A Year of Inspirational Quotes Here are some inspiring quotes that appeared on the pages of Drug WarRant during its first year. This is not a comprehensive list, nor does it follow any logical rules, but these are quotes from reformers, newspaper editors or reporters, judges, and others that appeared here. Taken together, they give you a sense that perhaps drug policy reform is not such a fantasy -- that there are many people who recognize the faults of the drug war, and are willing to push for change. (Click on the arrow to go to the original post.) "After July 23 it is impossible for the Republicans to argue that theirs is the party that fights to defend the individual against the tyranny of big government." - Dave Morris "The war on terror may be too new to declare victory or defeat. But this nation has been fighting a war on drugs for more than a quarter-century, ever since New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller mandated harsh drug sentencing in 1973--and it may be time to announce that this is one war we've lost." - Sasha Abramsky "I can accept neither the necessity nor the wisdom of federal mandatory minimum sentences," [Supreme Court Justice] Kennedy said. "In all too many cases, mandatory minimum sentences are unjust." "If we put 50-gallon drums out on every street corner in America filled with drugs, we wouldn't have the problems we have today," (Peter Christ, a former police officer in New York state who came up with the idea for LEAP) "You can get over an addiction, but you can never get over a conviction," (Jack Cole, retired from 26 years with the New Jersey Police, board member of LEAP) [Former drug warrior Forest] Tennant is also troubled by the impact that U.S. drug policy has on countries such as Colombia, where it empowers thugs and guerillas, sows violence, undermines law and order, and wreaks havoc on the economy. And he believes the war on drugs has fostered systemic corruption in the United States. "We need to try something different," he says. - Jacob Sullum "With regard to possession of marijuana by adults in their home for personal use, (the law) must be interpreted to prohibit only the possession of 4 ounces or more of marijuana," wrote [Alaska] Court of Appeals Judge David Stewart in the conclusion of the unanimous decision. When the state resolves to prohibit any conduct, it should have the burden of proving why the heavy hand of the criminal law is called for.  Surely it cannot be up to the individual to prove why the conduct in question should not be criminalized.... ...the use of drugs for recreational purposes is so widespread across cultures that the very notion of a War on Drugs is a war upon human nature. - Barney Sneiderman UCLA's Kleiman offers a bit more tempered advice for a displeased Bush administration. "A really sensible U.S. government might say to Canada, 'We think this is a really dangerous experiment, but if you're crazy enough to try it in your neighborhood, God bless you, and we'll watch,'" he says. "A scientific view of drug policy would say, 'Here's an opportunity for us to learn something.' Of course, that's not what I expect to see from Washington." It's designed to give drug users a safer alternative to shooting up in dark and dirty alleys in the Downtown Eastside. Vancouver's chief medical health officer, Dr. John Blatherwick, says critics opposed to the site need to look at the bigger picture. "The reason people should care is people are dying." "Law enforcement is a mosquito on the rear end of an elephant," [Howard] Wooldridge said. "We make zero difference whether you or your community are going to have drugs or not." He goes so far as to say that marijuana should be right there on store shelves with Jack Daniels, Budweiser and cigarettes. No acute lethal overdoses of cannabis are known, in contrast to several of its illegal (for example, cocaine) and legal (for example, alcohol, aspirin, acetaminophen) counterparts. Deaths due to chronic diseases resulting from substance misuse generally result from the use of that substance (for example, tobacco and alcohol) over a long time. Importantly, and in contrast to users of tobacco and alcohol, most cannabis users generally quit using cannabis relatively early in their adult lives. As I began to explore the [marijuana] literature, I discovered, to my astonishment, that I had to seriously question my own understanding.  What I thought I knew was based largely on myths, old and new.  I realized how little my training in science and medicine had protected me against this misinformation.  I had become not just a victim of a disinformation campaign, but because I am a physician, one of its agents as well. - Dr. Lester Grinspoon Beyond that the United States needs to re-examine its drugs policy which - it seems - is often pursued in isolation from broader policy and development objectives. The danger is that such an approach is short-sighted and could further undermine precarious stability. In an Andean region already beset by mounting violence, that is a risk that the US can ill afford. - Financial Times I was doing civil court, but when I transferred over to the Supreme Court I started getting these drug cases. I would have these cases in front of me where if people had sold over two ounces of drugs or possessed over four ounces, they were looking at 15-25 years-to-life. That's the same sentence as murder, and it's the only nonviolent crime with that type of sentence.... I have never seen a law as bad as this. The punishment just doesn't fit the crime. And it doesn't make sense... I was a great admirer of our criminal justice system as a young man, and I still am, but not as much. Back then we were concerned with rehabilitating people, but now we are more concerned with incarcerating them. We need more programs to help people.... We've been going in the wrong direction, and I just hope it changes. - retired New York Supreme Court Justice Jerome Marks There are so many reasons to decry the federal government's policy on medical marijuana that one hardly knows where to begin.  First is medical science, which shows that marijuana provides unique comfort for those suffering from glaucoma, the effects of chemotherapy, and other ailments.  On this alone, stubborn federal resistance to permitting limited use of marijuana would seem irrational, even cruel. - Chicago Sun Times Editorial It was a small step for the U.S. Supreme Court, but one giant leap toward a sane drug policy....Now they should take the next step: Get the federal government off the backs of state medicinal marijuana laws. Then we might avoid atrocities like the Ed Rosenthalcase....Polls tend to show a large majority of Americans support allowing marijuana for medicinal use. But progress is held up by a vocal minority of anti-pot zealots who would rather treat marijuana as a matter of crime and punishment, instead of public health. - Clarence Page The government has no business telling doctors what they can and can't say to their patients about any medical issue, including whether they think marijuana might help them....As we wrote in this space Tuesday, we would prefer a public decision on the central issue in all this -- whether marijuana use and cultivation ought to be legal. Until that day arrives, though, the war on marijuana must not be fought by muzzling doctors and threatening their careers. - The Oregonian Editorial ... the U.S. Supreme Court has taken away one of the tools Attorney General John Ashcroft has used to try and assert federal authority over an issue that should be left to the states... Ashcroft continues to try to subvert the voters' will in California and elsewhere where medical marijuana was legalized through an initiative process. His interest in state's rights, so evident when he was a public official in Missouri, seems to have dissipated since he ascended to the top federal law enforcement job. - St. Petersburg Times Editorial The supreme court sent a strong signal yesterday that it agrees with those who think the federal anti-marijuana campaign has gone overboard... President Bush's drug czar, John P.  Walters, who has built enthusiastically on anti-marijuana policies launched during the Clinton administration, should take the hint from the court and practice restraint... The high court's decision to let that ruling stand is only a milestone in a long-running saga, but an important one worth applauding. - Baltimore Sun Editorial The Supreme Court has taken a belated but welcome step back from Reefer Madness.  The decision should bring relief from unnecessary suffering to some Americans.  It also should make the federal government butt out.... By making marijuana a Schedule 2 drug, like morphine, the government could look compassionate and sensible on the issue.  At last. - Palm Beach Post Editorial Our current laws have not stopped people from using marijuana.  What these laws have done is greatly expand the profits of criminal and even terrorist organizations, promote a violent black-market trade and waste the time and limited resources of police, prosecutors and the justice system.  They have made the drug use that does occur more dangerous.  Governments have relied on simplistic "just say no" messages to deal with the complex nature of drug use in our society.  They have distracted us from the central issue--why some individuals use drugs in a way that causes harm to them and to the communities around them.  In short, the existing approach has been unnecessary, expensive, ineffectual and counterproductive. - Simon Potter, President of the Canadian Bar Association It's a sad, indeed tragic, fact that Nixon's war on drugs has actually made it 7 times MORE likely for your child to come into contact with illegal drugs. The reasons are very straight forward: As the government increases the criminal penalties associated with prohibition, the price of various illegal drugs is increased. The increased price means greater profits for drug dealers. These greater profits attract more and more dealers, and especially, young teenagers. - Andrew Somers Despite compelling evidence of the bloated costs and wasted resources devoted to our two-decade-long war on drugs, not to mention shocking racial disparities in arrests and sentencing for drug charges -- all documented by organizations such as Human Rights Watch, the Justice Policy Institute, and the Sentencing Project -- the Bush administration has embraced the gulag approach to dealing with the societal problems caused by drug abuse. This, more than anything else, was evident at last week's anti-drug summit organized by the Office of National Drug Control Policy. - Boston Phoenix Editorial Forget about meaningful discussion. Indeed, in keeping with the Bush administration's general assault on patients who smoke pot to manage their illnesses..., the federal government will go to extreme lengths to prevent the push for legalizing medical marijuana -- and last week's panel was no exception. If anything, it amounted to a one-sided exercise suggestive of propaganda such as Reefer Madness (1938), whose characters are driven insane by taking a puff of a joint. - Kristen Lombardi Recreational drug use has been, and continues to be, an integral part of our culture.  Recreational drug use is practiced in bars and in churches, in Dumpsters and in penthouses, so with all of our technological resources, why can't we make it as safe as it is fun? - Moby Burning Prohibition-era French vineyards may seem like a ludicrous scenario, but it's more or less analogous to the current U.S. policy of coca eradication in Latin America. So it should come as little surprise that Bolivian President Gonzalo Sanchez de Lozada resigned earlier this month amid growing popular opposition to his support of American eradication efforts in his country. - Christopher Hayes All seriousness aside, as funnyman Steve Allen often said, federal drug warriors keep embarrassing themselves by enforcing pointless, oppressive policies that merely ignite tax dollars as if with a Zippo lighter. Like every White House since Nixon's, the Bush administration continues the collective, bipartisan hallucination that Uncle Sam's heavy hand can crush the desire of millions of Americans to alter their states of consciousness. Fortunately, some judges, states and cities have soured on the costly and cruel war on drugs as it grinds through its 30th futile year. - Deroy Murdock As a doctor, I am stunned by the intensity of the Bush administration's obsession with medical marijuana.  It boggles my mind to think that our government officials are spending so much time and money to obstruct the use of a medication that might actually help cancer patients tolerate their chemotherapy, AIDS patients gain a little weight, glaucoma patients suffer less. - Kate Scannell "The reason they're looking at natural fibres like hemp and flax is that they're cost-effective and they perform well," he says. "Compared to glass fibre, the cost of production is lower but the strength and ratio is roughly comparable so we can get excellent mechanical properties at a much lower price." - Ottawa Citizen "I know at least a hundred [marijuana growers], 20 years old to 70," says Robert Smith, who isn't part of the trade but indirectly profits from it at the furniture store he owns in Grand Forks, B.C., 110 miles north of Spokane, Wash. "Of the money coming through my door, 15% to 20% comes from cannabis--we'd be on welfare without it." "We did call ourselves vipers, which could have been anybody from all walks of life that smoked and respected gage," [Louis] Armstrong said.  "One reason we appreciated pot, as y'all calls it now, was the warmth it always brought forth from the other person. ... If we all get as old as Methuselah our memories will always be of lots of beauty and warmth from gage.  Well, that was my life, and I don't feel ashamed at all.  The respect for it will stay with me forever.  I have every reason to say these words and am proud to say them.  From experience." If the "War on Drugs" cannot be successfully waged while our Bill of Rights remains in force, the problem is not with the Bill of Rights -- it's with the War on Drugs. - Las Vegas Review-Journal Editorial Howard Dean: "Yes;" John Kerry: "Yes;" John Edwards: "Yes;" Carol Moseley Braun: "I'm not going to answer;" Dennis Kucinich: "No, but I think it ought to be decriminalized;" Al Sharpton: "I grew up in the church. We didn't believe in that.;" Wesley Clark: "Never used it;" Joseph Lieberman: "I never used marijuana, sorry." "The war on drugs has turned into a war on doctors and pain patients," says Dr. Ronald Myers, president of the American Pain Institute and a Baptist minister who operates a string of clinics for poor people in the Mississippi Delta. "Such is the climate of fear across the medical community that for every doctor who has his license yanked by the DEA, there are a hundred doctors scared to prescribe proper pain medication for fear of going to prison. The DEA is creating a situation where legitimate pain patients now have to go to the streets to get their medication. It's a health care catastrophe in the making..." "Mr. Walters, I think you're a terrible hypocrite." - C-Span caller. Before police summon a dog, they must have a reasonable suspicion that the driver is carrying drugs, not merely a "vague hunch," [Illinois Supreme Court] Justice Thomas Kilbride wrote for the majority. Every single vote I get will legitimately be seen in favor of repealing drug prohibition," said [former California Superior Court justice James] Gray, 58, the day before announcing his candidacy at the Old Orange County Courthouse in Santa Ana. "The other side is going to want to get my votes, and to do that they'll have to change their drug policy. If that happens, I'll have won." THEREFORE, the Union of American Hebrew Congregations resolves to: 1. Urge elected officials in the United States to support federal legislation and regulation to allow the medicinal use of marijuana for patients with intractable pain and other conditions, under medical supervision; ... The great journalist H.L. Mencken was a fierce critic of alcohol prohibition. He wrote in 1925: "Five years of Prohibition have had, at least, this one benign effect: they have completely disposed of all the favorite arguments of the Prohibitionists. None of the great boons and usufructs that were to follow the passage of the Eighteenth Amendment has come to pass. There is not less drunkenness in the Republic, but more. There is not less crime, but more. There is not less insanity, but more. The cost of government is not smaller, but vastly greater. Respect for law has not increased, but diminished." Mencken was right, which is why Prohibition was repealed in 1933 - Radley Balko Harsh laws and severe punishments, observed Confucius, are a sign that something is wrong with the state. But you don't need to be a brilliant philosopher to recognize that America's prisons are in a state of crisis. Federal mandatory minimums have made a bad situation worse. In large part because the rigid minimums make no distinction among the circumstances of cases, today's sentences for non-violent crimes lack any semblance of balance. If a man helps unload a boat of hashish just once to pay for his wife's cancer treatments (an actual case), he is subject to the same minimum sentence as the mastermind of the whole scheme. - Senator Paul Simon On the anniversary of 9/11, that's how brazen this Justice Department is. On the anniversary of 9/11, they arrested Tommy Chong for selling bongs over the Internet, Larry. We cannot allow that to happen. Do you feel safer? Do you feel safer now? This is what I would like to say to the Bush administration about that. You can't have it both ways. Either 9/11 was such a transforming event and is such a dire threat that we need the Patriotic Act, the Patriotic Act II which could curtail a lot of civil liberties that we need to go to Iraq or you can bust Tommy Chong. You can't it have both ways. You can't have the Patriotic Act and curtail the civil liberties because 9/11 was that bad and also have the time to go after Tommy Chong for selling bongs on the Internet. Can't have it both ways. - Bill Maher on Larry King We find that the appellants have demonstrated a strong likelihood of success on their claim that, as applied to them, the [Controlled Substances Act] is an unconstitutional exercise of Congress' Commerce Clause authority. ... ("It is one of the happy incidents of the federal system that a single courageous state may, if its citizens choose, serve as a laboratory; and try novel social and economic experiments without risk to the rest of the country.") - 9th Circuit The rationale for continuing this draconian policy of marijuana prohibition is unclear. Statistical evidence shows that marijuana use follows a pattern very similar to that of alcohol. Most marijuana users do so responsibly, in a safe, recreational context. These people lead normal, productive lives--pursuing careers, raising families, and participating in civic life. In addition, marijuana has proven benefits in the treatment of numerous diseases, such as providing a valuable means of pain management for terminally ill patients. In either of these contexts, there is no rational justification for criminally enforced prohibitions. These unnecessary arrests and incarcerations serve only to crowd prisons, backlog the judicial system, and distract law enforcement officials from pursuing terrorists and other violent criminals. - Dennis Kucinich I think it's unconscionable, bigoted and reprehensible to have unholstered guns and dogs in the presence of children..." said the Rev. Joseph Darby of Morris Brown AME Church in Charleston. "I would hope (Jackson's) visit is followed up by positive action by local leadership." The inclusion of cannabis in the schedule to the Narcotic Control Act infringes the accused's right to liberty without regard for the principles of fundamental justice. For the state to be able to justify limiting an individual's liberty, the legislation upon which it bases its actions must not be arbitrary. In this case, the legislation is arbitrary. First, it seems doubtful that it is appropriate to classify marihuana consumption as conduct giving rise to a legitimate use of the criminal law in light of the Charter, since, apart from the risks related to the operation of vehicles and the impact on public health care and social assistance systems, the moderate use of marihuana is on the whole harmless. Second, in view of the availability of more tailored methods, the choice of the criminal law for controlling conduct that causes little harm to moderate users or to control high-risk groups for whom the effectiveness of deterrence or correction is highly dubious is out of keeping with Canadian society's standards of justice. Third, the harm caused by prohibiting marihuana is fundamentally disproportionate to the problems that the state seeks to suppress. This harm far outweighs the benefits that the prohibition can bring. Canadian Supreme Court Justice J. Deschamps (dissenting) But the drug laws are the real dangerous threats to public health and safety. The only way to protect the public is to guarantee the right of the sick to use marijuana and to stop jailing pot smokers who just want to get high. - Doug Bandow The worst part is that "60 Minutes" didn't touch on the most egregious case in the federal system, that of Clarence Aaron, who is serving a life sentence with no possibility of parole for a first-time, nonviolent offense that netted him $1,500. "60 Minutes'' executive producer David Gelber confirmed that federal officials wouldn't allow the show access to Aaron. - Debra Saunders To fix the problem of untreated and under-treated pain in chronically ill patients, we must vote out the Bush/Ashcroft party and re-examine our nation's War on Drugs.  What are we gaining besides over-funding the doctor-busting narcotics agencies while laying off police who actually protect us from violent criminals? Why are we willing to sacrifice civil liberties, healthcare, education, a clean environment, and solid infrastructure in a self-destructive pursuit of a "drug-free America"? We need drug education and drug treatment--not another war.  - Rick Bayer, M.D. Oh, it's good to be the king.  You float high above the law and plunder your subjects with impunity. ... "The feds can't just steal the marijuana and therefore make it federal property," [attorney Kristopher Hammond] said. But they try, and they convince local law enforcement officials that even they don't have to obey Colorado law. As Hammond puts it, "It's no secret that the federal government claims to be for states rights - until the states do things they don't like, such as enacting a medical marijuana statute." - Rocky Mountain News Editorial If all or even most of the oft-cited claims for hemp are true, the substance may know no earthly equal among nontoxic renewable resources. If only half the claims are true, hemp's potential as a commercial wellspring and a salve to creeping eco-damage is still immense. At worst it is more useful and diverse than most agricultural crops. Yet from the 1930s through the 1980s, many countries, influenced by U.S. policies and persuasion, banished cannabis from their farmlands. Not just marijuana, but all cannabis -- the baby, the bath water, all of it. - Lee Green Jesus was almost certainly a cannabis user and an early proponent of the medicinal properties of the drug, according to a study of scriptural texts published this month. The study suggests that Jesus and his disciples used the drug to carry out miraculous healings. - Guardian Unlimited article Regardless of one's position on drug legalization, Americans who believe in freedom of expression and in the importance of political debate ought to condemn Istook's measure and all other attempts to stifle the pro-legalization case. Otherwise, the First Amendment might become the most prominent example of "collateral damage" in the war on drugs. - Ted Galen Carpenter Kamala Harris was sworn in Thursday as the first black woman in California history to serve as a district attorney, pledging to be "smart on crime'' as she assumes the role of San Francisco's top prosecutor. She said she would not compromise on her resolve "to protect our loved ones who need medical marijuana. Those who need medical marijuana, I want you to know that I will defend your rights and vigorously oppose any encroachment on them by outside agencies.'' - SF Gate The evidence is crystal clear: The drug war is a destructive failure. Every statistic underlines the fact that drug use over time has increased regularly despite the ever-widening war and its ever-increasing cost... Yet our governments persist in escalating the war, unwilling to accept its failure. They have convinced the public, through years of misleading education, that drug use is so threatening to our society that harsh criminal laws, tough prosecutions and stiff penalties offer the only hope of keeping it in check. As a result, elected officials, fearful of looking soft on drugs and losing elections, refuse to consider alternatives. - Martin Haines My parents were appalled at the thought of a betting shop on every corner.  It would surely lead to "addiction".  Somehow they got over it. The same must be done with drugs, all drugs.  They must be removed from criminal distribution and their sale controlled and taxed like nicotine and alcohol.  Such a proposal is not ideal, merely vital. - Simon Jenkins Yesterday, before the world's media, a peace treaty was signed between the British government and cannabis.  Hardliners had insisted that there should have been no talks with cannabis supporters until all joints had been put beyond use, until they had laid down their bongs and stopped giggling. ... - John O'Farrell If a doctor believes that his or her patient would benefit from the responsible use of medicinal marijuana, then that doctor should be allowed to legally prescribe it. - Republican presidential candidate Blake Ashby "The moral authority of our most cherished institutions comes from their voluntary nature: the value of advice from a priest, a teacher or a loved one depends in large part on the fact that we are free to ignore it. But judges' pieces of 'advice' are court orders, enforceable ultimately by the raw physical power of imprisonment. It is precisely because of the awesomely enforceable nature of our powers that we must be so circumspect in exercising them. It is one thing for a co-worker, family member, doctor, or clergyman to confront someone about a perceived drug problem; it is quite another thing for a judge to compel drug treatment. Drug courts not only fail to recognize this important institutional distinction, but their very purpose is to obliterate it." - Judge Morris Hoffman "In Canada, we are discussing trying things, like safe injection sites, like medically prescribed heroin trials, that we would never have dreamed of talking about five or 10 years ago. And I will predict this will continue, and we will eventually, I don't know when, but the issue of decriminalization and the conversion of drugs into a public health and medical situation will be on the front burner in this country in the future. "That debate will occur. There is just no escaping it." - Dr. Martin Schechter "These police deaths are totally unnecessary," said Cole. "If we ended drug prohibition, none of these officers would have had to die. We're killing our police. All we have to do is legalize drugs and that would not be happening. Can't we learn from Alcohol Prohibition?" Cole asked. "We had the highest murder rate in our history and cops were dying right and left." "These are casualties of war," said LEAP member Peter Christ, a retired police captain with 20 years of experience fighting the drug war. "It's a war we shouldn't be fighting," he told DRCNet. "Drug prohibition creates an environment where we put cops in a job where they can't win, and you have to expect these kinds of results. The answer is a no-brainer, at least for me: You have to legalize drugs." Medical marijuana is "a multi-purpose therapeutic aid" that can do a better job of treating ice users than current programs, Adler said. ... "It could work," said Dr. Ethan Russo, Senior Medical Advisor to British pharmaceutical company GW Pharmaceutical's Cannabinoid Research Institute. GW is the maker of Sativex, a sublingual cannabinoid medicine. "Cannabis is helpful for a variety of addictions, and the mechanisms of crack and meth are quite comparable." You might think that we were the safest students in north Texas.  But you'd be wrong.  I knew classmates who drove drunk or high because they had no one to call who could pick them up in time to meet our strict curfew.  Instead of opening up an honest dialogue, administrators enforced a strict no-tolerance policy, giving us the impression that we couldn't talk to them about alcohol or other drugs.  Let me grant the most paranoid conservative fear and state that even if I knew that every school child in America would immediately begin smoking pot every single day that I would still support ending the drug war. Even if I knew that every single adult in America would be riding the electric high wire on cocaine every night, I would still support ending the drug war. Because neither of those things will kill America dead beyond any hope of recovery the way that increasing the power of the central state always kills a society in the end. This has been clear since the days of Rome; it is true now. - Vox Day Use of medical marijuana is only controversial to the feds -- responsible medical organizations such as the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of HIV Medicine, the New England Journal of Medicine and the American Nurses Association support it, as do countless doctors.  "It is pointless and cruel," said one Chicago physician, "to threaten the sick with arrest and jail simply for trying to feel better." The sufferings of thousands of sick Illinois citizens demand that we cast off punitive and wrong-headed notions about marijuana and pass this bill without delay.  Although Joseph White says he was "stunned" by Istook's amendment, he adds, "We are grateful to Congressman Istook for bringing these issues so clearly to the forefront." Says Ethan Nadelmann, "We think Congressman Istook's crass proposal will likely accelerate the pace of reform. For this we thank him." With enemies like Istook, who needs friends? - Jacob Sullum On this, the public appears to be way ahead of the legislators.  A 1998 poll by the Center for Governmental Studies at Northern Illinois University found 67 percent of Illinois residents believe "doctors should be allowed to prescribe small amounts of marijuana for patients." - Chicago Tribune editorial The fallout from the mistake has brought not only Dr. Ricaurte's reputation into question, but also that of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which has supported his research for years. "It kind of gives science a black eye because people start to question whether NIDA has an agenda," says Glen R. Hanson, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Utah and a former director of NIDA. - Chronicle of Higher Education The beauty of Jefferson's marketplace of ideas is that it opens our society to all voices and all arguments, presuming the most persuasive will rise to the top. But those who promote the War on Drugs find this a dangerous concept. Drug reform makes too much sense and in recent years has been too compelling to voters.... To combat this outbreak of common sense, the drug warriors have fought back with antidemocratic and repressive methods.... - Robyn E Blumner It was as if the massed forces of Eliot Ness had busted one of Al Capone's speakeasies and confiscated the little umbrellas that went in the tropical cocktails. ... Fortunately, no officers were harmed in the making of this media event. - Wilminton, NC Morning Star The former drug use wasn't a problem when the U.S. government had them out there dodging suicide bombers in Iraq. Now circumstances have changed. The troops are coming home. Guard leaders are notifying commanders steps will be taken to discharge those soldiers with positive drug results "other than honorably." It's unclear exactly what this will mean for soldiers, but it makes one wonder what the policy-makers have been smoking. - Des Moines Register Luckily, there is a well-established and safe remedy recommended by many cancer physicians that sometimes provides relief when nothing else can.  Not so luckily, the remedy is marijuana.  Under federal law, cannabis is forbidden--even for therapeutic use by seriously ill people who have no more interest in getting high than they do in bungee jumping.  The Bush administration, in its generosity, is willing to let these patients have any medicine except the one they need.  In the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination, John Kerry and John Edwards often sound nearly indistinguishable on the issues.  But when it comes to medical marijuana, there is plenty of space between them.  Edwards sounds like President Bush, while Kerry has dared to suggest that the established federal policy has been a grave mistake. - Steve Chapman Suspicionless student drug testing is a humiliating, invasive practice that runs contrary the principles of due process. It compels teens to submit evidence against themselves and to forfeit their privacy rights as a necessary requirement for attending school. Rather than presuming our school children innocent of illicit activity -- as statistically, the overwhelming majority of them are -- until proven guilty, this policy presumes them guilty until they prove themselves innocent. Is this truly the message the Bush administration wishes to send to America's young people? - Paul Armentano "Drug war policies threaten the basis of democracy, economy and the rule of law in many countries or regions of the world,” Senator Nolin stated. “The world deserves drug policies that are global, effective and respectful of human rights,” he continued. “Sooner of later, governments of the world will have to, in the names of transparency and honesty, acknowledge that the drug war is a massive failure,” declared the Senator. “The war on drug discourse is outdated and disrespectful. It is time to make world leaders accountable.” “We cannot simply sit back and let this situation continue. Current drug policy is failing dramatically,” he concluded, “It is time to face facts. This is a war without end. The US domination of the global drug policy is a dead end.” - Senlis Council "Prohibition has never worked." - Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson "It's not simply that Tom Coleman was a rogue officer," she said. "The city of Amarillo has recognized that federally funded task forces are ineffective tools of law enforcement and they operate as rogue task forces because they are unaccountable to any oversight mechanism." - Vanita Gupta This sensible, humane bill deserves swift passage. The evidence is overwhelming that marijuana can relieve certain types of pain, nausea, vomiting and other symptoms caused by such illnesses as multiple sclerosis, cancer and AIDS -- or by the harsh drugs sometimes used to treat them. And it can do so with remarkable safety. Indeed, marijuana is less toxic than many of the drugs that physicians prescribe every day. - Dr. Joycelyn Elders Random drug testing alienates students. Students must be observed (by a teacher or other adult) as they urinate to be sure the sample is their own. It is a humiliating violation of privacy. Testing can also have the unanticipated effect of keeping students from participating in after-school, extracurricular programs -- activities that would fill their time during the peak teenage drug-using hours of 3-6 p.m. - Marsha Rosenbaum [Parent Mr.] Plopper, a journalism professor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said the administrators and school personnel "who support and maintain suspicionless drug testing are like schoolyard bullies who torment students just because they can. "In this case, however, these people are worse than such bullies because they are educated and should know better than to turn the civil liberties of equal protection and privacy into empty promises." The goal of this subcommittee, under its current leadership, is not to adopt a true scientific approach to the subject of marijuana. If that were the case, the authors of the Institute of Medicine report and physicians and patients from the eight medical marijuana states would have been invited. Or a representative from the American Nurses Association. Or a representative from the American Public Health Association. - Rob Kampia "Government is best when government is most honest, especially for the younger generation, which is more susceptible to trying drugs," says ABC's "World News Tonight" veteran anchor.  "If ( young people ) can't rely on the government for good and honest information, then government has lost something enormously valuable, which is people's belief in the government's credibility." ... - Peter Jennings "You don't need these kinds of units," said Harrington [director of Texas Civil Liberties Project]. "They need to abolish these task forces all together. They are structured so you can't avoid this sort of abuse. What in heaven's name was the point in creating all these regional task forces? "These things need to be abolished," he told DRCNet. "They are ridiculous and dangerous. They botch things up, they're unprofessional, and they're violating peoples' rights with serious consequences." Whatever you think of U.S. drug policy -- words like "failed" and "Draconian" automatically leap to my mind, but you might think first of "expensive" and "futile" -- you probably, one hopes, feel the matter should at least be discussed, and that people have the right to air their views and buy ads to disseminate them. - Neil Steinberg "Imagine if it was against the law to drive home after consuming a single glass of wine at dinner.  Now imagine it was against the law to do so after having consumed a single glass of wine two weeks ago.  Sound absurd? No more so than newly proposed Congressional legislation by Ohio Rep.  Rob Portman mandating that each state enact laws sanctioning anyone who operates a motor vehicle "while any detectable amount of a controlled substance is present in the person's body, as measured in the person's blood, urine, saliva, or other bodily substance." - Paul Armentano The current war on marijuana is a monumental waste of money and a source of pointless misery.  America's drug warriors, much like its marijuana smokers, seem under the spell of a powerful intoxicant.  They are not thinking clearly. - Eric Schlosser With two federal watchdog agencies freeing the White House drug czar to overtly influence state ballot initiatives, the Senate is poised to reauthorize this anti-democratic exercise for the next five years -- the wheels greased by a ten-year total of $4 billion in taxpayer-funded advertising designed to sway the votes of those who pay for it. - Daniel Forbes We can't find Bin Laden and we're stuck in Iraq but we got Tommy Chong under key and lock. - Tommy Chong Bong Song Mayor Larry Campbell has proposed legalizing and taxing marijuana sales ... to raise money for treatment of the effects of more dangerous drugs. ... Campbell said regulation should be similar to that of tobacco and alcohol, citing the example of Amsterdam, where cultivation and sales of marijuana are legal within certain regulations. Studies indicate fewer residents of the Netherlands than, for example, Americans, have tried marijuana, and cannabis use among Dutch schoolchildren has fallen, he said. "The conclusion is pretty clear," he said. "Legal, regulated sale of marijuana may actually produce less consumption. Drug laws only have public support so long as drugs are deemed extremely dangerous. Every time an effort to crack down on drugs is made with new laws, politicians hype the threat caused by narcotics and other psychoactive substances in an attempt to whip the public into a frightened tangle of angst-ridden nerves. - Joel Miller There is no government interest, none at all, in suppressing ideas that run contrary to federal policy. There is rather an interest in robust free debate and expression, and in preventing government efforts to suppress ideas that run “contrary to federal policy.” That is exactly why Section 177 should be enjoined without further delay. - ACLU Many in law enforcement, such as Commander Trisha Sanchez of the San Mateo County Narcotics Task Force, agree that the message we send our teens should be clear.  The use of alcohol and other drugs is a poor choice, but if you do experiment and there is a problem, you will not be punished by calling for help. "A quarter of the FBI case filings in the year before 9/11 were drug cases," he says. "Who was looking after the terrorists? Nobody. We have 10,000 DEA agents. Is it more important to prevent the next terrorist attack or to bust Cheech for having a bong? In the year before 9/11, we arrested almost 750,000 people for possession of marijuana -- and one foreign terrorist." He shakes his head in disgust. "You'd think real conservatives would be looking at what works, what's the best result you can get for the money," he says. - Bill Masters Our per-capita incarceration rate is now higher than that of any nominally civilized nation. And more than a quarter million of those incarcerated are guilty of violating nothing more than our cruel, illogical and ineffective drug laws. - John Ed Pearce Vasconcellos said research indicates that drug testing doesn't deter students from using drugs. "Our limited resources are better spent on better drug education and more positive reinforcement," he said. Once in a while, yeah. It still relaxes me. You get a different head because of your age, but not because of the pot. Marijuana should definitely be legal. Booze is a hundred times worse. Marijuana makes you passive--the last thing you want to do when you're high is have a fight. - Rodney Dangerfield Doctors are not slaves, and they will not continue practicing medicine forever if the federal government insists on monitoring, harassing, fining, and even jailing them. Congress should take action to rein in overzealous prosecutors and law enforcement officials, and stop the harassment of legitimate physicians who act in good faith when prescribing pain relief drugs. Doctors should not be prosecuted for using their best medical judgment, nor should they be prosecuted for the misdeeds of their patients. - Ron Paul "Congress . . . cannot prohibit advertisements supporting legalization of a controlled substance while permitting those that support tougher drug sentences," the judge said. He called the law "an unconstitutional exercise of Congress' broad spending power." We live in a society in which most "recreational" drugs are prohibited. That is to say, they are completely unregulated. Illegal under almost all circumstances to produce, market and possess, recreational drugs such as cannabis, ecstasy, cocaine, methamphetamine, psychadellics and heroin are nonetheless easily available without age restriction, purity requirements, or labelling in every part of the country. Perversely, the very fact of their prohibition means that these substances are more, rather than less likely to be sold to young people, and are often the self-medication of last resort for thousands of mentally ill people who lack medical insurance or prescription drug coverage. ... - Adam J. Smith The government's war on drugs violates the rights of Americans so egregiously that it is a bigger threat than the drugs themselves. Libertarians do not want our children taking drugs either, but we recognize that the several decades of drug interdiction haven't slowed the flow of narcotics into this country. Children take drugs because criminals actively sell them. Criminals sell drugs because they are astronomically profitable. Drugs are highly profitable only because they are illegal. The Libertarian solution is to decriminalize drugs, which will make drugs extremely cheap, which will remove the profit motivation for selling drugs, which will result in fewer children taking drugs. - Michael Badnarik It is hard even to paraphrase the arguments against this. Only a dim-witted ideologue like federal drug czar John Walters will utter such drivel out loud. Something about "sending a bad message" or marijuana being a "gateway drug." Get outta here! How could any civilized person tell a cancer patient on chemotherapy, "No, we won't ease your pain!" I dare anyone to look into Montel Williams' eyes and say, "Suck it up, pal!" - Ellis Henican I have been told by two sitting congressmen in Orange County that many folks in Washington realize the war on drugs is not winnable, but it's eminently fundable. They are addicted to the money. If Judge Jim Gray were to be elected to the United States Senate from California, having been very straightforward with regard to where I stand on the drug war, it would be such a revolution that that alone would get the federal government out of the marijuana prohibition business. And believe me, it's a big business. It's institutionally corrupting. You've heard the phrase "drunk with power"? That pretty well captures the state of mind of Rep. Ernest Istook (R-Okla.) when he pushed through a measure telling the Washington Metro system what kind of ads it could place in its stations, trains and buses. ... "For more than 20 years, we have gotten tougher on crime," said ABA President Dennis W. Archer. "Now we need to get smarter. We can no longer sit by as more and more people-particularly in minority communities-are sent away for longer and longer periods of time while we make it more and more difficult for them to return to society after they serve their time. The system is broken. We need to fix it." So providing people with education and information has proven dramatically effective in curbing use of a drug some experts have said is as addictive as heroin; while draconian laws and sentences and self-incrimination policies have created more problems than they have solved. Surely there's a lesson in there somewhere. - Dusty Nix "This kind of shows you how ass-backwards all this is," says Elford [Kambui's attorney].  "In the name of the drug war, they're trying to require someone to take much more serious narcotics than relatively harmless marijuana.  And in this case, not just much more serious narcotics in terms of toxicity and addictiveness, but in this case, narcotics that are actually extremely harmful to the person prescribed them." Do drug warriors honestly wake up in the morning, look in the mirror and get a rush of pride that only 90 percent of illegal narcotics are getting through thanks to them? Sadly -- and adding an entirely new dimension to the word "pathetic" -- yes, they do. As for the rest of us, we need something different. The war on drugs is spending taxpayer money by the billions and tossing it down a thousand rat holes. -Joel Miller For 89 1/2 years, we have escalated the mechanisms, the bloodshed, the deaths, disease and misery of our nation through our policy of "drug prohibition".  Based on racial screeds and hysterical posturing, the drug war has taken on a life of its' own. There is no justice, no logic, no basis whatsoever to this drug war.  There is not one person of stature within the legislature, not one cop or drug czar, not one doctor or journalist who dares to defend this drug war policy in an open, public debate.  It cannot be done.  The prohibition of drugs is a sham, the largest fraud ever perpetrated on the peoples of this earth. - Dean Becker The drug czar and DEA spokespersons recite the mantra that "there is no such thing as medical marijuana," but the claim is so specious on its face that it clearly undermines federal credibility. The federal government currently provides marijuana-from its own production site in Mississippi-to a few patients who years ago were recognized by the courts as bona fide patients. No one wants to debate those who have used marijuana for medical purposes, be it Santa Cruz medical-marijuana hospice founder Valerie Corral or NATIONAL REVIEW's Richard Brookhiser. Even many federal officials quietly regret the assault on medical marijuana. When the DEA raided Corral's hospice in September 2002, one agent was heard to say, "Maybe I'm going to think about getting another job sometime soon." - Ethan Nadelman The United Methodist Church, the Union for Reform Judaism, the Progressive National Baptist Convention, the Episcopal Church, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the Presbyterian Church (USA), the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the United Church of Christ have made statements supporting the controlled use of marijuana for medical reasons. The problem goes back to the metaphor itself. War and policing are vastly different. In common parlance the military's job is to kill people and break things. As Reagan administration Assistant Secretary of Defense Lawrence Korb puts it, soldiers are supposed to "vaporize, not 'Mirandize.'" On the other hand, police are trained to solve problems with scrupulous attention to suspects' civil rights and with a multitude of solutions, lethal violence being the last rung on the escalating ladder of force. No-knock raids race up the ladder, going straight to the threat of lethal force. - Joel Miller "As parents, we're certainly concerned about addressing issues of student drug abuse," said Kathy Moffat, a spokeswoman for the California State PTA. "But a random drug-testing program implies there is no trust." ...