From the Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet) - Rapid Response Team

---

On February 26, 1993 a group of concerned citizens met at the Hoover Institution on the campus of Stanford University and unanimously passed a resolution which recommends that our country investigate the possibility of change in the way we handle our drug problem. The Resolution, which recommends that these medical and social problems be treated with medical and social solutions, is attached hereto. It further recommends that one final blue ribbon commission be immediately empowered by the President to recommend revisions of the drug laws of these United States to reduce the harm caused by this drug problem. The original signers of the Resolution, who are known as the National Coalition for Drug Policy Change, are as follows:

• Dr. Milton Friedman - Nobel laureate; Professor Emeritus of Chicago; Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford, CA
• George Shultz - Former Secretary of State; Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford, CA
• Kurt L. Schmoke - Mayor, City of Baltimore, Maryland
• Dr. Joseph D. McNamara - Former Police Chief of San Jose; Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford, CA
• Herbert Berger, M.D. - F.A.C.P.; F.C.C.P.; Internationally recog- nized authority on drug treatment, Staten Island, NY
• Judge James P. Gray - Orange County Superior Court, Santa Ana, CA
• Katherine H. Smith - Founder, Group Resolving Anti-Social Problems (GRASP), Anaheim, CA
• S. Clarke Smith, M.D. - F.A.A.F.P.; Board of Directors, California Academy of Family Physicians, Anaheim, CA
• Clifford A. Schaffer - Author; Computer Consultant, Canyon Country, CA
• Frederick H. Meyers, M.D. - Professor of Pharmacology, University of California at San Francisco; Chairman of the California Research Advisory Panel on Drugs
• Harvey L. Rose, M.D. - Author of California's "Intractable Pain Treatment Act"; Family Practice, Carmichael, CA
• John J. McCarthy, M.D./A.B.P.N. - Psychiatrist, Executive Director, Bi-Valley Medical Clinic, Sacramento, CA
• Gary Davis, M.D. - Diplomate in Psychiatry, A.B.P.N., American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology, Citrus Heights, CA
• Benson B. Roe, M.D. - Professor and Chief Emeritus of Cardio- thoracic Surgery, University of California at San Francisco, CA
• Stephen A. Fisher, M.D. - Diplomate in Psychiatry, A.B.P.N., American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology, Berkeley, CA
• Reverend Leonard B. Jackson - First A.M.E. Church of Los Angeles, CA
• Reverend J. D. Moore - First A.M.E. Church of Los Angeles, CA
• Donald McNamara - Investment Consultant, New York, NY
• Richard Arthur - Educator; Former Principal of Castlemont High School, Oakland, CA; Author of "Gangs and Schools", Richmond, CA
• Richard "Gibb" Martin - Owner, Marbros Construction Co., Garden Grove, CA
• Howard Lavine - Office of the Mayor, Baltimore, MD

                       Judge James P. Gray 
                       Orange County Superior Court 
                       700 Civic Center Drive West 
                       Santa Ana, CA 92701 

You might also wish to send signed copies to:
 
                       President William J. Clinton 
                       1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW 
                       Washington, DC 20500 
  
                       Dr. Lee P. Brown 
                       Office of National Drug Control Policy 
                       725 17th St., NW 
                       Washington, DC 20503 

            RESOLUTION FOR A FEDERAL COMMISSION ON DRUG POLICY

 
Whereas, the overall situation regarding the use of drugs in our society and
   the crime and misery that accompanies it has continued to deteriorate for
   several decades; and
 
Whereas, our society has continued to attempt, at enormous financial cost,
   and loss of civil liberties, to resolve drug abuse problems through the
   criminal justice system, with the accompanying increases of prisons and
   numbers of inmates; and
 
Whereas, the huge untaxed revenues generated by the illicit drug trade are
   undermining legitimate governments world-wide; and
    
Whereas, the present system has spawned a cycle of hostility by the
   incarceration of disproportionate numbers of African-Americans, Hispanics,
   and other minority groups; and
 
Whereas, the number of people who have contracted AIDS, hepatitis, and other
   diseases from contaminated hypodermic needles is epidemic under our
   present system; and
 
Whereas, in our society's zeal to pursue our criminal approach, legitimate
   medical uses for the relief of pain and suffering of patients have been
   suppressed.
 
Therefore be it resolved that our society must recognize drug use and abuse
   as the medical and social problems that they are and that they must be
   treated with medical and social solutions; and
    
Further be it resolved that an objective commission be immediately empowered
   by the President and by Congress to recommend the revision of drug laws of
   these United States in order to reduce the harm our current policies are
   causing.
 

Name _____________________________________________________________ 

Address ____________________________________________________________ 

Title ______________________________________________________________ 

Organization _______________________________________________________ 

Signature __________________________________________________________ 

 
Return signed petitions to: 

            Judge James P. Gray 
            Orange County Superior Court 
            700 Civic Center Drive West 
            Santa Ana, CA 92701 

Copy of petition on separate page for printing

Source: Drug Reform Coordination Network
P.O. Box 381813, Cambridge, MA 02238-1813, USA
(617) 648-2655, Fax: (617) 648-2713
E-mail: drcnet@netcom.com

Other Drug Resources on the Net

A Cannabis page ... and Jill's Drug Page