-Caveat Lector- ------- Forwarded message follows ------- Date sent: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 09:06:17 -0500 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] From: Elizabeth Wehrman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: FEAR: US MD: Column: The Good, The Bad And The War On Drugs Send reply to: Elizabeth Wehrman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Organization: Forfeiture Endangers American Rights http://www.fear.org/ FEAR also offers an unmoderated discussion list and digests for all lists List update: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?subject=FEAR-list-update URL: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v01.n1378.a01.html Newshawk: Sledhead - http://www.maximizingharm.com/ Pubdate: Sat, 28 Jul 2001 Source: Baltimore Sun (MD) Copyright: 2001 The Baltimore Sun, a Times Mirror Newspaper. Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: http://www.sunspot.net/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/37 Author: Gregory Kane THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE WAR ON DRUGS READ IT and scream. The story is about a man named Andrew Chambers. The Los Angeles Times and St. Louis Post-Dispatch are among the newspapers that have written about Chambers, who may become a symbol for everything that is wrong with the "war on drugs." For 16 years, Chambers was an informant for the Drug Enforcement Administration. His snitching led to the arrests of more than 400 suspects and the seizure of $6 million in assets. That's the good news. But the bad news is very bad. Chambers lied under oath on 16 different occasions. He was arrested 13 times on various charges -- including forgery and fraud -- while an informant. DEA agents either bailed him out or finagled the "justice" system into dropping the charges. DEA agents also knew of Chambers' perjury and criminal record and hid it from prosecutors and defense lawyers. But they continued shelling out the dough to him. In 16 years, Chambers made $1.8 million. Do the math. ( Lord knows, Chambers probably couldn't. He dropped out of high school ). That comes to $112,500 annually for each of the 16 years Chambers was dropping dimes on drug suspects across the country. Those of you who work real jobs for 30, 40 or 50 grand a year and who graduated from high school or college must be wondering where you went wrong, because you got chumped -- we all got chumped -- by lunkhead government officials running the "war on drugs." And this is not a partisan issue. Liberals and conservatives have supported the "war on drugs" and its primary strategy: Lock up enough black inner-city drug dealers or addicts and we'll win the war. Employ as many confidential informants as we can, even if, like Chambers, they prove to be unreliable. ( Rick Escobar, a lawyer quoted in one news story, said there are hundreds of informants like Chambers running around. ) Stop cars on the highways and search them for drugs. Frisk passengers returning from flights abroad for drugs. Kick in doors and terrorize citizens based on the tips of these informants. If we find drugs, fine. If not, it's no big deal. We're waging a war here. Candidates, both Democratic and Republican, campaign on continuing and winning the "war on drugs." But here's what they won't tell you: We're not winning it, and it probably can't be won. We've supposedly had shortages of a number of things over the years. There was an oil shortage. Drought in the West caused a water shortage. California recently experienced a power shortage. There's even been a shortage of the paper that makes up the newspaper you're now reading. But you haven't heard of a shortage of heroin or cocaine, have you? In spite of all the arrests, all the interdiction, all the searches and the doors kicked in and the trials and the snitching, there's still enough dope in America for all its drug addicts to get happily high. We look at that evidence and then nod sheepishly when politicians tell us we need not a change, but more of the same. So who's responsible for characters like Chambers? The DEA? The FBI and IRS? ( Chambers worked for them, too. ) No. We are. We're the ones who pony up tax dollars for the drug war. We're the ones funding this lunacy. We're the ones not holding politicians accountable. When someone comes along, like former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, and suggests decriminalizing drugs and treating addiction like a health crisis, we haughtily thrust our noses skyward and sniff, "We will never do that. It will send the wrong message." Perhaps it's time we consider what message we send by paying an Andrew Chambers nearly $2 million to lie. Next to him, the drug addict who candidly admits, "I just want a hit of heroin or crack," seems downright refreshing. But we prefer the hypocrisy and perfidy of a Chambers to the honesty of a drug addict. Maybe that's because we're all a bit hypocritical in the messages we send. Those drinking establishments that sell drinks at reduced prices in certain time slots and call the event "the happy hour" promote the notion that drinking makes you happy, and the more you drink, the happier you are. Those television ads that tell the kiddies beer is something you can't do without are priming us for our next generation of drug addicts. Drug war advocates will protest that assertion, claiming it comes from one of those nutty drug legalizers. Well, we drug legalizers may not know about messages. But we do know what the No. 1 drug problem in this country is. It's not heroin, and it's not cocaine or crack either. It's alcohol, which is every bit the gateway drug that marijuana is. Any true drug war has to teach our children that truth, and proponents of that war must insist that "happy hours" and television alcohol ads have to go. The booze industry will not suffer. Prohibition proved that Americans will drink. They don't need happy hours or beer ads to encourage them. What they need is an end to the "war on drugs" and fewer folks like Andrew Chambers. ****************************************************** FEAR also offers an unmoderated discussion list and digests for all lists List unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe ****************************************************** ------- End of forwarded message ------- -- Best Wishes If you want more of something, declare war on it. -??? <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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