PANEL SEEKS REFORM ON DRUG POLICY

Group Says War on Drugs Has Failed And Filled the 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?"