THORNTON'S FOCUSED ON FAILED DRUG WAR IN HIS RUN FOR GOVERNOR

If there is a list of words to exclude from a politician's official
campaign biography, it's a fair bet that "heroin" is on it. And yet,
there it is, bearing its baggage of addiction, shame and despair, in
the first sentence of Clifford W. Thornton Jr.'s description of who
he is and why he believes he should be governor.

Thornton is the Green Party's candidate for governor, and, as he
tells it, the only one of the four seeking the job who will try to
tackle the single most important issue facing Connecticut's cities
and the state at large: "No one's talking about the drug war," Thornton says.

That war, in Thornton's view, is a failure, overly expensive,
inhumane to the addicted and ineffective at preventing the sort of
violence that has gripped neighborhoods in Hartford, New Haven and
elsewhere in recent months.

A retired businessman who worked at SNET, the telephone company, for
25 years, Thornton also founded Efficacy, a nonprofit group dedicated
to reforming the nation's drug policy by legalizing, decriminalizing
or "medicalizing" currently illegal drugs, from marijuana to cocaine
and heroin.

That conviction has a personal origin: Thornton's mother died of a
heroin overdose when he was 18 years old.

The candidate says his initial enthusiasm for strict prohibitions on
illegal drugs soon gave way to a disenchantment with prohibition and
a belief that a focus on treating and managing serious addictions
will be safer and cheaper for society as a whole.

"There are two basic questions here one has to ask," Thornton said in
a recent interview. "The first is: Has the war on drugs been
successful? The second is: Are people ever going to stop using drugs?
To both of those questions, the overwhelming response is: No. Before
we can go anywhere else, we've got to answer those questions in their
entirety."

Thornton's solution would be to legalize marijuana and hemp outright
and to "medicalize" - offer regular doses, administered in a medical
setting - cocaine, heroin, Ecstasy and methamphetamine to those who
are currently addicted to the drugs. Other currently illegal
substances would be decriminalized.

Thornton casts his position as one of taking the courageous approach,
of raising a subject no one else is willing to discuss.

His opponents - Gov. M. Jodi Rell, Stamford Mayor Dan Malloy and New
Haven Mayor John DeStefano - say that's nonsense.

"She is not in favor of decriminalizing drugs," said Rich Harris, a
spokesman for Rell's campaign. "Nor has she been ducking the issue,
despite what Mr. Thornton might say. The issue, after all, is
primarily a federal one since it is federal law that deals with the
vast majority of penalties for trafficking."

And Harris said Rell had addressed the state's policy on drug use and
drug penalties. By way of an example, he offered Rell's veto of a
bill that would have dropped the level of crack cocaine that an
individual must possess to trigger a mandatory minimum prison
sentence, which was intended to equalize penalties for crack and
powder cocaine.

Rell's veto message urged advocates to achieve that equality instead
by raising the amount of powder cocaine necessary to trigger a
mandatory minimum sentence. When just such a bill was passed, Rell signed it.

Malloy's campaign manager, Chris Cooney, says the candidate does not
support legalizing drugs but would accept medicinal marijuana in some
circumstances, if prescribed by a doctor.

"Dan has also said a certain percentage of the population is prone to
addiction to alcohol and drugs," Cooney said. "If you legalize drugs,
you are just logically opening up that population that's prone to
addiction to become addicted."

Rell's staff said she has no position yet on proposals to allow the
medical use of marijuana.

DeStefano, who will challenge Malloy for the Democratic nomination at
an Aug. 8 primary, said Tuesday that he also does not have a position
on medicinal marijuana and that he considered legalization efforts to
be an unwise move.

"I don't think legalization is a solution," he said.

Thornton said he was confident, however, that the tide would turn in
his direction.

"Most of the politicians, most of the academics, most of the police
force, they favor what I'm saying in private," Thornton said. "But
they don't feel comfortable coming out in public, and see, what I'm
trying to do is create that atmosphere that they feel comfortable coming out."

Asked if he had any concerns about collecting the 7,500 signatures
needed to petition for a spot on the ballot, Thornton was even more
self-assured.

"We're going to get on the ballot, no problem," he said.