The Week Online with DRCNet, Issue #145 - July 14, 2000
     A Publication of the Drug Reform Coordination Network

          -------- PLEASE COPY AND DISTRIBUTE --------

(To sign off this list, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the
 line signoff drc-natl in the body of the message, or
 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] for assistance.  To subscribe to
 this list, visit <http://www.drcnet.org/signup.html>.  To
 make a donation, visit <http://www.drcnet.org/drcreg.html>.
 This issue can be also be read on our web site at
<http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html>.  Past issues can be
 accessed through <http://www.drcnet.org/wol/archives.html>.)

Shadow Conventions coming up 7/30-8/2 in Philadelphia and 8/14-
8/16 in Los Angeles -- come out and be a part of these historic 
events!  See http://www.drcnet.org/wol/143.html#shadowconventions 
and http://www.shadowconventions.com for info.  Register and 
print flyers from <http://www.drugpolicy.org/shadowconventions/>.

DRCNet urgently needs your donations to support our legislative 
alert program as we approach 16,000 subscribers!  Visit
http://www.drcnet.org/drcreg.html to help keep it happening.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1.  Clinton Grants Commutations to Five Federal Drug War
    Prisoners, Four Women, One Man Go Free, 90,000 Remain Behind
    Bars on Federal Drug Charges
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#commutations 

2.  SET THEM FREE:  What You Can Do to Help the Jubilee and
    Related Campaigns
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#setthemfree

3.  "Mad Mark" or "Sour Souder"?  Indiana Congressman Introduces
    Bill to Preempt State Level Drug Law Reforms
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#soursouder 
  
4.  Asset Forfeiture:  Florida Task Force So Out of Control Even
    the Feds are Embarrassed
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#impactforce 

5.  District of Columbia:  City Council Leaps Backward, Heightens
    Marijuana Penalties
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#dcpenalties 

6.  Jamaica Church Leaders Say "Legalize It"
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#jamaica 

7.  Portugal Decriminalizes Drug Use and Possession, Prescription
    Heroin and Injection Rooms Coming Next? 
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#portugal 

8.  Michigan Initiative Effort Fails to Obtain Necessary
    Signatures
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#michiganinit 

9.  Drug Czar Seeks Deal With Hollywood to Include Anti-Drug
    Messages in Films
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#moviedeal

10. FBI's New Toy Spies on E-Mail, Has Bob Barr "Frightened"
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#fbicarnivore 

11. ALERTS:  Mandatory Minimums, Free Speech, California, New
    Jersey, New York, Washington State
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#actionalerts

12. HEA Campaign
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#heacampaign

13. Event Calendar
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#eventcalendar

14. Attorney Position Opening at ACLU National Drug Policy
    Litigation Project
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#aclujob

15. EDITORIAL:  Set Our People Free
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#editorial

================

1. Clinton Grants Commutations to Five Federal Drug War
   Prisoners, Four Women, One Man Go Free, 90,000 Remain Behind
   Bars on Federal Drug Charges
   http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#commutations 
  
On Friday, July 7th, President Clinton granted sentence 
commutations to five drug war prisoners.  Amy Pofahl, Serena 
Nunn, Louise House, Shawndra Mills, and Alain Orozco walked out 
of prison the same day. 
  
The commutations came just days after Pope John Paul II called on 
governments worldwide to make "a gesture of clemency" to 
prisoners.  On June 30th, the Pope urged "a reduction, even a 
modest one, of the term of punishment" before Jubilee Day (July 
9th), when Catholic bishops around the world visited prisoners. 
  
Pofahl, whose case was featured in Glamour magazine and in the 
book "Shattered Lives: Portraits From America's Drug War," had 
already served nearly ten years of a no-parole 24-year sentence 
on conspiracy charges related to her ex-husband's participation 
in an Ecstasy production and distribution ring.  He got three 
years of probation in the US, but also served a four-year 
sentence in Germany. 
  
Pofahl told the authors of Shattered Lives, "Federal agents 
promised that if I refused to help them gain the information 
against my husband, they would destroy my life.  This they did." 
  
Serena Nunn, 30, had served ten years of a 14-year sentence for 
conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine.  She was one of 
several women profiled in a 1997 Minneapolis Star-Tribune series 
about women who played peripheral roles in drug operations, but 
received harsher sentences than the principals because they 
refused to cooperate with federal authorities out of loyalty to 
their loved ones. 
  
Nunn, a former high school homecoming queen, cheerleader and 
member of the school newspaper and yearbook staffs, committed the 
offense of dating the son of a man in federal agents' gun sights 
for cocaine trafficking.  Although many of the group's members 
received reduced sentences after cooperating with authorities, 
Nunn refused to inform on her boyfriend.  Her sentence was double 
that of one of the operation's leaders. 
  
Nunn benefited from a campaign by federal, state, and local 
officials -- including the judge who sentenced her -- to secure 
her release. 
  
US District Judge David Doty wrote a three-page letter to 
President Clinton saying he favored reducing her sentence.  He 
told the President he believed that mandatory minimums sentencing 
guidelines were unfairly applied to Nunn. 
  
But Doty told the Star-Tribune Nunn's case was not unusual.  "It 
happens not daily but weekly that we are giving sentences in drug 
cases that are horrendous," he said.  "None of us are happy with 
mandatory minimums." 
  
Details of the House, Mills, and Orozco cases were not available 
at press time. 
  
Organizations devoted to reforming harsh federal drug sentencing 
laws welcomed the commutations, but said they failed to address 
the fundamental inequity of federal drug sentencing laws. 
  
"We're thrilled that five sentences were commuted, but we wish 
Clinton would go further and examine these sentencing laws," 
Monica Pratt of Families Against Mandatory Minimums (FAMM -- 
http://www.famm.org) told DRCNet. 
  
"This is just selective altruism unless something is done about 
mandatory minimums," said Pratt.  "Unless the laws are corrected, 
these sorts of injustices will continue.  These commutations are 
great for the people involved, but they are subjective and that's 
really not fair." 
  
"I wish he would acknowledge something is wrong with sentencing 
laws, I wish he said we should review mandatory minimums," she 
added. 
  
White House aides told the Associated Press that Clinton commuted 
the sentences because they were "too harsh" for the drug crimes 
under which they were convicted. 
  
The aides added that pardon or commutation requests from other 
drug war prisoners are making their way to the president's desk 
for possible action. 
  
Among those seeking commutations is Kemba Smith, a young 
Richmond, Virginia woman serving 24 years for minor involvement 
in her boyfriend's cocaine dealing activities.  She had turned 
herself in and was cooperating with authorities, but after the 
boyfriend was murdered her cooperation was no longer needed. 
  
Smith has been prominently featured in campaigns aimed at 
redressing the evils of current federal drug sentencing laws, and 
her story has twice graced the cover of Emerge, a national news 
magazine focusing on the African American community, under the 
title "Kemba's Nightmare."  (Visit the Kemba Smith Justice 
Project at http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/8899/ for 
further information.) 
  
Kemba's father, Gus Smith, told DRCNet, "I'm glad for Amy and the 
others that they're free.  It makes me very optimistic," he said.  
"I think this shows that Clinton recognized these disparities and 
that they needed to be corrected, and that's a very good sign." 
  
As for Kemba, her father reports that her petition for a pardon 
was filed on Wednesday.  In the meantime, said Gus Smith, "She's 
doing pretty good, considering.  She has probably received 4,000 
letters.  She's teaching African history and Excel and 
Powerpoint." 
  
Kemba Smith has done six years now.  Without a pardon or 
commutation she will not be released until 2018.  Her father told 
DRCNet that he wished to thank all of Kemba's supporters and 
asked them to continue to write the president and ask for a 
pardon for her.  "We'll continue to work for liberty and justice 
for all," he said. 
  
A massive petition campaign directed at Clinton may help him find 
the political will to grant more such reprieves.  The November 
Coalition, a drug war prisoners' support group, is organizing the 
Jubilee Justice 2000 (http://www.jubileejustice.org) petition 
drive to ask President Clinton to commute the sentences of 
thousands of federal prisoners. 
  
The November Coalition will collect signatures up until the end 
of Clinton's term, but will have a massive petition turn-in in 
Washington, DC, in October.  November Coalition leaders will be 
in the nation's capital to receive the prestigious Letelier-
Moffet Human Rights Award from the Institute for Policy Studies. 
  
In its letter notifying the Coalition of the award, the Institute 
wrote, "The selection committee chose your organization in 
recognition of your collective struggle against one of the great 
injustices of our time." 
  
The petition drive takes as its cue Biblical passages calling for 
a Jubilee every 50 years to "proclaim liberty throughout the 
land" (Leviticus 25:10) and "because the Lord has anointed me; he 
has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the 
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release 
to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor..." 
(Isaiah 61: 1-2). 
  
In his introduction to the Jubilee campaign, Eric Sterling, 
president of the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, wrote: 
"Jubilee Justice 2000 is a campaign to educate the public about 
the need for sentencing reform, and ultimately to persuade the 
President to commute the sentences of thousands of Federal 
prisoners before he leaves office." 
  
If the manner in which last week's commutations were announced is 
any indication, Clinton needs all the political pressure such a 
campaign can provide.  The commutations were the last item on a 
daily press list of White House activities, and they were 
announced late on a Friday afternoon, ensuring that mass media 
coverage, if any, would occur over the weekend, when fewer people 
are watching the news.

================

2. SET THEM FREE:  What You Can Do to Help the Jubilee and
   Related Campaigns
   http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#setthemfree

Please help the campaigns for Jubilee Justice 2000, Free Kemba 
Smith and to repeal mandatory minimum sentencing and end the 
failed and unjust war on drugs.  Here's what you can do:

1) Visit http://www.drcnet.org/justice/ to send a letter to 
Congress calling for the repeal of mandatory minimum sentencing.

2) Visit http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/8899/ and 
click on "What You Can Do" to help the campaign for a 
presidential pardon for Kemba Smith.

3) Join the Jubilee Justice 2000 petition drive.  Visit 
http://www.jubileejustice.org and click on "download the 
petition" to get your first copy.  Print them out and hand them 
out, leave them in coffee shops, activist centers, bookstores, 
etc.  Sign a copy, and if you are willing, go out and seek 
signatures from others.

4) Volunteer to help the November Coalition input the petition 
data.  E-mail John Chase, volunteer coordinator, at 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] to sign up.

5) Subscribe to DRCNet's new Jubilee Justice list, for alerts and 
info on this and other campaigns on behalf of drug war prisoners 
-- visit http://www.drcnet.org/jubilee-signup/ to subscribe.  
This is a one-way announcement list, like this DRC-NATL Week 
Online/Rapid Response Team list, for reformers who want to 
receive more information on prisons and sentencing and who don't 
want to wait until Friday to get it.  This new list,
[EMAIL PROTECTED], is not formally affiliated with the 
Jubilee Justice campaign, but will support it and other similar 
efforts.

================

3. "Mad Mark" or "Sour Souder"?  Indiana Congressman Introduces
   Bill to Preempt State Level Drug Law Reforms
   http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#soursouder 
   
One of the House's leading drug war zealots has introduced a bill 
to preempt the wave of successful initiatives designed to allow 
the use of marijuana for medical purposes.  The bill, introduced 
by Rep. Mark Souder (R-IN), would also render impotent any state 
initiatives or legislation attempting to reform laws dealing with 
any controlled substance. 
  
House Bill 4802, introduced by Souder on June 29th, says Congress 
will supersede any state or local laws that: 
  
"permit or purport to authorize the use, growing, manufacture, 
distribution, or importation by an individual or group of 
marijuana or any controlled substance which differs from the 
provisions of the Controlled Substances Act... Any law, 
regulation, or ordinance purporting to establish such different 
requirement, prohibition, or standard shall be null and void." 
  
The bill has been referred to the House Judiciary and Commerce 
committees. 
  
Voters in seven states and the District of Columbia have passed 
initiatives to legalize medical marijuana.  Hawaii recently 
became the first state to decriminalize medical marijuana through 
the legislative process. 
  
Souder said efforts to make medical use legal "is just a phony 
excuse to be a pothead." 
  
That didn't sit well with Dr. Rick Bayer, one of two chief 
petitioners in Oregon's successful 1996 medical marijuana 
initiative.  Bayer, an MD who practices internal medicine, told 
DRCNet, "That's ridiculous.  He obviously has no idea what it's 
like to try to practice medicine and try to take care of people 
will serious and terminal illnesses." 
  
"I'm outraged to have a congressman or cop try to tell me how to 
treat a patient," growled Bayer. 
  
Souder has also taken some hits on the home front, first in an 
exchange of letters with NORML executive director Keith Stroup 
published in his hometown paper, the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, 
and then from the Journal-Gazzette's own editorial page.  (Go
to http://www.jg.net/jg/ and search their archives for "medical 
marijuana.") 
  
The newspaper attacked Souder for insulting the intelligence of 
voters in states that have chosen the medical marijuana route, 
for suggesting that their votes could be "bought" by George 
Soros, for belittling patients' suffering, and, most 
emphatically, for violating conservative principles of individual 
freedom and states' rights. 
  
Stroup told DRCNet that Souder's bill had little chance of 
passing. 
  
"Souder wants to wipe out the will of the voters with a stroke of 
the pen in Congress," said Stroup.  "I doubt many members are 
willing to make that statement, because they respect basic tenets 
of democracy." 
  
"His zealotry is overwhelming his common sense here," added 
Stroup.  "This doesn't strike me as necessarily sophisticated," 
he said, "trying to accomplish that which cannot be done." 
  
Citing the Constitution's supremacy clause, Souder argued that 
states cannot pass laws that contradict federal law, thus state 
laws to relax drug penalties can have no effect. 
  
Souder wrote that his bill would ensure that "the longstanding 
federal laws against the use of marijuana and narcotic drugs take 
precedence over efforts to change those laws in the states." 
  
He called it a "technical matter." 
  
Stroup disagreed on several counts.  "Contrary to the overly 
simplistic analysis offered by the congressman," wrote Stroup, 
"not all federal laws overrule state law.  In fact, only when 
Congress specifically declares its intentions to usurp the field 
does federal law trump state law, and no such declaration has 
been made regarding marijuana policy." 
  
"Souder is trying to declare the intent of Congress," Stroup told 
DRCNet, "and if he were successful then all of a sudden federal 
law would overrule state laws.  But not now." 
  
Stroup told DRCNet his argument was based on an analysis of the 
issue done by the California Legislative Council prior to the 
passage of Proposition 215, the state's medical marijuana 
initiative.  That research found that the Controlled Substances 
Act, the bedrock legislation of the drug laws, did not declare 
any Congressional intent to supersede state laws. 
  
Also, said Stroup, the council concluded that the supremacy 
clause kicks in only when state and federal laws are in direct 
conflict. 
  
"Were a state to decide to set up a legally regulated market, as 
the Oregon initiative proposes, that would be a direct conflict 
and the feds would override the state law," said Stroup.  "But a 
state could constitutionally remove all drug laws, and that would 
not be a direct conflict." 
  
In most cases, Stroup said, the drafters of medical marijuana 
initiatives have avoided direct conflicts with federal law on the 
advice of their attorneys. 
  
For Dr. Bayer it less a matter of constitutional subtleties than 
an attack on the free practice of medicine relationship within 
the context of a broader assault on fundamental freedoms. 
  
"This would be an extreme violation of the doctor-patient 
relationship," said Bayer.  "Congressman Souder should not be 
practicing medicine." 
  
"It sounds like he's trying to be a tough guy in the war on drugs 
and promote himself by encouraging the arrest of sick and dying 
patients.  The public will not stand for it," he predicted. 
  
Congressman Souder has quite a track record as a drug war tough 
guy.  Here are some of his more notable quotes and achievements: 
  
 * Sponsored the "smoke a joint, lose your loan" provisions in 
the Higher Education Act.
  
 * On Colombia I:  Colombia is not like Vietnam, said Souder, 
because Colombia is "stable," an idiosyncratic description of a 
country involved in a 35-year civil war.
  
 * On Colombia II:  If the US fails to "put any military in to 
help them fight our problem," said Souder, the dominoes will 
start toppling.  "Are we just going to let Colombia fall?  
Venezuela fall?  Bolivia fall?  Peru fall?  Ecuador fall?  Our 
hemisphere fall?  I don't think so.  We aren't going to lose our 
hemisphere to narco-terrorists." 

 * On Mexico:  Souder suggested that future certification be made 
conditional on Mexico allowing US Coast Guard officers to board 
and inspect ships in Mexican territorial waters.
  
 * On whether to discuss drug law reform:  "We don't debate the 
pros and cons of rape or child abuse.  We don't bring rapists in 
here to explain their views."
  
 * Explaining his opposition to needle exchange programs:  "A 
woman gets raped in the street by a heroin addicts, what are we 
going to tell her when she finds out that the needle that enabled 
that addict to get the heroin and then get him on the street to 
rape her came from" a government needle-exchange program.
  
 * On the marijuana/crime nexus:  "In my hometown in Fort Wayne 
and throughout northeast Indiana and throughout this country, 
kids are dying in the streets, they are dying in automobile 
wrecks, they are getting shot down as innocent bystanders in drug 
wars, most of which started in some kind of combination of 
cigarettes, alcohol, and marijuana."
  
 * Souder led the campaign to abort the nomination of former 
Massachusetts Republican Governor William Weld to be ambassador 
to Mexico.  Weld had spoken in favor of medical marijuana.  For 
Souder, this made Weld "an embarrassment to the US government."

================

4. Asset Forfeiture:  Florida Task Force So Out of Control Even
   the Feds are Embarrassed
   http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#impactforce 
  
DRCNet readers are all too familiar with the horror stories 
generated by asset forfeiture, the civil procedure the government 
uses to seize cash, bank accounts, houses, cars, and other 
properties it claims are the fruit of crime.  In fact, the 
national chorus of complaints grew so loud that Congress was 
finally forced to pass a modest asset forfeiture reform bill this 
year. 
  
But the new law only applies to federal seizures.  The vast 
majority of drug arrests and attendant seizures occur at the 
state and local level.  Now, US News & World Report has reported 
on a particularly egregious example of entrepreneurial policing 
and seizure fever run amok. 
  
The South Florida Impact Task Force, operating out of Coral 
Gables, has been a rousing success by drug war standards.  
Impact's 50 officers, detailed from state and local law 
enforcement agencies, have seized more than $140 million in 
suspect funds and confiscated 30 tons of cocaine and almost seven 
tons of marijuana. 
  
Impact officers have arrested 532 people and been responsible for 
71 deportations since the task force came into being in 1993. 
  
The task force has pumped millions of dollars in seized funds 
into the accounts of participating police agencies.  Drug czar 
Barry McCaffrey even cited it as an example of effective law 
enforcement. 
  
But not everyone is so pleased.  Its critics include the DEA, the 
Justice Department, and law enforcement experts, as well as 
defense attorneys and civil libertarians.  The critics also 
include legitimate businessmen who had the misfortune to 
encounter the Impact Task Force: 
  
 * Penn Industries, a family-run Oklahoma City auto parts 
distributor had $78,000 in its bank accounts seized after Impact 
noticed Penn's sole Colombian customer had used a money exchange 
to deposit $2,500 in Penn's account.  Impact claimed the money 
was profits from illegal drug deals.  After two months of 
negotiations and $13,000 in legal fees, Penn got its money back
-- except for $3,000. 
  
 * In 1998, Hernon Manufacturing of Orlando, an epoxy 
manufacturer, had $30,000 seized from its bank accounts after 
Impact again found a transaction with a lone Colombian client.  
The money, less $6,000 for Impact's "legal fees," was returned 
four months later. 
  
 * That same year, Omega Medical Instruments, a small medical 
equipment supplier in Wilmington, NC, had its accounts seized as 
well.  Impact had found a cash deposit from a Colombian client.  
Most of the funds were returned early this year. 
  
"There was no due process," Penn's Clay Waterman told US News.  
"Whatever happened to innocent until proven guilty?" 
  
"This is not too much different from the Sheriff of Nottingham, 
except we don't have any Robin Hood," Robert Bauman told DRCNet.  
Bauman, a former Maryland congressman, is on the board of the 
forfeiture reform organization Forfeiture Endangers American 
Rights (FEAR -- http://www.fear.org). 
  
"I wish I could say this was unusual, but it's not and it's been 
going on for a long time," added Bauman.  "That doesn't justify 
this conduct, but it doesn't surprise me." 
  
But there is more to this story than merely some overreaching by 
enthusiastic drug warriors.  The South Florida Impact Task Force 
appears to have some unique and disturbing features. 
  
Impact is an entirely self-funding operation.  In other words, to 
survive it must seize assets.  Asset forfeiture is both its 
reason and its means for existing.  This institutional imperative 
to search and seize led to what US News qualified as 
"overaggressive" property seizures. 
  
There is more.  Woody Kirk, a retired US Customs officer who 
cofounded the task force with former FBI agent Mike Wald, had 
financial arrangements with Impact that has raised eyebrows and 
tempers across the board.  While Wald joined Impact as a Coral 
Gables police commander, Kirk signed on as a full-time 
consultant. 
  
With a string of potentially valuable informers in tow from his 
days as a money-laundering investigator at Customs, Kirk cut a 
deal with Impact in which the task force gave him a 25% cut of 
all assets he helped seize. 
  
He earned $625,000 in just the first year of the task force's 
operations.  "It was," Kirk told US News, "a very good deal." 
  
Joseph McNamara, formerly chief of police in San Jose and Kansas 
City and currently a research fellow at Stanford University's 
Hoover Institute, was surprised.  "I'm writing a book about 
thousands of cases where cops abuse asset forfeiture, but I've 
never heard of anything that formal," he told DRCNet. 
  
Neal Sonnett, the Miami-based former president of the National 
Association of Criminal Defense lawyers, was incredulous.  "This 
is very strange," he told DRCNet.  "They're a vigilante group." 
  
It was a little too strange even for the Justice Department, 
which threatened to end cooperation with the task force unless 
the deal was halted.  To comply, Impact put Kirk on a $10,666 
monthly retainer. 
  
But the creative Kirk still wasn't done.  He confirmed to US News 
that he had begun asking his informants to sign contracts handing 
him a 15% commission on rewards they received from asset 
forfeiture cases.  He lent one informant $115,000 as an "advance" 
on future seizure income; in another case, Kirk lent an informant 
$50,000 in return for a 60% share. 
  
Such deals are apparently not illegal under existing law, but 
even Kirk's colleagues in the drug war can barely stomach this.  
"It's abhorrent, it just grates on the nerves of a lot of cops 
who've done the work that Kirk has done," former Customs agent 
Bill Gately told US News. 
  
"In money laundering investigations there can be no room for any 
personal interest in any transaction," former DEA dirty money 
specialist John Moynihan told the magazine. 
  
McNamara, however, pointed out that it was only Kirk's brazenness 
that was unusual.  "Lots of people personally profit from the 
drug war, and not just crooked police," he said.  "Drug testing 
labs, mandatory treatment programs, police and prison guards 
unions, and don't forget the cartels.  Eisenhower warned us about 
the military-industrial complex; there's a drug war complex as 
well." 
  
What the Impact Task Force has done "shouldn't be done," McNamara 
added, "but until these laws are repealed this kind of corruption 
is waiting to happen and does happen every day." 
  
"It's inherent in the conception of the current statutes, because 
the money substantially goes for the police to augment salaries, 
budgets, and expenses," the ex-chief explained.  "There's an 
incentive for police to take property." 
  
But there is still more.  Under the tutelage of Kirk, one of the 
Impact Task Force's techniques was the money laundering sting.  
To gain credibility with suspected money launderers, Impact 
itself laundered more than $120 million since 1994.  Most of that 
money went back to drug dealers. 
  
Ex-DEA analyst Moynihan told US News, "You want to seize at least 
twice what you launder.  If not, you're creating as much crime as 
you're solving." 
  
Impact's overseers, a committee of state and local officials, 
have no problems with the task force, but now the DEA and Customs 
have announced they have severed ties with Impact, and the 
Justice Department is conducting a review that could halt all 
federal cooperation with the task force. 
  
McNamara is not reassured.  "When it comes to the war on drugs, 
the feds are the worst.  They certainly fought tooth and nail 
against federal asset forfeiture reforms.  They think they're 
fighting a holy war, so anything goes.  Forget about the Bill of 
Rights or ethics as long as they're fighting the evil of drugs." 
  
"This is just another example of the moral bankruptcy of the war 
on drugs," he concluded.

================

5. District of Columbia:  City Council Leaps Backward, Heightens
   Marijuana Penalties
   http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#dcpenalties 
  
Caving in to pressure from Congressional overseers and the US 
Attorney, the DC City Council voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to 
make distribution of marijuana a felony subject to a maximum 
five-year prison term. 
  
Under DC's municipal criminal code, all marijuana offenses had 
previously been misdemeanors. 
  
Because of sentencing "reform" legislation mandated by Congress 
and passed by the Council the same day, anyone sent to prison on 
a marijuana felony will serve at least 85% of his sentence with 
no possibility of parole. 
  
The bill also classifies the felony manufacture, distribution, or 
possession with intent to distribute marijuana as a "dangerous 
crime," which allows the court to hold persons charged under 
those provisions without bail. 
  
On the positive side, the bill does exempt first offenders 
selling a half-pound or less from the felony penalties.  Instead, 
such persons will be charged with misdemeanors and face a maximum 
six months in the DC jail. 
  
Wayne Turner of ACTUP DC, who was one of the chief organizers of 
the District's medical marijuana initiative, saw a small measure 
of good news in the bill.  "The good news is that the US Attorney 
says she won't prosecute patients; she's never said that before," 
said Turner.  "Still, we can't take her word on it; we'll be 
watching carefully." 
  
"And we still have the medical use defense here in DC," he added, 
"so we will be working on a patient support project so patients 
can get their doctors' letters of authorization and have them in 
hand in the case of trouble." 
  
The bill will become law unless vetoed by Mayor Anthony Williams, 
but Williams is expected to sign the measure. 
  
The Council's action came largely at the urging of US Attorneys, 
with added pressure from Congress.  The District of Colombia is 
unique in that its residents can be prosecuted under either the 
DC municipal criminal code or under federal law.  The decision to 
choose one or the other rests with the US Attorney's office. 
  
In 1996, then US Attorney Eric Holder attempted and failed to 
persuade the Council to toughen DC marijuana laws. 
  
In 1998, DC voters expressed their support for medical marijuana 
by voting more than 2-to-1 for a District medical marijuana 
initiative.  Congress, however, has blocked the initiative from 
taking effect. 
  
In 1999, current US Attorney Wilma Lewis renewed Holder's 
crusade.  Lewis raised the specter of "marijuana violence" and 
argued that DC's lax laws made it a haven for marijuana peddlers. 
  
Turner told DRCNet, "Lewis came in talking about this enormous 
increase in marijuana violence, but she had no numbers to back 
her up." 
  
For Keith Stroup, executive director of NORML, Lewis's argument 
is "totally disengenuous." 
  
"Look," Stroup told DRCNet, "The US Attorneys come running in 
here saying 'we can't do anything about those marijuana dealers,' 
but that is the opposite of the truth.  The US Attorneys can 
prosecute any case they want under the much harsher federal 
laws." 
  
"Council members were covering their asses politically with the 
US Attorney," said Stroup.  "Our elected council cared more about 
the will of the US Attorney than the will of the voters." 
  
And, Turner noted, the Council was also heeding pressure from 
Capitol Hill.  "We had Sen. Kaye Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) sitting 
up there asking every day about the progress of that bill.  I'm 
sure the Council took notice." 
  
Opponents of the measure, including medical marijuana activists, 
community groups, and what Council Member Charlene Drew Jarvis 
derisively referred to as "yuppies and buppies" testified to no 
avail. 
  
National drug reform and criminal justice organizations also 
opposed the bill.  "I testified," Stroup said, "and so did the 
ACLU, the Drug Policy Foundation and others." 
  
"Even though our focus is national, we did what we could with our 
limited local resources," said Stroup.  "We spent hours preparing 
testimony, and we managed to get the half-pound provision 
inserted, but that isn't nearly enough." 
  
Council Member Harold Brazil introduced the bill and, as Stroup 
puts it, "Without Brazil carrying water for US Attorney Wilma 
Lewis, this never would have happened." 
  
Turner agreed.  "Brazil actually supported the medical marijuana 
initiative, but now he's toeing the line for Wilma." 
  
Brazil claimed to be concerned about violence and open-air drug 
markets, but Stroup countered that violence and corruption are a 
function of the black market.  "If they want to end the violence, 
they should legally regulate the market." 
  
That could be difficult to do now.  In the District's annual 
appropriation bill, Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), the same man who 
blocked the District's medical marijuana initiative, inserted 
language barring any reduction in marijuana penalties by the 
District. 
  
The appropriations bill is an annual bill, so that language 
remains in effect only until a new appropriations bill is passed.  
But given the makeup of the Congress, such language is likely to 
be reinserted. 
  
"That's why I'm very excited about the November elections," said 
Turner.  "I don't care who wins the White House, but ending 
Republican control of the Congress would really brighten our 
prospects here in the District."

================

6. Jamaica Church Leaders Say "Legalize It"
   http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#jamaica 
  
Jamaica's Weekly Gleaner reported last week that at least one 
prominent church leader has called for legalizing drugs, 
beginning with marijuana, and that his call is finding support 
among other prominent Christian churchmen. 
  
The Rev. Oliver Daley of the United Church in Jamaica and the 
Cayman Islands, a widely respected religious leader, told the 
Gleaner it is "illogical, hypocritical, and oppressive" to 
criminally sanction marijuana. 
  
Noting that, in his view, the addictiveness and dangerousness of 
marijuana remained unproven, Daley said it was certainly not a 
"natural born killer" like alcohol and tobacco, both of which are 
legal. 
  
The reverend took pains to point out that his stand does not mean 
the church endorses drug use and he added that he considered the 
drug trade to be the single greatest threat to the fabric of 
Jamaican society. 
  
But, he said, not everything that might be a sin should 
necessarily be a crime.  Rev. Daley took adultery as an example.  
It is a sin, he said, but it would be impractical to make it 
illegal, something the church learned long ago.  Now, said the 
reverend, politicians need to learn the same lesson regarding 
drugs. 
  
Daley's comments build on positions he took in the 1999 Synod 
Papers of his church, which argued that: 

 * In spite of all the draconian laws drugs are available at any 
street corner in any of our communities.
  
 * More people seem to die from the trade than from the use. 

 * All public officials -- courts, customs, law enforcement 
agencies -- are vulnerable to the corruption of the drug lords, 
and our society has become more dangerous to live in.
  
 * Our prisons and legal system are overtaxed with the 
consequence of prohibition.
  
 * Prohibition did not work at the start of the 20th century, and 
it surely is not working at the close.  When things are 
prohibited, but retain an economic value, we tend to behave more 
like the beasts than like the gods. 
  
In other comments to the Gleaner, Rev. Daley remarked on the 
irony that the very people employed to suppress the drug trade 
themselves live off of it.  "If illegal drugs were to disappear," 
he said, "these law enforcement officials would be rendered 
irrelevant and out of a job." 
  
"This situation diminishes the moral authority of many of those 
employed to wage war against drugs," he said. 
  
Rev. Daley said that while it may be difficult for Jamaica to 
legalize cocaine, "where ganja is concerned, where we are a major 
supplier, and where it is a substance bearing cultural and 
religious relevance to some in our society," legalization would 
be both right and reasonable. 
  
Daley's comments sparked cautious support from other clergymen.  
Bishop Robert Foster of the Moravian Church told the Gleaner that 
the case for legalization should be "carefully considered."  
Foster added that he would welcome anything that diminished the 
economic value of black market drugs and the greed it engenders. 
  
The Reverend Stanley Clarke, former president of the Jamaican 
Council of Churches, offered nuanced support for Daley's 
position.  Clarke told the Gleaner he would be reluctant to 
legalize hard drugs, but that ganja was different.  "In the 
current Jamaican environment it is senseless to arrest someone 
for a spliff or for growing a plot of weed for personal use -- 
making a criminal out of someone for a harmless activity." 
  
The Gleaner did not query the Rastafarians, but the ganja-
consuming religionists are presumably in full support of moves to 
legalize Jah herb. 
  
The call by Rev. Daley comes in the wake of a move by the 
Jamaican Senate last fall to establish a commission to examine 
legalization of marijuana.  In October, the Senate unanimously 
passed that resolution. 
  
It was sponsored by Sen. Trevor Monroe (Independent), who also 
sponsored legislation to make possession of small amounts of 
marijuana a non-criminal offense and to establish a medical 
marijuana research center.  Those bills died in parliament. 
  
The commission to study legalization will not be the first.  In 
1977, a parliamentary commission recommended decriminalizing 
marijuana, mandating a $10 fine for public use and allowing 
doctors to prescribe it.  Despite the conclusions of its 
commission, parliament refused to enact reform legislation, 
largely for fear of offending the United States.

================

7. Portugal Decriminalizes Drug Use and Possession, Prescription
   Heroin and Injection Rooms Coming Next? 
   http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#portugal 
  
The Portuguese parliament voted on July 6 to decriminalize the 
use and possession of illegal drugs.  The measure, which includes 
both "soft" drugs such as marijuana and "hard" drugs such as 
heroin and cocaine, keeps criminal penalties for production and 
trafficking in illegal drugs. 
  
"The idea is to get away from punishment and move toward 
treatment," a spokesman for the Ministry of the Presidency, which 
handles drug policy, told Reuters. 
  
Under existing Portuguese law, drug users and possessors faced up 
to a year in jail.  Now, instead of a criminal charge, offenders 
will be charged with an "offense against the social order" and 
fined.  Police will report drug takers to special local 
commissions, which are charged with ensuring that addicts seek 
treatment.  The fines will be waived if the offender accepts drug 
treatment. 
  
"It was agreed that in relation to drug addicts, a fine system 
will no longer be applied; a sick person should not be compelled 
to pay a fine.  He should instead be supported under the best 
possible circumstances," said Left Bloc Deputy Francisco Louçã. 
  
The ruling Socialist Party needed help from the Communist Party, 
the Left Bloc and ecological parties to win the vote.  The 
measure survived a negative publicity campaign by the 
conservative Social Democratic Party, which bought ads in five 
major newspapers, Narco News reported 
(http://www.narconews.com/portugal1.html). 
  
According to Narco News, the vote marks the first time that 
leftist parties anywhere have united to support 
decriminalization.  It also comes in the wake of US efforts to 
enlist European Union support for American escalation in 
Colombia. 
  
Portugal now joins Italy and Spain among European Union member 
states which have effectively decriminalized the use and 
possession of small amounts of illegal drugs. 
  
Parliament is now in recess until September, but members of the 
Left Bloc have announced plans to introduce even deeper reforms 
when the session resumes.  They will introduce legislation to 
have the government supply addicts with heroin and provide 
"injection rooms" where users can inject in a safe and 
therapeutic environment.

================

8. Michigan Initiative Effort Fails to Obtain Necessary
   Signatures
   http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#michiganinit 
  
Michigan's Personal Responsibility Act initiative will not be on 
the ballot in November.  The campaign for the initiative, which 
would legalize the possession of up to three ounces of marijuana 
and divert seized assets to voluntary treatment and prevention 
programs, failed to gain the required number of signatures by 
this week's deadline. 
  
The initiative received no backing from the deep-pocketed backers 
of other initiatives and relied on $10,000 from organizer Gregory 
Schmid and donations from sympathizers. 
  
Schmid, who is the Michigan coordinator for NORML, vowed to 
continue the struggle. 
  
"We're starting right away," he told the Saginaw (Michigan) News.  
"With a little luck and $75,000, we should be able to 
successfully pull it off." 
  
In fact, in an e-mail distributed among drug reformers, Schmid 
said the petition drive would continue.  "The July 10th deadline 
is for the November 2000 election only, and we can still go for 
2002 as long as we stay within the six-month rule." 
  
The six-month rule refers to the period of time over which the 
signatures can be gathered.

================

9. Drug Czar Seeks Deal With Hollywood to Include Anti-Drug
   Messages in Films
   http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#moviedeal

(courtesy NORML Foundation, http://www.norml.org)

Washington, DC:  Drug czar Barry McCaffrey plans to intensify the 
Office of National Drug Control Policy's anti-drug media campaign 
to include government anti-drug messages in popular movies.  At a 
House subcommittee hearing this week, McCaffrey announced that he 
intends to "leverage popular movies" and to work with studios to 
promote films that "responsibly communicate anti-drug campaign 
messages."  McCaffrey testified Tuesday before the House 
Government Reform Committee, Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, 
Drug Policy and Human Resources, in support of his office's 
National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.

McCaffrey said the ONDCP would not offer government financed 
incentives for incorporating anti-drug messages in their scripts, 
but would offer tax dollars for "promotional activities and 
special events that capitalize on the visibility" of films that 
feature such messages.  McCaffrey has previously offered payment 
to television networks and print publications that include anti-
drug messages embedded in the content.

The NORML Foundation filed a complaint in February with the 
Federal Communications Commission alleging the ONDCP program 
violates federal anti-payola laws.

(Read USA Today's coverage of ONDCP's new plot at 
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20000712/2447763s.htm on the
web.)

================

10. FBI's New Toy Spies on E-Mail, Has Bob Barr "Frightened"
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#fbicarnivore 
  
Meet Carnivore, the FBI's latest advance in its never-ending war 
on privacy.  Carnivore is a super-fast computer system stuffed 
with specialized software designed to covertly search for e-mails 
from criminal suspects, MSNBC reported this week. 
   
The Internet wiretapping system was unveiled two weeks ago after 
being developed at FBI labs in Quantico, VA. It is called 
Carnivore because it can rapidly get to "the meat" of huge data 
flows.  It replaces an earlier system, appropriately called 
Omnivore, which could suck in as much as six gigabytes of data 
every hour, but in a less discriminating fashion. 
  
The FBI said it has used Carnivore in fewer than a hundred 
criminal investigations so far.  They were predominantly 
investigations of suspected hackers, drug traffickers or 
terrorists.  But it has at least 20 Carnivore systems on hand, 
"just in case." 
  
Carnivore is raising hackles in the Internet world because it 
must be hooked directly into Internet service providers' (ISP) 
networks.  That gives the government the ability, at least 
theoretically, to scan all communications on an ISP's network.  
Not only e-mail, but also Web surfing and online financial 
transaction could be monitored. 
  
Carnivore sits in a locked cage on the ISP's premises, with feds 
coming by daily to retrieve the captured data. 
  
Internet wiretaps require a state or federal court order and are 
relatively rare now, but are expected to become more prevalent as 
use of the Web increases. 
  
Mark Rasch, a former federal computer-crimes prosecutor, told 
MSNBC that Carnivore is problematic because it looks at every bit 
of data that flows past, so it can decide what needs to be 
recorded for police purposes. 
  
"It's the electronic equivalent of listening to everybody's phone 
calls to see if it's the phone call you should be monitoring," 
Rasch said.  "You develop a tremendous amount of information." 
  
"Once the software is applied to the ISP, there's no check on the 
system," said Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), who sits on a House judiciary 
subcommittee for constitutional affairs.  "If there's one word I 
would use to describe this, it would be 'frightening.'" 
  
One recourse for people and organizations worried about FBI 
snooping is encryption.  Carnivore can still capture the 
messages, but it can't read them.  If the encryption program is 
powerful enough, Internet law enforcement lurkers will be out of 
luck.

================

11. ALERTS:  Mandatory Minimums, Free Speech, California, New
    York, Washington State
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#actionalerts

MANDATORY MINIMUMS:  See articles 1 and 2 above for information 
on the Jubilee Justice 2000 campaign to free drug war prisoners 
and how you can help.  Visit http://www.drcnet.org/justice/ to 
tell Congress you think the mandatory minimums should go!

FREE SPEECH:  Don't let freedom of speech become a casualty of 
the war on drugs!  Visit http://www.drcnet.org/freespeech/ and 
tell Congress to reject the unconstitutional drug provisions in 
the anti-methamphetamine, anti-ecstasy and bankruptcy bills (see 
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/141.html#freespeech).

CALIFORNIA:  Oppose "Smoke a Joint, Lose Your License" bill -- 
visit http://www.drcnet.org/states/california/ to write your 
state legislators.

NEW YORK:  Repeal the Rockefeller Drug Laws!  Visit 
http://www.drcnet.org/states/newyork/ to send a message to your 
legislators in Albany.

WASHINGTON STATE:  Help the "Reasonable People" campaign get 
their drug policy reform initiative on the ballot -- visit 
http://www.reasonablepeople.org and involved!

================

12. HEA Campaign
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#heacampaign

We reprint our action call on the Higher Education Act campaign 
below.  It's not too late to get involved, and we need your help!  
See http://www.drcnet.org/wol/138.html#partialvictory for the 
latest major campaign update and point your browser to 
http://www.drcnet.org/wol/141.html#usatoday for the campaign's 
latest major press coverage.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

1) We urgently need to hear from students who have been affected 
by this law, especially students who are willing to go public.

2) Educators are needed to endorse our sign-on letter to 
Congress.  If you teach or are otherwise involved in education, 
or are in a position to talk to educators, please write to us at 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] to request a copy of our educators letter 
and accompanying activist packet -- available by snail mail or by 
e-mail.

3) We need students at more campuses to take the reform 
resolution to their student governments.  Campuses recently 
endorsing it include University of Michigan, Yale University, 
University of Maryland, University of Kansas, the Association of 
Big Ten Schools, Douglass College at Rutgers University and many 
more.  Visit http://www.u-net.org for information on the student 
campaign and how to get involved.

4) All US voters are asked to visit http://www.RaiseYourVoice.com 
to send a letter to Congress supporting H.R. 1053, a bill to 
repeal the HEA drug provision.  Tell your friends and other like-
minded people to visit this web site.  Follow up your e-mail and 
faxes with phone calls; our system will provide you with the 
phone numbers to reach your US Representative and your two US 
Senators.

5) Please contact us if you are involved with organizations that 
have mainstream credibility that might endorse a similar 
organizational sign-on letter -- organizations endorsing already 
include the NAACP, American Public Health Association, ACLU, 
United States Student Association, NOW, and a range of social, 
religious and other groups.

================

13. Event Calendar
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#eventcalendar

July 10-16, Nashville, TN, "33rd Race Relations Institute" at 
Fisk University, one-week seminar devoted to discussing how 
racism affects the life cycle.  For further information, call 
Theeda Murphy, Information Specialist, (615) 329-8812, e-mail 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit <http://www.fiskrri.org>. 
  
July 15, Prison Reform Unity Project vigils outside every prison 
in America, demonstration times are 1:00 Pacific Time, 2:00 
Mountain Time, 3:00 Central Time and 4:00 Eastern Time.  Contact 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] or visit <http://www.prup.net>.

July 20, Washington, DC, 12:30-2:30pm, "Crime and Punishment: 
Mandatory Minimums and the Drug War," brown bag lunch and speaker 
series, with Eric Sterling of the Criminal Justice Policy 
Foundation and the video documentary PBS Frontline: Snitch.  At 
the Institute for Policy Studies, 733 15th St., NW, Suite 1020, 
call Jaime Yassef at (202) 234-9382 for information.

July 21, Dartmouth, MA, 9:00am-3:30pm, "Stopping For-Profit 
Private Prisons" conference and pre-campaign strategy session, 
at, part of National Jobs With Justice 12th Annual Meeting.  At 
University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, contact Prasi Gupta at 
(202) 434-1106 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] to register.  Contact 
Kevin Pranis at (212) 727-8610 x23 or [EMAIL PROTECTED] for further 
information.
  
July 23-28, London, Ontario, Canada, International Society for 
Individual Liberty's 20th Annual World Conference.  E-mail 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] for further information.

July 27, Washington, DC, 12:30-2:30pm, "Poverty, Race and the 
Drug War: Unequal Justice", brown bag lunch and speaker series, 
with Hubert Williams of the Police Foundation and Australian and 
Dutch documentary excerpts.  At the Institute for Policy Studies, 
733 15th St., NW, Suite 1020, call Jaime Yassef at (202) 234-9382 
for information.
  
July 29-August 4, San Diego, CA, "Cato University" seminar 
covering history, economics, law, philosophy, and foreign policy, 
sponsored by the Cato Institute.  Registration fees start at 
$1,100, some student scholarships available. For information or 
registration, call (202) 218-4633 or visit
<http://www.cato-university.org>. 

July 31-August 2, Philadelphia, PA, Shadow Convention 2000, visit 
http://www.shadowconventions.com for info. 

August 3, Washington, DC, 12:30-2:30pm, "Women and the Drug War: 
The Fastest Growing (and Least Violent) Segment of the Prison 
Population," brown bag lunch and speaker series, with Mary Barr, 
former prisoner and lecturer on substance abuse, prisons and 
treatment, with video excerpts from ABC News Nightline and Court 
TV's "Prisoners of Love."  At the Institute for Policy Studies, 
733 15th St., NW, Suite 1020, call Jaime Yassef at (202) 234-9382 
for information.
  
August 11, Washington, DC, "The Politics of Marijuana: One Arrest 
Every 46 Seconds," with Rob Kampia, Executive Director of the 
Marijuana Policy Project and the ABC News documentary "Pot of 
Gold," 12:30-2:30, Institute for Policy Studies Summer "brown 
bag" lunch and speakers series, 733 15th St. NW, Suite 1020. For 
more information, call Jaime Yassef (202) 234-9382. 

August 11, Washington, DC, 12:30-2:30pm, "The Politics of 
Marijuana: One Arrest Every 46 Seconds," brown bag lunch and 
speaker series, with Rob Kampia of the Marijuana Policy Project 
and the ABC News documentary Pot of Gold.  At the Institute for 
Policy Studies, 733 15th St., NW, Suite 1020, call Jaime Yassef 
at (202) 234-9382 for information.
  
August 10-13, San Francisco, CA, "Fourth Annual Hepatitis C 
Conference," sponsored by the HCV Global Foundation.  For 
information or to register, visit http://www.hcvglobal.org or 
contact Krebs Convention Management Services, 657 Carolina St., 
San Francisco, CA 94107-2725, (415) 920-7000, fax (415) 920-7001, 
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

August 13, Los Angeles, CA, 2:00-5:00pm, "What's Missing, What 
Matters: A Town Hall Meeting," sponsored by The Nation Institute. 
At the Leo Baeck Temple, 1300 N. Sepulveda Blvd.  Free, RSVP 
required, call (877) 486-9395 or e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
to register or for info.  Co-sponsored by the Leo Baeck Temple 
and KPFK-FM. 

August 14-16, Los Angeles, CA, "Shadow Convention 2000," visit 
http://www.shadowconventions.com for info.
  
August 17, Washington, DC, 12:30-2:30pm, "International Harm 
Reduction Policies:  How Do Other Countries Deal With Drugs," 
brown bag lunch and speaker series, with Allan Clear of the Harm 
Reduction Coalition and excerpts from US and Australian 
documentaries.  At the Institute for Policy Studies, 733 15th 
St., NW, Suite 1020, call Jaime Yassef at (202) 234-9382 for 
information.

September 9-13, St. Louis, MO, "2000 National Conference on 
Correctional Health Care," sponsored by the National Commission 
on Correctional Health Care, at the Cervantes Convention Center.  
For information,contact NCCHC, (773) 880-1460 or visit 
<http://www.ncchc.org>.

September 13, New York, NY, "Race-ing Justice: Race and 
Inequality in America Today," with Manning Marable of Columbia 
University's Institute for Research in African American Studies.  
at 122 West 27th Street, 10th floor, sponsored by New York 
Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism, $5 
requested but not required, call (212) 229-2388 for information.

September 13-15, Durham, NC, "North American Conference on 
Fathers Behind Bars and on the Streets," sponsored by the Family 
& Corrections Network and the National Practitioners Network for 
Fathers and Families, at the Regal University Hotel.  For 
information, visit http://www.npnff.org or call (202) 737-6680. 
  
September 16, Denver, CO, Families Against Mandatory Minimums 
Regional Workshop, location to be determined.  Call (202) 822-
6700 for information or to register. 
  
October 11-14, Hamburg, Germany, "Encouraging Health Promotion 
for Drug Users Within the Criminal Justice System," at the 
University of Hamburg.  For further information and brochure, 
contact:  The Conference Secretariat, c/o Hit Conference, +44 (0) 
151 227 4423, fax +44 (0) 151 236 4829, [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
  
October 21-25, Miami, FL, "Third National Harm Reduction 
Conference," sponsored by the Harm Reduction Coalition, at the 
Wyndham Hotel Miami Biscayne Bay.  For information, call (212) 
213-6376 ext. 31 or e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] 
  
November 11, Charlotte, NC, Families Against Mandatory Minimums 
Regional Workshop, location to be determined.  Call (202) 822-
6700 for information or to register.

November 16-19, San Francisco, "Committing to Conscience: 
Building a Unified Strategy to End the Death Penalty," largest 
annual gathering of Death Penalty opponents.  Call Death Penalty 
Focus at (888) 2-ABOLISH or visit http://www.ncadp.org/ctc.html 
for further information.
  
January 13, 2001, St. Petersburg, FL, Families Against Mandatory 
Minimums Regional Workshop, location to be determined.  Call 
(202) 822-6700 for information or to register.

================

14. Attorney Position Opening at ACLU National Drug Policy
    Litigation Project
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#aclujob

The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation invites 
applications for a staff attorney position in the New Haven 
Office of the National Drug Policy Litigation Project.  The 
Project has a active litigation docket in federal courts across 
the nation, with cases challenging restrictions on medical 
marijuana, the denial of voting rights and drug testing of 
students and welfare applicants.  The Project also provides legal 
support to drug reform efforts at the local, state and national 
levels.

The staff attorney will be responsible for significant federal 
court litigation on drug policy issues.  The work will include 
district and circuit court litigation, discovery and motion 
practice, appellate briefs and arguments, occasional trials and 
policy analysis.  The staff attorney will also work frequently 
with ACLU state affiliates and pro bono counsel, providing 
litigation assistance and advice on legislative and policy 
matters.  The staff attorney should be able to speak publicly and 
to represent the ACLU's drug policy positions to the media and 
the public.  The job includes supervision of student interns and 
law clerks and may require occasional work on foundation 
proposals and reports.  A willingness to travel is necessary.

Familiarity with constitutional, civil rights and drug policy 
reform is desirable; commitment to those issues is essential.  
Excellent analytic skills and the ability to write and speak 
clearly are required.  Applicants should have at least three 
years litigation experience, preferably in the constitutional and 
civil rights area.

Salary is governed by the national ACLU scale for lawyers, which 
is based on years out of law school.  Health and welfare benefits 
are provided.  Applications are due by August 1, 2000.  
Applicants should send a cover letter, a resume with three 
references and one substantial legal writing sample to:  Graham 
Boyd, ACLU Drug Policy Litigation Project, 160 Foster Street, 3rd 
floor, New Haven, CT 06511.

================

15. EDITORIAL:  Set Our People Free
    http://www.drcnet.org/wol/145.html#editorial

David Borden, Executive Director, [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Amy Pofahl.  Serena Nunn.  Louise House.  Shawndra Mills.  Alain 
Orozco.

The freeing of these few, late on a Friday, summer afternoon, is 
a powerful reminder that drug law reform is more than an academic 
debate over political philosophy or "balanced approaches" or 
"policy."  Changing the drug laws is a moral imperative, even a 
crusade, an urgent struggle for freedom for 400,000 whose 
imprisonment is unneeded and unjust.

Will this token gesture presage a larger exodus?  It would be 
uncharacteristic of all but a small handful of US politicians to 
willingly concede the lives of their oppressed and the fodder 
that their blood and bondage provides in campaign rhetoric and 
contributions from the drug war's special interests.

Rather, it will take a demand, an indictment of a cruel and 
corrupt system, to bring change.  It will take citizens, 
activists, opinion leaders crying out, calling for reason and an 
end to the failed mass incarceration program.  It will take all 
of our efforts here, and the efforts of many others, to bring 
about the Jubilee Justice.

Yet those efforts cannot be shirked and must not fail, for true 
justice is tempered with mercy, yet the drug war is built on 
neither justice nor mercy.  And just as the parents and children 
across our country for whom the drug war is ostensibly waged are 
"our people," deserving to live in safety and health, so too are 
those languishing behind bars our people -- whether innocent like 
Amy Pofahl or Dorothy Gaines, or guilty by the letter of the law, 
but unjustly punished, like many others -- and it is time to set 
our people free.

Kemba Smith.  Charles Garrett.  Dorothy Gaines.  Todd McCormick.  
Will Foster.

They and countless others wait to follow Amy and Serena and the 
others who walked free on a late Friday, summer afternoon.  The 
door has been opened a crack; let us proceed to tear down the 
wall.

-----------------------------------------------------------

DRCNet needs your support!  Donations can be sent to P.O. Box 
18402, Washington, DC 20036-8402, or made by credit card at 
<http://www.drcnet.org/drcreg.html>.  Donations to the Drug 
Reform Coordination Network are not tax-deductible.  Deductible 
contributions supporting our educational work can be made by 
check to the DRCNet Foundation, a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt 
organization, same address.

PERMISSION to reprint or redistribute any or all of the contents 
of The Week Online is hereby granted.  We ask that any use of 
these materials include proper credit and, where appropriate, a 
link to one or more of our web sites.  If your publication 
customarily pays for publication, DRCNet requests checks payable 
to the organization.  If your publication does not pay for 
materials, you are free to use the materials gratis.  In all 
cases, we request notification for our records, including 
physical copies where material has appeared in print.  Contact: 
Drug Reform Coordination Network, 2000 P St., NW, Suite 210, 
Washington, DC 20036, (202) 293-8340 (voice), (202) 293-8344 
(fax), e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]  Thank you.

Articles of a purely educational nature in The Week Online appear 
courtesy of the DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

*********************************************************** 
  DRCNet DRCNet DRCNet DRCNet DRCNet DRCNet DRCNet DRCNet 
***********************************************************

JOIN/MAKE A DONATION     http://www.drcnet.org/drcreg.html
SUBSCRIBE TO THIS LIST   http://www.drcnet.org/signup.html 
DRUG POLICY LIBRARY      http://www.druglibrary.org
DRCNET HOME PAGE         http://www.drcnet.org 
GATEWAY TO REFORM PAGE   http://www.stopthedrugwar.org


Reply via email to