Tuesday, September 15, 2009

LEAP in the Christian Science Monitor

After seeing our press release from yesterday about the FBI's new 2008 arrest data, Christian Science Monitor reporter Patrik Jonsson called LEAP and ended up quoting two of our speakers and our media relations director in this great piece.
Every 18 seconds, an American is busted for drug possession, according to Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) crime statistics released Monday.

The new statistics point to a continued emphasis on drug interdiction – otherwise known as the "war on drugs" – that more and more law enforcement officers are now questioning. While many experts hold the anti-drug campaign to be the key reason for the decline in the crime rate in the US, especially violent crime, since the 1990s, these police officers, as well as current and retired judges and prosecutors see, instead, thousands of American lives ruined for small drug infractions in a costly and possibly unwinnable "war."

"Not only do these officers see the terrible results that their work has had on individuals' lives, but a lot of what I hear from beat officers and undercover narcotics agents is they've seen colleagues die in the line of fire trying to enforce laws that have no positive impacts," says Tom Angell, a spokesman for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) in Washington. "For a lot of them, this is about trying to keep good cops alive by repealing stupid prohibition laws."

Read the whole thing here.

2 comments:

  1. Amen Brother!
    Keep on keeping on, and someday a great change will take effect. Nothing but good will come from ending prohibition. It's a win-win situation.

    Thanks so very nuch for your efforts,

    Trey Haltom

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fortunately most of the article is devoted to sense, before it devolves in to nonsense. :-)

    "Legalization sends a message that it's okay to do drugs…"
    Apparently this man has not read my latest essay, "Legalizing Drugs Sends the Right Message to Teens."

    "…in reality these drugs have a tremendous impact on the future of the people who take them…"
    "Take them and get caught" is what I think he means, as Jack Cole says in so many words and so much better.

    [Under legalization], the crime rate would rise because of crimes committed by people under the influence of these substances…
    Someone needs to send this guy the bumper sticker: Sure Drugs Cause Crime, Like Forks Cause Obesity. :-)

    So sad so many people live off making others afraid.

    ReplyDelete

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