AMTRAK TURNS NARC FOR THE EXTRA CASH

Financially strapped Amtrak has hit on a novel way to pick up some extra
cash - by turning in passengers who ride the rails.

In a deal with the Drug Enforcement Administration, the federally
subsidized passenger rail service provides ticketing information on its
customers in exchange for a cut of any cash seized from suspected drug
couriers.

A DEA computer is linked to Amtrak's ticketing computer. Through it, DEA
agents can get passenger information such as names, destinations,
embarkation cities and when and where tickets were purchased. That allows
the drug warriors to narrow their searches when they check passengers'
luggage. Amtrak gets 10 percent of any cash taken in the operation.

This raises some interesting questions. Is this how Amtrak officials plan
to get off the federal dole by 2003, as Congress - which allocated $597
million to the rail service last year - is demanding? And what about the
rights of the passengers?

Using such information to decide whom to search is a form of profiling. DEA
agents look for passengers who get on or off the train near known
drug-trafficking crossroads and who purchase tickets with cash at the last
minute.

The assistant director of the Albuquerque DEA office, quoted in a recent
report, sees nothing wrong with the arrangement and doesn't consider it an
invasion of privacy: "The whole idea of why we do it this way is so we're
not randomly stopping people."

That cavalier attitude is one of the biggest problems with the drug war.
Police aren't allowed to stop and search a person walking down the street
without probable cause, so why is randomly searching an Amtrak passenger's
luggage any different? Because there's more money involved, perhaps?

Hardly a week goes by that we don't see a report about drug couriers being
arrested or a methamphetamine lab being busted. Property belonging to those
arrested is often seized on the assumption that it represents ill-gotten
gains from drug transactions. The property often is never returned, even if
no charges are filed.

The drug war has been a lightning rod for restrictive laws that take away
our freedom in the name of protecting society. But the drug warriors can't
tell us why users and abusers of illegal drugs are any different from users
and abusers of alcohol. Booze surely has as much negative impact on society
as do drugs, yet we don't hear a serious call for a return to Prohibition.

Drugs are more widely available and cheaper than ever before. In economic
circles, those are indicators that attempts to restrict a product are
failing. Hard-core drug warriors say they need more money. Maybe it's time
for a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether the results of the money
we've spent so far justify a fresh infusion of cash.

Government agencies at all levels trample our rights to protect us from
drugs. We have incarcerated thousands of people who've done nothing other
than have a little marijuana around the house for their personal use. Law
enforcement agencies benefit from property seizures; some rely on them to
cover budget shortfalls.

Now Amtrak has joined the feeding frenzy. That's no way to run a railroad.