FORMER COP: LEGALIZE IT

Retired police officer Peter Christ promotes the repeal of drug prohibition
for his organization, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, at the School of
Law Monday.

Former New York police officer Peter Christ told a crowd of about a dozen
UNM community members Monday night that drug prohibition in the United
States doesn't work.

"Prohibition is the definition of the times we live in today," said Christ,
now vice director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

Students for a Sensible Drug Policy, a UNM organization that began last
semester, organized the speech at the UNM School of Law. The event was
supposed to be a debate, but organizers said they could not find anyone to
speak for the other side.

According to the student organization's Web site, it is "committed to
providing education on harms caused by the war on drugs, working to involve
youth in the political process and promoting an open, honest and rational
discussion of alternative solutions to our nation's drug problems."

Christ took up that discussion at UNM.

His career as a police officer spanned 20 years in New York, Christ said,
and he believed drug prohibition was wrong before he joined the force.

"I saw nothing in 20 years to change my mind," Christ said.

His time as an officer prompted him to cofound LEAP, he said.

LEAP's mission, according to its Web site, is to educate the public, create
a speakers' bureau, restore the public's respect for law enforcement and to
reduce the harms caused by fighting the war on drugs by ending drug
prohibition.

Christ compared drug prohibition to the United States' ban on alcohol
during the 1920s. He said people came to realize that as bad as alcohol
was, prohibition was worse. The same, he said, is true of the drug policy
known as the war on drugs.

The so-called drug war creates an underground marketplace, which leads to
gang activity and crime, Christ said.

Referring to U.S. drug policy as a "war" implies that it will end at some
point, he said.

"We all know this is not possible," Christ said.

He called attention to a drug in society which he believes causes the most
violence - alcohol.

Ironically, Christ said, society provides a variety of treatment options
and "purity of product" to alcoholics, but drug addicts receive no such
treatment. Laws also do not punish alcoholics, he added, unless they cause
harm to others.

In contrast, heroin addicts, for example, get felony convictions that can
lead to life sentences in jail, Christ said. Furthermore, drug addicts only
receive treatment after they've been convicted of a crime.

"We have made the wrong assumption that they (drug addicts) will hurt
people," Christ said.

He advocates equal treatment under the law for drug addicts and alcoholics.

He said prisons are the largest growth industry in the United States - so
large that private organizations have begun operating them.

He said arresting drug users has no benefit to society and does not curb
violence.

"When I made a drug arrest, do you know what changed? Nothing," Christ said.

There has been no decrease in violent crimes, he said, only an increase in
drug arrests.

"Drugs do not create violence," Christ said.