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(renamed "Drug War Chronicle" effective issue #300, August 2003) Issue #196, 7/27/01
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition" Phillip S. Smith, Editor
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1. Plan Colombia I: Congress Approves Another $676 Million as Opposition Mounts on the Ground The US House of Representatives gave Plan Colombia, or the Andean Counterdrug Initiative, as this year's version is known, a solid vote of approval this week even as it came under increasing political fire within Colombia. Coming on the heels of the $1.3 billion allocated last year, the funds will be the latest installment of the US government's effort to eradicate both Colombia's drug trade and its entrenched leftist guerrilla armies. Amendments that would have diverted some of the funds to global health programs were easily defeated, and Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) was eventually persuaded by plan proponents to withdraw his amendment barring the use of herbicides in the coca eradication campaign. Conyers and other Plan Colombia opponents, however, were able to block Bush administration efforts to remove caps on the number of private contract personnel who could work in Colombia and to allow such personnel to buy and carry weapons. The Bush administration and Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ), the bill's floor manager, attempted to sneak through the cap and weapons provisions hidden in arcane language in the bill, to wit: "These funds are available without regard to section 3204(b)(1)(B) of Public Law 106-246: Provided further, that section 482(b) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 shall not apply to funds appropriated under this heading." Unfortunately for Kolbe and Bush, Conyer's staffers uncovered and deciphered the language, which would have removed any restriction on the number of contract employees the US could use in Colombia -- the current limit is 300, along with up to 500 US military personnel -- and would have removed language restricting the provision of weapons to such employees to "defensive purposes." "The president requested this," a Bush spokesman told the Miami Herald. In a recent editorial, the Sacramento Bee called the move "a deadly cocktail: unlimited private forces armed with unlimited weapons." Continuing, the paper noted, "Turning an army of heavily armed mercenaries loose in the middle of a bloody civil war is more than a misguided policy -- it is utter insanity. It's imperative that our lawmakers defuse these provisions in the bill before they blow up in our faces, and the cliche of 'another Vietnam' becomes a sorry Colombian reality," the paper concluded. A Congress decidedly less enthusiastic about Plan Colombia than last year agreed. After negotiations between Conyers and Kolbe, a compromise was reached that capped the number of combined US military and private contract personnel at 800 -- the same overall level as now -- but would allow contract employees to exceed the 300 limit. While Congress approved the funding, it seemed to do so more out of inertia than out of belief that the strategy will work or that it will work without creating a human rights debacle. With recent reports of expanding coca and opium production in adjacent Andean countries and harsh criticism of the Colombian military's ties to right-wing paramilitary death squads, even supporters of the plan were unable to claim it was working so far. Drug war hawk Rep. Benjamin Gilman (D-NY) was reduced to arguing that: "There is no other solution but to help Colombia. We must work with them to try and improve their human rights performance," he told Congress. Rep. Robert Wexler (D-FL), a Plan Colombia supporter, told his colleagues patience would run out if the administration could not show results. "Plan Colombia probably has one more year to prove itself before it's curtains," he said. "It's just too much American money being spent without results and Pastrana, whose term ends in 2002, will be gone next year." If the US Congress seems unenthusiastic about Plan Colombia, events in Colombia should dampen even that faint ardor. An unnamed US Embassy official in Colombia was forced to concede to reporters this week that the battle had been a losing one so far. "We've underestimated the coca in Colombia," he admitted to the Associated Press. "Everywhere we look there is more coca than we expected." As for the opium crop, he conceded that: "There is more out there than we can find right now." And the opposition to Plan Colombia from the left, peasants, environmentalists and human rights activists is beginning to percolate up into the Colombian political class. Last week, Colombia's top human rights official, the nation's comptroller general, a leading legislator from Pastrana's own Conservative Party, and the governors of the main drug-producing states all came out in opposition to the policy, according to the Associated Press. In the boldest pronouncement, Conservative Sen. Juan Manuel Ospina said he would introduce legislation to sharply reduce aerial spraying, provide more alternative crop assistance and decriminalize small coca and opium plots. Fumigation "has been absolutely ineffective in reducing or eliminating the areas under cultivation," Ospina told the AP. A day earlier, Comptroller Carlos Ossa told the legislature fumigation should be stopped altogether because it was proceeding without an environmental protection plan. And human rights ombudsman Eduardo Cifuentes also called for a suspension of spraying, adding that the government had failed to compensate peasant farmers. Also last week, governors from six of the main drug-producing states forced top officials in Bogota to meet with them. According to the AP, the governors warned that continuing the eradication policy would intensify mass protests already occurring in diverse regions. But even as the governors protested, opium crops were being sprayed in Cauca and Narino. The Anti-Narcotics police chief Gen. Gustavo Socha told AP any criticism was the result of "drug traffickers" spreading disinformation.
2. Plan Colombia II: Latin American Hard Left Targets Plan Colombia, El Salvador Conference Draws Hundreds from Throughout the Hemisphere The three-day First International Conference of Solidarity and for Peace in Colombia and Latin America held in San Salvador last weekend saw leftist and nationalist forces from across the region gather to devise strategies to defeat US policy in Colombia and offer political support to the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC). The FARC, the largest and longest-lived guerrilla movement in the country, is squarely in the bull's eye of US policy in Colombia. FARC, in the form of members of its "international commission," was in the house, as were numerous well-connected sympathizers. El Salvador's Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN), the one-time guerrilla army turned parliamentary political party, hosted the event and provided a strong local presence. The Nicaraguan Sandinistas, who stand poised to win presidential elections in that country later this year, sent a delegation of Sandinista Youth. A caravan from Mexico brought busloads of activists, some connected to the Mexican Workers' Party, some affiliated with pro-Zapatista struggles. Various communist parties from Latin America and Spain also attended, as did a surprising number of "Bolivarians," or persons interested in unifying Latin America to confront the colossus of the north. The term comes from Simon Bolivar, the "Great Liberator," who dreamt of a unified continent, and is currently embodied in the person of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who was widely and vocally admired at the conference. Also present were North American and European academics, as well as sympathizers ranging from freelance Canadian communists to Ramsey Clark's International Action Center and pro-left groups such as the Colombia Action Network, the Committee for a New Colombia and the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES). The "peace movement" was not present, which is not surprising because, at root, the conference was not about "peace," but about defeating Plan Colombia and the larger US pretensions toward regional and global domination, and winning either an outright victory or a negotiated settlement for the FARC. Peace movement-aligned organizations opposing Plan Colombia, such as the Colombia Support Network, were not in attendance. [DRCNet was present as an observer and to advocate that Latin America activists embrace ending drug prohibition as one of their goals, as well as to support calls for an end to Plan Colombia -- wherever they may come from.] Natasha Alsop, a twenty-something with blue dyed hair from San Francisco, attended as part of a delegation from the West Coast's Committee for a New Colombia. "We came to meet Latin American activists and people from Colombia, so that we can better inform people in the US about what is going on," she told DRCNet. "Almost everyone back home is shocked that we support the struggle in Colombia. They don't understand Colombia, they don't understand the role of the paramilitaries, they don't understand the extent of US involvement, and they think it is just one big chaotic mess," she continued. "People don't make the connections between the war on drugs at home and what the US is doing in Colombia. Personally, I believe the war on drugs is a pretext for US military and police actions. We are here to make those connections." Although the conference was endorsed by a number of US and Latin American luminaries, few actually attended the event. Among the prominent endorsers listed by event organizers were North American professors Noam Chomsky, Heinz Dieterich and James Petras, Nobel Peace Prize winners Rigoberta Menchu (Guatemala) and Adolfo Perez Esquivel (Argentina), Nobel Literature Prize winner Jose Saramago (Portugal) and former presidents of Ecuador and Costa Rica. The US government was not amused. In the run-up to the conference, the US embassy took pains to announce that El Salvador would get $3 million in anti-drug aid, thus ensuring that the government of President Francisco Flores would fall into line. ("$3 million is a pretty cheap price for a vendepatria [person who sells out his country]," a San Salvador taxi driver and FMLN voter told DRCNet.) The embassy also arranged a telephonic news conference with US Ambassador to Colombia Anne Patterson to feed the US line to the local press. The pro-government local newspaper Diario de Hoy promptly responded with a propaganda exercise masked as a news story; its headline read: "Plan Colombia Will Help Lower the Drug Traffic, Central America Will Benefit Because It Will No Longer Be Used as a Bridge by Drug Traffickers." But the embassy went further than merely waging a war of words. According to conference organizer Hector Acevedo, head of the FMLN's International Affairs Commission, the embassy contacted the FMLN directly and urged it to back away from the conference. "This is just another example of the US desire to intervene in the internal affairs of our country," he told DRCNet. And although he declined to draw an explicit connection with the US interference, Acevedo mentioned that, after the embassy's offensive, the University of El Salvador, which had agreed to host the conference, suddenly announced it had no space available to do so. The last-minute change of heart by the university left organizers scrambling and delegates wandering across San Salvador in search of the three widely-separated alternative locations for the conference sessions, but failed to stop the conference from happening. "We had 320 delegates from 35 countries," Acevedo told DRCNet. "Nearly half were women, and more than 70% were under age 30," he added. "We lived through the US military intervention in our country, and we cannot support doing that to the people of another country. We must strengthen the forces of peace and justice so that other countries do not suffer through what we did." (El Salvador lost close to 100,000 dead in a 12-year civil war between the FMLN and the Salvadoran elite and its military allies, sponsored by the US government to the tune of $4 billion.) "We have two objectives here," said Acevedo. "First, we want to raise Plan Colombia to a prominent place in the national and international debate, and second, we want to make initiatives to find a negotiated peace settlement in Colombia." The conference's first session was largely ceremonial, as ringing denunciations of US imperialism alternated with revolutionary Salvadoran rock bands and revered "new song" (folk protest music) luminaries, such as Uruguay's Daniel Viglietti. With Sandinista, FMLN, FARC and Che Guevara flags flying, enthusiastic delegates cheered and chanted their approval of the revolutionary struggle in Colombia and around the continent. On days two and three of the conference, things got down to business as delegates broke up into work groups around issues including the effects of Plan Colombia on regional stability, the economy, the environment, popular struggles and military institutions. Unsurprisingly given the makeup of the delegations, all of the work groups arrived at resolutions harshly critical of US policy and global capitalism. For FARC supporters, it was all good. "Pedro," a Canadian resident who would not allow himself to be identified any further, told DRCNet the gathering was very important for the movement. "This is the first international gathering of various groups with common interests around Colombia," he said. "The vigor and popularity of the continental fight against imperialism is what defines us. The question of Colombia is on everyone's mind, and there is much disinformation and misinformation. They say we are narco-guerrillas, that we mistreat the indigenous people, that we are human rights violators. But the Colombian struggle is a national struggle and all races, creeds, and colors participate." When questioned about a recent Human Rights Watch report critical of human rights violations by the FARC, Pedro lashed out. "Human Rights Watch is carrying water for the CIA and interfering in our internal affairs," he said. "They took the line that the FARC should not have the demilitarized zone, and they say that instead of popular tribunals we should let the Colombian state handle matters of popular justice. Hah!" But he also took pains to declare: "I support efforts to prevent human rights violations, although I believe the notion needs to be rethought. Human rights should include the right to food, to shelter, to live in peace." As for claims that the FARC are drug traffickers, "those people must be on drugs," said Pedro. Pedro's position was typical of many delegates when it came to the drug issue. The drug trade was universally viewed as a pretext for US intervention and a problem for the consuming countries of the North. And while DRCNet intended only to cover the conference, not actively participate, we could not stand by silently when speakers began to try to push the blame for the drug trade onto Northern drug consumers. With some hastily scribbled notes in hand, DRCNet's Phillip Smith asked for and received permission to address the delegates. "We come because we stand alongside you in opposition to Plan Colombia," he told the crowd. "But we are here also because our opposition to Plan Colombia is rooted not only in the search for freedom, self-determination, and social justice, but also with the understanding that drug prohibition is a pretext. It is a pretext for intervention not only against the coca farmers of Colombia or the marijuana farmers of Mexico, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Canada, the US, and all the other countries of the world, but also against the colonized minority populations of the United States," he said. "There is war in Colombia, there is war in Mexico, but there is also war in the big cities of the United States. Just as your sovereignty and self-determination are under attack in Latin America, so our freedoms in the US are under attack." "We ask that you not see drug consumers as the enemy," he continued. "We share the same enemy. We ask that you consider an end to drug prohibition as a means of ending the war against Colombia and the war waged against the people of the United States by their own government. We understand that this idea may be new and strange, but we ask you to consider it." Audience reaction was mixed. Loud applause broke out at several points, especially during the list of marijuana-producing countries, when several students in the audience began waving lit cigarette lighters above their heads as if at a rock concert, but some older members of the crowd appeared noticeably unimpressed by the prospect of any budding alliances, tactical of otherwise, with the drug culture of the North. For US observers, the conference was a bracing reminder that whatever the reigning ideology of the day in the United States, the traditions of socialism and Latin American nationalism remain strong, even mainstream. "Imperialism" may be a quaint and faintly ridiculous sounding term in the context of US politics, but it remains a defining principle for many around the world living under policies created in Washington, DC.
3. Plan Colombia III: DRCNet Interviews Col. Lucio Gutierrez, Armed Forces of Ecuador, Retired Col. Lucio Gutierrez led a group of dissident Ecuadoran military officers who, aligning themselves with an anti-government indigenous rebellion, forced the resignation of then President Jamail Mahaud and managed to briefly hold power. Gutierrez became president of Ecuador as part of a three-man "junta of national salvation" for a matter of hours on January 21, 2000. The next day, the junta was forced from power by other elements of the Ecuadoran military acting in concert with the United States and the Organization of American States. Gutierrez was retired from the military and briefly imprisoned. He now heads the "January 21st Patriotic Society for an Authentically Democratic Ecuador." A self-described "patriotic nationalist" military officer, Gutierrez represents a long tradition of left-leaning military populism and nationalism in Latin America. His political progenitors would include 1930s Brazilian military rebel Luis Prestes and his Prestes Column, Juan Peron in Argentina in the 1940s (and Peronism ever since), the Peruvian junta of the late 1960s, Omar Torrijos in Panama in the 1970s, and the current champion of military populism and bane of Washington, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Ecuador is in the midst of a sustained
political, economic, and social crisis as a historically corrupt political
class and a largely poor and indigenous population battle over economic
and other government policies. Ominously, a 1997 poll for the Inter-American
Development Bank found that only 41% of Ecuadorans agreed with the statement
that "democracy is preferable" to other forms of government, the lowest
figure in Latin America. That was well before last year's uprising
that led Gutierrez ever so briefly to the seat of power. DRCNet spoke
with Gutierrez at the First International Conference in Solidarity and
for Peace in Columbia and Latin America, in San Salvador, El Salvador last
week.
4. Tulia "Never Again" Rally Draws Hundreds, Faith-Based Activists and Drug Reformers Mix and Match Drug reform and religious activists from across Texas and the country gathered in the Panhandle town of Tulia last weekend to commemorate the second anniversary of a drug raid that scooped up more than 10% of the tiny town's African-American population. Local residents have professed great weariness with and resentment at the national spotlight focused on their town since an undercover police officer of known disreputability managed to find 46 drug dealers -- 43 of them black -- in this town of 5,000 people. The Friends of Justice (http://www.drugsense.org/foj/), however, local organizers of the event, vow to keep on fighting until the wrong has been righted. "Some of the white people here feel abused by the wave after wave of publicity that have rolled over this town," Friends of Justice member Paul Bean told DRCNet, "and some of the coverage has been sensationalized. But we will live with that because we don't want people to forget." The "Never Again" rally organized by the Friends of Justice and supported by faith-based and drug reform organizations from as far away as New York should give townspeople something to remember. On Sunday, people gathered by the hundreds to eat hamburgers and hotdogs, hear music and poetry readings, and listen to speaker after speaker denounce the injustice of the Tulia bust, the war on drugs in general, and the racist way in which it operates. And Tulia has certainly never before seen a midnight march by hundreds of people to the Swisher County Courthouse for a drug war vigil. While local press accounts put attendance at somewhere between 225 and 350 people, organizers say those are low figures. Tracey Hayes of the Texas Network of Reform Groups helped organize two busloads of activists who journeyed from Austin to Tulia, with a stop at a Texas prison facility in Plainview on the way. "We brought 340 T-shirts with us," she told DRCNet, "and they were all gone by mid-afternoon. People were only taking one each. I know, I was watching." "We had well over 200 people even at midnight," said Bean. "We marched six or eight abreast, and the march stretched over two or three blocks," he said. At the Conner Park rally, Texas American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) head Will Harrell told the crowd: "We're here principally to show solidarity with the people in Tulia who've had the bravery to stand up in the face of discrimination. But we're also here to get out the larger message, which is that our current drug policy is a failure and must be changed," he said. "When the war comes to our community, we must stand and fight back. Tulia has become a symbol of what's wrong with our drug policy. It's got to be a collective effort, and every one of us counts." The "Never Again" rally was precisely that, as groups such as the NAACP and LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) joined forces with national drug or criminal justice reform groups such as Common Sense for Drug Policy, whose head, Kevin Zeese, addressed the rally, and the Kunstler Fund, which brought a delegation of New York state "Mothers of the Disappeared" to the event. They were joined by clergy and lay people from the Church of Christ, the Baptists and the Metropolitan Interdenominational Church of Memphis, led by Rev. Edwin Sanders under the umbrella of the group Religious Leaders for a More Just and Compassionate Drug Policy. "We had a great mix of people," the Friends of Justice's Charles Kiker told DRCNet. "We probably had more than a hundred people from Tulia, 90% of them black, and we had a good turnout from the Hispanic community, and that's something new." But while the ethnically diverse turnout was pleasing, what struck drug reformers and religious activists alike was the shock of discovered mutual interest. "We are a faith-based organization," FOJ's Bean told DRCNet. "Many of our people are deeply religious people, and we arranged so it would have a strongly spiritual emphasis. We had powerful preachers speak, like Edwin Sanders from Memphis, Edward Waters of the Church of Christ, and Nancy Hastings Sehested, one of those unheard of woman Baptist preachers." This was something new for the drug reform crowd, said Bean. "I got lots of comments from the young people who came up from Austin who said they had never heard religion, especially Christian religion, and social justice themes merged into one message. They don't remember the civil rights movement, and this was very moving to them." FOJ's Kiker concurred. "Nancy Hastings Sehested was powerful. She didn't address prohibition directly, but came at it by comparing the 'we've got you covered' of the police to the need to say 'we've got you covered for health insurance, for decent pay, for non-discrimination, for social justice.' I heard one of the Austin participants come up to Nancy afterward and say he didn't know Baptist preachers preached like that," Kiker said. "It was something of a shock, but it was also an eye-opener. This is important. If we are to win this struggle against the war on drugs, it will require the involvement of people who are motivated by faith. People who take the Old Testament prophets and the message of Jesus seriously are natural allies in this struggle." Kiker and Bean were talking about the young drug reformers who came up on the Freedom Ride with Hayes' Texas Network of Reform Groups, folks who either belong to groups such as Austin NORML, the Cannabis Action Network, Hemp Advocates of Texas, the Drug Policy Forum of Texas, and Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, or work independently of any organization. "Meeting and working with these religious people was one of the most positive outcomes of the whole experience," Hayes told DRCNet, "because with that ability to work together, now we can make progress much more rapidly. I saw some activists who have traditionally had problems with faith-based preaching who were put in a position where they had to see how that can also be something that lends strength to a community, and that's a good thing," she said. "We've been forced to recognize that people in those communities are good people who are fully capable of seeing where drug policy is doing us wrong. Those folks don't get hung up on the fact that we aren't necessarily religious, and we don't get hung up on the fact that they are." "The young reformers are our natural allies in this struggle," said Kiker. "Many of them don't know it, but it's our job to let them know. This is the Old Testament prophetic religion and the New Testament Jesus religion; they all believed in social justice." The coming together of religious and frankly secular activists is more than merely a feel-good event, as FOJ's Alan Bean noted. "I was talking to the Rev. Sanders, and he told me how impressed he was with the amount of God talk. He said he usually bends over backwards to avoid overt references to religion when talking to drug reformers," Bean related. "But he told me he told national drug reformers that eliminating the spiritual element is a barrier for a lot of African-Americans." With 28 of the Tulia arrestees now behind bars, the battle will continue. The Friends of Justice are in a "coming down" phase right now, the happily exhausted Bean and Kiker explained, but will soon be back on the barricades. Tracey Hayes and the TNRG are setting their sights on the state legislature. "We want to have eight to ten bills ready for 2003, the next time the legislature is in session," Hayes said. "Some may have a real chance of passage, and others will perhaps only advance the dialogue, but there are a lot of people coming out of the woodwork in Texas, and I think people will be surprised with what happens in Texas in the next couple of years." TNRG and FOJ will have help: Mothers of the Disappeared announced this week they are opening up a Tulia chapter. Meanwhile, the Justice Department investigation of the Tulia incident is expected to be finished this fall, and the civil rights lawsuits against the sheriff, the undercover policeman, the prosecutor and the county remain pending. And Will Harrell and the Texas ACLU have just opened a new front: Last Friday, the group asked Texas Attorney General to investigate whether the events in Tulia are part of a larger pattern of racial profiling and civil rights abuses by Texas regional narcotics task forces. Using the Tulia bust as exhibit number one, the Texas ACLU argued in its filing that the task forces target poor minority communities to supply arrest numbers that will garner them greater grant funding. The behavior of the drug task forces suggests a "larger pattern of discrimination by Texas Regional Narcotics Task Forces across the state," said the ACLU. The Attorney General's office is reviewing the petition, officials said. The struggle continues, said FOJ's Kiker, but something has changed. "When you see representatives of the Hispanic community, the African-American community, the criminal justice community and the Texas ACLU in particular, and the religious community, when you see all of those people coming together to address the same concern, the racist dimension of the war on drugs, then you get a sense of something going on that's bigger than any individual group, any individual agenda," said Kiker. "We want a system that abused and violated our loved ones to change, not just to get them out of prison, but to ensure that it doesn't happen again. And when all these people come together around this, we are in the middle of something big." (Learn more about the Tulia situation from "Tulia, Texas: Scenes from the Drug War," a 23-minute documentary by the Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice. Send your check or money order for $20 payable to The William Moses Kunstler Fund for Racial Justice, to Tulia Video, c/o Sarah Kunstler, 103 16th St., Brooklyn, NY 11215. Proceeds will go to the Tulia 46 Relief Fund. For further information, call (212) 924-6980, visit http://www.kunstler.org or e-mail [email protected] or [email protected]. The video can also be previewed at http://www.soros.org:8080/ramgen/tlc/tulia.rm online.)
5. DanceSafe Benefit in St. Louis Raided By Police, Class Action Suit Pending On July 14, a multi-agency task force led by Washington County Sheriff's officers landed all over a Potosi, Missouri, rave designed to benefit the harm reduction organization DanceSafe (http://www.dancesafe.org) and Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America. Police detained about 150 people for several hours while they searched the grounds, tents, parked cars and everyone present, including young children. While affidavits filed for a search warrant claimed a rampant drug scene was afoot, law enforcement officials were only able to come up with one arrest for an unidentified pill, two minor marijuana possession arrests, and one arrest of a teenage girl for outstanding traffic tickets. But although police could not find evidence of a massive drug scene, they may well have found themselves on the receiving end of a class action lawsuit. "We've been in close contact with the ACLU of Eastern Missouri, and we will file a class action suit," St. Louis DanceSafe head Arthur Cook told DRCNet. "They are still reviewing the case, and they tell me there are so many problems with this raid that they hardly know where to begin." A staffer at the ACLU office in St. Louis confirmed to DRCNet that the Eastern Missouri ACLU plans to file suit, adding "we're getting all kinds of media calls about this." "First came the helicopters," Cook told DRCNet. "Then the cops roared up with 20 or 30 police cars, a police van, a prison bus, two ambulances, two fire trucks and some drug-sniffing dogs. They made everyone sit in a circle while they ransacked the place, before searching everybody and then eventually telling people they were free to leave." But police were not able to prevent Cook from using his cell phone to notify the ACLU and local media as the bust went down, nor were they able to find the drug haul they seemed to expect. "People heard different cops yelling things like 'we've got to find something' as the search yielded few results," Cook said. "They didn't find much, but they did manage to pepper spray two friendly puppies who got too close to their drug dogs." "I swear there were drugs there the night before," Sheriff Yount told the Post-Dispatch. "They held people against their will and searched them and their property without their consent," said Cook. "And they trashed peoples' tents, cars and personal property. They even took one kid's prized photo album as 'evidence.' This was a fraudulent search warrant filled with lies and rumors," he added. "It said the property owner had filed a complaint against the event, and that is just not so." For Cook, the police persecution will only strengthen the resolve of the local rave scene to protect itself. "The rave scene is strong here, numbering in the thousands of people, and we have mobilized over this," he said. "You can't wage war on a whole subculture." Cook told DRCNet local scenesters are setting up a new web site, raverdefense.org ("but don't go there yet, we're still dealing with the domain name issues.") In the meantime, http://www.stlouisraver.com is carrying updates on the situation and appeals to people in attendance to provide statements and other evidence to the ACLU. As law enforcement authorities across the land wage a cultural war on the rave scene, it is up to ravers and their allies to hold them to account. Sheriff Blount and the county that employs him may find out about the limits of legality the hard way.
6. Voices: Rolling Stone Magazine Interviews 35 Thinkers on US Drug Policy David Borden, Executive Director, [email protected], 7/27/01 Often, some of the most serious discussions of important social issues appear in the pages of pop-culture oriented publications. Rolling Stone is no exception to that, and in fact has offered some of journalism's most insightful reporting on drug policy issues to its readers for the past several years. Rolling Stone's latest issue, #875, dated August 16 ('N Sync is on the cover), includes one of their most interesting pieces on the drug issue, a set of brief statements from 35 leaders in different professions speaking out about drug policy from their widely ranging set of viewpoints. Some of them are well known to the drug reform movement -- New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, for example, or the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation's Eric Sterling. Others names might be new to most readers in association with this issue. DRCNet here excerpts a few interesting quotes from some of Rolling Stone's interviewees -- mostly but not exclusively ones with which we disagree -- plus our own comments explaining why. Some quotes we've presented on their own because they were especially well expressed or say things that aren't heard as often as they should be. Orrin Hatch, US Senator (R-UT), in Rolling Stone: "I think marijuana is a gateway drug; nobody can deny that." DRCNet: Nobody except the distinguished scientists from the Institute of Medicine, whose 1998 report was only the latest scholarly work to debunk the gateway theory. What's undeniable is Orrin Hatch's capacity to deny reality. Bernard Parks, Chief of Police, Los Angeles, in Rolling Stone: "[M]ost people we arrest are not just into marijuana, but a myriad of things... Look at Al Capone. They got him not on murder but on taxes." DRCNet: This is a curious example for a couple of reasons. What does Al Capone -- the most notorious gangster in history, who often resorted to violent crime to carry out his multiple illegal businesses -- have to do with average Joe Marijuana User in the US today? Not an especially meaningful example. Then again, maybe it is meaningful, but not the way Chief Parks meant it: Al Capone was made wealthy and powerful by Alcohol Prohibition. Asa Hutchinson, US Representative (R-AR), DEA Chief Nominee, in Rolling Stone: "The current move toward legalization of drugs such as marijuana is harmful and sends the wrong message to young people." DRCNet: What current move toward legalization of marijuana? Dave Matthews, musician, in Rolling Stone: "Whoever came up with the idea of restricting financial aid for drug offenses? He needs to be in prison." DRCNet: DRCNet isn't quite ready to advocate actually sending Rep. Souder to prison for proposing his awful law -- which we're campaigning to repeal -- but the sentiment is appreciated. Carl Hiaasen, novelist and columnist, in Rolling Stone: "I've seen whole neighborhoods destroyed by crack cocaine, and it's terrible. The question is, Would it be better or worse if it wasn't illegal? Would there be less killing? It's something worth considering." Scott Weiland, musician, in Rolling Stone: "Alcohol is legal, and most people aren't alcoholics." DRCNet: Exactly, there would be no mass wave of self-demolition with drugs if they became legal. Most people don't become addicted to drugs because most people have the desire and ability to survive and enjoy life! The human race wouldn't have survived evolution, much less expanded into the billions, if that weren't the case. There will always be some people who have problems related to substance abuse, but the nation is not going to march off a cliff of self destruction like lemmings just because doing so won't get them incarcerated anymore. Norm Stamper, former Seattle chief of police, in Rolling Stone: "[D]ealers are there for reasons that anyone in a capitalist society ought to understand. There is a huge demand for illegal drugs, and as individuals who are also armed want to expand their share of the market, we wind up with a whole lot of cops, dealers and innocent citizens finding themselves literally in the line of fire." Paul Wellstone, US Senator (D-MN), in Rolling Stone: "The first time I went to Colombia, they wanted to show me their aerial spraying operation [to eradicate coca and poppy crops]. And they sprayed me, after claiming it was so accurate. Sprayed me good, in fact. So I'm the only person in the US Senate with the authority to speak on that subject." DRCNet: Hopefully some other Senators will listen to Mr. Wellstone as related bills come up for a vote next week. John Gilmore, computer entrepreneur and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, in Rolling Stone: "We need to stop conflating use with abuse, the choice to use the drug with addiction. The idea that people who use recreational drugs need treatment is false. I've known hundreds of people over the years who've used recreational drugs -- teachers, parents, scientists -- and who function normally. They're not rolling around on the ground tearing up the yard, yet if they're caught, they'll be kicked out of their jobs and their lives will be ruined. That's a crime." Bill O'Reilly, anchor, Fox's The O'Reilly Factor, in Rolling Stone: "President Bush asked me to send him my thesis, which I did. The federal government could wipe the drug problem out totally." DRCNet: No, the idea that anything could "wipe the drug problem out totally" is a far-fetched utopian (or perhaps dystopian) fantasy, which even Bill O'Reilly's mixture of treatment and punishment won't come close to accomplishing -- written at Harvard or not. Scott Turow, novelist and former assistant US attorney, in Rolling Stone: "That's the problem with decriminalization or legalization: Nobody's going to propose that it be OK to sell drugs to minors. Where there's a market, there will be entrepreneurs, and legalization wouldn't put all drug dealers out of business, because they'd still be selling to people younger than twenty-one. So all high school and college campuses would still be places where illegal drug money is made." DRCNet: With all due respect to Mr. Turow, this argument is so weak that it always amazes me to see intelligent people make it. Is illegal money being made selling alcohol or cigarettes on the campuses? Are people shooting each other over underage alcohol turf? There is a black market in alcohol and cigarettes, but its impact is trivial in comparison with the enormous destructive power of the black market in totally illegal drugs -- despite the fact that vastly more people use alcohol than use those drugs! One could say that any provision of alcohol or cigarettes to underage users constitutes black market activity, and in that sense, the black market in those legal drugs would have to be considered substantial. I think it's more meaningful, however, to think of that kind of activity as age limit violations within a licit market. Underage substance use and sometime abuse is a legitimate issue in and of itself; but the idea that age limits for currently illegal drugs will produce an underground market of the scale or nature that exists today under total prohibition is ludicrous. Jonathan P. Caulkins, drug policy analyst, RAND and Carnegie Mellon University's Heinz School, in Rolling Stone: "There may well be too many nonviolent offenders in prison, but the way the data are presented is grossly distorted. If you want to make it sound like there are a lot of nonviolent drug offenders in prison, you ask, 'How many people are in prison because they were convicted of drug possession?' But you get a much smaller number if you ask, 'How many people are in prison because they were arrested for drug possession but nothing else?' Many people are dealers, sometimes very violent ones, but who pleaded down to possession. There's also a big difference between prison and jail, so if you want to inflate the figures, you say incarcerate.'" DRCNet: This statement may be technically accurate but has multiple problems intellectually. First, jail _is_ incarceration, and including people in jail for nonviolent drug offenses is not an inflation of the figures. Quite the opposite -- not including jail figures undercounts the reality of how many are being denied freedom by perhaps a third. Secondly, Caulkins focuses on people incarcerated for drug possession. But drug law critics are not only concerned about nonviolent drug possessors, but nonviolent drug offenders in general, especially low level offenders. Of course counting only possession will make the numbers look smaller, but that is because it only counts a subset of the people involved. A closely related flaw in Caulkins' remarks are that he points out that some dealers plead down to possession, but fails to mention -- as has been pointed out by Jerome Miller of the National Center on Institutions and Alternatives in the book "Search and Destroy" -- that many mere users are overcharged with dealing, or are considered dealers because they happened to share with friends or acquaintances, or through the difficult to prove or disprove charge of "intent to distribute." Nelly, musician, in Rolling Stone: "I done seen people get murdered over [drugs], to a point where, yeah, I think they should be illegal." DRCNet: This is one of the most tragic self-fulfilling prophecies of our time. As Kurt Schmoke, former mayor of Baltimore, explains, people as fighting a war over drug money. The vast amounts of money exist, and the fighting over it, because drugs are illegal, not because of any intrinsic property of the drugs other than their desirability to some people to the point where they'll pay large amounts of money and risk arrest to get them. Keeping drugs illegal will only assure that the murders over them continue to happen. Doubtless Nelly has seen terrible tragedies both from drugs and the drug money wars, and these are stories that should be told. But his understanding of the cause and effect relationships underlying them is muddled, leading to a self-defeating policy prescription that can only perpetuate the tragedy. Also from Nelly: "I think the law should be fair... It shouldn't be a cocaine law and a crack law, 'cause crack is cocaine... That's when it gets segregated." DRCNet: Fairness is always important, and even some of the drug warriors like Asa Hutchinson talked about addressing the crack/ powder cocaine sentencing disparity in Rolling Stone's forum as well. The problem is they're just as likely to increase powder cocaine sentences as to reduce crack cocaine sentences. Much of the disparity exists in the way the laws are enforced, not just what the laws say, and criminal justice experts have pointed out that powder cocaine enforcement is also racially disparate and that harsher sentences for powder will send more people of color to prison with lengthy sentences, not fewer. So of course the law should be fair, but be careful what you ask for -- better to change the entire system to something more positive for everybody. Bob Weir, musician, in Rolling Stone: "I've lost so many friends to heroin and cocaine, I can't really very freely sing the praises of those drugs. But, on the other hand, you have to recognize that they're there and they're going to be there, and that a certain kind of person's going to find their way into that trap... I think these drugs should be legal and regulated... I think the only way to trump the cartels is to legalize the drugs, and the cartels will disappear overnight... The best plan is to make them available to people who would otherwise be robbing, stealing and killing to get the drugs; just make it available to them, and see if you can't reel them back." DRCNet: Or if the cartels don't disappear, at a minimum they'll lose some tens or hundreds of billions of dollars a year of income and will shrink -- there's no criminal activity whose profitability compares with the illegal drug trade. Paul Greengard, neuroscientist and Nobel Prize winner, in Rolling Stone: "It's good that the government tries to restrict access to harmful drugs like heroin and LSD -- street drugs -- that do terrible damage to the brain. But some of the punitive measures against people who use marijuana, those I disagree with." DRCNet: It's good that Dr. Greengard supports marijuana law reform, but as a scientist he should also realize that the harmfulness of other drugs only raises the question of how to best deal with them, but doesn't answer it and certainly doesn't automatically mean they should be banned. A host of reasons both civil libertarian and practical suggest they should not be. Jann Wenner, Rolling Stone's publisher: "The war on drugs has become a war against the nation's citizens. The time for drug law reform is now." And thank you, Mr. Wenner, for all you've done to make that possible. Go buy the August 16 issue of Rolling Stone, or look it up at your local library and check it out.
7. The Economist Makes "The Case for Legalising Drugs" Coming from a different sector of the magazine publishing field, the 7/28-8/3 issue of The Economist magazine includes a special report, featured on its front cover, making the case for ending drug prohibition. A "survey," or multi-part report, titled "Stumbling in the Dark," examines the issue's history, risks and rewards in drug policy reform, drug use patterns, an overview of the nature and scale of drugs' harms, governments' failing attempts to stem the flow of drugs, alternatives to today's drug war and other topics. The issue also takes on the issue in its lead editorial, titled "Time for a Puff of Sanity." The Economist's legalization report can be found online at http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=706591 or can be purchased at newsstands this week.
8. Narco News "Drug War on Trial" Case Has First Hearing in New York City (The following is excerpted from a Narco News press release:) The New York State Supreme Court heard oral arguments last Friday (7/20) in the "Drug War on Trial" case by free speech defendants and attorneys, who moved to dismiss the SLAPP suit brought by the National Bank of Mexico (Banamex) against Narco News, Mexican journalist Mario Menendez and journalist Al Giordano. As attorney David Atlas, assisted by Martin Garbus, both partners in the Franklin Garbus law firm, began describing to the judge how Banamex had already lost this case before three Mexican judges, Supreme Court Justice Paula Omanksy looked at the standing-room-only Courtroom and asked, "who are all these people scribbling?" "They're reporters, Your Honor," replied Giordano. Present at the hearing were Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, Rolling Stone, CNN Español, WiredNews, Online Journalism Review, The Nation, New York IndyMedia, DRCNet The Week Online, and other reporters from various local, national and international media. Atlas described to the judge how Banamex, having lost this case in Mexico, now sought a fourth bite of the apple in New York, and is barred from bringing suit in New York because, under Mexican law, civil damages for libel cannot be sought unless and until there is a criminal conviction on the charge. Judge Omanksy asked Banamex attorney Thomas McLish why, then, Banamex was bringing suit here in New York. A visibly shaken McLish, speaking nervously, claimed that it was the Mexican government that brought the charges against Menendez in Mexico, not Banamex. Defense counsel pointed out that Banamex assisted the Attorney General with the Mexico prosecution. The Judge compared the situation to British law, noting that regardless of what entity brought the charges in Mexico, it wasn't disputed that the case was already brought and lost there, and gave McLish another chance to state why, then, is the case being brought in New York? Next up was Narco News Bulletin attorney Tom Lesser, who summarized the arguments made in the motions to dismiss: that the allegedly defamatory statements were not defamatory, were not "of and concerning" Banamex and merely identified the accused drug trafficker Roberto Hernandez as owner of Banamex, and that they constituted protected opinion under New York law. He also explained why New York court should not accept jurisdiction over the Mexican-based Narco News website. And he concluded by arguing that the interests of the First Amendment require the court to rule now, at this stage of the proceedings, noting that it has cost the defendants $200,000 dollars just to get to this first hearing. Giordano argued to Judge Omansky that the Banamex complaint was deceitful, that it took his words out of context and pasted them together to create a defamation where there was none. Giordano noted that Banamex didn't even give the court the evidence; that it was he, as defendant, who provided the court with the videotape of the March 2000 Columbia University Law School forum, the audiotape of the March 2000 WBAI Let 'Em Talk program, and the full text of the Narco News Bulletin from its birth on April 18, 2000 to the date Banamex brought suit, August 9, 2000, and that the defense had nothing to hide: no defamatory statements were made. Giordano concluded by stating that New York case law, specifically Parks v. Steinbrenner, and the landmark Steinhilber and Immuno decisions, clearly show that now, at the motion-to-dismiss stage, is the hour to determine whether his statements constituted protected opinion under New York law, and that the Court should make these determinations before reviewing the jurisdictional issues because, for example, if the Court dismisses the slander charges against Giordano and Menendez for their statements in New York, that decision will affect the question of jurisdiction over the Mexican web site Narco News. The Judge promised to read the documents and render her decision once she has had the time to do so. She said the case was "interesting." The press and supporters of Narco News then joined Garbus, Atlas, Lesser and Giordano at a press conference in front of the courthouse. There, Giordano held up a copy of the 578-page Exhibit, a book now titled "The Mexico Papers," noted how deeply into debt he and the "Drug War on Trial" defense fund have gone in order to be at today's hearing, and announced that as a defense fundraiser, a limited edition printing of the book, "The Mexico Papers," will now go on sale for $100 apiece, exclusively to benefit the defense. (For a copy of this limited edition anthology of all the articles and commentaries on Narco News during its first 113 days of publication last year, send your contribution of $100 (or more) to: Drug War on Trial c/o Attorney Tom Lesser, Lesser, Newman, Souweine and Nasser, 39 Main Street, Northampton, MA 01060. Make Checks out to "Drug War on Trial" and mark "The Mexico Papers" on the check if you want a first-edition collector's copy of this new book.) A second press conference was then held in Spanish by Giordano for CNN Español. Narco News has resumed its regular reporting on the drug war in Latin America -- visit http://www.narconews.com to read them or visit http://groups.yahoo.com/group/narconews/ to subscribe to the Narco News e-mail list.
9. New Crime and Punishment Poll Shows Most Americans Don't Want to Throw Away the Key (The following is a press release from the ACLU. Visit http://www.aclu.org/features/f071901a.html for further info.) A new poll commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union reveals a strong dissatisfaction with the current state of the criminal justice system in America and a growing public confidence in rehabilitation and alternative punishments for nonviolent offenders. "Contrary to popular belief, punishment and retribution are not foremost in most Americans' minds," said Nadine Strossen, President of the ACLU. "In fact, this new study shows our nation to be far more concerned with rehabilitation and social reintegration than with throwing away the proverbial key." Of particular interest are the public attitudes about drugs and drug crimes revealed in the study. According to the poll, a majority of Americans draw sharp distinctions between trafficking in illicit narcotics and other drug offenses. While a majority believes that drug dealers should always be sent to prison, far fewer agree that users (25 percent), minor possessors (19 percent) or buyers (27 percent) should always be locked up. The public's recognition of the misdirection of the drug war and the race to incarcerate in America, the ACLU said, is also reflected in the finding that a majority of Americans (61 percent) oppose mandatory sentences that require an automatic sentence for nonviolent crimes. Many organizations have questioned whether Americans indeed have a lock-'em-up mentality, yet the ACLU's survey is the first to empirically demonstrate that this is not an accurate characterization. Prominent in the polling results is surprising support for and emphasis on rehabilitation for non-violent offenders. According to the poll, six in ten Americans believe that it is possible to rehabilitate a non-violent offender; four in ten believe the main purpose of prison is rehabilitation, rather than deterrence, punishment, or the protection of society. The study also found strong public support for changing the current laws so that fewer nonviolent offenses are punishable by prison (62 percent). In particular, Americans showed enthusiasm for alternatives for nonviolent offenders such as mandatory education and job training (81 percent), compensation to victims (76 percent) and community service (80 percent). The poll also studied society's views on education and skills training for offenders and showed very strong support for providing inmates with skills training in prison (88 percent). Only a very small minority of Americans believes punishment (two in ten) or deterrence (one in ten) to be the main role of the courts or prisons. The survey also shows that most Americans believe that prisons are largely failing in their rehabilitative mandate (six in ten). The poll therefore demonstrates, the ACLU said, that American citizens are dissatisfied with the status quo and favor decisive reforms of the criminal justice system that will render it more practical, more realistic and more responsive to current social needs.
10. Urgent Action Alerts: Colombia, HEA, Mandatory Minimums, Medical Marijuana, John Walters URGENT: Colombia Now that an Andean funding package has passed the House, it is time to lobby the Senate. Please call your two Senators on the phone as soon as possible and ask them to vote YES on any amendments that would ELIMINATE or REDUCE funding for Colombia's military or place a moratorium on drug war fumigation. You can reach your two Senators by calling the Congressional Switchboard at (202) 224-3121, or look them up at http://www.senate.gov on the web. As always, please write us at [email protected] to let us know you've taken action. OTHER CURRENT ACTION ITEMS: Click on the links below for information on these issues and web forms to help you contact Congress: Oppose Drug Czar Nominee John Walters 11. HEA Campaign Still Seeking Student Victim Cases -- New York Metropolitan Area Especially Urgent Have you or someone you know or know of lost financial aid for college because of a drug conviction? The Higher Education Act Reform Campaign urgently needs to find students in the greater New York City area who fit this description. The need is urgent because some of the most major media outlets in the country are asking for them, and they want to do the stories now! Please contact DRCNet at (202) 293-8340 or Students for Sensible Drug Policy at (202) 293-4414 if you can help, or e-mail [email protected]. Visit http://www.raiseyourvoice.com for further information on this campaign.
12. For Sale: Merchandise and Services to Benefit the Cause DRCNet and some of our allies are offering merchandise and services to raise awareness of the issue and funds for the cause: WEB HOSTING: DRCNet's dedicated web server box has room to spare. If you own a low-traffic Internet domain with straightforward technical needs, you can help us defray the cost of the server -- currently about $500/month -- by hosting your domain with us and paying DRCNet instead of some random company. Our machine sits on one of the fastest Internet hubs available, and your pages will come up on viewers' computer screens nice and fast just like ours. We are asking $25/month for hosting, negotiable, includes web site and a reasonable number of e-mail accounts or aliases. Contact David Borden at [email protected] if interested. SHOP ONLINE: DRCNet is enrolled in the iGive affinity program whereby online shoppers can designate a participating group to receive a portion of the proceeds from their purchases -- you can even earn money for DRCNet just by signing up and visiting the site! (Some of you may have helped us earn several thousand dollars from iGive previously when the program was focused on online ad click-throughs.) Just point your browser to http://www.igive.com/html/refer.cfm?causeid=1060 to register with iGive and select DRCNet as your recipient nonprofit. BOOKS: DRCNet is currently offering two new books for free to members contributing $35 or more to the organization -- $40 or more for a copy that's been signed by the author, or donate $75 or more and we'll send you both. "Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It: A Judicial Indictment of the War on Drugs," by Judge James P. Gray of the Orange County, CA Superior Court, and "Waiting to Inhale: The Politics of Medical Marijuana," by Orange County Register editorialist Alan Bock, are both must-reads for anyone seeking intellectual ammunition in the drug debate and a critical understanding of the impact and dynamics of the drug war today. Just visit our donation page at http://www.drcnet.org/drcreg.html -- make sure to type a note in the comment box telling us which books you want, if any -- or send a check or money order in the mail, to: DRCNet, P.O. Box 18402, Washington, DC 20036. (Note that contributions to the Drug Reform Coordination Network are not tax-deductible. Deductible contributions supporting our educational work can be made to the DRCNet Foundation, same address. Choosing to receive a book with a tax-deductible donation will reduce the size of your deduction by an amount equal to the book's retail value.) T-SHIRTS AND POSTERS: Our friends at Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) are offering two outstanding t-shirts, proceeds of the sales from which will go to provide scholarship money to students losing financial aid because of drug convictions. Visit http://www.ssdp.org and check out the online store to buy some! DanceSafe, a national harm reduction organization working in the rave/club scene, is offering t-shirts and posters to supporters making donations to the group. Visit http://www.dancesafe.org to check it out.
(Please submit listings of events related to drug policy and related areas to [email protected].) July 27, 4:30-6:00pm, Albuquerque, NM, Drug War Vigil. Sponsored by the November Coalition, in front of the new Bernalillo County courthouse, 400 Lomas Blvd NW. For further information, call (505) 342-8090. July 27, 7:00pm, Santa Ana, CA, Coalition Against Violent Crime public meeting, featuring Joe Klaas, father of murder victim Polly Klaas, speaking against California's Three-Strikes Law, and showing of "The Legacy" documentary of the Klaas family's campaign for and against the law in 1993-1994. At the Southwest Senior Citizens Center, 2201 West McFadden Ave. at Center St., book signing before talk at 6:00pm. For information, call Sam H. Clauder at (909) 653-3500 or Jim Benson at (714) 635-0540. July 27-29, Clarkburg, WV, "Neer Freedom Festival." Benefit for West Virginia NORML and upcoming medical marijuana campaign. For further information, contact Tom Thacker at [email protected]. July 31, noon-2:00pm, Washington, DC, "Alternatives to the Drug War: Where Can We Go from Here?" Weekly installment of the "Rethinking the Drug War" video & speaker brown bag lunch summer series, featuring excerpts from "The Crier Report: America's War on Drugs: Searching for Solutions" and "Containing the Fallout," an Australian documentary, and discussion with Kevin Zeese of Common Sense for Drug Policy. At the Institute for Policy Studies, 733 15th St., NW, Suite 1020, sponsored by the IPS Drug Policy Project and the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. Admission free, dessert and beverages provided, call Dario at (202) 234-9382 ext. 220 for further information. August 3, 7:00pm, New York, NY, "Live from Death Row," live phone connection with ten death row inmates from Chicago's South Side and live presentations by two former death row inmates exonerated after 13 years in prison. At the National Action Network, 1941 Madison Ave. For further information, contact Ben Fishman at (212) 442-8768 or e-mail [email protected]. August 4, 7:00pm, San Francisco, CA, "Wanted: End to the US Drug War," conversation on the drug war's impact on women and communities of color and the fight against the prison industrial complex. Featuring Prof. Angela Davis, Dorothy Gaines (former drug war prisoner), Prof. Ruthie Gilmore and Kemba Smith (former drug war prisoner). At the First Unitarian Church, 1187 Franklin, admission free. For further information, contact Critical Resistance at (510) 444-0484. August 7, noon-2:00pm, Washington, DC, "Exporting Failure: the US Drug War in the Andes," weekly installment of the "Rethinking the Drug War" video & speaker brown bag lunch summer series. Featuring a showing of "Coca Mama," a new documentary examining the drug war from the indigenous and peasant perspective and discussion with Sanho Tree of the Institute for Policy Studies' Drug Policy Project. At IPS, 733 15th St., NW, Suite 1020, sponsored by IPS and the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. Admission free, dessert and beverages provided, call Dario at (202) 234-9382 ext. 220 for further information. August 7, 7:00pm, Oakland, CA, "Wanted: End to the US Drug War," conversation on the drug war's impact on women and communities of color and the fight against the prison industrial complex. Featuring Prof. Angela Davis, Dorothy Gaines (former drug war prisoner), Prof. Ruthie Gilmore and Kemba Smith (former drug war prisoner). At the Wase Church of the African Way, 8924 Holly St., admission free. For further information, contact Critical Resistance at (510) 444-0484. August 10-15, Philadelphia, PA, Coalition Against the American Correctional Association (CA-ACA), protest against the ACA summer conference, including a counter-conference, demonstrations and actions. For information, e-mail [email protected] or [email protected] or visit http://www.stoptheaca.org online. August 18-19, 10:00am-8:00pm, Seattle, WA, "10th Annual Seattle Hempfest." Visit http://www.seattlehempfest.comh for further information. August 22, 7:00pm, November Coalition Community Meeting. At the Peace and Justice Center, 144 Harvard SE, call (505) 342-8090 for further information. August 24, 4:30-6:00pm, Albuquerque, NM, Drug War Vigil. Sponsored by the November Coalition, in front of the new Bernalillo County courthouse, 400 Lomas Blvd NW. For further information, call (505) 342-8090. September 8, noon-evening, Melbourne, FL, Grand Opening Birthday Bash at the Florida Cannabis Action Network's Legal Support Office. At 703 E. New Haven Ave. (SR 192 Uptown), featuring music, speakers and more. For further information, to donate to the office or access the legal support staff, contact Kevin Aplin at (321) 726-6656 or Jodi James or Kay Lee at (321) 253-3673 or (321) 255-9790. September 15, noon-6:00pm, Boston, MA, "Twelfth Annual Fall Freedom Rally." At the Boston Common, sponsored by the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition. For further information call (781) 944-2266, visit http://www.masscann.org or e-mail [email protected]. September 23-26, Philadelphia, PA, International Community Corrections Association 37th Annual Conference, on Reintegration and Re-entry of the Offender into the Family. $350 for conference and pre-conference workshops, reduced rate deadline 8/31. For info, call (608) 785-0200, fax (608) 784-5335 or write to ICCA Annual Conference, P.O. Box 1987, La Crosse, WI 54602. September 27-28, Washington, DC, "National Mobilization on Colombia, featuring workshops, meetings, lobbying and nonviolent demonstrations. Sponsored by the Chicago Religious Leadership Network, Colombia Human Rights Committee, Colombia Support Network, Global Exchange, United Church of Christ and Witness for Peace. Visit http://www.ColombiaMobilization.org for info. October 1-3, Ottawa, Canada, "Women's Critical Resistance: From Victimization to Criminalization," at the Government Conference Centre. For information or to submit a presentation proposal, call (613) 238-2422 for information or write to Kim Pate, Canadian Association of Elizabeth Fry Societies, 701-151 Slater St., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1P5H3. October 6-7, Phoenix, AZ, "Freedom Summit," annual libertarian seminar. At the Embassy Suites Hotel, visit http://www.freedomsummit.com for further information. October 7-10, St. Louis, MO, American Methadone Treatment Association Conference 2001. For further information, e-mail [email protected], visit http://www.assnmethworks.org or call (212) 566-5555. October 26-27, Cortland, NY, "Thinking About Prisons: Theory and Practice." At SUNY Cortland, call (607) 753-2727 for info. November 13, 6:00-8:00pm, New York, NY, "Women, Prison and Family." At Audrey Cohen College, 75 Varick St., for information call (212) 343-1234. November 14-16, Barcelona, Spain, First Latin Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm. For further information, e-mail [email protected], visit http://www.igia.org/clat/ or call Enric Granados at 00 34 93 415 25 99. March 3-7, 2002, Ljubljana, Slovenia, 13th International Conference on the Reduction of Drug Related Harm and 2nd International Harm Reduction Congress on Women and Drugs. Sponsored by the International Harm Reduction Association, visit http://www.ihrc2002.net or e-mail [email protected] for further information. May 3-4, 2002, Portland, OR, Second National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics, focus on Analgesia and Other Indications. Sponsored by Patients Out of Time and Legacy Emmanuel Hospital, for further information visit http://www.medicalcannabis.com or call (804) 263-4484. December 1-4, 2002, Seattle, WA, Fourth National Harm Reduction Conference. Featuring keynote speaker Dr. Joycelyn Elders, former US Surgeon General, at the Sheraton Seattle. For further information, visit http://www.harmreduction.org or call (212) 213-6376. 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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