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Calling
All
Activists
II:
Gullible
Meth
Lab
Article
in
Sierra
Magazine
1/12/01
The latest issue of Sierra,
magazine of the Sierra Club, contains an article, "Welcome to Meth Country,"
that could have been written by the DEA's propaganda office. The
article, by writer/ editor Marilyn Berlin Snell, contained copious quoting
from DEA agents and other drug enforcers, but made no attempt to verify
the DEA's claims about environmental damaged caused by meth labs, nor to
present other perspectives.
Meth labs certainly can be
harmful to the environment, but no DEA agent is willing to state what should
be obvious, that illegal meth labs are a consequence of prohibition, and
that they could be put out of business by ending prohibition and regulating
meth's manufacture and distribution.
Nor is the DEA at all a reliable
source regarding the extent or precise nature of the problem. DEA
is the agency that has championed such environmentally reckless tactics
as spraying of tebuthiuron and other pesticides to eradicate marijuana,
opium and coca crops and dangerous fungicides to kill the crops.
The Sierra Club of all organizations should show some healthy skepticism
about the information put out by such an agency.
We don't have anything against
the Sierra Club, but in the absence of balancing information and perspectives,
an article like this one tend to fuel the drive for more arrests and harsher
punishments. Please read "Welcome to Meth Country" online at http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200101/Meth.asp
and then write a letter to the editor criticizing its lack of balance and
willingness to uncritically toe the DEA's line. YOUR LETTER IS ESPECIALLY
IMPORTANT IF YOU ARE A MEMBER OF THE SIERRA CLUB. Mail to:
85 Second St., 2nd Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105-3441, fax to (415) 977-5794
or e-mail [email protected].
-- END --
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Issue #168, 1/12/01
New Mexico Governor Proposes Sweeping Drug Reform Package, Tough Battle Awaits in Legislature | 2001 National Drug Control Strategy: It Isn't Working, Can I Have Some More, Please? | Pain Wars: New Pain Management Standards Go Into Effect, But Will They Protect Doctors from the Drug Warriors? | Needle Exchange Program Rebuilding from Arson Attack, No Suspects Yet, Help Needed | Farm States Signal Renewed Interest in Industrial Hemp | Canadian Medical Marijuana in Cameroon? Strange Report from the British Broadcasting Corporation | Media Scan: Arianna Huffington, Judy Mann, USA Today and Another Dan Forbes Scoop | Calling All Activists I: Leaflet Outside Traffic Showings | Calling All Activists II: Gullible Meth Lab Article in Sierra Magazine | Calling All Activists III: Ashcroft, Clemencies, Hemp | Washington, DC Job Opportunity | The Reformer's Calendar: LA, Philly, Portland, New York, DC, SF, Minneapolis, St Petersburg, Fort Bragg, Miami, Amsterdam, New Delhi | Editorial: Flawed Love
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