Pubdate: Tue, 18 Aug 2009
Source: Huffington Post (US Web)
Copyright: 2009 HuffingtonPost com, Inc.
Website: http://www.huffingtonpost.com
Author: Norm Stamper, Retired Seattle police chief, member of Law 
Enforcement Against Prohibition
Cited: The Great Marijuana Book Bomb http://www.marijuanabookbomb.com/

A FORMER POLICE CHIEF ON NEW MARIJUANA BOOK

I'm a drug "legalizer," not an "incrementalist." I do not believe 
drug policy reform should end with the legalization of marijuana. 
Yet, when asked to contribute a foreword to the new book, Marijuana 
is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink, I eagerly accepted. 
Steve Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project, Paul Armentano of NORML, 
and Mason Tvert of SAFER have written the definitive answer to the 
question: Why is booze legal and pot is not? They've also offered the 
most lucid, persuasive strategy for ending this hypocrisy I've yet 
seen. Any book that strikes a blow for drug policy sanity deserves 
our support, regardless of any ideological differences. My foreword, 
reprinted here, explains why I support this extraordinary book:

When you pick up a book touting marijuana as a safer recreational 
alternative to alcohol, I imagine the last thing you are expecting is 
a foreword from the former chief of police of a major U.S. city. 
Well, if you're surprised, I guess we are off to a good start. You 
see, the goal of this book--and the purpose of this foreword--is to 
encourage you (fan and foe alike) to reassess the way you think about 
marijuana.

In pages that follow, you will find objective comparisons of 
marijuana and alcohol. You will learn about the ways in which the 
government and other influential institutions have maintained 
marijuana prohibition while simultaneously turning public opinion 
against its use. And you will be exposed to a plethora of statistics 
quantifying the damage caused by alcohol use in our society. Steve, 
Paul, and Mason have done a terrific job of presenting all of this 
information in an objective, compelling, and thoughtful manner. I am 
certain, whatever you may think about marijuana laws at this moment, 
that you will look at the issue differently by the time you reach the 
final chapter.

But before you dive into this book--which I truly couldn't put down 
the first time I read it--I'd like to give you an insider's 
perspective on the question of marijuana versus alcohol. By 
"insider," I refer to my decades of law enforcement experience, 
during which time I witnessed firsthand how these two substances 
affect consumers, their families, and public safety overall. As you 
can imagine, those of us who have served our communities as officers 
of the law have encountered alcohol and marijuana users on a frequent 
if not daily basis, and we know all too well how often one of these 
two substances is associated with violent and aggressive behavior.

In all my years on the streets, it was an extremely rare occasion to 
have a night go by without an alcohol-related incident. More often 
than not, there were multiple alcohol-related calls during a shift. I 
became accustomed to the pattern (and the odor). If I was called to a 
part of town with a concentration of bars or to the local university, 
I could expect to be greeted by one or more drunks, flexing their 
"beer muscles," either in the throes of a fight or looking to start 
one. Sadly, the same was often true when I received a domestic abuse 
call. More often than not, these conflicts--many having erupted into 
physical violence--were fueled by one or both participants having 
overindulged in alcohol.

In case you might be thinking my observations are unique, let me 
share the results of some informal research I have conducted on my 
own. Over the past four years, out of a general interest in this 
subject, I've been asking police officers throughout the U.S. (and 
Canada) two questions. First: "When's the last time you had to fight 
someone under the influence of marijuana?" (And by this I mean 
marijuana only, not pot plus a six-pack or fifth of tequila.) My 
colleagues pause; they reflect. Their eyes widen as they realize that 
in their five or fifteen or thirty years on the job they have never 
had to fight a marijuana user. I then ask, "When's the last time you 
had to fight a drunk?" They look at their watches. It's telling that 
the booze question is answered in terms of hours, not days or weeks.

The plain and simple truth is that alcohol fuels violent behavior and 
marijuana does not. As described in great detail in Chapter 7, 
alcohol contributes to literally millions of acts of violence in the 
United States each year. It is a major contributing factor to crimes 
like domestic violence, sexual assault, and homicide. Marijuana use, 
on the other hand, is absent in that regard from both crime reports 
and the scientific literature. There is simply no causal link to be found.

As one who has been entrusted with maintaining the public's safety, I 
strongly believe--and most people agree--that our laws should punish 
people who do harm to others. This is true whether we are talking 
about violent crimes like murder and assault or nonviolent crimes 
like shoplifting or insider trading. It is also appropriate to punish 
other behavior that threatens public safety such as speeding or 
driving through red lights. All of these laws are clearly designed to 
protect our citizens.

But by banning the use of marijuana and punishing individuals who 
merely possess the substance, it is difficult to see what harm we are 
trying to prevent. It bears repeating: From my own work and the 
experiences of other members of the law enforcement community, it is 
abundantly clear that marijuana is rarely, if ever, the cause of 
harmfully disruptive or violent behavior. In fact, I would go so far 
as to say that marijuana use often helps to tamp down tensions where 
they otherwise might exist.

That marijuana causes very little social harm is reason enough in a 
free society to legalize it for adults. But as Steve, Paul, and Mason 
so brilliantly demonstrate in this book, an even more persuasive 
reason is that by prohibiting marijuana we are steering people toward 
a substance that far too many people already abuse, namely alcohol. 
Can marijuana be abused? Of course. But, as this book makes clear, it 
is a much safer product for social and recreational use than alcohol. 
Where is the logic, then, in allowing adults to use alcohol but 
arresting them and branding them as criminals if they choose to use 
marijuana instead?

Let me be clear. The problem does not lie with law enforcement 
officials. Your police officers take an oath to uphold the law and 
cannot simply turn their backs when they see marijuana statutes 
violated. What we need is to replace the current system of 
prohibition with new laws that permit and regulate the sale of 
marijuana, an excellent framework for which is provided in this 
extraordinary book. Read it, and you'll agree it is time we stop 
driving the American people to drink. Instead, we should simply and 
logically allow them to use a safer alternative, if that is what they prefer.

* * *

I'm happy to join in a conspiracy of the authors to get this book 
into as many hands as possible. They would like you to consider 
taking part in The Great Marijuana Book Bomb of 2009 on Thursday, 
August 20. The authors of Marijuana is Safer are making a one-day 
push on Amazon.com to drive the book to #1 on the site's rankings. 
Just visit the Book Bomb site, and enter your email address and you 
will receive a reminder on August 20. Or just make a note in your 
calendar to buy the book on Amazon.com that day. I hope you will 
support the effort.

Follow Norm Stamper on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CopsSayLegalize
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake