RETIRED POLICE CAPTAIN ADVOCATES DRUG DECRIMINALIZATION

Peter Christ Tells William And Mary Students That "Prohibition Created Al
Capone."

WILLIAMSBURG -- The federal government's decades-long attempt to prohibit
the use and sales of illegal drugs only fuels more crime and societal
problems, a retired police captain told students at the College of William
and Mary on Thursday night.

Peter Christ is a member of Massachusetts-based Law Enforcement Against
Prohibition, which advocates the decriminalization of drugs. He addressed
about 30 students at Millington Hall, and many were members of a group
called Students for a Sensible Drug Policy.

Christ said prohibitions had never been successful. When alcohol was
prohibited, it only led to extreme mob violence to control the alcohol
trade. "Prohibition created Al Capone," he said. Mob profits from illegal
numbers rackets were curtailed when states began operating lotteries, he
said, and a similar thing happened when betting on horseracing was
legalized and regulated. Christ said he traveled around the country,
criticizing the country's war on drugs, yet he never encountered a person
who thought that drug use would end. But ironically, the nation's caught up
in fighting the drug war, which has dramatically increased the prison
population and violence among criminals who battle to control the drug
trade, he said.

A crime study conducted in New York City found that only 15 percent of
drug-related violence involved users who were high and hurt others or
themselves. "Eighty-five percent of drug-related violence was a result of
marketplace disputes," he said. In the mid-1990s, Christ said, the federal
government gave $400 million to Afghanistan's Taliban government to destroy
crops used to make heroin. He said the Taliban did such a good job of
destroying the crops, drug cartels began growing them in South America,
increasing the supply of heroin. Now heroin is "cheaper and purer and more
available than ever in our history," Christ said.

Drugs are dangerous and are best avoided, he said. But, the country's
methods of fighting drugs need to be discussed and debated openly.

"Will it happen in my lifetime - I doubt it," Christ said.