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A Prison For The Future ('The North County Times'
Says California's First Privately Built Prison, To Begin Construction
This Week In Kern County At A Cost Of $94 Million, Is Destined To Become
A Battleground In A Big-Spending Political War In A State Where Politicians
And Voters Have Consistently Embraced Enhanced-Sentencing Laws,
But Have Shied Away From Nearly Every Recent Proposal To Build New Prisons)
Date: Tue, 23 Jun 1998 03:28:56 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US CA: A Prison For The Future
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Nora Callahan
Pubdate: Sun, 14 Jun 1998
Source: North County Times (CA)
Contact: opinion@nctimes.com
Author: Timm Herdt, Star State Bureau Chief
Note: Author's email address is: Herdt@staronline.com
A PRISON FOR THE FUTURE
Kern County: Private firm is ready to make a bid to house state's felons.
Sometime this week, bulldozers will begin to carve the high-desert landscape
of Kern County to make way for a $94 million development unique in
California: a massive, privately built prison.
Sometime later this month, a Senate committee will consider a constitutional
amendment that would assure that not a single felon convicted in California
courts will ever spend a day inside it.
In a state where politicians and voters have consistently embraced
enhanced-sentencing laws, but have in recent years shied away from nearly
every proposal to build new prisons, the private project in California City
is destined to become a battleground in a big-spending political war.
On one side is the California Correctional Peace Officers Association, which
has become one of the state's most powerful unions because of its
fast-growing membership and its savvy alliance with Gov. Pete Wilson. It is
joined by every major public-safety union in the state.
On the other is the Corrections Corp. of America, the nation's largest
private-prison firm. It is joined by others in the industry as well as
nearly every association of local governments in the state.
At stake is the ability of California to house all its convicted felons
beyond the year 2000, the continued clout of a union that has negotiated
starting salaries of $38,000 a year for state prison guards, and a $94
million speculative investment of a growth-driven company.
"In California, you're facing a prison crisis," said David Myers, the
company's regional president for the West Coast. "The state has nothing on
the drawing board to meet that crisis. And with nothing on the drawing
board, there is a likelihood of court intervention, triggering early
releases of inmates."
Corrections Corp. officials are banking that, by taking the initiative to
build now, they will force the issue of privatizing prisons in California.
While this is one of 27 states that contracts with private prisons, the
state has taken only limited and cautious steps. Only about 3 percent of
state inmates are in private facilities, and those are at small institutions
that handle only low-risk inmates. A number of other states have been much
more aggressive; that is why in just 15 years Corrections Corp. has built 72
jails and prisons in 19 states, three countries and Puerto Rico.
In one way, the California City proposal has already forced the issue in the
Legislature.
Sen. Bill Lockyer, D-Hayward, the former Senate president pro tem and
current candidate for attorney general, has introduced a proposed
constitutional amendment that would bar government agencies from contracting
out for public safety services.
Although city representatives fret that the measure might prohibit such
fringe activities as hiring private meter maids, the intent is clearly to
block private-prison operators from gaining a foothold in California.
Lockyer's SCA 30, co-authored by Ventura County's Jack O'Connell and nine
other Senate Democrats, has passed two committees and is expected to come
before the Senate Public Safety Committee soon -- perhaps as early as next week.
As a political maneuver, it is a clever strategy. The prison guards' union,
after a profitable eight-year alliance with Wilson, is shopping for new
friends. Trying to eliminate competition that might hire guards who are
either nonunion or affiliated with a different union is a good way for
Democrats to make friends.
Myers said his company, too, will be making contributions to state political
candidates, "but we can't compete with the CPOA."
There are respectable policy arguments for and against privatizing prisons.
Myers insists states always save money by contracting with his company.
Critics say private operators usurp an essential government responsibility
and that the cost-cutting of profit-driven managers will ultimately result
in prisons that are unsafe.
In the end, it is hard to see how Corrections Corp. can lose on its gamble.
Within two years, the Department of Corrections will have absolutely nowhere
else to turn to house new inmates. If no state contract is signed before
then, Corrections Corp. can fill most of its beds in California City with
federal inmates or those from other states.
Until the issue is resolved, however, politicians from both parties --
particularly those running this fall -- will do whatever they can to keep
the issue hot enough to maximize campaign contributions from each side.
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If Initiative Drive Succeeds, Nevada May Emerge As Drug-War Battleground
('The Las Vegas Review-Journal' Talks To A Lot Of Cops And Others
Who Make Their Livings Off Prohibition, But No Sick People Who Would Benefit
From The Medical Marijuana Initiative Being Circulated By Americans
For Medical Rights - The Initiative Faces Many Obstacles - In Nevada,
Constitutional Amendments Must Be Approval By Voters Twice
In Two Consecutive Elections)
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 11:26:57 -0800
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US NV: If Initiative Drive Succeeds, Nevada May Emerge As
Drug-War Battleground
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
Pubdate: Sun, 14 Jun 1998
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal
Contact:letters@lvrj.com
Fax: 702-383-4676
Postal: P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, Nev. 89125
Website: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/
Author: Rafael Tammariello Review-Journal
IF INITIATIVE DRIVE SUCCEEDS, NEVADA MAY EMERGE AS DRUG-WAR BATTLEGROUND
If the drive to force a medical-marijuana initiative onto Nevada's November
ballot succeeds, and if voters approve it, don't expect the Las Vegas
Valley's caliche to spawn thickets of autumn cannabis. And don't bogart
your breath awaiting the ribbon-cutting for the Fremont Street
Reefer-Buyers Club. This is Nevada, where constitutional amendments must
meet with voter approval in two consecutive elections.
Because the medical marijuana initiative would alter the constitution, the
Silver State wouldn't see legal cannabis until the millennium celebrations
have given way to the re-release of "2001: A Space Odyssey" -- that is,
assuming the pot medicalizers win every electoral battle and fend off any
legal challenges between now and the November 2000 elections.
Tuesday at 5 p.m. looms the deadline for backers of the initiative to
present their petitions to the secretary of state's office, which then has
25 days to verify that the requisite 46,764 John Hancocks have been
gathered from registered voters residing in at least 13 of Nevada's 17
counties.
If the measure's boosters and their pollsters are right, the concept of
legalized marijuana for sick people is so popular it will qualify for the
ballot handily and -- like similar 1996 initiatives in California and
Arizona -- meet with strong voter approval come Election Day '98. A
potential hang-up to the petition drive is that it was slow out of the
blocks, in part because of a ruling by the Nevada attorney general -- later
neutered in District Court -- that no individual could contribute more than
$5,000 to an initiative campaign. And, if anything's driving the
medicalization initiatives in Nevada and other states, it's cash from very
wealthy men who seek to end the war on drugs or radically modify it.
If the Nevada marijuana medicalization petition qualifies for the November
ballot, expect fierce opposition to it from Nevada law enforcement. But so
far, no group has attempted to thwart the petition drive itself. The
movement does, however, have plenty of philosophical and financial support
from out-of-state drug-war opponents, notably billionaire philanthropist
George Soros of New York; wealthy University of Phoenix founder John
Sperling of Arizona; and Peter Lewis, an Ohio insurance magnate.
Donations from these individuals and the organizations through which their
money is funneled animate the Nevada medical marijuana petition drive,
which is expected to cost about $150,000. "We're producing (signatures) at
a rate of several thousand a day statewide -- about 15,000 a week. We need
46,000 but we are shooting for 75,000," said Dave Fratello, communications
director and treasurer of Americans for Medical Rights, the Santa Monica,
Calif.-based group that organized the 1998 marijuana petition drives in
Nevada and several other states.
Fratello is also the day-to-day coordinator for those campaigns. AMR is the
main conduit for cash (from Soros and others) to initiatives aimed at
legalizing marijuana for therapeutic use in Nevada, Alaska, Washington,
Oregon, Colorado, Maine and the District of Columbia.
AMR has purchased the services of Progressive Campaigns Inc. (also of Santa
Monica), a savvy outfit with a strong track record and a reputation for
spotting efforts to sabotage petitions by loading them up with duplicate
names and invalid signatures. Progressive Campaigns was instrumental in
qualifying California's Prop 215. Angelo Paparella, president of
Progressive Campaigns, said Wednesday the Nevada initiative has an "85
percent to 90 percent" chance of qualifying for the ballot, and that
similar campaigns in Colorado, Oregon and Washington "look very good."
(Progressive Campaigns got California's Prop 215 qualified.)
Does it matter to Nevadans that the $150,000 or so being spent on the
Silver State marijuana petition is being financed and coordinated almost
entirely by outsiders? Does it matter to the electorate that most of the
signature-gatherers -- about 70 of them, who must be registered Nevada
voters -- are piece-work professionals, earning $60 to $80 a day? Does it
matter that the medical pot campaign is bankrolled by out-of-state
millionaires?
"The opponents make a big deal about it," said Fratello, "but I'm not sure
how much it resonates among voters. It is only with their (Soros' and
others') support that we can get this issue before voters. So (voters) tend
to appreciate the fact that it's before them and not worry so much about
how it got there."
Signing a petition to force the measure onto the November ballot, Fratello
added, does not imply an endorsement of the law itself. Gov. Bob Miller, a
former prosecutor, declined to comment directly on the initiative drive.
His spokesman Richard Urey said Miller "has nothing to say except to
restate his core beliefs -- that any initiative that makes (drugs) more
available sends a wrong message to youth" and that marijuana medicalization
tends to undermine educational programs aimed at combatting drug use.
Janine Hansen, the Sparks-based president of the conservative, 3,000-member
Nevada Eagle Forum, said her group has taken no stance on the petition
drive -- but it will formulate a position if the measure qualifies for the
ballot. "We have serious concerns about illegal drugs and this might be one
avenue to lessen that -- one avenue to break down the barriers to illegal
drugs," Ms. Hansen said.
As for Attorney General Frankie Sue del Papa, her spokesman Bob Harmon said
the state's chief law enforcement officer wants "to wait to see if it does
qualify and assess it at that time to see what we need to do."
But fierce opposition to the measure is certain to arise from Nevada law
enforcement, particularly from officers on the front lines of the drug war.
Metro Lt. Steve Gammell, who serves as vice president of the Nevada
Narcotics Officers Association, vehemently opposes medicalization of pot
and sees the campaign as an attempt to cloak the drive for drug
legalization in the rhetoric of medicalization. "My opinion is I have zero
tolerance for any unlawful drugs," Gammell said. Marijuana is, "far and
away the most abused drug we have."
In the 15 months between January 1997 and March of 1998, Metro's Narcotics
Section alone seized 8,051 pounds of narcotics, including 5,165 pounds of
marijuana. Dave Fratello, of AMR, contends one reason Nevada was targeted
for a medicalization drive was that the state marijuana "law is so harsh."
That was true when possession of even one seed of dope was treated as a
Class E felony and could earn the offender a minimum one year and a maximum
of four years in state prison (plus a $5,000 fine). But those days are long
gone. Indeed, said Gammell, small-time possession cases -- a joint or two
found on a first-time offender, for example -- are for all practical
purposes never prosecuted in Nevada. Nevada Department of Prisons spokesman
Glen Whorton backs up that assertion, saying simple possession -- now
handled through drug courts or probation -- lands nobody in the state
slammer these days. Said Whorton, "A guy has to work at it to come to
prison in that regard."
Gammell said Nevada -- where one has to possess more than 100 pounds of
marijuana before he can be hit with even the lowest-level trafficking
penalties and must possess more than five tons before he's treated as a
mid-level trafficker -- needs much tougher drug laws, not softer ones.
Legalizing marijuana for medical purposes, he argued, would communicate a
malignant message to young people who have been taught at school, at home
and through the DARE program that illegal drugs are evil and dangerous.
"It's counterproductive to every household -- to every household that
teaches children not to use drugs. It tells kids you're talking out of
both sides of your mouth." Plus, said Gammell, research by the California
Narcotics Officers Association turned up plenty of links between
drug-legalization groups such as NORML (National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws) and marijuana medicalization outfits such as
Americans for Medical Rights.
"That's really the point behind this: To legitimize marijuana; and full
legalization would be the next goal. There is very much of an underlying
motive here," Gammell said. Legalization groups, he contends, don't really
care about sick people but rather use them as props in the propaganda war
against drug prohibition. "It's just a scam to legalize dope -- that's all
it is," he said.
Undermining the drug war and ending drug prohibition are, indeed, the goals
of some in the marijuana medicalization movement, and they make no secret
about it. Rob Stewart, spokesman for the Drug Policy Foundation -- a
leading Washington-based think tank on drug-legalization and medicalization
issues (also launched with the help of Soros' money) -- said some on the
foundation's staff support outright legalization of prohibited drugs while
others argue that medicalization is the way to go, especially because
public opinion polls show strong support for medical marijuana but heavy
opposition to legalization.
Stewart also conceded that some of the "medicalizers" see Nevada-type
initiatives as "a good first step toward decriminalization." Of the
successful marijuana drives in California and Arizona, Stewart said: "I
think its (the drug war's) image as a black and white political issue is
falling apart." Is it possible that the drug war, as a result of
state-by-state de-escalation, will simply and suddenly collapse like
communism? "The prediction is right," Stewart said. "The time frame is the
impossible part."
Lawrence Matheis, executive director of the Nevada Medical Association,
said his group's general position on the marijuana issue is (1) it opposes
recreational use of the drug, and (2) strongly encourages the federal Food
and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health to conduct
scientific studies on the possible medical uses of the drug.
He stresses the need for clinical tests to determine marijuana's efficacy
in treating maladies. If the NMA participates in the discussion over
medicalization, its role will be to provide good information. "Our
concern," said Matheis, "is that the government has laws based on whether
something is popular or unpopular.
Now, it is less a matter of science and more a matter of personal opinions.
It's a slippery slope when government says what can be offered or
supplied and what cannot be" based on politics rather than science. Matheis
questioned the very concept of using the political process to settle a
scientific argument.
He asked: "Is this really a question of finding a medical excuse for
legalizing marijuana use? Is this a freedom issue? If it's really about
freedom to use, that should be confronted head-on. (The medicalization
movement) is not largely being driven by physicians. It's driven from the
demand side."
From a marketing point of view, Matheis said, it makes sense for marijuana
legalizers to frame the debate as a medical issue if they lack popular
support for outright legalization. The problem with addressing the
marijuana question through the initiative process, he said, is that "it
forces a medical conclusion" in a field where there is no scientific
consensus. "It either has to be studied more or we have to admit that we
are really trying to decriminalize the possession and use of a substance,"
Matheis said.
Some strict libertarian intellectuals, such as Thomas Szasz, professor
emeritus of psychiatry at the State University of New York in Syracuse,
actually oppose both the drug war and the medicalization of illegal drugs
on the grounds that individuals have an absolute right to ingest whatever
chemicals they want -- without interference from government, cops or
doctors who, he contends, have forged "a satanic pact with the state."
Szasz wrote: "The advocates of medical marijuana have embraced a tactic
that retards the repeal of drug prohibition and reinforces the legitimacy
of prevailing drug policies.
Instead of steadfastly maintaining that the war on drugs is an
intrinsically evil enterprise, the reformers propose replacing legal
sanctions with medical tutelage, a principle destined to further expand the
medical control of everyday behavior." Szasz said doctors who stand between
adults and the drugs they need -- or simply want -are no more than
policemen in white coats. Public statements such as those -- advocating
full-blown legalization for any use whatsoever -are what got Dennis Peron,
the originator of the California initiative, blackballed by the AMR,
Fratello said.
Although there are legalizers within the ranks of the AMR, the group's
stated goal is to move marijuana from the Drug Enforcement Administration's
Schedule 1 to Schedule 2. Schedule 1 drugs, which include marijuana, heroin
and LSD, are illegal in the United States (except for highly restricted
research purposes) because they are deemed to have no accepted medicinal
use and possess a high potential for abuse.
Federal law prohibits doctors from prescribing Schedule 1 drugs, and their
possession and sale can net heavy prison sentences. Schedule 2 drugs, on
the other hand -- while they can be addictive in the extreme -- are legal,
medically useful, and can be prescribed. Schedule 2 drugs include morphine,
cocaine and dilaudid (a painkiller several times more potent than morphine).
Also included on Schedule 2 is a drug whose brand name is Marinol, which
contains delta-9-THC, the compound in marijuana that produces a high and is
used (although rarely) in treating nausea and vomiting associated with
cancer chemotherapy. Many advocates of medical pot (in smokable form)
contend Marinol is so potent it alters consciousness and renders patients
far more "stoned" than smoked marijuana.
The Physicians' Desk Reference, the doctor's "drug bible," warns that
Marinol can produce panic, paranoia, hallucinations and other nasty side
effects. Peter Barcus, chief executive officer of Nathan Adelson Hospice in
Las Vegas, which cares for terminally ill patients, said Marinol, with its
potential side effects, is very seldom requested by or prescribed for
hospice patients -- and that requests from dying patients for smokable
marijuana are also very rare.
Doctors, he said, already have access to a wide a range of powerful
analgesics, such as morphine, to treat cancer pain. As to the medical
marijuana initiative, Barcus said, "I don't think it's an urgent, burning
issue that the hospice industry is clamoring to have passed."
Don Campbell, the Las Vegas lawyer who successfully challenged the attorney
general's ruling that campaign contributions to initiative drives be
limited to $5,000, and who helped draft the language of the Nevada
marijuana initiative, said, "I've always thought that having marijuana in
Schedule 1 was insane -- that marijuana was in the same schedule as heroin
was goofy." Campbell, who served as chief of the Organized Crime Drug
Enforcement Task Force for Nevada from 1981 to 1986, said he personally
believes marijuana belongs on Schedule 4, along with low-level prescription
drugs such as Valium and Darvon.
While Campbell sees eventual medicalization of marijuana is "a certainty,"
he added: "Given my experience with the federal government, I don't think
the government is going to go gently into the night on this." Indeed, top
federal and state officials campaigned mightily to defeat the Arizona and
California pot petitions and intensified the fight even after voters had
spoken.
U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno threatened to yank the prescription powers
of doctors who recommended pot, thus ruining their careers; national Drug
Czar Barry McCaffrey condemned the initiatives as frauds -- as "stalking
horse(s) for legalization" and called Prop 215 "a cruel hoax that sounds
more like something out of a Cheech and Chong show." Former Presidents
George Bush, Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford condemned the measures.
Several state and federal officials insinuated that California and Arizona
voters were too stupid to realize what they had just done at the ballot
box. Notably silent in the cacophony following the victories of Props 200
and 215 was President William Jefferson ("I didn't inhale") Clinton.
Despite the rhetorical artillery barrage from D.C., Arizonans passed Prop
200 with 65 percent of the vote; in California, Prop 215 won with 56
percent. But the Arizona Legislature neutralized the law by requiring the
U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve any drug before it could be
recommended by Arizona doctors. (The FDA doesn't recognize Schedule 1 drugs
as useful for anything.) And while a handful of cannabis clubs, which fill
pot "prescriptions" for patients, still operate in California, others have
been shut down through various legalistic mechanisms employed by federal
and state drug warriors.
The AMR and other proponents of medical pot learned from their mistakes in
Arizona and California. The Nevada initiative language is designed to
short-circuit interference from federal and state authorities and addresses
other issues that came to light in 1996:
-- The Nevada initiative would amend the state constitution, making it
difficult or impossible for the Legislature to nullify or weaken it.
-- The Nevada measure would allow a patient afflicted with certain,
specified diseases to use marijuana "upon advice of his physician," meaning
doctors would not risk having their prescription privileges yanked.
-- Unlike the California law, which allows patients to use marijuana "for
any illness for which marijuana provides relief"
-- an open-ended provision that could mean pot for boredom or backache
-- the Nevada law would permit cannabis use only to treat symptoms of
specific diseases such as cancer, AIDS and glaucoma. (The Legislature could
add to the list.) -- Unlike the Arizona law, the Nevada version would
legalize for medical uses only cannabis
-- not heroin, LSD or other Schedule 1 drugs.
-- Unlike either the Arizona or California law, the Nevada constitutional
amendment specifies that medical pot cannot be used in public. (Even if
you're an AIDS patient, no firing up a bong at Wet 'n' Wild.)
-- The Nevada law, unlike its California counterpart, contains strict
provisions for medical use by minors (written authorization by a doctor;
parental consent and parental control of the acquisition and use of the
plant).
-- The Nevada law also sets up an official registry of patients and their
attendants authorized to posssess marijuana. Police -- but nobody else
-- would have access to the list if a question of legal possession arose.
-- In Nevada, it will be the job of the Legislature to authorize methods by
which eligible patients can be supplied with marijuana (perhaps by
licensing private pot farms, allowing counties to sell permits as they do
for rural brothels, or distributing pot confiscated from illegal
traffickers).
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The Fortunes Of Mary Jane ('The Las Vegas Review-Journal'
Prints Some Facts And Figures About Marijuana, Not All Of Them Necessarily
True, Though It's Worth Noting The ABC News/Discovery Channel Poll,
Conducted By Chilton Research Services In May 1997, Which Found 69 Percent
Of Americans Agree That Doctors Should Be Allowed To Prescribe Marijuana
As They Do Any Other Controlled Drug)
Date: Thu, 18 Jun 1998 02:35:10 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US NV: The Fortunes Of Mary Jane
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com
Pubdate: Sun, 14 Jun 1998
Source: Las Vegas Review-Journal
Contact: letters@lvrj.com
FAX --702-383-4676
Mail -- P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, Nev. 89125
Website: http://www.lvrj.com/lvrj_home/
THE FORTUNES OF MARY JANE
-- All drugs (including heroin, cocaine and opium) were legal and available
without prescription in the United States until the passage of the Harrison
Narcotics Act of 1914, which subjected many medicines to federal regulation.
Marijuana remained legal in the United States until 1937.
-- In the 1970s, some states (notably Alaska) legalized personal use of
marijuana, but by the 1990s pot had been almost universally recriminalized
although penalties for simple possession were eased.
-- Medical marijuana initiatives passed with heavy majorities in California
and Arizona in 1996, although the Arizona Legislature nullified that state's
voter-approved initiative. (An Arizona group called The People Have Spoken
is attempting to reverse the legislature's action.) Several "cannabis-buyers
clubs" in the San Francisco and Los Angeles areas remain in operation,
although they face court challenges on various grounds and opposition from
some law enforcement agencies.
-- Petitions to legalize, for medical purposes, the use of marijuana are
circulating in Nevada, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Maine and the District
of Columbia. An Alaska measure has already qualified for the November ballot.
-- In Arkansas, petitioners are trying to qualify a radical ballot measure
that legalizes marijuana as "both an agricultural product and a recreational
intoxicant" and forbids the Legislature from passing laws prohibiting its
possession or use by adults.
-- In Florida, a constitutional amendment effort is under way to place
medicalization on the 2000 ballot, despite rejection of such a measure by
the state's Constitution Review Committee.
-- An ABC News/Discovery Channel poll, conducted by Chilton Research
Services, in May 1997 found that 69 percent of Americans agree that doctors
should be allowed to prescribe marijuana as they do any other controlled
drug. A Luntz Research national poll in November showed 62 percent support
for medical marijuana, and other polls have shown similar results. Two
recent polls undertaken for Americans for Medical Rights show about the same
level of support in Nevada for legalizing marijuana for medical purposes.
-- These same polls and others, however, show overwhelming opposition to
legalizing marijuana for non-medical reasons.
-- Illicit marijuana use is on the rise in the United States. According to
the latest figures from the federal Drug Enforcement Administration,
marijuana use doubled among 10th graders since 1992, to 34 percent.
According to the University of Michigan's respected annual "Monitoring the
Future Study" of drug use, nearly half (44.9 percent) of American youngsters
have smoked pot by the 12th grade.
-- About 60 million Americans have tried marijuana at least once, including
President Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and Speaker of the House Newt
Gingrich. By contrast, there are about 50 million current U.S. cigarette
smokers.
-- Outside of California, the only Americans who may legally use marijuana
are eight ill people who, under the 1970s-era "compassionate use" program,
receive marijuana grown on a 7.5-acre federal pot farm at the Institute of
Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Mississippi. The government
dope is shipped by plane to Raleigh, N.C., where it is machine-rolled into
cigarettes, packed in cannisters of 300 joints each and sent to medical
centers for patient pick-up. The Bush administration junked the
"compassionate use" project in 1992, but patients already enrolled in the
program (their numbers had dwindled to eight by late 1997) still receive the
drug legally from Uncle Sam. When these eight die, the residual
"compassionate use" program dies with them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Year Later, Marine Killing Of Goatherd Remains In Dispute
('The Washington Post' Says Residents Of The Texas Border Town
Of Redford Believe There Is No Good Explanation For The Death
One Year Ago Of 18-Year-Old Esequiel Hernandez Jr.,
Killed By Four Camouflaged Marines On An Anti-Drug Mission,
And They Believe The Federal Government Has Tried
To Keep The Incident Quiet)
Date: Sun, 14 Jun 1998 15:12:24 -0400
To: DPFT-L@TAMU.EDU
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US TX: Year Later, Marine Killing of Goatherd Remains in
Dispute
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: DrugSense
Source: Washington Post
Contact: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Pubdate: Sun, 14 Jun 1998
Author: Sue Anne Pressley, Washington Post Staff Writer
Page: A03
YEAR LATER, MARINE KILLING OF GOATHERD REMAINS IN DISPUTE
REDFORD, Tex.-It was a clear, still evening a year ago, with plenty of
daylight left. Esequiel Hernandez Jr., just turned 18, guided his herd of
43 goats over this rugged terrain near the Mexican border, a lanky youth
toting an old .22 rifle.
Suddenly four strange men appeared: U.S. Marines on a secret drug
surveillance detail, armed with M-16s.
What happened next may be forever in dispute. But when it was over,
Hernandez lay dead, fatally shot by a Marine corporal, and this close-knit
community of 100 people alongside the Rio Grande was beginning a long fight
-- still not won -- to find answers to their questions about the tragedy.
Rep. Lamar S. Smith (R-Tex.) has launched a congressional inquiry into the
shooting, providing what residents see as perhaps the last hope for a full
airing of the case. But no matter what Smith finds, a lot of resentment
already has built up here since the fatal shots were fired.
"The community is still outraged, hurt and still frightened," said the Rev.
Melvin LaFollette, an Episcopal priest who belongs to the Redford Committee
for Justice, formed to protest the May 20, 1997, shooting. "When you send
armed spies into the midst of a populated community and start shooting
people, it's going to take a while to get over it, especially when the
government refuses to admit responsibility or guilt."
The Hernandez case has come to symbolize the perils of bringing armed
soldiers to the U.S. border with Mexico. In so doing, it has called into
question the drug-fighting strategy that sent the Marines into this remote
desert community of hills, alfalfa fields and long-entrenched families of
mostly Mexican descent.
Because of the shooting -- described by critics as the first slaying of a
U.S. citizen by a U.S. on American soil since Ohio National Guardsmen
killed four Kent State University students during a demonstration in 1970
-- all ground troops involved in the drug-fighting effort along the border
were pulled from patrol work last July by the Pentagon.
But Congress is considering sending them back, which fills residents here
with fresh anxiety. Rep. James A. Traficant Jr. (D-Ohio) won approval on
the House floor last month for an amendment to the defense spending bill
that would send as many as 10,000 troops to the Mexican border to help
other law enforcement agencies intercept drug smugglers.
Protests arose immediately from Texas House members, who said the measure
would make the state look like Berlin during the Cold War. In reply,
Traficant said that although his constituents live far from Mexico, "80
percent of the heroin and cocaine going up their arms and noses comes from
the border."
Their clash was part of a debate that has raged for years without
resolution as the United States seeks to gain control over a 1,900-mile
border with Mexico, balancing the need for increased commerce and humane
treatment of Mexican laborers against a struggle to keep out the flood of
illegal immigrants and drug smugglers.
The Marine Corps has long contended that the shooting here was in
self-defense, that Hernandez had fired his rifle twice in the direction of
the Marines and was about to shoot a third time when Cpl. Clemente Banuelos
opened fire. But many residents here feel that Hernandez's death has never
received the attention from the news media or the federal government that
it deserved. And, as time has passed, and both state and federal grand
juries declined to return indictments against the Marines, they have become
convinced no one is going to take the blame.
In announcing his plan to investigate the case and serve subpoenas on the
Justice and Defense for information, Rep. Smith described Hernandez as "an
innocent young American . . . killed by his government," adding that "the
public has never been told the full story."
Among other things, Smith said no one at the scene offered first aid to
Hernandez and he wants to know why. In addition, Smith said he will ask who
decided to position the Marines in the Redford area in the first place and
how they were trained to deal with residents.
"Did someone really believe that a youth with a .22 rifle had decided to
conduct a frontal assault on a team of U.S. Marines?" he asked. "Did they
think their only option was to shoot him?"
Here in Redford, an isolated farming community 200 miles southeast of El
Paso and a long, winding 20 miles from Presidio, the nearest settlement,
such decisions made by a faraway federal government now seem to carry a
personal stake.
A collection of old adobe homes surrounded by farming equipment and horse
pastures, the community was first known as "El Polvo," Spanish for "the
dust," and is linked to the Mexican town of Mulato, just across the river.
Residents here have not forgotten Esequiel Hernandez, a quiet youth with a
quick smile who was known as "Junior" or "Skeech" and was well-regarded by
his teachers at Presidio High School, where he was completing his sophomore
year. They believe there is no good explanation for his death, and they
believe the federal government has tried to keep the incident quiet.
"There is nothing we can do," said Postmaster Rosendo Evar, whose family
has owned the same farm here since 1876. "We didn't know the Marines were
down here. The Border Patrol brought them here. They should have
familiarized themselves with the local people."
Evar, who was also then the local school bus driver then, last saw
Hernandez the afternoon of his death, as he drove the young man home from
school. "He was always a nice kid," Evar said.
What happened later that evening, at about 6:30 p.m., is a source of
constant sorrow for the Hernandez family and their neighbors. "They
[government and military officials] just wanted it to pass over. It was
just a Mexican kid killed; let the people forget about it, let this thing
die," said family spokesman Margarito Hernandez, 29, Esequiel's oldest
brother.
Margarito Hernandez believes Esequiel was carrying the old rifle, as he
always did, to protect his goats from coyotes and rattlesnakes. He said his
brother was only 300 yards from his home when he was fatally wounded, and
that his father, Esequiel Sr., a farm worker, was chopping wood outside
when he heard what he thought was a gunshot and began to have "a weird
feeling."
LaFollette, the priest, said that at the death scene, the Marines were
dressed in camouflage gear and had blackened faces, making it difficult for
the youth to have seen them clearly.
But Jack Zimmermann, a Houston attorney and former Marine who defended
Banuelos, said important facts have become lost. "There is no question,
[the Marines] know he saw them," he said. "He looked right at them, raised
his rifle deliberately, and shot twice at them. No one has ever contended
he knew they were Marines, but he knew they were people."
There also are taped radio transmissions of the Marines' conversations with
others about being fired on, he said.
Supporters of the Marines' effort on the border suggest that the Hernandez
case is being used by political groups who believe the border should remain
open and who regularly protest the activities of the U.S. Border Patrol.
Zimmermann said that this has been "a horrible experience" for Banuelos,
who is assigned to Camp Pendleton in California and is planning to leave
the military soon.
"He did what his country asked him to do, and he has been accused of
committing murder," said Zimmermann, who also gained attention during the
1993 Branch Davidian standoff with federal authorities as one of two
outsiders allowed to negotiate face-to-face with sect leader David Koresh.
"I've said all along that no criminal conduct occurred, and the military
investigation concurred, and the state grand jury concurred, and the
federal grand jury concurred."
But LaFollette and others here will never be convinced, describing the
situation as "a big coverup." In they question why none of the
investigating agencies has ever released a ballistics report on Hernandez's
weapon to back up the Marines' contention they were fired on. The local
district attorney, Albert Valadez, has refused over the months to reveal
the ballistics results, saying they are evidence in a continuing
investigation.
LaFollette also wonders why the autopsy reports show the young man "had to
be facing away from [the Marines] from the angle the bullet entered him. .
. . We think they used him for target practice.
"Toward the federal government in general, this has always been a
law-abiding, patriotic place," he said. But now many Redford residents, he
said, are paranoid about who is watching them go about their business. "I
couldn't tell you now I'm not sure there's nobody looking in my window at
me," LaFollette said.
The anniversary of Hernandez's death was marked here with a memorial Mass
at the local Roman Catholic church. A tree has been planted in his honor at
the high school. In the modest family home, his room remains untouched,
with one major difference.
Not long after Esequiel was killed, his younger brother, Noel, 11, burst
into the bedroom, sobbing with grief, and ripped the Marine recruiting
poster from the wall. Esequiel had been thinking about joining the Marines.
"He couldn't stand to look at it anymore," Margarito Hernandez said.
(c) Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Report Shows More Cops Involved in Illegal Activities ('Seattle Times'
Rewrite Of Yesterday's 'Los Angeles Times' Article)
Date: Sun, 14 Jun 1998 11:37:57 -0700
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US: Report Shows More Cops Involved in Illegal Activities
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: John Smith
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Contact: opinion@seatimes.com
Website: http://www.seattletimes.com/
Pubdate: Sun, 14 Jun 1998
Author: Jack Nelson and Ronald J. Ostrow, Los Angeles Times
REPORT SHOWS MORE COPS INVOLVED IN ILLEGAL ACTIVITIES
WASHINGTON - In greater numbers and in more places than ever, police are
succumbing to the temptations posed by huge sums of cash from illegal
drugs.
Official corruption, which has raged for years in the nation's big cities,
is spreading to the hinterlands. So rampant has it become that the number
of federal, state and local officials in federal prisons has grown fivefold
over the last four years, increasing from 107 in 1994 to 548 today,
according to the federal Bureau of Prisons.
Although only a tiny fraction of the nation's law-enforcement officials are
behind bars, the increase in their numbers reflects a harsh reality:
Despite the government's "war on drugs," the problem is defying concerted
efforts to stamp it out.
"It's a big problem across the country, in big towns and small towns, and
it's not getting any better," said Michael Hoke, superintendent for
internal affairs of the Chicago Police Department. "Dope dealing is
probably the only growth industry in Chicago's inner city," he said, and
some police officers can't resist the temptation to siphon off a share for
themselves.
Hoke was head of the force's narcotics unit until three years ago, when
officials, suspecting that some officers were deeply involved in the drug
rackets, put him in charge of internal affairs to begin an investigation
that is still under way.
"So far, we've sent 15 police to the penitentiary," Hoke said. "And we're
not done yet."
Hoke and police officials of 51 other major cities are meeting in Sun
Valley, Idaho, this weekend to review a new report, "Misconduct to
Corruption," compiled by officials from 15 cities with assistance from the
FBI.
The authors of the report sent questionnaires to all 52 cities. Of the 37
that responded, all acknowledged continuing problems with general
corruption and misconduct in 1997.
Altogether, they reported 187 felony arrests of officers and 265
misdemeanor arrests. Eighty-five officers were charged with illicit use of
drugs, 118 with theft, 148 with domestic violence and nine with driving
under the influence of alcohol.
The report cited several cases of officers' robbing drug dealers. In
Indianapolis, one of two officers charged with murdering a drug dealer
during a robbery admitted that they had been robbing drug dealers for four
years.
A big-city police chief, the report concluded, "can expect, on average, to
have 10 officers charged per year with abuse of police authority, five
arrested for a felony, seven for a misdemeanor, three for theft and four
for domestic violence. By any estimation, these numbers are unacceptable."
Los Angeles, New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Washington, New Orleans and
Savannah, Ga., are among cities that have experienced major law-enforcement
scandals involving illegal drugs in recent years. And many smaller
communities, especially in the South and Southwest, have been hit by
drug-related corruption in police or sheriff's departments.
"You can't just look at the numbers" in measuring the effect on the
community of "a police officer abusing citizens through corruption," said
Neil Gallagher, deputy assistant director of the FBI's criminal
investigative division. "Corruption erodes public confidence in
government."
Gallagher, as special agent in charge of the New Orleans FBI office several
years ago, directed an investigation that led to convictions of 11 officers
and a sweeping overhaul of the city's police department. Underlying causes
of corruption there, he said, ranged from "severely underpaying officers to
lack of training, poor selection of officers and very little command and
control."
New Orleans is widely recognized today for its reforms - a sharp increase
in hiring standards, pay increases of up to 25 percent and a reorganization
and restaffing of the internal affairs unit.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
DrugSense Focus Alert Number 69 - LA Times Drug War Corrupts Cops
(DrugSense Asks You To Respond To Yesterday's Article
By Writing A Letter In Support Of 'The Los Angeles Times'
And Protesting Drug War Corruption - Sample Letter Included)
Date: Sun, 14 Jun 1998 12:53:44 -0700
To: mgreer@mapinc.org
From: Mark Greer (MGreer@mapinc.org)
Subject: (Yet ANOTHER) FOCUS Alert No. 69 LA Times Drug War Corrupts Cops
FOCUS Alert No. 69 LA Times - Drug War Corrupts cops
FRONT PAGE!
I don't know how long we can keep up this incredible pace of generating
letters but we just keep getting excellent reasons to ask you to keep on
writing them. I am delighted with all the recent efforts. What a
demonstration of what can be done by working together! We have had a Focus
Alert on many of the nations largest publications in the last few days and
will undoubtedly see published letters in many of them soon.
Now the LA Times (Circ. 1.2 million) has come out with a major front page
editorial on the drug war corrupting law enforcement. It's just too good to
pass up. So here we go again.
WRITE A LETTER TODAY- LIVE IN A FREER WORLD TOMORROW
Just DO it!
***
PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID ( Letter,
Phone, fax etc.)
Please post your letters or report your action to the MAPTalk list if you
are subscribed, or return a copy to this address by simply hitting
REPLY to this FOCUS Alert or E-mailing to MGreer@mapinc.org
***
CONTACT INFO
L.A. Times
Letters to the Editor:
letters@news.latimes.com (LA Edition)
ocletters@latimes.com (Orange County edition)
Please send your letter to _both_
"EXTRA CREDIT"
Send a 6-800 word Op-Ed piece on the drug war or police corruption
Op-Ed Page: op-ed@latimes.com
***
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
US: Illegal Drug Scene Spurs Rise in Police Corruption
Newshawk: Jim Rosenfield
Source: Los Angeles Times ( CA)
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Fax: 213-237-4712
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Pubdate: Sat, 13 Jun 1998
Author: Jack Nelson, Ronald J. Ostrow, Times Staff Writers
ILLEGAL DRUG SCENE SPURS RISE IN POLICE CORRUPTION
Number of officials jailed has multiplied 5 times in 4 years, study says.
Effect is felt in big, little towns.
WASHINGTON--Law enforcement corruption, sparked mostly by illegal drugs,
has become so rampant that the number of federal, state and local officials
in federal prisons has multiplied five times in four years, from 107 in
1994 to 548 in 1998, according to a new study.
The official corruption, which has raged for years in the nation's big
cities, is also spreading to the hinterlands. "It's a big problem across
the country, in big towns and small towns, and it's not getting any
better," says Chicago Police Supt. Mike Hoke.
Hoke was head of the force's narcotics unit until three years ago, when
officials, suspecting that some officers were deeply involved in the drug
rackets, put him in charge of internal affairs to begin an investigation
that is still underway.
"So far, we've sent 15 police to the penitentiary," Hoke said.
"And we're not done yet."
Los Angeles, New York, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Washington, New Orleans and
Savannah, Ga., are among the other cities that have experienced major law
enforcement scandals involving illegal drugs in recent years. And many
smaller communities, especially in the South and Southwest, have been hit
by drug-related corruption in police or sheriff's departments.
Police officials from more than 50 major cities are meeting in Sun Valley,
Idaho, this weekend to review the new report, "Misconduct to Corruption,"
compiled by officials from 15 cities with assistance from the FBI.
The authors of the report sent questionnaires to 52 cities. Of the 37 that
responded, all acknowledged continuing problems with general corruption and
misconduct in 1997.
Altogether, they reported 187 felony arrests of officers and 265
misdemeanor arrests. Eighty-five officers were charged with illicit use of
drugs, 118 with theft, 148 with domestic violence and nine with driving
under the influence of alcohol.
The report cited several cases of officers robbing drug dealers.
In Indianapolis, one of two officers charged with murdering a drug dealer
during a robbery admitted that they had been robbing drug dealers for four
years.
A big-city police chief, the report concluded, "can expect, on average, to
have 10 officers charged per year with abuse of police authority, five
arrested for a felony, seven for a misdemeanor, three for theft and four
for domestic violence. By any estimation, these numbers are unacceptable."
Numbers Tell Only So Much "You can't just look at the numbers" in measuring
the effect on the community of "a police officer abusing citizens through
corruption," said Neil J. Gallagher, deputy assistant director of the FBI's
criminal investigative division. "Corruption erodes public confidence in
government."
Gallagher, as special agent in charge of the New Orleans FBI office several
years ago, directed an investigation that led to convictions of 11 officers
and a sweeping overhaul of the city's police department. Underlying causes
of corruption there, he said, ranged from "severely underpaying officers to
lack of training, poor selection of officers and very little command and
control."
Some veteran police executives said that, despite recurring reports of
corruption, they have the impression that the problem of police corrupted
by drug money has subsided somewhat in recent years.
In this camp is Robert S. Warshaw, associate director of the National Drug
Control Policy Office at the White House and former Rochester, N.Y., police
chief. Warshaw said that law enforcement agencies have become much more
aware of the problem and "there's a high level of accountability internally."
Many other experts see little or no abatement of police corruption. "It's
going on all over the country," said former San Jose Police Chief Joseph
McNamara, "and corruption ranges from chiefs and sheriffs on down to
officers. Every week we read of another police scandal related to the drug
war--corruption, brutality and even armed robbery by cops in uniform."
McNamara, now a research fellow at the Hoover Institution in Palo Alto, has
concluded that preventing drug trafficking is "an impossible job."
"The sheer hopelessness of the task has led many officers to rationalize
their own corruption," McNamara said. "They say: 'Why should the enemy get
to keep all the profits?' Guys with modest salaries are suddenly looking at
$10,000 or more, and they go for it."
Even veteran officers can succumb. One is Rene De La Cova, a federal Drug
Enforcement Administration supervisor in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., whose
photograph ran in newspapers from coast to coast in 1989 when he took
custody of Panamanian strongman Manuel A. Noriega from the U.S. military
forces who had captured him.
Five years later, De La Cova pleaded guilty to stealing $760,000 in
laundered drug money and was sentenced to two years in prison.
Protecting Others Seen as a Virtue Police often work in a culture in which
protecting their colleagues is a virtue. Ed Samarra, police chief in the
Washington suburb of Alexandria, Va., learned that during his five years in
the internal affairs section of Washington's police department.
"I never encountered an officer willing to talk about the conduct of
another officer, even if he was videotaped committing a crime,"
Samarra said. "Some went to prison even though they could have remained
free if they had agreed to cooperate."
More than 100 Washington officers were arrested during Samarra's five years
in internal security. In every instance, he complained, the police union
"said our responsibility is to defend our people regardless of whether they
are guilty."
In Alexandria, by contrast, the police department has a reputation for zero
tolerance of misconduct. The police union tells new officers to report
misconduct by their colleagues. Those who lie, it warns, will be fired.
In Los Angeles County, Sheriff Sherman Block credited his own task force
with directing an investigation from 1988 to 1994 that led to the
conviction of 26 former narcotics deputies--about 13% of those assigned to
narcotics enforcement--for skimming drug money they had seized.
Not all county officials agreed with Block that his aggressive internal
investigation had been so successful that the scandal actually "somewhat
enhanced" the sheriff's department's reputation. He was widely praised,
however, for rooting out corruption and condemning the deputies for
violating their oaths and dishonoring their badges.
The Los Angeles Police Department, while sharply criticized for use of
excessive force, has been remarkably free of corruption linked to money or
drugs.
The independent commission that examined the department in the wake of the
Rodney G. King beating noted in its 1991 report that the department had
done "an outstanding job, by all accounts, of creating a culture in which
officers generally do not steal, take bribes, or use drugs. The LAPD must
apply the same management tools that have been successful in attacking
those problems to the problem of excessive force."
New Orleans, which had one of the nation's most corrupt police departments
in the early 1990s, is widely recognized today for its reforms--a sharp
increase in hiring standards, pay increases of up to 25% and a
reorganization and restaffing of the internal affairs unit.
New Orleans officials, working with the FBI, uprooted the bad cops and
tightened controls that not only curbed corruption and drug dealing but
also helped reduce homicide and other crime rates.
Sting Operation Becomes Violent In the FBI's New Orleans sting operation,
undercover agents acted as drug couriers who were protected by police
officers. The situation became so violent that at one point FBI agents
overheard a policeman using his bugged patrol-car phone to order another
policeman to kill a woman who had filed a brutality complaint against him.
Ten minutes later, before the agents could act, the woman was shot to death.
An FBI memo on the killing noted that the undercover operation was
terminated earlier than scheduled "because of the extreme violence
exhibited by the officers, which included threats to kill the undercover
FBI agents acting as couriers and also to steal the cocaine being shipped."
Eleven officers and a civilian police employee were convicted of corruption
and about 200 police officers were fired.
In another major FBI sting operation earlier this year, 59 people in
metropolitan Cleveland, including 51 law enforcement and corrections
officers, were arrested on charges of protecting the transfer or sale of
large amounts of cocaine.
DEA Administrator Thomas A. Constantine, a former New York state police
superintendent, said that many police departments have adopted policies
similar to Alexandria's zero tolerance for misconduct. These departments,
he said, have beefed up their internal security units and are recruiting
better quality officers by providing better salaries and conducting
thorough background checks.
But many police departments have failed to take these steps.
Raymond Kelly, the U.S. Treasury Department's undersecretary for
enforcement and a former New York City police commissioner, contended that
many departments conduct inadequate background checks and some are using
internal affairs units as "dumping grounds" for problem officers.
Kelly said that police forces should be careful to check the lifestyles of
their drug investigators. "I've never seen an officer get involved in
corruption to put food on the table," he said. "It's always for something
like cars or drugs or girlfriends."
As New York's deputy police commissioner in 1992, Kelly headed an
investigation of the department's internal affairs unit during a
drug-linked corruption inquiry.
Kelly, seeking to become more directly involved in law enforcement and the
war on drugs, has stepped down as the No. 2 Treasury Department official to
become commissioner of the Customs Service.
In that role, which he will begin next week, his first challenge will be to
take a hard look at Customs' internal affairs unit.
Copyright Los Angeles Times
***
Sample Letter (SENT 6/14)
Dear Editor:
It is not the least bit surprising to learn that the drug war has increased
police corruption convictions by an incredible 500% in the last 4 years
(Illegal Drug Scene Spurs Rise in Police Corruption LAT 6/14). The drug war
is destined not only to corrupt police but to usurp individual freedom and
Constitutional rights until and unless we implement some sensible drug
policies in this country.
When we put the police on "commission" as we have with asset forfeiture
laws that allow confiscation of property without due process and then
reward law enforcement with some or all of that property, civil rights
become a thing of the past. Hundreds of innocent victims have had cars,
boats, money, and houses confiscated for no other reason than fitting a
"profile" most were never charged with a crime and few ever had their
property returned. They are simply too poor or uninformed to fight city hall.
Cops are human. When they make a paltry wage for risking their lives every
day it's easy to rationalize that taking something from drug dealers (or
"possible" drug dealers) seems justified. The prosecutions are only the tip
of the iceberg. The actual corruption, poor attitude, and hopelessness at
ever winning the drug war is not only rampant in our police forces but
devastating to our entire society.
The solution? Implement sane drug policies that actually put us in back
control of the distribution process instead of making millionaires out of
criminals, tax sales to adults, restrict sales to children (effectively for
a change), free up law enforcement to do it's job of protecting citizens
from harm, and start acting like a society that has a bit of common sense.
Mark Greer
(contact info)
***
Mark Greer
Media Awareness Project (MAP) inc.
d/b/a DrugSense
MGreer@mapinc.org
http://www.DrugSense.org/
http://www.mapinc.org
-------------------------------------------------------------------
This 10-Year War Can Be Won (Letter To The Editor Of 'The Washington Post'
From A Self-Described Expert On Drugs And Drug Policy
Praises The Clinton Administration's 10-Year-Plan For The War On Some Drugs,
Saying Newt Gingrich's Complaint That The Civil War Took Only Four Years
Ignores The Fact That The Civil War Marked The Culmination Of Many Decades
Of Abolitionist Activism That Gradually Changed Americans' Attitude
Toward Slavery - But Ignores The Fact Such Activism Was Carried Out
By Private Individuals Against The Government, Not Vice Versa, As Is The Case
With The War On Some Drug Users)
Subj: US: WP OPED: This 10-Year War Can Be Won
From: Richard Lake
Date: Sun, 14 Jun 1998 21:09:38 -0400
Newshawk: DrugSense
Source: Washington Post
Contact: http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Pubdate: Sun, 14 Jun 1998
Author: David F. Musto
Note: The writer is a professor of child psychiatry and the history of
medicine at Yale School of Medicine.
Section: OPED - Page C07
THIS 10-YEAR WAR CAN BE WON
After three decades of studying the history of drugs and drug policy in the
United States, I was impressed (and surprised) by the Clinton
administration's recent proposal for a 10-year drug strategy. Here, at
last, comes recognition of the need for a steady and consistent policy over
an appropriate span of time. A common fault in drug policy has been
anticipating or promising dramatic results within an unrealistically brief
period.
Therefore, when the Speaker of the House rejected the strategy's goal as
too drawn out and defeatist, I wondered whether our drug policy could ever
escape the insistent, immediate demands of our political life.
Newt Gingrich feels that a 10-year strategy indicates pessimism and perhaps
lassitude in dealing with the drug problem. The Civil War, he says, "took
just four years to save the Union and abolish slavery." Why can't we solve
the drug problem, another form of slavery, in just a few years?
A look at our first drug epidemic, which peaked between 1900 and World War
I, reminds us that the duration of a wave of drug abuse has been roughly a
half-century even in the face of severe penalties and popular condemnation.
To approach the drug problem as if it were the gasoline shortage of the
1970s is to misunderstand the nature of the problem. Reducing and stopping
drug use requires fundamental changes in the attitudes of millions of
Americans, and that shift in attitude is more gradual than we would wish.
When Mr. Gingrich praises the decline in drug use among young people from
1979 to 1992, he is talking about a decline that was just one or 2 percent
a year. Declines in drug use are gradual, at least when compared with the
heated promises we have heard for three decades about a quick elimination
of the problem. Thus a 10-year strategy is reasonable in that it promotes a
steady pressure against drug use less affected by shifting political
forces. An approach that transcends more than two presidential terms even
carries a hope that the issue can be lifted out of partisan conflict.
Demanding quick solutions to the drug problem inevitably leads to
frustration because the decline rate is never as steep as promised. This
may lead to more severe penalties, the scapegoating of minorities and,
finally, discouragement. Can we say anything positive about the
congressional statement contained in the 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act that the
United States should be drug-free by 1995? Such misperceptions of our
experience with drugs create a sense of failure, even though drug use
generally has declined since 1980. Promises of a quick-fix may energize
concerned citizens for a while, but the larger effect is to discourage
them. Repeated, hyped, short-term drug campaigns to end drug abuse "once
and for all" (a federal government slogan of 1972) are reminiscent of
cocaine use: Every time the same dose is taken the impact lessens, the
temptation to increase the dose escalates and, finally, you have burnout.
Gingrich's claim for the Civil War suggests he was not wearing his
historian's cap when he spoke. The Civil War marked the culmination of many
decades of an abolitionist campaign that gradually changed Americans'
attitude toward slavery. Altering perceptions is at the heart of such
principled efforts, and it cannot be done quickly. This is the wisdom of
John Adams's observation that the American Revolution was "done and the
principles all established and the system matured before the year 1775."
For Adams, to focus on the War of Independence was to lose sight of the
"revolution in the minds of the people" that occurred in the two decades
before the shot was fired at Lexington.
This is the historical perspective we must bring to the campaign against
drug abuse, not simplistic references to short wars that supposedly ended
prolonged and embedded social evils.
(c) Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Relax Marijuana Laws - Federal Study ('The Ottawa Citizen'
Says The Canadian Centre On Substance Abuse, A Federally Funded Think Tank,
Has Published A New Study, 'Cannabis Control In Canada,' Which Proposes
Dropping Jail As A Possible Punishment For Marijuana Possession - Instead,
The Offence Would Become A Civil Violation, Subject To A Fine Only)
From: creator@drugsense.org (Cannabis Culture)
To: cclist@drugsense.org
Subject: CC: Relax marijuana laws: federal study
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 07:46:12 -0700
Lines: 95
Sender: creator@drugsense.org
Reply-To: creator@drugsense.org
Organization: Cannabis Culture (http://www.cannabisculture.com/)
Source: Ottawa Citizen
Contact: letters@thecitizen.southam.ca
Pubdate: Sun 14 Jun 1998
Section: News A1 / Front
Author: Jim Bronskill
Relax marijuana laws: federal study
Cannabis possession warrants fines, not jail time, government report says
A federally funded think-tank on drug abuse recommends decriminalizing
marijuana possession.
The Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse (http://www.ccsa.ca/) says existing
criminal penalties against marijuana smokers have done little to enhance
public health and safety, while placing a heavy burden on police and the
justice system.
The centre's newly published study, Cannabis Control in Canada, proposes
dropping jail as a possible punishment for marijuana possession. Instead,
the offence would become a civil violation, subject to a fine only.
``The available evidence indicates that removal of jail as a sentencing
option would lead to considerable cost savings without leading to increases
in rates of cannabis use,'' says the study.
The new approach would remain consistent with Canada's international treaty
obligations to prohibit marijuana possession.
But it would spare those convicted of the offence from being saddled with a
criminal record.
The study warns, however, that far from being a benign drug, marijuana can
have harmful effects on the respiratory system, physical co-ordination,
fetal development and memory.
It says decriminalization should be accompanied by new prevention programs
and a strong message that the move does not signal less concern for the
potential problems caused by cannabis use.
The paper was prepared last month by the centre's National Working Group on
Addictions Policy.
The centre was created by Parliament in 1988 to promote debate on substance
abuse issues and to support organizations involved in education, prevention
and treatment.
``The vast majority of Canadians no longer favour jail sentences for simple
possession of cannabis,'' concludes the study.
``The civil violation option offers the best opportunity to achieve the
most appropriate balance between the need to reduce the harms associated
with cannabis use and the need to restrain the costs and harms involved in
attempts to control use.''
The federal government, however, appears wary of the proposal.
A recent Health Department memo obtained by the Citizen notes that once an
activity has been legalized, it is very difficult to outlaw it again.
``Moving too swiftly to liberalize the use of marijuana may result in an
inability to control problematic use in future,'' says the memo by the
department's assistant deputy minister for policy.
Intense public debate about drug policy was sparked by last winter's
decision to temporarily strip Canadian snowboarder Ross Rebagliati of his
Olympic gold medal for having a trace of marijuana in his system.
Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in Canada, with possession
accounting for about half of the more than 60,000 drug offences recorded
annually. About 2,000 people are jailed for possession each year.
Hundreds of thousands of Canadians have a criminal record for marijuana
possession, making it potentially difficult for them to enter certain
countries or gain employment in some professions.
The federal government softened the laws somewhat last year, making
possession of a small amount of cannabis punishable by up to six months in
jail and/or a $1,000 fine. Individuals cannot be fingerprinted and no
easily traceable information appears in computer databases. But those
convicted still have criminal records.
The study suggests the new penalty would essentially amount to a ticket,
easing the burden on the justice system. However, when some Australian
states moved to a similar system, more people than anticipated fought the
ticket, contributing to court costs, notes the Health memo.
``This is an extremely complex issue with many dimensions and at present
there are many information gaps, making the forecasting of outcomes
difficult.''
Another note by a department analyst suggests more public education in
advance of any changes. ``There is obviously a need for a `post-Rebagliati'
injection of drug education before drug policy takes a snowboard downhill.''
***
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-------------------------------------------------------------------
Mounties Didn't Have Government's OK For Covert Drug Sting
('The Ottawa Citizen' Says Secret Federal Documents Show
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Operated An Undercover Currency Exchange
In Montreal For Five Months In 1990 Before Getting
The Required Legal Approval From The Solicitor General Of Canada)
From: creator@islandnet.com (Matt Elrod)
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
Subject: Canada: Mounties didn't have government's OK for covert drug sting
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 07:35:48 -0700
Lines: 191
Newshawk: creator@mapinc.org
Source: Ottawa Citizen
Contact: letters@thecitizen.southam.ca
Pubdate: Sun 14 Jun 1998
Section: News A1 / Front
Author: Andrew McIntosh
Mounties didn't have government's OK for covert drug sting: RCMP laundered
cash for five months before getting cabinet approval
The RCMP operated an undercover currency exchange in Montreal for five
months in 1990 before getting the required legal approvals from the
Solicitor General of Canada, secret federal documents show.
Even when the Solicitor General's approval was later obtained, it
appears the RCMP never told the minister -- at the time, Conservative
cabinet minister Pierre Cadieux -- about the full extent of its covert
operation: that police officers were changing Canadian currency into
U.S. funds for suspected drug traffickers, and that such transactions
would facilitate imports of drugs.
In an interview, Mr. Cadieux declined to comment on the series of
events or discuss what he knew about the RCMP covert operation while
he was Solicitor General of Canada from Feb. 23, 1990 to April 21,
1991.
``I can't recall,'' said Mr. Cadieux, who later became Minister of
State for Fitness and Amateur Sport in the former Progressive
Conservative government.
Mr. Cadieux is now vice-chairman of the Quebec Rental Board in
Montreal.
Former RCMP commissioner Norman Inkster said he recalled the Montreal
operation and that it had been approved by the Solicitor General, but
he declined to comment on the timing or anything else about it.
The federal Financial Administration Act requires that the RCMP obtain
written approval from the Solicitor General before setting up a covert
Crown corporation for investigative purposes.
Such approval also exempts the covert company from having to prepare
detailed financial reports about its activities, something all normal
Crown corporations must produce annually and table in Parliament.
The undercover RCMP company, called the Montreal International
Currency Centre Inc., was located in downtown Montreal on de
Maisonneuve Blvd. West.
It was incorporated on Aug. 17, 1990 by a Montreal corporate lawyer
working for the RCMP. Fictitious names were used on the incorporation
papers.
The company began exchanging money in September 1990.
But Mr. Cadieux did not authorize the RCMP's covert company until Jan.
11, 1991, the secret federal documents show.
By this time, the federal police force had already exchanged hundreds
of thousands of dollars in suspected and known drug money, which had
facilitated efforts by criminals to import cocaine into central
Canada.
By this time, the police force also had already signed a secret
agreement with the National Bank of Canada on Aug. 28, 1990, under
which the bank agreed to train undercover officers who were to staff
the currency exchange.
That secret agreement also stipulated that the RCMP would guarantee
all losses the Montreal-based bank might incur as a result of the
covert police company's activities.
The RCMP was months away from getting the Solicitor General's approval
when that deal was signed. When Mr. Cadieux approved the creation of
the covert company, the agreement with the National Bank was never
mentioned to him by then-RCMP commissioner Mr. Inkster.
Documents obtained by the Citizen show that the RCMP knew just days
after the currency exchange opened its doors in Montreal that officers
had not received the proper written authorization from the Solicitor
General.
That message was delivered to Insp. Bruce Bowie, then the
officer-in-charge of the Drug Enforcement Directorate at RCMP
Headquarters in Ottawa, on Oct. 4, 1990, by Nancy Irving, a lawyer in
the federal Justice department.
Ms. Irving described the failure to get the Solicitor General approval
as a serious problem, outlining possible repercussions in a five-page
memorandum.
She said the Financial Administration Act could allow the government
to suspend the RCMP officers with or without pay for failing to get
the Solicitor General's approval to incorporate the covert company.
Ms. Irving then said that a ``far more serious'' concern was that the
covert corporation might have to be dissolved because of the failure
to get the proper ministerial authorization.
``The only real solution to the foregoing is for the Force to proceed
without delay to attempt to obtain the Solicitor General's approval
under paragraph 85 (2) a. It remains to be seen whether the Minister
will authorize the company's incorporation ex post facto,'' she added.
Despite her recommendation for the RCMP to ``proceed without delay''
and try to get the Solicitor General's approval, Mr. Inkster took two
months to send a letter to Mr. Cadieux to advise him of the problem.
Mr. Inkster's description of the situation was different than that of
Ms. Irving's, and he didn't tell Mr. Cadieux of the issues outlined by
Ms. Irving.
His letter to Mr. Cadieux, dated Dec. 3, 1990 -- stamped ``SECRET''
--stated:
``As you are aware, the RCMP has a number of legally incorporated
companies to enable us to effectively pursue covert investigations and
surveillance.
``With the passage of Bill C-61 (the law to counter money laundering),
we have taken the lead role in the enforcement initiative against
money laundering.
``The RCMP Economic Crime Directorate has had an international money
laundering initiative working with our American counterparts which
necessitated the incorporation of companies for support cover and
potential business transaction reasons,'' the letter stated.
``The RCMP Drug Enforcement Directorate is also carrying out
enforcement initiatives versus money laundering and the proceeds of
crime through the incorporation of a store front operation,'' he
added.
Mr. Inkster reported that a ``recent review'' discovered an
``unintentional oversight:'' that the RCMP failed to get proper
written Ministerial approval to create eight separate covert Crown
corporations for its investigations.
One of them was the Montreal International Currency Centre Inc.
A separate appendix was included for Mr. Cadieux to sign to
retroactively approve the creation of the covert company in Montreal.
Mr. Cadieux only signed that authorization on Jan. 11, 1991.
Mr. Cadieux declined to say whether he was subsequently briefed on the
full details of the Montreal covert operation, given that he had not
been told about them in the letter from Mr. Inkster.
The Montreal Mounties running the currency exchange were never told
about RCMP headquarters' failure to get the Solicitor General's
approval to create the covert company until three years later,
internal RCMP documents show.
On Dec. 7, 1993, RCMP Headquarters in Ottawa sent a confidential
facsimile message to officers in Montreal in which they were told
their operation had ministerial approval and that it was a Crown
corporation.
A handwritten note on the facsimile from RCMP Sgt. Yvon Gagnon, the
officer overseeing the Montreal operation, stated: ``It seems that the
Montreal International Currency Centre is a Crown corporation and has
been since Dec. 3 1990. Headquarters forgot to inform us about it.''
The RCMP was criticized in the final report of the Macdonald Royal
Commission into RCMP wrongdoing in the 1980s for not fully informing
its political masters of its ongoing operational activities.
This way, the commission found, the minister could deny knowing of
potentially sensitive police operations should they be exposed and
publicly criticized.
A series of articles in the Citizen last week about the Montreal
covert operation revealed that the cash-strapped, short-staffed
undercover RCMP unit was overwhelmed by the drug world figures using
the currency exchange.
RCMP officers only had the manpower and financial and technical
resources to investigate a fraction of the cocaine traffickers using
their exchange.
While the RCMP eventually arrested some criminals and recovered $16.5
million in laundered cash, $125 million in known and suspected drug
money which was exchanged at the Montreal counter vanished, fuelling
drug sales between Canada and Colombia which were worth about $2
billion on the street.
The covert police operation was also hurt by leaks of sensitive
information by corrupt fellow police officers, including one Mountie
who remains on the force and who has yet to be identified following an
internal security probe.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Church Discusses 'Harmless' Drug, But The Arrests Go On
(Britain's 'Independent On Sunday' Says The Campaign To Decriminalise
Cannabis Use Made An Unparalleled Series Of Advances This Week
As Members Of The Church Of England, The House Of Lords,
And Senior Members Of Britain's Medical Community All Considered
The Issue In A More Dispassionate Atmosphere Than Before)
Date: Fri, 19 Jun 1998 01:39:36 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: UK: Church Discusses 'Harmless' Drug, But The Arrests Go On
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Martin Cooke
Pubdate: Sun, 14 Jun 1998
Source: Independent on Sunday, The (UK)
Contact: sundayletters@independent.co.uk
Website: http://www.independent.co.uk/
CHURCH DISCUSSES 'HARMLESS' DRUG, BUT THE ARRESTS GO ON
THE CAMPAIGN to decriminalise cannabis use in Britain has made an
unparalleled series of advances this week.
Members of the Church of England, the House of Lords and senior members of
Britain's medical community have all been considering the issue in a more
dispassionate atmosphere than before.
A paper released on Wednesday, and due to be debated by the General Synod of
the Church of England at the beginning of next month, refers to this
newspaper's campaign, as well as the fundamentally "harmless" nature of the
drug and the strong case for allowing medical experimentation with the
substance.
The Misuse of Drugs report by the Board of Social Responsibility also
includes a comment made by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Bingham of Cornhill,
last year that decriminalisation was "a subject that deserves, in my
opinion, detached, objective, independent consideration".
It goes on to call for the whole area of illegal drug use to be seen in the
context of religious faith and, in some cases, of the search to renew the
spiritual side of life.
A background paper written for the synod by Rev Kenneth Leech quotes widely
from the Independent on Sunday's campaign and underlines the current
scientific opinion that cannabis use is of no long-term danger to health and
is not in itself an encouragement to go on to take stronger illegal drugs.
Writing since the IoS campaign was launched on 28 September last year, Rev
Leech states: "The calls for decriminalisation of cannabis possession, which
have been the subject of debate in the UK for over 30 years, are likely to
become more frequent."
His paper also quotes this newspaper's criticisms of the limitations of the
Government's recent White Paper entitled Tackling Drugs to Build a Better
Britain, published on 27 April this year.
In support of the IoS stance, Rev Leech writes: "The most positive aspect of
the [Government's] document is the recognition that treatment costs less,
and works better, than prohibition.
"However, the long-term policy implications of this recognition need to be
taken more seriously than any government has so far done."
On 4 July the General Synod will merely be asked to note and discuss the
report and its accompanying background paper, but the ideas they both
contain demonstrate the changing moral attitude to cannabis use within the
Church of England. On Tuesday the House of Lords Science and Technology
Subcommittee heard important evidence from the Multiple Sclerosis Society on
the effectiveness of the drug in combating some of the painful symptoms of
the degenerative illness. A second public hearing will hear further evidence
on the drug's properties at 10.45am on Tuesday 16 June. (Call 0171-219 3107
for details.)
Perhaps this week's most unlikely development, however, was the granting of
a licence to Britain's first cannabis farm.
The government-backed research station was given the go-ahead on Thursday
and can now research and develop the drug's uses as a medicine.
Prior to this, all scientific work on cannabis has exposed those conducting
the experiments to the possibility of a criminal charge for possession.
Dr Geoffrey Guy, a founder of GW Pharmaceuticals, is to grow the drug in a
giant greenhouse at a secret site in south-east England and he expects to be
able to market at least one new drug within five years.
The research plan, reported in the national media this week, will follow in
the footsteps of similar research work being pursued in the United States,
where the government last year announced it is to spend $1m (UKP600,000) on
investigating the uses of cannabis in the treatment of illness.
In Britain, GW will work to isolate THC, the active ingredient in cannabis,
and to test its suitability for therapeutic use. Dr Guy has already
indicated the possibility that patients with multiple sclerosis, Aids,
cancer and glaucoma may all stand to benefit from his work.
He estimates that the research will cost about UKP10m over the next five
years and he is looking for pharmaceutical companies to invest in the new
venture.
The first shipment of cannabis plants supplied by GW's Dutch partner
HortaPharm will be planted in the next few weeks and the first harvest is
expected in late autumn.
In contrast to such positive news, this week police resources have once more
been channelled into dealing with cannabis-related crime.
A mother of two, who cares for her chronically arthritic 54-year-old
husband, has been convicted for making a cannabis soup to ease his pain.
Margaret Startin was fined after police raided her home in Cannock,
Staffordshire, and found plants growing under special lights in the loft.
Mrs Startin said: "We have tried normal medication but these were not
working. I had to try something else. I was desperate." At Stafford Crown
Court on Tuesday she admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply and
was fined UKP500 and ordered to pay UKP1,123 costs. Her husband, William
Widdowson, was fined UKP250 after he admitted growing the drug.
(e-mail your comments to: cannabis@independent.co.uk)
-------------------------------------------------------------------
New Treasure Along Ancient Silk Road ('The San Jose Mercury News'
Notes Prohibition Has Boosted The Smuggling Of Opium And Heroin
Through Kyrgyzstan To New Customers In Russia)
Date: Mon, 15 Jun 1998 21:15:25 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: Kyrgyzstan: New Treasure Along Ancient Silk Road
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Organization: Media Awareness Project http://www.mapinc.org/lists/
Newshawk: Marcus-Mermelstein Family
Pubdate: Sun, 14 Jun 1998
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Contact: letters@sjmercury.com
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
Author: Inga Saffron, Mercury News Moscow Bureau
NEW TREASURE ALONG ANCIENT SILK ROAD
Smugglers take opium from Afghan mountains to European markets
OSH, Kyrgyzstan--FIRST Ravshan became an opium addict; then he found a new
career. His suppliers paid him in fat packets of white powder to shuttle
their product from this remote corner of Central Asia to new customers in
Russia.
Ravshan is thousands of miles from New York, where a drug summit was held
last week at the United Nations. But he is exactly the kind of person
President Clinton and other world leaders will have to reach if they are to
make a dent in the world's multibillion-dollar drug trade, as they have pledged.
Ravshan once was a captain of a corps of drug addicts and unemployed women
conscripted to work as smugglers. With wads of opium and heroin nestled at
the bottom of cheap Chinese bags, Ravshan's team would fan out across the
grassy Asian steppe. They traveled by train and bus, following the route of
the ancient Silk Road, once traversed by camels laden with the luxuries of
the East.
These days, the old Silk Road has become a modern-day Heroin Trail, allowing
opium harvested in Afghanistan to reach markets in Europe and China. In
fact, experts say, more narcotics now pass through this region than through
the so-called Southeast Asian ``Golden Triangle'' countries of Burma and
Thailand.
About 220 pounds of processed opium is smuggled across Central Asia each
week, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, in
London. Just as the new Central Asian states are struggling to build stable
democracies, the drug trade threatens to turn them into ``narcocracies,''
the Institute warned.
Osh, a 3,000-year-old trading post at the base of the craggy Pamir
Mountains, has become a major hub on the new drug route. Among its 500,000
residents -- many now unemployed -- are plenty of people willing to travel
the Heroin Trail to earn $100. An estimated one out of 10 of these new
smugglers are women, who make the best smugglers because police in this
Muslim-dominated culture are reticent to search them.
Known locally as khanka, opium has long been part of the culture of Central
Asia. But with the breakup of the Soviet Union, the erosion of government
authority and the ensuing economic collapse, khanka has become a driving
force in the region, creating a booming new industry and thousands of new
addicts like Ravshan.
Until Ravshan, 35, checked himself into a drug clinic last month, his drug
caravan was transporting as much as 11 pounds of narcotics on each trip to
Russia's big cities. He began smuggling drugs after he lost his job in 1991
when his factory went bust. During his five years as a smuggler, he said, he
never failed to make a delivery.
``I was highly motivated,'' he recalled with a bitter glance at the rivulets
of veins running down his bony arms.
Ravshan said he finally found his own ``interior power'' -- and the $154 fee
-- to drag himself in for treatment. But there are still dozens of others
just like him, all moving westward with their plastic-wrapped sacks of drugs.
``It used to be just a bad habit here, but now it's big business,'' said
Kamil Abdurakhmanov, head of the Osh police department's anti-drug squad.
The police here have been trying to contain the torrent of drug traffic with
a staff of 19 and a single Russian-made car.
``There are 100 places in Osh where you can buy khanka,'' he said.
Officials estimate there are as many as 200,000 addicts in Kyrgyzstan, once
the farthest outpost of the Soviet empire, wedged between Uzbekistan and
China. The number of addicts in Osh's treatment center -- a tiny fraction of
the city's total -- has doubled in the last two years.
According to Alexander Zelichenko, coordinator of the United Nations
Anti-Drug Project in Osh, two important developments occurred
simultaneously: A Russian market for drugs opened up, and Iran, once on the
drug smuggling route, launched a strict anti-drug campaign, virtually
sealing its border with Afghanistan.
So, the drug traders headed north. ``Within six months, we here in
Kyrgyzstan were already feeling the effect,'' Zelichenko said.
Osh's strategic location in the lush Fergana Valley makes it a logical
transfer point for Afghan opium. It is here that the first wave of smugglers
arrive after taking the ``route beyond the clouds,'' a grueling trek to
Kyrgyzstan across the Afghan border into Tajikistan and down the
12,000-foot-high passes of the Pamir Mountains -- a place known as the
``roof of the world.''
After hauling their loads of raw opium gum by foot, donkey and --
increasingly -- flashy, Japanese-made, four-wheel-drive vehicles, Osh looms
like an oasis in the flatlands, the first big settlement in the desolate region.
For many of the 4 million people in the leafy, slow-moving villages around
Osh, where nearly all the factories are closed, the drug trade is the only
viable business left.
The criminal trade has rapidly permeated the tradition-bound societies of
Central Asia.
``If a woman has 10 or 11 children, a husband who is an addict or has no
job, what else can she do?'' Zelichenko asked.
Like Ravshan, the smugglers who cross the Pamirs to deliver opium to Osh
have been impoverished by the Soviet collapse. Most are Tajiks from the
isolated and ungovernable region of Gorno-Badakhshan, where drug lords rule
and no one pays much attention to officials in the capital, Dushanbe. A
perpetual civil war has raged there since the Soviet government fell in 1991.
These Tajik smugglers purchase raw opium -- the gum scraped from poppy
flowers -- for a mere $50 a pound. If the sticky gum is refined in one of
the new drug factories that have sprung up in Gorno-Badakhshan, it can be
sold for $350 in Osh. If it's further distilled into heroin, the price
shoots up to $5,000. By the time a pound of pure heroin reaches Moscow,
dealers will pay $75,000. In the past year, the smugglers crossing into
Kyrgyzstan have increasingly switched to heroin. At one-tenth the weight of
opium, it's easier to carry and more profitable.
It's also harder for the harried Kyrgyz border guards at the Archally post
to detect in the trucks and cars heading north along the Silk Road.
The switch from opium to processed heroin means that more local addicts will
turn to heroin, which is harder to treat than opium.
``I never even treated a heroin addict until a few months ago,'' said
Kantbek Kanzhebayev, Ravshan's doctor at the Osh clinic.
There are just 20 beds for the region, which probably has 25,000 addicts. In
the same room where Ravshan rested, three other addicts writhed on metal
cots, undergoing a controlled form of withdrawal.
Ravshan, at least, had already started to return to life. He stood up
unsteadily from his cot and walked slowly into a small garden, where his
wife, Adina, stood waiting.
``For five years I was daily drunk. I've had enough,'' Ravshan said quietly.
``There are lots of problems for me to fix. I just hope it's not too late.''
to 1998 Daily News index for June 11-17