Pubdate: Tue, 03 Jul 2001
Source: AlterNet (US Web)
Copyright: 2001 Independent Media Institute
Contact: http://www.alternet.org/discuss/
Website: http://www.alternet.org/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1451
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Author: Kevin Nelson

DRUG WAR BRIEFS: STRIKE HARD

"We can fill the jails every day but that doesn't mean law enforcement is 
effective." - Ron Pitts, deputy director of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics

June 25 - The Southeast Missourian reports: A half-century past its prime 
as one of the nation's top lead-mining towns, the rural community of Bonne 
Terre envisioned newfound prosperity when it was chosen as home for the 
state's largest and costliest prison.

Instead, the city is in debt, new businesses are near broke and euphoria 
has turned to disappointment. Six years after the grand announcement, the 
$168 million prison still has no inmates -- and no scheduled opening date.

The prison will remain closed because the cash-strapped Missouri government 
cannot afford the $12 million needed to equip it or the nearly $45 million 
required annually to run it.

In January 2000, Jayne Bess opened a 40-room Super 8 Motel just a little 
down the road from the prison, counting on inmate visitors and prison 
suppliers to help fill the rooms. "A lot of business people had high hopes 
... we're very disappointed, we're very let down," Bess said.

June 26 - China marks a U.N. international anti-drug day by holding rallies 
where piles of narcotics are burned, and 60 people are executed for drug 
offenses. Chinese authorities have executed hundreds of people since April 
in a crime crackdown labeled "Strike Hard" that allows for speeded up 
trials and broader use of the death penalty.

Thousands of people attend a rally at a stadium in Kunming, capital of 
southwestern Yunnan province, where 20 suspected drug traffickers are 
sentenced to death, then executed at a separate location, with a bullet to 
the back of the head.

June 27 - Newsday, in an article titled "Census: War on Drugs Hits Blacks," 
reports that black men make up less than 3 percent of Connecticut's 
population but account for 47 percent of inmates in prisons, jails and 
halfway houses, 2000 census figures show.

Overall in Connecticut, one in 11 black men between the ages of 18 and 64 
is behind bars. Nationwide, the Justice Department reported that 12 percent 
of all black men between the ages of 20 and 34 were locked up last year.

"I don't think anyone intended it to be this way, but if you were trying to 
design a system to incarcerate as many African-American and Latino men as 
possible, I don't think you could have designed a better system," said 
state Rep. Michael Lawlor, co-chairman of the Connecticut Legislature's 
Judiciary Committee.

June 27 - Jeff and Tracy Jarvis, both 39, of Bend, OR, take out a full-page 
$2555 ad in the Willamette Week, proclaiming "We're Jeff and Tracy. We're 
your good neighbors. We smoke pot." The simple ad, complete with a photo of 
the self-employed middle-class white couple, continues with text 
encouraging tolerance for peaceful marijuana smokers, while highlighting 
their struggle to find a media outlet that would let them air their views.

The couple were turned down by Portland's rock radio stations KUFO, KNRK, 
KGON, Seattle's KISW, and Bend's KXIX. The Sunday Oregonian also found 
their ad "unsuitable for publication." Only Portland's alternative 
newspaper, the Willamette Week, would run the ad.

June 30 - The El Paso Times reports: Here's something to ponder as the 
United States prepares to celebrate Independence Day on July 4. Four in 10 
Americans believe the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution actually 
goes too far in the rights that it guarantees, according to a recent survey.

The poll, conducted by the First Amendment Center and paid for by the 
Freedom Forum, also indicates that seven in 10 Americans said it's 
important for the government to "hold the media in check."

July 1 - The Washington Post reports: Two men in Southwest Washington, DC 
are the first in the District to be arrested under a new law regarding 
felony possession of marijuana, police said.

Jason Johnson, 37, and Dana Roach, 39, are to be arraigned on charges of 
felony possession of marijuana with the intent to distribute, police said. 
Under the new law, possession of more than a half-pound of marijuana is a 
felony punishable by up to five years in prison.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom