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