This week, tens of thousands of police officers and their families will travel to Washington, DC to commemorate law enforcers who have lost their lives in the line of duty. To me, a 34-year veteran cop in Maryland, the roster of fallen comrades to be read on Peace Officers Memorial Day is far too long, and especially troubling is that so many of these deaths needlessly resulted from police being charged with enforcing an unwinnable war on drugs.
Deputy U.S. Marshal Derek Hotsinpiller, 24 years of age, never should have died the way he did: gunned down in February when a drug suspect opened fire during a police raid in Elkins, West Virginia.
And in a just world, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Special Agent Jaime Zapata would not have been shot to death in his car earlier this year by a drug cartel in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.
Sadly, there's nothing unique or new about such drug war deaths.
A decade ago one of my best friends, narcotics detective Corporal Ed Toatley, died needlessly when he was ambushed by a drug dealer during an undercover drug buy gone wrong in Washington, DC.
Undoubtedly, my friend and these other brave law enforcers paid the ultimate price for a well-intentioned effort to combat drug problems in our society, and we cannot forget their sacrifices. But, in their honor, we do have to ask: Was it necessary?
In a word: No. Despite a decades-long drug war in which a trillion dollars have been spent arresting, prosecuting and jailing millions of people, drugs today are more prevalent, cheaper and more potent than ever before.
Thinking back to my own law enforcement career, I now realize that the more people we arrested and the more drugs we grabbed, it didn't really make a dent -- never mind a significant impact -- in the drug trade. We were making ever-bigger busts yet were continually falling behind the traffickers. I confess that questions of futility did pop into my head from time to time throughout my career, but I usually pushed them aside quickly. I was caught up in the excitement of collaring the next bad guy. And many of the guys we took off the street were in fact bad.
But, eleven years ago, my grief and anger over Ed Toatley's death made these questions I had been avoiding harder to ignore. Why was it that for each bad guy we took off the streets, there was always a new one ready to step in and fill the lucrative job opening? Why weren't drug use and addiction rates going down no matter how many tons of drugs we seized? Why does the drug trade grow larger, more entrenched, and more deadly despite all we have done for so long?
These issues aren't easy to confront after having spent so many years of my own life trying to help solve the drug problem through policing. But, in the interest of being honest with myself, I now have to admit: It doesn't work and it isn't worth the price so many of my colleagues end up paying.
So, since 2008 I've been working with LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. We are former and current police officers, judges, prosecutors, prison wardens, federal agents and other criminal justice professionals who have seen more than enough of the "war on drugs" up close to know that it's a failure and that we need a new approach.
LEAP believes that the war on drugs is not only ineffective at reducing drug problems but has actually made them much worse. The drug war has become a massive, self-perpetuating policy disaster with no positive returns (except to the gangs and cartels that control the illegal market) and huge costs - including a large percentage of the lives lost in law enforcement.
In no way does this deny the great work done, and huge sacrifices made, by law enforcement professionals for decades. The reason we can never win the drug war isn't because police haven't tried hard enough or aren't as skilled as we need them to be. It's because the task we've asked them to accomplish is impossible. We will never reduce the drug trade through prohibition. In fact, more of the same will keep strengthening drug traffic.
History shows that no level of law enforcement talent, commitment, and resources can ever end activities that are very popular and obscenely profitable. (Remember alcohol prohibition?)
Ed Toatley and so many other police have died in a war we can't win. How many more will need to perish before America musters the collective courage to chart a new course? Let's honor the memories of our fallen colleagues by ending the war on drugs. It's the best step we can take to ensure that none of them will have died in vain.
Neill Franklin, executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (http:// www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com), did narcotics policing with the Maryland State Police and Baltimore Police Department for over 30 years.
Drugs are a medical problem. As for marijuana, it is not technically even a drug. It is a very very safe alternative to alcohol.
Officers are paid (not nearly enough) to fight crime. Unfortunately many criminals don't like cops and don't like going to prison. They will do whatever it takes to avoid that. Instead of calling for legalizing drugs, let's call for better training in officer safety, better force options, bulletproof vests, and more punishment on offenders that attack officers.
"LEAP believes that the war on drugs is not only ineffective at reducing drug problems but has actually made them much worse. The drug war has become a massive, self-perpetuating policy disaster with no positive returns (except to the gangs and cartels that control the illegal market) and huge costs - including a large percentage of the lives lost in law enforcement."
Making drugs legal would virtually eliminated the number one source of income for organized crime and terrorism.
I'll have to respectfully disagree. I work in law enforcement and have arrested gang members that have been involved in all aspects of crime. They are pimps for underage prostitutes, car thieves, car jackers, robbers, burglars, metal thieves, etc. It's not like if we eliminate the war on drugs, gang members and cartels will instantly become law-abiding citizens.
How many cancer patients have suffered because of prohibition of marijuana? How many Aids? MS? Depression? Anxiety? patients have had their lives ruined because of prohibition. How many innocents have been thrown in prison?
And you want to save the lives of those that CHOSE to ENFORCE this for MONEY???
COPS ARE NOT THE VICTIMS. They are the cause of the problem. If they die trying to suppress our civil liberties then I say to hell with them. They get what they deserve.
This is one of the REAL costs of prohibition. It corrodes the respect for Law Enforcement. So if you enforce the law, do NOT expect respect.
You have to be morally corrupt to do a job that ruins the lives of innocent people simply for MONEY.
Its funny, it seems that you actually see the harm that prohibition causes, yet you are so caught up on the fact that this cop wants to end prohibition (just like you) to save other cops lives (and most likely for other reasons that you point out), that you need to lash out. Both of you are on the same side. You should group together so you can actually work to end these laws. That is the only way prohibition is going to get overturned, when people from all walks of life come together and fight for this.
---------------------------------------------------------
There's a pretty simple explanation for that....
Imagine if there were 10 gas stations located within the same city block (lotsa' competition wouldn't you say?)....
Now imagine if the taxpayers started offering the free service of eliminating 7 or 8 of the gas stations at any given time (as well as restricting any new gas stations from opening up on the same city block)....
Now you've only got 2 to 3 gas stations operating on that city block (fewer competitors = oligopoly/monopoly = higher prices = zooming net profit margins)...
If you're one of those 2 to 3 gas stations left operating, then you're enjoying life.....however, there's always somebody else out there that wants to occupy one of those 2 or 3 slots that the government can't/won't/is unable to shut down and they will stop at nothing to do just that.
Now take that same scenario and apply it to narcotics trafficking/distribution.....
Look familiar yet?...
I don't wish bodily harm on police but they do choose a dangerous profession. Most of the rest of us, who are statistically much more likely to suffer harm from those who need to pay for their fix or those who suffer physical abuse from a crazed drug user, do no choose to go in harm's way.
To compare the impact that drugs have on a person, who has become addicted to the impact that alcohol has is naive. That is especially true of today's versions of designer, highly purified, often addictive in just one use drugs.
Comparing alcohol addiction and Prohibition to addiction to today's drugs is like comparing caffeine accident to 2% beer addiction. There really is no parallel.
Addiction=addiction. Doesn't matter what substance one is addicted too.
When nations decriminalize drugs, they do not see an overall and long standing increase in drug use. They actually see a decrease. Portugal recently took the plunge and decriminalized drugs. Their society didn't fall apart and overall drug use decreased.
Along with legalizing/decriminalizing drugs, we also need to invest more in treatment and harm reduction measures to deal with those who want to use drugs and have problems with them. Addiction is a medical issue, not a criminal justice issue.
legalization. I think money is the main motive, as in "follow the money."
We should go after the banks who make billions laundering drug money, privately owned prisons who want more convictions, the whole drug enforcement complex. And others.
There may be a small increase in the use of drugs but it would be no worse than any other mind changing substance.
Then there's the moral compromise that occurs too often when an officer becomes suspicious of the public because any of them may be carrying drugs. There is the cascading potential for conducting illegal searches, planting evidence, eliciting favors or any of a variety of deviation from the "protect and serve" oath taken.
The war is un-winnable, costly, counterproductive and illogical for a place called the Land Of The Free.
— John F. Kerry