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              Legalization and the War on Drugs:
        How 2009 Became the Year That Got Everyone Talking

ABOUT LEAP:

Founded in 2002 by five cops, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) is run and represented solely by those who fought on the front lines of the "war on drugs" and who know firsthand that prohibition only worsens drug addiction and street violence.

Today, LEAP has more than 30,000 supporters including police, prosecutors, judges, FBI/DEA agents, corrections officials, military personnel and civilians.

LEAP has members in 76 countries and its 100 speakers have helped to put a credible face on the modern anti-prohibition movement by giving more than 5,500 presentations to civic groups, public officials, members of the media and others. More information about LEAP is online at:

www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com

Acknowledgements:
Report coordinator: Kristin Daley
Many thanks are due to the following individuals who provided invaluable assistance in the creation of this report: Tom Angell, Jack Cole, Peter Donna, Roger Falcón, Bill Fried, Michael Genovese, Antoinette Hartung and Shaleen Title


INTRODUCTION

At the end of 2008, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition released a report underscoring the feasibility of ending drug prohibition by pointing to a time 75 years earlier when our grandparents had the wisdom to legalize alcohol in order to stop violence and corruption, improve the economy and bolster public health. LEAP's Repeat Repeal report examined the parallels between alcohol prohibition and today's drug prohibition, calling on policymakers to consider drug legalization and regulation. As we look back on 2009 and the first months of 2010, it is clear that our message is really beginning to stick.

In 2009 it seemed that almost everyone was talking about legalizing drugs as a possible solution to the abysmal failure of the "war on drugs." Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, Senator Jim Webb, former Mexican president Vicente Fox, Mexico's current ambassador to the United States, Representative Charlie Rangel, Representative Barney Frank and political commentators Glenn Beck and Patrick Buchanan, among many others, said last year that legalization must be put on the table for discussion.

Yet we've seen much resistance from the White House, with Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske first claiming, in response to questioning by LEAP, that legalization wasn't even in his vocabulary and then, only months later, attempting to undermine legalization arguments via reference to a LEAP Washington Post op-ed during his remarks to the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

There has been a palpable shift away from the attitude that legalization won't or can't happen because it is somehow politically dangerous to acknowledge that the obvious solution to the "war on drugs" is to stop waging it, and we know - as many polls now bear out - that legalization can happen and that voters are much more ready for reform than even the most supportive politicians are prepared to understand. As we show below, there is substantial evidence that the old "drug war politics" are beginning to crumble. But if we are to clear the hurdles that stand between us and the end of prohibition, including important pending reforms, we will have to convince even more opinion leaders to reject the conventional wisdom about the perceived political danger associated with drug policy reform.

In fact, more and more people have begun talking about drug legalization, numerous incremental reforms are moving forward on the state and federal levels and we are beginning to see real models of effective regulation of marijuana distribution in California through the medical cannabis model, with the Obama administration voicing opposition to federal raids on medical marijuana distributors. Several countries around the world have decriminalized drug possession altogether. And yet the sky has not fallen; no politicians have been voted out of office because of their drug policy votes; in fact, drug abuse and problems tend to fall with the removal of punitive policies. It is increasingly clear that the debate on legalization has undergone a seismic shift and is moving forward.

LEAP has played a pivotal role in that shift.