Pubdate: Sun, 9 Dec 2007
Source: Times-Picayune, The (New Orleans, LA)
Copyright: 2007 The Times-Picayune
Contact:  http://www.nola.com/t-p/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/848
Author: Brendan McCarthy, Staff writer

DRUG CONFERENCE ATTENDEES SEE BLEAK PICTURE

Most Policies Don't Work, Speakers Say

A man wearing a pot-leaf emblem sat next to a former judge, not far 
from a former cop, a short hop from a lawyer.

All were listening intently to the discussion, taking notes and sipping coffee.

Attendees at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference in the 
French Quarter this past week represented the whole spectrum of 
opinions: crime fighters and former inmates, legalization advocates 
and opponents, casual users and part-time abusers.

As the conference, which ended Saturday, dissected the country's drug 
culture, no topic or approach was taboo.

But as a succession of speakers discussed their roles in the nation's 
war on drugs, the consensus was clear: The war is being lost.

Michael Jones, a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, said 
that in his former job as a deputy police chief in Gainesville, Fla., 
he grew despondent as he watched an unending drug crackdown carousel.

"We were going to the same houses, arresting the same people, getting 
the same results," he said. "We cannot arrest our way out of the problem."

Modern-day policing, which relies heavily on statistics, was 
criticized by participants who decried a "quantity over quality" 
philosophy of arrests.

In a handful of sessions pegged to New Orleans' post-Katrina drug 
problems, speakers offered bleak assessments.

Nowhere are failed government policies more clearly on display than 
in Louisiana, where drug offenders are jailed at among the highest 
rates in the nation, speakers said. Treatment and rehabilitation 
options are limited, zero-tolerance tactics are fruitless and poverty 
is high, they said.

"The criminal justice system in New Orleans was always in a sad state 
of affairs, yet very good at making a high number of arrests," said 
Bruce Johnson of the National Development Research Institute.

Johnson and his institute colleagues are working on a study that 
analyzes the post-Katrina disintegration and subsequent re-formation 
of the city's drug markets, based on interviews with more than 100 
drug users and sellers in New Orleans and Houston. He offered few 
hints on their findings, saying the study hasn't been published.

As academic types in tweed jackets, former law enforcement leaders 
and idealistic reformers shared their thoughts, ideas for drug policy 
reform ranged from "legalize it" to establishing better prevention systems.

The wide variety of topics led at times to rambling discourses. A 
panel on the New Orleans drug problem devolved into a discussion of 
medical marijuana policies in California and Washington.

"Harm reduction," race and sentencing guidelines were popular seminar subjects.

The objective of harm reduction is to mitigate the potential dangers 
and health risks associated with risky behaviors such as drug use. 
Ideas on needle exchanges, a lower drinking age and prevention 
programs were bandied about.

Ethan Brown, a New Orleans author and expert on the "stop snitching" 
culture, said mandatory minimum prison sentences for crack cocaine 
convictions play a huge part in the explosion of prison populations, 
as well as an "extraordinary antipathy toward police."

The minimums were mostly established in the late 1980s during the 
"hysteria of the crack war," he said.

The conference attracted attendees from across the world, including a 
few locals. Orleans Parish Criminal District Court Judge Calvin 
Johnson spoke on a panel dedicated to local drug issues while a 
representative from the district attorney's office sat in the audience.

It was unclear whether any members of the New Orleans Police 
Department were on hand. The department's Public Information Office 
did not return requests for comment. 
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