Poland's political scapegoats

Abstract

General Jaruzelski's regime assists Moscow's polemical offensive against the West by claiming that Poland is a victim of political subversion. The imposition of martial law in December 1981 and the suppression of democracy are elaborately justified by Warsaw with reference to political foes conspiring to destroy socialism in the country. Four scapegoats are regularly attacked—domestic opposition, previous administrations, the West, and Polish society itself—in order to attain four objectives: self‐justification, diverting responsibility, crisis management, and ideological packaging. Propaganda campaigns against political scapegoats, and the implementation of policies to combat them, are important mechanisms for liquidating independent movements and extending government controls over society.     

Microbial degradation of illicit drugs,their precursors,and manufacturing by-products: implications for clandestine drug laboratory investigation and environmental assessment

Chemicals associated with clandestine drug laboratories are often disposed of covertly into soil, sewerage systems, or public waste management facilities. There are two significant issues relating to such dumps of materials; they might contain valuable evidence as to drug manufacture, and they might be a source of pollution. This study presents initial findings in relation to the impact microorganisms from environmental sources have upon drugs, their precursors, and manufacturing by-products. The aim of this study was to identify which chemicals associated with clandestine drug laboratories persist in the environment in order to allow forensic drug chemists to link discarded residues with the method of manufacture, and to allow the environmental impact of clandestine drug laboratories to be assessed accurately. When exposed to soil microorganisms, phenyl-2-propanone (P2P) was rapidly metabolized into mixtures of 1-phenyl-2-propanol, 1-phenyl-1,2-propanedione, 1-hydroxy-1-phenyl-2-propanone, 2-hydroxy-1-phenyl-1-propanone, and the two diastereoisomers of 1-phenyl-1,2-propanediol. On the other hand, when exposed under the same conditions, methylamphetamine sulphate (MAS) remained virtually unchanged. Implications relating to evidence gathering for forensic purposes and to environmental assessment of clandestine drug laboratories are discussed.     

The Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment of the Caspian Sea

The Framework Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environmentof the Caspian Sea, which concluded recently between Azerbaijan,Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan, is a great step onthe long path of rescuing the fragile Caspian Sea environmentdevastated by the economies of the coastal States, unsustainableexploitation of the non-living resources of the seabed and negativeimpact of illegal fishing. The Convention complies with allcurrent standards of modern international environmental lawand should be seen as a part of the progressive developmentof international legislation on environmental protection.