From uniformed beat cops to homicide dicks, SWAT officers to chiefs and sheriffs, more and more of the nation's police officers are coming to realize that our 40-year drug war is an unmitigated failure, that it has ruined countless lives, squandered billions of taxpayer dollars, guaranteed a handsome lifestyle for demonstrably dangerous people, and done nothing to reduce drug potency, profits, or ease of access.
Thoughtful police officers know this, better than most.
Yet most of them keep their mouths shut. And by doing so they help to perpetuate the country's most costly and shameful social policy since the days of slavery and Jim Crow.
Why do those who've witnessed firsthand the folly of the drug war not speak up?
Fear.
Many cops are afraid they'll be seen as "soft on drugs, soft on crime." They're afraid they won't get that assignment or promotion they've worked so hard to achieve, that their superiors will think they're one of "them" -- closeted dope smokers, pushing reform for private, self-indulgent reasons. Or pointy-headed social-worker, civil liberties-types who belong to "the other side."
And some police officers, realizing how dependent (addicted?) to drug war revenues their agencies have become, are afraid to speak truth to all that money, and the equipment and overtime it buys.
State and local law enforcement agencies receive billions in federal funding for performing their dangerous role as frontline regional drug warriors. Moreover, in a classic case of ironic symbiosis, local police benefit directly from the very traffickers they bust. They wind up confiscating cash, and selling dealers' homes, cars, Harley Davidson motorcycles, works of art, yachts, high-speed cigarette boats--goods used in the commission of illicit drug transactions, or purchased from the proceeds.
Still, more and more of the nation's police officers, along with prosecutors, judges, correctional officers, prison wardens, DEA, FBI, and Homeland Security personnel are speaking out against U.S. drug policy.
Many of them are members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. As a police officer in San Diego for 28 years, as a former chief of the Seattle Police Department, and as a LEAP speaker, I've lost track of the number of times cops (or local, state, or national politicians) have approached me after a talk to whisper their support for replacing the criminal-sanctioned prohibition model with a public health, regulatory system of drug control.
Obviously, not all cops are convinced of the damage done by the nation's drug laws. They've grown up on a steady diet of drug-war propaganda. Year after year, generation after generation they've been subjected to the war's never-ending IV-drip of toxic deceptions. These police officers are convinced that the only answer to the country's "drug problem" is continue to classify drug possession as a crime and the possessors as outlaws. They don't stop to think that prohibition just might be the cause of the problem, not the solution.
They may never have worked Narcotics, toiled as an undercover "dirty," cultivated snitches, or donned one of those POLICE jackets on drug raids. But True Believers are narcs, one and all. As odious a term as it is to freedom-loving, responsible Americans, the "narc" label signifies honor and pride (not to mention adventure and romance) to those who go about the business of busting American adults for drug possession. It is not merely what these officers do, it is who they are. It is their identity.
Which is why it is so important that those police officers and other criminal justice practitioners who do see the drug war for the failure it is speak out. (This is an especially pressing need at a time when California voters have a genuine opportunity to legalize marijuana, by voting YES on Proposition 19. You can be sure Golden State voters will be assaulted by wave after wave of misinformation and outright lies launched from the mouths and pens of True Believers bent on frightening the electorate.)
But each and every endorsement of reform by a police officer, full-throated or soto voce, adds yet another authoritative and powerful voice of sanity and reason to the mix of law enforcement officers who are saying enough is enough.
Follow Norm Stamper on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CopsSayLegalize
Don't believe me? Read the following: "The Media Relations Dept. of Hizbullah Wishes You a Happy Birthday", by Neil MacFaquahar (former AP Mid-East Station Chief), and "Drinking Arak off an Ayatollahs Beard", by Nicholas Jubber.
Acting like the Mukbhakarat (Universal Muslim-World Repression Police) or the Savak (the Shahs prior) is why people call Cops 'Pigs'; some of these attitudes are just plain UN-American!
Keep posting, Norm; and I'll keep bugging people to write their Union Stewards to demand they stop paying PAC's to make more 'Savak/Basji/Mukbhakarat-style Laws'!
But permit me to clarify a couple of things? I agree that many officers assigned to Narcotics "rarely deal with the average pot user." But city and county police (mostly patrol cops and "street" narcotics officers) make a huge number of just such arrests -- 840,000 to 872,000 in '09 -- setting a new record in each of the last four years. (http://www.socialmedicine.org/2009/01/30/uncategorized/record-marijuana-arrests-feed-the-prison-industrial-complex/).
I applaud the work you're doing, putting greedy and dangerous dealers in prison. But, by no account is that working as national policy. What would work, I'm convinced, is to put an end to these criminal enterprises by replacing prohibition with a regulatory model, much as we did with alcohol. As it is, the worst of the worst you deal with are allowed to monopolize illicit drug commerce, "regulating" the market themselves, selling whatever they want to whomever they want (including kids), chalking up obscene, untaxed profits, and making life for law-abiding people far less safe.
I think that we are on a path to marijuana decriminalization in CA. Possession of small amounts is a cite-and-release arrest, similar to a traffic ticket, but pot possession has a much lower fine. These cite-and-release arrests are included in the number that you cited, but the web page manipulates these number to make it seem as though those arrestees are being booked into jail.
For a more accurate count look at the booking records for large counties such as LA, San Diego, San Francisco, etc. You will not find ANY people booked solely for marijuana possession, jail overcrowding just doesn't allow this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-dr_m3w5kM
He, and his Republican CIA Station Cheif Daddy, were Flying DRUGS into the Country (remember 'Air America'? "W' was trained, by the USAF, to fly 'multi-engined cargo planes' too!) - from Vietnam, etc..
History DOES repeat itself, doesn't it?
The drug war IS an American shame that is in the same category as slavery and our treatment of Native Americans; the cost in blood and treasure is simply horrific, and all for what?
Legalize it and tax the hell out of it, and use the taxes for harm-prevention programs.
In one fell swoop, most of the criminal underworld ceases to exist, our prison budget can be cut in half, people can have a measure of dignity again in deciding what to put into their own bodies, and police can use their limited budgets and resources to catch REAL criminals.
I was 12 when I started smoking and 13 when I had my 1st 6 pack.
I still smoke cigs - unfortunately - but don't drink.
Booze is the nastiest drug - causes good people to kill, cheat, lie. If the powers that be can see benefits in booze, why can't they see the benefits in weed.
They do - - it is called revenue and population control.
All law enforcement officers and politicians: Hear ye, hear ye! Your careers will NOT be ruined if you come out in support of legalization! You may just find a kinder, gentler citizenry. Do any of you have any NOTION of just how many American adults use some form of mind-altering substances?
Alcohol, caffeine, tobacco, and cannabis... to say nothing of deadly drugs like LSD, cocaine, Xanax, Ritalin... We are the Pharmacy-Nation. Cannabis should be regulated like alcohol and tobacco while all other illicit drugs get treated like pharmaceuticals.
The Al Capones and Lucky Lucianos feared the repeal of alcohol prohibition. Their bank accounts took a nasty hit. It was all downhill from there. Give it some thought. Give the American voters the chance to cast their ballots on the issue... federally. Then, do what the majority wishes. Isn't that what we PAY you to do?! Talk it over at your next taxpayer-funded D.C. function... as you drink brandy and smoke cigars.
(I'm being picky. Mostly, I agree with your point.
Of course, safety is not the issue at hand. Rather, this is a matter of politically incorrect states of mind, making psychedelics into big bad boogeymen.