THE DRUG WAR ON THE BALLOT

This Month, Citizens Nationwide Petition For More Humane Policies

THIS FALL, OPPONENTS OF THE WAR ON DRUGS take their case directly to the
people: They have successfully placed initiatives on the ballot in five
states to reduce the incarceration rate of nonviolent users. The most
ambitious marijuana initiative is Alaska's, which would eliminate all
pot-related penalties. In Colorado and Nevada, voters are expected to
approve the legalization of marijuana use for medical reasons. This would
bring the number of states with such laws to nine, including Maine, Alaska,
Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Hawaii and California. In Massachusetts, three
state districts will consider recommending that marijuana possession be
reduced to a civil violation, like a traffic ticket, not a criminal one, as
will voters in Mendocino County, California. Initiatives in Oregon,
Massachusetts and Utah would reform their police departments'
asset-forfeiture systems. October polls showed the Colorado and Nevada
initiatives likely to pass, while the others face some difficulty.

The activists represent a range of perspectives, from those who are working
only to legalize medical marijuana to those who are enraged by the Drug
War. "We just don't engage in the battle" over marijuana decriminalization,
says Luther Symons of Coloradans for Medical Rights. "Our initiative is so
narrowly drawn - we're just trying to protect patients and doctors who may
decide that marijuana is a valid treatment option." In Mendocino County,
activists have a broader agenda. "The main purpose is to make a political
statement," says Mendocino "Measure G" spokesman Dan Hamburg, "that the
people are tired of seeing tax money go to what seems to be a very futile
enterprise, and they are tired of seeing young people tainted with arrest
records for using a drug that's acknowledged to be less dangerous than
legal drugs like tobacco and alcohol. They've had it with the helicopters
and flak-jacketed, M-16-toting forces coming in and busting marijuana gardens."

The most subversive and potentially most influential initiative may be
California's Proposition 36, which would do away with jail time for most
people convicted of small-time possession of any drug. Under Proposition
36, they would have three chances to get off drugs before facing a prison
sentence. The law also would require an additional $120 million a year to
be spent for treatment. Whether or not it passes, it has generated an
important dialogue about treatment vs. punishment in California.

More than 20,000 people are doing time for simple drug possession in
California, at an annual cost of $21,000 apiece, according to the state
Department of Corrections. Proposition 36 would save the state as much as
$150 million a year and eliminate $500 million in prison-building costs,
says the Legislative Analyst, a nonpartisan agency.

Proposition 36 is supported by an impressive array of medical groups and
drug-treatment providers. "Addiction is a disease as defined by the World
Health Organization and the American Medical Association," says Tim
Sinnott, president of the 1,500-member California Association of Alcoholism
and Drug Abuse Counselors. "Treatment has better outcomes than incarceration."

No argument there, say opponents of Prop 36, who include most of the
state's law-enforcement associations, many chiefs of police - and an
equally impressive list of drug-treatment providers. "Nobody disagrees that
drug treatment is a good thing," says Alameda County deputy district
attorney Jeff Rubin, who is active in the California District Attorneys
Association. The problem, detractors say, is that Proposition 36 will
ultimately be too lenient. Prosecutors opposed to the measure argue that
virtually nobody in California goes to prison simply for possessing drugs
anyway. No state agency keeps statistics to support this claim, but after
analyzing thirty randomly chosen records from his own district, Rubin
estimated that most of the 20,000 Californians in prison on possession
charges either pleaded more-serious charges down to drug possession, were
picked up with drugs while on probation or parole, or had prior convictions
and went in under the "three strikes" law. "Prosecutors agree to reduced
charges because they have to plead out ninety-five percent of their cases
to keep the courts from collapsing," says Rubin, noting that Alameda County
processed about 10,000 criminal cases last year and held only 141 trials.

This means that Proposition 36 might result in fewer addicts getting
treatment, says Rubin. Under the new law, someone picked up with a small
quantity of drugs would have nothing to lose by refusing to plead guilty;
even if a trial ended in conviction, the law would prevent the judge from
imposing a prison sentence. Prosecutors couldn't possibly try an additional
20,000 possession cases, says Rubin, so they would have to dismiss most of
them, letting thousands of addicts walk away without having to seek treatment.

To some, it doesn't seem to matter whether drug pacifists are agitating for
medical marijuana or treatment instead of prison. Drug warriors assume that
they are hiding their true goal: "[Proposition 36] is a trojan horse for
legalization," says Jean Munoz of Californians United Against Drug Abuse,
the coalition of those opposed to the measure.

Ethan Nadelmann, head of the drug-reform organization Lindesmith Center,
concedes that there is a broader agenda at play in California: "Yes, this
is to chip away at the Drug War," he says. "But for almost everybody in
this movement besides the libertarian extremists, legalization isn't the
real endgame. It's getting people to shift their opinion to thinking of
drug use as a health problem instead of incarcerating people."

THE NEWS FROM EUROPE

In October, Britain's Conservative Party was forced to back off a new
zero-tolerance initiative against marijuana that had been forcefully
announced by Ann Widdecombe, a leader of the party's ultraright-wing
faction. "No more getting away with just a caution," Widdecombe had warned.
"No more hoping that a blind eye will be turned:" The policy demanded that
people caught with pot - even in their bloodstream - would be fined at
least $150 and given a criminal record.

But party unity on the proposal disintegrated when London's Mail on Sunday
reported that seven of the twenty-two members of the shadow cabinet (the
counterpart to the party in power) admitted using marijuana. "I didn't want
to live my life without discovering what it was like," said one.

European governments tend to be more willing to moderate their drug
policies. In February, the German parliament legalized drug-injection rooms
that distribute clean needles. In July, Portugal joined Spain and Italy in
decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana, and heroin. In
October, the Swiss Cabinet recommended that adults be permitted to legally
consume marijuana; the Swiss parliament will vote on the proposal next year.