ADVOCATE WANTS DRUG LAW RETHINK

Clifford Wallace Thornton jnr is "pissed." The president of United States
drug policy reform group Efficacy gets angry when he remembers the death of
his mother from a heroine overdose when he was just 18.

Mr Thornton said initially he wanted his country's drug laws to be harsher,
yet he now speaks around the world, calling for a policy rethink on the
drug war ­ a policy change he said he believed New Zealand should strive for.

In Invercargill yesterday Mr Thornton said he would like to see marijuana
legalised outright and other drugs, including methamphetamine, cocaine,
ecstasy and heroine "medicalised." "That would give people that are
addicted or strung out the opportunity to sit down and talk to a doctor,"
he said.

Mr Thornton said he believed if his mother's use of heroin had been legal
and supervised by a doctor she would have lived longer.

That is what gets him "pissed." "Do you think that people are going to stop
using illegal drugs? The overwhelming response when I pose that question
is, no." The decriminalisation of drugs would also cripple the lucrative
black market.

Mr Thornton, who said he was not addicted to any drug but admitted having
smoked cannabis ­ "who hasn't?" ­ stressed he did not advocate drug use,
nor did he think there was any sort of conspiracy to continue the war on drugs.

However, he said he believed the drug policies used today were not working.
"There's been almost nine decades of drug prohibition (in the US) and four
decades of the war on drugs and there are more drugs at cheaper prices on
America's streets now than ever before," Mr Thornton said.

Mr Thornton said he believed racism and the war on drugs were inextricably
linked. It was mainly black or Hispanic people in prison for drug offences,
out of proportion with the number of users. More users were white, he said.

Most US states now faced budget crises because of the costs of drug policy
adherence, including mandatory minimum sentences, prison building and law
enforcement.

Mr Thornton said he believed drug use should be a health issue, not a law
enforcement problem.

Studies revealed it was harder for children to get cigarettes and alcohol
than cannabis, Mr Thornton said.

"By keeping these drugs illegal, we give our children unlimited access to
them." Mr Thornton said he believed if New Zealand did not change its
policies it "was going to be bankrupt."

The public needed to demand a policy change because politicians were
"cowards and incompetent," he said.

Mr Thornton has been touring and speaking in New Zealand since late
November, brought out by mildgreens.com.