| July 22, 1998 #056 | ||||||||||||||
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A DrugSense publication | ||||||||||||||
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Table of Contents
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FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Drug wars: Menace to America | ||||||||||||||
Editors Note: Part one of this article can be read in last weeks issue at:
http://www.drugsense.org/news.htm | ||||||||||||||
Foreign policy | ||||||||||||||
The economically irrational prohibitionist policy suborns the Monroe
Doctrine with the inadvertent empowerment of authoritarian regimes that
are hostile to the United States. Their hostility is beyond economic
control of the OAS or the World Bank since they are now funded by the
illicit drugs. Good-bye United Fruit. Hello unnamed successors to
Medellin and Cali cartels. | ||||||||||||||
The Sendero Luminosa despite the capture of their leader and the
corrupt military in Peru has set back the emergence of democracy. The
Drug Enforcement Administration and their "advisors" continue to
aggravate the situation. throughout Latin America. | ||||||||||||||
Colombia continues to suffer terrorism and destruction of their judiciary. the economy hammered by undercutting the coffee market. | ||||||||||||||
Panama escalates the money laundering and transshipment. Business as usual even though president George Bush captured General Manuel Noriega, former friend, CIA and Drug Enforcement Administration employee. Operation "Just Cause" perpetrated urban undevelopment and "installation" (like a new motor in an old car) of a "new" government. | ||||||||||||||
The Iran-Contra guns for drugs scandal continues to attenuate the legitimacy and efficacy in both foreign and domestic policy. Besides the embargo and mining of the tiny poor country of Nicaragua with illegal support of the guerrilla army, Lt. Colonel Oliver North lied to Congress to support former president Ronald Reagan and his vice president George Bush, commander designate of the War Against Drugs. | ||||||||||||||
Mexico continues to suffer U.S. raids and interference with their
government by the DEA. Border traffic continues to suffer disruption
and human rights abuses from the drug law enforcement. | ||||||||||||||
American drug prohibition dims the future of democracy in the hemisphere. America exports criminal mercantile opportunity. | ||||||||||||||
Prohibitionism, the American Disease: Authoritarian Danger to Society | ||||||||||||||
American recurrent Prohibitionism is a peculiar majoritarian auto
immune social disease regarded with perplexity by the rest of the
world. With all the exemplary features of America, this anachronistic
problem sadly detracts from world leadership. | ||||||||||||||
American drug prohibition darkens the prospects for the country's
future. Demagogues facilitated by profit-driven special interest
groups create policy and laws that erodes evermore rights of their
citizens. Gradually, and by small increments what protections were once
taken for granted have disappeared. | ||||||||||||||
Lulled into a narcotism induced by television and materialism, the
Trojan horse of authoritarianism bedecked with "patriotic" and
"conservative" heraldry has breached the gates of the city. Moralistic
armed clergy busily snuff out pockets of critical thinking- ever
striving to make the world safe for their profitable hypocrisy. The
alienating cynicism discourages any citizen participation in governance
to stop its decline. | ||||||||||||||
Alexis de Toqueville's warning in Democracy in America of an all
pervasive tutelary power ruling through the manipulation of a
distracted materialistic populace looms as the reality of the next
millennium. | ||||||||||||||
We witness the worst of Brave New World and 1984 coming together in a most painful confluence of localized and systemic infection of the body politic- and society. The epidemic evil stupidity feeds on itself. | ||||||||||||||
Right drugs Alcohol, nicotine, aspirin products, antihistamines,
antidepressants and aphrodisiacs are required staples while wrong drugs
cannabis, psychedelics, opiates, and amphetamines demand obligatory
condemnation. Unfortunately, truly wrong and garbled messages are sent
that inadvertently promotes wrong drugs to adolescents and perpetuates
the illicit use. | ||||||||||||||
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
The summer of '98, only 1/2 over, has already seen more bad publicity
for the drug war than most entire years. The arrests and repression
continue; medical marijuana is a cruel joke, even in California, but
an increasingly harassed drug war high command continues to shoot
itself in the foot, and the drug war continues its unbroken record of
failure. | ||||||||||||||
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The Ad Campaign- | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Big news the previous week, the Ad Campaign had generated the CNN debate which snookered McC into making intemperate remarks about Dutch policy (see below). In the meantime, press judgment of the ads continued lukewarm, at best. Frank Rich's was ice cold. | ||||||||||||||
BRAINS ON DRUGS | ||||||||||||||
THE advertising industry's newest clients are American taxpayers, who
may be forced to pay $1 billion over the next five years for a federal
anti-drug ad campaign with dubious effectiveness. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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JUST SAY $1 BILLION | ||||||||||||||
If all the merchandising might of Hollywood couldn't make America's teenagers buy "Godzilla," why does anyone think that a five-year, $1 billion government ad campaign is going to make kids swear off drugs? | ||||||||||||||
Especially ads like these. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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McCzar Abroad- | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Before even leaving home for an 8 day European working visit, the czar
insulted prospective hosts in the Netherlands and Switzerland. He
added fuel to the fire with erroneous charges in a Swedish interview.
Although he softened his rhetoric by week's end, he never apologized
and shifted the blame to Interpol for any factual mistakes. Those of
us used to drug warrior rhetoric were not surprised. One wonders what
the Dutch thought; McC, speaking for the home folks, clearly doesn't
care. | ||||||||||||||
DUTCH REBUKE U.S. DRUGS ADVISER | ||||||||||||||
AMSTERDAM, July 14 (Reuters) - The Netherlands rebuked a top U.S.
drugs policy adviser on Tuesday for getting his facts wrong about Dutch
drug-related crime but said General Barry McCaffrey was welcome to
learn from the Dutch experience. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
``The murder rate in Holland is double that in the United States,
McCaffrey told Swedish reporters. | ||||||||||||||
The overall crime rate in Holland is probably 40 percent higher than
the United States. That's drugs.'' | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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DUTCH OFFICIALS SAY U.S. DRUG TSAR VISIT USEFUL | ||||||||||||||
AMSTERDAM, July 17 (Reuters)- The exchange of ideas on policy with the
United States' top drugs adviser was useful, despite a diplomatic row
in the runup to General Barry McCaffrey's visit, Dutch officials said
on Friday. | ||||||||||||||
But they said Dutch and U.S. views on drugs remained far apart. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
McCaffrey clashed with Dutch authorities earlier this week, calling
Dutch drugs policy a ``disaster'' and saying the murder rate in the
Netherlands outstripped that in the United States. | ||||||||||||||
Although, according to the Dutch, his figures were based on
incorrect data, McCaffrey has not apologized for the error, arguing
the figures came from Interpol. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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Winning the War on Heroin- | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Many people were surprised to hear both the prez and the czar kick off
The anti-drug ad campaign with a claim that "drug use" had been "cut
in half," thus implying we just might be winning the drug war. That
delusion finds little support in last week's heroin news- either at
home or around the world. | ||||||||||||||
HEROIN'S GRASP ON PORTLAND | ||||||||||||||
* The Double Suicide Of A Couple Who Hanged Themselves From The Steel
Bridge Is A Glimpse Of A Dire Problem | ||||||||||||||
Hanging themselves from Portland's Steel Bridge during rush-hour
traffic was not the way Michael Douglas and Mora McGowan first thought
they would end their heroin addictions. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
In the 1980s, after Mexican black-tar heroin was introduced to the
Portland area, the drug claimed fewer than one victim a week. But in
recent years, the toll has increased steadily; heroin deaths last year
reached about three a week. | ||||||||||||||
So far this year, the phenomenon has leveled off with 59 deaths
involving heroin. But authorities are quick to say that use of the
drug, especially in Portland, isn't waning at all. | ||||||||||||||
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EPIDEMIC OF HEROIN SWEEPS BRITAIN | ||||||||||||||
A NEW heroin epidemic is sweeping into many of Britain's towns and
cities as dealers target increasingly young teenagers for their trade,
a major Home Office study has discovered. | ||||||||||||||
Record numbers of dealers are selling heroin in low cost 10BPD packages in regions that had previously escaped the worst ravages of the drug. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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Australia's heroin epidemic appears to have peaked but the effects will
be felt for years, with thefts to buy the drug estimated at up to $1.6
billion a year. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
The main author of the study, Dr Lisa Maher, said she believed that the
epidemic, at least in Sydney, appeared to have peaked in 1995 and 1996
and that the take-up rate looked to be slowing. | ||||||||||||||
"Like most epidemics it moves in cycles and this one appears to be
past its peak," she said. | ||||||||||||||
While less that 2 per cent of Australians had tried heroin, Dr Maher
said, a 1996 survey of schools in south-western Sydney showed that in
one school 11 per cent of 13-year-old boys had tried heroin in the
previous year. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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ARMED HOLD-UPS EXPLODE AS HEROIN TAKES ITS TOLL | ||||||||||||||
An increase in heroin use among the poor and the young is driving a huge 44 per cent increase in armed hold-ups, which saw more than 9,000 people bailed up by gun, knife or syringe across the country last year. | ||||||||||||||
The increase was even more stark in NSW, where hold-ups jumped by 67
per cent, or nearly 2,000. | ||||||||||||||
The head of the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics, Dr Don Weatherburn,
said the nation-wide increase was the biggest "this decade, if not
ever". | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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RECORD SEIZURES OF HEROIN FROM THE EAST | ||||||||||||||
Heroin is one of the most feared drugs: the mortality among heroin
users is many times higher than among other drug users. | ||||||||||||||
This year police and customs officials have uncovered record-breaking
quantities of heroin in Sweden; among other reasons thanks to stepped
up cooperation with the police in the former states of East Europe.
About 65 kilograms of heroin have been seized in Sweden this year. That
can be compared with 14 kilograms for all of 1997. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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ACT ON DRUG REPORT, URGES PDA'S WILSON | ||||||||||||||
The number of deaths from drug overdoses is heading to an all-time high
in B.C., says the leader of the Progressive Democratic Alliance. Gordon
Wilson told the legislature yesterday drug overdoses have taken the
lives of 201 people this year - more than one a day. He urged the
government to do something about the report of former chief coroner
Vince Cain, who called for a program that would decriminalize heroin
for known addicts. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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Law Enforcement- | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Those who believe that the drug war is corrupting law enforcement found much support for that point of view in last week's news. Those advising increased militarization as the answer were disappointed. | ||||||||||||||
STRATHCLYDE DRUG SQUAD 'DISBANDED' AFTER INQUIRY | ||||||||||||||
Officer Suspended Amid Allegations Of Drug Possession And Gross
Misconduct | ||||||||||||||
A DRUGS squad detective has been suspended and the rest of the team is
reported to have been disbanded after an internal investigation was
triggered by an officer who tried to save himself the price of a first
class stamp. | ||||||||||||||
Strathclyde police refused yesterday to confirm or deny reports that other officers in the squad have been returned to uniform duties after allegations of drug possession and gross misconduct by officers. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S MARCH FOR CIVIL AND PROPERTY RIGHTS | ||||||||||||||
TONIGHT, they march. | ||||||||||||||
Black. White. Young. Old. From East Madison to Pine. Down Pine to
Broadway. Past Oscar's, the family-owned tavern on bankruptcy's brink.
Past Deano's, where cops hand out cocaine to drug-addicted informants
instead of getting them off the street. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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ARUNDEL REVISES SEIZURE POLICY | ||||||||||||||
Cars won't be confiscated in simple drug cases; `Zero tolerance'
defended | ||||||||||||||
Chief Larry W. Tolliver ordered Anne Arundel County Police yesterday to stop seizing cars in simple drug possession cases, a rollback of his popular and controversial "zero tolerance" for drug trafficking. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
In a written directive issued in March 1997, Tolliver told officers
to seize vehicles if anyone inside had drugs or if drugs were found
in the vehicle, regardless of who owned the vehicle, or whether the
owner knew of the drugs. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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DEA AUDIT REVEALS POOR ACCOUNTING PRACTICES | ||||||||||||||
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Drug Enforcement Agency, stung twice this
year by revelations that its own workers stole millions of dollars,
has kept a sloppy checkbook, according to an audit that may explain
how it got scammed. | ||||||||||||||
The audit concludes the main U.S. drug fighter hasn't been able to
``accurately and completely account'' for the property it owns, the
money that drug traffickers give undercover agents during sting
operations or the seized drugs it has on hand. | ||||||||||||||
In fact, the DEA's accounting was so poor in 1997 that the private
accounting firm that conducted the audit under new government
accountability laws said it could not form an opinion as to whether
the agency's books are accurate. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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AGENT'S WIFE ATTACKS HIS ALLEGED MISTRESS | ||||||||||||||
A federal prosecutor had told the indicted narcotics agent's spouse of
the affair. | ||||||||||||||
The wife of a state narcotics agent charged in a drug-dealing scheme
has been accused of assaulting his alleged mistress, authorities said
Friday. | ||||||||||||||
Diane Parker, 42 a retired Orange County sheriff's deputy, had learned of the alleged affair in court Wednesday when a prosecutor derailed her plans to post his bail by telling her about the other woman. | ||||||||||||||
Her husband, Richard Wayne Parker of San Juan Capistrano, a nine-year
veteran of the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement, was arrested July
2 on cocaine trafficking charges. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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SQUADDIES RAN UKP2.5M DRUGS RING | ||||||||||||||
A MAJOR drugs trial which has badly damaged the reputation of one of Britain's most famous regiments was drawn to a close yesterday. | ||||||||||||||
Customs officials believe that the 18-month investigation, code named
Operation Cruiser, involved the smuggling into Britain of up to UKP12m
of heroin, ecstasy, amphetamines and cocaine by soldiers and former
servicemen with the 39th Regiment Royal Artillery. | ||||||||||||||
During the trial, it emerged that more than UKP1m of drugs had been
found in two taxi cabs in Liverpool. In all, UKP2.5m of drugs were
seized. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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3 DUTCH MARINES ARRESTED AS DRUG SMUGGLERS | ||||||||||||||
THE HAGUE, Netherlands - Three Dutch marines involved in drug-control efforts in the Caribbean have been arrested in connection with the smuggling of close to 700 pounds of cocaine to the Netherlands. | ||||||||||||||
The drugs were carried on a military plane that was normally used in
the anti-drug campaign in the Dutch Antilles, the islands off the
Venezuelan coast. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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Hemisphere | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
There's no good news for the drug war here, either, although the RCMP-initiated break up of a multinational importing business sounds good, even the police admit it won't make a significant difference. | ||||||||||||||
Confirmation that the Salinas government was corrupt merely evokes
yawns, and Colombia continues to look more and more like the Viet Nam
of the Nineties. | ||||||||||||||
DRUG TURF UP FOR BIDS | ||||||||||||||
Gangs might move in following Mafia arrests | ||||||||||||||
With members of the country's biggest Mafia family now in custody, the
race is on for control of a major chunk of Canada's market for illegal
narcotics. | ||||||||||||||
RCMP Sgt. Guy Quintal said yesterday there are a number of gangs that might try to fill the void, including Asian gangs and biker gangs like the Hell's Angels that already import and deal in drugs. | ||||||||||||||
There is also the question of how much territory the Cuntrera-Caruana family, some of whose key members were arrested Wednesday, will retain. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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DRUG PROBE IMPLICATES SALINAS | ||||||||||||||
Swiss prosecutors looking into more than $130 million in suspected drug
deposits in Swiss banks have stumbled into a political minefield - -
claims by their witnesses that former Mexican President Carlos Salinas
de Gortari received drug money. | ||||||||||||||
At least three witnesses have told Swiss prosecutors that their drug
cartels paid off members of the Salinas family, including the former
president, for protecting their activities in Mexico. The claims have
come up in the drug-money-laundering case against Raul Salinas, the
former president's brother. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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SHAKEN BY REBEL GAINS, COLOMBIA TURNS MORE TO THE U.S. | ||||||||||||||
TRES ESQUINAS MILITARY BASE, Colombia - The scene is straight out of
Hollywood. A ruggedly handsome, tough-talking general in military
fatigues points to maps of coca fields, cocaine labs and guerrilla
strongholds in this jungle outpost in southwestern Colombia. The maps
are marked "secret" in red marker. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
Although this exercise is merely for show, the reality is that Colombia
is at war, and, according to American intelligence, the enemy is
gaining. It was here three months ago, in the region of Caqueta, that
the military suffered its worst defeat at the hands of Marxist rebels
since the guerrillas took up arms in the mid-1960s. Sixty-seven
soldiers were killed. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Newly Updated Archive of Published Letters | ||||||||||||||
Please visit the newly updated and improved archive of the hundreds of letters and articles that have been published over the last three years by our talented productive and hard working volunteer membership. | ||||||||||||||
The archive will now allow you to list the published letters by year,
source and author. | ||||||||||||||
The collection is rapidly approaching a thousand published letters that
have been printed in virtually every major newspaper and many magazines
nationwide. We have added a link to explain how we calculate the dollar
value of these "ads for reform" and the cumulative collection will soon
top a million dollars. | ||||||||||||||
As we say often at DrugSense, writing a letter to the editor is one of
the most effective activities a serious reformer can engage in. See the
proof at: | ||||||||||||||
Portland NORML is Back Online | ||||||||||||||
DrugSense is proud to be the new home of the Portland NORML web site at
http://www.pdxnorml.org/ | ||||||||||||||
The site went down late Saturday or early Sunday during the changeover from the old server. As of July 22, the new site location has not yet been updated at Internic. We hope it will be restored within the next day or so, but in the meantime you can access the complete site from: | ||||||||||||||
Special thanks to Chuck Cavanaugh of Boise for his excellent volunteer work
redesigning the home page. Chuck recently established his own Web-page
design start-up at http://home.att.net/~sunfish5/ | ||||||||||||||
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TIP OF THE WEEK | ||||||||||||||
The Drug Policy Forum of Texas (DPFT) | ||||||||||||||
The Drug Policy Forum of Texas (DPFT) is one of the model state based
reform organizations in the country. It has a an excellent and
coordinated group of reformers, a monthly newsletter, an excellent
Email chat list, and has embarked on numerous projects such as
reporting, letter writing and fact gathering on the Esequiel Hernandez
killing See: | ||||||||||||||
All reformers that are Texas residents should belong to this worthwhile
organization and we encourage those of you who know anyone in the state
to pass along the good word. | ||||||||||||||
The DPFT Web page can be viewed at | ||||||||||||||
We are interested in, and in the process of, duplicating this reform
success story in other states around the country. If you are interested
in organizing a state based on-line reform group please contact Mark
Greer at | ||||||||||||||
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||
`He who opens a school door, closes a prison.' | ||||||||||||||
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FACT OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||
From Drug War Facts, http://www.drugsense.org/factbook.htm | ||||||||||||||
At current levels of incarceration, newborn black males in this country
have a greater than 1 in 4 chance of going to prison during their
lifetimes, while Hispanic males have a 1 in 6 chance, and white males have
a 1 in 23 change of serving time. | ||||||||||||||
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