[Sativa]

A retired police captain is touring Maine this month to call for an end to marijuana prohibition.

Peter Christ, who spent 20 years as a captain on the police force in suburban Buffalo, N.Y., is a founding member of LEAP -- Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

He will be speaking at Colby College tonight at 7 p.m. in Room 122 in the new Diamond Building on campus.

The title of the lecture is "War on Drugs? Or War on People?"

The program is sponsored by the Maine Marijuana Policy Initiative.

Christ is a strong advocate of ending drug prohibition in America, according to promotional material. He is in Maine through April 12.

"After three decades of fueling the U.S. War on Drugs with over a trillion tax dollars and increasingly punitive policies," Jonathan Leavitt of the policy initiative said in an e-mail. "Our court system is choked with ever-increasing prosecutions of nonviolent drug violations and our quadrupled prison population has made building prisons this nation's fastest growing industry.

"Drugs are now more potent, more available, and cost even less, than they did 30 years ago. This scenario must be the very definition of a failed policy."

Peter Christ (rhymes with wrist) knows about the war on drugs from several perspectives, according to Leavitt. He retired as a captain after a 20-year career with the Tonawanda, New York Police Department. He says his experiences have shown him the effects of the drug war on the prison population, the minority community, sentencing issues and the judiciary.

Christ's discussions blend facts he says show a failed U.S. policy of a War on Drugs with a Will Rogers type humor and homilies of a down-home philosopher and the practical approach of a police administrator, according to the promotional material.

He also is scheduled to speak at the Waterville Rotary Club and at the University of Maine at Farmington and will be speaking on numerous radio, television, and local cable shows.

Newshawk: CoZmO - 420Magazine.com
Source: Morning Sentinel (ME)
Author: Doug Harlow
Contact: dharlow@centralmaine.com
Copyright: 2006, Blethen Maine Newspapers, Inc.
Website: MaineToday.com | Morning Sentinel