ALLOW DRUGS BUT CONTROL AND ENFORCE, ACTIVIST SAYS

STUART -- Peter Christ doesn't condone illicit drugs. In fact, he
thinks they're so dangerous, they should be regulated and controlled.
And that's why he opposes the ban on drugs such as marijuana, heroine
and cocaine.

"It doesn't work," Christ said of the country's war against drugs, a
decades-old policy on which he said the federal government spends $70
billion a year.

Speaking Saturday to about 30 people at the Blake Library, the vice
director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition said the country
needs to revamp its drug policy, ending prohibition of illicit drugs
in favor of regulation and control.

Because of prohibition, gangsters, not the government, decide where
the drugs are sold, of what quality they are and at what price,
Christ said. He noted that other countries, such as Switzerland, have
been able to cut down on petty crime and the rate of HIV infection by
controlling rather than criminalizing certain drugs.

Part of the problem with the U.S. drug policy is misperception,
Christ said. Eighty-five percent of drug violence is not among people
who are high; it's among people fighting over the marketplace for
drugs, he said.

Christ, who retired after 20 years in law enforcement in New York,
said his group is modeled after Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
Like veterans who have firsthand knowledge of war, law enforcement
officers have firsthand knowledge about drugs in society.

"You don't have to agree with us, but don't tell me we don't
understand the problem," Christ said.

The group, a nonprofit formed in 2002, has about 7,000 members, about
750 of which are or were law enforcement officers.

Christ's talk was organized by the Treasure Coast chapter of the
American Civil Liberties Union and the Martin County branch of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, who asked
him to speak after hearing that he was traveling in the area, said
Richard Learned, a member of the ACLU and the NAACP.

"We're hoping that today is the beginning of a discussion on this
topic," said Ethel Rowland, with the ACLU.

Christ likewise encouraged his audience to keep talking beyond
Saturday's event: "You can't stay silent about this."