Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It: A Judicial Indictment of the War on Drugs PDF
Preview Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It: A Judicial Indictment of the War on Drugs
Praise for the First Edition of Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It “Judge Gray’s thorough and scholarly work, based as it is on his personal experience, should help considerably to improve our impossible drug laws. [His] book drives a stake through the heart of the failed War on Drugs and gives us options to hope for in the battles to come.”—Walter Cronkite “However harmful the ingestion of drugs is to their users, the attempt to prohibit drugs has made matters far worse, threatening our basic rights to life, liberty, and property. That is Judge Gray’s thesis in this important book, and he cites overwhelming evidence to support it. His proposals to improve the situation do not go as far as I would like, but they are all feasible and in the right direction. If adopted, they would produce a major improvement.”—Milton Friedman “The War on Drugs cannot be a war on discussion of this problem. We can fight drug use and abuse and still explore viable options. Judge Gray illuminates options and in the process will promote necessary discussion of them.”—George P. Shultz “It’s all here! A stinging indictment of today’s drug strategies and a rally- ing cry around new strategies for tomorrow.”—Gary E. Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico “It has been said that in public policy development we must distinguish between ideas that sound good and good ideas that are sound. In this book, Judge Gray provides sound ideas for a more effective national drug control policy. He recognizes that the War on Drugs needs new thinking for this new century.”—Kurt L. Schmoke, former Mayor of the city of Baltimore “This book is a powerful indictment of our failed War on Drugs. Jim Gray not only communicates the devastation wrought by a war he witnessed from the front lines as a trial judge and federal prosecutor, but he displays in these pages the moral courage it takes to cry out that the emperor wears no clothes.”—Arianna Huffington, author of How to Overthrow the Government W O D L hy ur rug aWs h F ave aiLeD and W W C D hat e an O a i bOut t JUDGE JAMES P. GRAY W O D L hy ur rug aWs h F ave aiLeD and W W C D hat e an O a i bOut t A JUDICIAL INDICTMENT OF THE WAR ON DRUGS SECOND EDITION TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS PHILADELPHIA TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122 www.temple.edu/tempress Copyright © 2012 by Temple University All rights reserved First edition published 2001 Second edition published 2012 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Gray, James P., 1945– Why our drug laws have failed and what we can do about it : a judicial indictment of the war on drugs / James P. Gray. — 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4399-0798-6 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4399-0799-3 (pbk. : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4399-0800-6 (e-book) 1. Drug abuse—Government policy—United States. 2. Drug control—United States. I. Title. HV5825.G6954 2012 362.29′160973—dc22 2011019634 The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992 Printed in the United States of America 2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3 1 This book is dedicated to Rufus King, Esq. Prof. Alfred Lindesmith Dr. Milton Friedman Edward M. Brecher Justice Gerald LeDain Dr. Herbert Berger Mayor Kurt Schmoke William F. Buckley, Jr. Secretary of State George Shultz Richard Dennis Dr. Willis P. Butler Judge Robert W. Sweet Chief Joseph D. McNamara Prof. Ethan Nadelmann Dr. Clarke and Katherine Smith Prof. Arnold S. Trebach Kevin Zeese, Esq. and all of the other pioneers who had the audacity and courage years ago to challenge our country’s failed drug policy. Friends tell friends the truth CONTENTS Preface to the Second Edition ix PART I: Introduction 1 PART II: Our Drug Laws Have Failed 17 1 Past and Present 19 A Historical Perspective 20 Emergence of the Prison-Industrial Complex 28 2 Increased Harm to Communities 49 Communities Awash in Illicit Drugs 49 Violence and Corruption 71 Domestic 71 Foreign 83 3 Erosion of Protections of the Bill of Rights: Where’s Paul Revere? 103 4 Increased Harm to Drug Users 131 Demonization 131 Deterioration of Health 134 5 Increased Harm for the Future 147 Conspiracy Theories 147 Government Policy: Don’t Discuss It! 153 PART III: Options 159 6 Increased Zero Tolerance 163 7 Education 177 viii • CONTENTS 8 Drug Treatment 193 Rehabilitation 195 Medicalization 201 Needle-Exchange Programs 201 Drug Substitution Programs 206 Drug Maintenance Programs 209 9 Deprofitization of Drugs 221 Legalization 221 Decriminalization 228 Regulated Distribution 233 10 Federalism, Not Federalization 243 PART IV: What We Can Do About It 247 Appendix A: Resolution 263 Appendix B: Government Commission Reports and Other Public Inquiries 265 Index 279 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION This approach to the drug problem is really a matter of our policy on drugs. The drug problem, the social problems, will always be with us, but how we deal with them must be rethought.1 Judge David Nichols (retired), Superior Court, Bellingham, Washington How does one win a drug war when millions of Americans who use recreational drugs are financing the cartels[’] bribing, murdering, and beheading to win the war and keep self-indulgent Americans supplied with drugs?2 Pat Buchanan, advisor to former Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan I have one question that nobody ever asks, and that is this question: What would happen if there were no profit in drugs? If they couldn’t make any money out of selling drugs, what would happen?3 Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) My personal view, I think for the most part we should legalize marijuana and be done with it. Because I think it’s created way more havoc and trouble than it’s worth.4 Judge Robert L. Deschamps III, Missoula County District Court, Missoula, Montana Future generations will look back at us as idiots for this war on drugs, the same way we mocked the Roaring Twenties prohibitionists.5 Deputy Sheriff Nate Bradley (retired), Sutter County, California 1. Paraphrased from a LEAP video at http://www.Youtube.com/watch?v=u0-LD4mWar0. 2. Quoted in Eve Conant, “Pot and the GOP,” Newsweek, November 1, 2010:30–35. 3. Dan Burton, “They Do It Because They Make Money,” Sojourners Magazine, May–June 2003:23. 4. Quoted in Kim Murphy, “Jurors Are Giving Pot Suspects a Pass,” Los Angeles Times, December 25, 2010, Orange County ed.: A1, A21. 5. Quoted in Andy McIntosh, “McIntosh: ‘Reefer Madness’ Mentality Persists,” North County Times (San Diego and Riverside Counties, California), May 21, 2011, http://www .nctimes.com/news/opinion/columnists/mcintosh/article_b53b8314-892a-5e61-833a- 0adae1e7c11f.html.
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