Activists Come To Chicago To Protest War On Drugs

Ald. Roberto Maldonado (26th) addresses reporters at a news conference by the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity, which has come to Chicago to protest the War on Drugs. (Credit: CBS)

CHICAGO (CBS) Activists are in Chicago Tuesday to voice their opposition to the War on Drugs.

As WBBM Newsradios Brandis Friedman reports, the Caravan for Peace with Justice and Dignity is making its way from San Diego to Washington, D.C., spreading its message.

LISTEN: WBBM Newsradios Brandis Friedman reports

That message, as heard Tuesday in a news conference at City Hall, is, Drugs are bad, but the War on Drugs is worse.

The group of Mexican and American nationals says the decades-old War on Drugs compares to alcohol prohibition in the 1920s, and pointed out that Prohibition turned Chicago into a hub of Mafia crime at the time.

Among the participants in the caravan was Javier Sicilia, whose son was murdered along with six others in March 2011.

He spoke through an interpreter, Eighty years later, despite Prohibition, this phenomenon has been reproduced but even more brutally, and on an international scale.

The caravan has support from the group Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, which argues for decriminalizing drugs and allowing the government to regulate and control them.

Ald. Roberto Maldonado (26th) also spoke in support of the group.

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Activists Come To Chicago To Protest War On Drugs