{news} Columbia, MO: Thornton speaks at Sensible Drug Policy Conference

Sun Mar 5 16:46:53 EST 2006

http://www.showmenews.com/2006/Mar/20060305News007.asp

Student group drums up opposition to drug war

By GREG MILLER of the Tribune’s staff
Published Sunday, March 5, 2006

Gary Davey smokes marijuana and credits the drug with relieving pain from 
injuries he received in a head-on collision that shattered most of his bones 
from the waist down and confined him to a wheelchair in 1989.

"The benefit that is available to these people is incredible," Davey said, 
referring to the use of marijuana. "There were times I literally couldn’t 
work."

Davey, 44, shared his story yesterday at the Students for Sensible Drug 
Policy Midwest Regional Conference. The medicinal marijuana session Davey 
participated in was one of more than a dozen events held at the University 
of Missouri-Columbia campus.

Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a nationwide organization of college 
students against the war on drugs, chose Columbia because of the success of 
marijuana-related Propositions 1 and 2 in 2004. Cliff Thornton, a lawyer and 
Green Party gubernatorial candidate in Connecticut, was keynote speaker.

Thornton’s drug reform group, Efficacy, was one of 10 sponsors for the 
weekend gathering. Other sponsors are the Missouri chapter of the National 
Organization to Reform Marijuana Laws, the Cannabis Action Network, Green 
Aid and the Missouri Cannabis Coalition.

"These drugs are not the problem; the drug policies are the problem," 
Thornton said in an interview before the conference. "The drug war has 
placed the African-American community into a de-evolving state."

Thornton, who is black, said drug laws that impose greater penalties for 
crack cocaine violations than for powder cocaine offenses are specifically 
designed to target black and lower-class people. That means taxes are 
funding incarceration of people who otherwise could be paying taxes, 
Thornton said. "That’s why most inner cities are so poor," he said.

Speakers at the conference included the associate county commissioner of 
Marion County, Willy Richmond, and a former prosecutor from Kansas City, 
Kan., Brian Leininger.

"It’s scary, more than anything, how these laws have gotten stricter and 
stricter," Richmond said in a panel discussion of drug statutes. "It’s not 
accomplishing anything."

Leininger called the drug war "not only a failure but counterproductive. … 
It took me a lot of time, I think, to come around. But I certainly saw how 
fruitless it was."

Columbia Police Chief Randy Boehm, who did not attend the conference, said 
he believes the war on drugs is working. "I don’t think our policies target 
poor and minorities," he said.

Boehm said the majority of drug-related calls that Columbia police deal with 
are sales and activity in poorer areas. "The best we can hope for is to ... 
cut down on violence that’s related to drug activity," he said.

The Students for Sensible Drug Policy Web site says the group endorses 
"personal choice and freedom so long as a person’s actions do not infringe 
upon another’s freedoms or safety."

But Boehm said that "drugs are not only harmful to the individual but 
harmful to the community. I think that it does inherently infringe upon the 
safety of the community."

Thornton said the prohibition of drugs has led to a black market that 
creates violence and makes drugs cheaper and more accessible to the public.

"The only way you’re going to solve this problem is to bring these drugs 
inside the law," he said.

Joe Bartlett, president of the MU chapter of Students for a Sensible Drug 
Policy, said the conference is an opportunity to spread information about 
their campaign with students from other colleges. He estimated 100 people 
are participating in the three-day event, including 50 or 60 from outside 
Columbia.

Lisa Davey doesn’t see her husband’s use of marijuana as a threat to the 
safety of her community in St. Louis.

"The fact that this is an illegal drug is a sin," she said. "The use of 
marijuana has given us a near-normal life."

Reach Greg Miller at (573) 815-1723 or gmiller@ tribmail.com.