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Community Corner

Maryland State Police Major (Retired) Will Speak About Drug Prohibition

Socializing starts at 7:30, meeting of NORML (National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws) starts at 8:00

Neill Franklin is a Retired State Police Major and Executive Director of 
LEAP (Law Enforcement Against Prohibition).

“It pains me to know that there is a solution forpreventing tragedy and nothing is being done because of ignorance, stubbornness, unsubstantiated fear and greed."

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Neill is a 34-year law enforcement veteran of the Maryland State Police and Baltimore Police Department. During his time on the force, he held the position of commander for the Education and Training Division and the Bureau of Drug and Criminal Enforcement. Major Franklin instituted and oversaw the very first Domestic Violence Investigative Units for the Maryland State Police. After 23 years of dedicated service to the 
Maryland State Police, he was recruited in 2000 by the Commissioner of the 
Baltimore Police Department to reconstruct and command Baltimore’s Education and Training Section.


Early in his career, Neill served as a narcotics agent with the Maryland State police, focusing on everything from high-level drug dealers in the Washington suburbs to the guy growing one marijuana plant on his balcony. Neill was proud of his work and the hundreds of arrests he executed. “I had been taught that the people who use and sell drugs are trash, and that we needed to put those people behind bars forever.”

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Neill's experience in trying to enforce the drug laws convinced him that prohibition was not working any better than it did for alcohol. In addition,  Neill’s close friend, Corporal Ed Toatley, was killed in Washington, DC while making a drug deal as an undercover agent.


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