NM County Fair had LEAP speaker

[kenichol]

Our Peace & Justice of La Luz non-profit had a booth at the county fair this year. We invited a speaker from LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition to open a discussion about the results of the current 'War on Drugs' policy and their suggestion to legalize all drugs, taxing & regulating them much like alcohol and cigarettes. Very interesting. A half-dozen either didn't want to hear or accused us of 'wanting everybody on drugs, with the streets lined with people passed out on drugs' but many others engaged in a very civil discussion and changed their minds entirely. Many expressed how alone they'd felt for believing the same way and how grateful that we are bringing the discussion to our community.

(see the rest of our local newspaper's article on http://pajoll.org/):
"Drug warriors from across the country are banding together to ask people to support the legalization of drugs.

Judges, prosecutors, prison wardens, corrections staff and police officers have organized to educate the public about the damage and cost of the war against illegal drugs.

The premise of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, or LEAP, is the war on drugs cannot be won and the benefit of regulating, taxing and controlling these substances far outweighs the cost in tax dollars and human lives trying to suppress them..."


Consider it!
Check out LEAP http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php

[brewens]

1. "streets lined with people passed out on drugs"

Yeah right! I've lived in a community of about 50 thousand most of my life. I used to drink and smoke pot competitively.
I can honestly say the only drug I've ever seen anyone overdose on is alchohol. I'm calling puking or passing out an O.D.
I go out my my way to refer to alchohol as a drug to piss of alchoholic red neck types. At our local Eagles lodge if someone offers to buy me a drink I'll say, "no thanks, I don't do heavy drugs." They really hate that. I also call alchoholics alchohol junkies.

[Bobbieo]

2. Consider yourself a very lucky person to have never seen someone overdose on illegal drugs..

It is not pretty - believe me!!!

[Warpy]

4. I've seen it

and no, it's not pretty.

It's not as nasty or dangerous as an OD on alcohol is, though.

Face it, the worst two drugs are legal. Even bad drugs like meth are pretty self limiting since meth heads serve as a warning to other people to stay away from that stuff.

[Warpy]

3. That's great

I hope they repeat the performance at the state fair up here in the big city next week.

Gary Johnson broached the subject a couple of times when he was governor, something that earned him my respect. It took balls to do that while he was still in office.

Richardson, alas, seems not to have thought about it a whole lot, accepting the DEA balderdash as fact.

[kenichol]

5. So it is up to us to push our elected representatives

It is up to us to let ALL of our reps know we don't want to continue to current war on drugs policies. I challenge the other 32 counties to try doing the same at a county fair or their county health council (our next 'venue'. We have talked to Teague, Udall and NM State Rep's Gloria Vaughn, Zach Cook (both Republicans we lobbied for 'treatment vs incarceration) and Nate Cote (amazingly wonderful man).