A Police Officer’s View on Drugs: Part 2

Several months ago, in my first piece as a writer for Demockracy, I talked about my perspective as a Police Officer who is against the War on Drugs. In the months that followed, this article became a very popular piece on this Web site and across the social networks. As such, I’ve had several requests to follow up on this piece and talk more about my career experiences and share my insights on this ill-begotten war on drugs. From these requests, I’ve decided to write a follow-up piece. In this follow-up article, I will explore some of my personal experiences that have led me to many of my current conclusions. I hope you enjoy and please share any comments that you may have.

LEAP

As I’ve shared in the past, I am a retired Policeman from Vancouver B.C., and I represent LEAP, Law Enforcement Against [drug ] Prohibition. We are a worldwide organization of Police Officers, Corrections Personnel, Judges, and many others who work in different areas of law enforcement, both active and retired. We currently number some 8,500 members. Our advisory board is made up of one US Governor, four sitting US Federal District Court Judges, five former police chiefs, the ex-mayor of Vancouver B.C, Senator Larry Campbell, the Former AG of Colombia, and from the UK, a former Chief Constable and the former head of narcotic task forces for all of England. We do not support drug use and realize that in an ideal world we would be better off without it. What we do believe is that “The War on Drugs” has created most of our problems with drugs and addiction today. Addiction is a disease, not a crime.

More On My Experience

With that said, let me tell you a bit more about myself and why I have come to these conclusions. I joined the Vancouver Police Department in 1973 and served for 28 years. The date of my joining is important, as the year before in 1972 a Canadian Parliamentary Committee known as Le Dain concluded that due to the high costs of enforcement and the relatively benign effects of marijuana, that there should be a gradual withdrawal of criminal sanctions over time resulting eventually in legalization of marijuana. All in-depth studies going back to the British India Hemp act of 1895 have come to the same conclusion about marijuana. However, the Canadian Parliament chose to ignore those recommendations.

As I recall, there was little focus on drugs when I went through the Vancouver Police Training Academy. (I did however learn that reasonable force extended to choking a dealer to prevent his swallowing the evidence and that the ponytails favored by so called hippies made a very effective handle to restrain them.) After completing training, I discovered that drug enforcement was mainly left to the individual officer’s discretion. No high level traffickers were ever investigated. Enforcement was done only at the street level. Those, however, who centered their activities on drug enforcement made substantial overtime amounts from court appearances. This policy, however, has never been the policy of the Federal Police, the R.C.M.P. They, unlike municipal departments, receive considerable federal funding to enforce the drug laws and do so enthusiastically.

One individual I worked with during my early years routinely arrested individuals on the basis of a dirty hash pipe or a spoon with enough residual heroin to analyze. It was not unusual to bring in 4 or 5 individuals from a rundown hotel room on the basis of a small baggie of weed. At that time, the hotel clerks would tell us the rooms where they suspected the occupants of drug use and hand us the keys, while we turned a blind eye to the other illegal activities carried out by the hotel managers and staff. (I suspect these hotel managers were probably the largest traffickers in the buildings and, according to more than one source, charged prostitutes a premium for brief hotel stays.) Drug charges in Vancouver often resulted in some officers doubling their wages from the overtime and court time involved. The drawback was that there was less police presence on the streets to handle the ongoing and routine crime of downtown Vancouver.

In 1995, I started the Vancouver Police Anti-Fencing Unit. Addicts tend to concentrate in the low rent districts as do pawnshops that often supply the addicts with money. The dealers are normally right outside the pawnshop doors to complete the equation. The average addict at that time was spending between $100-$200 daily on his or her addiction. Unfortunately, pawnshops normally only pay 10 cents on the dollar; therefore to support their habits, the addicts have to steal $1,000-$2,000 worth of property. The evidence of stolen property in these pawnshops was so rife as to be almost ludicrous. I remember at one time entering a pawnshop when an addict came in with an armload of stolen property from London Drugs. While negotiating with the owner, he was ripping the London Drugs labels off CDs with his teeth while negotiating the price with the pawnbroker, as he had no spare hands to do the job.

There are unfortunately a small percentage of people who through nurture or genetics, always seem to fall to the bottom and are unable to survive without their self-medications. They have no time for treatment as their days are filled with theft to support their addiction, finding a dealer, and after purchasing their drug of choice, never knowing the quality of their purchase. We cannot help these individuals by locking them away. We must not kid ourselves; in jails, drugs are readily available. Generally, the prison system tolerates drugs as they tends to calm the inmates. The substance that the jail staff often fear is actually alcohol, which leads to riots and destruction. I was told by numerous prison guard colleagues that alcohol is so valued by some of the old alcoholics in jail that they will often attempt to import considerable quantities of drugs, just to trade for alcohol, which is much harder to find inside.

As a policeman, I attended many untimely drug related deaths in the downtown eastside area of Vancouver where I spent much of my career. Overdoses of various drugs were very common. No one paid much heed, and most were not too traumatic to me, as relatives were usually far away, often in Northern BC or other Provinces, and it was up to the local RCMP detachments to notify them. That area in Vancouver is the poorest area in Canada according to tax returns and acts as a magnet to those who have run away from home due to abuse, sexual and domestic. Few of them had any local support in Vancouver. These individuals rapidly became involved in the drug culture of the area and many died there. It was impossible to determine if the drug deaths were a result of long-term abuse, mixing too many drug cocktails or the strength of the drug being greater than expected, either by deliberation, such as we hear of with a hot cap, or by accident.

It was only when I attended deaths out of the usual pattern that the reality of the horror really set in. A one time partner of mine lost his 16 year old daughter to a drug overdose. Unfortunately, her dealer did not monitor her slide into abuse. He did not offer her counseling or monitor the purity and strength of the drugs he sold. He was probably an addict himself, dealing to support his habit. The outrage is that he and thousands more are still out there still selling their products, everywhere to our children.

Solutions?

Raw opium increases in price by several decimal places from the poppy fields, to the addicts in North America. Coke is not quite as profitable and the other drugs even less so, but anyone can rapidly rise to enjoy the lifestyle of say a successful surgeon or lawyer with no educational requirements, experience, skills, and very little work required. The only way we can break this cycle, ensure a uniform product, help those who request it, and monitor those who need help is to legalize the product, heavily regulate it, and supply it to those in need.

Why don’t we go out and arrest all drug dealers? We could arrest them all and you know what will happen? There will be fights, stabbings, shootings and deaths, AND tomorrow new dealers will be there to carry on business as usual. When you arrest a drug dealer, the only thing you create is a job opportunity. As an example, there was recently an investigation of an individual planning to blow up a city block in Surrey, BC, in order to rid it of all the drug dealers there. Some may believe that his point of view could be justified. The only problem was that he himself was a dealer and hoped to take over all the business with the others gone.

Ask yourself if heroin or cocaine were legal, would you use them? I wouldn’t. No one who is rational and has aspirations for a meaningful life is going to. In fact, 99% of all people tell us that they wouldn’t. The first drug laws were enacted because 1-3% of the population was believed to be addicted to drugs. By addicted I mean unable to hold meaningful work and behave in a socially responsible way. Today, after countless millions have been arrested and billions of dollars spent, the percentage of addicts is still estimated at between 1 to 3 % of the population.

Let’s take the money from the criminals, reduce property crimes, reduce prostitution, reduce disease, and give our social agencies the funds to really have an impact on society. Above all, let’s give that 1-3% a chance of a real life.