'END DRUG WAR' FORUM TO INCLUDE STAMPER, COUNTY COUNCILMAN

A King County councilman and a former Seattle police chief are among
those who will discuss the nation's drug war and how it is being
fought locally at a community forum Thursday.

Organizers have made clear their position on the issue, calling the
panel, "The Time is Now -- End the War on Drugs."

"This is not a debate. The war on drugs has failed," said Sunil
Abraham, a Seattle defense lawyer and one of the seminar's organizers.

The meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. in the Rainier Valley Cultural
Center, 3515 S. Alaska St.

The panel will include King County Councilman Larry Gossett, former
police Chief Norm Stamper and UW professor Katherine Beckett, who has
studied racial disparities in local drug enforcement.

All have been vocal in their opposition to current enforcement of drug laws.

"If anything, my views are stronger now," Stamper said Wednesday.

In a book published in 2005, Stamper argued that the war on drugs
wastes money, unfairly target minorities and leads police to make
more arrests for drug offenses than for more serious crimes such as
murder, rape and assaults.

"The drug war has caused more harm than good," he said.

Like others opposed to the drug war, Stamper believes that drug use
should be treated as a public health issue with an emphasis on
treatment and regulation, not incarceration.

And then there's the sheer cost. Gossett said criminal justice
matters require 70 percent of the county's $625 million budget, in
large part because of the current drug laws.

"By far the single biggest pressure comes from the extraordinary
number of people who are low-level drug users or sellers we have to
lock up in our county jail," he said. "It's time for a new approach."