JUDGE HONORED FOR DRUG-WAR STANCE

May 21 - U.S. District Judge John L. Kane Jr.'s controversial position on
the nation's war on drugs has earned him a national award.

Kane on Friday accepted the Justice Gerald Le Dain Award for Achievement in
the Field of Law. The award was presented in Washington by the Drug Policy
Foundation, an advocacy group that supports alternatives to the war on
drugs.

In his acceptance speech, Kane referred to the "drug war" as a "drug
plague." "The truth is that we can neither seal our borders nor completely
eliminate the desire for drugs, yet that is our profoundly irrational
national policy," he said. Kane does not advocate a blanket
decriminalization of drugs.

"It is high time we took the profit out of illegal drugs by making them
available through government regulation," Kane said. "We still need to deal
with drug addiction through a controlled market and a substantial
improvement in medical care."