Reduced to waiting tables, the self-described "psychorealist" launched an online campaign against his publisher and former employer, which he now dubs Edinburgh Looniversity. Brand also uses his Web site to pitch The g Factorand his proofreading service, which he says will "quickly improve your essay, research proposal, research report or thesis."
His Web site also contains a wealth of scientific discoveries: Japanese people don't like the way white people smell (except for the minority of Japanese who have "Caucasian body odors"); Kwanza was invented by the CIA to divide black radicals; women are "inclined to deceitful promiscuity"; and "butch lesbians" have short index fingers.
Daniel Kramer
Ross: "I just couldn't bring another child into this world addicted."
Daniel Kramer
Love spreads the word wherever she thinks addicts can be found.
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Brand is a CRACK supporter and attacks publications like The New York Times, which has run stories critical of what he calls a program "that tends especially to decrease births to low-IQ black and Hispanic drug addicts, and thus to decrease the Democratic Party's future supply of voters."
Brand also supports eugenics, if done right. In one newsletter, he implies that the Nazis were onto something, but they "turned out to prefer the military and murderous rather than the slower eugenic route to success."
Upon discovering Brand's connection to the Woodhill Foundation, some American and European reporters assumed that Brand was acting as CRACK's European mouthpiece.
But Woodhill says there are simpler reasons for why he took Brand under his wing. One is to "keep the guy out of trouble."
Here's the other, according to Woodhill: "As a psychologist, he has a special expertise in what human beings can do…and what they can't do."
In Peter J. Durkin's mind, drug treatment not only works, it's crucial.
Durkin, the CEO of Planned Parenthood of Houston and Southeast Texas, sees therapy and sex education as heavy artillery in the war against addiction.
As for CRACK's methodology, "One, I think it's coercive, and two, I think it's simplistic," he says. "These populations are very vulnerable because of their addictions, and I think making sure they have treatment for their substance abuse is critically important, but I wouldn't tie contraception or sterilization as a requirement of that."
Durkin's figures show that, in Harris County, 25 to 28 percent of the population lacks access to employer-subsidized health care or government programs, meaning many people can't afford drug treatment.
"These dilemmas and these fairly dramatic stories illustrate the need for health care, contraception and sexuality education," Durkin says. "It is a symptom of a much larger problem of investor-driven health care in our community and in our country…When we talk about these things, these are symptoms of much larger problems that defy short, easy, neat solutions."
Bill Winslade, who teaches medical ethics and law at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and the University of Houston Law Center, also questioned CRACK's single-issue initiative. While he has no problem with CRACK advocating birth control and sterilization, he believes that it shouldn't be the focus.
"Why not provide a network of support to get somebody out of that syndrome? It isn't just not having children, but improving their quality of life. Help them get a job, help them get counseling, help them get an education."
Like Durkin, Winslade believes CRACK could accomplish more by offering counseling independently of sterilization. He sees CRACK's methods as quick and dirty instead of thoughtful.
"I would feel much better about the whole process if it were an attempt to help people, not just prevent babies," he says. "Maybe their passion should be more widely distributed."
