Having served 21 years with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, seven years before that as an officer in local law enforcement and now serving as your Sheriff, I have had the unfortunate experience of seeing, first hand, the death and destruction illicit drugs have on society - from the local users whose lives are thoroughly destroyed, to countries that prey on the vulnerable to boost their economies. Drugs take lives, ruin families, and destroy careers. Drug distributors live in a world of greed, and profit obscenely at the expense of others. That is why I find Mr. John Flannery’s Guest Opinion, “Mind if I Search Your Car for Drugs,” in the June 20 Loudoun Times Mirror, particularly disturbing.
For someone who claims to have made an early career in prosecuting drug traffickers, Mr. Flannery makes many inaccurate claims. He attempts to tie in his point about legalizing drugs to improper or illegal traffic stops conducted by local police and deputies. He infers that African Americans and Hispanics are disproportionately stopped, that police position themselves at bars and make excuses to falsely stop vehicles, and that police are taught to lie in order to conduct illegal searches. He then makes a leap from these unsubstantiated claims to an excuse for drug legalization, the true purpose of his editorial.
Mr. Flannery fails to note that marijuana is an illegal Schedule I drug. He knows that, his children know that, and children’s friends know that. He completely fails to address a fact he missed: Anyone foolish enough to possess marijuana or any other illicit drug – especially in a public venue, have only themselves to blame if they get arrested. Whether it is drugs or alcohol, I would rather see individuals behind the wheel of a vehicle off the street than endangering the innocent lives of others. Simply put, if you don’t want to be arrested for having drugs in your car – don’t have drugs in your car.
Mr. Flannery then makes an unconscionable and direct public attack on the integrity of our law enforcement professionals stating that we are trained to lie. Having served as and with officers throughout this country for three decades, I have not met any officers who have ever done this. It is possible, however, that a rogue officer could, just as an attorney could make false claims in a court of law.
As for professionalism, I can tell you that I heard compliments throughout Loudoun County during my campaign on how professional our deputies (with very few exceptions) handled situations. Since I have been in office, I have met with all of our deputies and relayed my expectations for professionalism. In fact, I have re-written our mission statement based on the goals of my Step Up strategy – to improve Service, Technology, Efficiency, and Professionalism. I feel we have made many gains already. However, if Mr. Flannery has any direct information or evidence that shows that our deputies are disproportionately stopping minorities or acting impolitely or unprofessionally, I would like to know about that, and I will personally address that issue.
I am happy that our deputies are attentive enough to notice anomalies beyond their simple traffic stop. I am glad to see that they are enforcing the law and keeping our citizens safe. Maybe our deputies encountering and acting upon a situation early will stop someone with an evolving drug problem from a lifetime of misery and despair.
I am also happy that our Sheriff’s Office Adult Detention Center is working hand-in-hand with outreach programs from substance abuse to mental health to help find ways to provide avenues of opportunity to those who weren’t caught in time. We are trying to do things right, and find alternative solutions so that we don’t handle the same situations repeatedly.
Finally, there is a reason that marijuana is a Schedule I drug. It has little medical use and a high potential for abuse. Inhaling carcinogens far in excess of those contained in cigarettes is certainly not a safe way of ingesting drugs. Marijuana can also act as a gateway to other drugs. As a prosecutor, Mr. Flannery should know that most everyone who uses harder drugs like methamphetamine, heroin and cocaine started by using marijuana.
The use of illicit drugs does nobody any good – except for those profiting from their sale. Instead of looking for excuses to justify unacceptable behavior, Mr. Flannery should look for ways to encourage good behavior.
Mike Chapman is Sheriff of Loudoun County
Let’s remember that law enforcement is just that, enforcing the law. I may not agree with the law but I have to abide by it. For example, I do not think I must place my child in a car seat, however, the says it’s required so I follow the law.
The real change comes when those we elect stand up for the people they represent. We must write, e-mail, or call our elected officials to let them know how we want them to vote on a given issue.
There is a false-correlation inherent in your argument Sheriff.
Marijuana is called a gateway drug because of mainly two reasons. 1) A large percentage of the population at one time uses it, 2) it also is illegal.
These two points matter for the following reasons. Take two innocuous things like gum or penicillin. I can take a study that shows an extremely high percentage of crack, heroin, or meth addicts have used those items, and prior to their addiction. Does that make gum or penicillin a gateway product/drug?
Point 2, if things are illegal you have to go to the black market. Think of things you buy together at Wal-Mart. You may come in for toilet paper but you leave with a DVD as well. You purchased the DVD because it was on the market at the same place as your Charmin was. By making marijuana illegal you are sending customers to the black market where other drugs are sold too. If marijuana could be regulated and sold at approved dispensaries then people would not be buying cocaine, acid, shrooms, and heroin from the same place.
Marijuana is not an addictive substance the same way that cocaine, heroin, alcohol, and nicotine are. Yes, there can be problems if abused - but all the other drugs have even more serious problems to yourself and others from abuse.
And finally lets look at one of the main reasons why marijuana became illegal and still is. One of the early lobbies were a conglomerate of big industries comprising of alcohol, tobacco, and paper. They all had separate but equally important reasons for trying to legislate the criminalization of marijuana and hemp. Marijuana is competition to alcohol and tobacco but hemp is also competition to the paper industry. By colluding together they made an agricultural product illegal and were able to secure higher profits. Those industries are still happy for that, and so are the violent drug cartels in Mexico, Central America, South America, and South Asia.
In conclusion, I have to say I should have known better Sheriff Chapman when I voted for you. You had a career in the DEA and marijuana helped justify your job. I see now that you still look at law enforcement the same way - fighting a needless and ending war on marijuana. And its costing all of us money.
____
“You can’t call this a war on drugs.”
“Why not?”
“Wars end.”
- The Wire
We have an expectation of privacy. Our cars are an extension of our houses and we expect the same privacy the constitution gives to our homes to apply to cars. Unfortunately the SCOTUS is slow to extend basic freedoms to activity in automobiles. We also should have the right to self medicate. When government tells us what drugs we must take and those we cannot take we have lost the freedom to manage our own healthcare.
“Whether it is drugs or alcohol, I would rather see individuals behind the wheel of a vehicle off the street than endangering the innocent lives of others.”
First off, there is nothing illegal about drinking and driving. The only thing illegal is driving while impaired or intoxicated. Perhaps you should inform you officers Chapman.
“Mr. Flannery then makes an unconscionable and direct public attack on the integrity of our law enforcement professionals stating that we are trained to lie.”
They ARE trained to draw out a confession from you at the scene. A good video for all teenagers is this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc
Mr. Chapman, what do you and your officers have against the 5th Amendment?
Most telling of all:
“Maybe our deputies encountering and acting upon a situation early will stop someone with an evolving drug problem from a lifetime of misery and despair.”
Sorry, Mr. Chapman, but this is most assuredly NOT YOUR JOB!!
You fail to address the fact that pot should not be an illegal drug. It has no more ill effect on society than smoking or drinking, in fact far more violence is linked to drinking which is legal than pot which is not.
Also you fail to learn from history that when people want to do something they will. We made drinking illegal and like pot today a violent black market sprang up and common citizens just ignored prohibition.
Lets not even get started on the trail of innocent bodies left behind by law enforcement due to mistakes with no knock warrants; bodies both human and canine.
The war on pot is a waste of money and totally unnecessary. So many other nations have figured it out and have no ill side effects from legalizing it; time we caught up.
Lastly let me state the obvious, pot is not a gateway drug, that myth is well debunked, and it is not like the hard drugs out there like meth, PCP, crack, etc.
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