From: [d--p--n] at [ziggys.cts.com] (Rex Kahler)  619/262-6384
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Subject: That dangerous criminal Capriati......
Date: Wed, 25 May 94 22:54:23 PDT

(xscribed from the 25may94 san diego union/tribune w/o permission)

                That Dangerous Criminal Capriati

                Richard Cohen
                The Washington Post


      Cynics about the erstwhile "war on drugs" (a term abandoned by 
   the Clinton administration) had their case bolstered recently. 
   Jennifer Capriati, the extremely dangerous 18-year-old tennis star,
   was arrested in Florida for possessing a small amount (about 20 
   grams) of marijuana. A terrified nation -- she had killer ground 
   strokes -- undoubtably breathed a sigh of relief. 
      The cynics, of which I am one, might have noted that if Capriati
   had possessed a gallon of vodka and, like every other Floridian, a
   legal handgun, the law would have left her alone. Throw in a carton
   of cigarettes -- as addictive as chocolate, according to the ciga-
   rette companies -- and no lawman would, or could, have taken an 
   interest in her.
      The arrest of Capriati points up the silliness of our drug laws.
   The former tennis star -- she hasn't played for almost a year -- 
   has since entered the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami for rehab,
   although from what is not exactly clear. Above all, she seems to be
   suffering from an acute case of teen-age madness. The symptoms include
   estrangement from her parents, consorting with "the wrong people" and,
   possibly, abuse of drugs. In her case, it probably matters that she 
   became a professional tennis player at age 13.
      But for all of Capriati's fame, she is depressingly typical.        
      Whatever her problems, they are hardly criminal in nature. Yet, she
   was arrested for allegedly possessing an insignificant amount of mari-
   juana.
      This is a drug of such power that it has made the entire government
   crazy. During the Reagan years, for instance, the discovery of a single 
   seed prompted the feds to seize a luxury yacht. Yet for some reason, of
   all the millions of people who have partaken of the weed, not a single 
   one of them has died as a result. Would that cigarettes could make the 
   same claim.
      Let me pause at this point to declare my steadfast opposition to
   drug use. But I still have to wonder why we continue to treat drugs
   mostly as a criminal matter, waging a war not against drugs themselves,
   but against our own people.
      Some 330.000 persons are now in jail for drug violations. In the 
   federal prison system, more than 60 percent of the inmates are there
   for violating drug laws -- most relating to harder drugs than marijuana.
      But even when it comes to pot, the numbers are appalling. The FBI 
   reports that in 1992, 535,000 people were arrested for possession, sale
   or manufacture of marijuana -- this in a nation that doesn't have enough
   cops to start with. In six cases, reports _Rolling Stone_ magazine in
   a special report about drugs, life sentences were imposed. As for
   harder drugs, mandatory minimum sentences are clogging the jails with
   small-time "mules" who are quickly and easily replaced.
      The folly, not to mention the tragedy, of this policy ought to be
   apparent. For some reason, the United States persists in treating
   drugs as a criminal, not a health, problem. Certainly, the importation
   and selling of hard drugs is a criminal enterprise and ought to be
   dealt with accordingly. But that lucrative business would soon wither
   if the government decriminalized the use of drugs.
      To that suggestion -- advanced, to one degree or another, by Balti-
   more Mayor Kurt Schmoke and former Secretary of State George Schultz,
   among others, and contingent on much study -- certain politicians cry
   bloody murder.
      Decriminalization does seem like capitulation -- but not to drug 
   pushers or to the substance itself, but to human nature. We have been
   spending $20 billion a year, and have nothing to show for it. The true
   winners of the war on drugs are two: drug pushers and companies engaged
   in the construction of prisons. The rest of us are losers.
      Whatever Jennifer Capriati's troubles, they are not criminal. She's
   a kid with some problems -- one of them now being a bust on a drug 
   charge.

*****     *****     *****     *****     *****     *****     *****     *****
                          (all typos mine...!)



        slowly but surely, the eyes and ears of the people are opened,
        and as we see more and more articles of this kind (cf. "Dear
        Abby") in the newspapers and other media, we can expect the
        people of our nation to begin to think...and to reason...and -
        in time - to urge their lawmakers to end this insanity.



        it will happen....!







back beneath the waves
                        D o l p h i n R e x
/s\