Community | June 24, 2011 | 4 comments

Why Police Are Turning Against Prohibition

source: http://www.thefix.com/content/leap-faith?page=all

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lordsbassman
For decades, police were convinced that total prohibition was the only way to end America's deadly drug wars. Now thousands of cops are not only having second thoughts but actually taking to the streets in protest.

“I was pro-prohibition: that’s what my training was about!” says Major Neill Franklin, Executive Director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), who previously served for 33 years with the Maryland State Police and the Baltimore police forces on the front line of America’s longest running war. “Even though I grew up in Baltimore and saw what was going on, we were taught and trained to believe that if we push hard enough, if we lock up the people involved, then this will eventually dissipate, or at least be reduced to a manageable level.” He gives a long, world-weary sigh. “Of course back then I had no clue...You just can’t tell somebody not to use and they’re gonna stop using! As long as there are people willing to buy, and as long as people don’t have employment, then you’re going to have an illicit drug trade. I saw that we made these arrests—we locked up dealers and users alike—and it might get quiet for a few days, or even a couple of weeks, but give it time and it all starts up again.”

This is a man whose time in law enforcement was highly successful by anyone’s barometer. In the course of his career, he ended up becoming a Commander and leading a number of narcotics task forces. He was promoted and recruited so often that he once joked, "Every time I turned around, I was in a new position.” The idea that this stalwart drug law enforcer would one day become one of America’s most outspoken and proactive critics of prohibition seems shocking. But once Franklin starts to talk about his conversion from drug law zealot to dedicated reform campaigner, the cool logic of his position becomes clear.

*more at link
  1. groups:
    Community,   Culture,   THC
  2. tags:
    Marijuana,  Police,  War on Drugs,  Prohibition,  1 more
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4 comments // Why Police Are Turning Against Prohibition

  • rustyred
  • chew_chew
    • 0
      chew_chew  

    • From a practical perspective, the war on drugs is a tragic waste of human and financial resources. And people who have committed *no* crime which created a victim in society, are being placed in prisons and cultivated to be criminals. This is an expense society simply cannot afford.

      From a moral perspective, it's simply not appropriate or morally right for those needing marijuana for medical purposes to face jail time in order to procure and take medicine which - in numerous cases - is their only source of relief. This situation is shameful. Additionally, families are being destroyed, not by the use of marijuana, but by the imprisonment and alienation of family members who have caused society no harm.

      Marijuana should be legal. It is the moral thing to do. It is the physically responsible thing to do.

    • 11 months ago
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • lordsbassman
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