Pubdate: Sun, 16 Jun 2013
Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ)
Copyright: 2013 The Nashville Tennessean
Contact: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/sendaletter.html
Website: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24
Author: Bob Smietana, Nashville Tennessean

PASTORS: TREAT DRUG USE AS DISEASE, NOT CRIME

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - The Rev. Edwin Sanders says churches should help 
heal the sick, feed the hungry and set prisoners free. Even if they 
smoke pot. Sanders, pastor of Metropolitan Interdenominational Church 
in Nashville, is part of a group of clergy who want to end the war on 
drugs by decriminalizing drug use.

Sanders said the so-called war on drugs has failed for two reasons. 
First, he said, addiction to drugs is a disease, not a crime.

"You don't criminalize and incarcerate people who have a disease," 
Sanders said. "You treat and care for them."

Second, Sanders said, the laws on drug use aren't enforced fairly. A 
report from the ACLU of Tennessee released Thursday showed that black 
Tennesseans are arrested on marijuana possession charges four times 
often whites. About 45 percent of those arrested for 
marijuana-related crimes are black, even though blacks make up about 
17 percent of the state's population.

Ethan Nadelmann of Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates 
decriminalizing drug use, said pastors and many other Americans, 
especially in the South, believe drugs are inherently evil. That's 
why jailing people for using them sounds so appealing.

"Deep down, we believe that putting these drugs in our bodies is a 
sin," he said.

Punishing people for alleged sins didn't work during Prohibition, 
Nadelmann said, and it doesn't work now.

A growing number of Americans seem to agree as as with Nadelmann. A 
Pew Research Center Poll released in April found that 52 percent of 
Americans polled supported legalizing marijuana use. That's up from 
41 percent in a similar poll in 2010.

Nadelmann said 18 states, plus the District of Columbia, allow 
medical marijuana, and at least another dozen states no longer 
consider possession of small amounts of marijuana a crime.

Clergy said the consequences of a drug arrest can last long after a 
person gets out of jail.

The Rev. Derrick Boykin, of the anti-hunger organization Bread for 
the World, said his group doesn't have a position on decriminalizing 
drug use. But he argues that there's a link between the war on drugs 
and hunger.

When parents go to jail for drugs, family members are left to fend 
for themselves. They lose the parent's income, so there's not as much 
money coming in to pay for food or housing.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom