THE TRUTH BE TOLD NOT NECESSARILY SO

Testimony is the key.

To win a guilty verdict and get someone off the street and locked up in
prison, a prosecutor needs convincing testimony from an appropriate source.

"I have personally been asked to lie in court to achieve a conviction,"
said Mark Conrad of Spring.

He is a retired U.S. Customs agent who now works as a private investigator
for attorneys. As a Customs agent, he played a pivotal role in many
drug-war skirmishes.

He said that he has been in meetings where the argument was made that in
order to get the bad guys locked up it was OK for law-enforcement personnel
to "shade the truth or point-blank lie to gain convictions."

A Substantial Problem

When a federal prosecutor in Florida asked him to lie in court, Conrad said
he responded in the strongest possible terms that he would not. But that
wasn't the end of it. Conrad said the prosecutor then went to a
high-ranking supervisor at Customs and asked that the supervisor "order me
to change my testimony to comport to the government's theory of the case."
The supervisor also responded in the strongest possible terms that he
wasn't going to do that.

"There are many men and women of integrity out there," Conrad said, "but
there are many who are not."

He spent the last decade of his career working in the Internal Affairs
section of the Customs Service. Internal Affairs investigates when agents
are accused or suspected of violating policies or laws.

Conrad said that based upon his experiences and observations he believes
the overwhelming majority -- "98 percent" -- of the men and women working
in drug law enforcement "are trying to do the right thing."

However, considering there are many thousands of officers, even 2 percent
falling prey to the temptations generated by illegal drugs adds up to a
substantial problem.

Another major source of difficulties in drug war efforts, Conrad said, has
been in the directions that come from executive management.

"It's scary what the government is and is not doing," said this man who
spent more than 27 years as a government agent. "I'm more scared of the
government than I am of any dope dealer. I've put better people in jail
than some of the people I've worked for."

Conrad, 51, and currently working as an investigator for attorneys, said he
recently completed law school. He said he is "attempting to become
commissioner of Customs" because he believes the current drug war is
"phony" and in need of "a totally different approach."

Wartime Measures

As an example of how it is phony, Conrad referred to 100,000 pounds of
cocaine that the government knowingly allowed to enter the United States a
couple of years ago in what turned out to be a futile attempt to catch a
major dealer. He said he told America about that in a 1998 appearance on
ABC's Prime Time Live.

Conrad also is critical of the ever-escalating cost of the drug war, with
so much money being spent on "agents' new cars, new radios, cell phones,
surveillance equipment, etc."

He is concerned about the growing and easily abused practice of seizing
property "under questionable circumstances."

And considering the length of the sentences often handed down for
nonviolent drug offenses, Conrad said, "We're doing a terrible disservice
to so many young people."

He said he was inspired to join our ongoing debate and discussion on the
criminal-justice system in this space after reading comments Friday from
John Morgan, a retired DEA agent. Morgan said police and the DARE program
need to be replaced by "a real drug prevention and education program" by
health care professionals, parents and educators.

Morgan also said, "Some serious thought must also be given to legalization.
Most of our problem drugs were legal prior to 1921."

Conrad said, "I agree with him 100 percent."

Fighting the drug war as a government agent is not a job for the faint of
heart. And yet it may demonstrate a greater measure of courage for these
men to publicly call for such drastic changes, knowing that many of their
former colleagues are certain to disagree.