*** Beyond Legalizing Marijuana; A Top Cop Breaks Rank Again ***

[Moorbey]

Earlier this week, Alternet.org broke the news that supporters in
California had collected more than enough signatures to qualify a ballot
measure on marijuana legalization next year. The group ?Tax Cannabis 2010?
needed only two months to gather nearly 700,000 signatures in an effort to
have the state be the first in the nation to vote on decriminalizing the
prohibited drug. If passed in the November elections in 2010, the
Regulate, Control and Tax Marijuana Act would allow for the growing,
selling and taxation of cannabis. Persons over the age of twenty-one could
legally possess an ounce of marijuana and grow up to twenty-five square
feet of the plant for personal use. A poll taken earlier this April shows
broad support for ending the prohibition of the drug with 56% of voters in
California and 60% in Los Angeles County respectively approving of the
move. While political analysts expect law enforcement agencies statewide
to oppose the effort, one former police chief, who has broken rank before,
has spoken out in favor of not just legalizing marijuana, but all illicit
drugs and not just in California, but nationwide. Norm Stamper, who served
as Seattle?s Chief of Police, notes that ending prohibition would reduce
much of the violence in the black market for drugs while at the same time
end many of the failures of the so-called War on Drugs.

GUEST: Norm Stamper, member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition,
34-year police veteran and served as Seattle?s chief of police from
1994-2000. He is the author of ?Breaking Rank: A Top Cop?s Expose of the
Dark Side of American Policing?

For more information, visit LEAP - Law Enforcement Against Prohibition - Cops Say Legalize Drugs.

Listen to this segment:
http://www.archive.org/download/Dail...18_stamper.mp3