ALASKAN CANDIDATE HAS MOST SENSE ABOUT DRUG WAR IN CITIES

Of the eight Democrats vying for their party's presidential
nomination, I think it's fair to say former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel is
the longest of the long shots.

In presidential preference polls, support for him hovers around 1
percent. When it comes to fundraising, his campaign coffers are nearly
bare. So it's not surprising journalists tend to treat Gravel as a
gadfly.

And that's what I thought of him late last month when I sat across
from the Democratic presidential candidates on the stage of Howard
University's Crampton Auditorium. I was one of the three journalists
who got to question the full field of Democratic contenders during a
PBS presidential forum hosted by Tavis Smiley.

The 90-minute, nationally televised program was billed as a chance for
the candidates to "address issues of concern to black America."

When the eight Democrats came on stage, they were introduced by
Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, the only sitting black governor --
and only the second black governor ever.

Virtually everyone was there to see and hear the frontrunners for the
Democratic nomination -- New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois
Sen. Barack Obama. In terms of polling numbers and money raised, they
are light-years ahead of Gravel.

But when the forum ended, it was what Gravel said that I found most
intriguing.

When journalist Michel Martin of NPR asked the candidates what they
would do about the "scourge" of HIV/AIDS infection among black
teenagers, Gravel's answer -- though not on point -- hit an important
mark.

"The scourge of our present society, particularly in the
African-American community, is the war on drugs," Gravel said in
response to a question about the high rate of HIV/AIDS infections
among black teenagers.

Then he said this about the other Democrats on the stage: "If they
really want to do something about the inner cities, if they really
want to do something about what's happening to the health of the
African-American community, it's time to end this war. ... All it does
is create criminals out of people who are not criminals."

His words drew applause from the mostly black audience, but not even a
nod of agreement from the other Democrats on stage with him.

Maybe it's the certainty of his "also-ran" status that emboldened
Gravel to call for an end to the drug war. I don't know.

What I do know is that America's drug war has taken a heavy toll in
black communities across this country.

Disproportionately, blacks are arrested and imprisoned for nonviolent
drug crimes. In 2005, blacks -- who make up 12 percent of the nation's
population -- made up 34 percent of the people arrested for drug abuse
violations, according to the FBI's 2005 Crime in the United States
report.

That's not the fate that befalls people like Lindsay Lohan and Britney
Spears, who go in and out of drug treatment centers without fear of
being jailed for using illegal substances.

A law enforcement sting caught former Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion
Barry, who is black, using crack cocaine, and he was sent to prison.
But many high-profile white drug abusers are allowed to go to the
Betty Ford Clinic to kick their habit instead of being sent to jail.

Gravel appears to understand the unfairness of this nation's drug war.
And in calling for its end, he shows more courage than the Democratic
Party's other presidential wannabes.