Peter Christ: promoting drug policy reform for nearly two decades.

Buffalo News columnist Donn Esmonde notes that LEAP speaker Peter Christ has been promoting drug policy reform for nearly 20 years:

You would think he would be discouraged. I first talked to Peter Christ (rhymes with ‘wrist’) nearly 20 years ago. He is hardly any further along in the fight now than he was then. But there is no weariness in his words, no sag in his step. Keeping the faith is easier, I guess, when you believe that common sense is on your side and an ever-growing mountain of evidence argues in your favor.

Nice work, Peter.

Peter Christ in The Buffalo News

The Buffalo News has a good article about a women who found herself asked to be a confidential informant after she was caught for driving without a license. It quotes Peter Christ:

Peter Christ, who retired from the Tonawanda Police Department as a captain and founded Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, said recruiting someone who doesn't use drugs as a drug informant is one of the reasons America is losing the war on drugs.

"When you have a doomed, failed policy," Christ said, whose organization now has more than 2,000 former cops working against the country's drug policies, "these are the kinds of things you do to try to make it seem like it's working."

By the way, if you like reading about informant related issues, check out The Snitching Blog by Alexandra Natapoff.