{news} Drug war opponent to speak at Burroughs Center, Bridgeport

[David Bedell]

Press release - For Immediate Release - January 3, 2006

Contact:  David Bedell, dbedellgreen at hotmail.com, 203-581-3193


DRUG WAR OPPONENT TO SPEAK AT BURROUGHS CENTER


BRIDGEPORT, JAN 3--"The Drug War Is Meant to Be Waged Not Won" is the title 
of a talk to be given by Clifford Thornton at the Burroughs Community Center 
on Thursday, January 12, at 7:00 PM.  Thornton is founder of the 
Hartford-based organization Efficacy, which seeks peaceful alternatives to 
the War on Drugs.

He will talk about the effects of our failed drug policies on crime, the 
economy, and the lives of our youth.

Clifford W. Thornton, Jr., is a retired African-American businessman, whose 
mother died of a heroin overdose when Mr. Thornton was 18. As a result of 
this loss, he wanted drug laws to be harsher. Now he believes that if heroin 
use had been legal, and supervised by doctors, his mother might have lived a 
relatively safe and healthy life.

In his provocative presentations, Mr. Thornton explains how the Drug War 
harms all Americans, especially people of color: Although the majority of 
users are white, most of the people who are in prison for drug offenses are 
minorities, and most of these are young African-American men.

Mr. Thornton argues that the Drug War is "worse for blacks than slavery."

"I watched, decade after decade, my native Hartford go downhill, and I began 
to delve into the drug problem to see what was wrong.  More and more people 
were using drugs and more and more people were going to jail, with no 
apparent stop to the flow of drugs into the city."

Thornton believes that the solution to the drug epidemic must involve 
legalization, medicalization and decriminalization of all illegal drugs plus 
a focus on the medical problem of abuse and addiction.  "Treatment reduces 
drug abuse better than imprisonment, and covers six recovering patients for 
the annual cost of one recidivist prisoner," he claims.

Since 1998, Thornton has spoken to over 300,000 people in civic 
organizations, community forums, debates and college presentations, always 
receiving rave reviews.

Thursday's event is sponsored by the CT Green Party, which has discussed 
with Thornton a possible run for Governor in 2006.

More information about Efficacy can be found at www.efficacy-online.org.