POT-RELATED DEATHS FAN DEBATE

Is Loss of Life Too High a Cost?

Virginia Beach - When Michael Phillips was gunned down in an
undercover operation last week, he became the second local detective
to be killed investigating suspected marijuana dealers in the past
seven months.

The deaths have sparked debate about the enforcement of marijuana and
other drug laws, with some activists arguing that continuing the war
on drugs is just bad policy.

Others, including many local officials, say the killings confirm the
dangers surrounding the drug trade.

"From the perspective of Mike Phillips' widow, I'd say we're worse
off fighting the battle," said state Sen. Kenneth Stolle, a former
Virginia Beach police sergeant and undercover officer. "From Mike
Phillips' perspective the day he was killed, I'm sure he felt it was
a battle that needed to be fought, that the benefits outweighed the risk."

"Drugs," Stolle said, "are about the most evil thing in the community
that I know of right now."

A federal law enforcement official who works in Hampton Roads said
that crack cocaine is the most frequently seized drug in this area.

Marijuana is the most used illegal drug in the nation and in the
state, federal data show, but local authorities say they have not
unduly focused on it.

Chesapeake Police Chief Kelvin Wright said marijuana and other drugs
contribute to problems in society, particularly dangerous activities.

"It's what I call the unholy trinity: guns, violence and drugs," the
chief said. "They all seem to go hand-in-hand."

Portsmouth Commonwealth's Attorney Earle Mobley said most drug
dealers don't just sell one substance. Instead, investigators often
find a marijuana dealer to be involved with cocaine, heroin or
Ecstasy, he said.

"Because there's an element of violence that is connected with the
distribution of drugs," he said, "it just requires an aggressive
prosecution of all of the offenses. ... From where I sit and where I
see things happening, not to fight that fight would send the wrong message."

But there are those across the country who think it's a battle not
worth fighting.

Peter Christ, a retired New York police captain and co-founder of Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition, said hearing of the deaths of
Phillips in Virginia Beach and police Detective Jarrod Shivers in
Chesapeake in January "breaks my heart."

"These are my brothers and sisters in law enforcement," he said. "I
know what they're going through. We've sent them off into this
dangerous world, and we've made it more dangerous rather than making it safer."

Phillips was shot three times in the torso as he attempted to buy a
half-pound of pot in a parking lot in Green Run on Aug. 7. Two
suspects, Ted Vincent Carter, 23, and Marshall Demetrius Moyd, 26,
have been charged with first-degree murder in the killing.

Shivers was gunned down on Jan. 17 while serving a warrant to search
a home suspected of containing marijuana. Ryan David Frederick, then
28, faces capital murder charges.

"What's at the root of these deaths isn't shoddy police work," Christ
said. "The root of these deaths is bad policy."

Christ, who helped co-found the national group six years ago, noted
that officers are sworn to uphold the laws and should continue to do
that. But, he said, he and the more than 1,000 current and retired
law enforcement officials in his group support a policy that would
regulate, legalize and tax all illicit drugs.

Their view goes beyond that of NORML, the National Organization for
the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

"I look at this as a prima facie discussion about why laws should
change," Allen St. Pierre, NORML's executive director, said of the
local officers' deaths. "And I'm going to presume those that enforce
the law will point to this as why they need to redouble their efforts."