Date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008
Subject: #371 This Is The U.S. On Drugs – A LA Times OPED

THIS IS THE U.S. ON DRUGS – A LA TIMES OPED

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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #371 – Saturday, 5 July 2008

Today the Los Angeles Times printed the OPED below.

The Times wrote about the authors “David W. Fleming, a lawyer, is the
chairman of the Los Angeles County Business Federation and immediate
past chairman of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. James P.
Gray is a judge of the Orange County Superior Court.”

The blunt indictment of the U.S. war on drugs printed in the fourth
largest circulation newspaper is a worthy target for letters to the
editor. Letters the paper prints typically run 150 words or less.

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

Contacts:
Email: [email protected]
Webform: http://drugsense.org/url/bc7El3Yo

Pubdate: Sat, 5 Jul 2008
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2008 Los Angeles Times
Authors: David W. Fleming and James P. Gray

THIS IS THE U.S. ON DRUGS

Only Cops and Crooks Have Benefited From $2.5 Trillion Spent Fighting
Trafficking.

The United States’ so-called war on drugs brings to mind the old
saying that if you find yourself trapped in a deep hole, stop digging.
Yet, last week, the Senate approved an aid package to combat drug
trafficking in Mexico and Central America, with a record $400 million
going to Mexico and $65 million to Central America.

The United States has been spending $69 billion a year worldwide for
the last 40 years, for a total of $2.5 trillion, on drug prohibition
— with little to show for it. Is anyone actually benefiting from this
war? Six groups come to mind.

The first group are the drug lords in nations such as Colombia,
Afghanistan and Mexico, as well as those in the United States. They
are making billions of dollars every year — tax free.

The second group are the street gangs that infest many of our cities
and neighborhoods, whose main source of income is the sale of illegal
drugs.

Third are those people in government who are paid well to fight the
first two groups. Their powers and bureaucratic fiefdoms grow larger
with each tax dollar spent to fund this massive program that has been
proved not to work.

Fourth are the politicians who get elected and reelected by talking
tough — not smart, just tough — about drugs and crime. But the
tougher we get in prosecuting nonviolent drug crimes, the softer we
get in the prosecution of everything else because of the limited
resources to fund the criminal justice system.

The fifth group are people who make money from increased crime. They
include those who build prisons and those who staff them. The prison
guards union is one of the strongest lobbying groups in California
today, and its ranks continue to grow.

And last are the terrorist groups worldwide that are principally
financed by the sale of illegal drugs.

Who are the losers in this war? Literally everyone else, especially
our children.

Today, there are more drugs on our streets at cheaper prices than ever
before. There are more than 1.2 million people behind bars in the
U.S., and a large percentage of them for nonviolent drug usage. Under
our failed drug policy, it is easier for young people to obtain
illegal drugs than a six-pack of beer. Why? Because the sellers of
illegal drugs don’t ask kids for IDs. As soon as we outlaw a
substance, we abandon our ability to regulate and control the
marketing of that substance.

After we came to our senses and repealed alcohol prohibition,
homicides dropped by 60% and continued to decline until World War II.
Today’s murder rates would likely again plummet if we ended drug
prohibition.

So what is the answer? Start by removing criminal penalties for
marijuana, just as we did for alcohol. If we were to do this,
according to state budget figures, California alone would save more
than $1 billion annually, which we now spend in a futile effort to
eradicate marijuana use and to jail nonviolent users. Is it any wonder
that marijuana has become the largest cash crop in California?

We could generate billions of dollars by taxing the stuff, just as we
do with tobacco and alcohol.

We should also reclassify most Schedule I drugs (drugs that the
federal government alleges have no medicinal value, including
marijuana and heroin) as Schedule II drugs (which require a
prescription), with the government regulating their production,
overseeing their potency, controlling their distribution and allowing
licensed professionals (physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists,
etc.) to prescribe them. This course of action would acknowledge that
medical issues, such as drug addiction, are best left under the
supervision of medical doctors instead of police officers.

The mission of the criminal justice system should always be to protect
us from one another and not from ourselves. That means that drug users
who drive a motor vehicle or commit other crimes while under the
influence of these drugs would continue to be held criminally
responsible for their actions, with strict penalties. But that said,
the system should not be used to protect us from ourselves.

Ending drug prohibition, taxing and regulating drugs and spending tax
dollars to treat addiction and dependency are the approaches that many
of the world’s industrialized countries are taking. Those approaches
are ones that work.

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

Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides

Or contact MAP’s Media Activism Facilitator for tips on how to write
LTEs that are printed.

[email protected]

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

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER

Please post a copy of 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] if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
may learn from your efforts.

Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ( [email protected] ) will help you
to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.

To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see

http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form

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

Prepared by: The MAP Media Activism Team www.mapinc.org/resource

=.

Date: Thu, 3 Jul 2008
Subject: #370 Don’t Teach Our Children Crime

DON’T TEACH OUR CHILDREN CRIME

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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #370 – Thursday, 3 July 2008

The New York Times printed the editorial below today,
Thursday.

The editorial does not mention that our young people are often jailed
as a result of violating our draconian drug laws – which makes the
editorial a good target for your letters.

Please also contact your Senator both to support the bill and to
request that it be strengthened. Contacts for your Senator are at
http://drugsense.org/url/qhe2AeDy

Letter to the Editor of the New York Times should be sent quickly as
the newspaper usually prints letters resulting from editorials within
a few days – while the editorial itself is still fresh in their
readers minds.

The average letter printed in the newspaper is about 140 words in
length. Printed letters over 200 words are rare. Printed letters tend
to focus on one specific point in their editorials.

Yesterday the New York Times published an editorial “Not Winning the
War on Drugs” which was the subject of the alert at
http://www.mapinc.org/alert/0369.html Thank You to everyone who has
already sent a letter to the newspaper about that alert. Since the
paper did not print any letters in response to that editorial today,
your letter, if sent soon, could still be printed.

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

Pubdate: Thu, 3 Jul 2008
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2008 The New York Times Company

Contact: [email protected]

Don’t Teach Our Children Crime

Under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act of 1974, the
states agreed to humanize their often Dickensian juvenile justice
systems in exchange for increased federal aid. This promising
arrangement collapsed in the 1990s during hysteria about an adolescent
crime wave that never materialized. The states intensified all kinds
of punishments for children and sent large numbers to adult jails
where, research has shown, they are more likely to be battered,
traumatized and transformed into hard-core, recidivist criminals.

Congress is in the process of reauthorizing the law, and it ought to
bar the states from housing children in adult jails, except for the
most heinous crimes. Sadly, the updated version of the law, recently
introduced in the Senate, falls short of that goal. But it does
include a number of farsighted measures that discourage the placement
of children in adult jails during the pretrial period and expands
protections for children charged as adults.

The need for these measures is alarmingly evident in a report issued
last year by the Campaign for Youth Justice, an advocacy group. The
report found that as many as 150,000 people under the age of 18 are
held in adult jails in any given year. More than half of young people
who are transferred into the adult system are never convicted as
adults — and many are never convicted at all.

The Senate bill takes a comprehensive approach to these issues. It
would considerably tighten rules aimed at keeping children out of
adult jails during pretrial periods. Children arrested for truancy,
running away or other offenses that would not be criminal if committed
by an adult would not be placed in juvenile jail unless absolutely
necessary.

It also would require the states to work toward reducing racial and
ethnic disparities in the juvenile justice system. It increases
federal funding for technical assistance and for drug treatment,
mental health care, mentoring and after-care programs that keep
children out of the juvenile system in the first place. The bill
advocates an evidence-based approach to hand out the money.

Jailing and criminalizing young Americans causes a lot more crime than
it punishes or prevents. This bill represents an important step toward
rational and compassionate justice for troubled children.

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

Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides

Or contact MAP’s Media Activism Facilitator for tips on how to write
LTEs that are printed.

[email protected]

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

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER

Please post a copy of 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] if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
can learn from your efforts.

Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ( [email protected] ) will help you
to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.

To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see

http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form

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

Prepared by: The MAP Media Activism Team www.mapinc.org/resource

=.

Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2008
Subject: #369 Not Winning The War On Drugs – The New York Times

NOT WINNING THE WAR ON DRUGS – THE NEW YORK TIMES

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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #369 – Wednesday, 2 July 2008

The New York Times printed the editorial below today,
Wednesday.

Letter to the Editor of the New York Times should be sent quickly as
the newspaper usually prints letters resulting from editorials within
a few days – while the editorial itself is still fresh in their
readers minds.

The average letter printed in the newspaper is about 140 words in
length. Printed letters over 200 words are rare. Printed letters tend
to focus on one specific point in their editorials.

Thanks for your effort and support. It’s not what others do it’s what
YOU do.

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

Pubdate: Wed, 2 Jul 2008
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2008 The New York Times Company

Contact: [email protected]

NOT WINNING THE WAR ON DRUGS

According to the White House, this country is scoring big wins in the
war on drugs, especially against the cocaine cartels. Officials
celebrate that cocaine seizures are up — leading to higher prices on
American streets. Cocaine use by teenagers is down, and, officials
say, workplace tests suggest adult use is falling.

John Walters, the White House drug czar, declared earlier this year
that “courageous and effective” counternarcotics efforts in Colombia
and Mexico “are disrupting the production and flow of cocaine.”

This enthusiasm rests on a very selective reading of the data. Another
look suggests that despite the billions of dollars the United States
has spent battling the cartels, it has hardly made a dent in the
cocaine trade.

While seizures are up, so are shipments. According to United States
government figures, 1,421 metric tons of cocaine were shipped through
Latin America to the United States and Europe last year — 39 percent
more than in 2006. And despite massive efforts at eradication, the
United Nations estimates that the area devoted to growing coca leaf in
the Andes expanded 16 percent last year. The administration disputes
that number.

The drug cartels are not running for cover.

Mexico and parts of Central America are being swept up in drug-related
violence. Latin Americans are becoming heavy consumers of cocaine, and
traffickers are opening new routes to Europe through fragile West
African countries. Some experts argue that the rising price of cocaine
on American streets is mostly the result of a strong euro and
fast-growing demand in Europe.

Workplace drug tests notwithstanding, cocaine use in the United States
is not falling. About 2.5 percent of Americans used cocaine at least
once in 2006, the same percentage as in 2002, according to the
Department of Health and Human Services.

While cocaine use has fallen among younger teenagers, 12th graders are
using more: 5.2 percent used cocaine last year — up from 4.8 percent
in 2001 and 3.1 percent at the low point in 1992, says a Monitoring
the Future survey done by the University of Michigan.

All this suggests serious problems with a strategy that focuses
overwhelmingly on disrupting the supply of drugs while doing far too
little to curb domestic demand.

Washington spent $1.4 billion on drug-related foreign assistance last
year — mostly to equip Colombia’s security forces and spray coca
crops in the Andes. It spent another $7 billion on drug-related law
enforcement and interdiction efforts at home and abroad. It spent less
than $5 billion on education, prevention and treatment programs at
home to curtail substance abuse.

The counternarcotics effort has produced some successes. Marijuana use
in the United States has declined since 2002, the earliest year for
which the government has comparable data. Teenage use of other drugs,
like methamphetamine, has fallen sharply. With American aid,
Colombia’s armed forces have severely weakened the FARC guerrillas, a
major player in the drug trade.

The next administration should continue to help Latin American
governments take on the traffickers. But it must learn from the
current strategy’s shortcomings.

Eradication efforts are most likely to have more success if more money
is spent on programs to wean coca growers from the business and
improve the lives of their families and communities. Mexico, in
particular, is in deep trouble, and the next American president should
build on the Bush administration’s plans to provide counternarcotics
aid. There needs to be a different mix: less money for equipment for
security forces and more for economic development and programs to
reform and strengthen Mexico’s judicial system.

Above all, the next administration must put much more effort into
curbing demand — spending more on treating drug addicts and less on
putting them in jail. Drug courts, which sentence users to treatment,
still deal only with a small minority of drug cases and should be
vastly expanded. Drug-treatment programs for imprisoned drug abusers,
especially juvenile offenders, must also be expanded.

Over all, drug abuse must be seen more as a public health concern and
not primarily a law enforcement problem. Until demand is curbed at
home, there is no chance of winning the war on drugs.

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

Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides

Or contact MAP’s Media Activism Facilitator for tips on how to write
LTEs that are printed.

[email protected]

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

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER

Please post a copy of 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] if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
can learn from your efforts.

Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ( [email protected] ) will help you
to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.

To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see

http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form

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

Prepared by: The MAP Media Activism Team www.mapinc.org/resource

=.

Date: Tue, 24 Jun 2008
Subject: #368 California Patient Caught In The War On Medical Marijuana

CALIFORNIA PATIENT CAUGHT IN THE WAR ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #368 – Tuesday, 24 Jun 2008

Orange County is considered to be among the most conservative in
California. The Orange County Register is the county’s major
newspaper. Over the years the newspaper has supported in editorials
and columns California’s Proposition 215.

Last Saturday the newspaper printed the article below. In addition to
the article, the newspaper’s website is currently conducting an
opinion poll titled “Should marijuana be legal?” and providing a
discussion forum about the article. If you wish to vote in the poll
and/or place a comment in the forum please go to:

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/monson-says-marijuana-2072170-police-adams

Please also consider sending a Letter to the Editor to The Orange
County Register expressing your reaction to the article.

Thanks for your effort and support. It’s not what others do it’s what
YOU do.

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

Pubdate: Sat, 21 Jun 2008
Source: Orange County Register, The (CA)
Copyright: 2008 The Orange County Register
Contact: [email protected]
Author: Eugene W. Fields, The Orange County Register

DISABLED MAN FIGHTS FOR HIS MARIJUANA

Charles Monson, a Quadriplegic, Had His Home Raided and His Medicinal
Marijuana Seized at Gunpoint.

A swimming accident three decades ago at Newport Beach left Charles
Monson paralyzed.

A drug raid at his home about a year ago left Monson without the
marijuana he says he needs. The raid has left him depending on a
medical marijuana dispensary in Orange that was also raided. Fighting
to stay in business, the small store-front dispensary has helped
Monson deal with his pain.

Monson, 45, was paralyzed in 1979 when he and a friend decided to go
for a swim. “I dove under a wave, hit a shallow spot and broke my
neck,” Monson recalls. “I was paralyzed instantly and was floating
face-down.”

Monson, who is confined to a wheelchair and has lost most of the use
of his hands, tried to remain active. He’s an avid skydiver, despite
breaking his legs twice

Nevertheless, he says he lives in constant pain and
discomfort.

“My brain isn’t able to constantly able to monitor the muscles in my
legs,” he says. “Any little stimulus like being touched or moving my
wheelchair or sitting still for a while and then moving will trigger a
muscle spasm, big ones, that will yank my body to the side.”

As a result, Monson was chronically sleep-deprived to the point of
falling asleep behind the wheel of his specially equipped van. Doctors
prescribed muscle relaxants and various other seizure medications, but
Monson says he didn’t like the side effects.

Finds Relief

“I had tried Valium, Baclofen, Gabapentin. That gave me a sense of not
being sharp in my mind and just feeling kind of woozy,” Monson says.
“I tried Marinol, which is synthetic marijuana. It’s very hard to
dose. It’s either not very effective, or when it gets to the point of
being effective, you’re loopy.”

Monson says a friend recommended marijuana in the 1980s and after
trying it, he said he found relief: “I smoked it in bed and I slept
better than I ever had. The other thing that makes cannabis so much
more effective than any other of the spasticity drugs is that it
allows me rather than just treating my spasticity to manage it.”

When California voters passed Proposition 215 in 1996, which allowed
marijuana usage for medicinal purposes, Monson says he started to grow
marijuana.

Monson says his life changed dramatically on the morning of October
30, 2007. “I wake up to a horrendously loud pounding on the front door
at 7 a.m. in the morning,” Monson says. “My friend said it was the
police and I told him to let them in.”

Monson says a dozen Orange police officers armed with assault rifles
and bullet-proof vests swarmed into his modest home and handcuffed
both his house guest and care provider before coming into Monson’s
bedroom, demanding he get out of bed.

“I told them I couldn’t so they uncuffed my care provider,” Monson
says. “He got me dressed and into the chair and then they (police)
went about ransacking my house.”

Monson says he used a spare bedroom to cultivate his marijuana plants,
where a sign posted on the door read that the plants were for
medicinal purposes.

The police entered the room and, according to Monson, confiscated 16
plants and roughly 2-1/2 ounces of marijuana.

“I told them I was growing it legally and they said it’s against
federal law,” Monson says. “They came down on me like I was some drug
kingpin.”

Sgt. Dan Adams of the Orange Police Department says 19 plants were
seized and Monson was arrested for felony cultivation of marijuana,
theft of utilities, sales of marijuana and conspiracy.

“When you get 19 plants and you get a full-blown irrigation system and
a light system, it was obviously a substantial operation he had
running there,” Adams said. “It’s a good amount, but anything is a
good amount because it’s illegal as far as law enforcement is concerned.”

The District Attorney’s office declined to prosecute the
case.

“The first month after the raid, I couldn’t sleep well,” Monson said.
“Finally, it occurred to me that I was having a post-traumatic effect
because I didn’t know when they were going to bang down my door again.”

Searching for Marijuana

Fearful of growing marijuana, Monson turned to other
sources.

“I had to go to people a buy it. None of them have ever been touched
by the police,” he says. “I don’t know why they came after me.
Somebody thought I was a king-pin.”

In December, Monson hired an attorney and decided to file a civil suit
against the city. Four months later he read about Nature’s Wellness, a
dispensary on Lincoln Avenue in Orange that had been raided.

Monson said he visited with Bob Adams, the dispensary owner, to share
information about his case. Monson said he worked out a deal to
receive half of the two ounces of marijuana he needs a month to manage
his condition.

Adams, who was detained by the Drug Enforcement Agency after his shop
was raided in March, says he was just providing a service to another
patient with a doctor’s recommendation.

“This man needs medicine and I’ve got it,” Adams says. “That’s what
I’m here for.”

Adams says hearing about Monson’s arrest upset him.

“We’ve got a quadriplegic here. It’s amazing that he wakes up every
morning,” Adams says. “Don’t we have better things to do as far as our
local authorities are concerned than chase around a quadriplegic
that’s in pain?”

Monson says he was grateful for the aid from the dispensary and is
waiting for his court case to move ahead.

“I probably won’t (grow) until that whole thing is settled with the
police,” he says. “I don’t want a decent garden going again, just to
have it taken away.”

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

Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism
Center:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides

Or contact MAP’s Media Activism Facilitator for tips on how to write
LTEs that are printed.

[email protected]

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

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER

Please post a copy of 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] if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
can learn from your efforts.

Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ( [email protected] ) will help you
to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.

To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see

http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form

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

Prepared by: The MAP Media Activism Team

=.

Date: Wed, 28 May 2008
Subject: #367 Senior Citizens Caught In The War On Drugs

SENIOR CITIZENS CAUGHT IN THE WAR ON DRUGS

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

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #367 – Wednesday, 28 May 2008

Below the Florida Times-Union Senior Columnist Tonya Weathersbee
provides a disturbing analysis of an aspect of the failure of the War
on Drugs.

Please consider writing and sending a Letter to the Editor of the
Florida Times Union expressing your reaction to this column.

Thanks for your effort and support. It’s not what others do it’s what
YOU do.

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

Contact: Florida Times-Union

http://www.jacksonville.com/aboutus/letters_to_editor.shtml

Pubdate: Mon, 26 May 2008
Source: Florida Times-Union (FL)
Copyright: 2008 The Florida Times-Union
Author: Tonyaa Weathersbee, The Times-Union

SOME ARE DRIVEN TO CRIME BY ECONOMIC DESPERATION

Ruth Davis says she isn’t on drugs. But she was desperate.

She’s also a cautionary tale.

According to a recent McClatchy News Service story, the Miami
grandmother is sitting in a North Carolina jail. She’s been there
since December. That was when a state trooper nabbed her as she was
transporting 33 pounds of marijuana to New York.

He stopped Davis for speeding, but then noticed a strong odor as she
rolled down her car window. Her answers to the trooper’s questions
about her travel plans didn’t jibe.

So he asked if he could search her car. She agreed. But Davis didn’t
know he was going to call the dogs to help him look.

Game over.

Drug enforcement officials say that people like Davis, who is 65, are
becoming part of a trend; that drug dealers are now recruiting elderly
people to carry drugs because there’s less of a chance that they will
be stopped or profiled. There’s also the chance that police will be
disarmed by their sweetness and vulnerability. Davis, in fact, said
that she had hoped to charm her way out of a speeding ticket.

I almost wish that had worked for her. Because it wasn’t greed that
made Davis agree to become a drug mule.

It was pain.

It was the pain of not being able to pay the $20,000-plus that she
owed doctors for treatment of a blood disease. It was the pain of
seeing her daughter’s face disfigured from a car crash, and not being
able to help her pay the $3,000 needed for corrective plastic surgery.
It was the pain that a person feels when hitting rock bottom with no
safety net to catch her.

It’s a pain that has been exploited by drug dealers who recruit the
desperate and the defeated.

And just as the drug trade has become the dominant economy for many
poor, inner-city communities, it’s not surprising that as other safety
nets begin to fray, more people will grab on to anything to stop their
free fall.

In Davis’ case, that meant grabbing onto the promises of a drug
dealer.

Me, I’m not all that surprised that some elderly folks would be
vulnerable to that kind of coercion.

In some neighborhoods in which drug dealers are the closest thing to
philanthropists that most people there will ever see, they help some
old people pay bills. But while Davis wasn’t exactly poor – she said
she owns her own home and works as a diet consultant – her medical
bills apparently still made it hard for her to make ends meet.

And, in case we forget, soaring medical bills can plunge anyone into
poverty. Or it can push them to make thoughtless choices.

So when I see cases such as hers, I’m reminded of how the drug trade
is fueled by different degrees of hopelessness.

In the inner cities, you have kids who work as drug sellers and
lookouts because few know the lure of legitimate work, because not
much of that exists where they live. Then you have some people who
sell drugs to supplement low-wage jobs. Unlike Davis, they aren’t
casualties of an emergency as much as they are casualties of an
illicit economy that has usurped the legitimate economy.

Then there’s the hopelessness that turned Davis into a drug
mule.

Such hopelessness is the kind that overwhelms people who are being let
down by what many have come to view as guarantees in American life;
that if you pay your bills, obey the law, drink your milk and say your
prayers, the system won’t allow misfortunes like medical emergencies
to make you destitute.

Now I know that not every senior citizen who is faced with hardships
is going to sell drugs. Yet, Davis’ story still is a revealing one.

Among other things, it illustrates, once again, the failure of the war
on drugs. We fill our prisons and jails with nonviolent offenders like
Davis – a woman who, ironically, became a felon to avoid becoming a
deadbeat – as the kingpins go free.

And even as people like Davis sit in jail, Americans continue to use
drugs at about the same rate as they did when President Nixon declared
a war on drugs in 1971.

As long as that continues to happen, and as long as jobs continue to
hemorrhage and medical costs continue to spiral, people will look for
ways to survive.

And the drug lords will be waiting.

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

Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides

Or contact MAP’s Media Activism Facilitator for tips on how to write
LTEs that are printed.

[email protected]

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

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER

Please post a copy of 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] if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
can learn from your efforts.

Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ( [email protected] ) will help you
to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.

To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see

http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form

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

Prepared by: The MAP Media Activism Team www.mapinc.org/resource

=.

Date: Mon, 19 May 2008
Subject: #366 Tallahassee Drug Cops Accessories To Murder

TALLAHASSEE DRUG COPS ACCESSORIES TO MURDER

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

DrugSense FOCUS Alert #366 – Monday, 19 May 2008

Another civilian alleged to be guilty of nothing more than possession
of ecstasy and 25 grams of marijuana has been killed while under the
watch of narcotics officers. This time, the dead woman is Rachel
Morningstar Hoffman, a resident of Clearwater FL and a 2007 graduate
of Florida State University in Tallahassee.

Hoffman, 23, was found dead in rural Taylor County early Friday after
two men suspected in her kidnapping and robbery led investigators to
her body. Murder charges are pending, according to the Tallahassee
Police Department.

Hoffman was last seen Wednesday night near Forestmeadows Park while
attempting to assist TPD vice investigators by buying drugs and a gun
from two men.

Though not yet convicted on the charges of marijuana possession and
possessing ecstasy with intent to sell, the Tallahassee drug cops
intimidated her into doing what should instead be the most risky part
of their job. Rather than expose themselves – while using their state
police training and their resources of being heavily armed and
protected – they sent in Hoffman unarmed to deal with drug and weapon
suppliers.

Neither Ms. Hoffman’s attorney of record nor the states attorneys
office was notified of her involvement in this dangerous, high risk
undercover operation by Tallahassee Police.

Further, Ms Hoffman’s participation in a court-ordered drug-treatment
program should have precluded her from buying drugs for police, legal
and treatment professionals have stated.

Our country supports drug treatment. People undergoing treatment are
required to avoid all contacts with anybody who uses or sells illegal
drugs. Thus we should demand that laws preclude the use of any person
undergoing treatment as an informant.

ONLY due to the insanity of drug Prohibition policies would such an
operation take place within our communities putting civilians at risk
of injury and death as they do jobs that should instead be done by
real police. But unfortunately, drug Prohibition guarantees that all
drug dealing will be covert – behind closed doors – carried out by
mystery players and participants.

This is in contrast to the sensible system in place for literally 99%
of drugs – notably alcohol, tobacco and Rx pharmaceuticals – where all
dealers are out in the open. Police and regulators can easily
investigate the how, when, where and who of all drug dealing that is
not forced on to the street by 21st century Prohibition.

Florida police, elected officials and voters all need to carefully
consider how much longer we will endorse such a policy that leaves
100% control of production and dealing for a short list of in-demand
drugs to street dealers, gangs and international cartels.

Despite the sad death of Rachel Hoffman ten days ago and despite any
number of future deaths that will occur among police and civilians
alike, the “War on Drugs” continues to be an abject failure for
reducing either the use of illicit drugs or the aggressive, violent
street sales of those same drugs.

Everyone needs to ask, “How many more police and civilians need to die
before we come to our senses and end drug Prohibition?”

Please consider sending a Letter to the Editor directed to the
Tallahassee Democrat, which is the location of this sad story, and
also the newspaper read daily by Florida State legislators and
Governor Charlie Christ.

Please also consider sending letters to other Florida newspapers which
have carried opinions about this murder.

Newspapers expect that the letters they receive be unique so please
insure that each letter you send is at least slightly different.
Letters of 200 words or less have the best chance of being printed.

Thanks for your effort and support. It’s not what others do it’s what
YOU do.

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The first story from the May 10 Tallahassee Democrat may be read
here:

http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n483/a06.html

MAP has archived almost 30 news and opinion clippings related to Ms.
Hoffman’s murder. New clippings are added each day:

http://www.mapinc.org/people/Rachel+Hoffman

Some of the best items to respond to are the Editorial and Opinion
clippings, with the most recent being:

US FL: Editorial: Rachel Hoffman Case Demands Outside
Review (Tallahassee Democrat)
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n493/a06.html

US FL: OPED: Innocence Lost on Both Sides of the Law (Tallahassee
Democrat) http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n495/a01.html

US FL: Editorial: Why Was Informer Put At Risk? (St Petersburg Times)
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n504/a12.html

US FL: PUB LTE: Blame the War on Drugs (Tampa Tribune)
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n506/a04.html

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Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides

Or contact MAP’s Media Activism Facilitator for tips on how to write
LTEs that are printed.

[email protected]

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PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER

Please post a copy of 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] if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
can learn from your efforts.

Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ( [email protected] ) will help you
to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.

To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see

http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form

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Prepared by: The MAP Media Activism Team www.mapinc.org/resource

=.

Date: Mon, 12 May 2008
Subject: #365 Drug Czar Walters Exaggerating Again

DRUG CZAR WALTERS EXAGGERATING AGAIN

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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #365 – Monday, 12 May 2008

Well if we didn’t already know it was the month of May, the Office of
National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in Washington DC led by Drug Czar
John Walters is doing their best to remind us – again. For the eighth
year in a row under Walters’ lead, the ONDCP has used the first half
of May to release their annual “latest scary facts about marijuana”
press release.

Packaged and carefully crafted in the guise of a scientific study, the
ONDCP has again done nothing more than take a few correlative facts
about teenagers and marijuana use and then ‘conclude’ that the pot use
creates causative and inescapable debilitating health effects for our
youth.

This year, it’s “depression.” Citing the results of a dubious survey
from New Zealand wherein teenagers who acknowledged feeling depression
also often cited use of marijuana, the ONDCP report concludes that
teenagers who use cannabis face an increased likelihood of being
depressed. Sadly, this is as scientifically causative as saying that
many people who feel pain also use aspirin. And that therefore
aspirin use causes pain.

Even more grim is that such junk science press releases are used to
add fuel to the fiery federal insistence that all marijuana use – even
for adults, and even for appropriate medical use with a doctor’s
recommendation (currently legal in 12 U.S. states and Canada) – should
remain a criminal offense – an offense worthy of arrest, prosecution,
incarceration and a lifetime criminal record.

Fortunately, based on our 11+ years of covering drug policy news at
MAP, we’ve come to see that an increasing number of newspaper
reporters and editors view information coming from the Drug Czar’s
office with a cocked eyebrow and/or even a smirking dismissal. That’s
in large part due to their receiving a steady diet of more honest and
truthful information about marijuana – both it’s negative effects and
it’s positive benefits. That flow of alternative personal and
professional testimony comes from people like you – the users of MAP
and the people most interested in a public drug policy that is founded
on facts rather than emotionally driven misinformation.

MAP has been archived news clippings that resulted from the ONDCP
press release over this past weekend and will continue to add more as
newshawks like you find more. All the clippings found so far start
with a subject line of “US” and may be found here:

http://www.mapinc.org/topic/depression

Please consider writing and sending a Letter to the Editor to the
listed newspapers of your choice and the newspapers people read where
you live. If you write to more than one newspaper, we strongly suggest
at least some modification of your message so that each newspaper
receives a unique letter.

Often the best targets for response are Opinion items (Editorials,
OPEDs and other LTEs) which may be printed during the days ahead.
Please recheck the link above during the week for additional targets
for letters.

Thanks for your effort and support. It’s not what others do it’s what
YOU do.

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

Additional suggestions for writing LTEs are at our Media Activism Center:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides

Or contact MAP’s Media Activism Facilitator for tips on how to write
LTEs that are printed.

[email protected]

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

PLEASE SEND US A COPY OF YOUR LETTER

Please post a copy of 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] if you are not
subscribed. Your letter will then be forwarded to the list so others
can learn from your efforts.

Subscribing to the Sent LTE list ( [email protected] ) will help you
to review other sent LTEs and perhaps come up with new ideas or
approaches as well as keeping others aware of your important writing
efforts.

To subscribe to the Sent LTE mailing list see

http://www.mapinc.org/lists/index.htm#form

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

Prepared by: The MAP Media Activism Team www.mapinc.org/resource

=.

Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2008
Subject: #364 Did You Read The Los Angeles Times Dust Up Debates?

DID YOU READ THE LOS ANGELES TIMES DUST UP DEBATES?

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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #364 – Friday, 25 April 2008

This week the editorial pages of the Los Angeles Times featured a drug
war debate between Jacob Sullum, who needs no introduction; and
Charles “Cully” Stimson who was a local, state and federal prosecutor,
a military prosecutor and defense attorney, and a deputy assistant
secretary of Defense. Currently, he is a senior legal fellow at the
Heritage Foundation.

The series is MAP archived as follows:

Monday’s DUST UP http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n414/a05.html

Tuesday’s DUST UP http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n415/a09.html

Wednesday’s DUST UP http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n418/a05.html

Thursday’s DUST UP http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n421/a02.html

Friday’s DUST UP http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08.n426.a01.html

Besides being targets for letters to the editor the series provides
arguments we are likely to see as efforts are made for and against
initiatives which will be on the ballot in various states.

Tuesday’s DUST UP about medical marijuana presents arguments we may
see about the Michigan initiative http://StopArrestingPatients.org/
Already one Detroit TV station has been broadcasting anti-initiative
ads you may see at http://stoparrestingpatients.org/video.html

The other OPEDs present arguments we may see used for or against the
California’s initiative, the Nonviolent Offender Rehabilitation Act of
2008 http://www.drugpolicy.org/statebystate/california/nora/

What happens on Election Day is up to you. If you are not registered
to vote, there are websites that provide help, like Rock the Vote at
http://drugsense.org/url/Ylqy68Vz

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Style guides for writing effective letters to the editor are
available at MAP’s Media Activism Center:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides

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Prepared by: The MAP Media Activism Team www.mapinc.org/resource

=.

Date: Sun, 30 Mar 2008
Subject: #364 Congress Does Something Right – Special Interests Scream

CONGRESS DOES SOMETHING RIGHT – SPECIAL INTERESTS SCREAM

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DrugSense FOCUS Alert #363 – Sunday, 30 March 2008

President Bush, whose administration has long expressed the opinion
that federal dollars should not be the primary means of funding state
and local law enforcement, has dramatically cut funding in the 2009
budget for the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants, the
primary program used to finance drug enforcement in nearly every state
for more than 20 years.

In FY 2007, the Byrne program was funded at $520 million. For FY 2008
— which starts on October 1st, 2008 — the Senate had originally
funded the Byrne program at $660 million and the House at $600 million
in their respective appropriations bills. However, in the omnibus FY
2008 appropriations bill signed into law in December 2007, the Byrne
program funding was cut to $170 million for the coming year — a 67
percent decrease from 2007 funding levels. The cuts will devastate
state law enforcement efforts by shutting down multi-jurisdictional
drug task forces, requiring layoffs of police and prosecutors.

Since there is no way to measure where the underground drug industry
is most active, the grants have always been a prime pork-barrel way
for members of Congress to help their districts. As Congress returns
to session this week efforts to restore the full grant funding will
continue.

As news clippings from this year in the MAP archives show, with new
clippings being added frequently, law enforcement and elected
officials at all levels are in a panic about the possible loss of funds. See:

http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Byrne

Some of the articles indicate that the grant funds have caught some
bad folks who, perhaps, deserve to be caught. Of course the articles
are not likely to tell you about the busts of marijuana users,
including medicinal users, which have been funded at least in part by
the grants. None of the news about police corruption or drug raids
gone bad are likely to be tied to Byrne grant funds, as they often
are. Remember Tulia, Texas? That was Byrne grant money at work.

Please contact your members of Congress to let them know what you
think about fully funding the Byrne grant program. The ‘Find and
contact your federal, state, and local officials.’ box in the upper
left corner of this webpage makes it easy. http://www.congress.org/

OMB Watch has produced a report for the last available year, FY 2006,
which has amazing data. See which of your representatives in Congress
were able to secure the most Byrne funds for their district, and much
more at http://drugsense.org/url/SezrJZJY

Letters to the Editor about Byrne grant funding are, of course, always
appropriate.

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Style guides for writing effective letters to the editor are
available at MAP’s Media Activism Center:

http://www.mapinc.org/resource/#guides

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Prepared by: The MAP Media Activism Team www.mapinc.org/resource

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