Thornton: "Cocaine Use Has Double-Standard as Seen in Bridgeport Mayor Case"

Green Party of Connecticut
www.ctgreens.org

Thornton for Governor
PO Box 1971, Manchester, CT 06045
www.votethornton.com

June 22, 2006

Contact: Cliff Thornton, Green Party Candidate for Governor (860) 657 8438-Home or (860) 268 1294-Campaign cell Tim McKee (860) 778 1304-Campaign Manager

THORNTON: “COCAINE USE HAS DOUBLE STANDARD AS SEEN IN BRIDGEPORT'S MAYOR CASE”

Hartford, CT – ‘Bridgeport Mayor John Fabrizi should use the media spotlight now on him to expose the hypocrisy and double standards of the war on drugs,” said Cliff Thornton, the Connecticut Green Party candidate for Governor.

“Mayor Fabrizi’s acknowledgment that he snorted cocaine while in office reveals a double-standard,” Thornton said. “Powerful white politicians are held to one standard of behavior, and poor, brown and black people are prosecuted based on another standard for this same behavior.” 

“It should be obvious that the mayor is being treated differently from average folk,” Thornton said. “It reminds me of George Orwell’s Animal Farm,” Thornton said, “where some animals are more equal than others. This hypocrisy must stop.” 

Cocaine addiction should be treated as a public health issue instead of a criminal justice problem, Thornton said. Connecticut should medicalize cocaine, where doctors would administer regular doses to those addicted to it, in order to insure safe consumption where it is absolutely needed. 

Thornton’s campaign stresses the need for more treatment options for those seeking to kick the drug habit and showing how the root cause of violence in Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport are centered on the failed “drug war” and the high profits associated with dealing drugs. “These Illegal drugs need to be brought inside of the law to ensure equal justice” Thornton stressed.