NO ONE TO BLAME BUT THEMSELVES

William G. Brooks III, deputy chief of police in
Wellesley, asks in his recent article, "How did we get here?" with
respect to the results of Question 2 on the Massachusetts ballot of
2008. The answer is law enforcement intransigence and recalcitrance
forced drug law reform advocates to the initiative/referendum system
in state after state.

The bitterness and sour grapes at the end, however, reveal the true
problem: "The system that brought about this change in our drug laws
is flawed and the public was hoodwinked. Now law enforcement is left
to deal with this mess."

It seems deputy chief Brooks is simply angry that 65 percent of
Massachusetts voters don't agree with him concerning marijuana. He
isn't, however, forced to live in Massachusetts, nor to be a law
enforcement officer there, with the latter being a privilege.

Hopefully, he accepted his career in law enforcement knowing he might
have to enforce laws he does not agree with, and that he was not going
to be making the laws he would be charged with enforcing. But it does
not sound like it.

Police frequently have said, often to the pro-pot community, "If you
don't like the law, work to get it changed." People did just that, and
that is how we got here.

If cops need someone to blame here, it is politicians who took their
cues on drug issues from law enforcement and refused to speak nor hear
of drug law reform.

This was part of the dynamic that pushed the people to referenda and
initiatives.

Eric Johnson

Los Angeles, CA