WAR ON DRUGS: A LOT OF SMOKE AND MIRRORS

On Oct. 3, at noon on the Boston Common, MASS CANN will hold its ninth
annual Freedom Rally to demand regulation, not prohibition, of pot.

I raise the issue for three specific reasons.

The first is, it is no secret that I am a supporter of regulating marijuana
for use in the medical treatment of sick people.

The second is, last year I got a call from a local reader who was upset by
this entire demonstration. She was also very annoyed by police who were
allowing people to smoke marijuana in public. I thought about her when I
saw an advertisement for the upcoming rally. And I wondered if people
should be arrested for acting out what are, essentially, illegal thoughts?
Or should they get a pass in the name of making their point with dramatic
flair?

The third reason is, most of my friends have discussed the pros and cons of
legalization of marijuana in our own homes. And most of us have concluded
that marijuana is as harmless as alcohol and should enter the free market.
Who hasn't thought about the taxes we could collect if marijuana were
regulated and sold in liquor stores next to beer, wine and scotch? And who
hasn't thought about the amount of money we could save -- something like
$40,000 a year per prisoner, plus the salaries of our drug task forces that
only, very occasionally, get more dope than one addict could use in the
course of a week?

If nothing else, our failing war on drugs needs to be re-evaluated and at
least MASS CANN generates some serious discussions on the matter.

Also for the record and for the reader who called last year about the lack
of arrests at this event, according to a press release from MASS CANN, an
affiliate of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws in
Marblehead, people are arrested.

But MASS CANN urges demonstrators not to resist. Their annual act of civil
disobedience is mainly to draw attention to the fact that "while police
across the country are arresting a person for a marijuana offense every 49
seconds, over 640,000 in 1997, they lack the resources to properly
investigate crimes of violence against persons and property."

Some facts on the war on drugs, supplied by MASS CANN, are:

The United States has a larger prison percentage of its population in
prison than any country on earth. More than 1.7 million people are behind
bars, with more than 60 percent being non-violent drug offenders. One out
of 35 Americans is under the control of the criminal justice system. And
if the present rate continues one out of 20 Americans, or one out of 11
men, will spend time in prison;

The average sentence for a first-time, non-violent drug offender is longer
than the average sentence for rape, child molestation, bank robbery or
manslaughter. As our prisons fill, rapists and murderers are given early
release to make room for "no parole" drug offenders;

Every year, many more people die from legal drugs such a tobacco and
alcohol than from illegal drugs. Alcohol alone is involved in more violent
crimes than all illegal substances combined;

It has been empirically demonstrated that education and treatment are seven
times more cost effective than arrest and incarceration for substance
addiction, yet we continue to spend more tax dollars on prisons than on
schools;

In 30 years of "The War on Drugs," our government hasn't accomplished even
a small reduction in drug dealing and abuse. By current estimates, we need
to build a new federal prison every two weeks to keep up with the demand.

Some of the speakers at MASS CANN's freedom rally will be:

Elvy Musikka - a glaucoma sufferer, one of eight people legally certified
to receive medical marijuana from the U.S. government. A long time
pro-cannabis activist, Musikka is vice president and co-founder of the
Coalition Advocating Medical Marijuana;

Christopher Conrad - author and expert on a full spectrum of uses of
cannabis. Conrad is an expert witness on cannabis in the courts of
California and a chief proponent of two California hemp initiatives;

John Sinclair - a legend in the pro-legalization movement. Sinclair was
jailed for possession of marijuana on a "10 years for two joints" rap in
1969. His lobbying efforts from behind bars were instrumental in changing
Michigan's marijuana laws;

Kevin Zeese - president of Common Sense for Drug Policy and co-founder of
the Drug Policy Foundation. As an attorney, Zeese has been involved in
lawsuits challenging the denial of medical marijuana and drug testing, as
well as the use of the military and national guard in domestic drug
enforcement.

I am also concerned about the across-the-board failure of the United
States' "War on Drugs," but I advocate nothing here, except MASS CANN's
constitutional right to raise our consciousness.

Copyright 1998 Essex County Newspapers, Incorporated.