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Sunday, October 30, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 AM
Ex-top cop: make drugs legal
By Nicole Brodeur
Seattle Times staff columnist
For five years, former Police Chief Norm Stamper has stood alone as the man who let the WTO's visit become forever known as "The Battle in Seattle."
Stamper is once again a solitary man, this time as an experienced lawman who thinks the world would be a better place if drugs were legal. In an Oct. 16 Los Angeles Times op-ed piece titled, "Let Those Dopers Be," Stamper called for the legalization of "not just pot, but all drugs," including heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and LSD.
People have the same right to use them, he wrote, as they do to smoke and to drink alcohol, so these "verboten drugs" should be available in government-regulated stores.
Doing so, he said, "Would drive unscrupulous dealers out of business overnight."
It also would ease prison costs, since nonviolent drug offenders would be freed.
"We're making more arrests for drug offenses than for murder, manslaughter, forcible rape and aggravated assault combined," Stamper wrote. "Feel safer?"
Stamper should know better than anyone that alcohol and drug use is at the start of many crimes. We've legalized alcohol, but that didn't stop drunken drivers from killing 16,694 people in 2004.
Stamper's piece has energized his ongoing tour for his book, "Breaking Rank: A Top Cop's Exposé of the Dark Side of Policing," and has put him at the center of an interesting debate. Fox News and MSNBC had him on. And CNN asked him to talk about the economic effects of drug decriminalization.
There's some irony in this: While our former top cop is saying people should be free to smoke, shoot and swallow, we're wringing our hands over where strippers can stand.
Yet there are those who agree with Stamper. Earlier this year, the King County Bar Association's Drug Policy Project proposed a plan "for replacing the current framework of criminal prohibition with one of legal regulation."
But Dan Satterberg, the chief of staff of the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, thinks Stamper is way off.
"What he's proposing is a social experiment from which there would be no return," he said. "You'd have a whole lot more people using a whole lot more drugs. And what's the message you send to kids? 'Don't do drugs, but go here if you want to buy them.' "
The state gives some $8.5 million annually — previously earmarked for prison construction — to pay for treatment for people facing county drug charges. If they stay clean for six months, their cases are dismissed. As an added bonus, they're no longer using.
"Criminal justice is when you have the best chance to help them out," Satterberg said.
Stamper disagrees. He has twin granddaughters. "No way in hell would I be advocating legalization if I thought that ... would jeopardize their lives."
He needs to think a little harder about how legalized drugs would affect all our lives — and how — legal or not — they would continue to imprison those who use them.
Nicole Brodeur's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.
What would Tommy Chong do?
Ex-top cop: make drugs legal
By Nicole Brodeur
Seattle Times staff columnist
For five years, former Police Chief Norm Stamper has stood alone as the man who let the WTO's visit become forever known as "The Battle in Seattle."
Stamper is once again a solitary man, this time as an experienced lawman who thinks the world would be a better place if drugs were legal. In an Oct. 16 Los Angeles Times op-ed piece titled, "Let Those Dopers Be," Stamper called for the legalization of "not just pot, but all drugs," including heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and LSD.
People have the same right to use them, he wrote, as they do to smoke and to drink alcohol, so these "verboten drugs" should be available in government-regulated stores.
Doing so, he said, "Would drive unscrupulous dealers out of business overnight."
It also would ease prison costs, since nonviolent drug offenders would be freed.
"We're making more arrests for drug offenses than for murder, manslaughter, forcible rape and aggravated assault combined," Stamper wrote. "Feel safer?"
Stamper should know better than anyone that alcohol and drug use is at the start of many crimes. We've legalized alcohol, but that didn't stop drunken drivers from killing 16,694 people in 2004.
Stamper's piece has energized his ongoing tour for his book, "Breaking Rank: A Top Cop's Exposé of the Dark Side of Policing," and has put him at the center of an interesting debate. Fox News and MSNBC had him on. And CNN asked him to talk about the economic effects of drug decriminalization.
There's some irony in this: While our former top cop is saying people should be free to smoke, shoot and swallow, we're wringing our hands over where strippers can stand.
Yet there are those who agree with Stamper. Earlier this year, the King County Bar Association's Drug Policy Project proposed a plan "for replacing the current framework of criminal prohibition with one of legal regulation."
But Dan Satterberg, the chief of staff of the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, thinks Stamper is way off.
"What he's proposing is a social experiment from which there would be no return," he said. "You'd have a whole lot more people using a whole lot more drugs. And what's the message you send to kids? 'Don't do drugs, but go here if you want to buy them.' "
The state gives some $8.5 million annually — previously earmarked for prison construction — to pay for treatment for people facing county drug charges. If they stay clean for six months, their cases are dismissed. As an added bonus, they're no longer using.
"Criminal justice is when you have the best chance to help them out," Satterberg said.
Stamper disagrees. He has twin granddaughters. "No way in hell would I be advocating legalization if I thought that ... would jeopardize their lives."
He needs to think a little harder about how legalized drugs would affect all our lives — and how — legal or not — they would continue to imprison those who use them.
Nicole Brodeur's column appears Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday. Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.
What would Tommy Chong do?
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