8 replies to this topic

[LongHairBri]

SOURCE


Speaking to Raw Story recently, an active duty police officer who asked not to be named threw down the gauntlet over the part of his job he hates most: the drug war.

“I did not get in law enforcement to destroy a person’s future because that person had marijuana or a pill in their pocket,” the officer explained. “Why would you want to destroy that person’s future and cause them great harm because of that? It’s not worth it.”

Like many Americans, the reality of the drug war was was nothing like what he’d been taught to believe in his youth. But statistics like a citizen being arrested for drugs every 19 seconds in 2010, and 1.6 million people incarcerated over drugs in 2009, were nothing compared to what he actually experienced in the front lines of the drug war on America’s users.

But for those officers who put their lives on the line every day to protect the public from dangerous, violent criminals, the drug war isn’t always just another part of the job. For this officer in particular, it’s much more than that: “The war on drugs is a war on people,” he claimed.

“I just didn’t see problems from illegal drug users that I’d been led to believe,” the officer explained. “Most of the calls that we get on drug use, as police, are alcohol related. Alcohol is a serious drug that can be abused, but I just didn’t see the calls on other drugs like I had been led to believe. I didn’t see these drug-crazed people out there doing crazy things… Even growing up before entering law enforcement, I was always led to believe that the drug war was meant to stop all these people from doing crazy things. But on the street, that’s not what you see. That’s a lie.”

In his view, the officer said that the American public would be much better off if the government would “regulate drugs and keep the control out of the hands of the black market criminals.”

“The cartels have been running a serious drug operation in America for decades, and I don’t think most Americans are really aware of it,” he said. “The money comes from the prohibition of drugs. These criminals are making their money because of the prohibition. If you legalize and regulate it, their profits go to zero.”

For more than two decades in law enforcement, he said that he’s carried an immense guilt: his first drug arrest.

“I was in training, on ‘the other side of the tracks,’ for lack of better words, and we pulled a vehicle over,” he explained. “The guy, I think he had a defective taillight or something. He was sober, polite, respectful, no problems, and my training officer said, ‘Oh yeah, he’s gonna have drugs.’ So, I asked if we could search his vehicle and he gave me permission. Within no time, I found a small amount of (hard) drugs, so he was facing a serious charge. The whole time I was thinking, ‘This is not right. This guy’s keeping to himself, not hurting nobody, he’s a peaceful person.’ I instinctively knew this was wrong. I changed my perspective immediately. This was not the war on drugs that I thought it would be.”

Carrying this guilt for his participation in such a system, he got away from making narcotics arrests and received a transfer to another division. There he worked for years, until one day in 2006. Acting on a whim, he ran a Google search for the peculiar terms, “cops against the drug war,” and rather abruptly found a new calling: an activist group called Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP). He’s followed their work ever since, and in 2012, the officer finally decided that he too must raise his voice against the drug war.

Today, he’s acquired a unique extra-curricular activity: an anonymous blog served up by LEAP, examining the innards of the drug war from a perspective rarely put on public display. If his superiors knew, he explained, “I would probably be terminated.”

And, he claims, it’s not just him that’s come to some stark, personal conclusions on the drug war: fellow officers are coming around as well — especially those who’ve been doing it for a while.

“I remember a case just here recently when an officer was trying to find marijuana on one guy, and another officer started looking around in this area where there’s actual crime, and he was kind of making fun of him for wasting time,” he said. “There’s plenty of officers that do want to get away from the petty, small drug arrests that distract them from fighting real crime, which is what a lot of them get into law enforcement for individually.”

To read more from the anonymous cop, visit the Law Enforcement Against Prohibition blog.

[Northern Lab]

Wow, the tide is turning!

[Croppled1]

We have a long way to go yet . A long way to go . The hardest part of being a severe chronic pain patient is the ostracizing , isolation , being alone among the many at risk of insanity or death from the treatment of others without a choice to participate - the severity of the suffering leaves one no choice . Dependent medications are a lifelong commitment patients understand yet society doesn't fulfill its responsibility to them .The cruel and unusual treatment of patients astounds me even within our medical ranks from people who took the Hippocratic Oath .

Patient protections are almost non existent now greatly compromised due to irrational fears and objectives of otherwise well meaning people who do not understand the practicality their rules and regulations deny or the terrible harm that comes to innocent people guilty of manufactured crimes .

Edited by Croppled1, 29 January 2012 - 12:19 PM.

[michiganmedclones]

I had a long discussion this past weekend about marijuana and their beliefs, she’s about to be 70 and we have quite a few ties to LEO, none close enough to know me but she has friends and husbands of friends and her third husbands children etc and its all across the board that arresting people for marijuana is ridiculous. She knows I have my medical card for the surgery I went through and she has seen that I no longer consume alcohol at all (just got back from a wedding in Vegas, had 2 glasses of champagne, and 4 beers in 3 days if that tells you anything) and I am just more open headed, clear, waking up at 6a-7a when I don't work until the afternoon, just overall a better person. Its not just good a medicine, its a much better alternative to use it recreationally opposed to pharmaceuticals and alcohol, and its a sprit lifting, mood enhancing herb that can really promote internal and external happiness and fullness. Its just time that we need to get everyone to see that the choice we make doesn't change us a humans, its going to happen I know it will I just don't know when

[DreamWarrior67]

You should join LEAP if you haven't yet.

[Champion Jack Dupree]

Real stories from the frontline.. CJD

[flyinstringbean]

Yep,Common Sense is startin to come to "some" in the Law enforcement community.I know a couple guys that quit because they were sick of messin with people and not doin what they got into law enforcement for in the first place.The Stories they tell are Not Surprising.

[purklize]

Hats off to this brave soul!

[purklize]

These cops should stop quitting though - if they do traffic stops, they can just turn a blind eye again... and again... and again... and save a lot of people from ruination.

Edited by purklize, 31 January 2012 - 01:58 AM.