From: resister@clark.net (P.Scott)
Newsgroups: talk.politics.drugs
Subject: Atlanta Conference Hilights (1st 1/2)
Date: Mon, 22 May 1995 20:30:38 +0000
Message-ID: <resister-2205952030380001@168.143.7.131>

Subject: Atlanta Conference Hilights(2nd 1/2)
Message-ID: <resister-2205952031370001@168.143.7.131>

I thought I would give ya'll some highlights of the
"Treatment-And-Prevention-Are-The-New-Codewords Convention", otherwise
known as American Cities Against Drugs.

The conference must have cost megabucks, and I plan on making a Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA) inquiry  to deteremine how many taxdollars were
spent on the pep rally.

I have a couple of hours of the conference on audiotape, and I'm working on
transferring it to text.  There was a video camera from "our side" in the
conference, so I assume it will be available soon enough.

It would have been quite easy to get into the conference for practically
anyone.  Just tell 'em you're from the press and they would happily write
you a pass for the day's events.

On Monday, I missed the drug czar and the mayor of Atlanta and came in when
the former mayor of Stockholm,  Carl Cederschiold  started his speech.  He
was bemoaning the fact that Europe was becoming too liberal on drugs, with
a few sarcastic remarks about "harm reduction."  The prohibitionists
consider harm reduction to be legalization and "pro-drug."  Goes on to talk
about how destructive drug use is.

Next was the Vice Mayor of Stockholm, Lena Nyberg.  She says drug use is
bad, destructive.  Use treatment, prevention to combat drug use and abuse.
She and the mayor of Stockholm were two of the five Europeans who spoke at
the conference.  The others included an Italian, Pietro  Corsi, who made a
presentation on "Drugs and the Brain", and Elisabeth de Marees van
Swinderen of the Dutch National Board of Drug Prevention, who spoke at the
evening reception on Sunday, and at a workshop on "The European Drug Scene
and What People Are Doing to Fight It."  The Dutch National Board is NOT a
part of the Dutch government and is supposedly a religious group.  Another
European at the conference was Torgny Peterson, director of European Cities
Against Drugs.

Undersecretary of  State for Global Affairs, Timothy E. Wirth came next.
Some items included in his speech:

"The drug trade threatens our national security."
"The cities have 'succumbed' to narcotics and money."
More prisons are needed.
Attack the source countries because "crops don't move quickly."
The Cali cartel is "ruthless and vicious."
Burma's government is repressive with many human rights abuses.
Legalization arguments are "dangerous."  Drugs are "more powerful than the
human will."
How to succeed in fighting drugs?  Stay away from corruption.
Clinton stands with you.

Jim Burke, president of the Partnership for a Drug Free America then spoke.
According to Burke, in 1962, 4 million people had tried illegal drugs.  By
1993, 80 million people had.  In the 1960's and 1970's, very little
sanctions were brought against drug users.  The 60s and 70s was America's
experiment in drug decriminalisation.  This was America's "normalisation."
The American people "have allowed for drug use to rise" recently.  After
showing a chart of the number of 13 year olds who have used marijuana he
asked, "Are we going to legalize for 13 year olds?  Are we going to
decriminalize for 13 year olds?"  He mentioned Join Together.  Drug use is
a preventable behavior and drug addiction is a preventable disease.  We
also need more treatment.

No questions for the first set of speakers.

During the break I got loads of stuff from the display booths.  Mostly
treatment, prevention.  DARE didn't show.  The National Guard was there
with "prevention" items.  Yes, even the National Guard is into
"prevention". (Prevention thru coercion, no doubt.)  Saw Rick Doblin of
MAPS.  I proceeded to get juiced up on coffee.

After the break, Alan Leshner, director of NIDA was the first speaker.
Leshner had the gall to start things off by saying LEGALIZERS distort
science.  And this is coming from a guy who refused to give Dr. Abrams
marijuana for scientific research.  He proceeded to go on a schpeal about
drug addiction as a brain disease.  "Drug use is a choice, drug addiction
is not."  Drugs cause "relatively permanent" changes at the molecular and
cellular level in users' brains.  Believe it or not, NIDA's goal for the
year 2000 is "to have science replace ideology" in the war on drugs.  These
people never cease to amaze me with their hypocrisy.

Lloyd Johnson, the guy who is in charge of the Monitoring the Future
survey, spoke after Leshner.  He admitted that legal drugs are damaging and
if the drugs that are illegal now were legalized, they wouldn't cause more
deaths than alcohol and tobacco.  He was also critical of our current
policies that stress incarceration and ignore treatment.

Ray McKinnon, DEA field administrator from Georgia, gave a speech for
Constantine, who didn't show up.  Ray says that "the DEA will not stand by
and let legalization take place."  Does this mean that the government is
willing to stand in the way of the will of the people if they choose to
legalize drugs?  Will the DEA invade Congress?  According to Ray, $77.4
billion in federal entitlements are due to drug abuse, 20,000 deaths due to
illegal drugs, and 28% of SSI recipients are drug addicts.  He outlined
what legalization would be like, failing to mention that less harmful forms
of drugs such as coca leaves, edible marijuana, opium, drugs with regulated
purity would be available.

Joe Califano from CASA was next with his take on "Legalization:  The
Reality."  One of his assistants was passing the speech out, so this is
available in hard copy.  When I told her I was with the Drug Policy Letter,
she said, "Oh, you want to legalize drugs."  I corrected her simplistic
notion and received a response of, "Yea, whatever."  Califano starts by
blaming all of society's problems on substance abuse, then plugs the Center
on Addiction and Substance Abuse as the nation's savior from substance
abuse.  If you were wondering where DEA Ray got the figure that $77.4
billion in entitlements due to drug abuse, Califano provides the answer:
$11.2 billion for public assistance recipients who are drug and alcohol
abusers and addicts- those who use drugs at least monthly and who binge on
five or more drinks at a single sitting at least weekly; $44 billion due to
disease, disability from smoking tobacco; $12 billion due to alcohol; and
$10 billion due to illegal drugs.  "Legalization of drugs in the United
States is a policy of despair, one that would write off millions of our
citizens, a disproportionate number of them black and Hispanic."  He goes
on to show how "drug legalization" in Europe has failed:  250% increase in
adolescent marijuana use from 1984 to 1992 in the Netherlands, while down
66% in the U.S; 30% increase in registered cannabis addicts from 1991 to
1993.  "Indeed, Amsterdam authorities and citizens are so infuriated by the
number of 'coffee' shops dealing cocaine and heroin that many have been
shut down."  He then says how the British system failed,  and now only has
"a handful of specially licensed doctors has been allowed to prescribe
cocaine and heroin; less than 20 do, and most of them prefer to dispense
methadone.  Throughout England, these doctors maintain only 400 addicts on
heroin."  Claims that maintaining a few hundred addicts reduces crime is
"preposterous."   Italy's decriminalisation of heroin has caused the
Italians to have the highest rate of heroin addiction in Europe.  Needle
park in Zurich was mentioned of course, as was Sweden's experiment in
prescribing drugs to addicts.  According to Califano:  "My point is simple:
we need not experiment with drug legalization in the United States.  There
is ample evidence of its failure in similar nations."  He continues:  "The
nation's lopsided obsession with law enforcement and interdicition feeds
the despair that tilts some Americans to throw up their hands in gestures
toward legalization.   Of course we need firm law enforcement and we need
to make it difficult and expensive, if not impossible, to get drugs into
this country or produce them here."  And, "the Congress is fueling the
furnaces of those who propose legalization of drugs with policies that
withold treatment from substance abusers who need it."  What this all comes
down to is that we should continue criminalisation with more $$$ for
treatment, prevention, research.

Finally, the last speaker before lunch was Jessica Hulsey, student at
Princeton University.   She was the posterchild of the conference.  Her
parents were fuckups and heroin addicts and ended up ODing.  Her uncle, who
she talked highly of, blew himself up trying to manufacture
methamphetamine.  Alot of her problems seemed to be due to prohibition,
actually.  Rumor has it that Ethan Nadelmann got her to say she supported
needle exchange- not in public, however.

The mayors then signed the Atlanta Resolution.  I'm still waiting to get a
list of cities who signed.

This all happened on Monday.

Tuesday consisted of alot of workshops which I didn't attend.  Some of the
highlights included:  "Media and Communications" which urges participants
to use the RADAR network and Join Together online.  For more info. on RADAR
write or call:  Nat'l Clearinghouse for Alcohol and Drug Information
P.O.Box 2345 Rockville, MD 20847-2345; 800-729-6686, (TDD) 800-487-4889 or
info@prevline.health.org.  PREVline links 700 prevention specialists around
the world.  You can access it by calling 301-770-0850 or via the Internet
(path:  telnet ncadi.health.org.)

Another workshop was:  "Legalizers and How to Debate Them."  This meeting
was run by Steve Morreale of the DEA; Stephanie Haynes, president of Drug
Watch International, and Tom Pool of  the DEA.  According to the program,
"This presentation is designed to provide information to counter the
various issues raised by advocates of drug legalization.  Workshop
participants will learn about the organizations, individuals and the
funding sources behind the current pro-drug 'liberalization' or
'harm-reduction' movement.  They will also receive current facts and
statistics on the drug subculture useful in debates against drug
legalization and liberalization."

Finally, there was the workshop "The European Drug Scene and What People
Are Doing to Fight It."  James Dandridge of the Bureau of Int'l Narcotics
and Law Enforcement Affairs, US State Dept., Sylvie Alpert Bryant of the UN
Drug Control Programme in New York, Franziska Haller of the Association for
the Advancement of Psychological Understanding of Human Nature, Elisabeth
de Marees va Swinderen of the Dutch National Board of Drug Prevention, and
Torgny Peterson, director of European Cities Against Drugs were all
presenting stuff.  The program reads, "Overviews on the failure of
'liberalization', 'decriminalization', and 'harm reduction' policies in
both Western and Eastern Europe will be shard by a panel of presenters
active in the European drug control and anti-legalization campaigns.
Workshop participants will learn about UN efforts in demand reduction, and
hear firsthand the facts on European drug policy, the reality of Zurich's
open drug scene and Amsterdam's coffeehouses, and the progress of European
Cities Against Drugs."

That's all I've got for now.  More to come later...


--Scott