Cops Take Pro-Legalization Message to UN War on Drugs Meeting

 Law Enforcers Say Ending Prohibition Will Improve Global Security & Human Rights


 VIENNA, AUSTRIA – Judges, prosecutors and jailers who support legalizing drugs are bringing their message to the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs meeting next week in Vienna. At the U.N. session, which comes just days after the Obama administration stepped-up its attempts to counteract the emerging anti-prohibition sentiment among sitting presidents in Latin America, the pro-legalization law enforcement officials will work to embolden national delegations from around the world to push back against the U.S.-led failed “war on drugs.”

Richard Van Wickler, a currently-serving jail superintendent who will be representing Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) in Vienna, says, “World leaders who believe we could better handle drug problems by replacing criminalization with legal control are becoming less and less afraid of U.S. reprisal for speaking out or reforming their nations’ policies. And for good reason.” Van Wickler, who has was named 2011’s Corrections Superintendent of the Year by the New Hampshire Association of Counties, explains, “Voters in at least two U.S. states will be deciding on measures to legalize marijuana this November. It would be pure hypocrisy for the American federal government to continue forcefully pushing a radical prohibitionist agenda on the rest of the world.”

In recent weeks, Presidents Otto Perez Molina of Guatemala, Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, Laura Chinchilla of Costa Rica and Felipe Calderon of Mexico have added their voices to the call for a serious conversation on alternatives to drug prohibition, causing U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to travel to Latin America this week in an unsuccessful attempt to quash the debate.

Former Chicago drug prosecutor James Gierach, recently a featured speaker at a conference in Mexico City last month attended by the first lady of Mexico and the former presidents of Colombia and Brazil, says, “The unending cycle of cartel violence caused by the prohibition market has turned a steady trickle of former elected officials criticizing prohibition into a flood of sitting presidents, business leaders and law enforcement officials calling for an outright discussion about legalization. It’s time for the U.S. and the U.N. to acknowledge that legal control, rather than criminalization, is a much better way to manage our drug problems. The world can have either drug prohibition, violence and corruption or it can have controlled drug legalization with safe streets and moral fabric, but it can't have both.”

The UN meeting in Vienna is an annual opportunity for nations around the world to re-evaluate drug control strategies and treaties. More information about the meeting is at http://www.idpc.net/events/55-session-of-cnd-2012

In recent years, countries like Portugal and Mexico have made moves to significantly transform criminalization-focused drug policies into health approaches by fully decriminalizing possession of small amounts of all drugs. Still, no country has yet to legalize and regulate the sale of any of these drugs. Doing so, the pro-legalization law enforcers point out, would be the only way to prevent violent transnational criminal organizations from profiting in the drug trade.



Also attending the conference on behalf of LEAP will be former Brazilian judge Maria Lucia Karam and former UK MI5 intelligence officer Annie Machon. 



Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) represents police, prosecutors, judges, FBI/DEA agents and others who support legalization 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.



#     #     #

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 8, 2012
CONTACT: Tom Angell – (202) 557-4979 or media@leap.cc

Latest developments in Canada

1) Toronto becomes the first municipality in the world to endorse the Vienna Declaration. The city councillor considered to be the front runner for mayor in the upcoming October election, Rob Ford, voted against the endorsement.

2) Police in British Columbia found a field with 60,000 opium poppies. Do you think this is a one-time event or the start of a new trend?

Interview with CTV News regarding the Vienna Declaration

A couple of days ago I did a brief three minute interview with Marcia MacMillan from CTV News. We talked about the Vienna Declaration and the fact that drug prohibition is fuelling the AIDS epidemic. This was my first live news interview so I tried to give my best talking head impression. :-)

Press Release: Police Group Endorses AIDS Conference’s Call to End Drug War

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 19, 2010

CONTACT: Tom Angell – (202) 557-4979 or media//at//leap//dot//cc

Police Group Endorses AIDS Conference’s Call to End Drug War

 Violence, Gang Activity, Corruption and Spread of Disease
Show Current Policies Are a Complete Failure

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A group of current and former police, judges, prosecutors and prison wardens is endorsing the official declaration of this week’s XVII International AIDS Conference and its call for an end to the failed and harmful war on drugs. Known as the “Vienna Declaration,” the resolution calls for the implementation of new evidenced-based drug policies that actually control drugs and reduce addiction instead of focusing on criminalizing drug users.

The International AIDS Conference, a biennial meeting of more than 20,000 HIV professionals, is taking place this week (July 18-23) in Vienna, Austria.

“I spent 34 years on the streets of a big American city fighting the war on drugs,” said former Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper, a member of the group, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). “But after more than three decades of seeing the real and detrimental effects of drug prohibition, I can say with certainty that the war on drugs has failed. I support the Vienna Declaration to end the staggering rates of death, disease, crime and corruption that have resulted from global drug prohibition.”

So far, the Vienna Declaration has been signed and endorsed by many leading doctors, health organizations, politicians and law enforcement, including the International AIDS Society; the former presidents of Mexico, Columbia and Brazil and 2008 Nobel Laureate Prof. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, co-discoverer of HIV.

“We must stop this unwinnable and ideological war,” added Stamper. “Instead, we should adopt strategies that are supported by scientific evidence and embrace a public health rather than a criminal justice approach.”

Thousands of people have signed the declaration at www.ViennaDeclaration.com. Info on this week’s International AIDS Conference is at www.aids2010.org.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and its 30,000 supporters represent police, prosecutors, judges, FBI/DEA agents 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 www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com.

#    #    #

The weather is too sunny to post on the blog.

Summertime posting has been slow lately, mainly because I've been going to too many BBQ's. :-) That said, I've still been busy working hard for LEAP.

Yesterday I presented at the Idea Wave conference. This was my first time speaking publicly in my home city and I was very pleased to be able to do that. The format was interesting: fifty speakers, ten minutes each, no limits on subject matter. You would think that a ten minute presentation would be easier than an hour long presentation. This is definitely not the case! I did a lot of preparation in order to jam everything I could into ten minutes. The conference organizer will be posting video of one talk each week, so at some point during the next year my presentation will be online.

Today I was on The Bill Good Show on CKNW radio in Vancouver. I was nervous but hopefully the interview sounded OK. I talked about the Vienna Declaration and how prohibition contributes to the HIV epidemic. The interview should be online in the next day or so.

Lots of good things are happening behind the scenes at LEAP, and I'm confident the organization is headed in a positive direction. Stay tuned for some great announcements later this summer and in the fall.