Resolution for a Federal Commission on Drug Policy

Introduction

On February 26, 1993 a group of concerned citizens met at the Hoover Institution on the campus of Stanford University and unanimously passed a resolution which recommends that our country investigate the possibility of change in the way we handle our drug problem. The Resolution, which recommends that these medical and social problems be treated with medical and social solutions, is attached hereto. It further recommends that one final blue ribbon commission be immediately empowered by the President to recommend revisions of the drug laws of these United States to reduce the harm caused by this drug problem. The original signers of the Resolution, who are known as the National Coalition for Drug Policy Change, are as follows:

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

*Unable to attend due to prior commitments

Since that February 26 meeting the Resolution has been signed by large numbers of people around the country. A list of those people who signed the Resolution before August 4, 1993 was hand delivered in Washington, DC, to Dr. Lee P. Brown, who is President Clinton's Drug Policy Director ("Drug Czar"), on August 4, 1993., and a list of these signers was hand delivered in Washington, DC to Ms. Kristine Gebbie, RN, who is President Clinton's AIDS Policy Director ("AIDS Czar") on November 19, 1993.