OUT OF THE SHADOWS

Much of the coverage of the "Shadow Conventions" that have been held
alongside the Republican and Democratic conventions this year has
focused on atmospherics and certainly the atmospherics are there. One
spokesman told a reporter the get-together at Patriotic Hall in Los
Angeles this year would be like a 24-hour "happening," and in some ways
it was. Aging hippies mingled with Generation Y malcontents and Yuppies
in suits, all talking about the need for thoroughgoing change in the
system, change the two major parties weren't likely to address with any
degree of seriousness.

Arianna Huffington provided whatever star power and glamour she
possesses and the crowds packed into every corner of the hall and the
eight floors of the building were enthusiastic and noisy. Some of the
street protestors dropped by. It was all very colorful, to say the
least. Beyond the atmospherics, however, the Shadow people delivered on
the promise to provide substantive discussion of issues.

The first day's session was devoted to campaign finance reform and
today's will present an impressive line-up on the problem of enduring
poverty amid impressive economic growth. Yesterday's sessions on the
"Failed Drug War" brought together experts and folks on the front lines
that made it an impressive and comprehensive one-day program on aspects
of the drug war.

Perhaps most impressive was the number of elected officials from both
parties willing to "come out" with a conviction other officials share
but lack the political cover or intestinal fortitude to say: the drug
war has not only failed to keep drugs from "our kids" and can't
succeed,
it has done immeasurable harm to the American social fabric and to
millions of peoples' lives.

I knew that Gary Johnson, the Republican governor of New Mexico, had
questioned the drug war. I was not prepared for him to be so strong in
his convictions, so well-informed, so willing to put himself on the
line
for what he thinks is right. Gov. Johnson is the kind of Republican any
conservative would be proud to embrace. He's a self-made businessman,
building a one-man handyman service in 1974 into a company that
employed
1,000 people in 1994. He's a fiscal conservative.

He's an athlete who works out every day and has run the Ironman
Triathlon in Hawaii three times, a happily married father of two
daughters. He doesn't smoke, drink or do any kind of drugs. For
whatever reason, however, he has developed a capacity to make
intelligent distinctions. He urges everyone he knows not to use
alcohol or tobacco, but doesn't think they should be illegal. He
notes, however, that some 400,000 people die prematurely from using
tobacco, several hundred thousand die prematurely from using alcohol -
and 5,000 people a year die from all the drugs the government has
declared illegal. "We are willing to arrest 1.6 million people a year -
half for marijuana, half of those Hispanic and a disproportionate
percentage of the rest African-American - to fail to prevent those
deaths," he says. "It doesn't make sense and it does a great deal of
harm.

A business with such policies would have been bankrupt years ago." One
of the more egregious side effects of the war on drugs, Gov. Johnson
notes, is that it destroys the capacity to make distinctions. "About 95
percent of the people who use marijuana do so the way other Americans
drink a cocktail, and everybody knows it," he says. "Yet law
enforcement
is forced to treat every one of those people as somebody with a serious
problem who needs to be in forced rehabilitation.

It's just not so, and a policy based on a lie is bound to fail." Orange
Countians know about Judge Jim Gray, who introduced Gov. Johnson. But I
didn't know Mayor Ross "Rocky" Anderson of Salt Lake City not only
ended city support for the DARE program but is using his position to
call for rethinking the drug war. "Politicians are more terrified of a
30-second attack ad than of supporting an ineffective, wasteful,
inhumane policy that destroys families," he says. Maybe that's
changing. Rep. Tom Campbell, the Republican candidate for U. S. Senate
in California spoke, and has developed into a forceful drug war critic.
Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters was on the program.

Rep. John Conyers, the veteran Michigan Democrat wasn't, but came by to
lend support. California state Sen. Tom Hayden was there, sounding like
a moderate compared to others. A state legislator from Oregon came.
Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins were unscheduled speakers. Jesse Jackson
came. Comedians Bill Maher and Al Franken appeared. Doctors and
patients told their stories. You didn't see any of that inside Staples.
Maybe next time.