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Now Available! Other Lands Have Dreams: From Baghdad to Pekin Prison by KATHY KELLY Click Here to Order the Hot New CounterPunch Book by 3-time Nobel Peace Prize Nominee Kathy Kelly! Today's Stories May 28 / 30, 2005 Alexander Cockburn There's Their Way or the Galloway Richard Lichtman We Wuz Framed! the Consolations of George Lakoff Sharon Smith The Road to Abu Ghraib Dave Lindorff Whigged Out: the Dems Have Become Merely a Vestigial Opposition Party Ramzy Baroud Muslims Were Desecrated, Not Just Their Holy Book Brian Cloughley Why Are Nukes OK for You, But Not for Us? Lee Sustar Chavez Gets Proactive Joshua Frank Isikoff Comes Clean: "Nobody in the US Said a Word, Until the Riots" Justin E.H. Smith What About the People? a Report from Romania Jackie Corr A Montana History Lesson on Assfulness Michael Kimaid Bush as Ahab Toufic Haddad Lessons from the Reversal of the AUC Boycott Justin Taylor The Fear of Paul Virilio Amir Butler Searching for a Saladin Ben Tripp Insomnia and Sarcasm May 27, 2005 Gary Leupp It Really is a Crusade! Daniel Estulin Infiltrating Bilderberg 2005 Kevin Zeese Iraq Withdrawal Vote: If Walter "Freedom Fries" Jones Can See the Light, Why Can't Nancy Pelosi? Robert Fisk Mubarak's Goon Squads Dave Zirin Why Pat Tillman's Parents Are No Longer Silent Website of the Day Stuckists   May 26, 2005 Yuki Tanaka Firebombing and Atom Bombing Ray McGovern Bolton, the Monomaniac Who Would Be Ambassador Arthur Mitzman Agenda for a Sustainable Europe Jack Random Afghanistan: the Forgotten Occupation Britt Bailey and Brian Tokar Big Food Strikes Back Rebecca Rush The New Banana Wars: Chiquita's Threat to the Caribbean Islands Jorge Mariscal Santiago v. Rumsfeld Paul Craig Roberts Uncovering a DOJ Cover-up: The Murder of Kenneth Trentadue Website of the Day The F Word   May 25, 2005 Camilo Mejia Prisoners of Conscience Dave Lindorff Brain Dead Democrats William S. Lind Of Cabbages, Cessnas and Kings Chris Floyd Tattoo Nation: Abu Ghraib as Normalcy Brian Cloughley The Stench of "Progress": the Torture and the Lies Continue Lenni Brenner The Plot to Stigmatize My Book on Nazi-Zionist Collaboration Sean Cain A Review of Naomi Klein's "The Take" Karl Shepard Extinction, Kansas and "Intelligent Design" John Ross Sweet Revenge at Terminal Island Website of the Day SWARM the Minutemen   May 24, 2005 Dave Zirin Palestine's Big Visitor: Not Laura, but Ronaldo Michele Bollinger Criminalizing Abortion in S. Carolina: Why Did Gabriela Flores Go to Jail? Winslow Wheeler The Pork War Uri Avnery Wagner at the Holocaust Memorial Michael Donnelly Behind the Green(back) Curtain Joshua Frank Chavez's Economy: Is It Sustainable? Stephen Dunifer The Folly of Media Reform Paul Craig Roberts Is Bush a Sith Lord?     May 23, 2005 Esther Sassaman / Thomas Nagy An Exclusive Interview with George Galloway Mike Whitney Free Jose Padilla: Three Years in Prison, Not a Shred of Evidence Ramzy Baroud Fallout from a Forged War: Battling Windmills While Iraq Burns Michael Dickinson Pictures at an Exhibition: Censoring the "Carnival of Chaos" Walter Brasch In Praise of Bob Barr Dick J. Reavis The Newsweek Scandal: an Unmentioned Detail Maria Tomchick Galloway and the US Press Norman Solomon Let's Play "Media Jeopardy" Kevin Zeese Inventing a Pretext for War: an Inte4rview with James Bamford Website of the Day Drawings of Darfur: Genocide Through Children's Eyes   May 21 / 22, 2005 David H. Price CIA Skullduggery in Academia Gabriel García Márquez My Visit to the Clinton White House, Bearing a Message from Fidel on Terrorism Oren Ben-Dor To Create Academic Freedom in Israel, a Boycott is Needed Gary Leupp Nights in White House Satin with Jeff Gannon Laith al-Saud An Anatomy of the Iraqi Resistance Elaine Cassel Bush and the Angry God: Twilight of Secular Democracy in America? Greg Moses The Saints of Mischief and Halliburton Fred Gardner Martyring Dr. Carol Wolman Dave Lindorff The GOP's Police State Alan Maass Uzbekistan's Karimov: Bush's Favorite Terrorist? William Blum The American Myth Industry Tom Crumpacker Send Posada Carriles to Venezuela Niranjan Ramakrishnan Newsweek: a Contest of Hypocrisies Doug Giebel The Grand Illusion Evelyn J. Pringle No Child Left Unmedicated: TeenScreen, State-drugging and Suicide Carolyn Baker Spiritual Abuse by the Religious Right Chris Floyd Justice in JebWorld Frederick B. Hudson Black and Gay?: a Review of "Brother to Brother" Ben Tripp Him Talk Plenty Long Time: Busting the Filibuster Poets' Basement Davies, Engel and Louise     May 20, 2005 Dave Lindorff Newsweek and White House Hypocrisy Kevin Zeese As Insurgency Increases, New US Military Recruits Fall Paul de Rooij "Private": a Film in Search of a Cliché Christopher Brauchli How Insurance Companies Exploited 9/11 Mark Engler Triumph Over Debt? Joshua Frank Bush to Dine with Porn Star Robert Jensen TV Talk, No Evidence Required Jeffery R. Webber Bolivia Erupts     May 19, 2005 Bill Forman An Interview with Alexander Cockburn Stan Goff Hey, Democrats, Listen to Galloway and Learn Something Neve Gordon From Ghettos to Frontiers: What Will Happen After Israel Withdraws from Gaza Michael Dickinson The Trouble with Menwith: Tagging British Peace Activists Karyn Strickler The Texas Nexus: How Racial and Political Gerrymandering United Andrew Freedman Nazi Science at NIH Paul Craig Roberts The Politics and Economics of Outsourcing     May 18, 2005 Jean Bricmont Vive La France? Laura Carlsen Bush's Posada Carriles Quandry: an Anti-Cuba Terrorist is Still a Terrorist Mike Whitney The Secret Raids of Alberto Gonzales: 10,000 Swept Up Joshua Frank Flushing the Koran: Why Newsweek Got It Right George Galloway Thusly, I Humiliated Norm Coleman (and Christopher Hitchens) Manuel Garcia, Jr. Writing Tickets for American War Crimes Dwight D. Eisenhower How the GOP will Destroy Itself Dave Lindorff The Plot to Make the PATRIOT Act Even Worse May 17, 2005 Mickey Z. GIs Behaving Badly Petuuche Gilbert The People of Acoma Still Fight to be Free Paul Craig Roberts Lies That Kill: Why Isn't Bush in the Dock? Ramzy Baroud The New Palestinian Uprising Robert Jensen / Pat Youngblood Pinning the Blame on Newsweek Stan Cox Poisoning Patancheru: the Severe Side Effects of India's Drug Industry Dave Zirin American Anthem: Ozzie Guillen and Fining for Freedom Diana Barahona Reporters Without Borders Unmasked Website of the Day Revolutionary Flower Pot Society May 16, 2005 Michael Gillespie The Family Released a Statement: Death Notices for the Warrior Theocracy Jason Leopold BP Stains the Arctic Jesse Muldoon How Many Schools Left Behind? Norman Solomon Media and the War: "The Bombs in Iraq Explode at Home" Robert Cray Twenty Patrick Cockburn Iraq is a Bloody No Man's Land Website of the Day Bolton's Divorce Papers: She Took It All Away, Including Most of the Furniture   May 14 / 15, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Join the 14 Per Cent Club! Saul Landau Lessons from Vietnam: Wars Kill Empires as Well as People Gary Leupp Whither Yale? Towards the Imperial University JoAnn Wypijewski The Glory that is Lockhart, Texas Ben Tripp The Wayward Airplane: a Cautionary Tale Brian J. Foley Was Jesus Gay? Tom Barry Bolton the Eavesdropper Mitchell Verter Barbarous Oaxaca: Indigenous Rights Groups Meet the "Law of the Club" Mike Ferner War on COs: Army Files Additional Charges Against Kevin Benderman Dan Smith Perceiving Darfur Mark Scaramella Death with Pitfalls Don Fitz Mommy, Is This a Finger in My Rice Puffs?: Splicing Human DNA into the Food Chain Diane Farsetta PR Industry Imitates Big Tobacco: the Senate's "Fake News" Hearings Michael Dickinson Soldier Crawling: Military Conscription in Turkey Ron Jacobs The Jackson State Murders Fred Gardner "Hydroponics? Ridiculous!": A Real Farmer Looks at Medical Marijuana Farrah Hassen Far From Heaven: a Review of Ridley Scott's "Kingdom of Heaven" Douglas Valentine 50 Cent's Plea Poets' Basement Louise, Ford, Engel, & Albert Website of the Weekend Military Base Closings and the South May 13, 2005 Tom Stephens A Chronology of US War Crimes and Torture, 1975-2005 Patrick Cockburn "They Destroyed Everything" Mike Whitney Tom Friedman, Imperial Chronicler Chris Floyd Miami Vice: the Sleazy World of Jeb Bush Jenna Orkin Ground Zero's Toxic Dust Dave Lindorff Googling for Fun Joshua Frank Yale Fires an Acclaimed Anarchist Scholar: an Interview with David Graeber Website of the Day Botero: Pinta El Horror de Abu Ghraib   May 12, 2005 Paul Craig Roberts America is Losing: More Phony Jobs Hype Uri Avnery Death of a Myth Greg Moses Neo-Con Logic at the Border Carolyn Baker The Politics of Dominionism: the New Religious Right in America Pat Williams Amateurish High Jinks on Roadless Areas William S. Lind Reality Gap: the Myth of US Invincibilty Jack Random The Dubious Wisdom of George W. Bush Gary Leupp Douglas Feith Bares His Soul to Jeffrey Goldberg     May 11, 2005 Patrick Cockburn The Rise, Fall and Rise of Ahmed Chalabi: King of Jordan to Pardon His $300 Million Bank Swindle Kevin Zeese The Occupation Gets More Saddam-like Every Day Christopher Brauchli Coffee, Tea or Torture?: A One Way Ticket to Uzbekistan Zalman Amit The Collapse of Academic Freedom in Israel: Tantura, Teddy Katz and Haifa University Robert Shull Carte Blanche for the Terror Cops: Senate Gives DHS Power to Waive All Laws Mike Whitney God, Gays, and George Bernard Shaw Dr. Teresa Whitehurst Anti-Arabic Week at a Southern High School Norman Solomon Political Bluster and the Filibuster   May 10, 2005 Richard Drayton The Imperial Mythology of WW II: an Ethical Blank Check Dave Zirin Steve Nash's Brilliant Year: Anti-War Hoopster Wins NBA's MVP Jackie Corr The Medicare Catch: Mrs. O'Hara's Windfall Dave Lindorff Silence of the Scams: Economists on China Michael Donnelly From Roadless to Clueless: the Great Stillborn Eco Victory Reza Fiyouzat Nomadic Abstracts Scott Parkin Taking Direct Action Against Halliburton Stephen Babcock The Burden of Knowing Better Alan Farago Florida, Water and Lobbyists Michael Neumann Naomi's Courage Website of the Day One Nation Under Plagiarism   May 9, 2005 Louis Proyect Shilling for Chevron: Jared Diamond, Greenwasher Robert Fisk "Mission Accomplished": the Occupation, Year Two Kevin Zeese Concientious Objection on Trial: the Court Martial of Keith Benderman Joshua Frank Kerry Bashes Gay Marriage Sasha Kramer A Mother's Day Call for Justice in Haiti's Prisons Andrew Wimmer Create and Resist Jeffrey Webber Back to the Streets in Bolivia? Jeffrey St. Clair Straight to Bechtel   May 7 / 8, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Who Beat Hitler? Gary Leupp Biblical Prophecy and Christian Zionism Saul Landau Pope Torquemada: Purges, Pedophiles and Cover-Ups Joe DeRaymond Autumn of the Revolutionary: Another Look at Daniel Ortega Daniela Ponce Seeing Chile in Nepal Heather Williams Hollywood Does Enron Gregory Elich Zimbabwe's Fight for Justice Anis Memon To Cuba and Back John Chuckman The Peculiar State: "Criticism of Israel is a Form of Anti-Semitism" Mike Whitney Hard Right Rage Against the Truth Ron Jacobs Re-Reading "Born on the Fourth of July" as the Iraq War Grinds On Colin Kalmbacher Whither Disorder? Ann Coulter and the Texas Police State, Cont. Lance Selfa Uprising in Mexico City Fred Gardner "Getting High is a Little Like Cuba" Ben Tripp Letters on Wittgenstein Mickey Z. The Mother of All Days Richard Joseph Those Patriotic Magnets Dr. Susan Block Come As You Are: Masturbation 101 Poets' Basement Smith-Ferri, Louise, Nettnin, Engel and Albert     May 6, 2005 Patrick Cockburn Baghdad Diary: a Week of Bombs and Blood Erin Yoshioka Another "3 Strikes" Travesty: Why is Santo Reyes Facing Life in Prison? Sam Husseini Talking with Syrians Dave Lindorff Ernie Pyle Where Are You? When Reporters were Reporters Kevin Zeese Circus Trials of Abu Ghraib: When Even the Fall Girl Can't Plead Guilty Joshua Frank An Overextended US Military? It Won't Stop Another War Dan Bacher Tribes and Salmon Win One: Bush Backs Off Trinity River Water Raid P. Sainath India's Bloody Water Wars     May 5, 2005 Carles Mutaner Is Chavez's Venezuela "Socialist" or "Populist?" Carl G. Estabrook Is There Any Hope for the Pope? Farrah Hassen The US's Syrian Obsession Kevin Zeese "Sent Into Combat Unequipped and Unprepared": an Interview with Patrick Resta Michael Leonardi May Day with an American Soldier in Rome Bennett Ramberg The Future of Nuclear Terror: Coming to a Reactor Near You Ray McGovern The Smoking Gun on White House Deceit Norman Solomon Nuclear Fundamentalism, the New York Times and Iran Nicole Colson The Back Alley Attack on Abortion Rights Brian Concannon, Jr. Clearing the Fences in Haiti     May 4, 2005 Colin Kalmbacher Ann Coulter and the Police State: Heckle a Racist, Get Arrested John Walsh Al Franken is a Big Fat Phony: Lying on Air America to Support the War Greg Moses Vigilante Wedge: Schwarzenegger Reprises "Birth of a Nation" Ali Khan Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Poised to Fall Apart Chris Floyd Ring Them Bells Linda S. Heard D-Day for Tony Blair: Bogeymen and Scare Tactics Dave Zirin The NFL, Congress and the Male Cheerleader Principle William S. Lind Fool's Paradise Gary Leupp Bolton's Proudest Moment: Breaking the UN's Anti-Zionist Resolution Website of the Day Kent State, May 4, 1970   May 3, 2005 Dave Lindorff Bush has Grasped the Third Rail, Now Turn on the Juice Brian Cloughley Halliburton's War Loot Ira Kurzban Death Squad Diplomacy: How Bolton Armed Haiti's Thugs and Killers Seth Sandronsky Towards Debtors' Prisons? Gilad Atzmon The Labour Party Isn't an Option Any More Michael Donnelly Branding Eco Collapse Alex Sanchez Chile's Man at the OAS: a Blow to Bush? Peter Linebaugh Magna Carta and May Day   May 2, 2005 Ron Jacobs Toward an Anti-Imperialist Movement Stan Goff The Case of Hasan Akbar Karyn Strickler Achieving Gender Balance in US Politics Joshua Frank Leaked UK Memo Indict's Blair's Iraq Folly Kevin Zeese Getting Out of Iraq will Prove Tougher Than Getting Out of Vietnam Vicente Navarro Pope Benedict: a Rightwing Politician       April 30 / May 1, 2005 Alexander Cockburn Marla Ruzicka, Rachel Corrie and "Credibility" Gabriel Kolko Lessons from a Total Defeat: the End of the Vietnam War, 30 Years Later Jennifer Loewenstein The Disengaged: Gaza and the Fragmentation of Palestinian Nationhood Lee Sustar City for Sale: Richard Daley's Chicago Saul Landau The Bush-DeLay Axis of Naked Power T.W. Croft The Undiscovered Country: the High Tide of the Neo-Con Confederacy Nikolas Kozloff Fox News v. Hugo Chavez William Blum Never-Ending Double Standards Dave Lindorff Judicial Jury Tampering in Philly Joshua Frank The Bi-Partisan Assault on Teenage Girls Doug Giebel Saving Jane Fonda Steven Erlanger A Response to Kathy Christison, from the NYT Jerusalem Bureau Chief Fred Gardner Washington State Doctor Harassed Mike Whitney Another Mad Bush Press Conference Kurt Nimmo Putin Pussyfoots in Palestine Joe DeRaymond A Short History of the 15th Congressional District of Pennsylvania Michael Dickinson Flags Mickey Z. May Day at Yankee Stadium Justin Taylor The Crawling Chaos: HP Lovecraft's Polymorphous Legacy Poets Basement Krieger, Engel, Albert, St. Clair Website of the Weekend Save Barbados's Cowpastor                                             Hot Stories Alexander Cockburn Behold, the Head of a Neo-Con! Subcomandante Marcos The Death Train of the WTO Norman Finkelstein Hitchens as Model Apostate Steve Niva Israel's Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings? Dardagan, Slobodo and Williams CounterPunch Exclusive: 20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians Steve J.B. Prison Bitch Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber True Lies: the Use of Propaganda in the Iraq War Wendell Berry Small Destructions Add Up CounterPunch Wire WMD: Who Said What When Cindy Corrie A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter I Can't Hear From Gore Vidal The Erosion of the American Dream Francis Boyle Impeach Bush: A Draft Resolution Click Here for More Stories.     Subscribe Online

Weekend Edition May 28 / 30, 2005 Pot Shots Advice from a Lawyer About Medical Marijuana By FRED GARDNER Tuesday, May 31, is the next day on which the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Ashcroft v. Raich could come down. The current mood of uncertainty in the medical cannabis industry can be inferred from the following, which was written by an attorney who knows what s/he's talking about: I recommend to anyone who is currently considering starting, investing money in, or renting to a medical marijuana dispensary or garden -- that they wait to see what happens in Ashcroft v. Raich before taking another step. I think municipalities and other public entities should be just as concerned as private citizens. The feds certainly didn't spare West Hollywood. I, personally feel right now that Raich might just go the right way -- but I might be crazy. Because nobody knows what will happen, existing MMJ facilities should be setting up contingency plans in case Raich goes the wrong way. Given the behavior of the people in control of this country, I wouldn't put it past the Drug Warriors to go ape shit tearing down the medical marijuana community -- especially in the blue states, and especially in California -- if the Raich decision gives them the power. If they have the option of prosecuting everybody, they will have more than their fill, and will concentrate on some and leave others and their assets untouched. To decrease their chances of being targeted for forfeiture and criminal prosecution, any entity engaged in the legitimate cultivation or dispensing of medical marijuana should make sure their corporate formalities and books are in order, annual reports are filed, taxes are filed and paid, etc. Patients and caregivers should make sure the doctor's recommendations are all current. They should back up the computer and files and storing the backups off site in a safe place. The same recommendations I made above would also be crucial if Raich goes the right way. If we prevail on our Commerce Clause argument, I believe the conduct would have to be legal under state law in order for the exemption from federal jurisdiction to apply. Any clubs that open up without licenses, and without complying with the record-keeping formalities of state law -- are no more protected from prosecution than a drug dealer on the street corner. PS: People shouldn't start moving money out of bank accounts or hiding assets to try to keep them from being seized. That only makes things worse -- and could result in money laundering charges. There are no magic bullets -- such as trusts, offshore accounts, etc. -- that will prevent forfeiture of assets. Those devices actually make it harder to defend the case, and may be construed as money laundering, resulting in criminal charges. It's best to conduct your affairs as any other legitimate business would do.   The Star Witness It was an unusual sight: members of the Medical Board of California leaning forward, eagerly attentive, not wanting to miss a word as a member of the public addressed them. The man, Jim Lohse, was tall, 30-something, dressed for casual Friday. He introduced himself as a "medical marijuana provider" from an organization called Area 420 based in Santa Clara. "I hear a lot of reports... I get first calls from medical marijuana patients who just got their cards from Oakland..." He then made some garbled analogy about going to Midas instead of K-Mart for a brake job, the point being: "Consumers have to watch out for themselves. But I wish the Medical Board would do more to try to eliminate some of the practices. You know this cross referring between dispensaries and doctors. It's hard to identify, but there's a Green Medicine Group, that apparently, when you go to Norcal Healthcare in Oakland, and ...everybody gets a card there, it's just known that anyone 18 and with a hundred dollars gets a card. They claim that Dr. Assad reviews the patient files even though the patient's only seen a Physician's Assistant, but it must be instantaneously, because the patient still walks out the door with a note. So when you get to the top of the steps the Green Medicine Group is right there handing out a flyer and that takes you to a place where they sell you an ID card and I don't know if they directly refer you to a dispensary, but it's just a big mess out there. "If you're truly concerned about the patient, something needs to be done to eliminate these practices. You know, the patients need to be better informed. Just to give you one quick example... I'll give my phone number and webisite, if anyone wants to contact me... I got a call from a patient the other day, who says he met Dr. Assad in Oakland. Now we will not work with a patient if they didn't meet their doctor directly. All those people trying to do the Physician's Assistant thing - they can't put a lawyer out who says it's a good idea, so I don't believe in it. "This patient called up and says, 'Yeah, I met Dr. Assad in Oakland.' 'So what did you think of him?' It's kind of a leading question that I asked, basically. He says: 'Oh, no, Dr. Assad is a woman!' 'No, Dr. Assad is 6 foot, 2, male.' "So, what happened was, this patient saw a Physician's Assistant and was under a false impression I'm going to finish up by saying: If it happened once, it would be one thing. When I get eight calls from eight patients in three days, and they all think they saw a doctor when they really saw a P.A... I don't know what to tell you, you're the experts, and I think from our standpoint [the purveyors'], we're at risk of arrest. We're the ones really taking the risk if the doctor doesn't detect it... What if I have the card from somebody who doesn't have a sufficient doctor's note? I can't imagine what it would be like to be on the stand and have that person say 'No, I never actually saw a doctor, but I think I have a legal right to smoke pot.'" Lohse was queried by Ron Morton, MD: "You implied in your statement that there may be arrangements between the cannabis dispensaries and the physicians that are referring. Are you aware of any financial arrangements between the two?" Lohse replied: "Financial arrangements is a different question. I wouldn't be aware of that... I think a close look should be taken at Norcal Healthcare, Green Medicine Group and Compassionate Caregivers dispensaries. A quick point, when I was just in that dispensary a couple of weeks ago, they put out a flyer with their locations around the state, and the same style, exact same style of flyer was for the Green Medicine Group. Up til now I thought the Green Medicine Group only gave out referrals but now I hear they opened an office in Oakland to give out ID cards." Morton requested that the Enforcement Division look into "the unlicensed practice of medicine" and "financial arrangements among the groups." Lohse was immediately approached by Investigator James Ball and Enforcement Chief Joan Jerzak, for some friendly follow-up chit-chat. How's this for irony? Ball informed Lohse that physicians assistants working under a doctor's supervision could indeed see patients seeking approval to medicate with cannabis! Which just goes to show, some cops are willing to cut you more slack than some activists.   Everyday Censorship A booth staffed by the Bakersfield College NORML chapter was shut down April 30 by promoters of the "Relay for Life," an American Cancer Society fundraiser. "It's not that it's NORML but that it's a political group," an American Cancer Society "field advocate" told Nada Behziz of the Bakersfield Californian. "They can have a team here, but they can't promote their political beliefs." Relay for Life events are held at some 3800 sites and raise almost $300 million annually for the American Cancer Society. "Teams" solicit pledges and walk laps over a 24-hour period. According to Morgan Collier of NORML: "We had been raising money for the American Cancer Society for months, and even though they gladly took our money, they would not allow us the same rights as they were allowing to the other teams. They said that we were handing out political propaganda which is entirely untrue. We were ONLY handing out literature that pertained to the positive benefits cannabis can provide for cancer patients, not political literature, AND, we did not one time solicit someone. The only instances in which we handed someone a pamphlet is when they came up to our booth and specifically asked for info on how to become a patient, etc.. We WERE NOT promoting political beliefs, we were merely trying to provide pertinent information to those who requested it. "About 20 minutes after the American Cancer Society rep first approached me with their absurd requests, they were holding an open panel discussion with several physicians, including oncologists and other cancer specialists, and I went up and asked how they felt about using cannabis to help cancer patients with their various discomforts, and every single doctor, including Dr. Patel, Dr Git Patel's brother (both are physicians here and Git is the man who put on the whole event) said they believe marijuana is very safe and effective for cancer patients. "Also, there were teams and groups there that were promoting political beliefs, especially religious groups. We collected literature from several other teams who were political in their message there. While all this was going down, literally dozens of cancer patients and survivors, especially those who appeared to be over the age of 65, continued to come up to ask for info and tell their story about how cannabis was the only thing that helped them make it through their fight against cancer. So many people were denied the info we were trying to provide to them, all thanks to the American Cancer Society." The American Cancer Society "field advocate" called the campus police to enforce the shut-down of the booth. He implied that NORML had hoodwinked the Relay for Life on its application by using its initials, instead of National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. BC's Dean of Students Don Turney defended the NORML crew. "I don't think it was a misrepresentation," he told Bezhiz of the Californian. "I think they did what they should have done. It's on the organizers to know who they are accepting." Even then, he added, the application should not have been denied. I should have asked Morgan why the Bakersfield College NORML chapter was raising money for the American Cancer Society in the first place. Reminder From The Doctor Vaporizing is an important technique for avoiding the breakdown products of burning. Follow-up interviews of patients who have made the switch report that they experience significantly less irritation to the throat and lungs. Besides being relieved of chronic bronchitis, improved pulmonary functioning appears to increase physical mobility and exercise. For those patients who medicate before exercise the experience is changed in a positive way. Prohibitionists conspicuously avoid mentioning vaporization because it detracts from their argument that anything smoked is not medicine. This censorship is prejudicial to public health and well-being. It represents a lapse of ethics and disrespect for medical fact. --Tod Mikuriya Fred Gardner can be reached at journal@ccrmg.org