European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - September 15, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 columns Jim Fain the stars and stripes monday september 15,19b6 politicians Rushing to anti drug bandwagon thai t Koar in Washington last week was t the snarl of world War my or even a nuclear melt Down t was Juil a politicians feeding for try on the drug sen a1, he n could scarcely have been More hyper had he Pla Yoti been smoking crack. Seven straight Days of caterwauling included an orgy of i omit i Smon drug Bash ing. A publicity tug of War thai on one Jay sent reporters racing to foot competing press conference and. Of course inc Ron and Nancy show. Such Rabid posturing insures waste and harm. With out denigrating the drug epidemic we ought to Sec this scramble for precisely what it is a cynical exercise in Vole pandering. To brings frenetic surrealism to Public affairs with Waves of emotion thai build on themselves. To Mea sure the suddenness of this one note that just two months ago the president s drug adviser. Or. Carllon Turner Pooh poohed he notion of a crusade. Do you wan to solve drug abuse or do you just want to throw  brought to jetty the same outfit that gave us the Federal Money out there he scoffed. Now his Boss wants to thro buckets of Money out there though not As much As House democrats who sock to add $1.5 billion to the s2 billion already allo rated for an uncoordinated anti drug Campaign in 1987. Has the drug epidemic suddenly worsened no usage of ill Gay drugs even cocaine is Down slightly. Whai we have is a burst of Media and political hype that creates melodrama for exploitive purposes. The reason is partisan politics. Pollsters picked up a burst of National concern after to Star athletes died of cocaine poisoning and just about every politician choreographed his Campaign to fit. To ads i or the november election focus mainly on drugs wit candidates vying to outdo each Oiler in promising grisly punishments. News magazines and to exploit the Issue for circulation and ratings. In this circus atmosphere new absurdities crowd out old to provide an Ideal climate Tor a Lynching Bee. Similar mass hysteria led to internment of japanese americans during world War 11, the Wilch Hunts of sen. Joe Mccarthy Hitler s persecution of jews and the Salem Witch trials the Radical right sees anxiety about drugs As a vehicle for attacking civil liberties. Capital punishment mandatory sentencing mass drug testing with firing for those who flunk elimination of the rules of Evi Dence in criminal prosecutions use of the armed forces to police drugs All Are on it Agenda. None of this is Likely to Dent drug abuse. We spent s 1 .7 billion this year 85 percent on Law enforcement and Only i percent on he education hat might actually help and even attorney general de Meese admits the Supply of drugs increased illegal drug use is declining not because we re Chok ing Oft Supply but because americans Are beginning to understand its dangers to their health much As we finally Are drinking and smoking less. Tobacco is our most dangerous drug alcohol next. Both kill and maim infinitely More people than do cocaine and he Roin. No one is proposing a test for booze however. The hysteria is reserved for illegal drugs and is almost bound to be counterproductive As overkill usually ii in particular drug testing for employment offers Rich opportunities for abuse and for opening new division sin society. All this because gutless politicians can t Sec beyond the november election. Not what you d Call democracy s finest hour ditto feud by Law new re  Tom Wicker drive of oust Justice Bird is Well orchestrated Franklin Roosevelt tried to pack the supreme court in the 1930s and suffered a congressional defeat and much criticism for his pains but his plan was less manipulative and More openly pursued As a proposed constitutional amendment than the naked political Power grab now being staged by republicans and right wingers in California. Don t believe for a moment that the Campaign to oui chief Justice Rose Bird from the California supreme court is a spontaneous Public uprising. Four groups working to defeat her reconfirmation have raised More than ss.6 million much of in through direct mail to previous contributors on conservative mailing lists. These groups arc linked to such right Wing names As stale Sens. . Richardson and John Doolittle the Laic tax crusader Howard Jarvis the free Market political action committee and the free Congress. Bill Roberts the conservative political consultant organized one of the groups crime victims for court re form. Dot a Fieve either hat the Effort to get rid of Bird who trails badly in the polls is non parti san. Gnu. Corgi Dukmejian a Republican up Lorre Jeci lion Mike c Urb. The Republican candidate  git Turnor. And de Zschau. The Republican Umidi Yiju Hir inc . Senate have All campaigned openly  a intr. So have other republicans. Bird w i appointed in 1977 but i m still accused of being Incipit need she quipped in a recent inter View he j  gov. Edmund g. Brownjr. But she has steadfastly refused to accept democratic parly Money or he support of democratic candidates. No doubt hat s a Relief to hem. Since her cause has be come so unpopular Don t believe finally that the anti Bird Campaign is about the death penalty although that is the emotional Issue that Roberts the republicans and the right Wing have fanned into near hysteria. Their pitch is that the Bird court has defied the will of the people by per mitting no executions since California reinstated the death Penally via a badly drafted ballot initiative in 1978, and that murderers therefore Are being turned Loose to return to the streets. In fact in every instance of a death penalty reversal the Bird court has found a constitutional infirmity in the Law and if the result has been no executions that Only makes California one of 2s slates of the 38 in which a capital punishment Law has been enacted since 1977 in which no one has been executed. Not a single person whose death penalty has been overturned by the Bird court has gone free All Are serving life Lerm without parole or Are awaiting new trials thus the death penalty is Only the trumped up excuse for the anti Bird Campaign the actual purpose of which clearly is to put a conservative majority on the California supreme court. Not Only is Bird s scat under heavy Challenge so Are those of justices Cruz Reynoso the first hispanic to sit on the High court Ana Joseph Grodin a former Tabor lawyer both a Poi Lees of Brown. But Bird is the natural focus of the Campaign As the court s first woman an outspoken defender of individual rights and chief Justice Deu Kejun already has appointed two diner members of the seven Seal court. If any two of he three justices under heavy right Wing Challenge Are Defeated and the governor is re elected both possibilities arc favored in he polls he will obtain a Deukmejian majority by naming new justices for the empty seats perhaps including a chief Justice. That politically contrived Republican court would review any legislative reapportionment after the 1990 census m the nation s most populous state. And a deeper motive of the business groups involved in he anti Bird Campaign big contributors include the Independent Oil producers Agency and he Western growers association was suggested when crime victims for court Reform issued a paper charging the Bird court with being  upon inspection the los Angeles times commented that the disregard for fairness not to mention accuracy of this position paper should Rule it out evidence of any  historically the California supreme court has made a progressive record in cases involving Industrial safety Accident victims and the like. There s Little doubt that such decisions Ai Well m political Power Over reapportionment. Are the real tar gets of the right Wing Republican an i Bird campaigners now so close to politicizing one of the mos important courts in the nation