TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. DRCNet Needs Your Help
2. Drug Crazy Goes to Second Printing
3. Harm Reduction Conference in Cleveland
4. New Law Denies Student Loans to Non-Violent Drug Offenders
5. Judge Dismisses Charges in George Singleton Case
6. Oregon Initiatives
7. Peter McWilliams Sues Attorney General for Failure to Enforce Prop. 215
8. EDITORIAL: Reality vs. Demagoguery

1. DRCNet Needs Your Help

With our number of subscribers approaching 7,200 and our staffing situation finally coming together, DRCNet needs your support and participation now more than ever to help build DRCNet and the movement to new heights. We are soon embarking on a major effort to recruit thousands of paying members and tens of thousands of e-mail subscribers, to build this network into a major force for social change. Your membership dues or additional donation will enable us to increase the size and impact of our outreach efforts; and even more, will give our major donors the confidence to invest further in the organization. And your letters written to Congress, legislatures and the media, and other actions taken in response to our action alerts, reported to us at [email protected], will send a message to politicians that business as usual isn't going to work anymore in drug policy, and that they had better start legislating more rationally or will face mounting criticism of their failing drug war.

Donate $35 or more to DRCNet, and you will receive a free copy of "Shattered Lives, Portraits from America's Drug War," the new photojournalistic volume depicting the human side of our tragic laws and providing an overview of the basic issues at stake. (Visit http://www.hr95.org to see more of what this important new book is about.) To donate, use our form at https://www.drcnet.org/cgi-shl/drcreg.cgi (encrypted transmission, especially for credit card donations), or http://www.drcnet.org/cgi-shl/drcreg.cgi (no encryption, recommended you print it out and mail in with a check), or just send your check or money order to: DRCNet, 2000 P St., NW, Suite 615, Washington, DC 20036. Please note that contributions to DRCNet are not tax-deductible. If you wish to contribute beyond the basic membership dues and are looking to make a deductible gift, you can support our educational work through a tax-deductible donation to the DRCNet Foundation. (You can also purchase Shattered Lives from us for $23 including shipping, sales tax added for District of Columbia residents.)

The more than 550 of you who have signed up for the eyegive online fundraising program are collecting earning DRCNet several thousands dollars a year. Thank you! If you don't know about eyegive, point your browser to http://www.eyegive.com/html/ssi.cfm?CID=1060 to find out. If you've signed up but not kept up, you can make it easy by selecting http://www.eyegive.com as your browser's home page. You can earn valuable dollars for the cause, just by pointing and clicking on the eyegive home page whenever you feel like it, up to fives times a day. And yes, we have gotten checks from them, in the right amounts, it's legit!

2. Drug Crazy Goes to Second Printing

Just a few months from its official release, Mike Gray's "Drug Crazy: How We Got Into This Mess and How We Can Get Out," published by Random House, has entered its second printing. Your efforts in asking about Drug Crazy in your local bookstores have played a significant role in making this first stage of the book's promotion a success. Keep up the activity! Call your local bookstores, both chains and independent stores, and just ask if they are carrying this book. Even better is to go out and buy it. Drug Crazy has been reviewed by Federal Judge John L. Kane, Jr., among others, and is an extremely persuasive overview of the issue that is accessible by the popular audience. Helping Drug Crazy go big will help turn the tide in the drug policy debate -- just last month we met someone who had read the book and whose mind had been made up by what she read there. Drug Crazy's appendix provides a host of Internet resources, very prominently featuring DRCNet, so helping the book will help grow the movement too. You CAN make a difference. Read more about Drug Crazy at http://www.drugcrazy.com, and find more links to reviews of the book and other discussions at http://www.drcnet.org/wol/057.html#slate.

3. Harm Reduction Conference in Cleveland

This week (10/6-10) activists, health care workers, researchers, former and current drug users, people living with AIDS and HIV and public health officials from across North America gathered in Cleveland, Ohio for the second annual Harm Reduction Coalition conference. This diverse group discussed such issues as syringe exchange, HIV services and prevention, drug treatment, housing issues and the further development of policy initiatives which can reduce the harms associated with substance use and society's responses to it.

Proponents of harm reduction point to real world successes, such as the low rates of HIV among injection drug users and their families in parts of the world which adopted syringe exchange early, as well as the proportionately large numbers of people who enter treatment as the result of being brought into stable systems, rather than being chased underground by punitive policies designed to punish, rather than help people in need.

Allan Clear, Executive Director of the Harm Reduction Coalition, told The Week Online, "One of our goals in holding this conference is to bring together a wide assortment of constituencies who are impacted by substance use and by drug policy, either in their work or in their lives. The conference provides a wonderful learning experience and has led, we believe, to better communication and more effective advocacy on all fronts.

"It is especially significant that we have city and state health officials from all over America in attendance, as they, more than the politicians in Washington, are really on the front lines. They see the shortcomings in our current policies, they see what works, what impact AIDS and other diseases have had on their cities and their budgets, and they are interested in being part of rational solutions. The rhetoric is all well and good until you are confronted by the actual human beings who are impacted. Everyone here has an overarching concern for public health and for community health and for reducing the destruction that we see all around us. I think that it's wonderful that the harm reduction movement has gained so much momentum here, as America has lagged so far behind much of the rest of the developed world in really addressing these issues in a pragmatic and effective way."

(Day-by-day conference newsletters will be posted online at http://www.drcnet.org/hrc-cleveland/ available sometime Friday afternoon. The Harm Reduction Coalition can be found on the web at http://www.harmreduction.org.)

4. New Law Denies Student Loans to Non-Violent Drug Offenders

A provision in the Higher Education Act of 1998, which was signed into law by President Clinton this week, will deny student loans to college students convicted of drug offenses. Under the new provision, students who are convicted of drug possession will face a one-year suspension of federal student aid. A second offense will result in a two year suspension, and loans will be denied "indefinitely" upon a third conviction. The language permits a student to regain eligibility before the suspension period expires if he or she completes a drug rehabilitation program and tests negative for drugs twice over a six month period.

Congressman Mark Souder (R-IN), who sponsored the initial house bill and added the drug testing requirements, said last May that he hopes the law "will encourage all young people with plans for college and the opportunities it provides to avoid drugs or to get help if they are already using them. You can't learn if your mind is clouded by drugs. By passing our language as part of the Higher Education bill, the House has expressed its commitment to help identify students who are in trouble with drugs, hold them accountable for their actions and give them an opportunity for a productive, drug-free future."

But Rob Stewart, a spokesman for the Drug Policy Foundation in Washington, DC, says that the provision is unfair in that it singles out drug offenders for special punishment. "If someone can serve time for other more serious offenses, such as murder or robbery, and still be eligible for a student loan, then it is discriminatory to deny the same privilege to the non-violent drug offender who has served time or paid the fine," he told DRCNet.

Stewart also fears the law will have a disproportionately negative effect on minorities, because African-Americans, while they make up 13% of all illegal drug users, make up 55% of convictions for drug possession. "The targeting of minority communities by drug enforcement will inevitably result in few African-Americans and Latinos in receiving financial aid."

Stewart also said that requiring offenders to complete drug rehab and undergo testing arbitrarily interferes with an individual's privacy. He said, "It has not been established that someone who is arrested and convicted for possession has a drug problem at all, other than the fact that they broke the law. It certainly does not prove that they are incapable of learning or participating in a college or university."

"The government wants to 'send the right message,'" he told DRCNet, "and say that drug use is wrong. But they are ultimately sending the message that the government is willing to violate individual rights and to bar people from bettering themselves."

5. Judge Dismisses Charges in George Singleton Case

Last Friday, a judge in Craig County, Oklahoma dismissed the case against George Singleton, a Vermont man who was arrested while driving through the county last February. Singleton was charged with driving under the influence of intoxicants, when a state trooper who had pulled him over seized a bag of what he thought was marijuana from Singleton's car. The substance turned out to be a combination of legal herbs Singleton uses to treat his tuberculosis, and blood samples taken from Singleton at the time of his arrest revealed no trace of any known intoxicants. The prosecution stood by the trooper's written report that Singleton had appeared intoxicated, but the judge dismissed the case based on the lack of corroborating evidence. Singleton spent 25 days in an Oklahoma jail following his arrest, when he was unable to post bail. (See http://www.drcnet.org/wol/061.html#dwd for more background, as well as Adam Smith's editorial on the DRCNN radio show at http://www.drcnet.org/drcnn/dl28/100298drcnn2.ram -- Real Audio required.)

6. Oregon Initiatives

Bear Wilner

One distinctive aspect of Oregon's pamphlet, though, is the fact that for $300, individuals or groups may purchase half-page segments in order to run statements supporting or opposing the measures of their choice. These statements are not censored or edited by the state. With the marijuana-related Measures 57 and 67 on this Fall's ballot, every household in Oregon is being exposed to what turns out to be a fairly thoughtful debate on drug policy.

This is nearly unprecedented in United States history, and for the No on 57 and Yes on 67 campaigns, the cost of the advertising pales before its true value. Opponents of drug policy reform have long sought to deny the basic legitimacy of re-examining the status quo. With a platform like the Oregon Voters' Pamphlet, the issues can at last be examined on their merits.

7. Peter McWilliams Sues Attorney General for Failure to Enforce Proposition 215

AIDS patient and recent cancer survivor Peter McWilliams filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles this week, requesting that the Superior Court order California Attorney General Lungren to uphold his Oath of Office and fulfill his duties under the California Constitution concerning Proposition 215. The suit asks for no monetary damages, but asks the judge to instruct Attorney General Lungren, the Republican candidate for Governor, to fulfill his Oath of Office to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of California against all enemies, foreign and domestic."

The suit charges Lungren with four breaches of the California Constitution:

1. The California Constitution, Article III Section 3.5 (c) states: "An administrative agency...has no power... (c) To declare a statute unenforceable, or to refuse to enforce a statute on the basis that federal law or federal regulations prohibit the enforcement of such statute unless an appellate court has made a determination that the enforcement of such statute is prohibited by federal law or federal regulations." No such determination has been made to date.

2. The California Constitution, Article III Section 3 states: "The powers of state government are legislative, executive, and judicial. Persons charged with the exercise of one power may not exercise either of the others except as permitted by this Constitution." The suit argues that Lungren overstepped his executive-branch duties and acted both judicially and legislatively by giving his own extremely narrow and limited interpretation of Proposition 215 the full force of law.

3. The California Constitution, Article V Section 13 states: "It shall be the duty of the Attorney General to see that the laws of the State are...adequately enforced." The lawsuit argues that Lungren has inadequately enforced Prop. 215, now the California Health and Safety Code Section 11362.5, which is meant "To ensure that seriously ill Californians have the right to obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes... To ensure that patients and their primary caregivers who obtain and use marijuana for medical purposes upon the recommendation of a physician are not subject to criminal prosecution or sanction... To encourage the federal and state governments to implement a plan to provide for the safe and affordable distribution of marijuana to all patients in medical need of marijuana."

4. The California Constitution, Article V Section 13, states: "It shall be the duty of the Attorney General to see that the laws of the State are uniformly... enforced." The lawsuit compares Lungren's vigorous defense of affirmative-action-ending Prop. 209, which AG Lungren personally supported, with his open suppression of Prop. 215, a bill he opposed, which passed in the same election.

McWilliams is calling for the impeachment of Attorney General Lungren, based on the allegations in the lawsuit. A web site with further information has been established at http://www.lungrendoyourduty.com. Press inquiries should be directed to Ed Hashia at (213) 650-9571 x125.

8. EDITORIAL: Reality vs. Demagoguery

To hear some politicians tell it, the phrase "harm reduction" is a smokescreen, a code word for a malevolent plot to make heroin available at candy counters and to gain popular acceptance for drug addiction as a way of life. But don't try getting away with such rhetoric in Cleveland this week, as a broad array of health care officials, researchers, treatment professionals and activists gather for the second annual conference of the Harm Reduction Coalition.

As politicians in statehouses and in Washington fall over each other to pass legislation which will earn them the mantle of "tough on drugs," local health officials, who have to deal with the real costs of those policies, are finding that the harm reduction movement is providing practical and economically sound strategies for dealing with real problems. Long accepted in most of Europe as a pragmatic approach, harm reduction is finally becoming normalized on the streets, and in the health departments of cities across America.

Harm reduction is a philosophy which says, "If people are going to use substances, be they legal, like alcohol or illegal like heroin, it is in the interest of both the community and the individuals affected to reduce the harms associated with that use." This includes allowing IV drug users access to clean syringes to prevent the spread of devastating diseases like AIDS and Hepatitis C, referral services for health care and drug treatment, information on the effects of drugs and on the various methods of administration, overdose prevention, housing and employment services, and much more. Harm reduction seeks to keep people alive and healthy so that they may live to get their lives together.

Politicians who have made careers out of demonizing and persecuting unpopular minorities such as drug users see a problem with the approach. One Republican congressman, addressing needle exchange, said that since AIDS was a potential consequence of sharing syringes, it would be wrong to try to mitigate the chances of AIDS, and to thereby remove a disincentive to use drugs. Harm reductionists, of course, don't have the luxury of pontificating from an office on Capitol Hill. They see the ravages of AIDS first-hand, and they are determined to see that methods of preventing its spread are implemented among the populations they work with.

Diana McCague is one of the attendees this week in Cleveland. She was recently arrested, for the second time, for running a needle exchange program in New Jersey in violation of state law. "People are using drugs" she said recently, "and although it would be great if they'd all stop, the fact is that many can't, or are not ready to face their addiction. It boggles my mind that we would rather pretend that this isn't the case than to prevent them from contacting and spreading deadly diseases. Outlawing clean needles is little more than state-assisted suicide. That is essentially what New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman is practicing. These people don't want to die. Doesn't it make sense to draw them into healthy contact with health workers rather than push them further underground where they are harming not only themselves but the community as well?"

While it is deeply saddening that politicians, plying their trade far from the realities of the streets, have labeled McCague and others like her as criminals and deviants, it is heartening that local officials, on the front lines, are showing up to conferences like the one in Cleveland. Harm reduction is indeed being practiced in the US, and the numbers of its proponents are growing.

Politicians, by their nature, are followers. Very few of the creative and effective solutions to real-world problems are handed down from on-high. Most bubble up from the trouble-spots themselves. Harm reduction, the efforts of community-based organizations to ameliorate the damage caused by substance abuse and by the drug war, is certainly no different. "If drug use is illegal," the politicians ask, "then why would we allow drug users to have syringes?" And from the comfort of the rotunda, that question seems legitimate. But ask a harm reductionist, someone who has seen the devastation and who is working to do something about it, someone who cares deeply about life and believes in the possibilities for positive change, and they will tell you just how ridiculous that question really is. "It's simple," says McCague, "dead addicts don't recover."

Adam J. Smith
Associate Director

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