Pubdate: Fri, 07 Mar 2003
Source: Battalion, The (TX Edu)
Copyright: 2003 The Battalion
Contact:  http://www.thebatt.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1137
Author: George Deutsch

MISPLACED AGGRESSION

Ashcroft Wasting Time and Money On Trivial Issues

Apparently frustrated with the miserable failure of the war on drugs, 
Attorney General John Ashcroft and Drug Enforcement Agency Administrator 
John B. Brown turned their ill-informed aggression toward legitimate 
businesses in a nationally televised address on CNN last week. Citing 
ambiguous federal law, Ashcroft, Brown and others announced the indictment 
of more than 50 sellers of tobacco pipes, or as Ashcroft might say, illegal 
drug paraphernalia distributors.

What should enrage freedom-loving Americans is not the crackdown on drug 
paraphernalia, but how broadly "paraphernalia" is being defined.

According to www.DEA.gov, the government cites Title 21 U.S. Code Service 
Section 863, a 1996 law concerning what constitutes paraphernalia. Among 
the many vague stipulations considered about a product under this law are 
"circumstantial evidence of the ratio of sales of the items to the total 
sales of the business, the existence and scope of legitimate uses in the 
community and expert testimony concerning its use, ... (and any) other 
logically relevant factors." Well, that clarifies everything.

The fact that the federal government itself is determining the "existence 
and scope of legitimate uses" of these products and what factors are 
considered "logically relevant" is disheartening, as no government agency 
could ever make these decisions objectively, assuming the agency even 
understood the obscure jargon of this law. This is the type of stupidity of 
thought that tax-paying citizens should hold their representatives 
accountable for.

Equally disappointing is that the two nationwide crackdowns, which the DEA 
smugly refer to as Operations Pipe Dream and Headhunter, come as this 
nation is going up and down the colors of the terror alert ladder and 
preparing for a possible war with Iraq. Given the tense nature of the 
current climate, not only is an attack on alleged marijuana pipes and their 
distributors by the federal government laughable, it is downright 
embarrassing. Though exact figures were never revealed by Ashcroft, the 
fact that these are U.S. tax dollars at work is clearly a shame.

National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Director Keith 
Stroup rightly identified Ashcroft as a man with a personal agenda possibly 
vying for future political advancement. Just like Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-CT) 
used video game violence to propel himself up the political ladder, 
Ashcroft is taking on pipes.

According to news.com, Stroup said, "This latest enforcement is primarily 
an expression of extremism of this particular attorney general.

President Bush and most of his serious advisers have more (important) work 
to focus on right now than whether someone's selling rolling papers and 
roach clips." Ashcroft probably has more important work to focus on, too.

But when incarcerating actual drug dealers presents too much of a 
challenge, the easy-to-catch, law-abiding businessman is targeted.

Just because marijuana can be put into a pipe should not make pipes illegal 
and their dealers criminal; such an assertion is comical.

Pipes and bongs can be made from simple household items as well, such as 
two-liter bottles, soda cans and tinfoil. These items, too, must apparently 
be confiscated and destroyed by the government, as they can be broadly 
defined as drug paraphernalia. Really, anything can.

According to this line of thought, guns should be illegal because they can 
be used as instruments of crime when loaded with bullets.

One must totally disregard the fact that they have practical, legal uses. 
And as ridiculous as all this sounds, it is exactly what this nation's 
government is implying.

In reality, a pipe in its own right hurts no one. Drug abuse may very well 
be a problem in this country, but destroying pipes with legal uses will do 
nothing to curb that problem.

The issue does bring to light another, much bigger, problem: governmental 
irresponsibility. Unless U.S. citizens hold agencies such as the DEA and 
individuals such as Attorney General Ashcroft accountable, they will 
continue to persecute and prosecute innocent Americans, defining federal 
law as they see fit.
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MAP posted-by: Alex