DRUG CONFERENCE ATTENDEES SEE BLEAK PICTURE

Most Policies Don't Work, Speakers Say

A man wearing a pot-leaf emblem sat next to a former judge, not far
from a former cop, a short hop from a lawyer.

All were listening intently to the discussion, taking notes and sipping coffee.

Attendees at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference in the
French Quarter this past week represented the whole spectrum of
opinions: crime fighters and former inmates, legalization advocates
and opponents, casual users and part-time abusers.

As the conference, which ended Saturday, dissected the country's drug
culture, no topic or approach was taboo.

But as a succession of speakers discussed their roles in the nation's
war on drugs, the consensus was clear: The war is being lost.

Michael Jones, a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, said
that in his former job as a deputy police chief in Gainesville, Fla.,
he grew despondent as he watched an unending drug crackdown carousel.

"We were going to the same houses, arresting the same people, getting
the same results," he said. "We cannot arrest our way out of the problem."

Modern-day policing, which relies heavily on statistics, was
criticized by participants who decried a "quantity over quality"
philosophy of arrests.

In a handful of sessions pegged to New Orleans' post-Katrina drug
problems, speakers offered bleak assessments.

Nowhere are failed government policies more clearly on display than
in Louisiana, where drug offenders are jailed at among the highest
rates in the nation, speakers said. Treatment and rehabilitation
options are limited, zero-tolerance tactics are fruitless and poverty
is high, they said.

"The criminal justice system in New Orleans was always in a sad state
of affairs, yet very good at making a high number of arrests," said
Bruce Johnson of the National Development Research Institute.

Johnson and his institute colleagues are working on a study that
analyzes the post-Katrina disintegration and subsequent re-formation
of the city's drug markets, based on interviews with more than 100
drug users and sellers in New Orleans and Houston. He offered few
hints on their findings, saying the study hasn't been published.

As academic types in tweed jackets, former law enforcement leaders
and idealistic reformers shared their thoughts, ideas for drug policy
reform ranged from "legalize it" to establishing better prevention systems.

The wide variety of topics led at times to rambling discourses. A
panel on the New Orleans drug problem devolved into a discussion of
medical marijuana policies in California and Washington.

"Harm reduction," race and sentencing guidelines were popular seminar subjects.

The objective of harm reduction is to mitigate the potential dangers
and health risks associated with risky behaviors such as drug use.
Ideas on needle exchanges, a lower drinking age and prevention
programs were bandied about.

Ethan Brown, a New Orleans author and expert on the "stop snitching"
culture, said mandatory minimum prison sentences for crack cocaine
convictions play a huge part in the explosion of prison populations,
as well as an "extraordinary antipathy toward police."

The minimums were mostly established in the late 1980s during the
"hysteria of the crack war," he said.

The conference attracted attendees from across the world, including a
few locals. Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Calvin
Johnson spoke on a panel dedicated to local drug issues while a
representative from the district attorney's office sat in the audience.

It was unclear whether any members of the New Orleans Police
Department were on hand. The department's Public Information Office
did not return requests for comment.