FORMER OFFICERS CALL TO END DRUG WARS

Police officers have been on the front lines of the "War on Drugs" in
this country for more than 30 years.

Now some of them are saying the war is not working and are calling
for an end to the drug war through the legalization and regulation of
all drugs.

A group of former police officers who decided they did not believe
the drug war was the best way to control drugs in 2002 founded Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP).

They began delivering their message and gathering members across the
country. Representatives will address Rotary and Lions clubs in
Connecticut over the next two months.

Peter Christ, the idea man behind LEAP, spoke at the Sept. 15 meeting
of the Woodbridge Rotary Club.

A former police captain in upstate New York and vice-director of the
organization, Christ admitted that LEAP was not an easy group to
accept on face value. "We're controversial," he said,

He chatted about Sinclair Lewis and Ezra Pound over lunch but was so
eager to begin his presentation that he left his calamari to get cold.

Christ gave a brief history of the group. It began with his premise
that a group of law enforcement professionals who advocated
legalizing drugs could not be dismissed as uninformed or "not getting it."

The inspiration was the group Vietnam Veterans Against the War, which
protested the Vietnam War after returning from it, he said.

After explaining LEAP's origins, Christ moved on to the heart of the
matter. He promised to discuss policy, not enforcement.

"We don't talk about policy[in this country]," he said, "we make it
then move on."

The current drug policy, he said, is called by the wrong name. It is
called the "War on Drugs," but he believes it should be called prohibition.

"War should be a short-term thing," he said. "Can we win this war?
Does anyone think we can make the drugs go away forever?"

Prohibition

"Who thinks Al Capone was created by alcohol?" Christ asked. "Or by
alcohol prohibition?"

The room universally chose the second option.

Christ said news headlines that say "drug-related shooting" are
misleading because they draw the inference that the shooter or victim
was high on drugs.

In reality, Christ said, most of the drug-related violence is not
associated with drug use but with fighting over drug-dealing territory.

"It should be called a prohibition-related shooting," he said.

Christ said that LEAP is calling for a federal policy change. He said
major policy changes have been made before, citing the abolition of
slavery, women's suffrage and desegregation as examples.

"We are capable of changing," he said.

He said the Constitution had to be amended to institute alcohol
prohibition because it was in violation of the commerce clause.

Article 1, section 8 of the Constitution states, "The Congress shall
have power...to regulate commerce with foreign nations and among the
several states and with the Indian tribes."

Christ and LEAP believe that by prohibiting all drugs, they cannot be
regulated by Congress although they should be, as an interstate
commercial business.

"[Drug use] has to be legal in some form," Christ said. "Everyone
agrees with me if they agree that all these drugs have so much
potential to do harm that they must be regulated."

"Right now, the thugs and gangster make the rules about drugs,"
Christ said, "not the government."

Experience

The crux of Christ's argument is in his 20 years of police experience.

He said he went into police work believing that drug legalization was
the way to go. He said he saw so much violence because of the
prohibition of dugs that he became even more convinced of the
necessity of ending the drug war.

"Drugs are bad," he said. "The drug war is worse."

He said that drugs are cheaper, more available and purer than they
have ever been, even after more than 30 years fighting the drug war.

"We need a discussion on this," Christ said. "No one is discussing
this. Until we end prohibition, regulation is impossible. We are
doomed on this path."

As the members of the Woodbridge Rotary filed out after the
presentation, some joined LEAP and others were still skeptical, but
everyone thanked Christ for presenting a different point of view.

John Stewart, president-elect of the Rotary, said, "I have never done
drugs of any kind, even though I grew up in the '60s, but he's right."

"You ban them, and you turn them over to a criminal element," Stewart
said. "Instead of being prescribed by a doctor, it is being
prescribed by someone on the corner."

Attorney General Richard Blumenthal declined to comment for this
article. Connecticut Chief State's Attorney Kevin Kane and the State
Police did not return calls seeking their comments.

For more information on LEAP and drug legalization, visit http://leap.cc.

The organization has sent speakers to the Ansonia and Seymour-Oxford
Rotary clubs.

Upcoming dates for additional presentations in the region are as
follows: Oxford Lions Club, Sept. 26 at 7 p.m.; Bridgeport Sunrise
Rotary, Oct. 11 at 7:30 a.m.; Bridgeport Host Lions Club, Nov. 1 at 6:30 p.m.