PRESS RELEASE - 1st September 2003

Edition 4.

Cannabis News Items From Around the World

Harm Reduction Film Festival looking for entries!

Date: Wed, 27 Aug 2003 13:47:54 +1000

Roll up, roll up, this is your chance to be a part of the 15th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm Film Festival! If you or your colleagues have been involved (directly or indirectly) in the production of a harm reduction-related film, be it a documentary, training video, etc etc this innovative stream will provide a stage for you to present your work. We are now calling for submissions. All films will be considered! There will be two screening formats.

1. Symposium: symposiums offer the opportunity for someone who has been involved (directly or indirectly) in the making of a film to introduce and discuss their film. Films must be no longer than 30 minutes in duration and must be accompanied by a presenter.

2. Film lounge screening: the idea of the film lounge is to screen films that are unaccompanied by the flim makers and longer films that don't fit the format of the symposium sessions. All films must be in: · English or have English subtitles · DVD, VCD, Video (DHS or PAL) or CD-Rom format All submissions will be subject to review by a panel and are not guaranteed to be screened. Film submissions close 30th November 2003.

Click here to email for further information

EMERY PUSHES POT-STIRRING HABIT

Marc Emery rubs some people the wrong way. And that's precisely his intention. Yesterday afternoon, Emery showed up on the front steps of London police department headquarters and lit a marijuana cigarette -- or in his words, a "giant bomber" -- that he then passed among about 75 onlookers.

Rub.

As others fired up joints and pipes and pot smoke swirled toward police headquarters, Emery claimed that smoking pot is not only legal, but morally and ethically right. "Marijuana does not impair," he told the crowd. "Marijuana enhances!"

Rub rub rub.

Emery was here as part of his self-described Summer of Legalization cross-country tour, which has included stops in Winnipeg, Regina and Calgary. Today, he heads to Hamilton. On Saturday, the former owner of the City Lights Book Shop (he left London 11 years ago) plans to speak at Queen's Park in Toronto.

Emery's tour revolves around a recent Ontario Court of Appeal decision, which ruled against overturning a precedent-setting Ontario Superior Court decision that cleared a teenager of marijuana possession charges. The Superior Court judge ruled there is no current ban on possessing pot in Ontario, because the federal government failed to comply with a July 2000 court order to create a new law dealing with the drug.

Under proposed new federal laws, possession of up to 15 grams of pot - -- enough for about 20 joints -- would be a minor offence carrying no criminal record. Police forces in Ontario have said they won't lay charges for possession of less than 30 grams of pot until the laws are clarified.

Yesterday, I didn't see a single police officer emerge from the headquarter's front door during the 90-minute demonstration. But though he wasn't charged by London police (he has been charged in six other cities), Emery insists damage is still being done.

"Even though there was no marijuana law in effect in 2002, we had over 50,000 charges laid (in Canada)," said the fast-talking activist during an interview before the Dundas Street demonstration. "And that's staggering. There's no other civil rights violation as massive."

Emery says about two million Canadians have been charged with cannabis-related offences in the last 35 years, and that this so-called "pogrom" has harmed countless Canadians.

"When we incarcerate people for marijuana and take a person away from their family, we're doing incalculable harm," he said. "We spend billions of dollars and we give police incredible authoritarian power . . . causing a generation or two to never trust the police.

"Where does Canada benefit by any of these laws relating to marijuana?" he asked. "We don't. There's no benefit."

But isn't Emery just a selfish pothead who wants nothing more than to get stoned?

"Even if I'm some hedonistic pothead, I shouldn't have to suffer jail," said Emery. "And even if that were true, it doesn't validate the fact that the majority of Canadians who don't smoke marijuana are responsible and explicitly supportive of our oppression."

Rub, rub, rub.

Emery argues legalizing marijuana would bring the government more tax revenue and put criminal traffickers out of business. And because of his crusade, some call Emery a civil-rights crusader.

I see him as a guy who's dedicated his life to rubbing our faces in things we'd rather ignore.

When he was 20 years old, Emery had a vasectomy because he didn't think he could devote enough time to properly raising children.

(Rub.)

In 1984, he helped found the Freedom Party of Ontario, but left in 1990 because he said Canada would be better off without any government. (Rub.) In 1991, he protested a London city bylaw prohibiting sidewalk signs. (Rub.) He condemned the public school system as "prisons for children" and taught his stepchildren -- now in their 20s -- at home. (Rub.)

In 1992, he tried (unsuccessfully) to get arrested for selling literature about marijuana. The same year, as part of his attempts to overturn Canada's obscenity laws, Emery was convicted of selling banned copies of an album by the rap group 2 Live Crew. (Emery received a conditional discharge and 12 months probation.)

And yet yesterday, the 45-year-old rabble-rouser admitted he earns $300,000 a year from his Vancouver-based mail-order marijuana seed business -- and pays $144,000 in annual taxes on that declared income.

"But you know what?" he said. "I'm grateful to pay (the taxes). You're talking to a guy who's had his money used against him in five raids, 13 jailings and 17 arrests.

"And I still believe Canada is the greatest place on earth."

Rub, rub, rub.

California brings case against Cannabis prescribing Psychiatrist!

Mikuriya To Med Board: No Deal
Author: Fred Gardner
Source: Anderson Valley Advertiser
Pubdate: Wednesday, August 27, 2003

Tod Mikuriya, MD, has rejected a final settlement offer from the Medical Board of California. The deal would have meant four years probation; taking classes on ethics, record-keeping, and other areas in which the Berkeley psychiatrist is supposedly deficient; and a $10,000 fine. The Board claims that its investigation of Mikuriya has cost more than $100,000 -an amount for which he now could be found liable.

So, starting on Sept. 3, the courtroom of Administrative Law Judge Jonathan Lew in Oakland's State Building (1515 Clay St.) will be the scene of a file-by-file review of Mikuriya's handling of 17 cases.

Just as the federal government used unwilling jurors to convict Ed Rosenthal in his infamous cultivation case, the state of California is using unwilling patients to prosecute Mikuriya for "unprofessional conduct." Not one of the 17 patients who allegedly received sub-standard care has filed or expressed a complaint against Mikuriya. Not one has reported adverse effects from the treatment he approved. In fact, almost all the patients in whose name the Board is bringing this case express gratitude and describe Mikuriya as an attentive, empathetic interviewer. All had been self-medicating with cannabis before consulting him. Many report that Mikuriya was the first and only doctor with whom they could discuss the fact that they'd been using marijuana to cope with various problems.

There is an Alice-in-Wonderland quality to the Mikuriya prosecution. A psychiatrist who elicits from his patients the most honest medical history they've ever given stands to lose his license for conducting inadequate exams!

Although all the complaints come from law enforcers who resented Mikuriya's support for marijuana users, the Medical Board insists that their case has nothing to do with marijuana -as if Mikuriya would now stand accused if he were a well known proponent of, say, Ritalin!

Mikuriya is charged with violating a "standard of care" that the Medical Board has never defined with respect to doctors who approve their patients' cannabis use. To add to the irony, for years Mikuriya has been urging the Board to adopt specific standards with respect to cannabis approvals, while the Board insists that such approvals are equivalent to prescriptions for "dangerous drugs."

Key questions in the court of common sense -How safe is cannabis? Is it effective in treating the problems reported by Mikuriya's patients?- will be irrelevant at the upcoming hearing if the Board has its way. A physician named Tracy Duskin, employed by the Board as an expert witness, will testify, having read 17 patients' files (obtained by subpoena), that Mikuriya failed each of them in certain ways. The defense will call its own expert, Richard Hansen, MD, an East Bay psychiatrist, to explain why Mikuriya was able to make a valid medical judgment in each case.

Some of the patients who have been asked to testify on Mikuriya's behalf will need rides to Oakland from farflung towns when the defense begins (possibly as soon as Friday, Sept. 5). If you're interested in transporting a friendly witness, please call Mikuriya's assistant, John Trapp, at 510-548-1188.

This week Trapp released a list of the complainants, as gleaned from documents filed in the case:

Sacramento County Deputy District Attorney Del Oros: Patient 1 Nevada County Sheriff's Sgt Steve Mason [listed as Commander of the Narcotics Task Force] Patients 2, 9, 14 Humboldt County Sheriff's Sgt Steve Knight patients 3, 6 El Dorado County Narcotics Det. Bob Ashworth, Patients 4, 7, 8 Sacramento County Sheriff's Det Jeff McCannon, Patient 5 District Attorney's Office Tehama Patients 11, 12 Tehama County Det. Sgt Dave Hencraft Patients 13, 15 Anonymous (newspaper clip sent to MBC Investigator Tom Campbell] 10 Napa County District Attorney's Office 16 Sonoma Narcotics Task Force 17

All documents relevant to the case (except patients' records, of course) can be found on Mikuriya.com, including the final settlement offer from the Medical Board that Mikuriya rejected.

Frank Kortangian

One of the patients who'll need a ride to Oakland to testify for Mikuriya is a 66-year-old Navy veteran named Frank Kortangian. He and his wife Lisa are caretakers of a ranch in Gray Eagle, a small town in Plumas County. Before Frank's back went out in the '90s, he used to do landscaping and raise vegetables for the farmers' market.

Like many of the patients involved in the Mikuriya case, Frank Kortangian had previously crossed swords with local law enforcers. His letters to the editor of the local papers had earned him a rep as an environmentalist and a medical marijuana advocate. In the winter of '95-'96, Frank and Lisa gathered six pages' worth of signatures for Prop 215. They and others like them were the reason it passed.

In September '96 Frank and Lisa were arrested for growing seven plants - -four on federal land in Sierra County, and three on the property of a local land baron. The bust involved "at least 15 officers" according to Lisa -Sierra County sheriffs, Forest Service, maybe DEA. "They're very bored up here," she commented. The plants were about four feet high, grown in the shade, and would have yielded less than half a pound of usable marijuana, according to knowledgeable witnesses. The Kortangians were charged with cultivation, cultivation for sale, and conspiracy.

Frank had informed his doctor that he used marijuana for chronic back pain and arthritis, but the doc, described by Lisa as "a yuppie type who doesn't want to rock the boat," refused to testify for him. Nor would the Veterans Administration doctors he had consulted. Mikuriya interviewed Kortangian, reviewed his medical records, and offered to appear on his behalf at a preliminary hearing. District Attorney Sue Jackson objected that Mikuriya had not been Kortangian's doctor at the time of the bust, and Judge William Skillman agreed that Mikuriya should not be allowed to testify.

Kortangian's lawyer, Dale Woods of Truckee, was struck by the level of support and direction the District Attorney received from the office of Attorney General Dan Lungren. "They would send her boilerplate motions to file," he told your correspondent. Jackson was quoted in a local paper, the Mountain Messenger, questioning Mikuriya's professional qualifications. "I believe there will be some question about the man's license," she said.

Woods urged the Kortangians to accept a plea bargain. Lisa copped to misdemeanor possession and got 15 days in jail plus three years' probation, although the quantity of mj found at the house was too small to weigh. "They wouldn't even consider diversion," she says. Frank got 75 days plus three years probation.

Frank Kortangian wrote the following letter back in March '98 to the judge who presided over his conviction.

An Open Letter From Frank Kortangian to the Honorable Judge Skillman

I know this letter is highly irregular but you brought up some issues in your courtroom which need to be addressed and as you must know it is almost impossible for a defendant to say much in your court.

You mentioned several times your frustration with me and my co-defendant not accepting responsibility for our actions. You are wrong about that. I have from the very beginning taken full responsibility for the seven cannabis plants in question. I think what you really wanted to say was, I showed no remorse. On that point you would be correct. I don't think I have done anything immoral and if some crime was committed, please show me a victim besides Lisa and me. As for Lisa, she is not accepting responsibility because she is not guilty of anything. People being prosecuted for crimes they are innocent of seldom show remorse. You pontificated on your view of what the voters had in mind when they enacted Health and Safety Code 11362.5 (Prop 215) almost to the point of practicing medicine from your bench. Actually the new law is quite simple, perhaps too simple for great legal minds like yours to grasp. It was meant to protect people with serious illness and chronic pain from prosecution and not the medicine of last resort after all other drugs have failed, as is your expressed view.

Cannabis is the most benign drug in a physician's Pharmacopaeia. If you would have taken time to read my medical records perhaps you would not have been so adamant about not allowing me to use a prop 215 medical defense. I would have welcomed a chance for a jury trial in which the jurors could have heard the whole truth, but apparently you were afraid to let me have a fighting chance to keep a felony conviction off my good record.

By convicting Lisa and me you have accomplished one thing: all our many friends and acquaintances have been repulsed by the lack of justice in our legal system and when we explain how your court has refused to abide by the law of the land and would not allow a medical defense in spite of my doctor's written recommendation, they are flabbergasted. The Superior Court of Sierra County is a shining example of the ever-widening chasm between the people and their government.

If your Honor knew Lisa Branda and what a wonderful, kind loving person she is, as many of us do, you would be the one showing shame and remorse for forcing her to spend even one minute of her exemplary life in your jail.

A quick word about the D.A., a woman who looks at less than a pound of medical marijuana, convinces the judge not to allow it to be shown in court, and then testifies that it weighed seven pounds. Well all I can say about a person of that caliber is that the voters 0f Sierra County are indeed fortunate to have a chance to vote for a person with some sense of decency in the upcoming elections.

I fully expect some form of government retaliation in response to this letter, but I think the people of Sierra County and elsewhere need to know how our justice system is being manipulated.

Signed: Frank Kortangian

Kortangian reports that the DA who prosecuted him, Sue Jackson, was voted out of office and that the current DA has dismissed a number of marijuana cases brought by the local police -in other words, there's been some progress in them thar hills. Upon hearing that Mikuriya had recently undergone heart surgery -a triple bypass- Kortangian proudly expostulated, "I beat him -mine was quadruple." That's why he could use a ride.

A comment from attorney Gordon Brownell: "The Kortangian saga demonstrates, as if we need reminding, that the roots of the campaign against Tod were in the Lungren DOJ and the same soldiers in that effort have not given up the crusade... The genesis of this prosecution is found in the Lungren/McCaffrey cabal that has never let up in their
vindictiveness against Tod. For them to maintain the charade that their accusations have nothing to do with recommending marijuana is ludicrous."

This just in from Dale Schafer, husband of Dr. Marian Fry: "Mollie was served with a three-count accusation from the Attorney General 8/22. It is alleged that she did not do a thorough enough exam and did not have enough records before she recommended cannabis. She is the next target. We will do our best to fight this. I thought Bill Lockyer was on our side..." Simultaneously, the AG's office has decided not to pursue the Medical Board's flimsy case against Dr. Frank Lucido (another example of the patient thriving). The AG seems to be playing bad cop/good cop with the medical marijuana movement.

Says Schafer: "What we want from Lockyer is a general amnesty for doctors who were recommending cannabis based on its safety profile and in the absence of explicit do's and don'ts from the Medical Board. If the Board establishes practice standards and doctors violate them, sanctions would be appropriate. But to do it ex post facto is extremely unfair."

SANTA CRUZ MEDICAL MARIJUANA CARD PROGRAM LAUNCHED

A Santa Cruz county-operated program to issue identification cards to medical marijuana
users was launched this week, and backers hope it will ease concerns of patients and police.

The effort is aimed at helping police identify patients and caregivers legitimately using marijuana.

County Supervisor Mardi Wormhoudt said the cards mean patients and caregivers will have less to worry about when they possess marijuana for medical use.

"People feel very vulnerable," Wormhoudt said. "To add to that burden to people who are already suffering is adding another layer of difficulty that shouldn't be there."

Patients are required to offer documentation before obtaining a card:

*- A photo identification card.

*- Proof of Santa Cruz County residence.

*- An original doctor's recommendation, signed by a physician licensed in California.

*- $35 in cash, check or money order. The cards are valid for three years and the program is self-funded.

Three cards were issued this week as sort of a trial run.

"We had some brave souls come forward who helped us work out the kinks" said Betsy McCarty, county chief of public health.

One of them was Valerie Corral, co-founder of the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana. The alliance issues cards for its members, but the county program offers identification for people unable to be served by the group.

Corral lauded the program for not keeping records of the patient or doctor after a card is issued, offering protection for doctors and patients from federal scrutiny. But some medical marijuana advocates are skeptical of the promise of anonymity.

"There's no way anybody can convince me there's not some kind of record," said Andrea Tischler of the Compassion Flower Inn in Santa Cruz.

The county will only keep track of the money taken in and the number of cards issued and denied, McCarty said.

The program's supporters also say it helps prevent patients from needless or mistaken police attention.

"This offers an opportunity for any Santa Cruz County resident to have some immediate protection," Corral said.

The county Sheriff's Office supports the cards. Deputies say there has been confusion since Proposition 215 passed in 1996. The voter-approved initiative provided for medical marijuana in the state.

"We're cops, we're not health-care providers," sheriff's spokesman Kim Allyn said. "One of the issues (we face) is who is a bona fide medical marijuana patient. That makes this piece of identification viable."

McCarty said the cards can be processed within a day, though that depends on the timelines of the physician responding for verification.

Appointments for the cards can be made by calling the county Health Services Agency at 454-3431.

'Narco-Terror' Draft Bill Would Provide Broader Power,

Ashcroft Defends Patriot Act

By Dean Schabner

Aug. 20 2003

As Attorney General John Ashcroft barnstorms the country to bolster support for the controversial USA Patriot Act, a new bill is quietly circulating on Capitol Hill to give even greater powers to law enforcement — in the name of fighting drug trafficking.


ABCNEWS.com has obtained a draft of the Vital Interdiction of Criminal Terrorist Organizations Act of 2003, or VICTORY Act, which could be introduced to Congress this fall, and which appears to have been prepared by the office of Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The measure would give law enforcement increased subpoena powers and more leeway over wire-tap evidence and on classifying some drug offenses as terrorism.

The draft is a complex 89-page document that, like the Patriot Act, the massive anti-terror law that passed overwhelmingly six weeks after the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, would amend various existing statutes, ostensibly to allow law enforcement to work more efficiently.

Provisions in the draft would:

Raise the threshold for rejecting illegal wiretaps. The draft reads: "A court may not grant a motion to suppress the contents of a wire or oral communication, or evidence derived therefrom, unless the court finds that the violation of this chapter involved bad faith by law enforcement."

Extend subpoena powers by giving giving law enforcement the authority to issue non-judicial subpoenas which require a person suspected of involvement in money laundering to turn over financial records and appear in a prosecutor's office to answer questions.

Extend the power of the attorney general to issue so-called administrative "sneak-and-peek" subpoenas to drug cases. These subpoenas allow law enforcement to gather evidence from wire communication, financial records or other sources before the subject of the search is notified.

Allow law enforcement to seek a court order to require the "provider of an electronic communication service or remote computing service" or a financial institution to delay notifying a customer that their records had been subpoenaed.

Patriot Challenges

Hatch spokeswoman Margarita Tapia declined to comment directly on the draft, which begins "Mr. Hatch introduced the following bill," and is dated for the first session of the 108th Congress beginning next month. Tapia noted, "We are examining legislative options but we have not submitted anything for consideration."

Other members of the Senate judicial committee also declined to comment on the draft.

And a spokesman for the Justice Department, which came under fire from several members of Congress when drafts of the Domestic Security Enhancement Act -"Patriot II"- appeared earlier this year, said the agency was not involved in the Victory Act.

"It's not ours," a Justice Department official said.

But critics wasted no time taking aim at the measure. A Democratic aide for the House Judiciary Committee said the linking of drug-related crime and terrorism raises questions about the draft.

"This bill would treat drug possession as a 'terrorist offense' and drug dealers as 'narco-terrorist kingpins,' " the aide argued. "To say that terrorist groups use a small percentage of the drug trafficking in the United States to finance terrorism may be a fair point, but this bill would allow the government to prosecute most drug cases as terrorism cases."

Concluded the aide: "It really seems to be more about a political agenda to jail drug users than a serious attempt to stop terrorists."

American Civil Liberties Union staff attorney Jameel Jaffer added: "Absolutely nothing would prevent the attorney general from using these subpoenas to obtain the records of people who have no connection to terrorism, drug trafficking or crime of any sort."

Patriot Challenges

Recent indications of growing discomfort around the country with some of the elements of the Patriot Act have come from the Republican side of the aisle as well.

The House last month passed by a vote of 309-118 a bill to eliminate funding for the "sneak-and-peek" powers as authorized in the Patriot Act. The House bill was authored by a Republican, Rep. Butch Otter of Idaho.

Meanwhile, three states and more than 140 cities, counties and towns around the country have passed resolutions critical of the Patriot Act. The language of those resolutions ranges from statements affirming a commitment to the rights guaranteed in the Constitution, to directives to local law enforcement not to cooperate with federal agents involved in investigations deemed to be unconstitutional.

A bill has also been introduced in the House to exclude bookstore and library records from those that could be subpoenaed by law enforcement without prior notification of the person whose records were being seized.

Two lawsuits have also been filed challenging provisions of the Patriot Act.

The New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights filed suit in Los Angeles arguing the provision that makes it illegal to provide "expert advice and assistance" to groups alleged to have ties to terrorism is unconstitutionally vague.

The ACLU also filed suit in Detroit last month, challenging the provision that allows law enforcement to secretly subpoena people's bookstore and library records.

Within the Constitution

Even before Ashcroft took to the road Tuesday, the Justice Department had begun defending the Patriot Act.

The department recently posted a new Web site www.lifeandliberty.gov, with questions and answers addressing many of the complaints critics have about the Patriot Act.

Justice has also suggested the 93 U.S. attorneys around the country hold town hall meetings to reach out to people in their jurisdictions, to try to reassure them there is no threat to law abiding people in the Patriot Act.

Ashcroft began his tour in Washington, D.C., to put out the message personally that the Patriot Act has greatly aided the fight against terrorism and has not infringed on constitutional rights or civil liberties.

Speaking at the conservative-leaning think tank American Enterprise Institute, he lauded the achievements of law enforcement in preventing another terrorist attack in the nearly two years since Sept. 11, 2001, and in tracking down suspected terrorist cells in suburban Buffalo and Portland, Ore.

"We have built a new ethos of justice, one rooted in cooperation, nurtured by coordination and focused on a single overarching goal: the prevention of terrorist attacks," Ashcroft said. "All of this has been done within the safeguards or our Constitution, and the guarantees that our Constitution provides, protecting American freedom."

( So why aren't they stopping heroin convoys in Afghanistan?)

ABCNEWS' Jason Ryan contributed to this report.

LEARNING FROM THE BEST:
SCHEME FOR INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES

29th August, 2003

Grants worth over $16 million to combat alcohol and other drug misuse in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities were detailed today by the Federal Parliamentary Secretary for Health, Trish Worth, following an announcement by the Prime Minister.

"Communities will use these grants to learn how to combat drug misuse. In particular, they will learn from the experiences of other communities that have shown outstanding success," Ms Worth said.

The Prime Minister has announced that $10.5 million from the Tough on Drugs Diversion Initiative would be directed towards a new National Drug Strategy Indigenous Community Initiative.

This will, over four years, support communities in developing local solutions to prevent harmful drug use, including control of alcohol supplies and issues of substance use. The funding will also assist in improving access to intervention services and develop strategies to prevent drug-related harm.

"Priority will be given to support initiatives that target the link between alcohol use and family violence. The program will encourage behaviours that reinforce traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander values and culture. Parenting and families will be a high priority," Ms Worth said.

"Clearly, this grant scheme must be community-driven. Many communities have achieved outstanding success. Funds will help communities develop detailed project plans for new initiatives and bring these ideas to fruition."

$6.1 million in projects for NGOs

In addition, the Australian Government will provide $6.1 million worth of new projects under the Non Government Organisation Treatment Grants Program (NGOTGP) to target alcohol and drug abuse in indigenous communities.

Ms Worth said the Australian Government has sought to improve the health and welfare of Indigenous people with a strong focus on practical reconciliation. This new community grants scheme, the National Drug Strategy Indigenous Community Initiative, aims to assist communities to address priority and immediate areas of concern identified under the recently-endorsed National Drug Strategy Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples' Complementary Action Plan.

Media contact: Mark Williams, Ms Worth's Media Adviser 0401 147 558

BACKGROUND

The National Drug Strategy Indigenous Community Initiative will provide $10.5 million for new community grants to help divert Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from alcohol and drug abuse.

In addition, $6.1 million for NGOTGP projects will target alcohol and drug abuse in indigenous communities. The details are:

Aboriginal Medical Service Cooperative Ltd (NSW) $801,508
Ngaimpe Aboriginal Corporation (NSW) $162,887
Ngwala Willumbong Cooperative Ltd (Vic) $376,532
Wuchopperen Medical Service Ltd (Qld) $672,153
Mamu Health Service Ltd (Qld) $483,339
North East Regional Youth Council (WA) $214,996
Mission Australia - Yirra Program (WA) $183,842
Mission Australia - OnTRACK Program (WA) $550,000
Warburton Community Inc (WA) $218,473
Nunkuwarrin Yunti of South Australia Inc (SA) $141,310
The Salvation Army (SA) $291,270
Aboriginal Drug & Alcohol Council of SA Inc (SA) $655,857
NPY Women's Council Aboriginal Corporation $604,187
Banyan House (NT) $411,553
Central Australian Aboriginal Congress Inc (NT) $378,000

In addition, the Australian Government will ensure that a new emphasis, backed by an appropriate proportion of funds, is directed towards services for indigenous communities under the $215 million diversion initiative of the National Illicit Drugs Strategy.

For fact sheet: Non-Government Organisation Treatment Grants Programme, go to www.health.gov.au/mediarel/yr2003/tw/twmr2003.htm

MAYDAY IS JAY-DAY!

So far, 57 Cities Have Signed up for 2004 .

(Next year, the first Saturday of May falls on May 1)

Albany
Albuquerque
Ashland
Bratislava
Buenos aires
Capetown
Christchurch
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Dallas
Darwin
Dayton
Des Moines
Detroit
Dover
Dublin
Eugene
Fayetteville
Flint
Frankfurt
Ft. Lauderdale
Halifax
Helsinki
Houston
Kansas City
Las Vegas
Lansing
Mexico City
Minneapolis
Montpelier
Nashville
Newark
New Orleans
New York
Nimbin
Ogden
Orlando
Paducah
Parkersburg
Prague
Raleigh-Durham
Rapid City
Richmond
Rosario
Salt Lake City
San Francisco
San Juan
San Marcos
St. Louis
Tampa
Toronto
Traverse City
Tucson
Tupelo
Vancouver
Wichita
Wilmington

THAT'S ALL FOR NOW FOLKS!