Cops Say Legalize Drugs

Those who advocate for a change in our drug policies have spent years building organizations, engaging dialogue and seeking an equal voice at the political table, believe the drug war isn’t a failure, it is the problem.

WAITT Image courtesy: L.E.A.P.

(EUGENE, Ore.) - When police raided Bill Conde's Redwood Lumber yard in 1998 I was forced to wait, under the guard of Linn County (OR) sheriff deputies, while VALIANT (Linn County's interagency drug task force) searched the office and hauled off our computers and business records. The negative publicity and loss of customer info, inventory data and pending sales cost Conde's an estimated $100,000 worth of lost business in the last 3 months of the year - Bill’s best year and one we hoped would reach $1 million.

Unfortunately that raid turned out to be the pivotal event that eventually closed a business essential to the full time income of 3 families, all with children.

As a longtime cannabis consumer I never envisioned having cops as friends. The bust on Conde's reinforced some negative attitudes I held about police. It also undid some of those attitudes when a few of those deputies became my friends and paid attention to my activism online. And applauded it!

Making friends with those whose job enforcing our drug laws seemed a bit ironic at the time. Little did I know that in less than a decade I would be standing side-by-side with a whole bunch of cops - and judges and prosecutors and corrections officials. And even DEA agents!

When I discovered Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), I was... well... shocked. And delighted.

After that 1998 bust at Conde's I became seriously active in drug policy reform, volunteering with the Media Awareness Project (MAP) as a "newshawk." MAP had begun assembling an online archive of news articles, editorials, columns and opeds from print publications that dealt with drug issues. Building that archive required gathering the stories and submitting them to MAP's DrugNews Archive. MAP’s volunteers have built a news archive that now holds over 200,000 articles.

It was during my first years with MAP that I "met" folks like Orange County (CA) judge (retired) James Gray and became familiar with names like Colorado's Telluride County Sheriff Bill Masters and New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. What these gentleman all had in common was that they had seen the failure of Prohibition II (the drug war) and were openly calling for its' end. And these gentlemen were just the tip of the drug policy spear that LEAP has become.

LEAP is young but now has over 10,000 members, many of them ex-cops and other criminal justice professionals. Many members are like me (scary thought) - average citizens who share the proposition that Drugs Prohibition must be ended.

Prohibition does not work because the basic economic law of supply and demand is as immutable as the law of gravity and both are based on the same principle - what goes up must come down.

In the words of Jack Cole, LEAP's executive director and former New Jersey state cop (and narcotics officer), in a January letter-to-the-editor in the Boston Globe, Prohibition "[makes] America the most heavily incarcerated nation in the world, it now funds international terrorists while preventing desperately ill people from getting medical relief." He adds “[Prohibition] certainly doesn't prevent dangerous drug use."

There are only two groups who benefit from Drugs Prohibition - the drug cartels and the drug-war-prison-industrial-complex. The drug cartels operate a literal monopoly with an annual global gross income of $500 billion (about 8% of total annual world trade). In a February 26 piece at Huffington Post, former Seattle PD Chief and LEAP speaker Norm Stamper says that "[s]ince 1971, when Richard Nixon pronounced drugs 'public enemy number one' and declared all-out war them (or, more accurately, on the people who took them), we have spent $1 trillion prosecuting that war."

Those who advocate for a change in our drug policies have spent years building organizations, engaging dialogue and seeking an equal voice at the political table. The message is as it has always been - the drug war isn’t a failure, it is the problem.

Those who call themselves “anti-drug activists” don’t hold the exclusive franchise on morality or patriotism and their sardonic demeanor towards legalization proponents only displays the intellectual bankruptcy of their pro-Prohibition stance. If they would care to step up and publicly debate the issue we savor the opportunity. In fact we’re primed and ready to go...

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If you haven't heard LEAP’s powerful message their YouTube channel has several excellent videos.

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Daniel April 7, 2009 11:26 am (Pacific time)

Allan great article but i disagree on initial hire testing , this is presumption of guilt . This is not an employers right it is a violation of rights . I sent Bill c the link to the story he enjoyed it . Thanks

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Allan April 6, 2009 5:44 pm (Pacific time)

All... thanks for commenting on my humble offering. But please... say no to drug testing. Of anybody. I have no problem w/ initial hire tests (the employers' right) but random tests are a complete violation of the 4th Amendment's protections against unreasonable search and seizures - and wanting to test my pee, without a warrant? That is a working definition of unreasonable. Now if they held out their hands... And FYI... I lost a job in August because of a failed pee test (I now have my OMMP card). Random drug testing is not just un-American it is ANTI-American.

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Carrick April 6, 2009 12:49 pm (Pacific time)

Daniel you must know this is a political situation and law enforcement has their hands tied. Will the politicans (federal and state) enact legislation to decriminalize any drug? Vic I agree with you that our politicans from the president on down should be taking the same drug tests that the masses are forced to take. That would include everyone, including employers and judges for example. Will it happen? As likely as politicans enacting legislation to decriminalize drugs. So best to hope for is minimal enforcement.

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Daniel Johnson April 6, 2009 12:09 pm (Pacific time)

The best summation I've seen is a line Michael Douglas delivered in the movie "Traffic". He said, and I paraphrase, "A war on drugs is a war on our children." Go for it, Allan.

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Vic April 6, 2009 8:03 am (Pacific time)

Interesting that whenever the notion of drug testing for senators or congresspersons or presidents has come up,(and it has) it has been shot down immediately and never even brought to a vote. So if I want to work at McDonalds, I will have to pass a drug test, but if I am a senator, or even the president, it is no ones damn business.

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Daniel April 5, 2009 1:00 pm (Pacific time)

The first step should be the stopping of drug testing by business , these tests assume the presumption of guilt . The pee test also only detect pot , the real test is the hair , business will never test this because too many would be disqualified . The second step is the decriminalization of all drugs ! Law enforcement should concentrate on violent crimes not users and losers . Treatment instead of incarceration for those with major abuse problems .

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Suny Cheeba April 5, 2009 10:52 am (Pacific time)

Some Dude, Wow! I was all into the article...eyes glassed over...but then the last line of your comment snapped me back to reality! Good looking out...

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Anonymous April 5, 2009 10:16 am (Pacific time)

Thank you for an eye opening article all about LEAP. I have been LEAP's Leading Female Speaker for the last few years and am very vocal all across Canada and the U.S. in the issue of Drug Law Reform. I am one of the busiest activist's in this issue for reasons involving my health. I need some help finding a strain of cannabis that takes away the excruciating pain I have in my face twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, called "tic douloureux" - recognized as the worst pain known to medicine. I am also a retired Law Enforcement Officer here in Canada and take the Drug War VERY seriously. Please drop by http://www.leap.cc for more information on our incredible organization. Sincerely, Alison Myrden Retired Law Enforcement Officer Leading Female Speaker for LEAP http://www.leap.cc

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Some Dude April 4, 2009 8:34 pm (Pacific time)

I agree, law enforcement should not be the enemy of the people. They used to take seriously their very honorable, sacred duty as guardians of the people, but these unjust laws make a mockery of their jobs. Similar to the case in high school, as individuals, some people were really cool on a one on one basis, but when in their group mentality, they were total jerks. The same is true in the sense that the NUMBER ONE group lobbying against mj legalization in california was the prison guard's union, believe it or not.

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