Date: Sat, 13 Jan 1996 02:07:20 -0800 (PST)
From: American Anti-Prohibition League <[aal 01] at [teleport.com]>
Subject: JAILS OR HARM REDUCTION?

                     AMERICAN ANTI-PROHIBITION LEAGUE
              3125 SE Belmont Street, Portland, Ore., 97214 
                  Phone: 503-235-4524, Fax: 503-234-1330
                        E-mail: [aal 01] at [teleport.com]
                     Floyd Ferris Landrath - Director

    January 13, 1996

    On the issue of additional jail space in Multnomah County, on the 
    occasion of a forum called by Multnomah County Commissioner Dan 
    Saltzman, District Attorney Michael Schrunk, and Sheriff Dan 
    Noelle:
                         JAILS OR HARM REDUCTION?

               Avoiding the Evils of Adult Drug Prohibition
                         in the 1990s and beyond

      No matter how the numbers are cut, the majority of those who 
    will soon be released from the state's prison system are non-
    violent drug offenders.  In plain terms, many of them are junkies 
    and lower-level drug dealers.  Addiction, plus adult drug 
    prohibition ensures a continual flow of repeat offenders doing 
    time for violating terms of their probation, i.e. usually for 
    another drug prohibition-related offense.  Huge black-market drug 
    profits push drugs and hence more addiction, more crime, more 
    arrests, more corruption, and on and on.  Our "revolving door" 
    justice system has hit warp speed, and the average age of drug 
    addicts and prisoners, continues to get younger and younger.

      Perhaps we should just convert our schools into jails? 

      While I need not repeat that which should be self-evident to 
    this panel, it would appear most people do not yet understand that 
    the so-called "War on Drugs" is really a war on poor people, more 
    specifically a war on young black males.  There is at the moment 
    an outrageous conspiracy of silence about this institutional 
    racism.  And well intended or not, those elected officials who 
    know better but do not speak out against it, are a major part of 
    the problem.

      I suggest and obviously endorse a different approach towards 
    adult drug use.  Not because I think drug use is good, but because 
    I know adult drug prohibition is much, much worse.  I further 
    suggest that today's policies are as counter-productive as this 
    notion of borrowing on our children's money to jail them.  We are 
    literally locking-up the future, creating a massive prison 
    culture.  And if we do this much longer, I fear America will 
    become the largest, most powerful police state to ever exist.  We 
    already, thanks in large part to this "war," have more of our 
    fellow citizens in prison than any other country in the so-called 
    civilized world.  Simply put, if cops, DAs, judges and jailers 
    were the answer to crime or drug abuse, it would have worked long 
    ago.

      For the last 4 years I've run what's now called the "Harm 
    Reduction Zone," a sort of sidewalk rest stop for, among others, 
    the homeless and near homeless addicts who live in the Hawthorne 
    area, here in Portland, Oregon.  I usually have some donated food, 
    and sometimes warm clothing and blankets to distribute when the 
    temperature drops.  I do a little first-aid, and a lot of 
    listening.  Most of the soliloquies describe a cycle of drug 
    abuse, crime, arrest, jail, probation, drug abuse...  Child abuse, 
    broken homes, and of course parental drug abuse provide the 
    framework around which these stores of personal tragedy often 
    revolve.

      But the most important function at the "Harm Reduction Zone" is 
    the distribution of clean needles to help prevent the spread of 
    HIV/AIDS.  Needle exchange saves lives, period.  Some of the 
    literature I brought with me today scientifically documents that 
    simple, yet fantastic fact.  Also I have brought word of 
    encouraging, albeit limited examples of successes in reducing 
    drug-related crime and addiction through controlled distribution 
    of drugs to addicts.  In Europe, Australia, and other parts of the 
    world it's known simply as, "Harm Reduction."  A non-political, 
    public health based approach to the problems of drug abuse.

      Which brings me to the main thrust of this little presentation.  
    I have a simple proposal, a humble request.  I am not so proud as 
    to prevent my begging you; so many lives are hanging in the 
    balance.  And you three have the power to save many of them.  I 
    stand before you today to besiege you.  I need your help to save 
    more lives.  Please help REDUCE THE HARM of drug abuse, and adult 
    drug prohibition.  Please help me in promoting the fundamental 
    question, for which the answer, as I said, is self-evident:

                        "DRUG WAR, or DRUG PEACE?"


      Thank you for your kind consideration.

    Floyd Ferris Landrath - Director
    American Anti-Prohibition League