Chapter 3
Reporting on Drug Law Enforcement
and Controlled Substances: Resources
By Bill Wallace

Most of what you will need to cover controlled substances will come from the same people that provide other types of information about crimes, arrests, investigations and prosecutions: your local, county and state police agencies, federal narcotics officers, state and federal prosecutors and attorneys from the defense bar.

Court clerks are invaluable to reporters – they can often translate documents or find obscure information about the status of cases for you. Court shorthand reporters may be able to help you locate transcripts of crucial testimony from old cases.

There are some specific sources of information that may prove useful, particularly to a novice reporter on the beat.

For general background on the drug problem and the history of efforts to solve it – or at least suppress it – see Illegal Drugs in America: an Online History, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/factsht/druguse. Just remember that the material comes from a law enforcement organization that is the primary federal agency in the war on drugs, so it can hardly be considered a neutral source.

Your state department of justice probably has its own a narcotics or controlled substances division, and may publish annual reports on drug suppression efforts that will provide you with information about your local situation. It is worth getting to know the people from these agencies anyway, as they often break big cases and usually work closely with local police and sheriff's departments on drug investigations.

For contrarian views about the drug problem and enforcement efforts, see Smoke and Mirrors by Dan Baum (Little, Brown; 1996). See also Still Pulling Strings, American Friends Service Committee (http://www.afsc.org/lac/strings/download.htm).

For statistical information about the costs of drug usage, check the National Institute on Drug Abuse http://www.nida.nih.gov/EconomicCosts, and also the White House Office of Drug Policy, http://www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications. Both sites have listings for their own public affairs departments, and indices of past press releases for reference.

Several liberal organizations that generally favor drug treatment and other kinds of non-imprisonment handling of drug offenders offer much information on narcotics enforcement and treatment. Information about shifting public views on the drug war can be obtained from The Lindesmith Center at http://www.lindesmith.org. The center archives newspaper and magazine stories related to drug policy issues and can provide you with access to experts on the subject. So can the Drug Policy Alliance,
http://www.dpf.org an affiliated group that lobbies to reform drug laws.

The National Organization for Marijuana Legalization http://www.norml.org can also be tremendously helpful with research material, an extensive news archive and access to experts on a variety of issues.

The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation can also provide good background on narcotics issues. Its president, Eric Sterling, formerly worked on the Democratic staff of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. Contact information:

To find your local drug treatment programs, check with your state office of drug control programs, the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors (NASADAD):

Or, check the Substance Abuse Program Administrators Association (SAPAA):

You can determine your local agencies' police band radio settings by buying a frequency guide like the Betty Bearcat National Police Scanner Frequence Directory at a store that sells scanner radios.