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FAYETTEVILLE - Tired but
inspired, Arkansas drug policy reform activists are
unpacking today after attending a three-day international
conference, "Drug Policy for the New Millennium" in
Albuquerque, the 14th annual event sponsored by the
Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation.
"It was almost overwhelming,"
stated West Fork resident Denele Campbell, one of nine
Arkansas activists who attended the event. "There were
workshops on every imaginable topic of drug policy - we went
hoping to learn more about medical marijuana in light of the
recent Supreme Court decision. But we learned much more than
that - there is a very exciting national movement underway
taking a new look at this nation's failed policies."
"One of the most electrifying
events was an address by New Mexico's Republican Governor
Gary Johnson. He pointed out how outrageous it is for a
nation of freedom like the United States to imprison people
for what they put into their own bodies. He said the
national war on drugs was "a miserable failure" and said
reform should start with the "legalization of marijuana."
Ms. Campbell quoted Johnson as
saying: "How come we haven't connected the dots when it
comes to the war on drugs? We're going to look back on this
period in time and recognize it as the atrocity that it is.
There is not a bigger issue in the country that is going
unaddressed when you consider that 50 percent of what we're
spending on law enforcement, 50 percent of what we're
spending on courts, 50 percent of what we're spending on the
prisons is going to the war on drugs."
Johnson also stated that "Just
like alcohol, you have a drink in a bar, that's acceptable
behavior. You have a number of drinks at the bar, and you
get intoxicated, and that's acceptable behavior. But then
you go and get in your car, that's not acceptable behavior.
That's criminal behavior. We need to apply those same
principles when it comes to drugs."
The conference also featured
Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA), who voiced her
support for reform and her determination to reach "across
the aisle" to forge alliances that would bring about needed
change. She said that current policies are
disproportionately impacting black and brown communities.
For example, only 11 percent of this nation's drug users are
Hispanic, but 44 percent of the federal drug prisoners are
Hispanic. In Arkansas, only 18% of the population is black,
but almost half the state's prisoners are black. Arkansas
African-American's are more than twice as likely as whites
to be arrested on drug charges, even though statistically,
blacks are less likely than whites to use drugs.
"It's not the just staggering
racial inequities in drug policy that we learned," continued
Ms. Campbell. "So much harm is caused by policies that
result in the imprisonment on non-violent drug users, not
only the cost to taxpayers and the loss of those funds that
could benefit schools and prevention programs, but also the
damage to families. Women with dependent children are the
fastest growing segment of the drug arrest prison population
- the children are permanently traumatized by the arrest and
loss of family."
Also attending the conference
were Georgia Lance, Sharon Weeks, Darrel Henschell, and
Elayne Hency of Fayetteville, and Gene Remley, Patrick Egan,
Joseph Emmel, and Jalisha Lutes of Little Rock, representing
two Arkansas organizations. The Alliance for Reform of Drug
Policy in Arkansas, Inc., (ARDPArk) is a political action
group sponsoring the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Act and
hoping to place the measure before voters in the November
2002 election. The Drug Policy Education Group, Inc., (DPEG)
is an educational nonprofit which hosts conferences,
including an upcoming series of workshops which will offer a
new and effective method of treatment for addicts to
substance abuse treatment professionals.
The Arkansas activists were
among approximately 1000 people who attended the event. |