IF YOU GOWhat: Law Enforcement Against ProhibitionWhen: Today, 6-8 p.m.Where: Maxwell AuditoriumHow much: Free

Peter Christ worked for 20 years fighting the drug war as a uniformed police officer. He arrested hundreds of drug users, busted countless deals and, in the end, said it did more harm than good.

‘No matter how many drug arrests we made, nothing on the street ever changed. It was a pointless endeavor,’ Christ said. ‘Every time we made a drug arrest I said, ‘I’ll do it. I took an oath. But this is not my job.”

Christ, a retired police captain turned activist, co-founded Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a group of former and current law enforcement officers that advocate for the legalization of drugs, in 2002. They modeled the group after Vietnam Veterans Against the War, a national organization that fights for the rights of war veterans.

He will speak Thursday at Syracuse University’s Maxwell Auditorium from 6-8 p.m. addressing what he calls two different major issues – the use and abuse of drugs and a drug policy that fuels gang violence. The solution, he said, is to legalize drugs.

‘We need to change the policy to a regulated and controlled marketplace and take these drugs out of the hands of gangsters and thugs and put them in the hands of registered pharmacists or professionals,’ Christ said.

Devon Stewart, a junior film major, invited Christ to speak at SU. Stewart founded SU’s Students for Sensible Drug Policy chapter last spring.

‘I think it’s going to be one of the first times that you’re going to be hearing a totally honest first-person opinion on why the drug laws in America don’t work,’ Stewart said.

He personally supports Christ’s vision for drug legalization, he said. Despite a wealth of criticism, Stewart said Christ’s opinion is one worth considering.

‘While it’s something that seems to almost encourage drug use, it’s the safer way to kind of regulate our society,’ Stewart said. ‘You saw with alcohol prohibition in the 30s, people are going to do what they want to do, and there’s no reason to throw nonviolent people into jails.’

A major benefit to the proposal, Stewart said, is that by de-funding the illegal drug market, more money can go into helping to fight drug addictions.

Stewart also said he sees hypocrisy in a government that picks and chooses which drugs are legal.

‘I don’t think the government can decide to make some things like Adderall and Vanex and Vicodin legal, and then others not. I don’t think that’s any way to run your country, to tell citizens that one substance is better than another,’ he said.

For Stewart, the path to drug policy activism began his freshman year, after an incident that he calls a personal injustice.

While driving with some friends through downtown Syracuse, his friend who was driving became agitated with one of the guys in the backseat. The driver kicked the guy in the back out of the car, and a nearby police officer pulled over to inquire about the incident.

The cop mistook the scene he’d just witnessed for a drug deal, Stewart said. He thought the boys had just engaged in a drug handoff and that the person they had kicked out was their dealer. The cop called over a man who happened to be standing on the side of the street and asked if this was the ‘dealer’ who was in the car with them.

‘We weren’t smoking; we didn’t have any weed in the car,’ Stewart said. ‘The way we were treated was just ridiculous.’

Much of what Christ will address has to do with law enforcement policies and how they affect and sometimes unfairly target minority communities.

While Christ takes on a national issue, Stewart is concentrating on a policy closer to home. He wants to make SU’s drug and alcohol amnesty policy more concrete and more inclusive of drug infractions.

Both Christ and Stewart have their critics, but they say their first mission is to educate and get different viewpoints out there.

‘They can come whether they want to applaud or throw stones,’ Christ said of his lecture tomorrow, ‘but everyone should hear this.’

jmterrus@syr.edu

Published on November 18, 2009 at 12:00 pm