Via LEAP’s blog is this video from a press conference held by Police Chief George Gascon of San Francisco.
The press conference was about shutting down illegal marijuana grow operations, but someone actually asked him whether legalization might be an answer to some of our problems, and he noted:
Obviously, it’s speculation… we can go back to the days of prohibition — you know, when alcohol was prohibited — people found ways to deal with the manufacturing and production of alcohol and a lot of violence came as a result of that. Alcohol was legalized; some of that went away. It’s hard to tell.
Could you have imagined an active police chief answering in that way 10 years ago?
LOL no comment needed here lol.
Hard to tell? Guess it’s a crack but certainly there’s tons of information on why prohibition doesn’t work… just pick up any libertarian rag and keep following the alcohol analogy… including parity between home brewing & home growing… don’t want to wait 40 yrs like the homebrewers did… let’s get it right the first time. Parity with alcohol is a great place to be compared to where we’ve been. Cops tend to be ‘slightly’ to ‘hard right’ republican which gave up defending our founders principles of personal liberty and freedom a long time ago in favor of moral opinions & control. But you don’t need me to tell you what’s wrong with the drug war. Perhaps the chief could benefit from reading Norm Stampers book ‘Breaking Rank’… I did. The chief might have to wait and see how many knives are in his back by the end of tomorrow? Good luck and thanks LEAP. Curious how LEAP feels about former fellow narcotics officer Barry Cooper over at nevergetbusted and kopbusters? He’s thinking about running for texas attorney general… would they help a former LEA brother out… do they have clout in texas where everything including the crime can seem bigger? I’ve bounced the idea off Jim Hightower on facebook [waiting to hear back?] because he’s texan and hates the ‘sick neanderthal…… drug war” too. Free Yolanda Madden!
The inescapable realization is approaching, and it’s nothing the ‘drug worriers’, as DdC calls them, can avoid.
The time is fast approaching when it becomes obvious to the dimmest bulb in the public’s box that the DrugWar is a financial drain that can no longer be supported. Trying to ‘crack down’ on illicit drug producers has always been a game of slashing at Hydra heads: cut one off, and two, three, four or more grow back. Meanwhile the treasury bleeds red ink while the growers laugh all the way to the bank.
So, I am not surprised some sitting police chief has publicly stated the screamingly obvious. Somebody had to start…
It’s San Francisco. They voted 80% in favor of medical MJ. Everyone around him thinks it should be legal. At some point, numbers like that finally sink into politician’s heads and they see the light.
If he wants to keep his job, it would be stupid to directly challenge and insult the public with drug war lies.
“A lot of that went away” after alcohol was re-legalized.
Shouldn’t he have said, “ALL of that went away…”?
Just asking
There’s a very good post on the SF Weekly’s blog related to this.