Pubdate: Wed, 09 Jan 2013
Source: Dallas Morning News (TX)
Copyright: 2013 The Dallas Morning News, Inc.
Contact: http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/send-a-letter/
Website: http://www.dallasnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/117
Author: Steve Blow

DALLAS DRUG WARRIOR SUZANNE WILLS ISN'T ON THE SIDE YOU'D EXPECT

As drug warriors go, 69-year-old Suzanne Wills has been one of the
most steadfast - just not on the side you might expect.

And at long last, she's seeing major success. As of last week,
marijuana is legal in Colorado. Washington state is next. She
cheerfully predicts that other states will follow suit.

"I'm optimistic," said the grandmother of seven, who lives in Far East
Dallas. "The reform movement is really well organized now. We
understand what works. And we have a lot of people with us."

Just don't expect Suzanne to fire up a joint to celebrate. "I like
alcohol much better - even though I know it's worse for me than
marijuana," she said. "I'm a merlot kind of gal."

In so many ways, Suzanne seems like any other kind of gal than a
proponent of drug legalization. She's a retired CPA and a graduate of
Southern Methodist University. She has the grace and style of a Junior
League sustainer.

But I first interviewed her on the drug reform issue 15 years ago. And
she had been plugging away at drug legalization long before that. If
you read letters to the editor in this newspaper, you have seen her
name at the bottom of many a calm, reasoned observation on the subject
- - including one this week.

Back at the start, she really was a rare bird. Almost a heretic in a
law-and-order place like Dallas. Today, she's positively mainstream -
at least on marijuana.

A new CNN/Opinion Research poll released this week found that 55
percent of Americans think marijuana should be legalized. For adults
under age 50, that support jumps to about two-thirds.

But Suzanne would go even further. "Legalize and regulate" is her
mantra for every drug.

It's funny. We all accept that Prohibition was one of our nation's
miserable failures. People still drank booze and a notorious
underworld emerged to provide it.

Suzanne sees no difference in the drug prohibition effort that began
in this country about 75 years ago.

"If there's a demand, somebody always steps up with a supply," she
said. "That really leaves us with only two choices: legal distribution
or illegal distribution. Are we going to be in control of this or are
we not? That's the question."

She said the sale of medical marijuana in 21 states has already proved
that a regulated market can work with no great detriment to society.
She expects recreational marijuana sales in Colorado to show that even
more clearly. Suzanne has a hard time explaining her passion for drug
reform. She wasn't part of the drug scene in college or after. But
coming of age in the Vietnam era did leave her with a healthy
skepticism of government - and Richard Nixon's declaration of war on
drugs in particular. "Remember, this was when the government was
telling us that LSD caused birth defects and Agent Orange was benign,"
she said. A lifelong news junkie, she well remembers the national
commission on drugs - mostly appointed by Nixon - that recommended in
1972 that marijuana be decriminalized and the nation's drug laws shift
from prohibition to education.

"Instead of following it, Nixon doubled down and made the war on drugs
even more oppressive," she said. "I watched for 40 years as this
became the most destructive social policy we have."

Suzanne sounds very Republican when she says, "We'd be a lot better
off if the federal government would just back out of it. Let each
state decide its own drug policy. Let them learn from each other."
Most of her reform work is through the Drug Policy Forum of Texas (dpft.org).

Rather than push a specific agenda, it seeks to broaden the
conversation about drugs, believing "a well-informed public will
choose rational policies." Likewise, Suzanne is a reformer, but she's
no radical. "I'm satisfied for people to start thinking about it and
talking about it and going into it slowly," she said. "It took 75
years for us to get here. It will take us awhile to get out." 
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