PROHIBITION HURTS POLICE MORALE AND PUBLIC'S RESPECT FOR LAW

Norm Stamper, former chief of the Seattle Police Department,is the author
of Breaking Rank: A Top Cop's Expose of the Dark Side of American Policing
and an opinion piece in the Oct. 16, 2005 Los Angeles Times. Stamper said
he wants to set the record straight.

"Yes, I was a cop for 34 years, the last six of which I spent as chief of
Seattle's police department. But no, I don't favor decriminalization. I
favor legalization, and not just of pot but of all drugs".

These days it's not renegade cops who favor legalization but a swelling
tide of mainstream police and retired officers who disavow the Drug War. In
fact, at least two political organizations comprised of current and retired
law enforcement officers have been working quietly behind the scene to
educate and recruit others to publicly join the call for reform if not
outright repeal of drug laws.

It should be no surprise to learn that Stamper is affiliated with one such
group.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) takes the position espoused by
Stamper, namely legalizing all drugs to lower the incidents of death,
disease, and addiction in the United States by ending drug prohibition.
Founding member and executive director of the international organization
Jack Cole hales from across the country in Massachusetts but came to the
same conclusions as Stamper. After serving in the United States Marine
Corps, Cole became a policeman in 1964 and began the long odyssey to being
a drug policy reformer. Like many, he waited until after retirement to
voice his opposition to drug prohibition.

Boardmember Peter Christ is a retired New York police captain. During his
20-year career enforcing drug laws, he said he became convinced that "the
drug war can never be won, and is doing more harm than good." After
retiring from the force in 1989, Christ began speaking out publicly against
the Drug War and has not stopped talking about it ever since.

Such was not the case for advisory board member of LEAP Judge Robert W.
Sweet, a sitting federal court judge who found himself in the center of a
firestorm as a result of speaking to his wife's club on effect of the drug
laws in December, 1989.

"In that speech I expressed my view that the use of the criminal law to
deal with the drug problem was expensive, ineffective and harmful, both in
human terms and societal values," the now-retired Sweet recalled. The
speech catapulted him to national celebrity status. Some 15 years later,
his opinions remain unchanged.

"All drugs should be appropriately labeled; the criminal proscription on
drug use should be ended; and drugs should be sold only to adults and only
through licensed pharmacies to persons properly identified. The crime
attending the current distribution of drugs would cease; $150 billion
dollars would be restored to the economy; responsibility for drug use would
be pinpointed and assumed by the user; the beneficial effects of medical
drugs -- marijuana, for example -- would be achieved, and a reliable body
of statistics would be available."

Advisory boardmember Eric Sterling, also president of The Criminal Justice
Policy Foundation, was Counsel to the House of Representatives Committee on
the Judiciary from 1979 until 1989. It was seeing the laws that were coming
from Congress that convinced Sterling to publicly come out against the Drug
War.

"Police officers have observed that the last 20 years of current drug
policy has neither brought an end or reduction in demand for illegal drugs
in our country," says Dan Solano, retired Detroit police officer and
founder of Police Officers for Drug Law Reform. PODLR is an organization of
both active and non-active policemen who make a more limited call for
legalizing and regulating marijuana.

"It's time to think beyond drug prohibition and adopt a more logical and
sustainable drug policy-one that is less reliant on police and
imprisonment-a policy with greater emphasis on regulation, prevention and
treatment."

Many police admit that they have lost their appetite for busting pot
smokers. Whole cities, like Seattle and Oakland, are opting out of making
marijuana arrests. So when respected former police chiefs like Seattle's
Stamper and San Jose's Joseph McNamara take up the theme of drug policy
reform, it begins to weaken the grip of the so-called Drug War lobby.

The bastions of resistance remain the police and prison guard unions and
sheriff, district attorney and narcotics officers associations. While
politicians may face off even the pharmaceutical, alcohol and tobacco
lobbies, all our men in blue need do is lock arms together to stop any
reform. Now those special interest groups face defections and an outbreak
of common sense within their ranks.

To book a LEAP speaker contact, Mike Smithson, Coordinator of Speakers
Bureau ( speakers@leap.cc) at 315-243-5844 or fax: 315-488-3630. To order a
copy of Norm Stamper's book or other fine books on drugs and drug policy,
contact Quick Distribution 510-527-7036.