Reason.tv: Five Ways the Drug War Hurts Kids - A Conversation with Neill Franklin of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

Commentators like Bill O'Reilly claim that ending the drug war would lead to more children being abused by drug-addicted parents. But 33-year law enforcement veteran Neill Franklin sees it differently.

"These drugs in an illegal environment are more accessible to our kids," says Franklin, who serves as Executive Director Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, "because we leave complete control, regulation, and standards up to the criminals."

Reason.tv's Ted Balaker sat down with Franklin to discuss how battling drug dealers in Baltimore turned him against the war on drugs and why ending prohibition would improve safety for children, as well as the rest of us.

Approximately 8.2 minutes.

Interview by Ted Balaker. Shot by Alex Manning and Paul Detrick. Edited by Hawk Jensen and Sam Corcos.

Go to Reason.tv for downloadable versions of this and all our videos, and subscribe to Reason.tv's YouTube channel to receive automatic notifications when new material goes live.

Comments

[Apologetic California]

I thought only libtards use the "OMG! Would somebody think of the chillun'", but if it works...

[Tman]

Franklin 2012! This dude is awesome.

[skr]

He's so well spoken.

er, was that racist? lol

[wayne]

clean too.

[Mustaf Herod Apyur Poupr]

and articumulateish...ish...

right???

[mj86]

"These drugs in an illegal environment are more accessible to our kids,"

Absolutely true. When I was underage it was much easier to get pot than alcohol.

[skr]

It's still easier to get pot than alcohol even tough I'm now in my 30s. The pot gets delivered but I actually have to leave my house to get alcohol.

[aix42]

lol... true. Sometimes it has to be delivered, no choice....

[John]

It's not the Fleshlight's fault, really. Just the fact that trying to use the one I ordered for my 34th birthday has rammed home the basic fact that I am a loser and that I am never going to get laid in my life. I am apparently both too small and too big to use the Fleshlight. Small in the PENIS and big in the grossly overweight stomach. The result is that I apparently can't get very deep into the thing and experience the ribbing and other textures. I ordered four inserts at once, three supertights with the three sorts of textures -- wave, ribbed, bumped -- and one ultratight. With all of them I have been having an incredible struggle to find a comfortable position to get in with my enormous stomach to allow for using the thing long enough to get off. I apparently developed a way to masturbate by hand that deluded myself into thinking I was normal. I am obviously not. I can only seem to go about an inch and a half into this Fleshlight before my fat gets in the way and the smallness of my PENIS defeat the purpose. The incredible depression of the experience makes it hard for me to stay erect as the whole time I am thinking about what a deformed, out-of-shape loser I am, so I end up only half hard or less. Today is my 34th birthday. I have never had a girlfriend in my life, due to being a shy fatass with an ugly skin condition that I was afraid of having anyone see by taking my clothes off. I am so incredibly fucking lonely and depressed. I just want to be able to hug a woman, to hold her in my arms. Sex is frankly secondary to me, which is lucky given that I haven't had any except with my own hand. I bought this thing thinking I would treat myself and make myself happier, but it has just driven home how fucked I am. I guess my only hope at this point is to find a woman who doesn't mind me only using oral sex on her because my PENIS obviously doesn't work very well.

[wayne]

John, this doesn't read like one of your normal posts.

[toxic]

That is the longest, grossest piece of impersonation I've ever read. Well done.

[Tim]

It's not funny. Lacks subtlety-like a Will Ferrel sketch.

[Marshall Gill]

Apparently someone has been getting their ass kicked by John and were left with the only resort of bad spoofing.

[DesigNate]

+10

[ObaMao]

This is how you save the children from drugs. Oh, yes. Our patriotic children will support the administering of capital punishment to their parents, including the extraction of organs, after death, sometimes during, for our Great Leader and his friends.

Americans do have style, I admit.

Shooting the family dog in front of children is also effective, as a deterrent.

[T]

I can watch vimeo while I'm goofing off at work, but my slightly clever IT people have blocked the youtubes. Use vimeo more, plz. Kthxbai.

Also know as: you're being inconvenient to me, so please change.

[A is Awesome]

Vimeo sucks

[Edwin]

"These drugs in an illegal environment are more accessible to our kids"

No shit.

My problem is a lot of libertarians are libertines. These guys would also want it legal to sell to kids, and/or using drugs not to be a factor in whether a parent is unfit to be a parent, etc. Issues which are legitimately involved with protecting people's rights

Not all libertarians. Just a lot, too many for my taste

[Citizen Nothing]

I have a bigger problem with idiots as parents than with pot smokers as parents. (Edwin, I'm lookin' at you.)

[pernnial American teenager]

I have a bigger problem with idiots as parents

Me too!

[normcash]

I never encountered a libertine and I am not sure I would know one if I did. I have never heard a libertarian advocate anything in regards to minors other than to standardize the age of "adulthood".My views regarding freedom extend only to freely choosing adults and I believe the vast majority of libertarians concur. In regards to parenting I guess I just don't know what you are getting at. Substance abuse interfering in parenting is probably a factor when these issues come before the courts, but that should not be confused with substance use.

[skr]

oh you'd probably know it if you ever actually met a true Scotsman Libertine

[DesigNate]

Since children cannot legally enter into a contract without the consent of their legal guardian, I have a feeling most libertarians would not advocate selling/using to children.
Please don't confuse pot heads and libertarians.
Also, substance use is different than substance abuse. A mother who tokes (occasionally) isn't any worse than a mother who drinks (occasionally).

[stoner]

Please don't confuse pot heads

Yeah, we're confused enough already, like, thankyouverymuch. Yo.

[DownsizeDC]

Let's never forget that the "War on Drugs" is really a War on Some Drugs. Politicians and bureaucrats have no more knowledge and insight to decide which drugs are good and which ones are dangerous/immoral, than they are qualified to manage the environment or the economy.

The real purpose of the War on Drugs is to enrich some people at the expense of everyone else - by protecting corporate pain and anti-depressant medications from competition.

[skr]

That's right. The current government has no problem selling certain drugs to children.

[Fiscal Meth]

In order to win the war on obesity, it may become necessary to give kids a little coke.

[A is Awesome]

The new Amy Whinehouse diet, works better than anything, and makes you look H-A-W-T, Hawt!

[Stephen]

Finally, a cop who doesn't act like a fascist fuckwad.

I like how he brought up Portugal's emphasis on treatment of addicts rather than concentrate on drug law enforcement. Drug addiction is the only disease we treat with SWAT teams, aka "poodle shooters."

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[Tom]

The age of consent is entirely arbitrary.

Why is it okay to kidnap someone and put them in a cage for voluntarily purchasing a product one day and not the next?

[soupwell]

That is the most reasonable, well spoken cop I think I've ever seen.

I didn't know they came in that variety. How did he possibly make it more than a week as a LEO?

[nicole]

I'm underage, and the people at my school rarely drink. When someone's drunk it's a concern, sort of a "did you hear? So-and-so drank x amount of alcohol. What's up with them?"

And then people stumbling into class stoned is a daily occurrence. It's so simple to get pot.

[Politically Homeless]

The war on drugs is the real quagmire. Prohibition is not only illiberal, it's immoral.

[Scarpe Nike]

is good