Rep. Luis Moscoso of the 1st District and Rep. Jessyn Farrell of the 46th District have announced their support for a proposed House Bill to remove drug possession as a felony. The bill was filed on Dec. 8 by Rep. Sherry Appleton. The bill would remove any felony charges for the personal possession of illegal substances and reduce the charges to a misdemeanor if passed by legislature. The intention is that the state could save a significant amount of money each year, from the approximate 9,000 non-violent drug felony arrests to freeing up space within the prison system. [continues 554 words]
I SPENT 26 years as a State Police officer fighting the drug war, 14 of those years as an undercover officer working every kind of case, including billion-dollar heroin trafficking conspiracies. I have seen the ravages of both drug use and current drug policy. The consequences of addiction in an illegal marketplace are far greater than the addiction alone. Users don't know how much of their purchase is heroin or whether it has been cut with an agent such as Fentanyl, a drug many times stronger than heroin. [continues 112 words]
The Victoria Police Department is now the sole respondent in a human rights complaint filed by VicPD Cst. David Bratzer. Bratzer filed a human rights complaint against VicPD, former police chief Jamie Graham and Insp. Jamie Pearce in 2013 for restricting his public communications as a member of the U.S.-based organization LEAP, Law Enforcement Against prohibition. Bratzer is an outspoken member, advocating for drug legalization. The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal dismissed Graham and Pearce from Bratzer's complaint on Dec. 16. [continues 219 words]
THE B.C. HUMAN Rights Tribunal has noted that a police department restricted the off-duty activities of an officer who believes in ending the war on drugs. In a decision today (December 16), tribunal member Robert Blasina wrote that there is "no dispute" that the Victoria Police Department sought and continues to limit the public advocacy of Const. David Bratzer when he's not in uniform. The question that remains is whether or not the VicPD contravened the B.C. Human Rights Code. [continues 284 words]
Constable Who Wants Drugs Legalized Said Former Chief Discriminated Against Him Former Victoria police chief Jamie Graham and Insp. Jamie Pearce have been removed from a human rights complaint filed by an officer who says he was discriminated against based on his political views. Const. David Bratzer, an outspoken advocate for drug legalization, filed a complaint with the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal last year saying the department's senior management, including Graham and Pearce, warned him not to speak about drug legalization while off-duty. Bratzer is the president of the Canadian branch of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), an international organization of current and former law-enforcement officials pushing for full legalization and regulation of drugs. [continues 120 words]
Writing as a retired detective, I know the damage and danger of marijuana use ("Time for a pot caucus? Dec. 8). It is no play toy. And I believe it should be given the same rules and respect as beer. The Boston Herald editorial argues that the current system should continue. That means the cartels produce and transport marijuana and thousands of teens sell it to their friends and others. What are the advantages and benefits of marijuana prohibition? The harm is that kids may be shot or even killed selling a green plant. - - Howard Wooldridge, Adamstown, Md. The writer is a co-founder of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. [end]
Regarding Samuel T. Wilkinson's Dec. 7 op-ed, "Big Pot?": As a retired detective and co-founder of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, I understand Dr. Wilkinson's concerns about marijuana. It should be given the same respect, laws and regulations as beer. What are the advantages of the current policy, in which drug cartels produce and distribute marijuana and thousands of teens are selling it off sidewalks and in schools? Is Dr. Wilkinson worried about replacing bloodthirsty cartels with government rules? That deserves more explanation. Howard Wooldridge, Adamstown, Md. [end]
After the historic marijuana midterms, a seven-hundred-day battle for the Golden State begins. As the dust settles from the historic marijuana midterm election of 2014, a few things have become clear: Namely, Californians will vote on ending cannabis prohibition in 2016. But change is far from inevitable. The decisive cannabis-legalization victories in Oregon, Alaska, and Washington, DC, on November 4 continued the trend established by voters in Colorado and Washington in 2012. The hat trick in this year's midterm election also guarantees that the most experienced, successful groups - Marijuana Policy Project (MPP) and Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) - will work to legalize pot in California in 2016. [continues 846 words]
COLUMBIA - A civil liberties expert and a former drug law enforcement officer will weigh in on marijuana legalization during two talks at MU on Thursday. The events will take place a week after marijuana law reform advocates filed an initiative petition to the Missouri Secretary of State for the 2016 ballot. Both events are free and open to the public. The first presentation will be by Neill Franklin, national executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, and will be held at 4:30 p.m. in Room 2-07 of the MU Agriculture Building. Franklin is also a former law enforcement officer who oversaw drug task forces with the Maryland State Police. [continues 295 words]
In late September, the New York Attorney General announced a drug bust in Syracuse resulting from a nine-month long investigation -- 34 people arrested for dealing $1 million worth of heroin and cocaine. Sounded like a big success -- but was it really? It seems more like mowing the grass. As long as there is demand, there will be supply. Taking these 34 people off the streets just means that others will take their places, and the jockeying for position usually means increased violence. The drug trade will go on, with no net effect on prices or availability. [continues 543 words]
Advocates look to further reduce drug-related arrests, incarceration. Shane Mckee, co-founder of Shango Premium Cannabis dispensary in Portland, Ore., pulls a medical marijuana sample from a display casing on Nov. 5. Oregon became the third state to legalize recreational pot on election night, but it will be more than a year before the first shops open. By Steven Nelson Nov. 12, 2014 | 12:01 a.m. EST + More Buying marijuana is now about as easy as shopping for liquor in Denver and Seattle. [continues 1400 words]
Despite years of advocating for marijuana legalization across the country, there's one thing former Seattle Chief of Police Norm Stamper hasn't done. The 34-year law enforcement veteran has never gone door-knocking for a political campaign. "I'm a little scared," he joked Tuesday, moments before he and a handful of other proponents of Ballot Measure 2, an initiative seeking to legalize recreational marijuana in Alaska, headed out to canvass Alaskans in Anchorage's Inlet View neighborhood. Knocking on doors throughout the neighborhood bordering scenic Westchester Lagoon and downtown Anchorage was the last stop for Stamper, who spent several days making the rounds in Anchorage, visiting with media and appearing on a variety of call-in talk shows. The shows ranged from serious talk radio with conservative host Michael Dukes on KBYR to shows geared toward a younger crowd, including rock station KWHL's "Bob and Mark Show" and KFAT's "Morning Chaos." [continues 920 words]
In 1970, the United States government passed a federal law entitled the "Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act." This piece of legislation marked the beginning of an aggressive, multiple decade-long effort to regulate drug use. Many advocates for changing the drug policy in the United States, however, argue that the laws currently in place are vastly ineffective and often detrimental to society. One such group of advocates is Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP). According to its website, SSDP is an international student organization that seeks to stimulate honest discussion of drugs and drug policy. The Tufts chapter was established in 2011 and since then has been expanding its outreach within the Tufts community to contribute to the movement against the War on Drugs. [continues 836 words]
Two years from now, Florida police may have a new category of impairment to consider: driving under the influence of a physician-recommended intoxicant. Assuming Amendment 2 passes on Nov. 4 allowing the use of medical marijuana in the state, residents would be able to treat a raft of conditions - ranging from cancer to glaucoma - with the plant. But legal or no, getting behind the wheel after using pot would still be a bad decision. Sergeant Robert Jovanovski of the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office already is prepared. He has equipped many of his deputies with penlights and the training on how to spot marijuana users and how to question them during field sobriety tests. [continues 755 words]
As both sides of the campaign fight to find support for or against marijuana legalization, one group has remained steadfast in their opposition: Alaska police chiefs. Ten police chiefs met Wednesday in Anchorage to emphasize something voters have been hearing for months: that the heads of Alaska police departments are firmly against Ballot Measure 2, an initiative that would legalize and tax marijuana for those 21 and over in Alaska. The chiefs are from a broad swath of the state, from rural villages to Alaska's largest city. At a press conference Wednesday, the chiefs reiterated their own concerns as well as those from the Alaska Association of Chiefs of Police. That organization, which represents about 150 chiefs and commanders across Alaska, released a survey in June saying that local law enforcement could see up to $6 million in increased costs should Ballot Measure 2 pass. They also released a 14-point reasoning earlier this summer arguing why Alaskans should not support legalizing recreational marijuana. [continues 637 words]
Seminole County Sheriff Don Eslinger claims 90 percent of the marijuana his deputies seized in the past 18 months was purchased legally in states where marijuana is legal for either medical or recreational use ('Sheriff Don Eslinger: Amendment 2 puts families and communities in danger,' Other Views, Sept 26). If that's true, what's all the fuss over Amendment 2? Florida's marijuana is already being regulated and taxed - just not by Florida. Taking him at his word, the illicit Florida marijuana market may already have been overwhelmed by marijuana that was legally acquired in one of the 23 states that already allow its use for medicinal or recreational use. In each of those states it is grown under regulated conditions and distributed in a safe, licensed, regulated marketplace. [continues 201 words]
Having Under 10 Grams Can Result in $100 Ticket, Not Jail Starting today, you can no longer be arrested in Maryland for possessing a small amount of marijuana. But how the rest of that interaction with police plays out might depend on what jurisdiction you are in. Lawmakers did not legalize marijuana, but made possession of less than 10 grams an offense that results in a $100 ticket for a first infraction. That means that thousands of cases each year will no longer lead to a criminal record. [continues 1156 words]
While expressing support for limited use of medical marijuana, law enforcement officials from across the state Wednesday warned of a slippery slope leading to legalized recreational use. Their warning came during a hearing at Georgia Gwinnett College in Lawrenceville of the Joint Study Committee on Prescription of Medical Cannabis for Serious Medical Conditions. State lawmakers are considering allowing the use of cannabis oil - which contains anti-inflammatory and anti-anxiety cannibidiols but is free of THC, the psychoactive ingredient that gets people high - to treat children with seizure disorders. [continues 520 words]
Joseph McNamara, the former San Jose, Calif., police chief whose outspoken criticism of the war on drugs, the gun lobby and Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates gave him a national profile as a progressive leader in law enforcement, died Friday at his home in Carmel, Calif. He was 79. The cause was pancreatic cancer, his family said. McNamara led the police force in Kansas City, Mo., before becoming chief of San Jose's police department in 1976. Over the next 15 years, until his retirement in 1991, he introduced broad reforms, including putting computers into patrol cars, hiring more women and minorities and emphasizing community policing. [continues 827 words]
A COP'S ARGUMENT FOR AMENDMENT 2 When I began my 34-year career in law enforcement as a narcotics agent, I never would have imagined that someday I would become an advocate for legal medical marijuana. Back in those days, I was an undercover officer posing as a user in search of narcotics. I made drug buys. I seized property. I arrested thousands of people and saw, over time, that my efforts actually contributed to street violence and that marijuana had become cheaper, more potent and more plentiful than ever before. A Pew Research Center study last year found that roughly half of American adults (48 percent) admitted having tried marijuana, the highest percentage ever. [continues 527 words]
The opposition of the Florida Sheriffs Association to Amendment 2 has more to do with cash than public safety. The sheriffs have become so accustomed to federal anti-drug money and property forfeitures that they resist any change that might someday shut off their pipeline of cash, cars and property. Consider Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd, Florida's most vocal opponent of medical-marijuana reform. During his highly publicized debate with attorney John Morgan, Judd vigorously defended his motives: =93It may come as a shock to you,=94 he told the audience in Lakeland, =93but our budget is not predicated on arrests; it's not predicated on seizures; it's not created so we can spend that operating money on cars, or capital equipment, or operating equipment, or salaries.=94 Hogwash. According to Justice Department records, the Polk County Sheriff 's Office took in more than $1.2 million from the federal Assets Forfeiture Fund just since 2007, part of the $230 million that all of Florida's law-enforcement agencies received from the fund during that period. [continues 486 words]
New Study Says That Legalizing All Drugs Is the Smart Thing to Do Here's a riddle: How many knowledgeable people does it take to suggest a policy change before society adopts their sage advice? Buried in all the recent news about ISIS, horrific weather lashing the United States, the violence of NFL players and the like came a hardly noticed news item about the idea of legalizing drugs. Now, stay with me on this. It's important. The Global Commission on Drug Policy, an illustrious panel including former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, former U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz, former chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Paul Volcker, former presidents and prime ministers of nearly a dozen countries, and others issued a detailed study about why it's smart - for reasons both humanitarian and financial - to legalize marijuana and other drugs. Yes, all drugs. Maybe it's time to consider their suggestion? After all, our decades-long War on Drugs has been a miserable failure. Actions to curb drug production and violence in other countries, and along our border have obviously not worked. [continues 600 words]
You would think that medical marijuana was contagious to hear Chicago aldermen talk about an appropriate zoning district for the location of its dispensaries. Instead of thinking so hard about where medical marijuana should not be available, aldermen should swallow hard, forget the foolish historic prohibition of marijuana and allow medical marijuana to be sold anywhere that other medicines are sold. Sick people are not benefited by making it inconvenient, if not difficult, to visit a business that will sell a substance that helps people suffering from cancer, chemotherapy, AIDS and other serious illnesses. [continues 53 words]
Decatur's finest get their man Dennis Kendall didn't finish high school, but at 32, he was a homeowner in Decatur before his world came crashing down. He began roofing at the age of 13, his family says, and was once employed by the same company for nine years. He didn't have a driver's license owing to a driving under the influence conviction. If he couldn't catch a ride to work, he'd call a cab. "He was early, if anything," recalls his employer, John Muehlebach, owner of Muehlebach Roofing. "He's the type of employee you don't come across very often in my industry." [continues 1036 words]
LEAP Executive Director Neill Franklin, a retired major with the Maryland State Police, says that drug policy needs to focus on health first, not criminal prosecutions, during a press conference on Friday, Sept. 5, 2014. Lindsay Fendt/The Tico Times Costa Rica will become the first country in Central America to host a branch of the drug policy reform organization Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, the group announced at a press conference Friday morning. The announcement took place after a week of debate on drug policies in the Americas at the Fifth Latin American and First Central American Conference on Drug Policy in San Jose. [continues 671 words]
The Ledger is to be commended for providing a public forum to openly discuss the issue of legalizing medical (not recreational) marijuana in Florida. It is a lesson in public governance and rhetorical discourse unlike no other in recent memory and deserves to be a part of every high school social studies, American government and perhaps even English class in the entire state. I am writing simply to share two sources that I have found to be especially thought-provoking on the subject. [continues 252 words]
We all have biases. Skin color, sex, even height, weight and hair style - these all play a role in how we perceive others. Our minds are constantly picking up on things of which we are not consciously aware and using those evaluations to guide our behavior. Malcolm Gladwell has called this phenomenon "thin-slicing," and in general, the ability to rapidly assess the situation around us has been advantageous from an evolutionary standpoint, when the ability to quickly, autonomically assess the threats around us could make the difference between passing on our genes to the next generation and getting speared by an enemy too easily trusted. [continues 386 words]
The Los Angeles chapter of A New PATH is demanding greater access to Naloxone for overdose prevention and to eliminate the stigma by treating drug overdoses like any other medical emergency. As part of the 14th annual International Overdose Awareness Day this Sunday, Aug. 31, a march will be held in Santa Monica through the streets and Beachfront Walk. The organizers of the event is the Los Angeles chapter of A New PATH (Parents for Addiction Treatment & Healing) and Moms United who are bringing together the Drug Policy Alliance, Amity Foundation, LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition), The Center for Living and Learning, Oasis Women's Recovering Community, Broken No More, GRASP, and Paso Por Paso to join similar organizations throughout the U.S. and abroad who will be participating in the day. [continues 608 words]
The Florida Sheriffs Association is putting its credibility at risk in a misguided campaign to stop patients from getting safe, legal medicinal marijuana when their doctors recommend it. On behalf of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), an organization of law-enforcement officials who once enforced these laws - and as a former Customs special agent - I want you yo know that many of us in law enforcement support providing compassionate care for people suffering with disease. With less than three months left before Election Day, the Sheriffs Association is reduced to using "scare tactics" and "fear mongering," according to the Polk County Sun, whose editors compared a meeting with Association President Sheriff Grady Judd to "1930s-era films such as 'Reefer Madness.' " The sheriffs' highly organized and apparently well-funded campaign is based on claims that the Tampa Bay Times-Miami Herald "PolitiFact" calls "half true." [continues 527 words]
A Cop's Experience Tells Him the Drug War Is Doing More Harm Than Good FOR 14 of the 26 years I served with the New Jersey State Police, I worked undercover narcotics. On the job, I saw first-hand the addictive power of opiates. Yet I also came to understand that the destruction of whole communities did not primarily result from the use or misuse of those drugs. No, the damage came from people - cops - - doing what I did: dragging buyers and sellers away from their families and slamming them into the criminal justice system, depriving both them and their neighborhoods of all hope. I witnessed people we disparagingly called "junkies" dying with needles in their arms not because heroin is a poison but because the heroin was poisoned. I did more harm than good, and the harder my colleagues and I tried, the more damage we did. [continues 687 words]
Will Anyone Agree on How to Regulate California's Medical-Cannabis Industry? Grab your medicated popcorn. August is going to be an action-packed month in California pot politics. A bill to regulate the state's vast $1.8 billion medical-cannabis industry is speeding through Sacramento on a tight, end-of-August deadline. But it has been difficult to keep up with the numerous changes to Senate Bill 1262-which is all the more disconcerting, according to cannabis advocates, because law-enforcement lobbyists are in the driver's seat. [continues 421 words]
When The New York Times editorial board recently called for an end to the federal ban on marijuana, you could hear a collective gasp from law enforcement agencies that have been hauling in pot smokers for more than four decades. James Anthony, former Oakland deputy attorney, had a different reaction. "It's about time," he said. "It makes a lot of sense." Ten years ago, Anthony was prosecuting drug crimes. He now is in private practice and a spokesman for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a nationwide association of former cops, prosecutors and judges who have seen the folly of perpetuating President Richard Nixon's so-called war on drugs. [continues 444 words]
A landmark bill to regulate medical pot in California is speeding through Sacramento, but no one knows for sure what will be in it. Grab your medicated popcorn. August is going to be an action-packed month in California pot politics. A bill to regulate the state's vast, $1.8 billion medical cannabis industry is speeding through Sacramento on a tight, end-of-August deadline. But it has been difficult to keep up with the numerous changes to Senate Bill 1262 - which is all the more disconcerting because law enforcement lobbyists are in the driver's seat and many of them either know little about the industry or are downright hostile to it. [continues 834 words]
Re: Citizens, not police, should decide on pot's de facto legalization, Daphne Bramham column, July 22 Daphne Bramham's call for public consideration of marijuana legalization is welcome, even though many of her statements are uninformed, and even though the linkage to civic elections is merely symbolic. Municipal governments have no authority over marijuana prohibition or legalization. It is inaccurate to suggest that Vancouver's police are creating policy in their actions surrounding the annual 4- 20 event. Police do enforce laws, but they also have the discretion to choose how to use their limited resources. It appears that the VPD knows well that attempting to enforce marijuana prohibition at 4- 20 would be a preposterous waste of effort. It would breach the peace rather than preserving it, and would take thousands of hours of valuable police time away from more serious problems. Does anyone really want the VPD to jail all the 10,000odd smokers around the art gallery? There are only around 35,000 prison beds in our entire country. [continues 227 words]
Kelly Gordon was killed on the Upper East Kelly Gordon was killed on the Upper East Side when she was struck by two separate cabs, police said. (Credit: iStock) The article "Seized assets boost LI cops" [News, July 14] was long overdue. It goes to the heart of all that is wrong with government in general. Policing today is not about helping people or protecting the public. It's about government enriching itself at the expense of the taxpayer. The asset forfeiture laws allow cops to be judge and jury. There is no due process and no return of property if the person targeted is innocent of wrongdoing. [continues 130 words]
The War on Drugs Creates a New Class of People to Be Discrimined Neil Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), is a dedicated advocate against the War on Drugs. He's participated in it on the police side as a 33-year veteran of the Maryland State Police and the Baltimore Police Department. He's served on drug squads and done undercover work. LEAP is a national organization of former and current law-enforcement officers who support ending the War on Drugs. Franklin was among those, along with Michelle Alexander (author of The New Jim Crow), who convinced the national NAACP to pass a resolution calling for an end to the War On Drugs in 2011. [continues 1156 words]
Prohibition didn't work, or so lawmakers learned more than 80 years ago. But the parallels between America's experiment with the Eighteenth Amendment and the legal sale of marijuana likely end there. On July 8, Washington got into the weeds (pun intended). For some in law enforcement, jaded by trivial marijuana busts, it's a long-time coming. Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, an advisory board member of the organization Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, issued a sanguine prediction: "Washingtonians know that, as in Colorado, governments both foreign and domestic will be watching to see how legalization progresses in the state," he said. "And I imagine that, as in Colorado, lower crime rates, increased tax revenue, thousands of new jobs and continuing public support will indicate legalizing and regulating marijuana is one of the simplest ways to improve not just our criminal justice system, but our state governments generally." [continues 372 words]
Prohibition didn't work, or so lawmakers learned more than 80 years ago. But the parallels between America's puritanical experiment with the Eighteenth Amendment and the legal sale of marijuana likely end there. Today, Washington gets into the weeds (pun intended). The serpentine bureaucracy, the reams of regulations. Cannabis has met the enemy, and he is us. For some in law enforcement, jaded by trivial marijuana busts, it's a longtime coming. Former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, an advisory board member of the organization "Law Enforcement Again Prohibition," issued a sanguine prediction. "Washingtonians know that, as in Colorado, governments both foreign and domestic will be watching to see how legalization progresses in the state," he said. "And I imagine that, as in Colorado, lower crime rates, increased tax revenue, thousands of new jobs and continuing public support will indicate legalizing and regulating marijuana is one of the simplest ways to improve not just our criminal justice system, but our state governments generally." [continues 252 words]
Pot and recreation The eyes of America are on Colorado, so far the only state where legal marijuana for recreational use by adults is available (with Washington state not far behind). And the folks involved in marijuana issues in Colorado and elsewhere are well aware of that. So, last week, the national organization Drug Policy Alliance held a teleconference marking six months of marijuana legalization. I learned a lot about what's going on there, but the assessment from Mike Elliott of the Colorado Marijuana Industry Group (MIG) seems to sum things up pretty well: [continues 1186 words]
Opponents warned of increases in crime, car accidents, and drops in tourism, but a report reveals Colorado's mostly flying high with recreational use. By Katie Rucke @katierucke | June 30, 2014 Rachel Schaefer of Denver smokes marijuana on the official opening night of Club 64, a marijuana-specific social club, where a New Year's Eve party was held, in Denver, Monday Dec. 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) Rachel Schaefer of Denver smokes marijuana on the official opening night of Club 64, a marijuana-specific social club, where a New Year's Eve party was held, in Denver, Monday Dec. 31, 2012. (AP/Brennan Linsley) [continues 2545 words]
As a retired detective who worked in the trenches of the drug war in the '70s, '80s & '90s, I am sure the Herald's words supporting the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency were comforting to the Mexican drug cartels - which rake in billions from the illegal market for drugs ("Congress goes to pot," June 9). The longer we continue this failed prohibition approach, with regards to marijuana, the more billions the cartels rake in. Marijuana is a mind-altering, intoxicating and sometimes psychologically addictive drug. It is certainly too dangerous to leave its production and sale in the hands of criminals, cartels and teens. It should be given the same respect and laws as beer. The Herald's continued support for the prohibition of marijuana is baffling. - - Howard Wooldridge, Adamstown, Md. The writer is a co-founder of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. [end]
Texas law enforcement are continuing to enrich themselves using a little-known legal doctrine known as civil forfeiture, according to a new series of investigative reports. Under civil forfeiture, property can be forfeited even if its owner has never been charged with a crime. In these proceedings, accused criminals have more rights than innocent owners and the government sues the property, not its owner. These cases can be so baffling, one Texas Supreme Court Justice recently compared civil forfeiture to Alice in Wonderland and the works of Franz Kafka. But civil forfeiture isn't just a quirky curiosity-it's a powerful incentive for law enforcement to take millions. [continues 1435 words]
A plague of heroin addiction is upon us. Another plague. Heroin was the crisis that prompted Richard Nixon to launch the war on drugs in 1971. Time marched on. Cocaine and then crack cocaine and then methamphetamine overtook heroin as the drugs of the moment. Now heroin is back - and badder than ever. The war on drugs also grinds expensively on, an estimated $1 trillion down the hole so far. Amid the triumphant announcements of massive drug seizures and arrests of the kingpins, heroin has never been more abundant or so easy to find, in urban and rural America alike. [continues 474 words]
When I became a police officer, I thought I was going to serve and protect the public. I wanted to defend the vulnerable and punish those who threaten society. After more than three decades of service, my perspective on the role police should play in society didn't change. What did change was my perception of the role public policy plays in protecting and serving the people of our society. Police are sworn to enforce the law, so they can only be as ethical as the laws they enforce. And I believe the laws criminalizing medical marijuana are among the least ethical there are. They have no place in a free society. [continues 566 words]
A plague of heroin addiction is upon us. Another plague. Heroin was the crisis that prompted Richard Nixon to launch the war on drugs in 1971. Time marched on. Cocaine and then crack cocaine and then methamphetamine overtook heroin as the drugs of the moment. Now heroin is back - and badder than ever. The war on drugs also grinds expensively on, an estimated $1 trillion down the hole so far. Amid the triumphant announcements of massive drug seizures and arrests of the kingpins, heroin has never been more abundant or so easy to find, in urban and rural America alike. [continues 514 words]
A plague of heroin addiction is upon us. Another plague. Heroin was the crisis that prompted Richard Nixon to launch the war on drugs in 1971. Time marched on. Cocaine and then crack cocaine and then methamphetamine overtook heroin as the drugs of the moment. Now heroin is back - and badder than ever. The war on drugs also grinds expensively on, an estimated $1 trillion down the hole so far. Amid the triumphant announcements of massive drug seizures and arrests of the kingpins, heroin has never been more abundant or so easy to find, in urban and rural America alike. [continues 515 words]
Neighborhoods beset by violence need to take the prohibition profit out of the drug business on Chicago street corners. Sure those neighborhoods need better schools and jobs, but it's all too easy for kids (and adults) to make a career choice of drugs, gangs, guns and violence when society encourages and enables that very choice by making drugs worth many times their true value, simply because drugs are prohibited. Tranquility or violence. Legalization or prohibition. The choice is ours as much as the consequences. - -- James E. Gierach Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Palos Park [end]
A plague of heroin addiction is upon us. Another plague. Heroin was the crisis that prompted Richard Nixon to launch the war on drugs in 1971. Time marched on. Cocaine and then crack cocaine and then meth overtook heroin as the drugs of the moment. Now heroin is back - and badder than ever. The war on drugs also grinds expensively on, an estimated $1 trillion down the hole so far. Amid the triumphant announcements of massive drug seizures and arrests of the kingpins, heroin has never been more abundant or so easy to find, in urban and rural America alike. [continues 515 words]
