the New McCarthyism
Is reefer issue madness?
By Todd Piccirilli

  While Midnight Madness has come and gone,
 reefer madness hit Lexington when Eric Schlosser,
 contributing editor for The Atlantic Monthly,
 recently spoke on the issue at the University of Kentucky chapter
 of the American Civil Liberties Union.
 Schlosser has published two articles in the journal on the use of
 marijuana and certain atrocities that have directly resulted 
 from America's so-called war on drugs.
 Schlosser is neither, some hippie pothead opining on the 
 wonders of weed, nor an advocate for the legalization of marijuana.
 "I personally do not think that wide spread marijuana use is good 
 for the nation," said Schlosser. But he began his talk by asserting
 that there is " a common underlying dynamic to America's wars
 on pinkos , reds , immigrants and potheads" in what he termed
 the witch hunts of this century.
 Schlosser presented the argument that today's war on drugs is not
 an act of beneficence on the part of politicians and lawmakers
 to rid our nation of the scourge of drug use and abuse. Rather, 
 it is an attempt, much like McCarthyism was, to make this a society
 of conformists.
  Schlosser backed up his witch hunt theory by relating the stories
 of three individuals who have all received life sentences for 
 possessing or selling small amounts of marijuana. Among them,  
 James Montgomery, a paraplegic who occasionally used  marijuana 
 to ease muscle spasms and who had a completely clean criminal record
 before being charged with the possession of marijuana; 
 he received a life sentence from the state of Oklahoma.
  Schlosser also noted that under federal law the death penalty 
 can be enforced for anyone buying or selling the drug, even if 
 it's a first time charge.       
 To reinforce his point, Schlosser offered some staggering statistics.
 He cited the average prison term for marijuana related charges 
 as six years. To put this in perspective, he noted that kidnappers
 spend an average of four years in prison while convicted killers
 in California spend an average of 3.3 years behind bars. Furthermore,
 teenagers in American drink alcohol three times more often than 
 they smoke marijuana. And half of all murders in this nation are 
 committed by people under the influence of alcohol. As for the use
 of marijuana, Schlosser claimed that "no deaths have ever been 
 attributed to the drug." He also noted research studies have indicated
 that it has "relatively benign physiological effects."
 So what is the purpose of the harsh and unrelenting attack 
 on marijuana? 
  According to Schlosser, this is not a war on marijuana, 
 but "a war on marijuana's users--the seemingly un-American groups."
 Analyzing the history of legislators attacking the use of the drug 
 during the twentieth century, Schlosser noted that marijuana is 
 always associated with some group this is considered the outsider 
 or the nonconformist and therefore undesirable. Thus, marijuana 
 has been associated with Mexicans who were seen as illegal aliens
 and blacks who were seen as driving down America's values with the
 creation of jazz music and its accompanying culture. During the 
 height of the McCarthy era, marijuana was associated with communist
 agents in America. 
  Now, Schlosser argues, "the real enemy is the values and politics
 of 1960s counterculture, of the liberalism marijuana came to 
 symbolize."
 "Instead of defending traditional values, [the war on drugs] is 
 desecrating them," said Schlosser. Since 1982, when President Reagan
 began his war on drugs, local, state and federal governments have
 spent a combined $35 billion in the fight against marijuana. Over 
 the last two years, Schlosser noted, marijuana arrest have cost 
 $2 billion. The situation has gotten so out of hand that seizure laws
 have resulted in several people losing their cars or homes despite
 the fact that they had no knowledge that someone in their house or
 vehicle possessed the drug. In addition, Schlosser pointed out, 
 "professional informants can earn up to 25 percent of assets seized.
 some have earned over $2 million"--making them well-compensated 
 bounty hunters. Further relating the present war on drugs to 
 McCarthy's anti-Communist campaign, Schlosser called an employer's
 requirement of urine test "the equivalent of the McCarthy era 
 loyalty oath."
  In an interview following his talk, Schlosser explained that he 
 agreed to come to Kentucky to speak on this issue, because it is
 "such a crucial state in many ways. Not only because of the hemp
 movement, but because of the amount of marijuana being produced here."  Reacting to the audience's reception of the talk, Schlosser said, "I  didn't know what to expect, but I'm surprised that there were no  hostile comments."
  "Common sense is what's absent from all of these debates," 
 Schlosser stated, picking up from where he left off in the talk.
 "The people paying the price are the lower-class people." 
 Greater harm is being done by those locking up people and taking 
 property." While he is for people acting to change the views about
 the culture which marijuana symbolizes, he also states that 
 "the first crucial step is to turn down the volume of the whole 
 debate." Schlosser summed up the points he made throughout the 
 evening with one short, simple statement: "It's just a plant."
 Jean Pival, a board member of the Central Kentucky chapter 
 of the American Civil Liberties Union said, "I read Eric Schlosser's
 articles on marijuana and was so appalled at the civil liberties 
 issues in this."
 In attendance at the event was Evertt Hoffman, Executive Director 
 of ACLU of Kentucky. In reaction to the talk, Hoffman said, 
 "Schlosser demonstrated how misguided the war on drugs, especially
 on marijuana, is."
 Reiterating one of the points made by Schlosser, Hoffman added that
 it's "important to treat all forms of substance abuse as a public
 health problem and not a criminal justice problem."