Comments on Community Anti-Drug Coalition of America's Comments about ABC News/John Stossel Speical Presentation, "War on Drugs, War on Ourselves"

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Audio Files for the John Stossel/ABC News broadcast of War on Drugs, War on Ourselves

http://highwire.stanford.edu/~straffin/dp/

Watch Entire Special Here-

http //www.crrh.org/hemptv/video_news.html

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Betsy Glick ~ (703) 706-0560 x246
CONTACT: Cliff Kai ~ (703) 706-0560 x22

July 31, 2002

ABC NEWS' "WAR ON DRUGS" PROGRAM FAILS TO ADDRESS DEMAND FOR DRUGS

ALEXANDRIA, VA-Last night, ABC NEWS presented an hour long special entitled "War on Drugs: A War on Ourselves," hosted and reported by John Stossel. While the show raised several important questions and made some compelling arguments, Stossel failed to get a balanced viewpoint by looking at what creates the demand for drugs and how we can quell that need.

General Arthur T. Dean, Chairman and CEO of Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) said, "I am disappointed that Mr. Stossel simply glossed over the thousands of coalitions across the country who are working every day to reduce the demand for drugs, and helping keep our communities drug free." Dean noted, "While I believe there is a need for discussions in the public arena, I firmly and unequivocally believe that all illegal drugs must remain illegal, and there is no room for negotiation on that."

A central argument of last night's show was that the government should not waste millions of dollars and badly-needed law enforcement manpower to arrest and convict those who are simply carrying drugs, such as marijuana. However, recent statistics discount the program's insinuation that a considerable number of prison inmates are incarcerated simply because of drug possession. Many inmates who may have committed more serious crimes, such as major drug sales or robbery, are sent to prison for drug possession after working out a plea agreement with prosecutors. In Florida, where approximately 60,000 individuals are incarcerated, only 93 were for possession of marijuana. Most plead down from more serious charges or were repeat offenders.

CADCA, and its more than 5,000 members are strongly dedicated to quell the demand for drugs. "If we can get kids, teens and adults to stop taking drugs and having a dependency on them, then there won't be a need for this seemingly never-ending supply of drugs. I really hope to see continued public attention and funding focused toward this aspect of the war on drugs," General Dean said.

General Dean will be available for media interviews this afternoon. Please contact either Betsy Glick or Cliff Kai at the phone numbers and extensions above to schedule an interview.

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Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) is the premier national membership organization providing training, information and support to anti-drug coalitions across the country. Community anti-drug coalitions are local partnerships between parents, teachers, young people, law enforcement, health providers, the faith community, business and civic leaders, elected officials and concerned citizens who unite and mobilize to make their communities safe, healthy and drug-free -- one community at a time.

Originally posted at the CADCA website

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from Doug McVay
To Kevin Zeece
Cc: ARO
Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2002 8:10 PM
Subject: Re: CADCA Press release on Stossel

Good Evening All,
One quick note re this part of CADCA's news release:

> A central argument of last night's show was that the government should not
waste millions of dollars and badly-needed law enforcement manpower to
arrest and convict those who are simply carrying drugs, such as marijuana.
However, recent statistics discount the program's insinuation that a
considerable number of prison inmates are incarcerated simply because of
drug possession.

Their assertion is misleading, their response nonresponsive, the show's
argument stands.

CADCA says that the show pointed out the waste of arresting and convicting
possession offenders, particularly marijuana offenders. About half of US
drug arrests are for marijuana, and that excludes simple possession offenses
in California, New York, and other decrim states in which what occurs is not
by FBI definitions an 'arrest', so Stossel was correct. CADCA attempts to
refute this in the next sentence by asserting that 'recent statistics'
discount the idea that a considerable number of *PRISON INMATES* are in for
simple possession.

Obviously, they're not addressing what they say the show contends.
Incarceration isn't the same thing as arrest and conviction. Instead of
addressing the issue at hand, CADCA switches to something that's easier for
them to refute. It's a very sleazy rhetorical trick, and it works too often.
Secondly, they mention 'drug possession' yet their specific anecdote deals
only with marijuana possession offenders. Obviously there's a difference,
and they know that. Again, that sleazy rhetorical trick of confusing the
opponent by redirecting the argument.

Prisons are facilities in which are incarcerated those offenders sentenced
to terms of more than a year, and actually relative to the total number of
state and Federal prisoners, there really aren't great numbers of simple
marijuana possession offenders inside state or penitentiaries. They are
however in jails and on probation, at least first offenders, and they're
clogging the courts.

In addition it should be noted, the really most recent data shows that 27.1%
of drug offenders in state prisons are incarcerated on drug possession
charges. That's more than 60,000 prison inmates. By anyone's measure, that's
a lot of people.

(And by the way, there are no 'recent statistics' on prison inmates yet
available, the most recent prison census was conducted in 1997 for the
Justice Dept., with luck a new prisons census will be conducted in the next
couple of years. There is no 'new' data available, and if they're referring
to the new Prisoners in 2001 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics
they're completely wrong because that report can't get to that level of
detail. CADCA needs to be made to put up or shut up.)

Now, regarding arrests, and marijuana: There are 1.5 million+ drug arrests
each year, of which more than 750,000 are for marijuana. That's according to
the FBI, and recall that this number excludes simple marijuana possession
offenses in large decrim states like California and New York. That some
possession charges are incidental to another crime is possible, but show me
the national research that proves it's significant, please. Cities all over
the country have jump-out squads whose only job is to bust drug users and
smalltime dealers, there's nothing incidental about those
arrests.

Forgetting about possession offenses, there are the 100,000 arrests for
marijuana cultivation and sales each year, and the millions spent on
marijuana eradication. The result is that 12.9% of state drug prisoners are
in on marijuana charges, while 18.9% of federal drug offenders are
incarcerated for pot. It's a waste and everyone knows it.

Have a great night everyone.
Doug

--
Doug McVay
Editor, Drug War Facts
Research Director/Projects Coordinator
Common Sense for Drug Policy
1327 Harvard Street NW (lower level), Washington, DC 20009
dmcvay@csdp.org
202-332-9101 -- fax 202-518-4028
http://www.csdp.org/ -- http://www.drugwarfacts.org/

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RE: JOHN STOSSEL
"War on Drugs: A War on Ourselves"

Thank you for the production, John.

I'm a grandmother with no special training, and maybe I'm just not
getting it, but General(?) Arthur T. Dean made me question **CADCA's
motives and/or common sense.

'General' Dean first complained that Stossel didn't dwell on "quelling
the NEED for drugs" long enough. Then he says right out loud in
front of God and everybody, "I firmly and unequivocally believe that
all illegal drugs must remain illegal, and there is no room for
negotiation on that!".

I cannot see how you can "Quell the NEED" by prohibiting the drug,
demonizing the user, and disrupting the nation with a historical (not
to mention hysterical) failure of a policy like prohibition!

With all due respect, General Dean, that sounds like a direct conflict
of energy to me.

Quelling the drug and it's user demands war. "Quelling the NEED"
suggests healing, and peace is vital to that process.

What is CADCA's real goal? You can't heal the sick by killing them ,
so you can only claim one effort.

Do you support a war that never ends and if so do you profit from it?
Well of course you do... No drug war, no CADCA.

If you really want to "quell the need", then I suggest you help us
develop saner policies.

Kay Lee
1868 San Juan Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94707
510-528-4603
kaylee@idiom.com or kayleeusa@yahoo.com

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"I am disappointed that Mr. Stossel simply glossed over the thousands of
coalitions across the country who are working every day to reduce the
demand for drugs, and helping keep our communities drug free." --General
Arthur T. Dean, Chairman and CEO of Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of
America (CADCA)

I would like to say that I'm disapointed in General Dean for making this
rediculous statement. But that would not be true. CADCA is just another
alter-ego of DFAF and, as such, this is just exactly the kind of hysterical
group dementia I would expect from them.

You can't lose what you never had. That's true. You can't _keep_ what has
never existed, either. Please, will someone tell me where, aside from Amish
country or a map of Flat Earth, I can find this Utopian drug free community
that CADCA cells are working so hard to maintain? I'd really like to see
one some day, just as a novelty.

But in the more commonly accepted reality, after over 30 years of all out
War On (some) Drugs, it still doesn't exist, not even in prison or in China
where summary execution is used to attain that end. In my 37 years I've
seen an awful lot of very unlikely things, but a reduction in the demand
for psychotropic drugs has not been one of them.

Nonsensical statements like these permeate the airwaves, print media and
even (especially) the classrooms where our children are supposed to be
learning reason, literacy and the civil arts. They all seem to originate
from this unimaginably well funded, tightly knit, carefully camouflaged
(and I might add intentionally ignorant and insular) group of public policy
investors who have taken this nation for a ride for far too long now. We
should all be ashamed of having let ourselves be taken in this way.

Ginger Warbis- Support@Fornits.Com
He who laughs lasts- http://Fornits.Com/