After his mother died of a heroin overdose 39 years ago, Cliff Thornton said he wanted to see drugs eradicated off the face of the earth.
When she died, he was two weeks away from graduating from high school.
Today, Thornton is still fighting against drug use. But now he is also fighting the drug war the federal government is currently waging.
The government's fight against drugs, Thornton said, is also a battle against human nature and basic economics.
"By going against those things, we'll never win the drug war," Thornton said. "I'm not arguing for drug use. I'm arguing for a sound, logical approach."
Thornton has been working with drug policy since 1977 and will be the guest speaker in a public address at 3 p.m. today in Whitinger Business Building Room 144.
To be victorious in the drug war, Thornton said, the United States must legalize marijuana, medicinalize heroin and cocaine and decriminalize all drugs.
Currently, though, America's drug policy is akin to a prohibitionist approach, which has artificially inflated prices, Thornton said. Heroin is already worth seven times more than gold, and crack is not much cheaper.
"You've essentially made these weeds more than gold," he said.
Thornton serves as the president of Efficacy, a non-profit organization which advertises "peaceful responses to social problems." The program was started as a public affairs radio program in 1996 and has since blossomed.
Today, Efficacy now includes a Web site, www.efficacy-online.org, and circulates a newsletter to approximately 1,000 readers in the New England area.
Thornton's trip to Ball State is sponsored by the Student Government Association, the Department of Economics, the student economics club and the Unitarian Universalist Church.
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