The Drug War Gets Personal

[Alison Myrden]

This was posted at LEAP on January 2, 2008.

My first LEAP Blog this year! Happy New Year!

 

Please check it out and pass it on...

 

Enjoy!

 

Thank you.

 

 

Ali

xx

 

 

The Drug War Gets Personal ( 94 reads) Wednesday, January 02, 2008

 

Hi everyone. Seeing as this is Christmas and the coming New Year, I thought I would tell heart-warming story of an American trustee and his courageous wife who know the magic of cannabis as medicine and recognize the value of legalizing and regulating all drugs. This week I would like to introduce you to this gentleman and his wife, whom I would love to meet one day.

 

I will let him do most of my speaking, as he seems to be ready to take on the country and possibly more with this battle we all call the War on Drugs.

 

War on Drugs has unlikely foe

 

12-18-`07 | LA Daily News | byBrent Hopkins

 

As a friend of presidents and hobnobber with governors, David Fleming makes

an unlikely insurgent against the War on Drugs.

 

He's been dubbed by a local business weekly as "The Valley's Most Powerful

Person," chairs the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce and doles out

dollars to charity by the millions.

 

He works for one of the world's largest law firms. He can preach for hours

about business tax, government reform and transportation.

 

With his immaculate white shirts, slicked-back hair and easy familiarity

with powerful people, Fleming embodies The Man.

 

"I smoked marijuana once, 25 years ago," he said. "I got high for three

hours and decided: `Yecch. This is not for me."

 

Although it was not for him, he doesn't begrudge those who opt for comfort

with a bong or a needle. The Man, a registered Republican and consummate

insider, thinks the drug war is "stupid."

 

And he's putting his money - and his reputation - on the line to try to win

more recruits to his cause.

 

Fleming and his wife, Jean, put thousands of dollars of their considerable

personal fortune into producing "Smoke Screen," a 90-minute docudrama

promoting the medical marijuana movement.

 

They've previewed it for local politicians and powerbrokers and are looking

for film festivals.

 

Jean Fleming co-wrote the script and produced the film. David Fleming

narrates it. After years of research, he effortlessly tosses off statistics

used in the film in his deep, even voice.

 

"The War on Drugs has cost the American taxpayer $1 trillion since 1972," he

said. "We're paying $69 billion a year to make a health problem into a

criminal one."

 

That's the libertarian side of him talking - he's also a board member of the

Reason Foundation. But while Fleming can go on at length about drug stats

from a policy standpoint, he's also got a personal stake.

 

His wife, a former Miss Illinois turned actress, suffers debilitating pain

from post-polio syndrome. Several months ago, she obtained a prescription

for medical marijuana. At night, she takes a few drops of liquid THC or

snacks on a pot brownie to ease the pain.

 

"Here's Jeannie, well-to-do and a pillar of society, using marijuana,"

Fleming said.

 

"And I could be thrown in prison by Bush," she interjected.

 

That's Bush as in President George W. - the one who named her husband as a

trustee for the James Madison Foundation, a group of politicians, jurists

and two private citizens that hands out scholarships for teachers. Fleming

has a photo of him and the president in his office.

 

The couple have an unusual marriage. He hangs with Gov. Arnold

Schwarzenegger. She wears a Barack Obama T-shirt. The two disagree on many

political issues, but they vehemently agree about the need for drug-policy

reform.

 

"Look, I'm an old lady, so I can say what I want to," she said. "In the

'60s, I used to go to parties where cocaine was passed around and snorted.

Nothing ever went up my nose, but I smoked marijuana."

 

At the same time, Fleming was practicing law and building his life in the

establishment. When Nixon made the drug war a priority in 1972, Fleming

didn't give it a second thought.

 

"I just went along with it: Sure, drugs are bad," he said. "The government

says so. I'll agree with that."

 

Back then, Fleming says, 1.3 percent of the population was addicted to

drugs, which sounded alarming. He looked into it some more and found that in

1915, 1.3 percent of the population was also addicted. In 2007, he says 1.3

percent is still hooked.

 

"This War on Drugs is a disaster, and it has been for years," he said. "It's

financed gangs for years. If a thinking person washes their mind of all the

things they've been brainwashed with, they'd have to come to the same

conclusion."

 

But that's a conclusion that neither Fleming would have reached on his or

her own. It took a personal tragedy for each to get their minds to change.

 

For Jean Fleming, it came in the late 1980s, long after she'd given up

recreational smoking and settled into writing screenplays.

 

"My son got in trouble with drugs again," she said. "I got very upset and

couldn't function very well - as families do when someone who wouldn't hurt

a fly gets thrown in prison."

 

Her son got busted with coke in a duffle bag in New Zealand . He got some

prison time and then somehow managed to escape, only to get busted by the

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and extradited back to New Zealand.

 

A decade later, David Fleming saw tragedy of his own, when he lost a son to

a cocaine overdose...

 

For the remainder of my Blog please go to:

 

http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php?name=Blog...play&id=214

 

Love and stuff,

 

 

Alison

xx

Edited January 4, 2008 by Alison Myrden

[Pam]

Now that is a news story!

Thank you Allison.

That is a very brave couple. They're pretty much safe in California, but never from the feds. Bless them for taking a stand!

[Alison Myrden]

Thanx Granny... I thought it was a great story too...

 

David Fleming and his wife say EXACTLY what LEAP and I say!

 

I LOVE IT!!!

 

And yes Granny. These people ARE pretty safe n California IF Local AND Federal Law stay out of their PERSONAL, MEDICAL, business!

 

Thank you so much for reading my latest Blog Granny...

 

I really appreciate it!

 

Love and stuff,

 

 

Alison

xx

Edited January 6, 2008 by Alison Myrden