Pubdate: Wed, 01 Apr 2009
Source: Oregonian, The (Portland, OR)
Copyright: 2009 The Oregonian
Contact:  http://www.oregonlive.com/oregonian/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/324
Author: Amy Goodman
Note: Amy Goodman is the host of "Democracy Now!," a 
daily  international TV/radio news hour. Denis Moynihan  contributed 
research to this column.
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

SEATTLE'S LESSONS FOR LONDON

Protests dominate the news as world leaders gather in  London for the 
Group of 20 meeting. War, the economy,  corporate globalization and 
grass-roots opposition to  financial bailouts are at the forefront.

Executives receive golden parachutes while workers and  unions are 
forced to make concessions. President Barack  Obama has inherited a 
slew of deep, interlocked crises,  yet elicits broad global hope that 
he can be an agent  of change.

Obama last week held an "Open For Questions" town hall  meeting, 
streamed online, with questions posed by the  public and voted on to 
rank their popularity. Obama  answered a question about marijuana:

"Three point five million people voted. I have to say  that there was 
one question that was voted on that  ranked fairly high and that was 
whether legalizing  marijuana would improve the economy and job 
creation.  And I don't know what this says about the online  audience 
. this was a fairly popular question; we  want to make sure that it 
was answered. The answer is,  no, I don't think that is a good 
strategy to grow our  economy."

That question's popularity might indicate audience  concern with U.S. 
drug policy, and the enormous toll on  our society of the so-called 
War on Drugs.

I am traveling around the country this spring, visiting  more than 70 
cities. In Seattle, I interviewed a strong  critic of U.S. drug laws, 
who said, "I ... support the  legalization of all drugs."

These words come from an unlikely advocate: former  Seattle Police 
Chief Norm Stamper. Stamper is an  advisory-board member of the 
National Organization for  the Reform of Marijuana Laws and a speaker 
for Law  Enforcement Against Prohibition. He explained:

"We have spent a trillion dollars prosecuting that war  ... and what 
do we have to show for it? ... Drugs are  more readily available 
today at lower prices and higher  levels of potency than ever before. 
So it's a colossal  failure. And the only way to put these cartels 
out of business and to restore health and safety to 
our  neighborhoods is to regulate that commerce as opposed  to prohibiting it."

As Stamper pushes for reform, his successor as Seattle  police chief, 
Gil Kerlikowske, is, as Stamper blogged,  "on his way to the other 
Washington to assume the  mantle of 'drug czar' ... to make his case 
for a  continuation of the nation's drug laws."

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton admitted recently,  en route to 
Mexico, "Our insatiable demand for illegal  drugs fuels the drug 
trade." It also fuels a rising  U.S. prison population (some 
cash-strapped states are  simply releasing nonviolent drug offenders 
to save  money), the militarization of the U.S./Mexico border,  and 
the epidemic drug-related violence in Mexico. Drug  cartels purchase 
AK-47 assault rifles and other arms in  the United States, then 
smuggle them into Mexico. Paul  Helmke, president of the Brady Center 
to Prevent Gun  Violence, told me recently, "The folks in Mexico have 
figured out what criminals in the U.S. figured out a  long time ago: 
Our weak and nearly nonexistent laws in  the U.S. are making it very 
easy for these guns to get  to Mexico."

With the increasing state-by-state acceptance of the  medical uses of 
marijuana, decriminalization of  possession of small amounts in 
various jurisdictions  and the high cost of imprisonment versus 
treatment,  public sentiment seems disposed to favor a change.

It took Stamper years to learn the hard lessons of the  failed war on 
drugs. Hard lessons seem to be his forte.

He was the Seattle police chief during the World Trade  Organization 
protests of 1999: "I made major mistakes  leading up to that week and 
during that week. ... Not  vetoing a decision to use chemical agents, 
also known  as tear gas, against hundreds of nonviolent 
demonstrators." He now sounds more like one of the WTO  protesters 
his forces tear gassed: "We're now reaping  what we have sown in the 
form of unbridled  globalization and unfettered free trade ... it's 
time for all of us in this country, as we attempt to pull  ourselves 
out of this global economic meltdown, to  really take a look at what 
issues of social and  economic justice mean within the context of 
globalization."

The leaders of the G-20 in London, and those at the  NATO summit to 
follow, have an opportunity to learn  from Norm Stamper, to instruct 
their security to put  away the Tasers and the tear gas, and to shock 
the  world by seriously considering the voices of the  protesters outside.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom