Policing the War on Drugs

Quotable:

“We need to consider what drug prohibition has done to the vital profession of law enforcement. It has divided police officers from the communities we serve, alienated us from young people, sent our call-loads through the roof, placed huge financial strains on police budgets and, sometimes, my colleagues have been injured or murdered while enforcing these drug laws. Every police officer should question whether the War on Drugs is worth fighting, particularly when there are other policy options that would result in less crime, addiction, disease and death.” — David Bratzer

I want to restore the rightful place of the police as public servants who protect and serve. I want the people to feel that they can turn to the cops in times of need. “Divided from the communities they serve” is exactly what we have now. And that needs to change.

…

Something struck me when reading about the scandal in San Francisco regarding their drug lab (and the fact that police apparently knew about the problems and didn’t share them with defense attorneys).

What hit me was the numbers.

San Francisco prosecutors may be forced to drop a total of 1,400 cases in the growing scandal at the police drug lab, including hundreds in which defendants have been placed in drug treatment programs. The list of cases that could be dropped as soon as this week now encompasses 1,000 awaiting trial and 400 in which defendants are in drug rehabilitation programs

1,400 drug cases, with 1,000 awaiting trial? What is this – an assembly line?

Those 1,400 cases come on top of 500 that have already been dropped, including 46 on Friday when prosecutors told judges they could not “ethically go forward” with the prosecutions.

That’s a lot of drug cases. How is it that they have time to do it right, or to do anything else?

Oh.