Date: Sun, 17 Dec 2000
Subject: # 193 Even Feds Can See Flaws Of Drug Tests

Even Feds Can See Flaws Of Drug Tests

——-
PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE
——-

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #193 December 17, 2000

The inherent unfairness of urine testing for illegal drugs is so
obvious that the federal government has finally recognized it. As
reported in the Wall Street Journal this week, many airline employees
were fired for failing drug tests even though test results were
completely incorrect.

In the wake of that news, federal officials are altering some
procedures in order to protect the rights of federal employees
required to take urine tests. It’s good to see some type of reform,
but this does nothing for people in the private sector and it does not
address all the problems of drug testing. Please write a letter to the
Journal or another paper where this story has appeared to say that
random drug testing is worse than unfair, it’s unnecessary and its one
more attack on personal privacy in the name of the drug war.

WRITE A LETTER TODAY

If not YOU who? If not NOW when?

NOTE: The Wall Street Journal will be a special focus for the MAP
Focus Alert efforts throughout 2001. Please help us to inform this
important publication about the failure of the drug war with your
letters as often as possible.

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

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: Wall Street Journal (US)
Contact: [email protected]

EXTRA CREDIT:

The New York Times also covered this story. Please send your letter
there as well.

US NY: Workers Get Greater Drug Test Protection
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1881.a03.html
Pubdate: Fri, 15 Dec 2000
Source: New York Times (NY)
Contact: [email protected]

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

ARTICLE

US: US Issues New Rules On Drug-Test Accuracy
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1883/a09.html
Newshawk: Jo-D and Tom-E
Pubdate: Fri, 15 Dec 2000
Source: Wall Street Journal (US)
Copyright: 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Contact: [email protected]
Address: 200 Liberty Street, New York, NY 10281
Fax: (212) 416-2658
Website: http://www.wsj.com/
Author: Stephen Power, Staff Reporter Of The Wall Street Journal
U.S. ISSUES NEW RULES ON DRUG-TEST ACCURACY

WASHINGTON — The Transportation Department unveiled rules intended to
encourage more accurate drug testing of airline workers and other
transportation employees and to ensure that workers have an
opportunity to challenge results.

But the rules — which cover 8.5 million transportation workers
nationwide, from truckers to pipeline operators — don’t go as far as
some union officials would like in defining the procedures companies
must follow in administering drug tests. The rules are also likely to
draw fire from private drug-testing labs, whose trade group has
slammed such proposals in the past as an attempted “public
blacklisting” of the industry.

In October, the Department of Health and Human Services said it was
launching inspections of all 65 federally certified drug-testing labs
that test transportation workers after a case involving a Delta Air
Lines pilot raised questions about how samples were validated at a lab
in Kansas. The airline initially fired the pilot and four flight
attendants after LabOne Inc. reported their urine samples had been
“substituted.” After the lab’s findings were questioned by
pilots-union leaders, the airline offered to reinstate the employees
because of doubts about the results.

Transportation Department officials said the rules weren’t related to
the irregularities cited at LabOne or the Department of Health and
Human Services inquiry. They said the rules are an attempt to tighten
standards in areas of the drug-testing industry that have been loosely
regulated until now.

One department official noted that many employers started out running
their own drug-testing programs in house. “Now, many outsource [drug
testing] to third-party providers, and the whole nature of the way the
programs are administered has changed,” the official said. “There
wasn’t a whole lot written about what these persons should be doing.”

Among other things, the new rules would give transportation workers
greater opportunity to challenge “validity tests,” in which companies
test workers’ urine samples for evidence of substitution or
adulterants, substances that conceal drug use. Currently, if workers
fail a validity test, they can’t demand a second test of the sample by
an independent party; the new rules would allow them to do so.

The rules would also direct companies not to contract with drug labs
that have violated federal drug-testing guidelines. That provision has
come under attack by the Substance Abuse Program Administrators
Association, which represents drug labs and substance-abuse programs.
The organization, which didn’t return calls seeking comment Thursday,
has questioned whether the Transportation Department has the authority
to impose such penalties.

Most of the new rules will take effect in August, although a few, such
as the requirements on validity tests and penalties for companies that
violate drug-testing rules, will take effect next month.

Robert Morus, a spokesman for the Airline Pilots Association, said the
new safeguards don’t guarantee that workers whose drug-test results
are proved false will be able to clear their names. He said some
airline workers whose test results were later tossed out have been
allowed to reapply for their old jobs, only to be placed on probation
and accelerated drug-testing schedules when they returned.

The new rules are “a mixed bag,” Capt. Morus said. “There are some
good things, but they didn’t settle all the issues. … There’s a
serious crisis in the [drug-]testing business, and they seem to not
want to reveal how serious it is.”

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

To the editor of the Wall Street Journal:

While it’s heartening to see the federal government finally
recognizing some unfair aspects of drug testing (“US Issues New Rules
on Drug Test Accuracy,” Dec. 15) the whole procedure should be
abandoned. Drug tests can destroy the reputation of those who have
nothing to do with drugs, but the tests may actually encourage the use
of more dangerous drugs. Marijuana can be detected by urine tests for
weeks after use; traces of heroin and cocaine can be found for only a
couple days. As the weekend starts, a savvy illegal drug user knows to
stick to the hard stuff. Marijuana never leads to death like heroin,
cocaine and alcohol sometimes do, but in a professional sense, it’s
the least safe drug. As usual, the disastrous zero tolerance tactics
of the drug war aggravate drug problems while solving nothing.

It’s reasonable to implement performance-based testing to confirm or
reject suspicions that an employee may be impaired on the job. Urine
tests, on the other hand, have as little intrinsic value as the fluid
analyzed, unless a high price is placed on an employer’s ability to
intrude on the private life of a worker.

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.
—————————————————————————-

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://home.att.net/~theyoungfamily Focus
Alert Specialist

Date: Thu, 07 Dec 2000
Subject: Alert #192 Lawless Law Enforcement Tries To Ignore Changes In

Lawless Law Enforcement Tries To Ignore Changes In Drug War

——-
PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE
——-

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #192 Thursday December 7, 2000

As drug policy reform begin to gain popularity, it’s not surprising to
find some groups that benefit from the drug war refusing to accept the
changing landscape. A couple of the most audacious of the drug war
profiteers appear to be refusing to accept the will of the U.S.
Supreme Court and the will of the people.

The Sheriff of Rolla, Mo. has announced that he will continue to
operate random drug checkpoints even though the U.S. Supreme Court
recently ruled that such tactics are unconstitutional. As the
excellent Kansas City Star article explains below, It’s not surprising
that the Sheriff can’t let go of what has become a huge cash cow.

Elsewhere, some Oregon newspapers have reported on a narcotics task
force that has filed a lawsuit to fight state residents who voted to
reform asset forfeiture. Clearly those officials have no sense of
irony, as they are trying to claim that efforts to restrict asset
forfeiture practices are “unconstitutional.”

Please write a letter to the Kansas City Star or the Oregonian to let
these lawless law enforcement officials know that their contempt for
basic justice and fairness is being observed around the world.

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
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: Kansas City Star (MO)
Contact:
(mailto:[email protected])letters@kcstar.(mailto:[email protected])com

EXTRA CREDIT:

Please also write to the Oregonian to protest a drug task force’s
decision to legally challenge a ballot initiative that would reform
asset forfeiture practices.

US: OR: Suit says approved measure is illegal
URL :
http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/news_week.ssf?/news/oregonian/00/12/lc_71suit02.frame
Pubdate: Dec. 2, 2000
Source: Oregonian, The (OR)
Contact: [email protected]

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

ARTICLE

US MO: Rolla-Area Sheriff Says He’ll Continue Drug Checkpoints
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1816/a05.html
Newshawk: Mark Greer
Pubdate: Sun, 3 Dec 2000
Source: Kansas City Star (MO)
Copyright: 2000 The Kansas City Star
Contact: [email protected]
Address: 1729 Grand Blvd., Kansas City, Mo. 64108
Feedback: http://www.kansascity.com/Discussion/
Website: http://www.kcstar.com/
Author: Karen Dillon, The Kansas City Star
Related: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1615/a05.html
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1786/a04.html
ROLLA-AREA SHERIFF SAYS HE’LL CONTINUE DRUG CHECKPOINTS

Even though the U.S. Supreme Court last week outlawed roadblocks to
check for drugs, the Phelps County Sheriff’s Department in Rolla, Mo.,
apparently plans to continue checkpoints on Interstate 44.

Sheriff Don Blankenship said last week in a Rolla newspaper article
that he would continue the checkpoints, which have been so frequent
that critics call him the “Sheriff of I-44.”

The ruling “shouldn’t affect us because we have a different type of
checkpoint” from the one the Supreme Court addressed, Blankenship was
quoted as saying.

Blankenship also said in the article that the U.S. attorney’s office
agreed with his interpretation.

He did not return telephone calls from a reporter over the past week.
Blankenship’s decision runs counter to actions taken by several law
enforcement organizations.

The Missouri Highway Patrol said last week troopers would no longer
conduct checkpoints and state Attorney General Jay Nixon agreed with
that decision, a spokesman for Nixon said.

The Missouri Sheriffs Association sent notices about the ruling to
sheriffs in the state, and Executive Director James L. Vermeersch said
he was planning to talk with Blankenship after hearing about his decision.

The Missouri Police Chiefs Association has advised police agencies to
stop the checkpoints while the ruling is being researched. However,
Terri Dougherty, executive assistant to U.S. Attorney Audrey Fleissig
in the Eastern District in St. Louis, confirmed it was her office that
advised Blankenship he could continue the roadblocks. She declined
further comment.

Blankenship did not attend a Phelps County Commission meeting
Thursday. Commissioners had wanted to discuss the high court ruling
with him, the presiding commissioner said.

The American Civil Liberties Union branch in St. Louis will address
the Phelps County action, an official said. Attorneys for the ACLU in
Indianapolis won the Supreme Court ruling on Tuesday.

“We certainly intend to share with the sheriff our view with how the
Supreme Court decision applies to his checkpoints and encourage him to
stop them,” said Matt LeMieux, executive director of the ACLU of
Eastern Missouri.

“Even if the Justice Department gave him the go-ahead, I don’t think
it changes the fact that the practice appears to conflict with the
U.S. Supreme Court ruling.”

In the 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that Indianapolis’ use of
checkpoints — intended to catch drug criminals — was an unreasonable
search and seizure that violated the Fourth Amendment. According to
the ruling, it is the purpose of a checkpoint that determines whether
it is constitutional.

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor distinguished drug checkpoints from
sobriety roadblocks.

The sobriety roadblocks, O’Connor wrote, protect the public from an
“immediate, vehicle-bound threat to life and limb.”

But drug checkpoints are attempts to find evidence that a crime
occurred and thus serve only law enforcement’s need for crime control,
she wrote.

In Indianapolis, the checkpoints were staged like sobriety
checkpoints, with police and drug-sniffing dogs stopping each vehicle
along a thoroughfare.

Law enforcement officers in Phelps County and other locations in
Missouri say they commonly use deception to create the necessary
suspicion to be able to search cars.

The officers set up a sign just before a highway exit that warns a
drug checkpoint is ahead. However, the checkpoint is actually at the
end of the exit.

Motorists, especially those from out of state, who take the exit
appear to be avoiding the checkpoint, Blankenship said in a previous
interview with The Star. Those drivers have created reasonable
suspicion to be stopped and possibly searched, especially if they
cannot explain why they took the exit, Blankenship said.

Because his officers have a reason to suspect each vehicle they
search, that makes the Phelps County checkpoints different from
Indianapolis, Blankenship told the Rolla newspaper. But the ACLU’s
LeMieux said the purpose of the checkpoints is no different from
Indianapolis.

“If the purpose is to find evidence of a crime then it is
unconstitutional,” LeMieux said. “It is quite clear that the purpose
of the Phelps County checkpoints is to find criminal evidence — drugs
in this case.”

The Star reported in October that Blankenship, who was running for
re-election, was criticized by opponents and others for spending so
much time on Interstate 44 conducting the checkpoints instead of
patrolling the county.

The critics also said Blankenship’s checkpoints stemmed from the
benefit his office received from the cash and property his deputies
seized.

Blankenship said that the checkpoints, which he ran at least twice a
week, were valuable in the war on drugs and had no effect on other
crime control.

Blankenship said his deputies had taken thousands of pounds of illegal
narcotics off the interstate.

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

To the editor of the Kansas City Star:

Thanks to Karen Dillon for all the work she has done to expose asset
forfeiture practices.

I thought the efforts of law enforcement to hold onto forfeited assets
despite state law to the contrary was outrageous enough, but now we
learn that the Phelps County Sheriff’s Department in Rolla feels it
does not need to abide by a U.S. Supreme Court decision banning random
drug checkpoints (“Rolla-Area Sheriff Says He’ll Continue Drug
Checkpoints,” Dec.3).

In some ways, it is possible to sympathize with law enforcement
officials who have been given the impossible task of creating a
“drug-free America.” Since illegal drug users often don’t look any
different from other citizens, the obvious response is to put everyone
under suspicion. And since politicians have made this into a holy war,
it’s not surprising that some police think any tactics are fair game,
and that they deserve to get a cut of the black market windfall being
generated by drug prohibition.

However, this dependence on forfeiture money is eroding law
enforcement’s respect for the law itself, and the general public.
Police should not decide which laws they will enforce (and which court
decisions they will abide) based on their own financial self-interest.
We should end the drug war and allow police to determine priorities
based on public safety, not their own economic bottom line.

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.
—————————————————————————-

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://home.att.net/~theyoungfamily Focus
Alert Specialist

Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2000
Subject: #191 The Supreme Court Takes A Stand Against The Drug War

The Supreme Court Takes A Stand Against The Drug War

——-
PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE
——-

DrugSense FOCUS Alert # 191 Sunday December 3, 2000

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that random road blocks for
drug searches are unconstitutional. This a relief to drug reformers
and anyone interested in maintaining basic civil liberties.

Several newspapers editorialized about the decision, and most looked
favorably at the ruling. Below is one particularly good editorial from
the San Jose Mercury News. Many of the other editorials weren’t as
strong as the Mercury News, but the number of editorials published so
far shows that this aspect of the drug war has hit a nerve even with
those who aren’t given to speaking against the drug war.

Please send a letter to one or all of the newspapers where editorials
and other articles have been published. Tell editors the Supreme Court
did the right thing in putting a stop on the police state tactic of
arbitrary drug checkpoints, but note that basic constitutional
freedoms are still under assault by other aspects of the drug war.

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
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: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Contact: [email protected]

EXTRA CREDIT:

Please also send your letter to one or several of the following
newspapers that printed editorials or other articles about the Supreme
Court ruling.

US IL: Column: A Rare Victory For The Right To Be Left Alone
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1793/a01.html
Pubdate: Thu, 30 Nov 2000
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)

US: U.S. Justices Halt Drug Roadblocks
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1789/a09.html
Pubdate: Wed, 29 Nov 2000
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Contact: [email protected]

US: Supreme Court Bars Traffic Roadblocks Intended to Check for
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1785/a04.html
Pubdate: Wed, 29 Nov 2000
Source: New York Times (NY)
Contact: [email protected]

US CA: Editorial: Supreme Court Removes A Roadblock to Rights
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1791/a05.html
Pubdate: Thu, 30 Nov 2000
Source: San Francisco Chronicle (CA)
Contact: [email protected]

US GA: Editorial: A Win For Privacy
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1795/a09.html
Pubdate: Fri, 01 Dec 2000
Contact: [email protected]

US TX: Editorial: Random Ruling
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1794/a10.html
Pubdate: Fri, 01 Dec 2000
Source: Times Record News (TX)
Contact: [email protected]

US IN: Editorial: The Right Decision On Indy Roadblocks
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1791/a08.html
Pubdate: Wed, 29 Nov 2000
Source: Indianapolis Star (IN)
Contact: [email protected]

US IN: Editorial: What Did They Say?
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1794/a01.html
Pubdate: Thu, 30 Nov 2000
Source: News-Sentinel (IN)
Contact: [email protected]

US CO: Editorial: Drug Roadblocks
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1794/a03.html
Pubdate: Thu, 30 Nov 2000
Source: Durango Herald, The (US CO)
Contact: [email protected]

US NC: OPED: The Court Got It Right
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1797/a07.html
Pubdate: Thu, 30 Nov 2000
Source: Goldsboro News-Argus (NC)
Contact: [email protected]

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

ARTICLE

US CA: Editorial: Improbable Cause
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1782/a05.html
Newshawk: Jane Marcus
Pubdate: Wed, 29 Nov 2000
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2000 San Jose Mercury News
Contact: [email protected]
Address: 750 Ridder Park Drive, San Jose, CA 95190
Fax: (408) 271-3792
Website: http://www.sjmercury.com/
IMPROBABLE CAUSE

When Police Stop Every Vehicle At A Roadblock To Search For Drugs, That
Goes To Far, Supreme Court Rules

THERE’S a saying that the U.S. Supreme Court has never run into a
police roadblock it didn’t like. Checkpoints to intercept drunken
drivers? Sure. Stops to verify the licenses and registrations of
motorists? Fine. Highway blockades near the border to snatch illegal
immigrants? Those are legal too.

It looked as if law enforcement agents could use random roadblocks for
any reason. Constitutional guarantees against unreasonable searches
and seizures didn’t appear to protect innocent people who happened to
be on the wrong road at the wrong time.

But no more. On Tuesday the justices finally put on the brakes. By
6-3, they said the police can’t intrude on the privacy of law-abiding
drivers to nab a handful of possible drug traffickers.

The case involved police officers in Indianapolis setting up big
dragnets to ferret out drug dealers. Stemming the flow of narcotics
into a city is an important and well-intentioned goal. But to carry it
out, the police would detain and question everyone driving by the
checkpoints. Motorists didn’t get to leave until the officer was
convinced that no drugs were hidden in the car.

Two innocent people caught up in these blockades sued. To stop them
and inspect their cars, the drivers argued, an officer should need a
good reason to suspect they’ve committed a crime. That kind of
warrantless search requires at least a suspicion that the individual
was breaking the law. The roadblocks allowed the police to skirt that
requirement based on a mere fear that drugs might be coming into a
neighborhood.

“If this case were to rest on such a high level of generality,”
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote for the court, “there would be
little check on the authorities’ ability to construct roadblocks for
almost any conceivable law enforcement purpose.”

Blockades designed to police the national border or ensure roadway
safety – — such as DUI checkpoints — are unaffected by Tuesday’s
decision. The court previously has said the Constitution permits those
stops.

Instead the ruling is an overdue reminder to law enforcement that
innocent people have some constitutional right to be left alone when
behind the wheel. And even this conservative court won’t allow the war
on drugs to change that.

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

To the editor:

It is heartening to see the U.S. Supreme Court ruling against random
drug checkpoints. For years the drug war has been used to invade the
privacy of all citizens. Want a job? You must prove yourself innocent
of drug crimes by submitting bodily fluids for analysis. Same thing if
you are a student hoping to join in an extracurricular activity. And
all students are subject to random searches by drug sniffing dogs,
while anyone who travels by bus may find themselves face to face with
a law enforcement officer who “requests” to search their personal belongings.

Since many illegal drug users look and act just like people who don’t
use illegal drugs, those would protect us from ourselves need to check
out everyone. While making people prove their innocence may catch some
drug users, it also allows authorities to scrutinize citizens without
any cause. The war on drugs is a also a war on personal privacy.

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.
—————————————————————————-

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://home.att.net/~theyoungfamily Focus
Alert Specialist

Date: Sat, 18 Nov 2000
Subject: #190 Even Supporters See Disaster In Plan Colombia

NYT: Even Supporters See Disaster in Plan Colombia

——-
PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE
——-

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #190 Saturday November 18, 2000

The plan to send $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid to Colombia,
allegedly to assist the war on drugs, can only make the violence in
Colombia worse. Now, even a legislator who pushed to advance Plan
Colombia has realized that it is a disaster in the making.

As the New York Times reported this week, U.S. Rep. Benjamin A. Gilman
has flip-flopped on his enthusiasm for Plan Colombia. Gilman still
doesn’t seem to understand that the problems aren’t just in the
details, but in the overall concept of fighting the war on drugs.
However, it is important to recognize another voice speaking out
against the military aid.

Please write a letter to the New York Times or other newspapers where
the story has appeared to note that even fervent drug warriors know
Plan Colombia will create more problems while solving nothing.

WRITE A LETTER – MAKE THINGS BETTER!!

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
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 important way we have of gauging
our impact and effectiveness.

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

CONTACT INFO:

Source: New York Times (NY)
Contact: [email protected]

EXTRA CREDIT:

The Miami Herald also ran a story on this subject. Please send your
letter to the Herald also.

Title: US: Key Lawmaker Drops Support For Aid To Colombian Armed
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1716/a04.html
Source: Miami Herald (FL)
Contact: [email protected]

EXTRA EXTRA CREDIT:

The Chicago Tribune also had a good editorial about this subject,
noting “It’s time to think not just about switching this money from
one Colombian pocket to another. It’s time to rethink the whole
thing.” Please check out the whole editorial and send a letter to the
Tribune too.

Title: US IL: OPED: Second Thoughts On Colombia
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1718/a03.html
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Contact: [email protected]

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

ARTICLE

US: Key House Leader Withdraws Support For Colombia Aid Plan
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1714/a07.html
Newshawk: Amanda
Pubdate: Fri, 17 Nov 2000
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2000 The New York Times Company
Contact: [email protected]
Address: 229 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036
Fax: (212) 556-3622
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Forum: http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/
Author: Christopher Marquis with Juan Forero
Bookmark: Reports from Colombia: http://www.mapinc.org/area/Colombia
KEY HOUSE LEADER WITHDRAWS SUPPORT FOR COLOMBIA AID PLAN

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 — Representative Benjamin A. Gilman, chairman of
the House International Relations Committee, has abruptly withdrawn
his support from the decision to funnel $1.3 billion in mostly
military aid to Colombia, arguing that the United States is on the
brink of a “major mistake.”

Mr. Gilman, Republican of New York, sent a letter this week to the
White House drug policy coordinator, Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey,
contending that the American plan to increase the role of the
Colombian military in the drug fight will end disastrously, because
the military has undermined its political support after a history of
corruption and human rights abuses. That position echoes other critics
of the plan.

Mr. Gilman called on the Clinton administration to redirect its
assistance, including at least 40 Black Hawk helicopters, from the
military to the national police in Colombia. Mr. Gilman has long
admired the police, which he views as more effective and less tainted
by human rights violations.

“If we fail early on with Plan Colombia, as I fear, we could lose the
support of the American people for our efforts to fight illicit
narcotics abroad,” Mr. Gilman said. “If we lose public support, we
will regret we did not make the mid-course corrections for Colombia
that I have outlined here.”

Last summer, Mr. Gilman voted to support Plan Colombia, a $7.5 billion
strategy drafted jointly by American and Colombian officials and
passed by Congress. In addition to the military spending, the program
allocates money to promote alternative crops, economic renewal and
human rights. The plan seeks to halve drug production over five years
in Colombia, reportedly the source of most of the cocaine and heroin
that enters the United States.

Congressional sources said Mr. Gilman was troubled by recent military
failures in rural areas where rebel forces operate.

It is unclear what effects, if any, Mr. Gilman’s shift will have. A
Senate Republican aide who follows Colombia closely said it was “far
too early” to criticize the plan. Mr. Gilman is expected to relinquish
his chairmanship next year because of term limits.

Critics of the plan have argued that the military aid would merely
intensify the conflict in which two rebel groups have joined forces
with narcotics traffickers against the government, a conflict that
could eventually draw the United States directly into fighting the
rebels.

Leaders of Colombia’s neighbors also have expressed fears that the
fighting will spill into their countries.

Washington counters that Colombia’s increasingly jumbled battle lines
make it necessary to equip and deploy the military in the fight
against drugs. The American plan calls for training three
counternarcotics battalions, with a total of up to 3,000 troops.

The administration also has promised to watch over the military’s
record on human rights. A spokesman for General McCaffrey, Robert
Weiner, said today that denying aid to the military on the basis of
its past performance would ensure defeat.

“Granted they’re not a superpower,” Mr. Weiner said. “One of the major
purposes of the Plan Colombia is to provide the military with the
resources they need. This actually scares the cartels to death.”

In southern Putumayo Province, where half of the coca in Colombia is
grown, rebels have sealed off roads, arguing that the military has to
rein in right-wing gunmen who are associated with the armed forces.

A botched operation in a northern town, Dabeiba, resulted last month
in the downing of one of the army’s seven American-made Black Hawks
and the deaths of 22 troops.

The helicopter had been carrying reinforcements to assist soldiers
locked in a firefight with rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia. But sloppy communications led the pilot to land in a
rebel-controlled area, an American official said.

The rebels “were waiting for them,” the official said. “What kind of
intelligence is that? They were dug in like the Ho Chi Minh Trail.”

A high-ranking official in President Andres Pastrana’s government
defended the military involvement on the grounds that the drug war has
fundamentally changed in the last five years.

“It used to be an urban drug war, which the police were very capable
of handling,” the official said. “It has now become a drug war fought
in the jungles, and you can’t do that without military support.”

Another official said, “The fact that there are voices that are
against these tactics doesn’t mean that the strategy is going to change.”

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

SAMPLE LETTER

To the editor:

It has long been clear that Plan Colombia will neither stop drugs from
reaching Americans nor stabilize Colombia. But, new objections from
Rep. Ben Gilman, formerly one of the plan’s strongest supporters, show
how awful the plan truly is.

Gilman may only have problems with the details, but as history shows,
the whole concept of fighting drugs with force is always a failure.
The outcome of Plan Colombia can only be more violence and increasing
involvement by the U.S. in the affairs of South America.

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.
—————————————————————————-

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://home.att.net/~theyoungfamily Focus
Alert Specialist

Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000
Subject: #189 Boston Globe Questions Initiative, But Not Opponents

Boston Globe Questions Initiative, But Not Opponents

——-
PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE AND TAKE ACTION TODAY!
——-

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #189 Wednesday October 25, 2000

On election day, Massachusetts voters will be able to cast a ballot on
an initiative that would push some people convicted of drug possession
to treatment instead of jail. The Boston Globe reported on the
initiative this week by seeking out professionals from the criminal
justice system who are against the initiative. A considerable portion
of the article questions the motives of initiative supporters. But
readers need to reach the very tail end of the story before questions
are raised about the motives of opponents in law enforcement, who will
lose access to asset forfeiture funds seized through drug
investigations if the initiative succeeds.

The article also tries to give a mistaken impression about the
resources available from philanthropists who support the ballot
measure. The author states that George Soros has given $1 billion to
“causes such as this one.” While George Soros has been generous to the
drug policy reform movement, he supports a number of other causes that
have nothing to do with drug policy reform. A recent article from the
Copley News Service stated that Soros had spent close to $6 million
supporting political movements involving drug reform. A great deal of
money, yes; but it’s a mere fraction of billions spent by government
every year to support drug prohibition.

Please write a letter to the Boston Globe to let editors know that
painting the drug warriors as helpless underdogs and drug policy
reformers as the ones with the real financial power is a total
inversion of reality.

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
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: Boston Globe (MA)
Contact: [email protected]

EXTRA CREDIT Los Angeles Times on California’s Proposition
36

California has a similar initiative to Massachusetts Proposition 8.
Proposition 36 will be on the ballot in California and many of the
same Soros issues have been raised there. Please consider sending a
slightly revised version of your letter to the Los Angeles Times, who
opposed this measure in the article at: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1601/a07.html

Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Contact: [email protected]

AND/OR please write any other California news paper you like regarding
your views on Proposition 36. Email addresses for nearly any newspaper
can be found at http://www.mapinc.org/resource/email.htm

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

ARTICLE

Pubdate: Tue, 24 Oct 2000
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.
Contact: [email protected]
Address: P.O. Box 2378, Boston, MA 02107-2378
Feedback: http://extranet.globe.com/LettersEditor/default.asp
Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/
Author: Tina Cassidy
Bookmark: For Substance Abuse and Crime Prevention Act items:
http://www.mapinc.org/prop36.htm

QUESTION 8

For Police, Drug War Extends To Ballot Box

The state’s district attorneys and police chiefs may know how to fight
crime, but they are finding it tough to fight Question 8, the ballot
initiative that seeks to replace prison time for some drug offenders
with addiction treatment.

Local law enforcement officials say their first problem is public
relations, because the measure, when summarized, sounds appealing:
Send the drug-addicted to treatment, a cheaper alternative to prison.
However, opponents say some of the question’s details, which are
difficult to explain to voters, could wreak havoc with drug
prosecutions.

The measure’s foes face another problem: They don’t have any money to
help them get across their point of view.

The initiative would allow judges to send those charged with a first
or second offense of drug possession, manufacturing, distribution, or
drug trafficking between 14 and 28 grams of cocaine to treatment if
the court finds them “drug-dependent.” It also would make it harder
for law enforcement officials to seize drug offenders’ assets, and
those assets seized would pay for addiction programs instead of law
enforcement’s and prosecutors’ antidrug efforts.

Question 8 is supported by a few people with big checkbooks, including
George Soros, the famous hedge fund manager, who has made the nation’s
top philanthropy list for contributing about $1 billion to causes such
as this one. Soros has a soft spot for changing drug laws to allow,
for example, medical marijuana use.

So far, most of the donations for Question 8 have come from three men:
Soros, of New York, who has given $290,000 over the last month;
Cleveland Peter Lewis, chief executive officer of the Progressive
Group insurance company, who has contributed $315,000 in the same time
period; and John Sperling of Phoenix, chief executive officer of the
Apollo Group, who has given the campaign $45,000 since September,
according to filings with the state Office of Political and Campaign
Finance for the period that ended Oct. 15.

Sperling, a millionaire, found marijuana eased his prostate cancer
pain. And Lewis has been arrested for using marijuana for circulatory
problems.

Those opposing the measure, mostly law enforcement officials, do not
even have an account to collect donations.

“We have not really made much of an effort to raise money,” said
Plymouth District Attorney Michael J. Sullivan. “It’s difficult with
our full-time commitments. We don’t have access to billionaires who
look at this as a major-cause issue. But the message is on our side.
We believe a grass-roots effort will go a long way toward defeating
ballot Question 8.”

While it may appear that local law enforcement is against Question 8,
the initiative was written by Tom Kiley, a former first assistant
attorney general and former assistant district attorney in Norfolk
County who has donated about $40,000 to the cause. Like the question’s
financial backers, Kiley’s interest in the issue is personal. A heroin
addiction killed his 50-year-old brother, Scott, two years ago.

“I think of him every day,” Kiley said, adding that his brother’s life
might have been saved by rehabilitation.

Despite the fact that the question centers on using seized assets and
fines from drug cases to fund treatment for addicts, the controversy
is not about the money. It’s about whether the ballot question would
make it easier for drug dealers to avoid prison time by claiming they
are at risk of becoming addicts.

Kiley said someone carrying 28 grams, or about 1 ounce, of cocaine is
likely a user and someone who could benefit from treatment.

The district attorneys say a dealer is a dealer and most users could
not hold on to that quantity of drugs long enough to sell them.

“There’s nobody who opposes treatment for the addicts,” Sullivan said,
“but there’s already treatment for addicts. Ballot Question 8 is all
about allowing the drug dealers to escape punishment.”

Just look at the question’s financial backers and their reasons for
giving, Sullivan said.

Although Kiley does not say it, others working to pass Question 8
argue that the real issue for the district attorneys is that they do
not want to lose the millions of dollars a year their departments
receive from property forfeiture related to drug cases. Both sides
have wildly different estimates on how much law enforcement receives
from seizures; the range was $4 million to $9 million.

The initiative also requires public records to be kept detailing all
forfeitures.

Kiley estimates that it costs about $5,000 to treat one addict,
meaning that even if only $4 million a year were diverted to
treatment, 800 people could be helped.

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

To the editor:

I was disappointed by the story “For Police, Drug War Extends To
Ballot Box” (Oct. 24), particularly in the way it portrayed the
supporters of Question 8 as having unlimited resources, while
opponents are fighting the good fight on a shoestring budget.

“Question 8 is supported by a few people with big checkbooks,
including George Soros, the famous hedge fund manager, who has made
the nation’s top philanthropy list for contributing about $1 billion
to causes such as this one. Soros has a soft spot for changing drug
laws to allow, for example, medical marijuana use,” according to the
article. While George Soros has been generous to the drug policy
reform movement, to suggest that he has given a billion bucks to
“causes such as this one,” is greatly overstating the case. A recent
article from Copley News Service put a more precise figure on Soros’s
support for political campaigns involving drug policy reform: $5
million to $6 million. It’s a lot of money, but nothing compared to
the billions spent each year by government to maintain the destructive
policy of drug prohibition.

If editors were trying to make this into a David and Goliath story,
they’ve got the main characters mixed up.

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.
—————————————————————————-

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://home.att.net/~theyoungfamily Focus
Alert Specialist

Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000
Subject: #188 Meth Causes Madness At California Newspapers

Meth Causes Madness At California Newspapers

——-
PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE
——-

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #188 Tuesday October 10, 2000

Even as media coverage of the war on drugs becomes more balanced, some
newspapers continue to cover drug issues the old-fashioned way: with
scare stories and the optimistic notion that the drug war will work if
we just put some more money into it. A mammoth 16-page report about
methamphetamine appeared in the Fresno Bee and other Bee papers this
week that attempted to reinforce all the old stereotypes about drugs
and drug policy, as the editorial below illustrates (if you have a lot
of time on your hands and you want to hear more details, the articles
from the report have been archived at http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1511/a03.htm).

Please write a letter to the newspapers to let them know that as long
as they remain committed to drug prohibition, they are only helping to
increase the problems associated with illegal drugs.

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
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: Fresno Bee, The (CA)
Contact: [email protected]

Source: Modesto Bee
Contact: [email protected]

Source: Sacramento Bee
Contact: [email protected]

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

ARTICLE

US CA: A Madness Called Meth, Editorial
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1509/a02.html
Newshawk: Jo-D and Tom-E
Pubdate: Sun, 08 Oct 2000
Source: Fresno Bee, The (CA)
Copyright: 2000 The Fresno Bee
Contact: [email protected]
Feedback: http://www.fresnobee.com/man/opinion/letters.html
Website: http://www.fresnobee.com/
Forum: http://www.fresnobee.com/man/projects/webforums/opinion.html
Note: This series also ran in the Modesto Bee ([email protected]) and the
Sacramento Bee ( [email protected]), A Special Report by the McClatchy
Company’s California Newspapers with a special website:
http://www.methvalley.com/
MAP’s index is at: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1500/a04.html

A Madness Called Meth: Editorial

WE ARE LOSING THE DRUG WAR IN OUR OWN BACK YARD.

Speed, crank, crystal, ice: Whatever its street name these days,
methamphetamine represents a threat — not only to the people who use
it, but to their children, their neighbors, the environment and the
wider community.

Unlike previous drug scourges, the meth epidemic is uniquely American
in origin. Alarmingly, as a team of Bee reporters from Modesto, Fresno
and Sacramento document in today’s special 18-page section, “A Madness
Called Meth,” California’s great Central Valley is meth’s principal
breeding ground and the place where the bulk of its victims live.

Overdosed meth addicts crowd Valley hospitals.

From Redding to Bakersfield, their abused and neglected children
swell the rolls of foster care. With increasing and deadly frequency,
the makeshift labs where they cook their drugs erupt into flames,
spewing toxic chemicals and leaving poisonous residues that threaten
groundwater and force costly cleanups.

The number of drug labs discovered in California has soared, from 559
in 1995 to more than 2,000 last year. Police — local, state and
federal — have spent countless hours and millions of dollars chasing
meth traffickers. They close a lab only to find that three others pop
up to take its place.

They cut off the supply of one ingredient chemical and the meth
merchants find a substitute. Penalties are stiff, but when the choice
is between $6.40 an hour picking fruit or a dead-end job in the city,
and thousands of dollars a day cooking meth, an endless supply of
people will take the risk.

What is meth’s lure? The drug floods the brain with dopamine, a
natural chemical that stimulates pleasure.

Soon the body craves more and more. Over time, meth addicts can’t live
without it. The craving is so powerful that if they can’t buy from
suppliers, meth addicts will make their own brews, using recipes
available over the Internet or in book shops, with ingredients that
can be purchased in bulk from drugstores.

The side effects of chronic use include itchy scalps and skin, scabs
from all the scratching and teeth that fall out. The drug triggers
sleeplessness, agitation and violence.

Researchers say the damage to the brain may be irreversible. Because
meth has not generated the kind of gang warfare and shootouts that
have attended other drug epidemics in the country — cocaine, for
example — Congress has failed to recognize or address the magnitude
of meth’s growing threat.

Compared with federal drug-fighting funds approved for other states
and regions, Bee reporters found that Central California’s
meth-fighting efforts have been shortchanged. While San Diego gets $10
million from the federal government to combat drug trafficking,
Milwaukee $4.5 million and Lake County, Indiana, $3 million, the nine
Valley counties that stretch from Sacramento to Kern receive just $1.5
million from the federal government, the smallest drug-fighting budget
for any region in the country.

That has to change.

Money is needed in large amounts for education, enforcement, treatment
and environmental cleanup.

Unfortunately, politicians, at both the state and federal level, have
failed to grasp the scope of the problem.

Gov. Gray Davis inexcusably vetoed a bill that would have created meth
site cleanup standards.

He called the $3 million price tag too expensive, a shocking
indication of how steep the learning curve is, even for our own governor.

Where are our champions in Washington, the Valley’s representatives in
Congress — Gary Condit, George Radanovich, Calvin Dooley and William
Thomas? Where are our senators, Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer?
What can we expect from our state legislators, Jim Costa, Chuck
Poochigian, Dick Monteith, George House, Mike Briggs, Sarah Reyes,
Dean Florez and Roy Ashburn?

Predictably and understandably, local and state governments’ limited
answer to the meth threat has been to attack the supply side. It’s a
response weighted toward cops and prosecutors, leaving little for
education, treatment and cleanup.

One recent evening in Kern County, 29 officers, county sheriffs’
deputies, city police, and state and federal narcotics officers
gathered to bust one meth dealer, a man who’d been under surveillance
for months.

Bee reporters totaled up the law enforcement cost for putting just six
members of a big Fresno-based meth ring in prison: $2.1 million.

An adequate police response to attack the supply side of the meth
threat is essential. But it’s also true that the money will be largely
wasted if government doesn’t act simultaneously to reduce demand.

Resources to attack the demand side — money for treatment and
education — are almost nonexistent. In Butte County north of
Sacramento, meth addicts desperate for treatment are instructed to
call a number every Monday between 1:30 and 3:30 p.m. Mostly they are
told to call back later.

Beyond more treatment, there is an urgent need for education about the
special dangers of this awful drug. Anyone tempted to try meth should
see the before-and-after pictures of Jackie Hughes, the former Sears
model reduced after years of meth abuse to a toothless crone with bald
patches on her head and scabs on her face. They ought to hear the
story of Douglas Haaland Jr., the father who, agitated after coming
down from an eight-day meth binge, beat his 4-year-old son to death
and will spend the rest of his life in prison.

They should see Amber Walker, the 3-month-old who died of starvation,
wide-eyed in her crib in a squalid Bakersfield motel, leaving behind a
meth-addicted mother who rarely touched her.

“The Madness of Meth” is both a warning and a plea. To the public,
it’s a warning about the dangers this drug poses: Don’t try it. To
policy-makers, it’s a plea — and a demand.

We need more help to stop the traffickers, to clean up the toxic mess
they leave behind.

And we urgently need resources to treat the addicts more effectively and to
educate the vulnerable. Without serious investments in all those areas, the
chase will never end. Meth will win and we will lose.
******************************************************************************

SAMPLE LETTER

To the editor:

I spent a significant portion of my day wading through the thousands
of words in your report “A Madness Called Meth.” While there were some
moving human portraits, and the depth of the problem was clearly
illustrated, I must say all the effort was for naught, as editors
lacked the guts to clearly address the root of the situation: drug
prohibition itself.

Users of legal drugs like tobacco and alcohol don’t have an incentive
to subsidize their own habits by encouraging friends and acquaintances
to pick up the same habits. But, methamphetamine users quickly learn
that they can get high for free and actually make some good money on
the side by selling part of their stash. More enterprising users
realize they can produce the drug with little time or investment to
make truly impressive profits. Those manufacturers have no incentive
to deal with the byproducts of the process in a responsible way. They
dispose of hazardous waste clandestinely, leaving the mess for someone
else.

When you are all done patting yourselves on the back for allegedly
exposing a great menace, I suggest everyone who contributed to the
report, especially those who conceived and shaped it, read journalist
Dan Gardner’s series “Losing the war on drugs” published in the Ottawa
Citizen last month (it’s still online at http://www.ottawacitizen.com/national/drugs/).
See how compelling and enlightening honest reporting can be when it’s
not encumbered by the requirements of ideology.

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.
—————————————————————————-

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://home.att.net/~theyoungfamily Focus
Alert Specialist

Date: Sat, 07 Oct 2000
Subject: Tulia, Texas And The ACLU Fights Back – So Can YOU

Tulia, Texas and the ACLU Fights Back – So Can YOU

——-
PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE
——-

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #187 Saturday, 7 October 2000

During the past week newspapers across the land carried stories about
the small Texas town of Tulia, in which the ACLU accuses law
enforcement of ethnic cleansing which resulted in roughly 12 percent
of the town’s black population – and almost a third of the town’s
young black men – being arrested.

While the ACLU will show in court that this was a well thought out
plan to take these black men off the streets, this is just a more
visible example of how the War on Drugs has become a tool for racists.
One has only to look at the well documented facts at
http://www.csdp.org/factbook/racepris.htm to see the pattern.

Please write a letter to both the LA Times and NY Times to remind
editors and readers that the dark side of prohibition is it’s impact
on racial minorities.

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
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: New York Times
Contact: [email protected]

Source: Los Angeles Times
Contact: [email protected]

EXTRA CREDIT

Please consider sending additional letters to the following
newspapers. The story and contact information is at the URL:

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1482/a09.html
Pubdate: Thu, 05 Oct 2000
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Email: [email protected]

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1477/a04.html
Pubdate: Wed, 4 Oct 2000
Source: Amarillo Globe-News (TX)
Email: [email protected]

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1475/a04.html
Pubdate: Wed, 4 Oct 2000
Source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal (TX)
Email: [email protected]

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1475/a06.html
Pubdate: Wed, 4 Oct 2000
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Email: [email protected]

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1472/a10.html
Pubdate: Mon, 02 Oct 2000
Source: Register-Guard, The (OR)
Email: [email protected]

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1470/a08.html
Pubdate: Tue, 3 Oct 2000
Source: Ft. Worth Star-Telegram (TX)
Email: [email protected]

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00/n1457/a03.html
Pubdate: Sun, 01 Oct 2000
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Email: [email protected]

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

ARTICLE ONE

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1493.a02.html

Pubdate: Sat, 7 Oct 2000
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2000 The New York Times Company
Contact: [email protected]
Address: 229 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036
Fax: (212) 556-3622
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Forum: http://forums.nytimes.com/comment/
Author: Jim Yardley

THE HEAT IS ON A TEXAS TOWN AFTER THE ARRESTS OF 40 BLACKS

TULIA, Tex., Oct. 4 — On the morning of July 23, 1999, Billy Wafer, a
forklift driver, was swept up in the biggest drug sting in local
history: In this town of only 4,500 people, 43 suspects were arrested
on charges of selling small amounts of cocaine. In some cases,
hometown juries later meted out sentences ranging from 20 years to
more than 300 years.

In Tulia, an isolated place ringed by cotton farms and cattle ranches
on the high plains of the Texas panhandle, local officials declared
the operation a stunning success. In all, 22 of the defendants were
sent to prison while others received probation. The undercover agent
at the center of the operation, Tom Coleman, was even named by the
state as lawman of the year.

But more than a year later, an operation once hailed as a victory in
the war on drugs now has civil rights groups and local minorities
asking whether it was really a war on blacks. All but three of the 43
defendants were black, an enormous percentage considering blacks make
up less than 10 percent of the town’s population. In fact, roughly 12
percent of the town’s black population was arrested.

The doubts raised about the racial makeup of the group arrested are
compounded by contentions that the investigation was flimsy at best.
The sole evidence in nearly every case was the word of Mr. Coleman,
whose own character had come under criticism in the past. There were
no videotapes or wiretaps or, in most cases, any corroborating witnesses.

“They declared war on this community,” said Sammy Barrow, a black
resident with four relatives who were arrested. “You either were going
to get a long term in the penitentiary or you were going to get enough
of a deterrent to get out of here.”

So now Tulia itself is on trial: last week, the American Civil
Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of a defendant whose case
was dismissed in February, apparently because of a false
identification. The suit accuses local officials of singling out
blacks to run them out of town. Next week, the A.C.L.U. plans to file
a civil rights complaint with the Justice Department seeking to revoke
financing for the agencies that ran the sting.

[snip – Please click the URL above for the rest of this long
article]

***************************************************************************
ARTICLE TWO

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1492.a06.html

Pubdate: Sat, 07 Oct 2000
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2000 Los Angeles Times
Contact: [email protected]
Address: Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053
Fax: (213) 237-7679
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Forum: http://www.latimes.com/discuss/
Author: Hector Tobar, Times Staff Writer

A QUESTION OF MOTIVE DOGS TEXAS PANHANDLE DRUG BUST

Tulia: One of every six blacks was arrested. Some residents see raid as
state-sponsored ‘ethnic cleansing.’

TULIA, Texas–The officers and deputies came in the morning. They
arrested pig farmers and warehouse workers, single mothers and lithe
young men who once were heroes for the town’s pride and joy–its high
school football team. Forty-three people in all.

The biggest drug raid in Swisher County’s history also was the worst
day in memory for Tulia’s small, tightknit African American community.
In a matter of hours, one of every six black residents had been
indicted for selling cocaine.

At first, hardly anyone raised a voice in protest. The local paper
celebrated the roundup of the “scumbags” corrupting the town’s
children. Those few who had doubts kept quiet, except for one man–a
self-described “hick farmer” and gadfly named Gary Gardner.

Thanks in part to his efforts, Tulia now stands divided by a
controversy that has thrust this town of 5,000 in the drought-stricken
Texas Panhandle into the national debate about drugs, race and the
criminal justice system.

Sentiment here began to turn after a series of revelations about the
white undercover agent who had set up the July 1999 sting, a
journeyman deputy with a tainted past whose word was the only evidence
against most of the defendants. That information led the American
Civil Liberties Union last week to file a federal civil rights lawsuit
against the county, charging that the arrests were racially motivated.

“I just worked the facts and the facts show that a lot of these people
aren’t guilty,” said Gardner, a large man with a pinkish complexion
and a penchant for foul language. “It’s like a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle
you dump on the floor, and years later it begins to make sense.”

In the last year, Tulia’s one-bench courthouse has hosted 11 drug
trials, each one ending with a conviction, most without a single black
on the jury.

Many of those convicted have received long, Texas-size sentences for
selling relatively small amounts of cocaine–crimes big-city
prosecutors and judges likely would punish with a few years of probation.

The most recent trial ended last month with the conviction of Kareem
Abdul Jabbar White, who got 60 years for selling one-eighth of an
ounce of cocaine (street value: about $150).

“These drug traffickers have been a cancer on our community long
enough,” one local paper editorialized. “It’s time to give them a
major dose of chemotherapy behind bars.”

Buoyed by such sentiments, the county district attorney and sheriff
have defended the drug raid and the aggressive prosecution. “We’re not
a lynching county,” said Swisher County Dist. Atty. Terry McEachern.
“This is a community that’s tough on drugs.”

Some See Different Agenda

And no one denies that Tulia has a drug problem. Rural communities
have the nation’s fastest growing rate of cocaine and heroin use. But
to some here it seems that, at best, the local authorities rounded up
a bunch of small-time users–many had previous arrests for petty
offenses–and treated them as if they were million-dollar drug kingpins.

“These are the young people we’re supposed to be trying to help,” said
Charles Kiker, a retired Baptist preacher and one of a small but
growing circle of residents who have denounced the raid as
government-sponsored “ethnic cleansing.”

“It’s not the drugs they’re after,” said Mattie White, a guard at a
nearby state prison who had three adult children arrested in the raid,
including Kareem. “They don’t want these kids in this town.”

To these critics, the allegations behind the drug sting are patently
absurd: Tulia is a poor, hardscrabble community. And yet the
defendants were charged with selling powder cocaine, a rich man’s
habit. And why, they ask, were no guns, drug paraphernalia or large
amounts of cash seized in the raid?

“You see how small this town is?” asked Billy Wafer, a warehouse
worker who was arrested in the 1999 raid but was later freed by a
judge. “How can 43 drug dealers survive in this community? Everybody
in this town would have to be a drug user.”

William Harrell, executive director of the Texas ACLU, calls the Tulia
case “the most blatant example of police and prosecutorial misconduct
I’ve seen in my entire career.” Harrell has petitioned federal
authorities to launch a criminal investigation.

[snip – Please click the URL above for the rest of this long
article]

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

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Editor:

RE: [insert title and Pubdate of article here]

While what happened in Tulia, Texas — the arrest and sentencing to
very long prison terms of a large share of the town’s young black men
under the guise of the War on Drugs — should shock every American, it
is only the tip of the iceberg.

According to the federal Household Survey, “most current illicit drug
users are white. There were an estimated 9.9 million whites (72
percent of all users), 2.0 million blacks (15 percent), and 1.4
million Hispanics (10 percent) who were current illicit drug users in
1998.” And yet, blacks constitute 36.8% of those arrested for drug
violations, over 42% of those in federal prisons for drug violations.
African-Americans comprise almost 60% of those in state prisons for
drug felonies; Hispanics account for 22.5%.

Thus it is clear that our drug laws, and their mandatory minimum
punishments, are now a tool for racists – America’s tool for ethnic
cleansing.

It is time to consider common sense drug policies — policies based on
public health and honest education instead of law enforcement.

Richard Lake

Note to the Editor:
I found the fact from the household survey, well documented, at item six on
this webpage:
http://www.csdp.org/factbook/racepris.htm

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

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

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

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

Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000
Subject: # 186 Urge The Media To Cover Journey For Justice

Urge The Media To Cover Journey For Justice

PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #186 Thursday September 28, 2000

For the past several days, a number of dedicated drug policy reform
activists have been making their way through Texas in order to
publicize the cruelty and absurdity of the drug war. To learn more
about the Journey for Jubilee Justice, go to its web site at
http://www.journeyforjustice.org

Over the coming days Vigils will be held around the nation calling
attention to prison and drug war issues. See http://www.november.org/upcomingvigils.html
for an updated list of times and places.

The Journey for Jubilee Justice has received some press coverage (to
see some articles go to http://www.mapinc.org/journey.htm), but
organizers are hoping for even more as the journey comes to a close in
Austin on Friday and as other vigils get underway (many on September
29th.) Journey organizers are urging activists around the country to
call their local network television news outlets in order to encourage
local broadcasts of reports from the journey finale (see the note from
Kevin Zeese below).

Please use the link below to find contacts for your local network
television stations. Call the station’s news room and ask if they will
be covering the Journey For Justice. Explain that the Journey For
Justice is an event that is important to all Americans and to suggest
that it be covered in some way.

CALL A NEWSROOM TODAY!

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

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

PLEASE 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:

The following site offers links to local television stations by city.
Find the network affiliates in your city or town and please give them
a call. If your local stations aren’t listed at this site, please find
the appropriate contact information in a phone book or through a
general search engine.

http://www.tvrundown.com/statnint.htm

Another great source is http://congress.nw.dc.us/wnd/ See the “Guide
to the Media” insert your zip code and you’ll have a great list of TV,
Radio stations, newspapers etc. in your area (or an area where a vigil
will be occurring soon) complete with phone numbers, Email and other
contact info.

========

ARTICLE

(This message was sent from Common Sense for Drug Policy President
Kevin Zeese as he participates in the journey.)

Friends:

We’ve appreciated the email messages of support from those who have
written — our virtual fellow journeyers.

The Journey for Jubilee Justice arrives in Austin tomorrow and will
conduct a workshop at the Mexican American Cultural Center. The
workshop will focus on how people can exercise their first amendment
rights effectively.

You can help us make our events in Austin a national story by calling
your local television network and asking if they will be covering it.
Below is our schedule or visit http://www.journeyforjustice.org. Also
check http://www.november.org to see if their city is one of their 20
vigil cities this weekend. Encourage your station to call their
network affiliated station in Austin and ask for video of the event.

There is still time to get a last minute inexpensive fare to Austin on
Southwest or over the Internet. So you can still join us.

Thanks for your support and encouragement.

Kevin and Jodi

Schedule

Friday, 29. 2000 9:00 ­ 10:30 AM Assemble at the Mexican American
Cultural Center to march to the Capitol. 12:00- 1:00 PM Press
conference at the Capitol 4:00 – 6:00 PM vigil in front of Governor’s
Mansion

SAMPLE MESSAGE

There is a story taking place in Texas with both local and national
significance that your viewers should know about. A group of people
who have been hurt by the drug war are marching through Texas to
protest the harmful policies that have jammed our prisons and denied
citizens adequate medication. Some of the participants are confined to
wheel chairs but the have bravely traveled hundreds of miles through
difficult conditions to illustrate their plight. The Journey for
Justice ends in Austin, Texas on Friday and I think any coverage you
could provide would be greatly appreciated by viewers. Thank you.

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://home.att.net/~theyoungfamily Focus
Alert Specialist

= Please help us help reform. Send drug-related news to
[email protected]

Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2000
Subject: FA: How The Drug War Kills Children

We apologize for the duplicate post. Due to a typo, the initial Focus
Alert went out with an incorrect Email address for the target paper
the L.A. Times. ———

How The Drug War Kills Children

——-
PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE
——-

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #185 Sunday September 25, 2000

Drug prohibition took another young life recently when 11-year-old
Alberto Sepulveda was shot in the back and killed by police during a
drug raid at his family’s home in Modesto, Ca. The story was reported
in newspapers around the country, but not as widely or with as much
soul-searching if Alberto Sepulveda’s killer was another child.

The drug war has been the cause of many tragic fatalities, and many of
the dead (like Alberto) were neither drug users nor drug sellers. A
recent oped from the LA Times (below) mentions a few of them. It also
explains that when we give SWAT teams license to burst into homes with
total disregard for the 4th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, its
only natural for incidents like this to occur.

Please write a letter to the LA Times to remind editors and readers
that prohibition supporters often claim to be protecting children, but
the drug war itself has no regard for the age of its victims.

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
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: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Contact: [email protected]

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

ARTICLE

URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v00.n1414.a07.html
Newshawk: http://www.cannabisnews.com/
Pubdate: Fri, 22 Sep 2000
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2000 Los Angeles Times
Contact: [email protected]
Address: Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053
Fax: (213) 237-7679
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Forum: http://www.latimes.com/discuss/
Author: Sharon Dolovich
Note: Sharon Dolovich Is an Acting Professor at UCLA School of Law

INVASION OF SWAT TEAMS LEAVES TRAUMA AND DEATH

Alberto Sepulveda is no Elian Gonzalez. When 11-year-old Sepulveda was
shot and killed last week by a SWAT team member during an early
morning drug raid on his parents’ Modesto home, the story barely made
the papers. Yet, as did the Immigration and Naturalization Service
raid on the Gonzalez home in Miami in May, the killing of Alberto
Sepulveda highlights a troubling trend in law enforcement: stealth
raids on the homes of sleeping citizens by heavily armed government
agents.

Such raids are the hallmark of police states, not free societies, but
as a growing number of Americans can attest, the experiences of these
two boys are by no means isolated incidents.

Just ask the widow of Mario Paz. She was asleep with her husband in
their Compton home at 11 p.m. in August 1999 when 20 members of the
local SWAT team shot the locks off the front and back doors and
stormed inside. Moments later, Mario Paz was dead, shot twice in the
back, and his wife was outside, half-naked in handcuffs. The SWAT team
had a warrant to search a neighbor’s house for drugs, but Mario Paz
was not listed on it. No drugs were found, and no member of the family
was charged with any crime.

And then there is Denver resident Ismael Mena, a 45-year-old father of
nine, killed last September in his bedroom by SWAT team members who
stormed the wrong house.

Or Ramon Gallardo of Dinuba, Calif., shot 15 times in 1997 by a SWAT
team with a warrant for his son.

Or the Rev. Accelyne Williams of Boston, 75, who died of a heart
attack in 1994 after a Boston SWAT team executing a drug warrant burst
into the wrong apartment.

SWAT teams, now numbering an estimated 30,000 nationwide, were
originally intended for use in emergency situations, hostage-takings,
bomb threats and the like. Trained for combat, their arsenals (often
provided cut rate or free of charge by the Pentagon) resemble those of
small armies: automatic weapons, armored personnel carriers and even
grenade launchers.

Today, however, SWAT units are most commonly used to execute drug
warrants, frequently of the “no-knock” variety, which are issued by
judges and magistrates when there is reason to suspect that the 4th
Amendment’s “knock and announce” requirement, already perfunctorily
applied, would be dangerous or futile, or would give residents time to
destroy incriminating evidence.

California is one of few states that does not allow no-knock warrants.
But the fate of Alberto Sepulveda–who was shot dead an estimated 60
seconds after the SWAT team “knocked and announced”–suggests the
problem is not the type of warrant issued but the use of military tactics.

The state’s interest in protecting evidence of drug crimes from
destruction, or even in preventing the escape of suspected drug
felons, does not justify the threat to individual safety, security and
peace of mind that the use of these tactics represents. On this, the
now-famous image of a terrified Elian facing an armed INS agent speaks
volumes. Even when no shot is fired, these raids leave in their wake
families traumatized by memories of an armed invasion by government
agents.

Police officers, too, are shot in these raids, barging unannounced
into homes where weapons are kept. These shootings may appear to
confirm the dangerousness of the criminals being pursued, until one
realizes that they are committed when people are caught by surprise by
intruders in their own homes and not unreasonably, if unfortunately,
grab a weapon to defend themselves. (Suspects also die in these shoo
touts. Troy Davis, 25, was shot point blank in the chest by Texas
police who broke down his door during a no-knock raid in December 1999
and found him with a gun in his hand. Police had been pursuing a tip
that Davis and his mother were growing marijuana. His gun was legal.)

Using paramilitary units to enforce drug warrants is the inevitable
result of the government’s tendency to see itself as fighting a “war
on drugs.” This rhetoric makes it easy to forget that the targets in
these raids are not the enemy but fellow citizens, and that the laws
being enforced are supposed to ensure a safe, peaceful, well-ordered
society. If lawmakers in Washington and Sacramento are genuinely
committed to defending the right of the American people to be safe and
secure in their own homes, they would demand an accounting for the
thousands of drug raids executed by SWAT teams every year all over the
country, raids that get little media attention but nonetheless leave
their targets traumatized and violated. Assuming, that is, that they
leave them alive.

Sharon Dolovich Is an Acting Professor at UCLA School of
Law

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

SAMPLE LETTER

Dear Editor:

Sharon Dolovich hit the nail on the head (Invasion of SWAT Teams
Leaves Trauma and Death LAT 9/22) in pointing out our inexorable march
towards a police state in the name of “protecting” us from drugs but
her article should probably be expanded into a multi-part series.

Home invasions by black clad SWAT teams are increasing at an alarming
rate and innocent people being killed by those sworn “to protect and
serve” with ever increasing frequency nationwide. What we may not
realize, however, is that a dozen other societal horror stories are
simultaneously causing untold damage to our Bill of Rights, individual
liberties, and the love of freedom our forefathers had hoped for.

In the name of the “war on drugs,” we have wasted hundreds of billions
of dollars, incarcerated more of our citizens than any other country
in the world, implemented mandatory minimums, and rendered 1.5 million
minorities with felony convictions ineligible to vote in this
election. “Driving while black” harassment, the Rampart and similar
scandals, “testilying” by police officers and a loss of respect for
law enforcement can all be traced to the foolish notion that we ever
had a chance of making prohibition work. When will we wake up and
realize that prohibition has never worked once in the entire history
of man? It only creates a criminal black market which leads to
increased use and skyrocketing related crime.

Many think that drugs are bad so the drug war must be good. I would
urge those people to reconsider. Drug use and the related damage of
that use are relatively minor in the face of the tremendous damage
this foolish drug war has caused our society.

Mark Greer

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://home.att.net/~theyoungfamily Focus
Alert Specialist