Pubdate: Wed, 27 Jun 2012
Source: Metro Times (Detroit, MI)
Copyright: 2012 C.E.G.W./Times-Shamrock
Contact:  http://www.metrotimes.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1381
Author: Larry Gabriel

ON A ROLL

Working Against the War on Drugs - All Across America

Last week marked the 41st anniversary of President Nixon's 
declaration of the War on Drugs - a policy so bad that not only has 
it failed, it has helped create thriving international crime 
syndicates. So it was very encouraging to hear about the upcoming 
Caravan for Peace, which will seek an end to prohibitionist policies 
in Mexico and the United States, and draw attention to related 
violence on both sides of the border.

Led by Mexican poet and journalist Javier Sicilia, the caravan 
includes Mexicans who have lost a family member to the drug war. They 
will leave from San Diego on Aug. 12, traveling to events in 25 
cities in the South, finally landing in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 
10. Those family members won't be hard to find. Since Mexican 
President Felipe Calderon went to war with the drug cartels in late 
2006, more than 50,000 Mexicans have been killed (Sicilia puts the 
number at 70,000) and another 10,000 disappeared. Sicilia's son was 
among a group of people killed last year by members of a drug gang. 
In response to the tragedy, Sicilia founded the Movement for Peace 
with Justice and Dignity to work for an end to organized-crime 
violence. He has led similar caravans in Mexico, and now his mission 
will take him across the United States along with representatives 
from about a dozen other organizations, including the NAACP.

The caravan "fits in line well with NAACP policy that was enacted 
last year and highlights why the War on Drugs has been a failure," 
says Dr. Niaz Kazravi, the organization's senior manager for law 
enforcement accountability. "Policies should be changed to 
rehabilitation and treatment programs. We're not condoning drug use, 
but drug problems should be addressed as a treatable illness. ... 
This caravan highlights the human impact of the drug war both in 
Mexico and the United States."

Part of that impact in the U.S. has been the arrest or imprisonment 
(or both) of large numbers of African-American and Latino youths for 
small, nonviolent drug crimes. Saddled with criminal records, these 
young people find themselves ineligible for such programs as federal 
housing or education assistance, and have a particularly difficult 
time getting jobs.

Many who get that smear on their record fall into a cycle of poverty 
and crime that they cannot break out of. Although blacks and Latinos 
use drugs at about the same rate as whites, they are arrested for 
drug offenses at much higher rates than whites.

That's the reason New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently called on the 
state Legislature to decriminalize possession of small amounts of 
marijuana. Cuomo said the stop-and-frisk law that leads to many 
arrests was applied against "disproportionately black and Hispanic 
youth." The legislation was shelved due to resistance from 
Republicans in the state Senate.

"In New York, our state leadership was in support of Cuomo's bill to 
decriminalize marijuana," Kazravi says. "It didn't pass this year, 
but it's still active, and the NAACP views it as a step in the right 
direction. It's still active, and they're still pushing for it for next year."

Regarding Detroit's impending bid to decriminalize possession and use 
of small amounts of marijuana on private property, Kazravi sees that 
as a small step in the right direction. "Whatever we can do helps, 
even if it has to be in increments of stopping the funneling of 
nonviolent drug offenders into our prisons and jails where they don't belong."

Bigger steps: Though the November ballot in Detroit is a big deal 
here, there are bigger steps contemplated elsewhere. Colorado and 
Washington state voters will be making the call on legalizing and 
regulating their marijuana markets in November. A Rasmussen poll 
earlier this month found 61 percent of Coloradans in support of 
Amendment 64, which would legalize and regulate marijuana - only 27 
percent opposed it. In Washington, a recent Public Policy Poll found 
support for Initiative 502 at 50 percent. That's a questionable level 
of support for a petition initiative on a ballot, but the opposition 
came in at only 37 percent. That left the 13 percent undecided bloc 
to be targeted by both sides.

In Michigan things look bad for the petition drive to put the 
question of amending the state Constitution to legalize marijuana on 
the ballot this fall. A recent news report put the amount of 
signatures collected at 40,000. That puts the Coalition for a Safer 
Michigan well short of the 300,000-plus signatures it needs as the 
deadline to be on the November ballot nears.

A most interesting petition drive is taking place in Oregon. The 
Oregon Cannabis Tax Act effort needs 87,213 valid signatures to get 
on the fall ballot. OCTA turned in 108,000 signatures at the end of 
May. Generally, about 30 percent of signatures are declared invalid 
in petition drives. However, this week the Oregon Secretary of State 
office declared that OTCA had only 55,869 qualifying signatures - 
slightly less than 50 percent were thrown out. Fortunately for OTCA, 
they continued collecting signatures and have another 40,000 on hand. 
If 50 percent of those get thrown out, the initiative would not make 
the ballot, but they have until July 6 to turn in the final batch.

The initiative got a big boost last week when the United Food and 
Commercial Workers Union Local 555, Oregon's largest union, 
representing 19,000 members in the state, endorsed the OCTA and is 
putting resources into the petition drive. That could easily put the 
petition drive over the top.

A different petition drive to amend the Oregon Constitution met a 
similar fate at the secretary of state office. That drive, the Oregon 
Marijuana Policy Initiative, needs more signatures than OCTA because 
it amends the state constitution, and things aren't looking good for 
that effort.

The public mood about marijuana in Oregon was tapped recently in that 
state's Democratic primary for attorney general. Retired judge Ellen 
Rosenblum easily won the race against former U.S. Attorney Dwight 
Holton. During the campaign, Rosenblum said that she would make 
"marijuana enforcement a low priority, and protect the rights of 
medical marijuana patients." Last year, as an Oregon U.S. Attorney, 
Holton sent out letters to owners, operators and landlords of 
dispensaries threatening them with prosecution. A little less than 
one-third of Rosenblum's contributions came from marijuana 
legalization supporters. Republicans have not fielded a candidate for 
attorney general, so the Democratic candidate is the presumptive 
winner. Apparently openly supporting marijuana is no longer political suicide.

"Politicians are coming out of the cannabis closet," says Morgan Fox, 
communications manager for the Washington, D.C.-based Marijuana 
Policy Project. "Not only will they not be hurt by supporting 
marijuana reform, but it might be advantageous to their re-election efforts."

The OTCA is a bit different than proposed laws in other states 
because it puts hemp production front and center in the debate. Hemp 
is the low-THC strain of cannabis used in making rope and numerous 
other products, from fuel to car parts. It gets its play in the other 
states, but Oregon has really focused on the industrial potential of 
the plant's sturdy fibers.

While Colorado and Washington have been getting the headlines, Oregon 
just might be the dark horse candidate to legalize it before any 
other state - if you give them enough rope.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom