Analysis

Walter Cronkite Recognized the Drug-War Failure and the Ending Prohibition Solution


New York, IL–(ENEWSPF)– Walter Cronkite, America’s trusted broadcaster and father figure to a nation for decades, has died in New York at the age of 92.

Covering the most important stories of his time – including the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., the ups and downs of the Vietnam War, Egypt’s breakthrough peace treaty with Israel, and man’s first step on the moon – Americas trusted Walter Cronkite to report the facts the way they were, as symbolized by his famous sign off, “That’s the way it is.”

But even more, America trusted the words and judgment of the iconic figure. After the 1968 Tet offensive, Cronkite declared, “We are mired in stalemate,” prompting President Lyndon B. Johnson to rue the reality, “If I’ve lost Cronkite, I’ve lost middle America.”

To the last, Cronkite was perceptive and engaged in the well-being of his country and the world.

In the final four years of his life, he publicly recognized what is perhaps America’s greatest and most perverse, if as yet unclaimed, nemesis – the failed war on drugs.

Cronkite, watching with all America, a drug war of bipartisan making from Nixon to Obama, could see resilient, ever-increasing drug availability, increasing drug overdose deaths, the corruption of police and kids alike, and American streets torn by turf-war and associated crimes. So concerned was he that America’s chief reporter, protector and friend, lent his name in support of a new organization of law-enforcement leaders who have loudly and openly declared the imperative need to legalize and regulate drugs so they can be controlled.

Law Enforcement Against Prohibition is an international organization, formed in 2002, coalescing a rapidly growing membership of over 13,000 members in 76 countries. Recognizing that the war on drugs has become a war on people, these former drug warriors – police officers, narcotics agents, prison wardens, prosecutors, judges, FBI and DEA agents – now call for the legalization, control and regulation of all illicit drugs.

Walter Cronkite said of LEAP’s promotional video, “Anyone concerned about the failure of our $69 billion-a-year War on Drugs should watch this 12-minute program. You will meet front line, ranking police officers who give us a devastating report on why it cannot work. It is a must-see for any journalist or public official dealing with this issue.”

To watch the video, please click here.

James E. Gierach is a speaker for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), from Palos Park, IL.


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