Education

We all know where are failing schools are. The New Milford School System of course has its faults but no one can say it is in crisis. No, the failing schools are in our cities. The prescription is variously to institute more testing, fire more teachers and adminsitrators for bad performance, longer school hours and all the rest. But this assumes that some mysterious reason, all the most ineffective teachers and administrators are drawn to the inner cities like moths to a flame. The reality is that the school can only do so much to outshine the neighborhood it is situated in. Lets reduce crime and violence in the neighborhoods and school performance will increase. Few say this because it is a lot nicer to talk about education than crime and violence.

Moldy Cheese

If you see mold on your cheese you might think you can just cut it out and eat the rest. However, you have just cut out the fruiting body, the invisible filaments have burrowed deep into the cheese. So it is with drug policy, its effects burrow deep and expensively into all aspects of society including prison, family stability, education, taxes, jobs and health care.

In case anyone asks, the Mayo Clinic on moldy cheese

The Global Economy

Thirty years ago this did not exist to the extent it does today. Two things have driven it, government policy and communicatons such as the Internet. As regards government policy, as in all foreign policy initiatives, there is a mixture of altruism and self interest. The altruism is in the sense that global markets and free trade can potentially benefit everybody and the self interest is in that, with the US being one of the best places to do business, it would benefit more than most. Jobs and investment would flow more to the US. However the self interest part is a double edged sword, it only works to the extent that the US is one of the best places to do business. If other countries up their game, which they have, we could find the jobs and investment flowing away. What in effect has happened is the world is more slippery and well lubricated, jobs and investment flow easily and quickly to where best business climate is to be found. What this means is that impediments to business, that we got away with in the past, will now lead to jobs and money fleeing the state. Taxes without services is an impediment to business like no other. Taxes that result in services are fine. Services include education, infrastructure improvements, research and development assistance, all things that make a state attractive to business. However Connecticut has a good line in taxes withour services. Prison is not a service that business or the general public can use. Chasing drug dealers also is not a service. That is why these policies must be reformed now, whereas in the good old days we could have and did get away with it.

Portugal 3, Italy 1

What does Portugal do pretty well, the Italians sort of do and the Dutch no more than also rans. Its not soccer, but drug policy.
Since 2001 in Portugal has had a policy where drug users are never put in jail, but are put in front of a tribunal whose purpose is to dissuade the user from drug use and get into treatment if necessary
Time Magazine Article

Some will say that that might work in a small country like Portugal, but not in the US. But we are not talking about the US, we are talking about Connecticut, population 3.5 million compared with Portugal population 11.5 million. It was the intent of the Founding Fathers that each state should be able to become a laboratory to try out ideas, which if successful could be subsequently spread to the whole country. However in Connecticut we have to go further. In Porugal as in most of Europe, gun crime is much lower and so is the violence associated with the drug trade.
The violence associated with the drug trade in this country has a huge economic impact.For this reason alone we must consider providing heroin and cocaine to addicts to avoid them getting it on the street. This is pragmatism. They are going to get it anyway and cost the rest of us money in the process. The drug trade is a millstone around our necks and we do not need millstones right now.

The Rebecca Payne Memorial Tennis Tournament

This event will take place at the Rebecca Payne Memorial Tennis Courts at Youngs Field October 9th 10th and 11th, the Columbus Day weekend. It will consist of Mens and Womens Singles and Doubles, for serious players, a fun Round Robin for those who cannot remember the last time they picked up a racket (if ever) and a Kids Tournament on the Monday. It will benefit the National Athletic Trainers Association Rebecca Payne Scholarship Fund which when fully endowed will give $2,000 annually to a student from the New England area studying Athletic Training. To be clear this is NOT a fundraiser for the Green Party or my candidacy, but I just wanted to let you know about it. Information at Rebecca Payne Tennis Tournament
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Debate Wednesday 6th October, Library

There will be a debate between Clark Chapin and myself at 7pm in the upstairs room at the Library. This is your opportunity to get your questions answered. The debate is being sponsored by the Housatonic Times

Is Prison a Drug?

In some neighborhouds one in 9 men is in prison. Let me put this simply. This means that there are 9 women to 8 men and human nature takes over, leading to unstable fanilies and children likely to grow up to be offenders themselves. So imprisoning people now means that we will have plenty of hoodlums to imprison in 2030 and imprisoning people next year means that we will have plenty more in 2031. Now there is no choice but to imprison violent crimainals, but in doing so we ensure that we must continue to do so. Just like a drug we must take it to feel good now, but in doing so we continue to feed our addiction. And we are getting more addicted, the prison population was 3,500 in 1980, but 19,000+ now. Some modest efforts have been made which have perhaps reduced the population by a 1,000 or so. However after the Cheshire home invasion, Governor Rell, and you have to sympathize with her, put a hold on the parole system, that left 300 people in prison who would have otherwise been out. Just like an addict having a bad day, we had a relapse. What we need is a "circuit breaker" to stop this endless cycle. Reforming drug policy is a big part of that. It does not fit neatly into a "sound bite", but the Green Party emphasizes sound thinking, not sound bites.