Pubdate: Wed, 03 Jun 2015
Source: Chicago Tribune (IL)
Copyright: 2015 Chicago Tribune Company
Contact:  http://www.chicagotribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/82
Author: Manya Brachear Pashman

ON A MORAL CAUSE FOR MARIJUANA LEGALIZATION

Clergy Sees Laws As Harsh, Involving Race, Fair Housing

The marijuana decriminalization bill that could soon go to Gov. Bruce 
Rauner's desk has an array of supporters, including civil 
libertarians, prosecutors and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

Its supporters also include clergy. Protestant pastors and Jewish 
rabbis are lobbying lawmakers in Illinois and in states across the 
Northeast as part of a push toward legalization, which they see as a 
moral cause encompassing issues such as race, fair housing and employment.

To that end, the group, called Clergy for a New Drug Policy, is 
pushing for legislation to tax and regulate cannabis, refer 
individuals charged with drug-related crimes to treatment, eliminate 
mandatory minimum sentences and support medical marijuana.

"It's a primary change if something is decriminalized," said the Rev. 
Al Sharp, the Chicago pastor who launched the group this spring. "The 
goal is to change the culture of punishment in this country, which 
the war on drugs has contributed so thoroughly and so devastatingly to."

Sharp considers himself just as much a policy wonk as he is a pastor. 
As the former head of nonprofit agencies such as Protestants for the 
Common Good and the Community Renewal Society, groups founded as 
alternatives to the religious right, he has made lobbying for public 
policies such as more education funding and better housing his ministry.

These days, Sharp, who was ordained by the United Church of Christ, 
walks the corridors of state capitols preaching redemption.

When legislators in Springfield recently approved a bill to remove 
criminal penalties for simple marijuana possession, replacing the 
threat of jail time and a criminal record with a sanction similar to 
a traffic ticket, Sharp and his fellow clergy claimed victory.

If the bill is signed into law, Illinois will join 17 other states in 
decriminalizing the possession of small amounts of marijuana, 
according to the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana 
Laws, or NORML, a group that advocates the legal use of marijuana. 
Nearly half the country, including Illinois, already allows for the 
use of medical marijuana.

The state-by-state decriminalization wave follows a push for tougher 
laws that began in 1971 when then-President Richard Nixon officially 
declared a "war on drugs." Mandatory minimum sentences went into 
effect in the late 1980s. A decade later, collateral consequences 
such as the disproportionate effect on African-Americans became 
clear. According to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, federal prison 
populations ballooned from nearly 25,000 in 1980 to more than 219,000 
in 2013. Recidivism also escalated as criminal records prevented many 
ex-offenders from securing employment or housing.

In 2002, the Unitarian Universalist Association became the first 
religious denomination to adopt a statement of conscience calling for 
an end to the nation's war on drugs and the legalization and 
regulation of marijuana. While no other denomination has called for 
such a radical policy change, many others, including the United 
Methodist Church, the Union for Reform Judaism, the Progressive 
National Baptist Convention and the Episcopal Church, support the 
controlled use of marijuana for medical reasons.

"It's a bigger issue than just making marijuana legal," said the Rev. 
Tom Capo, pastor of DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church in 
Naperville. "My position is that it's more important for us to be 
healing these people."

When word spread that state Sen. Linda Holmes, D-Aurora, might not 
support decriminalization, Capo called her office to make his case. 
While it's unclear if his call made an impact, Holmes was one of 37 
senators who voted in favor of the bill.

"My hope is that we do reach a point to say that marijuana is no 
longer a controlled substance, and understand that, instead of 
putting people in prison, we need to offer them assistance, 
counseling, drug rehab so they can put their lives back together," 
Capo said. "Putting them in prison does not stop people from using 
drugs. It just isolates them from the rest of the society."

Sharp said he recognizes that Unitarian Universalists were ahead of their time.

"Part of my mission is to say to the Unitarians, 'I'm here to help 
you implement your own policy,' " he said. "Clergy are stepping up to that."

While the precise language of Illinois' marijuana decriminalization 
bill is still a work in progress before it goes to Rauner's desk, it 
stipulates that low-level cannabis possession would no longer be a 
crime with fines of up to $2,500 and up to a year in a jail.

Instead, those caught with 15 grams or less could pay a fine of up to 
$125, but cities like Chicago that already have fines in place for 
marijuana possession could keep their fee structures.

Capo would like to see a treatment component added.

"I certainly realize there's going to be a lot of change in the way 
we deal with drugs in our society," Capo said. "For me this is a 
social justice issue."
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom