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TRYING TO FIGURE GEOMETRY OF DRUGS

Three messages, three lines of thought:

"I am a retired criminal investigator with 41 years and 10 months in the law
enforcement profession," began one. "I was retired due to an injury received
while arresting one of these `non violent' drug addicts and now can hardly
get around due to an injured shoulder, spine and neck."

The second was from a Vietnamese man who came to Houston in 1976. He sent a
piece written by Wayson Choy, a professor of English at Humber College in
Toronto. "Red Petals on a Faraway Grave," which ran May 2 in the Toronto
Globe and Mail, was Choy's commentary on the execution of Nguyen Thi Hiep.
She was 43, a Canadian citizen, and the mother of two sons. She was shot by
a Vietnamese firing squad after being locked up for four years.

Her crime was carrying five lacquer paintings through Hanoi's Noi Bai
airport. With her 71-year-old mother, she was taking the paintings back to
Canada on behalf of a family acquaintance. Concealed in the frames was 5.4
kilograms of heroin, worth about $5 million on the street.

Where To Draw The Line?

The third message was chock full of questions from a woman who said she has
lived in Texas for 64 years. She requested several statistical details
regarding our state's criminal justice system, and then asked: "Where do you
draw the line concerning the `drug laws'? Decriminalize use? Make it legal
to possess just a little? How much is `just a little'? Is a little marijuana
or cocaine all right, but you draw the line at heroin? Maybe it is OK to
sell to others? How much can I sell? Is it OK to import?"

She said she was "curious as to why so many of your columns focus on the
Texas prison system," and she asked, "Do you have some sort of personal
agenda involved that you should share with your readers?"

The three messages were among several responses to a discussion here about
some statistics reported by the Justice Policy Institute of Washington,
D.C., in a recent study -- Texas Tough: An Analysis of Incarceration and
Crime Trends in the Lone Star State. And also mentioned was an upcoming
Journey for Justice in Texas, with activities and events designed to call
attention to the large number of nonviolent drug offenders in prisons, and
to promote making marijuana legal for sick people.

"I assume that you are in favor of decriminalizing the use of what are now
illegal drugs," wrote the woman with many questions. She said that she has
"never been closely or directly affected by any abuse of the existing drug
laws," and while not certain, she said: "I probably believe that some
changes in that area probably have some merit."

The retired criminal investigator, a past vice president of the Texas
Municipal Police Association, said: "Being a compassionate person, I think
all drug addicts should be lined up and given inoculations of 'pure' 100
percent heroin free of charge. That would also solve the overcrowding at the
prisons."

He said that while working for Harris County, one man he trained became an
officer of the year and another was named a rookie of the year, "and now
both are dead, killed in the line of duty. Try to convince their widows and
children to join your point of view."

As for making marijuana available for sick people, he said, "There are
plenty of drugs available to alleviate whatever marijuana would solve,
although I agree it should be available with a prescription if a doctor
thinks it appropriate."

Zero Tolerance:

About that woman who was executed for carrying paintings with drugs in the
frames, Choy wrote in his story: "No doubt Vietnamese officials thought that
Western governments, like those of the United States and Canada, would be
pleased. After all, the West had been pressuring Vietnam to help crush the
burgeoning drug trade."

However, the man who asked her to carry the paintings asked another woman to
do the same thing. Upon arriving in Canada, that woman was caught with
heroin worth about $3.5 million. Toronto police investigated, conducted a
sting to get the criminals behind the operation, and set the woman free.

Canadian officials rushed a 50-page report on the case to Vietnam, saying
that Nguyen Thi Hiep and her mother were duped. But she is dead. Her
74-year-old mother only recently was released and returned to Canada.

The answer to that question: Do I have "some sort of agenda?" I guess it is
that I would like to see if three separate lines of thought can somehow come
together on enough points to form a sensible triangle.