Drugs and Cops


Peter Moskos says we should legalize drugs to save cops' lives.

The former policeman, now a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, explained to me on KTRS/St. Louis that when law enforcement responds to a report of someone selling drugs on a street corner, they might arrest the low-level guy, but the bigger dealer just moves away and sets up somewhere else. Meanwhile, the cop's life is at risk, and we lose far too many of them in our failed War On Drugs.

Moskos argues that the federal government should get completely out of the business of policing drug use, instead turning to regulating and taxing it, as it does with cigarettes and alcohol. That would allow police to concentrate on deterring other crime, and stop filling up our prisons with so many drug users.

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