Police veterans urge new approach to war on drugs
Galax Police Chief Rick Clark Jr. has been in law enforcement for about 40 years, long enough to make observations about effective crime-fighting policies.
Locking up drug addicts is one policy that has not worked out so well, said Clark, who is serving on the Governor’s Task Force on Prescription Drug and Heroin Abuse that met Tuesday in Richmond.Clark said he is seeing children and grandchildren of people he arrested years ago in his Southwest Virginia city get arrested and prosecuted for the same sort of drug offenses their parents did.
“We’ve been a dismal failure. We’ve missed the mark,” Clark said.
“I don’t think we can throw money at it. Obviously we have not arrested our way out of this,” Clark said, repeating the sentiment of Virginia Beach Police Chief James Cervera, who is also a member of the 32-member task force.
“We had a war on drugs. We’ve lost miserably,” Cervera said. “That’s the best I can tell you.”
http://www.richmond.com/life/health/article_6f55fe57-86b2-545d-905f-a12c50c996c1.html
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