Rich users, poor pushers
Arianna's Column of 8/23/99
By Ralph R. Reiland
1999 WorldNetDaily.com
With Republicans telling the press to get off George W.'s back, a meeting popped into my mind that I attended a year ago on African-American unemployment. The issues? How can black capitalism take root in a neighborhood that's wrecked by crime, drugs and easy money? How can you get a kid to flip hamburgers at McDonald's when he can make $200 an hour peddling crack?
Downstairs in the hotel lobby after the meeting, a prominent and celebrated black Pittsburgher asked if I had a few minutes. A couple drinks later, he said what he didn't choose to say upstairs. "You'd be surprised," he said, "if you knew who in this town is buying that stuff in
the black community." His point? The hypocrisy. The jails overflowing with black kids who supply "nose candy" to the unjailed in the suburbs.
In the August/September issue of Reason magazine, Jacob Sullum profiles some of the prisoners of the war on drugs. "Denese Calixte, an illiterate Haitian immigrant, managed to
support her seven children by picking fruit in Florida for about $60 a day. In 1994, she fell from a ladder and injured her neck. Unable to work, she was desperate for money when a
neighborhood crack dealer offered her $200 to keep his supply in her house at night. Early one morning, the police broke into her house and found 69 grams of crack. Convicted with possession with intent to deliver, Calixte was
sentenced to l0 years in federal prison."
Brenda Pearson, married for two decades, a mother of two, won't be eligible for parole for 50 years. Except for a heroin habit that hooked her as a teenager, Pearson was leading a "stable, productive life," writes Sullum,
holding down a job at a New York securities firm. "She had never sold drugs or stolen anything to support her habit. In 1994, a close friend of Pearson's who was also a heroin user
moved from New York to Michigan. She asked Pearson to mail heroin to her because she was having trouble finding a satisfactory supply. Over the course of a year, Pearson sent her friend about 40 packages, each containing less
than l.5 grams of heroin in single-dose bags that she had purchased on the street." Found guilty on 10 counts of drug distribution, Pearson got 10 consecutive sentences of five to 20 years each and isn't eligible for parole until
she serves a 50-year minimum, more than the jail time served by first-degree killers. No politicians got on TV, of course, to claim that what Pearson and her friend did was none of our business, just "private behavior."
For Bush Jr. the cocaine dust-up in the press over rumored behavior a generation ago, long before he held public office, looks like nothing more than a minor bump on the road to the White House. With Bill Clinton, of course, it's
worse, as usual. From the start, he presented Democrats, especially those most committed to leveling out America's economic, political and social differences, with a fundamentally irreconcilable dilemma. With America's
prisons being stacked to the rafters with drug offenders, disproportionately from "disenfranchised" communities, they had to look the other way when Sally Perdue said Bill
Clinton snorted coke "like a real pro." Watching first-time offenders, people with no history of violence or predatory crime, get 10 and 20 years under tougher drug sentencing,
they had to cover their ears when Roger Clinton said his brother had "a nose like a vacuum cleaner," look away when Gennifer Flowers said Bill Clinton used a "substantial
amount" of cocaine and had offered it to her, or when Sharlene Wilson talked about her drug dealing and her "tooter," the "one-hitter" as she called it. "I watched Bill Clinton lean up against a wall," she says. "He casually stuck my tooter up his nose. He was so messed up that
night."
Some 32 percent of the prisoners in New York are now in for drug offenses, compared to l0 percent in 1980. For the most part, they're users and small-time dealers, people like Jesus Portilla. "A first-time offender, Portilla, an
asbestos remover with a wife and small child," writes Sullum, "received a sentence of 8.3 to 25 years for a $30 cocaine sale." David Ciglar, a disabled ex-firefighter, injured during a rescue, got 10 years and his house confiscated after DEA agents found 167 marijuana seedlings in his garage. First-time offender Angela
Thompson got 8 to 15 years. "When she was 17," Sullum reports, "she had done the bidding of her uncle and legal guardian by trying to sell cocaine to an undercover cop." No
members of Congress went on TV, of course, to argue that Portilla, Ciglar and Thompson shouldn't be jailed because they were just part of the drug scene, or just "young."
There are now nearly two million Americans behind bars, up from 500,000 in 1980. "About one in four are there for drug violations," says Sullum, "compared to about one in 10 in 1980." In New York, first-time offenders found guilty
of possessing four ounces of cocaine, or selling two ounces, receive mandatory sentences of 15 years to life -- the same as the penalty for murder. By federal Sentencing Commission
guidelines, every individual marijuana plant, from one to 99, counts as l00 grams, triggering sentences of l5 to 2l months per plant for first-time offenders. With 100 plants or more, each plant carries a mandatory sentence of five
years. In Kansas last year, legislators debated a bill that mandated life sentences without parole for anyone convicted of growing l00 or more marijuana plants. "First degree
murderers in Kansas," writes Sullum, "are eligible for parole after serving 25 years."
The effect of all this? Zero dent in drug availability and lots of prison time for those who deliver the "nose candy" to the unjailed.
Ralph R. Reiland, Associate Professor of Economics at Robert Morris College, is the co-author of "Mom & Pop vs. the
Dreambusters,"
No state has less than 49 prisoners per 100,000.
Texas leads with over 1000 prisoners per 100,000 people.
Conserving Compassion...
DdC
The Real Price of Prisons
www.motherjones.com/prisons/
How we got to Two Million
www.motherjones.com/prisons/overview.html
Incubating disease
www.motherjones.com/prisons/disease.html
Bad investment
www.motherjones.com/prisons/investment.html
Breeding violence
www.motherjones.com/prisons/violence.html
Left Behind
www.motherjones.com/prisons/left_behind.html
Liberty and Justice for Some
www.motherjones.com/prisons/liberty.html
Whats the alternative
www.motherjones.com/prisons/alternatives.html
Incarceration Atlas
www.motherjones.com/prisons/atlas.html
prison map
www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/rel/icps/worldbrief/north_america_records.php?code=4
Free the Prisoners of WoD
boards.marihemp.com/boards/politics/media/37/37460.gif
I LOST MY FREEDOM Linx
pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionlinx.showMessage?topicID=22.topic
Slave Labor Means Big Bucks For U.S. Corporations
pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=233.topic
UNICORE
www.unicor.gov
Pot Grower, 75, Given Year in Jail
www.jsonline.com/news/ozwash/jun01/pot27062601a.asp
US Prosecutes Cancer Patient Over Marijuana
www.ariannaonline.com/discus/messages/4/248.html?SaturdayNovember2520000344pm
Grandmother Escapes Jail
pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionffffhyperlinked.showMessage?topicID=6.topic
How FIJA Saved My Life!
serendipity.magnet.ch/jsmill/fija1293.htm
Erowid Freedom Vault : Jury Nullification
www.erowid.org/freedom/jury_nullification/jury_nullification.shtml
James Geddes-47-90 YEARS-5 PLANTS!
Release Petition
hr95.org/geddes.petition.htm
Free James Geddes
hr95.org/Geddes,J.html
PREJUDICE: MARIJUANA AND JIM CROW LAWS
www.jackherer.com/book/ch13.html
Bush Family Values; They Should Be In Prison! www.ariannaonline.com/discus/messages/4/424.html?FridayDecember1719991057pm
November
www.november.org
Human Rights and the WoD
www.hr95.org
Arianna's Column of 8/23/99
By Ralph R. Reiland
1999 WorldNetDaily.com
With Republicans telling the press to get off George W.'s back, a meeting popped into my mind that I attended a year ago on African-American unemployment. The issues? How can black capitalism take root in a neighborhood that's wrecked by crime, drugs and easy money? How can you get a kid to flip hamburgers at McDonald's when he can make $200 an hour peddling crack?
Downstairs in the hotel lobby after the meeting, a prominent and celebrated black Pittsburgher asked if I had a few minutes. A couple drinks later, he said what he didn't choose to say upstairs. "You'd be surprised," he said, "if you knew who in this town is buying that stuff in
the black community." His point? The hypocrisy. The jails overflowing with black kids who supply "nose candy" to the unjailed in the suburbs.
In the August/September issue of Reason magazine, Jacob Sullum profiles some of the prisoners of the war on drugs. "Denese Calixte, an illiterate Haitian immigrant, managed to
support her seven children by picking fruit in Florida for about $60 a day. In 1994, she fell from a ladder and injured her neck. Unable to work, she was desperate for money when a
neighborhood crack dealer offered her $200 to keep his supply in her house at night. Early one morning, the police broke into her house and found 69 grams of crack. Convicted with possession with intent to deliver, Calixte was
sentenced to l0 years in federal prison."
Brenda Pearson, married for two decades, a mother of two, won't be eligible for parole for 50 years. Except for a heroin habit that hooked her as a teenager, Pearson was leading a "stable, productive life," writes Sullum,
holding down a job at a New York securities firm. "She had never sold drugs or stolen anything to support her habit. In 1994, a close friend of Pearson's who was also a heroin user
moved from New York to Michigan. She asked Pearson to mail heroin to her because she was having trouble finding a satisfactory supply. Over the course of a year, Pearson sent her friend about 40 packages, each containing less
than l.5 grams of heroin in single-dose bags that she had purchased on the street." Found guilty on 10 counts of drug distribution, Pearson got 10 consecutive sentences of five to 20 years each and isn't eligible for parole until
she serves a 50-year minimum, more than the jail time served by first-degree killers. No politicians got on TV, of course, to claim that what Pearson and her friend did was none of our business, just "private behavior."
For Bush Jr. the cocaine dust-up in the press over rumored behavior a generation ago, long before he held public office, looks like nothing more than a minor bump on the road to the White House. With Bill Clinton, of course, it's
worse, as usual. From the start, he presented Democrats, especially those most committed to leveling out America's economic, political and social differences, with a fundamentally irreconcilable dilemma. With America's
prisons being stacked to the rafters with drug offenders, disproportionately from "disenfranchised" communities, they had to look the other way when Sally Perdue said Bill
Clinton snorted coke "like a real pro." Watching first-time offenders, people with no history of violence or predatory crime, get 10 and 20 years under tougher drug sentencing,
they had to cover their ears when Roger Clinton said his brother had "a nose like a vacuum cleaner," look away when Gennifer Flowers said Bill Clinton used a "substantial
amount" of cocaine and had offered it to her, or when Sharlene Wilson talked about her drug dealing and her "tooter," the "one-hitter" as she called it. "I watched Bill Clinton lean up against a wall," she says. "He casually stuck my tooter up his nose. He was so messed up that
night."
Some 32 percent of the prisoners in New York are now in for drug offenses, compared to l0 percent in 1980. For the most part, they're users and small-time dealers, people like Jesus Portilla. "A first-time offender, Portilla, an
asbestos remover with a wife and small child," writes Sullum, "received a sentence of 8.3 to 25 years for a $30 cocaine sale." David Ciglar, a disabled ex-firefighter, injured during a rescue, got 10 years and his house confiscated after DEA agents found 167 marijuana seedlings in his garage. First-time offender Angela
Thompson got 8 to 15 years. "When she was 17," Sullum reports, "she had done the bidding of her uncle and legal guardian by trying to sell cocaine to an undercover cop." No
members of Congress went on TV, of course, to argue that Portilla, Ciglar and Thompson shouldn't be jailed because they were just part of the drug scene, or just "young."
There are now nearly two million Americans behind bars, up from 500,000 in 1980. "About one in four are there for drug violations," says Sullum, "compared to about one in 10 in 1980." In New York, first-time offenders found guilty
of possessing four ounces of cocaine, or selling two ounces, receive mandatory sentences of 15 years to life -- the same as the penalty for murder. By federal Sentencing Commission
guidelines, every individual marijuana plant, from one to 99, counts as l00 grams, triggering sentences of l5 to 2l months per plant for first-time offenders. With 100 plants or more, each plant carries a mandatory sentence of five
years. In Kansas last year, legislators debated a bill that mandated life sentences without parole for anyone convicted of growing l00 or more marijuana plants. "First degree
murderers in Kansas," writes Sullum, "are eligible for parole after serving 25 years."
The effect of all this? Zero dent in drug availability and lots of prison time for those who deliver the "nose candy" to the unjailed.
Ralph R. Reiland, Associate Professor of Economics at Robert Morris College, is the co-author of "Mom & Pop vs. the
Dreambusters,"
No state has less than 49 prisoners per 100,000.
Texas leads with over 1000 prisoners per 100,000 people.
Conserving Compassion...
DdC
The Real Price of Prisons
www.motherjones.com/prisons/
How we got to Two Million
www.motherjones.com/prisons/overview.html
Incubating disease
www.motherjones.com/prisons/disease.html
Bad investment
www.motherjones.com/prisons/investment.html
Breeding violence
www.motherjones.com/prisons/violence.html
Left Behind
www.motherjones.com/prisons/left_behind.html
Liberty and Justice for Some
www.motherjones.com/prisons/liberty.html
Whats the alternative
www.motherjones.com/prisons/alternatives.html
Incarceration Atlas
www.motherjones.com/prisons/atlas.html
prison map
www.kcl.ac.uk/depsta/rel/icps/worldbrief/north_america_records.php?code=4
Free the Prisoners of WoD
boards.marihemp.com/boards/politics/media/37/37460.gif
I LOST MY FREEDOM Linx
pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionlinx.showMessage?topicID=22.topic
Slave Labor Means Big Bucks For U.S. Corporations
pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=233.topic
UNICORE
www.unicor.gov
Pot Grower, 75, Given Year in Jail
www.jsonline.com/news/ozwash/jun01/pot27062601a.asp
US Prosecutes Cancer Patient Over Marijuana
www.ariannaonline.com/discus/messages/4/248.html?SaturdayNovember2520000344pm
Grandmother Escapes Jail
pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionffffhyperlinked.showMessage?topicID=6.topic
How FIJA Saved My Life!
serendipity.magnet.ch/jsmill/fija1293.htm
Erowid Freedom Vault : Jury Nullification
www.erowid.org/freedom/jury_nullification/jury_nullification.shtml
James Geddes-47-90 YEARS-5 PLANTS!
Release Petition
hr95.org/geddes.petition.htm
Free James Geddes
hr95.org/Geddes,J.html
PREJUDICE: MARIJUANA AND JIM CROW LAWS
www.jackherer.com/book/ch13.html
Bush Family Values; They Should Be In Prison! www.ariannaonline.com/discus/messages/4/424.html?FridayDecember1719991057pm
November
www.november.org
Human Rights and the WoD
www.hr95.org
