Date: Wed, 29 Aug 2001
Subject: #200 It’s Time To Seriously Reexamine The Drug War

*********************PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE*************************

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #220 August 29, 2001

IT’S TIME TO SERIOUSLY REEXAMINE THE DRUG WAR

NOTE: This important article was reprinted in more than _29 NEWSPAPERS
WORLDWIDE_ Please send your letter to as many of them as possible.

For the second time in three days, the Washington Post provided us
with a tremendous viewpoint on the serious need for Americans to take
a new look at current Drug War policies. Following Aug 24’s editorial
by the Post editorial board (which resulted in our last Focus Alert
#219) criticizing the priorities of federal drug law enforcement, we
were treated to an outstanding essay from Post columnist David
Broder–A DEBATABLE WAR ON DRUGS–in the Sunday Aug 26 edition.

Additionally, with Broder’s popularity as a syndicated writer we have
to date located 29 newspapers that carried this great column.

We invite you to send a letter to the newspaper target closest to your
hometown, as well as any others you are inclined to address.

Thank the newspaper for including this topic in their viewpoint page
and also reinforce one or two points that you found yourself most in
agreement with.

If you choose to address more than one paper, please make at least a
few minor modifications to each submission. Most newspapers would
prefer that your letter to them be an exclusive. Most important
however, is the paper closest to YOU. This could very well be one of
our most successful campaigns ever, so let’s do it right and let’s do
it NOW!

A SAMPLE letter follows below as an idea for you, and the 29 outlets
which have carried the column to date is below the sample.

Thanks for your effort and support.

WRITE A LETTER TODAY

It’s not what others do it’s what YOU do

***************************************************************************

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID ( Letter,
Phone, Fax etc.)

Please post a copy your letter or report your action to the Sent LTE
list if you are subscribed, or by E-mailing a copy directly to
[email protected] Your letter will then be forwarded to the list with
so others can learn from your efforts and be motivated to follow suit

This is VERY IMPORTANT as it is one of the only ways we have of
gauging our impact and effectiveness.

**************************************************************************

URL http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1564/a02.html

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2001 The Washington Post Company
Contact: [email protected]
Author: David S. Broder
Bookmark: http//www.mapinc.org/find?194 (Hutchinson, Asa)

A DEBATABLE WAR ON DRUGS

The high esteem in which former representative Asa Hutchinson of
Arkansas is held by his colleagues was demonstrated by the 98 to 1
Senate vote confirming him last month as the new director of the Drug
Enforcement Administration. Even more telling was the fact that Rep.
John Conyers of Michigan, the senior Democrat on the House Judiciary
Committee and an ardent opponent of the impeachment of President
Clinton, appeared at the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing to praise
Hutchinson, who had been one of the Republican House managers
presenting the case against Clinton to the full Senate.

In his 4 1/2 years in the House, Hutchinson, a former U.S. attorney,
earned an estimable reputation as a thoughtful conservative and, as
such liberals as Conyers and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman
Patrick Leahy of Vermont affirmed, as a fair-minded advocate.

Hutchinson will need all his skills in his new job, for the nation is
clearly about to embark on a long-overdue debate on the so-called “war
on drugs.” The DEA is, as the name implies, primarily a
law-enforcement agency, but John Walters, Bush’s choice to head the
White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, has been in limbo,
awaiting a confirmation hearing since May. Many of the same Democrats
who welcomed Hutchinson’s nomination have argued that Walters’s
hard-line approach, emphasizing interdiction and incarceration over
education and treatment, makes him the wrong choice for “drug czar.”
At least until Walters’s fate is resolved, Hutchinson is in the hot
seat on Bush administration policy toward drugs.

During the past three decades, the United States has invested billions
in fighting the scourge of drugs, and more and more serious people are
questioning its effectiveness. The critics range from conservatives
such as Bill Buckley and New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson to an array of
liberals, and they are having an impact on public opinion. While few
agree with the editors of the influential British newspaper the
Economist, which last month laid out at length “the case for
legalizing drugs,” many more are expressing their doubts about current
policies.

A Pew Research Center survey last February found that three out of
four Americans believe “we are losing the drug war,” and by a margin
of 52 percent to 35 percent they said drug use “should be treated as a
disease, not a crime.”

In a recent issue of the American Prospect magazine, California
journalist Peter Schrag pointed to the growing trend in the states,
where initiatives allowing medical use of marijuana or mandating
treatment rather than jail for drug-users have been winning large
public majorities.

Hutchinson was dodgy in his confirmation hearing on the question of
sending federal agents out to arrest doctors who prescribe marijuana
as a pain- and nausea-relieving agent for cancer patients and other
seriously ill people, as eight states now allow. The Supreme Court
held earlier this year that the feds have that authority. When
Hutchinson was asked if he would use it, he said it was something on
which he needed to confer with the attorney general, adding that it
was important “that we do not send the wrong signal . . . that
marijuana use is an acceptable practice.”

But Hutchinson also applauded a bipartisan bill, crafted by Leahy and
the Judiciary Committee’s ranking Republican, Sen. Orrin Hatch of
Utah, to expand funding of drug treatment programs, especially for
prisoners and youths, and to increase the number of drug courts, where
judges can order nonviolent drug offenders to undergo treatment and
continuing tests, rather than put them in jail.

Hutchinson took over his DEA duties last week at the same time the
Department of Justice bragged that more people than ever are in
federal prison on drug charges and are serving longer sentences. That
report showed there were more suspects arrested in 1999 on charges
involving marijuana than for powder or crack cocaine. A higher portion
of the marijuana suspects who wound up in federal prison were simply
users than was the case with any of the hard drugs.

That raises obvious questions about the priorities of federal drug
enforcement agents and prosecutors. No one seems to know how many
people are in state prisons for simple possession of marijuana. But in
1998, those prisons held 236,800 people convicted on drug charges —
57 percent more than had been there in 1990.

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia
University estimated in 1998 that 70 percent to 85 percent of all
state prison inmates – — not just those convicted on drug charges —
need treatment, but only 13 percent of them get it.

The whole “war on drugs” cries out for reexamination.

******************************************************************************

To the Editor

Re: David Broder’s recent column

New DEA chief Asa Hutchinson, national drug czar nominee John Walters
and U.S. Attorney General Ashcroft insist that strong criminal
sanctions are necessary to deal with America’s very real problems of
drug abuse. However, after two decades of this approach, we see
illegal drug use by minors remains steady, prices of illegal drugs are
lower and availability is at an all time high.

Meanwhile, as columnist Broder aptly notes, only 13% of those who
truly need substance abuse treatment are able to get it, and most of
them must first acquire a criminal record before receiving it.

The current prohibition of certain drugs is not providing positive
results, other than increased employment of drug police, prison
guards, probation officers and other drug ‘warriors’. In many
jurisdictions, criminal drug cases account for a third or more of
criminal justice dockets, reducing the overall effectiveness of the
court system in general. And nationwide we see valuable tax dollars
going into prison construction that should instead be used to improve
education for both children and adults. People who are better educated
are far less likely to become drug abusers.

It is indeed time to make strong, demonstrable changes in national
drug law policies. Thanks for the inclusion of David Broder’s column
in your newspaper.

Best regards, Stephen Heath

IMPORTANT Always include your address and telephone
number

Please note If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify it
at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous copies of the
same letter and so that the original author receives credit for his/her work.
—————————————————————————-

Below is the key information you need to write to as many of the 29
newspapers we have identified as having printed the column as you wish.

Please note that it is best to send your letters one at a time to each
newspaper as newspapers will not use letters that they know are also
sent to others.

Pubdate: Sat, 25 Aug 2001
Source: Record, The (CA)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: ‘War On Drugs’ Cries Out For National Re-Examination
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1579/a06.html

Pubdate: Mon, 27 Aug 2001
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: Drug Warriors Face Uphill Fight
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1583/a01.html

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Daily Camera (CO)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: DEA Chief Must Review The Drug War
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1565/a10.html

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: A Debatable War On Drugs
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1564/a02.html

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: Mission For DEA’s New Director
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1582/a04.html

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: St. Petersburg Times (FL)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: Our War On Drugs Needs A Closer Look
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1573/a04.html

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Quad-City Times (IA)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: New DEA Boss Has Formidable Challenge
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1578/a10.html

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Herald-Times, The (IN)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: ‘War On Drugs’ Cries Out For Careful Re-Examination
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1580/a03.html

Pubdate: Mon, 27 Aug 2001
Source: Indianapolis Star (IN)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: A Long-Overdue Debate About The ‘War On Drugs’
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1585/a09.html

Pubdate: Mon, 27 Aug 2001
Source: Evansville Courier & Press (IN)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: Rethinking Drug War
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1583/a06.html

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Topeka Capital-Journal (KS)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: Have We Met The Enemy In The War On Drugs? Is It US?
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1582/a09.html

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Wichita Eagle (KS)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: War On Drugs Cries Out For Re-Examination
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1568/a05.html

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Lawrence Journal-World (KS)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: War On Drugs Needs New Strategy
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1564/a03.html

Pubdate: Mon, 27 Aug 2001
Source: Brainerd Daily Dispatch (MN)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: Are We Losing The Drug War?
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1589/a09.html

Pubdate: Mon, 27 Aug 2001
Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: One Toke Over The Line And Your On The Way To Jail
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1574/a02.html

Pubdate: Mon, 27 Aug 2001
Source: News & Observer (NC)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: For DEA’s Leader, Food For Thought In Crammed Prisons
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1575/a06.html

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Daily Gazette (NY)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: Time To Reevaluate War On Drugs
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1572/a10.html

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Columbus Dispatch (OH)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: U.S. Drug War Priorities In Need Of Re-Evaluation
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1590/a07.html

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: New Debate On ‘War On Drugs’
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1590/a08.html

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Oregonian, The (OR)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: Hutchinson’s First Task Should Be To Re-Examine The ‘War On Drugs’
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1590/a06.html

Pubdate: Mon, 27 Aug 2001
Source: Register-Guard, The (OR)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: The Debate Over The War On Drugs Is Long Overdue
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1584/a03.html

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: State, The (SC)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: U.S. War On Drugs About To Be Re-Examined
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1566/a02.html

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Sun News (SC)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: War On Drugs Is In Need Of New Strategy
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1568/a06.html

Pubdate: Mon, 27 Aug 2001
Source: Oak Ridger (TN)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: A Needed Debate ON U.S. Drug Policy
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1583/a04.html

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (TX)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: Hutchinson Is Handed A Hot Potato Known As The Drug War
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1569/a04.html

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: A Long-Overdue Debate ON The ‘War On Drugs’
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1567/a08.html

Pubdate: Sun, 26 Aug 2001
Source: Columbian, The (WA)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: Americans Are Ready To Take Second Look At War On Drugs
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1583/a11.html

Pubdate: Tue, 28 Aug 2001
Source: International Herald-Tribune (Europe)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: None Too Soon To Review America’s ‘War On Drugs’
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1585/a05.html

Pubdate: Tue, 28 Aug 2001
Source: Korea Herald (South Korea)
Contact: [email protected]
Headline: A Debatable War On Drugs
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1580/a04.html

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ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing
efforts

http//www.mapinc.org/resource/

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Prepared by Stephen Heath – http//www.drugsense.org/dpffl/ Focus Alert
Specialist

Date: Mon, 27 Aug 2001
Subject: #219 Misguided Federal Drug Law Enforcement Priorities

Misguided Federal Drug Law Enforcement Priorities

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #219 Monday August 27, 2001

On Friday Aug. 24, The Washington Post editorial board published an
astute editorial denouncing U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft.
Specifically they noted his incredibly skewed assertions regarding the
success of federal drug prosecutions against ‘major drug traffickers.’
In fact, as the Post editorial reminded us, the true story is that the
vast majority of federal prosecutions are leveled against minor
offenders, and most of them are for marijuana offenses.

The editorial directly questioned the ‘misplaced priorities’ of both
Aschroft’s office and federal drug law enforcement in general. It
clearly noted the fact that marijuana ‘is hardly the most dangerous of
drugs’, and that ‘the unique federal role in the drug war ought to
be….the drugs that constitute the greatest threat to the national
health’.

Please write a letter TODAY to the Washington Post thanking them for
their coverage of this topic. Key points could be to note the
misleading statements of AG Ashcroft; the fact that 2/3 of federal
drug offenders cannot even afford to pay for their own defense; the
fact that rules of federal court combined with mandatory minimums
force many defendants into accepting Draconian plea bargains; and of
course the hypocrisy in prosecuting tens of thousands for marijuana
offenses when the drugs that constitute the greatest threat to
national health’ are federally approved alcohol and tobacco.

Thanks for your effort and support.

WRITE A LETTER TODAY

It’s not what others do it’s what YOU do

***************************************************************************

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID ( Letter,
Phone, Fax etc.)

Please post a copy your letter or report your action to the MAPTalk
list if you are subscribed, or by E-mailing a copy directly to
[email protected] Your letter will then be forwarded to the list with
so others can learn from your efforts and be motivated to follow suit

This is VERY IMPORTANT as it is one of the only ways we have of
gauging our impact and effectiveness.

**************************************************************************

CONTACT INFO

Source: Washington Post
Contact: [email protected]

***************************************************************************
Article

US DC: Editorial: Misplaced Priorities
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1556/a05.html
Newshawk: register
Pubdate: Fri, 24 Aug 2001
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Copyright: 2001 The Washington Post Company
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/ashcroft.htm (Ashcroft, John)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

MISPLACED PRIORITIES

ATTORNEY GENERAL John Ashcroft responded to the Justice Department’s
latest figures on drug prosecutions by claiming that they prove that
“federal law enforcement is targeted effectively at convicting major
drug traffickers and punishing them with longer lockups in prison.”
The data the department released show almost the opposite: that the
nation’s tough drug sentencing regime is, to a great extent, being
used to lock up comparatively low-level offenders who could easily be
prosecuted in state courts. The data, far from affirming that the
federal drug effort is a success, raise real questions about the
federal government’s prosecutorial priorities in the war on drugs.

The growth in federal drug prosecutions over the past two decades has
been prodigious. Between 1984 and 1999, the number of suspects
referred to federal prosecutors in drug matters tripled, to more than
38,000 — of whom 84 percent were prosecuted. Drug cases during that
time went from 18 percent of the total federal criminal caseload to 32
percent. According to other department data, drug convicts now account
for 57 percent of the federal inmate population, in contrast to only
21 percent of the much larger state population.

This growth is not, as the attorney general suggests, largely the
result of locking up major traffickers. In 1999 only about one-half of
1 percent of criminal referrals were for the most serious drug cases
— those involving what are known as continuing criminal enterprises
— and these led to only 116 actual prison sentences. Two-thirds of
drug defendants could not afford to hire their own lawyers, a good
indication that they were hardly high-level traffickers. In fact, 38
percent of all convictions involved quantities of drugs small enough
that no mandatory minimum sentence could be applied, while only 3
percent resulted in mandatory minimum sentences of longer than 10
years in prison. In 1997 the department reports, 14 percent of federal
drug inmates were in prison for drug use, and 42 percent were serving
time for dealing — either at the street level or above. It is simply
wrong to argue that the focus of the federal drug effort has been kingpins.

Rather, in many jurisdictions, federal drug investigations and
prosecutions seem to run parallel with efforts of state prosecutors
and local police forces.

Another striking feature of the department’s data is the
disproportionate role that marijuana seems to be playing in federal
drug prosecution. Marijuana is hardly the most dangerous of drugs. Yet
31 percent of federal drug referrals involved marijuana offenses in
1999, more than for any other type of drug. And though these referrals
ultimately produced shorter sentences, they were actually more likely
to result in prosecutions than cases involving powder cocaine, crack
cocaine or heroine. Marijuana cases all by themselves now account for
a measurable percentage of the entire federal criminal caseload.

This hardly seems rational. The unique federal role in the drug war
ought to be the prosecution of major interstate trafficking cases
involving the most dangerous people — and the drugs that constitute
the greatest threat to the national health.

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SAMPLE LETTER (sent)

To the editor of the Washington Post:

I appreciated the editorial on the lopsided bias of federal drug
prosecutions toward little fish as opposed to kingpins (“Misplaced
Priorities,” Aug. 24).

As disturbing as the figures are, John Ashcroft’s doublespeak
(“…federal law enforcement is targeted effectively at convicting
major drug traffickers and punishing them with longer lockups in
prison…”) is even scarier. Of course, we should not be surprised
that a professional prohibitionist will say night is day if he thought
the sun might reflect negatively on the drug war. They seem to think
that if they keep telling themselves and the public that everything is
just great, it will be just great. Perhaps Ashcroft is worried that if
this particular failure of the drug war is acknowledged, then the
public might expect all the failures to be acknowledged.

To be fair, the demands on the Attorney General are many, thus
acknowledging the myriad problems of the drug war could turn into a
full time job.

It’s not just the priorities of the drug war that need to be examined
– the whole idea of controlling drugs through coercive force should be
subject to a cost-benefit analysis. Only then will we see how much we
really pay for the drug war and how, in return, we get nothing but
violence, corruption and disinformation from our alleged public servants.

Stephen Young

IMPORTANT: Always include your address and telephone
number

Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify it
at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous copies of the
same letter and so that the original author receives credit for his/her work.
—————————————————————————-

TARGET ANALYSIS Washington Post

Circulation 1.15 MILLION – Advertising Value Of A 150 Word Published Letter
– $2,587

The Washington Post is an influential newspaper that has 71 published
letters in the MAP archive. A sampling recently published letters
shows the average length tends to be about 160 words, with some as
short as 90 words and others as long as 280 words.

The published letters can be viewed here:

http://www.mapinc.org/mapcgi/ltedex.pl?SOURCE=Washington+Post+(DC)

——————————————————————————————————————————–

ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing
efforts

3 Tips for Letter Writers http://www.mapinc.org/3tips.htm

Letter Writers Style Guide http://www.mapinc.org/style.htm

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Prepared by Stephen Heath – http://www.drugsense.org/dpffl/ and
Stephen Young – http://home.att.net/~theyoungfamily Focus Alert
Specialists

Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001
Subject: #218 Drug Overdose Deaths Can Be Reduced

Drug Overdose Deaths Can Be Reduced

——-
PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE
——-

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #218 Monday August 20, 2001

This past Tuesday, the Houston Chronicle (TX) reported the news from
the previous weekend of 16 overdose deaths, all in the same geographic
area and all from the same mixed package of cocaine and heroin.

On Thursday, Chronicle columnist THOM MARSHALL penned yet another column
denouncing current drug policies entitled IT’S TIME WE ADMIT DRUG WAR A
FAILURE. In fact, this was the 83rd column from the past 3 years that
Marshall has written that we have archived at MAP, more than any other
columnist in the country who is not syndicated nationally. See:
http://www.mapinc.org/author/Thom+Marshall

Then on Saturday, the Chronicle’s editorial board posted an editorial
commenting on the overdose deaths. While including some hyperbole,
“….trying street drugs even once could mean death…”, it also
astutely noted that treatment on demand is needed, “… No parent
deserves a dead teenager because the child experimented with drugs.
Better that troubled young people had the kind of access to effective
drug treatment that recording artists and movie stars apparently take
for granted.”

Please write a letter TODAY to the Chronicle thanking them for their
coverage of this topic. We suggest you promote the message that
treatment on demand is a much needed change from current drug policy
and also that current drug prohibition laws make it difficult for
those who need help to seek it out. Also current drug laws create
black market drug dealers, which increases the risk for all citizens,
not just the drug users.

************************************************************************
PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID
( Letter, Phone, fax etc.)

Please post a copy your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list ([email protected]) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to [email protected] Your letter will then
be forwarded to the list with so others can learn from your efforts
and be motivated to follow suit.

This is VERY IMPORTANT as it is one of the only ways we have of gauging our
impact and effectiveness.
************************************************************************

Contact Info:

Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Contact: [email protected]

Extra Credit

Either in the body of your letter or in a postscript, please commend
Thom Marshall for his continued criticism of current drug policy as
well as his astute suggestions on how we can make positive change.

***************************************************************************

***THOM MARSHALL’S COLUMN***

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1515/a08.html
Pubdate: Thu, 16 Aug 2001
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2001 Houston Chronicle
Contact: [email protected]
Author: Thom Marshall

IT’S TIME WE ADMIT DRUG WAR A FAILURE

Perhaps, if what’s happened in Harris County since Saturday still
isn’t enough to convince us to make some changes, we could agree on
some numbers that would be.

By the most recent count available when I was writing this,
unregulated illegal drugs had killed up to 15 people here since
Saturday. This number made news because it is so much larger than the
two or three deaths that occur on an average weekend in Harris County
due to unregulated illegal drugs.

While we surely agree that is an alarming number, it likely will not
be a sufficiently convincing one. Consider these drug war casualty
figures from the government: A total of 11,651 deaths related to drug
abuse were reported in 1999 by 139 medical examiners in 40
metropolitan areas.

One of those who died locally a few days ago after taking unregulated
drugs was a 16-year-old girl. Her entire life was lived during our
nation’s ever-escalating drug war. Yet her life came to an end so
abruptly and prematurely because the war has failed. Drugs available
from criminal dealers remain plentiful, and easily obtainable, and
totally free of requirements regarding purity or strength.

The Numbers Don’t Lie

I hear from many people who believe that anyone who takes unregulated
drugs deserves whatever happens to them as a result. After all, people
know the dangers when they choose to take drugs. If one of them dies
as a result, I’ve heard hard-liners say, that’s one less druggie
adding to the problem.

Every time someone makes such a cold comment, I wonder whether they
are aware of the huge numbers involved, the number of people at risk.

Here is another statistic from the government: In 1999, some 88
million Americans age 12 or older reported using an illicit drug at
least once. That is 40 percent of the population. It doesn’t matter
how straight you are, that is almost certain to include some people
you know, some friends, some family members.

All these years we’ve fought the drug war and yet in 1997, almost
one-third of all high school students ( grades 9-12 ) reported that
someone had offered, sold or given them an illegal drug on school
property. This was up from the one-quarter of the student body that
reported drugs available on school property in 1993.

That is losing.

Government drug war officials like to provide us with numbers about
their busts and seizures. Wednesday’s paper, which had a front-page
update story about the weekend surge in Harris County drug deaths,
also carried, on an inside page, a small item about the U.S. Coast
Guard grabbing 9 tons of cocaine worth $270 million off a fishing boat
in international waters off Colombia’s Pacific coast.

But if we look at other numbers, such as those drug deaths and the
increased availability of drugs at schools, it’s obvious that the
busts and seizures haven’t amounted to squat in the big picture.
Losing an occasional shipment to the authorities is simply a cost of
doing business for the big dealers. Drugs remain plentiful in
Houston, obviously.

Throwing Money Away

For people who aren’t convinced by lost lives, let’s look at some
dollar figures: The Office of National Drug Control Policy reports
that federal spending on drug control programs has increased from $1.5
billion in fiscal year 1981 to $19.2 billion ( estimated ) in fiscal
year 2001.

That’s just the feds’ part of funding the drug war. States and
counties and cities are spending many billions more.

So how much money and how many lives are we willing to lose before we
say enough, let’s try something else? Something like ending the
government’s drug war and concentrating on doctors and psychologists
to treat those who abuse drugs. Something like regulating currently
illegal drugs the way we started regulating alcohol to do away with
bootleggers and eliminate poisonous hooch.

Won’t someone in authority please start negotiations to set some
limits? Some of us in Harris County would like to know when we could
look for some changes.

If 14 deaths in one weekend aren’t enough, how many will it
take?

***HOUSTON CHRONICLE EDITORIAL***

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1519/a11.html
Pubdate: Sat, 18 Aug 2001
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2001 Houston Chronicle
Contact: [email protected]

BAD DRUGS – WHEN IT COMES TO STREET DRUGS, THERE’S NO OTHER KIND

News that 16 people died last weekend from an apparent drug overdose,
possibly of a lethal combination of cocaine and heroin, is shocking.
Most of the victims were Hispanic men, many were young and one was a
16-year-old girl. But the news that fatal overdoses in Harris County
average two or three per weekend arguably is far more
frightening.

News reports indicate that the number of lethal and nonlethal
overdoses seen by Houston-area medical personnel has skyrocketed
inexplicably. There were 31 overdoses in July this year, compared to
two that month last year. Similarly, the number of overdoses in June
of this year jumped to 29, or 26 more than during that period in 2000.

One Chronicle reader cruelly suggested that the solution to drug use
is to put batches of bad narcotics on the street so that drug users
could “wipe themselves out.” But drug addicts, no matter that their
woes generally are self-inflicted, should not be punished by death for
their destructive behavior. No parent deserves a dead teenager
because the child experimented with drugs. Better that troubled young
people had the kind of access to effective drug treatment that
recording artists and movie stars apparently take for granted.

To prevent more deaths on this scale, local police and Drug
Enforcement Administration officials are trying to find the source of
the lethal drugs. They’ll also investigate whether the drugs were
overly potent or contaminated, and whether the drugs were sold to
intentionally cause overdoses. Four people have been arrested for
selling drugs associated with the overdose deaths.

There has been a lot of discussion of “bad drugs” since this spate of
drug-related fatalities. But heroin and cocaine are bad drugs every
day of the week, even when they don’t kill. It would be gratifying if
this tragedy caused people to recognize that trying street drugs even
once could mean death.

***********************************************************************
SAMPLE LETTER

To the editor:

There are two primary reasons why people overdose on any drug. The
first is lack of proper education and the second is ingesting impure
and/or adulterated product. Both reasons were present in the 16 deaths
last weekend and likely account for the majority of the 60 overdose
deaths in Harris County over the past 12 weeks.

Under current zero tolerance and abstinence-only drug education,
children and adults alike are taught that all drug use carries equal
risk and that all drugs are equally dangerous. When they leave the
classroom and enter the real world they quickly see the flaws in this
foundation and are inclined to dismiss ALL drug education
information.

And with our criminal prohibitions against the use of certain
substances, while other risky drugs like alcohol and tobacco are legal
for adult use, the users of the illegal brands are forced to turn to
street corner black market dealers. These suppliers have little
motivation for ensuring product quality, nor are they accountable when
their product is found to be impure or lethal.

Your own columnist Thom Marshall seems to have a very good grasp on
both the inherent problems of current drug policies, but also provides
several legitimate alternatives. As he notes, it’s time to admit the
drug war is a failure. And as your own editorial astutely notes, it’s
time we fund treatment on demand for those who are in true need.
People with drug abuse problems should not have to be arrested and
burdened with a criminal (often felony) record in order to receive
help.

Respectfully submitted,

Stephen Heath Clearwater, FL Drug Policy Forum of Texas (member)
http://www.dpft.org

(contact info)

*************************

IMPORTANT: Always include your address and telephone number Please
note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify it at
least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous copies of
the same letter and so that the original author receives credit for
his/her work.

**********************************************************

Target Analysis – Houston Chronicle

The Chronicle is read by 1.2 million adults in the greater Houston
area each day, and more than 1.7 million on Sundays.

The Chronicle prints average length letters. Our analysis of the 113
previous published pro-reform letters in the MAP published letter
archives shows an average body length of 183 words, with a range from
61 words to 278 words.

Based on their weekday general news sections advertising rates a
published letter of only four column inches (about 160 words) printed
in this paper has an equivalent advertising value as if you bought a
$2,076 advertisement on behalf of reform.

**********************************************************
ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts

Writer’s Resources http://www.mapinc.org/resource/

****************************************************************************

TO SUBSCRIBE, DONATE, VOLUNTEER TO HELP, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL SEE
http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm

TO UNSUBSCRIBE SEE http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm

***************************************************************************
Prepared by Stephen Heath – http://www.dpft.org
Focus Alert Specialist

Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2001
Subject: #217 Doctors Try To Legitimize Failing Drug Propaganda

Doctors Try To Legitimize Failing Drug Propaganda

——-
PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE
——-

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #217 Wednesday August 15, 2001

Drug policy reformers have been much more successful than
prohibitionists at distributing accurate, persuasive information on
the Internet.

Some prohibitionists are rightly worried about this, but instead of
trying to check their facts or attempting to determine what makes a
web site appealing, they have simply resorted to attacking
reform-oriented web site. The New England Journal of Medicine recently
published a letter from some doctors who are concerned that “partisan”
sites are more popular than the allegedly impartial sites sponsored by
the federal government. This analysis completely ignores the
ideological basis of most government sponsored anti-drug sites, which
in turn unmasks the clear bias of the authors.

Please write a letter to the editor of the NEJM to let them know that
far from having a monopoly on drug truth, federal web sites are just
another tool in the endless propaganda campaign of the drug war.

************************************************************************
PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID ( Letter,
Phone, fax etc.)

Please post a copy your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list ([email protected]) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to [email protected] Your letter will then
be forwarded to the list with so others can learn from your efforts
and be motivated to followsuit

This is VERY IMPORTANT as it is the only way we have of gauging our
impact and effectiveness.
************************************************************************

Contact Info:

Source: New England Journal of Medicine (MA)
Contact: [email protected]

Extra Credit

Reuters reported on this letter, and the story was picked up by at
least one newspaper – The Arizona Republic. The story started this
way: “Internet surfers are far more likely to come upon Web sites with
wrong and potentially dangerous information about illicit drug use
than they are to find more reliable, informed sites, a new study
shows.” Please send a letter to the Republic to challenge this
interpretation of the letter.

Title: US: Drug Web Sites Provide Harmful Information – Study
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1469/a01.html
Pubdate: Wed, 8 Aug 2001
Source: Arizona Republic (AZ)
Copyright: 2001 The Arizona Republic
Contact: [email protected]
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Website: http://www.arizonarepublic.com/

***************************************************************************

ARTICLE

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1473/a08.html
Pubdate: Thu, 9 Aug 2001
Source: New England Journal of Medicine (MA)
Copyright: 2001 Massachusetts Medical Society
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.nejm.org/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/290
Authors: Edward W. Boyer, Michael Shannon and Patricia L. Hibberd

WEB SITES WITH MISINFORMATION ABOUT ILLICIT DRUGS

To the Editor: As part of our research on the relation between the Internet
and substance abuse, we have identified several Web sites that promulgate
information about illicit drugs. These “partisan” Web sites are easily
identified by common search engines if one uses the names of illicit
substances as search terms.1 With some pages viewed more than 160,000 times
per day, partisan sites appear to be effective in reaching adolescents and
young adults. In a recent study, 24 percent of college students used the
Internet to obtain information on illicit substances, and 27 percent of
Internet-using college students reported that Internet use increased the
likelihood that they would use drugs.2

The popularity of partisan Web sites may arise from their plausible
descriptions of the preparation, dose, administration, and
psychoactive effects of drugs ( Table 1 ). Partisan sites also offer
recommendations for management of the adverse effects of illicit
drugs. As one partisan site says, “it is up to the drug user to stay
out of [the physician’s] hands.”11 To evaluate the quality of such
information, we conducted a survey of seven partisan Web sites. With
high interobserver reliability ( kappa=0.81 ) between experts unaware
of the source of the information, we found that every partisan site
made potentially harmful recommendations for the management of the
adverse effects of illicit drugs. Information from partisan sites has
been linked to adverse outcomes: some partisan sites have described
their own role in the deaths of drug users and some have been
implicated in poisoning from 1,4-butanediol.12,13

Table 1. Features of Partisan Web Sites as of May 24, 2001. See URL:
http://www.mapinc.org/nejmtbl.htm

Unfortunately, Internet-based efforts to prevent drug use may not
deflect visitors from partisan Web sites. We performed five separate
searches using identical key words ( “GHB” [[]-hydroxybutyric acid],
“ecstasy” [methylenedioxymethamphetamine or MDMA], and “psychedelic
mushrooms” ) over a period of 10 months. Our first two searches listed
8 partisan and 2 federal antidrug Web sites in the top 10 results. The
third search identified nine partisan sites and one federal site,
whereas the final two searches identified eight partisan and no
federal sites. In all searches, antidrug sites from the federal
government failed to appear as often as the partisan sites, which
dominate the search results. Moreover, sites of the Federal Website
Initiative, part of a billion-dollar multimedia program for the
prevention of drug abuse, did not appear in any of the search results.
These data suggest that the U.S. government, despite extensive and
costly efforts, currently does not provide effective alternative
sources of information about drugs on the Web, where partisan sites
still get the attention of both search engines and users.

Edward W. Boyer, M.D., Ph.D. Michael Shannon, M.D., M.P.H. Patricia L.
Hibberd, M.D., Ph.D. Children’s Hospital Boston, MA 02115

(See http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1473/a08.html for
references.)

***********************************************************************
SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Editor:

As the Executive Director of DrugSense and MAP, both very popular drug
policy information web sites, I have seen tens of thousands of
articles on drug policy issues. I would consider many either biased or
inaccurate but, of all of them, possibly the most misleading and
biased I have ever witnessed was the letter to the editor (disguised
as a meaningful “study”) in the latest issue of the New England
Journal of Medicine. (“Web Sites with Misinformation about Illicit
Drugs” by Boyer, E. W. and Hibberd, P. L. NEJM 8/9/01)

To refer to hundreds of valuable and informative web sites that urge
sensible alternatives to our failed drug policy “partisan” while
simultaneously insinuating that the web sites provided by the federal
government are accurate and supposedly unbiased, is mind numbing in
its incredibility. Such a view could only be reached by those who have
either never made a serious study of such sites or who have a hidden
agenda.

I defy any objective observer to analyze the content and accuracy of web
sites such as Drug War
Facts http://www.DrugWarFacts.org or The Media Awareness Project (MAP)
http://www.mapinc.org
and compare them for accuracy and content with the silliness at sites like
the Partnership for a “Drug Free” America, which takes funding from the
pharmaceutical (drug) industry. See: http://www.drugfreeamerica.org/

Look at the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP)
http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/ or their “youth” site Freevibe
http://www.freevibe.com/ there is simply no comparison between these
weak and misleading sites as compared to the best of the drug policy
reform information sites. The federal government sites are inaccurate
and, all to often, appear to be intentionally so. Instead of drawing
this conclusion, the authors of the article sought out obscure quotes
from sites such as http://www.erowid.org. While this site archives
thousands of pages of valuable information, it demonstrates less than
half the popularity of the MAP web site http://www.mapinc.org
mentioned above for example. Any of these sites can be objectively
evaluated and compared for relative popularity (which is a fairly
reliable indicator of accuracy) by utilizing independent web site
popularity evaluation sites such as http://www.marketleap.com/
Invariably the drug reform oriented sites out perform the government
sites.

The MAP site above is the most popular drug policy information web
site in the world. This can be verified by a truly unbiased and
accurate study that DrugSense developed last March comparing relative
popularity of web sites generally supporting existing policy compared
to those suggesting sensible alternatives. It can be viewed at
http://www.drugsense.org/webpop/

The “study” referred to got this point correct. Reform sites dominate
the Internet. There is no contest. Why are these sites so popular even
though they encourage an end to our insane and failed drug policy? It
is really quite simple. They tell the TRUTH. The government, to put it
as politely as possible, has been lying about drugs, drug policy, and
the “effectiveness” of current policy for decades. The Internet has,
at long last leveled the playing field so that the public can finally
have access to some accurate information on the damage our existing
drug policies have caused to our nation.

Finally the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) web site has
numerous web pages similar to those disparaged in the table in this
article as “partisan.” The DEA even offers step by step directions for
growing marijuana http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/pubs/intel/01001-intellbrief.pdf
. This is precisely what the article accused the “partisan” web sites
of doing.

If you hope to continue your long and prestigious reputation as a
publication who strives towards objectivity and solid science, I hope
and expect to see this letter published in your next issue.

Mark Greer
Executive Director
DrugSense (MAP Inc.)

contact info

*************************

IMPORTANT: Always include your address and telephone number
Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify
it at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous copies
of the same letter and so that the original author receives credit for
his/her work.
—————————————————————————-

**********************************************************
ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts

3 Tips for Letter Writers http://www.mapinc.org/3tips.htm

Letter Writers Style Guide http://www.mapinc.org/style.htm

****************************************************************************

TO SUBSCRIBE, DONATE, VOLUNTEER TO HELP, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL SEE
http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm

TO UNSUBSCRIBE SEE http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm

***************************************************************************
Prepared by Stephen Young – http://www.maximizingharm.com
Focus Alert Specialist

Date: Wed, 25 Jul 2001
Subject: #216 Universal Pictures Prostitutes “TRAFFIC”

Universal Pictures Prostitutes “TRAFFIC”

PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #216 Wednesday, July 25, 2001

When the movie ‘Traffic’ was released, the media and the drug policy
reform community both credited it with opening the debate on drug
policy. See http://www.mapinc.org/traffic.htm

That the Drug Czar, played by Michael Douglas, would walk away from
the job after seeing the drug war as a war on Americans sent a strong
signal.

Many drug policy organizations helped promote ‘Traffic,’ running
banner ads and contests, or distributing leaflets outside
theaters.(br)(br) Last week Universal Pictures sent a message to
reform organizations asking them to promote with banner ads the Pay
Per View release of the film. The message said, in part:

“I just finished checking out your drug policy related website.
I’ve been looking for sites and newsgroups that in some way connect
with the Universal Pictures film TRAFFIC, (which features Benicio Del
Toro, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Dennis Quaid, Michael Douglas, and Don
Cheadle)”

“Obviously this film raised some interesting issues dealing with
current drug policy… though not taking any sides in the debate, it
helped open up new dialog about the debate.

“As for TRAFFIC, we are doing online promotions for the film which
begins it’s Pay Per View run tomorrow, on July 17th. Would you be
into helping us promote the film and get the word out? If so, here’s
what you can do to help. Put up a banner on your site and link to the
film’s page on Universal’s site, we’ll send you some swag in
return….”

“Just make sure you LINK the banner to this site,
http://www.universalstudios.com/ppv/ Webmasters who help out will be
entered into a random drawing to win a very cool prize package that
relates to the film.”

An interesting offer, until the webmasters check out the link above.

At the link you are invited to “Tell-A-Friend and $1 will be
donated to Partnership for a Drug-Free America” Really! And they
then provide a link to http://www.drugfreeamerica.org/ where the
headline is “The War on Drugs is Working”

Universal Pictures wants you to send friends messages thru their page
about their Pay Per View release, and they will donate when you
do!

The DrugSense webmaster provided a firm NO response to the request as
did others. On Tuesday, 24 July Universal Studios issued a spin
control press release trying to defend their tie to the
Partnership.

PLEASE HELP REFORM by sending your own message to Universal Pictures
telling them what you think about this offer!

If enough of you act, Universal Pictures may well listen.

Your actions in the past have caused others to back away from big
mistakes!

The easy way to do it is to simply compose your message, then copy it
into the webform for as many of the contacts as you wish at this
webpage: http://www.universalstudios.com/homepage/html/contact_us/

There you need to click an “I Accept” link to go to a page which has
links to webforms of this huge company.

Each webform reaches a different office. There are about a dozen
contacts who deserve to receive your message. Of particular
importance are the Links at

Universal Pay-Per-View
Philanthropy / Corporate Giving / Movies / General & Miscellaneous
Business Development / Marketing / Promotions / Link Requests

PRESS RELEASE
There is also a press release rationalizing this egregious behavior at
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n000/a008.html

Just DO it

************************************************************************

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR MESSAGE OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID
(Letter, Phone, fax etc.)

Please post a copy your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list ([email protected]) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to [email protected] Your letter will
then be forwarded to the list with so others can learn from your
efforts and be motivated to follow suit

This is VERY IMPORTANT as it is the one important way we have of
gauging our impact and effectiveness.

***********************************************************************

SAMPLE MESSAGE

Dear Sir,

I was shocked to hear about a Universal Pictures promotion for the Pay
Per View release of TRAFFIC.

As you may know, drug policy reform groups worldwide promoted TRAFFIC
upon it’s release because it so clearly opens the debate on drug policy.
These same groups were offered rewards for placing a banner on their
sites linked to http//www.universalstudios.com/ppv/

But at that webpage we find that you wish us to use a webform to
“Tell-A-Friend and $1 will be donated to Partnership for a Drug-Free
America”

This is an insult to us all! The Partnership does not stand for debate on
drug policy.

Their name says it all. On their homepage the feature article is
titled “The War on Drugs is Working.” Didn’t anyone at Universal
actually watch TRAFFIC? At the very end the drug czar walked away
from the job because the War on Drugs is really a war on the people
of the U.S. A war that has a half million in jail. A war that
is step by step turning this land into a police state. We know that
the Partnership has close ties with the Office of National Drug
Control Policy. Could it be that Universal Pictures will obtain
payola from ONDCP for this action?

We all know how much damage was done to a variety of media, TV shows,
magazines, and so on, when it was discovered that they had (and the
FCC said it was illegal for TV) altered content to receive ONDCP
payola.

The word about your action is rapidly spreading across the internet.
Don’t expect any support from the drug policy reform community until
this blunder is corrected!

Yes, we encourage everyone to see TRAFFIC. But not thru Pay Per View
under these conditions.

Richard Lake
Chief Warrant Officer, U.S. Army, Retired
Senior Editor
DrugNews
[email protected]

***********************************************************************

Please note If you choose to use this as a model please modify it at
least somewhat so that Universal Pictures does not receive numerous
copies of the same message.

***********************************************************************

ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts

3 Tips for Letter Writers: http//www.mapinc.org/3tips.htm

Letter Writers Style Guide: http//www.mapinc.org/style.htm

***********************************************************************

TO SUBSCRIBE, DONATE, VOLUNTEER TO HELP, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL SEE

http//www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm

TO UNSUBSCRIBE SEE http//www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm

***********************************************************************

Prepared by Richard Lake
htt://www.mapinc.org/rlake/
Focus Alert Specialist

Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2001
Subject: # 215 Activist Gives Ann Landers Advice On The Drug War

Activist Gives Ann Landers Advice On The Drug War

——-
PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE
——-

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #215 Tuesday, July 10, 2001

The reform message was distributed around the world this week as the
most prolific author in the MAP published letter archive explained how
the drug war endangers children in an Ann Landers column. Robert
Sharpe responded to an earlier Landers column featuring drug war
propaganda by a DEA bureaucrat.

Landers seemed sympathetic to Sharpe’s points, and she also published
a number of varying views on Ecstasy. Please write your own letter to
offer Ann even more information on the counterproductive nature of the
drug war.

************************************************************************
PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID ( Letter,
Phone, fax etc.)

Please post a copy your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list ([email protected]) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to [email protected] Your letter will then
be forwarded to the list with so others can learn from your efforts
and be motivated to follow suit

This is VERY IMPORTANT as it is the only way we have of gauging our
impact and effectiveness.
************************************************************************

Contact Info:

Source: Ann Landers
Contact: [email protected]

You can also send snail mail to your local newspaper that carries the
Ann Landers column.

***************************************************************************

ARTICLE

Pubdate: Mon, 09 Jul 2001
Source: Sun Herald (MS)
Copyright: 2001 The Sun Herald
Website: http://web.sunherald.com/content/biloxi/2000/12/28/pageone/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/432
Author: Ann Landers

ECSTASY, RAVES ELICIT PERSONAL RESPONSES

Dear Ann Landers:

This is in response to the letter from DEA administrator Donnie
Marshall about ecstasy. The ecstasy knockoff known as PMA that has
been taking the lives of young Americans is today’s version of bathtub
gin. The black market has no controls for quality or user age. Unlike
legitimate businesses that sell alcohol, illegal drug dealers do not
ask for ID. They push trendy, synthetic “club drugs” when given the
chance. The drug war fails miserably at its primary mandate:
protecting children from drugs.

The Netherlands has successfully reduced overall drug use by
regulating and taxing marijuana as a legal drug and establishing age
controls. Politicians should stop worrying about the message drug
policy reform sends and start thinking about the children. – Robert
Sharpe, MPA, Program Officer, the Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy
Foundation, Washington, D.C.

Dear Robert Sharpe: Thanks for your interesting viewpoint. I hope your
letter will wake up some of those “sleeping beauties.” Here’s more on the
subject:

From Dallas: Ecstasy is fun. It gives you an overwhelming sense of
happiness and love. True, it’s not real, but so what? If you take ecstasy,
be sure you get it from a trusted source and drink lots of water. Also,
don’t take any alcohol with it. It could result in brain damage or death.

Johnstown, Pa.: I am a senior in high school and have been going to
raves almost weekly. I took my mother to a rave, and we danced until 5
a.m. She had the time of her life. We were drug-free and surrounded by
friends.

Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio: I am 19 and have been attending raves for two years.
People go for the music, not the drugs. Security personnel frisk everyone.

Nashville: It’s been two years since my experience with ecstasy, and I am
still in therapy. I was almost raped and have lost my short-term memory.

Sydney, Australia: Here in Australia, there are RaveSafe organizations that
provide guidelines on how to stay safe while using ecstasy, including the
need to drink water to prevent dehydration. You also can buy testing kits
that will tell you if the pills contain MDMA or something more dangerous.

Bloomfield Hills, Mich.: While the letter about ecstasy was valid, I
would like to point out that glowsticks are not a dependable sign of
ecstasy use. Glowsticks are very popular dance props with teen-agers
who listen to techno, electronic or rave music.

Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.: A lot of ravers use drugs, but it is not fair to
label all of us as drug users. I am 17 and go to raves every Saturday,
and I don’t use drugs. Ecstasy is available in lots of places,
including rock concerts and college parties. If I want ecstasy, I
don’t have to go to a rave to get it.

Oakland, Calif.: If ecstasy were legal, rave promoters and staff would
be able to help injured kids without fear of legal reprisal. People
are worried they will be arrested if they take someone to the hospital
or call 911. That’s the real problem.

Cincinnati: Some raves let you in for a reduced fee if you bring canned
goods for food drives. Others raise money for local charities. Ravers have
a saying, P.L.U.R., which means Peace, Love, Unity, Respect.

New York: I used ecstasy for five years, but only on weekends. I often felt
depressed on Monday mornings, but continued to take ecstasy because it was
so pleasant. This is classic addicted behavior. I can no longer ignore the
effect it has had on my health. My hair is thin and breaks off easily. My
skin is sallow, and I have perpetual acne. Due to the grinding, my teeth
have become crooked and sharp. Ecstasy is not worth the misery you suffer
later on.

To find out more about Ann Landers and read her past columns, visit
the Creators Syndicate web page at www.creators.com

***********************************************************************
SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Ann Landers,

Thank you for publishing Robert Sharpe’s outstanding letter in
response to the letter from Donnie Marshall, the outgoing DEA
Administrator.

Our policy of drug prohibition has proven to be just as
counterproductive as alcohol prohibition. Illegal drug buyers are
buying drugs of unknown quality, unknown potency and unknown purity.
Not unlike the bathtub gin our grandfathers bought that resulted in
needless deaths and blindings.

Best regards, Kirk Muse contact info

*************************

IMPORTANT: Always include your address and telephone number
Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify
it at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous copies
of the same letter and so that the original author receives credit for
his/her work.
—————————————————————————-
TARGET ANALYSIS Ann Landers

Ann Landers is syndicated in hundreds of newspapers around the world.
The value of a published letter is difficult to calculate, but it is
tremendous.

**********************************************************
ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing efforts

3 Tips for Letter Writers http://www.mapinc.org/3tips.htm

Letter Writers Style Guide http://www.mapinc.org/style.htm

****************************************************************************

TO SUBSCRIBE, DONATE, VOLUNTEER TO HELP, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL SEE
http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm

TO UNSUBSCRIBE SEE http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm

***************************************************************************
Prepared by Stephen Young – http://www.maximizingharm.com
and Kirk Muse -www.drugwarinfo.com
Focus Alert Specialists

Date: Mon, 25 Jun 2001
Subject: #214 NY Times Crackdown On Raves Not The Answer

——- PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE ——-

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #214 Monday, June 25, 2001

NY Times Crackdown on Raves Not the Answer

Ecstasy is the catalyst for the latest wave of drug hysteria to be
making headlines, leading to a crackdown on rave culture and a
stiffening of both federal and state sentencing guidelines. Following
a long standing pattern established with alcohol prohibition, the Drug
Enforcement Administration’s enforcement of drug laws is leading to
increased profitability, followed by increased violence and calls for
yet even tougher laws. The relationship between drug enforcement and
violence is especially glaring in the case of ecstasy, which is known
as the “hug drug” and enhances feelings of empathy and closeness.

A lengthy front page article in Sunday’s New York Times provides drug
policy reform activists with the opportunity to leverage numerous drug
policy reform arguments into additional coverage in the opinion pages
of one of America’s largest and most respected newspapers. Along with
prohibition-fueled violence, possible angles include the need for harm
reduction-based drug policies such as those pioneered by DanceSafe
(http://www.dancesafe.org) and speculation on how middle America will
react when white suburbanites are jailed in increasing numbers.

====

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID (Letter,
Phone, fax etc. )

Please post a copy your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list ([email protected] ) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to [email protected] Your letter will then
be forwarded to the list with so others can learn from your efforts
and be motivated to follow suit

This is VERY IMPORTANT as it is the one important way we have of
gauging our impact and effectiveness.

===========================

CONTACT INFO

Source: New York Times ( NY )
Contact: [email protected]
Please note that the New York Times limits letters to 150 words!

=====================

EXTRA CREDIT

This article, using different titles, was printed in at least three
other newspapers on Sunday. Please click the URL line to see these
versions – and please consider writing to these newspapers too!

Contra Costa Times (CA) URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1127/a08.html

Register-Guard, The (OR) URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1124/a08.html

Seattle Times (WA) URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1121/a13.html

By the time you receive this Alert, other target newspapers that
printed versions of the article may have been added. Click this link
to check for more Letter to the Editor targets: http://www.mapinc.org/authors/Butterfield

======================

ARTICLE

US: Violence Rises As Club Drug Spreads Out Into The Streets

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1122/a01.html
Newshawk: Robert Field www.csdp.org www.drugwarfacts.org
Pubdate: Sun, 24 Jun 2001
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2001 The New York Times Company
Contact: [email protected]
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Author: Fox Butterfield

VIOLENCE RISES AS CLUB DRUG SPREADS OUT INTO THE STREETS

LOS ANGELES, June 21 — It was finding an Israeli drug dealer dead in
a car trunk at Los Angeles International Airport 18 months ago that
gave the authorities here the first hint that the club drug Ecstasy
was becoming a serious problem. He had been killed by two hit men from
Israel, said Drug Enforcement Administration officials.

Then there was the shipment of 2.1 million Ecstasy pills, worth $40
million on the street, that the United States Customs Service seized
at the airport last July. The pills, labeled clothing, arrived on an
Air France flight from Paris, intended for another Israeli dealer
here. The authorities say it was the world’s largest Ecstasy bust.

And now law enforcement officials say they have seen another worrisome
development this year. At a number of large all-night dance parties
called raves, drawing thousands of young people to the desert east of
Los Angeles, rival gangs have fought over the sale of Ecstasy. At one
rave at a fairgrounds at Lake Perris in March, 102 people were
arrested on charges of selling Ecstasy, assault or resisting arrest,
according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

What is happening in Los Angeles mirrors what is occurring across much
of the nation, law enforcement officials and drug experts say. Not
only is the use of Ecstasy exploding, more than doubling among 12th
graders in the last two years, but it is also spreading well beyond
its origin as a party drug for affluent white suburban teenagers to
virtually every ethnic and class group, and from big cities like New
York and Los Angeles to rural Vermont and South Dakota.

At the same time, the huge profits to be made — a tablet that costs
50 cents to manufacture in underground labs in the Netherlands can be
sold for $25 in the United States — have set off increasingly violent
turf wars among Ecstasy dealers.

“With drugs, it’s always about the money,” said Bridget Brennan, the
special narcotics prosecutor for New York City. “And the dealers are
starting to see there is so much money in Ecstasy that more people are
getting involved, and with that comes more violence.”

Homicides linked to Ecstasy dealing have occurred in recent months in
Norfolk, Va.; in Elgin, Ill., outside Chicago, and in Valley Stream,
N.Y., police records show.

This spring, in Bristow, Va., a suburb of Washington, a 21-year-old
college student, Daniel Robert Petrole Jr., was shot 10 times in the
head as he sat in his car outside a new town house he had recently
bought. According to court records, the local police believed Mr.
Petrole was responsible for distributing more than $1.5 million in
Ecstasy and marijuana in Prince William County. Two young dealers who
worked with Mr. Petrole have since been arrested and charged with
killing him.

In New York City last month, Salvatore Gravano, the former Gambino
crime family hit man, pleaded guilty to running a multimillion-dollar
Ecstasy ring in Arizona, where he was living under the federal witness
protection program. Court documents showed that Mr. Gravano was
accused of hatching four homicide plots to consolidate his control of
the Arizona drug market, and that his organization was being supplied
by Ilan Zarger, a drug dealer based in Brooklyn who had ties to the
Israeli mob.

Most Ecstasy is produced in the Netherlands or Belgium and smuggled
into the United States by Israeli or Russian organized gangs, either
flown in as air cargo or carried on commercial flights by couriers,
often dancers recruited from topless nightclubs, according to drug
enforcement and Customs Service officials.

Some Dominican groups have also become involved recently, using their
own established routes, and now sell Ecstasy along with heroin and
cocaine from drug houses in Washington Heights in Manhattan to buyers
who arrive by car from as far away as Pennsylvania, Maryland and
Virginia, the officials say.

Because it is sold as pills, Ecstasy is much easier to smuggle than
heroin, cocaine or marijuana, the authorities say. Large imported
shipments, originally flown into New York, Los Angeles or Miami, are
then broken down and sent out by regular overnight delivery services,
like Federal Express, to mid level dealers in other cities.

Ms. Brennan, the New York narcotics prosecutor, said Ecstasy was also
widely available on the Internet. Last year, her office arrested a man
in Orlando, Fla., who had been selling Ecstasy on a site called House
of Beans to customers in New York.

Seizures of Ecstasy by the Customs Service have jumped sharply, to 9.3
million pills in 2000, up from only 400,000 pills in 1997, said
Charles Winwood, the acting commissioner of the Customs Service.

The law enforcement officials and drug experts do not suggest Ecstasy
will lead to the same levels of violence or social turmoil as crack
cocaine did in the late 1980’s, when thousands of teenage dealers
armed themselves with handguns and many mothers neglected their children.

For one thing, Ecstasy does not cause the same dangerous changes in
mood and judgment as crack does. For another, crack gave only a brief
high, driving addicts back to the street repeatedly in search of
another dose and often leading them to rob or steal to support their
habit.

Ecstasy instead induces a high of up to six hours, enhancing feelings
of empathy and closeness, its users say.

But interviews with drug experts and with teenage Ecstasy addicts in
treatment programs here show that the drug, known scientifically as
MDMA, both a stimulant and a hallucinogen, can be disruptive and
expose them to violence.

“We are dancing with danger here, because the kids and their parents
think of Ecstasy as a benign party drug,” said Michele Leonhart, the
special agent in charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Los
Angeles office. “They don’t see what we see, that it’s a neurotoxin
with serious side effects, that people die from overdoses and that
some of the dances in the desert are no longer just dances, they’re
like violent crack houses set to music.”

Marcos M., a tall Hispanic teenager living in Phoenix Academy, a
residential treatment center for adolescent drug addicts run by
Phoenix House in Lake View Terrace, a suburb in the San Fernando
Valley, said he had always thought of Ecstasy as “the white man’s
drug.” In his neighborhood, Lincoln Heights — “the ghetto,” he called
it — people usually did crack or heroin. Besides, Ecstasy was too
expensive, at $25 a pill. Marcos, 17, said his attitude toward Ecstasy
was, “I’d rather spend my money on good stuff.”

But in the past year, dealers on his street suddenly started selling
Ecstasy, reducing the price to a more manageable $8 a pill.

“One day a friend was cleaning out his car and gave me a pill,” Marcos
recalled. “So I tried it, and an hour later, I was rolling – relaxed,
kicking and chilling.”

Now, he sees all ethnic groups using Ecstasy, no longer just
whites.

As with other drugs, dealers often fight over Ecstasy, Marcos said. A
dealer who is a friend of his sold a “boat,” a package of 1,000
Ecstasy pills, to another dealer, but the second dealer claimed the
delivery was short. So a fight ensued, in which his friend broke into
the other man’s house and took the drugs back, and the second dealer
then smashed his friend’s car.

The leading survey of teenage use of drugs, known as Monitoring the
Future and done by the University of Michigan, has found that the
proportion of 12th graders who had used Ecstasy in the previous 12
months more than doubled to 8 percent in 2000, from 3.5 percent in
1998. That is a very large increase, said Lloyd Johnston, a research
scientist who directs the annual survey. Among 10th graders the
percentage who had used Ecstasy in 2000 rose to 5 percent, from 3
percent in 1998.

“It is definitely continuing to increase, across all parts of the
country, and equally among males and females,” Mr. Johnston said.
Ecstasy is still enjoying a honeymoon among young people, just as LSD
did in the 1960’s, before its dangers were widely known, he said.

Jessica D., a 17-year-old high school junior who came to Phoenix
Academy from Canoga Park, a Los Angeles suburb, said she started
taking Ecstasy pills at nightclubs and raves. She soon found herself
“rolling” on the drug all the time. “I used to go to school high,” she
said, a smile brightening her face at the memory. “It made school more
fun. Class went by faster.”

Dr. Alan I. Leshner, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse
in Bethesda, Md., said, “Contrary to what a lot of people think, that
Ecstasy is a harmless drug, we are learning more and more
scientifically about its damaging effects.”

The bad short-term effects, Dr. Leshner said, are quick increases in
blood pressure, heart rates and body temperature, leading to
dehydration and hypothermia, particular problems for people who have
danced in hot, crowded rooms all night.

In the longer term, Dr. Leshner said, there is now evidence that
repeated use of Ecstasy can damage the brain cells that produce
serotonin, the neurochemical that is critical for preventing
depression and sleep disorders.

People who have used Ecstasy frequently experience memory loss and
depression when the drug wears off, Dr. Leshner said.

The contest with drug smugglers continues.

Last month, the Drug Enforcement Administration in New York announced
the arrest of Oded Tuito, who was said to head the largest
Ecstasy-smuggling organization yet identified.

Mr. Tuito, an Israeli who kept homes in New York, Los Angeles and
Paris, “imported millions of Ecstasy pills” from Paris, Brussels and
Frankfurt into New York, Miami and Los Angeles, the drug
administration charged.

His organization recruited dozens of couriers, typically dancers at
topless nightclubs, who each smuggled in 30,000 to 60,000 pills at a
time and also took hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash in drug
proceeds back to Europe, the authorities said.

To combat Ecstasy, the federal government and more than half the
states, including New York, New Jersey and Florida, have raised the
penalties for selling the drug in the past few years.

Under new federal sentencing guidelines that went into effect in May,
a person selling 800 pills can now receive a sentence of five years, a
much stiffer standard than the old threshold of 11,000 pills.

New York’s law, enacted in 1996, is tougher than the federal standard,
requiring a minimum sentence of three years for mere possession of 100
pills.

An Illinois bill, passed by the Legislature last month and awaiting
the governor’s signature, would carry the toughest penalties of all —
an automatic 6 to 30 years for selling as few as 15 pills.

State Senator Rickey Hendon warned that the Illinois law cast too wide
a net, treating teenage partygoers the same as professional drug
traffickers. But Senator Hendon, a Chicago Democrat, who is black,
said the law might help Illinois legislators understand the racial
disparities of drug laws.

“When you see 14-year-olds going to jail for a mandatory 30 years and
their complexion is no longer black,” Senator Hendon said, “maybe
we’ll stop and think about what we’re doing.”

=========================

SAMPLE LETTER

To the editor:

Regarding the June 25th article on so-called ecstasy related violence,
the drug ecstasy promotes feelings of empathy. The prohibition of
ecstasy promotes black market profits. There is a big difference
between the unprincipled greed of organized crime and the peace, love,
unity and respect ethic of rave culture. U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration agent Michele Leonhart has a lot of nerve to be calling
rave dances “violent crack houses set to music.” Ecstasy
distributors were not gunning each other down in turf battles and when
the drug was still legal and used in psychotherapy. Don’t blame
ravers for the violence. The blame lies squarely with the insane drug
war and the parallel war against youth culture. I for one am sick of
my tax dollars being used to subsidize organized crime so that the
shameless bureaucrats at the DEA can then use the resulting violence
to justify ever-expanding budgets.

Robert Sharpe

contact info

*************************

IMPORTANT: Always include your address and telephone number Please
note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify it at
least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous copies of
the same letter and so that the original author receives credit for
his/her work.

==============

TARGET ANALYSIS – New York Times

With a circulation of 1.2 million weekdays – 3 million readers (and
about 50% more for the Sunday edition), from all over the US outside
the NYC market area – and an audience of which 3/4ths have a college
degree, this newspaper is an important target for Letters to the Editor.

Our analysis of the 163 published letters at http://www.mapinc.org/mapcgi/ltedex.pl?SOURCE=New+York+Times
indicates a strong preference for printing short letters. The average
published letter is only 113 words long, with a range from 45 to 143
words.

The New York Times is one of the most widely read and influential
newspapers in the country A published letter of only 2 column inches
(about 80 words) printed in this paper has an equivalent advertising
as if you bought a $1,440 advertisement on behalf of reform and had it
published in the NY TImes.

Please note that the New York Times limits letters to 150
words.

===============

ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing
efforts

3 Tips for Letter Writers http://www.mapinc.org/3tips.htm

Letter Writers Style Guide http://www.mapinc.org/style.htm

TO SUBSCRIBE, DONATE, VOLUNTEER TO HELP, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL SEE
http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm

TO UNSUBSCRIBE SEE http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm

Prepared by Robert Sharpe – Focus Alert Specialist

Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2001
Subject: #213 US Drug War Pushes Canada Toward Police State

US Drug War Pushes Canada Toward Police State

——-
PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE
——-

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #213 Tuesday, June 19, 2001

The Canadian government may not pursue the drug war as ruthlessly as
the United States, but Canadian politicians aren’t immune from drug
war stupidity. As the National Post reported last week, new banking
rules will put many Canadian citizens under suspicion as
money-launderers.

National Post columnist Terence Corcoran noted: “The common thread
running through these money-laundering and other anti-crime laws
around the world leads straight to Washington and the most futile
crime crusade since prohibition: the war on drugs. Hundreds of
billions of dollars, global prosecution regimes and out of control
police actions are doing little to stop the drug trade. But they are
lining the pockets of bureaucrats and police workers and laying the
groundwork for institutionalized state control.”

Please write a letter to the National Post to say that the US, with
its mixture of high drug abuse rates and high incarceration rates, is
no role model for drug policy.

************************************************************************

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID ( Letter,
Phone, fax etc.)

Please post a copy your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list ([email protected]) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to [email protected] Your letter will then
be forwarded to the list with so others can learn from your efforts
and be motivated to followsuit

This is VERY IMPORTANT as it is the only way we have of gauging our
impact and effectiveness.

************************************************************************

Contact Info

Source: National Post (Canada)
Contact: [email protected]

Additionally, Corcoran’s column was published in two other
papers.

Source: Calgary Herald (CN AB)
Contact: [email protected]
Pubdate: Mon, 18 June 2001
Headline: Big Brother has a brand new weapon

Source: Halifax Daily News (CN NS)
Contact: [email protected]
Pubdate: Sat, 16 Jun 2001
Headline: War on drugs a war on Canada

************************************************************************

ARTICLE

Canada: Column: One Step Closer To A Police State

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n1062/a08.html

Newshawk: Canadian Foundation for Drug Policy http://www.cfdp.ca/
Pubdate: Fri, 15 Jun 2001
Source: National Post (Canada)
Copyright: 2001 Southam Inc.
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.nationalpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/286
Author: Terence Corcoran, National Post

ONE STEP CLOSER TO A POLICE STATE

Claiming to be fighting a valiant war on crime, governments around the
world — but especially in Canada — are actually fighting an
escalating war on people. This includes Ottawa’s draconian
“money-laundering” regulations. If you send $15,000 in cash to pay for
your grandmother’s hip replacement at a U.S. hospital, your name will
go on the list of potential money launderers. Privacy? Freedom? Guilt?
Innocence? Forget it. Under some definition, sending cash into the
U.S. health-care system probably is money laundering.

Another manifestation of Ottawa’s war on people at the expense of
individual freedom is Bill C-24, a law to fight organized crime.
Introduced last April, C-24 whipped through final third reading on
Wednesday, just before the MPs fled Ottawa with their pockets stuffed
with the proceeds of organized politics.

The new law vastly expands government power and gives police the right
to break the law to enforce the law. The Canadian Civil Liberties
Association has called parts of the legislation “evil,” but that
didn’t phase the government. People who tried to follow C-24 on its
rapid run through the Commons say it is as bad in the final version as
it was the day it was introduced.

Provincial and local governments have their own power-expansion
ambitions and are more than ready to hand police fresh authority to
stomp on basic rights. Ontario last month reintroduced its own
infamous organized crime legislation, noted mostly for giving
government the ability to seize the assets of innocent people if
prosecutors think the assets were acquired, directly or indirectly,
through some organized criminal activity.

That these laws go overboard and trample on people’s rights nobody
seriously doubts. Oddly, though, it’s not until the laws and
regulations are on the books that people begin to realize how much
power governments have taken and how many rights have been lost. The
federal money laundering law, which sets up a new federal money
laundering agency to monitor every transaction over $10,000, passed
last year with plenty of warning. But now that the law is in place,
law societies are calling for amendments. There is also growing
recognition the law will do nothing to stop organized crime.

It’s a little late for these concerns. Banks, investment houses and
others are also trying to fight regulations that would impose massive
paper-pushing and monitoring costs — estimated at up to $100-million
— and turn bankers, lawyers and accountants into government spies on
their customers. It’s not a police state yet, but the laws are in
place to create one should anyone get the urge.

The common thread running through these money-laundering and other
anti-crime laws around the world leads straight to Washington and the
most futile crime crusade since prohibition: the war on drugs.
Hundreds of billions of dollars, global prosecution regimes and out of
control police actions are doing little to stop the drug trade. But
they are lining the pockets of bureaucrats and police workers and
laying the groundwork for institutionalized state control.

The international rhetorical campaign against money laundering,
organized crime and so-called “gang” laws, has escalated into what one
legal specialist called a “regulatory jihad.” The objective is to
enroll the whole world in the U.S. drug war. The enrolment technique
is to grossly exaggerate the crime. Ottawa’s money laundering
legislation was adopted on the grounds that somewhere between
$5-billion and $17-billion in crime proceeds were being washed through
Canada every year. Those bogus numbers were concocted by a consultant
who defined money laundering as an “economic crime.” It’s a handy
catch-all that included insurance fraud ( $2.5-billion ), cellular
phone fraud ( $650-million ), stock market fraud ( $3-billion ),
telemarketing fraud ( $4-billion ). Even if these numbers are
accurate, and they look wildly implausible, most of the crimes have
nothing to do with money laundering or the drug industry.

The New Yorker magazine estimated last year that the U.S. government
spends US$16-billion a year on the war on drugs. State and local
governments another US$24-billion. The result is two million people in
prison, up from 750,000 a year ago. But the number of drug addicts has
not changed.

Where do Canada’s governments get such enthusiasm for joining this
absurd U.S. war — and at such expense to Canadians’ rights and
protections? The new laws expand police powers, break down the trust
between bankers and customers, and between lawyers and clients, and
give governments new authority to prosecute and harass innocent
people. The U.S. war on drugs is fast becoming a Canadian war on
Canadians. And we don’t even have a drug problem worth worrying about.

***********************************************************************

SAMPLE LETTER

To the editor:

On behalf of Americans whose tax dollars are used to fund our
misguided War On (some) Drugs, please accept our apologies that these
horribly failed policies are creating a ripple effect which increases
government intrusion into the affairs of your country’s citizens.

Here in the United States, many of our weak willed politicians use the
Drug War as motivation for all manner of government snooping and
legislative silliness. As your report from Mr Corcoran related, we
also have invasive inquiries into even modest cash transactions by
otherwise law-abiding citizens.

In recent months, consideration has been given to criminalizing free
speech on the Internet that may contain references to any kind of
illegal drug use. And in this past year, we have approved funding for
several billion dollars in military hardware which is being used to
poison the agricultural lands in Colombia and other parts of South
America. This in a supposed effort to crush cocaine production and
thus ‘save’ less than 1% of our population from their own self
destructive choices. Of course such strategies do nothing to address
the very real problems of drug abuse in our country or yours.

An encouraging remedy may be near at hand, however. In your country,
serious discussion is being raised with regards to ending the criminal
sanctions against responsible adult use of cannabis.

Those of us who work closely with drug-policy reform in the U.S. are
fully aware that cannabis Prohibition accounts for over 2/3 of all
monies expended in The War. As your country makes the very sensible
decisions relating to ending criminal laws against cannabis, the U.S.
will find itself further isolated from our irrational strategy of
warring against our own citizenry.

At that time, you will likely see much relief in Canada from the
pressures being exerted by the U.S. government to enlist your
participation in the ill-fated Drug War.

Stephen Heath

Drug Policy Forum of Florida contact info

*************************

IMPORTANT: Always include your address and telephone number Please
note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify it at
least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous copies of
the same letter and so that the original author receives credit for
his/her work.

————————————————————————

TARGET ANALYSIS NATIONAL POST

Canada’s version of USA Today, The National Post, is available
everywhere in Canada. The MAP Published Letter archives shows 23
pro-reform letters published at http://www.mapinc.org/mapcgi/ltedex.pl?SOURCE=National+Post

While the letters published from United States writers are few, this
is probably more a reflection of where the majority of the letters
they receive come from rather than any bias towards Canadian writers.

The National Post clearly prefers to print short letters. The average
published letter is only 136 words long, with a range from 40 to 244
words.

**********************************************************

ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing
efforts

3 Tips for Letter Writers http://www.mapinc.org/3tips.htm

Letter Writers Style Guide http://www.mapinc.org/style.htm

************************************************************************

TO SUBSCRIBE, DONATE, VOLUNTEER TO HELP, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL SEE
http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm

TO UNSUBSCRIBE SEE http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm

************************************************************************
Prepared by Stephen Heath, Richard Lake and
Stephen Young – http://www.maximizingharm.com/
Focus Alert Specialists

Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2001
Subject: #212 DEA Won’t Save Us From OxyContin

DEA Won’t Save Us From OxyContin

——-
PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE
——-

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #212 Thursday Jun 14, 2001

Anti-drug hype usually focuses on illegal drugs, but for the past
several months, the legal painkiller OxyContin has been the subject of
many drug scare stories. Like most drug hysteria, this crisis has been
fueled by the media and the drug warriors.

See http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01/n794/a04.html for an excellent
analysis from the Cleveland Free Times.

USA Today this week took a sensible editorial position on a possible
crackdown on OxyContin by the US Drug Enforcement Agency (see below).

Editorialists at the paper note that enhanced enforcement proposals by
the DEA will cause unnecessary suffering for those who really need the
drug. A DEA official was allowed to respond (also below) with typical
DEA tactics – obfuscation and misinformation.

Please write a letter to USA Today to cheer the paper’s stand for
people in chronic pain, and/or to highlight the DEA’s deadly mix of
incompetence and hypocrisy.

If you don’t do it, who will? Thank you!

************************************************************************

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER OR TELL US WHAT YOU DID

Please post a copy your letter or report your action to the sent
letter list ([email protected]) if you are subscribed, or by
E-mailing a copy directly to [email protected] Your letter will then
be forwarded to the list so others can learn from your efforts and be
motivated to follow suit.

This is VERY IMPORTANT as it is the only way we have of gauging our
impact and effectiveness.

************************************************************************

Contact Info

Source: USA Today (US)
Contact: [email protected]

************************************************************************

ARTICLES

US: OPED: DEA Overreaches In Effort To Stop Abuse Of Painkiller
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n1054.a01.html
Newshawk: Jane Marcus
Pubdate: Wed, 13 Jun 2001
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 2001 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nfront.htm
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/466
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?186 (Oxycontin)

DEA OVERREACHES IN EFFORT TO STOP ABUSE OF PAINKILLER

The headlines are enough to scare any user of prescription
painkillers: ”OxyContin addicts, crime wave linked.” The numbers
scarier still: 120 dead from abusing the powerful drug along with
thousands treated for overdoses, mostly in a string of Eastern states
from Kentucky to Maine.

Now the Drug Enforcement Agency ( DEA ) is stepping in to curb what
law enforcement describes as ”epidemic abuse” of ”poor man’s
heroin,” with its first-ever plan to attack abuse of a specific brand
of prescription.

But the public isn’t likely to applaud the DEA’s heavy-handed
solution, if it goes into effect. It would set up needless
bureaucratic hurdles that could limit access to other painkillers.
Worse, it threatens to undermine the decade-long fight to reform pain
treatment.

OxyContin was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in December
1995 to treat moderate to serious pain in a host of medical
conditions. While the active ingredient, oxycodone, has been around
for a half-century, OxyContin’s innovation, and the reason it was
prescribed by doctors 6 million times last year, is its timed release
of ingredients that allows the drug to work for 12 hours, twice the
normal range.

Like other painkillers, OxyContin also is popular with drug abusers
who crush the pills and snort or inject the powder. That’s why the DEA
wisely requires pharmacies to maintain detailed records on OxyContin
prescriptions and other drugs with the most potential for abuse.
Similarly, it forbids the refill of such prescriptions and imposes
limits on supplies provided to manufacturers.

Even so, the DEA claims that OxyContin abuse has become such a
powerful threat that it requires new interdiction efforts.

For instance, the DEA has asked Purdue Pharma, the drug’s
manufacturer, to restrict those writing OxyContin prescriptions to
pain specialists and other doctors who regularly deal with chronic
pain. But there are fewer than 4,000 certified pain specialists in the
USA. If the restrictions move forward, millions won’t have access to
the specialists who can prescribe a medicine they need.

The DEA also has told Congress that it is considering limits on
supplies of the painkiller, even though it’s used by more Americans
than Viagra. Unless the Bush administration steps in and stops those
plans, thousands of Americans in serious pain from devastating
illnesses could be deprived of the painkiller their doctors believe is
most appropriate.

The DEA argues that such efforts are justified because of OxyContin’s
high potential for abuse. But 40 other prescription drugs contain
oxycodone, and the DEA isn’t seeking to restrict their use. At least
six other prescription drugs are linked to more deaths and
emergency-room visits than oxycodone but don’t face similar DEA
attention. And regardless, 90% of deaths blamed on oxycodone involve
other drugs as well.

More importantly, there’s little evidence that restricting patients’
access to painkillers will do much to fight drug abuse. Only last
year, The Journal of the American Medical Association published a
study, based in part on the DEA’s own data, concluding that increased
prescribing of powerful painkillers did not increase drug abuse.

The DEA has plenty of law-enforcement tools to fight the illicit use
of prescription painkillers. There’s no reason that its war against
one drug should interfere with the legitimate practice of medicine.

=======================================================================

US: DEA Goal – Protect The Public
Newshawk: DrugSense http://www.drugsense.org/
Pubdate: Wed, 13 Jun 2001
Source: USA Today (US)
Copyright: 2001 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nfront.htm
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/466
Author: Donnie R. Marshall
Note: Donnie R. Marshall is administrator of the Drug Enforcement
Administration.

DEA GOAL – PROTECT THE PUBLIC

Recently, the Drug Enforcement Administration ( DEA ) has become aware
of the increasing abuse and diversion of the powerful narcotic
OxyContin. For those suffering from intractable pain, it provides
critical relief. For others, it is a powerful substitute for heroin.
The DEA’s responsibility is to prevent the diversion of addictive
pharmaceutical controlled substances while ensuring adequate supplies
for legitimate medical needs.

Since its introduction in 1996, the number of OxyContin prescriptions
has increased 1,800% to 6 million in 2000. There are also increased
reports from medical examiners, drug-abuse treatment centers, law
enforcement personnel and pharmacists about the abuse and diversion of
this drug.

Emergency department and coroner reports involving the active
ingredient in OxyContin have increased 200% and 400% respectively
since 1996. For the year 2000, the DEA has also received 291 coroner
reports from the six states most affected. Treatment programs in such
states as Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Virginia reported
between 50% and 90% of new patients said OxyContin was their primary
drug of abuse. In some cases, entire towns have suffered the effects
of illicit OxyContin abuse.

The DEA responded to this critical public-health problem in a measured
and reasonable manner by establishing an ongoing dialogue with the
health-care community, pharmaceutical industry and other government
agencies to ensure OxyContin is appropriately prescribed and available
to those who truly need it. There is consensus within the
pain-management community that many doctors don’t have the training to
properly treat chronic pain, leading many to prescribe this powerful
narcotic to individuals who seek the drug for non-medical reasons.

The DEA appreciates the attention given to this issue, as it has
increased the awareness of the medical community and the public about
the potential dangers of potent narcotics such as OxyContin. However,
it has also served to unfairly raise concerns that the DEA may place
undue restrictions on the availability of this drug, depriving those
with a legitimate need. This is untrue. Americans should be confident
that the DEA will not only ensure that OxyContin is adequately
supplied, but also that the public will be protected from injury or
death associated with the diversion and abuse of OxyContin.

***********************************************************************

SAMPLE LETTER

To the editor of USA Today:

I applaud USA Today for defending people suffering from chronic pain.
Challenging the DEA’s new proposed restrictions on the painkiller
OxyContin is the right thing to do (“DEA Overreaches In Effort To Stop
Abuse Of Painkiller,” June 13).

The response from DEA Administrator Donnie Marshall, stating that new
regulations won’t hurt legitimate OxyContin users while restricting
recreational use, is both unbelievable and hypocritical. A look at DEA
efforts to “protect” us from illegal drugs like Ecstasy indicates his
assertions don’t add up. Ecstasy is much more widely used and
infinitely more profitable since it was outlawed in the mid-1980s, but
impossible to obtain through legitimate channels for therapeutic use.
As for the DEA’s compassion for people suffering with chronic pain,
ask a medical marijuana user how helpful the DEA in addressing their
problems.

Like all drug crackdowns, the DEA’s proposed get-tough rules means
that a black market catering to recreational users will grow, while
people who really need the drug will find it tougher to obtain through
legal means. This pattern is so frequently repeated, it’s hard not to
wonder if this isn’t the ultimate goal of all drug wars.

Stephen Young contact info

————————————————————————

IMPORTANT: Always include your address and telephone
number

Please note: If you choose to use this letter as a model please modify
it at least somewhat so that the paper does not receive numerous
copies of the same letter and so that the original author receives
credit for his/her work.

————————————————————————

TARGET ANALYSIS USA Today

With a U.S. circulation of over 2.3 million, the readership
demographics are: Total Adult Readers 4.3 million. Male/Female 66/34%.
Median Age 41 years. Attended College 80%. Median HH Income $71, 661.

The average published letter would cost over $5,000 if purchased as an
ad.

The MAP published letter archive has 45 letters from USA Today. A
recent sample shows they tend to be short – about 40% being under 100
words. The average published is 169 words, and the largest about 300
words.

The published letters can be viewed here:

http://www.mapinc.org/mapcgi/ltedex.pl?SOURCE=USA+Today

————————————————————————

ADDITIONAL INFO to help you in your letter writing
efforts

3 Tips for Letter Writers http://www.mapinc.org/3tips.htm

Letter Writers Style Guide http://www.mapinc.org/style.htm

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TO SUBSCRIBE, DONATE, VOLUNTEER TO HELP, OR UPDATE YOUR EMAIL SEE

http://www.drugsense.org/hurry.htm

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http://www.drugsense.org/unsub.htm

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Prepared by Stephen Young – http://www.maximizingharm.com/
Focus Alert Specialist