CRACKING DOWN ON THE WAR

Last week, Boulder attorney Dave Sanderson issued a scathing
indictment of the "war on drugs." But this wasn't just any screed
decrying the government's zero-tolerance approach to drug use and
distribution: Because Sanderson's the Republican candidate for the
Boulder County D.A.'s office, his assessment, should he win the
election, could have a substantial impact on the way Boulder County
deals with drug issues.

Sanderson's criticism was delivered in a letter to the Weekly in
response to a Wayne's Word piece about a "black helicopter" operation
over Ward, in which county and federal agents snooped for pot ("Black
helicopter invasion," Sept. 7-13). In his letter, Sanderson summed up
his objection to the war on drugs. "Questionable consequences of the
costly and apparently winless drug war include increasing use of
warrantless searches, racial profiling, dilution of reasonable
suspicion and probable cause, aggressive forfeiture laws, mandatory
prison sentences, more drug testing and increasing military
involvement," the defense attorney wrote.

Sanderson says that the U.S. government's quest to crack down on
illegal drug use has resulted in an unintended casualty: our
Constitutional rights. "The Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments
are specifically designed to give a minimal basic fundamental
procedural protection to the accused," he says. "The drug war, in my
view, has led to the eroding of those protections in the hopes of
getting at the drug problem."

Aspiring politicians take a risky step when they voice anything other
than a "lock 'em up and throw away the key" philosophy; this applies
particularly to prosecutors, whose job, after all, is to throw people
in jail for breaking the law. More than one politician has found his
career in tatters after being labeled "soft on crime."

But in the sometimes otherworldly sphere of Boulder politics,
Sanderson's no black sheep. We asked half a dozen local politicos for
their take on the war on drugs. Here are the highlights:

Green Party contender Ron Forthofer, who's running for the 2nd
Congressional District, applauded Sanderson's stand.

"Unfortunately, I think there are too many candidates that are still
afraid to come out and take the high road. I'm really pleased that
Dave Sanderson has been one of the few politicians that's shown real
courage on this issue."

Forthofer echoed many of Sanderson's concerns about the government's
failed drug war.

"We need to focus on treatment and rehabilitation, stop
incarceration...We need to legalize medical marijuana. We need to
legalize marijuana. We need to stop imprisoning people for victimless
crimes. We need to focus on education instead of building more prisons."

Boulder's Libertarian Congressional candidate, David Baker, says
ending the drug war is simple: Legalize all drugs.

"It's certainly our biggest single priority in the whole campaign.
People talk about guns and everything else, but we're the only one
that suggests reducing crime by one-third and of course we intend to
get there, by legalizing drugs."

Baker acknowledges that ending the drug war is an uphill
battle.

"It's usually something that's very hard to debate because it's such
an emotional issue and the two major parties have demonized drugs and
used it to their advantage so much that it's hard to get that discussed."

Mark Udall, the incumbent for the 2nd Congressional District, was
unwilling to take a public stand against the drug war. But he did
voice tentative support for Colorado's Amendment 20, the proposed
"medical marijuana" initiative.

"If a drug (including marijuana) can be shown to have a beneficial
impact on a patient's health (including easing pain), I believe
doctors ought to have the ability to prescribe such drugs without fear
of criminal prosecution. Therefore, I am inclined to vote for this
initiative. I have recently heard from district attorneys and police
officials that there are concerns about how this initiative will
create unintended burdens on law enforcement. I want to investigate
these concerns before I cast my vote in November."

Politicians in local government also weighed in their assessments of
the drug war. Kevin Probst is hoping to take County Commissioner Paul
Danish's seat this November. Danish is well-known for his critical
stance toward all drug laws. Probst takes a more conservative approach.

"I do agree with Dave (Sanderson) that in some areas the legislation
has gone beyond the bounds of protecting Constitutional rights in
terms of personal property. I don't think we should abandon the war on
drugs. I don't support the legalization of drugs. We need to get at
the source of the problem people's desire to use drugs."

But Deputy D.A. Mary Keenan, the Democratic candidate in the race for
district attorney, says the "war on drugs" isn't really a war any longer.

"I agree that there have been problems, definitely, connected to the
war on drugs. But I don't really think about it as an ongoing war I
think that is over...With regard to prosecution, for the most part, it
is a therapeutic issue. In talking to the community a lot recently, my
impression from everyone I talked to is they do not want the prisons
filled with drug offenders. And I agree with that."

Keenan argues that prosecutors need to look at drug-related offenses
on a case-by-case basis, since illegal drugs are often associated with
other crimes.

"There are certain classifications of drug offenders that I take very
seriously, and those are the ones that involve personal violence, the
ones that endanger children, such as the methamphetamine labs with
children present, and the ones that involve weapons...The use of drugs
and substance abuse as a crime actually increases the level of other
crimes that we see. Because people have to fund an illegal drug habit,
and they usually fund it through illegal activities. So there's sort
of a cycle."

Dave Sanderson argues that it's time to take a hard look at the way we
deal with illegal drug use and abuse in this country.

"I think that any effort to get at the drug problem from the society
standpoint is valuable, but I think there comes a time when the
disadvantages outweigh the advantages, and I think we've gotten there
in respect to the drug war," he says. "It's eating away at
Constitutional rights, it's eating away at procedural protections,
it's causing a lot of people to resent and distrust their government
and law enforcement."

As a would-be prosecutor, Sanderson realizes that the burden of
addressing drug abuse in our society will fall on his shoulders.

"The job of the D.A.'s office is to enforce the laws. The job of the
legislature is to make the laws and change the laws, and they are
supposed to respond to the will of the people. I think the will of the
people is changing. I think the people of the state of Colorado are
coming to the conclusion that the war on drugs is not winnable."