FORMER NARC SAYS YES TO DRUGS, BUT CAMPUS POLICE STILL SAY NO

A former narcotics agent paid the University of Rhode Island a visit
last Wednesday to inform students and campus police officers on why he
feels drugs should be legalized.

Jack Cole, executive director for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition,
spoke to a group of about 50 students in regards to his policies on
drug reform as well as factual statistics from his former career. LEAP
was formed two years ago, and was composed of five former cops who
wanted to voice the idea that "law enforcement against drugs is a
failure and destructive," Cole said.

Currently, according to a flyer about LEAP, the organization consists
of over 2,000 members, who are mainly cops, judges, prosecutors and
DEA officers. LEAP also now has 85 speakers across the United States
as well as members in 45 other countries.

"We have four main goals at LEAP; we want to lower death, disease,
crime and addiction," Cole said.

Cole joined the police force in 1964 and retired 26 years later as
Detective Lieutenant for the New Jersey State Police. He spent 12 of
those years as an undercover narcotics agent, arresting "mid-level
drug dealers to billion dollar drug trafficking organizations."

Cole stated that the war on drugs is worse today then it was in 1968,
when former President Nixon declared it in order to win the presidency
by offering substantial amounts of federal tax dollars to bureaus for
drug arrests. According to Cole, when the war was declared his bureau
went from seven to 76 officers overnight. However, in the late 1960s
and early 1970s, there wasn't much of a drug problem, so the officers
in the bureau had no idea how to fight a war on drugs.

"In 1970, the likelihood to die from drugs was less than the
likelihood to die falling down the stairs or choking on dinner," Cole
said. "There's no war on stairs or dinner, but I'm sure there could be
to promote another politician."

Cole admitted that he and his fellow officers were told to lie in
order to get a bust. He stated that he lied by infiltrating groups of
kids to befriend and betray. He also lied about the quantities and
price values of drugs that were found on a bust.

"We may not have known how to fight a war on drugs," Cole said, "but
we knew how to keep that federal cash cow being milked in our barnyard."

In 1977, the largest bust in United States history was a shipment of
19 pounds of Mexican brown heroine. Cole stated that they "were in the
papers for weeks" because of the bust. By today's standards, that sum
is rather embarrassing to Cole because multi-ton shipments of drugs
are being busted. However, these multi-ton busts don't appear in the
paper as often as Cole's 19 pound bust did.

Cole then proceeded to show several charts and graphs that expressed
the purity and prices of drugs from early in the drug war compared to
today's standards. All of the charts and graphs showed that when the
drug war was declared, less potent drugs were being bought for more
money. Now after 34 years of war, users are able to obtain more potent
drugs for less money.

Cole also mentioned that those politicians who are fighting the war on
drugs have taken them in the past.

"Clinton smoked but didn't inhale," said Cole. "Bush claims that he
was young and irresponsible, he was. The only thing that separates
them is that they weren't arrested."

"It is impossible to arrest our way out of this. I could live with
this [war] if it was making a difference, but it's not at all."

Cole said that young children in schools are more readily accessible
to illegal drugs then they are to beer and cigarettes.

"Drug dealers don't ask to see I.D., age doesn't matter," Cole
said.

The war on drugs is the longest war in the history of the Unites
States, Cole said.

"Over one trillion dollars have been spent, court systems have been
clogged, and this war is the reason for new prisons being built. Drug
convictions are keeping students from receiving college financial aid,
while rapists and murderers are eligible.

"You can get over an addiction," Cole said, "but you can't get over a
conviction."

After Cole's presentation, Dan Rosenkrantz, president of Students for
Sensible Drug Policy, stated that the URI campus police were invited
to Cole's presentation. Cole had personally written a letter to the
URI police department, inviting them to attend the presentation later
in the evening with the students, as well as earlier in the day to
speak with him privately. However, not one officer arrived at either
presentation.

Dr. Robert Drapeau, Director of Security at URI, said that he was at
another meeting, but for the other officers it was just an
inconvenient time.

"It was not a concerted effort to boycott," Drapeau said, "We were
just unable to attend."

Micah Daigle, communications director of SSDP at URI, said, "Campus
police have an ethical duty to examine the laws that they have
increasingly been willing to enforce.

"URI [chapter of] SSDP cordially invited all members of campus police
and security to discuss issues and it is disheartening to see that
none were receptive to our efforts," he said.

Daigle continued, "When Jack Cole speaks to law enforcement officers,
his surveys show that close to 80 percent of the officers change their
minds of the efficiency of the war on drugs by the end of his speech.
I sincerely hope that the URI campus police will open their minds of
these issues in the future when we make a concerted effort to address
them."