Pubdate: Fri, 17 Nov 2000
Source: Texas Observer (TX)
Copyright: 2000 The Texas Observer
Section: Political Intelligence
Contact:  307 West 7th Street, Austin, Texas 78701
Website: http://www.texasobserver.org/

WAR OVER, DRUGS WIN

As has been frequently observed, regardless of who wins the White House, we 
will have a past recreational drug user overseeing the federal Drug War, 
which is now more punitive and heavily financed than at any time in history.

Both have vowed to continue the war; at press time we are just waiting to 
see which one it will be.

But  a ballot initiative in California  put  the Drug War itself to a vote, 
and drugs won. Or rather, the taxpayers, drug addicts, and the U.S. 
Constitution won. Proposition 36, a voter initiative placed on the ballot 
by petition, mandates treatment instead of incarceration for first- and 
second-time non-violent drug offenders in  the state.

Supporters estimate it will divert about 37,000 people a year from jail to 
treatment, and state budget authorities project the state will eventually 
save between $100 and $150 million per year in incarceration costs, the San 
Jose Mercury News reported. The measure is also expected to forestall the 
construction of a new, $450 million prison in California. Support for the 
initiative was funded in large part by investor George Soros, together with 
John Sperling, chairman of the University of Phoenix, and Peter Lewis, the 
chairman of Progressive Insurance in Cleveland. Soros also funded 
California's medical marijuana initiative, which has effectively legalized 
simple possession in much of the state.

The billionaire investor has been a major thorn in the side of the federal 
drug warriors, as evidenced by the disgustingly fascinating transcript of a 
phone conversation between outgoing drug czar Barry McCaffrey and former 
New York Times columnist Abe Rosenthal (recently obtained and reprinted by 
Harper's Magazine), in which the two commiserate over Soros' successes and 
discuss whether and how he ought to be punished by the White House.

Also in California, residents of Mendocino County can now grow up to 25 
marijuana plants on their own property, following the passage of a local 
proposition in that northern coastal county.

Of course, state and federal laws still prohibit this, but growers will no 
longer be troubled be local law enforcement, it seems.

A considerable portion of the economy of the county comes from the sale of 
premium marijuana, for which the area is world famous.
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MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager