Pubdate: Fri, 11 Aug 2006
Source: DrugSense Weekly (DSW)
Section: Feature Article
Website: http://www.drugsense.org/current.htm

DEA EXHIBIT AT MUSEUM OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY IGNORES COSTS OF PROHIBITION

Chicago-area residents are asking the Museum of Science and Industry 
not to display a government exhibit linking drug use to terrorism. 
These citizens say that the Drug Enforcement Administration Museum 
exhibit, from August 11-December 3, 2006, hides the true link between 
drugs and terrorism: drug prohibition itself.

According to Pete Guither, a drug policy reform researcher and editor 
of Drug WarRant: "This is a blatant publicity effort by the DEA aimed 
at tying its budget to the war on terror. It's also desperate and 
hypocritical.  The DEA has received a failing grade from the White 
House Performance and Management Assessments for their taxpayer 
funded war -- a war that actually makes criminal drug trafficking 
obscenely profitable."

Jack Cole, Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition 
(LEAP -- an organization of current and former cops, judges, 
prosecutors, prison wardens and others who all believe in ending 
prohibition) says: "If you ended prohibition today, there wouldn't be 
any of those drug lords making a penny on drugs tomorrow." Retired 
police captain (and LEAP co-founder) Peter Christ adds: "America's 
drug use is a serious problem, but in reality it is America's drug 
policy that creates the underground economy that supports terrorism."

Drug WarRant, along with local chapters of Students for Sensible Drug 
Policy (a nation-wide group that educates about the harms of the War 
on Drugs and promotes an open discussion of alternative solutions), 
has organized a response and supplement to the DEA exhibit, including 
a website and materials to be distributed by volunteers, along with 
other events to take place throughout the run of the exhibit.

The counter-exhibit, (available at http://www.DEAtargetsAmerica.com ) 
highlights the parallels between the lawless days of alcohol 
prohibition under Al Capone and today's drug prohibition. As noted at 
the website, even the FBI acknowledges Al Capone's rackets were 
"spawned by enactment of the prohibition amendment."

None of the groups or individuals involved in the response advocates 
illicit drug use. In fact, they believe that the DEA and prohibition 
add to the problems of drug abuse by putting the control, safety, and 
age regulation in the hands of criminals. They point to the recent 
Chicago-area deaths from fentanyl-laced heroin as a grim echo of the 
startling number of Chicago residents who died from tainted alcohol 
during alcohol prohibition.

Drug WarRant and Students for Sensible Drug Policy hope to counter 
what they consider to be a one-sided exhibit, and to engage the 
Chicago community in a dialog to discover more effective alternatives 
to the failed drug war. As they note on their website: "The drug war 
is a great deal for traffickers, terrorists, and especially the DEA, 
but not for communities dealing with the war's violence, or the 
American citizens who pay the bill."

According to Jeanne Barr, history teacher at Chicago's Francis W. 
Parker School: "As educators, we look to the MSI to enlighten the 
community, not to promote political propaganda that selects 
self-serving elements of truth out of a more complex whole. It's not 
good science, and it's not good history. Da Vinci and the DEA under 
one roof? What are they thinking?"

Source: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2006/8/prweb420589.htm
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