Crimes of the Drug War

[Tiassa]

At least until people are crying mercy ... well, okay, I'm not that sinister ... but for the next little bit I thought I'd start listing some of the War Crimes that have resulted from this hideous War Against Drugs we now find ourselves embroiled in.

Most of the citations will be from http://www.drcnet.org , since it is my best link to the drug-war news items you don't see on the AP wire, but I hope to not rely solely on them.

thanx,
Tiassa

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We are unutterably alone, essentially, especially in the things most intimate and important to us. (Ranier Maria Rilke)

 

[Tiassa]

http://www.drcnet.org/wol/125.html#custody (Week of 2/18/2000)

A California woman lost her job, was forced into drug treatment, and lost custody of her children for three months after her newborn baby tested positive for the prescription drug Seconal, even though a doctor had provided the woman with the drug when she was in labor.

When Noel Lujan arrived at a local hospital last October to give birth to her son Daniel, a doctor prescribed the barbiturate Seconal to relax her. But he didn't tell that to hospital staff who tested the unmarried mother's baby for drugs -- and they didn't ask. After Daniel was born, Lujan was told of the test results and was not allowed to take him home. Orange County child welfare authorities assigned temporary custody of the baby and Lujan's other three young children to Lujan's parents. According to Lujan, she was allowed to stay at the house with them, but she was not permitted to feed Daniel without supervision.

Meanwhile, Lujan was forced to enter a drug treatment program, which caused her to miss so many days of work that she lost her job. She was also subjected to repeated hair and urine drug tests. "It was horrible," she told the Associated Press this week. "The whole three months they were telling me I was a drug addict, that I was in denial."

According to court records, child welfare workers did not learn that the Seconal had been prescribed until mid-January. The doctor who prescribed it claims he was notified before Lujan's children were taken away.

Lujan's children have since been returned to her custody, but she and the children's father will remain under children's services supervision until July. Michael Riley, director of Orange County's Children and Family Services agency, told the AP this week, "If this is an honest error, then we are sincerely sorry."

Knee-jerk justice is still merely knee-jerk.

thanx,
Tiassa

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We are unutterably alone, essentially, especially in the things most intimate and important to us. (Ranier Maria Rilke)

 

[Tiassa]

http://www.drcnet.org/wol/130.html#dorismond (Week of 3/24/2000 ... excerpted)

In what is becoming a depressingly regular occurrence, a young, unarmed black man was shot and killed by New York City police officers last week in mid-town Manhattan. The victim, Patrick Dorismond, 25, was the son of well-known Haitian singer Andre Dorismond and was himself the father of two small children.

Undercover Detective Anderson Moran approached Mr. Dorismond as part of a "buy and bust" marijuana operation, part of NYC's "Operation Condor." While eyewitness accounts of the incident are differing and incomplete, what is known is that Detective Moran asked Dorismond, who had just come out of a bar with a friend, if he would sell him some marijuana. Dorismond had no marijuana, nor is there any evidence that he was selling or had ever sold marijuana. Dorismond apparently took exception to Moran's insistence and a scuffle ensued, at which time two back-up plain clothes officers approached.

One shot from Detective Vasquez' service revolver struck Dorismond in the chest, killing him

Within hours of the shooting, NYC Police Commissioner Howard Safir released sealed juvenile records indicating that Dorismond had been arrested -- the charges were subsequently dropped -- for burglary and assault when he was thirteen years' old. The release of that information, and NYC Mayor Giuliani's subsequent negative portrayal of Mr. Dorismond in the media, has prompted outrage from community leaders and some city and state officials ....

Funny ... if I was a DA prosecuting, say, the murder of anyone but the target of a random drug sting, I would be charged with contempt for even suggesting that the deceased's juvenile criminal record had been opened.

Follow up from the next issue ... http://www.drcnet.org/wol/131.html#newyorkcity

Violence broke out last Saturday (3/25) between police and attendees of the funeral of Patrick Dorismond. Dorismond, 26, was shot and killed by a New York City Police officer on March 16 during a marijuana "buy and bust" operation in mid-town. Dorismond was unarmed, was not selling and did not possess any marijuana ....

....New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani has continued to take heat this week for his characterization of Dorismond as "not an altar boy," based upon Dorismond's minor criminal record including an arrest, for which no charges were filed, at the age of 13. Protesters and others, including former NYC Mayor Ed Koch, have called for the resignation of Mayor Giuliani and/or Police Commissioner Howard Safir for their release of those juvenile records, which had been sealed by court order.

But I guess it's worth it.

There's tons of these ... I could go on forever today (I have like eighty of their newsletters). I'm inclined to believe, however, that this would not be a good thing.

hope & victory,
Tiassa

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We are unutterably alone, essentially, especially in the things most intimate and important to us. (Ranier Maria Rilke)

 

[Oxygen]

Tiassa-You have some very good examples of a system gone horribly wrong. I don't think legalizing drugs is the answer, which is what some people believe.

I used to work for a company that delivered medical supplies to adults and children. Most of the diagnoses were CP, Spina Bifida, MS, or else the clients had been the victims of some terrible accident. There was, however, a group of clients whose diagnoses colored my opinion on drugs for all time. These were the children of mothers and fathers who saw nothing wrong in the use of drugs. These innocent victims were often so hideously deformed that it would have been more merciful to have euthanized them at birth. This is the other side of the War On Drugs.

I agree that the current tactics seem to be doing more harm than good, but something must be done. We should rethink our tactics in cleaning them out of our collective system rather than just laying down and letting them lay waste to our children.

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I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will fight, kill, and die for your right to say it.

 

[Tiassa]

http://www.drcnet.org/wol/106.html#badraid

4. Los Angeles Police Forcibly Enter Home, Kill Grandfather in Raid

20 officers from an "elite" Los Angeles SWAT team operating under the jurisdiction of the El Monte police department shot the locks off the doors of the home of Mario Paz, grandfather of fourteen, in raiding his house as part of a marijuana investigation in Compton last week. Once inside, the officers used stun grenades to create a distraction, and shot Paz twice in the back, killing him, as he kneeled on the floor of his bedroom. Paz, who had no criminal record, kept at least two firearms in his home for protection, but was unarmed at the time of the shooting. But neither Paz nor anyone in his family was a suspect in the investigation. In fact, police got the warrant to enter the Paz home simply because his address appeared among the papers of one of the suspects, who had years ago lived in the house next door to the Paz family.

The Week Online (week of 9/9/1999)

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We are unutterably alone, essentially, especially in the things most intimate and important to us. (Ranier Maria Rilke)

 

[Tiassa]

http://www.drcnet.org/wol/#sunshineproject

6. Report Calls on the UN Biodiversity Convention to Stop Dangerous US Fungus Experiments

(The following is an abridged press release from The Sunshine Project. DRCNet's own coverage of this issue can be found at:
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/136.html#fungus http://www.drcnet.org/wol/105.html#fungusresearch http://www.drcnet.org/wol/100.html#mycoherbicides http://www.drcnet.org/wol/077.html#fungi2 http://www.drcnet.org/wol/076.html#fungi)
In a report released on May 2nd, the Sunshine Project, a new international nonprofit dedicated to exposing abuses of biotechnology, has called upon on the upcoming Nairobi meeting of the UN Biodiversity Convention to halt the United States' experiments with fungi designed to kill narcotic crops.
Intended to kill opium poppy, coca, and cannabis plants, the microbes present risks to human health and biodiversity. There is imminent danger that a highly infectious fungus will be deliberately released in Andean and Amazonian centers of diversity. The US-backed fungi have already been used experimentally on opium poppy and cannabis in the US and in Central Asia.

The Sunshine Project, which sent its report to 500 government delegates from 100 countries, is suggesting several options for government action during the May 15-26 Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in Nairobi. Delegates should adopt a resolution calling for a halt of the US program and condemning the use of any microbe for the purpose of eradicating cultivated crops. Such a resolution is not a statement on drug policy, but instead a reiteration of fundamental objectives of the Convention. The CBD cannot remain quiet while agents are developed by a non-party to deliberately obliterate biodiversity, especially plants with legitimate medicinal and traditional uses.

The CBD may also consider studying the fungus under its Agriculture Program, because of the fungi's impacts on pollinators and soil diversity -- both specific responsibilities of the Convention. Governments may also request the CBD Executive Secretary to urgently convey the CBD's views to the United National Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), which has been -- sometimes reluctantly -- helping implementation of the US program.

The Sunshine Project is an international nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing information to light on harmful abuses of biotechnology. For a copy of the report and more information, visit http://www.sunshine-project.org.

 

[Tiassa]

Oxygen--

You have given me much cause for thought. Unfortunately, my conclusions mimic an ongoing trend in the allegedly-sane, allegedly drug-free world.

There was, however, a group of clients whose diagnoses colored my opinion on drugs for all time. These were the children of mothers and fathers who saw nothing wrong in the use of drugs. These innocent victims were often so hideously deformed that it would have been more merciful to have euthanized them at birth.

It seems to me that society accepts a number of hideous tragedies for stupid, stupid reasons.

Entire towns poisoned by irresponsible mine operators, the best excuse possible is that they did it for the money and out of sheer stupidity.

You ever read a pregnancy-warning on a bottle of American liquor? A childhood friend's aunt pulled that stunt when she claimed that her child's fetal alcohol syndrome wasn't her fault; it hadn't occured to her that it was unhealthy to drink two and a half fifths a day while pregnant. Hello? Shouldn't we have thrown the mother in jail?

Educate, empower, etc. Money in undereducated hands is bad ... look at how many stupid former pro athletes have blown their money three years out of ball! If you enrich a society financially without elevating its educational standards, that economy will be dedicated to more of the same old crap.

The Drug War forces these conditions. Quite simply, these wounds will heal once society escapes the war.

In Seattle, we recently had an election ballot about affirmative action in which minority leaders were admitting the necessity of sacrificing "a generation" to an absence of the affirmative action cushion without any evidence of demonstrable equality between the races.

Likewise, the end of the Drug War will see its generation sacrificed, but it will be a generation free from a "prison industry" (a growth-industry, I might remind) and the effects that come from having a calculable percentage of the workforce behind bars.

But inasmuch as the Drug War keeps an entire subculture underground, the more sacrificial lambs will rise in its fields.

thanx,
Tiassa

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We are unutterably alone, essentially, especially in the things most intimate and important to us. (Ranier Maria Rilke)

 

[Brian]

Sorry that the doctor's mistake in the original example did not immediately clear the parents but, hey, life is not perfect.

With respect to the "laws" protecting the "innocent", our daughter brought a friend to our home for safe harbor after school one Friday afternnoon because she confided to our daughter that severe sexual abuse was being perpetrated by her 'uncle' with whom she was living upon one of her older 'cousins' who was the uncle's daughter. Our daughter's friend said that she was afraid that she'd be his next victim.

Not knowing if what the teen was telling us was the truth or not, to err on the side of caution, we invited the teen into our home for dinner, we called her mother who lived in another state to explain what was happening and she gave the go-ahead for her daughter to stay with us for the weekend. We also called the local department of Social Services before they closed to give them a heads-up on what was happening before they went home for the weekend.

That evening, members of the State Police, City Police and Sheriff's Office surrounded our home. Based on what the unbalanced and emotional uncle had told them, they expected to find some resistance from the kidnappers.

To make a long story even longer we did not offer any resistance. But we were able to look the officers in the eye and speak the truth to them in a non-emotional way that made them pause, think, and move forward with caution in the best interest of the teen.

Yeah, life is not perfect, and neither are those who enforce the law. But I'd rather see an innocent kid be protected to the hilt when there is a complaint, before all the relevant facts are known, than to find out that one child was abused while the world stood still for fear that we might wrongly inconvenience a parent or guardian during the investigative process.

Just another opinion,

Brian

 

[Tiassa]

Brian--

A personal tale I'd like to relate, though its relevance is slightly roundabout.

To revive tales of "horrible sexual abuse", I can say that occasionally the idea of protecting a child "to the hilt" can have impressive results.

Once upon a time, when I was about 17-20, I counselled a close friend and part-time lover. When we met, she was flat-out psychotic; enough said. Skip ahead through format-testimonial .... So one night when things are horribly out of hand and I'm literally 250 miles out of position, I receive a call telling me to get back to town and handle this, that the police are on their way. When I finally did arrive, my friend had been recovered safely, and also voluntarily, which is important.

During the three and a half hours it took me to travel, the police were actually told to step very carefully until I arrived; for whatever reasons, her psychotherapist, her parents and sisters, and two of her teachers participating in the search all declared that somehow, a high-school senior needed to be in charge of that.

For whatever reasons ... she returned of her own will about an hour before I got there. But what impressed me is that, in a time of dire human need, an entire police department (for that's what the several officers I met comprised) waited for an idiot to arrive on the grounds that A) the object-person will calm down in the intervening period, or B) that I, somehow, could coax a person from a behavior pattern that, as this episode is concerned, I've never been fully informed, even after nearly ten years. To this day, I'm impressed.

I wanted to support the idea of protecting children.

But do you really think officers would take that kind of risk if it was Drug War-related erratic and dangerous behavior? History says no, but then again, History says the same about cops waiting for me to handle a bad situation.

Somehow, the police understood the vitality of the situation, that SOP would only complicate the problem and endanger the object-person. They were willing to wait, if it promised a better end. They did, in essence, protect that child to the hilt.

But those considerations are never given in the Drug War. In the meantime, Law Enforcement and its Laws are doing damage. The standard that we hold to "before relevant facts are known" doesn't apply quite the same. On one hand, the standard supports an artificial prohibition. On the other, relevant facts are hard to come by because, for at least twenty-seven years, its been illegal to collect relevant facts about the Drug War in the United States.

thanx ... much to consider,
Tiassa

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We are unutterably alone, essentially, especially in the things most intimate and important to us. (Ranier Maria Rilke)

 

[Brian]

tiassa,

Glad to see that things worked out for your friend. Aside - I am left wondering why you would have chosen to bed-down with someone who was psychotic? I hope that if you were of the age of consent that so was she. Otherwise, well, we could start a whole new topic...

As far as the drug-war under discussion goes, briefly, what do you mean when you say it has been illegal to collect relevant facts in the United States?

Why, do you think, are law-enforcement agencies so aggressive when dealing with suspected drug dealers?

Thanks,

Brian

 

[Tiassa]

Brian--

In 1994, a GOP Senator introduced legislation that, had it passed, would have banned people from the internet for posting "drug-legalization" materials. NORML, Washington State Hemp Initiative, High Times, and others would be GONE, and their programmers banned from internet communication. This, thankfully, did not pass.

When PDFA (Partnership for a Drug-Free America) could no longer hold its "marijuana-as-carcinogen" line--the counterpoint coming from a suppressed 1972 report to congress that pot isn't carcinogenic--it changed its tactics to the distasteful: There isn't enough evidence to warrant legalization. Now, ignoring the fact that there isn't much evidence to warrant Draconian criminalization, I think the irony becomes especially sick when we see that the research PDFA is asking for to demonstrate the "safety" of marijuana has, since 1972, at least, been illegal to collect. Axl Rose (of Guns & Roses) was paid $8.50 in the mid-80's to chain-smoke cigarettes for UCLA. We can't pay someone a little less, say, Cheezie-Poofs, to smoke bowl after bowl after bowl of marijuana and figure out what it does? And other such odd logic. What existing data there is has become so political that even testing methods are now in question.

Largely, I think Law Enforcement is so aggressive is because, at the bottom line, this is about money.

Who pays to stop pot-legalization ballot measures to be voted on by the public? PDFA? Nope. ONDCP (Drug Czar)? Nope. Howzabout petrol (hemp makes fuel), textile (hemp makes cloth), timber (hemp makes paper), and synthetics (hemp makes rope, &c.)

That last one is super-important. Given that pot makes rope, and that Dow released Nylon in 1937 and 1938, and given that Dow had employees advising the Bureau of Narcotics, do we find it odd in the least that what made pot illegal was actually a commercial law? It's called The Marihuana Tax Stamp Act of 1937.

The rest of the Drug War mimics a couple of observations: First, that we call it a "Drug War", and secondly, that the "Drug War" only gets serious about anything approaching a "solution" when the demographics change. For instance, when white dealers were selling crank to Hispanic users, the users were being arrested. Methamphetamine was a normal Sched. 1 sentencing guideline. However, shortly after new demographic numbers came out, indicating that Hispanic sellers were targeting white buyers, the impetus changed to target the dealers. Now that the demographics demonstrate Hispanics selling to Hispanics and other minorities, the sentencing guidelines have been brought up to date, so that methamphetamine is treated like crack. Users, dealers ... everyone goes to prison.

By the way ... what would happen to the cigarette companies (who own Nabisco, Frito-Lay, &c.) and the booze companies (Anheuser-Busch, Seagrams) if suddenly intoxication was as far away as your back yard?

The whole of the "Drug War" is about money.

Only the rich survive. Everyone else is fodder.

thanx,
Tiassa

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We are unutterably alone, essentially, especially in the things most intimate and important to us. (Ranier Maria Rilke)

 

[Tiassa]

from http://www.drcnet.org

Last week, DRCNet alerted our California supporters that the State Assembly Public Safety Committee, under pressure from Gov. Gray Davis, had approved AB 2295, a bill to mandate an automatic six month driver's license suspension for any drug offense. The Assembly Appropriations Committee vote on the bill, originally scheduled for this week, has been delayed . . . .

Can someone please explain to me what good this is going to do?

Really, I want to know. Because it seems to me that making a person's life harder for doing something to themselves that you don't want them to do is no way to encourage them to stop it.

thanx,
Tiassa

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We are unutterably alone, essentially, especially in the things most intimate and important to us. (Ranier Maria Rilke)

 

[Tiassa]

http://washingtonpost.com/cgi-bin/gx.cgi/AppLogic+FTContentServe r?pagename=wpni/print&articleid=A1905-2000Jun5

The report, to be released today, said that African Americans accounted for 62 percent of the drug offenders sent to state prisons nationwide in 1996, the most recent year for which statistics are available, although they represent just 12 percent of the U.S. population. Overall, black men are sent to state prisons on drug charges at 13 times the rate of white men, according to the study, which analyzes a wide range of Justice Department information for 37 states to come up with its findings.

The only commentary I'll add is that if we look to the claims of various "white-power" groups and the like, here lies the link between race and crime. How long has this trend stood? Perhaps since the beginning of marijuana prohibition, when Hispanic-Americans and Black Americans were the primary users.

In my own life, the community has stressed that ex-cons are anathema; you don't want them to tend your store, file your papers, or mow your lawn. (Is there a connection between economic empowerment and crime rates?)

During my lifetime, studies have expressed that 1 in 3 black males will serve prison time before their 30th birthday.

If, as I've asserted, the Drug War is unjust, are we not inviting crime into minority communities by focusing our efforts on them?

Anyway, it's just a few random ramblings ....

thanx,
Tiassa

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We are unutterably alone, essentially, especially in the things most intimate and important to us. (Ranier Maria Rilke)

[This message has been edited by tiassa (edited June 12, 2000).]

 

[Tiassa]

the following is from DRCNet, whose address you'll find littered all throughout this topic.

12. Kansas City Star Strikes Again: Asset Forfeiture Series Exposes Police End-Runs Around State Laws

In early 1999, Star reporter Karen Dillon's investigative reports on asset forfeiture abuses helped propel Congressional reforms of federal asset forfeiture laws. In a follow-up series published last month after a yearlong investigation, Dillon and the Star have once again exposed egregious misconduct by state and local police agencies across the country. (The entire series may be viewed at http://www.kcstar.com/projects/drugforfeit/.)

The Star's investigation found that in every one of the more than two dozen states it examined, law enforcement agencies are deliberately circumventing state laws designed to restrict asset forfeiture or to mandate that such seized funds be used for designated programs, such as education or drug treatment funding.

They typically do so, writes Dillon, by using federal law enforcement to evade state forfeiture laws. Instead of taking seizures to state courts, whose laws are usually more restrictive than federal asset forfeiture law, police instead call in a federal agency, most often the DEA. The feds accept the seizure, the DEA takes a cut of the money, and the rest is returned to the local police agency, not to programs mandated by state laws.

In addition, the series clearly indicts the US Dept. of Justice and the DEA for aiding and abetting police evasion of state laws. In particular, Dillon, points to Justice Department guidelines for "adoption" of state and local cases. These guidelines allow state and local police agencies to turn seized funds over to the federal government, even if no federal agency has been involved. But, the Star reports, even these minimal rules proved too onerous for the DEA, which "in many cases" accepted seizures when defendants were being prosecuted in state courts, a clear violation of Justice guidelines.

The Star series also addresses efforts by the states to rein in the police-federal forfeiture juggernaut, both in statehouses and at the federal level. It finds that reform will be difficult, especially in the face of solid opposition from police organizations.

In a conversation with DRCNet on June 16, the Star's Dillon said her series has generated a high level of interest, both in the press and among politicians. As a result of the series, she said, the National Conference of State Legislatures will hold a special forum on the issue at its annual meeting in Chicago on July 15.

Dillon told DRCNet that she first started looking into the issue while reporting a police slush fund scandal in Kansas City in 1995. Part of the slush fund came from assets seized locally, handed over to the feds, and then bounced back to local police.

When asked about some of the more outlandish police justifications for their actions quoted in the series, Dillon laughed and said, "Well, it's sort of a police mindset that it's their money. They've been doing it for fourteen years, but no one has ever called them on their actions before."

(Further information about forfeiture is available from Forfeiture Endanders American Rights, http://www.fear.org.)

This is what the War Against Drugs is worth.

--Tiassa

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We are unutterably alone, essentially, especially in the things most intimate and important to us. (Ranier Maria Rilke)

 

[Tiassa]

http://www.drcnet.org/wol/#damnstatistics

The University of Maryland's Center for Substance Abuse Research (CESAR, http://www.cesar.umd.edu) devoted its latest weekly CESAR FAX (6/19), which goes out to some 4500 subscribers, to some dramatic but misleading numbers from the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN). DAWN reports on emergency room visits for "drug-related" episodes ....

Merely because marijuana was mentioned," Duncan told DRCNet, "doesn't mean the visit should be attributed to the drug." One of the problems with the DAWN numbers, [Physician David] Duncan said, is the confusion between mention and causation. "If you are struck by lightning and the autopsy finds cocaine in your system, for example, "that would be listed as a cocaine-related ER incident."

Similarly, DAWN methodology allows for the mention of up to four drugs for each incident, so someone who comes in with a heroin overdose but mentions having smoked marijuana will go into the statistics as a marijuana mention as well as a heroin mention.

....DAWN's limitations are familiar to professionals in the field. Problems arise, however, when the data are misinterpreted or misunderstood, either willfully or because of lack of understanding of methodological issues. Likewise, the selective cherry-picking of isolated statistics, as CESAR appears to have done, distorts the overall findings of the DAWN reports ....

DAWN's limitations are familiar to professionals in the field. Problems arise, however, when the data are misinterpreted or misunderstood, either willfully or because of lack of understanding of methodological issues. Likewise, the selective cherry-picking of isolated statistics, as CESAR appears to have done, distorts the overall findings of the DAWN reports ....

If I quote everything relevant, the post gets massive. But this is just another example of the agencies we entrust to do their work seeking the quickest, "easiest" way to do their jobs without any consideration to the definition of the word success.

I'm reminded of Bart Simpson, falling off the roof of a brothel: "S-U-C-C-E-E-S ... that's the way you spell ... whoa!"

Remember, kids: Just say No to liars and thieves who don't really care about you but need to scare and threaten you to keep their jobs. General Barry McCaffrey, our "Drug Czar", is not a decent man. Its lies like this DAWN report that pusillanimous fools use to justify their crimes against their citizens. We, the People, own this Government, and should demand that it tell us the truth, so that we might make our own decisions, come what may. Anything else is tyrrany.

thanx,
Tiassa

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We are unutterably alone, essentially, especially in the things most intimate and important to us. (Ranier Maria Rilke)