Pubdate: Fri, 25 Oct 2013
Source: Colorado Independent (CO)
Author: Shelby Kinney-Lang

BEYOND POT: DRUG REFORMERS DEMAND END OF CRIMINALIZATION

Activists at the International Drug Policy Reform Conference took
to the streets of Denver on Thursday, demanding an end to the drug
war.

DENVER - The stage was set and the crowd felt as if the world was 
watching. Ethan Nadelmann is the founder and executive director of the 
Drug Policy Alliance, which is hosting its annual International Drug 
Policy Reform Conference in Denver this week. He took the stage on 
Thursday in a Sheraton Hotel conference room, one of a half dozen 
speakers to kick off the three day conference.

"We're not just a movement for legalizing marijuana, not just a
movement about reducing incarceration," Nadelmann declaimed to the
cheering crowd. They are a movement about ending the massive human
rights violations they see as a product of the war on drugs, he said,
and the crowd cheered.

Rev. Edwin Sanders said the drug war is nothing but the mask
representing "all the stuff we hate." The drug war is the mask of
racism, the mask of sexism, the mask of homophobia, and "one of the
things we're going to do is take off the mask!" The war on drugs was a
misnomer for a war against people who used drugs, he said, adding that
it was time the movement ended the war.

The room was packed. The attendees were eager, bustling and diverse -
female and male, dreadlocked and tattooed, business-suited and
cowboy-hatted, young and old, Spanish-speaking, English-speaking,
people in wheel chairs, South American, European, black, white,
Latino, advocates, experts, professionals, users. They were the face
of the movement and reach of the conference. They gave standing
ovations to the speakers during the opening remarks.

The estimated 1000-person event has come to Denver in part because of
Colorado's passage of Amendment 64 last year. Along with Washington
and Uruguay - which is edging closer to legalizing marijuana -
Nadelmann praised Coloradans for their leadership, but apologized as
well. Colorado would have to be a tightly regulated machine to show
the country that legalization can work.

"We are the people that love drugs, we are the people that hate drugs,
and we are the people that don't give a damn about drugs, but every
one of us thinks the war on drugs is wrong, wrong, wrong," he said,
and the crowd cheered.

The war on the drug war spilled into the streets during a "No More Drug
War: Block Party and Victory Walk" along the 16th Street Mall. Around
100 protestors with signs marched to Skyline Park, chanting "No More
Drug War" and "No more war on people."

One of the marchers was Gary West, a community organizer with the San
Francisco Drug User's Union.

"I just joined to meet women," he joked. West has been with his
organization for four years. He said he was grateful for the job, and
didn't know where he'd be if he wasn't involved with the union. He had
worked for all sorts of companies, including private security, before
he received an injury "you don't recover from."

A few of West's coworkers were at the head of the march down the mall,
holding a banner that read "Drug Users Have Rights Too!" He believed
it was time to stop obeying oppressive laws, and to start to resist.
Reformers danced to music at the park, lunched in the grass, and
listened to slam poetry.

According to one panelist who had been conscripted to help with the
victory walk, the protesters didn't have a noise permit. Their
chanting echoed off the buildings in downtown Denver, and many
bystanders looked on as the procession passed. However, the police
that tailed the parade from the Sheraton did not interfere. At least
seven police officers watched the event at the park, yawning and
talking to one another. Earlier in the day, Congressman Jared Polis
was one of the speakers. Like many at the conference, he lauded the
recent Gallup Poll that found a majority of Americans are in favor of
legalizing pot. He urged the crowd to do some "homework" and call
their elected officials in order to get them to co-sponsor the bill he
introduced: House Bill H.R.499, Ending Federal Marijuana Prohibition
Act of 2013. Those who oppose legalization are on the wrong side of
history, he said. "Where public opinion goes, so goes opportunistic
politicians."

Nadelmann looked forward to a time when the nation had legalized 
marijuana, but said the struggle would not end even then. He hoped
the attendees would not wash their hands of being drug policy reformers, 
and even if the war on drugs were won, there were other
"evils" to be tackled: racism, xenophobia, ignorance, and prejudice.
The movement was a movement toward freedom.

He said he kept returning to a prayer relevant not only to those
people hanging on to sobriety every day, but everyone. As he spoke it,
some in the crowd said it along with him: "Grant us the serenity to
accept the things we cannot change, the courage to change the things
we can, and the wisdom to know the difference."
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt