CHAFEE: U.S. NEEDS TO REEXAMINE WAR ON DRUGS

PROVIDENCE -- The war on drugs should be reassessed and a global drug
policy established, former U.S. Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee told attendees
of the Students for Sensible Drug Policy Northeast Regional
Conference, which kicked off yesterday evening at Brown University.

"We're at the point now where we really need to assess whether or not
it's working," Chafee told the crowd of about 120. "There are a lot of
people who will tell you it's not working. We should be open and
honest with ourselves and what are our options."

Chafee spoke during the opening session of the conference, this year
themed "Confronting the Drug War, Envisioning Alternatives." The
conference, which ends tomorrow, features more than a dozen speakers.
Today, forums on topics such as "Building an Anti-Racist Movement to
End the Drug War" and a panel on the health system and policy reform
will be held. Tomorrow, the conference rounds out with a trio of
panels, including "What If? A World Without the Drug War." All of the
sessions will be held at Brown's Sayles Hall, Leung Gallery or
MacMillan Hall, Rooms 115 and 117.

Students for Sensible Drug Policy is a student-based organization
geared toward championing policies that fight the negative effects
current drug policies have had on this generation, said Tom Angell,
the organization's government relations director. Angell said the goal
was to get students involved in the political process, because the war
on drugs directly affects young people.

"It's important for young people to be involved in the movement since
it impacts our generation," he said. "When you hear politicians talk
about the war on drugs, they always say they're doing it to protect
the children. This war is waged in our names."

The organization claims more than 100 chapters at high schools and
colleges across the United States and 10 in Canada. There are three
chapters in Rhode Island, and two each in Massachusetts and
Connecticut.

According to the organization's Web site, http://www.schoolsnotprisons.com,
the group "neither encourages nor condemns drug use. Rather, we seek
to reduce the harms caused by drug abuse and drug policies." Some of
the policies the organization opposes are random drug tests in high
schools, the federal law that restricts students with drug convictions
from obtaining state or federal student aid, and what Angell called
the "misleading propaganda" of school-based drug programs such as DARE.

Chafee, a teaching fellow at The Watson Institute for International
Studies at Brown, said participating in the conference was important
because of the important role students have had in past social and
political movements.

"Historically, universities have been where out-of-the-box thinking
first takes place," Chafee said. "There's more freedom in the
collegiate setting to address certain things."

During his tenure in the U.S. Senate, Chafee served as chairman of
both the Western Hemisphere and the Middle East subcommittees, and
traveled to drug producing countries in those regions. In 1999, when
he was seeking his Senate seat, Chafee had admitted that he
experimented with cocaine and marijuana while a student at Brown
University in the 1970s.

The key to producing effective drug legislation, Chafee said, is to
have a uniform policy worldwide, possibly formulated by the United
Nations.

"The doors are open to a different way of looking at the war on
drugs," he said. "It has to be done in unison, with a lot of other
countries."

Chafee also called for the reassessment of federal laws governing
mandatory sentencing during the forum. Those laws, particularly the
one that strips those convicted of drug crimes of financial aid, may
have been good at one time, but may do more harm today, he said.

"[When someone is released from prison] the first thing they want to
get is a skill and you get that by going to school," Chafee said. "To
forbid them from getting school aid because they have a conviction is
backwards. I'm sure those laws were put into place with good
intentions, but we're at a point where we're saying let's try
something different."