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(renamed "Drug War Chronicle" effective issue #300, August 2003) Issue #126, 2/25/00
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition" TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. LA Cops Union Suspects High-Level Corruption, Calls for Outside Investigator For the first time in its history, the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents approximately 9,500 LA police officers, has called for an independent investigation of the growing LAPD corruption scandal. As the scandal continues to grow, it is becoming apparent to many that despite the Mayor's and police department's insistence, only an independent review can credibly address the issues involved. Last week, members of the city council stated that the expected liability stemming from the beatings, set-ups and shootings would preclude virtually any new spending initiatives. This week, a motion was raised in the council to commission an independent body to conduct an investigation. "The police union never before has called for civilian oversight," Geoffrey Garfield, a union spokesperson told reporters. "But this scandal is so deep that the situation begs for a third-party and active participation to take part in this." This week, Los Angeles City Councilman Joel Wachs introduced a motion to establish an independent commission to oversee an investigation. On Tuesday, the council rejected the motion by a vote of 9-6. Councilman Wachs, however, is confident that the matter will be reconsidered. Greg Nelson, spokesman for Mr. Wachs, told The Week Online that an independent investigation is both imminent and imperative. "We feel that there are a number of council members who ultimately want (an outside investigation), but that they were simply not ready to vote to form one at this moment. It will happen, eventually. "The question -- and this is something that (Wachs) has been asking for weeks -- is 'how in the world did all of this happen without the knowledge of all of the brass? Did they really not know (about the rampant corruption)? If not, how is that possible? And, if they did know, why was a blind eye was turned?' But despite having been asked repeatedly, these questions have yet to be addressed, and therefore we believe that they cannot be answered to satisfaction except by an independent, civilian body." On Thursday (2/24) the FBI indicated that it would likely get involved in the investigation.
2. Higher Education Act Reform Campaign Update The Higher Education Act Reform Campaign kicks back into high gear this month, as students nationwide have begun filling out financial aid forms. For the first time ever, this year's forms ask applicants if they have ever been convicted of a drug offense. This question (#28 on the form) represents the practical application of the drug provision of the Higher Education Act of 1998 (HEA). The provision denies or delays all federal financial aid eligibility to any student, for any drug conviction. A bill, H.R. 1053, sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), would overturn the drug provision and return discretion to judges in individual cases. To contact your legislators, visit http://www.raiseyourvoice.com and urge them to cosponsor the bill. In March, MTV will be doing a feature on the HEA drug provision and the reform campaign, and this week, a piece on the HEA campaign went up on their campaign coverage web site at http://www.chooseorlose.com. DRCNet, as the coordinating organization of the Coalition for HEA Reform, is circulating a sign-on letter for educators and administrators. Educators around the country are asked to consider adding their name to this important petition. The coalition hopes to present the letter to Congress before the law officially takes effect on July 1, 2000. To download a copy of the letter, visit http://www.u-net.org. Taking the lead for HEA reform on campuses is Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP). This week, SSDP Swarthmore published an open letter in their student newspaper, The Phoenix, urging their college president to sign-on to the educators' letter. Students on other campuses are gathering signatures, calling on their student governments to oppose the new law, and approaching faculty and administrators for their support. To find out more about SSDP, or to learn how to start a chapter on your campus, visit http://www.ssdp.org. This week, the Department of Education has indicated that nearly 20% of completed financial aid forms are being returned with Question 28 (have you ever been convicted of a drug offense?) blank. (A copy of the page is online at http://www.drcnet.org/fafsa28.pdf.) Beginning in March, students who failed to answer the question will receive the following written instructions: "You left Item 28 blank. IF YOU HAVE A DRUG CONVICTION, you MUST answer Item 28. Your failure to accurately answer this question could result in legal action against you by the US Government. Use the enclosed worksheet to determine your answer to this question. Then correct Part 2 of your Student Aid Report, sign it, and submit it." By targeting financial aid, the new law imposes a secondary penalty on poor or working-class drug offenders who are trying to improve their lives through education. Wealthier students who do not depend upon student aid for their education will be unaffected. Finally, selective enforcement of the drug laws insures that the provision will have a disproportionate impact on people of color. African-Americans, for example, comprise 13% of the population and 13% of all drug users, but comprise 34% of those arrested and 55% of those convicted of drug offenses. PLEASE VISIT http://www.raiseyourvoice.com AND URGE YOUR LEGISLATORS TO REPEAL THE HIGHER EDUCATION ACT DRUG PROVISION.
3. Two Million Prisoner Mark Sparks Discussion in Nation's Most Incarcerated State, as DOJ Condemns Juvenile Prison Conditions A recent report by the Justice Policy Institute, revealing that the nation's incarcerated population passed the two million mark on or around Feb. 15, has sparked a discussion in the nation's most incarcerated state, Louisiana. Though the nationwide per capita incarceration rate is 483 inmates per 100,000 residents -- the highest in the world, save Russia -- Louisiana's incarceration rate is 736, a full 50 percent higher, according to the San Jose Mercury News (2/16). John Hainkel, president of the Louisiana state Senate, told the Mercury, "There are some who think we ought to keep everybody in jail and throw away the key -- I know, because I was one of them." But after four years chairing the Senate Finance Committee, says Hainkel, he has concluded that prison spending is diverting funds from the state's already under-funded public schools. "It's no great mystery," Hainkel continued. "The state of Minnesota has the highest rate of college graduates and the lowest rate of individuals in prison." Meanwhile, a report by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) accused guards at a privately run juvenile prison in Jena, Louisiana of habitually using excessive force and allowing brutal fights over items such as food, clothing and shoes, according to the Associated Press yesterday (2/24). The prison, which has been owned and operated by Wackenhut Corrections Corporation since opening in Dec. 1998, is one of two privately run juvenile prisons in the state. The other one, in Tallulah, was taken over by the state last year after a DOJ report made similar findings. One of the experts who investigated conditions at Jena, Dr. Nancy Ray, found there were prisoners who had no clean clothing and were "huddled under a sheet or blanket," and described a shoe shortage at the prison as "pervasive." Ray blamed the problems at least in part on "the reluctance of Wackenhut Corrections Corporation to spend adequate funds for the care of the youth." The report also found that some inmates repeatedly mutilated themselves in order to be transferred to the medical unit and avoid being pressured for food or sex by other prisoners, and that some telephones for reporting abuse by guards or inmates to a hotline were either broken or had the wrong phone number listed. Wackenhut issued a statement disagreeing with the report's findings. The Week Online spoke with Bill Rittenberg and Gary Wainwright, civil rights and defense attorneys in New Orleans. Rittenberg observed, "The imprisonment rate in America is increasing, and the crime rate is going down. You know why those statistics are both correct? I've yet to read this in the newspaper. The crime rate does not include drugs. Think about the last time you read about the crime rate. They talk about violent crimes, they talk about property crimes, they talk about murder, rape, theft, robbery. They don't talk about selling or possessing drugs. We're increasing the number of people in jail for drugs, while the crime rate is going down, and we're increasing our prison population by putting people in jail -- not only these so called victimless criminals who aren't criminals -- but they're not even counted as part of the crime rate. Isn't that worth reporting?" Rittenberg noted that the majority of Louisianans in prison are from New Orleans, and that the New Orleans DA, Harry Connick, Sr. (father of musician Harry Connick, Jr.), "prosecutes every drug crime he can. As a matter of fact, if you're caught with a pipe with resin in it, he charges you with possession of a drug and paraphernalia." To reduce the state's swelling correctional budget, Rittenberg suggested, "First of all, we don't need to arrest people for marijuana at all, but if you were going to arrest, if you were even going to have it as a crime, you could summon them to court and not put them in jail. People say no one goes to jail for possessing marijuana. Well, everybody that gets caught with marijuana goes to jail. They may get out in a day on bond, but it's very expensive to bring them to jail and book them." Wainwright recommended that "all persons prosecuted for crimes involving less than $100 of any drug should presumptively not be incarcerated, and I mean possession and/or sales. For instance, in our state, the mandatory minimum penalty for a first offender for sale of any amount of cocaine is five years, with a requirement of spending at least 85 percent of that time incarcerated." "The other thing I would recommend is the elimination of drug offenses from our multiple offender statute. In Louisiana, we have some insane sentencing ranges that were enacted when judges actually did sentencing, and they overlaid a vicious, retroactively applicable three-strikes law, on top of these incredible sentencing ranges. So for instance, for distribution of cocaine in any amount, the penalty is 5 to 30 years, and for a second offense, the mandatory minimum sentence is 15 years, which must be served day for day. So a person who was convicted of the crime of simple possession of cocaine, who then sold $20 worth of cocaine, presumptively would receive a 15 year sentence, of which they would do the full 15 years. It's a pretty expensive way to pick up $40 worth of coke." Wainwright also recommended applying such changes retroactively, saying "If they would just do the two things I have suggested, it would reduce the number of persons in custody in our state immediately by approximately 40 percent. The Department of Corrections' own figures say that 40 percent of all inmates are in for drug offenses, up from 8 percent in 1982." Commenting on the larger drug policy issue, Wainwright said, "Drug prohibition is an abject failure, and it's breaking our country. It's destroying our capacity to educate our children. It's racist, and it's classist." Rittenberg commented, "I think the war on drugs has done an incredible amount of damage in corrupting our society and building jails rather than schools. Ultimately, I think drug abuse should be discouraged as a medical problem, but not as a criminal problem. The two classes of people that would hate to see drugs legalized: law enforcement and drug dealers. Drug dealers would be the big losers if drugs were not a crime."
4. UN Drug Report Warns Against Injecting Rooms The United Nations' International Narcotics Control Board's (INCB) annual report, released this week, contains many of the admonitions against drug reform that have become a familiar refrain from the agency in recent years as numerous countries experiment with public health based approaches to drug control. Past targets have included the United States, which received an unfavorable mention after voters in California and Arizona passed laws removing penalties on the medicinal use of marijuana, and Switzerland, which was scolded at length when it chose to continue prescribing heroin to addicts under clinical supervision. But this year the honor fell to Australia, which has infuriated INCB officials in its perseverance in planning medically supervised injecting rooms for drug users. Any government that allows injecting rooms, "could be considered to be in contravention of the international drug control treaties," reads a special section devoted to the issue. "The international drug control treaties were established many decades ago precisely to eliminate places, such as opium dens, where drugs could be abused with impunity." While the warning does not mention Australia specifically, its message was perceived as less than veiled in that country, where state governments and public health officials have worked for years to put a trial safe injection program in place. One of their harshest opponents has been tough-on-drugs Prime Minister John Howard, so perhaps it is not surprising that Australian newspapers reported this week that drug policy adviser David Pennington accused Howard of influencing the INCB report. Howard denied the charge, calling it "offensive to the Board and to the government," but continues to oppose the trials. In any case, this would not be the first time the INCB has interposed itself in Australian drug policy affairs. In 1998, a plan to conduct a heroin prescription experiment similar to Switzerland's was scrapped after the INCB, reportedly under pressure from the US State Department, threatened to close down Tasmania's pharmaceutical opiate industry. And just two months ago, the agency sent a letter to Australia's UN ambassador which contained warnings similar to those in the annual report. Nevertheless, officials in Victoria, the Australian Capital Territory and New South Wales have vowed to proceed with the injecting room trials, which they hope will help bring addicts into treatment while reducing street drug use and the spread of disease. The project in New South Wales, which will be sponsored by the Uniting Church, is already seeking a program site. Australia may be the most recent industrialized country to pursue alternatives to punitive drug prohibition, but it is unlikely to be the last. On Friday (2/25), Germany's upper house of parliament is set to vote on its own proposal to legalize injection rooms, which have been tolerated in major cities there for years. The measure passed the lower house on Thursday. The International Narcotics Control Board's annual report is on the web at http://www.incb.org. DRCNet's past coverage of
the INCB includes stories at
For more information about injecting rooms, visit The Lindesmith Center's focal point web site at http://www.lindesmith.org/library/focal6.html.
5. Canadian Civil Liberties Association Seeks Investigation of Mass Strip Search at Rave The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has filed an official complaint under the Canadian Police Act, asking for an investigation into police conduct in strip searching approximately fifty people at a rave party in Halifax. Male and female employees and volunteers, some of whom are in their teens, were strip searched in their respective restrooms by police acting on a tip. Their information, according to the Halifax police, told them that a sizeable amount of drugs would be found in a ceiling above the dance floor. When no drugs were found, the police began a person by person search. "The Halifax police, in our view, flagrantly broke the law and invaded the civil liberties of those they searched at the rave," CCLA director J. Walter Thompson wrote in the complaint. "There is not even a pretense of reasonable grounds in this case." Police claim that proper procedures were followed. Thompson told The Week Online that the complaint procedure is an important, but not a perfect avenue to pursue in this matter. "Once the complaint is filed, the chief of police must begin an investigation. He has the choice to investigate it himself, or else to bring in another police force to do it. The process is more geared toward disciplining individual officers than toward getting relief in a case like this. Here, so many officers showed up at the club that it is apparent that the orders came from above. The police have not shown any remorse at all here, claiming that they followed procedures. But when fifty young people are strip searched, without any individualized suspicion, when the amount of drugs they were looking for would have been easily detectable by a normal pat-down, well, they shouldn't need us to tell them to do an investigation." Mr. Thompson also believes that the police response to the alleged presence of "club drugs" is something of a misapplication of resources. "I can't tell you how many young Nova Scotians have driven off the road, drunk, and died after a dance at the local fire hall. Now, the rave scene seems to be fairly new up here, but we haven't had anything like that come out of a rave. The difference is that the raves are attended by a population that is perceived to be marginalized."
School Offering Reward to Teens Who Snitch on Classmates Students at Hudson High School in Hudson, Wisconsin will soon have a way to supplement their allowances -- by providing anonymous tips about classmates who bring drugs, alcohol or weapons to school. Under a program slated to begin next month, the local Crimestoppers group will pay up to $100 for tips that lead to contraband that is found and seized. Supreme Court To Hear Case Against Police Roadblocks The Supreme Court this week granted cert to hear a case involving police drug checkpoints. The Court of Appeals previously ruled that the stops, which entail police checking licenses and registrations of every motorist passing through, while drug-sniffing dog circles the car, were a violation of the Fourth Amendment guarantee against unreasonable searches and seizures. The appellate decision, while noting that state and federal appeals courts around the country have been deeply divided on the issue, found that the city (Indianapolis) had failed to establish "urgent considerations of public safety." Arguments will be heard after the court reconvenes in October. This is Not a War: Part Two US "Drug Czar" General Barry McCaffrey told reporters in Bogota this week that "there can be no military victory" in Colombia, according to the Associated Press. "There must be a coherent strategy which includes peace, the economy, democratic institutions and support for the police and armed forces," he said. McCaffrey has been under pressure to defend a proposal, now before Congress, that would provide $1.6 billion dollars in anti-drug aid to Colombia over the next two years. More than half of the package is to be spent on weapons and military training for the Colombian army. At the press conference, McCaffrey stressed that 20% of the aid would go to human rights and justice reforms. The retired General's rhetorical strategy is notable for his reluctance to use military terms to describe his proposals. As Clinton's drug chief, he has repeatedly claimed that the "war on drugs" was an inappropriate term, and insisted that "we cannot arrest our way out of the [drug] problem." Nevertheless, incarceration rates, fueled by drug arrests, have skyrocketed during his tenure. Oregon: Public Employer Develops Policy on Medical Marijuana Oregon's Tualatin Valley Water District has unveiled a policy for employees who use medical marijuana off the job, making it the first public agency to formally acknowledge the rights granted to Oregonians under the state's medical marijuana law. Under the policy, employees who are registered with the state as legitimate medical marijuana users will be allowed to use the drug off the job, as long as they notify the agency with proof of their status. The policy will not apply to federally licensed commercial drivers who work for the agency, since federal law does not recognize the medical use of marijuana. A spokesman for the Water District told The Oregonian newspaper that none of the agency's employees had yet asked for permission to use marijuana, but that its board had wanted to be proactive in rewriting its policy to accommodate the law. But the agency was under no compulsion to change; under the terms of the law, employers have the right to refuse to allow patients to use marijuana.
7. Jim Miller Trial Begins March 1, Protests March and April in DC and New Jersey WASHINGTON: Jim Miller of Silverton, New Jersey goes on trial Wednesday, March 1, 9:00am in Washington, DC Superior Court, for assisting his wife, multiple sclerosis patient Cheryl Miller, in protesting in the doorway of Rep. Bob Barr's office. Cheryl Miller uses medical marijuana to relieve the spasticity of her extremely debilitating condition. Jim Miller lay her down in the doorway of Barr's office, in protest of Barr's legislation which prevented the results of DC's medical marijuana initiative from being counted for over a year. If convicted, he could face up to a $500 fine and/or six-month jail sentence. Supporters will protest in front of the courthouse in the morning prior to the trial. To participate, meet between 7:00-7:30am at 500 Indiana Ave. NW, near the Judiciary Square metro stop. Call Gary Sage at (732) 335-4313 or visit http://www.cherylheart.org for further information. NEW JERSEY: There will be a protest/march held Saturday, April 1, 12:00 noon at the New Jersey State House in Trenton. The action will protest Gov. Whitman's refusal to meet with Cheryl Miller, multiple sclerosis sufferer and medical marijuana patient. Cheryl & Jim Miller will be present, along with the New Jersey American Medical Marijuana Association, New Jersey Marijuana Reform Coalition and others. If you are interested in attending, please write to Alex (NJMRC) at [email protected], Gary (NJ-AMMA) at [email protected], or call (973) 267-4542. (Other New Jersey News: State Senator Louis Bassano has written a letter to the State Commissioner of Health, Christine Grant, requesting that she ask NIDA for medical grade marijuana for a state-monitored research program. Sen. Bassano authored the CDS Therapeutic Research Act in 1981, which was never put into effect. Interested New Jersey residents can contact Commissioner Grant to express support for this program. Her address is: The Honorable Christine Grant, Commissioner of Health & Senior Services, P.O. Box 360, Trenton, NJ 08625.)
8. EVENTS: Latinos in the US, DPF Conference, Lindesmith Center Seminars March 3-4, New York, NY, "Latinos in the US: The Evolving Relationship with Latin America." The Latin American Law Students Association presents the Second Annual Latino Law Symposium, addressing the historic, complex and growing relations between Latinos in the United States and Latin America. Panels and debates will focus on the drug war, immigration, law and development, and the 2000 US Census. The drug war panel will take place Saturday, March 4 from 3:00-5:00pm, and will feature journalists Mario Menendez and Al Giordano, Ethan Nadelmann of The Lindesmith Center, Winifred Tate of the Washington Office on Latin America, former drug war prisoner Anthony Pappa, and retired New York Supreme Court Justice Jerome Marks. For further information, contact [email protected]. May 17-20, Washington, DC, the 13th International Conference on Drug Policy Reform, sponsored by the Drug Policy Foundation. Visit http://www.dpf.org or call (202) 537-5005 for further information. The deadline for paper and panel abstracts is Monday, Feb. 28 and the deadline for scholarship requests is Monday, April 3; submissions can be sent by e-mail to [email protected] or by fax to (202) 537-3007. March 14, 4:00-6:00pm, New York, NY, seminar at The Lindesmith Center: "Let's Get Real: New Directions in Drug Education." Marsha Rosenbaum, PhD, director, The Lindesmith Center West and Lynn Zimmer, PhD, professor of sociology, Queens College, CUNY, critique traditional models of drug education. Rosenbaum, author of Safety First: A Reality-Based Approach to Teens, Drugs, and Drug Education (1999), and Zimmer, coauthor of Marijuana Myths, Marijuana Facts: A Review of the Scientific Evidence (1999), examine new directions for educating teenagers about drugs. March 30, 4:00-6:00pm, New York, NY, seminar at The Lindesmith Center: "MDMA ('Ecstasy') Research: When Science and Politics Collide." Julie Holland, MD, attending psychiatrist, Bellevue Hospital Psychiatric Emergency Room and faculty, NYU School of Medicine, John P. Morgan, MD, professor of pharmacology, City College of New York, and Rick Doblin, president, Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) and PhD candidate, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, assess scientific and political efforts to conduct MDMA research in the US and abroad. (Lindesmith Center Seminars are held at the Open Society Institute, 400 West 59th Street (between 9th and 10th Avenues), 3rd Floor. Call (212)548-0695 or e-mail [email protected] to reserve a place.)
Adam J. Smith, Associate Director, [email protected] Drug Czar Barry McCaffrey has been very busy for the past couple of weeks, traveling to Latin America, testifying on the hill and generally taking the heat for the Clinton Administration's proposed $1.6 billion (mostly) military aid package to Colombia. One question that McCaffrey has never answered, however, is how he can continue to claim that "war" is an inappropriate metaphor for our drug policy while shilling for a plan to send heavy artillery into battle to "combat drugs." Of course, it's not surprising that sending military equipment, including more than 60 combat helicopters into a forty year-old civil conflict, is "not a war," since the reason we are sending them there is not "drugs." In fact, critics of the plan point out that the US-Colombia Business Partnership -- founded in 1996 to represent US companies with interests in Colombia, has lobbied hard for military aid. Among the members of the partnership are Occidental Petroleum and BP Amoco, oil companies whose Colombian operations are sometimes targeted by rebel groups. This week, a spokesman for the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) noted that these corporations "are really appreciative of what we are doing in getting rid of the narco-traffickers." Neither the ONDCP spokesman, nor any oil company, as far as anyone can tell, seems to be quite so concerned about the drugs being trafficked or protected by the Colombian military, or by the right-wing paramilitaries working hand-in-hand with the Colombian forces. But the Business Partnership represents just some of the corporations who stand to benefit from US military aid to Colombia. If the aid package goes through, two large defense contractors, Shirosky Aircraft Corp. and Bell Helicopter Textron, Inc. will receive orders for 30 and 33 combat helicopters, respectively. Shirosky Aircraft, by the way, is located in Connecticut, the home state of Senator Christopher Dodd, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Narcotics. Shirosky also happens to be in the Congressional district of Rep. Sam Gejdenson, ranking member of the House International Relations Committee. It should surprise no one, then, if Senator Dodd and Representative Gejdenson fail to ask why, if this is not a war, we are sending the tools of war to combat drugs. And further, why we would do so when even the Government Accounting Office has stated that source country eradication and interdiction have had virtually no impact on the problem despite billions of dollars invested to this point. But this is not a war. No matter how many helicopters, or guns, or military advisors we send into an ongoing conflict. It is not a war, no matter how much property is seized without trial by our government, no matter how many doors are kicked in, nor how many prisoners we take. No, General McCaffrey tells us that the drug war he is running is not a war. Which makes sense. Since it is not really about drugs, either. If you like what you see here and want to get these bulletins by e-mail, please fill out our quick signup form at https://stopthedrugwar.org/WOLSignup.shtml. PERMISSION to reprint or redistribute any or all of the contents of Drug War Chronicle is hereby granted. We ask that any use of these materials include proper credit and, where appropriate, a link to one or more of our web sites. If your publication customarily pays for publication, DRCNet requests checks payable to the organization. If your publication does not pay for materials, you are free to use the materials gratis. In all cases, we request notification for our records, including physical copies where material has appeared in print. Contact: StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network, P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice), (202) 293-8344 (fax), e-mail [email protected]. Thank you. Articles of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of the DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.
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