Drug
War
McCarthyism
in
Syracuse
6/9/00
Efforts by two Syracuse, NY area concerned citizens to win appointments to the Syracuse-Onondaga Drug and Alcohol Abuse Commission have ignited a local firestorm. Dr. Eugene Tinelli, a former Navy commander, is a staff psychiatrist at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center's Chemical Dependency Clinic in Syracuse. Nicholas Eyle, of Syracuse, is a freelance photographer with a longstanding interest in drug policy issues. The Onondaga County Legislature's Health Committee thought both men were qualified. The committee last month unanimously approved Tinelli and Eyle to serve on the commission. Then, just hours ahead of the full legislature's meeting to approve the appointments, Tinelli and Eyle came under harsh attack from Executive Assistant U.S. Attorney John Duncan, who persuaded legislative Chairman William Sanford that the men's views made them unfit to serve. Sanford then yanked the resolution that would have put the two on the commission. The reason? Tinelli and Eyle are prominent members of ReconsiDer, a New York drug policy reform organization chartered as an educational non-profit corporation. The 400-member citizens' group defines its mission as: "to effect substantial change in United States drug policy; to promote, support, and engage in open discussion of alternatives to the War on Drugs, to form numerous chapters that challenge citizens and local political leaders to rethink drug policies; and to help enact pragmatic legislation that reduces harm and preserves liberties" (http://www.reconsider.org). This was apparently too much for Duncan, Sanford and their allies. "It's a point of view that's antithetical to the commission's purpose of eradicating drug abuse in this community," Duncan told the Syracuse Herald-American. "If someone wants to promote legalization, there are other places for them to do it." County Legislator Thomas Smith (R-Clay) told the Herald-American that the duo's political views "absolutely" disqualified them from serving on the commission. "This is a community with traditional values," he said. "Part of a of a legislator's job is to appoint people who reflect those values." But Eyle, who serves as ReconsiDer's executive director, argues that the organization does have support in the community. "William Kinne, the guy who nominated us, is a Democrat with Conservative Party endorsements, a ReconsiDer member, and is always reelected," he told DRCNet, "and our advisory board includes plenty of local politicians." The problem, says Eyle, is that "you have a semi-fanatic federal attorney who is a real drug warrior. He knows damn well that to allow someone like me or Gene Tinelli onto the commission will create chaos. Someone will get up and say 47 studies show DARE doesn't work, and then people will be starting to think and then the game's over." Eyle is not optimistic about his and Tinelli's appointments. The Health Committee will meet again on June 13 to reconsider the appointments, but it has also accepted a half-dozen new names hurriedly submitted since Duncan and Sanford's maneuver last month. "We'll lose, that's a foregone conclusion," he said. "We'd like the committee to reaffirm our nominations, but Duncan and Sanford call the shots. They'll outvote us." Still, says Eyle, "this is a win-win situation for us. This is going to get a lot of people thinking. In terms of public opinion, nobody here can figure out the problem with having a couple of people with different opinions on the commission." After all, he notes, "the commission has no real power." As for how Duncan's attempt to blackball the duo is playing out, Eyle says, "He's looking bad for his efforts. This is a very heavy-handed, desperate, last-ditch attempt to preserve the commission intact for General McCaffrey." There seems to be broad local support for that statement. Legislator Kinne, who originally submitted Eyle's and Tinelli's nominations, told the Herald-American that "this absolutely stifles the democratic process. ... These people aren't criminals. ... In fact, from what I understand, Duncan and Tinelli share the same goals. They merely have different approaches." The move to impose orthodoxy has provoked a flood of letters to the editor and an outraged editorial in the Herald-American. The Syracuse paper opined that, "Tinelli and Eyle have been blocked from the drug abuse commission not because they repudiate its goal. They share that goal, but they are locked out because they do not march in lockstep with prevailing opinion on how to accomplish it... The reasons seem to have more to do with politics than policy -- promoting rigid unanimity of opinion and not honest inquiry." Eyle believes the response in upstate New York indicates that public opinion is moving faster and further than is commonly believed. "People in the movement are always saying you can't talk about legalization, you can only talk about needle exchange or medical marijuana, but we've never paid any attention to that," he said. "This is showing that the people are ahead of the politicians, and even ahead of the reform movement."
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