FORMER COP PUSHES FOR DRUG LEGALIZATION EFFORT

TRENTON - Imagine a 20-something Bill Clinton sitting in a circle of smoke
and passing a marijuana cigarette to the kid wearing bell-bottoms on his right.

Now, imagine that the kid in those bell-bottoms is Jack A. Cole, who worked
26 years for the State Police - 12 of those years undercover.

The next day, Bill Clinton's door would have been "knocked down at 5 a.m.,
they would have drug him out in chains and charged him with a felony,"
Cole, 64, told a roomful of people yesterday at the New Jersey Libertarian
Party convention at the Trenton Marriott at Lafayette Yard.

Clinton would have been considered a drug dealer by handing the drug to
another person - he would not have needed to receive money, Cole told the
audience. "Clinton would not have even become an attorney, let alone
president," Cole said.

Where would our nation be if this same scenario happened to suspected
one-time drug users such as Al Gore, Dan Quayle, Newt Gingrich or George W.
Bush, asked Cole, now the executive director of Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition. LEAP was formed nearly a year ago and
includes more than 300 current and former members of law enforcement who
want drugs legalized.

Cole said that the lives of many young people are being ruined by drug
arrests, because "you can overcome an addiction, but you can't overcome a
conviction." He said he ruined many of those lives himself. "My job was to
target individuals and become their best friend," Cole said. "I became
their closest confidante so I could betray them and send them to prison.
Over 1,000 people went to prison because of what I did. I can't tell you
how many good young people's lives I've ruined."

The entire war on drugs - which began in 1968 when Nixon launched a
presidential "law and order" campaign - has been a failure, Cole said. He
cited many statistics to support his opinion:

- -- There are 1.6 million people arrested each year for nonviolent drug
violations, equal to the "population of New Mexico."

- -- The Drug Enforcement Agency was created in 1973 with 3,000 people and a
budget of $75 million. It now has 79,000 employees and a $1.5 billion budget.

- -- A 2002 survey shows students at all grade levels using marijuana at
higher levels.

After legalizing "all drugs," Cole believes the government should produce
the drugs to make sure they are mixed properly to prevent overdoses. He
suggests the government distribute these drugs free of charge to people
requiring "maintenance doses," but he is open to
alternative legalization plans.

He said once people can use them, there will be less crime, less disease
and even less drug use.

While the majority of the Libertarian audience applauded Cole's advocacy of
ending prohibition, some disagreed on how it should be done.

Ed Forchion, 38, of Pemberton Township, who has run for Congress three
times on a marijuana legalization platform, said Cole was "right on with
everything."

Cole, who is white, argues that the war on drugs is racist, something
Forchion, who is black, feels is true. "The task forces operate in urban
areas where (blacks) live," Forchion said. "I call it a racist war on drugs
and I'm surprised organizations like the NAACP don't pick up on that."

Forchion added that Cole knows what he did for 26 years and "is trying to
make amends. That's not a criticism - praise him."

Cole, a former Chambersburg resident who now lives in Boston, came to
yesterday's convention at the invitation of the Libertarian Party, not as
an endorsement of its platform.