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President's Message: Convention Highlights
League Receives ABA Award
Hawaii Coalition Against Legalized Gambling (HCALG) (Grace Furukawa)
National Convention (Marianna Scheffer)
League Attends Special Drug Policy Forum Event (Suzanne Meisenzahl)
Whither Goes Our Republic? (Jean Aoki)
Sad News (Carol Whitesell)
Explanation Worth Considering (Valere McFarland)
Voter Owned Elections (Kory Payne)
On Voting and Not Voting (Carol Bain)
Other Voting Facts
BOE Election (Mary Anne Raywid)
Report of Convention 2006 Action (Sue Irvine)
Growing Movement for National Election of President (Jean Aoki)
Chapter Report - Kauai (Carol Bain)
Chapter Report - Honolulu (Piilani Kaopuiki)
Chapter Report - Hawaii (Marianna Scheffer)

League Attends Special Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii Event

On Saturday, June 3, James P. Gray, Superior Court Judge in Orange County, and author, spoke at an event sponsored by the Drug Policy forum of Hawaii. As representatives of Hawaii's current drug policy, Duke Aiona, Lt. Governor; U.S. Attorney Ed Kubo; and Prosecutor Peter Carlisle were invited to debate Judge Gray. All declined.

Judge Gray has served as a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles and as a criminal defense attorney of the JAG Corps in the Navy. He was a candidate for the United States Senate in 2004. He has discussed issues of drug policy on more than one hundred radio and TV shows and numerous drug forums around the country.

His book, published by Temple University Press, Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It - A Judicial Indictment of the War on Drugs is the culmination of his experience, which has convinced him that our nation's program of drug prohibition was not simply a failure, but a hopeless failure. He maintains that it is time for a new approach to reduce drug use and abuse and the criminal misery that goes with it.

According to Judge Gray, prohibition never works as well as regulation and control. "Let's not moralize, let's manage drugs and design a new policy where we can save money on eradication, investigation, prosecution and incarceration." He suggested taxes could be collected, drugs would be less available to our children, (drug dealers don't ask kids for identification), and the hemp industry could be revitalized. Do you know that four times the paper pulp can be made from one acre of hemp compared to one acre of trees?

Judge Gray's book is available in the League office and representatives of the Drug Policy Forum of Hawaii were in the office at noon on Tuesday July 25 to offer more information on this topic as League considered a study in this area.

Suzanne Meisenzahl
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