{news} Cliff Thornton in the Norwalk Hour

[David Bedell]

Green Party candidate Cliff Thornton is running with a different message

The Norwalk Hour
5/15/06

By PATRICK R. LINSEY Hour Staff Writer REGION -

Connecticut's more familiar candidates for governor are campaigning on 
platforms of job growth, property tax relief and transportation 
infrastructure. Green Party candidate Cliff Thornton is running with a 
different message: Legalize it. "I've been waiting for the last 10 years for 
someone to step forward who's going to really talk about the issues," said 
Thornton. "None of the politicians that are running will talk about anything 
worthwhile."

Thornton, 61, lives in Glastonberry and is a frequent speaker at forums 
dealing with drug enforcement issues and the drug war. Marijuana should be 
legalized, he said, and heroin maintenance introduced for drug addicts. And 
Thornton doesn't stop there. "I also want to see the medicalization of 
heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, ecstasy and the decriminalization of all 
the rest of the illegal drugs for future debate and true and honest 
medicinal study." Thornton is neither a hippie nor a drug addict, and said 
his argument for legalizing dangerous and addictive drugs is on firm ground.

  "In the last 15 years, Connecticut has spent a billion dollars on prisons 
alone, at the expense of education in this state," he said. The drug war is 
sucking dry state coffers, said Thornton, at the expense of other, vital 
programs."Many people will say 'you're a one-issue candidate,'" Thornton 
said. "That's not true. The drug war is two degrees from everything." 
Connecticut's drinking and waste water infrastructures need billions of 
dollars in investment in coming decades, he said. So, too, do the state's 
roads, bridges and schools. Thornton also believes in universal health care. 
But those programs would come at tremendous cost. The best source, he said, 
is money now funding the drug war, including law enforcement, courts and 
prisons. "We've got to understand that the drug war is meant to be waged, 
not won," said Thornton.

  "We're talking about almost a hundred years of drug prohibition and almost 
four decades of the drug war and yet there's more drugs on the street at 
cheaper prices than ever before." Drug users should be put on maintenance 
programs, he said. "These illegal drugs are not a law enforcement problem, 
they're a public health problem," said Thornton. "(Addicts should) come 
under medical supervision. The dosage is stabilized." Thornton bristled at 
the notion his plan equates to giving up on drug users. "Build a society 
that causes the least amount of harm to people who use these drugs and 
causes the least amount of drugs as a whole," Thornton said. "It's not the 
drugs so much that's harming them. It's the drug policies that are harming 
them."

The Green Party officially nominated Thornton on Earth Day, April 22. With 
two established Democrats already challenging a popular Republican 
incumbent, Thornton's chances of victory are remote. Stamford Mayor Dannel 
Malloy and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano head to the Democratic State 
Convention in Hartford this weekend, in their quest to defeat Gov. M. Jodi 
Rell.  "My main goal in this campaign is to reach the tens of thousands of 
people in this state who think they don't have a voice or can't make a 
difference," Thornton said. "My goal in this campaign is to have a strong, 
viable third party."

Patrick R. Linsey
Reporter, The Hour Newspaper
(203) 354-1005