Pubdate: Sun, 30 Oct 2005
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2005 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://www.seattletimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Cited: King County Bar Association's Drug Policy Project 
http://www.kcba.org/druglaw/
Referenced: Let Those Dopers Be 
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v05/n1633/a01.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Norm+Stamper

EX-TOP COP: MAKE DRUGS LEGAL

For five years, former Police Chief Norm Stamper has stood alone as
the man who let the WTO's visit become forever known as "The Battle in
Seattle."

Stamper is once again a solitary man, this time as an experienced
lawman who thinks the world would be a better place if drugs were
legal. In an Oct. 16 Los Angeles Times op-ed piece titled, "Let Those
Dopers Be," Stamper called for the legalization of "not just pot, but
all drugs," including heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and LSD.

People have the same right to use them, he wrote, as they do to smoke
and to drink alcohol, so these "verboten drugs" should be available in
government-regulated stores.

Doing so, he said, "Would drive unscrupulous dealers out of business
overnight."

It also would ease prison costs, since nonviolent drug offenders would
be freed.

"We're making more arrests for drug offenses than for murder,
manslaughter, forcible rape and aggravated assault combined," Stamper
wrote. "Feel safer?"

Stamper should know better than anyone that alcohol and drug use is at
the start of many crimes. We've legalized alcohol, but that didn't
stop drunken drivers from killing 16,694 people in 2004.

Stamper's piece has energized his ongoing tour for his book, "Breaking
Rank: A Top Cop's Expose of the Dark Side of Policing," and has put him
at the center of an interesting debate. Fox News and MSNBC had him on.
And CNN asked him to talk about the economic effects of drug
decriminalization.

There's some irony in this: While our former top cop is saying people
should be free to smoke, shoot and swallow, we're wringing our hands
over where strippers can stand.

Yet there are those who agree with Stamper. Earlier this year, the
King County Bar Association's Drug Policy Project proposed a plan "for
replacing the current framework of criminal prohibition with one of
legal regulation."

But Dan Satterberg, the chief of staff of the King County Prosecuting
Attorney's Office, thinks Stamper is way off.

"What he's proposing is a social experiment from which there would be
no return," he said. "You'd have a whole lot more people using a whole
lot more drugs. And what's the message you send to kids? 'Don't do
drugs, but go here if you want to buy them.' "

The state gives some $8.5 million annually -- previously earmarked for
prison construction -- to pay for treatment for people facing county
drug charges. If they stay clean for six months, their cases are
dismissed. As an added bonus, they're no longer using.

"Criminal justice is when you have the best chance to help them out,"
Satterberg said.

Stamper disagrees. He has twin granddaughters. "No way in hell would I
be advocating legalization if I thought that ... would jeopardize
their lives."

He needs to think a little harder about how legalized drugs would
affect all our lives -- and how -- legal or not -- they would continue to
imprison those who use them.

What would Tommy Chong do? 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake