US MI: FORUM WEDNESDAY WILL EXAMINE DRUG POLICY

Creating a new multi-jurisdictional oversight board for the Kalamazoo
Valley Enforcement Team is akin to rearranging the deck chairs on the
Titanic. The problem is not who's in charge; the problem is
prohibition.

KVET Commander Joseph Taylor estimates, "95 percent of Kalamazoo-area
crime is 'anchored in drugs."' As a former federal law enforcement
officer, I know that most of what we refer to as drug crime is
actually drug prohibition crime. Drive-by shootings, neighborhood drug
houses, armed robberies: these are all driven by prohibition. Not by
the actual use of drugs.

Ninety years ago, the nation was fighting another drug war. Gangsters
waged turf wars in the streets. Blind pigs and speakeasies could be
found in every neighborhood in town. Clandestine alcohol stills
operated the way illicit methamphetimine labs operate today with the
same lethal results. Alcohol prohibition led to widespread disregard
for the law and disrespect for law enforcers. Is it really any
different today?

When our grandparents wisely abandoned alcohol prohibition, it wasn't
because they decided alcohol isn't so bad after all. They just had the
integrity and the courage to face the truth -- prohibition is the cure
that is worse than the disease.

Repealing alcohol prohibition obviously didn't make all problems
associated with that drug go away, just the lion's share of the crime.

I'm pessimistic that this letter will convince KVET Commander Taylor,
or anyone else feeding at the War on Drugs trough, that prohibition is
the real problem, not drugs. After all, as Upton Sinclair commented
long ago, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something when
his salary depends on him not understanding it." So it is up to the
rest of us to educate ourselves and say enough is enough.

At 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, the Kalamazoo College chapter of Students for
Sensible Drug Policy will host a forum, "A Sober Look at Drug Policy."

The panel includes retired Kalamazoo County Ninth Circuit Court Judge
William Schma; Kalamazoo County Chief Prosecutor Jeff Fink; Chicago
Recovery Alliance Director Dan Bigg; and myself, representing Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition.

The forum will be moderated by WWMT Channel 3 reporter Tim Ragones and
will be held in the Dalton Theatre in the Light Fine Arts Building at
Kalamazoo College. This forum is free and open to the public.

Legalize, regulate and tax drugs so that we can finally control
drugs.