CITY COUNCILMAN PUSHES TO END WAR ON DRUGS

Baltimore City Councilman Jack Young is taking his war against the
"war on drugs" one step farther.

On Monday, Young said he will introduce a resolution seeking a hearing
- -- with testimony from the Baltimore Police Department and the city
Health Department -- to open a dialogue on what he said is a failed
strategy against illegal drugs.

"Like I've said before -- what we've done is not working," he
said.

"We need to have a dialogue about taking the profit motive out of drug
dealing and ending the so-called war on drugs."

In August, Young floated the idea of decriminalizing drugs at a City
Council meeting, but has now decided to formalize his proposal after
receiving a commitment to testify at the hearing from an organization
called Law Enforcement Officers Against prohibition.

Founded in 2002, the 9,000-member organization represents of law
enforcement professionals who believe the war on drugs should end.

Jack A. Cole, executive director of LEAP and a former undercover
narcotics officer for the New Jersey State Police, said he concluded
after working the streets in Paterson, N.J., for nearly 14 years that
legalizing drugs was the only rational option.

"If we start dealing with drug abuse as a health issue, we can stop
destroying people lives by arresting and imprisoning our children," he
said. "It has been a completely ineffective war."

Cole cites some stark facts to back up his claim.

Since 1970, law enforcement agencies across the country have made 37
million drug arrests -- soaking up nearly $1 trillion in prison, court
and policing costs. Meanwhile, the number of adults using drugs has
risen substantially, Cole said.

Cole said the country's drug enforcement policies disproportionately
affect blacks.

"African-Americans are less likely to use drugs than whites, but yet
African-Americans are several times more likely to be imprisoned for
using drugs," he said, citing a 1999 Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention study that showed white high school males were four times
more likely than black high school males to use drugs.

"The war on drugs is the most racist policy we've had since slavery,"
Cole said.

Among Young's rhetoric is at least one specific proposal: to make
possession of small amounts of marijuana punishable with only a
citation, an idea that may end up on a future ballot as part of a
citywide referendum, he said.

"There should be situations where police can write a citation if it's
a small amount," Young said.

Mayor Sheila Dixon's spokesman Anthony McCarthy conceded that
inconsistent drug enforcement polices needed to be addressed.

"Certainly our nationally declared war on drugs has been ineffective.
But Mayor Dixon does not believe that any sort of legalization of the
drugs is the answer."