... ... Museum of Drug Abuse (no it's not Keith Richards) ... ...

America's Drug Enforcement Administration now has a museum. The chief exhibit is 'The History of Illegal Drugs in America'. You can examine the double walled steel door of a New York crack house, admire old opium pipes, a diamond encrusted gun and a Harley Davidson seized during drug busts. Alternatively you can marvel at DEA equipment, including a pair of platform shoes worn by a male undercover agent. The museum is located in Arlington, Virginia. When will the Imperial War museum open its drug war exhibition?

... ... Nice try, but … ...

A heroin user who broke into a primary school caretaker's house in Hartlepool on a Saturday and got captured, claimed he was only there to try and enrol his unborn child.

Source: Hartlepool Mail 5.2.01

... ... Yemen declares 'war on drug' - "Qat's enough!" says President ... ...

In the Yemen the favourite drug is Qat (sometimes spelt Khat). Qat looks (and tastes) a bit like privet. Users strip the leaves from the twigs, then chew them and finally use their tongue to roll it into round wads that they suck for hours. Chewing Qat is traditional in many of the Red Sea states, but things are said to be getting out of hand in Yemen. Every afternoon at 2pm the country's business is set aside for about four hours for a good chew with friends and neighbours. Not only ordinary Yemenis but many officials including senior civil servants, judges and military men are into Qat. Their offices even have strategically placed spitoons to catch used wads. According to the President of the Yemen, Abdullah Ali Saleh, the nation should chew less Qat and do more work. Making the drug illegal, however, is impossible as the country's parliament is packed with addicts and enthusiasts. Last year the president managed to get legislation to increase the working day from 2pm to 3pm. Extra holidays were introduced to make up for the additional hours worked. Unfortunately, the net effect appears to be that the public has added an extra hour of chewing at the end of the day. In an effort to lead by personal example, the President has abandoned his daily chew and is taking computer classes instead. He's even managed to persuade the defence minister (whose troops are accused of preferring chewing to combating terrorism) to follow his example). The problem isn't simply that Yemenis like the drug, it's as traditional and as ritualised as us drinking tea. The problem is the Yemen is shit poor and in the middle of turmoil and war. Growing and selling the drug allow poor peasants to make a reasonable living. As one dealer told a reporter "If there was any other jobs to be had, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you." I wonder what that reminds you of?

... ... Psychedelic Pigeons ... ...

Officials in the city of Denver, Colorado have fought a long and unsuccessful war against pigeons shitting all over their nice civic buildings and the pedestrians below them. They've tried electrified toe strips, high-frequency sirens and an anti-perching product called Hot-Foot. All to no avail. "It got to the point where you felt like you needed ski goggles to look up at the City and County building", said one official. But now the city thinks it's got the answer in a hallucinogenic called Avitrol. For over a year, the city has been feeding the birds corn spiked with the drug which causes them to flap their wings, vocalise and convulse, scaring away the rest of the birds. City officials are pleased but others have problems. When the same drug was used on New York Pigeons, Grace Slick sixties, psychedelic rock star and no stranger to chemicals, protested to the city's Mayor: "I have considerable experience on the subject of mind altering drugs, and I can tell you that Avitrol is not your run-of the-mill hallucinogen. It causes violent shaking, trembling, thirst, nausea, convulsions, disorientation and a slow death. Wow, talk about a bad trip". Come on Grace, don't be such a hippy. If it was enjoyable they wouldn't even give it to pigeons.

... ... Numbnuts ... ...

A man who jibbed a taxi, ran off leaving a bag of draw in the cab. He was arrested when he went to claim it back from Brighton police station lost property office.

Source: Brighton Evening Argus 5.2.01

... ... Shakespeare's reputation goes to pot? ... ...

A South African scientist, Dr Frances Thackeray, is claiming that smoking weed helped Shakespeare compose some of his best work. To test the theory he borrowed fragments of clay pipes from the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust for forensic testing. Eight showed traces of cannabis, two pipes showed cocaine and some had traces of nutmeg (hallucinogenic properties but avoid at all costs!). But if Shakespeare used anything, the scientists are suggesting it was cannabis. In his poems (The Sonnets), he talks (Sonnet 76) of a "noted weed". The Chairman of the Trust, Professor Stanley Wells was outraged, "There is no evidence that they (the pipes) have anything to do with Shakespeare. It is incorrect to say that they were used by him for smoking drugs…". The Professor's defence is based on the idea that lots of people visited Shakespeare's house and they could have been using drugs. Now isn't that a familiar excuse. "It wasn't me. This place is pure people all day. Know what I mean?"

All newspaper articles summarised here are taken from the excellent and informative Website: Media Awareness Project

www.mapinc.org/drugnews