Date: Sat, 1 Jun 1996 18:29:21 -0400
Reply-To: [d r c natl] at [drcnet.org]
From: David Borden <[b--rd--n] at [intr.net]>
Subject: Coast to Coast

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            Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet)
                       Rapid Response Team
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Please copy and distribute.
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Drug policy reformers and others interested in the topic 
might want to check out "Smoke and Mirrors: The War on Drugs 
and the Politics of Failure," a recently released book by 
DRCNet subscriber Dan Baum, a former reporter with the Wall 
Street Journal and the Atlanta Constitution.  Smoke and 
Mirrors is published by Little, Brown & Co., and received a 
favorable review in the New York Times last Monday, May 27.  
You can probably find it in your local bookstore, but if 
they don't have it, you can help get the truth out about the 
drug war by asking them to carry it for the store.

Those on the East Coast, in the Washington, DC area, can 
meet Dan Baum on Tuesday evening, June 4, at a reception 
hosted by the Fund for Constitutional Government and the 
Criminal Justice Policy Foundation, at the Washington Home 
of Stewart Mott, 122 Maryland Avenue NE, Washington, DC 
(near the South Station and Capitol South stops on the 
Metro), from 6:00 to 8:00 pm.  RSVP to Tracy Glisson, (202) 
546-3732.

"As wars will do, the War on Drugs escalated piecemail, a 
product of the hopes, fears, and ambitions of people with 
varying motives and disparate points of view.  Some Drug War 
hawks have labored cynically, others with the best of 
intentions.  Smoke and Mirros is the story of how they 
kindled Drug War fever and led the country into the 
intractable mess we call the War on Drugs."

=====================================================

Those on the West Coast might be interested in the following 
event taking place the very next day:

RE-EVALUATING THE U.S. DRUG WAR

Stanford, CA- An expert panel will discuss US drug policy 
and its effects on American society in a program entitled 
Re-evaluating the Drug War, on Wednesday, June 5 from 4 to 6 
PM. It will be held at Stanford University's Oak East Room 
in Tressider Memorial Union and coincides with a six-day 
showing of the powerful photo exhibit, Human Rights '95: 
Atrocities of the Drug War.  The exhibit is free for public 
viewing, and open from June 2 to 7 in the Upstairs Lounge in 
the same location.

Former San Jose and Kansas City police chief Joseph 
McNamara, now a fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institute, will 
participate in the discussion, along with Chris Conrad, 
author and director of Family Council on Drug Awareness; 
Virginia Resner, California Coordinator of Families Against 
Mandatory Minimums (FAMM); and Steven Faulkner, activist and 
former prisoner.  A 10-minute slide show on drug war facts 
and figures will be presented by Oakland attorney, Robert 
Raich.

Human Rights '95: Atrocities of the Drug War views American 
drug policy through the lens of the UN Universal Declaration 
of Human Rights and the US Bill of Rights. Photo portraits 
eloquently communicate the painful reality of ordinary 
people and families who got caught up in the wide net of 
zero tolerance, in which homes and property are seized 
without trial.  Many have lost their children, freedom and 
future dreams due to long, mandatory prison terms for minor 
offenses.

For more information, please contact Virginia Resner at 
(415) 753-6602.

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      Peace     Justice     Freedom     Compassion     Truth
==================================================================

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                          END THE DRUG WAR
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