Eric Holder
U.S. Attorney General“As the so-called ‘war on drugs’ enters its fifth decade, we need to ask whether it, and the approaches that comprise it, have been truly effective.”
David Simon
Journalist and TV Producer“It would be one thing if the drug war was draconian and it worked…but it’s draconian and it doesn’t work.”
Michelle Alexander
Author“There are more African Americans under correctional control, in prison or jail, on probation or parole, than were enslaved in 1850 a decade before the civil war began.”
Chris Christie
Governor“The war on drugs, while well-intentioned, has been a failure.”
Carl Hart
Columbia Professor“I’d like to see empirical evidence be used in our shaping of public drug policy, so people will have more respect for a policy they know is not capricious.”
Pat Robertson
TV Evangelist“It’s shocking how many of these young people wind up in prison and they get turned into hardcore criminals because they had a possession of a very small amount of controlled substance. The whole thing is crazy.”
Julie Stewart
Advocate“I don’t care what brings the change about, whether it’s a moral outrage or whether it’s an economic crunch, I think that it’s time… it’s way past time.”
George Shultz
Fmr. Secretary of State“After 40 years of concentrating on one approach that has been
unsuccessful, we should be willing to take a look at other ways of
working to solve this pressing problem.”
Mike Huckabee
Politician and TV Personality“We have not been very successful in incarcerating our way out of the drug problem. We’ve created a bigger problem.”
William Bratton
Former Police Chief“Let’s return to the focus on prevention of crime. How do we prevent people from becoming drug addicts? How do we prevent people from being incarcerated?”
Tommy Chong
Actor“More kids die from obesity, from alcohol use, from traffic accidents. How many people have died from marijuana? Tell me.”
Paul Volcker
Economist“This approach has not worked, just as our national experiment with the prohibition of alcohol failed.
Richard Branson
Entrepeneur“What we need to do is to treat drugs as a health problem, not as a criminal problem.”
Charles Ogletree
Harvard Professor“You have never had so many people on the same side in this issue. Because
we’ve fought a war and we’ve been unsuccessful.”
Woody Harrelson
Actor“It’s about personal freedom. We should have the right in this country to do what we want, if we don’t hurt anybody.”