Leigh Maddox

Leigh Maddox retired a Captain from the Maryland State Police in 2007. She participated in the war on drugs from many angles. In the 1990's, she worked as a patrol trooper and supervisor; served in the Intelligence Division including a long term undercover assignment in which she infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan; and worked as a criminal investigator, legislative coordinator, public affairs spokesperson, and academy Instructor. Leigh later served as the Commander of the Baltimore Washington Metro Troop, Planning and Research Division, Training Division, and as the coordinator for the racial profiling Consent Decree related to the drug interdiction policies of the Maryland State Police.

Ms. Maddox says she is tired of seeing good cops and innocent citizens die because we insist on continuing the same prohibition policies. "Our failed drug policies are nothing more than a killing field, battering communities, pillaging minority families and subjecting generations of Americans to poverty, violence and a depth of hopelessness from which not even the strongest child can emerge without scars that serve as lifetime haunts."

Leigh believes we have to stop focusing on "the war" on drugs and instead advocate for a new approach of treating substance abuse as a health problem, creating politically and socially definitive actions for a post-prohibition world.

To say that Ms. Maddox has cracked the glass ceiling is an understatement. Her ambition and subsequent leadership positions in law enforcement and university settings have shattered it entirely. As a LEAP speaker, she is eager to share her expertise, anecdotes, and passion for social justice. She is currently writing and speaking about the escalating violence associated with the global drug cartels engaged in the manufacture and distribution of illicit drugs; how the domestic and global failed prohibitionist laws have destabilized communities; and, the measures governments and communities can take to reduce the harm of current drug polices while simultaneously working toward strategic reform.

Leigh now serves as a Visiting Assistant Professor and Supervising Attorney with the University of Maryland School of Law and is cross designated as a Special Assistant State's Attorney for Baltimore City. She received her BS from John Hopkins University and her JD from the University of Maryland, School of Law.

The mention of the Office of the State's Attorney for Baltimore City solely constitutes biographical background information and should not be construed in any way as an endorsement of LEAP by the Office of the State's Attorney for Baltimore City.