Cleveland NORML

The War on Drugs is a War on Progressive Values

“Take it from a businessman: The War on Drugs is just money down the drain.”

Governor Gary Johnson (R-NM)

“Legalizing drugs would simultaneously reduce the amount of crime and raise the quality of law enforcement. Can you conceive of any other measure that would accomplish so much to promote law and order?”

Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman

“I think a lot of people are coming to the realization that maybe long minimum sentences for the first-time users may not be the best way to occupy jail space and/or heal people from their disease. And I’m willing to look at that.”

President George W. Bush

Why are leading conservatives speaking out against the War on Drugs?

Drug War = Bloated Government

Every year the federal government spends about $20 billion waging the Drug War, while the states spend an additional $30 billion. But the Drug Warriors have nothing to show taxpayers for it; drug usage rates have remained constant.

The American Conservative Union, Citizens Against Government Waste, the National Taxpayers Union, and the Republican Study Committee, (a caucus composed of more than 100 U.S. House conservatives) have all called for wasteful Drug War spending to be eliminated.

Homeland Security and Public Safety

Just as Al Capone used illegal alcohol sales to fund his criminal empire during the first prohibition, Al Qaeda and other terrorists take advantage of today’s drug prohibition to finance their appalling activities.

Because our police are so preoccupied enforcing drug laws, they often don’t have the time or resources to keep murderers, rapists, and other violent criminals off the streets.

Privacy and Personal Freedom

Federal agents and police regularly knock down Americans’ doors, ransack their homes, and listen to their phone conversations—all in the name of the War on Drugs.

The underlying message of drug prohibition is that the government knows what’s good for you better than you do. Citizens should be setting priorities for our government, not the other way around.

Drug abuse is a real issue that needs to be dealt with seriously, but the War on Drugs only makes our nation’s drug problems worse - for users and nonusers alike.

With $50 billion a year spent on enforcing ineffective drug laws, use and abuse rates go relatively unchanged. Drug prohibition, like the earlier failed experiment of alcohol prohibition, simply puts drugs in the hands of gangs and drug dealers, who care only about making a profit without concern for public safety.

The fact is, there is no drug known to man that becomes safer to the user or to society when its production and distribution are handed over to violent criminal cartels.

In the U.S., millions of people are busted with drugs every year, and taxpayers are footing the bill to house 2.2 million Americans behind bars tonight, many of them serving drug sentences. But the consequences of arrests don’t end with handcuffs and jail cells. Drug convictions follow people for the rest of their lives and often make it difficult for people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and become productive taxpaying citizens.

College students convicted of drug crimes automatically lose their financial aid, while murderers and rapists remain eligible. Many states don’t even allow people with certain drug convictions to exercise their constitutional right to vote once they’ve served their time and are living within the law.

While ending the War on Drugs won’t eliminate drug abuse, it will allow us to deal with it more effectively by bringing drug problems under the light of public scrutiny. By doing away with the black market, we’ll also put drug dealing criminals out of business and reverse the economic hardship caused by ever- expanding Drug War spending.

It’s time for real solutions, not more of the same old “tough on drugs” rhetoric.

Morals and Faith

Condemning nonviolent offenders to decades-long sentences and forcing them to sleep behind bars with murderers and rapists is immoral. That’s why prominent religious leaders are calling for an end to mandatory minimum drug sentences. The denominations opposed to mandatory minimums include Evangelical Lutherans, Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, and Baptists.

Foreign Policy

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials often unilaterally set up shop and conduct investigations in foreign countries, usually with no respect for the local rule of law. U.S. Drug War activities in Colombia directly lead to increased instability and violence in the region, empowering leftist guerillas but doing nothing to stem the flow of drug crops out of that country and into ours.

Federalism and States’ Rights

The federal Drug Czar’s office regularly interferes with the implementation of drug policy reforms made by states and cities. For example, federal agents continue to execute armed raids of seriously ill patients in the 11 states that have legalized medical marijuana.

Showing gross disrespect for local decision making and the will of the people, the White House Drug Czar actively spends federal resources campaigning against ballot initiatives or state legislation that would scale back the War on Drugs.

The Drug War Makes Drugs More Dangerous

Because of prohibition, drugs are sold on the black market, meaning that there is no quality control and users have no idea what they’re putting into their bodies.

Many teens report that it is easier to obtain marijuana than alcohol. Why? Because stores

selling liquor have to verify customers are of legal age, while schoolyard drug dealers never ask for ID.

The War on Drugs is a War on Progressive Values

“Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marijuana in private for personal use.”

President Jimmy Carter

“I think substance abuse should be treated as a medical problem, not a judicial problem.”

DNC Chairman Howard Dean

“Because our War on Drugs drives up the price, it encourages violence. Prohibition simply doesn’ t work. It only creates thousands and thousands of Al Capones.

“Prison should be for people who hurt other people, not themselves. The racism evident in the Drug War, and the clearly preferential treatment for offenders with connections, undermine our concept of a just society. Draconian prison sentences that dwarf those for violent crimes, like murder and rape, destroy respect for our laws.”

Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)

Why are leading progressives speaking out against the War on Drugs?

Human Rights

The United States has the highest per capita prison population in the world. More than 2.2 million people will go to bed behind bars in our country tonight—many of them for nonviolent drug offenses. We incarcerate more people for drug crimes than are imprisoned in Western Europe for all crimes combined. The U.S. has 5% of the world’s population but 25% of the world’s prisoners.

Racism

Drug War enforcement is racially biased and has a devastating effect on communities of color. Although African Americans comprise only 12% of the population and 13% of drug users, they make up 38% of those arrested for drug offenses and 62% of those convicted of drug offenses. Because of racial profiling and discriminatory enforcement, people of color bear the brunt of our drug laws. One in eight African American men have lost the right to vote because of past convictions. One in three black men alive today can expect to spend time in jail.

Environment

The government’s drug crop eradication schemes are not only unsuccessful but pollute the environment. The U.S. spends millions of dollars a year spraying poisons on Colombia in a failed effort to prevent drugs grown there from entering our country. But the poisons created by Monsanto also kill livestock, damage legitimate crops, and contaminate drinking water. Local farmers are pushed further and further into the rain forest to grow their crops on unpolluted lands, leading to increased deforestation.

Homeland Security and Public Safety

Remember those TV commercials claiming that people who use drugs support terrorism? That’s a direct result of drug prohibition. Just as Al Capone used illegal alcohol sales to fund his criminal empire, Al Qaeda and other terrorists see drugs as an easy way to finance their appalling activities today.

Because our police are so preoccupied with enforcing drug laws, they often don’t have the time or resources to go after murderers, rapists, or other criminals.

“I think that most small amounts of marijuana have been decriminalized in some places, and should be.”

President Bill Clinton

“We have never had a legitimate Drug War in the United States. And the reason is that we’ve never focused properly on treatment and education. We’ve been mostly focused on the punitive side and interdiction.

“We are imprisoning a bunch of people in the United States of America with automatic sentences and putting nonviolent people away and filling up our jails in the most absurd, ridiculous, overly expensive way. It just doesn’t make sense.”

Senator John Kerry (D-MA)

The Economy and Social Services

The billions of dollars spent on the Drug War every year means that less of our limited public resources are available for education, health care, homeland security, and environmental protection. But if drugs were regulated under the law we would not only save money on drug law enforcement, but we could institute a sales tax and bring millions of additional dollars a year into the public coffers.

Civil Liberties and Privacy

Long before the PATRIOT Act, police forces and federal agents knocked down Americans’ doors, ransacked their homes, and listened to their phone conversations—all in the name of the War on Drugs.

Foreign Policy

U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials often unilaterally set up shop and conduct investigations in foreign countries with no respect for local laws or customs. U.S. Drug War activities in Colombia directly lead to increased instability and violence in the region.

Public Health

Drug use should be treated as a public health issue, and not a criminal justice issue. Unfortunately, prohibition increases the risk of overdose deaths by scaring people away from calling for medical help when it is needed. The unregulated criminal market ensures that users don’t know what they’re putting into their bodies.

Zero tolerance laws that restrict access to clean needles only ensure the spread of HIV/AIDS and other communicable diseases by encouraging dirty needle sharing. People in prison are exposed to

diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis C at an alarmingly increased rate.