Dell on The War on Drugs

Do you believe there is a war on drugs? Is the tough on crime stance legitimate? or propaganda?

I thought it was for real, as the young people say, until I took my blinders off and had a rude awakening.

Consider the following: Local girl in her late twenties who likes her alcohol, doesn't smoke marijuana or use any drugs. She works at minimum wage and sells small amounts of pot to teens, at affordable teen budget prices, for their weekend parties. Everyone in town knows her and her family: local youth came and went from her place without incident for years. Then, her boyfriend gets a cocaine habit. She's not happy about it but talks to her man who lives on the outskirts of town, who supplies her pot...he sells her the coke boyfriend wants but she refuses to sell the coke to others. Her thing is selling marijuana and she doesn't want any trouble. When the boyfriend runs up a tab for his coke habit and doesn't have the cash to cover it, her supplier tells her she can have some time to pay that debt, and he will continue to supply her marijuna, but no more cocaine until the debt is clear. After much nagging by the boyfriend, he talks her into driving to the next city, a couple hours away, to purchase cocaine for him there.

She is arrested, for the first time ever, returning from the city with the cocaine in the vehicle.

What are the mathematical odds of her being stopped the one and only time she goes out of town to purchase cocaine? That's what I thought.

She owed one dealer in one city, she shows up elsewhere with cash, she's arrested on the way home. The lesson to her is this: pay your bill or you won't buy anywhere else and we'll f**k up your life if you try it. The police had to have been in on it as did the other dealer in the other town. That's some networking going on. Her dealer remains untouched.

"The dealer or someone else could have called the police," you say? Just try and call the police on someone selling drugs. Good Luck! Unless you sign an affidavit saying you have seen the drugs, been present during transactions, and so on, they will not be doing a take-down any time soon. More likely, you will be targeted for some harassment thereafter. If you belong to the right circle of friends, the dealer may be quietly relocated elsewhere.

What is true in a small way is usually true in a larger way.

After that incident, I made a point of watching and learning.
Same town: a man in his forties relocates with his family and becomes part of the downtown scene selling his own prescription for oxycontin, his child's Ritalin prescription, marijuana from the same supplier as the first young lady, in both teen and adult-sized quantities. He can also negotiate for hard drugs with the supplier, depending on who is doing the asking. His favourite thing is selling small amounts of marijuana to teens, because this guy likes, according to the young people, to do the grabby, feely thing with either sex, and two different young ladies say he raped them. You want something to smoke? you put up with it. Then come a flood of charges against local teens who get probation, curfews and are subjected to the local police questionning them every time they are looking for another teen to arrest. There is a raid at the local highschool and Mike __ , is arrested for having a couple joints on him. He had only got it the night before from this same man and no one else knew he had it. How did the police know? Bingo! You have guessed it: Mr. Creepy has a deal with the local police: I give you information so you can look like you're doing your job. Some kid complains I've sexually assaulted them, you point to their drug record. Who will believe the teenager? the Crown won't even look at the case.

Another man, on a disability pension, augments his poverty by selling oxycontins bought from others with legitimate prescriptions. They sell their prescriptions because their pensions don't meet their needs, either. This man also sells marijuana and can find ecstacy, date rape drug, meth, cocaine, etc. if the customer wants it: one phone call and its delivered to his door in minutes. This man went on unmolested until he tries the cocaine a few times and gets a habit. Now he's cocaine paranoid: keeps guns, bear spray, brass knuckles, pitbull dogs are adopted...eventually a decision is made that he is just too big a risk, given his paranoia. He gets arrested.

Compassion clubs, providing marijuana to those who use it medicinally, are similarly targeted for big take-down scenes and arrests.

So is there a war on drugs? If you want the answer to that, you have to follow the money and power trail.

That will be the subject of my next post. In the meantime, you might want to read Lies the Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History (March, 2010) a thought provoking book, including what you can do to confront the lies perpetrated by your government and its agents.

Dell on Poverty

This past weekend was just about as perfect an introduction to summer as one could ask for. Kevin and Shelley arrived Friday night along with Corey and his girlfriend Amy [first time in the bush]. Wade and Jake were here for Saturday and spent a good deal of time on the lake, fishing and out in the canoe.

After twenty-four hours of sunshine and revelry, Saturday evening's bon fire chat led to a discussion on poverty. The subject probably wouldn't have come up, but Corey's friend, Amy, mentioned she had received a call that there was an opening in a geared-to-income building in town and it turned out that's where Jack is living. Amy was so excited to finally have decent housing after years of sharing a less than desirable apartment. Jake pays full rent based on his income and there was some joking about how Jake would be paying Amy's rent, yet everyone agreed finding affordable rental housing is a real problem.

I asked them if they had seen the National Film Board documentary, The Things I Cannot Change, (1967) by Tanya Ballantyne: the story of a large family dealing with unemployment with only meager social supports . No one knew the film, so I explained that the title was a line spoken by the father in the film, quoting part of the Serenity Prayer.

The kicker, I pointed out, is that acceptance is exactly the problem behind poverty. Despite over forty years of incredible wealth, many here in Ontario, and throughout Canada, still live in poverty: women, children, the elderly and the sick. This is accepted by the vast majority of taxpayers. They pay taxes to provide the supports that were lacking in 1967, only to find the poor are still suffering.

Frankly, whenever I read a statistic about how generously Canadians give to the poor, my reaction is, "That's nice, but when are they going to use their vote to reform social welfare policies?"

Here's the reality: if you are unable to work, you are eligible for general welfare [a temporary payment never meant to assist in the long term], while you apply for a Disability Support pension [glorified welfare]. In many provinces, either monthly cheque is insufficient to cover rent, adequate groceries, clothing and life's necessities, for singles or families. While prescriptions are usually covered, as well as eye care, only emergency dental care is covered for adults; this despite evidence a mouth full of teeth is essential to one's health. Welfare payments continue while the applicant waits for approval of the provincial disability pension. For many this means they will be sick and struggle along on welfare, sometimes for several years, before their pension is approved.

Retroactive pension payments are made once the pension is granted. Sounds good? It isn't. There is a pattern policy of denying disabilty pension claims: the retroactive difference is only paid from the date of the most recently approved application. Under the Harris government, Ontario had huge changes and cuts to social programs. Cuts included discretionary retroactive payments: some got it and others did not. Those who were short-changed have never been granted these retroactive payments.
The death of Kimberly Rogers in 2001 was a wake-up call for social assistance reform that has yet to be heeded, despite the hard work of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. Adequate housing, sufficient income to eat properly and society's indifference, were the focus of Ballantyne's film; forty years later they remain matters of grave concern. Recent cuts to fund building upgrades have added to a housing crisis of epidemic proportions. This year's bank changes requiring larger down payments for investment housing will surely only aggravate matters.

Did you know that in Ontario, the Disability Support program allows recipients to receive up to $200.00 a month in assistance from friends or family without penalty? There is no tax benefit in doing so and I've only met one person whose family assisted in this way. Why?

Canadians simply accept that having paid taxes for social programs, the needs of the poor are being met. That they still have to give generously to feed those same poor should be a good indicator present social supports are not working. The housing crisis could be addressed almost immediately if disability pensioners could qualify for a home ownership loan. Why doesn't it happen? The biggest, quick investment money is made in slum landlording, which depends on the poor not being able to own a home. Essentially, social welfare programs provide just enough money for a lousy apartment when that same amount could easily cover a mortgage; but the poor don't qualify. Over twenty years, a disabled pensioner will pay roughly $450.00 for each month's rent. You do the math:  it's clear the situation will continue as long as someone is making money on the backs of the poor. Who makes up the difference financially in this situation? the taxpayer: first in taxes and then giving generously.

It is difficult to motivate those who have life's necessities to make poverty a voting issue, but I suspect that this may change as a larger aging population feels the bite of poverty. Certainly, while legislation allows business creditors to get ahead of pensions in cases of bankruptcy or collapse, there is a good chance that those who didn't think poverty a voting issue, will some day live in the very poverty they ignored while affluent. Acceptance is not the answer: reform is.