-------------------------------------------------------------------
Physicians Own Tons Of Tobacco, While Warning Of Smoking Risks
(An Original Database Search By 'The Associated Press' Shows That Hundreds
Of Doctors In 23 States Control Production Of More Than Seven Million Pounds
Of Tobacco Worth $13 Million)
Date: Mon, 29 Jun 1998 00:49:12 -0700
From: Paul Freedom (nepal@teleport.com)
Organization: Oregon Libertarian Patriots
To: Cannabis Patriots (cannabis-patriots-l@teleport.com)
Subject: CanPat - Physicians Own Tons of Tobacco,
While Warning of Smoking Risks
Sender: owner-cannabis-patriots-l@teleport.com
JUNE 26, 10:02 EDT
Physicians Own Tons of Tobacco, While Warning of Smoking Risks
By ALLEN G. BREED
Associated Press Writer
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Hundreds of doctors across the country own
and profit from tons of tobacco, despite decades of health warnings, scolding
from peers and in some cases their own ethical reservations.
They're family practitioners who warn teen-agers not to smoke, psychiatrists
who treat addiction, oncologists who identify malignant tumors and surgeons
who remove them.
One tobacco-owning doctor was a longtime regional medical director for the
American Cancer Society. Another runs a public health department. A third
writes a newspaper's health tips column.
Almost none smoke themselves.
``I won't smoke,'' says Stephen Jackson, an orthopedic surgeon in
Paducah, Ky., who co-owns the government rights to grow 1,400
pounds of burley tobacco a year. ``I mean, it will kill you.''
All tell their patients not to smoke or chew tobacco.
``I get mad with them, fuss at them every day,'' says Richard Rush, a
family practitioner from Conway, S.C., with more than 11,000 pounds of
flue-cured tobacco allotted to his farm.
Nonetheless, they are among at least 760 doctors and other health care
workers who own valuable federal tobacco-growing rights, known as allotments
or quotas, according to a computer analysis by The Associated Press.
They practice in 23 states, from Florida to Alaska, Massachusetts to
California.
Some of the doctors own minuscule government rights, as little as 21 pounds
annually; one in South Carolina has 932,000 pounds.
All told, these doctors control production of more than 7 million pounds of
tobacco - enough to make 193 million packs of cigarettes a year. They also
grow nearly 290,000 pounds of the varieties of leaf used in chewing tobacco
and cigar wrappers.
At last year's sales prices, their leaf would be worth $13 million - although
a large portion of that goes to family members, sharecroppers and those who
lease much of the crop.
For professionals who have taken an oath not to do harm, those numbers are
``shocking and disappointing,'' medical ethicist Arthur Caplan says.
``I think you just cannot argue that you're going to make money on the back
of this obvious health menace,'' says Caplan, director of the Center for
Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. ``To own and farm and produce
tobacco as a doctor, especially in small communities, sends a resoundingly
wrong message.''
The fact that many of these doctors grew up in those small communities is
often their reason for being involved in tobacco. Even so, some are uneasy
about it.
Dr. Edwin Norris has no doubt that a three-pack-a-day habit hastened his
father's death at age 53 from coronary disease. And the Mountain City, Tenn.,
general practitioner and cosmetic surgeon has little doubt that tobacco
produced under his 1,925-pound quota is harming other people's fathers.
``Even though it's legal,'' Norris says, ``we're still responsible for some
of the effects of it.'' His explanation for keeping the tobacco: Neighbors
who actually raise it for him need the poundage to make a living.
Other physicians bought their farms as investments and acknowledge
tobacco proceeds contribute to their wealth.
Although they may only get a nickel to 15 cents a pound for leasing their
tobacco rights to farmers, quotas help pay mortgages and add to the land's
assessed value. With talk in Washington about possible $8-a-pound federal
tobacco buyouts some day, the leaf could constitute an even more valuable
asset.
``I'm too greedy,'' George Burrus, a cardiovascular surgeon in Nashville,
Tenn., says when asked about his decision to keep his 6,500-pound quota,
even though he says he knows tobacco is ``killing people.'' He clears about
$4,000 a year from leasing his leaf.
``I don't worry about it enough to (sell out) since I don't feel like, say,
the guy that's raising dope.''
***
The AP identified these doctors by cross-checking a federal farm database
with medical rosters from tobacco states. To verify matches, the AP contacted
scores of physicians by telephone.
Some hung up when they heard the word ``tobacco.'' Most who stayed on the
line expressed ambivalence.
``Absolutely schizophrenic'' is how Dr. William Grigsby described the notion
of physicians growing tobacco.
``It's crazy, but I'll tell you why we do it,'' says the general surgeon from
Kingsport, Tenn., who owns about 3,700 pounds of quota. ``Almost the only
doctors who raise tobacco have grown up on the farm and have the kinfolks
there.''
One is Richard Calhoun. He was raised on a tobacco farm, and tobacco money
helped put him through college and medical school.
On Wednesdays, when other doctors hit the golf course, Calhoun dons bib
overalls and a baseball cap and drives a beat-up red flatbed truck around
his mountainside farm in western North Carolina. He raises hay, cattle,
Christmas trees and about 7,000 pounds of burley.
``Tobacco is a proud heritage for North Carolina,'' says Calhoun, who
practices in Jefferson, near the Tennessee line. ``I want to maintain that
part of my heritage.''
So while he lectures his three children - ages 9, 11 and 13 - on the ills of
smoking, he makes sure they help out on the farm.
``They're still young, but they know what it is to work in the dirt - and
that this is actually a cash crop that can be grown for farm income.''
He knows the links between the crop he grows and diseases he treats,
from cancer to heart disease. Is that inconsistent?
``I do feel that tobacco is harmful to one's health,'' Calhoun replies.
``But more importantly than that, I feel that, as citizens of the United
States, we have the freedom of choice. And I don't think that governmental
regulation should infringe upon one's ability to make choices in this
regard.''
Dr. Wendell Levi Jr. agrees. In 45 years as a thoracic surgeon, he has
removed cancer-ravaged lungs, but he has little sympathy for smokers.
``If they're stupid enough to smoke, that's (their) business, I suppose,''
says Levi, a Sumter, S.C., tobacco owner. ``I've never had time to feel
guilty about something like that.''
Yes, he urges patients to quit smoking. ``But it's not very effective.''
But given the addictiveness of nicotine, quitting may not really be a
choice, as even some tobacco-owning physicians acknowledge.
William Gause, a family practitioner in Columbia, S.C., says he quit cigars
shortly before the U.S. surgeon general first warned against smoking's
health hazards. But he knows how hard it is for others to stop.
``It's easier for me to get somebody off of, say, cocaine than it is to get
them off of tobacco,'' Gause says.
Still, he says he never gave much thought to how his 3,000 pounds of
allotment, passed down through the family for three generations, might be
fueling that addiction.
``I've so many other things going right now,'' Gause says. ``I've never
really sat down to think about it. I may feel that way when I do - if I do.''
Others have thought about it - a lot.
John Patterson, family practitioner and owner of a 900-pound quota in
Irvine, Ky., has reached a moral bargain with himself.
He is the Kentucky Medical Association's liaison with two farm health
groups and says the $230 a year he earns from tobacco pays for the
gasoline he uses traveling the state trying to help farmers diversify
from burley.
``I think the question is: What is that doctor doing with that base?''
Patterson says. ``That is the way I've dealt with my ethical dilemma.''
Elizabeth Ward feels as if she's a hostage of tobacco.
Ward, a physician's assistant in Wilmington, N.C., watched two years ago as
her father slowly succumbed to smoking-related emphysema 15 years after he'd
quit.
Around the same time, Ward bought a farm from her aunt because it adjoins
her mother's property. The farmer who rents her mother's tobacco allotment
says he can continue doing so only if he can also continue renting the
tobacco on Ward's property.
``I'm a crusader against tobacco,'' Ward says between patients. ``Every day,
all day long, I talk to sick people, and a lot of their problems come from
their bad habits - and bad habits I indirectly promote.''
But her mother wants to live out her days on a working farm. So Ward keeps
her connection to the industry and takes her $300 annual share of the tobacco
lease money.
Many physicians make more than that on their tobacco.
Dr. Pickens Moyd answers several questions in a phone interview, but when
the issue turns to how much the Hartsville, S.C., surgeon earns from his 2,000
pounds of tobacco, irritation creeps into his Southern accent.
``I'll tell you what,'' he tells a reporter. ``You send me a check for half
of what I'll lose, and I'll eat the other half. ... YOU'RE not going to cough
it up to stop this cigarette thing.''
Frank Sessoms, a family practitioner in Pittsburgh who owns 2,200 pounds of
allotment on a North Carolina farm that's been in his family for generations,
also voices indignation. He's not part of some social problem, he says.
``I have a lot of patients, man, who always make excuses for themselves, for
their behavior, whether it's alcohol, cocaine, tobacco, food,'' says Sessoms,
one of 10 children of a steel mill worker. ``I'm overweight and I ain't
blaming Heinz because they make ketchup with sugar in it.
``I'm blaming me, because I'm just greedy as hell.''
The income that medical oncologist Stanley Sides of Cape Girardeau, Mo.,
makes from 3,200 pounds of tobacco grown on his farm four hours east in
Kentucky, he shares with a now-elderly neighbor who has helped tend the crop
for 25 years.
But he resents being singled out as a physician.
``You could argue that the farmers in South and North Dakota that raise
barley (for beer companies) are also contributing to a product that ... hurts
the lifestyle of many families. The issue is how far we take it.''
EDITOR'S NOTE: Allen G. Breed is the AP's Southeast regional reporter,
based in Raleigh, N.C. AP news data manager Drew Sullivan performed
computer analysis for this report.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The Week Online With DRCNet, Issue Number 47
(The Drug Reform Coordination Network's Original News Summary For Activists,
Including - The PRIDE Teen Survey; Drug Lords Attempted To Buy
Russian Submarine; 'Coincidences' At Pain Patient March; And An Editorial
By Adam J. Smith, 'The New L-Word')
Date: Fri, 26 Jun 1998 16:50:16 EDT
Errors-To: manager@drcnet.org
Reply-To: manager@drcnet.org
Originator: drc-natl@drcnet.org
Sender: drc-natl@drcnet.org
From: DRCNet (manager@drcnet.org)
To: Multiple recipients of list (drc-natl@drcnet.org)
Subject: The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue No. 47
THE WEEK ONLINE WITH DRCNet, ISSUE No. 47 -- JUNE 26, 1998
-- PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE --
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(This issue can be also be read on our web site at
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/47.html.)
Dear friends:
As the 2nd quarter of 1998 roles to a close, we at
DRCNet need to call out for your help once again. While new
paying members have continued to sign up every week, we have
not yet matched during this quarter the rate of growth that
we had last quarter. We need 43 new paying members by the
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If you are already a DRCNet supporter, please consider
renewing your support. We need your help too, for the
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our fundraising shortfall at the end of last year (partly
due to your generous support last quarter), our situation is
still tenuous. We have enough money in the bank to last us
perhaps another four weeks. This is a tremendous
improvement, but still a tight enough situation to make it
difficult for us to plan and take advantage of all the
opportunities with which we are presented. Don't
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DRCNet counts.
To make a donation online with our encryption-secured
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note that contributions to DRCNet are not tax-deductible.
If you're not sure whether you want to donate to DRCNet
at this time, maybe the following selection of some of our
recent media highlights will help you make up your mind.
And then, of course, on to this week's news.
* January, 1997: The Utne Reader lists DRCNet as a source
of information on medical marijuana.
* March 13, 1998: Adam Smith appears on the CBS National
Radio Network, discussing parents talking to kids about drug
use.
* March 28, 1998: Adam Smith quoted in The Economist,
discussing the plight of low level crack cocaine offenders
and the criminal justice system.
* April 18, 1998: David Borden's letter to the editor
appears in The New York Times, replying to A.M. Rosenthal's
attack on the drug policy reform movement.
* April 20, 1998: NBC's Oklahoma affiliate airs clipping
of Adam Smith's speech at the Will Foster rally. Also, Adam
is interviewed by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation for
a program coming out in September.
* April 28, 1998: DRCNet web site appears on PBS
Frontline's "Busted: America's War on Marijuana." DRCNet
pops up three times throughout the one hour show, on
computer screens in the homes of at least two different
interviewees. Also, the program's web site at
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/dope links to
Adam's Reason article on the Foster case.
* May, 1998: Infinity Press in Oklahoma runs "The Broken
Heartland: The Will Foster Story," describing Adam Smith's
speech at the Will Foster rally as well as the Foster case
itself.
* Spring, 1998: ACLU Member Newsletter includes DRCNet in
a short list of reform web sites.
* June, 1998: Mike Gray's "Drug Crazy" is released by
Random House. David Borden, DRCNet board member Cliff
Schaffer, and DRCNet itself are prominently featured on
pages 203-204 and throughout the appendix of Internet
resources.
* June/July, 1998: Eye Magazine features DRCNet in its
"Fringe Notes" section.
* June 29, 1998: WAMU 88.5 FM, the largest Washington, DC-
area National Public Radio affiliate, to run a 2 1/2 minute
commentary by David Borden, supporting heroin maintenance,
at 7:06 and 9:06 AM.
* July, 1998: High Times runs Adam Smith's article,
"Activism Online: The Revolution Will Be Wired."
Also coming up: We are planning to release a special new
section of our web site next month, that we are hoping will
be something of a sensation and get some press -- one
notable media outlet has already agreed to cover the story.
We can't tell you what it is yet, but let's just say that
the other side won't like it. And more exciting web site
updates will follow shortly after that.
Thank you for being a part of DRCNet. Together we will
change the world.
David Borden
Executive Director
***
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. German Police Call for an End to the Drug War
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/47.html#germany
2. PRIDE Teen Survey
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/47.html#pride
3. U.S. Pressures Colombia to Spray Dangerous Herbicide in
Eradication Efforts
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/47.html#herbicide
4. Pastrana Elected President of Colombia
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/47.html#pastrana
5. California Legislature to Debate Measure Providing
Medical Marijuana Distribution By Local Communities
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/47.html#distribution
6. Professor Julian Heicklen in Jail
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/47.html#heicklen
7. FEDS: Drug Lords Attempted to Buy Russian Submarine
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/47.html#submarine
8. First Amendment Rights of Alternative Media Threatened
in Austin (TX)
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/47.html#gnn
9. "Coincidences" at Pain Patient Rally
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/47.html#coincidences
10. EDITORIAL: The New "L-Word"
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/47.html#l-world
***
1. German Police Call for an End to the Drug War
Twelve German Police Chiefs joined medical experts and
politicians last week (6/16) in calling for an end to the
drug war, while a survey of members of Parliament showed
support for a new direction on drug policy across the
political spectrum.
Dr. Ingo Flenker, a member of the board of the Federal
Chamber of Doctors, told The Guardian (UK) on 6/17, "The
Social Democrats, Greens, and Liberal Free Democrats have
long been signaling that they would welcome a change in
drugs policy." Gerhard Schroeder, a Social Democrat, is the
heavy favorite to win the Chancellor's seat in September's
national elections.
Dierk Schitzler, Bonn's Police Commissioner, told the
gathering, "Even if we had four times as many police
officers, we could not solve the drug problem. We would
only push the prices up and the dealers will make even
bigger profits. Humanity dictates that we should help
addicts, who are sick people."
The cities of Frankfurt, Cologne, Karslruhe, and Hanover
have applied for heroin trials following the Swiss model.
"This is almost like a breaking of dams," was the
interpretation of Richard Edgeton, the federal secretary of
the Germany AIDS-Hilfe regarding the spirit of drug policy
reform flowing throughout the nation.
***
2. PRIDE's Numbers
- Rob Stewart, Drug Policy Foundation
On Thursday, June 18, the nonprofit Parents' Resource
Institute for Drug Education (PRIDE, www.prideusa.org)
released its annual, end-of-the-school-year surveys of
adolescent drug use and gun possession.
PRIDE president Thomas Gleaton, top White House drug advisor
Barry McCaffrey, and senators Paul Coverdell (R-GA), Charles
Grassley (R-IA), and Joe Biden (D-DE) took part in the
Capitol Hill press conference. The bipartisan group
announced that the students overall reported a decrease in
illegal drug use, including alcohol and nicotine. But the
11th PRIDE survey found that some of the older students, in
particular 12th graders, reported slight but statistically
significant increases for cigarettes, cocaine, uppers and
downers, and designer drugs (PRIDE's terms).
The survey also shows that illegal drug use is less likely
to be correlated with school activities, good grades,
parental involvement and discipline, and "religiosity."
About 30.1 percent of students said that their parents
talked with them "often" or "a lot" about drugs. PRIDE's
data reveal that, although that number is up slightly over
the previous two school years, it is somewhat lower than the
1992-93 (36.5%), 1993-94 (36.2%), and 1994-95 (33.8%) school
years -- when teen drug use was on the rise.
Gleaton's statement about the drug use survey was guardedly
optimistic. He attributed the decline in part to the 1996
presidential campaign debates and parental involvement.
Gleaton said in a statement, "We have made remarkable
progress in the past two years, but to return to drug use
levels of 1990, we would have to cut today's usage in half."
Gleaton summarized his warning for USA Today (June 19, p.
6A) as follows: "When drug use drops out of view of the
American people, that allows the bad guys to flourish
again." But, according to the White House's Summer
Pulse Check, marijuana use among hard-core users and
marginal populations is widespread in the surveyed regions.
The report states that "the majority of sources consulted
.. report an increase in young users of marijuana."
PRIDE's survey of students and guns found that the
percentage of students reporting that they carried guns with
them to school had dropped 36 percent over the last five
years -- to 3.8 percent for the 1997-1998 school year
from 6 percent during the 1993-1994 school year. PRIDE
found that the approximately 973,000 students who carried
guns to school last year were much more likely to use
illegal drugs on a monthly basis than non-gun-toting
students (64 percent v. 15 percent) and on an annual basis
(75 percent v. 27 percent).
The gun survey adds to the dark reputation of drugs. "With
this volatile mixture of guns, bad attitudes, and drugs,"
Gleaton said, "it only takes one student to create a
national nightmare like Jonesboro, Arkansas, or Springfield,
Oregon." Students gunned down fellow students in both towns
this year.
The PRIDE survey leaves the association of guns and drugs
alone. There is no explanation about the black market's
influence nor a suggestion that kids who break one set of
laws are less inclined to be stopped by other laws banning a
particular behavior.
(Rob Stewart is director of communications for the Drug
Policy Foundation, and editor of DPF's Drug Policy Letter.
You can find them on the web at http://www.dpf.org.)
***
3. U.S. Pressures Colombia to Spray Dangerous Herbicide in
Eradication Efforts
Dow Chemical, the makers of Tebuthiuron, warns that the
herbicide should only be used "carefully and in controlled
situations" and that "it can be very risky in situations
where terrain has slopes, rainfall is significant, desirable
plants are nearby and application is made under less than
ideal circumstances." But that is exactly what the U.S.
government has pressured Colombia to agree to do.
The warning quoted above, conditions under which
Tebuthiuron, marketed under the name Spike 20-P, should not
be used, essentially describes the terrain in which coca is
grown. American officials have long lobbied for the use of
Tebuthiuron because it comes in pellet, rather than spray
form, and can be dropped by high-flying planes, thus
reducing the risk to pilots, if not to the people on the
ground below. But Dow AgroSciences, a subsidiary of Dow
Chemical, formerly makers of the defoliant Agent Orange,
released a statement saying "Tebuthiuron is not labeled for
any use on any crops in Colombia, and it is our desire that
the product not be used for coca eradication as well."
But Dow's reluctance matters little. Their patent on the
herbicide has run out, allowing other companies to
manufacture it.
No one knows what the long-term effects of Tebuthiuron are
in groundwater or on farmland, and critics, including
Colombia's environmental minister, Eduardo Verano, question
whether such risks are worth taking with the lives of his
countrymen. "We need to reconsider the benefits of the
chemical war" he told the New York Times. "The more you
fumigate, the more the farmers plant. If you fumigate one
hectare, they'll grow coca on two more. How else do you
explain the figures?"
The plan, which was drawn up by the State Department's
acting assistant Secretary of State for international
narcotics and law enforcement affairs, calls for the
Colombian military to drop the defoliant, and then only in
the southern, rebel-controlled part of the country. The
Colombian military, long acknowledged as one of the world's
leading abusers of human rights, and more recently as
flouting civilian control by the Colombian government, has
been engaged in a 35 year-old conflict with rebel guerrillas
in the region. It is a war which they have recently
admitted they cannot win.
***
4. Pastrana Elected President of Colombia
In a wave of anti-corruption sentiment, Conservative
opposition candidate Andres Pastrana was elected President
of Colombia over Liberal Horacio Serpa. Serpa, the former
Interior Minister under outgoing President Ernesto Samper,
was Samper's hand-picked successor.
Serpa was an ardent defender of Samper in the wake of a
scandal in which he was accused of taking over $6 million in
campaign contributions from the Cali cartel during his
successful race against Pastrana in 1994. The
reverberations of that scandal led to the arrest and
conviction of over 30 government officials and members of
Congress. Samper was eventually absolved of wrongdoing by
the congress, in what was widely perceived as a whitewash.
Pastrana's election also paves the way for meaningful
negotiations between the government and the rebels who
control nearly 50% of the country. Late in the campaign,
Pastrana met with rebel leaders, and has repeatedly said
that a peaceful, negotiated solution is essential to
Colombia's future. Such talk would seem to fly in the face
of a burgeoning American policy towards Colombia in which an
executive order banning the sale of high-tech weapons to the
region has been lifted and the Republican-controlled
Congress has put pressure on the Clinton Administration to
send more weapons and military aid to Colombia.
Lisa Haugaard of the Latin America Working Group told The
Week Online, "Pastrana's statements have been very positive
with regard to peace and negotiations, and it's very
important that U.S. policy back those efforts. There is
certainly a window of opportunity with the momentum from the
election. And while there have been previous efforts at
peace, there are several factors that indicate that now may
be a better time. The violence has been greater, people are
tired, and there is a broader mobilization than there has
been in the past.
"But U.S. policy doesn't seem geared toward encouraging
peace. There are a number of American politicians, led by
Senator Benjamin Gilman (R-NY), who are very narrowly
focused on sending arms to fight the drug war. As a matter
of fact, just today (6/26) the approval went through for the
$36 million in helicopters. Not the Blackhawk helicopters
that Gilman seemed so intent on providing, but upgraded
Hueys." (See http://www.drcnet.org/wol/44.html#copters.)
"The violence that is taking place in Colombia is appalling.
The paramilitaries, in particular, are out of control, and
every time that the U.S. tries to do something to insure
that aid does not go into the hands of human rights abusers,
it goes awry. It's just impossible to draw those kinds of
lines down there. It will be interesting to see what kind
of a role the U.S. plays in any peace efforts. Our best
hope is that there is a debate going on within the Clinton
administration, and that those who would like to foster
peace efforts can win out over those who insist on further
arming the conflict."
***
5. California Legislature to Debate Measure Providing
Medical Marijuana Distribution By Local Communities
(reprinted from the NORML Weekly News, http://www.norml.org)
June 25, 1998, Sacramento, CA: The California Assembly will
debate legislation next week that authorizes local
governments to establish medical marijuana distribution
programs.
Senate Bill 1887, recently amended by sponsor John
Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara), states that "a city ... or
county may distribute marijuana to persons in medical
need." The measure makes use of an untested provision in
the federal Controlled Substances Act that immunizes local
officials who comply with local drug laws from federal
sanctions. Supporters of the legislation anticipate this
provision to be tested in federal court.
California NORML Coordinator Dale Gieringer praised the
intent of S.B. 1887 and noted that it closely corresponds to
the approach proposed by the organization in May. "Senator
Vasconcellos is to be congratulated for offering a
comprehensive, realistic solution to the short-term medical
marijuana distribution problem," he said.
The bill also argues for federal rescheduling of the drug.
"There is widespread consensus among physicians, law
enforcement, patients, providers and other stakeholders that
the most effective solution [to the question of medical
marijuana distribution] is for the federal government to
reschedule marijuana so that it can be prescribed under the
same strict protocols as morphine and cocaine," the bill
reads.
The Assembly Health Committee will hear S.B. 1887 on
Tuesday.
***
6. Professor Julian Heicklen in Jail
- Alex Morgan
Professor Julian Heicklen is in the Centre County Prison in
Bellefonte, PA, following his arrest for smoking a joint
during a demonstration outside the county court house last
Monday (6/22).
Heicklen, who has been holding weekly "Smoke Outs" at the
Penn State University Main Gate in State College since
January, moved his protest to the county seat on June 7 when
he made a speech at the county prison door before serving a
48 hour sentence for contempt of court.
The contempt sentence was imposed during a May 6 hearing on
his previous arrests. Heicklen had objected to Magistrate
Lunsford's questioning of prosecution witnesses and also the
court's decision to combine his February 12, March 19, March
26 and April 2 arrests into one case. The objection was
overruled.
Heicklen declined to cross examine the police officers or
present any evidence, but he asked to read a statement into
the record. Magistrate Lunsford denied the request, saying
Heicklen was only going to repeat the statement he made
during his hearing for the February arrest. Heicklen asked
him how he knew that and then began his statement anyway.
Lunsford ordered Heicklen to stop and threatened him with a
contempt citation. Heicklen finished his statement, and
Lunsford imposed the 48 hour sentence for contempt.
On June 7, just prior to entering the county prison,
Heicklen read a long statement summarizing his struggle with
the court system and the pretrial motions he had filed with
the court. "... I made a short statement of about one
minute in length requesting indictment by a grand jury ...
Magistrate Lunsford objected to me saying anything at all on
my own behalf and found me in contempt of court. I had
thirty days to appeal the contempt citation. I could not do
so in good conscience because I am in contempt of this
court, in absolute and utter contempt. The Centre County
Court is not a court of law; it is a court of inquisition."
The full statement, entitled "SPEECH AT THE PRISON DOOR,"
can be found at http://www.personal.psu.edu/jph13, Prof.
Heicklen's web site.
Heicklen is still in jail waiting to see if attorney Joseph
Devecka can get his bail reduced to $500.00 and also get the
court to drop the bail requirement that he refrain from
committing further crimes. Meanwhile, he is going ahead
with plans to lead a major protest at Penn State's Main Gate
during the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts. It
will span 30 hours over four days, with thirty different
speakers for an hour each.
For a complete list of speakers check Heicklen's web site
listed above. To make a donation to Professor Heicklen's
campaign, contact him at jph13@psu.edu or contact Carla
Moquin at csm113@psu.edu.
***
7. FEDS: Drug Lords Attempted to Buy Russian Submarine
The Los Angeles Times reports this week (6/21) that Ludwig
Fainberg, owner of two Miami nightclubs, was acting as a
broker between Russian organized crime figures and South
American drug traffickers. The deals that Fainberg
allegedly attempted to put together would have netted the
drug organizations a Soviet Tango class submarine to be used
to ship cocaine into the U.S. Fainberg went so far as to
arrange a meeting with a retired Russian naval officer and a
tour of a secret Russian navy base for the purpose of
selecting the sub.
The Times reports that U.S. authorities say the case is
illustrative of the forming alliances between powerful
organized crime organizations in Russia and South American
drug traffickers. This partnership would combine access to
vast Cold War military assets with the drug trade that has
all but inundated the U.S. despite the best efforts of
prohibitionists.
***
8. First Amendment Rights of Alternative Media Threatened in
Austin, Texas
While the following is not directly drug policy related, we
believe it is important, especially to those of us who rely,
to some extent, on alternative media for important
information (like The Week Online).
Last weekend, the Grassroots News Network held its first
annual "Grassroots News and Media Conference & Culture
Jam in Austin, Texas" GNN is "a coalition of 31 community
oriented groups and radio stations from around the world
working together to collectively create good quality news
programming via the A-infos Radio Project Internet site."
On Sunday evening after the conference, members of the
Austin Police Dept. in an APD police car took photographs of
the house of GNN organizer Paul Odekirk, which was witnessed
by Odekirk and several other organizers. According to
Odekirk, "the curtain was half way open and we saw a big
flash and a police car was out front. They were taking
pictures of my house. I walked out front and the police
were standing in the street taking my picture and pictures
of the house. Then they got into their car and drove off."
The spectre of police spying on activists is evocative of
the FBI's infamous COINTELPRO program, in which government
operative infiltrated anti-Vietnam war groups and other
political organizations. Surveillance of activists by
police can be a method of intimidation used by authorities
to squelch activism (and hence democracy).
Surveillance of government, on the other hand, is good for
democracy. The following e-mail addresses of Austin city
officials and other personnel have been provided, so that
interested parties can let the city know they are being
watched over the Internet. Ask the city to investigate
possible spying by police and whether it was an appropriate
enforcement activity.
Mayor Kirk Watson Kirk.Watson@ci.austin.tx.us
Chief of Staff Jill.George@ci.austin.tx.us
Mayor Pro Tem, Gus Garcia Gus.Garcia@ci.austin.tx.us
Council Assistant Paul.Saldana@ci.austin.tx.us
Council Member Place 1 Daryl.Slusher@ci.austin.tx.us
Council Assistant Ramona.Perrault@ci.austin.tx.us
Council Member Place 3 Jackie.Goodman@ci.austin.tx.us
Council Assistant Susan.Sheffield@ci.austin.tx.us
Council Member Place 4 Beverly.Griffith@ci.austin.tx.us
Council Assistant John.Gilvar@ci.austin.tx.us
Council Member Place 5 William.Spelman@ci.austin.tx.us
Council Assistant Kristen.Vassallo@ci.austin.tx.us
Council Member Place 6 Willie.Lewis@ci.austin.tx.us
Council Assistant Dwight.Burns@ci.austin.tx.us
Find the Grassroots News Network online at
http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Studio/1082.
***
9. "Coincidences" at Pain Patient March
Last week, we reported that pain patients had rallied at the
U.S. Capitol to call for adequate pain medication for all
who need it and to protest the state medical boards and the
federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for
interfering with the objective. (See our story at
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/46.html#painmarch.)
Skip Baker, President of the American Society for Action on
Pain (ASAP), has reported that while he and other activists
were setting up for the event, three women whom he didn't
recognize approached him and asked for t-shirts. Skip
pointed them to a suitcase that held the shirts. Another
activist asked them if they had paid for the shirts, and one
of them responded that "David Baker said they could have
them." They proceeded to remove four or five ASAP t-shirts.
Skip was stunned to hear this, because while his real name
is in fact David, virtually no one knows this, and the only
way to find it out is to examine certain official documents.
(DRCNet's David Borden has known Skip Baker for three years,
and had no idea until last week that his real name was
anything other than Skip.) Though Skip didn't recognize the
women, another attendee was reminded of three female DEA
agents who attended when patients rallied in support of Dr.
William Hurwitz at the Virginia medical board's hearings two
years before (http://www.drcnet.org/guide10-96/pain.html).
Also, one of the pain physicians who was to receive an award
at the rally had his license to prescribe controlled
substances revoked by the DEA and was too upset to attend.
His offense -- failure to file a change of address form.
The doctor had moved several months before, but the DEA only
took action against him one week before the rally.
It should be stressed here that there is no hard evidence
that these coincidences were anything other than
coincidences -- but they do seem fairly suggestive.
(Visit ASAP at http://www.actiononpain.org)
***
10. EDITORIAL: The "L-Word"
As the debate over the efficacy of the Drug War moves toward
center stage in the political arena in the United States,
the primary tactic of the prohibitionists has become clear.
Anyone who espouses any measure of drug policy reform, no
matter if it's medical marijuana, syringe exchange, chronic
pain control, mandatory minimum sentence reform, opiate
maintenance, or even industrial hemp, is being labeled by
prohibitionists, from Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey to Senator
Joe Biden, as a "legalizer." It is the new "L-word," and
the prohibitionists hope that it will do for them what the
old "L-word" did for Republican candidates beginning in the
1980's, tar their opponents as extremists while
simultaneously forcing them to disavow their own beliefs.
This strategy, like virtually every political strategy
adopted in the last days of the twentieth-century, is based
not upon guesswork, but upon polling. Polls show that when
the American people are asked the question "should the
United states legalize all drugs?" the majority of
respondents will answer "no". In fact, depending on the
poll, a negative answer will be given by between 75 and 85%
of those questioned. There are several problems with these
numbers, however. First and foremost is that there is no
single definition of "legalization". Does it mean that
methamphetamine will be sold out of corner stores? No one
is advocating that, but to many people, that is the image
conjured up by the question.
A second and related problem is that up until now, the
American people have had virtually no exposure to the
serious and common-sense arguments against prohibition.
Most people believe that advocates of "legalization" are
exactly what the drug warriors portray them as, drug using
extremists who would unleash a torrent of dangerous
substances onto society with no thought to the consequences.
But judging from the respected names who have recently come
out to publicly question the status quo, that is most
certainly not true either.
But in systematically hurling the new "L-word" at any and
all reformers in tones reminiscent of those used in
conjunction with other quasi-epithets such as "racist" or
"communist," or "pervert", the prohibitionists are
achieving, perhaps intentionally, an even more important
victory: they are tempting, even forcing reformers to refute
the label as a perceived precondition of effectively
advocating their position. "I am not a legalizer." Once
that has been accomplished, reformers are left backpedaling,
rather than attacking. And rather than launching a full-
scale assault on the inherently flawed and globally
disastrous policy of Prohibition, reformers are left arguing
for harm-reduction in one form or another, essentially
surrendering to the notion that of course, criminal
prohibition is the right thing to do, if only you'd let us
make it a bit more humane in this or that specific area.
The sound of reformers backing away from the air-tight
arguments against prohibition must be music to drug
warriors' ears. There is no defense, historically or
logically, for prohibition. It simply does not work. And
worse, it invariably corrupts, it systematically infringes
on individual liberties, it grossly enriches and empowers
criminal enterprises, and it insures that we, as a society,
have no control over who is selling what to whom.
Especially with regard to children.
But to acknowledge, explicitly or otherwise, that
prohibition is indeed the right system, and that we are only
advocating reforms to its implementation, puts logic, or at
least the appearance of logic, back into the drug warriors'
court. If we agree that drugs should remain illegal
(prohibited) then it is rational, or so it would seem, to
argue against reforms -- syringe exchange, sentencing
reform, low-priority enforcement -- which would weaken that
system. Prohibition, were it possible that it could
succeed, would certainly require strict enforcement.
Especially if are talking about the theoretical (under that
system) elimination of access to drugs by children.
As reformers, we must not fall into this trap. Prohibition
does not, cannot, will not work. Oh, it works just fine if
your goals are to consolidate power in the hands of the
state, control minority populations by imprisoning an
enormous percentage of their young males, funnel wealth to a
privileged few in the defense, corrections, pharmaceutical
and other industries, use it as an excuse to infringe on the
sovereignty of poorer nations, justify enormous government
expenditures on law enforcement and the military, insure a
steady source of untraceable cash for secret operations or
drastically increase the ability of governments at all
levels to seize cash and property from citizens without due
process. But in the areas that prohibition is claimed to
address, preserving communities, reducing crime and
protecting children, it is -- and by the ironclad laws of
economics will always be -- an utter and disastrous failure.
This is the argument that must be made. It is an argument
for which there is no answer, and one which the
prohibitionists are desperate to avoid. It has been the
prohibitionists' refusal to publicly debate the facts, their
unwillingness to defend their system in any forum in which
there is articulate opposition, that has delayed their day
of reckoning for so long in the first place. It is only
now, when the reform movement, through the power of
prominent supporters, the work of dedicated activists, and
yes, the advent of electronic communications, has reached
the point that it can no longer be ignored, that they are
being forced to come out in public, in the mainstream media,
and defend themselves and their system.
The fascinating corollary to the numbers which say that 75-
85% of the American people "oppose legalization" is that
nearly the same number believe that the Drug War is not
working. And keeping in mind that our current president was
elected by just 22% of eligible voters, surely, given the
national stage which has so recently become open to us we
can activate those who already understand the issue, and
educate a small percentage of those who see the current
failure but are nevertheless afraid of the amorphous "L-
word." For the first time in the 80-year history of Drug
Prohibition, those of us who advocate reform are being
called upon to explain to the American people why the
prohibitionist system is antithetical to the results they
seek. And it is up to us to do just that.
"Are you a legalizer"?
"Well, it's funny, there are almost as many different
visions of a sane drug policy as there are reasons to get
rid of the one we have. In truth, I'm an anti-
prohibitionist, and I'll tell you why..."
Adam J. Smith
Associate Director
***
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[End]
to 1998 Daily News index for June 25-July 1