LEAP mentioned on CNN

Thanks to our friend Brian O'Dea, LEAP got a big mention on CNN last week. Check out the embedded video here and the transcript below:

PHILLIPS: In the 1980s, my next guest ran a narco empire that took in $100 million a year. That was one heart attack and a ten-year prison term ago. Today Brian O'Dea is legit: a film and TV producer and author of a book titled "High Confessions of an International Drug Smuggler." He joins me live from Toronto.

So, Brian, what is it that we are not doing?

BRIAN O'DEA, FORMER DRUG SMUGGLER: We're not legalizing drugs. And, therefore, we're not taking care of the problem.

Look, I wrote an op-ed a couple of years ago that I went to the Toronto Research Library, and I took headlines from the papers in 1922 and '23, and I put it together. And I removed one word and substituted another word. I took out the word "booze" or "alcohol" and substituted it with "drugs," and it read exactly like what I just heard running on CNN. It sounded like and read like it took place yesterday. It took place in 1920, 1922.

There's a group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, made up of thousands of former police officers, current police officers, judges, lawyers. They say alcohol prohibition, drug prohibition, same problem, same solution.

Thanks, Brian!

Did Colorado's AG Just Say What I Think He Said?

Colorado Attorney General John Suthers (R) went on CNN last week to talk about the Obama administration's new medical marijuana policy.

At one point, CNN's Rick Sanchez asked Mr. Suthers if legalizing and regulating marijuana outright would solve a lot of the problems we experience under prohibition. Here's what he said:

"If there was full regulation, if the legislature stepped in and gave clarification to these very broad provisions, I could see that happening. You know, taxation schemes, regulatory schemes, somebody actually cares about how much THC is in the brownie that you're buying."

Check out the embedded video:

LEAP Member Moskos Debates Clinton Drug Czar on CNN

Peter Moskos, a former Baltimore cop and LEAP speaker (and, oh yeah, a prolific criminal justice blogger), appeared on Lou Dobbs's CNN show this evening with The Cato Institute's Tim Lynch and former Clinton administration "drug czar" Barry McCaffrey. The topic was the federal government's new medical marijuana policy, but Peter did a good job focusing the discussion on ending prohibition.

Here's the embedded video:

Way to make the case that making drugs illegal means that they are not and can not be regulated and controlled, Peter!

And, oh yeah, how come Barry McCaffrey is pretending he doesn't remember threatening to strip doctors of their medical licenses just for discussing medical marijuana with their patients?

Colombian President: "Yes, We Do Believe in" Legalization

Former Colombian president Cesar Garivia said he thinks the U.S. and other countries should stop arresting so many people for drugs in an interview with CNN's Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday.

At about six minutes into this embedded video, when Amanpour asks President Garivia about legalization and decriminalization, he says, "We do believe in that. You should not put people in jail because of the consumption of drugs...Just putting people in jail doesn't solve any problem; it only increases the problem. The U.S. has to look at its policy."



Also in the interview, President Garivia says he supports legal drug maintenance programs, like the ones operating in some European countries.