Pubdate: Thu, 14 Sep 2006
Source: Houston Chronicle (TX)
Copyright: 2006 Houston Chronicle Publishing Company Division, Hearst Newspaper
Contact:  http://www.chron.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/198
Author: Janet Elliott and Peggy Fikac
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

FRIEDMAN CALLS FOR DECRIMINALIZATION OF MARIJUANA

Does Kinky's Drug Past Matter To Voters?

AUSTIN - Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman today
called for the decriminalization of marijuana to avoid further
clogging state prisons with non-violent offenders.

He also said he would favor a review of people already imprisoned on
marijuana charges to "rehab them, try to get them back into society."

"We've got to clear some of the room out of the prisons so we can put
the bad guys in there, like the pedophiles and the politicians," said
Friedman, a humorist and author.

Friedman said he doesn't yet have specifics on how decriminalization
would work, including what amount of marijuana a person could possess
without being charged. He did say that he doesn't favor making
marijuana legally available for purchase.

"I'm not talking about like Amsterdam," he said.

"I agree with (U.S. Sen.) John McCain that we've lost the drug war,"
Friedman said. "Drugs are more available, they're cheaper.

"It's clear to me, if you've lost the war on drugs then you've got to
go some other direction. You can't keep banging your head against the
wall."

Friedman's comments on marijuana came one week after he created a
controversy in Houston when he said the musicians and artists who fled
Hurricane Katrina had returned to New Orleans but the "crackheads and
thugs" remained behind. He later added that many evacuees who remain
in Houston are good citizens.

The candidate said today that crack cocaine "is a different deal" from
marijuana.

"Marijuana is a very different situation. It's not like crack and
(other) drugs that create violence," he said.

Friedman discussed his prior cocaine use last week in an interview
with the Houston Chronicle and San Antonio Express-News. He also has
written extensively and talked freely about his cocaine use when he
was a satirical musician during the 1970s and early 1980s.

He said the deaths of two close friends spurred him to change his
lifestyle and he has not used illegal drugs since 1985, when he left
New York to return to Texas and began writing detective novels.

Friedman also added that while he knows most of the New Orleans
evacuees are black, "crackheads come in all colors of the rainbow. So
do racists."

"I'm not a racist. I'm a realist," said Friedman, adding that he is
the only gubernatorial candidate addressing the issue of crime in Houston.

Political scientist Bruce Buchanan of the University of Texas at
Austin said Friedman is "off the beaten path. There's no question
about that. That's his whole schtick."

"By traditional standards, we would all dismiss this out of hand,"
Buchanan said. But he said that "given the fluidity (of the governor's
race) ... we have to wait awhile. The die has not yet been cast."

"He's new to the political game. He's still thinking it through. He
still tends to say what he thinks whenever asked. And because of these
special circumstances, it might not undermine his candidacy yet,"
Buchanan said.

Mark Sanders, spokesman for independent gubernatorial candidate Carole
Keeton Strayhorn, said, "She is opposed to the legalization of illegal
drugs."

Robert Black, spokesman for incumbent Rick Perry, said, "The governor
does not agree with Kinky and does not believe marijuana should be
legalized."

Democrat Chris Bell also is not in favor of legalizing
marijuana.

"Drugs are illegal for a reason," said Bell's campaign manager, Jason
Stanford. "The last thing we need is to give kids the message that
drugs are OK. They pose a serious problem to our communities."

Libertarian candidate James Werner, however, said he would go further
than decriminalization and support the "legalization, taxation and
regulation of drugs in order to reduce the tremendous amount of crime
associated with drug use and distribution."

"It will be treated like alcohol," Werner said, adding that he would
start with marijuana and move toward legalization of all drugs.

Friedman also said he would like to put inmates to work outside the
confines of prison walls.

"Let them paint poor people's houses, fix up the state parks, things
like that," he said. "It would be good for them and good for us."
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