From: Henryindivideo@webtv.net   
      
    Cannabis Culture Magazine   
   Dead cops stop drug wars   
   by David Malmo-Levine (14 Mar, 2005) Historians compare recent events to   
   the end of alcohol prohibition   
   Stephen Oldacres Lawson (1880-1922)Did the shooting of Constable S.O.   
   Lawson end Alcohol prohibition in Alberta? Some historians seem to think   
   so.   
   "During the early years of alcohol prohibition, it was argued that all   
   that was wrong was lack of effective law enforcement. So enforcement   
   budgets were increased, more Prohibition agents were hired, arrests were   
   facilitated by giving agents more power, and penalties were escalated.   
   Prohibition still didn't work.   
   The United States thus learned its lesson - with respect to alcohol....   
   Since alcohol is treated as a non-drug, however, the relevance of the   
   lesson to other drug prohibitions has been overlooked."   
   - Consumer's Union Report: Licit & Illicit Drugs, 1972, p.266   
   Between 1915 and 1917, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba all passed   
   alcohol prohibition laws through public plebiscites. Canadian alcohol   
   prohibition went National in 1918 as part of the war effort, but by the   
   end of 1919 Prime Minster Mackenzie King gave the power to regulate - or   
   prohibit - back to the Provinces.   
   In 1920, the US began its own 13-year experiment with a national   
   prohibition law. This move gave a boost to the "Dry vote" in Canada.   
   Despite B.C. wisely opting for regulated sales, Alberta, Saskatchewan   
   and Manitoba once again ratified alcohol prohibition. Then, suddenly, in   
   1922, the tide began to turn.   
   During the late fall and early winter of 1922, a petition was circulated   
   by Alberta's Hotelmen's Association, pleading for government control of   
   the liquor trade and the return of licensed parlors and bars. It   
   contained 51,000 names.   
   A third alcohol plebiscite was set by Alberta Premier Greenfield, March   
   9th, 1923, the day after he received confirmation that the Hotelmen's   
   petition was legitimate and in order. Manitoba set a date in June for   
   their third plebiscite - Alberta's followed in November. This time the   
   Wets won. Their victory soon echoed in Saskatchewan in 1924.   
   What happened at the end of 1922 to turn people's attitudes around so   
   quickly - despite the US going the other direction - getting the public   
   vote "wet"?   
   The answer, surprisingly enough, may have been the shooting death of   
   Constable Steven Lawson of the Alberta Provincial Police.   
   Born in England in 1880, Steven O. Lawson came to Canada in 1903, and   
   went west in the spring of 1904. After trying his hand at ranching, he   
   joined the Macleod police on May 7th, 1907, where he later became chief   
   of police. At the outbreak of war, he enlisted and served overseas. On   
   his discharge, he became police chief of Fernie in 1920 and served with   
   that force until his enlistment in the Alberta Provincial Police on   
   March 12th, 1922.   
   He was stationed at Coleman, a little mining town west of Blairmore that   
   straddled the main highway used by rumrunners. He was added to the APP   
   as one of fifty men specifically placed to suppress the liquor traffic.   
   As the story goes, on September 21, 1922, Lawson and his partner   
   received a tip from a stool pigeon that a popular rumrunner named Emilio   
   Picariello - AKA "Mr. Pick" - was going to Fernie for a load of liquor.   
   Another anonymous tip let the APP know that Pick was returning with his   
   load. Constable Lawson observed Pick and his crew going both directions.   
   With Pick were his mechanic and his son. When they arrived at their   
   hotel, some APP officers were waiting in ambush. The moment Pick was   
   served with a search warrant, he sounded his horn and was off with his   
   crew to go back across the BC border. Waiting in the middle of the road   
   was Constable Lawson.   
   Pick's son refused to stop for Lawson, so the Constable shot him - in   
   the hand. Later that evening, Pick's son was arrested and held prisoner.   
   Pick and Florence Lassandro, the wife of an associate, went to confront   
   Lawson. They drove up to the police barracks in Coleman, and Steven   
   Lawson approached them in their car. According to Lassandro's statement   
   to the court, an argument ensued, which turned into a fight.   
   Pick insisted that Lawson was going to accompany him to retrieve his son   
   from jail. Lawson refused, claiming not to know where the boy was. Pick   
   seized Lawson's gun in order to enforce his command. Lawson resisted.   
   The gun went off several times. Lassandro panicked and shot Lawson. He   
   died a few minutes later.   
   Emilio Picariello and Florence Lassandro were tried, found guilty and   
   executed on May 3rd, 1923. Florence Lassandro was the first and only   
   woman to be executed in Alberta.   
   A day before they died, another policeman died enforcing alcohol   
   prohibition laws. Constable Charles M. Paris hopped onto the running   
   board of a high-powered McLaughlin roadster, only to have the roadster   
   smash into a wooden fence. Constable Paris was killed instantly.   
   At least 250 people died either enforcing or evading the prohibition   
   laws from 1915 to 1933. Awareness regarding this prohibition-related   
   violence - combined with the "Moderationist" movement and certain   
   economic arguments - ensured alcohol prohibition's loss of public   
   support.   
   According to one historian: "This case, highly publicized, was   
   instrumental in bringing an end to the eight years of prohibition in   
   Alberta." (1)   
   According to another: "It is entirely possible that many persons,   
   appalled by the tragedy and the violence that seemed to accompany all   
   efforts to enforce Prohibition, both in the United States and Canada,   
   willingly signed the petition in order to prevent more disorder and   
   breaking of laws." (2)   
   After the shooting deaths of four Mounties in Alberta last week, much of   
   the mainstream press jumped on the fact that the gunman was growing pot   
   plants. The media initially ignored the fact that the gunman was being   
   investigated over stolen car parts - not pot plants, and that he was a   
   convicted child molester who served just two and a half years in jail.   
   (3) Had our society taken molestation more seriously and pot gardening   
   less seriously, he might have still been in custody.   
   The media also missed the lesson of alcohol prohibition - going as far   
   as putting it in quotation marks when cannabis activists referred to it   
   -as if to say the connection was suspect. When one newspaper listed   
   Lawson's name as one of the dead Alberta police of yesteryear, they   
   didn't even mention he died enforcing alcohol prohibition laws. (4)   
   It is a mistake to argue that activists are exploiting the tragedy of   
   dead police by using such an occasion to call for an end to prohibition.   
   It is neither "shameful" nor "disrespectful" to try and avert further   
   tragedy by drawing lessons from history. (5)   
   If history has a lesson, it is that such tragedies are often the   
   shocking incidents required for the public to get over its paternalistic   
   morality and wake up to the reality of prohibition-related violence and   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)