WEEDING OUT THE DEMOS

Comparing The Candidates' Positions On Marijuana

The Bush junta's record on pot is abysmal. Some people hoped that as a
Republican recovering alcoholic and cokehead, George W. might pull a "Nixon
goes to China" on drug policy, but his performance in office has been more
like Nixon bombing hospitals in Vietnam. From the crackdowns on medical
marijuana and glass pipes to the threats to Canada if it decriminalizes pot,
he's made cultural war on cannabis the center of his drug policy.

So what are the alternatives? Well, as it's unlikely that the United States
will elect a Green or a Libertarian in 2004, that leaves the Democrats.
Which isn't much.

Except for Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, none of the candidates' campaigns
returned phone calls. Ethan Nadelmann of the Drug Policy Alliance, who has
met with several of the candidates, says all were willing to support a
minimal agenda of lowering mandatory-minimum sentences, reducing the
disparity between penalties for crack and powder cocaine, and "paying lip
service" to treatment instead of prisons.

But so far, there are no Gary Johnsons running. While Congress' most rabid
drug warriors are mainly Republicans, Democrats often want to appear
compassionate without risking being seen as "soft on drugs."

Some activists are optimistic. "How does the Democratic Party define itself
as different from the Republicans?" asks John Hartman of the Ohio Cannabis
Society. "This is one issue where they could." Ben Gaines of Students for a
Sensible Drug Policy says that depends on "if we can get the candidates to
understand that it's beneficial for them to talk at least about medical
marijuana."

But, observes Nadelmann, despite the 70 percent to 80 percent support for
medical marijuana in polls, the cannabis constituency hasn't organized to
the point where politicians have to pay attention to it. Here's how the
current presidential hopefuls roll up.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (Ohio)

Kucinich, a relative longshot, has taken the strongest stance of any
Democrat in the race so far. He told reporters in May that medical marijuana
should be available "to any patient who needs it to alleviate pain and
suffering." He is not a co-sponsor of Rep. Barney Frank's bill to let states
legalize medical marijuana but has signed on to a measure that would allow
defendants in federal pot trials to claim medical use.

The former Cleveland mayor, who is campaigning as an antiwar, working-class
liberal--he advocates a Cabinet Department of Peace and a government-run
universal healthcare system--is a recent convert to drug-law reform; in
1998, he voted for a House resolution condemning medical-marijuana
initiatives. "Dennis didn't come out of the closet until recently," says
John Hartman.

Still, says Nadelmann, "Kucinich is the one who's jumping out." He's worked
to repeal the Higher Education Act's ban on student loans for convicted pot
smokers, and his campaign website declares that the war on drugs "produces
many casualties, but benefits only the prison-industrial complex."

"We're still developing our policy on the drug war," says a Kucinich
campaign spokesperson, "but we are looking at the direction European
countries and Canada have been moving in and find that more rational than
the ineffective criminal-justice approach in our country."

Sen. John Kerry (Massachusetts)

One of the race's leading liberals and top two fundraisers, Kerry told The
New Yorker in 2002 that he had smoked pot a few times. But "he hasn't been
supportive," says Bill Downing of the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform
Coalition, especially when compared to fellow Massachusetts Democrat Barney
Frank.

The senator has told constituents he supports retaining the Higher Education
Act's student-loan ban, notes Downing, and pushed for more interdiction
during his 16 years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He did vote
against the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act of 1999 (which could have
outlawed publishing pot-growing advice) and may have indicated some support
for medical marijuana. However, according to Allen St. Pierre of the
National Organization for the Reform of the Marijuana Laws, Kerry would not
answer Dr. Lester Grinspoon's repeated requests that he sponsor Frank's
medical-pot bill in the Senate.

Sen. Joseph Lieberman (Connecticut)

Al Gore's running mate in the 2000 election, Lieberman was a sponsor of the
RAVE Act in 2002, which as enacted this year makes it easier for the feds to
prosecute rave promoters--or anyone letting people get high in their house,
if you read the law literally. Arguably the most conservative of the nine
Democrats in the race, he did oppose congressional attempts to suppress
D.C.'s 1998 medical-marijuana vote, but he also sponsored a resolution
condemning state medical-pot initiatives. His censorious stand on video
games and popular music also puts him in untrustworthy territory.

Rep. Richard Gephardt (Missouri)

Gephardt, the former House minority leader, has concentrated his campaign on
economic issues and healthcare. He doesn't seem to have spent much time
thinking about drugs, says Nadelmann. "I've never heard him make a statement
one way or the other," says Dan Viets of Missouri NORML. However, he voted
for the 1998 resolution against medical marijuana, which passed 310-93.

Former governor Howard Dean (Vermont)

Dean's strong opposition to the Iraq war and support for gay marriage have
won him credentials as a liberal, but his legislative arm-twisting and veto
threats killed Vermont's medical-marijuana bill in 2002. "My opposition to
medical marijuana is based on science, not based on ideology," he told the
Liberal Oasis website (liberaloasis.com) in May, adding that medical use
should be approved by the Food and Drug Administration, not by "political
means."

The former governor's rhetoric is good, says Nadelmann--he has called the
drug war a failure and criticized mandatory-minimum sentences--but on the
issues that actually crossed his desk, medical marijuana and methadone
maintenance, he was "among the worst."

Sen. Bob Graham (Florida)

Graham has the strongest drug warrior record of any of the nine. He
sponsored the Ecstasy Prevention Act of 2001. As governor of Florida, he
claimed credit for the state's first mandatory-minimum law for drug
smugglers. His website advocates building more prisons. However, he may not
be completely closed-minded about medical marijuana.

A co-author of the 2001 USA Patriot Act, Graham has criticized Bush for
invading Iraq instead of shoring up domestic security and going after al
Qaida.

Sen. John Edwards (North Carolina)

Edwards told the San Francisco Chronicle in May that he supported more study
on medical marijuana, but "wouldn't change the law now"--a stance St. Pierre
calls "weasely." A first-term senator, he appears to be positioning himself
as a Clintonesque candidate, a vaguely populist lawyer who can appeal to
both Southerners and liberals. He has already raised over $7 million.

Rev. Al Sharpton (New York)

The New York activist hasn't taken a specific position on pot but has been
active in the movement to reform the state's harsh Rockefeller drug laws.
Sharpton has also been up-front in protesting police killing people in
botched drug busts, such as the case of Alberta Spruill, a 57-year-old
Harlem woman who died of a heart attack--literally scared to death--after
police smashed in her door and set off a stun grenade in an "Oops--wrong
address" raid on her apartment in May.

Former senator Carol Moseley-Braun (Illinois)

Moseley-Braun, the first black woman elected to the Senate, has verbally
supported decriminalizing pot--though not legalizing it--since the 1970s but
"never did anything to make it happen" during her 1993-1999 term, says St.
Pierre, and her staff made it clear that it wasn't one of her priorities.
Her main issues have been criticizing Bush for invading Iraq, endangering
civil liberties, and cutting taxes on the rich.