DRUG POLICY ACTIVIST PETER CHRIST COMES TO C.U.

Retired Policeman Proposes Legalizing, Regulating Drugs

Peter Christ, of the organization Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
(LEAP), gave a lecture yesterday in HEC Auditorium on the current
state of the "war on drugs" and the international drug problem the world faces.

"Prohibition doesn't work," Christ said. "And that's the good part
about it. The bad part is that it has created crime and violence in
our society."

Christ worked as a drug enforcement agent for 20 years in Tonawanda,
N.Y. before retiring at the age of 42. Since 1989, he has devoted his
life to the reforming of drug policy nationally and internationally
by founding LEAP and delivering lectures around the United States.

During the Nixon administration, the term "war on drugs" was used in
order to deal with the problem, Christ explained.

"'War on Drugs' implies that we are going to be so happy when this
war is over," Christ said, "but we all agree that this will never be
over, so to call it a war is a little misleading."

He also explained that the supposed "drug problem" is really divided
into two parts: use and abuse, and the crime and violence that is
associated with the market.

Christ outlined a policy of legalizing, regulating and controlling
drugs in order to deal with the crime problem. He related the current
situation with the past situation of prohibition in the 1920's to
1930's, recounting how it failed to solve the alcohol abuse problem
and how the only remnant that is left from that era is the legacy of
organized crime. According to Christ, 85 percent of drug-related
violence in society is not associated with people being under the
influence and hurting other people. Rather, it is due to "market
place disputes," a terms the government calls crimes surrounding the
sale and movement of drugs.

"If we just went out and cleaned up the street people, that would not
solve the problem," Christ said. According to him, those people can
be replaced quickly, and imprisoning them will not stop drug trafficking.

However, when explaining the capture of the "kingpins," Christ says,
"If the violence starts, then we know we have to right people,"
referring to the inherent struggle for power that would follow such a capture.

In order to clarify his stance, Christ made it clear that promoting
drug use was not in LEAP's agenda, that he was not trying to convince
people that "drugs aren't as bad as everyone thinks they are." He
tried to make it clear that prohibition and the policy of "zero
tolerance" do not work.

"If you want to regulate and control anything, it has to be legal
first," he said, "don't try and defend the drugs."

In response to his own question of "how would you control and
regulate drugs," Christ replied that LEAP had no answer yet, but that
their first mission was to shed light on the issues and make the
population more aware or the ramifications of prohibition, before
even attempting to suggest the logistics of actual legalization.

"Drug policy is a really taboo subject," said Ryan Juliano '06,
president of the Cornell Libertarians, "And we really felt it should
get light shed on it. LEAP isn't necessarily a libertarian
organization, but we felt the issues were important for the Cornell community."

"Do laws prevent crime?" Christ asked the audience. "No. But the
swift and sure enforcement of the law does."

"If you support the current policy, you support the total
deregulation [of drugs]. If you believe that, you are foolish," he said.