GROUP SAYS WAR ON DRUGS HAS FAILED, FILLED NATION'S JAILS

By asking for a show of hands on several points, Ethan Nadelmann knew
plenty of American Civil Liberties Union members, drug war critics and past
or present recreational marijuana users were in the crowd Saturday at a
Unitarian-Universalist Church forum.

But the "unusually friendly audience" didn't stop this New York City son of
a rabbi from rolling out his best sermon on what he sees as a dire need for
drug policy reform in the United States.

"The war on drugs has played to people's fears like almost nothing else,"
he said.

Yet America's war on drugs, he said, has failed to protect children, as
illegal substances are readily accessible. Further, the penal system is
neither effective nor compassionate, he said.

Policy Reform

Nadelmann, national director of the Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy
Foundation, makes frequent trips to New Mexico. He sees the Land of
Enchantment as fertile ground for adopting the most comprehensive drug
reform package in America, especially since Gov. Gary Johnson is willing to
tackle the issues. Nadelmann's nonprofit group funds lobbyists and
referendum initiatives to end the war on drugs.

Another panelist at Saturday's forum, Katharine Huffman, directs the state
branch of Lindesmith -- the New Mexico Drug Policy Project -- which opened
in January 2000.

Come Jan. 15, six drug reform bills will begin filtering through the state
Legislature. None would legalize drugs for mass consumption. All are
modeled after laws that have been passed in other states -- and some had
broad support in last year's New Mexico session before the clock ran out.

Eight other states allow people with certain diseases, such as cancer and
AIDS, to obtain a card from the state health department that allows them to
possess, grow and use marijuana for medicinal reasons. New Mexico
legislators will consider such a bill this session. But like the other
laws, it would not set up a legal distribution system for marijuana,
Huffman said.

Another bill would prescribe treatment and supervised probation, instead of
incarceration, for first- and second-time nonviolent drug possession offenders.

Reform for the sentencing of habitual offenders would give judges, rather
than prosecutors, the discretion to add years onto a sentence.

Another proposal would restrict how state officials can seize a person's
assets that may have been used by that person or somebody else to commit an
offense. If passed, the bill would require a person to be charged with or
convicted of a crime before the state could take personal property.

Treatment, Not Jail

A parking ticket system would become the civil penalty for possession of up
to 1 ounce of marijuana under another proposal. Offenders would pay a fine
of $100.

Also, drug crime-only offenders could qualify for federal benefits, such as
food stamps, without waiting five years, as they are required to now. This
bill would waive the federal restriction on certain benefits.

"The majority of New Mexicans support all of these reforms," Huffman said.
"The less we spend on jail, the more we have to spend on treatment."

Angie Vachio, director of Peanut Butter & Jelly Inc. in Albuquerque,
develops programs to assist people after incarceration. As a panelist, she
said these reforms would restore money and quality to New Mexico treatment
centers that have dried up because Medicaid doesn't cover treatment costs.

The Unitarian-Universalist Church, the host of the forum, has charged
itself on the national level with researching alternatives to the war on
drugs. Moderator Patricio Larragoite, a local dentist, made clear
Saturday's event was not a debate, however.

All three panelists appeared unified on what New Mexico and America need to
do to deal with drugs in a common-sense, compassionate manner that protects
human rights. And the panel discussion quickly led to action, with audience
participants signing up for tasks such as testifying before the state
Legislature.

Individual Rights

Nadelmann, a high-profile author and critic of drug-control policies, was
an assistant professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton
University from 1987 to 1994.

Individuals, not the government, should have the right to decide what to
put in their minds and bodies, he said. Current policies have taken that
right away and packed jails, he said.

"People should not be punished for what they put in their bodies,"
Nadelmann said.

He rolled out a string of statistics: The United States makes up 5 percent
of the world's population but 25 percent of the world's prison population.

Since 1980, the number of people incarcerated for breaking drug laws has
increased from 50,000 to 500,000. And more drugs were legal 100 years ago
in America than today, he said.

"American drug policy is based on a myth that we can be a drug-free
society," Nadelmann said. "That's not a worthy objective. It's a
totalitarian objective."

Citing the studies of anthropologists -- who find peoples all over the
world who use plants and chemicals to alter their consciousness -- and the
assumption that people aren't born chemically balanced and crave
substances, Nadelmann claims drugs are here to stay.

Our challenge, he said, is: "How do we learn to live with drugs so they
cause the least possible harm?"