Pubdate: Sat, 22 Apr 2006
Source: Cape Cod Times (MA)
Copyright: 2006 Cape Cod Times
Contact: http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/edits/sendaletter.htm
Website: http://www.capecodonline.com/cctimes/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/72
Author: Jack A. Cole
Cited: Falmouth High School http://www.falmouth.k12.ma.us/fh/
Cited: Barnstable County Sheriff James Cummings http://www.bsheriff.net
Cited: Falmouth police http://www.falmouthpolice.org
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/Falmouth+High (Falmouth High)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?246 (Policing - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v06/n475/a04.html?7826

DESTROYING OUR KIDS WON'T MAKE US SAFER

As a retired undercover narcotics officer with 26 years in police 
work, I read with interest your April 16 article ''Falmouth sting 
leaves a mark.''

It did indeed leave a mark on nine students and their families, whose 
lives are now crippled if not destroyed.

Several will end up with two-year mandatory-minimum prison sentences. 
All will join the 3,004 Massachusetts college applicants who cannot 
get a government loan or grant for college. All will lose their 
driver's licenses, so they can no longer get to school or be 
gainfully employed anywhere without public transportation.

Why destroy these lives?

Though 96.7 million Americans have used marijuana, only 14.5 million 
have used it in the past month. The vast majority quit of their own 
volition without any intervention.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, www.leap.cc, the world's largest 
organization of criminal justice professionals who know the war on 
drugs is not only a failed policy but a terribly destructive one, 
believes legalized regulation of drugs is a more efficient and 
ethical policy than prohibition.

By treating drug abuse as a health problem rather than a crime 
problem, we could actually save our children instead of condemning 
them to a life crippled by arrest and imprisonment.

Jack A. Cole, Executive director

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
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