[Peace] thoughts on the drug war and AWARE (from a minion of NORML)

[Danielle Schumacher]

Rather than taking more time at the meeting than I already do, I would like to email to follow up with some things that were brought up at the last meeting. If you want more information about a particular topic, email me or I can summarize and elaborate on Sunday. 

COLOMBIA

When I was coordinator of the UIUC chapter of Amnesty International, I tried to organize a "Week of Action for Colombia." Now that I have more time (and AWARE's support?), perhaps it can happen sometime in Spring. One evening we can show "Hidden in Plain Sight," the latest and best documentary about the School of the Americas. After the screening, we can brief the audience on current legislation to close the school and write letters, sign petitions, etc. Another evening, I can invite Sanho Tree to speak. I have heard him speak about Colombia several times, and work with him through Students for Sensible Drug Policy. He is a Fellow and Director of the Drug Policy Project at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC. The intersection of race and poverty in the drug war is at the heart of the project's work. In recent years the project has focused on the US drug war in Colombia and its attendant "collateral damage". Mr. Tree is also a former military and diplomatic historian, but his current work focuses on US involvement in the conflict in Colombia. He recently was featured in the ABC/John Stossel documentary on the drug war which aired in July 2002 and appeared on Politically Incorrect in April of that year. In person, he is as articulate as in this interview:

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/171/sanhotree.shtml

NORML

Much of Sunday's brainstorming session revolved around the War on Drugs, and at one point Randall asked what NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) is up to. The Illinois chapter (www.illinoisnorml.org), based in Chicago, is extremely committed to ending the War on Drugs because it disproportionately harms poor people and people of color. Also, it costs billions of dollars and thousands of lives around the world, and it is only making our country's drug problem worse! The UIUC chapter is also a chapter of Students for Sensible Drug Policy, and is active on campus and in the national movement (www.uiucnorml.org). The main focus of SSDP is to repeal the drug provision of the Higher Education Act, which denies financial aid to drug offenders (http://www.ssdp.org/home/hea_main.htm). A great site to read is "What's Wrong with the Drug War?" on the Drug Policy Alliance site: http://www.drugpolicy.org/drugwar/. It covers the basics of mandatory minimum sentencing, the drug war as a public health crisis, and more. As Assistant Director of Illinois NORML, I would be happy to speak in more detail at a meeting about a particular topic. Also, the CU Citizens for Peace and Justice "Forgiveness Weekend" will deal with many of these topics in more detail, and the UIUC chapters have a weekly meeting and teach-in at 7pm Wednesdays in 108 English Building.

ADVOCACY

Susan P. suggested that AWARE spend more time as an advocate for victims of police misconduct. I think of these people as victims of the War on Drugs, because this is the guise under which police departments receive much of their funding. The vast majority of arrests are for non-violent drug offenses, which does not include drug dealers! The majority of prisoners and felons are drug offenders, not murderers and rapists like the government would like us to believe. However, I think advocacy is extremely difficult for many reasons. Since founding the UIUC chapters of NORML and SSDP, I have received hundreds of calls and emails from people who have run into trouble with the law. It has been time-consuming and exhausting, and in the end I cannot really help these people. All I can do is try to help them understand their rights and options, but I am not a lawyer and as Sandra said, "When you are an advocate, you have to sort through a lot of crap." I think we all agree that cases like Manisha Elkins are not crap and that we can help by showing support in court and through the media. In the end, though, I think the best way to deal with this problem is to continue the campaign for a Citizen Police Review Board. The Coalition for Citizen Police Review meets this Thursday at 6:30 at the Douglass Center. We need to raise money, collect signatures and stories, and plan a forum at which we will present the signatures and stories to City Council members and the Chief of Police. Without thousands of signatures to show public support, the Council will never pass the proposal that will create the Board. 

Thank you all for your time! If you have made it this far, I am extremely grateful.

Respectfully and sincerely,

Danielle Schumacher 
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