The Norwich Bulletin reported June 26 that Clifford Thornton, 61, is the first African-American to run for governor of Connecticut.

"All great truths start as blasphemy," said Thornton, who has made the drug issue the centerpiece of his candidacy. "The war on drugs is meant to be waged, not won."

Thornton said that there is no evidence that the billions spent on prisons and other facets of the drug war have yielded success. "That's money that could have been spent on education, transportation infrastructure, housing, economic development, and myriad other programs," he said.

Thornton said that decriminalizing drugs is logical. "Do you know what the definition of insanity is? It's doing the same thing over and over again, and each time expecting to get a different result," he said. "The war on drugs isn't working, but we keep fighting it. That's insanity."

There's also a racial component to the drug war that must be addressed, he said. "Seventy percent of the people in jail on drug charges are minorities. And 70 percent of the drug overdoses are white people," Thornton said. "The drug problem is in the headlines every day. And where are we seeing the problem? In the poor, mostly minority, inner-city areas. Drugs are two degrees from everything in society. If you don't understand racism, classism, terrorism, white privilege and the war on drugs, then everything else will only confuse you."

Thornton, a retired businessman, is the founder of a Hartford-based drug-policy reform group called Efficacy and has lectured on drug policy at Trinity College.