Rehab, American Style

Michael Douglas got a well deserved Emmy for his performance as Liberace in Steven Soderbergh's swan song, Behind the Candleabra. At the end of his acceptance speech, he made a reference to his 34 year-old son, Cameron, who is serving a drug use sentance, with two full years in 23-hour solitary confinent.

He elaborated backstage:

If you happen to have a slip, this for a prisoner who is not violent … they punish you....In my son's case, he has spent almost two years in solitary confinement, and right now I'm being told I cannot see him for two years. It's been over a year now, and I'm questioning the system. Obviously, at first I was disappointed with my son, but I've reached a point now where I'm very disappointed with the system.

The next day, Sabhbh Walshe of The Guardian, agreed with him, and drove the point home in her analysis:

People may have little sympathy for Cameron Douglas, the poor little rich kid who had it all and couldn't handle any of it. He did break the law numerous times by dealing drugs to feed his habit and deserved to be sanctioned for that. It's reasonable to assume also that if he had come from a poor minority background, he may have received an even harsher initial sentence and no one would have been writing newspaper articles about him or calling out to him during high profile award ceremonies. Still his case deserves attention as it typifies the stupidity of the war on drugs that has caused America's prison population to explode while doing almost nothing to eradicate drug use in our society.

I can add my two cents and say that Mr. Douglss and Ms. Walshe are absolutely correct.

The last time I was called for jury duty, I spent seven of the most depressing hours of my life watching white lawyers, judges, court officers and jurors, busily administering the drug laws of the commonwealth of Massachusetts. All the defendants and their families were sad, poor persons of color, who were going to rot in prison and have their futures wrecked because poor, sad, addicted poor people use illegal drugs. When I was finally called to explain my unwillingness to serve on a jury, I told the judge I considered the drug laws of this nation to be close to the classic definition of insanity. We are doing the same things, over and over again, and expecting a different result.

Drug addiction is a medical problem, and drug dealing is a function of the poverty and lack of opportunities that's endemic in this country. Our answer to this social pathology? Lock up one third of the young men of color in this country, incarcerate more people than any other nation on earth, create a vast, corrupt and wasteful prison industrial complex, and continue this madness year after year, as the problem gets worse! Yes, Mr. Douglas was right to address this at the Emmys.

Mexico Drug Wars Escilating

While Glenn Beck is hysterically predicting the imminent collapse of the Mexican State, it might be a good time to ask if Mexico is in danger of becoming a 'failed state.' Outside of this asked the same question about Russia, given its extreme division between rich and poor, its high rate of underage drinking, and its widespread alcoholism. The answer on Russia I received was that Russia was in a state of social decay. Given the events in northern Mexico these last 6 months, I am tempted to say that the political decay is similar to that in Russia, albeit for different reasons.

I am very late joining the discussion about Mexico. But here goes. The spiking drug violence in Mexico is not isolated to the city of Tijuana or the states of Baja and Chihuahua. Crime is also spiking in the Cancun region, where killings and kidnappings have become commonplace. The same is true in dense suburbs of Mexico City, where murder and kidnapping is on the rise after a decade of decline. The drug war in Mexico is being waged by both local police and the army. To this blogger, it seems that coordination among all law enforcement and military is very loose. Also, there is no standardization of uniforms or equipment among the police forces. A lot of police officers are in street clothes, which can confuse citizens, and has led to tragic incidents of mistaken identity, vigilantism, and police brutality. Further complicating things, all agencies have been compromised by corruption. Just two days ago, the police chief in Cancun was arrested for alleged involvement with the torture and murder of an Army general, who had been sent to Cancun this month to coordinate a new anti-gang task force.

Some other recent developments in the last week:

Reuters, February 6th: Mexico drug gangs threaten cops on radio, kill them

AP, February 9th: Mexican drug violence spills over into U.S.

Reuters, February 10th: Drug gang clash with army kills 21 in Mexico

It was one of the bloodiest scenes this year in a spiraling drug war that killed more than 5,700 people across Mexico in 2008, damaging the public's faith in President Felipe Calderon and raising fears of a spillover into the United States.

Calderon deployed the army and federal police to tackle drug violence at the end of 2006, triggering a series of vicious turf battles between rival cartels.