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Plainsman1963

The New Face of Reform
An original article by Yana Usdi | 07-12-2005

It’s a crowded room, folding chairs are set up in rows and solid citizens of the community start to fill them. They might be at a VFW post, or a local chapter of the Kiwanis, or perhaps a meeting of NOW or the PTA. They are always active members of the community who vote and are interested in shaping their communities, and they are always people that most reformers have a hard time talking to.

Not this time.

Jack Cole or one of the other speakers steps up and starts to talk, skeptical faces soften then become intent. Death rates are up, violent crime is up as compared to before prohibition, and purity is up in many cases while prices in real terms fell. Terrorists and organized crime have thrived in an industry that didn’t even exist before the laws created them, and prison growth is out of control. A stark picture is painted of where we now stand in today’s drug war, and this time the people listen. There are charts, statistics; the presentation is professional and the story convincing.

It should be convincing, because this time it was told by current or former narcotics cops, judges, or chiefs of police. Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) was born from the frustration of Jack Cole, a lifelong cop and a career narcotics officer. His career in drug law enforcement coincided with the start of The Drug War and he watched first hand as the nation and the War on Drugs changed around him. Over time doubts grew and he suspected that others in law enforcement had the same doubts. Eventually he knew it, but nobody was openly talking about it.

LEAP was created in response to what was seen as a growing threat to the safety of our children and of our nation. We’ve handed the safety of our children and quality control of what they ingest to street criminals, and our children now die at a rate several times higher as a direct result of hard drug use than they did before we started. We can better protect them ourselves. In about three years LEAP has grown in size from the founding group of less than a dozen members to thousands, with around 90 speakers who are ready and able to tell the world the real shape of the drug war from a first hand perspective people want to listen to.

There’s just one problem left. Getting the groups of people to speak to in the first place. That’s where LEAP would like to ask for your help. We’re all reformers here, or we should be. We live and work in our communities, we are members of some of the organizations which LEAP needs to reach. The message we’ve been trying to send is a solid one, it just needs a messenger people want to hear from.

On June 30, 2004, there were 2,131,180 people in U.S. prisons and jails. That's a rise of 2.3% during the 12 previous months. Federal prisons are growing almost 5 times faster than state prison populations.

As of June 30, 2004, the U.S. incarceration rate was 726 per 100,000 residents. But when you break down the statistics you see that incarceration is not an equal opportunity punishment.

U.S. incarceration rates by race, June 30, 2004: Whites: 393 per 100,000 Latinos: 957 per 100,000 Blacks: 2,531 per 100,000

Gender is an important "filter" on the who goes to prison or jail, June 30, 2004: Females: 123 per 100,000 Males: 1,348 per 100,000

Look at just the males by race, and the incarceration rates become even more frightening, June 30, 2004: White males: 717 per 100,000 Latino males: 1,717 per 100,000 Black males: 4,919 per 100,000

If you look at males aged 25-29 and by race, you can see what is going on even clearer, June 30, 2004: For White males ages 25-29: 1,666 per 100,000. For Latino males ages 25-29: 3,606 per 100,000. For Black males ages 25-29: 12,603 per 100,000. (That's 12.6% of Black men in their late 20s.)

Prison Sucks

The average rate of incarceration in nations comparable to the U.S. runs closer to 100 per 100,000, in few cases over 150.

According to Jack Cole we’re now spending nearly 70 billion dollars a year to support organized crime and imprison our children in a cause we never had a chance of success at in the first place. According to everything I’ve ever been able to find on my own it’s pretty hard to argue with that point of view. In fact most people don’t, once they realize you aren’t defending drugs they don’t seem to want to talk about the issue. It’s a talk we need to have anyway, and if people don’t want to hear it from us we’d better find someone they do want to listen to.

Over recent weeks we’ve all watched the news articles on this web page, Front Page News. Groups who have fought us tooth and nail on reform are starting to realize that the drug war is never going to work, not in its present form. Even many of those who have so far repeated almost everything the Drug Czar says without question have started to show public doubts. People on all sides of the political spectrum are increasingly unhappy with the shape of the world around them in any number of ways, we now have a window of opportunity that isn’t going to come along often. If there’s another terrorist attack, a collapse in the dollar, or even something as stupid as some celebrity getting arrested, and we’re out of the public eye again. NOW is the time, we’ve got their attention at the moment so we’d better do something with it.

Take the time to tell any groups you may be involved in or in contact with about LEAP, see if they might be talked into a meeting with one of the LEAP speakers. Use your imagination, a city council wouldn’t be out of line if they are debating how to deal with drug problems for instance. Write letters to local and national TV stations, radio and newspapers and ask why we’re hearing from the Drug Czar but not from the other side. We’ve been waiting about 30 years for law enforcement to catch up with what we’ve been trying to tell people. Now that we have them, make use of it. What we’ve been doing is insupportable, people just need to know the truth and we're not too far from ending it.

I’ve been a reformer for years now, I’ve always had to prove and source everything the hard way. There are some people we just can’t reach even then. LEAP can reach them, easily once they have a crowd in front of them. Make use of it. Take the time to visit and register as “friends of LEAP” at the least, we’ve been published a number of times as you can read on our home page and we’ll be published more often if we have a larger list of supporters behind us. Help us to help you.

LEAP Home Page To set up a speaking engagement contact Mike Smithson at speakers@leap.cc

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"America is at that awkward stage. It's too late to work within the system, but too early to shoot the bastards." - Claire Wolfe

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Yana Usdi

Just a quick thank you to the admins here for allowing this to be posted, especially Buzzby, Plainsman1963, and Rick who each took the time to answer my questions and set it up for us. Mike from LEAP gave input on the article as well.

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LEAP Current and former members of law enforcement who support drug regulation rather than prohibition.
Drug Policy Alliance Alternatives to Marijuana Prohibition and the Drug War