CHARGES PUSH DRUG-USE SCHOLAR'S CAREER FROM HEIGHTS TO DEPTHS

For a quarter-century, Dr. Ansley Hamid was a creative researcher and
trailblazing anthropologist, discovering and documenting trends in
urban drug use that were closely watched and, in some cases,
celebrated by academics and drug-use experts nationwide.

With notebook in hand, Dr. Hamid would trudge into America's drug
underworld, talking to addicts and users and documenting such trends
as the advent of crack in New York. But his "crowning achievement," as
the professor put it, came in 1996, when the federal government
awarded $2.6 million to Dr. Hamid's employer, the John Jay College of
Criminal Justice, so he could head a five-year study of heroin use in
New York's toughest neighborhoods.

"Finally," the professor said with a sigh, "I get national and
international recognition."

Instead of finding acclaim, though, Dr. Hamid has watched his career
disintegrate.

Last Monday, a federal complaint filed in Manhattan accused Dr. Hamid,
55, of misusing money from the grant, which was made by the National
Institute on Drug Abuse, a division of the federal Department of
Health and Human Services. Based on a two-year investigation, the
complaint said that Dr. Hamid used at least $5,000 to take trips, buy
CD's and hire researchers to work on a book manuscript -- all
unrelated to the research for which the money was earmarked. The
complaint also said Dr. Hamid directed a researcher to use fund money
to purchase heroin for his subjects.

In addition, Dr. Hamid, who remains free on a $25,000 bond
after

appearing in Federal District Court in Manhattan, faces the loss of
his position at John Jay. The professor was suspended from the heroin
project in December 1997 and removed from teaching in January 1999,
though he is still being paid.

College officials are building a case to revoke his tenure, said
Robert E. Diaz, the college's counsel.

The professor remains adamant about his innocence, charging
that

colleagues envious over his success conspired with university
officials to ruin him.

"I'm looking at 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, for what is
really trumped-up charges," he said.

Dr. Hamid does not deny spending money on some of the items outlined
in the complaint, but he disputes the federal complaint's assertions
that the spending was not related to his research.

College officials and several former colleagues disagree. Joy
Settembrino, whom Dr. Hamid hired to supervise workers and handle the
direct-cost account from the federal grant, contended that the
professor "started getting carried away with the spending."

Ms. Settembrino said Dr. Hamid requested money from the account for
items that did not appear related to the heroin research. She said she
refused. So Dr. Hamid instead spent from an indirect-cost account, Ms.
Settembrino said, in the process accumulating such items as a tapestry
worth about $800, computer equipment that is no longer at the
university and furniture that never arrived at the project's offices.

Colleagues and drug experts who said they had long admired Dr. Hamid's
work, and even some of those who denounced the professor's supposed
excesses, have been saddened by the revelations. The long career of a
serious academic and investigator appears to have met a scandalous
end, they said.

"I don't want anyone to imply I'm taking a position, but I'm very
unhappy about a man of achievement who's in this situation," said Dr.
Nathan Gould, chairman of the anthropology department at John Jay.
"It's a tragic situation. It may not be Shakespearean in scope, but
for him, it is. For him, it's a terrible, terrible situation."

Dr. Hamid's first major stop in academia was the London School of
Economics, where he received a sociology degree in 1968. After
teaching and studying in Nigeria and India, Dr. Hamid arrived at

Columbia University in the mid-1970's.

Working under Dr. Lambros Comitas, he developed a keen interest in the
role drugs and drug policies play in society. To Dr. Comitas, who has
taught at Columbia since 1958 and heads anthropology programs, the
young man "was one of our best students, one of our brightest and best."

After receiving a doctorate in anthropology in 1980, Dr. Hamid
distinguished himself by heading into the bleakest neighborhoods in
the city, developing rapport with residents and, ultimately, drug
dealers, users and addicts.

The professor earned a reputation for building trust with the people
in an underworld suspicious of outsiders. In fact, in dank apartments
and on blighted street corners, Dr. Hamid would often be greeted
enthusiastically by his subjects.

Dr. Hamid's findings began to receive notice. He developed theories
detailing the structure of the informal drug economy. He wrote about
how Washington's tough marijuana interdiction policies in the 1970's
and 1980's hastened the international trafficking of cocaine.

Dr. Hamid also published papers and one book, "Drugs in America:

Sociology, Economics and Politics," in 1998. He also said he edited
another book and wrote manuscripts for two more. His work brought him
grants from foundations, universities and government agencies. Most of
the amounts were modest, though the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation
gave him $130,000 for two projects that listed him as

principal investigator.

So for the professor, nothing could have been seen as more of
an

affirmation of his work than the government's $2.6 million grant,
which was made to John Jay and the Research Foundation of the City
University of New York, for a project titled Heroin in the 21st
Century. Then, in 1997, the National Institute on Drug Abuse notified
the college that an additional $2.8 million grant had been approved,
this one for Dr. Hamid to study drug policies in the Caribbean.

"These awards were crowning achievements of this whole 25-year
career," Dr. Hamid said.

But by early 1997, Dr. Hamid's reputation had begun to unravel. His
demeanor had begun to deteriorate, former colleagues said, and he
became volatile and verbally abusive. Dr. Hamid, who as principal
investigator had overall authority on the project, also cut salaries
and fired at least five researchers, current and former employees of
the project said.

"He would not give grandfatherly advice," said Dr. Richard Curtis, an
anthropology professor at John Jay who was a co-writer of the grant
request for financing for the heroin project and who served as project
director. "He would sometimes be quite nasty about it, and people
would leave in tears. People were kind of traumatized, because they
felt they had done their best."

Travis Wendel, a doctoral candidate at John Jay, said that during one
dispute over a paper he had written, Dr. Hamid became so angry that he
challenged Wendel to a fistfight.

"Having a bit of power and control and so on went to his head, and he
couldn't handle it," said Wendel, who said he was the first employee
fired by Dr. Hamid. "He's just worse with people than anyone I've
known in my life."

With questions over Dr. Hamid's management style threatening to derail
the project, exasperated researchers at first went to Dr. Curtis for
advice. Dr. Curtis responded by going to the department chairman, Dr.
Gould, and college officials. When allegations arose in late 1997
about the possible misuse of grant money, sources close to the case
said the college notified the Department of Health and Human Services
and an investigation ensued.

The professor still has his supporters, people like Suzana Maia, a
part-time researcher on the project, who said: "I never had any
problem with Professor Hamid. I was very well treated during the short
period I stayed in the program."

But Dr. Hamid, who has remained away from the university during the
saga, is clearly wistful about his years of work and worried about the
future.

"It looks like this whole action at John Jay has destroyed my
viability and made it more difficult for me to go to funding
agencies," he said. "So it's a little heartbreaking that all of that
has been destroyed."