FORMER POLICE CAPTAIN ADVOCATES END TO DRUG WAR

Lauren Blalock/ The Lantern OSU student Zach Germaniak listens as
co-founder and retired captain Peter Christ spoke about Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition. A "South Park" episode, women's
suffrage and alcohol prohibition were only a few of the topics a
retired police officer discussed Tuesday night during his plea to end
the war on drugs.

Peter Christ, formerly a captain in upstate New York, spoke at
Stillman Hall, focusing on what he called a drug policy that does not
work.

"Don't tell me after 20 years of police work I don't understand the
problem," he said.

Christ does not condone the use of drugs, but believes it is a choice
that should be regulated, not criminalized.

He represents the Washington D.C.-based nonprofit advocacy group Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group he co-founded in 2002 and
modeled after Vietnam Veterans Against the War because, like VVAW, his
group "came from the problem."

Christ urged the members of the audience to take action and push to
end the war on drugs. He frequently brought up the failed prohibition
of alcohol in the United States from 1920 to 1933 and its most
notorious criminal as an example.

"The reason we legalized alcohol, and it only took us 13 years to
learn the lesson, was this: Alcohol does not create people like Al
Capone," Christ said. "Prohibition created people like Al Capone."

Zach Germaniuk, president of Students for Sensible Drug Policy and the
Libertarian Studies Organization, which sponsored the event, thought
the speaker did a good job of proving his case.

"The smart solution is to take drugs from the black market and place
them within the realm of the law, through legalization," he said.

Although he hopes the war on drugs will end soon, Christ is realistic
about the chances. Ending such laws is difficult, he said, but it is
possible, citing woman's suffrage as an example.

In his career dealing with drugs as a police officer, Christ said he
"never once made a difference. When you make a drug arrest, nothing
changes."

Christ said that since the beginning of time, people have used drugs
to alter their mood. He referenced a recent episode of "South Park" in
which the characters engage in "cheesing," a made-up form of drug use
that involves a person getting high off of cat urine. The episode
highlighted Christ's assertion that people will always get high, so
banning drugs is futile.

As proof of the failure of the war on drugs, he pointed to the claims
of some police chiefs who celebrate a high number of drug arrests.

"If you make arrests last year, there should be less this year. But
see, it isn't criminals," he said. "It's criminalization of consensual
adult behavior."

Craig Smith, a freshman in sociology and psychology, said he found
Christ's "presentation of drug policies and how you should present
yourself when discussing" them most helpful.

Although Christ said he wishes the war on drugs would cease, his group
has no definitive stance on the regulation of drugs. "Any form of a
regulated and controlled marketplace is better than what we're doing
right now," he said.