Posted on 08/21/2006 5:54:00 PM PDT by Know your rights
Former Seattle police Chief Norm Stamper doesn't have dreadlocks, a Zig-Zag T-shirt or a single Phish album. He just sounds like it. "It's laughable when people say we are winning the drug war," said Stamper, who had just finished a main-stage speech to the crowd gathered Sunday at the Seattle Hempfest in Myrtle Edwards Park. "The people who are prosecuting the drug war are invested psychically and financially. It's a holy war for them.
"We should legalize all drugs."
While the comments might be unusual for most law enforcement careerists, they are nothing new for Stamper, who was Seattle's top cop from 1994 to 2000. That is why organizers brought him in for the popular two-day, pro-pot festival.
Organizers estimated 150,000 people flowed into the waterfront park, which for the weekend turned into a dense village of food booths, stages, arts-and-crafts sellers, hemp product manufacturers, leafleteers, hackysack circles and picnickers.
Now in its 15th year, Hempfest is at its core all about decriminalizing marijuana. So is Stamper, especially after years of witnessing firsthand what he sees as the futility of the federal drug war.
The drugs are winning, he said. It's time to change tactics.
"Police should be focused on violent crime," he told the crowd.
Stamper, a member of pro-legalization Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, said many of his peers agree with him but will only say so privately. He told a story about a recent chat with a police chief in a "major American city" who had read Stamper's 2005 book, "Breaking Rank."
In it, Stamper advocates legalizing and regulating drugs as a way to reduce collateral problems such as addiction, violence and property crime.
"He came up to me after a talk and said he agreed with the chapter on drugs," Stamper said. "I asked, 'Can I quote you publicly?'
"He said, 'What have you been smoking?' "
Stamper saw similar reticence Sunday, as he preached to the choir in the sunny, 90-degree heat.
Waiting for hand-dipped ice-cream bars in the festival's munchie midway, Seattleites Tony Witherspoon, 31, and Neil Toland, 28, said they don't see pot as a rip in society's fabric.
"I wouldn't think a little weed is going to hurt anybody," Witherspoon said.
Added Toland, "There needs to be a little space for (pot)."
Creating that political space is what the festival is all about, chief organizer Dominic Holden said.
Hempfest has matured over the decade and a half it's existed, he said. Initially, it went unnoticed by local police. Then, Holden recalled, it became tense and even adversarial between organizers and police in the late 1990s -- at a time when Stamper was chief.
"For a while there, it seemed like it would go downhill," Holden said. "They were doing backstage raids looking for pot. They didn't find any."
Since then, the political landscape has changed, Holden said.
First, state voters approved medical marijuana. Subsequently, Seattle residents said they are not worried about pot as a law enforcement issue.
Now, he said, the relationship is much more mellow.
"We all want it to be a safe festival," Holden said. "The police have been great. Very collaborative.
"This might be our biggest festival ever."
Abuse of commerce clause and 10th amendment.(winston2)
I was aware of the decision there, but was bantering with a "pot must be legalized because the law is wrong" type.
I say the best reason to decriminalize cannabis use is that the laws and penalties violate the spirit of the U.S. Constitution.
There's no question, in my mind, that the illegality is established in case law,(snip)
There's no question in my mind that the federal laws against cannabis use violate the Tenth Amendment and abuse the commerce clause.
but the idea that a NATION-WIDE legalization effort would not pass by a majority vote.
Whether or not anything such as personal recreational drug use would "pass a NATION-WIDE legalization effort" ignores the most practical principle of the Tenth Amendment. We U.S. citizens have yielded way too much of our local law making to the fed.s and to our own destruction. I could easily think of a long list of state laws that work just fine. In fact the principle of local control creates a wide array of "experiments" which if successful - will be embraced by other states, if failures - will be abandoned.
then relax and meditate.
"-- claiming you "need a reason to make something illegal" is a moot point:the law is already on the books, whether YOU approve of it or not.
Beginning in 1803, with the Marbury opinion, it has been recognized as a principle of our system that laws repugnant to the US Constitution are null & void from enactment, -- "whether YOU approve of it or not".
paulsen denies constitutional supremacy:
And the courts have ruled time and again that the federal drug laws are NOT repugnant to the US Constitution, whether you approve of THAT or not.
The courts also 'rule' that the 2nd can be infringed. Now that is "repugnant"...
-- Except to prohibitionists like you.
-- Except to prohibitionists like you."
Yawn.....you're entitled to your opinion, but it doesn't change the law whatsoever
Deal with it.
Hellofaway to lose a free republic.
What exactly are YOU doing to change the law?
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Do you have any personal experience with cannabis?
+ If so, could you please briefly describe your experience?
Do you have any relatives or friends that you know to use cannabis?
+ If so, what is your opinion about reporting them to the police?
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Civil disobedience.
Mahatma Gandhi overthrew the British rule of India like that.
do you find anything about me to dislike?
I know that I am sometimes irreverent to my opponent forum members - but I consider that part of the sport.
(grin)
Mahatma Gandhi overthrew the British rule of India like that."
Delusions of grandeur....good luck.
a national necessity
or
a matter of doubt?
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That's exactly what I would say about the war against citizens who enjoy cannabis - except that it does cost the nation somewhere near 20 billion dollars per year and doesn't stop anyone from partaking of the herb.
Additionally, the losses for crime committed by potheads, and injuries to others, is not even included in that number.
Ah, the ol' inductive reasoning attempt....and the "jackboots" rant?
How many people have been killed when a pothead head-ons them on the street while driving stoned?
The cost of enforcing a LAW is caused by the instances of LAW-BREAKING, and to blame it on the "bad law" is a non-starter.
You either live within the law, or don't bitch about the cost of enforcement....people who have no self-control and partake of illegal activity have no reason to complain abou the cost of the law enforcement whatsoever.
If ya can't do the time, don't do the crime....
And the courts have ruled time and again that the federal drug laws are NOT repugnant to the US Constitution, whether you approve of THAT or not.
The courts also 'rule' that the 2nd can be infringed. Now that is "repugnant"...
-- Except to prohibitionists like you.
Yawn.....you're entitled to your opinion, but it doesn't change the law whatsoever
Deal with it.
traditional1
I deal with 'it' -- [prohibitionists who disdain our constitution] - every day on FR. --- It's truly amazing how many self described conservatives advocate majority rule 'principles' over those of the constitution.
Hellofaway to lose a free republic.
What exactly are YOU doing to change the law?
Ya got me.
I spend entirely to much time explaining constitutional realities with people who don't care about our constitution. -- You'll just have to learn to deal with that.
That's the cost of the potheads to the taxpayers.
Additionally, the losses for crime committed by potheads, and injuries to others, is not even included in that number.
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Wow! - I know a lot of citizens who enjoy cannabis - but - I don't know any of the people you are referring to.
I have a different view of the breakdown of the billions of dollars in cost. (sometime later)
(from article)""I wouldn't think a little weed is going to hurt anybody," Witherspoon said."
I dunno...I musta been really stoned when I posted that!
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Na - I'm confident all those SWAT guys are just warming up on innocent peaceful marijuana folk just to be ready to jump terrorist types when they pop up. (You gotta believe something is going right.)
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