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(formerly The Week Online with DRCNet) Issue #369 -- 1/7/05
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition" Phillip S. Smith, Editor
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1.
Editorial:
Stop
Before
It's
Too
Late
David Borden, Executive Director, [email protected], 1/7/05
The problem is that Afghanistan's primary source of income is an illegal narcotic. Opium poppies are banned, yet more of it grows there than anything else, at least in cash terms, and Afghanistan grows more of it than any other country. It's accurate to say that to a significant degree in Afghanistan, opium rules. Without it, the nation's economy would quickly collapse. At the same time, the illicit economy has pathologies. We desire Afghanistan's future to be one of peace, democracy and rule of law. Yet many of the nation's powerful warlords profit heavily from the trade in opium -- it's one of the things that make them powerful, in fact. The poor who grow opium out of necessity are vulnerable to exploitation. And while the true extent of the links is unclear, claims that Al Qaeda derives some of its funding from the illegal drug trade are plausible if unproven. Having left the matter largely un-dealt with the last three years, the Bush administration is turning its attention now to the opium phenomenon in a more serious way. They may mean business this time -- the government has requested $780 million for Afghani anti-drug efforts, including $152 million earmarked for aerial eradication. But if we care about Afghanistan's political stability -- and that is one of the primary state goals of administration policy -- chopping down the poppy crop would be a supremely bad move, let alone burning it down with chemical poisons dropped from the air. What better way to push the vast numbers of Afghans who are economically dependent on opium into the arms of our enemies? What better way to foment social instability? That is the effect it has had, after all, in nations where it has been tried with coca. The difference in Afghanistan is that the number of people doing the growing is even larger. More importantly, they are hardened by decades of war, and they're not hesitant about accepting what they perceive as an invitation to a fight. As a reformer, I don't want to see Afghanistan's government pushed into a drug war policy that is in the worst interests of itself and its people. But I also wish against that as an American who wants my nation's policies to be the right ones; who wants my tax dollars to promote peace and prosperity, not conflict and poverty and suffering; who wants our government and our people perceived as the friend of other peoples, not the enemy; who wants safety from and an end to political violence, for myself, for my countrymen, and for all others. It is fine to specifically target cultivation or other economic activity that has been found to be tied to financing of organizations that have violent intentions. But it's not fine -- it's downright dangerous -- to go beyond that to rampage against the rest of the people of the country who are just trying to survive. We should leave them alone -- we need to leave them alone. Yet to leave the poppy farmers alone but not alter the framework within which they live and work is to address only half of the poisonous equation of the current system. It isn't enough, in the end, to not make things even worse. Only by ending prohibition itself can the dire problems of the underground drug trade be transformed into the manageable issues of a licit, aboveground economy. Dealing effectively with Afghanistan's needs is an urgent matter -- need anyone be reminded of the reasons why? There's no more time for drug war foolishness, not in Afghanistan and not here either. Let us not sacrifice security for a discredited drug war ideology, and let us end this sad chapter of human history -- the prohibitionist chapter -- once and for all.
2.
Bush
Administration's
Afghan
Dilemma
Coming
to
a
Head:
Promote
Stability
and
Fight
Terror
--
or
Fight
Drugs?
The problem for the Bush administration is that if it seeks to pursue its drug war objective of eradicating the opium crop -- with a new planting season set to begin this month -- it is in danger of alienating the huge percentage of the Afghan population directly or indirectly dependent on the opium trade for an income. It also risks infuriating "good" warlords who hold posts in the Karzai government and are seen as allies, but who are reportedly making fortunes off the trade themselves. The Bush administration is seeking $780 million in anti-drug funding for Afghanistan this year -- a more than five-fold increase over last year's $140 million -- including $152 million earmarked for aerial eradication, but according to a Sunday report in the Los Angeles Times, high level administration officials are divided over how to proceed. Drug war hawks are calling for deeper US military involvement in the anti-drug effort, as well as aerial eradication of the opium crop, while other officials worry that aggressive anti-drug efforts will destabilize the country as it heads for critical parliamentary elections in April. The dividing lines are not only between different executive departments, but also within those departments. According to the Times, gung-ho Pentagon civilians want to charge forward, while US military commanders are hesitant. "Central Command would prefer not to be in the eradication business," Lieutenant General Lance Smith, Centcom's deputy commander, told the Times. "We have spent a lot of capital in trying to build relationships with the people in there and now this has the potential for us to do things that wouldn't be popular for some of the areas we're operating in." Other US military officials said they feared deeper military involvement would alienate warlords such as Rashid Dostum and Ustad Attas Mohammed, who, while supporting the Karzai government, are also reaping huge profits from the trade (https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/316/rumsfeld.shtml). "If you pull at the thread of counter-narcotics the wrong way, because of the sheer proportion of the gross domestic product wrapped up in this business, you should be careful of unintended consequences," said General James Jones, the American who serves as supreme commander of NATO, which has 9,000 troops in Afghanistan. But Pentagon and congressional hard-liners warn that if this year's crop is allowed to be harvested, an estimated $7 billion will flow into the hands of the warlords, perhaps allowing them to influence the election itself. Even worse, they claim, if the crop is harvested unimpeded, some of that money could find its way to the Taliban and perhaps even Al Qaeda, where it could pay for more attacks against the West. "We have a record opium production that needs to be lowered because so many of the profits are used to finance Bin Laden and his operation," claimed Rep. Steven Kirk (R-IL). "On the other hand, you have to conduct an anti-drug campaign first and foremost with political sensitivity." One unnamed official told the Times that the 2001 attacks on the US cost only $400,000 or $500,000. "Imagine what they could do with $10 billion. You can own a country with that much money," he argued. While the evidence that the Taliban or Al Qaeda is reaping opium profits is scanty, Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Robert Charles told Congress last year that "drug profits are almost definitely" funding the Taliban, and maybe Al Qaeda too. But other administration officials and independent observers are counseling a less aggressive approach. "You tell them, 'You're voting for a new democratic county,' while their government is allowing foreigners to come in and destroy their livelihoods?" scoffed Barnett Rubin, a United Nations advisor in Afghanistan in 2001. "And if you try to destroy it and have the economy decline by 10 percent, 20 percent, 40 percent in one year, what will the result be? The result will be armed revolt," he predicted. Mark Schneider, director at the International Crisis Group, a global relief agency, echoed Rubin's skepticism about aggressive eradication. Aerial spraying, he told the Times, would be tantamount to "providing the Taliban with a great recruiting slogan: Go with us or they'll spray you." The US decision-makers have not been helped by President Karzai. On the one hand, he recently declared a jihad, or holy war, against opium production, out of fear that opium profits will fill the coffers of his electoral foes and to try to silence rising criticism from Western Europe and particularly Great Britain that Afghan opium is being processed into heroin that is flooding Europe. On the other hand, he has rejected aerial spraying and has instead embraced limited manual eradication efforts. There are conflicting reports that aerial spraying has already commenced (https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/365/afghanistan.shtml), but what is certain at this point is that manual eradication of the opium crop is already underway -- and that it is leading to a bitter harvest indeed. According to a report in the Pakistan Tribune datelined Jalalabad -- not Washington -- farmers in Nangahar whose crops have been destroyed have been reduced to selling their daughters to opium dealers who financed their crops. "I cannot pay you in any other way -- take my daughter," said Gul Miran, 42, to the dealer who had lent him $1,000 to start his plot. But the government had ploughed over his fields, leaving him with no way to repay the loan. "I accepted the girl in return for my loan," said dealer Haji Naqibullah. "We had an agreement. He would pay me back regardless of whether his crops were wiped out by the weather or the government. In a year or 18 months, I will marry her off to my youngest son," he said. "He is 19 years old and has been married to his first wife for two years, but has not had a child yet." Pavenda Gul was another farmer forced to sell his daughter after the government destroyed his crop. "When you have an agreement with an opium dealer," he said, "nothing but the opium can be paid, but they cannot refuse the daughters. It is a way in which a dealer can find a wife for himself or his son. The son may be disabled or growing older and not have a wife. It is easy to present him with a pretty girl." Meanwhile, in Washington, "We still don't have a policy," one unnamed Republican congressional staffer told the Times.
3.
Black
State
Legislators
Condemn
Drug
War,
Seek
Alternatives
The nation's largest organization representing African-American state legislators has condemned the war on drugs and is demanding alternative policies less harmful to black communities. The move marks the second time in recent months that black leadership organizations have belatedly recognized the disproportionate impact of drug prohibition on their communities and called for a new direction. In October, an amalgamation of black professional associations, the National African-American Drug Policy Coalition, came together to seek similar changes in state and federal drug policy (https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/359/naadpc.shtml). At its annual meeting in Philadelphia in December, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators (http://www.nbcsl.com) passed a resolution condemning the drug war and committing its members to repeal mandatory minimum sentences and support diverting nonviolent drug offenders into treatment. Introduced by delegate Salima Marriott of Maryland, the resolution puts the NBCSL on record as calling the drug war a failure. "The war on drugs has failed, and while states have continually increased their expenditures to wage the war on drugs, policies which rely heavily on arrest and incarceration have proven costly and ineffective at addressing these issues," the resolution read in part. "The war on drugs is failing everybody, but no one is being devastated by it like African Americans,"said Michael Blain, director of public policy at the Drug Policy Alliance (http://www.drugpolicy.org). "That is why it is so historic that the people who represent the communities who have the most to gain from reform are taking the lead in addressing this problem and finding solutions." That African Americans suffer disproportionately from drug prohibition is beyond doubt. Not only do blacks go to jail for drug offenses at a rate 13 times that of whites despite having similar drug use rates, as Human Rights Watch, among others, has pointed out, and not only do blacks make up 59% of those convicted of drug crimes in the US despite being only 12.2% of the population, but black urban communities suffer the brunt of both drug law enforcement and the community disruption caused by prohibition. DPA worked NBCSL members to get the resolution passed, and if members abide by the resolution, DPA will continue to be involved. As the text of the measure notes, members are committed to "work with the Drug Policy Alliance to create NBCSL seminars that provide a thorough overview on harm reduction principles and legislative reform initiatives." In a series of preliminary "whereases," the NBCSL cited the drug war as "a major force" driving mass incarceration in the US, a cause of "the general criminalization of communities of color in the US," a waste of tax dollars desperately needed elsewhere, and an impediment to harm reduction strategies (broadly defined to include access to affordable community-based drug treatment, as well as education and prevention). Continuing that its common goal is "to advocate those policies which increase the health and welfare of our communities, and to reduce the unacceptable racial disparities both in criminal justice and in access to drug treatment and other services" and that it seeks to reduce the imprisonment of non-violent drug offenders, the NBCSL then took a giant step forward by formally stating that drug users are not demons but members of the larger community. "We believe that nonviolent substance abusers are not menaces to our communities but rather a troubled yet integral part of our community who need to be reclaimed," the NBCSL said. After the preamble came the meat of the resolution. According to the document, the NBCSL will:
4.
FDA
Okays
Second
Ecstasy
Study
--
Effect
on
Terminal
Cancer
Patients
to
be
Tested
The Food and Drug Administration has approved a pilot study to examine whether MDMA, better known as the popular club drug Ecstasy, can help terminal cancer patients come to grips with end-of-life anxiety and depression. Pending final approval by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the study, led by Harvard Medical School researcher Dr. John Halpern, is set to begin this spring with 12 cancer patients at the Lahey Clinic and McLean Hospital in the Boston area. After a virtual ban on psychedelic research dating back to the fallout over the research projects of another Harvard researcher, Timothy Leary, the Harvard study marks the second time in a few months that the FDA has approved research into the use of Ecstasy for therapeutic purposes. Last year, the agency gave final approval to a South Carolina study of Ecstasy's efficacy in treating patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/304/maps.shtml). Other studies testing the efficacy of psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms, for people with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders are also underway. According to Dr. Halpern, Ecstasy is an "empathogen," a substance that can reduce stress and increase empathy. Unlike LSD, said Halpern, Ecstasy is "ego friendly," and unlike many pain medications, it does not make people groggy or over-sedated. Instead, according to anecdotal reports, people with terminal illnesses who have taken the drug found it easier to talk to friends and families about death and other uncomfortable subjects. "End of life issues are very important and are getting more and more attention, and yet there are very few options for patients who are facing death," he said in a statement Monday.
"The approval of this study by McLean Hospital, the Lahey Clinic, and the FDA represents a triumph of hope over fear, hope for the too-long obstructed promise of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy versus fear of the risks of MDMA exaggerated by anti-drug crusaders and scientists for their own ends," said Doblin. "At a time when the US government has placed all its eggs in the basket of fear -- war, terrorism, 'drugs,' failing Social Security, the 'menace' of gay marriage -- the remarkably widespread media coverage of the FDA's approval of psychedelic research again at Harvard after 40 years shows that people are eager for balance and hopeful news," he told DRCNet. "It is now clear that the American public would welcome whatever help can be provided in facing directly life's great challenge, to die gracefully and in peace, even if such help comes from a previously demonized and criminalized substance also used by young people seeking pleasure." The discoverer of the big daddy of psychedelics, LSD, Dr. Albert Hoffman, who turns 99 this month, referred to the substance as "my problem child" because its widespread recreational use by 'hippies' removed it from the realm of medicine and science and embroiled it in the culture wars. But Hoffman remains convinced that psychedelics like LSD can have positive therapeutic effects. And while psychedelics have indeed been demonized since they were popularized for recreational use by the likes of Leary, recent research into their therapeutic effects is already providing evidence Hoffman's optimism is not misplaced. Dr. Charles Grob, a psychiatrist at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles who is leading an FDA-approved study of the efficacy of psilocybin in helping terminal cancer patients deal with end-of-life emotional and spiritual issues, told the Washington Post that while psychedelics may be dangerous if used improperly, if used in a therapeutic setting, they can yield impressive results. "When taken under adverse circumstances by ill-prepared individuals, there are substantial risks," said Grob. "But when taken in the context of carefully structured and approved research protocols, adverse effects can be contained to a minimum." Grob's patients, who take "modest" doses of synthetic psilocybin and then spend the next few hours in a comfortable setting with a psychiatrist, are doing well, he said. "So far they have had impressive results in terms of amelioration of anxiety, improvement of mood, increased rapport with family and friends and, interestingly, significant and lasting reductions in pain. These are extraordinary compounds that seem to have an uncanny ability to reliably induce spiritual or religious experiences when taken in the right conditions." Dr. Michael Mithoefer, the South Carolina psychiatrist running the study of Ecstasy in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, has reported no problems in the early stages of his study, the Post noted. Dr. Halpern, who will lead the Boston study, told the Post psychedelics may not be for everyone, but "may be helpful" for many facing death. In that interview, he took pains to distance himself from Leary, whose free-wheeling experimentation on students with LSD led to his dismissal from Harvard and a decades-long virtual moratorium on psychedelic research nationwide. "This is not about hippy dippy Halpern trying to turn on the world," he said. "I'm not looking for a magic bullet, but for a lot of people, the anxiety about death is so tremendous there is no way to get their arms around the problems that were ongoing in their families. This could be a substantial contribution to the range of palliative care strategies we're trying to develop for people facing death."
5.
This
Week's
Corrupt
Cops
Stories
It's a mixed bag this week, with one clearly corrupt law enforcer, several who are severely misguided and hypocritical although probably not corrupt, and one truly bizarre tale out of Detroit. First up is John Chiapelas, 61, a 30-year veteran investigator for the St. Louis circuit attorney's office. He was sentenced Thursday to five months in prison for his role in a ring that brought thousands of pounds of marijuana to the St. Louis area, the Associated Press reported. His role consisted primarily of allowing his daughter's boyfriend to use the suburban family home as a stash house. After police investigating the ring watched the boyfriend carry two heavy bags into the home, they searched the place and discovered the bags held 106 pounds of pot. At sentencing he told the judge he was aware of what was going on, but failed to act. "I guess, mentally, I didn't want to admit I had any fault," he said. And then we have a trio of cops and prosecutors who managed to get caught with the goods. In Georgia, Assistant District Attorney Bob Cullifer of the Mountain Judicial Circuit was arrested along with his wife on December 23 on charges of marijuana possession with intent to distribute, the AP reported. The pair were busted after Cullifer went into a convenience store while his wife waited in the car outside. The car alarm went off, the wife could not shut it off, and when police arrived, they smelled a "strong odor of marijuana," searched the car, and found a bag of the kind bud weighing 30 grams. While it appears the possession with intent charge is over the top, Cullifer, a 15-year veteran prosecutor, should have known better. He has since resigned. A couple of states over, in Louisiana, State Police Master Trooper Michael Evans apparently picked up a bad habit somewhere along the way. Last week, he was fired and then arrested on charges of receiving prescription drugs by fraud. He is charged with two counts and was booked into the Ouachita County Jail on a $5,000 bond, the Monroe News-Star reported. Up north in Illinois, Lincoln police officer Corporal Diana Short and her paramedic husband were arrested December 16 after an Illinois State Police drug task force raided their home a day earlier, uncovering a basement marijuana grow operation with 15 four-foot-tall plants, the Peoria Star-Journal reported. Both Short, 45, and her husband John, 41, face felony charges of manufacture and manufacture with intent to deliver, although there is as yet no evidence the pair were involved in pot sales. Local prosecutors are threatening to up the charges, and in a fine display of prosecutorial vindictiveness, are also threatening to charge Short with multiple crimes for lying about her age when she first got her drivers' license and maintaining that lie each time she renewed it. Short resigned from the force in late December, and she and her husband face a January 19 trial. And in a truly strange case, Detroit police officer Ceiere Campbell will be in federal court next week on charges he stole drugs and gave them to addicts in order to entice them to appear on his anti-drug web site, the Detroit Free Press reported. Campbell, who had worked in narcotics, allegedly stole marijuana, crack cocaine, and heroin during drug busts, then gave the drugs to at least 50 people so he could photograph them using drugs on his web site. He was ratted off by a disgruntled relative in May 2003. When federal agents raided his home days later, they found marijuana, paraphernalia, a stolen handgun, and waivers the drug users allegedly signed to permit their images to be used on the Internet. Campbell, who claims he intended the web site to send an anti-drug message, is charged with conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, aiding and abetting the delivery of controlled substances, and possession of a stolen firearm. He faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine.
6.
BLOG:
Legalizers
Score
Big
This
Week
Reprinted from DRCNet's Prohibition and the Media blog -- visit https://stopthedrugwar.org/blog/ to check it out! Those of you who read our newsletter, Drug War Chronicle, might know about the work of Prohibition and the Media coauthor Nicolas Eyle and his organization, ReconsiDer: Forum on Drug Policy (http://www.reconsider.org), based in Syracuse, New York. A few weeks ago one of our articles, Syracuse Reconsiders Drug Policy, reported on hearings by the Syracuse City Council at which speakers discussed legalization and options available to the city for reform (https://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/362/syracuse.shtml). The hearings followed up on a report by former City Auditor Minch Lewis, which Lewis prepared at Nicky's suggestion. This week Eyle and company scored big, with an editorial by syndicated columnist Neal Peirce of the Washington Post Writers Group titled "Legalizing Street Drugs an Experiment Worth Considering" (http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002138380_peirce03.html). Peirce's column quoted extensively from Eyle and from a number of the reformers he brought to Syracuse, including Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (http://www.leap.cc) executive director and Prohibition and the Media coauthor Jack Cole. Those of us who are active in drug reform frequently discuss and debate the approaches we take to the issue. The Peirce column lends some weight to the corner of the movement in which people like Eyle, Cole and myself reside, the corner that openly and directly talks about prohibition itself and the legalization alternative. That's what they did in Syracuse. They were taken seriously -- admittedly because of the years of work that ReconsiDer has already done there, perhaps -- and the case for legalization has as a result been presented on editorial pages in papers around the country. And this did not come at the expense of the partial reforms that are politically viable in the shorter term, such as harm reduction, decriminalization or deprioritization -- those were also discussed. Score one for our side. Peirce's columns are syndicated by The Washington Post to papers around the country. We don't know what papers chose to run it, but it's possible that quite a few did -- please let us know by posting to https://stopthedrugwar.org/blog/ if you've seen it. The link provided above is from the Seattle Times -- visit http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/contactus/ and go to the bottom right of the page to get letter to the editor information. Prohibition and the Media is an ongoing critique in blog format of selected mainstream news articles of direct relevance to the prohibition/legalization debate -- as well as discussion of other interesting developments or resources related to that them. We hope you'll visit https://stopthedrugwar.org/blog/ each day to hear the half of the story that the media didn't tell, for types of news stories that Drug War Chronicle hasn't focused on before, to send letters to the editor, and to join and follow the discussion. Visit http://www.ga0.org/drcnet/smp.tcl to subscribe to our blog announcements list or to update your DRCNet subscription info.
7.
Newsbrief:
Dallas
Schools
Using
Trace
Scanner
for
Drug
Detection
Trace scanners, devices which pick up microscopic traces of substances, are typically found in airports, where they search for explosives, and in prisons, where they are used to detect traces of illegal drugs on visitors (who are then banned from visiting), but they have also found a home in the Dallas Independent School District, which has become the nation's first to use them to find drugs and drug users in its classrooms and hallways. After testing the device last year, the school district has now contracted with Trace Detection Services, a Louisiana firm, to have all 47 of its middle and high schools tested this year, the Dallas Morning News reported. Results from testing in selected schools in the last few years, which included traces of heroin-laced pot in one school and a "love nest" in another where students snorted cocaine, provoked the district to expand the program, said spokesman Danny Claxton. "They weren't the results we were looking for," he said. The testing already done has aroused concerns among teachers at at least one district high school, suburban Red Oak. There, Trace Detection Services examined the IDs and lockers of all 1,500 students, a move teachers called disruptive and intrusive. And the district didn't come up with much for its efforts, conceded district police force (!?) head Scott Lindsay. Before the sweep, officials suspected the school was awash in cocaine, he told the Morning News, but the scans turned up mostly marijuana, and on only five percent of the students. "It worked and it turned out to be something of a relief," he said. School officials and Trace Detection alike portrayed the program as less of a law enforcement tool and more of a way to improve drug prevention and education. As Trace president Gary Pfeltz noted, "Under the law, schools need only reasonable suspicion to search a student, and this one way they can do it," he said. "But we found there is more interest in this for education. That also happens to be where the federal funds are." Pfeltz told the Morning News his was a two-man start-up company that is looking for a market. The Dallas gig, worth just under $50,000, is his first big contract. But with school administrators turning a deaf ear to the Orwellian overtones of such devices, his is probably a business to invest in.
8.
Newsbrief:
Plunging
Dollar
Loses
Favor
with
Drug
Dealers
The US dollar has long been the world's de facto common currency, but with it declining in value against the Euro and other currencies, it is beginning to lose favor with some cash connoisseurs including global drug dealers, Grant's Interest Rate Observer reported last month in a story picked up by Slate.com. With the dollar continuing to slide against foreign currencies, it is just not as handy as it once was for people who want to move large amounts of cash, Grant's reported. With more than half of the more than $700 billion worth of dollars in circulation being held outside the US, according to the Federal Reserve, the greenback has long been the favorite of drug dealers, black marketeers, arms dealers, and anyone else who would like to keep his transactions off the books and his assets in liquid form. But now, the dollar's reign as king of the cash economy is being challenged by the Euro. For the last two years, the number of Euros in circulation has been expanding faster than the supply of dollars, and it is becoming the currency of choice for those lovers of liquid cash. Part of the Euro's new appeal to the underground economy, Grant's reported, is its strength relative to the declining dollar. But equally important is the fact that while the largest US denomination readily available is the $100 bill, the European Central Bank has started in recent years to print 200- and 500-Euro notes. With a 500-Euro note worth $682 at today's rates, better those big Euro notes than bulky dollars. And those Euro notes are showing up in places where the dollar was formerly king -- such as the stomachs of drug couriers. Indeed, Grant's noted the October bust of a drug mule flying between Spain and Colombia, who was carrying $197,000 in Euros -- not dollars -- in his stomach. While most may not shed a tear over the loss of drug dealers and other unsavory characters as clients of the dollar, Americans might want to ask what has happened to our much-vaunted dollar to cause it to lose ground as the world's common currency.
9.
Newsbrief:
Hawaii
Unions
and
Hotels
See
Drug
Testing
Fight
Ahead
With labor contracts at many major Hawaii resorts and hotels set to expire next year, unions and employers alike are gearing up for a major battle over drug testing, Pacific Business News reported late last month. Some hotels have already negotiated drug-testing language into their contracts, as well as provisions for handling workers who test positive for illicit substances. The issue is largely driven by methamphetamine use, which is especially popular in the Aloha State. Hotel and resort employers told the industry journal that while they are unsure of the extent of meth use among employees, they are seeing increased tardiness, shoddy work, and a decreasing number of potential employees who can pass pre-employment drug tests.
Union leaders expressed a willingness to negotiate drug testing, but only if it is designed to help workers. "We are willing to negotiate drug testing as a preventive measure, not using it as a punishment," said Richard Baker, director of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Local 142's Hawaii division. "We want drug policies to help workers, so we insist on working on a program that includes rehabilitation," he told Pacific Business News. Baker and his business agents have already negotiated contracts that included drug testing with provisions for rehabilitation at a handful of upscale resorts on the Big Island, he said. "We had to make sure our member is treated for illness and not thrown out," he said. But under the contracts negotiated so far, employees get only one shot at rehabilitation; if they test positive a second time, they are fired. "If you're found to test positive again, there's no hope for you," said Hanalei Peters, the union chairman at one of the Big Island hotels. It's a really harsh program. Look for the drug testing issue to heat up as negotiations commence on the contracts that expire next year.
10.
Newsbrief:
Here
Come
the
Revenoors
--
Tennessee
Illegal
Drug
Tax
Now
in
Effect
Under a new law that went into effect January 1, the state of Tennessee has begun assessing an excise tax on illegal drugs. From moonshine to marijuana, and even including prescription drugs procured illegally, the Tennessee tax man wants his cut. According to the Daily Tennessean, it becomes the 23rd state to do so. While proponents of the new law are touting its revenue enhancing aspects, its primary purpose is to further punish people caught in possession of illicit drugs. The law creates a 10-person tax agency at a one-time cost of $1.2 million and anticipates an annual expenditure of $800,000 to fund the office, according to the state Revenue Department. But according to state Sen. Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge), the law's sponsor, the tax should more than cover the costs to the state. He told the Tennessean he projected collecting as much as $3.6 million in illegal drug taxes in one year. The idea, he said, was to recoup some of the costs of prosecuting and jailing drug offenders. "People felt good that we could do something other than have to spend taxpayer money on housing drug dealers," he said. Under the new law, persons in possession of illegal drugs have 48 hours to report to a state revenue office to pay the tax and get a tax stamp, which must be affixed to the drugs in question. People who comply with the law need not provide their name, address, or other identifying information, and under Tennessee law, the tax office is barred from providing information about drug tax payers to law enforcement authorities. But Tennessee officials don't think that will be the primary way the tax will be assessed. In neighboring North Carolina, which has had a similar law for 14 years, only 79 people out of the 72,000 assessed voluntarily bought tax stamps. The rest were taxed after being arrested on drug charges. Under the Tennessee law, upon making a drug arrest, police have 48 hours to contact the tax office, which will then assess the tax, as well as additional fines for not having paid it in the first place. If suspects cannot immediately pay the tax, the state will seize and sell off any assets to pay off the liability. Such laws are absurd, said Allen St. Pierre, new executive director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (http://www.norml.org). "On the one hand, it says you can't own a substance. And on the other hand, it creates a taxing scheme. The law on its face makes no sense," he told the Tennessean, adding that it amounted to "legal nitwittery... Drug users should challenge the law in court to either get it wiped off the books or to affirm the legal taxation of drugs within a regulatory scheme similar to that used with alcohol and tobacco." "Some state drug tax laws have been successfully challenged," St. Pierre said, "but legislators then rewrite the laws to satisfy the courts and get them back on the books."
11.
Media
Scan:
Neal
Peirce
and
Ted
Galen
Carpenter
on
Legalization,
Dr.
Jane
Orient
on
the
Pain
Prosecutions,
Nation
Tony
Papa
Interview,
COHA
on
Guatemala
Drug
Trade
Legalizing Street Drugs an
Experiment Worth Considering
Drug Prohibition is a Terrorist's
Best Friend
Outside View: Jailed
Doc, Tortured Patient
Talking With Anthony Papa
The Coke Report: Guatemala:
The Crown Prince of Central America's Drug Trafficking
12.
This
Week
in
History
January 8, 1990: General Manuel Noriega of Panama is convicted on eight counts of drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering, and sentenced to 40 years in US federal prison. January 8, 1998: Mississippi House Bill 196, introduced by Rep. Bobby Moak (R-Lincoln County), proposes "The removal of a body part in lieu of other sentences imposed by the court for violations of the Controlled Substances Law." January 9, 1923: Labor Secretary Davis endorses the idea of a national campaign against the peril of habit-forming drugs. In a telegram to W. Lee Provol of Chicago, Davis writes: "The American home must be protected from the most treacherous agency known to man and science, that evil which the innocent user of habit-forming drugs cannot himself combat, the treachery of one's will to himself and his soul. If one only be saved from the agonies of this vice the cause is worthwhile, but I am confident that the campaign will be far-reaching in its effect." January 9, 1996: Agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration in Miami arrest Jorge Luis Cabrera. In November 1995, Cabrera donated $20,000 to the Democratic Party and was invited to a Christmas party that year by Hillary Rodham Clinton. The DEA agents confiscate from Cabrera and four of his partners 6,000 pounds of cocaine and recent photos with Castro from his November 1995 trip to Cuba. January 11, 1923: The New York Times publishes an article titled "Marihuana Is Newest Drug," claiming that the state of New York has 50,000 drug addicts. Visit http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/History/e1920/marihuana_is_newest_dr ug_.htm to read it. January 11, 1998: The New York Times publishes an op-ed by Nobel laureate economist Milton Friedman titled "There's No Justice in the War on Drugs." Visit http://www.zpub.com/un/drug-mf.html to read it. January 12, 1929: The Porter Narcotic Farm Act is enacted, establishing the first two narcotics hospitals for addicts in federal prisons in response to crowding. January 12, 2001: Salon.com reports that the nephew of Attorney General-designate John Ashcroft received probation after a felony conviction in state court for growing 60 marijuana plants with intent to distribute the drug in 1992. This is a lenient sentence, given that these charges often trigger much tougher federal penalties and jail time. Ashcroft was the tough-on-drugs Missouri governor at the time. January 13, 2001: The Cato Institute publishes an article written by former Los Angeles Police Department officer David Klinger, titled "Make Drugs Legal for Adults, Says Former Cop." The article in part reads: "But by the end of my tenure with the LAPD I came to believe that marijuana -- a drug I had never seen anyone overdose on or influence anyone to do anything more violent than attack a bag of potato chips -- should be legalized. I saw a nation fighting harder, devoting more money and jailing increasing numbers of individuals -- all the while falling further behind in the war on drugs. The price of the drugs didn't rise with increased interdiction, usage rates didn't fall and the number of lives damaged or destroyed by chronic use, overdose and drug-related criminal activity mounted. No matter how much I disliked the idea, I became convinced the United States should legalize illicit drugs. I do not know whether legalizing drugs will increase their popularity. But I suspect that if we approach legalization thoughtfully and pursue a sensible post-legalization strategy, then the drug rolls will not swell. They may in fact decline. But even if more people do take drugs in the wake of legalization, we would live in a society where citizens suffer far less from the predatory crimes spawned by the illicit drug trade." January 14, 1937: A very interesting and historical conference leading up to the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937 takes place in room 81 of the Treasury Building in Washington, DC. Visit http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/taxact/canncon.htm to read the transcript.
13.
Apply
Now
to
Intern
at
DRCNet!
Make a difference next semester! DRCNet and the Coalition for Higher Education Act Reform (CHEAR) are seeking motivated and hardworking interns for the Spring 2005 Semester. We are especially looking for people interested in the Higher Education Act Reform Campaign, an active, vigorous, visible effort to repeal a federal law that takes college aid away from students because of drug convictions. Preference will be given to those able to work 20 hours per week or more, though others will be considered. DRCNet needs interns with good people skills, web design skills, superb writing skills, and a desire to end the war on drugs. Office and/or political experience are a plus. Spring internships begin in the second or third week of January and ideally last through April, but the dates are flexible. Internships are unpaid, but travel stipends are available for those who need them. Apply today by sending a short cover letter and resume to: [email protected].
14.
The
Reformer's
Calendar
Please submit listings of events concerning drug policy and related topics to [email protected]. January 13-16, Pittsburgh, PA, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition speaker Jerry Cameron speaks to church congregations about Martin Luther King's message and the impact of America's drug prohibition policy on the African American community. For further information, visit http://www.leap.cc or contact Mike Smithson at [email protected] or (315) 243-5844. January 19, 6:00-8:00pm, "Criminal Justice Reform in the 21st Century: Rockefeller Drug Law Reform and the Community," forum in the "Urban Dialogues" series, featuring Judge Leslie Crocker Snyder. At Metropolitan College of New York, 75 Varick Street (at Canal Street), Student Lounge, 12th floor, contact (212) 343-7025 or [email protected] for info. January 22, 4:00pm-3:00am, Brickell, FL, 7th Annual Medical Marijuana Benefit Concert, supporting Florida NORML's medical marijuana campaign. Hosted by Ploppy Palace Productions, at Tobacco Road, 626 South Miami Ave., 21 Years or over admission $10. For further information contact [email protected]. January 24-April 30, eastern Pennsylvania, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition cofounder Peter Christ visits civic groups, church congregations and colleges in Lancaster, Scranton, Allentown, Philadelphia and many other locations. For further information, visit http://www.leap.cc or contact Mike Smithson at [email protected] or (315) 243-5844. January 25-30, Park City, UT, Freedom Cinema Festival, concurrent with the Sundance Film Festival, line-up including two films about the drug war among many others. Call (800) 503-5923 or visit http://www.freedomcinemafestival.org for further information. January 29, Birmingham, AL, Statewide Prison and Drug Policy Reform Conference, with family members of inmates and others. At the University of Alabama, TASC Center, 401 Beacon Parkway West, registration $25 for individuals or $50 for organizations. Visit http://tv.alabama.usmjparty.com/fmi2.doc or call (334) 220-4670 for further information. January 31-February 12, central and southwestern Ohio, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition speaker Judge Eleanor Schockett visits civic groups, churches and colleges explaining drug policy and offering alternatives. For further information, visit http://www.leap.cc or contact Mike Smithson at [email protected] or (315) 243-5844. February 10, 6:00pm, New York, NY, book talk Anthony Papa, author of "15 To Life: How I Painted My Way To Freedom," guests including Andrew Cuomo and others. At Hue-Man Bookstore and Cafe, 2319 Frederick Douglass Blvd., between 124th and 125th Sts. Call (212) 665 7400 or visit http://www.huemanbookstore.com for info. February 12, 1:30-4:20pm, Laguna, Rally Against the Drug War, organized by OC NORML, SO Cal NORML, and the November Coalition. At Main Beach, for further information visit http://www.ocnorml.org or contact (714) 210-6446 or [email protected]. February 15-17, New England, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition speaker Judge James P. Gray speaks at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts on Feb. 16, Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut on Feb. 17 during the day, and Brown University on Feb. 17 in the evening. For further information, visit http://www.leap.cc or contact Mike Smithson at [email protected] or (315) 243-5844. February 17, 8:00pm-midnight, Los Angeles, CA, "Stop the Insanity," celebrity benefit hosted by Lawrence Goldfarb, with Anthony Papa, author of "15 to Life: How I Painted My Way to Freedom." At the Playboy Mansion, Great Hall, by invitation only. E-mail [email protected] for further information. February 19, Norwich, United Kingdom, Legalise Cannabis Conference 2005. Visit http://www.lca-uk.org for information. March 12-17, New York, NY, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition speaker Judge James P. Gray addresses civic groups and audiences at Columbia University and John Jay College of Criminal Justice. For further information, visit http://www.leap.cc or contact Mike Smithson at [email protected] or (315) 243-5844. April 21-23, Tacoma, WA, 15th North American Syringe Exchange Convention. Sponsored by the North American Syringe Exchange Network, visit http://www.nasen.org for further information or contact NASEN at (253) 272-4857 or [email protected]. April 30 (date tentative), 11:00am-3:00pm, Washington, DC, "America's in Pain!" 2nd Annual National Pain Rally. At the US Capitol Reflecting Pool, visit http://www.AmericanPainInstitute.org for further information. April 5-8, 2006, Santa Barbara, CA, Fourth National Clinical Conference on Cannabis Therapeutics. Sponsored by Patients Out of Time, details to be announced, visit http://www.medicalcannabis.com for updates. 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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