EX-OFFICER TOUTS LEGALIZING DRUGS TO CONTROL THEM

The Springfield Police Chief Offered a Different View.

SPRINGFIELD - A retired New York police captain told members of the
Springfield Rotary Club yesterday that all drugs should be legalized.

Peter Christ, retired from the Tonawanda Police Department and
treasurer of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, said prohibiting the
sale and use of drugs is like the prohibition of alcohol in the 1920s:
It doesn't prevent use and it leads to other crimes, he said.

Christ called for a show of hands from those who believe "there is
anything we can do to make drugs go away."

No hands were raised.

Christ said because alcohol is legal, "We guarantee the purity of the
product, we provide a safe place for people to buy and use it, and we
provide treatment for addicts."

"The heroin addict, on the other hand, is arrested for possession and
has a felony conviction on him. We may or may not send him to jail."

Fifty percent of those incarcerated are nonviolent drug addicts, he
said.

Christ said legalization of drugs would eliminate the crimes
associated with their sale.

Police Chief Paula C. Meara, who was present at the talk, said Christ
"is glossing over the harm drugs can do to individuals and children.

"A child can end up taking one hit of ecstasy at a rave and end up
losing his life. Crack is so addictive that people can take it a
couple of times and it changes their lives. They lose their jobs,
their homes, their cars and their families and they can end up dead."

People who take hallucinogenic drugs can end up destroying their
brains or dead, she said. "It is not an acceptable risk."

Christ said he doesn't know if legalization of drugs will happen "in
my lifetime."

He said the speech in Springfield was the last in a four-week tour in
Western Massachusetts. The organization recently received a $50,000
grant to advocate for legalization of drugs, he said.