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For Immediate Release: May 31, 2007 Contact: Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, E: [email protected], Tel: 334-685-7377 Local Non-Profit Group Seeking to End Racist Drug Laws Town Hall Meeting Set to Discuss Federal Law Reform, Activists & Politicians Birmingham - On June 2, 2007, The Ordinary People’s Society (TOPS) will co-sponsor a town hall meeting that will be hosted by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in Birmingham, Alabama on the need to repair the current discriminatory federal drug sentencing policy. The event is open to the press, and TOPS speakers will be available before and afterwards for interviews. What: The Incarceration Nation – Town Hall Meeting on Crack vs. Powder Cocaine Sentencing Disparities Speakers: Congressman Artur Davis, (D - Birmingham) Senator Jeff Sessions (R - AL) (invited) Rev. Kenneth Glasgow, Executive Director of TOPS Ed Vaughan, President, Alabama State Conference NAACP Dr. Foster Cook, Director, UAB - Treatment Alternatives for Safer Communities Deborah Vagins, Policy Council for Civil Rights, ACLU Washington Legislative Office Barry Hargrove, Field Organizer, ACLU Washington Legislative Office When: 9:00am - 1:00pm Saturday, June 2 Where: Church of the Reconciler - 112 14th Street, North - Birmingham, AL Currently, distributing just five grams of crack carries a minimum five-year federal prison sentence, while distributing 500 grams of powder cocaine carries the same sentence. Despite repeated recommendations by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, Congress has not addressed this 100:1 sentencing disparity, which has devastated African-American communities and undermined faith in the criminal justice system. African-Americans comprise the vast majority of those convicted of crack cocaine offenses, although whites and Hispanics form the majority of crack users. “These laws highlight the indecent and subconscious racist tactics still supported in the criminal justice system,” said Kenneth Glasgow, Executive Director of The Ordinary People’s Society. “Five grams of crack cocaine sets forth a mandatory minimum of five years in prison, yet five-hundred grams of powder cocaine” A 2006 ACLU report found no medical or legal justification for the unfair sentencing disparity ratio. Although Congress' stated intent was to target high-level cocaine traffickers, the result has been just the opposite - a 2002 USSC report found that only 15 percent of federal cocaine traffickers can be classified as high-level, while over 70 percent of crack defendants have low-level involvement in drug activity, such as street level dealers, couriers, or lookouts. T.O.P.S. is a nonprofit, faith-based organization that offers hope, without regard to race sex, creed, color or social status, to individuals and their families who suffer the effects of drug addiction, incarceration, homelessness, unemployment, hunger and illness, through comprehensive faith-based programs that provide a continuum of unconditional acceptance and care. ### T.O.P.S. (The Ordinary People Society) are a nonprofit organization that will provide an alternative to criminal behavior. This is a faith-based organization that will bridge the gap between the have and have-nots. We will provide rehabilitation to the repeat offenders while creating a program that target the youths before they reach the Criminal Justice System. Since the War on Drugs has been established the prison populations have continued to increase costing taxpayers more than $20,000 per inmate. This method is draining many State Governments. Also, families are suffering due to the lost of a mother, father, sister or brother. With our counseling and street ministry we are providing a second chance for many of our citizens both drug users and drug pushers. We would like to extend our program to include an after school program for youths and also for some adults so they can take pride and improve their self-esteem while improving their own family's life. T.O.P.S. provides counseling services to Ramsey Youth Services, Houston County Jail, and Dothan City Jail. T.O.P.S. would like to include a transitional facility that will provide a structural environment that will include education, treatment, and rehabilitation.

News & Opinion This Week 1. New Report on HIV/AIDS in Africa First to Link Discriminatory Beliefs Against Women With Vulnerability To AIDS 2. As Meth Trade Goes Global, South Africa Becomes A Hub 3. Excerpt from Blessed Unrest by Paul Hawken 4. [US] Drug Agency Reaffirms Ban on Gay Men Giving Blood [Red Cross and two other blood groups criticized the ban as “medically and scientifically unwarranted.”] 5. Gay Activists Beaten Up At Moscow Demo 6. Public Injection Site Likely Reduces Drug Use: Study 7. What Is Bush's Dumbest Utterance? B Upcoming Conferences and Events C Quotes D How To Help E About HRP F Subscription Information ----- I. New Report on HIV/AIDS in Africa First to Link Discriminatory Beliefs Against Women With Vulnerability To AIDS May 25, 2007 A landmark study released today by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) connects widespread discriminatory views against women in Botswana and Swaziland to sexual risk-taking and, in turn, to extremely high HIV prevalence. Seventy-five percent of HIV-positive 15-25 year-olds in sub-Saharan Africa are female. Download in PDF format PHR's study, Epidemic of Inequality: Women's Rights and HIV/AIDS in Botswana & Swaziland: An Evidence-based Report on Gender Inequity, Stigma and Discrimination reports the results of a population-based study conducted in 2004 and 2005 with 1,268 respondents in Botswana and 788 participants in Swaziland, designed to assess factors contributing to HIV infection. In addition, 24 people living with HIV/AIDS in Botswana and 58 people living with HIV/AIDS in Swaziland were interviewed, along with key informants in both countries. The full report can be accessed here. Four key factors were found to contribute to women's vulnerability to HIV: women's lack of control over sexual decision-making, including the decision to use a condom, and multiple sexual partners by both women and men; the prevalence of HIV-related stigma and discrimination (which hinders testing and disclosure of status); gender-discriminatory beliefs, which were associated with sexual risk-taking; and a failure of traditional and government leadership to promote the equality, autonomy, and economic independence of women. "If we are to reduce the continuing, extraordinary HIV prevalence in Botswana and Swaziland, particularly among women, the countries' leaders need to enforce women's legal rights, and offer them sufficient food and economic opportunities to gain agency in their own lives. Men and women must be educated and supported to acknowledge women's equal status with men and abandon these prejudices and risky sexual practices. The impact of women's lack of power cannot be underestimated," said PHR's Senior Research Associate Karen Leiter, JD, MPH, lead investigator of the study. While anecdotal evidence has strongly suggested a link between gender inequity and HIV infection, PHR has conducted the first rigorous, large-scale field survey of gender discriminatory beliefs and analyzed their association with sexual behavior. The report suggests that women's rights must be made the top priority by the countries' leaders if HIV prevalence is to be reduced. In Botswana, for example, 95% of women and 90% of men surveyed held at least one gender discriminatory belief. Botswana community survey participants who held three or more such beliefs had 2.7 the odds of those who held fewer beliefs to report having had unprotected sex in the prior year with a non-primary partner. Discriminatory beliefs accept and reflect upon women's inferior legal cultural and socioeconomic status. For example, 19% of all community survey respondents in Botswana agreed with the statement that it is more important that a woman respect her spouse or partner than it is for a man to respect his spouse or partner. Interviews indicated that many HIV-positive women are forced to engage in risky sex with men in exchange for food for themselves and their children. As one interviewee put it, "Woman are having sex because they are hungry. If you give them food, they would not need to have sex to eat." According to PHR research, the very fear of being subject to HIV-related stigma (as opposed to the actual experience of it)—being abandoned by friends or shunned at work, for instance—was pervasive. For instance, in Botswana, 30% of women and men believed that testing positive and disclosure would lead to the break up of their marriage or relationship. Interviews conducted by PHR and its partners indicate that women in Botswana and Swaziland frequently do not have the option to make decisions about having sex due to their lesser legal status. "Here in Swaziland, the husband is the one that bosses you around so there is nothing you can do without him. My rights lie with my husband. He decides whether we use condoms. I don't have a choice about prevention."—an HIV-positive interviewee In interviews, people living with AIDS highlighted women's dependency on male partners as the most significant contribution to women's greater vulnerability to HIV when compared to men. Testimony also revealed that women's lesser status in Botswana fosters ongoing harm to women even after they become infected, and increases the precariousness of their ability to meet basic needs for food, shelter and transport. Participants in Swaziland repeatedly pointed to a lack of political leadership—from government officials and traditional leaders—in protecting and empowering vulnerable women and girls. "HIV/AIDS interventions focused solely on individual behavior will not address the factors creating vulnerability to HIV for women and men in Botswana and Swaziland, nor protect the rights and assure the wellbeing of those living with AIDS. National leaders, with the assistance of foreign donors and others, are obligated under international law to change the inequitable social, legal, and economic conditions of women's lives which facilitate HIV transmission and impede testing, care and treatment," said Leiter.

IN MEMORIAM: Doctor Who Uncovered Much About Cannabis CONNECTICUT: State House Approves Medical Marijuana Bill NEW JERSEY: State Preparing for Medical Marijuana Debate MICHIGAN: Statewide Measure May Go Before Voters RHODE ISLAND: Huge Margin for Medical Marijuana Bill ALABAMA: Lawmakers Begin Consideration of Medical Marijuana RESEARCH: Scientist Asks DEA to Heed Judge on Medical Marijuana CANADA: Private vs Public Cannabis Cultivation before Court DISPENSARIES: Many Cities Regulate But Some Resist ______________________________________________ IN MEMORIAM: Doctor Who Uncovered Much About Cannabis As a government expert on drug abuse, Dr. Mikuriya seemed a good choice to lead some of the first federal inquiries into marijuana, but his research quickly uncovered a long history of medical uses that changes his opinion and put him at odds with the federal government. Over the decades that followed, he published extensive papers chronicling that history, and was one of the first doctors to champion marijuana as a drug that can safely treat a remarkably broad spectrum of conditions. He is credited with helping draft California’s medical marijuana initiative, the first in the country. Tod H. Mikuriya, 73; psychiatrist who championed legal medical marijuana by Valerie J. Nelson, Los Angeles Times Dr. Tod H. Mikuriya, a psychiatrist who was a leading figure in California's medical marijuana movement, died from complications of cancer Sunday at his Berkeley home, his family said. He was 73. ______________________________________________ CONNECTICUT: State House Approves Medical Marijuana Bill Lawmakers in the “Constitution State” this week approved a measure to remove criminal penalties for their constituents who are following a doctor’s advice on using medical marijuana. The state nickname is particularly apt in this case, since the Constitution leaves to states the responsibility of looking after the health and safety of their citizens. Compassion: Connecticut should allow medical marijuana EDITORIAL, Danbury News-Times (CT) It is heartbreaking to hear patients and their loved ones begging for the legal right to the relief that marijuana provides to some patients. A carefully regulated program will allow them to get the help, the freedom, they request in a compassionate and legal manner. House votes to legalize medical marijuana by Mark Davis, WTNH News Channel 8 (CT) A bill that would allow the use of medical marijuana for certain patients has been approved by the state House of Representatives. Connecticut House OKs medical marijuana use by Ken Dixon, Connecticut Post After a wide-ranging, six-hour debate and several failed efforts to kill or weaken the controversial legislation, the House voted Wednesday to approve the use of marijuana by the seriously ill. ______________________________________________ NEW JERSEY: State Preparing for Medical Marijuana Debate The Garden State may soon approve gardens of a medicinal nature, as lawmakers are preparing to introduce bi-partisan bills in both houses. Governor Corzine stated his support for such a bill during his campaign, and a recent opinion poll shows 86% of the state’s voters support the idea. Walk's aim is to legalize use of medical marijuana by Nirmal Mitra, Asbury Park Press (NJ) A group of Libertarian Party members plans to set out today on a "Walk Across New Jersey" with a message for lawmakers: Legalize medical marijuana. ______________________________________________ MICHIGAN: Statewide Measure May Go Before Voters To date, five cities in Michigan – Ann Arbor, Detroit, Flint, Ferndale, and Traverse City – have passed voter initiatives supporting medical marijuana. The initiatives have not changed state law, but they send a message to the state’s lawmakers that it is time to act. A bill is currently stalled in committee. Enough signatures will send the initiative to the legislature for action; if they fail to pass it, the voters will decide the matter. Each of the city initiatives have passed by between 60-74%. Group launches medical-marijuana petition in Michigan Associated Press A group says it plans to collect 550,000 signatures within six months to get a medical marijuana initiative on next year's statewide ballot.

Drug Truth Network Update: Cultural Baggage + Century of Lies + 4:20 Drug War NEWS Half Hour Programs, Live Fridays... at 90.1 FM in Houston & on the web at www.kpft.org. Hundreds of our programs are available online at www.drugtruth.net, www.audioport.org and at www.radio4all.net. We provide the "unvarnished truth about the drug war" to scores of broadcast affiliates in the US and Canada., Cultural Baggage for 05/25/07 Celebration of the life of Dr. Tod Mikuriya with interview segments from the good doctor as well as thoughts and remembrances of his sister Beverly and his friends Michael and Michelle Aldrich and DrugSense's Richard Lake. MP3 MP3 Link: http://www.drugtruth.net/007DTNaudio/FDBCB_052507.mp3 Century of Lies for 05/25/07 Rev. Dean Becker of DTN preaches in Galveston Church + Jerry Cameron of LEAP & Poppygate Report MP3 MP3 LINK: http://www.drugtruth.net/007DTNaudio/COL_052507.mp3 4:20 Drug War NEWS 05/28/07 to 06/03/07 now online (3:00 ea.): Monday 05/28/07 Chi Sun Times: "War on Drugs Kills Blacks" Tuesday 05/29/07 Poppygate Wednesday 05/30/07 Drug War Facts Thursday 05/31/07 Black Perspective on Drug War Friday 06/01/07 Ed Rosenthal on Trial... Again Saturday 06/02/07 Rev. Dean Becker Preaches Salvation from Drug War I of II Sunday 06/03/07 Rev. Dean Becker II of II NEXT Friday: - Cultural Baggage 8 PM ET, 7 PM CT, 6 PM MT & 5 PM PT. Ed Rosenthal on Trial...Again - Century of Lies 2 PM ET, 1 PM CT, Noon MT & 11 AM PT. TBD Check out our latest video with DTN's Rev Dean Becker Preaching for the end of drug war: http://www.drugtruth.net/video/church052007.ram Please become part of the solution, visit our website: www.endprohibition.org for links to the best of reform. "Those who support drug prohibition, through complicity, ignorance or silence are the best friends the drug lords could ever hope for." - Reverend Dean Becker, Drug Truth Network Producer Dean Becker 713-849-6869 www.drugtruth.