Joseph R. Paolino Jr., whose public safety platform includes having Bill Bratton perform a management study of the police department and naming a high-profile public safety commissioner with inter-agency experience, is expected to be joined by the former New York City police commissioner and Robert Stutman, a veteran of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, during a news conference on Thursday, August 22.

Paolino plans to unveil Stutman, a Providence native and former director of field operations for the DEA in New England and New York, as his choice, if elected mayor, for public safety commissioner. Paolino, who selected John Partington, the current public safety commissioner, during his previous tenure as mayor, has indicated that he wants to bring in a new choice.

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I hadn't dreamt of Jeannie in a long time, but there she was on "Larry King Live" a few nights ago, discussing her 35-year-old son's death from a heroin overdose.

Barbara Eden of the enviable flat tummy has gone from grantor of grown men's wishes to poster girl for the federal Drug Enforcement Administration.

First the qualifiers and disclaimers: Eden is a lovely woman whose heart is in the right place. She has suffered a tragic loss and wants to help others. She noted repeatedly on King's show that she's no expert and was offering only her own point of view.

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[excised by map]

Ask US Anything!

Dear P & J, Why has the US Government not realized that the criminalization-enforcement-incarceration model of marijuana policy is not working? It seems the UK, Canada, the Netherlands, and many other European countries have begun to see the light of common sense and are starting to reform their marijuana laws. But Asa Hutchinson, head of the DEA, continues to say that we need to fight the war on drugs by arresting non-violent drug offenders and even medical marijuana patients. What's the deal? - Tom in Warwick

Beats our meat, Tom, but isn't it interesting that Mr. Hutchinson's first name is a palindrome, like "Lon Nol" of Cambodia. That's another place with a lot of drugs and truly harsh anti-drug policies. Gets you thinking, huh? - - P & J

[end]

As an American citizen, I am appalled at the Supreme Court's recent approval of random drug testing for public high school students who want to participate in extracurricular activities. After-school programs are an effective way to keep high-risk teenagers off of the streets in the critical hours between the end of the school day and the time that their parents come home from work. Now, because of the Supreme Court's decision, these same high-risk teens will be turned towards the streets where they are more likely to experiment with drugs, instead of being welcomed into safe, productive, and effective learning environments.

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Protesting the overruling by federal judges of state medical marijuana laws, critics recently descended on the doorstep of the Warwick outpost of the US Drug Enforcement Administration. Similar protests organized by Americans for Safe Access, a non-profit group concerned with ensuring access to medical marijuana, took place in 54 other US cities earlier this month. DEA raids of state medical hemp repositories in northern California triggered the protests.

Thomas Angell, president of the University of Rhode Island's Hemp Organization for Prohibition Elimination (HOPE), wasn't thrilled by the turnout for the Warwick protest, but he still believes it was worthwhile. "At least local DEA agents know we're here," he says. Angell and his cohorts attempted to deliver "cease and desist" orders to stop federal involvement in states' medical marijuana proceedings, but were rebuffed by the DEA at every turn. According to Angell, "We were basically surrounded by seven agents who wouldn't accept our order."

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With the sweet sound of birds chirping in the mild air, and trees almost in full bloom, students and members of the community gathered on the University of Rhode Island's Quadrangle for the fourth annual Hempfest on Saturday.

Arranged by the Hemp Organization for Prohibition Elimination (HOPE), people of all ages attended the free show to enjoy the sounds of Foxtrot Zulu, Carlos Washington and the Giant People Ensemble and other local bands.

Vendors selling food, books, jewelry and other items lined up along the sidewalks. While some browsed the tables, taking in the sweet aroma of incense, others laid down on the soft grass, enjoying the music.

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Putting on a large event at the University of Rhode Island is no easy task. The amount of red tape one has to cut through to accomplish anything requires scissors six feet long and super sharp. Patience and cooperation are a must, and some of the people you may encounter on your journey you just might want to kill. However, a number of people in the Student Senate and Memorial Union make this frustrating adventure much easier, and I must give credit where credit is due.

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A weekend composed of hippies touting pro-hemp literature, alongside the muddiest volleyball tournament known to mankind and bittersweet performances by The Get Up Kids and Dashboard Confessional in Keaney Gym will jumpstart URI's nine-day long festival known as Springfest 2002.

URI's Hemp Organization for Prohibition Elimination (HOPE) will take over the Quad on Saturday, April 20, with the organization's fourth annual "Hempfest." HOPE co-president Keith Forman said the festival celebrates the economical, environmental and nutritional value of hemp.

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Washington

AS PRESIDENT BUSH prepares to travel to Latin America, one of the top issues for discussion will be the war on drugs.

The Bush administration is especially alarmed at the situation in Colombia, fearing that the democratic political system in that country could collapse under an assault by leftist insurgencies allied with powerful drug traffickers. Washington's nightmare scenario is the emergence of a Marxist narco-trafficking state.

U.S. leaders are so worried about that possibility that they are ready to expand America's military aid to Bogota and eliminate the restriction that the aid must be used only for counter-narcotics campaigns, not counter-insurgency campaigns.

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Despite the nearly 30 years that have passed since The Clash first sang, "I get violent when I'm fucked up/I get silent when I'm drugged up," the song "Cheat" still offers a telling insight into the contrasting effects of different substances. Case in point: a recent study by researchers at the Robert Presley Center for Crime and Justice Studies at the University of California at Riverside indicated that alcohol is more closely connected with violence than illegal drugs, according to AScribe.

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On Jan. 25, across from a gas station in Tame, Colombia, 12 heavily armed men killed Angel Riveros Chaparro and two other men.

Chaparro was president of the Peasant Association of Tame. I had met him when he came to Chicago to speak at Northwestern University in September 2000. He was a quiet and dignified man.

Chaparro was killed by right-wing paramilitaries in broad daylight. When the Colombia Support Network, the organization that I work for, called to inquire about his death, Col. Gustavo Matamoros of the Colombian army said to us, "I do not have to answer to you," and then hung up the phone.

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Out of national self-interest, as well as humanitarian concerns, America should step up its aid to the Colombian government to suppress narco-guerrillas (mostly the leftist FARC, but there are right- wingers, too). The disorder in Colombia has powerful ripple effects here -- in illegal immigration, drugs and potential terrorism.

In particular, we ought to continue to help President Andres Pastrana's government recapture a FARC-controlled "safe haven" he granted them for a while in southern Colombia that has been used as base for an accelerating number of violent acts against civilians nationwide, with massacres, kidnappings and hijackings, financed by stepped-up drug trafficking.

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CRANSTON -- A man claiming he was armed with a gun robbed a Brooks Pharmacy on Friday afternoon and fled with an undisclosed amount of OxyContin, a highly addictive drug that is used to control chronic pain, the police said.

The suspect entered the Pontiac Avenue store at 4:45 p.m. through a back entrance, approached the pharmacy counter and demanded the pills, according to the police. He fled on foot.

The robbery came a day after the Cranston police met with representatives from local pharmacies to brief them about a recent spate of robberies targeting the drug.

[continues 242 words]

At the risk at sounding insensitive, I must say I was unmoved by your news story about the "alleged" teenage drug dealer who was recently gunned down (Feb. 15, "Her nightmare becomes a reality with son's murder").

I do not mean to imply that the young man got what he deserved, but anyone who decides to play this dangerous game of quick cash and instant gratification must assume the risks. In the paper's follow-up the next day, his mother is reported to have said that her son had told her that his "getting a lot of cocaine" had been making other dealers jealous.

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The case of the former Tiverton officer given 24 years behind bars for his role in a drug ring is not an isolated incident. This insidious form of institutional corruption stretches from coast to coast and reaches to the top.

In 1999, the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart scandal involved anti-drug officers selling drugs and framing gang members. Last year, the former commander of U.S. anti-drug operations in Colombia was found guilty of laundering the profits of his wife's heroin smuggling operation. Entire countries have been destabilized by the corrupting influence of organized-crime groups that profit from the sale of illegal drugs.

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TIVERTON - The sentencing of former Tiverton Police Detective Sgt. William A. Sedoma Sr. last week brought closure to a chapter in the department's history many, including Police Chief George Arruda, would sooner forget. On a positive note, however, the arrest and conviction of a once-respected officer provides a warning to those in positions of public trust who would break the law.

"I would hope this would set an example. If you violate the public trust, abuse authority and risk fellow policemen's lives, you will pay," Chief Arruda said.

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A Federal Judge Gives Former Tiverton Officer William A. Sedoma Sr. The Maximum Sentence, Calling His Role As A Lookout For A Drug Ring An "Egregious Breach Of Trust."

BOSTON -- Former Tiverton Detective Sgt. William A. Sedoma Sr. received the maximum sentence allowed by federal guidelines yesterday - - 24 years and five months in jail - for acting as the lookout for a Tiverton-Fall River drug ring.

While imposing the sentence in U.S. District Court, Judge Robert E. Keeton said that Sedoma's actions were an "egregious breach of trust."

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Froma Harrop's Jan. 9 column, "Take me out of the nanny society," hits the nail on the head, and if mere good sense could change the course of drug policy in the U.S., surely this article would cause a revolution. But drug prohibition is today too important a tool for U.S. political institutions, and too critical an issue for certain economic interests to expect that significant drug-law reform will be initiated in the United States. This is why we Europeans are proceeding decidedly toward reform, refusing to kow-tow to the U.S. on these matters.

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I CAN LIVE with the welfare society. The nanny society, on the other hand, makes me nuts. By welfare society, I'm not referring to the old welfare program, which has thankfully been reformed. Rather, I mean a general willingness to spread the nation's wealth. Tax policy? Shift the burden away from middle- and low-income workers. Universal health coverage for every American? Bring it on. Some would call these views "liberal."

The nanny issues usually wear the liberal label, and I must now part ways. Basically, I believe that an American citizen has the right to smoke herself into an early grave, drink himself into a stupor or eat her way into a size 20. And if an adult wishes to light up a joint and get high, I certainly won't tell. (Here is where conservatives don the nurse's cap.)

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Since most of the citizens of impoverished Third World countries live in agrarian societies, many of them find that production of illegal narcotic drugs is their only option to earn money. These people are starving and live in absolutely horrifying conditions in which they do not have basic health care or public education because their governments have cut these programs to pay these nations' debts to First World nations.

MICHAEL LANNONE

[end]