Note: Shadow Convention websites:
http://www.drugpolicy.org/
http://www.shadowconventions.com/

BALONEY BEHIND THE BILLION

As the Clinton administration redoubles its viciously racist war on drugs,
it's time for citizens to raise their voices in protest.

Like the endless quagmire of Vietnam left for Richard Nixon, President
Clinton's drug war leaves a legacy of victims but no victory.

Clinton got a splash of publicity for his token release of four women and a
man from prison -- a grand total of five out of America's 400,000
nonviolent drug convicts.

In June, the international group Human Rights Watch issued a major study
finding that America's war on drugs has been waged overwhelmingly against
black people.

The group said that five times as many white people as black people use
drugs but black men are sent to state prisons at 13 times the rate of white
men. Hispanics are also jailed in hugely disproportionate numbers.

Drug-war supporters should get this straight: The one and only reason for
turf battles and addicts' thievery is that making dope illegal means higher
prices for dope. Most alcoholics and nicotine fiends don't steal to support
their harmful habits.

Now, Clinton and his accomplices in Congress have arranged for $1.3 billion
of our tax money to be sent to the notorious thugs in the army of Colombia.

As ugly as our drug war is, it's a schoolyard spat compared to the 35-year
civil war in Colombia, which is hopelessly entangled with the drug trade. A
July 14 article in The New York Times recounts the February massacre of at
least 36 persons in a Colombian village, carried out with the knowledge and
complicity of the army by their paramilitary pals.

Not satisfied with guns and helicopters, Clinton wanted to add to the
arsenal use of a fungus to combat coca. Colombia refused.

Here in "the land of the free," the drug warriors are out of control in
many ways. An investigation by The Kansas City Star found that in every one
of two dozen states investigated, law enforcement agencies are deliberately
circumventing state laws restricting asset forfeiture or dodging
requirements that seized funds be used for drug education and treatment.

That's on top of unconstitutional seizures before suspects are even
charged, much less convicted.

The spirit of American freedom has taken a beating throughout the drug war
and the hypocrisy is starkly cruel. "Slick Willie" has been known to like a
drink and cigar (sometimes even for smoking). But he presides over
imprisoning those with alternative habits that have been criminalized.

Of course, those habits are unhealthy. Of course, we don't want our
children getting hooked. But should we trash the Constitution and wage war
on an entire race to control people's private habits?

It goes beyond persecution of personal proclivities. Our federal government
has tried to nullify voter initiatives passed by seven states to allow
medical use of marijuana. The results can be tragic.

Best-selling author Peter McWilliams, suffering AIDS and cancer, died last
month from choking on his own vomit. McWilliams was free on bail in
California for his use of marijuana to ease the nausea caused by
chemotherapy. Authorities had threatened to seize his elderly mother's home
(the bail security) if McWilliams was caught with marijuana, so he was

forced into a fatal endurance of the extreme nausea that such patients say
can only be relieved with marijuana.

This summer the drug war will come into sharp focus with the so-called
"Shadow Conventions" to be held alongside the political confabs. As the
Democratic and Republican parties nominate one confirmed and one suspected
illegal drug user for president, authors and experts in the field of drug
policy will meet to engage voters in the debate.

Campaign-finance reform and poverty will also be spotlighted at these
alternative conventions. For more information, visit shadowconventions.com
and drcnet.org.

Although politicians prefer such policies as "zero tolerance," the truth is
that people on hard drugs need treatment for recovery, not prison, which
only hardens addicts into criminals. Many treatment centers could be
operated with that billion bucks we're paying to a corrupt Colombia.

In our culture's Judeo-Christian custom, 2000 is a jubilee year, a time to
forgive debt and free prisoners. Let's keep the violent cons locked up, but
for our drug prisoners, get them help instead.

Frank Lingo's column appears on alternate Tuesdays. To reach him, send
e-mail to lingo@earthvote.net