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Stop the violence: the case against pot prohibition in B.C.

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Fri, 02/03/2012 - 6:27pm

BY EVAN WOOD AND DAVID BRATZER, SPECIAL TO THE SUN

The front lines of the War on Drugs in British Columbia are not for the faint of heart. As an internal medicine specialist and a police officer who has spent much of his career at the forefront of anti-drug enforcement efforts, we’ve witnessed the bloody aftermath of shootings, stabbings and other violent confrontations that are common in B.C.’s drug trade. Read more »

Victoria cop David Bratzer targets war on drugs with school board candidacy

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Fri, 09/16/2011 - 12:03pm

By Carlito Pablo, Georgia Straight

A Victoria police officer who believes that the war on drugs is a bad trip is taking a break from his duties as a cop.

David Bratzer is stepping out of uniform for a while because he’s running for a seat on the school board of Greater Victoria.

A member of the international group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Bratzer launched his election campaign on September 15.

His campaign theme: “Schools Not Prisons.”

Bratzer’s news release reads in part: Read more »

School Board Candidate Launches “Schools Not Prisons” Campaign

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 09/15/2011 - 6:39pm

 

Victoria, BC - Today, David Bratzer officially launched his campaign for school board trustee of District 61 (Greater Victoria). His campaign theme is “Schools Not Prisons.” It recognizes education as a major factor in determining whether a young person ends up in jail.

David Bratzer has served Esquimalt and Victoria as a police officer for the past six years. In 2006, he graduated as class valedictorian and top academic student from the Police Academy at the Justice Institute of BC. In 2008, he became one of the first officers in North America to call for an end to the failed War on Drugs. In 2009 and 2010, he testified against “tough on crime” bills in Ottawa before the Senate Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs. Read more »

Illegal marijuana leads people to use cocaine instead

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 01/20/2011 - 1:00am
BY TONY SMITH, VANCOUVER SUN
 
Today many people believe that marijuana should be legalized, and among those who disagree, the majority believe it is the least harmful of the illegal drugs.
 
Marijuana is the most easily detected drug by far, it gives itself away by its smell, which is universally recognized. It is that factor that causes the more susceptible to use cocaine rather than marijuana.
 
Consider a bar or coffee shop, where pot smokers join the other smokers outside, in the toilets, or in other designated smoking areas they are strongly discouraged and probably asked to leave.

Mitchel Raphael on politicians and drugs, plus the metalhead MP

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Tue, 12/14/2010 - 3:48pm
By Mitchel Raphael, Macleans
 
A Tory’s take on the drug war
 
NDP MP Libby Davies spearheaded, and MPs from all parties co-hosted, what was billed as an Expert Panel on Drug Policy Reform. All panellists agreed the war on drugs has been a huge disaster and a waste of money. Portuguese Ambassador Pedro Moitinho de Almeida spoke of his country’s success with decriminalizing drugs. Conservative MP and host Scott Reid noted that Prohibition killed his great-grandfather, who drank alcohol that was distilled improperly. Reid also remarked on the similar effects cocaine and caffeine have on the brain, yet with caffeine we “developed commercial products, regulations and a free environment.” Reid confessed he’s never taken illegal drugs or even smoked tobacco. (He does, however, host an annual beer tasting party, one of the most popular events on the Hill.) He declared he was “perplexed” by “hypocrites who used cocaine themselves, like Barack Obama, and then [allow] someone else to go to prison for life” for doing the same thing. Reid’s guest Pierre Lemieux, an economist with the Université du Québec en Outaouais, stressed that casualties of the drug war include civil liberties: the state now has licence to invade citizens’ privacy. This, Lemieux said in his speech, is inconsistent with a free society. He added that as governments continue to go bankrupt, the time may be ripe to end the wasteful war on drugs. This meeting took place as the Conservatives push on with Bill S-10, which toughens drug sentencing rules. Read more »

New view in war on drugs

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 11/04/2010 - 10:16am
By Darrell Bellaart, The Daily News
 
It's refreshing to hear a police officer speaking publicly against Canada's drug laws.
 
The police officer is David Bratzer. A beat cop in downtown Victoria, every day he sees the effects of the so-called war on drugs: A skyrocketing crime problem propped up by an army of down-and-out addicts who smoke, snort and inject every spare dollar they can get.
 
When he's not working as a police officer, Bratzer speaks publicly for a group calling itself Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.
 
It was formed in 2002 by five police officers who, in a career of crime-fighting were frustrated with what they considered a failed international policy to tell young people to just say no to drugs.

Officer calls for truce in drug war

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Tue, 11/02/2010 - 12:34pm
By Darrell Bellaart, Daily News
 
Millions of taxpayer dollars are being wasted supporting a losing war on drugs, an off-duty Victoria City Police officer told Vancouver Island University criminology students this week.
 
Joanne Simister, VIU criminology department chairwoman, invited David Bratzer to speak to second-year students about why making drugs illegal only feeds organized crime, creating a costly vicious cycle with a heavy social price.
 
Bratzer told students preparing for jobs as crime-fighters that he supported the war on drugs "100%" before becoming a Victoria beat cop.
 
He changed his tune after carefully studying the evidence gathered by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

On the street, you can see the harm caused by drug laws

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 07/29/2010 - 10:57am
By David Bratzer, Ottawa Citizen Special
 
Like many other police officers, I have witnessed the tragedy of the HIV epidemic first hand. It is one thing to read the statistics demonstrating the connection between illicit drug use and HIV; it is another matter entirely to patrol the streets, day in and day out, repeatedly arresting men and women infected with the HIV virus.
 
Our country has one of the finest health-care systems in the world, but our laws surrounding drug use result in unnecessary disease and death.
 
In this context, the recent announcement of the Vienna Declaration has bolstered my conviction that drug prohibition is a national policy failure.

Ex-Vancouver police officer Tony Smith applauds rebuke of war on drugs

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 07/22/2010 - 12:19pm
By Carlito Pablo, Georgia Straight
 
A former police officer has said a call by the XVIII International AIDS Conference to end the global war on drugs is a major step toward saving lives around the world.
 
Tony Smith, a retired 28-year veteran of the Vancouver Police Department, was referring to the Vienna Declaration, the official statement coming out of this year’s biennial meeting of HIV/AIDS experts, which wraps up in Austria on Friday (July 23).
 
Smith is a spokesperson for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an international group of current and former police officers and members of the legal community that advocates for the decriminalization of drugs.

Complaint lodged over local officer's gag order

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 03/04/2010 - 11:45am
By Louise Dickson, Times Colonist
 
The B.C. Civil Liberties Association has filed a complaint with the Victoria Police Board after Chief Jamie Graham ordered one of his officers not to speak at a local drug forum.
 
Const. David Bratzer, who does public speaking on behalf of the U.S.-based non-profit organization Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, known as LEAP, was asked to join a panel of speakers at a City of Victoria harm-reduction forum last evening, attended by about 120 people.
 
Read more »
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