--- In cia_tradecraft@yahoogroups.com, stu8340@a... wrote:

_elvenhobbitdragonelhoim_ (mailto:elvenhobbitdragonelhoim@y...)
writes:


forcing all Americans to become foot soldiers in the war on drugs.

Totalitarian USA: Report your family members or go to prison




Proposed legislation would compel people to spy on their family
members and
neighbors, forcing all Americans to become foot soldiers in the war
on drugs.


_http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=6143_
(http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=6143)

Neighbors spying on neighbors? Mothers forced to turn in their sons
or
daughters? These are images straight out of George Orwell’s 1984,
or a remote
totalitarian state. We don’t associate them with the land of the
free and the
home of the brave, but that doesn’t mean they couldn’t happen
here. A senior
congressman, James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.), is working quietly but
efficiently
to turn the entire United States population into informants--by
force.

Sensenbrenner, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee Chairman, has
introduced
legislation that would essentially draft every American into the war
on drugs.
H.R. 1528, cynically named "Safe Access to Drug Treatment and Child
Protection Act," would compel people to spy on their family members
and neighbors,
and even go undercover and wear a wire if needed. If a person
resisted, he or
she would face mandatory incarceration.

Here’s how the "spy" section of the legislation works: If
you "witness"
certain drug offenses taking place or "learn" about them, you must
report the
offenses to law enforcement within 24 hours and provide "full
assistance in the
investigation, apprehension and prosecution" of the people involved.
Failure
to do so would be a crime punishable by a mandatory minimum two-year
prison
sentence, and a maximum sentence of 10 years.

Here are some examples of offenses you would have to report to
police within
24 hours:
You find out that your brother, who has children, recently bought a
small
amount of marijuana to share with his wife;
You discover that your son gave his college roommate a marijuana
joint;
You learn that your daughter asked her boyfriend to find her some
drugs,
even though they’re both in treatment.
In each of these cases you would have to report the relative to the
police
within 24 hours. Taking time to talk to your relative about
treatment instead
of calling the police immediately could land you in jail.

In addition to turning family member against family member, the
legislation
could also put many Americans in danger by forcing them to go
undercover to
gain evidence against strangers.
Even if the language that forces every American to become a de facto
law
enforcement agent is taken out, the bill would still impose
draconian sentences
on college students, mothers, people in drug treatment and others
with
substance abuse problems. If enacted, this bill will destroy lives,
break up
families, and waste millions of taxpayer dollars.

Despite growing opposition to mandatory minimum sentences from civil
rights
groups to U.S. Supreme Court Justices, the bill eliminates federal
judges’
ability to give sentences below the minimum recommended by federal
sentencing
guidelines. This creates a mandatory minimum sentence for all
federal
offenses, drug-related or not.
H.R. 1528 also establishes new draconian penalties for a variety of
non-violent drug offenses, including:

Five years for anyone who passes a marijuana joint at a party to
someone
who, at some point in his or her life, has been in drug treatment;
Ten years for mothers with substance abuse problems who commit
certain drug
offenses at home (even if their children are not at home at the
time);
Five years for any person with substance abuse problems who begs a
friend in
drug treatment to find them some drugs.

These sentences would put non-violent drug offenders behind bars for
as long
as rapists, and they include none of the drug treatment touted in
the bill’s
name.

At a time when everyone from the conservative American Enterprise
Institute
to the liberal Sentencing Project is slamming the war on drugs as an
abject
failure, Sensenbrenner is trying to escalate it, and to force all
Americans to
become its foot soldiers. Instead of enacting new mandatory
minimums,
federal policymakers should look toward the states. A growing number
have reformed
their drug sentencing laws, including Arizona, California, Kansas,
Louisiana,
Maryland, New Mexico, New York and Texas, and they have proved it is
possible to both save money and improve public safety.

Simply put, there is no way H.R. 1528 can be fixed. The only policy
proposal
in recent years that comes close to being as totalitarian as this
bill is
Operations TIPS, the Ashcroft initiative that would have encouraged -
- but not
required -- citizens to spy on one another. Congress rightfully
rejected that
initiative and they should do the same with H.R. 1528. Big Brother
has no
business here in America.
Bill Piper is director of national affairs for the Drug Policy
Alliance.
_http://alternet.org/story/22048_
(http://www.alternet.org/story/22048)

by : Bill Piper, Alternet
Sunday 22nd May 2005
--- End forwarded message ---