{news} GP RELEASE Greens call for sane drug policy & end to the War on Drugs

Mon Sep 25 08:32:31 EDT 2006

GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
http://www.gp.org<http://www.gp.org/>

For Immediate Release:
Monday, September 25, 2006

Contacts:
Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator, 202-518-5624,
mclarty at greens.org<mailto:mclarty at greens.org>
Starlene Rankin, Media Coordinator, 916-995-3805,
starlene at greens.org<mailto:starlene at greens.org>

Greens call for an end to the War on Drugs and
enactment of sane drug laws that treat addiction
as a medical problem

 Greens cite disproportionate targeting of
people of color: "The real crime is the war on
drugs"

 Funding for the War on Drugs should be shifted
to treatment

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Green candidates and leaders
called for an end to the 'war on drugs,' calling
national and state drug policy a 'war on American
citizens' and a waste of national resources.

"Draconian drug laws, mandatory sentencing, zero
tolerance, and 'three strikes' statutes have been
used to lock away hundreds of thousands of young
people, poor people, African Americans and other
people of color in prisons and prevent them from
living productive lives," said Clifford Thornton,
Green candidate for Governor of Connecticut
<http://www.votethornton.com<http://www.votethornton.com/>>.  "The Green Party
recognizes drug addiction as a medical problem. 
Addicts should be treated as patients, not as
criminals."

""If one does not understand racism, classism,
white privilege, terrorism, and the war on drugs
-- what these terms mean, how these concepts work
-- then everything else you do understand will
only confuse you," added Mr. Thornton, who is
also co-founder of Efficacy, Inc.
<http://www.efficacy-online.org<http://www.efficacy-online.org/>>, which advocates
major reforms in drug policy.

Greens especially called for immediate
decriminalization of marijuana, citing an FBI
annual Uniform Crime Report that police arrested
an estimated 786,545 persons for marijuana
violations in 2005, the highest number ever
recorded, and that 88% of these were charged with
mere possession.

"Marijuana prohibition needs to be repealed
immediately -- death from marijuana use is nearly
zero, while hundreds of thousands die every year
from using alcohol and nicotine," said Matt Abel,
Green candidate for Congress in Michigan's 9th
District <http://www.voteabel.org<http://www.voteabel.org/>>, member of
NORML <http://www.norml.org<http://www.norml.org/>>, and a criminal
defense attorney and who has handled numerous
marijuana cases.  "Locking up Americans for such
offenses is a waste of lives, and a waste of
about $69 billion per year in taxpayer dollars. 
Furthermore, the prohibition against medical
marijuana has denied relief for people who suffer
various symptoms of AIDS and other serious
diseases, just as prohibition in many states
against needle exchange has allowed HIV to spread
faster."

"Politicians who are afraid of being labeled
'soft on crime' have enacted laws that have only
aggravated public health problems related to drug
use," added Nelson Eisman, Green candidate for
Governor of Wisconsin
<http://www.voteEisman.org<http://www.voteeisman.org/>>.  "They drove addicts
underground when they needed medical help.  They
increased the spread of drug-related violence,
which is a result of drug prohibition, not a
result of the drugs themselves.  They turned
young people into hardened criminals, and placed
a third of young African American men behind bars
at some point in their lives.  The real crime is
the war on drugs." [Source: Thomas P. Bonczar,
U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice
Statistics, "Prevalence of Imprisonment in the US
Population, 1974-2001," NCJ197976, August 2003] 

"The use of drugs by wealthy, powerful people
like Bill Clinton or George W. Bush is considered
a youthful indiscretion to be overlooked, while
for middle class and especially poor Americans,
it's something that deserves years of jail time,"
Mr. Eisman added.

Green Party leaders noted that the war on drugs,
supported by both Democratic and Republican
parties, has been used as an excuse for massive
rights violations, especially denial of Fourth
Amendment guarantees against warrantless search
and seizure and Fifth Amendment guarantees of due
process, and for military attacks against
Colombia, Panama, and other Latin American
countries.

"There is almost no difference between Democratic
and Republican administrations or majorities in
Congress when it comes to drug policy," said
Kevin Zeese, Maryland Green candidate for the
U.S. Senate <http://www.kevinzeese.com<http://www.kevinzeese.com/>>,
President of Common Sense for Drug Policy
<http://www.csdp.org<http://www.csdp.org/>>, and co-founder of the Drug
Policy Alliance (formerly Drug Policy Foundation)
<http://www.drugpolicy.org<http://www.drugpolicy.org/>>.  "The war on drugs
has been an obvious model for President Bush's
so-called war on terror.  Both programs attempt
to induce fear in the American public and target
certain populations for vilification and
incarceration.  Both programs benefit corporate
lobbies with enormous political influence -- the
defense and security industries, and the growing
private prison business that makes its profits by
filling up cells."

MORE INFORMATION

Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org<http://www.gp.org/>
1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193

Green campaign listings, news, photos, and web
sites http://www.gp.org/2006elections<http://www.gp.org/2006elections>
Database of 2006 Green candidates
http://www.greens.org/elections<http://www.greens.org/elections>
Video clips of Green candidates
http://www.gp.org/2006elections/media.shtml<http://www.gp.org/2006elections/media.shtml>
Green Party News Center
http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml<http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml>

Drug War Facts:
Drug Offenders In The Corrections System -
Prisons, Jails and Probation
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/prison.htm<http://www.drugwarfacts.org/prisonhtm>
Race, Prison and the Drug Laws (with information
on the disproportionate incarceration of African
Americans and other people of color)
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/racepris.htm<http://www.drugwarfacts.org/racepris.htm>
Crime (with information on the correlation
between drug prohibition and violence)
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/crime.htm<http://www.drugwarfacts.org/crime.htm>

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition: Criminal
justice professionals speaking out against the
"War on Drugs" http://www.leap.cc<http://www.leap.cc/>

~ END ~

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam?  Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around 
http://mail.yahoo.com<http://mail.yahoo.com/> 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist10.pair.net/mailman/private/ctgp-news/attachments/20060925/767f094e/attachment.html>