[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 68 (Thursday, May 26, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 26, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                    CRIMINALIZING JENNIFER CAPRIATI

                                 ______


                           HON. BARNEY FRANK

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, May 25, 1994

  Mr. FRANK of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, the recent arrest of 
Jennifer Capriati, essentially for the crime of being troubled, is 
further evidence of the pressing need to change our approach to drugs. 
Treating Ms. Capriati as a criminal because she had a small amount of 
marijuana for personal use is an example of counterproductive law 
enforcement, a waste of scarce government resources, and an act of 
cruelty toward a young woman who deserves help and not punishment.
  I believe the time has come for us to stop wasting billions of 
dollars on a fruitless effort to interdict drugs; to stop treating 
users of marijuana and other substances as criminals; and to put the 
resources we will save thereby into a well-funded treatment program. 
The time has come for us to engage in a fundamental debate about our 
failed effort to deal with the social problems caused by drugs, and to 
work together to come up with a new one. Treating Jennifer Capriati as 
a criminal is a strong example of the wrong way to go.
  In Tuesday's Washington Post, Richard Cohen expressed this viewpoint 
in a thoughtful and persuasive way. In the interest of furthering a 
much needed national debate on drug policy, I ask that Mr. Cohen's 
cogent article be printed here.

                    Criminalizing Jennifer Capriati

                           (By Richard Cohen)

       New York--Those who are cynical about the erstwhile War on 
     Drugs (a term abandoned by the Clinton administration) had 
     their case bolstered recently. Jennifer, Capriati, the 
     extremely dangerous 18-year-old tennis star, was arrested in 
     Florida for possessing a small amount (about 20 grams) of 
     marijuana. A terrified nation--she had killer ground 
     strokes--undoubtedly breathed a sigh of relief.
       The cynics, of whom I am one, might have noted that if 
     Capriati were 21 and had possessed a gallon of vodka and, 
     like every other Floridian, a legal handgun, the law would 
     have left her alone. Throw in a carton of cigarettes--as 
     addictive as chocolate, according to the cigarette 
     companies--and no lawman would or could have taken an 
     interest in her. Guns, booze and cigarettes are either 
     mentioned in the Constitution or have strong lobbies in 
     Washington--I forget which.
       Enough cynicism--even from a cynic. The fact is that the 
     arrest of Capriati points up the silliness of our drug laws. 
     The former tennis star--she hasn't played for almost a year--
     has since entered the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami for 
     rehab, although from what is not exactly clear. Above all, 
     she seems to be suffering from an acute case of teenage 
     madness. The symptoms include estrangement from her parents, 
     consorting with ``the wrong people'' and, possibly, abuse of 
     drugs. In her case, it probably matters that she became a 
     professional tennis player at the age of 13. Women's tennis 
     and child abuse sometimes amount to the same thing.
       But for all Capriati's fame and wealth ($1.5 million in 
     ``lifetime'' earnings), she is depressingly typical. Whatever 
     her problems, they are hardly criminal in nature. Yet, she 
     was arrested for allegedly possessing an insignificant amount 
     of marijuana. This is a drug of such power that it has made 
     the entire government crazy. During the Reagan years, for 
     instance, the discovery of a single seed prompted the Feds to 
     seize a luxury yacht. Yet for some reason, of all the 
     millions of people who have partaken of the weed, not a 
     single one is known to have died as a result. Would that 
     cigarettes could make the same claim.
       Let me pause at this point to declare my steadfast 
     opposition to drug use. I do so without reservation. But 
     eschewing the stuff myself and recommending it to no one, I 
     still have to wonder why we continue to treat drugs mostly as 
     a criminal matter, waging a war not against drugs themselves 
     but against our own people.
       At the moment, some 330,000 people are in jail for drug 
     violations. In the federal prison system, more than 60 
     percent of the inmates are there for violating drug laws--
     most relating to harder drugs than marijuana. But even when 
     it comes to pot, the numbers are appalling. The FBI reports 
     that in 1992, 535,000 people were arrested for possession, 
     sale or manufacture of marijuana--this in a nation that 
     doesn't have enough cops to start with. In six cases, reports 
     Rolling Stone magazine in a special report about drugs, life 
     sentences were imposed. As for harder drugs, mandatory 
     minimum sentences are clogging the jails with small-time 
     ``mules'' who are quickly and easily replaced. The money's 
     very good.
       The folly, not to mention the tragedy, of this policy ought 
     to be apparent. For some reason, the United States persists 
     in treating drugs as a criminal, not a health, problem. 
     Certainly, the importation and selling of hard drugs is a 
     criminal enterprise and ought to be dealt with accordingly. 
     But that lucrative business--so lucrative it persists despite 
     Draconian penalties for lawbreakers--would soon wither if the 
     government decriminalized the use of drugs. That was the 
     experience when Prohibition ended and there's no reason to 
     think things would be different now.
       To that suggestion--advanced to one degree or another by 
     Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke and former secretary of state 
     George Shultz among others, and contingent on much study--
     certain politicians cry bloody murder. Congressmen who 
     represent inner-city districts see drugs as such a scourge 
     that they label decriminalization as nothing short of 
     capitulation. Decriminalization does seem like capitulation--
     capitulation not to drug pushers or to the substance itself 
     but to human nature. We have been fighting this fight for a 
     long time, spending $20 billion a year, and have nothing to 
     show for it. The true winners of the war on drugs are drug 
     pushers and companies engaged in the construction of prisons. 
     The rest of us are losers.
       Whatever Jennifer Capriati's problems, they are not 
     criminal. If she indeed has a problem with drugs, 
     particularly marijuana, she will probably be more easily 
     cured than if she were a habitual cigarette smoker (tougher 
     to quit for a lot of people than heroin) or a serious boozer. 
     The whole idea that she was arrested--rehab was her own 
     idea--for possessing a small amount of marijuana is 
     preposterous. She's not a criminal, but a kid with some 
     problems--one of them now being a bust on a drug charge.

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