USA - Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich on the 'War on Drugs'

[Bajeda]

Kucinich is probably the candidate I like the most so far in the current field for the 2008 election. I thought I'd share some of his views on the War on Drugs here, as they are a far cry from the "lets ignore the issue!" stance most of the other presidential contenders take with the drug issue as they are afraid of losing votes.



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http://www.kucinichforcongress.com/issues/drugwar.php

Drug War

My position on this issue is to face it directly, though other politicians run away from it. I agree with the many law enforcement officials and experts in the field that we must find a new way of dealing with illegal drugs.

I have studied the issue for decades and recognize that our "War on Drugs" has failed. In fact, because our War on Drugs drives up the price, it encourages violence. Prohibition simply doesn't work. It only creates thousands and thousands of Al Capones. Prison should be for people who hurt other people, not themselves. We don't jail people for merely drinking. We jail people when they drink and drive or hurt another human.

Drug use can and should be reduced. But a continuation of our current War on Drugs will not do it. Instead, the current policies have only helped increase drug use and foster violence across the country. California was able to cut teenage tobacco use in half with a straightforward ad campaign that was financed by a tax on cigarettes. Not a shot was fired.

The supporters of the drug war have only one solution to this debacle -- more money for law enforcement, more people, more power, more prisons -- with no end in sight. Of course, these happy drug warriors who justify their living hunting down drug users come on TV and promise us that they see light at the end of the tunnel. They promised us a drug-free America by 1995, and instead we see new and more exotic drugs constantly being added to the mix.

I know that proponents of the Drug War will say that I am pro-drugs. I am not. As mayor of Cleveland, I saw first-hand the damage done by addiction to drugs, including alcohol. I also witnessed that the wasted resources and collateral damage did not promote a safe society. It is unconscionable that only one bed exists for every ten people that apply for drug treatment. Our priorities and our resources are being put in the wrong place. The primary job of law enforcement should be protecting our country and its citizens -- not protecting people from themselves.

The shredding of our rights to privacy and property promoted by the Drug War is inconsistent with a free society. Criminalization of private or self-destructive behavior is not acceptable in a free nation.

The racism evident in the Drug War, and the clearly preferential treatment for offenders with connections, undermine our concept of a just society. Draconian prison sentences that dwarf those for violent crimes, like murder and rape, destroy respect for our laws.

The rampant corruption of the criminal justice system spawned by the $400 billion-a-year black market could be ended with the stroke of a pen. So also would be the wholesale devastation we have brought to other countries. Countries like Colombia, where we send billions of dollars of military aid and spray hundreds of thousands of acres of populated land with dangerous herbicides in a country with nearly a million displaced people. And each military campaign or spraying is like a squeezing a balloon; production merely shifts to another site or goes into a temporary hiatus.

Drug addiction is a medical and moral problem that should be treated by professionals, not dumped on the criminal justice system. Setting up a national commission of medical professionals to develop an intelligent program, based on the experience of drug experts from around the world, would be a first step. Allowing doctors to treat drug addiction humanely and intelligently, including the prescription of maintenance doses, would allow us to quickly eliminate most of the black market and much of the damage to a safe, free, and just America.

It is time for an honest dialogue on this issue. Time to stop the documented lies, half-truths, and propaganda that got us into this mess in the first place. It is time to face the facts.




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http://www.kucinichforcongress.com/f...ontrol9mar.php

Speaking during debate on H.R. 2829, Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2005, Congressman Kucinich said:
"Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from Maryland [Mr. Cummings] for the opportunity to address this.


"We are all concerned about drug policy and about drug control policy. We are concerned about the impact drug addiction has on individual lives and families. We are concerned about the ripple effects of addiction on communities.


"But I would just like to make this observation as we prepare to vote on this bill: We have to be careful in our strategy to ensure that we do not mistake victims for enemies. We make a mistake when students are punished both through the legal system and then by denying them critical education provisions, as the drug provision of the Higher Education Act does. The recent scaling back of that provision by this Congress is a step in the right direction, but we must do more. Denying students the opportunity for a higher education does not solve the Nation's drug problems, nor does it provide drug treatment.


"We also make a mistake when we rely on randomized student drug testing to prevent addiction and abuse of drugs. Instead of focusing our efforts on educating our children about drugs and engaging them in the decisions about their lives and futures, drug testing assumes all youth are the same. Drug testing may be right in certain situations with reasonable evidence and a court order, but randomized testing renders all youths suspect and treats them as criminals. High expectations for our children may reap great rewards, but what will we sow with the expectation of deception? So we have to focus our efforts on helping our children, not punishing them, and we cannot allow the war on drugs to become a war on children.


"I am sure there are many provisions of the bill before us that are aimed at helping many communities, but I just wanted to make this observation in general about our policies, so that as we get into a broader discussion on other legislation, that we pay close attention to the policies that we are considering or are enacting in our schools."


[Ed. note: H.R.2829 was agreed to by recorded vote: 399 - 5 in (Roll No. 38).]
Legislation:

• H.R. 2829, Office of National Drug Control Policy Reauthorization Act of 2005

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From 2003 when Kucinich was campaigning for the 2004 election.

http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-...kucinich.shtml


Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) made history this week by becoming the first serious Democratic presidential candidate to endorse medical marijuana. In remarks to the San Francisco Chronicle on Wednesday, Kucinich said that if elected president he would sign an executive order allowing the use of marijuana for medical reasons.
Medical marijuana should be available "to any patient who needs it to alleviate pain and suffering," regardless of the current federal drug laws, Kucinich told the Chronicle. "We must have health-care systems which are compassionate... so I support it without reservation."

Kucinich's stand is in stark contrast with the position of the Bush administration, which has repeatedly sent the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to raid, arrest and imprison medical marijuana patients and providers in states that have legalized the practice and which derides medical marijuana as a charade. It also sets him apart from the other seven declared Democratic presidential contenders, most of whom have had absolutely nothing to say about medical marijuana and one of whom -- former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean -- effectively blocked a medical marijuana bill in his state.

"I'd sign an executive order that would permit its use," Kucinich said. "I think that we're at a point where we understand that the maintenance of human health and the alleviation of human suffering involves a dialogue between the physician and the patient. This is a matter that many people find quite vexing. I have known people who have had cancer and who have been in horrible pain. Anything that can alleviate their suffering should be available."

The Ohio Democrat's forthright position on medical marijuana contrasted vividly with the fence-straddling of another Democratic presidential contender visiting San Francisco this week, North Carolina Senator John Edwards. Pressed by reporters after a speech in which he failed to mention the topic, he called for further study. "I wouldn't change the (marijuana) law now, but I would set up a committee to see if pain relief is different with marijuana," Edwards said. In the meantime, he told reporters, medical marijuana users and providers should expect arrests. "It's the job of the Justice Department to enforce the law as it presently exists," said Edwards.

By stepping out front on the medical marijuana issue, Kucinich, who has positioned himself as a strongly anti-war and pro-social justice candidate, is embracing a position endorsed by most voters. In recent years, a number of polls have shown increasing support for medical marijuana, including a CNN/Time poll last October showing that 80% of Americans believe medical marijuana should be legally available. And voters or legislators in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, Oregon and Washington have already approved medical marijuana measures.

The comments from the former Cleveland mayor drew praise from marijuana reform organizations -- which should come as little surprise because one of them helped push Kucinich to speak out and even helped draft his position statement on the issue. "We approached Kucinich at a fundraiser in LA after Ed Asner introduced Steph to the crowd," said Americans for Safe Access (http://www.safeaccessnow.org) spokeswoman Hilary McQuie, referring to fellow ASA agitator Stephanie Sherer. "He told us he was in favor of medical marijuana, so we pushed him to make a statement," she told DRCNet. "We ended up helping draft his position on the issue."

"Dennis Kucinich has come a long way since 1998, when he voted for a congressional resolution condemning state medical marijuana laws, and we expect many other Democratic contenders to follow suit," said Robert Kampia, executive director of the Washington-based Marijuana Policy Project, in a statement greeting the remarks. "This is a natural issue for the Democrats: The Bush administration is completely out of step with the public, which doesn't want to see sick people hauled off to jail for taking their medicine," Kampia said.

"Hats off to Kucinich," said Dale Gieringer, director of California NORML (http://www.canorml.org). "I hope the other candidates will follow his lead. The Democratic candidates have a lot to gain by favoring medical marijuana in California. Whichever candidate articulates the best policy is going to get our support, which could be as high as six percent of the Democratic primary electorate, and that could well make the difference in a tight race," he told DRCNet.

Kucinich's stand on medical marijuana may already have had an impact on Dean, who has begun altering his tune and his tone as he campaigns on the West Coast. In a Thursday interview with San Francisco radio station KQED, Dean said he would ask the Food and Drug Administration to look into the issue and make a decision based on its findings. "I wouldn't crusade against it like Ashcroft," he said, "but I wouldn't legalize it."

That's not enough for medical marijuana advocates. "Dean's dog won't hunt," said Gieringer. "He may be liberal on most issues, he may do well with the gay community, but when it comes to marijuana as medicine, he's part of the old school, he wants to let the narcocracy decide."

"Dean isn't showing any signs of real progress here," scoffed ASA's McQuie. "If he thinks the FDA has any power on this issue, he's hopelessly uninformed and naïve."


But for people concerned with ending the war on drugs, medical marijuana is just one issue, and quite likely the easiest for progressive politicians to embrace. Meanwhile, with a million and a half drug arrests each year and almost a half-million drug offenders rotting in prisons, with drug war totalitarianism reaching ever more deeply into the private lives of American citizens and being exported around the world, with the US police state growing ever stronger as the war on drugs merges with the war on terrorism, drug policy questions are more crucial than ever. In coming weeks, DRCNet will look at the Democratic presidential candidates' respective stands on drug policy issues, as well as examining the role of the drug reform movement in the forthcoming Democratic presidential sweepstakes.



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http://stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle-...kucinich.shtml


For the first time since the days of Jimmy Carter, a prominent presidential candidate has called for an end to marijuana prohibition. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), a progressive and therefore long-shot candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, quietly announced on his campaign web site last week that, if elected, he would end federal prohibitions on the use of marijuana by adults and would instead move to regulate it like alcohol.

"Statistical evidence shows that marijuana use follows a pattern very similar to that of alcohol," wrote Kucinich. "Most marijuana users do so responsibly, in a safe, recreational context. These people lead normal, productive lives -- pursuing careers, raising families and participating in civic life... A Kucinich administration would reject the current paradigm of 'all use is abuse' in favor of a drug policy that sets reasonable boundaries for marijuana use by establishing guidelines similar to those already in place for alcohol... A Kucinich administration would work to implement a drug policy that removes responsible recreational users and medical users of marijuana from the criminal justice system, in order to redirect resources toward the following goals:

• Enforce penalties for those who provide marijuana to minors.
• Enforce penalties for those who endanger the rights of others through irresponsible use, such as driving under the influence.
• Develop drug treatment programs focused on rehabilitation, rather than incarceration.
• Support the efforts of state governments in developing innovative approaches to drug policy.
• Improve drug education by emphasizing science over scare tactics.
• Implement a Department of Justice program that would review the records of, and consider for sentence reduction or release, inmates convicted for nonviolent marijuana offenses.

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From a now non-working campaign url:

With the enactment of the Volstead Act in 1919, America embarked on a social experiment known as Prohibition. Prohibitionists rejected the idea that people could be trusted to drink in moderation, arguing that alcohol use inevitably led to moral corruption and undesirable behavior. Accepting these premises led Congress to conclude that a federal ban on the production and sale of alcohol would go a long way toward reducing crime, and addressing a variety of other social problems. Within a decade, however, Americans discovered that the criminally-enforced prohibition of alcohol produced harmful side effects. The rise of black markets empowered organized crime to an unprecedented degree. In some of America's largest cities, local governments had been heavily corrupted by the influence of organized crime. The black market provided minors with easy access to bootlegged alcohol, which was frequently of poor quality and unsafe to drink. Faced with the disastrous consequences of Prohibition, Congress decided in 1933 to repeal the Volstead Act. Since that time, the government has implemented the much more successful policy of focusing law-enforcement efforts on irresponsible alcohol users who endanger the rights of others.

Unfortunately, current drug policy fails to take into account the lessons of Prohibition. The law regards all users as abusers, and the result has been the creation of an unnecessary class of lawbreakers. According to the FBI's Uniform Crime Report, more than 734,000 individuals were arrested on marijuana charges in 2000. This number far exceeds the total number of arrestees for all violent crimes combined, including murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Eighty-eight percent of those arrested were charged with possession only. Convicted marijuana offenders are denied federal financial student aid, welfare, and food stamps, and may be removed from public housing. In many cases, those convicted are automatically stripped of their driving privileges, even if the offense is not driving related. In several states, marijuana offenders may receive maximum sentences of life in prison. The cost to the taxpayer of enforcing marijuana prohibition is staggering--over $10 billion annually.

The harsh nature of punishments for marijuana offenses is even more disturbing if one considers the racial bias of the war on drugs. According to data collected by the National Household Survey, on an annual basis the overall difference between drug use by blacks and whites is quite narrow. However, a recent national study found that African-Americans are arrested for marijuana offenses at higher rates than whites in 90% of 700 U.S. counties investigated. In 64% of these counties, the African-American arrest rate for marijuana violations was more than twice the arrest rate for whites. Questions of racial bias affect the integrity of investigations, arrests, and prosecutorial discretion. If we truly aspire to the ideal of "Justice for All," then these unjust racial disparities are unacceptable outcomes for the American justice system.

The rationale for continuing this draconian policy of marijuana prohibition is unclear. Statistical evidence shows that marijuana use follows a pattern very similar to that of alcohol. Most marijuana users do so responsibly, in a safe, recreational context. These people lead normal, productive lives--pursuing careers, raising families, and participating in civic life. In addition, marijuana has proven benefits in the treatment of numerous diseases, such as providing a valuable means of pain management for terminally ill patients. In either of these contexts, there is no rational justification for criminally enforced prohibitions. These unnecessary arrests and incarcerations serve only to crowd prisons, backlog the judicial system, and distract law enforcement officials from pursuing terrorists and other violent criminals.

New Mexico's 2001 state-commissioned Drug Policy Advisory Group determined that marijuana decriminalization "will result in greater availability of resources to respond to more serious crimes without any increased risks to public safety." This finding is backed by the successful implementation of such policies in twelve states. The state governments of Alaska, California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, and Oregon approved these measures after the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse recommended that Congress adopt a national policy of marijuana decriminalization. A recent CNN/Time magazine poll indicates overwhelming public support for this approach, with 72% of Americans favoring fines as a maximum penalty for minor marijuana offenses, and 80% approving of marijuana used for medical purposes.

A Kucinich administration would work to implement a drug policy that removes responsible recreational users and medical users of marijuana from the criminal justice system, in order to redirect resources toward the following goals:

• Enforce penalties for those who provide marijuana to minors.
• Enforce penalties for those who endanger the rights of others through irresponsible use, such as driving under the influence.
• Develop drug treatment programs focused on rehabilitation, rather than incarceration.
• Support the efforts of state governments in developing innovative approaches to drug policy.
• Improve drug education by emphasizing science over scare tactics.
• Implement a Department of Justice program that would review the records of, and consider for sentence reduction or release, inmates convicted for non-violent marijuana offenses.

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Thats all I have at the moment, but its some interesting reading and it definitely shows that Kucinich has thoughtfully considered the issue of drugs and that he isn't afraid to state his views. Even though I disagree to some extent with his views on drugs, I think his perspective is a refreshing change from the rest of the field.