If we legalized drugs today and we started treating drug abuse as a health problem instead of a crime problem, we could save most of these people who are using drugs. |
Information access is all-important, |
Marijuana is worth more ounce to ounce than gold. Heroine is worth more than uranium. Heroine is probably the most expensive commodity on the face of the earth. |
Our children for the last 10 years, it's been said in every government survey, it's easier for them to buy illegal drugs than it is to buy beer and cigarettes. |
Since 1970, we've spent more than a trillion dollars on this war and all we have to show for it each year is we arrest another 1.6 million people in this country for nonviolent drug offenses. Fully half are marijuana arrests. |
The main problem that we did have was 'soft drugs,' things like marijuana. |
The war on drugs has been too long and too disgustingly failed and far too destructive. |
The war on drugs is not only a dismal failure, but it's a terribly destructive policy. |
Using SWAT in this case is like using a sledgehammer on a fly. I'd much rather use a little bit of stealth. |
We're not talking about ending it because drugs are good; they're certainly not. Everybody in my organization has fought the war on drugs long and hard. What we've changed is our minds about the way we're going about (the war). |
When you have a war, there's going to be casualties, and there's going to be collateral damage. ... None of this would be happening if we ended the prohibition on drugs the way we ended the prohibition on alcohol. |
When you kick in a door, all it does is alert them that someone is coming that they don't want to see, |
When you prohibit a drug, even the most dangerous drug, two things it doesn't do -- it doesn't cause the drug to be any better and it doesn't cause less people to use it. |