U.S. District Judge John Curtin of Buffalo expects to be here this weekend. He is coming to Syracuse only as a listener, a point he made repeatedly in a phone interview. He plans to attend the annual meeting of ReconsiDer at May Memorial Unitarian Society, where Ethan Nadelmann ¯ a national proponent of drug-law reform ¯ is scheduled to speak at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Curtin is a ReconsiDer member. His presence underlines the quiet growth of that Syracuse organization, whose members question the wisdom and benefits of the war on drugs.
"I'm a dues-paying member because there's nothing like it in Buffalo," said Curtin, 78, the judge who handled the legal furor over Love Canal. "I'm going Saturday just as a member and observer, but I certainly support the ReconsiDer efforts. The Syracuse community should be congratulated for giving them such good support."
ReconsiDer's membership, which does hundreds of public speaking engagements a year, now exceeds 400. They include such law enforcement veterans as Curtin, former Syracuse narcotics investigator David Owens and Patrick Murphy, former police chief both in Syracuse and in New York City.
Many members differ in their solutions. Murphy, for instance, opposes legalization of marijuana. But he feels treatment is a far better reaction than throwing everyday drug users into jail. Owens has said the drug war often puts police in confrontation with poor communities, and that legalization of some "soft" drugs, such as marijuana, would dry up international narcotics cartels.
As for Curtin, a senior judge who can pick and choose his cases, he refuses to preside over drug trials. Too many times, he said, he was forced to send people to jail who shouldn't be there.
"The perfect solution? Frankly, I don't know," Curtin said. "Counseling. Maybe, eventually, some legalization. But I know, the way we're going, the problem is going to get worse. It's giving us a built-in prison population.
"There are people who use drugs who continue to work, who continue to take care of their families," Curtin said. "It should be discouraged just as urgently as cigarette smoking or alcohol. It can bring early deaths and tragedy, and I'm certainly not encouraging anyone to use drugs. But for people who are working hard, taking care of themselves, taking care of their families, to throw them in jail is really counterproductive."
The question is an ethical volcano, as turbulent as the arguments surrounding abortion or capital punishment. Opponents of drug-law reform say legalization would be an American catastrophe, leading to child abuse, dysfunction and a culture of addicts. ReconsiDer members say the catastrophe is now, that nothing produces a hardened criminal more quickly than throwing a small-time pot dealer into a savage prison.
The hot spots of the debate are everywhere. In New York City, for instance, Patrick Dorismund was shot to death by police after Dorismund reacted angrily to an undercover cop who asked for marijuana. Drug war supporters contend that aggressive approach explains why New York's streets are so much safer. ReconsiDer members argue that Dorismund should not be dead, and the whole incident proves the folly of the drug war.
"He's a guy who died because he just said 'no,'*" said Nick Eyle, executive director of ReconsiDer.
Curtin, a Marine Corps veteran of World War II, joined Eyle's group because he liked the range of membership, and he liked the way ReconsiDer did not impose just one solution.
"They're well-organized, they seem to be sensible, they're not extreme, they have a number of people from all walks of life," Curtin said. That sensibility provides safe footing for an old judge exploring a most explosive question:
"Here in New York state, funding for (state colleges) goes down while funding for maintaining and building prisons goes up every year," Curtin said. "How long can you continue? All the cities in upstate are suffering terribly, while the rest of the country has a great prosperity. The drug war has failed, and human experience tells us it will continue to fail."

Sean Kirst is a columnist for The Post-Standard. His columns appear Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Call him at 470-6015 or e-mail him at citynews@syracuse.com.