Former
police officer promotes drug legalization
By
Rivkela Brodsky
Daily Lobo
ALBUQUERQUE,
N.M. (U-Wire) -- Former New York police
officer Peter Christ told a crowd of about
a dozen University of New Mexico 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.
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 co-found
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.
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