Pubdate: Sun, 04 May 2003
Source: Sacramento Bee (CA)
Copyright: 2003 The Sacramento Bee
Contact:  http://www.sacbee.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/376
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Judge+Gray

AT RALLY, JUDGE CALLS DRUG WAR 'HOPELESS'

Reno (AP) - A Superior Court judge sharply criticized the drug war and 
renewed his call for the decriminalization of marijuana at a pro-marijuana 
rally Saturday.

Judge James Gray of Orange County, Calif., said the drug war has cost 
billions of dollars and resulted in the United States having the world's 
highest incarceration rate -- with no end in sight to rampant drug abuse.

The former federal prosecutor said he has never smoked marijuana, but 
supports the strictly controlled distribution of pot to adults.

"We have made an illness into a plague. (This is) a failed and hopeless 
system," Gray said.

"I believe people should be entitled to do what they want to their bodies, 
but that they should be held accountable," he added.

Gray, 58, a lifelong Republican until he became a Libertarian earlier this 
year, has been a judge for 19 years. He's the author of "Why Our Drug Laws 
Have Failed and What We Can Do About It."

More than 60 people attended the "Rally for Cannabis Liberation" at Reno's 
Idlewild Park.

The rally was sponsored by Cures not Wars, a pro-marijuana group that was 
to hold similar rallies around the country this weekend.

Group spokeswoman Michelle Buck of Reno said the purpose of the rally was 
to raise awareness that tens of thousands of Americans are in prisons for 
non-violent drug crimes.

Of particular concern, she said, are thousands who have been arrested for 
legally or illegally supplying medical marijuana.

Some people held signs that read "Free Ed Rosenthal." The Oakland, Calif., 
man's arrest last year was among a string of federal raids of medical 
marijuana suppliers in California.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom