LEAP Seeks Drug Legalization In Oklahoma

[WHAB]

Group seeks drug legalization in Oklahoma
‘END TO PROHIBITION’ WOULD LEAD TO MORE PROBLEMS IN THE STATE, OPPONENTS SAY

BY Brian Kimball
Published: June 15, 2009

A group of current and retired law enforcement and legal personnel claim they have the answer to ending the war on drugs.

"We’re all calling for an end to drug prohibition. We want to end it just like we ended alcohol prohibition in 1933,” said Jack Cole, executive director for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or LEAP.

"The day after we ended that nasty law, Al Capone and all of his smuggling buddies were out of business,” he said.

LEAP boasts roughly 13,000 members, among them 102 in Oklahoma; only 11 of the state’s members have law enforcement experience. LEAP put up a billboard at 7800 N Broadway that reads: "Drug Abuse is Bad. The Drug War is Worse.” Cole said the reason for this ad campaign is to open the public’s eyes to the true cost of the war on drugs.

However, LEAP represents a minority of the nation’s law enforcement. Mark Woodward, spokesman for the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, said legalizing and regulating drugs would cause more problems than it would solve.

"It’s frightening and reckless that a group of law enforcement officers would endorse something like that. ... Look at what happened when we legalized alcohol and prescription drugs,” Woodward said. "Now they’re the two most abused substances globally.”

According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy, President Barack Obama called for $14.1 billion to support the war on drugs for the 2009 fiscal year.

Cole, who was an undercover narcotics officer in New Jersey for 14 years, said the drug war has been going on since the early 1970s and the point was to clean up the streets, but the opposite is happening.

"The point is the government now has absolutely no control over the drugs that are used in this country,” said Wes Johnson, a Tulsa defense attorney, former narcotics officer and member of LEAP.

Johnson said if drugs were legalized, the government would be able to control the quality, quantity, production, price and distribution — much like alcohol and tobacco — and make money off of it, but "right now, the criminals control all of that.” All the current system is doing is driving up the cost of the drugs, Johnson added.

People on both sides acknowledge there’s a long way to go before legislation to change the law would come to fruition.

"I think our legislation has a great appreciation for the destruction drugs have created in the state of Oklahoma and in the families and the community they represent,” Woodward said. "I don’t see legislators supporting something that could possibly lead to more of this type of destruction.”

http://newsok.com/group-seeks-drug-...article/3377943?custom_click=lead_story_title

Thank you LEAP and best of luck!!!

,
WHAB

 

[Open Eyes]

Look at what happened when we legalized alcohol and prescription drugs,” Woodward said. "Now they’re the two most abused substances globally.”

More lies. Without having actually looked up the drug use statistics i can say with a fair degree of accuracy that Tabacco and Alcohol are number one and two unlike the prescription drugs they say is at the top.

They try to spin anything and everything into what they want us to believe.

 

[alphacat]

I hope this gets a foothold in Oklahoma though, since I seem to recall them having the harshest drug laws on the books of any state in the U.S. - amazing that a band like the Flaming Lips could come from somewhere that repressive!

 

[JackTheGrower]

I visited Lawton recently and boy oh boy is that a negative pot place..

If LEAP can make a change in Oklahoma it has to start with Law Enforcement. That's a near Police state mentality in Lawton IMO

I managed to smoke a bowl every morning at the Hotel but only carefully and early in the morning ( 5am or so )

I also didn't get the responses from legalization conversations like I had everywhere else in the USA I went on that vacation.

Oklahoma ( IMO ) is lost in time when compared to California. It also has a huge gap between rich and poor. Just look at the prices of homes and you will see my point.

If Oklahoma can turn the corner on cannabis then the whole USA has a chance!


Jack