Law Enforcement

The Mission of Humanity Must Be To End the War on Drugs

Law Enforcement: The war on drugs produces crime and does nothing to stop it.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) has become one of the most influential and promising organizations that is heading in the right direction. The members of this organization have seen the strain that the war on drugs has placed on law enforcement in every major community throughout the US. It's common sense, a war on drugs will not stop crime; it creates it! Decriminalizing drugs will cut crime in half! Legalizing drugs will cut crime back even further. Today the US is a more dangerous place for everyone. During the 1980s, the number of registered firearms rose 47% between 1980 and 1990. By 2000, there was a 29% increase in firearms over 1990. But by far the biggest increase in the number of firearms came after 2001. On a major city block today, there might be local law enforcement, state law enforcement, Homeland Security Federal Protective Services, members of the Drug Enforcement Agency, National Guardsmen, federal investigators from various agencies, vigilantes, and others with guns. Jesse, an officer with the LAPD says that one out of every four merchants now owns a gun. "It's much worse now than it's ever been and it has nothing to do with drugs," Jesse says. "I would say that we need a war on fear, you know, just to be funny, but one thing we don't need is another war. We don't need these wars. Right now, we are a step away from looking like Bagdad. All it would take is one suicide bomber and this country would go nuts." But you can't fight fear with a gun. Fear is resolved through education and right now Jesse feels that education has taken a back seat to the war on drugs. "Every year we think we're getting smarter in the drug war, but we keep getting dumber," Jesse complains. "We've had to scale back crime patrol so we can go after a few people who are trying to have a good time and enjoy life. In the old days the drug dealers we arrested were young men in their 20s. Today, we have kids as young as 12 dealing drugs! We have grandmothers and great grandmothers dealing drugs. The dangerous criminals are slipping by us because we've got to chase a 75-year-old woman who just bought an ounce of heroin to sell. It makes me feel like a prick to arrest someone who's trying to live like everyone else. And the tragedy is that someone's going to get away with murder." Lucy, another LAPD officer says, "Our politicians in Washington (DC) are so out of touch with reality when they point to drug-related crimes. These people are not on the streets, they have no clue as to what goes on here. They think we can just shake crime from our cities like shaking dust from a cloth. You will always have someone out there to catch. But when you're spread thin, you can't do your job and when there are too many of us out there, we present a danger. Everything has to be coordinated. By the time we do that, we've just let someone go." Education is not just a good thing to law enforcement, it's a necessary step that should have started a long time ago. The longer we delay, the more problems we will have to overcome. "The public realizes that we took a wrong turn with the drug war," Lucy says with confidence. "Our strategy is now to just look the other way. Just because the people sitting behind a desk making law don't know what's going on, doesn't mean we don't. Unfortunately there are situations that can't be avoided. We applaud citizens like you who are trying to end a war that's taking a toll on law enforcement. We wish there were more voices."