Jim Finnel
Fallen Cannabis Warrior & Ex News Moderator
The idea of legalizing certain drugs is nothing new. It was suggested long before the official "War on Drugs" was proclaimed by President Richard Nixon in 1970. But nearly 40 years later, federal spending on this "War" has increased to $19 billion a year; the purity of heroin has nearly tripled while its wholesale cost has become dirt cheap. And imprisonment for federal drug offenses has increased by 28 times. Now calls for ending the War and legalizing drugs is coming from an unlikely and persuasive quarter: current and former law enforcement officers who belong to an organization called LEAP.
It takes a leap of faith to believe 70-year-old Jack Cole was an undercover drug agent with the New Jersey State Police, until he displays some old pictures of himself on a projector in front of a rapt audience. In one he's sitting amid a pile of cash. Another is a mugshot showing a tough-looking guy with long hair and a beard.
The year was 1973, and Cole tells the crowd he was caught up in the War on Drugs. "I felt very bad about my part in implementing what today I've decided is not just an unjust war on drugs but it is a terribly destructive policy."
He points to the rate of incarceration of blacks for drug offenses as one example. According to Human Rights Watch, twice as many blacks are serving prison sentences for drug offenses as whites, even though there are more white drug offenders. So in 2002 Cole and several of his peers founded a Massachusetts-based group called LEAP: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
Since then they've signed up nearly 12,000 supporters. "What we believe is that if we can remove the profit motive we will end about almost all of the problems we have. How do you do that? Well, simple, you end drug prohibition, you legalize drugs."
Cole takes his message on the road to anyone who will listen. On this day, it's a group of about 50 members of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Brunswick, Maine. It's a sympathetic audience. That's because the same year LEAP was formed the Unitarian Universalist Association issued a statement calling for an end to the "War on Drugs" as a matter of conscience.
"I'm here from Brunswick and I'm a member of this congregation," says audience member James Mitchell. "I was a former minister here, now retired. I came in believing very strongly that we needed to legalize drugs. But the strength of Jack's presentation is the facts and figures."
Susan Sharon: "You going to join this organization?"
James Mitchell: "Sure am, yes."
Cole's figures are stark: In 2005, he says, nearly two million people were arrested on drug charges. About 800,000 were marijuana-related, mostly for possession. That's six times more than in 1970. Mandatory minimum sentences, "three strikes" laws and reduced options for parole have contributed to the jump. And as drug arrests have risen, so has the prison industry.
The aging Cheshire County Jail in Westmoreland, New Hampshire was built to hold 57 inmates. Instead, it houses almost twice as many. A new and bigger jail is under construction 20 miles away.
Jail Superintendent Richard Van Wickler points to New Hampshire's prison population and says what's happening at his jail is the same story everywhere. "This is the latest report that came out on the prison population and if you look at this, the state of New Hampshire has almost 3,000 inmates in the state prison. In my opinion, and and in the opinion of most correctional practitioners, the people that you want in prison are people that are there for violent crimes or for sex crimes. When you look at the non-violent crimes and the drug offenses, just those two categories makes up almost 50 percent of those people that are in the prison system, and that's pretty much a trend across the nation."
Retired from the U.S. Army Reserves, Van Wickler is also an unlikely proponent of legalizing drugs. He's worked in corrections for more than 20 years and says he had an epiphany about what he calls "the nation's failed drug policy." It happened in 2007 during a conference in New Orleans sponsored by LEAP.
Now he's a passionate advocate. "LEAP does not advocate drug use. I cannot emphasize that enough. Our position is that trying to create a drug free society, we have finally come to the realization, is not possible, that innocent police officers are dying, innocent civilians are dying in this drug war, and it's not curtailing the need for it, it's not curtailing the demand nor the supply."
Susan Sharon: If you go out on a limb and say, 'Hey, I'm in favor, as a law enforcement officer, of legalizing drugs,' how do you then turn around and enforce the law?"
Richard Van Wickler: "I'll tell you this: If you're in my jail and you're on a work release program and part of the contract is you're not to use any illegal drugs - if you do I'm going to be on you like ugly on an ape, and it's not going to be pretty. and you're going to lose privileges and you might lose early release time. I'm a law enforcement officer, I'm a sworn officer. I have a job to do and I believe I do it better than anybody else."
Like other law enforcement officers against prohibition, Van Wickler believes that if the government regulates and taxes drugs, the way it regulates and taxes alcohol and cigarettes, the nation's crime rate will automatically be reduced, there will be more money for education and rehabilitation and there will be fewer drug overdoses, because addicts will automatically know the dose and the source of the drugs they're getting.
"I was addicted. My wife was addicted. We wanted to get away from it several times. We talked about it. We made efforts but one or the other of us would just - the withdrawals from it was too much," says John, a master carpenter whose cocaine and heroin addiction became so great that he lost his job, lost his wife and his kids and is awaiting trial in the Cheshire County Jail on cocaine possession charges.
Critics of LEAP's strategy say legalizing drugs will only result in more addicts, more problems and send a terrible message to kids. Evert Fowle is the District Attorney for Kennebec and Somerset Counties in Maine. "Eighty percent of my crime problems are alcohol-based in some way. And so to throw open a whole round of legalizing drugs and so forth, to me, I think, invites the same social disruptions that we've seen with regard to alcohol."
Fowle says that doesn't mean that addicts can't be treated in a different way. Meanwhile, LEAP has set an ambitious goal of signing on a million members over the next two years. Members include judges, prosecutors, police officers and drug agents. Most of them are retired, or they keep their membership anonymous.
Founder Jack Cole says that's because the law enforcement community does not take kindly to perceived "turncoats." Cole says at least one member of LEAP was fired because of his views. But Cole sees the tide turning. He's hoping to receive the endorsement of a major law enforcement organization in the next few months.
News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: mpbn.net
Author: Susan Sharon
Copyright: 2009 Maine Public Broadcasting Network
Contact: Contact MPBN
Website: Maine News
It takes a leap of faith to believe 70-year-old Jack Cole was an undercover drug agent with the New Jersey State Police, until he displays some old pictures of himself on a projector in front of a rapt audience. In one he's sitting amid a pile of cash. Another is a mugshot showing a tough-looking guy with long hair and a beard.
The year was 1973, and Cole tells the crowd he was caught up in the War on Drugs. "I felt very bad about my part in implementing what today I've decided is not just an unjust war on drugs but it is a terribly destructive policy."
He points to the rate of incarceration of blacks for drug offenses as one example. According to Human Rights Watch, twice as many blacks are serving prison sentences for drug offenses as whites, even though there are more white drug offenders. So in 2002 Cole and several of his peers founded a Massachusetts-based group called LEAP: Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
Since then they've signed up nearly 12,000 supporters. "What we believe is that if we can remove the profit motive we will end about almost all of the problems we have. How do you do that? Well, simple, you end drug prohibition, you legalize drugs."
Cole takes his message on the road to anyone who will listen. On this day, it's a group of about 50 members of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Brunswick, Maine. It's a sympathetic audience. That's because the same year LEAP was formed the Unitarian Universalist Association issued a statement calling for an end to the "War on Drugs" as a matter of conscience.
"I'm here from Brunswick and I'm a member of this congregation," says audience member James Mitchell. "I was a former minister here, now retired. I came in believing very strongly that we needed to legalize drugs. But the strength of Jack's presentation is the facts and figures."
Susan Sharon: "You going to join this organization?"
James Mitchell: "Sure am, yes."
Cole's figures are stark: In 2005, he says, nearly two million people were arrested on drug charges. About 800,000 were marijuana-related, mostly for possession. That's six times more than in 1970. Mandatory minimum sentences, "three strikes" laws and reduced options for parole have contributed to the jump. And as drug arrests have risen, so has the prison industry.
The aging Cheshire County Jail in Westmoreland, New Hampshire was built to hold 57 inmates. Instead, it houses almost twice as many. A new and bigger jail is under construction 20 miles away.
Jail Superintendent Richard Van Wickler points to New Hampshire's prison population and says what's happening at his jail is the same story everywhere. "This is the latest report that came out on the prison population and if you look at this, the state of New Hampshire has almost 3,000 inmates in the state prison. In my opinion, and and in the opinion of most correctional practitioners, the people that you want in prison are people that are there for violent crimes or for sex crimes. When you look at the non-violent crimes and the drug offenses, just those two categories makes up almost 50 percent of those people that are in the prison system, and that's pretty much a trend across the nation."
Retired from the U.S. Army Reserves, Van Wickler is also an unlikely proponent of legalizing drugs. He's worked in corrections for more than 20 years and says he had an epiphany about what he calls "the nation's failed drug policy." It happened in 2007 during a conference in New Orleans sponsored by LEAP.
Now he's a passionate advocate. "LEAP does not advocate drug use. I cannot emphasize that enough. Our position is that trying to create a drug free society, we have finally come to the realization, is not possible, that innocent police officers are dying, innocent civilians are dying in this drug war, and it's not curtailing the need for it, it's not curtailing the demand nor the supply."
Susan Sharon: If you go out on a limb and say, 'Hey, I'm in favor, as a law enforcement officer, of legalizing drugs,' how do you then turn around and enforce the law?"
Richard Van Wickler: "I'll tell you this: If you're in my jail and you're on a work release program and part of the contract is you're not to use any illegal drugs - if you do I'm going to be on you like ugly on an ape, and it's not going to be pretty. and you're going to lose privileges and you might lose early release time. I'm a law enforcement officer, I'm a sworn officer. I have a job to do and I believe I do it better than anybody else."
Like other law enforcement officers against prohibition, Van Wickler believes that if the government regulates and taxes drugs, the way it regulates and taxes alcohol and cigarettes, the nation's crime rate will automatically be reduced, there will be more money for education and rehabilitation and there will be fewer drug overdoses, because addicts will automatically know the dose and the source of the drugs they're getting.
"I was addicted. My wife was addicted. We wanted to get away from it several times. We talked about it. We made efforts but one or the other of us would just - the withdrawals from it was too much," says John, a master carpenter whose cocaine and heroin addiction became so great that he lost his job, lost his wife and his kids and is awaiting trial in the Cheshire County Jail on cocaine possession charges.
Critics of LEAP's strategy say legalizing drugs will only result in more addicts, more problems and send a terrible message to kids. Evert Fowle is the District Attorney for Kennebec and Somerset Counties in Maine. "Eighty percent of my crime problems are alcohol-based in some way. And so to throw open a whole round of legalizing drugs and so forth, to me, I think, invites the same social disruptions that we've seen with regard to alcohol."
Fowle says that doesn't mean that addicts can't be treated in a different way. Meanwhile, LEAP has set an ambitious goal of signing on a million members over the next two years. Members include judges, prosecutors, police officers and drug agents. Most of them are retired, or they keep their membership anonymous.
Founder Jack Cole says that's because the law enforcement community does not take kindly to perceived "turncoats." Cole says at least one member of LEAP was fired because of his views. But Cole sees the tide turning. He's hoping to receive the endorsement of a major law enforcement organization in the next few months.
News Hawk: User: 420 MAGAZINE ® - Medical Marijuana Publication & Social Networking
Source: mpbn.net
Author: Susan Sharon
Copyright: 2009 Maine Public Broadcasting Network
Contact: Contact MPBN
Website: Maine News
