Pubdate: Fri, 20 Apr 2001 Source: Northwest Florida Daily News (FL) Copyright: 2001 Northwest Florida Daily News Contact: http://www.nwfdailynews.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/313 AMTRAK TURNS NARC FOR THE EXTRA CASH Financially strapped Amtrak has hit on a novel way to pick up some extra cash - by turning in passengers who ride the rails. In a deal with the Drug Enforcement Administration, the federally subsidized passenger rail service provides ticketing information on its customers in exchange for a cut of any cash seized from suspected drug couriers. A DEA computer is linked to Amtrak's ticketing computer. Through it, DEA agents can get passenger information such as names, destinations, embarkation cities and when and where tickets were purchased. That allows the drug warriors to narrow their searches when they check passengers' luggage. Amtrak gets 10 percent of any cash taken in the operation. This raises some interesting questions. Is this how Amtrak officials plan to get off the federal dole by 2003, as Congress - which allocated $597 million to the rail service last year - is demanding? And what about the rights of the passengers? Using such information to decide whom to search is a form of profiling. DEA agents look for passengers who get on or off the train near known drug-trafficking crossroads and who purchase tickets with cash at the last minute. The assistant director of the Albuquerque DEA office, quoted in a recent report, sees nothing wrong with the arrangement and doesn't consider it an invasion of privacy: "The whole idea of why we do it this way is so we're not randomly stopping people." That cavalier attitude is one of the biggest problems with the drug war. Police aren't allowed to stop and search a person walking down the street without probable cause, so why is randomly searching an Amtrak passenger's luggage any different? Because there's more money involved, perhaps? Hardly a week goes by that we don't see a report about drug couriers being arrested or a methamphetamine lab being busted. Property belonging to those arrested is often seized on the assumption that it represents ill-gotten gains from drug transactions. The property often is never returned, even if no charges are filed. The drug war has been a lightning rod for restrictive laws that take away our freedom in the name of protecting society. But the drug warriors can't tell us why users and abusers of illegal drugs are any different from users and abusers of alcohol. Booze surely has as much negative impact on society as do drugs, yet we don't hear a serious call for a return to Prohibition. Drugs are more widely available and cheaper than ever before. In economic circles, those are indicators that attempts to restrict a product are failing. Hard-core drug warriors say they need more money. Maybe it's time for a cost-benefit analysis to determine whether the results of the money we've spent so far justify a fresh infusion of cash. Government agencies at all levels trample our rights to protect us from drugs. We have incarcerated thousands of people who've done nothing other than have a little marijuana around the house for their personal use. Law enforcement agencies benefit from property seizures; some rely on them to cover budget shortfalls. Now Amtrak has joined the feeding frenzy. That's no way to run a railroad. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart