An Altercation with the Drug Court Gestapo

Yesterday, I was invited to attend the Birmingham Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society luncheon and panel discussion. The topic of the panel discussion was "Is Drug Court a Good Idea?"

A little bit of info on the Federalist Society.

The Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies is a group of conservatives and libertarians interested in the current state of the legal order. It is founded on the principles that the state exists to preserve freedom, that the separation of governmental powers is central to our Constitution, and that it is emphatically the province and duty of the judiciary to say what the law is, not what it should be. The Society seeks both to promote an awareness of these principles and to further their application through its activities.

Their members include all of the current conservative members of the Supreme Court and others of that ilk. Some might think that I would be out of place in such company, but the truth is I am a real conservative. I believe in a very small, un-intrusive government that serves to protect our rights and freedoms. I believe in states rights. I believe in the separation of powers. The people calling themselves conservatives today (The Republican Party) are really anything but.

I wouldn't have known about this luncheon, but apparently I have a friend in the legal community that thought my presence might be sorely needed at any such discussion on drug courts in Alabama. Bless'em! And a HUGE thank you to the attorney who invited me. If you live in Shelby Co. or surrounding areas and get wrapped up on drug charges CALL ME and I will give you the name of an attorney whose heart is in his work and that you can trust to fight like hell to clear your name. I would list it here on the blog but I haven't asked permission to do that. If I get permission I will put up a permanent link.

The luncheon was held at The Summit Club in Birmingham. The Summit Club is for really rich, powerful people. It is a private deal with membership dues (I don't know what they are but I suspect they are outrageous according to my poor person definition of that word). It is located on the 32nd & 33rd floors of the Regions Bank Harbert Center and it has an incredible view of the city. I had been there once before back in the late 90's. Yesterday my friend and fellow activist Dawn Palmer attended with me.

We arrived about the same time but had problems finding good parking. I wound up parking three blocks away. As soon as I pulled into the parking spot and began looking for change to feed the meter I was assailed by a homeless person. I tried to ignore him but he was persistent enough to tap on my window. "I don't have any cash." I wasn't lying either. All I had was enough to pay the $16 to get into the event. He walked away. About ten seconds later along came another one. I just waved him away. Then another one. Geez Louise! I finally got out of the car, fed the meter and hobbled the three blocks on my broke foot to the Harbert Center.

Dawn and I got in and got situated. Two more attorney's joined us at our table and introduced themselves and asked who we were and what we did. I explained that I am a legalizer, run Court Watch, Alabamians for Compassionate Care and ran for Governor with the Libertarian Party in 2006. It turns out that both of these attorney's had recently quit their practice and are opening an addiction treatment center. I was glad to hear that. Alabama has a huge deficit in the number of treatment beds available in the state and zero funding dollars. It's really awful. Drug Court can only be as good as the treatment offered. This bullshit of herding people through it and making them pay the drug courts anywhere from $2500 to $4000, plus CRO fees, plus drug test fees, plus drug and alcohol class fees is nothing more than government sanctioned extortion that doesn't help anyone. Most drug courts in Alabama offer no wrap around services such as mental health counseling and medications for those who need them, no vocational rehab to help them get a job, no transportation to get to and from drug court, which makes it almost impossible for people to get there because the state takes your license when you plead guilty. It's basically all a big fucking extortion scam.

The panel was made up of Drug Court Judge Davis Lawley, who was appointed by Gov. Bob Riley to take the place of Judge Pete Johnson when he retired in 2007. Judge Lawley informed us that he was the former head of a drug task force and used to be the door-kicker-inner on drug raids. What a swell, unbiased person to be appointed Judge of drug court, eh? The other panelist was Lt. James Chambliss head of the Narcotics Division in the Birmingham Police Dept. Rep. Cam Ward (R- Alabaster) was also supposed to be on the panel but was unable to make it due to being in session in the legislature. A note to the organizers of this event...if you truly want to have a discussion on whether drug courts are a good idea or not how about including a panelist who doesn't profit directly from the drug war and drug courts? That'd make it a tad more balanced.

Having no opposing panelist I decided to fill that role from my chair in the audience. Judge Lawley spoke first and he covered what drug court is, how he wants to 'help' people who are 'addicts' so they can pay in their social security like everybody else. I got the impression that he felt every human was born to be a slave to social security taxes and that was perfectly ok by him. He tried to talk about how the brain works in an addicted human and failed terribly. It was painfully obvious he had not a single clue as to the science of drug addiction. He was a cop and now he is a judge and he never went to medical school, so just how exactly is he qualified to talk about addiction? Sounded to Dawn and me like he was acknowledging that addiction is a medical condition and not a criminal justice one. Which begged the question of why is he a drug court judge. But that isn't what I asked.

Next up was Lt. James Chambliss head of the Birmingham Police Dept. Narcotics Division. He kept looking at me long before he and Judge Lawley took their seats at the head of the room. He looked incredibly familiar. I am almost certain I have seen him in the State House. He talked about how his department is currently engaged in a "Zero Tolerance" campaign which consists of pulling over anyone and everyone. He said "We pull people over for throwing a piece of paper out the window. We use every tool we can to make contact with as many 'subjects' as we can to try and see what they are doing." It gave me chills. He continued to ramble about nothing in particular for some time. Seriously, this guy made no sense and was not talking about the subject of the luncheon at all. He said he sees the same people over and over and over. He threw in a comment about the Titanic being built by professionals and Noah's Ark being built by amateurs...but then failed to connect it to anything relevant. It was most bizarre! I couldn't help but wonder how many times his incoherent, rambling testimony put some poor non-violent drug user in jail.

Both Judge Lawley and Lt. Chambliss harped on the dangers of opiates, cocaine and meth. Neither of them mentioned marijuana in their remarks. I found that rather encouraging....until question time arose.

The first question was, "Does drug court reduce the recidivism rate and if so by how much?"

Lt. Chambliss started rambling again about seeing the same people over and over. To me that was a clear indication that Lt. Chambliss didn't think it was working. He continued to ramble about how bad drugs are and a bunch of other crazy nonsense that had absolutely nothing to do with the question asked. It was obvious that he probably didn't know what a recidivism rate was and he was floundering pretty badly when Judge Lawley attempted to answer the question. He didn't do much better. I was really surprised that they did not come prepared with some government math stats that say drug court works. It's like they never expected that question to come up.

Next question from an attorney was.."Does drug court actually cure addicts?" To my absolute horror Judge Lawley said something to the effect of, "There's no real fool proof way to cure and addicts...Everyone in the room here is educated so I can say this....Chairman Mao in China cut off the heads of drug addicts and pushers...we can't do that here of course so we have drug court."

There were a couple other questions before they got to me. I don't remember what they were. When I was finally called on I asked Judge Lawley how much of his drug court case load was made up of simple possession for personal use marijuana cases. It seemed that question caught him off guard as well. He had to stop and think about it for a minute. Then he pulled the random number of 10 to 12 percent out of thin air. Now it may actually be that percentage but he really didn't seem to sure of that number. I noted that 50% of all drug arrests in Alabama are for simple possession of marijuana and that his number seemed very low to me. I then asked him if he thought that using 10 to 12 percent of the very scarce resources available for drug court on non-violent marijuana offenders was a waste since marijuana is not addictive and doesn't have the same health risks as other harder drugs.

Judge Lawley: "Absolutely not. Marijuana makes people lazy and a-motivational."

Me: "Well, I hope the narcotics officer won't arrest me for saying so, but I have been smoking marijuana regularly since the age of 12. I am now 33, I run Court Watch, Alabamians for Compassionate Care, a blog, I ran for Governor of Alabama in 2006 with the Libertarian Party, am often in the media and I am here at your meeting today. Does that sound like someone who is lazy and a-motivational to you?"

Judge Lawley: "No but not everyone reacts the same way. Not everyone is you."

Me: "True, yet the net cast by law enforcement drags in everyone caught with drugs and does not differentiate responsible users from non-responsible users. Why doesn't drug court focus its resources on just the problem drug users?"

Judge Lawley: "Talk to Cam Ward...I don't make the laws."

Me: "I've been talking to Cam Ward for a few years now."

Lt. Chambliss: "I would like to address this question. Marijuana is a gateway drug. Every drug addict I have ever dealt with started with marijuana."

Me: "Marijuana is not a 'gateway drug'. That is just a theory. Every drug addict also drank milk at some point too...so is milk a gateway drug? The connection between marijuana and harder drugs is that marijuana is simply the most prolific and widely available. What about tobacco and alcohol? Do you consider those gateway drugs as well?

Lt. Chambliss: "Them's legal."

Me: "Yes but I asked if you thought they were gateway drugs?"

Lt: Chambliss: "I believe tobacco a gateway drug."

Me: "But not alcohol?"

Lt. Chambliss: "No."

Me: "Both of you keep referring to 'drug related crime'. That is the wrong term. The correct term is prohibition related crime. It is exactly the same thing that we had when alcohol was outlawed in the 20's."

AT this point Lt. Chambliss became so irritated at me that he started asking me questions.

Lt Chambliss: "How many people you charged with narcotics?" (at least I think that is what he said)

Me: "None, I'm not a cop."

Lt.Chambliss: "How many narcotics raids you been on?"

Me: "None and I wouldn't ever go on one." I almost said "Hey I'm asking the questions here" but figured that might push him over the edge and make him pull out his gun and shoot me dead in my chair. Neither of those questions even made sense.

Judge Lawley: "I saw a study recently that showed marijuana caused 'paranoia'." (What he meant to say was schizophrenia).

The moderator jumped in at this point and cut off any further debate between the three of us. I was ready with this response had I been allowed to give it.

"I think you meant to say schizophrenia Judge. And regardless of what government study you read medical science tells us they have no idea what causes schizophrenia, that people are born with it and it is triggered at some point in their lives. Additionally, schizophrenics who use marijuana are using it to self-medicate. It doesn't cause the condition. If you truly meant that marijuana makes you paranoid I would offer up that it isn't marijuana that makes you paranoid....its the cops."

The next question was about arrest statistics. Lt. Chambliss pulled out some notes and left no doubt that cops and drug court judges are having no success in stemming the flow of drugs or stopping people from using them. He went back to about 2002 and read the amount of marijuana seized each year. Every year there was much more marijuana than the year before.

And then the fun was over because time was up. I'd like to be locked in a room with Lt. Chambliss for about an hour. Just me and him. He'd come out a changed man.

As we were leaving the lawyer who invited me came over and the first thing out of his mouth was, "I can't believe they would put that guy (Chambliss) in charge of anything. You couldn't make sense out of anything he was saying." I said, "Scary ain't it...and he carries a gun."

He also said that he was sitting by a Jefferson County Commissioner who was nodding his head in agreement with marijuana being a gateway drug. He said he told him that it isn't a gateway drug but that it is more widely available and easier to access than other drugs. The commissioner said, "That may be but the public isn't ready to hear that."

I had a marvelous time being a professional pain in the ass yesterday. It isn't often that I get to go head to head with a Narc and a drug court judge all in the same day. I was really surprised that some of the Federalist Society lawyers didn't ask about the Constitutionality of the drug war and the end run around the Constitution with the Interstate Commerce Clause. Really surprised.

You know the stupidity of Lt. Chambliss is downright frightening...and what is even scarier is that most law enforcement officers are drinking the same fucking koolaid that he is. Even the judge, who I assume is educated, believes in the shit. Either that or he is a whore profiting off of the blood and misery of others. Sadly not enough people possess the testicular fortitude to do what I did yesterday. It is always sublime to sit before a cop and a judge, both who would love to arrest and imprison me and say "I AM A POT SMOKER" thereby destroying their stereotype of what a pot smoker aka drug user is and does. Goddamn there is nothing better! I think my presence and direct confrontational questioning caught them seriously off guard. And that makes it ever better.



Strangely, the question of whether drug court is a good idea was never answered. Judge Lawley, who makes around $140,000 a year, obviously thinks it is a good idea and Lt. Chambliss, although he hinted that it wasn't working, profits from the fact that it isn't working so he don't give a damn about whether it is a good idea or not. He'll still make blood money off the damn drug war anyway.

My friend who extended the invite also attended our Compassionate Care meeting last night and signed up. He also told me that he has a friend who used to be a drug task force officer and has since joined LEAP and is now against it. I made him promise to hook me up with that gem. I'd really like to get LEAP down here in the same room with Lt. Chambliss and Judge Lawley and any other law enforcement officers, DA's, defense attorneys and judges who are interested to attend.

Later today I am going to talk to my friends at LEAP and see what it would cost to get them down here and start raising funds to make that happen. I'll make a separate post about that and ask you dear readers to contribute to that most noble cause.

Peace Out
Loretta Nall

Cross Posted at Alabama Court Watch







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Slow posting for a few days

The next few days will be kind of slow for blogging around here. I have a lot of meetings to attend in Montgomery and Birmingham about the strategy for this year in the legislature. Last night I met with three people in Birmingham about Court Watch and all I gotta say is that we are about to shake the Alabama criminal injustice system to its very foundations.

Y'all be safe out there today....looks like the weather is going to be really nasty!

Alabama Court Watch Blog

Dear Readers,

I would like to invite you to visit the blog for my latest project Alabama Court Watch where I will soon be spending a great deal of my time. Drop by and check out what we are doing, request information and leave us feedback.

See you THERE!

Back to My Real Life

After what seems like a years long hiatus, but in reality was only a few months, I am happy to announce that, as of today, I am back up to top speed in my old tricks, shenannigans and rabble-rousing for the most noble cause of drug policy reform in the state of Alabama. That's right...I've said goodbye to Wal-Mart and am once again a full-time hell raiser.

I have twice as much on tap this year as I have in years past. Not only will I continue to lead the effort to pass a medical marijuana law in Alabama, I am also doing something new this year called Court Watch.

The Court Watch program is something I and a friend of mine have been working on for the past three years. It is a monitoring program for the drug courts in Alabama. I disagree with the entire concept of drug court. I feel that drug and alcohol addiction are private family matters, as well as health and social issues, that have no business being dealt with in the criminal justice system, which is focused on negative punishment as opposed to healthful healing. But, since the government insists on inserting itself into the middle of this issue then I have taken it upon myself to make sure that for every dollar the courts take from non-violent drug offenders they offer a service that will truly help in return. While I disagree with drug courts on principal I do concede that they are a better alternative than prison and, if run properly, they can benefit people who are truly addicted and in need of their services.

I am convinced, however, that the majority of the defendants that make up the bulk of drug court case loads are adult marijuana smokers who are not breaking any laws other than possessing small amounts of marijuana for personal use. If that is the case then we will soon find ourselves facing a treatment crisis, not unlike the prison overcrowding crisis, where marijuana consumers, who are not addicts in need of intervention, take up all the space needed for those addicted to prescription narcotics, crack cocaine, methamphetimine and alcohol. Court Watch is designed to collect and track that information in hopes of making the drug court system work properly. We also plan to use it in our future efforts to remove responsible, adult marijuana consumers out of the criminal justice equation, thereby freeing up police and court resources better spent on violent crimes and crimes with actual victims.

Many drug courts in Alabama operate in the following way. You get arrested for simple personal possession of marijuana. Your lawyer tells you about this program called drug court where you plead guilty and agree to follow the program rules for a year. If you succeed then your record will be cleared and you can go on your way. If you fail you still go to jail. Sounds simple enough right?

The program consists of attending court sessions so many times a month, seeing a court referral officer or probation officer so many times a month, peeing in a cup so many times a month, attending drug class so many times a month and attending AA/NA meetings on a regular basis. Almost everything you are required to do comes with a hefty price tag for which you are required to foot the bill. The CRO/Probation officer visits, the drug tests, the drug class, the court sessions all cost you money. If you don't have any money then you will likely fail and wind up in jail anyway after the courts have bankrupted you.

The drug courts/drug laws make it very hard for a regular person to succeed. If you get a misdemeanor conviction for simple personal possession of marijuana your drivers license are automatically suspended for at least 6 months. That makes it impossible for you to drive yourself to your many drug court related appointments and it puts undue hardship on your family and friends to have to shuttle you about. If you have a job before you start attending drug court then good luck keeping it. Not many employers are willing to let you off early a few days out of every week especially if it is for anything drug related. If you don't have a job chances are you will have a difficult time finding one because you cannot drive yourself to and from the job, you need to be off an unreasonable amount of time to attend all the things drug court requires you to attend and most prospective employers will close the door on anyone who is already in trouble for drugs.

Let's talk about all the money you have to pay for various 'services' and what you get out of them. The drug classes, which you pay for, are nothing more than quasi-religious "Drugs are bad...Mmmmmmkkkk so pray to Jesus to save you" church sessions. They are totally illegal because of the religious overtones, not to mention useless because they do not teach anyone any skills for recovery from addiction. The only benificiaries are those collecting the fees.

CRO/Probation fees are paid for every visit you are required to make. They only benefit the CRO/Probation office. You get no service for your money.

Drug test fees benefit the lab. You get no service for your money.

Any fines you have to pay benefit the court system. You get no service for your money.

When someone who is truly addicted comes out of a drug court program (if they make it out) then they have learned nothing to help them stay clean and cope with daily life. Guess what happens? They start using drugs again and wind up in jail on the taxpayer tab anyway.

Here is how drug court should work. Instead of offering prayer sessions they should offer mental health counseling. Many people who suffer from addiction also suffer from mental illness like depression, schizophrenia and bi-polar disorder. Some counseling and perhaps medication in some cases would benefit true addicts, their families and society much more than a propaganda based anti-drug class.

Instead of CRO/Probation officer visits they should offer vocational rehab to help those who can work find employment. Poverty leads to depression which can lead to a return to drug use.

Instead of mandatory AA/NA they should offer both religious and non-religious based forms of support groups. If someone is comfortable with AA/NA fine. If someone wants to participate in a local church group that has a drug program fine. If someone, who is not religious, does not want to participate in either then there has to be something for them as well. Any existing community resource for overcoming drug addiction should be made available to drug court defendants.

Instead of imprisoning those who fail drug tests they should offer in-patient treatment. Scientific studies show that when trying to make major life changes, like quitting smoking or drinking, stress is the thing you need to stay fartherest from. But what does the government do? They take people who need no stress and expose them to the maximum stress by locking them in a cage with dangerous, violent criminals. Brilliant!

By the way, most people sentenced to drug court for marijuana pass all the drug tests. If they can do that it means they are not addicted. So, why bother pot smokers at all? Think about it. Most pot smokers I know would be more than willing to pay a reasonable tax, which could be used to fund treatment centers for those who really need it. Why extort us when we are willing to pay you anyway? Why not create a whole new tax/revenue base, while at the same time creating new jobs, reducing prison overcrowding and making communities safer by freeing up law enforcement and court resources to focus on real dangerous criminals?

In that scenario everyone wins and no one loses. Why can't we do that?

Hopefully by weeks end I will have a Court Watch website up and running. We are also working on two publications for distribution to any and all defendants in Alabama court, the public and anyone else who is interested. They are;

"Alabama Court Watch, A Citizen's Guide to Their Rights and Responsibilities in an Alabama Court of Law. It explains basic stuff about how the courts are suppossed to work, what you should expect from the court, what your rights are in court, how to ensure that your attorney is doing what they should do and things of that nature. It also gives tips and advice for defendants like what to wear and what not to wear, how to address the judge, who you should and should not speak to, keeping emotions in check and the like.

Know Your Rights During a Police Encounter
This one is pretty self-explanatory. Many people do not know what their rights are during a police encounter and wind up giving up the most important ones, which generally results in arrest. This publication will seek to inform citizen's of their rights during police encounters. As they say, Knowledge is Power and the more knowledge the average citizen has the more power thay have to avoid arrest, prosecution and imprisonment for doing something that shouldn't be illegal in the first place.

If you would like to assist with the cost of printing these publications you may send a contribution at this link.

If you would rather mail a contribution you may send it to the following address
PO BOX 504
Alexander City, AL 35010

**Please note that contributions are not tax deductible at this time. We are in the process of filing for 501c3 status.**

While our main focus is to track marijuana defendants in various Alabama drug court programs we will also be monitoring district courts for judicial misconduct, which I have witnessed a great deal of over the course of the last 5 years. I won't say what I have seen because that would alert the judges who violate the rights of both defendant's and observers every time they hold court and I don't want to warn them. They should already know that the things they are doing are unconstitutional. They are judges, after all. What I will say is that they will soon be receiving a little note in the mail from the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission informing them that a complaint has been filed against them for various infractions.

If you would like to be a volunteer court watcher in your area of the state, have been through an Alabama drug court and would like to share your story, or would like to assist this project in some other way please email me to discuss further.


I'll see you in court..

Loretta Nall
Executive Director
Alabama Court Watch
www.alcourtwatch.org (website coming soon)

Wal-Mart, Politics & Drive By Truckers

So I am up at 2:30 this morning because I can't sleep thru the night anymore due to working graveyard at Wal-Mart. I'm cooking a roast, drinking coffee and the urge to write a little came over me.

About two weeks ago I wrote my first article on what working at Wal-Mart has been like for me. My main gripe was a couple of time-clock breeders who did everything they could to get out of working while at work. I complained to the manager, who then called them to the office and apparently explained the rules about sexual intercourse in the parking lot and in various places about the store being expressly forbidden. They came back to work one night after that and no one has seen them since. I don't miss them. I don't think they have quit or been fired. I heard that the girl took medical leave and the boy called in and said he was in the hospital. Whatever. I hope that if they come back they will not be on my shift.

Then about a week ago my manager on 3rd told me he needed to see me for some paperwork before the night was over. I didn't know what it would be. My supervisor said it might be my first evaluation or maybe something to do with insurance. It turns out it was an evaluation...but not one of them evaluating me, but rather one of me evaluating them. I found it very odd. It was one page of questions related to my experiences working for Wal-Mart thus far. Did I like it? Did I feel I had been properly trained? Did I feel I could approach any of my mgrs/sups with problems? What did I like least? Most?

I filled it out, signed it and handed it back to the night manager who looked at it and said, "What the hell is that anyway?"
"I don't know", I told him. "You're the manager...don't you know what it is?"
"No", he said. "I have been here 15 years and I have never seen one of those."

I can still only specutlate as to what the purpose was. Maybe the store manager wanted to gauge my feelings after our little discussion. Or perhaps, as one friend offered, they are considering me for a PR position at some future date and wanted to experience my shit talkin' skills first hand. Either way, it was very weird.

Politics

Due to various goings-on in my personal life I have not been as active in drug policy reform in the last few months as I would have liked to have been. Things are starting to settle down now and I am proud to announce that I have been awarded another grant to continue my work here in the state on behalf of medical marijuana patients and this year as an advocate for pot smokers who are sentenced to drug court. I'll be doing an official news release on this new program within the next few weeks and it will include the locations in Alabama with drug courts that I intend to monitor.

Court officials in Alabama are not accustomed to being moitored and held accountable so this should be an infinitely fascinating project loaded with drama, fireworks and great media. If there is a drug court in your neighborhood and you or osmeone you know are interested in being a monitor then please get in touch with me via email.

Drive By Truckers

My friend Phil Smith at DRCNet and senior editor of Stop the Drug War has been after me for years to check out the Drive By Truckers and I never did. Then recently another friend of mine invited me to see them in Birmingham last weekend and I was able to go. I was really impressed with the authenticity of their music. It isn't really country...but it ain't rock either. It's just Alabama music and that's about all I can say. If you've never heard them before check them out at Drive By Truckers .com

Here are a few pics I took. Have better ones but haven't uploaded them yet.