U.S. SUPERIOR COURT JUDGE CONDEMNS WAR ON DRUGS

Country's Anti-Narcotics Campaign a 'Lost' And 'Hopeless' Effort

It's not to hard to find people who will say that the war on drugs
has been lost and that marijuana, and even cocaine, ought to be legalized.

But when U.S. Judge James P. Gray says it, he's one of a handful of
judges leading a charge against the policies of his own country,
especially at a time when the U.S. appears to be getting tougher on drug users.

"Not only [is it] lost, but our war on drugs is hopeless because of
the money. What our United States government is trying to do is
repeal the law of supply and demand and they still haven't focused on
the fact that you can't do it," Gray said in an interview.

The California Superior Court judge in Orange County is one of the
speakers at the Canadian Bar Association's annual conference this
weekend in Vancouver.

He will join a panel on drug policy called "The New Underground
Reefer Railroad" that will explore U.S. and international drug
policy, especially as it applies to those who use medical marijuana.
The panel will also question whether medical-marijuana activists
should be offered protection under the Geneva Convention.

For more than 25 years, the bar association has had a policy on the
books calling for the decriminalization of marijuana, arguing that
current policy stigmatizes whole generations of young people and
unnecessarily diverts money away from serious crime investigations.

A Canadian parliamentary committee is considering a bill that would
decriminalize pot possession.

But on the other side of the border, Gray says the recent U.S.
Supreme Court ruling that says the federal government may still ban
possession of marijuana for medical purposes is "stupid."

"You know, the Supreme Court has the right to be wrong as well," he
said in an interview from California, noting that they have made
historically wrong decisions in the past such as allowing the
internment of Japanese Americans during the Second World War.

"I say again, they lost their moral compass, and they are wrong with
regard to the [medical marijuana] case," he said. "What we are doing
is downright stupid."

Gray has been one of the most outspoken judges in the U.S. on the
need for decriminalization -- and even legalization -- of drugs,
including cocaine.

He argues that the massive amounts of money generated by the industry
makes it impossible to win the war. Likewise, an entire society is
built around the law enforcement needs of trying to shut drugs down.
The U.S. has spent a half-trillion dollars on the drug war since the
1970s, and the problem has only worsened.

He would not comment on the case of Marc Emery, the Vancouver pot
activist and leader of the B.C. Marijuana Party, who was recently
arrested on the direction of DEA agents.

But Gray said it is clear to him that criminalization of drugs will
never solve society's drug problems. "I say we should treat marijuana
like alcohol, regulate it, control it."

Gray is a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group
including Vancouver Mayor Larry Campbell, who support drug regulation
as a way of controlling it.

Gray, a Libertarian who ran for one of two Senate positions in
California in 2004, said his fundamental argument against the U.S.
drug policy is that it doesn't work. Drug and alcohol misuse are
societal medical issues, not criminal, he said.

"So if you or I or Aunt Nellie are impaired in their driving, for
example, by marijuana or any other drug, including alcohol, that
should be a crime. It's a crime because they are putting our safety
at risk," he said. "But what they put into their bodies should be a
medical decision, and should not be a governmental decision at all."

He cites the example of actor Robert Downey Jr.'s cocaine habit. "I
don't use cocaine, I think it is a very bad judgment decision. But it
makes as much sense to me to put this gifted actor Robert Downey Jr.
in jail for his cocaine problem, and he certainly seems to have one,
as it would have to put Betty Ford in jail for her alcohol problem."