Resolution for a Federal Commission on Drug Policy

RESOLUTION

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 revision of the drug laws of these United States in order to reduce the harm our current policies are causing.

Name: __________________________________________

Title: ____________________________________________

Organization: _______________________________________

Address: _________________________________________

City: ______________________ State: ____ Zip: ___________

Please send to: C. A. Schaffer, P.O. Box 1430, Canyon Country, CA 91386

and send to: President Bill Clinton, White House, Washington, DC

Make copies and encourage your friends to do the same.

Partial List of Signers

Dr. Milton Friedman            Nobel laureate; Professor Emeritus of
                               Economics, University of Chicago; Senior
                               Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford,
                               CA

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 recognized
                               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.,        Psychiatrist, Executive Director, Bi-Valley
A.B.P.N.                       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 Cardiothoracic
                               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

*Kurt L . Schmoke              Mayor, City of Baltimore, Maryland

*George Shultz                 Former Secretary of State; Fellow, Hoover
                               Institution, Stanford, CA

Frank Jordan                   Mayor, City of San Francisco, CA

Susan Hammer                   Mayor, City of San Jose, CA

Elihu Harris                   Mayor, City of Oakland, CA

Robert R. Nolan                Mayor, City of Upland, CA

Assemblyman John Vasconcellos  Chairman, Committee on Ways and Means,
                               California State Assembly

Senator Rebecca Q. Morgan      California State Senate

Representative Greg R.         M.P.H., Hawaii House of Representatives
Buckwalter

Senator Joseph Galiber         New York State Senate

Marc Martin                    Fire Chief, Fullerton Fire Department,
                               Fullerton, CA

Arlo Smith Esq.                District Attorney, San Francisco, CA

Harriett M. Wieder             County Supervisor, County of Orange, CA

Emma Bonino                    Deputy Speaker, Italian Chamber of Deputies;
                               Secretary, Radical Trans-National Party, Rome,
                               Italy

Alan H. Dodds                  Foreign Service Officer (Retired), U.S.
                               Department of State

James J. Gormley               Foreign Service Officer (Retired), U.S.
                               Department of State

Jim Toledano                   Former Regent, University of California

J. Tilman Williams             Councilman (Retired), Garden Grove, CA

Daniel H. Ninburg, M.D.        Commissioner, Orange County Human Relations
                               Commission, Orange County, CA

Mike A. Nisperos, Jr., Esq.    Director, Mayor's Office of Drugs and Crime,
                               Oakland, CA

Ellen Lorman                   Deputy City Attorney, Children and Family
                               Services, San Francisco, CA

Senator Marian Bergeson        California State Senate

Thomas F. Riley                Orange County Board of Supervisors, Orange
                               County, CA

Senator Robert Presley         California State Senate

Anne Rudin                     Former Mayor, 1981-1993, Sacramento, CA

Donald M. Fraser               Mayor, Minneapolis, MN

Illa Collin                    Sacramento County Supervisor, Sacramento, CA

William Von Raab*              Former Commissioner of Customs under Presidents
                               Reagan and Bush, Orange, VA

Anthony Ribera                 Chief of Police, San Francisco, CA

Lou Cobarruviaz                Chief of Police, San Jose, CA

Bob Nichelini                  Acting Chief of Police, Oakland, CA

Michael Hennessey              Sheriff, City and County of San Francisco, CA

Nicolas Pastore                Chief of Police, New Haven, CT

Alfred Blumstein, Ph.D.        Carnegie-Mellon Foundation; Pres. Amer
                               Association of Criminologists

Robert G. Le Conte             President, National Association of Veteran
                               Police Officers, Austin, TX

**Central Conference of        Contact: Rabbi Joseph B. Glaser, New York, NY
American Rabbis

California Democratic Council  Rita Hodgkins, President, Sacramento, CA

The Libertarian Party of       Washington, DC
America

San Francisco Drug Advisory Board, San Francisco, CA

Berkeley City Council          Berkeley, CA

Board of Directors, California Academy of Family Physicians

The California Society of Addiction Medicine

The Cbief of Police and the entire staff of the District Attorney's Office in
Rotterdam, the Netherlands

The entire stafff of the San Bernardino County Probation Department

Twenty-three chaplains from Rikers Island Prison in New York

Michael L. Sorg                Former Police Chief, San Clemente, CA

R. H. Hessing                  Chief of Police, Rotterdam, Holland

T. Reitsma                     Police Chief, Rotterdam, Ruenmond, Holland

Nancy Foutts                   (Former) Supervisory Patrol Officer, US Customs
                               Service, Orange County Grand Jury, Garden
                               Grove, CA

Gregory L. Morgon              Lieutenant, Los Angeles County Sheriff's
                               Department, Los Angeles, CA

Sidney Mills                   Captain (Retired) Los Angeles County Police
                               Department, Los Angeles, CA

Joel Fort, M.D.                Former Director, National Instiute on Mental
                               Health

Mario Lap                      Netherlands Institute on Alcohol and Drugs

Nia Van Oosten                 Netherlands Institute on Alcohol and Drugs

Frans Jansen                   Netherlands Institute on Alcohol and Drugs

Melvyn L. Sterling, M.D.       President, Orange County Medical Association,
                               Orange, CA

Frank Amato, M.D.              Past President, Orange County Medical
                               Association, Orange, CA

Jonathan Weisbuch, M.D., MPH   Medical Director, Department of Health
                               Services, County of Los Angeles; Delegate of
                               the American Medical Association, Los Angeles,
                               CA

Reverend Bruce Larson          Co-Pastor of the Crystal Cathedral, Garden
                               Grove, CA

Father Joseph Ganssle          OFM, President, Religious Coalition for a Moral
                               Drug Policy, Denver, CO

Pastor Andrew L. Gunn          President, Clergy for an Enlightened Drug
                               Policy, St. Luke's United Methodist Church,
                               Washington, DC

Marjorie H. Cherry             District Chief, Jail Mental Health Services,
                               Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health

Russel C. Ewing, M.D.          Former President, Orange County Medical
                               Association, Santa Ana, CA

Harold Amer, M.D.              Director, Pediatric Critical Care, Cedars-Sinai
                               Medical Center, Beverly Hills, CA

Joseph R. Rowan                President and CEO, Criminal and Juvenile
                               Justice International, Roseville, MN