-------------------------------------------------------------------
Turning The Other Cheek ('Willamette Week'
Notes There Are Nearly 250 Caseworkers In The Portland Area
Empowered And Obligated To Remove Children From The Homes
Of Cannabis Consumers, And At Least Nine Of Them Have Criminal Convictions
For Theft, Assault, Drunken Driving, Unlawful Possession Of A Weapon,
Criminal Trespass, And Domestic Violence)
Willamette Week
822 SW 10th Ave.
Portland, OR 97205
Tel. (503) 243-2122
Fax (503) 243-1115
Letters to the Editor:
Mark Zusman - mzusman@wweek.com
Web: http://www.wweek.com/
Turning the Other Cheek
* Why did the state hire someone with a history of crime and domestic
violence to help protect children?
BY MAUREEN O'HAGAN
mohagan@wweek.com
Context:
There are nearly 250 SCF caseworkers in the Portland area.
WW discovered eight other Portland-area SCF caseworkers who had either
criminal convictions or domestic violence issues, although no one had a
history as extensive as Briden's. The other workers' convictions include
theft, assault, drunken driving, unlawful possession of a weapon and
criminal trespass.
***
Since 1994, Southeast Portland resident Joseph Briden has made
life-and-death decisions about the fate of Oregon's most defenseless
residents. As a caseworker for the state office of Services for Children and
Families, he's counseled parents, placed kids in foster care and helped
decide when a home is safe enough for a child to return.
Last year, the 43-year-old caseworker took a new role at the agency: He
became a client. In January 1997, the state took legal custody of Briden's
11-year-old son, who had been living with the boy's mother. About six months
later, the state allowed the boy to live with Briden, but didn't relinquish
its legal jurisdiction over him until last month.
It may be a leap to argue that Briden is an unfit parent and therefore an
unfit SCF caseworker. But a review of Briden's history does raise the
question of why he got hired by SCF in the first place. He has several
criminal convictions on his record, he has a history of alcohol abuse and he
has faced accusations of domestic violence both before and after being hired
as a child protective worker.
Briden's criminal record goes back at least two decades.
Between 1978 and 1983, Briden has been charged with driving under the
influence of intoxicants, driving with a suspended license, fourth-degree
assault and theft, among other things. According to the state Department of
Corrections, he spent time in prison for his driving violations. During one
of his incarcerations, Briden left jail on a temporary "pass" but did not
return; he was later charged with escape. While he was AWOL, Briden was
charged with attempted rape.
According to a police report, Briden had been drinking with a friend at the
Arlington Hotel in downtown Portland on Jan. 18, 1981. At the time, a woman
Briden did not know was taking a bath in the ladies' restroom, which was in
the hall of the residential hotel. (The hotel rooms did not have private
bathrooms.) Briden entered the bathroom and accosted the woman, trying to
pull her from the tub. "[The suspect] started grabbing [the woman's] breasts
and started choking her and yelling at her to 'shut up,'" the Portland
police officer wrote. "[The woman] kept screaming and [suspect] said 'you
know what I want'...[The woman] says that this went on for a good 10 minutes
before [suspect] finally left the bathroom."
Briden did not deny to officers that he was in the women's bathroom or that
he grabbed the woman. According to the report, he told them, "I was just
lookin' at her. You know...having some fun." But he denies that he wanted to
have sex with her. "Mr. Briden indicated to Detective Lind that if he was
going to rape the victim he would have," the report said. After a jury
trial, he was found not guilty of the charge.
Ann Niederehe, the personnel director for SCF, says the agency does a
criminal background check on all potential employees, but Briden's past
would not automatically disqualify him. Niederehe, who has ultimate
responsibility for all hires, says she makes her decisions on a case-by-case
basis by looking at how long it has been since the crimes were committed,
the nature of the crime and other factors. "An earlier conviction does not
necessarily preclude someone from employment," she says. "If we or any
employer demanded 100 percent records that had no indication of ever having
any criminal history, there would be a lot more people who wouldn't be
employed."
Niederehe's decision to hire Briden despite his criminal history relates, in
part, to the fact that he worked hard to improve his life, even earning a
master's degree in social work from Portland State University a few years
ago. She also notes that his most recent conviction was more than a decade ago.
But allegations of domestic violence have been made much more recently.
In 1992 court papers related to their divorce, his ex-wife Claria Pinnecoose
claimed he "treated her cruelly, causing her great marital distress [and]
bodily injury."
In 1995 a girlfriend, Ronis Belgarde, persuaded a judge to issue a
restraining order against Briden because of physical abuse. "He has
threatened suicide on several occasions," the court order says. Belgarde
told the court that Briden hurt her several times, by choking her, pushing
her and throwing things at her. The restraining order was served in January
1996, while Briden was a temporary SCF employee. Nine months later, the
agency hired him as a permanent full-time caseworker.
In 1997, Karen Terrebonne, Briden's second wife, obtained a restraining
order against him related to several incidents in 1996. According to the
court order, he "restrained me from leaving, grabbed my neck, sat on me with
his knees on my shoulders, bruised my jawbone, throat and wrists, threaten
to cigarette burn and beat my face."
A good part of Briden's job requires him to deal with domestic-violence
issues. Out in the field, for example, he must assess whether a father is
abusing his wife and whether that puts the children in danger. Niederehe
concedes that caseworkers who are personally involved with domestic
violence, whether as victims or perpetrators, could have a difficult time
doing their job properly.
Yet Niederehe says that a history of domestic violence does not preclude
someone from being hired as a caseworker.
Even more troubling, Niederehe says that even if caseworkers' behavior at
home is egregious, it's next to impossible to fire them. She says union
contracts and case law have consistently supported employees. "We need to
[see] whether there is any connection between that [behavior at home] and
the person's job with the agency," she told WW.
To state Sen. Kate Brown, a lawyer who until recently specialized in
child-abuse cases, that's outrageous. "I'm extremely concerned that the
agency would continue to employ caseworkers who have ongoing
domestic-violence issues to work in child protective services," she told WW.
Briden's domestic problems spilled into the workplace last year, when the
agency took legal custody of his son. State public records laws protect the
information contained in child-dependency cases, so the details of Briden's
parenting problems are sketchy. From public documents, WW was able to piece
together this much:
In January 1997, Briden's 12-year-old son was living with his mother,
Christine Kennerly. She told SCF that the boy physically abused her. Under
normal circumstances, according to Paul Drews, the Portland-area regional
manager for SCF, the agency would consider a non-custodial parent like
Briden a "resource." In this case, however, SCF--for reasons that are not
clear--determined that it was not appropriate to place the boy with Briden.
It took a year for SCF to terminate its jurisdiction over the case. At a
March 1998 hearing, Deputy District Attorney Amy Holmes Hehn told the court
that she supports Briden getting custody of the boy, but she still has
concerns. "My worry is Mr. Briden hasn't followed through on anything he's
been asked to do," she said.
According to court testimony, the family's situation has improved, although
Briden had not followed through on the plan he had agreed upon with his
caseworker, and witnesses testified that he still has problems controlling
his anger.
"We're not in an ideal perfect point in time, but that's the way it is,"
caseworker Chuck Warren told the court.
Drews says that although he supervises the SCF office where Briden works, he
didn't know the details of Briden's own SCF case or of his criminal history
until WW's phone calls. "I'm concerned," he says.
Originally published: Willamette Week - April 29, 1998
-------------------------------------------------------------------
'Drug Crazy' - Important New Book Needs Your Support This Month
(Drug Reform Coordination Network Asks You To Help Mike Gray's New Book
Reach A Wider Audience)
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 16:06:42 EDT
Originator: drc-natl@drcnet.org
Sender: drc-natl@drcnet.org
From: DRCNet (manager@drcnet.org)
To: Multiple recipients of list (drc-natl@drcnet.org)
Subject: DRUG CRAZY: Important New Book Needs Your Support This Month
***
Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet)
Rapid Response Team
***
(To sign off this list, mailto:listproc@drcnet.org with the
line "signoff drc-natl" in the body of the message, or
mailto:drcnet@drcnet.org for assistance. To subscribe to
this list, visit http://www.drcnet.org/signup.html.)
-- please copy and distribute --
DRCNet is pleased to inform you of the imminent publication
of "DRUG CRAZY: HOW WE GOT INTO THIS MESS AND HOW WE CAN GET
OUT". Drug Crazy has been published by Random House, and
should be in your local bookstore any week now. Drug Crazy
was written by DRCNet advisor Mike Gray, a well known author
whose credits include the screenplay from the hit movie "The
China Syndrome", as well as the award-winning documentaries
"American Revolution II" and "The Murder of Fred Hampton".
The staff of DRCNet all feel that Drug Crazy is one of the
best, most exciting, readable, action-packed books about the
drug war and the need for reform ever written. Adding to
our excitement is the fact that DRCNet is lauded and
prominently featured in the book's appendix, followed by an
extensive Internet directory to the movement and other drug
policy resources.
If Drug Crazy goes big, it will do a lot for the issue,
DRCNet, and the movement as a whole. We are writing to ask
you to take a moment today or tomorrow to make one or a few
brief phone calls to help make that happen. Please call
your local Border's, Barnes & Noble, Crown, independent and
other bookstores, ask them if they have Drug Crazy from
Random House, and say thank you. It's that simple -- you
don't even have to order the book (though you may as well,
because it's worth it).
Your inquiries will help make the stores and the publisher
take note, ensuring that Drug Crazy gets prominently
displayed in bookstores when Mike embarks on his nationwide
book tour this June. With medical marijuana initiatives
coming up in several states, and the Republicans promising
to make drugs a major campaign issue, the timing couldn't be
better. Help us break the information blackout and turn the
tide against the drug war this year.
David Borden
Executive Director
Adam J. Smith
Associate Director
***
Following are the endorsements and book jacket text:
"This is an insightful book about the discriminatory nature
of the drug war in America and how our politicians have
converted a chronic medical problem into a criminal justice
problem. It also explains how the increase in petty drug
busts has been used to make politicians look tough on crime,
build jail cells and deny funding for drug prevention and
education programs for children."
- Dr. Joycelyn Elders
Former U.S. Surgeon General
"Never did I think one could learn so much about the drug
crisis all in one place. Mike Gray has written a book of
profound compassion that nevertheless deals intelligently
with the facts. Drug Crazy is an antidote for passivity."
- Daniel Schorr
"This book sheds real light on what is happening in American
cities today and how current drug control strategies
undermine our efforts to keep our kids and streets safe.
Anyone who is serious about finding solutions to drug-
related problems should read this book, debate it with their
colleagues and demand real solutions from their elected
leaders."
- Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke
City of Baltimore
"This book tells the public what many front line police
officers know from their experience - the drug war needs
radical re-evaluation."
- Joseph McNamara
The Hoover Institution
Former Police Chief, San Jose, Califonia
"This urgent issue badly needs the exposure given in this
book - a chilling array of facts which hopefully will move
the country."
- Henry Kendall, Nobel Laureate
Chairman, Union of Concerned Scientists
"I learned an enormous amount about the underside of drug
politics from reading Drug Crazy. It is an eye-opener. The
book raises controversial but reasoned suggestions for
rethinking drug policy in the United States. I highly
recommend this book to everyone concerned about developing
an effective strategy toward drug abuse."
- Alvin F. Poussaint, MD
Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Six years in the making, Drug Crazy offers a gripping
account of the stunning violence, corruption, and chaos that
have characterized America's drug war since its inception in
1914. Weaving a provocative analogy between the drug scene
today and the failure of alcohol Prohibition in the 1920's,
Drug Crazy argues that the greatest danger we face is
prohibition itself.
While the target of our nation's controlled substance laws
may have shifted from hooch to heroin, the impact on society
-discriminatory policing, demonization of the users, graft
and grandstanding among law makers and law breakers - is an
instant replay. Instead of Al Capone, we have Larry Hoover
of Chicago's Gangster Disciples running a multi-million
dollar drug syndicate out of his prison cell in Joliet.
In a riveting account of how we got here, conventional
wisdom is turned on its head and we find that, rather than a
planned assault on the scourge of addiction, the drug war
happened almost by accident, like a trunk tumbling
downstairs, kicked along by political opportunists.
From the explosive opening montage of undercover cops caught
in a shoot-out on Chicago's south side to a humid courtroom
in Malaysia where a young American faces death by hanging
for possession of marijuana, Drug Crazy takes us to the
front lines of the war on drugs and introduces us to a cast
of villains and heroes, profiteers and victims. Among them:
Pauline Morton Sabin, a Republican aristocrat who
administered the coup de grace to Prohibition by leading a
million women into the arms of the Democrats.
Harry Anslinger, a former railroad cop who guided the Bureau
of Narcotics through five administrations and engineered
some of the most enduring and pernicious myths of the drug
war.
Pablo Escobar Gaviria, the Colombian kingpin who nailed a
suspected informer with a bomb-killing him along with a
hundred innocent airline passengers.
From the men and women in the forward trenches, Drug Crazy
brings back a grim report: the situation is deteriorating on
all fronts. In a sobering tally of the cost in crime, human
suffering, and cold, hard cash, it documents the failure of
crop eradication in the source countries, the hopeless task
of sealing the border, and the violent world of the major
players. We see the steady erosion of the Bill of Rights
and a grinding criminal justice mill so overwhelmed it's
running a night shift.
We also get a glimpse of a way out of this swamp. Lessons
from Europe-and from our own experience-are pointing us
toward higher ground.
In Drug Crazy, Mike Gray has launched a frontal assault on
America's drug war orthodoxy, and his frightening overview
of the battlefield makes it clear this urgent debate must
begin now.
***
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St., NW, Suite 615, Washington, DC 20036, or made by credit
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-------------------------------------------------------------------
Surgeon General Attends To Health ('USA Today' Talks To Dr. David Satcher
About Why A Smaller Proportion Of Minority Teens Smoke Than Other Teens,
His Role In Helping Legislate New Tobacco Policy, AIDS Prevention,
Gun Violence, Alcohol And 'Narcotics' Abuse - And Even The New Drug Viagra)
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 22:11:26 -0400
To: DrugSense News Service
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US: Surgeon General Attends To Health
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Mark P. McNamara
Source: USA TODAY
Author: Jessica Lee of USA TODAY
Pubdate: 29 April 1998
Contact: editor@usatoday.com
Website: http://www.usatoday.com/news/nfront.htm
SURGEON GENERAL ATTENDS TO HEALTH
After 10 weeks as U.S. surgeon general, a job that has become a political
lightning rod, David Satcher focused his first report as the nation's top
doctor on tobacco use among minorities. But Satcher insists that he'll have
little role in the coming political battle over whether to pass a sweeping
tobacco bill.
He says his fight is to keep the public health risks of tobacco use and
other unhealthy lifestyle choices before the public.
Until his Feb. 13 confirmation, Satcher, 57, was director of the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A physician and scientist,
Satcher received medical and doctoral degrees from Case Western Reserve
University in Cleveland. He also served as president of Meharry Medical
College in Nashville.
In an interview with Jessica Lee of USA TODAY, Satcher discusses smoking,
AIDS prevention, gun violence, alcohol and narcotics abuse - and even the
new drug Viagra.
Q: Why are smoking rates among minority youths rising more sharply than
those among white teen-agers?
A: They (minority youths) still smoke less than whites. We don't claim to
know why. One of the conclusions in the report is that there is no single
reason. Obviously we know that advertisement and promotion have a role. We
also know there's a disproportionate impact of advertisements on minority
communities. We say it's known to be a major factor, but it's not the only
factor.
Q: Will counteradvertising be where you try to make the biggest impact on
reducing teen smoking?
A: As surgeon general, most of my efforts are going to be on prevention, in
terms of working with individuals and families. I support the push to
reduce the appeal and the access of tobacco to youth very strongly. But the
major thrust of the surgeon general will be promoting healthy lifestyles
for children and families.
Q: Are you going be part of the administration's lobbying effort to get
Congress to pass a tobacco bill?
A: Our role is to make sure we put into clear perspective the public health
aspects of smoking, some of the causes, risk factors, results, some of the
things that tend to work in terms of helping people quit.
Q: But the smoking debate is at the political stage now. What will your
role be?
A: When people do political things, they also need input about the public
health effects. They don't ask me to come up and talk about politics. They
ask me to talk about the public health.
Q: Tobacco companies are talking about freedom of choice. How will you
respond to that?
A: The public health response is that every day in this country 3,000 new
teen-agers become smokers. More important than that, 80% of new smokers
begin smoking before they are 18 years of age. So most people who become
addicted to tobacco become addicted before they are old enough legally to
purchase cigarettes.
So obviously we need to do anything we can do to reduce the appeal of
tobacco to teen-agers and the access. If it's illegal to purchase tobacco,
then we have to make sure that we work to help see that's enforced, because
when people become addicted to nicotine, it is not easy to quit. Seventy
percent of people who smoke would like to quit. Yet every year only 2.5% of
them are able to quit.
Q: Some in Congress say there is more trouble with illegal drugs such as
marijuana than with legal tobacco and that more federal funds should be
devoted to eradicating drug abuse than tobacco use. How do you respond?
A: Marijuana is illegal and dangerous and wrong. That's the message we have
to send to teen-agers. There are a lot of things about marijuana that we
don't know yet. It's wrong. Tobacco is not illegal, but it's illegal to
sell tobacco to teen-agers. Therefore, there is illegality in the market.
We hope that the FDA will be able to regulate it so it will be illegal to
market to teen-agers, too. But teen-agers need to know that tobacco is a
very dangerous drug. It is as addictive as cocaine, if not more so.
Q: What about efforts to control alcohol use compared with those to control
tobacco?
A: Alcohol use, especially by children and youth, is very dangerous. There
are many concerns we have about the role of alcohol in violence, the role
of alcohol in indiscreet, inappropriate sexual behavior, the role of
alcohol in motor vehicle crashes and other unintentional injuries.
Q: On needle exchanges to reduce the transmission of HIV (the AIDS virus),
is that issue dead now that the president has decided not to use federal
funding?
A: The first battle was to get a clear message out about what the science
says about needle-exchange programs. And we did that. We clearly said that
based on scientific studies, it is very clear that needle-exchange programs
done properly in the context of a comprehensive prevention program can
reduce the spread of this virus.
No. 2, there's no evidence that in the process needle-exchange programs
increased the use of drugs or encouraged the use of drugs. That message is
very important to people in communities throughout this country. Regardless
of what the federal government does about funding, that message helps local
communities. In some cases it helps them to get state funds. In other cases
it helps them to get private funds. But it gives them credibility because
they now have a clear message about what the science says.
So we're going to continue to spread the message. We have to educate people
about injection drug use. We don't make decisions about the federal
funding. Our role as scientists is to do what we did.
Q: You've said teen pregnancy, violence and drug abuse will be your
priorities. This week we've seen a 4-year-old shoot a 6-year-old. Is there
some special campaign you'll press against gun violence?
A: First, let me make sure you know what I mean when I say violence is a
public health problem. I mean that violence is preventable and that it is
susceptible to the public health approach. Clearly, the ease of access to
guns to children, unsupervised access, is a major concern. I know that this
has been politicized.
The Centers for Disease Control had money taken away from it because the
(National Rifle Association) said we were pushing gun control when we
really were trying to talk about the public health approach. We stand by
that. Even before Jonesboro, (Ark., where four middle-school students and a
teacher were fatally shot March 24) we stood by it.
I think it is unfortunate that we do not take seriously the responsibility
that goes with having a gun in this country. And I don't want you to
politicize it.
Q: What do you think of this drug Viagra?
A: Obviously, the problem of impotence is real for many couples. We have to
help people deal with that. There are various ways to do that. It seems
like for many men this new drug, and I think it's still early, has been
effective. There's some question about whether it's not also effective for
women. . . .
We're learning more about this drug Viagra. We're getting great testimonies
from men about how great it works. Sexual relationship is a very important
part of the relationship between men and women, especially in the context
of marriage. Ann Landers put it best: After all these years and all our
discussions, what we forget is that probably the most important sexual
organ is the brain.
Q: What's your best experience of the 10 weeks as surgeon general?
A: The most positive experience has been the response of people to having a
surgeon general. It's just been overwhelming. I have thousands of
invitations to speak from all 50 states and several countries outside the
United States. I get a lot of letters from people raising concerns with me.
Q: What's the hardest test you've faced as surgeon general?
A: The most challenging thing has been to try to maintain the integrity of
the office of the surgeon general. I think the independence of that office
relates to the fact that you have this direct communication with the
American people and the fact that the American people rely on the surgeon
general to bring them the best science and to tell them the truth. I don't
want to stay away from political issues; I just don't want my tenure to be
defined by politics. I want people to be able to look to me for good
science and health advice.
(c)COPYRIGHT 1998 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
It's Time We Declared Failure And Learned To Live With Drug Addiction
('Vancouver Echo' Columnist Kevin Potvin Says Instead Of Chasing
The Elusive Goal Of Wiping Out Hard Drug Use, If We Turned Our Attention
To Reducing The Impact Drug Addicts Have On Our Lives,
Then We Might See Some Result For All Our Energy And Money)
From: creator@islandnet.com (Matt Elrod)
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
Subject: Canada: Editorial: It's time we learned to live with addiction
Date: Sat, 02 May 1998 11:44:13 -0700
Lines: 78
Newshawk: creator@mapinc.org
Source: Vancouver Echo
Contact: rshore@vanecho.com
Pubdate: April 29, 1998
Section: Kevin Potvin's Second Thoughts
It's time we declared failure and learned to live with drug addiction
Sure would be nice if there were no drug addicts. Then we could get
on with our lives, couldn't we, liberated from the paralyzing terror
of encountering one, or worse, happening across one of their discarded
needles.
Unfortunately, the outlook is grim. It doesn't appear as though drug
addicts are about to go away. Virtually every city in the whole world
has them, and every city has tried a vast array of proposed solutions
to make them go away. All failed. Edinburgh, Scotland, New York City,
Karachi, Pakistan, Johannesburg, South Africa, Sydney, Australia,
Berkeley, California, Lima, Peru, Paris, France, all have failed just
as Vancouver has. Hard drug addicts are as fixed a feature of big city
life as traffic accidents and prostitution.
It's not fatalistic to suggest we learn to accept reality and give up
the impossible project of ridding the city of addicts. It is merely
smart pragmatism. Instead of chasing the elusive goal of wiping out
hard drug use, if we turned our attention to reducing the impact drug
addicts have on our lives, then we might see some result for all our
energy and money. After all, the act of the addict injecting hard
drugs does not in itself cause a great deal of trouble for anyone but
the user. While it's laudable to be concerned with the
self-destruction hard drugs bring to the user, it is hardly the plight
of the addict's life that has everyone in such an uproar. What has
everyone shouting mad are not the acts of addiction itself, but rather
the surrounding effects on a community in which the addict is seeking
to acquire and use the drugs.
The concerns of the community are limited and can be easily listed:
theft from cars and stores and breaking and entering into homes by
users seeking valuable goods to steal and sell for the money required
to purchase drugs, and the reckless discarding of used needles in
parks and alleys that may well be contaminated with HIV-positive
blood.
Solutions to these problems are well known. By providing through some
institution free drugs, the addict no longer needs to steal to buy
them. And by providing a safe place where users can acquire, use, and
then discard their needles, there would virtually be no more needles
found in any parks or alleys. These are the only solutions to the
problems that truly affect the community. Nothing else will work.
But there's a huge catch. It means we have to accept the fact there
will always be a certain percentage of the population experimenting
with and becoming addicted to hard drugs. It means we have to live
with the knowledge that there may be some people who would not
otherwise have encountered hard drugs were it not for their free
distribution, and who thereby may become inadvertently affected by
them. It means we have to put aside our moral judgments about those
who choose to use hard drugs, and instead blinker ourselves in order
to deal only with the problems drug addicts cause. In other words, it
means that this may be a rare instance in matters of public policy
where it might be more prudent to treat the symptoms and ignore the
disease.
I don't like to see anyone injecting heroin or cocaine and I'd be very
happy if it all stopped tomorrow. But given that no one on the face of
the planet has yet devised a method to bring that about, we might as
well get past the unsavory reality and learn to accommodate it in our
lives. Drug addicts are a fact of life. But the troubles they cause,
the break-ins, the theft, the discarded needles, are not facts of life
and are things we can do a great deal about to stop, virtually
overnight.
Would the supply of free drugs and a safe place to use them create the
impression that we condone and encourage drug use? Maybe. But for
those who are curious, I would rather they find drugs at a safe place
where there are people concerned to control and reduce the supply,
rather than on the street, where there is only the concern for
increased usage and bigger illicit profits.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
DrugSense Weekly, Number 44 (Summary Of Drug Policy News For Activists,
Including Original And Excellent Commentary Such As The Feature Article
On 'Human Rights And The Drug War,' An Exhibit
Opening At The San Francisco Public Library)
Date: Thu, 30 Apr 1998 06:56:02 -0700
To: mgreer@mapinc.org
From: Mark Greer
Subject: DrugSense Weekly April 29, 1998 #044
***
DRUGSENSE WEEKLY
***
DrugSense Weekly April 29, 1998 #044
A DrugSense publication
http://www.drugsense.org/
***
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
* Feature Article
by Mikki Bach Human Rights and the Drug War (aka HR 95)
* Weekly News In Review
GENERAL COMMENT:
This week's domestic news was dominated by needle exchange,
but several important policy wrinkles were also introduced and
medical marijuana continues to be an important issue.
On the international scene, the contributions of US drug policy to
human misery are legion- we seem be inflicting damage everywhere
in the name of our holy war to preserve the criminal drug market.
Needle Exchange
I was wrong! Needle-exchange programs work
Washington Post Editorial: Clean Needles, No Money
OPED - Clinton Spineless on Needle Funds
Gingrich Blasts Clinton Needle Exchange Stance
Needle-Funding Refusal Disappoints Satcher
Clean Needles May Be Bad Medicine
HIV's Spread Is Unchecked AIDS-Slowing Treatments
Soros - $1 Million Pledged for Needle Exchanges
Medical Marijuana-
Legal Hassles Extinguishing Pot Clubs
San Francisco marijuana club reopens peacefully to cheers
Let Health Workers Distribute Pot
US Drug Policy-
Republicans Plan Major Campaign for Drug-Free America
Drug Sting Tactics Helped 'Poison the Public,' Judge Says
Patch That Might Keep Tabs on Drug Use Will Be Tested in Phila.
International News-
Nice Guys Finish Dead - review of 'Twilight on the Line'
Switzerland: Wire: $132 Million Traced To Swiss In Salinas Case
Mexico - Lawyer in Drug Case Gunned Down
Russia - Eastern Europe New AIDS Region, Report Says
Peru - U.S. Teaches Peru To Plug River Of Drugs
Wire - Coca, Poppy Killer May Harm Amazon
* Hot Off The 'Net
* DrugSense Tip Of The Week
* Quote of the week
***
FEATURE ARTICLE
For six weeks beginning May 7, The San Francisco Public Library will
host "Human Rights and the Drug War," a powerful exhibit using
photographs of 100 current prisoners and their families to put a human
face on policy.
The exhibit coincides with the 50th Anniversary of the UN Declaration of
Human Rights, a document intended to set a standard for the policies of
all nations. In practice, human rights abuses have largely been
considered to be an exclusive problem of Second and Third World nations,
with the Western Democracies, particularly the United States assumed
exempt from consideration. If that assumption is set aside, the war on
drugs is found to be a source of serious human rights abuse within our
own borders:
Article 5: "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment." The Eighth Amendment to US
Constitution also forbids cruel and unusual punishment, including
excessive bail and fines.
US drug policy requires Draconian mandatory sentences disproportionate
to the offense. Federal mandatory minimums sentence first-time
nonviolent drug offenders to terms from five years to life without
parole- longer terms than violent criminals convicted of murder, rape or
robbery (who retain eligibility for parole).
Article 10: "Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public
hearing by an in dependent and impartial tribunal, in the determination
of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him."
The US Constitution also guarantees a jury trial for both criminal
(Sixth Amendment) and non-trivial civil suits (Seventh Amendment).
Sentencing guidelines and mandatory minimum laws tie judges hands; the
nature of drug "crime" dictates that physical evidence be replaced by
hearsay testimony; charges of "conspiracy," in which each person is
liable for the entire offense regardless of involvement, favor plea
bargaining over public trial.
Recent Supreme Court interpretation of civil asset forfeiture law allows
one's life savings to be seized without charge of a crime; property
under $500,000 can be forfeited administratively through summary
judgment without judicial proceedings or jury trial. An accused, thus
impoverished on the eve of his criminal trial may be unable to afford a
lawyer. (161)
Article 12: "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with
his privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his
honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of the
law against such interference or attacks." The US Fourth Amendment
protects people from "unreasonable searches and seizures" by requiring
that "no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause supported by Oath
or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched,
and the persons or things to be seized."
Zealous drug policy enforcement has increasingly caused US citizens to
suffer loss of privacy: phone taps, urine testing, computer, garbage and
mail searches, searches of bank records and utility bills- even
infra-red scanning of dwellings. Employees are subject to random drug
testing without probable cause or warrant. There are police drug sweeps
of neighborhoods which block public roadways and detain search people
and vehicles with dogs.
Fitting a "profile' stereotype such as racial or ethnic appearance, hair
length, auto bumper stickers, etc. may single one out for harassment.
Possession of $100 cash may be reason for police seizure as suspected
drug income. Buying garden supplies from a store under police
surveillance has led to a home search. "Drug" warrants are issued on
hearsay evidence and served with battering rams. (216)
Article 16.3: "The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of
society and is entitled to protection by society and the state." The US
Fourth Amendment lists "The right of the people to be secure in their
persons, houses, papers, and effects."
Families are major casualties of the Drug War. Children are traumatized
by seeing their parents handcuffed face down on the floor while angry,
armed men in dark suits brandish weapons and tear up the house. They are
also injured when the family car, home, and bank accounts are taken, or
when parents are sent to prison for decades. They are also How do
parents support a family from prison, financially or emotionally? How
can an inner city community survive with a third of its adult male
population stigmatized by a criminal record? (131)
by Mikki Bach
Human Rights and the Drug War (aka HR 95)
http://www.hr95.org/
PO Box 1716, El Cerrito CA 94530.
***
WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW
***
Needle Exchange
***
COMMENT:
After years of stonewalling, federal officials finally accepted solid
evidence that needle exchange reduces spread of HIV without increasing
drug use to the point where HHS Secretary Shalala was forced to endorse
it in principle.
However, fear of a conservative backlash prevented the Administration
from also approving use of federal funds. This ambivalence was
excoriated by both sides and, far from putting the issue to rest, may
guarantee continued interest in it for a long time.
Soros' money will help existing programs and the reluctant federal
endorsement should help to start new ones. Those considerations, plus
the ongoing opportunity for criticism of policy add up to a net plus for
reform, especially since federal funding would probably have been
accompanied by self-defeating regulatory strictures anyway.
I WAS WRONG! NEEDLE-EXCHANGE PROGRAMS WORK
Sooner or later, anyone who makes a living offering up opinions gets
asked the same question: ''Have you ever changed your mind?'' After the
ink is dry, after the column is sent into the electronic ozone, have you
ever disagreed with you? There must be so me primal anxiety behind this
frequent inquiry. I suppose people all share a high school nightmare of
being exposed, seen mentally unzipped, caught changing our minds in
public. But since the only way to avoid changing a mind is by closing
that mind, it happens. Today I disagree with me, or rather with the me
that once opposed needle-exchange programs.
[snip]
Source: Boston Globe ( MA)
Contact: letters@globe.com
Website: http://www.boston.com/globe/
Pubdate: April 23, 1998
Author: Ellen Goodman
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n300.a04.html
***
CLEAN NEEDLES, NO MONEY
CLINTON'S latest policy response to a national epidemic -- the spread of
AIDS among intravenous drug users -- is little more than a political
fix. In one breath, the administration is declaring that needle-exchange
programs do help curb the spread of AIDS -- but that no federal funds
should be spent on this approach.
This half-and-half solution, intended to resolve internal policy
disagreements among the president's advisers, puts politics ahead of
public health.
[snip]
Source: Washington Post
Contact:http://washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/edit/letters/letterform.htm
Website: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Pubdate: Thu, 23 Apr 1998
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n297.a08.html
***
CLINTON SPINELESS ON NEEDLE FUNDS
IT IS tempting to blame the Paula Jones scandal for Bill Clinton's
cowardice, but it wouldn't be fair. Clinton has always been a coward.
Clinton's gutless refusal to fund programs that save lives by providing
clean needles to drug addicts was not an inevitable result of a weakened
presidency. Even if Clinton were not hounded by charges of sexual
misconduct, he would be an unlikely savior of poor heroin addicts. They
don't have the money to make campaign contributions and they don't have
the demographics the president's pollsters like to see.
[snip]
Source: San Francisco Chronicle ( CA)
Contact: chronletters@sfgate.com
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Pubdate: Sat, 25 Apr 1998
Author: Cynthia Tucker
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n301.a11.html
***
GINGRICH BLASTS CLINTON NEEDLE EXCHANGE STANCE
THIS WEEK, House Speaker Newt Gingrich and other top Republicans blasted
President Clinton for endorsing needle exchange programs to prevent AIDS
among drug users, even though Clinton will not allow federal funds for
such programs. "What's a little heroin or cocaine among friends?"
Gingrich said sarcastically at a news conference in which he lambasted
Clinton on drugs and teen smoking, Reuters news service reported.
"There's no such thing as a healthy heroin addict."
[snip]
Source: San Francisco Examiner
Contact: letters@examiner.com
Website: http://www.examiner.com/
Pubdate: Wed, 22 Apr 1998
Author: Lisa M. Krieger of the Examiner Staff
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n296.a01.html
***
NEEDLE-FUNDING REFUSAL DISAPPOINTS SATCHER
The surgeon general says he wishes the decision had been made without
the political overtones.
Washington-The nation's new surgeon general said Friday the he is
disappointed as a scientist by the Clinton administration's decision to
bar federal funding for AIDS-fighting programs that give clean needles
to drug users.
[snip]
Source: Orange County Register ( CA)
Contact: letters@link.freedom.com
Website: http://www.ocregister.com/
Pubdate: Sat, 25 Apr 1998
Author: Laura Meckler - The Associated Press
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n302.a01.html
***
CLEAN NEEDLES MAY BE BAD MEDICINE
The Clinton administration on Monday endorsed the practice of giving
clean needles to drug addicts in order to prevent transmission of the
AIDS virus. "A meticulous scientific review has now proven that
needle-exchange programs can reduce the transmission of HIV and save
lives without loosing ground on the battle against illegal drugs,"
Secretary of Health and Human Services announced.
The administration is not unanimous, however; the drug czar, Gen. Barry
McCaffrey, who opposes needle exchange, was out of the country Monday.
Who's right? As recently as a month ago, HHS had resisted
needle-exchange programs. "We have not yet concluded that needle
exchange programs do not encourage drug use." spokeswoman Melissa
Skolfield told the Washington Post March 17. By Monday the department
had reached that conclusion, though the scientific evidence that needle
exchanges don't encourage drug use is as weak today as it was a month
ago.
[snip]
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Pubdate: Wed, 22 April 1998
Contact: editors@interactive.wsj.com
Website: http://www.wsj.com/
Author: David Murray,
Director of Research for the Statistical Assessment
Service, a nonprofit group in Washington.
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n301.a12.html
***
HIV'S SPREAD IS UNCHECKED AIDS-SLOWING TREATMENTS
Eclipse Rising Infection Rate, Study Says
Although the number of new AIDS cases in the United States has declined
substantially in recent years, HIV continues to spread through the
population essentially unabated, according to data released yesterday by
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The first direct assessment of HIV infection trends shows that the
recent decline in U.S. AIDS cases is not due to a notable drop in new
infections. Rather, improved medical treatments are allowing infected
people to stay healthy longer before coming down with AIDS,
overshadowing the reality of an increasingly infected populace.
[snip]
Source: Orange County Register ( CA)
Contact: letters@link.freedom.com
Website: http://www.ocregister.com/
Pubdate: Sat, 25 Apr 1998
Author: Laura Meckler - The Associated Press
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n302.a01.html
***
$1 MILLION PLEDGED FOR NEEDLE EXCHANGES
A billionaire financier offered $1 million on a matching basis Thursday
to finance the distribution of clean needles to addicts who inject
illegal drugs. The money pledged by the financier, George Soros, would
go to match increases by other philanthropists and private foundations
for what Soros called "these lifesaving programs."
Soros announced last August that he was making another $1 million
directly available for needle-exchange programs.
Explaining his decision at the time, he said: "Very few politicians dare
to stand up. If they touch the issue, it's like touching a third rail."
[snip]
Source: New York Times ( NY)
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Pubdate: April 24, 1998
Author: Christopher Wren
***
Medical Marijuana
COMMENT:
The Chronicle article is a sad recapitulation of the carnage wreaked
upon medical marijuana programs in the past few months. The reopening of
the San Francisco club demonstrates the importance of friendly local
officials, a point underscored by DA Hallinan's Op-Ed.
LEGAL HASSLES EXTINGUISHING POT CLUBS
Prop. 215's weak wording doesn't sway cops, agents
Less than 18 months after medical marijuana use was legalized in
California by Proposition 215, the network of marijuana clubs, co-ops
and dispensaries that arose to deliver pot to patients is collapsing.
Of 18 medical marijuana providers operating openly seven months ago, six
are out of business and five are facing closure due to criminal or civil
lawsuits. The remaining seven groups are still open and not facing legal
trouble, but there is constant worry that the next knock on the door
could be federal drug agents.
[snip]
Source: San Francisco Chronicle ( CA)
Contact: chronletters@sfgate.com
Website: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
Pubdate: Thu, 23 Apr 1998
Author: Maria Alicia Guara, Chronicle Staff Writer
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n297.a03.html
***
SAN FRANCISCO MARIJUANA CLUB REOPENS PEACEFULLY TO CHEERS
SAN FRANCISCO -- A San Francisco marijuana club reopened under another
name yesterday just a day after a court order shut down its predecessor.
About 40 patients and supporters cheered as Wayne Justmann, head of
security for the new Cannabis Healing Center, unlocked the front door.
[snip]
Source: Standard-Times ( MA)
Contact: YourView@S-T.com
Website: http://www.s-t.com/
Pubdate: Wed, 22 Apr 1998
Author: Richard Cole, Associated Press writer
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n296.a11.html
***
LET HEALTH WORKERS DISTRIBUTE POT
By Terence Hallinan
THE RECENT SHUTDOWN of San Francisco's Cannabis Cultivators Club and its
reopening under new leadership closed a chapter in the continuing debate
over medical marijuana. Broader legal questions about the clubs remain.
State and federal efforts to close six medical marijuana cooperatives in
California have raised the thorny question of who should be responsible
for distributing medical marijuana to sick patients if the clubs are
permanently shut down. Recently, when 1 suggested city health workers
may be called on to do the job in San Francisco, I did not make the
statement lightly.
[snip]
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
Pubdate: April 27, 1998
Website: www.sfgate.com
Contact: chronletters@sfgate.com
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n309.a03.html
***
Drug Policy
***
COMMENT:
The GOP pursuit of a "drug free" America, led by Newt is good news for
us. If the public can't understand that the drug war is an inhumane
folly in the light of other developments, it probably never will. It's
also to be expected that the most ardent prohibitionists will feel most
threatened by perception that reform is gaining ground, and will react
accordingly.
The other items simply confirm the willingness of drug warriors to
embrace any strategy, no matter how destructive of the environment,
threatening to the public, or invasive of privacy, in their desire to
control human behavior.
REPUBLICANS PLAN MAJOR CAMPAIGN FOR DRUG-FREE AMERICA
WASHINGTON -- House Republicans are preparing to launch a highly
publicized election-year initiative to bring about a drug-free America.
In an event planned for next week and to be staged like the House GOP's
mass 1994 signing of its Contract With America, more than 100 House
Republicans are expected to endorse a dozen wide-ranging anti-drug bills.
One bill calls for doubling the Border Patrol to 20,000 and restoring
controversial military patrols along the U.S.-Mexico border.
House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., formed the Speaker's Task Force for
a Drug-Free America one month ago, and it already has a comprehensive
national "battle plan" for reaching its goal within four years.
[snip]
Source: San Diego Union Tribune
Contact: letters@uniontrib.com
Website: http://www.uniontrib.com/
Pubdate: Sat, 25 Apr 1998
Author: Marcus Stern - Copley News Service
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n302.a06.html
***
DRUG STING'S TACTICS HELPED 'POISON THE PUBLIC,' JUDGE SAYS
State agents helped "poison the public" by giving drug dealers huge
amounts of the key ingredient to produce methamphetamine and failing to
recover it, a federal judge said Friday.
During a "sting" operation targeting a pair of notorious drug
manufacturing suspects in 1995, the narcotics agents committed crimes
that would justify life in prison "if they did not have badges," said
U.S. District Judge Lawrence K. Karlton.
[snip]
Source: Sacramento Bee ( CA)
Contact: opinion@sacbee.com
Website: http://www.sacbee.com/
Pubdate: Sat, 25 Apr 1998
Author: Cythnia Hubert - Bee Staff Writer
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n302.a07.html
***
PATCH THAT MIGHT KEEP TABS ON DRUG USE WILL BE TESTED IN PHILA.
The device would offer ``real-time'' data, rather than after-the-fact
screening.
Sweating it out could take on new meaning for drug users caught by the
criminal justice system.
The federal government is getting ready to field test in Philadelphia a
black watch-sized patch that is being designed to send a signal if the
wearer takes drugs. It also has the potential to relay information to
authorities about the person's whereabouts, within 150 feet.
[snip]
Source: Philadelphia Inquirer ( PA)
Contact: editpage@aol.com
Pubdate: Wed, 22 Apr 1998
Author: Marian Uhlman - Inquirer Staff Writer
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n294.a11.html
***
International News
COMMENT:
There is a symmetry in the first three articles: the book reviewed in
the first explains the huge jump in illegal drug dollars flowing into
Mexico which allowed the official corruption alluded to in the next two
news stories.
There are those who believe that the AIDS epidemic in the US will be
minor compared to what is happening in Eastern Europe and the former
Soviet Union.
The articles about Peru (riverine interdiction) and Colombia (aerial
spraying of herbicides) suggest that America has yet to learn all the
lessons of Viet Nam.
NICE GUYS FINISH DEAD a review of:
TWILIGHT ON THE LINE
Underworlds and Politics at the U.S.-Mexican Border. By Sebastian
Rotella. 320 pp. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. $25.
By Richard Rayner
EARLY in this vivid study of immigration, crime and graft at the
Mexican border, Sebastian Rotella makes the point that the headlong
growth in the l990's of the drug trade in Mexico, and in Baja
California in particular, was spurred by an American success story.
When the Drug Enforcement Administration blocked Florida as the
prime highway for cocaine, the Colombian cartels responded by
expanding their partnership with some of their old friends in
Mexico, who offered not only a network already established through
their traditional traffic in heroin and marijuana, but a long and
vulnerable land border with the United States.
The Mexican drug barons began receiving payment in cocaine instead
of cash, and the Colombians were forced to cede sales turf in
Texas, along the East Coast and especially in California itself.
"Soon the Mexican mafias were supplying 70 percent of the cocaine
consumed-yearly in the United States," Rotella writes, "were
earning between $10 billion and $30 billion a year in profits and,
according to a study by the University of Guadalajara, were
spending $500 million a year exclusively on the bribery of public
officials in Mexico. That figure was roughly double the entire
budget of the Mexican federal attorney general's office and federal
police."
[snip]
Source: New York Times ( NY)
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Pubdate: Mon, 15 Mar 1998
Author: Richard Rayner
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n300.a05.html
***
$132 MILLION TRACED TO SWISS IN SALINAS CASE
LAUSANNE, Switzerland ( AP)-- U.S. investigators have traced $132
million in Swiss banks to the brother of a former Mexican president and
say at least some of the money came from drug traffickers, according to
court documents released Friday.
Switzerland's highest court disclosed for the first time details of the
largely secret U.S. case against Raul Salinas de Gortari, the brother of
former President Carlos Salinas de Gortari.
[snip]
Pubdate: Sat, 25 Apr 1998
Source: Associated Press
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n305.a05.html
***
LAWYER IN DRUG CASE GUNNED DOWN
A former lawyer for Gen. Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, the jailed former
leader of Mexico's anti-drug campaign, was slain late Tuesday, officials
said.
A spokesman for Jalisco State prosecutors said a gunman killed Tomas
Arturo Gonzalez Velazquez, 43, while he waited in his car at a traffic
light in Guadalajara.
[snip]
Source: Chicago Tribune ( IL)
Contact: tribletter@aol.com
Website: http://www.chicago.tribune.com/
Pubdate: Thu, 23 Apr 1998
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n297.a07.html
***
EASTERN EUROPE NEW AIDS REGION, REPORT SAYS
MOSCOW - Every minute worldwide, five people between the ages of 10 and
24 become infected with HIV, according to a report released here today.
The UNAIDS report also warned that Eastern Europe is set to become "one
of the next epicenters" of the world AIDS crisis, with HIV infection
rates having increased at least six fold since 1994.
The report said that 190,000 people in the region are infected, a
contagion rate driven by a sharp rise in the use of injected drugs.
[snip]
Pubdate: Wed, 22 Apr 1998
Source: Seattle-Times ( WA)
Contact: opinion@seatimes.com
Website: http://seattletimes.com/
Author: The Associated Press
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n294.a03.html
***
U.S. TEACHES PERU TO PLUG RIVER OF DRUGS
IQUITOS, Peru - As Seaman Walter Fitzgerald gunned his Boston Whaler
boat out into the Amazon and gently pulled alongside a floating dock as
if approaching another vessel, he kept up a steady stream of talk to his
Peruvian counterparts, explaining each step in nearly flawless Spanish.
Nearby, on land, Warrant Officer Marc Shifanelli crouched in the thick
jungle underbrush, demonstrating to a group of Peruvian police how to
conduct small-unit patrols, including how to carry their AK-47 assault
rifles, with constant reminders not to "aim at anything you don't want
to destroy."
Fitzgerald, a U.S. Navy SEAL, and Shifanelli, of the U.S. Army Special
Forces, are part of a group of 30 specialized American military
instructors implementing one of the most ambitious counterdrug programs
the Pentagon has ever undertaken in Latin America.
[snip]
Source: Seattle-Times ( WA)
Contact: opinion@seatimes.com
Website: http://seattletimes.com/
Author: Douglas Farah, The Washington Post
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n294.a02.html
***
COCA, POPPY KILLER MAY HARM AMAZON
BOGOTA, Colombia ( AP) - Deep in the jungle, a Turbo-Thrush plane swoops
to within 100 feet of a field of illegal drug crops, lets loose a cloud
of herbicide over the plants and soars skyward again before heavily
armed leftist rebels can open fire.
It has become an almost daily - if hair-raisingly dangerous - routine in
Colombia as police undertake an ambitious program to eradicate thousands
of acres of coca and poppy - the plants used to make cocaine and heroin.
Now, at the urging of the United States, Colombia is considering
switching to a more powerful, granular herbicide called tebuthiuron - a
new coca-killer that can be dropped from higher altitudes, out of range
of the gun-toting rebels guarding the crops.
[snip]
Source: Associated Press
Pubdate: Thu, 23 Apr 1998
Author: Paul Haven
URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n300.a02.html
***
HOT OFF THE 'NET
The Drug Policy Foundation has updated and enhanced their web page.
See: http://www.dpf.org/
It now includes the latest grant guidelines.
The "War on Drugs Clock" has been enhanced and is "ready for Primetime"
See: http://www.drugsense.org/
and click on the animated moon (indicative of lunacy). This feature
should be linked all over the Internet. It is a powerful visual display
of why we are fighting to change the status quo.
The MAP archive of published Letters to the Editor has a new feature
which keeps track of the dollar value of oor volunteer's published
letters posted on our website. We have generated both an item counter
and an estimated value.
See: http://www.mapinc.org/lte/
We display well over $500,000 in ad value and over 600 published letters
and articles to date.
***
TIP OF THE WEEK
We are trying to get as many members as possible to contact their local
bookstores to ask if they can have Mike Grays "Drug Crazy" available. If
not please ask when they will be able to order it and whether they will
stock it.
If we can get each member to call 5 bookstores we will have covered
nearly every bookstore in the country and we will have sent a powerful
message to distributors to stock this book. A reform best seller would
be a national first and would gain us some excellent media coverage.
Just do it! 5 calls takes about 15 minutes.
***
QUOTES OF THE WEEK
***
`I'M SO AFRAID -- SEEING PEOPLE'S LIVES JUST FADE'
Here are excerpts from the essays written by fifth-graders at Edward Heston
Elementary School.
When I walk the streets I see people who could have terrific lives, but
they are happier doing drugs. I'm not going to destroy my future. I can do
more with my life than killing myself with drugs. I am 10-year-old and when
I put myself in that position, I feel so sorry for them.
-- Chanel Joynes
I want drug dealing to stop because one of my friends got shot over that.
He was walking down the street and he was looking at the dealers and they
said "Get out of here, leave!" He kept looking and got shot. That's why I
want it to stop. Drugs are getting people killed. One time my brother's
friend got shot because he was working for the drug dealers and he didn't
bring back the right amount of money. He was 13 years old and I went to his
funeral.
-- Jonathan Ross
I see them every day. Where I walk and where I play. Sometimes I'm so
afraid -- seeing people's lives just fade. Drugs take you out of this world
soon. They destroy families and leave a neighborhood in ruin.
-- Tiffany Harrison
***
DS Weekly is one of the many free educational services DrugSense offers
our members. Watch this feature to learn more about what DrugSense can
do for you.
Comments-Editor: Tom O'Connell (tjeffoc@drugsense.org)
Senior-Editor: Mark Greer (mgreer@drugsense.org)
We wish to thank all our contributors and Newshawks.
NOTICE:
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
in receiving the included information for research and educational
purposes.
REMINDER:
Please help us help reform. Send any news articles you find on any drug
related issue to editor@mapinc.org
PLEASE HELP:
DrugSense provides this service at no charge BUT IT IS NOT FREE TO PRODUCE.
We incur many costs in creating our many and varied services. If you are
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[End]
to 1998 Daily News index for April 23-29