GAYS SHOULD BE CONCERNED ABOUT 'WAR ON DRUGS'

McColl On A Mission

Bill McColl, Director Of National Affairs For Drug Policy Alliance, Says
Gays Should Be Concerned About The Government's 'War On Drugs'

William McColl knew something wasn't right.

The director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, McColl says
he first became interested in the drug and alcohol field 10 years ago
during a legal internship in which he helped form the Baltimore City Drug
Treatment Court.

Then, while attending law school at the University of Maryland, he worked
in the field again with the Legal Action Center in Washington. He realized
that drug policy was an issue he was passionate about, and set out to make
his voice heard.

"Essentially, I realized that the system wasn't working," he says.

After law school, McColl took a job with the National Association of
Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Counselors, first as director of legislative
activities, and later as executive director. Then, in January 2001, he
accepted his current job with the DPA.

The 37-year-old McColl has seen many injustices in the world, having served
as a missile combat officer in the U.S. Air Force and as a licensed
attorney in Maryland. But now, he is working to ensure the U.S. government
doesn't commit a new set of injustices by limiting people's freedom; and
he's doing so by lobbying for what he feels are more "reasonable" drug laws
than those currently in place.

McColl, who is gay, says the Drug Policy Alliance has worked hard to defeat
measures that trample individuals' rights. Several of these measures, he
says, could endanger the livelihoods of some gay men and lesbians.

"We're concerned about creating drug policies that are grounded in science,
but also in compassion and in human rights," McColl says of the DPA. "I
think of us primarily as a health and criminal justice organization."

A More Liberal Drug Policy

It is McColl's belief that the country's current drug laws miss their
target, with a much higher emphasis on punishing people who use drugs than
trying to get them help for their substance abuse. He also points out that
a disproportionate number of minorities are jailed for drug use.

"People say, 'I just wish drugs would go away,' or 'I just wish we would
ban drugs,' and the answer is, we already have banned drugs, but they're
still here," McColl says. "There's not a way in a capitalist society such
as ours to really cause them to go away."

McColl says prohibiting drugs just sends them underground, which makes them
even more dangerous. As an alternative, he would prefer to see a more
liberal drug policy in place, one that would decriminalize less harmful
drugs like marijuana, but regulate them like tobacco and alcohol. He also
says the government should educate the public about the dangers of drugs
and help addicts become and stay sober.

But he makes one thing clear: The DPA is not saying that drugs aren't
dangerous, or that all drugs should be legal.

"That's not our argument at all," he says. "We do recognize that all drugs,
including legal drugs, have a capacity to create harm for a user. While
acknowledging that, we need to find ways to lessen the harm for those users
and the people around them. ... We are not advocating some sort of
free-and-legal, go-to-it system here."

A Gay Perspective On The Drug War

While it may not appear that gays have a vested interest in drug policy,
McColl says there are quite a few good reasons why they should be
concerned. The first, he says, is that there is a sort of parallel
stigmatization of both gays and drug users.

"The logic behind the prohibition should be a little bit resonant with gay
and lesbian people," he says. "Here is a set of people, and they are
considered deviant, and they are a danger to our children."

Bev Stanton, a lesbian who works at the DPA as a Web assistant, echoes
those sentiments.

"I think there's a lot that gays can identify with because drug policy, in
a lot of respects, is about norms, and about enforcing normative behavior,
and I think gays have been victimized by these same institutions," Stanton
says.

One issue the DPA says gays should be connected to is the use of medicinal
marijuana, particularly with AIDS patients who would use it to ease their
pain and boost their appetites.

Another is what the group perceives as the targeting of gay-friendly clubs
and circuit parties by the government. Last year, the DPA vocally opposed
the Reducing Americans' Vulnerability to Ecstasy Act, introduced by Sen.
Joseph Biden (D-Del.); now that the RAVE Act has been reintroduced to the
108th Congress, the DPA plans to be just as vocal.

"I think these laws could be used, since they're so broadly written, to
target certain groups," Stanton says. "So it gives law enforcement and the
authorities a license to target groups they don't like.

"Certain prosecutors are saying that supplying water at a club event for a
certain price is evidence that [the owners] somehow knew that drugs were
going to be at this event and that they should be prosecuted," McColl says.
"That's a policy that doesn't make sense. .. It's just bad public health."

[ Photo Caption ] Bill McColl, the openly gay national affairs director for
the Drug Policy Alliance, favors a more liberal U.S. drug policy. He says
current drug laws target disproportionate numbers of minorities, including
African Americans and gays.