CHEERS GREET TALK ON DRUG CHANGES

NEW BRITAIN - The war on drugs is misguided and needs to change, said
Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director of the Drug Policy
Alliance, in a rousingly applauded keynote address Wednesday at
Central Connecticut State University's one-day forum on "Drug Policy
for the 21st Century."

The conference was open to university students and faculty, criminal
justice and law enforcement personnel, legislators and the public.

Nadelmann, with a Harvard doctorate and eight years of teaching at
Princeton University under his belt, has written on drug policy for
the journals Science, Foreign Affairs, American Heritage and the
National Review. He is also the author of "Cops Across Borders," a
study of the internationalization of U.S. criminal law
enforcement.

Nadelmann believes support for legalization of marijuana will increase
so the government can tax its use. He urged his audience to get behind
local activists who want to legalize the use of marijuana.

The public's view is shifting away from drugs and crime being
considered a major problem, Nadelmann said, and toward
overincarceration resulting from harsh drug laws.

Nobody deserves to be punished or discriminated against for what he
puts into his body, provided it doesn't hurt other people," Nadelmann
said. "Am I as bad as a drunken driver or a thief simply because I put
a substance in my body? That's thinking that can't be accepted. Some
people may need help, but they don't need to be criminalized."

The United States is first in the world in the number of people
incarcerated - a half-million - and most of those are people of color,
he said. Many of the imprisoned are there for violating drug laws.

There, too, things are turning around, he said.

One difference between President Obama and President Clinton is that
Clinton in 1993 called for more treatment and incarceration centers.
Charlie Rangel and Jesse Jackson were cheerleading for the war on
drugs and opposed to reform. People now have woken up. They're
beginning to understand there's no way law enforcement can save
communities from drugs," Nadelmann said.

He ran down a list of politicians who have weighed in on the war on
drugs, saying U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, a Virginia Democrat, recently told
him he didn't "want to be considered for vice president or anything
'until I understand why so many Americans are behind bars.' He's
willing to step out on this issue."

On the other hand, U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein of California and Chuck
Schumer of New York are "two of the worst Democrats in the U.S. Senate
when it comes to criminal justice. They're a nightmare. They haven't
woken up. But Nancy Pelosi - she gets it, and Henry Waxman and Barney
Frank get it."

Pelosi is speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Waxman and
Frank are members from California and Massachusetts,
respectively.

He also had praise for U.S. Reps. Bobby Scott of Virginia and John
Conyers of Michigan.

It's a different world right now," Nadelmann said.

His speech, "Drugs: Think Again," was greeted enthusiastically by the
audience. Nadelmann was given a standing ovation.

Central Connecticut residents are already sympathetic to his message.
Last month an online poll found favor for decriminalizing small
amounts of marijuana, as Massachusetts has done, at 72 percent in the
New Britain area; 74 percent in the Bristol area; and 78 percent in
the Middletown area.

We've got to challenge the cliches we've heard again and again in the
media," Nadelmann said.

The conference was sponsored by the university's Center for Public
Policy & Social Research, the Institute for Municipal and Regional
Policy, the Institute for the Study of Crime & Justice, The Gov.
William A. O'Neill Endowed Chair in Public Policy & Practical
Politics, and others.

University of Hartford Center for Social Research.