Q & A: Cops Against the Drug War
Published August 26, 2009 @ 03:46AM PT
A week ago at Netroots Nation, I sat down with two members of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition to discuss the group’s efforts to support drug legalization. Jack Cole (right), the organization's Executive Director, spoke about the group’s work advocating against drug prohibition and David Bratzer (left), an active police officer in Victoria, British Columbia, talked about the challenges of advocating against the drug war while serving as an officer.
Here are some excerpts from our conversation:
Q: Can you tell me about your path that brought you to work with Law Enforcement Against Prohibition?
Jack Cole: I was in the New Jersey State Police for 26 years, and I was undercover in narcotics. When I went into narcotics, I thought drugs were the scourge of the earth and I was going to save the world. But after about three years of living on the street with those folks, I came to the realization that the only thing different between them and me is that they wanted to put something in their bodies that I didn’t want to put in mine.
Everything else was the same, they had the same wishes, they wanted to make a living, raise a family, get respect from other people in the world. And it made me think that all these things I’d been learning in my whole my life were lies about, about this stuff.
…If there was an epiphany, I think, one of the biggest shocks was about three years into the undercover work. I realized that I liked some of the people that I worked on, better than some of the people I worked for. Something’s wrong with this picture. But I stayed in law enforcement for another 11 years, after I had decided that the war on drugs was wrong and the only way to reduce drug abuse would be to legalize drugs, I decided that in 1973, but I stayed in narcotics for another 11 years.
Q: David, is it rare for a serving officer like yourself to speak out publicly on this issue?
David Bratzer: Yes, it’s rare. Gradually it’s changing, though. The difficulty is, as a serving officer, it brings up some issues that a retired officer might not have. People ask: ‘Are you still going to enforce drug laws while on duty?’ My answer to that is: ‘Of course I will.’ I took an oath to uphold all laws, not to just pick and choose…But, when I first came out with this position, a lot of people at my department were concerned about that.
Q: Are there officers and departments that choose not to enforce drug laws in order to focus on other crime?
DB: Certainly in Canada, and I would expect in the U.S. as well. There are officers who make broad use of their discretion, and also as you go up the chain throughout senior management, and that’s a good thing. And the trick is, how do you find those officers and speak with them and convince them to speak out publicly about it.
JC: There is discretion. Some officers will stop somebody with suspected marijuana on them and subject this vegetation to the wind test. If it passes the wind test, they get arrested. Of course, most things fail the wind test. The wind test is that if it blows away when you shake it out, it’s not marijuana.
Q: What is LEAP’s position on the spectrum of different policy reform options on the table? Does LEAP support decriminalization? Is it an all-or-nothing proposition?
JC: We support any policy about drugs that will reduce death, disease, crime or addiction. We support it. We don’t think it’s good. We’re against decriminalization, we don’t want that, we want legalized regulation of drugs. And the reason is that when you decriminalize, you only decriminalize for the user, everyone else in that chain is still a criminal.
Q: Do you see more traction on limited reforms or do you see progress in the direction of the legalization of all drugs?
JC: I see that our arguments are much more cogent and logical than the arguments of the incrementalists. And I see that far more people agree with us (that all drugs should be legalized and regulated) than even legalizing marijuana.
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Comments (10)
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Matt has worked and volunteered in various capacities in criminal justice reform for several years. When he's not blogging, he works as the Online Communications Manager at the Innocence Project. Views expressed here are Matt's, and don't represent the positions of the Innocence Project.
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LEAP is a major, welcome and needed ally in this area of criminal justice reform. Individuals in their line of work should be commended for standing up in the trenches and stating that current policies make their jobs more difficult, dangerous and overall lack the effectiveness to address the larger issues at hand in this matter... particularly the fact that the lives of hundreds of thousands of Americans each year are derailed for the same 'crime' more than one of our presidents has admitted to (but didn't get caught).
Posted by Fred Frankenberg on 08/26/2009 @ 11:01AM PT
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Thank you Fred!! It is about time someone mentioned the facts about who has indulged! It is also a fact that the hundreds of thousands that were unfortunate enough to be arrested and convicted, (serving federal time without the possibility of parole) are a very small % of the citizens addicted to drugs! So, I guess it is picking and choosing who will serve time for it. There are many addictions, in fact we are a nation of addictions, drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex. Drugs is the one they choose to prosecute! WHY?? Alcohol, gambling and sex can be a threat to society in many ways.
Posted by carolyn brown on 08/26/2009 @ 10:30PM PT
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The astonishing thing is that cannabis has NEVER been directly linked as a cause of death. NOT ONE.
Alcohol KILLS 150,000 Americans a year, and addicts 15% of those who use it.
Cigarettes KILL 450,000 Americans a year, and addict 30% of those who use.
Cannabis kills ZERO Americans a year, can cause dependence in only 10% of its users, and it is the ILLEGAL one?!
WHY is pot illegal again?!
Posted by Clayton Cleverly on 08/27/2009 @ 10:08AM PT
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Go Leap!
Posted by Alex Montagna on 08/28/2009 @ 06:59AM PT
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What does it take to get this rolling ?
Posted by Patrick Duncan on 08/31/2009 @ 05:17AM PT
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Get LEO, Pharmo, private prison, and prison unions out of the pockets of lawmakers....
Posted by John Layman on 08/31/2009 @ 07:01PM PT
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I take all the credit,
but give them all the paychecks.
It makes it easier to manage the checkbook, and tax time.
So Keep Smiling! - You're doing a wonderful job.
Ms.Bland
Posted by Jennifer Bland on 09/05/2009 @ 02:20AM PT
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The truth of the matter is, all of the money that has been made from drug use goes back to "uncle sam" , trillions of dollars, and the money is where? The drugs are who's? The war is not on drugs and crime, the war is about what's yours and mine, until the Government or IRS can learn to divide equally, there will allways be misery and strife.
There is plenty for everybody, that's what "they" don't want you to know.....
Posted by Jacqueline Bowen on 09/06/2009 @ 01:36PM PT
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As a retired DOC mental health provider and life long worker with mental health/ chemical dependency, I can say unequivocally, our drug laws and penal and court system are the biggest detriment to the rehabilitation of those addicted to chemicals (all of them). Prison treatment is available to less than 10% of inmates, and has a horrible recovery rate. A huge number of people in prison are aflicted with Fetal Alcohol Sprectrum Dirorders. These receive no help or treatment as these problems are not in most providers purvue of knowledge Psychologists find the closest thing it resembles and use that diagnosis. Drug Courts are a good beginning but are underfunded. Once sent to prison, we can pretty well be assured of the lousy future of any person from there on out.
Drugs and mental health should be treated as a public health problem, not a legal issue. That would however really cut into the prison job market. Drugs should be decriminalized with evaluations being done on every person arrested. "Tough on crime" is a stupid sound bite however it sure has increased the prison population without reducing crime.
Posted by Vicki Decker on 09/18/2009 @ 03:08PM PT
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when i was drinking, I got into trouble ,stupid thinking ,and fighting after smoking pot, i cut way down on drinking stayed employed ,had creative thinking ,became a brtter person. when i found out i had abestos in my lungs i stoped smoking pot and i wasnt addicted.
Posted by gene martin on 10/26/2009 @ 08:56AM PT
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