For over a Century we have had a prohibition of the use of drugs made from weeds like poppies and marijuana that grow anywhere. The percentage of addicted people in the USA, about 1.3%, has remained the same for over a Century. I learned about Law Enforcement Against Prohibition from this article:
"Miller-McCuneApril 27, 2011
Fighting Drug War Creates Drug War
When the United States starts talking about illicit drugs, why does the word “war” always make its way into the conversation?
By Michael Scott Moore"
When you say “mobster” an image of “Tommy Guns” shooting from speeding black sedans appears. That image is from Hollywood but the emotional feeling that organized crime, the sophisticated business of international organized crime that we have today, began on the streets of the United States in the 1920s and 30s is also a fact. The Eighteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ban on Alcohol, better known as Prohibition, was in place from 1920 to 1933. Before 1920 we had criminal gangs, but they were isolated. Prohibition didn't alter the use of alcohol it just made it an enormously profitable commodity. Those criminal gangs expanded, proliferated, fought and died for those profits. There was some of that violence right here in Coatesville when an alleged "bootlegger" was shot on Harmony St. I believe the political corruption that grew roots in Chester County during Prohibition still exists today.
At the end of World War II organized crime started to become the sophisticated international criminal organization and public corruption organization that it is today. International organized crime was the spawn of the Eighteenth Amendment. Prohibition of alcohol ended but the international criminal organizations remained in place and moved on to other commodities.
I believe the roots of international organized crime developed here in the USA between 1920 and 1933. The fruits of organized crime have spread their seeds all over the world. The primary driving product of international organized crime is drugs that are illegal. President Nixon began the "War on Drugs" in 1971. We use more illegal drugs here in the USA than in any other country. The "War on Drugs" has made selling drugs and firearms incredibly profitable and drug use remains the same. Profits and violence are increasing at exponential rates.
The Mexican Government has lost the "War on Drugs" and that Mexican Drug war will soon be in your neighborhood. I believe we got a taste of it in Coatesville in 2006 when we saw the SUR-13, Surenos, MS-13, Bloods and Crips graffiti all over Coatesville and shots were heard almost every day. (See; TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2010 About the arrest of a suspected Ninos Locos Mexican Street gang member).
Wealthy criminals and the corrupt public officials that make organized crime possible would not disappear if we did legalize all drugs but legalization of drugs would bankrupt nearly all of them. International organized crime began here; we should end it. Violence and illegal drug profits driven by drug use in the USA are destroying Mexico and we're next. It's time to try something different and that time is now.
Captain Peter Christ ret. Tonawanda, NY Vice Director:
Stanford “Neill” Franklin
Maryland State Police Major (ret.), Narcotics Enforcement and Executive Director of LEAP
“Two people permanently changed his steadfast belief in fighting the drug war: the Mayor of Baltimore, and Ed Toatley, one of the best undercover agents the State of Maryland had ever seen. Sometime in the mid nineties, Kurt Schmoke, the sitting mayor of Baltimore, declared on television that the drug war was not working. ‘We need to have a discussion about where we go from here,’ Neill recalls him saying, “because the drug war is not working.” Schmoke put forth the reasoning that fighting a war on drugs was not only violent, but also counterproductive to fighting the high rates of AIDS and Hepatitis C in the city.
I knew instantly, ‘ Neill says, ‘that he had said something profound, and that this deserved some looking into.’ This was the beginning of Neill’s new direction, and it started with researching and evaluating his own experiences in law enforcement. He compared the areas in his jurisdiction with the people and cases that came across his desk. ‘We worked in predominantly white areas, but most of our cases and lock ups were minorities. There were only a couple of cases in the outlying areas that involved whites.
Not too long after Schmoke’s announcement, Neill's good friend, Corporal Ed Toatley, was killed in Washington, DC, while making a drug deal as an undercover agent. “When Ed was assassinated in October 2000, that is when I really made the turn. That’s when I decided to go public with my views. I even contacted my police commissioner at the time and warned him that I was going to start speaking out on this. I didn’t want him to be blindsided.”The institutionalized racism and cost of life to both civilians and police officers are just two of the many unintended consequences of our drug policy that keep Neill Franklin speaking for LEAP."
Former New Jersey State Police Undercover Officer
Board Chair and Treasurer of LEAP
"This is Not a War on Drugs - it's a War on People."
"This is Not a War on Drugs - it's a War on People."
James Gierach
Secretary of LEAP
"Prohibition - not drugs - is at the hub of most U.S. crises worth talking about"
“As an attorney representing a ‘zero-tolerance’ municipality, Jim once dutifully advised an applicant for street-sweeper that because he failed his drug test for marijuana he was ineligible for the job. However, Jim noted, the test results would not disqualify the applicant from running for President of the United States.”
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