DEA EXHIBIT AT MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY IGNORES COSTS OF PROHIBITION

Chicago-area residents are asking the Museum of Science and Industry
not to display a government exhibit linking drug use to terrorism.
These citizens say that the Drug Enforcement Administration Museum
exhibit, from August 11-December 3, 2006, hides the true link between
drugs and terrorism: drug prohibition itself.

According to Pete Guither, a drug policy reform researcher and editor
of Drug WarRant: "This is a blatant publicity effort by the DEA aimed
at tying its budget to the war on terror. It's also desperate and
hypocritical. The DEA has received a failing grade from the White
House Performance and Management Assessments for their taxpayer
funded war -- a war that actually makes criminal drug trafficking
obscenely profitable."

Jack Cole, Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
(LEAP -- an organization of current and former cops, judges,
prosecutors, prison wardens and others who all believe in ending
prohibition) says: "If you ended prohibition today, there wouldn't be
any of those drug lords making a penny on drugs tomorrow." Retired
police captain (and LEAP co-founder) Peter Christ adds: "America's
drug use is a serious problem, but in reality it is America's drug
policy that creates the underground economy that supports terrorism."

Drug WarRant, along with local chapters of Students for Sensible Drug
Policy (a nation-wide group that educates about the harms of the War
on Drugs and promotes an open discussion of alternative solutions),
has organized a response and supplement to the DEA exhibit, including
a website and materials to be distributed by volunteers, along with
other events to take place throughout the run of the exhibit.

The counter-exhibit, (available at http://www.DEAtargetsAmerica.com )
highlights the parallels between the lawless days of alcohol
prohibition under Al Capone and today's drug prohibition. As noted at
the website, even the FBI acknowledges Al Capone's rackets were
"spawned by enactment of the prohibition amendment."

None of the groups or individuals involved in the response advocates
illicit drug use. In fact, they believe that the DEA and prohibition
add to the problems of drug abuse by putting the control, safety, and
age regulation in the hands of criminals. They point to the recent
Chicago-area deaths from fentanyl-laced heroin as a grim echo of the
startling number of Chicago residents who died from tainted alcohol
during alcohol prohibition.

Drug WarRant and Students for Sensible Drug Policy hope to counter
what they consider to be a one-sided exhibit, and to engage the
Chicago community in a dialog to discover more effective alternatives
to the failed drug war. As they note on their website: "The drug war
is a great deal for traffickers, terrorists, and especially the DEA,
but not for communities dealing with the war's violence, or the
American citizens who pay the bill."

According to Jeanne Barr, history teacher at Chicago's Francis W.
Parker School: "As educators, we look to the MSI to enlighten the
community, not to promote political propaganda that selects
self-serving elements of truth out of a more complex whole. It's not
good science, and it's not good history. Da Vinci and the DEA under
one roof? What are they thinking?"

Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/8/prweb420589.htm