Reagan's war on drugs masks blows to civil rights Big Brother

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16 SOCIALIST ACTION SEPTEMBER 1986 Congress has raced to introduce a range of anti-drug bills. One bill would make 20 years in prison the penalty for first-time possession of crack. Another would bar the use of children in the distribution of drugs.

An aide for House Minority Leader Robert Michel (R-III.) observed that these bills have been brought before Congress mainly for their political effects. "What it does to solve the drug problem is not really relevant," he said.

Republicans in the Democratic-controlled House complained they were being aced out of a chance to jointly sponsor an anti-drug bill. "We are sort of playing political oneupmanship on this issue and it's a damn shame," complained Pennsylvania Con -gressman Richard Schulz. He accused the Democrats of "trying to play games to get ahead of the president."

Reagan shifts gears

The White House was quick to change gears at this point. Previously Reagan had considered drugs a "women's issue," safely left to Nancy Reagan's innocuous crusade that did the drug dealers little harm but polished Nancy's public image. While Mrs. Reagan decried the use of drugs, her husband cut federal funds for rehabilitation services.

When Reagan did get into the act, it was to make a grandstand play with plenty of publicity. Last year he joined a Coast Guard task force that stopped a drug-laden ship on the high seas. Reagan intimated that that kind of action would soon dry up the supply of drugs. But the price of cocaine on the street continued to drop, indicating that the supply—far from drying upwas exceeding demand.

"More than any other business I know, the drug business is pure capitalism, pure supply and demand," a criminal lawyer who is close to the industry asserted in The Wall Street Journal. It is a high-risk, high-profit enterprise.

How high the profits are is revealed in statistics published in the same paper: A kilogram of cocaine costs $3000 to refine in Colombia. An airplane can carry 300 kilos. Some planes carry twice that. The profit on this load, if fully realized, would total $6,350,140 spread among a number of people.

In a recent drug bust in Pennsylvania agents turned up a cache of $4.2 million in cash. If profit is the driving force of business, such super-profits propel the drug multinationals with irresistible power.

U.S. troops in Bolivia In another grandstand play last month, Reagan sent a huge military cargo plane with 160 American soldiers to Bolivia to help the government smash the cocaine processors.

After a week of thrashing about in the jungle, the task force only found the remains of six cocaine labs stripped of equipment, cocaine, and personnel. Forewarned by all the noise, and doubtless tipped off by corrupt Bolivian officials, the operators simply moved to a safer location.

Bolivia's main labor body, the Bolivian JUST SAY 'NO' Workers Federation (COB), went on a 48hour general strike against the government's economic policies and the presence of U.S. troops in Bolivia.

Bolivia's extreme poverty is an obstacle to eradicating cocaine production. It is estimated 100,000 peasants are engaged in raising or processing coca crops. They have blocked roads and physically resisted government forces attempting to destroy their coca plants. Only a total restructuring of Bolivia's rural economy can break the peasants' dependence on this deadly crop.

This exercise by the U.S. military in Bolivia sets new precedents and excuses for military intervention whenever Washington wishes. And the administration's attitude that other countries are responsible for drug addiction in the United States is seen as another aspect of North American imperi -alism.

Foreign cooperation with the Yankee Big Brother is often less than half-hearted. On one occasion, when U.S. agents insisted that Mexico spray paraquat, a weedkiller, on a marijuana crop, planes were sent out to spray the offending plants. The narcs went back to the United States satisfied that another telling blow had been struck against pot. It was only later that they learned the planes had been spraying the plants with plain water.

A more ominous aspect of the U.S.Mexico drug problem surfaced Aug. 15. The White House charged that Victor Cortez, an official of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), had been arrested and tortured by state police in Guadalajara, Mexico. This accusation came only hours after Mexico's President Miguel de la Madrid visited the White House to launch "Operation Alliance," another U.S.Mexican joint effort to stem the drug trade.

The alleged torture of Cortez was intended to force him to reveal the identity of other U.S. agents. This episode indicates the extent to which drug money has corrupted state police and other officials.

U.S. officials claim that the Mexican government has agreed that Cortez and 30 other American narcotics agents could operate secretly in Mexico. De la Madrid denied this in a public statement before his trip to Washington. "It is not suitable for American police to operate in Mexico or Mexican police to operate in the United States," he declared.

De la Madrid knows such open Yankee intervention would create a political fire -storm in Mexico. "Operation Alliance" would appear to be crippled even as it is launched.

The Reagan administration's show of combatting the drug industry abroad runs into another dilemma. In Afghanistan, South East Asia, and parts of Latin America, the drug barons are the anticommunist "good guys." The U.S.-backed Nicaraguan contras are the best example. Washington prefers to maintain a discreet silence when vile characters such as these add to the tons of drugs polluting society. In the past, reports were published of CIA planes being used to transport local war lords' drugs to market.

Drug tests violate civil rights Now Reagan has turned to the home front, vowing to create drug-free schools and work places. Commendable as this aim might appear, Reagan is reaching for this goal by violating the civil rights of nearly every citizen. He wants whole categories of workers to take tests to ensure they are free of drugs. This is like stopping burglaries by searching every citizen for burglary tools.

Again seeking headlines, Reagan announced that his staff and other high officials will voluntarily submit to urine tests. A meaningless gesture. The public is not interested in the composition of government officials' urine. They would rather see these officials' personal finances who stand up for their rights. But such tests would have little effect in combatting drug addiction.

Repression in Black communities Where the hurt from drug addiction is most keenly felt—in the ghettos and poverty belts around the country-the government has prescribed beefed-up law enforcement and heavier prison sentences for drug pushers and victims alike.

Poor Black youth are repressed enough already. Close to 50 percent of teenaged Blacks are unemployed. Society offers no highs to them, which is why so many seek a fleeting high from drugs.

Reagan and his cops come from the outside and say, "Get off that kick." But they offer nothing to replace it. When pressed about an emergency program for jobs, better schools, and after-school athletic and cultural activities, the government can only answer, "Cut federal funding."

Residents of Black communities want to get the pushers out of their neighborhoods. Sometimes courageous mothers will band together and physically push the dealers out. These victories are never permanent so long as it is easier for a young Black person to get a fix than to find a decent job.

There is no easy solution to the drug problem. The fighting spirit of the most exploited in America is being sapped. Hints of an answer come from South Africa. Young "comrades," activists in the street committees of the Black townships, have made the beer halls a prime target. We can't fight apartheid if our minds are befuddled, they say.

It is a long way from beer to crack, but the message is clear: When youth are once more inspired by a renewed crusade for social change-like the Black freedom struggle of the sixties-they will push the drug dealers out of their way. Young people will provide the motive force for a move -ment demanding that the billions now spent for war be diverted to housing, jobs, and social services.

The drug problem will not be solved by government repression. It will be effective -ly tackled only in the course of struggle against the system of capitalist exploitation that fosters apathy and despair.

Scianna Magnum U.S. soldier in Bolivia. Use of military sets precedent for U.S.

military intervention whenever Washington wishes.

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•..the drugs business is pure capitalism...