Bookmark: MAP's link to shadow convention items:
http://www.mapinc.org/shadow.htm

Note: Shadow Convention websites:
http://www.drugpolicy.org/
http://www.shadowconventions.com/

ROCKY SLAMS 'WAR ON DRUGS' DURING 'SHADOW CONVENTION'

Mayor Bemoans The Failure, Inhumanity of Drug Policies

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson charged Tuesday that the "war on
drugs" was manufactured for political gain -- and both parties care
more about appearing tough on crime than they do about truly reducing
use of drugs.

"The Republican and Democratic parties will not honestly address the
absolute insanity of our approach to preventing and fighting drug abuse
and addiction," Anderson said in prepared text for a speech to the
"Shadow Convention."

The shadow convention is a forum created by conservative commentator
Arianna Huffington to address issues she and others felt the Democratic
and Republican conventions are avoiding. Sessions are conducted near
conventions of the major parties.

As part of the Tuesday theme that the war on drugs has failed,
Anderson said it is "a war that was manufactured for political gain; a
war that has backfired on the American people, viciously and
relentlessly; a war that history will forever condemn as poorly
conceived and pathetically, yet brutally executed."

Anderson called for less emphasis on tough prison sentences for even
minor, non-violent drug offenses, and more focus on prevention programs
proven to work.

"Drugs are more plentiful and less expensive, yet our nation's leaders
have spent billons of taxpayer dollars on a strategy focused on the
supply side rather than the demand side simple because Republicans and
Democrats alike are terrified of appearing soft on crime," Anderson
said.

"It is unfortunate they are not as terrified of appearing to be
completely ineffective, wasteful and inhumane," he added.

He noted that the Clinton administration spent more on the war on
drugs than it did on the Commerce, Interior and State departments
combined -- and prior Republican administrations spent even more.

He said the number of Americans in prison has increased tenfold since
1980, and the annual cost of jailing them is $9 billion. Meanwhile, he
said drug use has increased, and drugs have become cheaper and easier
to obtain according to studies.

"We must stop this insanity. We must stop this inhumanity," he said.

He called for elected officials to "evaluate the effectiveness of all
government drug-related programs and strategies, and discontinue those
that are shown to be effective" to concentrate efforts on those that
work.

Anderson said that's what he tried when he pushed to cancel the
popular DARE program in Salt Lake City schools. He said it is wiser to
take money from it to establish after-school and summer youth programs
to give youth alternatives to drugs.

"A huge part of substance abuse prevention relies on giving young
people healthy, fun, interesting alternatives to destructive behavior.
It is not enough to constantly tell our children what they cannot do,"
he said.

Anderson added, "Positive change lies in focusing on people, not on
drugs -- on the demand side, not the supply side."