Pubdate: Mon, 15 May 2006
Source: Hour, The (CT)
Copyright: The Hour 2006
Contact: (203)840-1802
Website: http://www.thehour.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3245
Author: Patrick R. Linsey, Norwalk Hour Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Cliff+Thornton (Cliff Thornton)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

GREEN PARTY CANDIDATE CLIFF THORNTON IS RUNNING WITH A DIFFERENT MESSAGE

Connecticut's more familiar candidates for governor are campaigning 
on platforms of job growth, property tax relief and transportation 
infrastructure. Green Party candidate Cliff Thornton is running with 
a different message: Legalize it. "I've been waiting for the last 10 
years for someone to step forward who's going to really talk about 
the issues," said Thornton. "None of the politicians that are running 
will talk about anything worthwhile."

Thornton, 61, lives in Glastonberry and is a frequent speaker at 
forums dealing with drug enforcement issues and the drug war. 
Marijuana should be legalized, he said, and heroin maintenance 
introduced for drug addicts. And Thornton doesn't stop there. "I also 
want to see the medicalization of heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, 
ecstasy and the decriminalization of all the rest of the illegal 
drugs for future debate and true and honest medicinal study." 
Thornton is neither a hippie nor a drug addict, and said his argument 
for legalizing dangerous and addictive drugs is on firm ground.

"In the last 15 years, Connecticut has spent a billion dollars on 
prisons alone, at the expense of education in this state," he said. 
The drug war is sucking dry state coffers, said Thornton, at the 
expense of other, vital programs."Many people will say 'you're a 
one-issue candidate,'" Thornton said. "That's not true. The drug war 
is two degrees from everything." Connecticut's drinking and waste 
water infrastructures need billions of dollars in investment in 
coming decades, he said. So, too, do the state's roads, bridges and 
schools. Thornton also believes in universal health care. But those 
programs would come at tremendous cost. The best source, he said, is 
money now funding the drug war, including law enforcement, courts and 
prisons. "We've got to understand that the drug war is meant to be 
waged, not won," said Thornton.

"We're talking about almost a hundred years of drug prohibition and 
almost four decades of the drug war and yet there's more drugs on the 
street at cheaper prices than ever before." Drug users should be put 
on maintenance programs, he said. "These illegal drugs are not a law 
enforcement problem, they're a public health problem," said Thornton. 
"(Addicts should) come under medical supervision. The dosage is 
stabilized." Thornton bristled at the notion his plan equates to 
giving up on drug users. "Build a society that causes the least 
amount of harm to people who use these drugs and causes the least 
amount of drugs as a whole," Thornton said. "It's not the drugs so 
much that's harming them. It's the drug policies that are harming them."

The Green Party officially nominated Thornton on Earth Day, April 22. 
With two established Democrats already challenging a popular 
Republican incumbent, Thornton's chances of victory are remote. 
Stamford Mayor Dannel Malloy and New Haven Mayor John DeStefano head 
to the Democratic State Convention in Hartford this weekend, in their 
quest to defeat Gov. M. Jodi Rell. "My main goal in this campaign is 
to reach the tens of thousands of people in this state who think they 
don't have a voice or can't make a difference," Thornton said. "My 
goal in this campaign is to have a strong, viable third party."