CHURCHES LOOK FOR ALTERNATIVES TO THE CONTROVERSIAL WAR ON DRUGS

Steve Jens-Rochow has had close-up experience with the drug scene in
Florida. He owns an apartment building where some previous tenants had been
drug dealers. There's still one living next door and drug couriers ride
bicycles through the neighborhood. "I used to be a staunch supporter of the
war on drugs," he says. "I thought if we only tried harder we could get
them to go away. But after 15 years I've figured out it's not working. Now
we need to come up with some solution to it."

Jens-Rochow is denominational affairs chair at the Unitarian Universalist
Church of Fort Lauderdale, which began talking about the drug war issue
after delegates at General Assembly last year selected "An Alternative to
the War on Drugs" as the top "study/action issue." Each year one such issue
is identified and congregations are encouraged to study and act upon it for
the next several years under the sponsorship of the UUA's Commission on
Social Witness.

The drug issue inspired passionate debate within his congregation, says
Jens-Rochow. "We have a wide diversity of opinion. Most people are in favor
of more humane treatment for drug users. We also have a couple of staunch
believers in the drug war. So we've had great discussions."

In the past year many other congregations have taken up this issue. At the
First Parish in Waltham, Massachusetts, the congregation held four seminars
on successive Sundays on the drug issue. It heard from a local lawyer,
viewed the PBS Frontline documentary "Busted, America's War on Marijuana,"
and developed its own "statement of conscience" about the issue. Members
are looking at ways of lobbying legislators on drug issues and they hope to
form a drug-issues reading group. They also organized a district-wide
meeting of all those interested in the issue.

The UUA has an independent affiliate, UUs for Drug Policy Reform, which is
working with congregations on this issue. Charles Thomas, UUDPR's
president, is encouraging congregations to begin by studying the drug issue
for a year or more by inviting speakers, reading books, and holding study
circles. Then, he said, congregations will be prepared to advocate change.

He believes UU congregations can provide a continental example. "The thing
we do best as UUs is pushing the envelope. The stronger the position that
we can take on this, the more encouragement it gives other denominations."

Drug war opinion is beginning to shift, says Matthew Elrod, a Canadian who
is Webmaster for several drug issue-related Web sites, including The Media
Awareness Project (mapinc.org), which has more than 50,000 news clippings.
"The momentum is building for change," Elrod says. "There's no doubt
there's been a major shift in editorial opinion in recent years. One study
found that well over 80 percent of editorials and op-ed pieces now call for
some type of reform."

Advocates of drug war alternatives generally suggest the following
approach: Repeal criminal drug laws and treat drug addiction as a social
and medical problem. Advocates of change say that drug use should not be
viewed as a crime unless others are being harmed, and that prohibition
increases drug-related crime and strengthens the organized crime system.

At the UU Church of Fresno, California, the congregation began its study of
the drug issue with a sermon by the Rev. Bryan Jessup, followed by a
community workshop. The church is also part of the local Metro Ministry
group which is investigating drug issues. Church members also have their
sights on openings on a local alcohol and drug abuse council and a mental
health advisory board. "It's too soon to tell where we'll end up on this,
but we know we want to do more than talk about it," says Robert Valett. "We
hope to help change some policies."

At the Bellingham, Washington, Unitarian Fellowship, the congregation picks
a different social justice theme every six months. It chose the War on
Drugs in February. The church sponsored a community forum to which about 60
people came, two-thirds of them non-UUs. Another forum was planned for the
spring. "It was an issue that people felt strongly about, saying changes
need to be made," says Coral Dudek, church administrator. "It's generated a
lot of enthusiasm."

Frances Burford, of First Unitarian Universalist Church, Houston, is one of
those who helped convince GA delegates to select the drug issue. "This
issue encompasses so many other issues that are important to UUs: poverty,
racism, militarism, the environment, prison expansion, and civil rights,"
she says. "The drug war violates every one of our seven principles."

"So much of the war on drugs is being waged on very moralistic grounds:
'Drugs are bad. Period.' I thought it needed a religious and spiritual
direction and that's something that we UUs can do better than any
organization I can think of."

"This is not advocacy of drug use," says Thomas, "but it is a judgment of
what might be the most effective way of reducing drug-related harm to
individuals and to society."