December 5, 2011 1:02PM # Drug War Update By [Tim Lynch](https://www.cato.org/people/tim-lynch) --- SHARE When a war is not going well, one response is to escalate. There has been a lot of escalation in the drug war. Here are two recent examples: 1. Federal agent loses his job for [questioning the wisdom of the drug war](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/03/us/officers-punished-for-supporting-eased-drug-laws.html). Some government officials do not like the fact that the group “[Law Enforcement Against Prohibition](http://www.leap.cc/)” (LEAP) has a growing membership. 2. Police agents tell judge in a warrant application that DVDs that educate citizens about their constitutional rights make certain organizations suspicious. [Really](http://flexyourrights.org/police_say_flex_your_rights_DVD_is_evidence_of_criminal_activity). Since the film in question, “10 Rules for Dealing with the Police” [premiered at Cato](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/24/AR2010032402907.html), maybe undercover officers are now attending our events. Neill Franklin, executive director of LEAP, [spoke at Cato](https://www.cato.org/events/100212screening.html) about the 10 Rules educational DVD and he says that film *ought to be used in police training*–to show agents how to respect the constitutional rights of people in the community. Ethan Nadelmann recently [spoke at Cato](https://www.cato.org/multimedia/cato-video/obamas-war-drugs-gops-war-drugs) on the prospects for drug policy reform. And the NYT had a good piece on the [militarization of police tactics](http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/04/sunday-review/have-american-police-become-militarized.html?pagewanted=all) yesterday. For more Cato work on drug policy, go [here](https://www.cato.org/drug-war). ##### Related Tags [Defense and Foreign Policy](https://www.cato.org/defense-foreign-policy), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).