Marijuana Policy Project

PRINCETON BOROUGH—After 26 years with the New Jersey State Police, 12 of them as an undercover narcotics cop, retired police officer Jack Cole is certain about one thing—the war on drugs is a "dismal, colossal failure" and the only way to properly wage it is to legalize street drugs.

Cole, the founder of the national organization Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), appeared at a student-sponsored lecture at Princeton University last week, urging that students push for legalizing drugs as the best way to combat the violence and abuse surrounding illegal drugs.

"We in the law enforcement profession didn't come to this position easily," said Cole, who said 3,000 of his three-year-old organization's members are police officers from across the country.

"All of us spent our entire lives trying to fight the drug war. Despite what we did, drugs are cheaper, more potent and far easier for children to get now than they were at the beginning of this war. Now that's a failed policy any way you look at it.

"We are being absolutely inundated with high-quality, hard-core drugs and there is no way to stop it with the policy we have now," he said.

Cole said minimum-sentence laws for drug offenses—which puts nonviolent, first-time offenders in jail—has ruined countless young lives but done nothing to eliminate the larger problem.

Cole's organization wants street drugs legalized so they can be government regulated.

He also wants the government to dispense free "maintenance" doses of drugs to any adults who request them. The billions of dollars spent each year in fighting the war on drugs could be plowed back into rehabilitation programs, he said.

Cole said he began fighting drugs because he "hates drug abuse" and still does. But he has changed his mind abut how to fight the problem.

The university's Students for a Sensible Drug Policy invited Cole to appear. Also in the audience were members of the Coalition for Medical Marijuana in New Jersey.

"His logic is inescapable," said Coalition member Ed Hannaman of Ewing. "But it's a big step. I don't know if the country is ready for it."

Cole retired with the rank of detective lieutenant.

He said he spent two of his final years as a police officer in Boston posing as a fugitive drug dealer wanted for murder.

Referring to regulation of alcohol sales, Cole said, "When was the last time you saw two Budweiser distributors shooting each other? If there is no profit motive for distribution, there are no crimes committed to obtain drugs. Legalize them and you can control them."