A FORMER POLICE CHIEF ON NEW MARIJUANA BOOK

I'm a drug "legalizer," not an "incrementalist." I do not believe
drug policy reform should end with the legalization of marijuana.
Yet, when asked to contribute a foreword to the new book, Marijuana
is Safer: So Why Are We Driving People to Drink, I eagerly accepted.
Steve Fox of the Marijuana Policy Project, Paul Armentano of NORML,
and Mason Tvert of SAFER have written the definitive answer to the
question: Why is booze legal and pot is not? They've also offered the
most lucid, persuasive strategy for ending this hypocrisy I've yet
seen. Any book that strikes a blow for drug policy sanity deserves
our support, regardless of any ideological differences. My foreword,
reprinted here, explains why I support this extraordinary book:

When you pick up a book touting marijuana as a safer recreational
alternative to alcohol, I imagine the last thing you are expecting is
a foreword from the former chief of police of a major U.S. city.
Well, if you're surprised, I guess we are off to a good start. You
see, the goal of this book--and the purpose of this foreword--is to
encourage you (fan and foe alike) to reassess the way you think about
marijuana.

In pages that follow, you will find objective comparisons of
marijuana and alcohol. You will learn about the ways in which the
government and other influential institutions have maintained
marijuana prohibition while simultaneously turning public opinion
against its use. And you will be exposed to a plethora of statistics
quantifying the damage caused by alcohol use in our society. Steve,
Paul, and Mason have done a terrific job of presenting all of this
information in an objective, compelling, and thoughtful manner. I am
certain, whatever you may think about marijuana laws at this moment,
that you will look at the issue differently by the time you reach the
final chapter.

But before you dive into this book--which I truly couldn't put down
the first time I read it--I'd like to give you an insider's
perspective on the question of marijuana versus alcohol. By
"insider," I refer to my decades of law enforcement experience,
during which time I witnessed firsthand how these two substances
affect consumers, their families, and public safety overall. As you
can imagine, those of us who have served our communities as officers
of the law have encountered alcohol and marijuana users on a frequent
if not daily basis, and we know all too well how often one of these
two substances is associated with violent and aggressive behavior.

In all my years on the streets, it was an extremely rare occasion to
have a night go by without an alcohol-related incident. More often
than not, there were multiple alcohol-related calls during a shift. I
became accustomed to the pattern (and the odor). If I was called to a
part of town with a concentration of bars or to the local university,
I could expect to be greeted by one or more drunks, flexing their
"beer muscles," either in the throes of a fight or looking to start
one. Sadly, the same was often true when I received a domestic abuse
call. More often than not, these conflicts--many having erupted into
physical violence--were fueled by one or both participants having
overindulged in alcohol.

In case you might be thinking my observations are unique, let me
share the results of some informal research I have conducted on my
own. Over the past four years, out of a general interest in this
subject, I've been asking police officers throughout the U.S. (and
Canada) two questions. First: "When's the last time you had to fight
someone under the influence of marijuana?" (And by this I mean
marijuana only, not pot plus a six-pack or fifth of tequila.) My
colleagues pause; they reflect. Their eyes widen as they realize that
in their five or fifteen or thirty years on the job they have never
had to fight a marijuana user. I then ask, "When's the last time you
had to fight a drunk?" They look at their watches. It's telling that
the booze question is answered in terms of hours, not days or weeks.

The plain and simple truth is that alcohol fuels violent behavior and
marijuana does not. As described in great detail in Chapter 7,
alcohol contributes to literally millions of acts of violence in the
United States each year. It is a major contributing factor to crimes
like domestic violence, sexual assault, and homicide. Marijuana use,
on the other hand, is absent in that regard from both crime reports
and the scientific literature. There is simply no causal link to be found.

As one who has been entrusted with maintaining the public's safety, I
strongly believe--and most people agree--that our laws should punish
people who do harm to others. This is true whether we are talking
about violent crimes like murder and assault or nonviolent crimes
like shoplifting or insider trading. It is also appropriate to punish
other behavior that threatens public safety such as speeding or
driving through red lights. All of these laws are clearly designed to
protect our citizens.

But by banning the use of marijuana and punishing individuals who
merely possess the substance, it is difficult to see what harm we are
trying to prevent. It bears repeating: From my own work and the
experiences of other members of the law enforcement community, it is
abundantly clear that marijuana is rarely, if ever, the cause of
harmfully disruptive or violent behavior. In fact, I would go so far
as to say that marijuana use often helps to tamp down tensions where
they otherwise might exist.

That marijuana causes very little social harm is reason enough in a
free society to legalize it for adults. But as Steve, Paul, and Mason
so brilliantly demonstrate in this book, an even more persuasive
reason is that by prohibiting marijuana we are steering people toward
a substance that far too many people already abuse, namely alcohol.
Can marijuana be abused? Of course. But, as this book makes clear, it
is a much safer product for social and recreational use than alcohol.
Where is the logic, then, in allowing adults to use alcohol but
arresting them and branding them as criminals if they choose to use
marijuana instead?

Let me be clear. The problem does not lie with law enforcement
officials. Your police officers take an oath to uphold the law and
cannot simply turn their backs when they see marijuana statutes
violated. What we need is to replace the current system of
prohibition with new laws that permit and regulate the sale of
marijuana, an excellent framework for which is provided in this
extraordinary book. Read it, and you'll agree it is time we stop
driving the American people to drink. Instead, we should simply and
logically allow them to use a safer alternative, if that is what they prefer.

I'm happy to join in a conspiracy of the authors to get this book
into as many hands as possible. They would like you to consider
taking part in The Great Marijuana Book Bomb of 2009 on Thursday,
August 20. The authors of Marijuana is Safer are making a one-day
push on Amazon.com to drive the book to #1 on the site's rankings.
Just visit the Book Bomb site, and enter your email address and you
will receive a reminder on August 20. Or just make a note in your
calendar to buy the book on Amazon.com that day. I hope you will
support the effort.

Follow Norm Stamper on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CopsSayLegalize