THE LOST WAR ON DRUGS

What do Al Capone and Pablo Escobar have in common?

Apparently, a lot.

They were both extraordinarily wealthy, and they both ran massive
crime rings, savage in their brutality.

Oh yeah. Both of their success was made possible by bad American public policy.

Please, don't take my word for it. Take ex-cops'.

On March 16, 2002, current and former members of law enforcement
founded Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an advocacy group of
police officers, judges, and other law-enforcement personnel who seek
to end the unethical, enormously destructive policies of the U.S. war on drugs.

In other words, LEAP is comprised of former cops with enough sense to
see what it blatantly obvious to any objective observer: the war on
drugs cannot, and will not, ever work.

In all of American politics, there is probably not an issue more
misunderstood than the failure of drug prohibition.

Unfortunately, there are few issues, if any, that have the type of
harmful consequences created by the federal government's battle to
keep free adults from deciding what to put in their own bodies.

As LEAP's Web site (www.leap.cc) correctly points out, "After nearly
four decades of fueling the U.S. policy of a war on drugs with over a
trillion tax dollars and increasingly punitive policies, our confined
population has quadrupled over a 20-year period, making building
prisons this nation's fastest growing industry."

In other words, the war on drugs has not worked.

Moreover, enforcing prohibitionist policies has prevented law
enforcement from cracking down on legitimate crime.

Of course, anti-prohibition activists have been saying this for
years. Yet, the problem remains: nobody is going to listen to a
stoner's advice about crime prevention.

This is where LEAP comes in.

Its members aren't stoners. They're the people whose job it was to
arrest them, sentence them, and guard them during their incarceration.

They don't want drugs. They just want cops to be able to do their
jobs, and for their children to grow up in a society with less crime,
less addiction, and no more bloody turf wars fought over drug territory.

"The membership of LEAP believe that to save lives and lower the
rates of disease, crime and addiction, as well as to conserve tax
dollars, we must end drug prohibition," says LEAP's Web site.

"LEAP believes a system of regulation and control is far more
effective than one of prohibition."

They're right.

LEAP's campaign is simply aimed at educating the media and the public
about the truth surrounding drug prohibition.

And who better to confront the misinformation of government-funded
"studies" and state-sponsored advertisements than those who are
actually on the front lines fighting this ill-conceived war?

After all, it was Vietnam veterans who most effectively lobbied to
end that silly war.

Go to LEAP's Web site, and for only $10, buy their T-shirt. It reads:
"Cops say legalize drugs. Ask me why."

Doing so will show you're one of the most reasonable, if not the most
fashionable, people at ASU.