{news} Sen. Mike Gravel on drug policy...

[clifford thornton]

Mike Gravel, Democratic candidate for president, expressed his position in favor of legalizing 
and regulating marijuana.  Now, to my pleasant surprise, he's advocating 
the legalization & regulation of all drugs, including cocaine and meth!

Check out this snippet from an interview with the Independent Iowa:

Iowa Independent: The Progressive magazine reports that you think 
marijuana should be legal and available next to beer in liquor stores. 
Is that true? What about cocaine and methamphetamine?

Sen. Gravel-Alaska: It sure is true. When are we are going to learn. We went 
through the Depression and we realized how we created all the gangsters 
and the violence. When FDR came in he wiped out Prohibition. We need to 
wipe out this whole war on drugs. We spend $50 billion to $70 billion a 
year. We create criminals that aren’t criminals. We destabilize foreign 
countries. With respect, to marijuana, Doug, I’ll tell you what: Go get 
yourself a fifth of scotch or a fifth of gin and chug-a-lug it down and 
you’ll find you lose your senses a lot faster than you would smoking 
some marijuana.

Independent Iowa: Yeah, I’m 37, I think most people in my generation 
agree with that point on marijuana. What about cocaine and meth?

Sen. Gravel: We need to legalize the regulation of drugs. The drug 
problem is a public health problem. It’s not a criminal problem. We make 
  it a criminal problem because we treat people like criminals. You take 
a drug addict, you throw him in jail, you leave him there, and he learns 
the criminal trade so that when he gets out you have recidivism.

Full interview here:
http://www.iowaindependent.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=131<http://www.iowaindependent.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=131>

I know this guy is a long shot, but it says a lot when a candidate for 
president feels comfortable coming out in favor of the legalization & 
regulation of all drugs.

Efficacy
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efficacy at msn.com<mailto:efficacy at msn.com>
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"THE DRUG WAR IS MEANT TO BE WAGED NOT WON"

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