ROLE OF SUPERSNITCH

As disturbing as it is to read that "supersnitch" Andrew Chambers routinely
committed perjury, I find it even more disturbing that the Drug Enforcement
Administration has been waging a two-year court fight to keep his history
of lies a secret.

The case of Andrew Chambers is by no means unique, though I would hope that
his $2.2 million in earnings courtesy of the U.S. taxpayer is.

Thanks to the generosity of federal prosecutors, informers have a vested
financial interest in putting more Americans behind bars. Regardless of
whether a defendant is actually guilty, these informers profit when a
conviction is made.

This is a very dangerous practice. It lends itself to entrapment and the
type of dishonest testimony that Chambers has been accused of.

In an age when Americans are using more drugs than ever, including
blatantly recreational drugs like Viagra, America's misguided war on some
drugs is doing tremendous damage to the integrity of the criminal justice
system.

Robert Sharpe

Program Officer

The Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation

Washington