Drug War Chronicle, Issue #498 -- 8/17/07
Phillip S. Smith, Editor, psmith@drcnet.org
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498

A Publication of Stop the Drug War (DRCNet)
David Borden, Executive Director, borden@drcnet.org
"Raising Awareness of the Consequences of Drug Prohibition"

Table of Contents:

1. EDITORIAL: DRUG PROHIBITION FROM COLOMBIA TO AFGHANISTAN THIS
WEEK
Given what has happened in Colombia the last several decades,
given what has happened in Afghanistan -- and how it has
affected us here -- is any more evidence needed of how morally
and intellectually defunct is drug prohibition?
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/
drug_prohibition_from_colombia_to_afghanistan

2. FEATURE: IN STRATEGY SHIFT, US TROOPS TO JOIN BATTLE AGAINST
OPIUM IN AFGHANISTAN
Nearly six years after the US invaded Afghanistan, the Taliban
is back and opium production is going through the roof. Now, the
US government has announced it is ready to let the US military
join the Afghan drug war.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/
afghanistan_opium_US_military_new_strategy

3. CHRONICLE BOOK REVIEW: "THE CULT OF PHARMACOLOGY: HOW AMERICA
BECAME THE WORLD'S MOST TROUBLED DRUG CULTURE," BY RICHARD DE
GRANDPRE (2007, DUKE UNIVERSITY PRESS, 294 PP., $24.95 HB)
With "The Cult of Pharmacology," researcher Richard De Grandpre
takes a cold-eyed look at "the world's most troubled drug
culture" and how it got that way. He also takes a few whacks
against the disease model of addiction.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/
richard_de_grandpre_cult_of_pharmacology_book_review

4. PRESS RELEASE: MARIJUANA DEALERS OFFER SCHWARZENEGGER ONE
BILLION DOLLARS
A coalition of California marijuana growers and dealers has
offered Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger one billion dollars per
year in anticipated post-legalization tax revenues to solve the
current state budget crisis.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/
marijuana_dealers_offer_schwarzenegger_one_billion_dollars

5. LAW ENFORCEMENT: THIS WEEK'S CORRUPT COPS STORIES
One of California's top narcs gets busted for peddling Cialis,
another Florida cop goes to prison, and a pair of Florida prison
guards gets popped for the usual.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/drug_police_corruption

6. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: FEDS SEEK OREGON PATIENT RECORDS IN PROBE
OF GROWERS -- PATIENTS CRY FOUL
A federal grand jury looking into marijuana sales by growers
hiding behind medical marijuana laws has issued subpoenas for
the medical records of 17 Oregon patients. That's a first, and
patients and advocates are determined to squash it.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/
federal_prosecutor_subpoenas_oregon_medical_marijuana_patients

7. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: NEW MEXICO BALKS AT GROWING IT
When New Mexico passed its medical marijuana law this year, it
was unique in mandating that the state would oversee the
production and distribution of the medicine. But citing fear of
federal prosecution, the state Health Department now says "no
way."
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/
new_mexico_health_department_will_not_grow_medical_marijuana

8. MEDICAL MARIJUANA: A PUSH GETS UNDERWAY IN KANSAS
While state medical marijuana laws are in place along both
coasts, not a single state from the Great Plains to the
Appalachian Mountains has passed such a law. Now, a Kansas drug
reform activist and a prominent state politician are hoping to
change that.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/
kansas_medical_marijuana_campaign_underway

9. ASSET FORFEITURE: AUSTIN POLICE USE OF SEIZED FUNDS PROBED
A new police chief in Austin has opened a criminal investigation
into the way the department spent money it seized in asset
forfeiture operations. Among the items: More than $600 for
coffee cops and nearly $1,900 for a race clock, whatever that
is.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/
austin_police_asset_forfeiture_criminal_probe

10. LATIN AMERICA: COLOMBIAN ADMIRAL FIRED IN GROWING PROBE OF
MILITARY DRUG CORRUPTION
A Colombian rear admiral has been fired in a broadening probe
into drug corruption in that country's military. He's not the
only one.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/
colombian_admiral_fired_over_drug_corruption_allegations

11. LATIN AMERICA: NICARAGUAN PRESIDENT WARNS OF DEA'S
"UNEXPECTED INTERESTS" AND "TERRIBLE THINGS"
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega warned this week of the DEA's
"unexpected interests" and "terrible things." Perhaps he's
recalling the bad old days...
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/
nicaraguan_president_daniel_ortega_warns_about_DEA

12. SOUTH ASIA: INDIA'S SHRAVAN PILGRIMS BRING PROFITS TO
MARIJUANA SELLERS
It's time for the India's Shiva worshippers to go on a
pilgrimage to a holy site. Along the way, some of them like to
puff ganja. Local dealers are making money, and local police are
looking the other way.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/
indias_shravan_pilgrims_bring_profits_to_marijuana_sellers

13. WEB SCAN
Upside Down Flag by Tony Papa, When Neither Crime Nor Punishment
Pays by Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Bulgarian activist Milena
Naydenova, DrugTruth Network.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/drug_policy_links

14. WEEKLY: BLOGGING @ THE SPEAKEASY
"What's a gram of cocaine go for where you live?" Who Should Be
the Next Drug Czar?" "New Afghanistan Strategy is Exactly the
Same as the Old One That Didn't Work." "Who's Planting All That
Pot in the Woods?" "Police Often Lack Basic Knowledge About
Marijuana," Thailand drug war killings, more.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/blogging_at_the_speakeasy

15. WEEKLY: THIS WEEK IN HISTORY
Events and quotes of note from this week's drug policy events of
years past.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/drug_war_history

16. FEEDBACK: DO YOU READ DRUG WAR CHRONICLE?
Do you read Drug War Chronicle? If so, we need your feedback to
evaluate our work and make the case for Drug War Chronicle to
funders. We need donations too.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/do_you_read_drug_war_chronicle

17. ANNOUNCEMENT: DRCNET CONTENT SYNDICATION FEEDS NOW AVAILABLE
FOR YOUR WEB SITE!
Support the cause by featuring automatically-updating Drug War
Chronicle and other DRCNet content links on your web site!
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/
drug_policy_content_syndication_feeds_now_available

18. ANNOUNCEMENT: DRCNET RSS FEEDS NOW AVAILABLE
A new way for you to receive DRCNet articles -- Drug War
Chronicle and more -- is now available.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/
drug_policy_RSS_feeds_now_available

19. ANNOUNCEMENT: NEW FORMAT FOR THE REFORMER'S CALENDAR
Visit our new web site each day to see a running countdown to
the events coming up the soonest, and more.
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/drug_reform_calendar

(Not subscribed? Visit http://stopthedrugwar.org to sign up
today!)

================

1. Editorial: Drug Prohibition from Colombia to Afghanistan This
Week
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/
drug_prohibition_from_colombia_to_afghanistan

David Borden (http://stopthedrugwar.org/user/borden), Executive
Director

One of the less memorable moments in US official activity (well,
fairly memorable to people like us, actually) came about five
years ago
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-old/251/randbeers.shtml)
when Rand Beers, then the Assistant Secretary of State for
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, later a campaign
advisor to John Kerry, was forced to recant a claim he had made
in a sworn statement in defense of a US corporation being sued
by 10,000 Ecuadorans who claimed they had poisoned them. The
corporation was DynCorp, whom the State Dept. had hired to carry
out aerial spraying of coca fields in Colombia. The Ecuadorans
charged that chemicals from the defoliation program had blown
across the border, damaging crops and livestock and causing
health problems among the human population. Beers wrote, "It is
believed that FARC terrorists have received training in Al Qaeda
terrorist camps in Afghanistan."

Following an expose by UPI, Beers recanted. "I wish to strike
this sentence," he wrote. "At the time of my declaration, based
on information available to me, I believed this statement to be
true and correct." Quotes from intelligence experts in the
article, however, cast some doubt on even that. "That statement
is totally from left field. I don't know where Beers is getting
that," said one. "There doesn't seem to be any evidence of FARC
going to Afghanistan to train. We have never briefed anyone on
that and frankly, I doubt anyone has ever alleged that in a
briefing to the State Department or anyone else," said another.
"My first reaction was that Rand must have misspoke," said a
congressional staffer. "But when I saw the proffer signed under
oath, I couldn't believe he would do that. I have no idea why he
would say that."

Colombia and Afghanistan are both in the news this week, as
often happens, with the drug war playing an adverse role. In
Colombia, a military official who served along the country's
Caribbean coast was removed from his post; if allegations are
true, profits from the illegal cocaine industry -- which exists
because of drug prohibition -- tempted Rear Admiral Gabriel
Arango
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/
colombian_admiral_fired_over_drug_corruption_allegations)
to join the party. Several Army officers are being investigated
too, for alleged collaboration with the Norte del Valle cartel,
the country's most violent drug trafficking organization. In
Afghanistan, US officials are citing links between the illicit
opium trade -- which also exists because of drug prohibition --
and Taliban and Al Qaeda militants, as rationale for escalating
the forced opium eradication program
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/
afghanistan_opium_US_military_new_strategy).

And that's a big mistake, as numerous Afghanistan analysts have
pointed out. For example, at a forum here in Washington last
March
(http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle_blog/2007/mar/02/
cnn_terrorism_analyst_peter_berg),
CNN terrorism analyst Peter Bergen, responding to a question I
had posed him on the topic, said, "[E]radication doesn't work.
There's a vast amount of academic literature showing that it
just pushes the growers into the arms of the insurgents."
Because of prohibition, both opium growing and opium eradication
now help our enemies. It's not a success story for the
prohibition policy -- but then again, what is?

I hope this escalation does not include spraying -- the
Ecuadorans are not the only ones to explain how reckless and
inhumane the practice is. Given that it can't possibly work
either -- as long as there's demand, the supply will just move
around, and the Afghan farmers need the money -- there is no
justification for such risks based on any legitimate hopes for
success. The Karzai government has thus far resisted using
chemicals, and hopefully they will continue to do so. US drug
czar John Walters, however, announcing an expanded US military
involvement in the opium operations this week, made an ominous
sounding comment on which he would not elaborate, "We expect a
more permissive environment for these operations."

Given what has happened in Colombia the last several decades,
given what has happened in Afghanistan -- and how it has
affected us here -- is any more evidence needed of how morally
and intellectually defunct is our drug war? It's time to end
drug prohibition -- to legalize drugs -- and finally rescue
Colombians, Afghans, and addicts here and around the world from
the hell into which prohibition has plunged them.

================

2. Feature: In Strategy Shift, US Troops to Join Battle Against
Opium in Afghanistan
http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/498/
afghanistan_opium_US_military_new_strategy

The United States military is melding counterinsurgency with
counternarcotics missions in Afghanistan in what officials
called "a basic strategy shift" in its Afghan campaign. Up until
now, the US military has shied away from anti-drug operations in
Afghanistan, leaving them to the DEA, the British, and Afghan
authorities in a bid to avoid alienating Afghan peasant
populations dependent on the poppy crop for an income.

But with Afghan opium production at an all-time high last year
and predicted to go even higher this year -- Afghanistan
accounted for 92% of the global opium supply in 2006 and will
account for close to 100% this year--despite nearly a billion
dollars in US anti-drug aid, officials in Washington have
decided after long discussion that the Afghan drug war must be
ratcheted up.

US officials are increasingly concerned about links between drug
traffickers, the Taliban, and Al Qaeda militants, especially in
southeastern Afghanistan, where both the insurgency and poppy
production are most deeply rooted. Some 70 US soldiers, 69 NATO
soldiers, and hundreds of Afghan police and soldiers, Taliban
fighters, and Afghan civilians have been killed in fighting so
far this year, the third year of the Taliban resurgence.

The new policy was announced in a new report US Counternarcotics
Strategy for Afghanistan
(http://www.state.gov/p/inl/rls/rpt/90561.htm) released last
week and rolled out at an August 9 State Department briefing
(http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2007/aug/90604.htm) by Office
of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP--the drug czar's office)
head John Walters and Acting Assistant Secretary of State for
International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Thomas Schweich.

"We know that opium, maybe second only to terror, is a huge
threat to the future of Afghanistan," said Walters. "The efforts
by the Afghan people to build institutions of justice and rule
of law are threatened not only by the terror, but the drug
forces that are both economic, addictive and, of course, support
in some cases terror, not only through money, but through
influence and moving people away from the structures of
government toward the structures of drug mafias and violence,"
he said.

The new strategy is a combination of carrots and sticks, heavily
weighted toward the sticks. Out of the $700 million budgeted
for anti-drug activities this year, only about $120 million to
$150 million will go to alternative development, with the
remainder dedicated to eradication, interdiction, building up
the Afghan criminal justice system, and going after high-level
traffickers.

Some $30 million will go to farming communities that agree to
give up poppy production, but this is a pittance compared to the
$3.1 billion the trade is estimated to be worth, or even the
roughly $700 million estimated to end up in the hands of
peasant farmers. While most of the incentive money will go to
the north, where production is down, the more Taliban-friendly
east and southeast will get forced eradication and increased
efforts to go after high-level traffickers. Ambassador
Schweicher qualified the tougher approach as "substantially
harsher discincentives" for those areas. And the US military
will be involved.

 "There is a clear and direct link between the illicit opium
trade and insurgent groups in Afghanistan," the State Department
report said. The Pentagon "will work with DEA" and other
agencies "to develop options for a coordinated strategy that
integrates and synchronizes counternarcotics operations,
particularly interdiction, into the comprehensive security
strategy."

What exactly that means remains unclear. At the August 9
briefing, Walters dodged repeated questions about the exact
nature of US military involvement. "We expect a more permissive
environment for these operations, given the plans and
commitments here," Walters said. "Again, what -- your question
was what counter-narcotics operations is the military going to
do. That's not what this is doing, is saying the military is
going to become the eradication force or the interdiction force.
What we're going to do is create -- we've now created, we
believe, the structures to allow counter-narcotics operations,
whether they're arrests of people by Afghans, whether they're
interdiction, whether they're eradication to be integrated into
the security effort that's going on."

It might work, but there are gigantic obstacles in the way, said
Raheem Yaseer of the Center for Afghan Studies at the University
of Nebraska-Omaha. Improving the security situation is critical,
said Yaseer.

"The bombers and the Talibans are crossing the border from
Pakistan with all these weapons and getting across the
checkpoints and getting in among the villagers, where they shoot
at the allied forces. Then the allies bomb the villages, and
that creates a lot of resentment, and the people won't listen to
the allies," he said. "The US can track a bullet crossing the
border, but they can't find the Talibans," he said, a note of
frustration in his voice.

Alternative development could attract peasant farmers if the
security situation were stabilized, he said. "It's the bigger
warlords and drug lords who are the problem," Yaseer argued.
"And yes, there are some high government officials, big shots,
involved in drug trafficking, too. All of them have been
nourished by this money for years and don't want to see it go
away. But ordinary people would be satisfied with a little money
because they know growing poppies is condemned by their
tradition and religion." 

Endemic corruption is another problem. Even anti-drug aid and
alternative development assistance is likely to be siphoned off,
said Yaseer. "The corruption is very deep, and a lot of money
will vanish into people's pockets. You have to watch the people
at the top, too, or it won't be effective," he said. "You'll
only be spending money uselessly."

Congressional leaders called the new strategy a "welcome
recognition" that new initiatives had to be hatched to address
the Afghan opium problem, but worried that it wasn't enough.
"What the plan lacks is the recognition that Afghanistan is
approaching a crisis point, and that immediate action is
required to eliminate the threat of drug kingpins and cartels
allied with terrorists so we can reverse the country's steady
slide into a potential failed narco-state," said House Foreign
Affairs Committee chair Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA) and ranking
minority member Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) in a statement
responding to the new strategy
(http://www.hcfa.house.gov/press_display.asp?id=408).

Lantos and Ros-Lehtinen aren't the only members of Congress
concerned. Others have called for an entirely different
approach. Following the lead of the French defense and drug
policy think tank the Senlis Council (http://www.senlis.net),
which has been calling since 2005 for licensing the poppy crop,
Rep. Mel Carnahan (D-MO) has suggested licensing Afghan farmers
to grow the crop for legal pain medications, similar to the way
the international community diminished the drug trafficking
problem in India and Turkey. Senator John Sununu (R-NH) has
suggested the US buy opium crops from the farmers and destroy
them. Senator Joe Biden (D-DE) has suggested switching the focus
away from poor farmers and toward disrupting the cartels that
are moving the drugs.

But the drug czar and the State Department explicitly rejected
licensing as an impractical "silver bullet" that would not work
and have similarly rejected proposals to buy up the crop. And
they will definitely be going after poor farmers as well as
high-level traffickers.

But more of the same isn't going to do the trick, said the Drug
Policy Alliance (http://www.drugpolicy.org). "The so-called
'carrot and stick' approach has failed in every country it has
been tried in, including our own," said Bill Piper, the group's
director of national affairs. "As long as there is a demand for
drugs, there will be a supply to meet it. Drug prohibition makes
plants more valuable than gold."

More of the same may even make matters worse, Piper argued. "The
US is dangerously close to turning Afghanistan into the next
Iraq," said Piper. "Forced eradication of opium crops is driving
poor Afghans into the hands of our enemies, strengthening the
Taliban, and feeding the insurgency there. The war on drugs is
undermining the war on terror and pushing Afghanistan to the
brink of civil war."

The Bush administration has belatedly figured out it has a very
serious problem in Afghanistan. The question now is whether this
vigorous new strategy will calm the situation or only inflame
it.

================