Pubdate: Fri, 15 Aug 2008
Source: Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, VA)
Copyright: 2008 The Virginian-Pilot
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/zJNzcThR
Website: http://www.pilotonline.com
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/483
Author: Shawn Day, The Virginian-Pilot
Note: Pilot writers Kristin Davis, Janie Bryant, Duane Bourne, Jaedda 
Armstrong and Tim McGlone contributed to this report.
Cited: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition http://www.leap.cc/
Cited: NORML http://www.norml.org/
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Marijuana)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/decrim.htm (Decrim/Legalization)

POT-RELATED DEATHS FAN DEBATE

Is Loss of Life Too High a Cost?

Virginia Beach - When Michael Phillips was gunned down in an 
undercover operation last week, he became the second local detective 
to be killed investigating suspected marijuana dealers in the past 
seven months.

The deaths have sparked debate about the enforcement of marijuana and 
other drug laws, with some activists arguing that continuing the war 
on drugs is just bad policy.

Others, including many local officials, say the killings confirm the 
dangers surrounding the drug trade.

"From the perspective of Mike Phillips' widow, I'd say we're worse 
off fighting the battle," said state Sen. Kenneth Stolle, a former 
Virginia Beach police sergeant and undercover officer. "From Mike 
Phillips' perspective the day he was killed, I'm sure he felt it was 
a battle that needed to be fought, that the benefits outweighed the risk."

"Drugs," Stolle said, "are about the most evil thing in the community 
that I know of right now."

A federal law enforcement official who works in Hampton Roads said 
that crack cocaine is the most frequently seized drug in this area.

Marijuana is the most used illegal drug in the nation and in the 
state, federal data show, but local authorities say they have not 
unduly focused on it.

Chesapeake Police Chief Kelvin Wright said marijuana and other drugs 
contribute to problems in society, particularly dangerous activities.

"It's what I call the unholy trinity: guns, violence and drugs," the 
chief said. "They all seem to go hand-in-hand."

Portsmouth Commonwealth's Attorney Earle Mobley said most drug 
dealers don't just sell one substance. Instead, investigators often 
find a marijuana dealer to be involved with cocaine, heroin or 
Ecstasy, he said.

"Because there's an element of violence that is connected with the 
distribution of drugs," he said, "it just requires an aggressive 
prosecution of all of the offenses. ... From where I sit and where I 
see things happening, not to fight that fight would send the wrong message."

But there are those across the country who think it's a battle not 
worth fighting.

Peter Christ, a retired New York police captain and co-founder of Law 
Enforcement Against Prohibition, said hearing of the deaths of 
Phillips in Virginia Beach and police Detective Jarrod Shivers in 
Chesapeake in January "breaks my heart."

"These are my brothers and sisters in law enforcement," he said. "I 
know what they're going through. We've sent them off into this 
dangerous world, and we've made it more dangerous rather than making it safer."

Phillips was shot three times in the torso as he attempted to buy a 
half-pound of pot in a parking lot in Green Run on Aug. 7. Two 
suspects, Ted Vincent Carter, 23, and Marshall Demetrius Moyd, 26, 
have been charged with first-degree murder in the killing.

Shivers was gunned down on Jan. 17 while serving a warrant to search 
a home suspected of containing marijuana. Ryan David Frederick, then 
28, faces capital murder charges.

"What's at the root of these deaths isn't shoddy police work," Christ 
said. "The root of these deaths is bad policy."

Christ, who helped co-found the national group six years ago, noted 
that officers are sworn to uphold the laws and should continue to do 
that. But, he said, he and the more than 1,000 current and retired 
law enforcement officials in his group support a policy that would 
regulate, legalize and tax all illicit drugs.

Their view goes beyond that of NORML, the National Organization for 
the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

"I look at this as a prima facie discussion about why laws should 
change," Allen St. Pierre, NORML's executive director, said of the 
local officers' deaths. "And I'm going to presume those that enforce 
the law will point to this as why they need to redouble their efforts."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake