| July 29,1998 #57 | ||||||||||||||
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A DrugSense publication | ||||||||||||||
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Table of Contents
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FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) | ||||||||||||||
THE DRUG _POLICY_ PROBLEM | ||||||||||||||
(Editors note - Parts two and three of Dr. Schaler's article will be
published in future issues.) | ||||||||||||||
Policies are based on values and on explanations for events. To
evaluate the efficacy of our federal drug policy in a comprehensive and
responsible way, we must examine the values and explanations that are
associated with various possible courses of action. To that end, we
must ask and honestly answer a question that challenges the status quo:
What values and beliefs about illegal drugs and drug addiction are
embraced and acted on by the leading drug policy makers, and what are
the alternatives? | ||||||||||||||
The reasoning behind current drug policies is often unstated for moral, political, economic, and even existential reasons. The reticence of policy makers on this subject is remarkable, given that the current institutional forms of the "war on drugs" are justified by the claim that drugs are destroying the "moral fabric of American society." | ||||||||||||||
Americans tend to take at face value the unproved theories about drugs
that are the foundation of current drug policy. For example, many
Americans accept as fact the theories that drugs cause addiction, that
they cause crime, and that addiction is a treatable disease. Most
people are not aware of the existence of conflicting theories based on
the results of empirical research. Yet abundant and convincing evidence
exists to support the view that illegal drug use has more to do with
choice, values, and expectations than with addiction, compulsion, or
disease (see, for example, Schaler, 1997). With each new class of
students at American University, Johns Hopkins University, Montgomery
College, and Chestnut Hill College, I am asked, "Why weren't we told
about this before?" | ||||||||||||||
Drug policy is always based on explanations for drug use. Because there
are diverse explanations for drug use as an event and these
explanations differ radically from one another, drug policy can be
implemented in ways radically different from current practice. But the
average American citizen, like my numerous college students, has not
been exposed to a range of views on drugs and addiction. The less
people know about the range of theories, the more likely they are to be
influenced by the status of the individuals who present a particular
message (scientists, doctors, public health officials, law enforcement
professionals, politicians, and so on) rather than by the rationality
or irrationality of the message itself. In order to exert democratic
control in the drug policy debate--based on what is being said, not on
who is saying it--Americans need to know the facts about drugs and
addiction. Without complete information they cannot comprehend the
meaning and implications of various proposed policies. Therefore, they
will continue to assume that all qualified professionals in the field
hold essentially the same views. | ||||||||||||||
The prevailing policies can be faulted not only for their disregard of
research but also for fundamental logical errors. The contradictory
reasoning of drug policy makers needs to be subjected to public
scrutiny. For example, many policy makers attribute abstinence from
drugs both to the exercise of free will and to circumstances imposed
from outside the individual, such as drug prohibition. They overlook
the fact that, by definition, self-control cannot be the result of
formal institutional controls backed by the threat of legal punishment.
The same individuals typically assert that drug addiction is
situational--that it is caused by the addict's physiological
disposition or by the drug itself; thus they further contradict their
avowed belief in free will. | ||||||||||||||
When confronted with inconsistencies in their views, people often produce further theories or beliefs, perhaps to reduce the sense of dissonance and discomfort, or else they simply minimize the importance of a contradictory belief or policy. This simply creates more problems. | ||||||||||||||
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) Drug War: Right Coast COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Across the nation and around the world, America's drug war clanked on
piling up abomination after abomination in pursuit of moral purity.
There was some bad publicity at ground zero, however: the DEA couldn't
balance its books. | ||||||||||||||
Over on Capitol Hill, supportive Congressmen were busy inventing new
ways to spend tax dollars, this one a truly zany, quasi-military
wrinkle for expanding the drug war. | ||||||||||||||
Finally, up the coast, Rudy Giuliani declared war on one of the few
worthwhile federal innovations in drug treatment, a historic legacy
from the days when presidential drug advisors were physicians with a
genuine interest in therapy. | ||||||||||||||
CLEAN UP THE DEA | ||||||||||||||
FEDERAL drug agents are diverting money from the nation's war on drugs
to pay for personal high-priced toys - and who knows what else.
According to an outside audit, bookkeepers at the Drug Enforcement
Agency can't track the whereabouts of millions of stolen funds, seized
drugs, or sting money. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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WASHINGTON - Two Republican members of Congress plan to introduce a bill Wednesday to spend $2.6 billion over the next three years to reduce the amount of illegal drugs coming into the country by 80%. | ||||||||||||||
The bill, by Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, and Rep. Bill McCollum,
R-Fla., includes $430 million for 10 radar aircraft to monitor
airspace over the three major cocaine-producing countries - Peru,
Bolivia and Colombia. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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MAYOR AIMS TO ABOLISH METHADONE PROGRAMS; TREATMENT EXPERTS ARE | ||||||||||||||
As Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani outlined plans to dramatically expand his workfare program to include drug addicts, he veered unexpectedly from his prepared speech Monday and announced his desire to abolish all methadone treatment programs for heroin addicts in New York City. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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Drug War: Texas COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
Last week, two parallel stories in Texas perfectly illustrated drug
war insanity; in Houston the lone occupant of an apartment was riddled
by police during a warrantless and unjustified drug raid . The man was
armed, but subsequent investigation showed his weapon was never fired
and all 13 wounds- his dozen and a single police flesh wound were from
police bullets. The most chilling comment was by the DA who said not
only were the officers within the law, the victim may have committed a
felony by picking up his gun | ||||||||||||||
Meanwhile, over in Dallas, a much more publicized case involving 29
"dealers" involved in distributing the heroin associated with the
deaths of nearly twenty teens in the affluent Dallas suburb of Plano
were indicted for murder. Some are Mexican nationals who smuggled the
heroin in from Mexico, most are users whose only discernible
difference from the victims is that they survived their drug use. The
government, together with parents and the local press seems intent on
a witch hunt in pursuit of life sentences. | ||||||||||||||
GRAND JURY TO PROBE SHOOTING OF MEXICAN | ||||||||||||||
HOUSTON, July 19 (UPI) Officials of the Houston Police Department met with Mexican Consul General Manuel Perez Cardenas to discuss the fatal shooting of Mexican national Pedro Oregon in a drug raid on July 12, which resulted in suspension of the six officers involved. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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POLICE SHOT MAN 12 TIMES IN RAID | ||||||||||||||
Autopsy report indicates that nine shots were in the back | ||||||||||||||
Houston police who forced their way into Pedro Oregon Navarro's
apartment without a warrant shot him 12 times, including nine times in
the back, an autopsy showed. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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ARRESTING OFFICERS FOLLOWED RULES | ||||||||||||||
I read the July 18 Viewpoints letters ("HPD's lethal Rambo-ism") and
was disturbed that some members of the public believe the rule about
using deadly force came from my play-book. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
The Legislature has provided criminal penalties for anyone who prevents
or obstructs a police officer from affecting an arrest or search, even
if that search was unlawful. | ||||||||||||||
If the actor uses a deadly weapon to resist an arrest or search, it is a felony of the third degree in accordance with the law. | ||||||||||||||
John B. Holmes Jr., district attorney, Harris County | ||||||||||||||
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29 INDICTED IN PLANO HEROIN RING | ||||||||||||||
Unprecedented Case Alleges Conspiracy In 4 Drug Deaths | ||||||||||||||
PLANO - U.S. prosecutors yesterday announced a precedent-setting
indictment against 29 people, charging them in a "calculated and
cold-blooded" conspiracy that supplied the heroin that killed four
Plano-area young people. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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Drug War: Left Coast- | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
While the rest of the nation struggled with guns and heroin, the focus
In California remained where it's been since November, '96: on Medical
marijuana. In a follow up to the brutal judicial treatment of David
Herrick, convicted last week of felony marijuana sale when his medical
necessity defense was disallowed by the Judge, fellow activist Marvin
Chavez prepared to stand trial before a different, but equally hostile
judge in Superior (state) Court. | ||||||||||||||
Also in the Southland, the feds arrested Peter McWilliams to stand
trial with Todd McCormick in what is sure to become a high profile
case, indeed. | ||||||||||||||
In Northern California, a friendly City Council made an important designation which could eventually hang the feds on their own petard. | ||||||||||||||
TAKE THIS PLANT AND SHOVE IT | ||||||||||||||
OC continues war on legal pot | ||||||||||||||
Martyrs don't come much more sympathetic - or willing to suffer - than
Marvin Chavez, founder of the Orange County Patient-Doctor-Nurse
Support Group. He's already been busted twice this year for putting
marijuana into the hands of seriously ill people - including cancer and
AIDS patients - whose doctors prescribed the drug as medicine.
According to a majority of California voters (who passed Proposition
215 in November 1996), that should be legal. | ||||||||||||||
But in Orange County, it's still illegal. And even though prosecutors
understand that Chavez isn't your run-of-the-mill street dealer,
they're determined to treat him just as harshly. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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MEDICAL MARIJUANA ADVOCATES ACCUSED OF CULTIVATION FOR SALE | ||||||||||||||
Todd McCormick, the medical marijuana advocate who says he was growing
pot at a Bel-Air mansion to help relieve chronic cancer pain, was
actually part of a conspiracy to cultivate large amounts of marijuana
for commercial sale, according to a federal grand jury indictment
unsealed Thursday. | ||||||||||||||
The nine-count indictment charges McCormick and eight others with
conspiracy and possession of marijuana for sale. Several defendants,
including McCormick, had been previously indicted. | ||||||||||||||
At the center of the scheme, according to the new indictment, was Peter
McWilliams, 48, owner of Prelude Press, a West Hollywood Publishing
house, who allegedly advanced more than $100,000 to rent The properties
and purchase equipment to grow the plants. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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OAKLAND DESIGNATES POT CLUB | ||||||||||||||
City Council OKs group to distribute medical marijuana | ||||||||||||||
Refusing to back down in the heated battle over medical marijuana,
Oakland is pushing ahead with new policies supporting use and
distribution of the drug - and one member of the City Council is going
so far as to advocate that the city itself take over the job of
dispensing cannabis to patients. | ||||||||||||||
Late Tuesday night, the council authorized the Oakland Cannabis Buyers'
Cooperative to distribute medical marijuana. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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Drug War: International Front- | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
One of the keenest insights to arise from a weekly review of drug news
is the extent to which American drug prohibition has been foisted on
the rest of the world. Even though many other nations practice a more
restrained brand of enforcement, they are all paying a price for having
signed on to the lunacy of global prohibition. | ||||||||||||||
It's painfully clear that no one nation will be able to decriminalize
drugs unilaterally unless it's the US. | ||||||||||||||
Last week, as always, there was a remarkable sameness in the headlines
describing folly in action. | ||||||||||||||
SCOTTISH PRISONS WORST IN UK FOR DRUG USE | ||||||||||||||
Scottish prisons have a drugs problem that is far worse than those in
England, according to random tests earned out on inmates. An average of
roughly 20 per cent of English and Welsh prisoners are testing positive
for drugs in their bloodstream, but in one of Scotland's jails the
proportion is as high as 46 per cent. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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SOLDIERS JAILED OVER DRUGS PLOT | ||||||||||||||
MEMBERS OF a gang, including five serving soldiers, which plotted to
smuggle drugs worth millions of pounds into Britain from the Continent,
were jailed for a total of 120 years yesterday. | ||||||||||||||
Liverpool Crown Court heard that the case was the first to reach the
courts where members of the armed services had been involved in the
organised importation of drugs. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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BRISK TRADE EXPOSES PERU ANTI-DRUG MODEL | ||||||||||||||
Sitting in his bare office near the remote Colombian border, narcotics
agent Maj. Renato Solis is in the front line of Peru's globally
acclaimed "revolution" against drugs - and clueless about what to do. A
frustrated Solis is outnumbered by drug traffickers, Colombian
paramilitaries and suspicious villagers. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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THIRD U.S. DRUG HELICOPTER CRASHES IN ONE MONTH | ||||||||||||||
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - A helicopter donated by the United States crashed in foul weather in a war-torn northern region of Colombia, killing seven police officers, authorities have reported. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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DRUG RING SMUGGLES KIDS TO VANCOUVER | ||||||||||||||
Up to 100 Honduran children have been lured to Canada to work as narcotics-dealing slaves: `It's like something Charles Dickens wrote' | ||||||||||||||
A professional drug ring is luring underage children from Honduras to
Vancouver, where they are being turned into indentured street-corner
crack dealers. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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$90M DRUGS HIDDEN IN OVENS | ||||||||||||||
Just after midday last Friday afternoon, outside a town house in South
Wentworthville, a container truck stopped. It was packed with
commercial kitchen equipment: devon slicers, sugar cane pressers, bone
saws, ovens, mincers and meat slicers. | ||||||||||||||
It could have been the makings of the most valuable deli that Sydney
had ever seen but Federal police and customs officers got to the ovens
first, and removed, according to police sources, "enough smack to
satisfy every junkie in Sydney for a couple of months". | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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Corrections- | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
This story doesn't fit neatly into any of the week's topics, but it
illustrates too important a trend to ignore: as the prison
population has grown, prisoners' rights to fair and humane treatment
have been progressively reduced. | ||||||||||||||
Read the laundry list of punishments meted out and then consider that they were imposed for a peaceful 1 1/2 hr demonstration against the transfer of prisoners to other states against their will. | ||||||||||||||
PRISONERS IN PROTEST DRAW STIFF PENALTIES | ||||||||||||||
Peaceful criticism met with solitary confinement | ||||||||||||||
About 150 prisoners who sat down in a Fox Lake prison yard to protest
the state's policy of shipping inmates out of state are being punished
with four months to a year of solitary confinement and other
restrictions. Those who demonstrated June 28 at Fox Lake Correctional
Institution will get fewer visits and phone calls, less recreation and
be allowed fewer possessions in their cells. Their time segregated
from the general prison population also will not count as time served
toward their sentences, said Bill Clausius, spokesman for the state
Department of Corrections. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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A Hopeful Note- | ||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||
There's so much news to review each week, we haven't had much space
for LTEs. However, this one is concise, accurate, and directly
addresses the issues of policy and vested interests. That a
conservative paper like the OC Register saw fit to print It is a very
big straw in the wind. | ||||||||||||||
WE'RE NOT GETTING JOB DONE ON DRUGS | ||||||||||||||
I support the elimination of the War on Drugs and changing it from a
law enforcement to a medical problem ["The unwinnable war," Opinion,
July 8]. When a public policy clearly does not work,as this has not, it
is important to be able to admit it and try something else. Considering
the billions of dollars that have been spent without stemming the flow
of illegal drugs, let's try another approach to observe the results.
If, after five or ten years, there is no improvement then change and
try something else.Let us not lose sight of the debacle that
Prohibition was. | ||||||||||||||
One major hurdle to overcome is the untold numbers of law enforcement jobs that have been created that are directly and indirectly related to the "war" at federal, state and local levels in enforcement and correctional jobs, as well as in the legal areas of government. | ||||||||||||||
There is also the problem of asset seizure, which results in untold benefits to only law enforcement agencies. No wonder law enforcement groups everywhere are against any change in the law; a lot of expensive equipment, as well as jobs, are dependent on these funds. | ||||||||||||||
Rex Reynolds | ||||||||||||||
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Drug War: Diplomatic Front- | ||||||||||||||
Controversy followed McCaffrey back from Europe. Although he sounded conciliatory just before departure, his criticism of the Dutch resumed on his return home. He seems to be speaking simultaneously to two separate audiences; uncaring that the Dutch are hurt and scornful; intent only on scaring Americans away from even a hint of liberalism. Anyone familiar with the Japanese fable, Rashomon will understand the quite different interpretations exhibited in the following four items. | ||||||||||||||
MCCAFFREY STILL DOWN ON DUTCH | ||||||||||||||
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Washington- The Clinton administration's drug policy director Monday
criticized a heroin distribution program in the Netherlands, even after
his disapproving statements over that nations's drug policy angered the
Dutch government last week. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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WHY DUTCH DRUG POLICY THREATENS THE U.S. | ||||||||||||||
He said it would be a "fact finding tour," but U.S. Drug Czar, General
Barry McCaffrey, made it clear before he ever left home that he would
bring his own "facts" about Dutch drug policy. He did his best
impersonation of a man "listening" during his few hours here, but in
the end it was clearly a "fact bringing" tour. Dutch officials and
journalists immediately caught him with his evidentiary pants down and
chastised him for making false claims about drug use and crime in the
Netherlands. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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MCCAFFREY COMMITS TRUTH DURING EUROPEAN TOUR | ||||||||||||||
Barry McCaffrey is a stand-up guy. If there were any doubts that the
Clinton administration's drug czar was anything but, he dispelled them
during his recent eight-day visit to Europe. | ||||||||||||||
The highlight of McCaffrey's trip was a stop in the Netherlands, where
the retired army general got to judge for himself the merits of that
nation's liberal drug policies. | ||||||||||||||
McCaffrey was unimpressed. He pronounced the Dutch government's heroin
distribution program an "unmitigated disaster," not the least, he
added, because the program consigns "part of the population to
suffering endlessly from heroin." | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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IN THE DRUG WAR, FANTASY BEATS FACTS | ||||||||||||||
It's been said that any prosecutor can convict a guilty defendant--it takes a great prosecutor to convict an innocent one. But any responsible prosecutor confronted with convincing evidence that he indicted the wrong person would immediately move to dismiss the case. | ||||||||||||||
Drug czar Barry McCaffrey doesn't follow the same practice. He issued an indictment the other day and, after learning the charges were false, insisted that the suspect was guilty nonetheless. Nothing is going to get in the way of the drug war, least of all mere truth. | ||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||
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HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top) | ||||||||||||||
The latest prohibitionist link is a kind of backhanded compliment to
reformers. Check out: http://www.stopdrugs.org/ | ||||||||||||||
It is a pretty blatant rip off of http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/ that
was developed by DRCNet over a year ago. | ||||||||||||||
It is generally about as lame as most prohibitionist sites replete with
scare tactics and very short on facts. | ||||||||||||||
It is also interesting to note that DrugSense and other sites willingly link to prohibitionist sites but there are no reform links on any pro drug war sites anywhere. One wonders why this would be? Could it be that truth and open communications are not on the agenda of drug warriors? | ||||||||||||||
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TIP OF THE WEEK | ||||||||||||||
The software that enables you to send yourself news articles of
interest from http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/ is much more
sophisticated than you might realize at first glance. It is akin to the
"shopping cart" type software that you see on many web sites. It
enables you to search for articles, select and de select items at will
and have them forwarded directly to you via email in an easy to read
format. This is quite a complicated process and has been fine tuned so
that it works seamlessly even for web novices. | ||||||||||||||
Special thanks belong to the many individuals who have helped put the DrugNews service together. Their efforts and talents are both important and appreciated. It has taken lots of work by some very dedicated people to bring this powerful resource to the reform movement. | ||||||||||||||
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||
`The prestige of government has undoubtedly been lowered considerably
by the prohibition law. For nothing is more destructive of respect for
the government and the law of the land than passing laws which cannot
be enforced.' - Albert Einstein - | ||||||||||||||
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FACT OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||
According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, only 5.5% of federal crack
defendants are considered high-level crack dealers. | ||||||||||||||
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