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(renamed "Drug War Chronicle" effective issue #300, August 2003) Issue #154, 10/7/00
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition" Phillip S. Smith, Editor
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1. Tulia: Drug Warriors Decimate Texas Town's Black Community, But Fight is Just Beginning In everyday usage, "to decimate" means to wipe out, to cause great damage to, to destroy a large number of the enemy. Literally, it means to kill, destroy, or eliminate one out of ten. Either sense of the word is appropriate in describing what drug-fighting sheriff, a gung-ho prosecutor, a shady undercover cop, and the good jurors of Swisher County, Texas, did to the small African-American community in the town of Tulia. In July 1999, after an 18-month undercover investigation by a lone undercover deputy, Tom Coleman, police swept down on Tulia with indictments for 46 "known drug dealers," 40 of whom were black. Such numbers may seem unremarkable in Houston's 4th Ward, inner city Dallas, or other large cities where such sweeps are common. But Tulia, located in the vast flatness of the Texas Panhandle south of Amarillo, has a population of 4700, including 232 black residents. When the dust settled after the 1999 arrests, 17% of Tulia's black community was under indictment for felony drug distribution charges. They have been leaving for long stays in the Texas prison system ever since. Swisher County juries convicted and sentenced young first-time offenders eligible for probation to 20 and 25-year sentences. One man with a prior conviction got 90 years. But the hardest hit of all was William Cash Love, a white man who fathered a child with a local black woman. On the basis of a previous drug conviction and finding him guilty of making several drug deliveries -- the largest being an ounce of crack -- jurors gave Love a 435-year sentence. That is not a typo. According to the Texas American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which last Friday filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Swisher County law enforcement officials, what happened in Tulia is an egregious example of racially biased policing. "Tulia is the latest horror story in the US war on drugs," Texas ACLU Executive Director Will Harrell told DRCNet. Clearly outraged, Harrell didn't mince words. "People need to think about the Geneva conventions, which make genocide a prohibited act. Tulia shows once again that it is a policy and practice of US law enforcement in waging their war on drugs." "In one operation on one day, local law enforcement, with funds from the DEA, savaged the African-American community in Tulia, tearing parents away from their children and leaving 35 war orphans," added Harrell, referring to children who had at least one parent jailed. The Amarillo branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) agreed, accusing the sheriff of targeting blacks in the investigation. On Tuesday, Amarillo NAACP president Alphonso Vaughn told a rally in support of Tulia's black residents that the local chapter will ask the national NAACP leadership to let it join in the lawsuit, the Amarillo Globe-News reported. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Yul Bryant, who was held in jail for seven months on cocaine distribution charges. Those charges were eventually dropped after undercover deputy Coleman admitted he wasn't "100% sure" he had actually bought cocaine from Bryant. Bryant was more fortunate than Billy Wafer, who, according to the ACLU's Harrell, will soon become a co-plaintiff in Bryant's lawsuit. Wafer also spent months in jail before questions about informer Coleman's credibility got him released pending trial. Even Wafer's small victory in temporarily regaining his freedom reveals a disturbing picture of Swisher County justice. Wafer had six months left to go on a 10-year probation for marijuana possession when he was arrested and jailed for arranging the sale of an eightball (3.5 grams) of cocaine. At a probation revocation hearing, Deputy Coleman testified he had met Bryant at a convenience store to do the deal, but Wafer had a rock solid alibi: He was at work, and he had timecards and his boss's supporting testimony to back him up. State District Judge Edward Self rejected Coleman's testimony, declined to revoke Wafer's probation, and ordered him released pending trial. But although Coleman's discredited story was the only evidence against Wafer, District Attorney McEachern did not move to drop the charges, nor did Judge Self order them dismissed. Instead, McEachern offered to let Wafer plead to a reduced charge with no jail time. Wafer declined the offer because he is innocent and "I want the justice system to work," he told the Houston Chronicle. He instead filed a criminal perjury complaint against Coleman. The cases of Bryant and Wafer only hint at the problems with Deputy Coleman's credibility. He won the Texas Lawman of the Year award for his work in Tulia, but that was before his own checkered past became widely known. The 41-year-old son of a Texas Ranger, Coleman had abandoned previous deputy positions in Pecos and Cochran counties. In both cases, according to recent Texas press accounts, he left without notice and without paying outstanding debts. In 1996, Cochran County Sheriff Ken Burke wrote to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement to notify the agency that Coleman had quit in the middle of his shift and left debts totaling $6,931.82. "It is my opinion that an officer should uphold the law. Mr. Coleman should not be in law enforcement," wrote the sheriff. Unable to collect, after two years Cochran County issued a theft warrant against Coleman. Swisher County Sheriff Larry Stewart booked his employee but did not jail him and gave him a week to take care of the matter. Coleman did not do so, and in August of 1998 was suspended from his undercover duties until he made restitution. On August 17th, 1998, Coleman paid up, the charges were dropped, and the undercover work resumed. Testifying in Wafer's probation revocation hearing, Coleman denied having an arrest record. That testimony is the basis for Wafer's perjury complaint. A family court investigator who interviewed family friends, relatives, and coworkers during Coleman's 1994 divorce turned up even more damaging information about the deputy. In papers filed in Pecos County Court, several interviewees used terms such as "paranoid," "a compulsive liar," and "unstable" to describe him. One former co-worker in the Pecos County Sheriff's Office said, "Tom can lie to you when the truth would sound better." In the Tulia cases, Coleman's word was critical, because none of the supposed undercover buys were recorded, nor were there any witnesses. And, Coleman testified, he did not even keep permanent notes, instead scribbling information on his leg or stomach. Coleman's testimony and affidavits contributed to the severity of many of the sentences. He swore that many of the alleged buys took place within 1,000 feet of a school zone, thus making the defendants vulnerable to a life sentence under Texas law. Again, there was no corroborating evidence. That did not bother Swisher County juries, which convicted 11 people on Coleman's testimony alone. With the exception of three people who have so far avoided arrest and Wafer, who awaits trial, the remaining defendants pled guilty after seeing their friends and relatives sentenced to decades, sometimes centuries, in prison by hard-nosed jurors. Neither were the jurors bothered by another oddity in the cases. Although by all accounts, crack was the drug of choice among the young and poor in Tulia, almost every defendant was arrested for delivering powder cocaine. Wafer, for one, is suspicious about the powder cocaine. Those who were arrested, he told the Houston Chronicle, did not have the money to buy $200 eightballs of powder; rocks of crack costing about $20 were more in their league. Wafer isn't the only one wondering. Plainview attorney Brent Hamilton, who was appointed to represent some of the defendants, told the Chronicle, "What I want to know is where that powder cocaine came from, because it sure didn't come from my clients." Hamilton has obtained a court order to have the powder cocaine evidence tested to see if it came from a single source, the clear implication being that Coleman himself provided the cocaine, cut if with other substances, and used it to beef up the charges. The tests have not yet been completed. For the ACLU's Harrell, the last week's lawsuit is only the beginning. "Within the next month," he told DRCNet, "everyone indicted will be a plaintiff in the lawsuit. And we will soon file a second civil rights lawsuit on behalf of the families who have suffered a direct emotional and financial impact." "We're going after individuals and institutions for conspiracy to violate constitutional rights, particularly the 4th Amendment's guarantee of freedom from unreasonable search and seizure and the equal protection provisions of the 14th Amendment," explained Harrell. And, he added, "We have relayed information to the US Department of Justice asking them to investigate and file federal criminal charges against Swisher County law enforcement. On October 13th, we will file a complaint with Justice asking them to defund the Panhandle Narcotics Task Force." Task force funds, some of which come from the DEA, paid for Coleman's investigations. But for Harrell and the black community in Tulia alike, the ultimate goal is freedom for those sitting behind prison bars. Said Harrell, "We are now coordinating the appeals process and gearing up a habeas corpus campaign asking for retrials. But this is ultimately a political problem and will require a political solution." "We have to turn up the heat and come up with enough smoking guns to make this a clemency issue," said Harrell. That is beginning to happen. The story got little attention until a groundbreaking investigative report by the Texas Observer's Nate Blakeslee exposed the stink of racism and injustice. But with defense lawyers, local residents, and the Amarillo NAACP raising a storm of protest, the case has gradually made the media radar, at least in Texas. Now, with the ACLU lawsuit and publicity generated by the Texas Journey for Justice, the tale of Tulia appears to be reaching critical mass. Tulia residents did their part in the campaign last week when they journeyed to Austin, the state capital, to meet and rally with the Texas Journey for Justice, a 200-member caravan organized by the Drug Policy Foundation of Texas. (See related story below.) Anita Barrow, whose twin sons are each serving 20 years as a result of the bust, was one of the women who made the daylong journey by bus. She came, she told the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, because there is no justice for poor minorities in Tulia. "If you don't got money, or if you're not white, or if you're white but you hang around with blacks, it's the same thing," Barrow said. "No justice." Harrell agrees. "This is an obvious injustice," he fumed. Attorney Hamilton elaborated. "This case has got to be one of the most outrageous cases I have ever seen," he said. "What happened in Tulia is a real abomination and a real injustice that has done incredible damage to a lot of human beings. They deserve a real day in court." Mattie White, a Tulia grandmother who saw three children, a niece, and a son-in-law taken away, told the Houston Chronicle she just wants her family back. "It's real lonesome now. It's not the same as having those kids around." Nate Blakeslee's piece can be found online at http://www.auschron.com/issues/dispatch/2000-07-28/pols_feature3.html.
2. Crisis Bolivia Continues: Government Yields on Military Bases After US Signals Assent, Farmers Still Demanding Personal Coca Plots A massive wave of protests, fueled in part by peasants' rejection of a US-sponsored coca eradication scheme, continues to shake the government of president and former dictator Hugo Banzer. In addition to the cocaleros (coca-growing peasants), the regime faces strikes and blockades by teachers, the national peasants' union, and the Water and Life Coordinating Committee, whose members brought the government to its knees with protests over water price hikes six months ago. Although the past week has been relatively peaceful compared to the first two weeks of the uprising, tensions remain high. An estimated 50,000 peasants continue to block highways nationwide, and protestors and troops engaged in several tense confrontations during the week. Protestors and the Banzer government remain locked in negotiations over wages and land tenure as well as the coca issue. The Banzer regime, having heard approving signals from Washington, has now backtracked on its "non-negotiable" plan to build three US-sponsored military bases in the Chapare, the country's main coca-producing region. Reuters reported that "unnamed US diplomats" said their concerns about monitoring coca production in the Chapare could be met without the bases, provided that Bolivia beefed up troop numbers in the region. These comments mark a retreat in the US position. Earlier in the week, a US embassy official speaking anonymously told one local observer that if the government backed away from the bases, it could "create doubts" about Bolivia's pledge to make the country coca-free by 2002. Banzer's retreat on the issue of the military bases, along with his unfulfilled threat early in the week to break the blockades using military force, suggests an increasingly isolated and desperate government. Unease in La Paz was only heightened when ten high-ranking military officers in Santa Cruz circulated a letter holding the government responsible for civilian deaths, demanding a political solution to the crisis, and calling for an overhaul of the cabinet. But even as Banzer yielded on the military bases, Congressman Evo Morales, leader of the Six Federations of the Tropico, the cocalero's group, remained adamant that the "zero coca option" was unacceptable. Under that portion of Banzer's Plan Dignidad, even small plots of coca for legal, traditional uses would vanish. "As long as the government is unwilling to discuss the coca option, we won't have an agreement," Morales told Reuters. After failed negotiations earlier in the week, Morales vowed "war" if agreements could not be met. His statements come amid reports that Bolivian peasants are threatening to take up arms if a solution is not reached. Morales' high profile may be placing him in danger. Congressmen friendly to the government are now demanding that Morales be stripped of his congressional immunity and arrested. Hard-line Minister of Government Fortun has repeatedly described Morales as a "narcotrafficker." Bolivian press reports during the week suggest that the government may be ready to compromise on the zero coca option, though those reports have been officially denied. According to NarcoNews.com, La Razon newspaper in La Paz has reported that the government has made a secret offer to allow 400 square meters of coca per family, but that this is only half of what the cocaleros are willing to accept. Still, granting peasants the right to harvest limited coca plots is probably the only peaceful way out for Banzer. Now, if only he can convince the US government that this is the case. Slightly more than a year ago, drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey met with Banzer and told reporters "Bolivia has a lot to be proud of" with its eradication program. McCaffrey has not commented on the ongoing crisis there now. For Sanho Tree, drug policy analyst at the Institute of Policy Studies, "If Plan Colombia is phase one of coca eradication, what we're seeing in Bolivia in phase three -- the reaction. We can expect a similar reaction in Colombia, only there everyone is already heavily armed." Meanwhile, according to a report in the Herald (Glasgow), raw coca prices are climbing as a result of fears that the US-Colombian adventure will cause shortages. While increases in raw coca prices will have a miniscule impact on cocaine prices in the United States and other consuming countries, coca farmers of South America stand to see their incomes double, even if no further price increases occur. With prices having risen from about $20 for a 25-lb. bag of coca leaf to $35 in recent weeks, Plan Colombia could have the unintended consequence of sparking renewed coca cultivation across the region. According to Oct. 7th reports from Reuters and the New York Times, teachers and national peasant unions have agreed to call off their protests, after the Banzer government acceded to most of their demands. Coca farmers, however, continue to blockade highways, after the government's refusal to halt the forced coca eradication program. For English-language translations of Bolivian and foreign press coverage, go to http://www.narconews.com/pressbriefing.html. The Andean Information Network (http://www.scbbs-bo.com/ain/) provides frequent briefings on the situation from in-country observers based in the Chapare.
3. Vancouver 2.0: Politicians Unveil New Agreement to Deal With Hard Drug Scene, but Tensions Continue to Rise Two weeks ago, DRCNet reported on increasing tensions in the Downtown Eastside pitting thousands of hard drug users and their advocates against a coalition of community and merchant organizations (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/152.html#twocultures). Amid rising clamor from the politically powerful and deep pocketed Community Alliance, the coalition of 13 different groups from the Gastown, Strathcona, and Chinatown neighborhoods abutting the Downtown Eastside, Vancouver Mayor Philip Owen in August ordered a moratorium on new services for drug users. The mayor, who had previously supported such services, wanted a "time-out" to cool rising passions as the level of hostility between addict-oriented activists and merchants and residents grew palpable. On September 30th, Mayor Owen, along with representatives of the provincial and federal governments, announced a new version of the Vancouver Agreement designed to deal with the Downtown Eastside. The original agreement, initialed last spring, was stopped in its tracks by the moratorium. The new agreement provides for $10 million US for new services for the drug using population, including a health contact center, a mini-emergency room, and expanded detoxification services for the area, along with an already planned drug users' resource center. But it does not include safe-injection sites demanded by some harm reduction advocates. Worse, said Anne Livingstone of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), half the funds will go to support increased law enforcement activities in the Downtown Eastside. "This plan is vacuous," Livingstone told DRCNet. "It was a time for political courage, but they are moving backward. They are headed in the direction of drug courts," she said. Livingstone is also skeptical about the resource center. "It was already approved before the moratorium, and the mayor's office claimed it would open, but it didn't," she said. "We worry that it wasn't supposed to happen and it won't happen." "VANDU is looking at direct action in that event," she added. It wouldn't be the first time. The Vancouver harm reduction community has held demonstrations, carried coffins into city government offices, and disrupted meetings of anti-drug community organizations. Livingstone is unapologetic. "Listen," she said, "VANDU allows people who think they don't matter, who think they don't have civil rights to come to the realization that they do matter. There are lives on the line here." If harm reduction advocates are displeased, so is the Community Alliance. Alliance leader Bryce Rositch told the Vancouver Sun the announcement was "20% good news, 80% more of the same." "You still have four neighborhoods that are still very angry and frustrated, said Rositch. Last Saturday, one day after the new plan's announcement, Rositch and hundreds of supporters staged a march to protest open drug use in the area and to turn in petitions with 32,000 signatures asking the government to refuse to "assist, facilitate, or maintain the dealing and use of illegal drugs." The marchers, replete with their own private security force, were met by dozens of harm reduction counter-demonstrators and, according to press and eyewitness accounts, the scene turned very ugly. One harm reduction activist representing a Downtown Eastside agency who attended the march told DRCNet, "Those people were very angry, but we tried to present a nonviolent dissent. We handed out carnations with labels saying 'Drug Users Are Brothers and Sisters, Mothers and Fathers,' we had the Raging Grannies come out and sing songs saying we need compassionate solutions." "But they had these security guards with black sunglasses and leather jackets and gloves -- I thought I was in Suharto's Indonesia! -- and they were shoving and pushing us away." Police arrested 13 counter-demonstrators, although press and eyewitness accounts suggested it was Alliance members who should have been detained. "The marchers were angry," one participant told DRCNet. "They approached us with their security guards to harass the demonstrators, they screamed at the Raging Grannies, they took our flowers and threw them to the ground, they smashed our placards. They stood in a circle around one of members screaming 'die, die, die.'" "And we were the ones arrested?" After the arrests, the march ended at Canada Place, the municipal government offices in downtown Vancouver. Alliance members chanted, "This is our Canada, this is our community, no more drugs," handed in their petitions, and then sang the national anthem. "It was very menacing, like a Nazi rally with the security guards behind them," said one participant. Now, with anti-drug forces mobilized and angry, the question becomes whether Vancouver and British Columbia authorities can maintain the political will to actually implement the Vancouver Agreement.
4. Legal Marijuana Use in Switzerland: Cabinet Gives Okay, Next Step is Parliamentary Approval On October 2nd, the Swiss cabinet approved changes in that country's drug laws that would legalize the consumption of cannabis products. The cabinet declined to address whether growing and sales would be made legal. The Swiss executive branch will now write the revisions and submit them to parliament for approval. The measure is expected to pass. Of the four political parties that make up the governing coalition, only the far-right Swiss People's Party opposes the measure. The rest of the coalition, from the Social Democrats on the left to the centrist Liberals and the Christian People's Party on the right, support legalization of cannabis, at least in principle. In March, both houses of parliament approved resolutions calling for legalization of cannabis. Manuel Sager, director of communications for the Swiss embassy in Washington, told DRCNet that legalization of marijuana consumption "seems to have fairly wide acceptance." Sager explained that when the government proposes a law, it first consults with relevant interest groups, from law enforcement to public health to reform activists. Based on the consultations, said Sager, "the government has a pretty good idea of whether a measure is acceptable." Those consultations have already taken place, and the cabinet decision reflects the consensus developed in that process, said Sager. The time-line, however, is unclear. According to Sager, now that the cabinet has made its decision, the Federal Office for Health will write "the message," which includes the text of the proposed changes, explains their goals, and analyzes their effects. Once "the message" has been delivered to parliament, both chambers must debate and approve the changes. If the measure passes both houses, then commences a 90-day period in which any Swiss citizen or group may attempt to begin a referendum effort to undo the parliamentary vote. Switzerland is already in the vanguard of drug reform. Voters there approved a prescribed heroin program for addicts in 1997, and Swiss authorities had previously experimented with semi-regulated hard drug consumption in Zurich's famous Needle Park. But the Swiss electorate could only go so far, so fast. In 1998, voters rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that would have legalized the consumption of all drugs, hard and soft. Proponents of legalization, organized into a loose coalition called Droleg (http://www.droleg.ch), argued that the plan would eliminate the black market and serve harm reduction goals. But voters by a 3-to-1 margin instead heeded opponents' warnings that the country would become a "drug haven" and would come into conflict with international treaties. But with hard drug legalization now off the table and with the amelioration of social problems related to the now ended Needle Park experiment, the groundwork for cannabis reform was being laid. While an official commission spent five years studying drug reform, hundreds of thousands of Swiss were establishing facts on the ground. According to a recent report by Federal Commission for Narcotics Issues, an independent panel that advises the government, half a million people out of a population of seven million smoked marijuana at least once a month. The report concluded that marijuana smoking had gained broad acceptance "because of widespread use and a marked increase in its social status." That panel recommended legalizing possession, sale and consumption of small amounts within a regulatory framework. In 1994, Swiss authorities reported 10 hectares of marijuana fields. By 1999 that figure was up to 250 hectares, more than four times the amount of cannabis planted for hemp production and worth an estimated $100 million. Other police estimates suggest that 85% to 95% of Swiss cannabis production is for smokeable marijuana. Under current Swiss law, any form of cannabis may be cultivated, but it may not be used as a drug. But, as the embassy's Sager noted, "Enforcement of the laws against smoking marijuana is probably not a high priority for Swiss law enforcement officials." If the country's 150 "hemp" shops are any indication, Sager is correct. The shops -- there were only six of them in 1994 -- sell marijuana for smoking as well as hemp products. In a transparent bid to get around the ban on cannabis consumption, the shops pack, label, and bar code the weed as "hemp tea," "dried flowers," and "potpourri." The police do not interfere. If parliament acts as expected and legalizes pot smoking, this charade will soon come to an end.
5. Canadian Government Will Legalize Medical Marijuana Use (courtesy NORML Foundation, http://www.norml.org) Ottawa, Ontario: The Canadian government last Friday decided not to appeal a July 31st Ontario Court of Appeals decision that declared Canada's prohibition of marijuana "unconstitutional" and said that if Parliament did not amend the law to allow for medical use within a year, marijuana possession in Ontario (for any purpose) would be legal. Two weeks ago, Canadian Health Minister Allan Rock announced he would change regulations to allow patients access to marijuana. Until the new regulations are approved Canadians can continue to apply for a medical exemption under Section 56 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. To date, 71 Canadians are allowed to legally smoke marijuana. "We want to bring greater clarity to the process for those Canadians who may request the use of this drug to alleviate symptoms," Rock said. "We want to do so in recognition of a need for a more defined process for those in pain and suffering."
6. Rolling Stone Magazine Features Student Anti-Drug War Movement, HEA Campaign The October 26 issue of Rolling Stone magazine, currently on newsstands, features a three-page article on the drug provision of the Higher Education Act, the campaign to repeal it and the formation of Students for Sensible Drug Policy. This article, titled "The New Anti-War Protesters," can be found in the special "College Report" section, page 99 of the magazine. Freelance writer Phil Zabriskie skillfully chronicle-olds the ascent of SSDP, and explains how the nascent student group was nurtured by DRCNet and other drug policy organizations to become a major player in the war against the war on drugs. SSDP activists from chapters all around the country are featured. These include Dan Goldman from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Alex Kreit from Hampshire College, Denise Goetsch from Mount Holyoke College, and Shawn Heller and Brian Gralnick from the George Washington University, as well as DRCNet's own Steve Silverman. For more information on SSDP check out their newly redesigned web site at http://www.ssdp.org. Please visit http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com, also newly redesigned, to learn more about the HEA reform campaign, send a letter to Congress opposing the new law stripping students convicted of drug offenses of financial aid eligibility, and to find out how to get involved. Special thanks to student activist Matt Koglin for donating his much-needed web skills to revamp these two sites at this important time.
Studying in Washington? Why not spend a semester interning at DRCNet? Available positions include work on the exciting Higher Education Act Reform Campaign, assisting with writing of The Week Online, and working on our rapid response team legislative and activist network. Interested parties please send us your resume and anything else you'd like us to know via e-mail to [email protected], or fax or mail to David Borden at (202) 293-8344 or DRCNet, 2000 P St., NW, Suite 210, Washington, DC 20036. Feel free to call us at (202) 293-8340 to set up an appointment to interview.
8. Texas Journey for Jubilee Justice Ends in Austin Expanding on the themes and spirit of earlier Journeys for Justice in Florida, Ohio, and Wisconsin, the Texas Jubilee Journey for Justice took place between September 22nd and September 29th. A gaudy caravan of vehicles and protestors wound its way from Houston to Austin, stopping along the way to visit some of the numerous prisons that dot that Central Texas countryside, as well as holding impromptu dialogues with bemused law enforcement officers and garnering media attention along the way. Cosponsored by Journey for Justice and the Texas Drug Policy Forum, the journey had its finale at the Texas state capitol in Austin, where caravaners were joined by a busload of relatives and friends of drug war victims in distant Tulia, Texas, hours away in the Texas Panhandle, and the ACLU of Texas, which announced its lawsuit against law enforcement officials in Tulia. The Drug Policy Forum of Texas web site contains a comprehensive diary of the journey, as well as high-quality photos of the Austin rally, links to archived news articles about the journey, and much more. Visit http://www.dpft.org/txj4jj.html or Kay Lee's Journey for Justice homepage at http://www.journeyforjustice.org to read about the Texas Journey.
9. Pennsylvania Supreme Court Nixes Random Drug Searches on Interstate Buses Pennsylvania state drug investigators had a routine. They would randomly board a passenger bus at a bus depot -- the massive rest area at Breezewood on Interstate 70 on the Maryland border was a favorite target -- ask passengers to pair up with their luggage, and then ask to search the bags. If a passenger did not claim a bag, police would have the bus driver declare it abandoned property, then they would open it in search of drugs and clues to the owner's identity. The technique was effective, police claimed, leading to numerous arrests. But the state Supreme Court, ruling in Commonwealth v. Belisario Polo, has found that the random searches violate provisions in the state constitution that protect people from unreasonable or warrantless searches and seizures. Justice Stephen Zappala cited the court's opinion in a 1996 case, Commonwealth vs. Matos, writing that "the seriousness of criminal activity under investigation, whether it is the sale of drugs or the commission of a violent crime, can never be used as justification for ignoring or abandoning the constitutional right... to be free from intrusions upon... personal liberty absent probable cause." The court has nine similar cases pending before it, but state Attorney General Mike Fisher has apparently seen the writing on the wall. His office is reviewing the opinion and considering new investigative guidelines to keep drug investigators within the law. "We will make appropriate modifications to our ongoing interdiction efforts to adhere to that opinion," Fisher spokesman Kevin Harley told the Pittsburg Post-Gazette.
10. Hemp Voter Guide and Registration Tools Online at VoteHemp.com VoteHemp, a nonprofit advocacy group devoted to deregulation of industrial hemp agriculture, has published a voter guide publicizing the positions of all candidates for Congress and the Presidency. Visit http://www.votehemp.com to check it out, print it out and get information on voter registration and how to get involved in the VoteHemp campaign. VoteHemp is currently distributing its literature on campuses and to natural food stores. For further information, contact Lloyd Hart of VoteHemp at (508) 693-5992.
(Please submit listings of events related to drug policy and related areas to [email protected].) October 11-14, Hamburg, Germany, "Encouraging Health Promotion for Drug Users Within the Criminal Justice System," at the University of Hamburg. For further information and brochure, contact: The Conference Secretariat, c/o Hit Conference, +44 (0) 151 227 4423, fax +44 (0) 151 236 4829, [email protected]. October 14, Philadelphia, PA, "US Drug Laws: The New Jim Crow?", one day symposium sponsored by the Temple Political and Civil Rights Law Review. Featuring Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA) and former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke with panelists Eric Sterling, US District Judge Robert Sweet, Marc Mauer and others. For further information, contact Steven Kronenberg at [email protected]. October 16, Washington, DC, 5:30pm, 24th Annual Letelier-Moffitt Human Rights Awards, sponsored by the Institute for Policy Studies, international award honoring Bolivian grassroots activist Oscar Olivera and domestic award honoring The November Coalition, entertainment provided by singer-songwriter/activist Bruce Cockburn. Reception at the National Geographic Society, Grosvenor Auditorium, 1600 M St., NW, dinner at Madison Hotel, Dolly Madison Room, 15th and M. Event $35, Event and Dinner $150. Call (202) 234-9382 ext. 235 for further information. October 18, Minneapolis, MN, 7:00pm-3:00am, Benefit for NORML Minnesota. At 7th St. Entry, First Ave. & 7th St., $5 or free for members. For information, call (612) 871-8780 or e-mail [email protected]. October 21, Honolulu, HI, 8:00am-5:00pm, "Hawaii's Prison Crisis: Throwing Away the Next Generation." All day forum sponsored by the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii, ACLU of Hawaii and the Community Alliance on Prisons, at the Central Union Church, featuring Al Bronstein, former director of the ACLU National Prison Project and others. For further information, call (808) 988-4386. October 21-25, Miami, FL, "Third National Harm Reduction Conference," sponsored by the Harm Reduction Coalition, at the Wyndham Hotel Miami Biscayne Bay. For information, call (212) 213-6376 ext. 31 or e-mail [email protected]. October 24-26, Norfolk, VA, "Celling of a Nation: Prisons in American Culture," conference sponsored by Norfolk State University, Regent University, and Old Dominion University. 10/24 at L. Douglas Wilder Center, Norfolk State, 1:00-6:00pm, sessions on the drug war, death penalty, and prison building; 10/25 at Library Auditorium, Regent University, 7:00-9:30pm, media representations of prisons and prisoners; 10/26, Hampton/Newport News Room, Webb Center, Old Dominion University, alternatives to punishment. For further information, contact John Kitterman at (757) 823-2100 or [email protected]. November 1, New York, NY, 9:30am-5:00pm. Workshop: Using Creativity in Direct Service, Harm Reduction Training Institute, 22 West 27th St., 5th Floor, course fee $60. Contact (212) 683-2334, ext. 32. November 3-4, Chicago, IL. Conference on US Policy & Human Rights in Colombia: Where do we go from here? At DePaul University, sponsored by various organizations concerned with Latin America, human rights and peace. For information contact Colombia Bulletin at (773) 489-1255 or e-mail [email protected]. November 11, Charlotte, NC, Families Against Mandatory Minimums Regional Workshop, location to be determined. Call (202) 822-6700 for information or to register. November 16-19, San Francisco, "Committing to Conscience: Building a Unified Strategy to End the Death Penalty," largest annual gathering of Death Penalty opponents. Call Death Penalty Focus at (888) 2-ABOLISH or visit http://www.ncadp.org/ctc.html for further information. January 13, 2001, St. Petersburg, FL, Families Against Mandatory Minimums Regional Workshop, location to be determined. Call (202) 822-6700 for information or to register. April 1-5, 2001, New Delhi, India, 12th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm. Sponsored by the International Harm Reduction Coalition, for information visit http://ihrc-india2001.org on the web, e-mail [email protected], call 91-11-6237417-18, fax 91-11-6217493 or write to Showtime Events Pvt. Ltd., S-567, Greater Kailash - II, New Delhi 110 048, India.
12. Editorial: "Cocaine Has Never Been an Added Ingredient in Coca-Cola" David Borden, Executive Director, [email protected] United States drug warriors have been quick to condemn Bolivia's cocaleros as "enemies" or "criminals" -- for example, an unnamed senior State Department official quoted in the Washington Post who didn't think the mounting conflict was "all that terrible" and whose profound analysis of the situation was "We cannot forget that what they are doing is illegal" (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/153.html#boliviaconflict). Not so fast. Producing cocaine for distribution to the black market is illegal, but coca is another story. There are a range of coca products that are perfectly legal in countries with more rational governments than ours: coca leaves, the chewing of which is a staple of many Andean peasants' diets, reportedly used throughout the lengthy recent negotiations with the government; coca tea, a popular beverage that helps dwellers in Bolivia's mountainous regions cope with the thin air; coca toothpaste, to name a few. The major remaining sticking point, the point of greatest intransigence by the US government and therefore the Bolivian government, is the cocaleros' demand that each family be allowed to use a small amount of land to grow legal coca to supply those markets. Bolivia's farmers have grown coca for generations to fill these needs; and the plant plays an important part of the nation's rural culture. It is also the only way that many of them can make a living for themselves and their families. Actually, coca has some legal uses that do make it to the US. Pharmaceutical cocaine is one; cocaine's common medical uses, primarily as a topical anesthetic, are more limited today than once upon a time, but are still important. But there's another use the coca plant has, here and around the world, that is much more common. Ubiquitous would be a better word, in fact. Coca is a basic ingredient of the soft drink Coca-Cola. Yes, Coca-Cola, sold and advertised everywhere, available in supermarkets, street stands, vending machines the world over. They remove the cocaine from the coca leaves before making the Coca-Cola. Well, now they do. Original Coca-Cola used the coca leaves as they were, cocaine and all. As public suspicion of the new "wonder drug" grew early this century, the Coca-Cola company voluntarily began to extract the cocaine through a chemical process. Back then, that refining was done in a plant in the town of Maywood, New Jersey. (One town over from Hackensack, which some of you may remember as the target of Lex Luthor's second nuclear warhead in the first Superman movie -- also referenced in Billy Joel's "Moving Out.") This history is recounted in detail in the book "For God, Country and Coca-Cola." Not that the company will publicly acknowledge any of this. Call up the Coca-Cola public relations number, and ask them. The only thing they'll tell you is "Cocaine has never been an added ingredient in Coca-Cola." Does that mean that it wasn't added because cocaine occurs naturally in the coca leaf and they didn't remove it? "Cocaine has never been an added ingredient in Coca-Cola." Does today's Coca-Cola use the de-cocainized coca leaf as one of its ingredients? "Cocaine has never been an added ingredient in Coca-Cola." Okay, you have a nice day too. So getting back to the present, we have a plant that is grown legally in countries which neighbor Bolivia to supply a popular beverage to homes, workplaces and schools throughout the world. But idiot drug war bureaucrats in the US are so insistent that Bolivian farmers not be allowed to grow it, for this or any other use, that they are willing to see the country taken to the brink of civil war rather than let up. None of this should be taken to suggest that it is possible to control coca's illegal uses. Eradication programs, wherever they've been tried, have only succeeded in moving the coca cultivation from place to place. One of the victims of this process is the rain forest, which growers will often cut down to plant new coca fields after being displaced from their previous locations by eradication. A chart we made last year illustrates this effect: while coca growing in each of the major producing countries sometimes went up or down in a given country, the total has remained fairly constant since cocaine use in consuming countries like the United States began to increase two decades ago (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/coca-growing.gif). George Bush was the first president to really put this to a good test -- as Mike Gray puts it in the book Drug Crazy, when George Bush left office, "some 200,000 farmers were growing coca in an area that had been largely rain forest on the day Bush was inaugurated." The drug warriors would understand this if they allowed themselves. It's not worth destroying Bolivia for, it's not worth destroying Colombia. It's time for a little honesty. 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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