Pubdate: Sat, 18 Apr 2009
Source: Hartford Courant (CT)
Copyright: 2009 The Hartford Courant
Contact: http://www.courant.com/about/custom/thc/thc-letters,0,86431.customform
Website: http://www.courant.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/183
Author: Stan Simpson
Referenced: Just Say 'I'm Willing To Think About It' 
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v09/n411/a09.html
Cited: Efficacy http://www.efficacy-online.org/
Referenced: The Changing Racial Dynamics of the War on Drugs 
http://drugsense.org/url/xP51AWuW

RACE AN ISSUE IN DRUG-REFORM DEBATE

I've been inundated.

Last week I innocently mentioned that I've evolved on this idea of
legalizing marijuana. Apparently, I'm not moving fast enough for the
drug-law reformers.

They want the full monty -- the legalization of pot, cocaine, heroin
and the like.

I'd like to take a more measured approach, starting with more
decriminalization of reefer and a better understanding of what the
consequences are. For those of you who insist there'll be none and
point to post-Prohibition reports, I am still not buying.

But I promised to play a role in advancing an honest conversation
about this.

Cliff Thornton prodded me again this week. The executive director of
Efficacy, a social change group advocating for drug law reforms,
conceded to me that there probably would be some consequences.

"There's no magic drug policy," he said. "But at least you take the
drugs out of the hands of the criminals."

Cool. Candid. I'm open to hearing more.

I understand that the war on drugs has failed. I understand that
America spends $45 billion a year to lock up 7 million inmates, the
large majority on some drug-related offense. I've written about the
obscene racial disparity in Connecticut's prison systems -- 75 percent
of the 19,000 inmates are black and Latino, yet blacks and Latinos
make up only 22 percent of the state's population. The incarceration
rates of African Americans and Latinos in Connecticut are among the
highest in America. The bulk of the state's inmates are from our urban
centers and they're in for some drug-related offense.

Race, no doubt, has been a factor in this failed drug war. Urban
communities have been hit the hardest. There are two things that will
bring this conversation about decriminalizing or legalizing street
drugs to a full boil in Connecticut.

One is the failed economy. When jobs and programs are being cut, but
the $700 million prison system continues to grow, people notice. The
other thing that gets folks' attention is when the complexion of the
people incarcerated changes.

The Sentencing Project in Washington released a study this week with a
significant finding: The number of black inmates in prison on drug
offenses decreased 22 percent from 1999 to 2005. In that same period,
the number of whites in prison on drug-related offenses increased by
43 percent. There was no real change with the Latino numbers.

What's driving the shift, surmised Marc Mauer, The Sentencing
Project's executive director, is more police attention to cracking
down on methamphetamines, a drug used predominantly by whites in the
Midwest and West. Also, Mauer said, drug courts in urban communities
are now diverting more offenders to treatment programs, instead of
prison. Open-air street dealing might also be moving to
less-conspicuous confines.

Connecticut, for now, is a heroin and cocaine state. "I expect that
within the next two years, you'll see an explosion [of meth] here in
Connecticut," Thornton said. "This report doesn't surprise me."

I've watched how suburban parents and police are coming to grips with
an emerging heroin problem among teens. In most cases, there is
empathy for these troubled kids from middle-class homes.

"The more it spreads to people with resources, with influence, it
helps to open up that conversation," Mauer said.

For my new friends in the drug-reform movement -- for the record, I'm a
beer guy -- let me humbly suggest this:

Take The Sentencing Project report -- and run with it.
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake