GREEN PARTY CANDIDATE CLIFF THORNTON IS RUNNING WITH A DIFFERENT MESSAGE

Connecticut's more familiar candidates for governor are campaigning
on platforms of job growth, property tax relief and transportation
infrastructure. Green Party candidate Cliff Thornton is running with
a different message: Legalize it. "I've been waiting for the last 10
years for someone to step forward who's going to really talk about
the issues," said Thornton. "None of the politicians that are running
will talk about anything worthwhile."

Thornton, 61, lives in Glastonberry and is a frequent speaker at
forums dealing with drug enforcement issues and the drug war.
Marijuana should be legalized, he said, and heroin maintenance
introduced for drug addicts. And Thornton doesn't stop there. "I also
want to see the medicalization of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine,
ecstasy and the decriminalization of all the rest of the illegal
drugs for future debate and true and honest medicinal study."
Thornton is neither a hippie nor a drug addict, and said his argument
for legalizing dangerous and addictive drugs is on firm ground.

"In the last 15 years, Connecticut has spent a billion dollars on
prisons alone, at the expense of education in this state," he said.
The drug war is sucking dry state coffers, said Thornton, at the
expense of other, vital programs."Many people will say 'you're a
one-issue candidate,'" Thornton said. "That's not true. The drug war
is two degrees from everything." Connecticut's drinking and waste
water infrastructures need billions of dollars in investment in
coming decades, he said. So, too, do the state's roads, bridges and
schools. Thornton also believes in universal health care. But those
programs would come at tremendous cost. The best source, he said, is
money now funding the drug war, including law enforcement, courts and
prisons. "We've got to understand that the drug war is meant to be
waged, not won," said Thornton.

"We're talking about almost a hundred years of drug prohibition and
almost four decades of the drug war and yet there's more drugs on the
street at cheaper prices than ever before." Drug users should be put
on maintenance programs, he said. "These illegal drugs are not a law
enforcement problem, they're a public health problem," said Thornton.
"(Addicts should) come under medical supervision. The dosage is
stabilized." Thornton bristled at the notion his plan equates to
giving up on drug users. "Build a society that causes the least
amount of harm to people who use these drugs and causes the least
amount of drugs as a whole," Thornton said. "It's not the drugs so
much that's harming them. It's the drug policies that are harming them."

The Green Party officially nominated Thornton on Earth Day, April 22.
With two established Democrats already challenging a popular
Republican incumbent, Thornton's chances of victory are remote.
Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano head
to the Democratic State Convention in Hartford this weekend, in their
quest to defeat Gov. M. Jodi Rell. "My main goal in this campaign is
to reach the tens of thousands of people in this state who think they
don't have a voice or can't make a difference," Thornton said. "My
goal in this campaign is to have a strong, viable third party."