Re: DogWorld, war on drugs corrupts America

[Briana LeClaire <mmsmom1@yahoo.com>]

Thanks for the good article.  I think they ought to legalize 'em.  Any
policemen reading this list care to weigh in on this?

Briana

John Francis <fran7371@uidaho.edu> wrote:
>
> Canyon County's use of dogs is predictable and will probably spread.
 Here
> is a career police officer's compelling argument against the war on
drugs.
> It appeared in Harpers, 7/97.
> 
> 
> 
> 	Michael Pollan's essay on poppy cultivation and the government's
> blundering policy ["Opium Made Easy," Folio, April 97] might be
appreciated
> for its whimsy and humor were it not also a chilling reminder of the
> incremental totalitarianism that the war on drugs has produced. 
During my
> thirty-five year career I served in the New York City Police
Department and
> as chief of police in Kansas City, Missouri, and San Jose, California.
> Since my retirement in 1991, I have tried to expose the hypocrisy,
> corruption, violence, and racism inherent in America's doomed war
against
> drugs.
> 
> 	It is difficult to generate a rational debate on our national drug
policy,
> because the issue is largely religious in nature.  The groups who
> successfully lobbied to criminalize drugs a century ago saw drug use
as
> sinful and succeeded in codifying their religious view in the nation's
> penal statutes.  This is that drugs and drug users have been
demonized.
> The prohibition of alcohol resulted in violence, corruption, and
widespread
> disrespect for the law.  So has the prohibition of other drugs.  In
the
> best Orwellian tradition, drug war hawks call for ever more severe
> punishments while turning a blind eye to institutionalized corruption,
> official perjury, and the increasing erosion of civil rights in
America.
> As a result of draconian criminal penalties, $500 worth of drugs in a
> source country brings $100,000 on the streets of an American city. 
All the
> cops, prisons, and armies in the world cannot overcome such a profit
> margin.
> 
> 	The first casualty in war is truth.  It is one thing for the DEA to
lie
> about how opium is produced and its effect on users but quite
another to
> put hundreds of thousands of people in jail using illegal police
methods.
> In 1995 police made roughly one million arrests for possession of
drugs.
> Such arrests should require a search warrant, yet very few warrants
were
> used.  In hundreds of thousands of cases, otherwise honest police
officers
> feel justified in illegally searching people and then lying about it
under
> oath.  They call it "testilying" or "white perjury."  In cities all
across
> the country, thugs with badges have planted evidence, sold drugs, and
> committed other drug related crimes that are often protected by a
police
> code of silence.
> 
> 	Pollan is right to fear government reprisal for his writing. 
Despite my
> years in policing, some top law-enforcement officials have wondered
out
> loud whether I have "gone over to the other side" and started using
drugs
> since my retirement.  I have been labeled an enemy simply for
criticizing
> antidrug paranoia.  In the minds of many law-enforcement officers, the
> enemy is automatically guilty and must be destroyed.   Some of the
> officials reading Pollan's article will undoubtedly believe that his
future
> gardening should take place on a prison farm.  I hope he has a good
lawyer.
> 
> Joseph D. McNamara
> Stanford, Calif.
> [Harper's Magazine, July 1997.  p. 6]
> 
> John Francis
> 311 East 6th St., #2, Moscow, ID 83843
> (208) 883-0105     fran7371@uidaho.edu
> 
> 
> 
> 
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