cannabisnews.com: DEA Chief Praises Local Law Agencies 





DEA Chief Praises Local Law Agencies 
Posted by CN Staff on August 06, 2002 at 09:33:11 PT
By John McDonald, The Orange County Register 
Source: Orange County Register
The rest of the nation could learn a lot from the Orange County Methamphetamine Task Force, which unites traditionally competing factions such as law enforcement, education and drug treatment into a united front against drug abuse, Drug Enforcement Administration Director Asa Hutchinson said Monday. "We at the DEA are very good at bringing down criminal organizations, but if the demand is still there, a new organization will be on the same street corner (selling drugs) three weeks later," Hutchinson said at a town hall meeting set up by the task force and Chapman Medical Center. 
"You can't just take down the criminal organization, but you have to change the community. What you have here should be an example for the nation," Hutchinson said. He said that in most communities nationwide, law enforcement, educators and treatment institutions operate with little coordination, as compared with Orange County. In Orange County, teams composed of police, probation, the courts, schools and treatment facilities join forces to address the problem and to design recovery programs for individuals. "In Orange County, they have common goals rather than turf battles," Hutchinson said. "One example is in the dealing with children who are exposed to drugs through their parents. The enforcement and social service agencies and the courts have a quick intervention program to protect those children and get them out of that environment until it is safe for them to return.''Max Schneider, a physician from Orange who lectures around the country on drug abuse, said no precise statistics are available, but 10 percent to 15 percent of the population of Orange County could be addicted to drugs or alcohol. That would amount to about 290,000 people or more. The figure is based on observations in dealing with addicts in Orange County since 1953, he said. He added that the number of people who experiment with drugs would be even higher."We have a great shortage of treatment facilities for the indigent,'' in the county, he said. "We currently have two beds for indigents in need of medical detox. We could use 100."Schneider said that the change in attitude by the DEA, brought on by Hutchinson, is "like a breath of fresh air." He said prior DEA chiefs had collared all political support to fund enforcement, and little was left for education or treatment. Hutchinson said after his talk that what he admired most about the Orange County effort is that "they are cooperating and working together."Note: Traditionally competing factions are a model for the nation as they work together to battle narcotics, Hutchinson says. Snipped:  Complete Article: http://www.ocregister.com/local/meth00806cci.shtmlSource: Orange County Register, The (CA)Author: John McDonald, The Orange County Register Published: August 6, 2002Copyright: 2002 The Orange County RegisterContact: letters ocregister.comWebsite: http://www.ocregister.com/CannabisNews DEA Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/DEA.shtml
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Comment #6 posted by The GCW on August 06, 2002 at 15:55:06 PT
Ass
should Praises Local Law Agencies in Nevada, for just endorsing the cannabis Re-leaglization movement in NV.Gove 'em a call buddy.
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Comment #5 posted by E_Johnson on August 06, 2002 at 12:35:38 PT
War profiteers ensuring their future income
Mr. Hutchinson, you profit from the misery of addicts as much as the dealers and manufacturers do. You're building a career on keeping them in misery to keep your agency strong and powerful inside the Beltway.You don't care who lives or dies, and your position on medical marijuana proves that to the 73% of Americans who disagree with you on this issue.
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Comment #4 posted by kaptinemo on August 06, 2002 at 12:16:36 PT:
What really burns me is when they trot out the
addicts.Children, can you say "Potemkin Village"? Sure you can!In the article, the usual teenaged 'addict' is quoted as saying that: "You have to put people in treatment to give them a chance to get clean," and "My boyfriend went to jail twice, and when he got out, we celebrated by getting off. Jail doesn't help."I wonder if her imminent release wasn't being threatened if she did not perform a la trained seal fashion:(circus trainer) Jump though the hoop, girl! Jump through the hoop! Good girl! Speak, girl! Speak! "Arr-uh! Arr-uh! Good. Here's your freedom! Next victim!) she'd be so supportive.But in the middle of the article is the clincher...and why it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Asa is being run by DEA, not the other way around.He, too, makes trained seal noises about decrying a lack of bed space in rehab centers for the poor and indigent. He's saying this in front of a room full of the biggest beneficiaries of the DrugWar...the police themselves. Without ever once ruminating on the fact that it is all the swine-in-blue's fault for literally hogging all the monies both appropriated and extorted through forfeiture in their predations.Antis are like amnesiac lepers without bells, totally oblivious of the damage they do in their daily exertions.
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Comment #3 posted by Sam Adams on August 06, 2002 at 10:38:49 PT
yes, look at this
This guy really hit the nail on the head. I agree with this part 100%:"Modern psychiatrists, doctors, and sociologists are wrong in their diagnosis of drug addiction among large segments of Western youth. They fail to realize that to combat drug abuse one must prevent its social and political causes before attempting to cure its deadly consequences. Given that the crux of the modern liberal system is the dictatorship of well-being and the dogma of boundless economic growth, many disabused young people are led to believe that everybody is entitled to eternal fun. In a make-believe world of media signals, many take for granted instant gratification by projecting their faces on the characters of the prime-time soaps. Before they turn into drug addicts, they become dependent on the videospheric surreality of television, which in a refined manner tells them that every-body must be handsome, rich, and popular. In an age of TV-mimicry, headless young masses become, so to speak, the impresarios of their own narcissism. Such delusions can lead to severe depressions, which in turn can lead to drugs and suicide. Small wonder that in the most liberal countries of the West, notably California, Holland, and Denmark, there is also the highest correlation between drug addiction and suicide."I've always thought that if they want to get kids off drugs, they need to find out why teen suicide has gone up by 500% in the last 15 years, and address the causes.  But of course, kids are killing themselves because they don't want to join our screwed-up society, as the author eloquently states above.I think the fact that an entire generation of kids has latched onto "hip-hop", dressing up and emulating the black rappers they see on TV, is horrifying. Not because I'm against rap music or black people at all. Just because it's so soulless to define your entire image based on someone else; to not be proud of your own roots, to have such a shitty self-image that your just co-opt what you see on TV. It's pretty pathetic IMO.Should I impress people by being smart, working hard at school and/or my job, or working at a sport or musical instrument? No, I'll just hang around the mall say "What up dawg" to my friends.  Welcome to America 2002. This is how we've brainwashed our kids. And we wonder why they're all drunk and high.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on August 06, 2002 at 10:09:25 PT
Interesting Article
THE RIGHT STUFF (DRUGS AND DEMOCRACY)http://english.pravda.ru/politics/2002/08/01/33661.htmlMorphine is said to be good for people subject to severe depressions, or even pessimism. Although the drug first surfaced in a laboratory at the end of the last century, its basis, opium, had been used earlier by many aristocratic and reactionary thinkers. A young and secretive German romantic, No-valis, enjoyed eating and smoking opium juice, probably because he had always yearned to alleviate his nostalgia for death. Probably in order to write his poem Sehnsucht nach dem Tode. Early poets of Romanticism rejected the philosophy of rationalism and historical optimism. They turned inward to their irrational feelings, shrouding themselves in the pensive loneliness which opiates endlessly offer.
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Comment #1 posted by Sam Adams on August 06, 2002 at 09:47:18 PT
Really?
"In Orange County, they have common goals rather than turf battles," Hutchinson said. "One example is in the dealing with children who are exposed to drugs through their parents. The enforcement and social service agencies and the courts have a quick intervention program to protect those children and get them out of that environment until it is safe for them to return.''Nazi Germany had NO turf battles - they REALLY work together with common goals. They had some ideas Asa could really use - forget taking people's kids away...just KILL the parents! Much cheaper and simpler. 
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