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Tide
Shifting:
Senate
Votes
to
Reduce
Foreign
Drug
War
Budget,
Suspends
Certification
10/26/01
The Senate this week handed
critics of the US-led Andean drug war an unexpected victory. Having
received a $731 million budget request by the Bush administration for their
"Andean Initiative," the foreign operations panel of the Appropriations
Committee cut the request by $164 million down to $567 million, according
to the Associated Press. Even more significantly, the Senate approved
a one-year moratorium on the annual "certification" process, in which the
State Department decides which nations are fully cooperating in the drug
war, with those not so certified being subject to denial of certain aid
and economic benefits.
Commenting on the funding,
Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), who chairs the foreign operations panel, observed,
"We're spending four times more on the Andean drug program... than what
we're doing to stop disease -- smallpox or tuberculosis, malaria, ebola,
plague -- from coming into our country," according to the AP.
Leahy continued, "We keep
pouring money down here. We don't know where it's going. We
don't know how it's being spent. We know it's not effective.
We know it hasn't stopped drugs coming up here."
Visit http://www.wola.org
and http://www.lawg.org for further information
on these issues.
-- END --
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Issue #208, 10/26/01
Students for Sensible Drug Policy Conference Drawing Hundreds to Washington, DC | Tide Shifting: Senate Votes to Reduce Foreign Drug War Budget, Suspends Certification | Interview: Charles Thomas, Unitarian Universalists for Drug Policy Reform | Interview: Kendra Wright of Family Watch | Reams Reeferendum Heads Into Home Stretch in Virginia | Newsbrief: FBI Report Finds 1.6 Million Drug Arrests Made in 2000 | Newsbrief: Netherlands May Add Medical Marijuana to National Health Plan | Walters Drug Czar Nomination Under Contention in Senate | Britain Announces Plan to Abolish Marijuana Possession Arrests | Alerts: HEA Drug Provision, Drug Czar Nomination, DEA Hemp Ban, Ecstasy Bill, Mandatory Minimums, Medical Marijuana | The Reformer's Calendar
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