M_P wrote:
> http://www.buffalonews.com/opinion/anothervoice/story/325226.html
>
> By Peter Christ
> Updated: 04/17/08 6:38 AM
>
> I commend the work of all the agencies involved in the March 26 drug
> bust in Erie and Niagara counties. I’m a retired police captain from
> the Town of Tonawanda, and I understand the difficulty of the job they
> have to do. But I do have one question: Why do we put our police
> officers in this position?
>
> Look at the manpower used in this drug bust. The agencies used 100
> officers to track down 36 suspects. They also say that at 4 a.m. they
> used 300 officers, so that’s using 8.3 officers per arrest. There’s
> nothing wrong with that except that while those 300 officers are doing
> that, what other jobs aren’t being done? You’ve got 300 of them pulled
> off the streets for a day.
>
> Also, these arrests were preceded by an expensive and lengthy
> investigation. What will be the result of all this hard work, money
> and time spent? Will we have fewer drugs in our community? No. Will it
> be harder for people to get drugs? No. Will it keep drugs out of the
> schools? No.
>
> Nancy Cote, of Buffalo’s office of the Drug Enforcement
> Administration, was careful to re****t that, “There [were] no
> incidents. Nobody hurt. No dogs killed.” The whole idea I got from
> this article is that this drug bust was a kinder, gentler drug bust.
>
> Here’s an idea for a kinder, gentler drug bust: How about simply not
> arresting people for doing drugs? I’m not talking about not arresting
> criminals. I’m talking about why we criminalize behavior that simply
> isn’t criminal.
>
> If you’re an alcoholic in this society today, and you don’t drink and
> drive, and you don’t hurt other people or their property, what do we
> do to you? Nothing.
>
> If you’re an alcoholic in this society today, what do we do for you?
> Most people respond nothing, but that’s not true. We have treatment on
> demand for the alcoholic. There’s no waiting list for Alcoholics
> Anonymous; anyone who wants to come in gets treatment.
>
> Another thing we do for alcoholics is guarantee to them and the casual
> alcohol user, as much we’re able, a purity of product. And we provide
> them, as much as we can, with a safe place to purchase and use that
> drug.
>
> But when we catch heroin addicts using heroin, we arrest them. We’ve
> cut back on treatment for drug addicts to build prisons, so we don’t
> have treatment on demand for the heroin addict. And as far as purity
> of product and a safe place to buy or use that drug, it’s ridiculous.
> We all know what we get in an underground marketplace.
>
> We claim that we’re trying to help drug addicts. But if we really want
> to help drug addicts, let’s help them like we’re helping alcoholics.
>
> The only way to have a kinder and gentler approach to dealing with our
> drug problems is to have a regulated and controlled marketplace. And
> the only way you can control and regulate the marketplace is to
> legalize the drugs. All of them.
>
> © 2008 The Buffalo News.
A few years ago on the day that ASA Hutchison, the DEA head, was
speaking in San Francisco armed federal agents raided a local pot club.
A member of the local police told me that the department had requested
federal aid in pursuing crack dealers but was told it was a local problem.
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