Tuesday is a day that marijuana supporters have been looking forward to forever: The second-ranking official in the Justice Department will answer questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee about U.S. marijuana policy, just days after the feds said they would have a hands-off policy toward the two states - Washington and Colorado - where recreational pot recently became legal. For many, it's mind-blowing to have a discussion about the U.S. policy on marijuana - before the Senate, no less - after the previous before the Senate, no less - after the previous political generation's single-minded admonition of "Just Say No" when it came to pot. [continues 1126 words]
Thanks so much for calling for marijuana to be classified like alcohol in your latest column. I hope you'll keep watching and covering this issue as the push for legalization heats up, and I thought you might be interested in hearing about a group of police, prosecutors and judges who are pushing in favor of legalization. These members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) fought on the front lines of the war on drugs, witnessing how prohibition only serves to make substance abuse and market violence problems worse. Now, they are actively working to change the debate on drug policy issues so that more voters understand that continuing to keep marijuana illegal harms public safety, not protects it. [continues 358 words]
The Regulate Marijuana Like Wine Act of 2012 is gaining momentum, and its key advocate isn't your stereotypical, hippy-dippy, pot-smoking liberal. It's a Republican former federal prosecutor and retired Superior Court judge James Gray. Those in the Newport/Costa Mesa area are probably most familiar with Jim through his weekly Daily Pilot columns, "It's a Gray Area." He's a guy with strong opinions and never one to shy away from controversy. A few weeks ago, I asked Jim why he's co-authored this act and why he feels it has legs in 2012. [continues 476 words]
"Future generations will look back at us as idiots for this war on drugs, the same way we mocked the Roaring Twenties prohibitionists," said retired Sutter County Deputy Sheriff Nate Bradley in response to my May 15 column, "Time to put medical pot issue behind us." While the thrust of that column was to shine a light on the failure of lawmakers to reconcile Proposition 215 ---- California's 1996 Compassionate Use Act, which legalized the use of medical marijuana - ---- with the official state's "Reefer Madness" attitude towards law enforcement, reader feedback has firmly come down on the side of outright legalization of marijuana, never mind medicinal use. The arguments in favor are compelling. [continues 385 words]
Proposition 19, an initiative to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, was soundly defeated in the November election after the state's political establishment, Democratic and Republican, came out strongly against it. We had concerns with a provision related to the ability of employers to combat marijuana use at the workplace, but we are glad to see that advocates are planning to take another stab at the issue for the November 2012 election. It really is time to look at ways to reduce the drug war and all the costs, injustices and assaults on individual liberty that this war entails. A starting point could be marijuana legalization, given its wide use and nonaddictive nature, although the devil always is in the details. [continues 429 words]
Science tells us cannabis is safer than over-the-counter drugs. It was endorsed by the AMA in 1937 and just last year the AMA called for the rescheduling of cannabis. The 1999 federally funded Institute of Medicine Report debunked the so-called "gateway effect." Marijuana has been legal for years in Alaska with no apparent ill-effect on the populace. Cannabis is legal in Portugal and Spain and essentially legal in the Netherlands, with no adverse effects there. Data from the Netherlands reveals only 13 percent of high school kids use marijuana compared to 19 percent in the U.S. [continues 90 words]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Backers of California's Proposition 19 call it a landmark challenge to America's war on drugs. But passage of the initiative to legalize pot for recreational use may open up a legal war between California and the federal government. Some fear a renewed surge of federal raids - similar to actions that shut down medical pot shops, targeted suppliers and doctors after California voters passed Proposition 215, its medical marijuana law in 1996. Even some fervent proponents of the initiative to allow anyone 21 and over to smoke pot say federal authorities will quickly sue California to overturn the new law. [continues 989 words]
Backers of California's Proposition 19 call it a landmark challenge to America's war on drugs. But passage of the initiative to legalize pot for recreational use may open up a legal war between California and the federal government. Some fear a renewed surge of federal raids, similar to actions that shut down medical pot shops, targeted suppliers and doctors after California voters passed Proposition 215, its medical marijuana law, in 1996. Even some fervent proponents of the initiative to allow anyone 21 and over to smoke pot say federal authorities would quickly sue California to overturn the new law. [continues 961 words]
Ex-Law Enforcement Officials Say Keeping Pot Illegal Does More Harm Than Good Calling low-level marijuana arrests a "waste of time" that take up valuable crime-fighting resources, a group of law enforcement officials this week called on California voters to pass Proposition 19 to legalize marijuana for their own sake. Comprised of police chiefs, judges and prosecutors, the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition said marijuana's illegality is doing more harm than good by jamming the justice system with misdemeanor possession offenses that have had no impact on the usage rates and availability of the weed. [continues 383 words]
Legalizing marijuana would put a big dent in drug cartels and free up police, prosecutors and judges to go after violent crimes, a law enforcement group said Monday in endorsing Proposition 19, the marijuana legalization measure. Proposition 19's passage in November would decriminalize an estimated 60,000 drug arrests made in California each year, said former Orange County Superior Court Judge James Gray. Officers would have more time to go after burglars, robbers and those committing violent assaults, he said. [continues 187 words]
A former long-time police chief of California's third-largest city said Monday that state voters will have the opportunity "to strike more of a blow than law enforcement ever could against drug cartels" by approving Proposition 19, the measure that would legalize the possession and regulated sales of marijuana. Joseph McNamara, who headed the San Jose Police Department for 15 years, called the ballot measure a potential "game-changer" that would allow police agencies to devote more resources to fighting other crimes and undercut criminal syndicates that are largely funded by illegal marijuana sales. [continues 545 words]
There is something very weird about asking directions to the marijuana expo at the Anaheim Convention Center. You feel like a young rebel. You wonder if the security guards think you're high. And you fear someone's going to get busted. Paranoid? Hardly. Marijuana's illegal and the smell of pot is in the air. I'm not kidding. It's Saturday afternoon and a dozen or so people some in wheelchairs, some with dreadlocks are smoking weed. Outside. In public. In Anaheim. Near Disneyland. [continues 869 words]
ANAHEIM - They came to learn about marijuana laws, how to start a medical dispensary business, what they could do to change the stigma of the drug. Inside a cavernous hall at the Anaheim Convention Center, more than 1,000 people gathered Saturday for Orange County's first medical marijuana convention, an all-day event called the Know Your Rights Expo. Attendees swapped stories, perused 120 vendor booths and listened to talks by medical advocates, political strategists, even a retired Orange County judge. [continues 829 words]
Sitting across the table, at a Starbucks in San Clemente, Kandice Hawes is all business in black Capri pants, a fashionable top and a demure gray sweater. "Of course I smoke pot," she says in a loud voice that expresses both surprise and amusement at the question. Holy smoke! I look around, worried someone might hear. After all, I lived through Nancy Reagan's America when smoking marijuana was pretty much the same as shooting heroin, when all drugs were lumped together under the "Just Say No" campaign. [continues 903 words]
Talk about murky. The economic impact, the potential social and legal landscape, even the split between the pro and con sides in the squabble over the initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot to legalize marijuana for recreational use in California - they're all about as clear as smoke from a bong. Most medicinal-marijuana advocates think it would be just fine if good-time tokers joined their legal crowd. Others worry it might ruin the purity of using pot as medicine. [continues 1640 words]
A petition in California has placed a measure in support of the legalization of marijuana on the ballot for November, and the success of this measure will demonstrate the resolve of the American people not to be ignored by their government. The federal government has exhausted all avenues through which to block the legalization of marijuana. They have inflated the budgets of law enforcement and bloated our prisons; they have refused the acknowledgment of well-known and well-regarded medicinal benefits, and they have demonized a harmless plant and the proponents of its use. They have done so consciously and maliciously, and the public has lost patience. [continues 820 words]
Former county judge James Gray and former police officer Jeff Studdard deserve praise for bravely speaking out against the harmful and ineffective marijuana laws they spent so much of their lives enforcing ("Slowly, limits on pot are fading," Cover story, News, Tuesday). As a former chief of police in Seattle, I also saw how the prohibition of marijuana and other drugs does nothing to stop substance abuse. Rather, it fuels the vast and violent drug cartels and street gangs that control the obscenely profitable illegal market. Prohibition guarantees high rates of property crimes, public corruption, disease, violence and death. [continues 67 words]
States' Moves Reflect 'New Era' of Acceptance LOS ANGELES -- James Gray once saw himself as a drug warrior, a former federal prosecutor and county judge who sent people to prison for dealing pot and other drug offenses. Gradually, though, he became convinced that the ban on marijuana was making it more accessible to young people, not less. "I ask kids all the time, and they'll tell you it is easier to get marijuana than a six-pack of beer because that is controlled by the government," he said, noting that drug dealers don't ask for IDs or honor minimum age requirements. [continues 1808 words]
WHEN THE Assembly's Public Safety Committee voted 12 days ago to approve the legalization and regulation of marijuana in California, knee-jerk reactions were sure to follow. This was only a first step toward legislation, but San Mateo police Chief Susan Manheimer quickly described the looming possibility as "mind-boggling." John Lovell, speaking for the California Peace Officers Association, said it was "the last thing our society needs." It wasn't hard to envision lawmen up and down the state nodding in agreement. [continues 721 words]
With multiple initiatives in circulation and an Assembly bill gathering headlines, discussions about legalizing marijuana have become part of California's political discourse. Advocates on one side argue that the result will be an economic boon as tax revenues rolls in and jails rid themselves of nonviolent offenders. Defenders of prohibition say legalization would be a nightmare of stoned kids, addiction and highway deaths. Or maybe the reality would be a lot more mundane. "Most of the popular debate is dominated by two groups-avid pro-marijuana crowd, and the true prohibitionists," said Michael Vitiello, a University of Pacific law professor who has written several articles on the topic. Both sides, he said, are prone to "gross overstatements." [continues 1221 words]
************ VIDEO - WAR ON DRUGS CONFERENCE UTEP PANEL 2 Covering The Drug War - Journalism http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZLdxM9biPQ ************ By Tony Newman Marijuana's coming-out party is kicking into high gear across America - -- but way too many people still are getting cuffed for it. http://drugsense.org/url/aTh4G61t ************ Last March, Sally Harpold, an Indiana grandmother of triplets, bought two boxes of cold medication in less than a week. Together, the two boxes contained 3.6 grams of pseudoephedrine, putting her in violation of the state's methamphetamine-fighting law, which forbids the purchase of more than three grams by one person in a seven-day period. [continues 376 words]
EL PASO -- The year was 1969, and as suburban American teenagers explored the exotic possibilities of the $10 lid -- about an ounce of marijuana, seeds, stems and all -- Vietnam vets were coming home as addicts and inner cities were being hit by heroin epidemics. In June that year, President Richard Nixon declared drug abuse "a serious national threat," and the mass media images of stoned Woodstock hippies that followed in August reinforced his warnings. The broad enforcement program he launched soon became known as "the war on drugs," and grew to become a multibillion-dollar effort focused on interdiction, destruction of foreign crops and harsh penalties for even minor offenses. [continues 1031 words]
Mexico's nimble drug cartels are leapfrogging tightened border security and establishing sophisticated marijuana-growing operations in North Texas and Oklahoma, law enforcement officials say. "There is no doubt" that three big marijuana fields uncovered this month in Ellis and Navarro counties "have a tie to the border and a Mexican drug cartel," said a drug investigator for the Department of Public Safety. "They brought the tenders up here from Mexico to do the work. "This is not Joe Bob growing some marijuana to smoke. These are professional drug operations," said the investigator, who asked not to be identified for security reasons. [continues 1709 words]
If that old adage still holds true, then the nation may soon see a gradual backpedaling from the criminal justice policies that have led to wholesale incarceration in recent decades. For the most populous state in the union is on the verge of insolvency--partly because it didn't set aside a rainy-day fund during the boom years; partly because its voters recently rejected a series of initiatives that would have allowed a combination of tax increases, spending cuts and borrowing to help stabilize the state's finances during the downturn; partly because it has spent the past quarter-century funneling tens of billions of dollars into an out-of-control correctional system. Now, as California's politicians contemplate emergency cuts to deal with a $24 billion hole in the state budget, old certainties are crumbling. [continues 2735 words]
It is Friday evening, you are done with a hard week of work and you are looking to relax. You pull into the local liquor store and select your grade of marijuana from the list next to the counter. The clerk weighs out the buds, charges you $30 for an eighth of an ounce, and off you go. Fiction? Maybe not if AB 390 passes. Democratic State Assembly member Tom Ammiano (D-San Francisco) introduced legislation last month that would legalize marijuana and allow the state to regulate and tax its sale. Ammiano says it could take up to a year before it comes to a vote for passage. [continues 1306 words]
If I gave you $50 tonight, how many could come back with $50 worth of marijuana tomorrow?" At Pitzer College on Wednesday night, nearly 150 students raised their hands. The question, addressed to an audience of students, faculty, and community members, came as part of a much-anticipated debate on national drug policy hosted by Pitzer College. The two-hour event saw a vigorous collision of perspectives on a range of drug issues, including legalization, the War on Drugs, and the nature of drug abuse. [continues 616 words]
************ By Anthony Papa and Gabriel Sayegh Drug addiction shouldn't be a crime -- the real crime would be if reform of New York's draconian drug laws were stymied yet again. http://drugsense.org/url/p8BRVIUx ************ Celebrating 100 years of failure and futility By Brian Doherty The United Nations is currently celebrating the 100th anniversary of the "international war on drugs." Yes, it was in 1909 that 13 countries joined together in the "International Opium Commission" to halt the Chinese opium trade. And how did that go? [continues 507 words]
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Could cannabis be a salvation for California's fiscal misfortunes? Can the state get a better budget grip by taxing what some folks toke? An assemblyman from San Francisco announced legislation Monday to do just that: make California the first state to tax and regulate recreational marijuana in the same manner as alcohol. Buoyed by the widely held belief that cannabis is California's biggest cash crop, Assemblyman Tom Ammiano contends it is time to reap some state revenue from that harvest while putting a damper on drug use by teens, cutting police costs and even helping Mother Nature. [continues 480 words]
SACRAMENTO, California: Could cannabis be a salvation for California's fiscal misfortunes? A member of California's state assembly is introducing legislation to do just that: make California the first state to tax and regulate recreational marijuana. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano from San Francisco says it is time to reap some state revenue while putting a damper on drug use by teens, cutting police costs and even helping Mother Nature. "I know the jokes are going to be coming, but this is not a frivolous issue," said Mr Ammiano, a Democrat elected to the assembly in November. "California always takes the lead - on gay marriage, the sanctuary movement, medical marijuana." [continues 224 words]
An Assemblyman From San Francisco Argues That It's Time to Tax and Regulate the State's Biggest Cash Crop in the Same Manner As Alcohol. Opponents Say It Would Create New Costs for Society. Could Cannabis sativa be a salvation for California's fiscal misfortunes? Can the state get a better budget grip by taxing what some folks toke? An assemblyman from San Francisco announced legislation Monday to do just that: make California the first state in the nation to tax and regulate recreational marijuana in the same manner as alcohol. [continues 534 words]
Our drug laws have failed and the huge prison population is merely the tragic symptom. The more things you make illegal, the more crime you will have. Every legislator should read Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed by Judge James Gray Ken Obenski [end]
NORMALLY, I don't do stats. Numbers can be manipulated to say whatever you want them to say. But these facts speak for themselves: At the end of 1980, Hawaii had 926 incarcerated people. By the end of 2006, there were 6,251 in prison. Of those, two-thirds were between the ages of 25 and 44, according to the Public Safety Department 2006 Annual Report. Twelve percent were under the age of 25. It gets sadder. The Native Hawaiian Databook says 37 percent of the men and 44 percent of the women serving time in 2005 were identified as Hawaiians. [continues 786 words]
Prohibition has a bad name, though Canadians never run out of things they'd like to prohibit. Ironic, no? Politicians and editorial writers cry for the abolition of trans fats, put bulls, plastic bags, bank fees, SUVs, telemarketers, leg hold traps, overnight parking, and beer on Sunday. Yet, attempt a serious discussion on prohibition of marijuana and we're reduced to sputtering about "a state that does not dictate what should be consumed," as a pro-cannabis Senate committee put it in 2002. [continues 819 words]
While Comox Valley RCMP take to the skies in an attempt to eradicate outdoor marijuana production those responsible for the plantings may need only fear a fine if a recent judgement in Courtenay provincial court is any indication. A 41-year-old man who pled guilty to production of marijuana estimated to be worth between $480,000 and $700,000 was sentenced to a $20,000 fine by Judge B. Sanderson in Courtenay provincial court earlier this month. The crown had been seeking a 12-month prison sentence but Sanderson said in the judgement that prison sentences have failed to stem the production and use of illegal substances and that a monetary fine is more appropriate. [continues 236 words]
SANTA MONICA - A seemingly unlikely organization, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), is a group run primarily by current and former law enforcement members working against the "War on Drugs" to find a new solution to the problem of drugs in contemporary society. On July 25th, LEAP Executive Director Jack Cole will come to Santa Monica to meet with the City Council to "try to explain that making marijuana offences a lower priority activity for police could actually save lives." Cole says "we need to make a choice" about protecting the public from violent criminals or drug users, and explains that tracking down marijuana users "detracts police from violent criminals." This upcoming discussion in Santa Monica is also reminiscent of the recent decision that West Hollywood officers spend less time tracking down petty drug users in order to fight crime that is more destructive to the general public. [continues 311 words]
Poverty, Substance Abuse To Blame In Cecil, Study Finds ELKTON, Md. -- She calls homelessness her "familiar pain." If it's easy to read that pain in the lines of 43-year-old Dru Bleecher's face, it is as effortless to read joy in her eyes when she talks with friends at the Wayfarer House near downtown. "Don't call us homeless," Bleecher said, chain-smoking cigarettes in a small shed behind the women's shelter. "It's like we're some kind of species. We're people. You tend to forget that." [continues 1719 words]
To the editor: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (of marijuana), or LEAP, has more than 2,000 members. Members include prison wardens, judges, mayors and former cops. California judge James Gray advocates decriminalizing marijuana. "That would generate $2 billion annually in tax revenues that could be spent on education and drug treatment," he says (Progressive, August 2005). Jack Cole, former policeman and co-founder of LEAP, believes that by legalizing drugs and having them supplied by the government, "organized criminals and world terrorists would be monetarily crippled for many years to come." [continues 112 words]
The United States' war on drugs is based around hypocrisy, ignorance and greed, says a Californian judge who was in Vancouver yesterday at the Canadian Bar Association's annual legal conference. "We couldn't do it worse if we tried," said Superior Court Judge James Gray, a vocal critic of his country's policy on combating drugs. Gray noted that Americans understand that the war on drugs is not working; and that it is time to start focusing on what works -- education, treatment and prevention, and individual responsibility. [continues 205 words]
The war on drugs isn't working and every American politician knows it. But instead of making changes, politicians would rather continue receiving war-on-drug funding, California state judge James Gray told members of the Canadian Bar Association in Vancouver yesterday. "Our biggest cash crop in California is marijuana," said Gray. "That shows you how good of a job we're doing. We couldn't be doing worse if we tried." Gray wants to see a push in America to decriminalize marijuana and treat it like alcohol, but says there is too much money in the war on drugs for the government to stop. [continues 116 words]
In March, Howard Woolridge set out on horseback from Los Angeles to New York City wearing a T-shirt blaring the capitalized declaration: "COPS SAY LEGALIZE POT, ASK ME WHY." The former Michigan police officer, who plans to reach New York in November, is a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a group that wants to change our country's drug laws. Peter Christ and Jack Cole, both former cops, founded the three-year-old LEAP with the assistance of a $50,000 grant from the Marijuana Policy Project. More than 2,000 members, including prison wardens, judges, and mayors, have since joined the organization. Some believe in drug decriminalization, others in full-out legalization, but their collective mandate is to highlight the failure of the current drug policy. [continues 457 words]
The mayor of Chippenham could be fighting for his political future after fellow councillors discovered he is a convicted drug smuggler. Cllr Ross Henning, who was handed the chains of office in May, was jailed for two years in 1987 for his part in a massive cocaine smuggling ring, thought to be worth about UKP 500,000. Now at least one of his colleagues on North Wiltshire District Council, where Cllr Henning is a member of the Liberal Demorcrat's ruling executive, is refusing to work with him after his shameful past was made public in a national Sunday newspaper. [continues 473 words]
Pistol-Selling Verdict West Virginia attracts drugs-for-guns criminals because the state has no limit on the number of pistols a person may buy. Dope dealers come to the Mountain State, peddle their illicit narcotics, use the profit to buy trunkloads of cheap pistols, then return to major cities where they sell the guns to street thugs at a fat markup. But this ugly business may be crimped, thanks to this week's breakthrough lawsuit outcome. The insurer for Will Jewelry & Loan Co. in South Charleston agreed to pay $1 million to two New Jersey police officers who were wounded by a pistol from Will. Here's the background: [continues 422 words]
Gray To Address Supporters Today Two key Mendocino County law enforcement officials are endorsing a Libertarian Congressional candidate whose platform includes federal legalization of marijuana. Both Sheriff Tony Craver and District Attorney Norm Vroman support U.S. Senate candidate James P. Gray, the Orange County Superior Court judge vying this November for the Congressional seat occupied by Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer. Gray will address supporters today at a 5:30 p.m. rally outside the Ukiah Brewing Company and the Mendocino County Courthouse. [continues 536 words]
A group of about 60 medical marijuana advocates gathered at a farmhouse in rural Winton on Sunday for a rally they dubbed "Weedfest." The goal of the event, the organizers said, was to promote support for the legalization of marijuana. "It is not a dangerous drug," said Judge James Gray, a Libertarian and Newport Beach Superior Court judge who is running for the U.S. Senate. "It is made dangerous when it is made illegal. Marijuana should be treated basically like alcohol." [continues 578 words]
TEMECULA ---- A Temecula couple who uses marijuana regularly to alleviate pain from various illnesses recently formed a nonprofit group focused on informing people about marijuana and its medical uses. Martin and LaVonne Victor held the Cannabis Acceptance Project's first meeting last month at the Temecula Public library. The Victors say their main mission is to engage residents, police and elected officials in positive discussions on marijuana and new regulations that govern its use for medical purposes. The pair has used marijuana for years to lessen pain from their multiple, chronic illnesses. LaVonne, 48, suffers from multiple sclerosis, acute depression and panic attacks, while Martin, 51, has been diagnosed with optical edema, or a swelling of his optic nerve. They say the issue of marijuana use for the chronically sick should be left between doctors and their patients and not law enforcement. [continues 441 words]
Will Challenge Boxer, Call for End to Drug War A leading US anti-prohibitionist, California Superior Court Judge James Gray, has announced that is he running for the US Senate under the banner of the Libertarian Party. If he wins the statewide Libertarian primary on March 2, he will challenge sitting Senator Barbara Boxer (D) and her as yet undecided Republican opponent. His campaign will focus on ending the war on drugs, Gray said as he announced his candidacy November 19 at the Old Courthouse Building in Santa Ana. [continues 671 words]
Now A Libertarian, The Longtime Advocate Of Legalization Will Challenge Boxer In 2004. As crusades go, Judge James P. Gray's fight to legalize drugs has been a long and lonely one. His advocation of treatment instead of jail time for drug offenders has gained some converts, but Gray's views remain largely on the outskirts of acceptability. Some of his closest friends disagree with his opinions, and his most vicious opponents accuse him of being a biased, negative role model. [continues 632 words]
An oft-repeated mantra of both the liberal left and the far right is that antidrug laws do greater harm to society than illicit drugs. To defend this claim, they cite high rates of incarceration in the United States compared with more drug-tolerant societies. In this bumper-sticker vernacular, the drug war in the United States has created an "incarceration nation." But is it true? Certainly rates of incarceration in the United States are up (and crime is down). Do harsh antidrug laws drive up the numbers? Are the laws causing more harm than the drugs themselves? These are questions worth exploring, especially if their presumptive outcome is to change policy by, say, decriminalizing drug use. [continues 1715 words]
ASUCI hosted an unprecedented debate regarding the legalization of marijuana held in Humanities Instructional Building 100 on May 28. More than 200 people showed up to get the highs and lows on marijuana from two local speakers. Judge James Gray, a superior court judge in Orange County, strongly condemned current drug policies, while Dr. Michael Stone, addiction medicine specialist, focused on the physiological ramifications of smoking marijuana. Marcy Lopez and Carmen Reynaga, co-commissioners of campus affairs programming for ASUCI, were moderators of the event. [continues 590 words]
To the editor: I'm writing about: "WEEDING OUT THE DEMOS" (6-26-03). Since none of the Democrats running for President have any realistic chance of getting elected, and it wouldn't make any difference if they did get elected, I say vote Libertarian. Especially if the Libertarian candidate is federal Judge James Gray of California. Judge James P. Gray is the author of: "WHY OUR DRUG LAWS HAVE FAILED AND WHAT WE CAN DO ABOUT IT." One thing we can do is not vote for politicians who are going to just perpetuate the status quo. In the last Presidential election, the fact that the United States is the most incarcerated nation on the planet and in history, wasn't even mentioned. Judge Jame Gray may not get elected, but at least he will get the issue of our counter-productive drug polices, discussed. KIRK MUSE Mesa, AZ [end]
