Retired Cop Waves White Flag in War on Drugs

The Standard-Times (MA) ^ | 15 Jan 2003 | John Doherty

[MrLeRoy]

After fighting the war on drugs for nearly 30 years, Lt. Jack Cole is ready to admit defeat.

The retired New Jersey State Police detective -- who spent 12 years as an undercover narcotics officer -- spearheads a movement to legalize all narcotics as a way of ending the bloody, expensive war.

"The war on drugs was, is and always will be a dismal failure," said Mr. Cole yesterday to a meeting of the Fairhaven Rotary Club.

Mr. Cole is one of the founders of an international nonprofit group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition -- LEAP.

That group, which includes current and former police officers, judges and others, is proposing nothing short of legalizing all narcotics -- including heroin, cocaine and marijuana -- and having the federal government regulate them.

While that might sound radical for a detective who spent the better part of his career looking to jail both users and sellers of drugs, Mr. Cole said it is the only rational viewpoint after a career on the front lines of the war on drugs.

While spending what Mr. Cole estimates to be $69 billion per year in law enforcement and prison costs for drug offenders, Americans have seen drug supplies become more plentiful and the drugs themselves more powerful and cheaper.

Mr. Cole acknowledged to the dozen Rotarians yesterday that the idea of legalizing narcotics -- similar to policies in Amsterdam -- sounds foreign.

The first question many people ask is whether drug decriminalization will increase drug use, especially among the young.

Mr. Cole pointed to studies in which young Americans said it was easier to obtain marijuana and other drugs than it was to purchase government-regulated alcohol and tobacco products.

Holland sees a lower rate of marijuana use among its young people, in part because decriminalization has made the drug boring, Mr. Cole said.

"We at LEAP are asking you to listen and to think about these ideas," said Mr. Cole, who is pursuing a doctorate in public policy at UMass Boston.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

Yeah, I understand theft continues even though cops try to catch thieves. Same with murder. Well, rape, fraud, violence and kidnapping too.

Dan, that dog don't hunt and you know it.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

I have known more than one DEA agent who has become cynical about the WOD after coming to the realization that it is nothing more than a hustle perpetrated on the American public.

Is the agent still in the "service?"

[eno_]

Yeah, Soros just launched an Orbiting Mind Control Satellite to target cops...

[Tony Niar Brain]

...he spent 30 years of his life dodging bullets from deranged hippies and violent coke heads.

Maybe he hasn't, and that's why he's coming out now saying how futile the WOD is. Active cops aren't big about airing their dirty laundry in public.

[per loin]

While spending what Mr. Cole estimates to be $69 billion per year in law enforcement and prison costs for drug offenders

Those Tomahawk cruise missiles only cost about a half million each. For what we are wasting on the drug war, we could buy an extra 138,000 cruise missiles each year. Those would be handy for a first strike on North Korea.

[FreeTally]

Come on now Dan. The flaw in that logic has been pointed out so many times you should really be ashamed of yourself.

The flaw has been pointed out so many times that one must come to the conclusion that a person who uses such an argument is either mentally incapable of comprehending common sense or is a disengenuous poster with no interest in rational debate.

[motzman]

One day, in the not so distant future, Abortion and Drug Prohibition will be viewed as shamefully as Slavery and Alcohol Prohibition.

Perhaps you should re-examine your position...

[FreeTally]

That was sarcasm; I figured most posters would realize that such a comment from me was just that. There are a couple drug warriors who always bring up George Soros and make irrational blanket statements about "drug users".

[motzman]

One day, in the not so distant future, Abortion and Drug Prohibition will be viewed as shamefully as Slavery and Alcohol Prohibition.

Perhaps you should re-examine your position...

[Wolfie]

While spending what Mr. Cole estimates to be $69 billion per year in law enforcement and prison costs for drug offenders

Some people just love socialism as long as it satisfies their Puritan penchant for punishing those who do things they don't like.

[staytrue]

I don't want to pay for drug addicts health care or subsidize their use. If you couple legalization with ending medicaid, hospitals charging paying customers twice as much to pay for non payers, have a flat income tax, get rid of the earned income tax credit, then I am ok with legalization. But couple legalization with welfare and medicaid is making me pay for their drug use.

[Tony Niar Brain]

Whoops, sorry. I'm not a huge FR user, and sometimes the drug hawks sound so much like a parody of themselves it's hard to tell the difference.

[FreeTally]

Yeah, Soros just launched an Orbiting Mind Control Satellite to target cops...

LOL!!!

Maybe they should take up donations in DARE classes to buy cops industrial strength tin foil.

[Wolfie]

A $69 billion dollar Drug War is making you pay for their drug use as well.

[motzman]

I don't want to pay for drug addicts health care or subsidize their use. If you couple legalization with ending medicaid, hospitals charging paying customers twice as much to pay for non payers, have a flat income tax, get rid of the earned income tax credit, then I am ok with legalization. But couple legalization with welfare and medicaid is making me pay for their drug use.

This is a valid arguement.

[Eagle Eye]

True, but experience has shown me that if you try to bring that aspect of the WOD to supporters attention they really go bananas.

That question rids Drug Warriors from a thread faster than garlic works on vampires.

[Orangedog]

You not only hit the nail on the head, you drove it clean through the other end of the board! The WOD will NEVER end because there are too many jobs on the line and too many dim-witted soccer moms who will vote political hacks into office to keep it going. Think about it....how many jobs depend on this assinine WOD continuing?

[Tony Niar Brain]

I realize no one likes to pay for irresponsibility of drug users (or anyone else for that matter...), but if we do not pay for their treatment, we must instead pay for their incarceration, which we are mostly doing now. So we have to ask ourselves how much we are going to pay. The majority of studies of drug policy in other nations with treatment over incarceration suggest that they are more effective and less costly overall. That is why I would prefer the WOD to just go away.

[BibChr]

...and all other Druggie Defenders.

Fine. If mine's a bad counter, make sure that

DRUGGIE DEFENDERS DROP THE "IT DOESN'T WORK" "DEFENSE"

If it's not germane as I used it, it isn't germane as you use it. Drop it.

Dan

[Eagle Eye]

Agents.

No. Maybe. I'm not sure.