-------------------------------------------------------------------
Patients Battle Pain At LA Cannabis Resource Center ('Los Angeles Times'
Portrays Scott Imler And His Los Angeles Medical Marijuana Dispensary,
Now In West Hollywood)
Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 00:26:36 -0400
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US CA: Patients Battle Pain At LA Cannabis Resource Center
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: Jim Rosenfield
Pubdate: Tue, 26 May 1998
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Contact: letters@latimes.com
Fax: 213-237-4712
Website: http://www.latimes.com/
Author:John M. Glionna, Times Staff Writer
Note from Newshawk: Printed article includes nice photo of Scott Imler with
herbs
PATIENTS BATTLE PAIN AT LA CANNABIS RESOURCE CENTER
Highs and Lows Drugs: Patients battle pain with marijuana at L.A. Cannabis
Resource Center. But they fear it will be closed.
Inside the cozy confines of her West Hollywood drug haven, the woman took a
long luxurious toke from the self-rolled marijuana cigarette and held her
breath for dear life.
Almost immediately, the furrowed brow of the 38-year-old AIDS patient seemed
to relax as she closed her eyes and sank back into the leather couch.
Several times a day, she smokes marijuana to offset the painful side effects
of 11 different medications she takes for her condition. "The pot makes the
pain easier to bear," she said dreamily. "Mentally, it makes me feel like,
'OK, fine, I can handle anything.' "
Here, in an airy room atop a Santa Monica Boulevard auto parts store, the
woman purchases her marijuana, usually sitting right down on a couch to roll
and smoke a joint. She's a member of the Los Angeles Cannabis Resource
Center, the last-ditch supply line for 459 Southern Californians facing the
pain and anxiety of a host of incurable diseases.
But that drug supply--supposedly protected by Proposition 215, the 1996
state initiative that allows patients with certain serious illnesses to
possess marijuana for medical use--is in jeopardy.
Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered six Northern California cannabis
clubs to shut down for alleged illegal sales of the drug, siding with
prosecutors who insisted that Proposition 215 did not legalize the clubs or
any other kinds of distribution--merely the medical use of marijuana. In
addition, the Justice Department wants the Cannabis Resource Center and five
more still operating across the state to voluntarily close.
Center President Scott Imler, 40, who smokes pot four times a day to
counteract the pain from his epilepsy, says his staff of seven feels under
siege.
Including the recent closures, Imler said, the government has successfully
shut down 23 of 29 medical marijuana clubs statewide since 1996, including
ones in San Diego, Orange and Ventura counties. So far, Imler's club, which
has earned a reputation among local civic and law enforcement officials as
among the tightest-run ships in the legal marijuana supply business, has
been a tougher nut to crack.
Imler said some clubs deserved to be closed for failing to properly enforce
guidelines set down in Proposition 215, whose language he co-wrote.
Unlike his own center, others fail to make proper security checks on
prospective members and sell to unqualified users.
At the West Hollywood center, doctors' letters of diagnosis with
authorization must be renewed and verified. No excuses. No exceptions. The
licenses of participating physicians are checked and rechecked. In the last
five years, a dozen members have been expelled for breaking club rules,
including resale of the marijuana dispensed there.
"I've seen some suppliers develop this 'pot-preneurial' spirit, where they
think, 'Hey, we can make some money on this. We can make a career change,' "
Imler said. "Some have relaxed the rules. And that has hurt everyone."
Imler said he was never a big pot user until a 1983 skiing accident in which
he cracked his head against a tree, resulting in seizures and migraines that
didn't stop, even with barbiturates, until he started smoking marijuana.
Now, a few tokes several times a day give him mental and physical peace, he
said.
The former special education teacher began working for medical marijuana
laws and in 1992 moved from Santa Cruz to Santa Monica to push the cause and
start a club.
Eventually, his cannabis club was invited by West Hollywood officials to
move to their city. Officials there continue to support Imler.
* * *
West Hollywood Mayor Steve Martin has a personal stake in the marijuana
issue: He has seen how marijuana has eased the pain of friends dying of AIDS.
"I have seen it make a huge difference in people's quality of life," he
said. "For many people, this club is a godsend. It's got great community
support, and there's a real commitment in West Hollywood to keep it open."
This March, Martin wrote a letter to President Clinton asking for a
moratorium on enforcement of federal drug laws that interfere with the daily
operation of cannabis clubs like Imler's.
"If the centers are shut down," Martin wrote, "many of these individuals
will be compelled to search back alleys and street corners for their
medicine. This will not only endanger their lives, but place an unnecessary
burden on our police departments."
In response to the federal court ruling that shut down half a dozen clubs,
state Sen. John Vasconcellos (D-Santa Clara), a supporter of medical
marijuana, today will sponsor a summit to study other ways to distribute the
drug legally.
For the patients they supply, legitimate club operators such as Imler are
true medical heroes, a last line of defense against a skeptical government
that distrusts a drug that for everyone else in America is still illegal.
Club statistics show that 70% of members have AIDS, 10% have various cancers
and the rest have maladies ranging from multiple sclerosis to Lou Gehrig's
disease.
Last year, the club dispensed nearly 100 pounds of marijuana, grown either
on the premises or under its supervision, providing a better-quality product
than what is sold on the street.
The government's reaction to their work, the cannabis clubs say, has been a
modern day version of 1930s "Reefer Madness."
In 1996, Imler was forced to temporarily move his shop to a West Hollywood
church after a raid by Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies--one prompted
by a vindictive customer whom Imler said he turned away.
And there continue to be security tests by unscrupulous users looking for an
off-street drug supply line and by undercover agents seeking to infiltrate
his club and eventually close it down.
Last summer, Imler denied membership to a suspected federal undercover agent
when his documents proved to be forged.
More difficult are the times the club has been forced to turn away those
with legitimate need but lacking authorization, such as the AIDS patient who
was denied membership after his documents proved to be bogus.
"Either he was too afraid to go to his doctor for permission or his doctor
turned him down," Imler recalled. "I told him I was sympathetic but that we
had our rules."
Since its start, Imler's cannabis club has had no outdoor signage. There's
no need for anyone to know where it is, other than local doctors and AIDS
organizations--all of whom have the address, he says.
To qualified members, the club dispenses marijuana with the cheerful
precision of an iced mocha at Starbucks.
Although the front doors are kept locked for security reasons, members
choose from a daily menu that on one recent day included such blends as
Orange Patty, McWeed No. 5 and Ethie's Delight, described as "a true
delight. Dark Crystallized buds, lots of red hairs . . . a smooth smoke."
Coming soon, the menu promised: Blends such as Super Haze. And Martha Jane.
As well, there are marijuana-filled brownies, spice cakes, even Rice
Krispies treats, for those bothered by smoke.
The club's marijuana blends sell for $12 to $20 a gram, but Imler said that
those in financial straits are merely asked to make a donation. Last year,
he said, the club gave away nearly 20% of its yield, or 19 pounds of the
drug.
* * *
No insurance companies will pay for the marijuana as part of medical
coverage, Imler said.
Even with annual limits per member, the club last year was only able to grow
about 10% of the marijuana it needed, spending $375,000 to purchase from
other covert growers.
At the urging of West Hollywood officials, Imler said, the club is trying to
meet demand for the current year by growing 250 plants in basement
incubators that have the look and smell of their unsupervised cousins.
"The mayor wasn't happy that we were spending so much money on the black
market," Imler said. "I think he's right, we shouldn't be fueling such black
market enterprises where we really have no control over where the profits
eventually land."
Buyers are allowed to smoke their joints in the nearby lounge, as long as
they don't share their marijuana with anyone. On one wall hangs a sign
encouraging such restraint: "Bogart That Joint," it reads, twisting a 1960s
expression.
Along with the fear of government crackdown, Imler says, comes the specter
of the club's location being found out by the public.
That concern turned to laughter recently when a billboard on top of the
club's building was changed to an ad for new hair shampoo containing oil
from hemp seed--also an ingredient in marijuana. The ad included a large
picture of the telltale green hemp weed.
"We were simply blown away by that ad," Imler said. "Two years of
low-profile discretion, blown to smithereens in one afternoon."
Copyright Los Angeles Times
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In Jammed Jail, Many Don't Serve Full Terms - Overcrowding Common
In Pierce Lockup, And Freeing Felons Sometimes Is Only Option (Tacoma,
Washington, 'News Tribune' Notes That Pierce County Jail Personnel
Are Trying To Comply With A Federal Court Settlement On Overcrowding
They Signed In 1995 - The Newspaper Misses An Opportunity To Point Out
You Can Only Lock Up So Many Illegal Drug Offenders)
From: "W.H.E.N. - Bob Owen - Olympia"
To: "-Hemp Talk"
Subject: HT: Pierce Co Jail Overcrowded - many don't serve terms
Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 18:41:57 -0700
Sender: owner-hemp-talk@hemp.net
In jammed jail, many don't serve full terms
Overcrowding common in Pierce lockup, and freeing felons sometimes is only option
Lisa Kremer
The News Tribune
May 26, 1998
In the last four months, hundreds of convicts have been released early from
the Pierce County Jail. On the most crowded days, felons were released when
they still had more than a month left to serve.
On one day last month ...
A 40-year-old Tacoma man convicted of growing 118 marijuana plants in a
Hilltop house got out of jail after serving five months of a nine-month
sentence.
A 33-year-old Puyallup man, convicted of stealing items from a house under
construction on the East Side, was released after 78 days of a 180-day
sentence.
And a 29-year-old Tacoma man, convicted for having a baggie of cocaine in
his car and then sent back to jail after failing drug court, was released
after serving less than a third of a three-month sentence.
Those three and two other felons were released April 20 even though they
each had more than a month left on their sentences - even after discounting
a third of their sentence for good behavior.
Why?
The 772-bed jail was crammed with 848 inmates, and "We didn't have any
misdemeanors left (for possible early release)," said Jail Chief George
Wigen.
Each day that the jail is overcrowded, jail officers calculate good time,
filter out the violent batterers and drunken drivers, and release
misdemeanants first and hope for the best. Often, people convicted of
misdemeanors with sentences of several months aren't in jail long enough to
get coveralls.
In March, 94 inmates were released early. Not including discounts for good
behavior, their sentences were cut short a total of 2,410 days.
In six overcrowded days in April, 71 inmates were released early. Their
sentences were cut short a total of 1,436 days beyond the good-time
discount.
And already this month, 64 inmates have been released early, their
sentences trimmed a total of 988 days besides the good behavior credit.
"Five years ago when there was overcrowding, (releasing inmates early) was
the worst thing that could happen to us. And now here it is," said Pierce
County Prosecutor John Ladenburg.
Judges, lawyers, cops and corrections officers say they're demoralized
because their work to bring criminals to justice is stymied by an
overcrowded jail. People who spend their lives making the criminal justice
system work are rationalizing that a month more or less in jail might not
make a difference to a career criminal.
And everyone's top worry is: What if someone released early commits a
serious crime when they're supposed to be in jail?
"Some of these early releases are kind of scary," said Pierce County
District Court Judge James Heller.
Why release early?
County officials are trying to comply with a settlement they signed in
federal court in 1995. Inmates sued, alleging jail conditions were
inhumane. County officials believed they couldn't win.
As part of the settlement, the county promised to stop using the National
Guard Armory for jail space - the cage-filled structure was nicknamed the
"dog pound" - and cap the jail population at 772.
After voters three times refused to raise property taxes for a new jail,
they approved a 0.1-percentage point sales-tax increase in 1996. County
Executive Doug Sutherland and the County Council used part of the money for
a new 500-bed "temporary" jail in the County-City Building parking lot, and
have plans to open a new jail in 2002.
Sheriff's officials also expanded jail-alternative programs like home
monitoring and offender work crews.
But the inmate population has continued to soar. The jail was overcrowded
two-thirds of the days in April and nine of the first 21 days in May.
"The early release program still isn't getting the numbers down," said Fred
Diamondstone, an attorney who represents the inmates. "They're still not in
compliance with the population limits, notwithstanding their good efforts."
Ladenburg noted it's a long time until a planned new jail opens, perhaps by
2002.
"It will get worse," Ladenburg said. "We can't mislead anybody. It will get
worse. ... The population of the county continues to boom at 25,000 a year.
Some of those people are bad guys.
"The people released (early) are going to get worse, not better."
How it works
Each day the jail is overcrowded, a correctional officer or a sergeant
examines the information for each inmate - convictions, sentence, criminal
history.
They look for misdemeanants with fewer than five days left on their
sentences. If there are any, they get to go home.
Then the officer looks for nonviolent felons with fewer than three days
left on their sentences. Then, misdemeanants with 10 or fewer days left on
their sentences. Then nonviolent felons with less than six days left to
serve.
And so on.
"You start to get to people where I think, as a society, we'd like to see
them staying there," said Pierce County District Judge Judy Jasprica.
Jail officials say they won't release anyone convicted of a class A felony,
such as murder, rape or first-degree assault. They have released drunken
drivers, but none since early March and say they won't release any more.
Jailers also don't grant early releases to parole violators, or anyone
convicted of domestic violence, a sex crime or any violent crime.
Or at least, that's the plan.
"I don't know how long that can last, if we're going to maintain the
(772-inmate) cap," Wigen said.
Already, there are variations on the plan.
A 30-year-old Tacoma man was released March 6 after serving four months of
a 10-month sentence for misdemeanor assault. A 36-year-old Tacoma man was
released March 16 after less than a day in jail, even though he'd received
a 30-day sentence for misdemeanor criminal assault.
"There's assault and there's assault," Wigen said. Of one of the men, he
said, "That was a minor assault, not a domestic violence assault." The
other also was a "minor" assault, he said.
"These are not easy decisions," Wigen said. "Who do we let out? Would we
rather let out a misdemeanor assault, or an attempted murderer?
"We're making some decisions we don't want to make. It's a terrible
situation."
Some quick returns
In at least a couple of cases, inmates released early have re-offended,
gone to court, and were back in jail again before their original sentence
would have ended.
A 38-year-old Tacoma woman convicted of owning drug paraphernalia was
released March 6 after serving two days of her 29-day sentence. Twelve days
later, she had already been arrested for being in a drug-trafficking area
she was banned from, convicted, sentenced to 24 days in jail, and released
after two days.
On March 3, a 43-year-old Tacoma man was released from jail after serving
one day of a 165-day sentence for being drunk while in control of a car.
"Fifteen days later, he was picked up on a drinking-in-public charge, and I
kind of go, 'What's he doing out?' " Jasprica said. "It could've been
worse."
That case upset Jasprica and other judges who wanted jailers to consider
"physical control" a drunken-driving offense. Drunken drivers aren't
supposed to be released early. Jailers have since changed the policy.
Early releases hurt the effectiveness of the entire judicial system,
Jasprica said. Inmates may learn the wrong lesson: that the system is weak
because jail sentences aren't enforced.
"We're trying to have an impact on the lives of these people," she said.
"We're trying to make a difference. ... They know the jail's overcrowded
and people aren't serving sentences. It does become frustrating."
It hurts even alternative programs like work crews, she said.
"We've always had the fallback position that if you fail on work crew, or
you fail on home monitoring, you're going to go to jail," Jasprica said.
"Now I don't know how much that threat holds."
The word on the street
Others, too, are worried that frequent offenders are learning that the
system isn't as effective as it once was.
"The word is getting out on the street," Heller said.
Said Ladenburg: "The bad guys that are getting out early are getting the
message that the system is too overloaded to do something about it."
Wigen pointed out that many of the people in jail are habitual offenders,
whose pattern may not be changed by spending a week more or less behind
bars.
"The reality of it is, people who are prone to commit criminal behavior
fluctuate between felonies and misdemeanors" with differing sentences, he
said.
The stepmother of the 33-year-old Puyallup man released April 20 said she's
well familiar with the early release system.
"He's just one of those in-and-out guys," she said of her stepson. "Once
you dig yourself in, it's hard to dig yourself out again."
Alberta Canada, executive director of the Martin Luther King Housing
Development Association, has opposed building more jails downtown in part
because of their effect on the Hilltop community. But she said she's not
worried about inmates released early causing harm in the neighborhood.
"They're going to be out in 30-40 days anyway," she said.
Canada believes the county - and the rest of the country - spends too much
money incarcerating people.
"This is my sole worry: that they not discharge people to make a point,"
Canada said. "I don't want the point being made that we need a bigger
police budget, or a bigger corrections budget. I would hope that the system
they use is as careful and as skillful as possible under the
circumstances."
Wigen said he's releasing inmates early because he has to, not because
there's a choice.
"I've been in corrections 29 years, and I've never been in the position to
have to release people early in my life," Wigen said. "And I don't like
it."
***
Staff writer Lisa Kremer covers Pierce County. Reach her at 253-597-8658
or e-mail lak@p.tribnet.com
(c) The News Tribune
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As Number Of Police Raids Increase, So Do Questions ('New York Times'
Columnist Michael Cooper Discusses Another Fruitless Stun Grenade Attack
And No-Knock Raid By New York City Police In The Bronix,
Emphasizing The Role Of Paid Police Informants - A Terrified Couple
In Their 60s Is Suing The City)
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
To: "MN"
Subject: MN: US: NY: As Number Of Police Raids Increase,
So Do Questions
Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 07:41:46 -0500
Reply-To: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: emr@javanet.com (Dick Evans)
Pubdate: May 26, 1998
Source: New York Times (NY)
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Author: Michael Cooper
AS NUMBER OF POLICE RAIDS INCREASE, SO DO QUESTIONS
NEW YORK -- Mary and Cornelius Jefferson were turning in for the night last
June 24 when they heard the deafening boom of a battering ram tearing the
front door of their Bronx apartment from its hinges. "They kept on banging
until the whole door had splintered," said Mrs. Jefferson, 63. "I thought
they were coming to rob us, coming to kill us." When the door gave way, it
was not robbers but police officers who burst in, armed with pistols and a
search warrant. The warrant -- based on the word of a paid confidential
informer with a criminal record -- told of a young Hispanic man who was
selling cocaine from the apartment. Instead the police found a terrified
couple in their 60s, living in a meticulous apartment where plastic
slipcovers protect the sofas and diplomas and awards line the walls. As
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's administration has stepped up its anti-drug
initiatives, forcing many low-level dealers off the sidewalks and into
apartments, the Police Department has doubled the number of narcotics search
warrants it executes each year, to 2,977 last year from 1,447 in 1994. Most
of these are no-knock warrants, which authorize the police to break down
doors without warning. The police say that a vast majority of raids yield
drugs. But in a number of recent cases, the police have broken down doors
and searched homes only to find terrified, confused families. In at least a
half-dozen cases in the last year alone, people who say that the police
wrongly raided their homes have filed or announced plans to file
multimillion-dollar lawsuits against the city. In each case, the search
warrants were based largely, if not solely, on the word of confidential
informers, who are criminals seeking to trade what they know for reduced
charges, shorter sentences or cash.
Confidential informers -- called snitches and rats by the narcotics officers
who depend on them -- are a central, if little-discussed, weapon in the war
on drugs. Since the apartments many drug dealers now use are difficult and
dangerous for undercover officers to infiltrate, investigators have come to
rely more and more on their underworld contacts.
Interviews with police officials, prosecutors, judges and lawyers paint a
picture of a system in which police officers feel pressured to conduct more
raids, tips from confidential informers are increasingly difficult to verify
and judges spend less time examining the increasing number of applications
for search warrants before signing them.
Police officials defend the system, saying their aggressive assault against
drugs is one reason for New York City's historic drop in crime. While the
Police Department would not release specific figures, Commissioner Howard
Safir has said repeatedly that a vast majority of search warrants yield
contraband and that the Police Department does as much as other police
forces -- if not more -- to winnow out bad tips. He said that when a drug
search comes up empty, it often means that the dealers have simply moved on.
In the Jeffersons' case, a police official who spoke on the condition of
anonymity said the police still believe that they raided the right apartment
off the Grand Concourse in the Bronx, a few blocks from Yankee Stadium, and
assumed that the Hispanic man selling drugs had simply moved on. The
Jeffersons, who are black, said no Hispanic men have keys to their
apartment, and are suing the city.
Civil libertarians say it may be time to rethink a policy in which the word
of a single criminal, who is often paid for his information, can be enough
to send armed police officers to break down doors and invade the homes of
innocent people. They note that the questionable raids have all been in the
homes of black and Hispanic families.
The U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the use of confidential informers to
obtain search warrants, and has held that "no-knock" warrants can be used in
cases in which the officers' fear that announcing their presence could
endanger their lives or give criminals time to destroy the evidence they are
seeking. But critics argue that the practice violates the spirit if not the
letter of the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches
and seizures.
"If the Fourth Amendment is about anything, it's about a distrust of this
kind of police behavior," said Tracey Maclin, a law professor at Boston
University who has written briefs for the Supreme Court on behalf of the
American Civil Liberties Union in several cases dealing with no-knock police
raids. Judge Stephen Trott, who sits on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, based in San Francisco, and lectures widely on the use of
informers, said they are inherently risky.
"Confidential informants are like nuclear material, which, correctly used,
can heal cancer but wrongly used can cause cancer," he said. "You need them
to make cases, but by definition they are criminals, they are sociopaths,
and they will lie about anything. That's why you have to have to corroborate
what they say."
There have been several cases across the country in which drug raids based
on tips from confidential informers have gone awry, sometimes with tragic
consequences. In Boston, a 75-year-old retired minister died of a heart
attack in 1994 after the police raided his home and handcuffed him, working
on a bad tip from an informer. Another bad tip led drug agents to raid a
house in San Diego in 1992. Its owner, a businessman, thought he was being
robbed and fired a shot at the raid team. They returned fire, seriously
wounding him. He sued and won a $2.75 million settlement. A similar disaster
was narrowly averted in the Bronx this February, when the police raided the
home of Ellis Elliott based on what they later said was a miscommunication
with an informer. Elliott, fearing robbers, fired a shot at the officers as
they were battering down his door. They responded by firing 26 shots into
the apartment, arresting him and, Elliott said, forcing him to wear his
girlfriend's clothes while he was being held. No one was hurt. Elliott is
suing the Police Department.
Officials say that corroborating tips from confidential informers was often
impossible because drug dealers have become more savvy and cautious.
Investigators, they said, are being forced to choose between acting on a tip
that might be bad or doing nothing at all.
"In the old days, a lot of times you'd have an informant and the observation
of cops of the trafficking," said a Manhattan prosecutor who spoke on the
condition of anonymity. "It's very difficult now to do that, because of the
increased security measures taken by the dealers."
It was the word of a confidential informer who spoke of drugs and guns that
led a team of police officers to break down the door of an apartment in the
Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, on May 1. Chief Martin O'Boyle, commander
of the Organized Crime Control Bureau, said the police followed up on the
tip by checking utility bills to see who lived in the apartment, running
background checks to see if anyone there had a criminal record (none did),
and having the informer accompany the police to verify the correct door.
When the police broke down the door and tossed in a stun grenade to
disorient the armed guards they expected, they found only a retired baker, a
home health attendant and their two daughters, one an 18-year-old who is
retarded and was in the shower. The retarded girl was given a bathrobe and
handcuffed along with the others; the family said the police refused to give
her a sanitary pad until she was visibly bleeding.
O'Boyle said that none of the pre-raid reconnaissance indicated that a young
retarded woman lived in the apartment.
A search warrant carried out last June 5 in the East New York section of
Brooklyn directed police officers to raid "a grey metal door clearly marked
with the letter and number '2M'." There was no such door at the address, so
the officers followed the directions on the warrant and raided a red door
marked 2L. The warrant was based on the word of a confidential informer who
said that a man named Lucky was selling heroin and guns inside the
apartment. In the application for the search warrant, a police officer wrote
that the informer had been in the apartment and "has been a user of heroin
for eight years and, therefore, can recognize heroin by its appearance and
packaging." The officers found a woman and two young children, but no drugs.
The woman, Sandra Soto, who has no criminal record, said that she knows no
one called Lucky. She is suing.
Except in the case of Ellis Elliott, police officials have denied
wrongdoing, saying that the raids were done by the book with warrants that
conformed to legal standards.
"Drug dealers move from location to location," Safir said. "Just because we
don't find drugs does not mean we hit the wrong door." Safir noted that all
the warrants were signed by judges.
Judge John Walsh, who supervises arraignments in Manhattan Criminal Court
and often handles search warrant applications, said there is a two-pronged
test for a warrant to raid an apartment based on an informer's tip. The
application must tell why an informer is considered reliable -- he has been
used with good results in the past, for example -- and it must show the
basis of the informer's knowledge, usually a statement that the informer has
been inside the apartment in question. First-time informers are brought to
court and can be questioned under oath by judges.
But Walsh said the increasing number of warrants had forced many judges to
spend less time examining applications. "If you are getting one every two
weeks, you can put a little more time into it," he said. "When it's one a
day, you have to move a bit faster" -- about 5 to 10 minutes per
application, he said.
The Police Department refuses to disclose how many confidential informers it
uses or how much it pays them for tips. Marilyn Mode, the deputy
commissioner for public information, said disclosing such information would
put informers in danger. Asked how, she said only, "Because it would."
Narcotics investigators describe a shadowy symbiosis between officers and
informers, a relationship based on mutual distrust and exploitation. One
narcotics supervisor who spoke on the condition of anonymity said some
informers will give up rival drug dealers to wipe out the competition. "Our
thinking is, well, that's one less drug group out there," he said. He
described a sliding scale of payoffs. As a rule of thumb, the supervisor
said, the police will not let an informer off with no jail time unless his
tip brings in other criminals who would get five times as much jail time.
Payments range from $20 for introducing undercover officers to dealers, to
$50 for buying drugs to help the police build a case, to $500 for each
kilogram of cocaine or heroin confiscated, he said.
In recent years, he said, the Police Department has vastly increased its
roster of confidential informers. He credits a new policy that has the
police debrief every person they arrest. One of the first questions they ask
is: "Do you know anything about any other crimes?"
Those who indicate a willingness to deal are checked out and registered with
the Police Department's Intelligence Division. First-time informers are
tightly controlled. Some are practically deputized by narcotics
investigators, who give them marked money and send them into buildings to
buy drugs. The informers are frisked before they go in, to make sure they
have no drugs, and frisked again when they leave, to make sure they have
spent the money. This is called a "controlled buy."
But once an informer has proven reliable, there are less stringent
controls. The narcotics supervisor said that because the police have been
under pressure to conduct more drug raids, he worries that young officers
may be too trusting of informers. "There's pressure to get the numbers up,"
he said. An officer who worked on the raid of the Jeffersons' home gave a
deposition in which he said that the confidential informer had been reliable
44 percent of the time. "This is supposed to be reliable?" the Jeffersons'
lawyer, Joel Berger, asked in an interview. A police official who spoke on
the condition of anonymity said that the police officer might not have been
familiar with the informer's track record. The official said that the police
still believe the warrant was valid.
Jefferson, who retired last month after spending 25 years as a maintenance
man in a co-op on Manhattan's Upper East Side, said that he thinks the
officers knew from the start that they had hit the wrong apartment. "They
did not handcuff us," he noted, "and they stayed until they cleaned up most
of the mess."
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Sex, Drugs And Consenting Adults (Transcript
Of John Stossel's ABC News Special About Consensual Crime In America)
Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 20:58:06 -0400
To: DrugSense News Service (mapnews@mapinc.org)
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US: Transcript: Sex, Drugs and Consenting Adults
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: The Media Awareness Project of DrugSense
Source: ABC News
Host: John Stossel Stossel@abc.com
Website: http://www.abcnews.com/onair/specials/index.html
Contact: http://www.abcnews.com/onair/specials/email.html
Editors note: A DrugSense FOCUS Alert on this ABC News Special
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On the web go to http://www.MAPinc.org and press the Bulletin Board
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SEX, DRUGS AND CONSENTING ADULTS with JOHN STOSSEL
Should People Be Able to Do Whatever They Want? May 26, 1998 (This is an
unedited, uncorrected transcript.)
ANNOUNCER This is an ABC News Special. It's called "the land of the free."
But are you ready for what that may mean?
JOHN STOSSEL, ABC NEWS (on camera) People should be able to do whatever
they want?
NADINE STROSSEN, PRESIDENT, ACLU Consenting adults in private places,
absolutely.
ANNOUNCER That's not what's happening.
1ST POLICE OFFICER Get your hands up!
ANNOUNCER Police are raiding, invading, arresting ...
FORT WORTH POLICE OFFICER Head down.
ANNOUNCER ... and jailing for crimes that don't hurt anyone else. (Sirens)
WOMAN BEING ARRESTED Man, I'm not doing nothing wrong!
ANNOUNCER This man got prison for selling pornography to adults.
LYNN ALEXANDER They didn't stop adult entertainment, did they?
ANNOUNCER And women, like this prostitute, are punished for selling
themselves.
HEATHER SMITH Hi, Sonny.
SYDNEY BIDDLE BARROWS Who are we to criminalize their doing something that
is OK with them?
ANNOUNCER It's your Uncle Sam playing parent, telling you what's right and
wrong. Is that what America really wants?
PETER MCWILLIAMS, AUTHOR You're asking the government to control individual
morality. This is a government that can't buy a toilet seat for under $600.
ANNOUNCER This politician fought to keep gay sex a crime, while he was
breaking sex laws himself. In Iran, you could be stoned for adultery.
Getting stoned in America got this man 93 years in jail.
WILL FOSTER, PRISONER You have the right to kill yourself with alcohol, but
you can't smoke a joint. I mean, where is your freedom of choice?
ANNOUNCER There's even a law about buying tickets. Stossel better not buy
from this scalper.
JOHN STOSSEL So, are you doing something bad?
1ST SCALPER No, I'm not. We're not out here robbing or stealing.
ANNOUNCER A provocative hour meant to challenge the laws we live by. "Sex,
Drugs & Consenting Adults." From the world's most famous symbol of freedom,
the Statue of Liberty, here's John Stossel.
JOHN STOSSEL, ABC NEWS Good evening. "Liberty." What does that word mean?
This statue was built to commemorate America's independence and the
freedoms that came with it-freedom to speak, to assemble, to worship. All
the things you can do when your rulers leave you alone. But being free
doesn't mean there are no rules. (Gunshots)
MAN SHOUTING AT POLICE You're an (bleep).
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) You can't live in peace if there's anarchy. (Gunshots) If
other people are free to rob us, assault us. We need police to protect us
from this. But for years, the police have also been going after people who
didn't do anything to anyone else.
2ND POLICE OFFICER Get your hands up in the air!
3RD POLICE OFFICER Get down!
2ND POLICE OFFICER Get 'em up!
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Often arresting them brutally.
4TH POLICE OFFICER Open it up. (Man gagging)
4TH POLICE OFFICER More! I said open it! (Man mumbling)
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) They said this man took illegal drugs. No victim
complained about what he did. Or about this man-he's accused of taking bets
on basketball games. This woman was arrested because she offered sex for
money.
LAS VEGAS POLICE OFFICER All right. Step over here.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) This man for selling sexual videotapes.
NEW YORK CITY POLICE OFFICER If I see you again, we're going to lock you up.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Outside a basketball game at Madison Square Garden,
police threatened this man because they say he was trying to resell tickets.
2ND SCALPER If you find any tickets on me, lock me up.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) None of these people robbed anyone or forced anyone to do
anything against their will. (Sirens)
WOMAN BEING ARRESTED Man, I'm not doing nothing wrong!
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Everyone who participated in these so-called "crimes"
consented. Defenders of individual liberty say this should mean they have
the right to do it.
NADINE STROSSEN, PRESIDENT ACLU We, as free adults, have the right to
imbibe, ingest, inhale or insert whatever we want to in our own bodies.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Nadine Strossen is president of the American Civil
Liberties Union. (on camera) Drugs, gambling, prostitution-these are ugly
things. These degrade society. By having laws preventing them, we make life
better.
NADINE STROSSEN That is no basis for making it a crime in this legal system.
JOHN STOSSEL But you're wrecking your life, and you're often wrecking other
people's lives.
NADINE STROSSEN Who are the other people? What is the actual harm? The harm
is that they don't like the fact that you are doing something of which they
disapprove.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) But disapproval has been the basis for making things
crimes since colonial days.
LAWRENCE FRIEDMAN, LAW PROFESSOR, STANFORD UNIVERSITY There was very little
distinction made between what we would call a sin and what we would call a
crime.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Stanford University law professor Lawrence Friedman,
author of "Crime and Punishment: An American History," says the Puritans
would have silenced Nadine Strossen because they had laws against women
voicing strong opinions. People were whipped for having sex outside
marriage, or even for idleness. If you cursed, you might be put in the
stocks. And, yes, there really was a scarlet letter. Adulterers were forced
to wear this "A," usually for life.
LAWRENCE FRIEDMAN It gave a very dramatic message to the community as a
whole that this is bad behavior.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) And we still have all sorts of laws against what some
people consider bad behavior. In many places, it's against the law to buy a
bottle of liquor on Sunday. Try selling a vibrator in Atlanta, and
government officials wearing masks may take your merchandise and arrest
you. And if you go to a prostitute in St. Petersburg ... (Clip from TV
announcement)
UNIDENTIFIED MAN We'll have your picture right on television.
ST. PETERSBURG POLICE OFFICER That's a guarantee.
PETER MCWILLIAMS, AUTHOR Keep in mind that you're asking the government to
control individual morality. This is a government that can't buy a toilet
seat for under $600.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Peter McWilliams is the author of "Ain't Nobody's
Business If You Do." "Consent" is what's on his license plate. He considers
himself a modern-day freedom fighter. He's a long-time marijuana smoker and
says everyone should have the right to do this.
PETER MCWILLIAMS There's a lot of stupid things that you can do with your
life, and people do it all the time. But there's a difference between what
wise people do and what the law should be.
JOHN STOSSEL (on camera) We need these laws to make people behave better,
to make society civilized.
PETER MCWILLIAMS No, civilized society is, "You do what you want. I do what
I want. I will not harm you or your property. You don't harm me and my
property." The government does not need to come in and tell us, "There,
there, little children. We'll take care of you. Just do what we say."
JOHN STOSSEL But the government does often tell us what to do. The
government tells us we can't gamble, can't sell certain things, can't take
certain medicines. It even tells us what we cannot do with other consenting
adults in our own beds. We consider that when we return.
(Commercial Break)
ANNOUNCER "Sex, Drugs & Consenting Adults" continues. Here again from the
Statue of Liberty, John Stossel.
JOHN STOSSEL When do you get to say to your government, "Leave me alone.
It's none of your business"? Perhaps when you're doing something very
private, like having sex?
PRES BILL CLINTON I did not have sexual relations with that woman.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) I don't know what the truth is regarding the President
and sex. If he lied, that's another matter. But as far as the sex, even
though adultery's illegal here in Washington, DC, people seem to be saying
that the sex is none of our business. No one's talking about calling the
police. (Shouting) (VO) In Iran, they sometimes beat adulterers. Or they
cover you with a sheet and bury you up to your waist in sand and then stone
you to death. (on camera) Not in America, though most states here do have
laws against adultery and fornication. You could say, "Well, if they don't
enforce it, it's no big deal." (VO) But, in fact, rarely enforced laws are
a big threat to freedom, because you never know when you might be in
trouble. Under selective enforcement, the powerful are safe, but less
popular people have a lot to worry about. In Atlanta, a prosecutor decided
to enforce a law against self-pleasuring devices. You know, vibrators?
ATLANTA REPORTER Atlanta police raided this shop, carted off boxes full of
sex toys.
SEAN "TIP" GAGNE, STORE MANAGER Fifteen to 20 men in black ski masks
entered this store, arrested my whole staff. That's taxpayers' money hard
at work.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) The customers say they don't need protection.
"CHRISTIE," CUSTOMER If you come in, you're obviously consenting to it. If
I wanted to buy a vibrator, I should be able to buy a vibrator.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Not legally. Not here. Because you might be stimulating
the wrong thing. In Minneapolis, you can't buy one from Ferris Alexander
either. Alexander was unpopular with some people here because he ran adult
movie theaters and sold sex magazines and videotapes. He was popular with
more people because, for 30 years, his stores were very successful. But
then a prosecutor deemed some of his tapes obscene. Authorities locked up
his businesses and put him in jail for five years.
LYNN ALEXANDER This process began when he was 72. He's now 80.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Lynn Alexander is Ferris' daughter.
LYNN ALEXANDER It destroyed him.
JOHN STOSSEL (on camera) He deserves it. Your father's a polluter.
LYNN ALEXANDER He didn't create behavior. He was simply selling a product
that was in demand.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) The illegal tapes and magazines were sold only to adults.
They contain no child pornography, but there is lots of sex and nudity.
LYNN ALEXANDER Show frontal nudity, and-shock, horror, despair, the end of
rational thought!
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Citing racketeering statutes, authorities took more than
$9 million worth of her father's property.
MINNEAPOLIS REPORTER The bookstores and theaters are now property of the
government.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) What was inside, they destroyed.
ANTHONY DESTEFANIS Not only did they throw books and magazines and tapes,
they threw in VHS machines into the city's incinerator and blew the
incinerator out.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Anthony DeStefanis is Lynn's husband.
LYNN ALEXANDER But who were they protecting? What did they accomplish?
JOHN STOSSEL (on camera) They got your father put in jail.
LYNN ALEXANDER They didn't stop adult entertainment, did they?
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) They sure didn't. All around Minneapolis today, video
stores sell the exact same tapes that got Alexander in trouble. And
business is good. That's what usually happens when vice squads crack down.
The vice doesn't go away. (Siren) But if you're unlucky enough to be caught
in the sting, watch out.
5TH POLICE OFFICER You get arrested for this again, no more citations. You
go right to jail.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) In Georgia, there are laws against sodomy. That's oral or
anal sex. They're usually only enforced against some homosexuals. Chris
Christiansen was arrested for proposing sex to another man.
CHRIS CHRISTIANSEN It's the last people they have that they can pick on.
MICHAEL BOWERS They can have sex. They just can't have sex with another boy.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Attorney General Mike Bowers argued the state's position
against homosexual sex all the way to the Supreme Court.
PETER JENNINGS, ABC NEWS The Supreme Court has handed down a decision today
which could affect the sexual habits of millions of Americans.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) The court sided with Bowers.
TV REPORTER States may make it a crime punishable by prison even when
committed in the privacy of one's own bedroom.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Bowers says morality was upheld. He then cited the sodomy
law when he took back a job offer from Robin Shahar.
ROBIN SHAHAR How could I have been fired for this? I mean ...
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Robin's a lesbian, married in a religious ceremony to
Fran Shahar.
ROBIN SHAHAR People should be free to choose who they want to love. You
can't-you don't have control over who you fall in love with.
MICHAEL BOWERS But that doesn't mean they can do whatever they want to, no
more than I can.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) But Bowers, who's now running for governor, did just what
he wanted to do for 10 years. That means he's a criminal, too. Because
Georgia also has a law against adultery.
GEORGIA TV REPORTER Mike Bowers, married for 34 years and the father of
three grown children, carried on a love affair with a woman who worked for
him in the state law office.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Bowers admits to the affair but would not talk to us
about the hypocrisy.
ROBIN SHAHAR Mr Bowers penalized me for being honest while he rewarded
himself for lying.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) All this has led some Georgia legislators to try to
change the law.
STEVE LANGFORD, GEORGIA STATE SENATOR If you want to have a trampoline in
your bedroom and do flips and-nude or whatever it is, as long as you're not
bothering anyone else, why should someone care?
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Because it's against God, say many legislators.
Legalizing sex between people like the Shahars would be immoral.
MITCHELL KAYE, GEORGIA STATE REPRESENTATIVE Through some of these acts, you
can't propagate the species. They're not morally correct. They say you
can't legislate morality, but that's what we do as a legislature every
single day-setting curfews for our children, requiring people to wear seat
belts, speeding laws, other laws. We are legislating morality.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Of course, laws about children and speeding are
different. Children are not consenting adults, and speeders often hurt
other people. But the Shahars are consenting adults in the privacy of their
own home.
FRAN SHAHAR, ROBIN SHAHAR'S PARTNER If you don't like it, don't do it. But
don't tell me not to do it.
PETER MCWILLIAMS The problem comes when people come in and say, "God
doesn't want you to do that, and besides that, I think it's a bad idea, and
it makes me uncomfortable. So we're going to put you in jail for your own
protection."
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Which is what we do with prostitutes. Vice squads arrest
a tiny percentage of the lawbreakers, put them in jail and then usually
release them the next day.
6TH POLICE OFFICER Now, I arrested you last night. I'm giving you a
citation tonight. Hopefully, I won't see you tomorrow.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Sometimes, the madams get longer sentences. Hollywood's
Heidi Fleiss went to jail for a year and a half. Sylvia Landry in Louisiana
got six years. She then hanged herself in her cell. It didn't stop
anything. Prostitutes are as easy to find as ever.
SYDNEY BIDDLE BARROWS People who are going to do it are going to do it
whether it's legal or not.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Sydney Biddle Barrows, the so-called "Mayflower madam,"
because she's a descendant of the Pilgrims, admitted to running a big New
York City call girl operation. Barrows got off with a $5,000 fine.
SYDNEY BIDDLE BARROWS There are a lot of women out there who simply do not
feel that it is immoral to sleep with a man for money. And who are we to
criminalize their doing something that is OK with them?
JOHN STOSSEL (on camera) But isn't it better if it is illegal? Aren't we
better off protecting ourselves from what you did?
SYDNEY BIDDLE BARROWS What are we really protecting people against? We're
protecting women from making a living, and we're protecting men from
spending their money as they please. I don't think that anyone needs to be
protected from that.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Prostitute Heather Smith feels so strongly about that,
she let our camera follow her as she called on this customer.
HEATHER SMITH Hi, Sonny. How are you?
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Her customer agreed to be on camera.
HEATHER SMITH Oh, you look so good. It's legal for two men to go into a
boxing ring and beat each other bloody for money, but it's not legal for me
to go in and give someone sexual pleasure for money. What kind of sense
does that make?
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) No sense, says this group of San Francisco sex workers.
(on camera) This is degrading for women. No woman would choose this.
1ST WOMAN IN SAN FRANCISCO A lot of women choose this.
NORMA JEAN ALMODOVAR I don't think a lot of women would choose to scrub
toilets for a living. Nevertheless, because a lot of people might think
that's degrading, we don't put them in jail. (Car horn honking)
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) When we make crimes out of acts between consenting
adults, an added threat to freedom is that police have to entice people
into committing the crimes.
1ST PROSTITUTE What's up?
UNDERCOVER POLICE OFFICER How's it going?
1ST PROSTITUTE Fine. Want a date?
UNDERCOVER POLICE OFFICER Yeah.
1ST PROSTITUTE You a cop?
UNDERCOVER POLICE OFFICER No.
1ST PROSTITUTE Yes, you are. (Laughing)
UNDERCOVER POLICE OFFICER No, I'm not.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Yes, he is. And this policewoman also lies to catch a
customer.
UNDERCOVER POLICEWOMAN Hi.
MAN Hi.
UNDERCOVER POLICEWOMAN I hear you are looking for a date?
MAN Yeah.
UNDERCOVER POLICEWOMAN How much you want to spend?
PETER MCWILLIAMS The police, who should be out there catching the real
criminals-the murders and the rapists and the robbers-they're out there
pretending to be prostitutes, trying to catch people who just happen to be
sexually turned on.
7TH POLICE OFFICER You're under arrest right now for soliciting for
prostitution, OK?
PETER MCWILLIAMS It's shameful what we're doing in the name of morality.
So, you have to ask yourself not, "Is prostitution a good idea?" You have
to ask yourself, "Is prostitution worth putting people in prison for?"
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Since prison hasn't stopped the business, politicians
keep raising the ante.
NARRATOR (WAYNE COUNTY, MI TV AD) If you're dumb enough to solicit a
prostitute in Wayne County, don't be surprised if you lose your car. The
program has netted over 400 cars a month.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Do we have to arrest people and take their cars to have a
civilized society? Wayne County, Michigan, is right across the river from
Windsor, Canada. Here, escort services, that's what they call them, are legal.
CHANTAL GAGNON, EXECUTIVE SERVICES ESCORTS Ariel, she's 5'6". She has
blonde hair, green eyes. She's a 36DD. Are you in for a treat!
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) There are more than a dozen police-registered escort
services in Windsor alone. Chantal runs this one. (Telephone rings)
CHANTAL GAGNON The only difference between an escort seeing a gentleman and
a gentleman seeing a girl that he picked up in a bar is that we're getting
paid for it. So they're saying that it would be OK to give it for free, but
you can't get paid for it. Hmm, I'm not understanding that. You know what I
mean?
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) The escort services advertise in the yellow pages and on
the Internet. What do the Canadian police think about this?
STAFF SGT DAVE ROSSELL, WINDSOR, ONTARIO POLICE You're not going to stop
it. So what do you do now? You work with it the best you can to make it the
best it can be.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Not in America. Here, it's one more messy, criminal
enterprise, because of the laws. (on camera) If the majority of people want
these laws, aren't we a healthier society prohibiting these things?
NADINE STROSSEN "Why not let the majority decide" sounds like a
totalitarian credo, because we believe in individual liberty.
JOHN STOSSEL People should be able to do whatever they want?
NADINE STROSSEN Consenting adults in private places, absolutely.
JOHN STOSSEL Still, aren't some things just too dangerous to allow, even
for consenting adults? When we return, a look at the government's biggest
and most expensive effort to control what you do.
(Commercial Break)
ANNOUNCER Later in the program-gambling. Everybody's doing it, even the
government. So why is it against the law? But next, try to tell this man
it's a free country. What he did in his own home got him 93 years in jail.
And look what America's neighbors are doing. When it comes to free choice,
maybe the grass is greener on their side of the border. "Sex, Drugs &
Consenting Adults" continues after this from our ABC stations. (Station Break)
ANNOUNCER "Sex, Drugs & Consenting Adults" continues. Here again from the
Statue of Liberty, John Stossel.
JOHN STOSSEL We talk about the past 20 years as a time of peace in America.
But, in fact, we're at war. This war has been hugely destructive and has
lasted longer than the war in Vietnam. (VO) We spend almost $100 million a
day fighting this war. The military does much of the work in other
countries. (Explosions)
GROUP OF POLICE OFFICERS Get down! On the ground! Now!
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) But most of the battles are fought here at home.
8TH POLICE OFFICER Search warrant! Search warrant!
9TH POLICE OFFICER Police officers!
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) After all, this is a war against our own people.
1ST MAN ON GROUND What are you talking about?
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) I'm talking, of course, about the war on drugs. This is a
war worth fighting, isn't it? We have to protect all the innocent people
who live in fear because their streets are so unsafe.
WOMAN ON STREET CORNER Oh, God, we ask you for the Holy Spirit.
PRIEST Some people selling drugs were shot to death right on this corner,
and our cross is a sign of the suffering that drugs cause.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) In this part of the Bronx, New York, they hold these
anti-drug vigils every month. Jesuit priest Joseph Kane has his ministry here.
FATHER JOSEPH KANE, JESUIT PRIEST Brothers and sisters, may the grace and
peace of our loving God ...
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) For 25 years, Father Kane's lived in this neighborhood
amidst drug violence. But now he believes the laws against drugs do more
harm than the drugs themselves.
JOSEPH KANE Peace be with you. Thank you.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) First of all, they barely make a dent in the drug trade.
JOSEPH KANE I think what we have to realize is that interdiction is just
about impossible.
UNDERCOVER DRUG AGENT He's going to sell to this big truck.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) The drug war doesn't stop the flow of drugs, because
making drugs illegal makes smuggling more profitable. A hundred dollars
worth of Peruvian cocaine's worth $2,000 on these streets. That keeps
sellers selling.
JOSEPH KANE The corner up above it is heroin. The corner above that would
be cocaine, and then down our block is smoke, you know, so ...
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) The worst effect of the drug war, he says, is the crime.
Kane says if drugs were legal, there'd be less violence here. (on camera)
You've got enough chaos in this neighborhood now. If it were legal, you
don't think you'd have more?
JOSEPH KANE No. John, I hate to interrupt you. I think the violence in this
neighborhood is caused by it being illegal.
JOHN STOSSEL What, the violence isn't caused by the drug?
JOSEPH KANE It's caused by the cost of the drug. In a sense, when you make
that drug illegal, you have raised the price to such an extent that I'm
willing to kill you to get your street corner. See, I cannot deal with you
legally, so how can I take over this very lucrative market that you have?
The only way I can get you is with violence.
JOHN STOSSEL Now, that's an odd idea-that it's the drug war that causes the
crime. But think about it. Drug users rarely commit crimes just because
they're high on their drug. But outlawing the drug causes crime two ways.
First, it puts the drug trade in the hands of outlaws. And second, by
making the drug scarce, it raises the price, and that makes drug users more
likely to steal. (VO) Nicotine is said to be almost as addictive as
cocaine. Yet no one's knocking over 7-Elevens to get Marlboros.
JOSEPH KANE Would there be less violence with the repeal of our laws? There
would be.
TOM CONSTANTINE, DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION People try to say it's the
law that causes the problem. It's the drug and the drug usage that causes
the problem.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Tom Constantine heads the DEA, America's Drug Enforcement
Administration. He says we must fight the drug culture.
TOM CONSTANTINE I think we have a responsibility as a Democratic society to
protect ourselves from those types of detrimental situations.
NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER Bootlegging was ...
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Of course, when we tried to protect ourselves from the
alcohol culture, it was a disaster.
NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER For 13 years, the idiocy continued despite ...
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Prohibition gave rise to criminals like Al Capone.
NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER Gangsterism was a natural sequel, and battles for
exclusive territories erupted with a violence unparalleled in the history
of law enforcement.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) It's what happens when you outlaw something that lots of
people want. Today's gangs created by drug prohibition make Al Capone look
small.
TOM CONSTANTINE Their wealth for criminals and organized criminals exceeds
anything that we've ever seen, even when the Mafia was dominant in the
United States.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) But even if the law makes some criminals rich, he says,
we must fight the war to send a message to the children. Yet kids aren't
getting the message.
TOM CONSTANTINE Our teenage population, we are finding that kids have lost
the message that drugs are bad for them. They don't see us disapproving
strongly enough of drugs.
JOHN STOSSEL (on camera) So what's the purpose of the war? You've got this
huge war. You're locking up more and more people, and the kids still don't
get it?
TOM CONSTANTINE The purpose of the war is to save those kids.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) It's not clear that kids are being saved. I'm sure the
law deters some from trying drugs, but some teenagers are attracted to
what's forbidden. And in poor neighborhoods, what may be the most perverse
effect of the law is teaching kids that real work-entry-level jobs-are for
suckers. Why work at McDonald's when the coolest guys in the neighborhood,
the ones with the best clothes and the best cars, are the dealers? (on
camera) They got the most money?
1ST BOY The most money, the most power.
2ND BOY They have the loot. The cheese.
JOHN STOSSEL "The cheese?"
2ND BOY That's what they call it.
3RD BOY They don't buy cheap stuff like us. They buy expensive.
4TH BOY They got the money, power and respect.
JOHN STOSSEL So doesn't it make you want to grow up to be a dealer?
ALL No, no, no. That's bad money.
JOHN STOSSEL That's bad money. (VO) Heroically, most of the kids will
resist the temptation. But that's a lot to ask of a kid.
TOM CONSTANTINE That's why society has to arrest and prosecute those
individuals that commit those crimes as a signal to all the rest of the
people that we care about the issue.
JOHN STOSSEL (on camera) So who's the enemy in this war?
TOM CONSTANTINE The individuals who are selling drugs at great profit
involved in these monumental criminal enterprises. Certainly not those poor
people who become addicted to drugs. I don't think they should be anybody's
enemy. In fact, they should be somebody we look at with some compassion.
JOHN STOSSEL But we are locking them up.
TOM CONSTANTINE No, not really.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Then who's filling the jails? Drug laws are why America
imprisons a higher percentage of its citizens than most other countries.
PRISON GUARD Stand by the gate, right there.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Today, 400,000 Americans are in jail, not because they
did something to someone, but because they were caught with forbidden
chemicals. Here in Texas, Will Foster's in jail because he grew marijuana
plants. He was convicted of intent to sell, and a jury sentenced him to 93
years.
WILL FOSTER, PRISONER In America, to have committed a crime, there used to
have to be a victim. I've never beat up anybody. I've never raped nobody. I
haven't molested a child. I haven't killed anybody. I worked. I paid my
taxes. I took care of my family.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Foster ran a computer business.
WILL FOSTER I made in excess of $100,000 a year annual income. Now, my wife
is struggling to make ends meet. And I've used all the money I had saved
just to fight this. For a victimless, nonviolent crime. Never hurt nobody.
PETER MCWILLIAMS Imagine what it's costing us to do this. Imagine the
money. Imagine the agony of people whose lives are destroyed by a single
arrest for something like marijuana.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Peter McWilliams smokes marijuana. He probably won't be
jailed for this because he lives in California, where there's a medical
exception to the drug law. McWilliams has AIDS and says marijuana relieves
the nausea he gets from his medicine. But the medical exception isn't much
protection. Recently, nine DEA agents ransacked his house looking for
evidence of marijuana growing.
PETER MCWILLIAMS They went through every paper in my house, and they just
sort of left it all over the place here. And I don't know what they were
looking for or what was going on. I assume that they were looking for great
drug kingpin something-or-another. Isn't that what the DEA's all about, the
major traffickers?
DEA AGENTS The police! Go, go, go!
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Actually, legal rules have gradually been loosened, so
narcotics squads can enter any drug suspect's house even in the middle of
the night without knocking. Sometimes, it's not the right house.
BOSTON TV REPORTER A Boston police SWAT team raided the wrong apartment
looking for drugs.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) After this raid, this minister died of a heart attack.
10TH POLICE OFFICER Police, open the door!
11TH POLICE OFFICER Open the door!
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) And drug police now have the power to take your property
and, unless you know the legal tricks, sell it at an auction like this.
Even if you haven't been found guilty.
AUCTIONEER $95.
WILL FOSTER If you rape somebody, they don't come in, they don't seize your
house. They don't seize your bank account. They don't seize your cars. They
don't seize everything you own. In a drug offense, they do that first thing.
FORT WORTH POLICE OFFICER Police, down! Police, down!
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Still, many in government want tougher laws.
REP NEWT GINGRICH, (R) GEORGIA We ought to say flatly, "You import a
commercial quantity of drugs in the United States for the purpose of
destroying our children, we will kill you."
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) They do that in Saudi Arabia. Here, drug dealers are
beheaded in the town square. Would this solve our problem? (Church bells
ring) Some countries say the answer is more tolerance. In Italy, Spain and
Holland, use of small amounts of drugs is generally ignored. In Vancouver,
Canada, we stopped by the Cannabis Cafe.
MARK EMORY (PH), CANNABIS CAFE The Cannabis Cafe here has cannabis in all
the food, hemp oil and hemp seeds.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) People smoke marijuana in the restaurant, started by Mark
Emory.
MARK EMORY Where'd you get this pipe?
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) His mother and daughter tried out different pipes as a
gift for her 16th birthday. What do the police think about this?
SGT RUSS GRABB, ROYAL CANADIAN MOUNTED POLICE All things being equal,
marijuana is really not a big deal. It's essentially viewed as a victimless
crime.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) America was once more tolerant of intoxicants, too. At
the turn of the century, Bayer aspirin had heroin in it. Some wine had coca
leaves. And nicotine's always been legal.
WILL FOSTER In America, you can have the right to kill yourself with
cigarettes, have the right to kill yourself with alcohol. But you can't
medicate yourself, or you can't smoke a joint. You know, I mean, where is
your freedom of choice?
TOM CONSTANTINE There's a difference between alcohol and cocaine. There's a
difference between alcohol and marijuana. Everybody who tries that
substance-marijuana, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines, hashish-does it for
one single purpose. They do it for the purpose of becoming high. I think
that's wrong, and I think it's dangerous.
JOHN STOSSEL (on camera) I hate to say this to the head of the DEA, but
when I have a glass of gin or vodka, I'm doing it to get a little buzz on.
That buzz is bad, should be illegal?
TOM CONSTANTINE Well, I think if you drink for that purpose, that's not too
smart. I can't tell what you to do with your own life.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) We do want him to tell airline pilots and bus drivers
they can't get high on the job. That's hardly victimless. But shouldn't
people be allowed to harm themselves if that's what they want to do? (on
camera) Should we outlaw smoking?
TOM CONSTANTINE When we look down the road, I would say 10, 15, 20 years
from now, in a gradual fashion, smoking will probably be outlawed in the
United States.
DREW CAREY Oh, my God. Send me to jail.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Better enjoy it while you can.
NADINE STROSSEN Everything can be abused. And if we're going to say that
any freedom or any choice that can be abused should therefore be
eliminated, then I think we're all going to have to live in a police state.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Large numbers of police recently appeared on Father
Kane's block. They say they're fighting drugs 24 hours a day.
JOSEPH KANE I think our country wants to make war. And we're making war
against people who we really don't care that much about to begin with. And
that's why I am personally against it. We have taken people that I think
are precious and we've destroyed them.
JOHN STOSSEL (on camera) When we return, we look at what many people
consider the most basic freedom.
ANNOUNCER Stossel and Stossel, father and son making decisions about the
end of life.
JOHN STOSSEL Would you ever want to die?
ANNOUNCER The way we live, the way we die. Should the government have the
final say? "Sex, Drugs & Consenting Adults" continues after this.
(Commercial Break)
ANNOUNCER "Sex, Drugs & Consenting Adults" continues. Here again, John
Stossel.
JOHN STOSSEL Who owns your body? You or the state? I'd like to think that
once I'm an adult, my body belongs to me. So I'm allowed to eat as much as
I want to, dye my hair red, get a nose ring, whatever. It's my body, isn't
it? Well, actually, no.
12TH POLICE OFFICER Give me your hands! (Shouting) Give me your hands!
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) As we've seen, you're not free to put any intoxicant you
want into your body.
13TH POLICE OFFICER Head down!
2ND MAN ON GROUND I don't have anything!
JOHN STOSSEL Or sell your body.
2ND PROSTITUTE So what's going on, honey? Can you try to help a girl out?
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) You can't bulk up using steroids. Some places, you're not
allowed to get a tattoo. The purpose of these bans is to protect us, but
it's not clear that forbidding things always does that.
JANET'S MOTHER One, two, three ...
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Consider Janet Cheadle. While she looks healthy, Janet
has a form of cancer that's likely to kill her before she becomes an adult.
Her parents want to take her to this Texas clinic, run by Dr Stanislaw
Burzynski. He has a treatment that might help her. It's now being studied
by the Food and Drug Administration. But only the FDA gets to decide who
can be treated, and the agency turned Janet down. They say it's not safe if
people pursue medical treatments the government hasn't sanctioned.
JANET CHEADLE, CANCER PATIENT Whee!
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Janet's father's angry about that.
LYLE CHEADLE My daughter has a terrible disease called neuroblastoma
cancer. I know what the survival rates are, which is essentially zero, and
I'm trying to do something that may save my daughter's life. We have
absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain.
JOHN STOSSEL (on camera) But they won't let you?
LYLE CHEADLE They won't let me.
JOHN STOSSEL Janet, do you know what your father's talking about? Can you
follow this? And your father wants to take you to this new doctor. You want
to go?
JANET CHEADLE Yeah.
PROTESTERS FDA go away! Let us live another day!
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) When the government moved to put Burzynski in jail and
shut his clinic down two years ago, desperate patients and their families
went to Congress to protest.
MARIANNE KUNARI (PH) My son's last hope for life ...
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Marianne Kunari pleaded for her son, Dustin.
MARIANNE KUNARI Without this treatment, my son will die.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) After this testimony, her son was allowed to continue his
treatment. He's now doing well.
DOCTOR Looks good.
JANET CHEADLE Barney.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) That's what Lyle Cheadle hopes for Janet-if the FDA would
just let go. (on camera) "We're the government. We're here, we're just
protecting you."
LYLE CHEADLE I'm going to tell you, I don't need your protection, and you
need to get out of my face. They're not protecting my daughter. What
they're doing is tantamount to murder.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) After this interview, the FDA said Janet will be allowed
the treatment. But why did her parents have to beg? Why should thousands of
others have to leave the country to try to save their lives? Which brings
us to the biggest issue. If it's my body, do I have the right to end my
life? Can I ask a doctor to help? Here in Olympia, Washington, Dale
Gilsdorf is dying. He has lung and brain cancer.
DALE GILSFORD, CANCER PATIENT Oh, this is our ski trip.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Divorced, he spends lots of time with his two daughters,
Renee and Nicole. He's had a good life. He worked as a psychotherapist and
climbed mountains. Now his wish is to die with dignity, at a time he
chooses, with his daughters at his bedside.
DALE GILSFORD I don't want my children to see me as this skeleton who
vomits, doesn't know his full name, doesn't know them.
JOHN STOSSEL (on camera) Your mother died that way?
DALE GILSFORD My mother died that way. That's a very undignified way to
live your last years.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Dale would like a doctor to help him control the manner
of his death. But here, and in most states, that's illegal.
DALE GILSFORD In this most important part of my life, which is my death,
I'm alone. I don't even have trained people to help me. That's not right.
POLLSTER We're calling with Oregon's ballot measure 16 campaign.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) If Dale lived in Oregon, however, he'd have another choice.
PETER JENNINGS Voters in that state passed a controversial ballot
initiative this week that allows doctors to help terminally ill patients
who want to commit suicide.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Family physician Dr Peter Goodwin helped draft the Oregon
law.
DR PETER GOODWIN Only in Oregon have we publicly acknowledged what people
around this country believe, and that is that aiding dying is appropriate
for some few terminally ill patients who want this, want it desperately.
"DEATH WITH DIGNITY" ADVOCATE State voters, we need your signature ...
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Often, it's older people who feel most strongly about
having control at the end of their lives. (on camera) How old are you now?
(VO) My father's 92. (on camera) What if you got cancer or some disease,
and you were in pain?
OTTO STOSSEL Yes.
JOHN STOSSEL Would you want a doctor-would you ever want to die?
OTTO STOSSEL I think I should have the privilege to demand it of my doctor
to do something of the sort.
JOHN STOSSEL You should have the right to demand that he kill you?
OTTO STOSSEL That's right. I should have the right to demand it.
JOHN STOSSEL The law says no. The law says the doctor may not.
OTTO STOSSEL I think it still should be my decision what I want to do with
my life-not anybody else's, even if it's you.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) I can't argue with that. But the law says no, and should
say no, says lawyer Wesley Smith, a leader in the anti-euthanasia movement.
(on camera) Isn't it my choice? It's my life.
WESLEY J. SMITH, ATTORNEY The law is not about "I, I, me, me." When we make
public policy, it is about "us, us, we, we." There are certain individual
conducts that we have a right to stop, and I think having doctors help kill
people is one of those.
JOHN STOSSEL I'm scared about the end of my life. What if I'm in terrible
pain? I want to be able to end that pain.
WESLEY J. SMITH We're all scared about the end of our lives, and what we
need to have is to be ensured that our pain can be ended. But killing isn't
ending pain. Killing is killing.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Smith worries that doctors or patients' families might
want to kill off dying or elderly people just to cut medical costs, or that
people might feel they have a duty to die to relieve the burden on their
family.
WESLEY J. SMITH If we're going to be a loving and compassionate society, I
think if we just say, "Oh, well, it's your body. If you want to die, go
ahead," you're abandoning people.
DR PETER GOODWIN Absolutely untrue. What we're doing is staying with the
patients' perception, listening to the patient, and then acceding to a
desperate plea from a dying patient at the very end of life. It's not
abandonment. It's compassionate care.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Dale Gilsdorf approached several doctors about getting
that care, but they said no.
DALE GILSDORF And they just shut the conversation off. I couldn't even talk
about it because they're frightened.
JOHN STOSSEL (on camera) So you've had to trick doctors into giving you the
pills.
DALE GILSDORF Exactly. Exactly. You're hiding from your physician. You're
being dishonest with your physician.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Dale lied to his doctors, told them he couldn't sleep,
and they prescribed sleeping pills. But fearing that that wouldn't be
enough drugs, Dale then found an illegal dealer in barbiturates. He drove
to this nearby town where he secretly bought these pills.
DALE GILSDORF I'm not a person that does things that are illegal, and I'm
being forced to do that because the law will not allow me to get legal
medications. That's a terrible thing. (Dog barks)
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Dale feels fortunate that at least now he has his pills
and his daughters' support. (on camera) And how do you envision your death?
DALE GILSDORF I hope that I will know when and be able to call my family
together and say, "This is it. Prepare whatever rituals you want to. I
don't particularly have any."
DALE'S DAUGHTER I envision holding his hand.
DALE GILSDORF And I'll probably take the sedatives and just go to sleep.
JOHN STOSSEL We'll be back in a moment.
(Commercial Break)
ANNOUNCER "Sex, Drugs & Consenting Adults" continues. Here again from the
Statue of Liberty, John Stossel.
JOHN STOSSEL This statue was paid for by something that could be a crime if
you did it-gambling. The French got some of the money they needed to build
her from the proceeds of a lottery. (VO) Gambling is the biggest consensual
crime. This is legal gambling, but illegal gambling's huge. The NCAA says
about $100 billion is illegally spent just on sports betting every year.
(Cheering) Occasionally, vice squads arrest some of the bookies. Police say
one operates out of this house in this quiet Miami suburb. Worried that the
people in the house will resist, police put on their bulletproof vests and
attack en masse.
MIAMI POLICE OFFICER Police! Police!
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Inside, they handcuff the suspect and spend hours
ransacking the house-searching clothes, the bed, everything, before they
haul him off to jail. Will this make America safer? Will it make any
difference? Even the police wonder.
SGT PETE ANDREU, MIAMI DADE POLICE People are going to gamble. You shut one
down, and it's going to-there's going to open up another one, you know, and
it's going to-it's a perpetual problem.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) But if gambling's a problem, why is government such an
eager bookie, spending tax money on ads to lure more of us in?
LOTTERY SPOKESWOMAN (TV COMMERCIAL) The New York lotto jackpot is now $15
million. Cool.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) The law is so inconsistent. Consider ticket scalping. (on
camera) How much?
3RD SCALPER $75 each.
JOHN STOSSEL $75 each.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) These guys were offering to sell me tickets to a
basketball game at Madison Square Garden. Now, we all know that ticket
scalping is evil and illegal. But why? (on camera) Are you a scalper?
1ST SCALPER I'm a scalper, yeah.
JOHN STOSSEL So are you doing something bad?
1ST SCALPER No, I'm not. They should make it legal, because we're not doing
anything wrong.
WOMAN AT EVENT Where are you getting these tickets? Are you buying them?
1ST SCALPER Ma'am, I buy them.
WOMAN AT EVENT From?
1ST SCALPER Nice women and gentlemen ...
WOMAN AT EVENT ... that are neatly dressed like me.
1ST SCALPER Right.
MAN ON MEGAPHONE These people are leeches. They will take your money and go.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Madison Square Garden wants the scalpers arrested.
ROBERT RUSSO, GENERAL MANAGER, MADISON SQUARE GARDEN Why should some
parasite be allowed to do that on the street?
JOHN STOSSEL What if my family gets sick, and we can't go to the game? I
can't come here and resell my tickets?
ROBERT RUSSO We really don't want that going on around our business. It's
unseemly.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Because it's unseemly, it's illegal? Yes, it should be
illegal, says this man. (on camera) It's wrong to sell things for more?
MAN AT EVENT That's right. Right.
JOHN STOSSEL What if I offer to buy your bracelet here for more than you
paid for it? That should be illegal, too?
MAN AT EVENT No, then I'm making a profit. (Laughter)
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) As with gambling, drug laws, sex laws, there's lots of
hypocrisy here. (on camera) I thought making a profit's OK?
MAN AT EVENT For me, it is. Not for them. (Laughter)
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) That about sums it up. But if we're adults, why can't we
make decisions about what we buy and sell, about how we use our bodies, by
ourselves?
NADINE STROSSEN We certainly don't want government to be big daddy or big
mommy. You, as a mature adult, have the right to make decisions about your
own life, even if other people might think that they're stupid decisions.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) Of course, people who don't like your decision have every
right to complain about your behavior.
ANTI-PORNOGRAPHY PROTESTERS No porn! No porn!
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) To boycott, to picket, to embarrass you. And God bless
the critics.
MALE DEMONSTRATOR It sets a bad example. It sets a bad trend.
JOHN STOSSEL (VO) The critics make America a better place by standing up
for virtue, making us think about what's good and evil. Shaming us into
being better people. But shaming is one thing, using the force of law another.
14TH POLICE OFFICER Keep your head down. You listen to me.
PETER MCWILLIAMS The law is a very powerful thing. The law means that you
send people out with guns to get people when they don't follow it. It's a
very, very serious matter.
JOHN STOSSEL (on camera) But people are weak. Having laws helps people be
moral.
PETER MCWILLIAMS Moral is based on free choice. You have a series of
choices, and you make the right choice. Any 5-year-old can understand this.
Don't mess with their stuff, they won't mess with your stuff. Really? Yes.
What's the catch? The catch is, you have to tolerate what they're doing
over there with their toys, and they get to tolerate what you're doing over
here with your toys. So with our tolerance, we buy our freedom.
JOHN STOSSEL Freedom is what America's supposed to be about. Maybe we
should rethink the rules. Why not just allow consenting adults to do
anything that's peaceful? That's our program for tonight. Please stay tuned
for Nightline after your local news. I'm John Stossel. Good night, and
thanks for watching our program, which was really about liberty.
Copyright 1998 ABC News
-------------------------------------------------------------------
'Sex, Drugs And Consenting Adults' - A Grab Bag Of 'Victimless Crimes'
('New York Times' Version - Plus Commentary From List Subscribers)
Date: Tue, 26 May 1998 16:03:30 -0700
To: mapnews@mapinc.org
From: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org (MAPNews)
Subject: MN: US NYT: 'Sex, Drugs and Consenting Adults':
A Grab Bag of 'Victimless Crimes'
Sender: owner-mapnews@mapinc.org
Newshawk: compassion23@geocities.com (Frank S. World)
Source: New York Times (NY)
Contact: letters@nytimes.com
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Pubdate: Tue, 26 May 1998
Author: Walter Goodman
'SEX, DRUGS AND CONSENTING ADULTS': A GRAB BAG OF 'VICTIMLESS CRIMES'
John Stossel, libertarians' gift to television, takes up the cause Tuesday
night on ABC at 10 p.m., of people who are being punished for "victimless
crimes." They include pornographers, drug users and sellers, gamblers,
ticket scalpers, prostitutes, homosexuals, and sufferers in search of help
in committing suicide.
It's a brisk tour that in pursuit of the theme of liberty conflates
different sorts of legal and ethical issues. What the examples of
lawbreakers being arrested for consensual activities have in common,
Stossel argues, is society's habit of imposing certain moral views on those
who don't share them. Moreover, he discerns hypocrisy and inconsistency in
a state's efforts to suppress gambling while promoting its own lottery and
to ban marijuana while permitting the use of alcohol and tobacco.
As for the famous war on drugs, which has filled the nation's prisons to
little avail, Stossel observes concisely, "It's what happens when you
attempt to outlaw something that lots of people want." An advocate of
euthanasia advances the proposition that assisting people into death is
"not abandonment, it's compassionate care."
Stossel sums up with the rule that consenting adults ought to be allowed to
do anything they want to as long as it's peaceful. That may not be the last
word on such an array of disputed matters, but it might serve as a sound
first word.
Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company
***
Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 08:28:17 -0700 (PDT)
To: mattalk@islandnet.com, maptalk@mapinc.org, drctalk@drcnet.org
From: R Givens (rgivens@sirius.com)
Subject: "Sex, Drugs and Consenting Adults"
John Stossel Contact: stossel@abc.com
John Stossel has given the narcs their due. Stossel let Tom Constantine and
the narcomaniacs make an asses of themselves by exposing their delirious
DEA logic with devastating effect (ain't journalism great when they do it
right!). I especially loved the flashback to alcohol prohibition right
after Constantine made a nitwit remark about drug control ("thirteen years
of idiocy" visual: beer barrels being smashed). Whoever edited this
material has being reading my mind and stealing my thoughts and I say good
for them. Portraying a moron as a moron is deadly. Just let the jackass
bray and then expose their maniac logic for the world to see by revealing
the exact consequences of their dim-witted policy.
I especially liked Stossel's snide way of questioning both sides. The
Socratic method can be devastating when the right questions are asked.
Stossel got right at the foundations of drug prohibition and found a moral
vacuum at the center. It was lovely. Stossel showed that a good journalist
can torpedo any narc without breaking a sweat. That's how braindead and
defenseless drug prohibition really is. Anytime you see a narc looking good
on TV, you know that the producers are LETTING them get away with their
fraud.
Four or five of the right questions put any narc in the country down for
the count. Especially if you have footage contradicting their dissembling
and propaganda.
Drug war nutcakes have been getting a free ride for decades, but it won't
take too many confrontations with the contradictions and consequences of
their lunacy to sink them for good. (Stossel's show converted several
hundred thousand people to the REPEAL ranks. Can anyone figure a way to
activate them?)
To my knowledge ABC is the first major network to air such a lethal attack
on drug prohibition. Every other show allowed the narcs some wiggle room
and didn't nail their feet to the floor when they lied. Stossel was
throwing fastballs, sliders and curves that the narcs aren't capable of
dealing with after the powder puff treatment they usually get. Little
things like the facts and results completely derail their inane posturing.
If you want more of these narc-killing shows write John Stossel and ABC to
congratulate them on this excellent expose of drug war lies, dissembling
and propaganda. Let Stossel & company know how much you appreciate an
honest accounting of narcomania and encourage him to do it again. Letting
them know that a lot of people are fed up with Reefer Madness prohibitions
will embolden the networks to make more attacks on the intellectual and
moral bankruptcy known as "the war on drugs."
R Givens
John Stossel Contact: stossel@abc.com
***
Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 12:29:41 EDT
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: R Givens (rgivens@sirius.com)
To: Multiple recipients of list (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Subject: Re: MAP: ABC/Will Foster
John Stossel outdid himself on his special. It's about time
we saw some REAL journalism. Constantine was priceless. Does
he think that most people drink for the taste? If so, why aren't
alcohol free beer and wines among the best sellers?
After watching the Will Foster segment on ABC, I have an idea
for a little change in strategy. If ABC made mention that Will
was charged and convicted in Oklahoma, I didn't hear it.
They DID say that he was in jail in Mansfield, Texas, which
implies that he was convicted in Texas.
With that in mind, perhaps, we should flood Gov. George Bush's
office with phone calls, letters or faxes demanding an explanation
of why Will is imprisoned for life. The governor's office will be
clueless for the first few calls, but they'll soon catch on.
Governor George Bush
P.O. Box 12428
Austin, TX 78711
512-463-2198 (Policy Office)
512-463-1762 (Executive Office)
512-463-2000 (General number)
512-463-1849 (fax)
Alan B.
***
Writing Texas governor Bush is a good idea, but don't forget to hit the
usual targets in Okieland. Governor Keating should get a copy of everything
you send to Bush with appropriate corrections.
A fax-phone blitz forced Gov. Keating to release Jimmy Montgomery, another
medical marijuana prisoner, a couple of years back. Things got so hot at
the Governor's office that they disconnected their fax and began referring
people to some prosecutor they were scapegoating for their monstrous error.
Before long Montgomery was a free man again.
Below you'll find the Operation Oklahoma Bcc list. It includes almost every
media outlet in the state. Write a couple of letters letting these cretins
know your feelings about 93 year sentences for victimless "crimes."
Oklahoma is the center of Reefer Madness in this country, so don't waste
time with subtlety, they won't get it.
Tell them you saw how ugly they are on "Sex, Drugs & Consenting Adults," so
they know this is a full scale blizzard of rejection.
R Givens
See Oklahoma Bcc list below.
***
Dear Talkers:
The following could provide some good points when emailing the Gov. of
Oklahoma about Will Foster - like suggesting they let people like Mr.
Foster out so that the truly violent criminals could be kept in. It is from
the governor's "Speaking Frankly" essays which are available at the OK
website at: http://www.state.ok.us/osfdocs/sf-97.html. There may be others
there that could provide other ideas.
The Price Of Foolishness
On February 19 in Tampa, Florida, police found a bloody Lawrence Singleton
standing over the body of a young woman he had apparently murdered in his
living room.
Tragically, such crimes do occur. But this one was different. It was the
direct result of utter foolishness in California some years ago.
Singleton had been arrested and convicted for a similar crime in
California. He raped his victim and then hacked off her arms with an
axe.Somehow the young woman survived this horrible ordeal, and Singleton
was sentenced to 14 years in prison.
California law at the time was a lot like Oklahoma's laws are today.
Singleton got time off for "good behavior" -- as if the prison behavior of
a brutal, sadistic predator could make up for his crime.
Then, California released Lawrence Singleton under their version of an
early release program designed to alleviate prison overcrowding. [To make
room for drug offenders!]
He had served less than eight and a half years of his sentence.
Singleton moved to Florida. Then came the events of February 19.
California has since changed its sentencing and parole laws, partly in
revulsion over Singleton's release.
But Oklahoma continues to follow a foolish path in the way we handle
dangerous criminals. Convicts currently serve less than one-fourth of their
sentences, and until I halted implementation of early release programs last
summer, many were freed even earlier to relieve prison crowding.
The Legislature is considering three measures I have proposed to stop the
Lawrence Singletons of this world.
I have asked them to repeal the early release law, enact
truth-in-sentencing to require criminals to serve at least 85 percent of
their terms and increase funding for prisons, using new growth revenue.
Help me convince them to act NOW.
Alan Mason
***
http://www.gnv.fdt.net/~jrdawson/willfoster.htm
Please send new Oklahoma e-mail addresses to add to the list. Addresses for
legislators etc would be helpful.
add new info here
For those with Eudora:
Doing Bcc lists is a good way to get your message out to dozens of
addresses without them seeing the other addressees. It will greatly improve
the chances of getting your letter printed, if they do not know it has
mass distribution. Since they aren't paying for this writing they have no
right to demand exclusives.
By doing a "Blind copy to (Bcc)" the receiver ONLY sees YOUR address and
their own address on the e-mail. Here's how it works.
First, copy and paste the e-mail list below to the Bcc entry.
Next address the To: entry --- to YOURSELF. Do this AFTER putting the list
in the Bcc entry.
When the addressee gets the e-mail ONLY your address and their's will
appear. Also, it's a good idea to include your own address in the Bcc entry
to make sure the posting works the way you want it to.
If you add addresses, put a comma and a space between the entries.
***
need valid address for Sulphur Times
If you have additional Oklahoma contacts or corrections for bouncers,
please send them for inclusion in a revised list.
***
Oklahoma Media list:
copy and paste to Bcc entry
[kellyd@oklahoman.net, durant_daily_democrat@okpress.tfnet.org,
lawton_constitution@okpress.tfnet.org, norman_transcript@okpress.tfnet.org,
stillwater_newspress@okpress.tfnet.org, tulsaworld@mail.webtek.com,
lincoln_county_news@okpress.tfnet.org, weatherford_news@okpress.tfnet.org,
sapulpa_herald@okpress.tfnet.org, seminole_producer@okpress.tfnet.org,
ponca_city_news@okpress.tfnet.org,
okmulgee_times_editorial@okpress.tfnet.org, enid_eagle@okpress.tfnet.org,
duncan_banner@okpress.tfnet.org, cushing_daily_citizen@okpress.tfnet.org,
ada_evening_news@okpress.tfnet.org, chickasha_express@okpress.tfnet.org,
bartlesville_examiner@okpress.tfnet.org,
henryetta_free_lance@okpress.tfnet.org, koco@ionet.net,
70461.2577@compuserve.com, ktultv@aol.com, letters@edmondsun.com,
letters@grovenews.com, sidmuse@greencis.net, pdns@clnk.com,
rlobsing@pcok.com, wdn@itlnet.net, McLoud_News@okpress.tfnet.org,
bjgarrett@oklahoman.net, mattw@oklahoman.net, news@kjrh.com,
donahue@kjrh.com, news@kfor.com, 5news@kocotv.com,
capitol_hill_beacon@okpress.tfnet.org, jpearl@okway.okstate.edu,
j215t@ionet.net]
If any of these addresses bounce let me know
***
ABC E-Mail
HQ abc@prodigy.com
***
ABC Bcc list:
[tvabc@ccabc.com, PTLIVE@ccabc.com, NTLINE@ccabc.com, TPOINT@ccabc.com,
GMAAOLM@ccabc.com, SPORTSA@ccabc.com, RADIOAB@ccabc.com, DAYTIME@ccabc.com,
tvabc@ccabc.com]
Cut and paste letters to Governor Frank Keating of Oaklahoma's Home Page:
http://www.state.ok.us/osfdocs/govhp.html
Mrs Keating's e-mail is:
cathy.keating@oklaosf.state.ok.us
More Oklahoma data:
***
On November 16, 1907, the Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory joined, and
Oklahoma became the 46th state.
If Will Foster were able to serve his entire 93 year sentence this would be
a longer time than Oklahoma has been a state! (1907 to 1997 = 90 years)
Another Will is revered as Oklahoma's first citizen:
'Instead of giving money to found colleges to promote learning, why don't
they pass a Constitutional Amendment prohibiting anybody from learning
anything? If it works as good as the Prohibition one did, why, in five
years we would have the smartest race of people on earth.' - Will Rogers
http://www.vermontel.com/~bkgb
Will Rogers a famous vaudeville entertainer and public commentator came
from Oklahoma. Rogers's motto: "I never met a man I didn't like." Rogers
had extreme derision for alcohol prohibition and often commented on the
insanity of the Volstead Act. If anybody can dig up some of Rogers's
comments, they would be useful additions in our letters. Rogers wrote a
book about the lunacy of alcohol prohibition, but it has been lost or
stolen from my local library.
AUTHOR: Rogers, Will, 1879-1935.
TITLE: The Cowboy Philosopher on Prohibition
PUBLISHER: Oklahoma State University Press, 1975.
SUBJECTS: Prohibition--Anecdotes, facetiae, satire, etc.
***
Oklahoma's incarceration rate is 46% above national average, 552 per
100,000 population.
Oklahoma is 3rd in US incarceration rate.
No. 1 Texas 653/100,000
No. 2 Louisiana 568/100,000
No. 3 Oklahoma 552/100,000
[these stats are old the new numbers are all higher]
Oklahoma City No. 157th safest city in US. Tulsa not listed in the top 192.
Governor Frank Keating's wife had a hysterectomy.
Keating folded when the Montgomery case got too hot to handle!
***
Since I don't have access to Oklahoma papers, I don't know whether we're
being published or not. If somebody in Oklahoma sees a letter opposing Will
Foster's sentence, please post it to the group.
Rest assured that these letters DO have an effect. In their hearts, many
people in Oklahoma KNOW that such things are immoral, unjust and contrary
to God's will. Once we arouse their conscience things will change. All it
takes are a few stabs to wake them up. Even those with hearts too cold for
a human sentiment can be forced to follow a reasonable path by public
humiliation.
***
Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 12:40:16 EDT
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: Maximillien Baudelaire (baudmax@li.net)
To: Multiple recipients of list (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Subject: Sex, Drugs & Consenting Adults feedback
Courtesy of the Media Awareness Project: E-mail addresses for ABC for
feedback in re: Stossel's "Sex, Drugs and Consenting Adults".
ABC E-Mail
HQ abc@prodigy.com
***
ABC Bcc list:
[tvabc@ccabc.com, PTLIVE@ccabc.com, NTLINE@ccabc.com, TPOINT@ccabc.com,
GMAAOLM@ccabc.com, SPORTSA@ccabc.com, RADIOAB@ccabc.com, DAYTIME@ccabc.com,
tvabc@ccabc.com]
***
Date: Wed, 27 May 1998 12:43:55 EDT
Originator: drctalk@drcnet.org
Sender: drctalk@drcnet.org
From: Mark Greer (MGreer@mapinc.org)
by way of Maximillien Baudelaire (baudmax@li.net)
To: Multiple recipients of list (drctalk@drcnet.org)
Subject: MAP: ABC email addresses, censorship, and Stossel
Below are the email addresses for about ABC 100 affiliates nationwide
should you wish to send Email re the Stossel piece. A more formal Focus
Alert will go out by Thursday.
This is the Syracuse station that delayed transmission into the wee hours
of the morning citing "questionable content" as the reason.
abcstationwixttv9@aol.com
WIXT-TV
PO Box 699
E Syracuse
NY
13214
315-446-4780
Fax 315-446-9283
[ABCAUDR@ccabc.com (ABC TV HQ)
kgtv10@aol.com (KGTV, ABC, San Diego)
news8@onramp.net (WFAA-TV, ABC/CNN, Dallas/Ft. Worth)
wviitv@aol.com (WVII-TV, ABC, Bangor, Me)
wxyztv@aol.com (WXYZ-TV, ABC, Detroit)
news8@wfaa.com (WFAA TV ABC)
tvabc@ccabc.com (General Audience Questions)
(WCFT 33/40, Birmingham AL,) comments@abc3340.com
(WDHN , Dothan AL,) wdhn@aol.com
(WAAY 31, Huntsville AL,) newsline@waaytv.com
(WHOA 32, Montgomery AL,) salesmanager@whoa32.com
(KHBS 40, Fort Smith AR,) ccannon@khbs-khog.com
(KHOG 29, Fayetteville AR,) robbielewis@khbs-khog.com
(KATV 07, Little Rock AR,) tv7@katv.com
(KNXV 15, Phoenix AZ,) news15@primenet.com
(KGUN , Tuscon AZ,) kgun@aol.com
(KFSN , Fresno CA,) kfsntv@aol.com
(KABC 07, Los Angeles CA,) kabctv7@aol.com
(KNTV 11, Monterey/San Jose CA,) park@kntv.com
(KESQ , Palm Springs CA,) kesqtv@aol.com
(KXTV 10, Sacramento CA,) kxtv10@kxtv10.com
(KGTV 10, San Diego CA,) swanson@kgtv.com
(KGO 07, San Francisco CA,) jtopping@kgo-tv.com
(KMGH 07, Denver CO,) 7publicaffairs@kmgh.com
(KJCT 08, Grand Junction CO,) feedback@kjct8.com
(WTNH 08, New Haven CT,) wtnh@wtnh.com
(WCJB 20, Gainesville FL,) tv20news@wcjb.com
(WZVN 07, Naples/Ft. Meyers FL,) hhorn@wzvntv.com
(WMBB 13, Panama City FL,) wmbb13@aol.com
(WEAR , Pensacola/Mobile FL,) wear@aol.com
(WWSB , Sarasota FL,) wwsbnews@aol.com
(WPBF 25, West Palm Beach FL,) wpbfch25@aol.com
(WSB-TV 02, Atlanta GA,) gmattie@cimedia.com
(WJBF , Augusta GA,) wjbf@aol.com
(WJCL 22, Savannah GA,) tv22wjcl@aol.com
(KITV 04, Honolulu HI,) mike@kitv.com
(KIFI 08, Idaho Falls/Pocatello ID,) idaho8@aol.com
(WQAD , Moline IL,) wqadtv@aol.com
(WHOI , Peoria IL,) whoitv@aol.com
(WPTA 21, Ft. Wayne IN,) wpta@wpta.com
(WRTV 06, Indianapolis IN,) 6news@wrtv.com
(KTKA 49, Topeka KS,) 49email@newssource49.com
(KAKE 10, Wichita KS,) dgolledge@kake.com
(WTVQ , Lexington KY,) wtvqtv@aol.com
(WKBO 13, Bowling green KY,) wbko@premiernet.net
(KTBS 03, Shreveport LA,) ktbsnews@ktbs.com
(WBRZ 02, Baton Rouge LA,) mis@wbrz.com
(WCBV 05, Boston MA,) wcvb@aol.com
(WMDT , Salisbury MD,) wmdttv@aol.com
(WVII , Bangor ME,) wvii@aol.com
(WOTV , Battle Creek MI,) wotv@aol.com
(WZZM , Grand Rapids MI,) wzzmtv@aol.com
(WDIO , Duluth MN, ) wdio@aol.com
(KAAL 06, Rochester/ Mason City MN,) kaaltv6@aol.com
(KQTV , St. Joseph MO,) kqtv@aol.com
(KMIZ , Columbia MO,) kmiz@aol.com
(KODE 12, Joplin MO,) abc12@kode-tv.com
(KMBC 09, Kansas City MO,) ppatton@hearst.com
(KSPR 33, Springfield MO, ) admin@kspr33.com
(WTOK , Meridian MS,) wtoktv@aol.com
(WAPT , Jackson MS,) wapt@misnet.com
(WABG 06, Greenwood MS,) wabg@tecinfo.com
(WLOX 13, Biloxi MS ,) llong@wlox.com
(WTVD 11, Durham/Raleigh NC,) wtvd@interpath.com
(WMUR 09, Manchester NH,) wmur@aol.com
(KOAT 07, Albuquerque NM,) news7koat@aol.com
(KOLO 08, Reno NV,) admin@kolotv.com
(WOKR 13, Rochester NY,) work13@aol.com
(WIXT 09, Syracuse NY,) wixttv@aol.com
(WKBW 07, Buffalo NY,) wkbwtv@wkbw.com
(WUTR 20, Utica NY,) wutr20@borg.com
(WWTI 50, Watertown NY,) wwti@wwti50.com
(WSYX , Columbus OH,) wsyx@aol.com
(KOCO 05, Oklahoma City OK,) 5listens@kocotv.com
(KEZI , Eugene OR,) bliljegr@cmc.net
(WJET 24, Erie PA,) wjet@erie.net
(WHTM , Harrisburg PA,) wilsoncl@redrose.net
(WTAE 04, Pittsburgh PA,) jheston@hearst.com
(WLNE 06, Province RI,) programming@abc6.com
(KSFY , Sioux Falls SD ,) ksfy@ksfy.com
(WKRN 02, Nashville TN,) news2info@aol.com
(WATE 06, Knoxville TN,) coverage@wate.com
(WTVC 09, Chattanooga TN,) news@newschannel9.com
(WBBJ 07, Jackson TN,) manager@wbbjtv.com
(WKPT , Kingsport TN,) wkpt@tricon.net
(KTXS , Abilene TX,) ktxs@aol.com
(KXXV , Waco TX,) kxxv@aol.com
(KVII 07, Amarillo TX,) pronews7@aol.com
(WFAA 08, Dallas TX,) 8listens@wfaa.com
(KVIA 07, El Paso TX,) feedback@kvia.com
(KAMC 28, Lubbock TX,) kamc28@hub.ofthe.net
(KTVX 04, Salt Lake City UT,) dshiner@4utah.com
(WSET 13, Lynchburg VA,) wset@inmind.com
(WVEC 13, Norfolk VA,) dkay@wvec.com
(KOMO 04, Seattle WA,) tips@komonews4.com
(KXLY 04, Spokane WA,) kxly@iea.com
(KAPP 35, Yakima WA,) darrellb@kapptv.com
(KVEW 42, Kennewick WA,) rons@kapptv.com
(WQOW , La Cross WI,) wqowtv@aol.com
(WBAY 02, Green Bay WI,) wbay2@aol.com
(WISN 12, Milwaukee WI,) programming@wisn.com
(WAOW 09, Wausau WI,) waow@waow.com
(WCHS 08, Charleston WV ,) news8@wchstv.com
(WOAY 04, Oak Hill WV,) tv4@teleweb.com]
***
Mark Greer
Media Awareness Project (MAP) inc.
d/b/a DrugSense
MGreer@mapinc.org
http://www.DrugSense.org/
http://www.mapinc.org
-------------------------------------------------------------------
The Bud In This Beer Is A Bit Of Marijuana ('The Wall Street Journal'
Notes A German Brewer Who Has Been Adding Flowering Tops From Hemp -
Legal Since 1996 - To His Successful Product, Called 'Turn,' Is Being Sued
By Other German Brewers For Violating One Of The First Consumer Protection
Measures In History, The Reinheitsgebot Law, Enacted In 1516, Which Requires
That Beer Be Made From Malt, Hops, Yeast And Water - And Nothing Else)
Date: Sun, 21 Jun 1998 09:56:52 -0400
To: mattalk@listserv.islandnet.com
From: Nancy Bernhardt (nancyb@mgl.ca)
Subject: Re: mattalk-d Digest V98 No. 290
Newshawk: Nancy Bernhardt (nancyb@mgl.ca)
Source: Wall Street Journal
Pubdate: May 26th/98
Author: Greg Steinmetz
The Bud In This Beer Is A Bit Of Marijuana
Asbjoern Gerlach brews his beer with water, malted barley, yeast, hops --
and marijuana. In Germany, that last ingredient raises eyebrows, but not for
the reason you might think.
Since 1996, low-tetrahydrocannabinol hemp has been legal here and is now
one of the country's fastest-growing cash crops. Mr. Gerlach, a
30-year-old brewer in Berlin's rough-and-tumble Kreuzberg neighborhood,
adds low-THC Cannabis sativa, the flowering buds of the hemp plant, as a
flavoring in his brew. He has been doing it on a small scale ever since
hemp was legalized and now sells his beer to pubs as far away as London.
The police don't care; the hemp in his beer is very low in the active
ingredient people smoke marijuana for. But Germany's image-conscious big
brewers last month threatened to sue him. If Mr. Gerlach should lose in
court, he could be fined $6,000 a bottle for violating the country's
strict beer-purity law.
The Reinheitsgebot law, enacted in 1516, is one of the first
consumer-protection measures in history. It requires that beer be made
from malt, hops, yeast and water -- and nothing else. If you want to call
it beer, you can't use flavorings. No chocolate, no cinnamon, no tequila
and certainly no marijuana.
The law was relaxed in 1993 so foreign brewers such as Anheuser-Busch
Cos. and Miller Brewing Co. can sell their "beer" in Germany, additives
and all. But the old rules still apply to domestic brewers like young Mr.
Gerlach, who looks like a snowboarder in his ragged sweater and baseball
cap. "They are so proud of their stupid law," he complains.
Hemp in beer goes way back. In the Middle Ages, before Germany passed
the beer-purity law, brewers commonly used it, among various other herbs.
They liked the aromatic weed because it gave beer a fruity taste and acted
as a preservative. People who drank it "liked the feeling," Mr. Gerlach
says.
Mr. Gerlach revived the tradition several years ago while earning his
brewing degree at Berlin's Technical University. Hemp was illegal.
Breaking the law made his home brew even more popular at student parties.
"We kept it kind of secret," he says. He apprenticed at some big brewers,
but when he graduated and couldn't find a job, he opened a shop for hobby
brewers that sold craft beers, beermaking supplies and beer he brewed
himself.
He had to keep it quiet until 1996 when Germany legalized hemp
production following intense lobbying from what one government official
called "hippies." Hemp advocates argued that German agriculture could
benefit from a revival of the plant, which is easy to grow and which can
be used to make all sorts of things, from rope to paper to clothing. Such
products are now sold all over the country, in "hemp stores" and
otherwise. In 1997, the second year for legal hemp in Germany, 7,163 acres
were under cultivation.
The German government agreed to legalization after imposing some tough
conditions. Germany allows only nonhallucinogenic varieties to be grown.
To keep farmers honest, it requires them to register with agriculture
officials and submit to surprise testing of THC levels in their hemp.
Mr. Gerlach figured even legal hemp would add character to beer -- and
be a good sales gimmick. Immediately after the law passed, he brewed a
batch for a hemp trade fair here. A few months later, with volunteer help
from marketing students at the University of Potsdam, he began commercial
production under the name Turn. The beer is sold in 80 pubs in Berlin and
distributed in Leipzig, Stuttgart and Nuremberg. Some bottles are exported
to Britain, Denmark and Spain.
The only high anybody gets from drinking Turn comes from alcohol. "You
have to drink 3,000 liters to feel the hemp, but by then you are dead from
the alcohol," Mr. Gerlach says. But the beer's label, a blue marijuana
leaf, is suggestive, as is Mr. Gerlach's slogan, "Turn your mind."
Mr. Gerlach insists he isn't trying to fool anyone. The hemp leaf is
what it is, he says. As for the slogan, "It's our way of saying turn your
mind to the hemp plant for industrial uses."
Compared to Lowenbrau, Becks and countless other big German beers, Turn
is nothing. Mr. Gerlach produces just 26,400 gallons a year, enough to
produce only 140,800 bottles. But the German Beer Association, the
industry's trade group, is determined to shut him down. Peter Stille, the
group's executive director, says a connection between beer and drug abuse
could damage Germany's reputation for quality beer.
To put a stop to Turn, the trade group invoked the beer-purity law. But
Mr. Gerlach thought he had that covered. Nowhere on the label is Turn
called beer. Rather, it is an "alcoholic drink with hemp buds."
But the brewing association points out that the label says the product
is "brewed like a traditional beer." Also, Mr. Gerlach's enterprise is
called The Beer Company.
As chemical analysis would show, Mr. Stille says, "It's beer. But it's
forbidden beer." If the trade group failed to crack down on Turn, he says,
it would have to make exceptions for other brews with unusual ingredients.
"One bad apple can spoil the whole basket. We don't allow exceptions," he
says.
Other brewers have had problems with the beer law. Rudolf Wahl, 59, has
been brewing for 36 years. Two years ago, he came out with a hemp beer
called Cannabia and, like Mr. Gerlach, innocently believed that he would
not run afoul of the law as long as he called it a "hemp drink." But
authorities cracked down. Mr. Wahl still makes Cannabia, but, taking
advantage of a loophole in the beer law, he now mixes it with lemonade. He
has had no legal trouble since then because, all agree, beer mixed with
another drink is no longer beer. "I'm in favor of the law," Mr. Wahl says.
"But in this case it's schizophrenic."
Peter Fritsch's headaches arise from the fact that he adds sugar to
sweeten his beer, Neuzelle Klosterbrau. The recipe, he says, comes from
monks who for centuries had been brewing in the town of Neuzelle, near the
Polish border. When the brewery association came down on him, he fought
back and hired experts to analyze his drink and declare it a beer. He is
dumbfounded by the trade group's objections. "It's like saying that coffee
becomes something else after you add sugar," he says. He is still in
court.
Mr. Gerlach is confident that Turn will survive. He has hired a lawyer
and has had help from Berlin's environmentalist Green Party, which won him
some time by arguing that he is creating jobs. Mr. Gerlach only has four
employees at his Kreuzberg location, but every job counts in a
neighborhood with a 30% unemployment rate.
Mr. Gerlach also has a fallback plan. He has been scouting out locations
in Poland and the Czech Republic with the intention of shipping his beer
back to Germany as an import exempt from the purity law. In the meantime,
he has enough beer to survive a few more months of legal wrangling. "We
have 50,000 bottles in storage," he says.
-------------------------------------------------------------------
[End]
to 1998 Daily News index for May 21-27