DRUG WAR BRIEFS: Canada Considers Decriminalization

July 17- The Calgary Sun reports: Justice Minister Martin Cauchon says he's no pothead, even if he enjoyed a spliff in his youth.

Cauchon, who is considering decriminalizing the illegal drug, candidly admitted yesterday to having previously smoked a joint. "I'm 39 years old. I was elected first when I was 31 years old. Yes, of course I tried it before, obviously," Cauchon said.

Prime Minister Jean Chretien sidestepped a direct question on whether he's ever smoked pot, answering that decriminalizing the substance is under review.

July 18- BBC News reports: The niece of US President George Bush has been jailed in connection with drug offences.

Noelle Bush, the daughter of Florida Governor Jeb Bush, broke the terms of a court-ordered drug treatment programme.

The 24-year-old was arrested in January after fraudulently trying to obtain a prescription drug to treat anxiety. She was arrested outside a pharmacy in Tallahassee. She has been jailed for 72 hours on a charge of contempt of court for failing to comply with her treatment programme.

July 19- The LA Times reports: Californians who use or grow marijuana for personal medical use are protected from prosecution in state court as long as they have doctors' approval, the California Supreme Court decided unanimously Thursday.

In its first review of the medical marijuana initiative, which was approved by voters in 1996, the court said a medical user who is arrested can get the charges dismissed without a trial if the patient has a note on a prescription pad or any other evidence of a doctor's approval.

July 19- North Carolina's Daily Reflector reports: A local sheriff's deputy and two police officers from western North Carolina were killed Tuesday afternoon when the single-engine plane they were using to search for marijuana plants crashed in northeastern Chowan County.

The deputy, Richard Edward Ashley Jr., 34, joined the Chowan County Sheriff's office 15 months ago and had volunteered to fly the mission Tuesday, Sheriff Fred Spruill said.

Ashley's death marked the first time in Spruill's 16-year tenure as sheriff that an officer has died in the line of duty, and Spruill said it is the first such death he knows of in county history. Chowan County dates back to the 1600s.

July 23- The San Francisco Chronicle reports: San Francisco could become the first city in the nation to get into the pot-growing business to supply patients with medicinal marijuana, under a measure headed for the November ballot.

The measure would urge city officials to explore growing cannabis and distributing it to seriously ill patients who have an OK from their doctors -- in apparent defiance of federal law.

July 23- The Honolulu Advertiser questions recent medical marijuana raids by police: It is not entirely clear why police on the Big Island have cracked down on local residents who hold medical marijuana permits, but the story offered thus far is less than totally convincing.

Three Kona residents were arrested after a police raid discovered 11 plants instead of the nine they were entitled to have under their state permit. Officers took all 11 plants. At best, they should have taken just the two extra mature plants rather than the entire collection.

In another case, officers staged a helicopter raid on a 60-year-old Puna man who holds a state permit and took three of his plants. One was returned but it had been cut.

Like it or not, Hawai'i does have a law that allows people to use marijuana for medical reasons if they meet all the criteria for the state permit.

The plain fact is that Hawai'i has chosen, as a matter of public policy, to let people use marijuana under limited circumstances for medical purposes. Law enforcement will have to accommodate itself to that fact.