ACLU Backers Cheer Judge’s Drug Proposal

IRVINE —  Judge James P. Gray took his campaign to legalize heroin, marijuana and cocaine to a Sunday picnic where he was received as a courageous pioneer by about 60 assorted supporters of the American Civil Liberties Union.

“To some degree, it was preaching to the choir,” said the Orange County Superior Court judge of his audience in Irvine.

Gray has been taking his message to TV talk shows, service clubs and religious groups, and from what he hears, he senses a public groundswell that will force drugs to be legalized by the year 2000. “Then we will look back and wonder why we didn’t do it sooner,” he said.

So far, he said, he has received 200 letters, only 12 of them critical of his view that fighting the drug war is “flat-out hopeless” and that legalization is the only solution.

Gray’s audience Sunday included doctors and lawyers along with a mix of middle-class drug users and anti-government libertarians. The only critical questions came from those who worried about a black market in drugs for teen-agers. The subject is difficult, said Gray, admitting that youth would probably continue to use drugs illegally.

But most agreed with Gray that legalizing drugs would solve overcrowding in courts and jails, as well as the profiteering and violence that attends the illegal drug trade.

“The courts are jammed,” said Corona del Mar attorney Pat Herzog. “The justice system in general is close to breaking down with the numbers of drug cases that have to be processed.” However, she suggested that many employees of the justice system have a vested interest in the status quo.

In talking about his proposal, Gray said the United States is the laughingstock of Western Europeans for its “muscle approach” toward drugs. “We don’t address it as a medical problem, which it clearly is. We don’t address it as a social problem, which it clearly is.”

Meanwhile, constitutional rights are being compromised and money is being wasted on interdiction and prosecution, he said.

Gray pointed to the recent seizure of 8,500 pounds of cocaine, distributed from a home in Irvine. If convicted, he said, the 20 arrested suspects would each be sentenced to 20 years in keeping with federal mandates, at a cost of $8 million for their incarceration.

In addition to that expense, violent criminals are being released to make room for drug offenders, Gray said. “It makes no sense.”

Gray’s proposal would permit the sale of controlled substances to adults only through government stores. The packages would carry health warnings and not be advertised.

Doses that fetch $10 on the street would be sold for $2.50. “We can drive (dealers) out of the market,” he said. Proceeds would finance education and treatment that would include health, self-esteem and job training.

Law enforcement officials, however, have criticized Gray’s view as inappropriate and naive. Others have asked the state Judicial Performance Commission to investigate whether Gray’s opinions affect his impartiality on the bench. Gray said Sunday that he had received a letter from the commission saying he is not being investigated.

The diverse audience included some who normally would not attend an ACLU function.

Gloria Kordes, 65, of Anaheim Hills, described herself as a Republican and libertarian who believes fervently that government should stay out of people’s private lives. “It comes down to one thing,” she said regarding drugs: “The family has to teach children right from wrong.”

Others said they wanted only to be able to smoke pot without breaking the law. “It would be nice to be able to go to a store and buy a couple of joints for a party,” said Mike, a 40-year-old insurance salesman of Laguna Niguel, who asked his last name not be used.

One 74-year-old woman said she favors legalizing drugs because she remembers the bad old days of Prohibition.