SPEAKER SUPPORTS ALTERNATIVES TO THE WAR ON DRUGS

Nora Callahan knows firsthand the effects of America's war on
drugs.

Her brother was indicted for a drug conspiracy in 1989.

After he was sent to prison for 27 years, she began trying to educate
the public about how drug laws have increased the prison population.

As executive director of the November Coalition in Colville, Wash.,
Callahan travels nationwide talking about the drawbacks of punitive
drug laws. She speaks tonight at Savannah State University.

Jails and prisons are clogged with people serving sentences for drug
offenses, many of which are non-violent, Callahan said. A drug arrest
in any family, Callahan says, is frightening introduction to
conspiracy statutes, government's liberal use of informants and
guideline-sentencing laws,

"We are dedicated to abolishing destructive prohibition laws whose
enforcement does far more harm than any intended good," Callahan said.

According to the November Coalition -- a nonprofit founded to give a
voice to drug war prisoners and their family members -- one in four
prisoners nationwide is serving time for a drug law violation. In the
federal system, these people make up about 60 percent of the prison
population, Callahan said.

"We call it a war on drugs, but it's actually a war against our own
citizens," said Lisa Lane, founder of the Savannah group, Coalition of
Compassionate Drug Policy Reform.

The group supports treatment for drug offenders -- not prison -- and
opposes mandatory minimum sentencing laws, which takes away judges'
discretion, Lane said.

"Not only does treatment work, whereas incarceration does not, it's
also less expensive," Lane said. "It's fiscally much more responsible
to put our money in something that works, instead of continuing to put
our money into this failed drug war that shows no sign of working."

Note:
The November Coalition hosts a series of "Journeys for Justice" talks
nationwide to support relief from the drug war and advocate
compassionate, just alternatives. As part of the series, Nora
Callahan, Executive Director of the November Coalition, speaks tonight
in Savannah. www.JourneyForJustice.org