The war on drugs has failed- Norm Stamper has a solution

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The war on drugs has failed- Norm Stamper has a solution

Norm Stamper NORM Stamper, Ph.D, was a police officer for 34 years. He served as chief of the Seattle Police Department from 1998 to 2000. He also served as executive director of Mayor Pete Wilson's Crime Control Commission for three years.

Mr Stamper is a major proponent of significant drug law reform believing the "war on drugs" has actually been a war on people. He is one of the strongest voices in the US advocating legalisation of illicit drugs. Norm will be in Australia in October outlining his views on drug law reform. These include:

• Regulated legalisation of all drugs would make our neighbourhoods, and our citizens, safer and healthier

• The "war on drugs" has failed and turned into a war on people costing thousands of lives and costing the US $69 billion per year

• Sharing his approach as chief of the Seattle Police Department where several programs were set up creating new bureaus of Professional Responsibility, Community Policing and Family and Youth Protection. Within months his agency had formed one of the country's best responses to domestic violence

• An examination of the failed approach in the US with billions of dollars being wasted on federal, state and local police, courts, prosecutors, prisons, probation, parole and other punishment-related programs

• His role as an advisor to Law Enforcement Against Prohibition. LEAP is a drug law reform organisation comprising former and current police officers, US government agents and other law enforcement agents who oppose the war on drugs.

LEAP believes legalised regulation it the only ethical and efficient way to undo the damage caused by the war on drugs. ADLRF Norm Stamper's visit is sponsored by the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation (ADLRF). The ADLRF is an incorporated non-profit organisation which promotes open debate on drug policy and provides information on alternatives which reduce the harm, social costs and personal tragedies caused by illicit drug use.

It exists to encourage a more rational, tolerant and humanitarian approach to the problems created by drugs and drug use in Australia. The primary objectives of the ADLRF include the urgent adoption of drug policies based on strategies of harm minimisation throughout Australia.

The ADLRF believes that changing public opinion will require a sustained campaign to correct much of the misinformation which persists on drug issues.

This text was a press-release for Norm Stamper's up coming tour of Australia; to see him lecture click view for tour dates and more information

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