FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 28, 2010
CONTACT: Tom Angell - (202) 557-4979 or media//at//leap//dot//cc
New Head of Pro-Legalization Police Group Praises Congressional Actions Against "War on Drugs"
Former Baltimore Cop Saw Colleagues Killed in "Drug War"
WASHINGTON, DC -- As the U.S. House passed separate bills this week to scale back penalties for crack cocaine and to create a commission to reconsider the entire "war on drugs," a group of pro-legalization police officers, judges and prosecutors announced that it has hired a former Baltimore narcotics cop as its new executive director.
Neill Franklin, a 33-year police veteran who led multi-jurisdictional anti-narcotics task forces for the Maryland State Police and training for the Baltimore Police Department, officially took the helm of the legalization group, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), on July 1.
"The 'war on drugs' has done nothing to reduce drug use," said Franklin. "But this failed prohibition policy has achieved some results: far too many cops killed in action, billions of tax dollars wasted, powerful and well-funded drug cartels and out-of-control violence in our cities. It's great to see our elected representatives finally beginning to address these problems, but there's still a lot more work to be done."
The pro-legalization criminal justice professionals of LEAP are working to change the current debate about the "war on drugs" to help more people understand that current drug policies harm public safety and that only by legalizing and regulating drugs can we actually control them and thereby reduce death, disease, crime and addiction.
To that end, LEAP is actively organizing cops, judges and prosecutors who are campaigning for Proposition 19, the statewide marijuana legalization initiative on California's ballot this November. Representatives of the organization's 100-member speakers bureau have also testified for drug policy reform measures in recent months in places like the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington.
"When my good friend Ed Toatley was killed in the line of fire during an undercover drug purchase, Maryland lost one of the best narcotics cops in our state's history," said Franklin. "It is in his honor, and in the names of all the good cops whose lives have needlessly been lost in this failed 'drug war,' that I will work with LEAP to change these deadly drug laws."
On Tuesday the House passed H.R. 5143, which would create a blue ribbon commission to study the criminal justice system from top to bottom and recommend reforms. Sen. Jim Webb, sponsor of the Senate companion bill, said that the commission should study drug legalization. On Wednesday, the House passed S. 1789, which would lower the disparity between sentences for crack cocaine and powder cocaine from it's current 100-to-1 ratio down to 18-to-1. That bill unanimously passed the Senate in March.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and its 30,000 supporters represent police, prosecutors, judges, FBI/DEA agents, US marshals and others from around the world who want to legalize and regulate all drugs after fighting on the front lines of the "war on drugs" and learning firsthand that prohibition only serves to worsen addiction and violence. More info at http://www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com.
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Reducing the sentencing gap from 100 to 1 to 18 to 1 is an improvement but not enough. Cocaine gets you 3-5, therefore crack will get you between 54 and 90 years. Still creates geriatric convicts with no way to become a useful citizen.
ReplyDeleteThat's because cocaine was always a "rich man's drug." Since cocaine users typically make more money than crack users they also contribute more money to the federal gov't in the form of taxes, ergo, keeping them in prison for longer is detrimental to the bottom line. The also gov't knows that most crack users are scum that do nothing but drain the system and it is cheaper to jail them rather than feed ($200+/month), house ($500+/month), and give cash ($700+/month) (in the form of public assistance and SS programs) to an addict.
ReplyDeleteRob, you're wrong. It costs much more to incarcerate a person than that person can receive from public assistance.
ReplyDeleteCrack sentences were increased as a political move to satisfy the racists in the Republican Party. Do try to keep up.
I doubt that there's much concern as to how much it costs to imprison. The concern is that all the cash will dry up when there are fewer people to incarcerate.
ReplyDeleteThe prison system, and the criminal justice system that feeds it, relies upon an increasing feed of inmates. To supply this, what better means than the failed "war on drugs"? Stop the war and stop the feed. Can't have that.
LEAP's proposals will not gain much ground among those who rely upon the jobs and contracts that the prison industry provides.
The concern is that all the cash will dry up when there are fewer people to incarcerate.
ReplyDeleteAnd not just funds to run the jails/prisons, but there's a quote from the Clergy Speak Out Against the War on Drugs video which indicates they also receive funds for other uses:
“Part of the problem is our [elected officials] do not want the laws changed… they are getting funds by counting those prisoners as [district] residents.”
I wouldn't be surprised if there was some strange sort of gerrymandering going on which also counted the incarcerated and gave more political representation to those communities; even though the incarcerated are not allowed to vote. We see the same thing in our census laws.
I am so glad to see cooler heads prevailing and candid discussions of the facts happening everywhere. It's about time we lifted the veil off this Global problem.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it societies pick some drugs to be OK while other natural remedies and herbs are demonized? We all have 'DRUGS' in our medicine cabinets, don't we?
More research on Veterans and Cannabis use for anguish, pain, and PTSD therapy is necessary immediately.
They need to look at a very similar thing in history, Prohibition. When they repealed those laws the gangs had to find other "illegal" substances and that's when we got all these drug laws.
ReplyDelete