Rethinking the War on Drugs - A Public Forum

28th August 2006

The Irish Penal Reform Trust (IPRT), Merchants Quay Ireland and the Union for Improved Services, Communication and Education (UISCE) present a free public forum entitled "Rethinking the War on Drugs" on Monday 28th August.

Our main speaker will be Jerry Cameron. A seventeen-year police veteran, Mr. Cameron is a former U.S. Chief of Police as well as a former full time faculty member of the Institute of Police Technology and Management at the University of North Florida where he taught drug interdiction. Toward the end of his career, he began to question the efficacy as well as the morality of the war on drugs, eventually coming to the conclusion that it was a not only a total failure but that it was causing tremendous damage to society.

Today Mr. Cameron is a spokesperson for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), a North American group made up of current and former members of law enforcement who believe the existing drug policies have failed in their intended goals of addressing the problems of crime, drug use, addiction, juvenile drug use, stopping the flow of illegal drugs  and the internal sale and use of illegal drugs. By fighting a war on drugs, LEAP believes, governments increase the problems of society and made them far worse.

Also speaking at Rethinking the War on Drugs will be

• Rick Lines, Executive Director of the IPRT
• Ruardhri McAuliffe, Coordinator of UISCE
  
• The panel will be chaired by Tony Geoghegan, Director of Merchants Quay Ireland

This free public lecture will be held at

Merchants Quay Ireland

4 Merchants Quay, Dublin 8

Registration, tea and coffee will begin at 9:30 and the event will start promptly at 10:30 and finish around 12noon.

For more information, or to pre-register, contact info@iprt.ie