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Dissenter from the drugs war profiled

Compiled by Allen Best TELLURIDE, Colo. — Bill Masters showed up at Telluride in 1973, working as a lift operator by winter and then by summer on the trail crew.

Compiled by Allen Best

TELLURIDE, Colo. — Bill Masters showed up at Telluride in 1973, working as a lift operator by winter and then by summer on the trail crew. The son of a university administrator in California, he already had a degree in police science and was soon the town marshal in Telluride.

Conservative by nature, a Goldwater admirer in his youth, Masters was at the time a hard-nosed cop eager to enforce all the drug laws on the book. In Telluride he had plenty of opportunities. But, in the years since, experience has changed Masters’ outlook. In 1998, as sheriff for San Miguel County, he publicly broke ranks with Colorado Republicans and the U.S. government’s War on Drugs.

Denver-based Westword tells about the evolution of Masters’ thinking in a story written by Alan Prendergast titled "The Maverick."

The war, explained Masters in his first book, "Drug War Addiction: Notes from the Front Lines of America’s #1 Policy Disaster," is hypocritical and it perpetuates a bureaucracy that is ever eager to expand itself. A new book called The New Prohibition, which he edited and for which he wrote the lead essay, takes the argument several steps further, with contributions from a congressman, a retired federal court judge, the head of a conservative think tank, and several retired police officials.

Pivotal in changing the thinking of Masters were two murder cases. In the first, Eva Shoen, the daughter of the founder of the U-Haul empire, was murdered in her home near Telluride. The killer was a serial rapist from New Mexico out on parole after only serving nine years. What kind of country frees rapists, he wondered, because its prisons are overloaded with drug offenders?

In the second case, an 18-year-old woman from nearby Montrose disappeared. While attending a conference at the FBI headquarters in suburban Washington D.C. devoted to serial killers, says Masters, he was startled to learn that of the throngs of young FBI agents he saw, most were devoted to drug cases and only a few to serial killers.

Now, Masters sees drug warriors trying to justify their budgets in the wake the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with the argument that their war is also the war against terror. "A quarter of the FBI case filings in the year before 9/11 were drug cases," he says. "Who was looking after the terrorists? Nobody. We have 10,000 DEA agents. Is it more important to prevent the next terrorist attack or to bust Cheech for having a bong? In the year before 9/11, we arrested almost 750,000 people for possession of marijuana – and one foreign terrorist," Masters told Westword.

"You’d think real conservatives would be looking at what works, what’s the best result you can get for the money," he adds.

Cosmetic herbicides may be banned

CANMORE, Alberta — The Canmore Town Council is considering a proposal to eliminate cosmetic herbicides within the town by the year 2014.

Cosmetic herbicides are used to rid lawns of dandelions and other nuisance weeds. Recent studies have linked herbicides with harmful effects to both pets and children.

Dr. Melanie Watt, executive director of the Biosphere Institute, told the Rocky Mountain Outlook that people overuse cosmetic pesticides with the mistaken assumption that they become more effective if used in larger quantities. In fact, they can make pets violently ill, and they can be very bad for children.

Canmore Mayor Glen Craig said he supports the concept, but would like to see a ban sooner, as 10 years is more than what is necessary to educate people.

The Beetles have come!

WINTER PARK, Colo. — Mostly serious, partly tongue in cheek, but thick with advertising throughout was a special supplement called "Attack of the Mountain Pine Beetle" that was issued by newspapers in Granby, Winter Park, and Kremmling.

For the second time in 20 years, bark beetles have reached epidemic proportions in the predominantly lodgepole pine forests of Middle Park, where those towns are located. Aside from the aesthetics of dead trees, note the papers, the greater threat is of forest fires. Landscapers, loggers, and others offered, in a variety of advertisements, to aid the good cause.

How much good can such battles have? In an article called "Beetlemania" in the spring issue of Forest magazine, etymologist Frank Cross said that only in select areas – near towns, next to ski areas, for example – can there be any meaningful effort to hold back the beetles.

"Pick your battles carefully, because you can’t hope to suppress the beetles altogether," said Cross. "The area is just too broad, and the forces of nature are just too great."

Winter Park town officials, meanwhile, have decided to reimburse property owners within the town for removing beetle-killed trees. At up to $100 per tree, that will evaporate the city’s revenues this year from property taxes.

A costly commute

EAGLE, Colo. — Eagle is a commuting town. For many, it’s 30 miles to Vail. But for basketball player Kobe Bryant, who has spent scattered days in court facing charges that he raped a local woman last year, it’s about a two-hour commute by private jet to Los Angeles, where he lives and where he performs for the Los Angeles Lakers.

The New York Times reports that during one series of three days in Eagle this spring, Bryant commuted to Los Angeles daily. On the final day of the series, he had a game that evening in Los Angeles. Although deeply tired by then, he told reporters he meditated, fearing that if he slept he would go into the basketball game sluggish.

Bryant has had superlative games after each court appearance.

Affirmative action in Telluride

TELLURIDE, Colo. — It wasn’t gender. Both of the applicants were women. Nor was it environmental philosophy. Both candidates to the vacant Telluride Town Council spot had impeccable "green" qualifications.

Rather, the issue seemed to be age. One candidate, Linda Miller, is in her 70s or so, has lived in Telluride 27 years, and has served on a variety of environmental boards. The other candidate, Mallory Dimmit, holds a bachelor’s degree in natural resources and is 27 years old. At first deadlocked, the council finally gave the nod to the younger woman.

One of Dimmit’s supporters, Councilwoman Andrea Benda, noted Dimmit’s membership in "that demographic we all pay a lot of lip service to… people in their 20s and 30s." Dimmit said she wants to represent those of her generation who are steadily moving down-valley from Telluride (as well as other resort towns) and then leaving altogether.

But some in the losing camp alleged that the younger woman’s discernible comeliness may have swung votes from the men on the council.

As for Miller, she seemed devastated, the next day submitting her resignation to four different town task forces and commissions. "This will enable you to appoint someone younger and more energetic to those positions," she said. "I will retain my seat on the Open Space Commission, because I truly believe I can still manage to make my way from my rocking chair to Rebekah Hall once a month for those meetings. Besides, I have read that it is important for elderly people to have a hobby."

The times they are a-changin’

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — People now are hashing out whether gay people should be allowed to marry. Writing in the Jackson Hole News & Guide, Jonathon Schechter discloses that in the neighbourhood where his mother grew up in suburban Los Angeles, blacks were not allowed after dark.

And when his mother married Schechter’s father, who was Jewish, the family minister refused to perform the ceremony. And there was even greater strife yet when his father’s cousin, who was also Jewish, married a Mexican-American woman who was Catholic.

All of this was a colourful setup for talking about changes. Like other resort areas, Jackson Hole has seen huge ones since about the time Schechter’s mother got married. Jackson Hole then had about 2,500 people, virtually all of them white. Now, there are about that many Hispanics and the overall population has exploded. And overall, instead of being isolated, impoverished, and sparsely populated, Jackson Hole has become incredibly affluent, technologically well-connected and, in some ways, indistinguishable from the rest of the world.

Once some things are out of the bag, he says, they aren’t easily returned. He points to the obvious: the era of inexpensive property in Jackson Hole is dead. But Jackson Hole does have control over land use, and the more thoughtful those decisions, the greater the valley’s long-term economic health, he says.

Scientists study how forests breathe

FRONT RANGE, Colo. — Scientists this summer will be taking readings in the forests of the Colorado Rockies in an attempt to better understand how these "lungs" work in scrubbing carbon and other gases from the atmosphere.

Already, measurements taken near timberline along the Front Range, between Boulder and the mountain town of Granby, have found that the appetite of a forest for carbon shifts with age. Scientists also know that forests in the Pacific Northwest absorb more carbon monoxide than do the high-elevation forests of Colorado.

But this new study by the National Center for Atmospheric Research will attempt to broaden the understanding of how much forests absorb carbon dioxide, a key global warming gas. Scientists, reports The Denver Post, will also fly over the massive Hayman burn area from two years ago to measure carbon exchange in a forested region razed by fire. They also hope to define how the forests operate in different seasons, during a soggy spring versus a dry July.

Population boom to tax wilderness

ASPEN, Colo. — The U.S. population is expected to double during this century, with large implications for the nation’s wilderness reserves. Forest Service rangers recently met in Aspen to sort through some of those changes, and The Aspen Times was there to hear the discussion.

Currently, about 17 per cent of the nation’s population lives within 25 miles of wilderness, according to Ken Cordell, a researcher with the U.S. Forest Service, and 70 per cent live within 100 miles of designated wilderness. Assuming continued growth in these existing areas, the expected population boom might tax the trails and resources of the fringes of wilderness areas, a phenomenon that has already been experienced in wilderness areas adjacent to Frisco, Vail, and other places west of Denver.

But this growing population may well tame wilderness areas with increased light at night, noise and closer proximity of roads.

Designation of wilderness has lagged behind increase in use, Cordell said, even though more than half of U.S. residents polled say more is needed. A recent survey also showed that wilderness areas are more prized for their value in protecting air quality and water quality. Next down the list are their value in providing wildlife habitat and protection of endangered species.

And what about the traditional argument in gateway communities that wilderness is good business? Nationally, when people are polled, that’s considered the least important reason for wilderness, Cordell said.

Memories of Columbine

SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — Two sophomores at South Summit High School were suspended for the remainder of the school year after police found materials in their lockers that was described as "very violent" and had "neo-Nazi overtones throughout."

Most disturbing, said police, was a 1999 magazine article about the shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado. However, they found no weapons, either at the school or at the homes of the two boys.

"Had we not intercepted this I believe that the potential for school violence was extremely high," Summit County Sheriff Dave Edmunds told The Park Record.

Some students thought the case overblown, others said they were scared. One student said the two boys in question had a lot of hatred for everybody.

CB may reign in pitch-men

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. — With real estate activity picking up significantly, Crested Butte town manager Frank Bell suggests it might be time to shackle those hawking time-share real estate.

"In anticipation of growth in these industries in the next few years, it might be something that you want to consider," he told his town council. Council members seemed receptive, but were concerned about crimping the solicitations from other businesses, such as those who pass out handbills, and non-profit organizations, reports the Crested Butte News.

Addition by division

SUMMIT COUNTY, Utah — Big box retailers, or at least the fear of them, seem to be the story in many of the faster-growing resort areas of the West. But in the I-80 corridor of Utah, things are going in the other direction, at least in regards to a Kmart building that was vacated two years ago.

The Park City Record reports that the owner of the 90,000-square-foot building, O’Brien Kiernan Investment Co., has applied for permission to divide the building into five spaces.