The indefatigable Pete Guither of DrugWarRant.com isn’t happy with a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) exhibition that just opened this Friday at Chicago’s Museum of Science & Industry and will run until the third of December. And, in conjunction with Students for Sensible Drug Policy and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, he has set up a website and will hand out flyers this weekend at the museum to counter what he sees as self-serving DEA propaganda.
“Target America: Opening Eyes to the Damage Drugs Cause” was created a few years ago by the DEA Museum and Visitors Centre as a travelling exhibit. After an initial showing in Arlington, Virginia, it has been open to the public in cities like Dallas, New York City and Detroit. According to the website, the exhibit
traces the historic and contemporary connections between global drug trafficking and terrorism. Starting with the horrific events of September 11, 2001 and moving back in time to the ancient Silk Road, [the exhibit] allows visitors to explore a global and historical overview of this deadly connection. Narco-terrorism is only one of the many costs and consequences to society of illegal drug abuse. Expanded in the Summer of 2004, Target America now presents not only narco-terrorism issues, but also a look at other costs to society – costs to children, costs to the environment, costs to the body, and ends with an important look at how each visitor can work to break the cycle of drug abuse and drug-related violence.
And it is what Target America originally showcased - the links to narco-terrorism, including even the terrorist attacks on the 11th of September - that has got Pete Guither particularly mad and which led him to counter with the charge that in fact any drug-related terrorism is a product of the DEA’s activities and the drug war’s prohibition policies. Instead, according to a press release accompanying the launch of the counter-campaign and response website, “The DEA Targets America: Opening Eyes to the Damage Caused by the Drug War”, he would like to point out
the parallels between the lawless days of alcohol prohibition under Al Capone and today’s drug prohibition. As noted at the [DEA Exhibit] website, even the FBI acknowledges Al Capone’s rackets were “spawned by enactment of the prohibition amendment.” None of the groups or individuals involved in the response advocates illicit drug use. In fact, they believe that the DEA and prohibition add to the problems of drug abuse by putting the control, safety, and age regulation in the hands of criminals. They point to the recent Chicago-area deaths from fentanyl-laced heroin as a grim echo of the startling number of Chicago residents who died from tainted alcohol during alcohol prohibition.
