But both men have reached the same conclusion -- that the ‘war on drugs’ is a massive failure that only deepens the national crisis of addiction and drug-related crime.

After 20 years on opposite sides of a war that has cost over $1 trillion in 30 years, with millions of casualties on both sides, the two men, and many more around the country, are pursuing campaigns to decriminalize illicit drugs.

"No matter how many (drug offenders) are locked up, the problem doesn’t go away ..it gets worse," said Thornton, an educator for a Hartford-based drug law reform group. "The drug war is a colossal waste of resources (and) we must dismantle this monster."

Speaking to a large group of students at Wesleyan University Tuesday, Thornton and Christ explained their shared perception of the so-called drug war as a policy that not only fails to keep drugs off the streets and out of schools, but leads to the incarceration of large sectors of the population -- mostly poor people and minorities.

"The average drug user in the United States has a 40-hour per week job and is white," said Thornton, who cited reports from Amnesty International condemning U.S. drug policy for its violations of human and civil rights. "But the faces of prisoners are overwhelmingly black and brown."

African-American men make up only 3 percent of Connecticut’s population, according to Thornton’s group, Efficacy, but constitute 47 percent of all inmates in the state’s prisons and halfway houses.

Prisons themselves are "largely violent, drug-ridden places," he said, where inmates are not likely to get the treatment they need."

Although Thornton likened the "war on drugs" to "class and race warfare," Christ said he views the prohibition of drugs as a matter of practicality -- prohibition simply doesn’t work.

Alcohol prohibition ended in the 1930s, "not because alcohol became benign ..but because we realized the policy (of prohibition) caused more problems than (alcohol did)," said Christ.

A founding member of the national group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Christ said he wants to see drugs legalized as a way to reduce drug-related crime and to regulate dangerous drugs.

Comparing drug prohibition to abortion and gambling laws, Christ said legalization will not cause an increase in the number of drug addicts.

"I want to regulate and control drugs in this country," said Christ. "You can’t regulate the black market."

The forum was sponsored by the Wesleyan group Students for Sensible Drug Policy.

To contact John Zorabedian, call (860) 347-3331 ext. 219, or email jzorabedian@middletownpress.com.