MAIL CALL!

From: Douglas LoConti
Subject: Regarding your page

The drug war makes me sick. After reading your page, my ideas changed drastically. I don't know what to say. Your web site brought me to tears. I am disgusted with what Uncle Sam is doing to our American people. How can I help? I beg on bended knee that I can do something. Please advise.

I'd like to commend you for your work and effort to end this war. I received a copy of your newsletter a few weeks ago. I read it from front to back and sent it to my family to read. The stories truly illustrate what has happened to a majority of people convicted of drug crimes.

By declaring this war, the government has empowered itself with the ability to do what they want, when they want and how they want. All it takes is someone mentioning your name and you're a goner. The longer the public remains unaware and uninformed about what's going on, the more dangerous this war becomes.

Your newsletter is both promising and encouraging for those of us lost in this dark tunnel that seems to have no end. I'd like for you to mail newsletters to these close friends who I'm sure will support our cause after reading the information contained in the Razor Wire. I will continue to inform as many people as I can about your organization. It's good to know there are some sane people in such an otherwise insane and unforgiving world. Thank you to everyone in your organization and all who support it.

Michael S. Jones, Prisoner of the Drug War

From: Wm and Laura Tarnacki
Subject: Thank you

November Coalition, thank you so much. My brother is being charged for trafficking marijuana and our family is going through so much right now.

We thought we were alone in all of this, but finding your website has given me hope and the strength to keep fighting for him and others. Thank you so much for all the info, the links, and the resources. I would like to donate money to your organization and will mail you as much as I can afford to. We are all scraping together money to pay for his legal fees to hopefully get the best representation we can afford. Thank you for everything.

From: Christina
Subject: The Wall

I love your web site. You go!!! I believed that I was the only one in the good old U.S.A that felt the injustices of the Federal System. My boyfriend of 11 years was arrested two years ago on a drug charge. My boyfriend was set up by an informant and arrested. This same man had set him up with one kilo. He lived in and was arrested in California, but he was sent to trial in PA. He was kept in lock-up most of the time and it took them 19 months to sentence him.

With one kilo and the statement of a fugitive he ended up being charged and sentenced for 15-49 kilos: 12 1/2 years. The worst part he is not a citizen. He has lived here since 1965, since he was five years old. Now after he does his 12+ years he will be deported to a country he knows nothing about. And they call this justice?

I believed that the United States of America was the best country in the world. I don't believe that now. I want any information that may help. Also I would like to know how to add him and his story to your wall.

I'm a POW and I've left behind four lovely kids to suffer due to this war. I cannot even think what it would be like to grow up without a mother or father. I hope my children understand what this war is all about and never stop loving me as much as I love them. I am 42 years old and serving a 70 month sentence on a first time non-violent drug conviction. Can someone please tell me what has happened to America? Please place my name on your mailing list. I read your last issue, it's a voice that I never expected to hear. Thank you.

M. Green, Prisoner of the Drug War

From: Cheryl
Subject: The Drug War

My Name is Cheryl. My son Phelix, Jr., 21, is now a victim of this mass incarceration in the United States. This was my son's first offense, but the federal prosecutors and DEA agents decided that he was the best pawn they could find. This child had no knowledge of his father's drug business dealings, yet through lies and deception he was convicted to 10 years in prison.

My ex-husband (who is ill), my nephew Prentess, (who has terminal cancer), my niece Rebekah, Darren, Joe and countless others are also victims.

Enclosed is a check for $20.00 toward your cause. Please put me on your mailing list, and if possible, send me a few back issues of your newsletter.

I have a friend who has been sentenced to spend the next nine years of his life in Forest City, Arkansas for a non-violent, conspiracy-trafficking (marijuana) charge. His brother has been sentenced to 20 years for the same crime. I have read your web page (The Wall) and wept. I was surprised and ultimately disgusted at the obvious constitutional violations that are so rampant in the prosecution of crimes of this type.

The obvious problem-lack of public knowledge-leads me to hope for exposure of the truth and a redirection of goals by the government we have elected.

Any efforts to alert the general public about these excessive sentences will be an effort toward much needed and long awaited reform. The constitutional abuses inherent in the sentencing for conspiracy crimes must be abolished.Thank you for your efforts and please keep up the good work.

Julie

Subject: More about TNC
From: Buford

I have a very close friend who will be sentenced in federal court Monday for a drug trafficking violation. She is a first-time offender. I would like to know more about the November Coalition. As you can tell by my signature block, I am a law professor. Some of my teaching and research duties involve controlled substance laws, and perhaps I could be useful in some way. You might look at the Web page for my current seminar. I hope to hear from you.

From: Allison Margolin
Subject: info

Tom, Nora told me to e-mail you. I am a senior at Columbia University writing my thesis about interest group problems in drug policy reform and on the real reasons behind the slow progress in the drug law reform movement. Could you lead me to some public opinion polls on drug laws and to a website that posts a daily list of drug-related articles? Also, I need to find a comprehensive list of drug reform groups.

I'm a drug war prisoner at Allenwood Federal Prison Camp. A friend here turned me on to your newspaper, you're doing a great job! Your paper really hits home on this unjust war. My name was stamped all over the front page of the newspaper with lies provided by the prosecutor. I was told I was facing twenty years and a $1 million dollar fine, my wife was facing the same sentence. Then I was told that if I plead guilty they would give me thirty months, no fine-my wife would get three years probation-we have an eight month old son. Would you please send a copy of the Razor Wire to my home address, I'd like my family to see what is going on with the drug war. Thank you.

Danny Hartman, Prisoner of the Drug War

I was convicted on the conspiracy law. I sold some 'meth' in 1993. I met my wife in 1995 after being off drugs for 2 years. We married in April of 1996 and in August I was indicted. I was convicted and sentenced to 5 years; not much by today's standards. But my new wife and child now live on food stamps, have no car, no phone, and no electricity while I sit in FCI Forrest City.

Please keep up the good work, thank you.
John M. Prisoner of the Drug War

I feel the need to expand my work to channel all of the negative energy to positive action through education and awareness. I am compilling every organization that is on board with your efforts. My goal is to use multi-level marketing dynamics to spread the word. If I hear anyone complain about their sentence and find out they are not at least seeking subscriptions to organizations like yours, then I have nothing for them. I intend to involve families with your group and others. I remind everyone:

"You can be part of the problem or part of the solution."

We must all pull together to make the public aware.

J. Trent Mosby, Prisoner of the Drug War

America does not have a drug problem. America has a drug prohibition problem. Historically, U.S. drug policies have conveniently ignored science in favor of politics and greed. Alcohol is a drug. Nicotine is a drug. Pharmaceuticals are drugs.

The zero-tolerance mind-set has ensured that Americans will be able to purchase the most deadly drugs in the world, legally. The decision to use a drug in America is no longer based on the efficacy of the drug, but on its legal status. This is prohibition. Prohibition is a proven failure.

We have a social policy based on lies. The federal government lied to our parents about drugs, they lied to us about drugs, they lied to our children about drugs, and now they expect us to lie to our grandchildren about drugs. Any questions?

Sincerely, Polly Wilmoth

Hello, I am Lauren C. Freeman. I am fifteen years of age. I attend Hillsboro High School (as a sophomore). My father, James A. Freeman is in Chillicothe Correctional Institute for a drug related incident (marijuana). He told me about how great your newsletter was and how much he enjoyed reading it. He even suggested for me to look it up on the computer, I did, and now here I am. After reading the newsletter, "The Razor Wire", and many other articles on your web site, I would also like to have the chance to tell you how much I enjoyed it as well. I'm glad you have chosen this topic and addressed it so well. I feel the same as you on many of the subjects and issues you have written. I strongly agree with my father that this is a very, very, good newsletter.

We both really appreciate the people who use much of their time and effort each day to prepare such an outstanding product. Thank you from the both of us ! ! !

Sincerely and With Respect, Lauren C. Freeman

I thought that I should let you know that after serving 6 and + months of a 12 month and 1 day sentence for cultivating marijuana at a cancer patient's home, I am no longer in the prison camp in Jesup, Georgia. I now reside at a halfway house in Tampa, Florida. I am on my first 12-hour pass. Needless to say, it's great to be back with my lovely wife and dog. Although I was only in the prison camp for 6 months, I believe that it has changed the way that my wife and I will look at life and the United States' government forever.

I hope that you will never experience how much I missed the small simple things in life that I had always taken for granted. The prison food was unrecognizable, and I wouldn't feed it to my dog. While I was in prison, I would have given $5.00 for a fast food burger. But here, on the outside in the free world, you couldn't pay me to eat one.

The way that our government is wasting human resources and the taxpayers money at Camp Jesup (and I'm sure at all other FPC) is deplorable. How can the American work force be expected to compete with prison labor that makes $38.40 a month for 160 hours of hard labor? It's impossible! If the American public does not care about nonviolent criminal going to prison, maybe they should start caring about who is going to take their jobs away from them.

If the 6 months that I spent in prison taught me anything, it was to make me realize how much that I love my freedom and my country; but now, more than ever, I truly fear my government with a passion. I feel that the government is an overgrown bureaucracy. It is nothing more than a two-headed snake that tells the public one thing and does another. The public needs to realize what has and still is becoming of our government, or soon it will be too late; and America will be one of the saddest places on the face of the Earth to live. Thank God for the November Coalition, FAMM, and the various other organizations that are taking a stand and fighting for a change.

Rick L. Meredith, Prisoner of the Drug War

I like so many in this country must admit my ignorance of what are the truths. I knew it was illegal, but never to what extent. Ten years in prison is not what will make me better. My own self-education will, and has changed my way of thinking as to the use of legal and illegal drugs. But that is my individual right of choice.

As to these things, government's job is to educate and regulate, not dictate. They're there to protect those who can't protect themselves, such as children, elderly, handicap, and so forth. But not consenting adults. We did not elect them to pick and chose what our individual rights of choice should be. Alcohol and tobacco are your choice, but marijuana isn't? Marijuana and cocaine can be hazardous and addictive, but alcohol and tobacco aren't? They took an oath to serve all the people, not just the ones who voted for them, or the dollars of big lobbyists.

The government knows that over 100 million people in this country have used illicit drugs. That would represent half the people in this country.

We know they will never win the WOD by incarceration, invading other countries, or putting a wall on the Mexican border. We just tore down a wall in Germany so people could be free. It is the will of the people, and always will be. They are trying to deal with my need through their opinions and their needs, not mine.

Sincere thanks for your efforts.
Anthony "John" Arthur, Prisoner of the Drug War