U.S. COP BRINGS CAMPAIGN TO LEGALIZE DRUGS TO CITY HALL

A former Seattle police chief who advocates legalizing all drugs,
including crystal meth and heroin, has reservations about proposals
to provide free booze to chronic alcoholics.

"Alcohol clearly causes more damage to the human body than does
heroin," said Norm Stamper, a cop for 34 years and author of Breaking
Rank: A top cop's expose of the dark side of American policing.

Stamper said he had some concerns about focusing on a drug (alcohol)
already regulated when he and the organization Law Enforcement
Against Prohibition (LEAP) are trying to end prohibition of illegal drugs.

He said he had only just heard of proposals to give alcoholics free
booze and needed time to digest the idea, one suggestion being touted
in Vancouver by that city's drug-policy coordinator. A federal study
has shown participants had less contact with police and emergency
officials when given alcohol.

In Victoria "wet" housing -- a place where people can live and don't
have to stay sober -- has been suggested for homeless alcoholics.

Stamper, now a spokesman for LEAP, told a lunchtime audience at
Victoria City Hall that the so-called war on drugs, declared by
former U.S. president Richard Nixon in 1970, is outrageously
expensive; has never worked and will never work.

"We have spent $1 trillion prosecuting the war on drugs -- $67
billion to $69 billion a year to wage this unwinnable war. ... It is
an obscene amount of money and for what?

"Drug prohibition, I have come to believe very strongly, doesn't work
because it can't work," he said.

Victoria Deputy Police Chief Bill Naughton was one of several
Victoria police in the audience. Naughton, who has read Stamper's
book, met with him before his talk.

"Obviously, we're all looking for another solution because we live in
a narcocentric universe. Clearly, we can't arrest our way out of this
problem," Naughton said.

Stamper said governments should regulate drugs, set standards for
purity and packaging, and create a free heroin distribution system for addicts.

"A heroin addict needs heroin as much as a diabetic needs insulin.
Each is an illness. Each -- out of compassion, out of social policy
and sensible economic policy -- needs to be treated."

People are aghast when they hear him advocate making all drugs legal,
including crystal meth, he said. But crystal meth addicts are getting
the drug now, and it's more problematic because there's no standards
for its production or distribution.

Naughton said very little police time is spent on actual drug
enforcement, but a huge amount of resources are needed to deal with
crime associated with drug use.

"It's massive, because it's the [break-and-enters. It's the property
crime. It's the violent crime. ... Drugs are the engine that drive
this entire criminal enterprise."