SEATTLE'S LESSONS FOR LONDON

Protests dominate the news as world leaders gather in London for the
Group of 20 meeting. War, the economy, corporate globalization and
grass-roots opposition to financial bailouts are at the forefront.

Executives receive golden parachutes while workers and unions are
forced to make concessions. President Barack Obama has inherited a
slew of deep, interlocked crises, yet elicits broad global hope that
he can be an agent of change.

Obama last week held an "Open For Questions" town hall meeting,
streamed online, with questions posed by the public and voted on to
rank their popularity. Obama answered a question about marijuana:

"Three point five million people voted. I have to say that there was
one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high and that was
whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job
creation. And I don't know what this says about the online audience
. this was a fairly popular question; we want to make sure that it
was answered. The answer is, no, I don't think that is a good
strategy to grow our economy."

That question's popularity might indicate audience concern with U.S.
drug policy, and the enormous toll on our society of the so-called
War on Drugs.

I am traveling around the country this spring, visiting more than 70
cities. In Seattle, I interviewed a strong critic of U.S. drug laws,
who said, "I ... support the legalization of all drugs."

These words come from an unlikely advocate: former Seattle Police
Chief Norm Stamper. Stamper is an advisory-board member of the
National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws and a speaker
for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. He explained:

"We have spent a trillion dollars prosecuting that war ... and what
do we have to show for it? ... Drugs are more readily available
today at lower prices and higher levels of potency than ever before.
So it's a colossal failure. And the only way to put these cartels
out of business and to restore health and safety to
our neighborhoods is to regulate that commerce as opposed to prohibiting it."

As Stamper pushes for reform, his successor as Seattle police chief,
Gil Kerlikowske, is, as Stamper blogged, "on his way to the other
Washington to assume the mantle of 'drug czar' ... to make his case
for a continuation of the nation's drug laws."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted recently, en route to
Mexico, "Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug
trade." It also fuels a rising U.S. prison population (some
cash-strapped states are simply releasing nonviolent drug offenders
to save money), the militarization of the U.S./Mexico border, and
the epidemic drug-related violence in Mexico. Drug cartels purchase
AK-47 assault rifles and other arms in the United States, then
smuggle them into Mexico. Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Center
to Prevent Gun Violence, told me recently, "The folks in Mexico have
figured out what criminals in the U.S. figured out a long time ago:
Our weak and nearly nonexistent laws in the U.S. are making it very
easy for these guns to get to Mexico."

With the increasing state-by-state acceptance of the medical uses of
marijuana, decriminalization of possession of small amounts in
various jurisdictions and the high cost of imprisonment versus
treatment, public sentiment seems disposed to favor a change.

It took Stamper years to learn the hard lessons of the failed war on
drugs. Hard lessons seem to be his forte.

He was the Seattle police chief during the World Trade Organization
protests of 1999: "I made major mistakes leading up to that week and
during that week. ... Not vetoing a decision to use chemical agents,
also known as tear gas, against hundreds of nonviolent
demonstrators." He now sounds more like one of the WTO protesters
his forces tear gassed: "We're now reaping what we have sown in the
form of unbridled globalization and unfettered free trade ... it's
time for all of us in this country, as we attempt to pull ourselves
out of this global economic meltdown, to really take a look at what
issues of social and economic justice mean within the context of
globalization."

The leaders of the G-20 in London, and those at the NATO summit to
follow, have an opportunity to learn from Norm Stamper, to instruct
their security to put away the Tasers and the tear gas, and to shock
the world by seriously considering the voices of the protesters outside.