Black Government Employees Call for End to Racially Biased “War on Drugs”

Group Joins Police Officers in Calling for Move Toward Legalization

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Blacks in Government (BIG), a group representing the interests of African-American government employees at the federal, state, county and municipal levels, overwhelmingly passed a resolution at its national delegates meeting last week calling for an end to the failed and racially biased “war on drugs.” The resolution, which will be delivered to President Barack Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder, calls for “alternatives to incarceration that may, in part, include a model to regulate and control the distribution of some drugs.”

The resolution pointed to the words of Maryland State Police Major Neill Franklin and U.S. Marshal Matthew Fogg, both members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a group of police, judges, prosecutors and prison wardens who support legalizing and regulating drugs. BIG and LEAP have noted that African Americans constitute 53.5 percent of all persons who entered prison because of a drug conviction despite the fact that blacks are no more likely than whites to use drugs.

“I personally witnessed racially biased enforcement procedures when I ran a joint DEA task force,” said Fogg, a former U.S. marshal and a past BIG national first vice president. “When I requested equal enforcement of upscale suburban areas, I met internal resistance.”

The BIG resolution calls for “a federal investigation for solutions to eliminate the pretense and continued arrest and incarceration of African Americans at extraordinarily disparate rates for drug related charges.”

In passing the anti-drug-war resolution, BIG joins other African-American groups that have taken similar positions, such as the NAACP, the National Black Caucus of State Legislators and the National Black Police Association.

“The war on drugs has put blacks behind bars for drug offenses at more than ten times the rate of whites, even though the evidence consistently shows that blacks are no more likely to use or sell currently illicit drugs than whites are,” Fogg added. “It is time to end this virtual race war.”

The full text of the BIG resolution can be seen at http://www.bignet.org/regional/delegates/Resolution2_2011R.pdf

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) represents police, prosecutors, judges, FBI/DEA agents, U.S. marshals and others who want to legalize and regulate drugs after fighting on the front lines of the "war on drugs" and learning firsthand that prohibition only serves to worsen addiction and violence. Info at http://www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 30, 2011
CONTACT: Tom Angell – (202) 557-4979 or media@leap.cc

LEAP Testifies for Medical Marijuana Regulations in Washington, D.C.

Retired U.S. marshal Matthew Fogg testified this week in favor of effective regulations for the soon-to-be-enacted medical marijuana law in Washington, D.C.

Here's the video, and below that is a copy of Matthew's written testimony.

Testimony on B18-622: Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment Initiative Amendment Act of 2010

Council of the District of Columbia

Committee on Health and Committee on Public Safety and the Judiciary

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Submitted By:

Matthew F. Fogg,

Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal, ret.

on behalf of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

(www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com)

Council members, thank you for allowing me to testify at this joint session of the Committee on Health and the Committee on Public Safety concerning the Legalization of Marijuana for Medical Treatment Initiative Amendment Act of 2010.

My name is Matthew Fogg. I am a lifelong resident of Washington, D.C. Over the course of my career as a Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal ultimately ending with the title of Chief Deputy, I received the District of Columbia, U.S. Attorney and Federal Bar Association's highest law enforcement awards for tracking down over 300 of America's most-wanted and dangerous fugitives. I was also cross designated as Supervisory Special Agent for the U.S Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Washington, DC - Metropolitan Area Task Force (MATF) and nominated for the Outstanding Contribution to Narcotics Enforcement award by a Tactical Officer or Investigator. To make a long story short, my direct observation of the racist and ineffective nature of our drug laws led me to be here representing Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an organization of current and former members of the law enforcement including judges and prosecutors in criminal justice communities nationwide who are speaking out about the failures of our existing national drug policies. I am here today representing over 16,000 members and supporters of LEAP.

As a member of law enforcement, I am focusing my comments on issues of public safety. This bill does not have provisions for police training and procedures. A lack of structure for police has led to huge problems in other states which passed medical marijuana laws. We should learn from this and institute consistent methods to reach the common goals of using police resources wisely and keeping the citizens of DC, including patients, safe. I recommend that the police department training materials be updated to reflect the passage of the bill within six months after it becomes effective. All Federal, State and Municipal police personnel should have access to these updated materials.

It should be specified in the bill that patients, their caregivers, and medical cannabis dispensing collectives who come into contact with law enforcement will not be cited or arrested, and dried cannabis or cannabis plants in their possession will not be seized, if they are in compliance with the provisions under the law.

If the patient, caregiver, or dispensing collective cannot establish or demonstrate their status as falling into these groups, but are otherwise in compliance with the provisions of the medical cannabis law, then they should be given a chance to provide proof of status before being cited or arrested or having their cannabis seized.

I would recommend that the bill specify that medical cannabis-related activities should be the lowest possible priority of the Police Department, in order to free officers’ time and resources for attention to violent crime.

I would like to also comment on the provision of the bill that excludes anyone with a misdemeanor drug conviction or any felony conviction from owning or working at a dispensary. I strongly disagree with this exclusion as unnecessary and biased. I have personal experience with the very real racial disparities governing just who is targeted by the laws and criminal justice system. I recall specifically during my tenure on the DEA MATF we were persuaded to target inner city area violators who often had less resources and abilities to defend prosecution and turned out to be mainly people of color. Therefore, our narcotics arrest unfairly reflected Black and Brown violators in which statistics today prove that this form of racial profiling in the U.S. led war on drugs has been one of the most racist federal policies since Slavery and has literally destroyed the family hierarchy in communities of color. This provision in the bill would again unfairly target the same groups by preventing them from being employed by a dispensary. Recall also that for the past eleven years, while Initiative 59 was blocked, patients were not protected and many of them may have been convicted for being in possession of their medicine. Why preclude them from employment at a dispensary?

Let me conclude by saying that protecting medical cannabis patients from arrest is a great step in the right direction. But while we spend minutes, months, and years discussing and implementing these small steps of reform, the clock continues to tick and we continue to spend billions of dollars each year on a failed drug war. Putting marijuana users in jail does nothing but create an enormous profit incentive to sell more marijuana to anyone who will pay for it and keep the violence associated with prohibition in place. Ultimately, we need to address this issue positively by controlling drugs, regulating them, and putting the violent cartels out of business once and for all.

Press Release: Fmr. N.M. Governor Speaks Against "Drug War"

NEWS ADVISORY: November 5, 2009
CONTACT: Shaleen Title - speakers //at// leap.cc
Tom Angell - (202) 557-4979 or media //at// leap.cc

FORMER NEW MEXICO GOV. JOHNSON TO SPEAK AGAINST "DRUG WAR"

Governor Teams Up With Group of Cops Who Want to Legalize All Drugs

ALBUQUERQUE, NM -- Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson will speak Tuesday night alongside a former DEA task force leader about their joint campaign to legalize and regulate all drugs.

Gov. Johnson, who is the highest-ranking elected official in the U.S. to advocate the repeal of drug prohibition, and former U.S. Marshal Matthew Fogg will discuss their involvement with Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and how many police, prosecutors and judges now feel that arresting and locking up our citizens isn’t the answer to our drug problems.

WHO: Former N.M. Governor Gary Johnson & Matthew Fogg, former U.S. Marshal

WHAT: Presentation, “Trusted U.S. Officials Make the Case Against the Drug War”

WHEN: Tuesday, November 10 @ 7:00 P.M.

WHERE: University of New Mexico's Student Union; Lobo Room

The talk comes on the eve of the International Drug Policy Reform Conference, the biggest-ever get-together of activists, politicians, police officers, doctors, lawyers, students and others united against ending the nation’s failed and racist drug policies, taking place later in the week at the Albuquerque Convention Center.

Matthew Fogg, in addition to having arrested hundreds of people on drug charges before having a change of heart, is a former vice president of Blacks in Government (BIG) and a recipient of the International Narcotics Officers Association Special Service award, the US Marshals Director's award and the US Attorney for the District of Columbia and Federal Bar Association awards for outstanding law enforcement service above and beyond the call of duty while in the line of fire.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) is a 15,000-member organization representing cops, judges, prosecutors, prison wardens and others who now want to legalize and regulate all drugs after witnessing horrors and injustices fighting on the front lines of the "war on drugs." More info online at http://www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com.

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