in Harrisburg as legislators tried to
wrap up their work for the year. The proposal to lower
the blood-alcohol limit for drivers from 0.10 to 0.08
percent - as most states and many other nations have
already done - was languishing in committee as the state
House plowed through other legislation. ID#
6154
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"Law Offering Drug Treatment Is
Called a Qualified Success" (Daren
Briscoe, The Los Angeles Times, Nov. 27, 2002) --
A law intended to divert
nonviolent drug offenders into treatment programs
instead of prison is reaching fewer people overall and
more hard-core substance abusers than intended,
according to a report released Tuesday. Enacted in July
2001, Proposition 36 requires that people convicted of
possession, use or transportation of drugs for personal
use be offered drug treatment rather than jail. It does
not apply to those convicted of drug sales or to anyone
with a prior violent felony conviction. The measure was
intended to save taxpayer money. ID#
6153
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"Parental involvement may help cut
wild drinking by college students" (Diana
Griego Erwin, The Sacramento Bee, Nov.
26, 2002) -- Students
may not like it. Parents do. It's a new program at UC
Santa Barbara that could become a template for other
universities struggling with increasing binge drinking
among students. What UCSB officials are doing is
recruiting mom and dad into the fight to reduce problem
drinking, which studies show is up, way up, with 40
percent of students admitting they binge drink.
Researchers have touted parental notification as one of
several possible solutions for a few years now. ID#
6151
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"Aggressive patrols help curb
dangers of a night out" (Dani Dodge, The
Ventura County Star, Nov. 25, 2002) --
They park in back of the
Thousands Oak bar, behind the garbage bins where
nicotine addicts indulge and uncontrolled lovers swap
fervent kisses -- cops, firefighters, alcohol
investigators, a code enforcement officer and even a
deputy district attorney. After they scan the parking
lot, five enter the pub through the front door. Four
more swarm through the back...Although it feels like a
major drug raid, Project Safe Bar is about education,
not arrests. The team goes out as often as every few
weeks to Thousand Oaks bars, looking for underage
drinkers, rule-ignorant bartenders, code violations and
gnats in the liquor. ID#
6150
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"Alcohol-related deaths drive MADD's new campaign" (Patrick
McMahon, Yahoo News, Nov. 22, 2002) --
Alcohol-related traffic
deaths rose 5.2% from 1999 to 2001, and the advocacy
group Mothers Against Drunk Driving said Thursday that
the increase is so alarming it is launching a national
campaign to curb it. The group, which claims 2 million
members, said it will push states to step up enforcement
efforts and will lobby Congress to increase federal
gasoline and beer taxes to pay for safety program. ID#
6145
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"Drugged drivers an equal threat" (Wisconsin
State Journal, Nov. 21, 2002) --
Wisconsin punishes driving
while drunk but not driving while drugged. The
Legislature should change that by making it illegal to
drive while on an illegal drug. To clarify, drugged
drivers are not currently getting off scot-free in
Wisconsin. They can still be prosecuted for driving
while impaired, if impairment can be proved, and
reckless or negligent driving, if their performance on
the road warrants arrest. But there is no specific
prohibition against driving with illegal drugs in your
system as there is against driving while legally drunk. ID#
6143
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"More liquor stores, more cases of domestic abuse" (Alison
McCook, Reuters Health, Nov. 19, 2002) --
Domestic violence in a
neighborhood may rise as the number of liquor licenses
in the area increases, new study findings suggest. The
current study backs up previous reports linking alcohol
to domestic violence, study author Dr. Hsieng-Teh Su of
the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota and Johns
Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, told Reuters
Health. As such, she noted that reducing the incidence
of domestic violence in one area may be as simple as
spreading out the stores that are allowed to sell
alcohol. ID#
6138
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"Philip Morris Packages Warn 'Light' Isn't Safer" (Courtney
Schlisserman, The Los Angeles Times, Nov.
21, 2002) -- Philip Morris
Cos., the world's largest tobacco company, is putting
leaflets in its light, medium, mild and ultra-light
cigarette packs saying the products aren't safer than
regular cigarettes. The inserts
will be in about 130 million packs, including Marlboro
Lights, sold in the U.S., to better educate smokers and
encourage finding a new method for determining tar
ratings, the company said. ID#
6137
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"Pot Raids Spur Calls to Quit Working With DEA" (Jonathan
D. Salant, The Los Angeles Times, Nov.
21, 2002) --
The City Council of
Sebastopol became the latest to approve a resolution
supporting California's medical marijuana law and asking
that the municipal police force avoid working with the
DEA.Sebastopol's vote Tuesday night is expected to be
followed in a few weeks by similar action in neighboring
Santa Rosa.Earlier this year, city leaders in Berkeley
and San Francisco approved anti-DEA resolutions.In San
Jose, Police Chief William Lansdowne in October pulled
his officers from a DEA task force, citing a "clear
conflict between federal and state law" and saying
methamphetamine was a far greater problem than
marijuana...Though
it won voter approval, Proposition 215 created a legal
quandary for police and the courts because the medical
pot measure conflicts with federal law declaring
marijuana illegal for any purpose. ID#
6136
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"City airs proposal on sale of alcohol in Pioneer
Square" (Jason, Margolis, Yahoo News, Nov.
20, 2002) --
Seattle officials presented
their case last night to ban potent beer and wine in a
32-square-block area around Pioneer Square. The
Washington State Liquor Control Board listened to a
40-minute city presentation and then opened the floor
for feedback from some of the roughly 120 people in
attendance. The city wants to turn Pioneer Square into
what's called an alcohol-impact area (AIA). Under the
proposal, local businesses would be prohibited from
selling high-alcohol beer, malt liquor and fortified
wines, as well as single cans or bottles of beer. ID#
6130
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"US plans breathalyzer-like drug test for drivers" (Laura
MacInnis, Reuters Health, Nov. 19, 2002) --
Roadside drug tests modeled
after breathalyzers are nearly ready for use in the
United States to help police identify drivers impaired
by illegal substances, officials said on Tuesday.
National Drug Control Policy Director John Walters said
the cheap, on-the-spot tests would hasten the arrest of
those driving under the influence of illegal drugs like
marijuana or cocaine, as well as alcohol. ID#
6129
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"America Online scraps teen shopping" (Stefanie
Olsen, The New York Times, Nov. 19, 2002) --
America Online has banned
teens from its shopping areas, following criticism that
the proprietary online service allowed young adults to
buy pornography, alcohol and tobacco from partner sites.
AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said Monday that as of
last week, customers under the age of 18 cannot shop on
AOL with partner stores, including auctioneer eBay and
retailer Amazon.com. Previously, children ages 13 to 17
who signed onto the service with a parentally controlled
screen name could buy products and services with a
credit card at AOL partner stores. ID#
6127
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"Council to rule on troubled bar" (Karen
S. Kim, The Los Angeles Times, Nov. 19, 2002) --
The fate of a local tavern
will rest in the hands of the City Council today, as
members consider whether they should uphold the
revocation of a billiard room permit for Tony's Bar on
Brand Boulevard. The bar's permit was revoked based on
evidence provided by the Glendale Police Department that
the bar has become a haven for criminal activity. Police
reports show that the bar at 1300 S. Brand Boulevard has
caused much more than the occasional problem. Between
May 19, 2001, and May 11, Tony's Bar required police
assistance 32 times for illegal activities involving
violence, drug use, fighting, public intoxication,
selling alcohol to minors and driving under the
influence. ID#
6126
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"Pa. town trying to take tobacco from its teens" (Ralph
Vigoda, Yahoo News, Nov. 17, 2002) --
As Randall Gartner tells
it, it was during the summer when Police Chief Wade
Heilman first complained about the large number of
teenagers smoking in this one-stoplight borough 20
minutes west of Reading. Not only was it unhealthy, but
messy. The basketball courts - located behind the
building that houses borough hall and the two full-time
police officers - were littered with cigarette butts.
"He was saying how it's illegal to sell tobacco
products to kids under 18, but it's not illegal to
possess them," said Gartner, Borough Council
president in this town of 2,100. "He felt it's not
right we can't cite them." ID#
6125
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"Voters have their say on drugs" (The
Chicago Tribune, Nov. 16, 2002) --
After several years of
riding high, so to speak, the movement to relax drug
laws in the nation lost some of its momentum in the
November election. In general, voters opposed the
recreational use of marijuana, but had mixed views on
the medicinal use of the drug and on whether offenders
should be directed to treatment rather than punishment.
By a 61 percent to 39 percent vote, Nevada residents
defeated a proposal to legalize possession of up to
three ounces of marijuana. In Arizona, the vote was
57-43 against a proposal to allow the medicinal use of
marijuana. ID#
6124
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"Alcohol sales to minors no so minor" (Ryan
Carter, The Los Angeles Times, Nov. 16, 2002) --
Several police officers
recently spent a night out on the town going to local
bars -- but not as patrons. The officers worked two
nights, actually -- Nov. 7 and 8 -- checking to see if
store clerks and bartenders were selling liquor to
teens. Officials from the department's vice/narcotics
unit cited workers at 10 businesses for selling beer to
underage women who were working with police. "We do
it to protect the teens," Police Sgt. John Dilibert
said. "Teen drinking is a problem in the United
States. If we can help reduce the problem by not making
it as available, then we feel we are doing the right
thing." ID#
6123
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"Secondhand smoke may cost $70 per person in US" (Alison
McCook, Reuters Health, Nov. 14, 2002) --
Wanna light up? Better ask
your neighbors if they can afford it first. An estimate
of the expenses associated with death and illness
reveals that secondhand smoke may cost people in some US
regions, if not the entire country, $70 a year. The
findings are based on an analysis of the costs
associated with environmental exposure to tobacco for
residents from Marion County, Indiana, according to Dr.
Terrell W. Zollinger of Indiana University in
Bloomington. ID#
6117
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"Study: Drug Screens See Improvement" (Siobhan
McDonough, Yahoo News, Nov. 14, 2002) --
State laws haven't kept up
with advances in technology making it easier for police
to determine if a driver is on drugs, according to a
study released Thursday. People who drive under the
influence of illegal drugs are rarely detected,
prosecuted or referred to treatment programs, according
to the report by The Walsh Group and the American Bar
Association's Standing Committee on Substance Abuse. The
study was funded by The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
The report urges state legislatures to pass laws aimed
at drugged drivers. ID#
6114
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"One for the road will be possible" (Deepa
Bharath, The Los Angeles Times, Nov. 14, 2002) --
Those are two of the most
popular excuses people offer when caught driving under
the influence of alcohol, says Kori Fletchner, executive
director of the Designated Drivers Assn.'s Orange County
Chapter. Beginning Dec. 20, the group will send
volunteers -- working in pairs -- to bars and
restaurants in Newport and Huntington beaches to drive
those who have had one too many. "One will pick up
the person from the bar and drive him or her home,"
she said. "The other volunteer will drive the
person's car back home. So it saves them from having to
take a cab, and they have their car in the
morning." ID#
6113
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"Tobacco Sues N.Y. Over Cigarette Tax" (The
Associated Press, Yahoo News, Nov. 12, 2002) --
Tobacco wholesalers sued
over the city's recent cigarette tax increase Tuesday,
calling it a "sham" that is hurting their
businesses and will sap $175 million from government
coffers this fiscal year... The lawsuit, filed Tuesday
in state court, said the taxes have led many to buy
cigarettes on the Internet or the black market, putting
licensed vendors at a disadvantage. ID#
6111
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"Suburban Parents Fear Teen Drinking" (The
Associated Press, The New York
Times, Nov. 12, 2002) -- The
home-alone drinking party is nothing new on the suburban
teen scene, and there's always a kid or two showing up
drunk at the high school dance. But this year in
Westchester County, a prosperous suburban area north of
New York City, one youngster died at an unchaperoned
bash, and as many as 200 high schoolers showed up drunk
at a homecoming dance. These and other startling
episodes of underage drinking have officials searching
for answers and parents worried more than ever --
including concerns about a possible link between
youngsters' drinking and the adults' affluent lifestyle. ID#
6107
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"City Cracks Down on Nightclubs and May Revise Its
Policies" (Jennifer Steinhauer, The New York
Times, Nov. 10, 2002) -- The
Bloomberg administration is quietly accelerating a
crackdown on New York City's night life industry, using
existing city regulations to restrain clubs, bars and
restaurants that flout laws, and formulating new
policies for how the industry is monitored. The city is
also considering changing its 76-year-old cabaret laws,
which ban dancing in any place without a license. An
increased focus on night life is part of the
administration's broad attempts to remain vigilant about
so-called quality-of-life issues and crime prevention,
policy cornerstones of the preceding administration. A
month ago, the city announced that it would vigorously
enforce its noise code, a new effort aimed in part at
bars and clubs with noisy patrons who spill into the
city's streets. ID#
6105
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"Changing policies mean smoking is still a hot
topic" (Jane Engle, The Los Angeles
Times, Nov. 10, 2002) -- Smoking
is a burning issue this fall in some major tourist
spots. New York's mayor has vowed to snuff it out at the
city's bars and restaurants. Florida voters last week
considered a wide-ranging ban. Even in hang-loose
Hawaii, some islands are starting to limit where you
light up. It might seem as if there's nowhere left to
grab a cigarette. Well, not quite, but the options are
dwindling. ID#
6104
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"Excuse for Teens to Forgo Drugs" (Claire
Luna, The Los Angeles
Times, Nov. 10, 2002) -- As
a golf cart ferried him from physics class to the
office, Matt Nejad thought his frequent tardies finally
had caught up with him. Instead, the lanky San Clemente
High School senior found himself urinating into a
plastic cup. Five minutes later, he was back in class,
having snagged a fleeting reprieve from his studies and
confirmation for his parents that he's drug-free. San
Clemente High's unusual voluntary random-testing program
is part of a new -- and much-debated -- approach to
fighting teen drug use. Most schools conduct drug tests
as a condition of participating in extracurricular
activities or in exchange for rewards. ID#
6103
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"Groups plot Strategy to Ease Marijuana Laws" (David
Reyes, The Los Angeles
Times, Nov. 10, 2002) -- Advocates
for liberalizing the nation's drug laws met in Anaheim
on Saturday and discussed marijuana arrests, an appeals
court ruling allowing California doctors to recommend
marijuana to sick patients and the defeat of marijuana
legalization in Nevada. The three-day meeting was aimed
at regrouping and discussing new ideas, said Bruce
Mirken, a spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based
Marijuana Policy Project, which sponsored the
conference. ID#
6102
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"Area restaurants draft smoking ban proposal" (Ben
Sykes, The Daily Cardinal, Nov. 11, 2002) --Madison's
bars and restaurants are attempting to decide the debate
over smoking in their establishments by releasing their
own proposal to curb the harmful effects of secondhand
smoke. Proponents of the measure, drafted by Rick Petri,
the attorney for the Wisconsin Restaurant Association,
said the proposal is closer to a compromise than what
has been coming out of the ad hoc committee developed to
hammer out the details of the original measure proposed
by Ald. Jean MacCubbin, District 11. ID#
6101
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"Forum Looks at Drinking by Teenagers in
Westchester" (Lisa Foderaro, The New York Times, Nov.
7, 2002) -- Parents,
educators, law enforcement officials, clergy members and
business leaders met today at a conference to confront
the problem of under-age drinking in Westchester County.
The evening forum at Manhattanville College here was
organized after several widely publicized drinking
episodes, including a late September homecoming dance in
Scarsdale at which scores of students were visibly
drunk, the suspensions of players from the Harrison High
School football team after they attended a party that
same weekend at which alcohol was served, and the fatal
injury of a Harrison football player at a party last
spring. ID#
6100
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"Voters favor cash to fight tobacco" (Associated
Press, The Billings Gazette, Nov. 6, 2002) --
Voters rejected lawmaker plans to spend a tobacco
settlement shoring up the state's sagging budget,
endorsing a measure to instead spend the money mostly on
health care and tobacco cessation programs. Montana gets
about $30 million a year from the settlement of the
multistate lawsuit against the tobacco industry, but
only $500,000 goes to tobacco-prevention programs.
Initiative 146 earmarks about $18 million for
tobacco-prevention programs and children's insurance
programs. ID#
6098
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"Voters Back Tougher Smoking Restrictions" (Associated
Press, The Los Angeles Times, Nov. 7, 2002) --
Voters in Nevada's two most populous counties told
lawmakers in the state with the largest percentage of
smokers in the nation that they don't want kids and
cigarettes in the same building. Clark and Washoe
counties approved virtually identical advisory measures
Tuesday to toughen local restrictions on smokers beyond
state law and ban smoking entirely in places children
are likely to be. Both issues will be submitted to the
next Legislature. ID#
6095
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"The Spirit Behind The 'Alcopop' Ads" (Don
Oldenburg, The
Washington Post,
Nov. 5, 2002) -- Smirnoff Ice. Bacardi Silver. Jack
Daniel's Original Hard Cola. Got any idea what kind of
alcohol these beverages contain? Most consumers don't,
according to a national poll conducted last month by the
Center for Science in the Public Interest. Surveying
adults on the new breed of malt beverages called "malternatives,"
CSPI found that products labeled with a liquor brand
name are mistaken to be liquor beverages by 38 percent
to 49 percent of those polled (varying with the product).
ID# 6091
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"Alcohol, violence bigger danger than drugs in
clubs" (Patricia Reaney,
Nov. 5, 2002) -- Alcohol and violence pose more of
an immediate health hazard than drugs for young adults
who enjoy clubbing, researchers said on Tuesday. Drugs
such as Ecstasy, speed, cocaine and heroin are a serious
problem in clubs, but assaults fueled by alcohol are the
main reason clubbers seek hospital treatment.
"There is a perception that clubbing is all about
drugs and wild debauchery, certainly the latter. It is
still primarily about drink," said Dr. Chris Luke
of Cork University Hospital in southern Ireland. ID#
6090
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"Cigarettes Portrayed as Currency of Crime" (Michael
Hiltzik, The Los Angeles Times,
Nov. 5, 2002) -- Once a month for many years, a
group of travelers bribed their way into Colombia via a
remote border crossing from Venezuela, met with their
contacts and then bribed their way home, the better to
leave no record of the trip in their passports. The
illicit commodity they were trading was not cocaine, as
might be expected, but cigarettes. So contends a lawsuit
filed last week in a U.S. court by the European Union.
According to the suit, the clandestine travelers were
employees of companies affiliated with R.J. Reynolds
Tobacco Co. Their goal, the EU says, was to receive cash
for their products without revealing that the source of
the money was the narcotics trade.
ID# 6089
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"Dealing With the District's Drug Users" (The
Washington Post,
Nov. 2, 2002) -- The District holds the dubious
distinction of having both the highest incarceration
rate in the nation and longer prison sentences than any
state. Initiative 62, the Treatment Instead of Jail for
Certain Non-Violent Drug Offenders Initiative of 2002
[Metro, Oct. 21], would start to address these alarming
facts. Initiative 62 provides drug treatment instead of
imprisonment for people charged with low-level,
nonviolent drug offenses, and it diverts them from
prison into substance abuse treatment, vocational
training and family counseling.
ID# 6087
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"Yes on Proposition 49: Prevent Juvenile Crime" (Leroy
Baca, The Los Angeles Times,
Nov. 3, 2002) -- For too long, the needs of
California's children have been ignored as special
interests have derailed repeated attempts to provide
proven after-school programs for California's children.
Public safety professionals witness the consequences of
the lack of after-school programs. Juvenile crime --
homicide, rape, robbery and assault -- surges between
the hours of 3 and 6 p.m. This is when children are most
likely to abuse alcohol, tobacco or drugs or have sex.
In most instances, kids are also the victims of juvenile
crime.
ID# 6086
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"10 city precincts are putting prohibition up to
the voters" (Mike Conklin, The Chicago Tribune,
Nov. 1, 2002) -- Is Chicago quietly going dry? Is
prohibition returning? When we go to the polls Tuesday,
voters in 10 city precincts get an opportunity to ban
alcohol sales in their neighborhoods, and each of these
referendums is expected to pass. An organized effort by
residents is required just to get the question on the
ballot and, typically, momentum continues into the
booth.
ID# 6085
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"Editorial: Prescribe pot?" (The
Sacramento Bee, Nov. 1, 2002) --
The legal haze surrounding
medicinal marijuana became a little clearer thanks to a
recent ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
By this court's logic (which sometimes is not all that
logical), it is OK for a physician to
"prescribe" pot (which really means to suggest
that a patient use it) or to speak in favor of its use.
This ruling doesn't clear up other conflicts between
state and federal laws, such as whether that same
patient can grow, purchase or somehow obtain the
marijuana and then possess it. But at least for now, the
doctor-patient relationship remains above the legal
fray.
ID# 6084
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"Dole links license to drug test" (Mark
Johnson, Yahoo News, Oct. 30, 2002) --
Elizabeth Dole wants to
require all teenagers to pass a drug test before getting
a driver's license. Dole, the Republican U.S. Senate
candidate and a former transportation secretary, has
promised to push for a federal law pressuring states to
enforce such a measure. "Wouldn't that help them
understand how important it is to be drug free?"
Dole asked at a recent campaign stop in Washington, N.C.
"It's not cool (to abuse drugs). It kills."
ID# 6080
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"Teenagers Told to Turn In Fake ID's" (Winnie
Hu, The New York Times, Oct. 29, 2002) --
Westchester County
teenagers have 30 days to turn in fake driver's licenses
used to buy alcohol, or risk losing their real licenses
under a new campaign against under-age drinking
announced today by the Westchester district attorney's
office. The district attorney, Jeanine F. Pirro, said
that her investigators had compiled a list with hundreds
of names of teenagers who had secured fake driver's
licenses so that they could illegally buy alcohol at
bars, liquor stores and other establishments. She said
the names came from recent investigations, including one
into a counterfeit driver's license mill.
ID# 6073
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"Drinking Young" (Cory Kilgannon, The
New York Times, Oct. 27, 2002) --
WHAT? You're messed
up?" said Nicole Belton-Young, who is 17. It was
near midnight one recent Friday, and the calls were
beginning to come in at the Larchmont-Mamaroneck Safe
Rides headquarters at Hommocks Ice Rink in Mamaroneck.
This one was from a Mamaroneck High School junior. He
was at a party and in no condition to drive home. His
communication skills were also compromised. ID#
6071
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"Cigarette Makers Take Anti-Smoking Ads Personally" (Alina
Tugend, The New York Times, Oct. 27, 2002) --
The commercials, which run
on youth-oriented television and radio stations, rotate
every few months. Among the most vivid are ones that
depict body bags piled up in front of the headquarters
of Philip Morris , gasping rats to dramatize that
cigarettes include the same ingredient ammonia
as rat poison, and a dog walker offering to sell dog
urine to tobacco companies because cigarettes contain
urea. Anti-smoking advocates and tobacco companies agree
that the campaign has been highly effective. But while
smoking-prevention groups say that such campaigns
resonate, especially with teenagers, industry officials
argue that in some cases they do little more than vilify
cigarette companies and their employees.
ID# 6072
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"Companies Pressed to Halt Youth Smoking Prevention
Campaigns" (Jim Lobe, Yahoo News, Oct. 25, 2002) --
The world's leading cancer,
heart, and lung associations have called on the major
tobacco companies to immediately halt their youth
anti-smoking campaigns which they said not only have
failed to reduce smoking but may actually be encouraging
young people to smoke. In a letter to the major
companies, including Philip Morris International (PMI),
British American Tobacco (BAT), and Japan Tobacco
International--the three companies which have most
touted their youth anti-smoking initiatives--the
presidents of the International Union Against Cancer,
the International Union Against Tuberculosis & Lung
Disease, and the World Heart Federation characterized
the initiatives as a "deceit" which should be
halted "without further delay."
ID# 6069
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"Police dogs search schools for drugs" (The
Chicago Tribune, Oct. 25, 2002) --
No drugs were found
Wednesday night during the first search of District 303
high schools under a new discipline policy that allows
administrators to work with police and drug-sniffing
dogs. Dogs indicated there may have been drugs in 19
lockers at St. Charles North and St. Charles East High
Schools, but none were found when the lockers were
opened, district spokesman Tom Hernandez said.
ID# 6068
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"Study: Tobacco
affects policy" (Peter N. Long, The Daily
Cardinal, Oct. 24, 2002) --
Recent discoveries prove
Wisconsin resident's lungs are not the only things
endangered by the smoldering reach of tobacco industry.
In a report released Wednesday, the UW-Madison
Comprehensive Cancer Center found the tobacco industry
has had a significant influence over Wisconsin's public
health polices. The 100-page study details the influence
the tobacco industry has wielded in state politics in
past years, and how their policy agenda has contributed
to the degeneration of the overall public health in
Wisconsin. ID# 6066
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"Campaigners United States blocking
progress on anti-tobacco treaty" (Jonathan
Fowler, Yahoo News, Oct. 24, 2002) -- The
United States is frustrating efforts to draft an
international tobacco control treaty by ducking behind
the Constitution and blocking compromise proposals on
advertising restrictions the most contentious part
of the accord campaigners said Thursday. Washington
has consistently resisted calls from the World Health
Organization (news - web sites) and many other countries
for a total advertising ban, saying it would be
unconstitutional.
ID# 6063
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"Deaths Mounting Again in War on
Drunk Driving" (Mathew L. Wald, The
New York Times, Oct. 23, 2002) --
For 15 years, the United
States was winning the war against drunken driving,
steadily reducing the percentage of deaths from
accidents involving alcohol. But at some point in the
mid-1990's, the progress stopped and then reversed. Now,
the struggle is a war of attrition, with drunken driving
claiming about 17,000 deaths a year and inflicting tens
of thousands of disabling injuries. Experts offer many
explanations as to why the war bogged down, but they are
mostly variations on a theme.
ID# 6061
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"Drug czar defends campaign to stop marijuana
legalization" (Gregory Meyer, The Chicago
Tribune, Oct. 23, 2002) --
On his first visit to
Chicago as the nation's latest drug czar, John Walters
sounded an alarm Tuesday about marijuana use by millions
of Americans. His visit comes as states including
Arizona and Nevada consider ballot initiatives that
would loosen laws restricting marijuana use and after
others have passed laws allowing the medicinal use of
the psychoactive drug. "Baby Boomer parents think
it's the soft drug. We've been told it is the drug there
is all this hysteria about, that this is all reefer
madness," he said in an interview with the
Tribune's editorial board. "There's a kind of
reefer madness-madness going on here."
ID# 6060
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"Tobacco Ad Ban to Become Law" (Associated
Press, Yahoo News, Oct. 22, 2002) --
Lawmakers have passed
legislation banning tobacco advertising in a bid to cut
smoking related illnesses and deaths in Britain. The
Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Bill cleared its final
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