| October 28 ,1998 #070 | ||||||||||||||||
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A DrugSense publication | ||||||||||||||||
This newsletter is available online at: | ||||||||||||||||
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Table of Contents
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FEATURE ARTICLE (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Editors Note: A good overview of the Navarro murder can be reviewed at:
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v98.n940.a08.html | ||||||||||||||||
Statement on the killing of Pedro Oregon Navarro | ||||||||||||||||
October 21, 1998 | ||||||||||||||||
My name is Alan Robison, and I am the Executive Director of the Drug
Policy Forum of Texas. | ||||||||||||||||
I think an important point has been overlooked in the Pedro Oregon
Navarro case, and I would like to make that point explicitly at this
time. That is that Pedro Oregon Navarro was a victim of our current
drug policy, the so-called war on drugs. Esequiel Hernandez, shot and
killed less than 18 months ago by U.S. Marines in Redford, Texas, was
another victim of this very same war. And there will more such victims
in the future, until we bring this ugly war on people to an end, and
replace it with a rational drug policy which seeks to minimize harm
instead of making everything worse. | ||||||||||||||||
Much of the emphasis to this point has been on police brutality and
similar charges, but this misses the important point by a very wide
margin. | ||||||||||||||||
You have to understand that human nature hasn't changed for a long
time, and that cops will always be cops, wherever they are. The
important determinant of how the police behave will always be
government policy. And if the police are told that their job is to
round up Jews and take them to the train station for deportation to
concentration camps, then that is what the police will do. And if they
are told that their job is to cleanse an area of Albanians, as they
were told not so long ago in Kosovo, then that is what they will do.
And if we tell them in the United States that drug users are so bad
that they shouldn't have the same civil rights as the rest of us, and
that its okay to break down some ones door if they think they have
reason to believe there were drugs on the other side of it, then its
not surprising that that's what the police will do. | ||||||||||||||||
I'm not so naive as to believe that Navarro's ethnicity might not have
had something to do with this travesty. It may well have had a lot to
do with it. But you'll notice that the police dint say they broke into
his apartment because they thought there might be a Latino in there.
They said they broke into his apartment because someone had told them
there were drugs being sold there. And now they know that not only can
they get away with breaking and entering, if they think drugs are
involved, they know they can literally get away with murder if they
think drugs are involved. And not only that, they know that in Houston
Texas they can get away with it with the blessing of the District
Attorney, Johnny Holmes. And it seems understandable to me that they
will continue to believe these things until we tell them we now have a
different policy. | ||||||||||||||||
It's entirely possible that if we had a rational drug policy, then the
police would find other reasons to violate the civil rights of this or
that person. But lets take it on a case by case basis, and there can be
no doubt that in this case the excuse was our drug policy. It is
causing our society an enormous amount of harm, and it needs to be
changed. | ||||||||||||||||
As for the other possible excuses that the police might be able to use
in the future, we agree with Council member Annise Parker that Houston
should have a police review board which is independent of the police
department and which would have real subpoena power. | ||||||||||||||||
Thank you. | ||||||||||||||||
G. Alan Robison | ||||||||||||||||
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WEEKLY NEWS IN REVIEW (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
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Drug War Policy- COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Joan Jacobs, writing in the SJMN, Silicon Valley's home town
newspaper, suggests that the wired electorate of the future will be
both educable and sympathetic to drug policy reform. | ||||||||||||||||
One result might be the sort of interaction between voter and media which produced the enlightened editorial in the Toledo Blade, a paper far removed from California's medical marijuana wars, yet well educated by MAP letter writers over the past two years. | ||||||||||||||||
Another hopeful sign was the appearance of this op-ed in the Dallas
Morning News, long a bastion of mindless adherence to drug war
doctrine. | ||||||||||||||||
Speaking of mindless, Congress seized upon the need to pass a budget as a mechanism for further lavish drug war spending while also lashing out spitefully at compassionate issues- more on that later. | ||||||||||||||||
The addition of biologic warfare to the drug war arsenal is the
brainchild of McCollum and DeWine who are emerging as archetypal drug
warriors in the House and Senate, respectively. Each appears to
possess the requisite arrogance and scientific illiteracy needed to
pursue their lofty political aspirations. | ||||||||||||||||
INDEPENDENCE IS THE HALLMARK OF A NEW, GROWING CORE OF VOTERS | ||||||||||||||||
Wired Workers Reject Big-Party Politics | ||||||||||||||||
WIRED workers are the wave of the future, political analysts say. Political parties will learn to surf the new demographics, or go under. | ||||||||||||||||
Wired workers solve problems as part of self-directed teams, and regularly use computers on the job. They tend to be self-reliant, mobile, affluent, pro-free market, socially tolerant and deeply concerned about educating their children and re-educating themselves. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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DRUG PROHIBITION RIPS THE SOCIAL FABRIC | ||||||||||||||||
If We Treated Addiction As A Medical Problem, We Would Not Waste As
Much Time Hating Addicts | ||||||||||||||||
FOR better or worse, local government in California is escalating state
citizens' fight with the federal government over the old devil,
marijuana. | ||||||||||||||||
Oakland's city council, in a 5-4 vote declaring a state of emergency over a federal court's closure of one of the state's largest medical marijuana clubs, has decided to find new sources of the weed for the 2,200 people with medical dispensations to use it who were cut off. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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2 OPPONENTS OF DRUG LAWS DEFY STEREOTYPE | ||||||||||||||||
Take a moment to picture a drug-reform activist in your mind. | ||||||||||||||||
Now erase that hippie-dippy image and let me introduce you to a couple of
folks. | ||||||||||||||||
Suzanne Wills is an SMU graduate and a CPA. She has three children and
five grandchildren. | ||||||||||||||||
Rodney Pirtle is a retired Highland Park school administrator, a bigwig
in Rotary and a former college basketball coach. He, too, has three
grown children and five grandchildren. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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U.S. CONGRESS APPROVES $2.7 BILLION FOR DRUG WAR | ||||||||||||||||
WASHINGTON-U.S. Congress gave a $2.69 billion shot in the arm to the fight against Latin American drug traffickers Wednesday, saying the Clinton administration had lowered its guard on the narcotics front. | ||||||||||||||||
The money will go to buy planes, boats, radars and guns needed by the
U.S. Coast Guard, the U.S. Customs Service and Colombian police to
stop South American cocaine and heroin from reaching U.S. streets. The
Senate approved the additional anti-drug funding over the next three
years as part of the massive omnibus spending package signed into law
by President Clinton. The Western Hemisphere Drug Elimination Act,
authored by Republican Senator Mike DeWine of Ohio, beefs up
international police action, reversing a 1990s trend towards spending
more on domestic drug enforcement. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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RESEARCHERS TESTING FUNGUS IN BATTLE AGAINST NARCOTICS | ||||||||||||||||
WASHINGTON - Government researchers are testing a fungus they believe
will kill narcotics plants without harming other crops or animal life,
a potential breakthrough aimed at cutting foreign production of illegal
drugs headed for the United States. | ||||||||||||||||
Congress has approved $23 million for further research into what are known as "mycoherbicides," soil-borne fungi capable of eradicating plants that provide the raw material for cocaine, heroin and marijuana. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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Law Enforcement & Prisons- | ||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
On the heels of Amnesty International's negative report on American
criminal justice practices, we read shocking stories of deadly police
raids in which innocent civilians are killed with impunity and
inhumane prison policies which allow inmates to be killed simply to
stop fist fights. There is also a slowly increasing public awareness
of the growing size and importance of what is increasingly referred to
America's prison-industrial complex. Although the human rights
restrictions produced by our prison policy are of most concern to
social scientists, the issue which may finally force changes in policy
are most likely to be fiscal- we won't be able to afford our prison
system in lean times. | ||||||||||||||||
PANEL CLEARS SIX FROM HPD OF HOMICIDE | ||||||||||||||||
1 cop indicted on trespass | ||||||||||||||||
One of six Houston police officers under investigation in the death of Pedro Oregon Navarro was indicted Monday on a misdemeanor criminal trespass charge, while the others were no-billed on all charges. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
The man who gave police the tip on July 12 was not a registered
confidential informant and he was not handled by narcotics officers.
The officers who entered the apartment where Oregon lived were in a
gang task force in HPD's Southwest Patrol Division and had no search or
arrest warrants. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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REPORT SAYS 1.4 MILLION BLACK MEN CAN'T VOTE | ||||||||||||||||
Nationwide, 1.4 million African-American men - 13 percent of all black
men - cannot vote because of their criminal records, according to a
report Thursday by Human Rights Watch and the Sentencing Project, two
nonprofit research and advocacy groups. | ||||||||||||||||
Every state except Maine, Massachusetts, Utah and Vermont denies prisoners the right to vote. And 15 states bar former felons from voting even after they have served their sentences; 10 of them impose lifetime disenfranchisement on anyone convicted of a felony. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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SHOOTINGS IN PRISONS CONTINUE | ||||||||||||||||
High rate of killings by state guards | ||||||||||||||||
Despite efforts to cut down on prison shootings, guards in California
continue to kill and wound inmates engaged in fist fights and melees, a
practice unheard of in every other state. | ||||||||||||||||
Since late 1994, when the Department of Corrections shooting policy
came under criticism for its role in widespread inmate deaths, 12
prisoners have been shot dead and 32 wounded by guards firing assault
rifles to stop fights. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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PRISONS SEEN AS ECONOMIC BOON | ||||||||||||||||
SLO COUNTY - Would Atascadero City Manager Wade McKinney say yes to
opening a city-operated prison for minimum-security state prisoners?
Not automatically. | ||||||||||||||||
"I have mixed feelings," he said. "We'd want to look at it." | ||||||||||||||||
McKinney was city manager in Shafter when a community correctional
facility opened in 1991 as the cornerstone of the agricultural town's
effort to diversify its economy. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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Cannabis- | ||||||||||||||||
Medical marijuana, on the ballot in DC and six states, continues to create news (see http://www.mapinc.org/props.htm for the latest). | ||||||||||||||||
Ironically, in California, which passed Prop 215 just two years ago,
the Oakland Buyers Cooperative was closed by the order of a federal
judge and medical distributor Marvin Chavez' trial on felony sale
charges is scheduled to begin in Orange County the day before Election
Day. | ||||||||||||||||
Congress used the budget bill to foreclose certification of DC's vote on the issue, a sneaky and spiteful move explained by the Washington Post. The ploy will likely embarrass Congress, because although the vote won't be certified, the results will certainly be leaked. | ||||||||||||||||
In every state where a medical cannabis initiative is on the ballot, a
unique situation exists; the vote won't count in Colorado unless the
finding of the Secretary of State is reversed on appeal; in Nevada
it's part of a two stage process, Oregon has recriminalization of
recreational pot on the same ballot; in Washington state, a far more
complex initiative was defeated last year; Arizona is a redo where
"no" means "yes-" and so on. Alaska is unique simply by being
uncomplicated. | ||||||||||||||||
The federal argument against medical cannabis has been greatly simplified and standardized since 1996: medical decisions should be left to the FDA, not voters. It was delivered by District of Columbia Chief of Police from the national convention of Police Chiefs . | ||||||||||||||||
OAKLAND POT CLUB CLOSES ITS DOORS | ||||||||||||||||
Director Says Ruling Will Force Clients To Seek Street Drugs | ||||||||||||||||
Oakland's medical marijuana club has closed its doors. | ||||||||||||||||
The end came Monday after the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco denied a request by lawyers for the Oakland Cannabis Buyers' Cooperative to keep the club operating during an appeal of a federal judge's ruling, which found the club in contempt of court for continuing to distribute marijuana in violation of federal law. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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THE CHAVEZ CASE | ||||||||||||||||
The county's case against Marvin Chavez, founder of the Orange County
Patient, Doctor, Nurse support Network for selling marijuana to an
undercover officer was scheduled to begin Monday amid a flurry of
activity on the medical marijuana front. | ||||||||||||||||
Last week in Oakland, a federal judge had ordered the Cannabis Buyers
Cooperative closed, then stayed the order to give club attorneys a
chance to file an appeal. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
In the Chavez case the delay was because defense attorney James Silva discovered that the district attorney's office had not furnished the defense about 600 hundred documents - receipts and donation slips - that bore on how Mr. Chavez and his patient group operated. | ||||||||||||||||
Deputy District Attorney Carl Armbrust said he believed the documents
weren't relevant, given that two courts had already ruled in this case
that Prop. 215, the medical marijuana initiative passed by voters in
1996, would not be available as a defense. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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INITIATIVE 59: SNUFFED OUT | ||||||||||||||||
INITIATIVE 59, the Nov. 3 D.C. ballot measure that would legalize the
possession, use, cultivation and distribution of marijuana if
"recommended" by a physician for serious illnesses, got snuffed out by
Congress this week. Without giving District residents a chance to
register their views, Congress used the omnibus spending bill to kill
the voter initiative even before ballots were cast. | ||||||||||||||||
The congressional rider essentially bans funds in the FY 1999 D.C.
budget from being spent on the medical marijuana initiative. Although
ballots containing Initiative 59 have already been printed, Congress
still gets to have its way. Initiatives ratified by the voters still
must be certified by the Board of Elections and Ethics. According to
election officials, the congressional action prevents the board from
counting and certifying the results. Hence the ballot measure -
regardless of how many votes it draws on Election Day - cannot become
law. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Police chiefs from the country's largest cities
have voted to oppose ballot initiatives for the medical legalization of
marijuana or other drugs. | ||||||||||||||||
The vote of the Major City Chiefs Association, comprised of chiefs from
the 52 largest metropolitan police forces in the U.S. and Canada, was
announced Monday at the International Association of Chiefs of Police
convention in Salt Lake City. | ||||||||||||||||
MCCA President Charles H. Ramsey, chief of the District of Columbia
metropolitan police force, said "Decisions about medicine in our
country should be based on science, not popular votes." | ||||||||||||||||
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International News | ||||||||||||||||
COMMENT: (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
For months we've seen a steady stream of press reports from all over
that the world is literally awash in pure heroin. A lively debate in
the Australian press over whether the recent seizure of a record
heroin shipment would ultimately hurt more than it helped was carried
on against the backdrop of an increasing number overdose deaths and
anxious op-eds lamenting youthful drug use. | ||||||||||||||||
The press in Western Canada continued to describe a steadily
deteriorating situation in Vancouver, spreading well beyond the city
limits. A similar description from Scotland emphasizes that European
markets are glutted as well. | ||||||||||||||||
The article from Colombia bemoaning the noxious impact of newly
introduced poppy agriculture on remote Colombian villages can be
correlated with Australian writer Greg Bearup's lucid explanation of
recent changes in the global heroin market. | ||||||||||||||||
All this serves to underscore the degree to which UN Narcotics Chief
Pino Arlacchi is whistling past a heroin graveyard. | ||||||||||||||||
NOT SO USER FRIENDLY | ||||||||||||||||
HE HAD a skateboard in one hand and a cap of heroin in the other. Contact had been made quickly with the other skate boarder, the one who had been loitering for 10, maybe 20 minutes. A short word, a nod, hands connected briefly - then they walked away in different directions. Neither of them looked as if they knew which end of a shaver was up. | ||||||||||||||||
So young. The street was my local shopping strip and I had never realized that in my neighborhood kids could so easily buy hard drugs, drugs that could, and do, kill them in increasing numbers. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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DRUG TREATMENT PROPOSED FOR ENTIRE LOWER MAINLAND | ||||||||||||||||
The Vancouver/Richmond health board has endorsed a proposal that every
community in the Lower Mainland should offer a full range of drug and
HIV treatment services - from detoxification centres to needle
exchanges. | ||||||||||||||||
"If we have to fight this battle in the Downtown Eastside alone, we
will lose the battle," board medical health officer Dr. John
Blatherwick said Friday. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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HEROIN 'TIDAL WAVE' HITS FIFE | ||||||||||||||||
Drugs workers plead for more resources as addiction climbs to
inner-city Glasgow levels | ||||||||||||||||
HEROIN abuse in Fife is reaching crisis point with schoolchildren
smoking the drug in the streets, and levels of regular injectors now
rivalling those of inner-city Glasgow. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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TOWN SAYS NO! | ||||||||||||||||
SPECIAL TO THE EXAMINER - PITAYO, Colombia - Eight people were murdered
last year in this small mountain village of Paez Indians. At least six
of the deaths are blamed on a flower. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
Since the beginning of the decade when the opium poppy arrived in this indigenous Indian reservation wedged high in the Andes in southwest Colombia, the community of 5,200 residents has been disintegrating. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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HEROIN HAUL: A DROP IN THE OCEAN OR ENOUGH TO MAKE WAVES? | ||||||||||||||||
MICK PALMER, the straightforward and likable head of the Australian
Federal Police, stood proud at a podium in Sydney on Wednesday morning
to announce his troops' greatest triumph in their fight against the
drug barons. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
But the real problem for Palmer and his troops is that Australia has
become a dumping ground for the huge oversupply of China White -
high-grade South-East Asian heroin. | ||||||||||||||||
Ray Tinker, the Federal officer who co-ordinated this week's operation,
said yesterday that intelligence from Interpol, the United States Drug
Enforcement Agency (DEA) and the AFP revealed that there are now only
two main markets being targeted by the Golden Triangle's heroin lords -
Canada and Australia. | ||||||||||||||||
Much of the heroin grown in Burma, Laos and Thailand used to end up in the world's largest market, the United States, but now the South American cocaine cartels have diversified into heroin and squeezed the Chinese brokers out. Europe is dominated by Afghanistan and Turkey. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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U.N. SEES OPIUM ELIMINATED IN 10 YEARS | ||||||||||||||||
VIENNA, Oct 19 (Reuters) - The United Nations could eliminate global
opium and coca cultivation in the next 10 years, the U.N.'s chief drugs
fighter said on Monday. | ||||||||||||||||
Pino Arlacchi, executive director of the United Nations Drug Control
Programme (UNDCP), said significant progress had already been made in
restricting supply. | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
Arlacchi said governments had strengthened their resolve to fight drug cultivation, as shown by a decrease in production in most countries. | ||||||||||||||||
"That means that the international awareness that drug crops are
illegal and immoral is more and more widespread,'' he said. ``That is
why I am so confident we can achieve our goal." | ||||||||||||||||
[snip] | ||||||||||||||||
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HOT OFF THE 'NET (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
The Drew Carry show on workplace Drug Testing and the Dateline NBC
segment portraying the death of a 17 year old who was pressured by
police into undercover work in exchange for a prison sentence. Have
been added to the Legalize-USA site at: | ||||||||||||||||
David Suzuki's excellent segment on "The Nature of Things" can be
viewed at: | ||||||||||||||||
We posted a summary of this outstanding show at: | ||||||||||||||||
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TIP OF THE WEEK | ||||||||||||||||
HOW YOU CAN HELP US HELP REFORM | ||||||||||||||||
See http://www.drugsense.org/active.htm for various ways to help us out
with your time. | ||||||||||||||||
See http://www.drugsense.org/donate.htm for ways to help us out with
your money. | ||||||||||||||||
One of the things we do is sponsor state-focused email discussion lists
and web sites. We are looking for leaders to help develop lists in
every state. See: http://www.drugsense.org/lists/ | ||||||||||||||||
Focussing on a smaller area can be more rewarding than beating your
head against nationwide problems. For example, Matt Elrod focuses on
Canada (not a small area but a relatively small population). See
http://www.islandnet.com/~creator/cmap/ | ||||||||||||||||
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
`A good head and good heart are always a formidable combination. But
when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something
very special' - Nelson Mandela | ||||||||||||||||
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FACT OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
One of the major problems with supply reduction efforts (source control, interdiction, and domestic enforcement) is that "suppliers simply produce for the market what they would have produced anyway, plus enough extra to cover anticipated government seizures. | ||||||||||||||||
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QUESTION OF THE WEEK (Top) | ||||||||||||||||
Questions are selected from "17 questions for our Political Leaders" at:
http://www.mapinc.org/17ques.htm | ||||||||||||||||
If illegal drugs are so obviously harmful to people's health, why is it
necessary to put so many American adults in prison to prevent them from
using these drugs? | ||||||||||||||||
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