Friends Of November Coalition Seeking Public Office

Since 1997 you've read in the Razor Wire about these grassroots organizers

Green Party Candidate Aaron Dixon Denounces War On Drugs In Bid For US Senate From Washington State

Washington State voters in November will decide if Democratic incumbent Senator Maria Cantwell has earned another term in DC. A retired Safeco Insurance executive, Mike McGavick, is the Republican Party's hopeful replacement for Cantwell. Both individuals are millionaires, support current drug war laws, and approve of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Green Party candidate Aaron Dixon has little campaign money and condemns US military adventurism along with drug war laws. "Like US foreign policy, the war on drugs is failed public policy. Years of prohibitionist laws have only served the interests of organized crime, police organizations and politicians who appeal to public fears about drugs," Dixon has written in campaign materials.

As a young adult in the late 1960s, Dixon was Captain of the Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP). He served breakfasts to hungry children, advocated for high school students' rights, and helped open a free medical clinic still treating sick and needy people today.

After the BPP, Dixon developed nonprofit programs for preventing drug and gang violence in the Seattle area. In 2002 he helped open Central House, transitional housing for youth on the streets.

"International drug prohibition laws fail to halt a half a trillion a year global trade. From 19th century Chinese opium wars, into the opium fields in the 1960s Burmese Golden Triangle, to the farms of poppy growers in Afghanistan 2006, I speak out against this historical linkage of imperial wars and illegal drug trafficking. Striking down drug prohibition laws in Mexico, along with Western Hemispheric support for Mexican self-determination, will in the long run reduce profit motive to smuggle illegal drugs into our country," Dixon writes.

For more information on Green Party alternatives to current drug laws and policy: www.aarondixon.org -- www.wagreens.us -- www.gp.org

Green Party's Kevin Zeese Seeks Maryland US Senate Seat

"I'm running for U.S. Senate because the two major parties no longer represent the interests of most Americans. A recent poll described in the July 16th Economist asked voters if they thought elected officials represented their priorities. Only 17 percent said yes. And, if we look at the policies being put in place by those in office, we repeatedly see that the American people are correct -- their views are unrepresented," says Kevin Zeese on his Internet site's home page.

Working as an attorney and community activist, Zeese has accumulated years of experience exposing and challenging drug war injustice in public forums and courtrooms. Reflecting his campaign stance on alternative drug laws is a link to Justice Maryland, "the only statewide coalition advocating for racially just, cost-efficient and truly effective reforms to Maryland's criminal justice system."

Justice Maryland insists government will not reap the benefit of public safety reforms until "it provides a targeted and ever-increasing influx of funds aimed at obliterating the treatment gap and removes barriers to the democratic participation for ex-offenders attempting to take responsibility for their families and their communities."

Called the "Midnight" candidate, Zeese has been showing up to talk with "graveyard" shift workers at convenience stores and bars. A goal of his campaign has been to reach voters who are ignored by most candidates. A 55-year-old clerk told Zeese, "We need somebody that's going to stand here and listen to you and not blow you off when he walks through the door," one clerk said.

(Sources: www.treatnotjail.com and www.kevinzeese.com. Zeese's extensive record battling punitive drug laws is available online at Common Sense for Drug Policy www.csdp.org.)

Cliff Thornton Running Green For Governor

Green Party candidate Cliff Thornton is making the reform of drug war laws a major issue in the upcoming Connecticut gubernatorial campaign. The Green Party of the United States has a plank in its platform favoring the use of medical marijuana. The Norwich Bulletin (CT) reported June 26 that Clifford Thornton, 61, is the first African-American to run for governor of Connecticut.

"All great truths start as blasphemy," said Thornton. "The war on drugs is meant to be waged, not won." He insists the Federal government should not arrest any patient who uses medical marijuana for a serious illness, especially those living in the eleven states now allowing such use.

Thornton said that there is no evidence that the billions spent on prisons and other facets of the drug war have yielded success. "That's money that could have been spent on education, transportation, infrastructure, housing, economic development, and myriad other programs," he said.

"Do you know what the definition of insanity is? It's doing the same thing over and over again, and each time expecting to get a different result," Thornton said. "The war on drugs isn't working, but we keep fighting it. That's insanity."

There's also a racial component to the drug war that must be addressed, he said. "Seventy percent of the people in jail on drug charges are minorities. And 70 percent of the drug overdoses are white people," Thornton said. "The drug problem is in the headlines every day. And where are we seeing the problem? In the poor, mostly minority, inner-city areas."

More on Thornton's drug war views and founding of the Efficacy organization: www.efficacy-online.org, plus his campaign website at www.votethornton.com

Libertarian Party's Loretta Nall Wants To Be Alabama's Governor

Loretta Nall learned about the war on drugs the hard way -- by being warred upon. "Drug policy is a huge part of my campaign, and I don't back away from it. After all, I got my start from the cops kicking down my door," Loretta Nall says repeatedly in her Libertarian Party campaign to become Alabama's Governor.

Referring to the minor pot bust that started her down the path to activism. "I work it into all my speeches; it's the first thing I talk about in candidate forums. Because the drug war is so pervasive, I can connect it with all sorts of issues."

"Drug policy is an area where sin has been confused with crime, and moral imposition by force has given rise to the persecution of millions of non-violent Americans who choose to smoke a joint as opposed to drink a beer after a long days work," Nall says on her website. "Marijuana should be legal, period."

Alabama punishes her citizens more harshly for simply possessing some plant material for personal use than do most other states. "If I am elected governor, one of the first things I'll do is fight to stop the police state from taking the private behavior of otherwise law-abiding citizens and turning it into a statewide disaster," Nall argues.

"I will do that by proposing we set up a system similar to alcohol and tobacco to regulate the sale of marijuana to adults' age 21 and older. Marijuana is Alabama's largest cash crop, and our state could benefit from this huge untapped financial resource in many ways," insists candidate Nall.

Loretta's biography, campaign platform, and her other ideas for Alabama: www.nallforgovernor.com

Democrat Roger Goodman Runs For Washington State House Seat In 45th District

Attorney and criminal justice policy expert Roger Goodman is running for the State House seat vacated by Rep.Toby Nixon in the 45th Legislative District.

He currently directs the King County Bar Association's Drug Policy Project, which has assembled a large and influential professional and civic coalition working to reduce crime, improve health and save public money through better drug laws.

"I have a record of bridging differences and finding practical solutions and I'll rise above the partisan bickering to get that done," wrote Goodman at his Internet site. A Harvard-trained policy analyst, he brings impressive credentials to the race, including significant stints as a Congressional chief of staff and legislative director in Washington, D.C.

As a legislator, Goodman will focus on his record of exposing and reforming drug war policies. He has helped publish major reports on prison capacity and sentencing policy. In the last several years Roger has worked for the King County Bar Association on a ground-breaking initiative to take a critical look at our failed drug laws and to promote cheaper, more effective and more humane alternatives.

"It is time we took a serious look at how our criminal justice dollars are spent so we focus primarily on crimes against persons and property instead of squandering huge sums on a punitive approach toward the mentally ill and the addicted, an approach that research has clearly shown to be counterproductive," writes Goodman.

For more information on King County Bar Association's Drug Policy Project online: www.kcba.org/ScriptContent/KCBA/druglaw/index.cfm. To learn more about Goodman's campaign for public office: www.voterogergoodman.com