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Follow
That
Story,
Part
I:
McCarthyism
in
Syracuse
6/16/00
Last week's edition of the
Week Online reported on the brouhaha in Syracuse when members of the drug
reform group ReconsiDer: Forum on Drug
Policy ran into highly-placed opposition to their nominations to serve
on a local drug advisory panel (http://www.drcnet.org/wol/140.html#mccarthyism).
In recent developments, ReconsiDer
has continued to win the publicity war. In a June 13 meeting of the
Onondaga County legislature's Health Committee provoked by the controversy,
both ReconsiDer Executive Director Nicholas Eyle and prominent member Dr.
Gene Tinelli, the two candidates blackballed earlier in the month, addressed
the legislators.
"The response this time was
generally pretty good," Eyle told DRCNet. "Rep. Smith (R-Clay) came
right out and admitted that the War on Drugs has failed." Smith was
the legislator quoted in the local press last week as saying that Eyle's
and Tinelli's views "absolutely" disqualified them.
Health Committee Chairman
Sanford, who had yanked the nominations at the behest of the local US Attorney,
"came over and shook my hand," added Eyle. He also noticed a distinctly
different attitude among other legislators. "Because of the heated
reaction in the press and because they've started to realize we have several
hundred members in their districts, they became much, much friendlier."
U.S. Attorney Duncan, meanwhile,
responded with a defensive op-ed in the Syracuse Herald-American.
Unfortunately for Duncan, opposite his piece was an editorial titled, "Inequitable
Treatment of Offenders By Race is One More Drug War Failure."
Eyle is uncertain about his
and Tinelli's prospects for actually gaining seats on the board, even now,
but he says it is a win-win situation for the reformers. "Either
they don't elect us and they lose their credibility, or they do elect us
and they lose their mission. If one of us gets in there, Duncan will
be the first US Attorney in the country to lose control of his commission,"
Eyle argued. "The minute people start hearing, for example, how DARE
doesn't work, it's all over for them."
-- END --
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Issue #141, 6/16/00
On Campus: Drug and Alcohol Arrests Increase, Hampshire College Students Establish Fund to Assist Drug Offenders Losing Aid, Campaign Spreads | USA Today Editorial Supports HEA Campaign, Other Press, What You Can Do | Goodbye to Peter McWilliams | Colombia Answers: Civil Society Asks US Congress to Reject "Plan Colombia" | Alert: Colombia Vote in US Senate MONDAY | Two Strains of Cannabis Politics: Hemp and Marijuana in Kentucky | Holland to Hooligans: Mellow Out, Dudes -- Dutch Authorities Use Cannabis to Tranquilize Potential Soccer Rowdies | Washington State Democratic Party Adopts Sweeping Drug Reform Planks | Follow That Story, Part I: McCarthyism in Syracuse | Follow That Story, Part II: Faint Glimmers of Hope in Texas | Hawaii: Nation's First Medical Marijuana Legislation Signed Into Law, Visiting Governors Suffer Symptoms of Contact High | Kansas City Star Strikes Again: Asset Forfeiture Series Exposes Police End-Runs Around State Laws | NEW JERSEY Alert: Whitman Joins Ecstasy Panic, Calls for New Penalties | Ecstasy Panic: Salon.com Coverage and Other Info | Alert: Help Save Freedom of Speech from the Drug War | Alert: Minnesota Medical Marijuana | Media Scan | Hepatitis Outreach Resources | Event Calendar
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