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Contents on this page were published in the July/August, 1993 edition of the Washington Free Press.
WFP, 1463 E. Republican #178, Seattle, WA -USA, 98112. -- WAfreepress@gmail.com
Copyright © 1993 WFP Collective, Inc.
IDEAS THAT
CUT THROUGH
THE BS
During the past month, I have smoked dope, dropped acid and tripped on mushrooms. The police knew what I was doing. But they didn't arrest me.
So instead of writing this in my head from a holding cell in Seattle or Eugene, I'm sitting in my favorite chair and sipping orange juice. Sure, I'm happy I'm free so I can be telling you this. But it got me to thinking ...
The Seattle police knew full well that people would be tripping their brains out at Elysium - Orgy of the Gods, a rave held July 3-4 at an old office building on West Marginal Way. But there I was - with two portions of MIT's finest already doing their business - sliding another hit under my tongue in the middle of a very crowded dance floor.
And Lane County authorities knew - as they have known for the past 24 years - that thousands of people would be breaking various controlled-substance laws at the Oregon Country Fair held July 9-11 near Eugene. So, given this knowledge, what did I do? I fired up the pipe and chomped on a couple Magical stems plumb in the middle of thousands of people.
Thanks for the understanding, officers. Where were you when I was growing up?
Meanwhile, dozens of people - many of them young, African-American males - were being busted in Seattle, Tacoma and Portland for making, selling and/or smoking crack.
Lucky for me, I wasn't breaking any other laws at the time. Neither were many of the other people around me at those two events. Both the rave and the fair were remarkably peaceful; given the attendees' bloodstream additives, I suppose it's not too surprising.
Many of the people arrested for crack, however, were doing other bad things, like breaking into cars and houses in search of things to sell or trade in order to support their habit. Or at least that's what we're meant to believe.
What I'm getting at here is that it's easy to reduce the debate over the politics of the War on Drugs to such factors as race (I'm white), socioeconomic class (I'm middle, though barely), and education (I went to college for five years). But do one's demographic "advantages" give one amnesty from drug laws? Don't bet your favorite bong on it.
All things considered, the War on Drugs is really a War on Conduct. By selectively enforcing drug laws based on the associated behavior of the user, the police are saying, "Go ahead, get stoned. Just don't try to make
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The first time I ever tripped on mushrooms, I laughed unconsolably on the floor of a White Castle restaurant in Detroit while trying to order up burgers.
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Cops in Seattle and Eugene could have had career days if they decided to raid the rave and the fair, but they didn't. Having to go onto private property to make a drug arrest never stopped the cops in the past. And as for getting a judge to sign a search warrant? No problem - most judges just reach for the rubber stamp.
But the police will go to extraordinary lengths to stake out, conduct buys at and then raid crack houses and the like. Why the difference?
"One of the problems with rave parties is the secrecy. Many times the police are the last to know about them," says Seattle police Officer Vinette Tichi, a department spokesperson. (I didn't want to embarrass her by mentioning the cop car I saw outside the rave, or how easily I found out where it was going to be held. And when was the last time you saw a flyer in a music store promoting a crack party?)
"Whatever we can do within the law to check on these rave parties we do. But we can't go in and start strip searching people. And it's not against the law to be on drugs." (It is when you're driving in the state I was in when I left the rave.)
Tichi explained that undercover officers have made drug arrests at raves in the past, and that the department makes sure - as we all know too well - that rave organizers have the right paperwork.
Despite the apparent imbalance in the way the department goes after hallucinators versus crackheads, Tichi said, "We certainly would not be in the position to say, 'These people are just doing Ecstasy and dancing. That's all right.' We treat all drug use the same. They are all equally illegal."
Down in Eugene, Lane County Sheriff's Sgt. Earl McMullen tells a similar, though slightly more revealing story. Where Tichi says SPD actually is making efforts to bust acid-dropping ravers, McMullen says there's not much his department can do to about fair-going potheads.
"Drug use [at the fair] is rampant and we know that. But if we went in and tried to enforce the drug laws, you can see the type of problem we would have - just with the cheer number of people. It would be a riotous situation," the sergeant said, adding that fair organizers have their own security people and that deputies don't enter the fair "unless there's a problem." I guess the sheriff's department doesn't view what I saw in the fair as a "problem," law enforcement-wise, that is.
"The fair is on private property and it's a private thing," McMullen said. "What can we do?" Can you imagine McMullen saying that if 16,000 people were smoking crack? Still, he said the department is conduct-blind when it comes to drug enforcement.
McMullen said about the worst thing that stoners who went to the fair did was camp where they weren't supposed to, shoplift granola and leave human ejecta on the roadside. That's a far cry from what you might expect from a crackhead or even an alcoholic.
We know Tichi and McMullen are in a sensitive position and need to convince people that their respective agencies are doing right by those who view all drugs as a scourge, and by minority leaders concerned with a disproportionate share of law enforcement being directed at African-Americans. Given these forces, one to wonder what the departments' actual positions are on selective enforcement.
Wouldn't it be great to give these people truth serum and sit them in front of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees the next time they hold hearings on federal drug policies? Then flip on C-SPAN and listen to jaws across America hitting the floor.
"Well, Senator Biden, I think it's just fine for 18-year-olds to take Ecstasy and go to rave parties. That is, just as long they behave themselves and the rave promoters have the proper permits. And people on mushrooms dancing-in-place while half-naked don't bother us too much, either."
In addition to behavior - according to this hypothetical, hypocritical cop - the enemy in the War on Conduct also is defined by whether one has the "permission" from the government to be taking illegal drugs.
At the Elysium, for example, Underground Events went through the proper channels in organizing the rave, which was kept under control. One cop car sat outside the place early in the night but was gone before the rave even ended. Gimme some acid, and keep it comin'.
And at the Country Fair, the event's organizers own the 260-acre piece of land where the fair is held every year. Naturally, they have the proper zoning and permits. Hell, Lane County buses even drive people to the fair from town ... for FREE! Pass the joint over this way.
Meanwhile, in Seattle's Central Area and Tacoma's Hilltop, crack users don't have the luxury of participating in government-sanctioned events like these. Maybe if "congregate indulging facility" were a zoning designation, crack users wouldn't have so much trouble with the police.
Still, one's conduct seems to be at the heart of many drug enforcement decisions made by lawmakers and the police. This makes sense, because from a public policy perspective, most of our laws written with an individual's behavior in mind. Drug laws - and especially their enforcement - shouldn't be any different.
If this is so, asshole-inducing drugs like alcohol and cocaine should be illegal. Marijuana, hallucinogenic mushrooms, X and LSD should be legalized.
Apply the "asshole" test to your own life. The first time I did coke back in college, I felt and acted like a creep who just wanted to get more of that stuff up his nose and who was hitting on every woman in sight. But the first time I ever tripped on mushrooms, I laughed unconsolably on the floor of a White Castle restaurant in downtown Detroit after trying in vain to order up some burgers.
If you were a cop, which person would you rather deal with? I'd go with the shroomhead.
Drug use in our society, however, is an issue that summons opinions as diverse as you can get. Running through all the theories of why people tolerate the use of some drugs but not others would fill this entire magazine and many more. Many argue that illegal drugs are illegal because they are used primarily by people who are disenfranchised from the political and economic mainstream. Meanwhile, producers of alcohol and tobacco possess enormous political power.
But, as has been illustrated by the difficulty in even getting a marijuana-legalization initiative on the ballot - the prospect of changing our drug laws looks grim. After all, what politician in his or her right mind would suggest criminalizing booze and cigarettes while making acid and shrooms legal?
I don't know - maybe one who's tripping.
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