Kris Lev-Twombly

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Kris Lev-Twombly (1972-) is a Sacramento, CA-based advocate for criminal justice reform, social equity and human rights. He has worked extensively with organizations such as Coalition for Effective Public Safety, Critical Resistance, Drug Policy Alliance, and Ella Baker Center for Human Rights.

Lev-Twombly embarked on the path of social justice on January 30, 2003 when he was arrested at his home in Sacramento, CA by agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The focus of a 6-month investigation, Lev-Twombly was taken into federal custody on suspicion of having sold dried poppy pods over the Internet through his dried flowers and crafts products business.

Though dried poppy pods are widely sold in the floral industry for use in floral arrangements, they are actually listed as a Schedule II substance, under the name ‘poppy straw,’ due to their content of morphine, codeine and other alkaloids. While Lev-Twombly’s arrest received notable media coverage, dried poppy pods have continued to be sold over the Internet, both for craft and ingestion purposes.

Lev-Twombly eventually pled guilty to one count of felony distribution of poppy straw and served a period of imprisonment at United States Penitentiary, Atwater, a federal prison in California’s Central Valley. It was during his experience with the federal drug courts and his incarceration that Lev-Twombly was profoundly moved by the extent to which drug laws cause more harm than they prevent.

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[edit] War on Drugs

“I have always felt that our government’s priorities were askew when it comes to drugs in society,” Lev-Twombly explained in an interview shortly after his release from prison in 2005. “But after doing time in federal prison, sharing space with so many men whose lives have been put on extensive hold because of government-imposed criminality, and seeing the visitation rooms where families have cried so much they have no tears left– I am even more sure in my opinion that the creation and enforcement of drug laws does nothing to protect the public from the risks associated with drug misuse.

“Rather, the war on drugs serves specifically– and PURPOSEFULLY– to imprison, marginalize and disenfranchise large sections of our society, in order to advance a conservative socioeconomic and political agenda that depends upon a non-representative electorate. If our nation’s drug policies were actually based in concern for public health, our tax dollars would be spent on science-based, population-appropriate drug education and compassionate treatment services for those suffering from substance abuse. Instead, we waste billions of dollars per year on paramilitary drug enforcement operations that do nothing to reduce substance abuse, and do everything to feed a multi-billion dollar incarceration industry. The end results: devastated families, decimated communities, widespread untreated substance abuse, and increasing public health risks. Ironically, these are the very things the war on drugs is purported to address!”

[edit] Drugs, Imprisonment and Human Rights

“From the first day I caught the case, people have been aghast at the injustice of my experience, simply because it seems ridiculous. I could get on a soapbox and talk about how my case was bogus, and how I was railroaded, but that would be a waste of my energy and a waste of your attention. People need to look beyond the absurdity of a poppy straw distribution case, and look at my experience as TYPICAL, rather than UNIQUE. I didn’t deserve imprisonment any less than anyone doing time for a drug offense. Federal and state prisons are FULL of people who are simply not criminals. People's fundamental human rights are being violated for extended periods of time for no just cause. So don’t shed tears for me, please. Focus your energy on the people and their families who are being robbed of decades of their lives because of this deceptive, calculated campaign called the war on drugs.

“Addiction and substance misuse are linked to considerable suffering in our society, but we need to be very clear about the relationship between drugs, the imposed criminality of drugs, the drug trade, the people involved, and the motivations that fuel the cycle. For the most part, drug distribution is about opportunity. It IS opportunity. It fills a void in a world where the privileged few are fed through the exploitation of the deprived many. It is a symptom of a world grossly out of balance. For the downtrodden and desperate, the drug trade is a shining possibility for prosperity. The catch, though, is that the “class” of people desperate for opportunity is growing, and beginning to encompass a whole new demographic profile. In the United States, the middle class is dying. Some might argue that it's already dead. People with college degrees can’t find work, let alone buy a home and invest in their future. Kids come out of the public school systems with NO IDEA what to do with themselves.

[edit] Social Justice, the Formerly Imprisoned and Hope for the Future

“Our public policies increasingly coddle corporate dominance and a disinvestment from communities. If we continue in this way, we are going to see huge sections of society imprisoned, addicted, and completely incapable of self-preservation. We already see it now, but it can greatly increase in scope. If you combine that with the environmental degradation we have unleashed on our planet, you see a bleak future on the not-so-distant horizon.

“Yes, it’s a crisis: crisis in our communities, in our government and on our planet. But in crisis there is immense potential for growth and evolution. From adversity, grace is born. You’d be surprised how many people who have been through the prison system will tell you the same thing. When you are stripped of everything except your humble self, you suddenly realize how powerful you are. That’s why we make such good advocates- we have nothing left to fear, and we are in touch with the rudimentary tools within needed to create something good from the cold, dark badness without. Everyone has those tools, but for most people they are buried beneath the illusions of prosperity we have been trained to pad ourselves with. Do some time, and you either lose the padding or lose your mind.

“So in this crisis we find hope for the future. The key to turning the one into the other is to collectively envision what is right and just, and to combine our resources to make it happen. “Right and just” can be envisioned a thousand ways, but the bottom line will always consist of food, shelter, water, freedom from harm, freedom to believe, and freedom to love. If you can agree on those concepts, the rest is immaterial. I think we can get a lot of people on board with that basic vision, including people who are currently at severe odds with each other. With enough people around the world creating momentum for a balanced global community, the folks holding on to the existing system of unbalance will simply lose their grip and fade away. It will take our time, sweat and tears, but there is no better use for those commodities than this."

[edit] References