Pubdate: Sun, 06 Jul 2014
Source: Genesee Country Express (NY)
Copyright: 2014 Gatehouse Media, Inc.
Contact:  http://www.dansvilleonline.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/5524
Author: Neal Simon
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v14/n220/a07.html

THE WAR THAT NEVER ENDS

Several decades from now, when historians look back at the beginning 
of the end of the expensive, wasteful and tragic American War on 
Drugs, Jesse Snodgrass may very well be mentioned prominently.

It shouldn't be that way, of course. An autistic 17-year-old student 
at Chaparral High School in Southern California should never have 
been swallowed up by the American anti-drug industrial complex, but he was.

Want some dollars and cents figures? The drug war is big business; 
bigger than U.S. Steel, as Hyman Roth would say. The federal 
government spent $15 billion in 2010 on the War on Drugs, according 
to the Office of National Drug Control Policy. That's about $500 per 
second. State and local governments spent at least another $25 billion in 2010.

Of course, when Americans spend that much money, they expect results, 
and those startling figures are also readily available. Halfway 
through 2014, nearly 900,000 U.S. citizens have been arrested for 
drug offenses this year. Nearly half of those arrests are for 
possession of marijuana.

If one of the goals of the drug war is to fill up U.S. prisons, that 
goal is being met. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, since 
Dec. 31, 1995, the U.S. prison population has grown by an average of 
43,266 inmates per year. About 25 percent are sentenced for drug law 
violations.

When there's that much money at stake, playing by the rules is 
strictly optional. Jesse's story involving a fake friendship, 
entrapment and arrest in a Riverside County undercover drug sting 
operation, is told in a recent issue of Rolling Stone magazine.

This is how reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely describes Jesse:

"Forging friendships was normally so hard for Jesse, who had the 
cognitive skills of an 11-year-old and was nearly oblivious to the 
facial expressions, body language, vocal tones and other contextual 
cues that make up basic social interactions. He was slow to draw 
inferences or interpret the casual idioms other kids used, like 
"catch you later," a phrase Jesse had initially found startling, 
since it turned out to involve no catching whatsoever. As a toddler, 
he'd once been terrified for days after his preschool teacher told 
him, "I'll keep my eye on you."

Which means Jesse was the perfect target for Deputy Daniel 
Zipperstein, a mid-20s cop posing as high school transfer student 
"Daniel Briggs." During Prohibition, we had Eliot Ness. The War on 
Drugs features scum like Daniel Zipperstein, who probably isn't 
qualified to do anything other than fool stoned-out high schoolers.

Deputy Dan spent several months of the school year pestering the 
autistic boy to buy him some marijuana, finally placing $20 in his 
hands and making clear that their "friendship" depended on Jesse 
scoring some weed. Jesse's parents, white-collar professionals with 
two younger children, could not have been more thrilled that their 
son had found a companion.

Jesse went to a medical marijuana dispensary, where he was able to 
buy a bag of pot. He turned it over to his "friend."

Jesse was arrested for felony drug sale. Along with 21 classmates, he 
was handcuffed, loaded into a police van, and taken to jail.

"This should be a wake-up call to all of you. Your children are drug 
dealers," a senior deputy district attorney told the families.

Jesse was suspended from school for three months, while the negligent 
Temecula Valley School District pushed for his permanent expulsion. 
He was sentenced, according to Rolling Stone, to "informal 
probation," wherein if he kept out of trouble for six months and did 
20 hours of community service, his record would be wiped clean.

Enough of this narrative. It makes me sick to continue. If you want 
to learn about the emotional setbacks Jesse suffered as a result of 
this "police work," such as hiding in the back seat every time his 
parents drove by a cop car or the months he spent nearly mute and 
unmoving on his living room couch, read the magazine article.

So this is what it has come to in this country. The war that never 
ends marches on, oblivious to common sense, human decency and civil 
liberties. It's shameful.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom