U.S. MAYORS DECLARE DRUG WAR A FAILURE

The U.S. Conference of Mayors adopted the resolution during its June
21-26 annual meeting in Los Angeles, calling for a "new bottom line"
in drug policy that "concentrates more fully on reducing the negative
consequences associated with drug abuse, while ensuring that our
policies do not exacerbate these problems or create new social
problems of their own; establishes quantifiable, short- and long-term
objectives for drug policy; saves taxpayers money and holds state and
federal agencies responsible."

Sponsored by Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, the resolution
states that the drug war costs $40 billion annually but has not cut
drug use or demand. It slams the Office of National Drug Control
Policy's (ONDCP) drug-prevention programs specifically, the agency's
national anti-drug media campaign as "costly and ineffective," but
called drug treatment cost-effective and a major contributor to
public safety because it prevents criminal behavior.

"This Conference recognizes that addiction is a chronic medical
illness that is treatable, and drug treatment success rates exceed
those of many cancer therapies," the document states.

The resolution condemns mandatory minimum sentences and incarceration
of drug offenders, particularly minorities, and called for more
control of anti-drug spending and priorities at the local level,
where the impact is most acutely felt.

"U.S. policy should not be measured solely on drug-use levels or
number of people imprisoned, but rather on the amount of drug-related
harm reduced," according to the resolution. The document calls for
more accountability among federal, state and local drug agencies,
with funding tied to performance measures, more treatment funding,
alternatives to incarceration and lifting the federal funding ban for
needle-exchanges.

The resolution, which will be used to guide the U.S. Conference of
Mayors' Washington lobbying on addiction issues, passed with minimal
debate, clearing two committees and the general assembly by unanimous votes.

"The mayors are clearly signaling the serious need for drug policy
reform," said Daniel Abrahamson, director of legal affairs for the
Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), who worked with Anderson's staff to draft
the resolution. Daniel Robelo, a DPA legal research assistant, said
the resolution could become an "incredibly powerful" advocacy tool
for DPA and other drug-reform groups. "While it has no legal effect,
it has a powerful symbolic effect," he said.

Alexa Eggleston, director of national policy for the Legal Action
Center, which advocates for increased investment in addiction
treatment and prevention, praised the mayors for acknowledging "that
alcohol and drug addiction is a treatable medical illness and is
supportive of expanding treatment to the approximately 21 million
Americans with alcohol and drug problems who need it, expanding
effective prevention initiatives in communities nationwide, and
fighting discrimination against people with addiction histories by
repealing discriminatory laws and policies that prevent them from
accessing employment, insurance and other necessities of life."

But Tom Riley, a spokesperson for ONDCP, called the resolution a
"grab bag" of DPA positions and a publicity stunt by proponents of
drug legalization. "We don't think it's very serious," he said of the
resolution, adding that to declare the drug war a failure "is a
slogan rather than a policy proposal."

"Most of the mayors our office talks to consider drugs a huge problem
in their communities and are anxious to get more resources for
prevention, treatment and law enforcement," said Riley. "I don't know
many mayors who are in favor of drug legalization."

Anderson is no newcomer to the drug issue: He has previously called
the drug war "phony, inhumane and ineffective," and his official
biography calls him "an outspoken advocate for drug policy reform."
He received the DPA's 2005 Richard J. Dennis Drugpeace Award for
outstanding achievements in the field of drug policy reform.

Nor is Anderson alone in his harsh criticism of the drug war: Newark
Mayor Cory Booker, seen as a rising political leader, recently stated
that he's prepared to go to jail to protest a war on drugs that he
sees as shackling African-Americans into poverty and feeding crime
and murder in his city.

"I'm going to battle on this," Booker recently told the Newark
Star-Ledger. "We're going to start this in the gentlemanly way. And
then we're going to do the civil disobedience way. Because this is absurd."

Booker says he wants to see nonviolent drug offenders placed in
treatment programs and halfway houses, not prisons, and to stop
banning ex-offenders from jobs. "The drug war is causing crime," he
said. "It's just chewing up young Black men. And it's killing Newark."