Jan
26
2010
Former Law Enforcement Against Prohibition member Bradley Jardis has been removed from the organization due to his public stance that he would no longer arrest medical marijuana patients. Here is his announcement:
Hello everyone.
- Bradley
As you all know, I have been cleared for duty and will be reporting back shortly. I have been re-reading the NH Constitution carefully so that when I return I am well versed.
I have come to a conclusion in reading the document I am sworn to defend: It is unconstitutional for the state to take action against a sick person who decides to use Marijuana to treat a medical condition.
I will never arrest a person who possesses, uses, grows marijuana to treat a medical condition……. and neither should any other NH LEO who intends follow his or her oath. I won’t even take it from them.
Legal argument in support of my declaration (quite simple):
-/-
1. Short of fellating the entire NH General Court and the Governor, political activists in this state have done everything to present FACTUAL evidence to support allowing sick people to use a natural substance to ease suffering. I personally have begged the General Court to not make me arrest sick people.
2. Chief DEA Administrative Law Judge Francis Young ruled in 1988:
“Marijuana, in its natural form, is one of the safest therapeutically active substances known. It would be unreasonable, arbitrary, and capricious for the DEA to continue to stand between those sufferers and the benefits of the substance.”
3. Fourteen other states (and DC) allow the sick and dying to use Marijuana as medicine to alleviate suffering.
4. Article 10 of the NH Constitution reads as follows:
Quote
[Art.] 10. [Right of Revolution.] Government being instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security, of the whole community, and not for the private interest or emolument of any one man, family, or class of men; therefore, whenever the ends of government are perverted, and public liberty manifestly endangered, and all other means of redress are ineffectual, the people may, and of right ought to reform the old, or establish a new government. The doctrine of nonresistance against arbitrary power, and oppression, is absurd, slavish, and destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.5. Government prosecuting a sick person for using a scientifically proven safe substance does not “benefit,” or “protect(…),” any community.
6. Government prosecuting a sick person for using a scientifically proven safe substance IS in-fact the emolument of a class of men: pharmaceutical companies. This is proven by evidence of pharmaceutical companies fighting against medical Marijuana laws. You cant grow Oxycontin in your living room, now can you?
7. A sick person continuing to suffer because a state law forbids them to use a scientifically proven safe therapeutic substance IS “absurd.”
8. A sick person continuing to suffer because a state law forbids them to use a scientifically proven safe therapeutic substance IS “slavish.”
9. A sick person continuing to suffer because a state law forbids them to use a scientifically proven safe therapeutic substance IS “destructive of the good and happiness of mankind.”
-/-
Conclusion: I won’t do it. Ever. Take your unconstitutional law and stuff it.
You know who I am, you know where I work, and I am not afraid of any of you. My word, my oath, is to the people: not the tyrants who want them to suffer.
Upon hearing of Brad’s decision, Executive Director Jack Cole sent this letter to Brad informing him that he was no longer to refer to himself as a member or spokesperson for LEAP.
Dear Bradley Jardis,
I have tried but am unable to reach you by telephone.
It has come to LEAP’s attention from the below blog entry, that you have chosen to violate the oath you took on joining the police department; to enforce all the laws of the federal and state governments in which your police department has jurisdiction. And worse, you are calling on other law enforcement officials to violate their oaths of office.
This is the opposite of what LEAP requires of our representatives. We have always said that we will in no way ask that any law enforcer decline to do his or her duty by refusing to enforce the laws as they are currently recorded. That would be unethical and wrong. What we do call on them for is take action on their off-duty time to help us change those laws.
Because you have so blatantly stepped over that line, your actions have caused people to lose respect for our organization, which leads to a loss of our credibility within the public, the media and the policymakers; the very people whom we are trying to convince to change these laws.
The Executive Board of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition was made aware of your actions in their January 22, 2010 Board meeting. They were unanimous in their decision that you must no longer represent Law Enforcement Against Prohibition while espousing this belief.
As Executive Director of LEAP, I therefore am notifying you that, effectively immediately, you are to stop referring to yourself as a speaker for or member of LEAP in your publications, interviews, and public or private addresses.
Sincerely,
Jack A. Cole
Executive Director
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
121 Mystic Avenue, Medford, MA 02155
(781) 393-6985 LEAP Office (781) 393 2964 FAX
(781) 396-0183 Home Office (617) 792-3877 Cell
jackacole@leap.cc www.leap.cc
On the LEAP forums, Jack gives this further response concerning the removal of Brad.
LEAP is an organization of current and former law enforcers who believe that by fighting a war on drugs the government has increased the problems of society and made them far worse. We believe a system of legalized regulation rather than prohibition is a less harmful, more ethical and a more effective public policy. We have convinced many people of our beliefs and as a result we have a large membership.
Due to the fact that we are law enforcers who in our work have honored our oaths to uphold the law, we have credibility with the public, media, and policymakers. It is only because of our credibility that an estimated 80% of participants in our 5,500 venues have agreed with LEAP’s goals.
Many police officers daily exercise personal discretion in accordance with their beliefs about the fatally flawed drug laws, particularly in cases of medical cannabis patients, who deserve compassion-not arrest.
But Bradley Jardis was not exercising personal, private discretion when he circulated over the Internet a statement announcing his intent to violate his oath of office by refusing to enforce a law, and his intent to convince other law enforcers to do the same. The headline directly above this announcement read, “From Law Enforcement Against Prohibition Member Brad Jardis.”
Bradley wrote that his actions are based on his interpretation of the New Hampshire Constitution. We do not believe the Constitutionality of any laws can or should be decided by individual police officers. That task should be left up to the judiciary.
LEAP will only be able to achieve its goals by recruiting ever more law enforcers to our ranks. Most police officers, who agree with LEAP that the laws must change, would never join an organization calling for this kind of disobedience of law. Thus, we have had to respectfully part ways with Bradley.
Bradley has done quite a bit to help LEAP in the past and, despite our divergent approaches, we wish him the best of luck in his effort to change these terrible laws.
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