Clinton Removes Syria, Lebanon from List of "Problem" Drug Trafficking Nations 11/15/97

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Just eight months after adding both Syria and Lebanon to the U.S. government's annual list of "major drug trafficking" nations, President Clinton has removed them both and placed them on the list of nations "to watch." Interestingly, the move comes in the midst of two impending crises in the region, namely Iraq's intransigence in allowing U.N. inspectors to tour its weapons sites and the faltering Israeli-Palestinian peace process, for which the Clinton Administration is actively courting wide Arab support.

Iowa republican senator Charles Grassley denounced the removal of Syria, saying, "From all accounts, Syria remains a major drug trafficker." President Clinton defended the move on the basis of a new, joint eradication program in which the two nations have agreed to destroy 8,400 acres of opium poppies.

DRCNet Executive Director David Borden notes that "based on decades of evidence and a tall stack of government and private reports, we can be pretty sure that the eradication program will yield no long-term reduction in drug use and little if any short-term reduction." (See http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/GOVPUBS/gao/gaomen1.htm for a sample of the evidence.) "Those 8,400 acres will be replaced by new acreage in Syria or elsewhere before they've even finished."

[Source: Reuters, 11/10]

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Issue #19, 11/15/97 NJ Needle Exchange Continues Legal Battle: Medical Necessity Defense Rejected By Judge | Virginia Pushes Envelope on Pain Control: Medical Society Calls For Greater Acceptance Of Narcotics | Marihuana The Forbidden Medicine: Revised and Expanded Edition of the Landmark Book by Grinspoon and Bakalar | Media Alert: Magazine Does Hatchet Job on San Francisco's Reform-Minded District Attorney | Events: The Reformer's Calendar Updated -- Events Coming Right Up! | Junior High Student Suspended for Supplying Cough Drop | Drug Czar "Sends a Message" to the Pentagon Over Anti- Drug Budget: Military Reluctant To Expand Drug War Involvement | Shultz And Friedman Tell California Cops "Drug War is a Dismal Failure" | Undercover Federal Narc Shoots Teen Holding Candy Bar | Consumption of (Legal) Alcohol Plunges | 18 Students Share Needle in Science Class | 51% of Canadians Favor Decriminalization of Marijuana | Clinton Removes Syria, Lebanon from List of Problem Drug Trafficking Nations | Rheumatoid Arthritis Sufferer Gets 9-Month Suspended Sentence in England | Colorado Governor Calls for Sentencing Reform: Prefers Alternatives to Incarceration and Educational Spending | Editorial: Youth are Victims of Drug War

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