Hamster takes us today to Bill Berkowitz's column in Working for Change about the DEA Museum (yes there really is such a thing).

A new exhibit opens today called "Target America: Traffickers, Terrorists & You".

"Beginning September 10 - in time for the one year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon - the DEA's Arlington, Va.-based Museum & Visitor's Center will present a new exhibit called "Target America: Traffickers, Terrorists & You." The new show will reflect the Bush Administration's recent anti-drug mantra that the "war on terrorism" is inextricably linked to the "war on drugs." "

'The "use drugs/support terrorism" campaign organized by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP, the office of the "Drug Czar"), was unveiled with a $3.5 million ad buy during this past February's Super Bowl."

The DEA's descriibes the new exhibit as tracing "...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, this exhibit…will present the visitor with a global and historical overview of this deadly connection. The visitor will have many opportunities to explore the often-symbiotic relationships that exist between terrorist groups and drug trafficking cartels and the personal impact those connections have on the visitor."

"A recent press release from the California chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws noted that 'Since September 11, when the federal government promised to focus their resources on fighting terrorism, federal agents have raided medical cannabis buyers cooperatives in Los Angeles, Santa Rosa and San Francisco.' "

Berkowitz says "Steph Sherer, the executive director of Americans for Safe Access, which she describes as 'a network of patients, advocates and caregivers who defend patients' access to medical marijuana,' told me that 'There have been more arrests for medical marijuana cultivation and distribution since September 11, than there have been for any acts of terrorism in California.' "

Bruce Mirken of the Marijuana Policy Project tells Berkowitz, "The new exhibit appears to be a grotesque desecration of the memories of the people who were killed on September 11."

In response to the DEA exhibit, The Marijuana Policy Project has created a Web-only counter-exhibit called "Target America: The DEA and You."

The MPP exhibit "examines the deadly connection between the 'War on Drugs' and terrorism, the often-symbiotic relationship between drug warriors and terrorist drug cartels and the personal impact those relationships have on the average American."

"MPP focuses on the victims of the DEA - AIDS patients deprived of medicine, medical marijuana dispensaries raided and shut down, and stories about innocent people killed by the DEA and other 'Drug War' agencies. Each of the sections contains photos, graphics and extensive documentation. "

Final Merkin comment to Berkowitz: "The public is waking up to the futility and destructiveness of the so-called war on drugs....This exhibit's dishonest, hypocritical attempt to hitch the DEA's wagon to the popular effort against terrorism is a sign of how desperate they've become."

We agree. In light of the absurd raids on California medical marijuana farms, we think the DEA Project should be renamed "DEA Targets Sick and Dying Americans."

For more information about the DEA Museum & Visitor's Center: Phone: (202) 307-3463; Fax: (202) 307-8956; E-Mail: museumstaff@deamuseum.org; Web site: www.deamuseum.org.

For more on America's drug wars, see:

Marijuana Policy Project - www.mpp.org
Drug Policy Alliance - www.drugpolicy.org
Cannabis.com - www.cannabis.com
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (California) - www.canorml.org
Americans for Safe Access - www.safeaccessnow.org
Californians for Compassionate Use - www.marijuana.org
DrugWar.com - www.drugwar.com