Best drug & war-on-drugs Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings Page 2

“We're talking about a prison-industrial complex. We're talking about a war on drugs that's generating unprecedented levels of incarcerated folk. We're talking about dilapidated housing. We're talking about joblessness and underemployment.”

War Levels Talking Drug Prison Complexes Folks Joblessness Housing Unprecedented War On Drugs Underemployment

Author:Cornel West

“I have a regret that the entire discussion [with El Chapo]... ignores its purpose, which was to try to contribute to this discussion about the policy in the War on Drugs.”

War Regret Drug Debate Interviews Sparks I Regret War On Drugs

Author:Sean Penn

“In 1970, there were approximately 330,000 prisoners in the US. Today there are 2.3 million behind bars - more than any country in the history of the world. In 2009 alone there were 1.6 million drug-related arrests in the U.S. 1.3 million of these were for possession of drugs alone. Over half were related to marijuana. The forty-year war on drugs has cost $2.5 trillion.”

World Years War Country Today Behinds Half Millions Cost Drug Possession Bars Related Forty Prisoner Marijuana World History War On Drugs

Author:Sam Branson

“Just plain logic says that the war on drugs does not work. It absolutely does not work. We have this highly addictive legal drug called tobacco which has never resulted in people being sent to prison, but there has been a massive reduction in its consumption simply because responsible adults looking at their own bodies have said they don't want to do that to themselves.”

People Want Doe Has Beens Said War Body Drug Adults Logic Responsible Prison Massive Working It Consumption Tobacco Reduction War On Drugs

Author:Graham Hancock

“I think it is now widely understood that the so-called "War on Drugs" has largely been a failure. Too many people have developed criminal records for smoking marijuana. Too many people have gone to jail for nonviolent crimes. So I think it's important for us to rethink the war on drugs.”

People Thinking Important War Gone Records Crime Drug Understood Criminals Smoking Jail Marijuana War On Drugs

Author:Bernie Sanders

“The war on drugs has gone on for about forty-five, fifty years - and it's been a complete failure. If you had a business that was failing so badly, you would change course. And it's just incredible that governments continue along the same course.”

Ifs Years War Government Courses Gone Five Failing Drug Incredibles Fifty Forty War On Drugs

Author:Richard Branson

“The whole drug war is nothing but a pretext to increase police power and personnel, and that, of course, is dead wrong. So many created imagined drug offenses.”

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Author:William S. Burroughs

“On average, drug prisoners spend more time in federal prison than rapists, who often get out on early release because of the overcrowding in prison caused by the Drug War.”

War Humor Drug Prison Average Alcohol Release More Time Prisoner Alcoholics War On Drugs Drug Prohibition Overcrowding

Author:Michael Badnarik

“People lose their lives in the drug wars and you don't have to prove it to yourself because others have proved it for you.”

People War Loses Drug Prove Prove It War On Drugs

Author:Lemmy Kilmister

“If we would end the war on drugs, you would see the end of the militarization of our police forces and you would see an end to a lot of the shooting violence that's going on when people are being pulled over for traffic stops and then suddenly executed right in the street.”

People Ifs War Ends Force Violence Streets Drug Police Shooting Traffic War On Drugs Police Force

Author:Jesse Ventura

“The war on drugs is identical to the prohibition of alcohol: all you're doing is making criminals rich and powerful.”

War Powerful Rich Drug Alcohol Criminals Identical Prohibition War On Drugs

Author:Jesse Ventura

“The war on drugs causes other supplemental crimes to take place because of the original illegality of it. But then again, that's the other reason that they're fighting it is the corporate prisons they have now. Because they've privatized all our prisons, corporations have to make money, and the only way they can make money is, I believe, the prisons have to be at least 80-90 percent full. That's why the United States - which is home of the brave, land of the free - we have more people in prison than any other country in the world.”

“That's why you need the war on drugs to put all these pot smokers in prison so that the prisons remain full and the corporations remain profitable. It's a slippery slope.”

Needs War Drug Prison Corporations Pot Profitable War On Drugs Slippery Slopes Smokers Slippery Slope

Author:Jesse Ventura

“Today, aid to Colombia is given under the pretext of a drug war. That's pretty hard to take seriously. Ten years ago, Amnesty International flatly called it a myth.”

Years War Hard Today Given Drug Ten Years Ago International Myth Aids War On Drugs Pretext Colombia Amnesty Amnesty International

Author:Noam Chomsky

“I'd never written nonfiction about the war on drugs, but I know a tremendous amount about it: I taught a class on it for seven years. I was putting into words the stuff I was teaching, and I was writing it up and thought, "Dude, you're writing a book."”

Knows Writing Years Book War Stuff Class Written Teaching Taught Amount Drug Seven Nonfiction Seven Years Writing A Book War On Drugs

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“I was a federal public defender during the most important years of the drug war. I saw people go to jail for nothing, and go to jail for a long time.”

People Years Long Important War Saws Drug Long Time Jail Defenders War On Drugs

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“States began to realize how much money they were spending on incarceration and how much money they were spending fighting this ludicrous war on drugs that was actually counterproductive.”

War States Fighting Realizing Drug Spending War On Drugs Incarceration Counterproductive

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“I really think we were charting a course to having a more sane response to mass incarceration, to drug use, and to understanding that the war on drugs has resulted only in the empowerment of vast criminal enterprises and the destruction of democracies around the world. And all that is coming to a miserable, horrific halt.”

“The idea that [Jeff Sessions] is the man who is going to end the progress on the drug war makes me want to rip my hair out, every carefully nurtured curl on my head.”

Men Want Ideas War Ends Progress He Man Hair Drug Session Rip Curls War On Drugs

Author:Ayelet Waldman

“Mandatory minimum sentences give no discretion to judges about the amount of time that the person should receive once a guilty verdict is rendered. Harsh mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses were passed by Congress in the 1980s as part of the war on drugs and the "get tough" movement, sentences that have helped to fuel our nation's prison boom and have also greatly aggravated racial disparities, particularly in the application of mandatory minimum sentences for crack cocaine.”

“I definitely believe in legalizing drugs. It does take the mystery away. It takes the money away, so suddenly there are no drug wars. If you're a junkie, you can get help easier.”

Ifs Believe Doe War Helping Mystery Easier Drug War On Drugs Junkie Legalizing Drugs

Author:Winona Ryder

“The wave of punitiveness that washed over the United States with the rise of the drug war and the get tough movement really flooded our schools. Schools, caught up in this maelstrom, began viewing children as criminals or suspects, rather than as young people with an enormous amount of potential struggling in their own ways and their own difficult context to make it and hopefully thrive. We began viewing the youth in schools as potential violators rather than as children needing our guidance.”

“The bigger picture is that over the last 30 years, we have spent $1 trillion waging a drug war that has failed in any meaningful way to reduce drug addiction or abuse, and yet has siphoned an enormous amount of resources away from other public services, especially education.”

Way Years War Lasts Amount Drug Resources Abuse Bigger Addiction Meaningful Enormous Public Service Drug Addiction War On Drugs Drug Addict Bigger Picture

Author:Michelle Alexander

“The war on drugs has been the engine of mass incarceration. Drug convictions alone constituted about two-thirds of the increase in the federal prison population and more than half of the increase in the state prison population between 1985 and 2000, the period of our prison system's most dramatic expansion.”

“Most Americans violate drug laws in their lifetime, but the enemy in this war has been racially defined. Not by accident, the drug war has been waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color, even though studies have consistently shown - for decades - the people of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites.”

People Has Beens War Use Law Community Poor Enemy Study Color Drug Sells Lifetime Accidents Decades Defined Illegal Consistently War On Drugs Illegal Drugs Drug Laws

Author:Michelle Alexander

“Defenders of the system will counter by saying this drug war has been aimed at violent crime. But that is not the case. The overwhelming majority of people arrested in the drug war have been arrested for relatively minor, non-violent drug offenses.”

People Has Beens War Cases Crime Drug Majority Violent Overwhelming Minors Offense Arrested Defenders War On Drugs Non Violent Violent Crimes

Author:Michelle Alexander

“In the 1990s - the period of the greatest escalation of the drug war - nearly 80 percent of the increase in drug arrests was for marijuana possession, a drug less harmful than alcohol or tobacco and at least, if not more, prevalent in middle class white neighborhoods and college campuses as it is in the 'hood.”

Ifs War White Class Middle College Periods Drug Percent Increase Possession Alcohol Middle Class Neighborhood Marijuana Tobacco Hood Campus War On Drugs College Campus Escalation

Author:Michelle Alexander

“By waging the drug war and "getting tough" almost exclusively in the 'hood, we've managed to create a vast new racial undercaste in an astonishingly short period of time.”

War Periods Drug Tough Hood War On Drugs

Author:Michelle Alexander

“Many people don't realize that financial incentives have been built into the drug war that guarantee that law enforcement will continue to arrest extraordinary numbers of people, particularly in poor communities of color, for minor drug offenses that get ignored on the other side of town.”

“In the war on drugs, state and state law enforcement agencies have been rewarded in cash by the federal government - through programs like the Edward Byrne Memorial Grant program - for the sheer numbers of people arrested for drug offenses.”

People Has Beens War States Government Law Numbers Drug Program Agency Grants Cash Sheer Offense Federal Government Law Enforcement Enforcement Memorial Arrested War On Drugs

Author:Michelle Alexander

“If the drug war was waged in those communities it would spark such outrage that the war would end overnight. This literal war is waged in segregated, impoverished communities defined largely by race, and the targets are the most vulnerable, least powerful people in our society.”

People Ifs War Ends Community Powerful Race Drug Vulnerable Defined Our Society Target Sparks Outrage Literal War On Drugs

Author:Michelle Alexander

“For those who say that the war on drugs and the system of mass incarceration really isn't about race, I say there is no way we would allow the majority of young white men to be swept into the criminal justice system for minor drug offenses, branded criminals and felons, and then stripped of their basis civil and human rights while young black men who are engaged in the same activity trot off to college. That would never be accepted as the norm.”

“The fact that people of all colors have been ensnared by the drug war helps to preserve the system as a whole from serious critique, as it creates the impression - at a glance - that the war is being waged in an unbiased manner, even when nothing could be further from the truth.”

People Has Beens War Whole Facts Helping Color Serious Drug Impression Preserves Glances Critique War On Drugs Unbiased

Author:Michelle Alexander

“We have now spent 1 trillion dollars waging the drug war since it began. A trillion. Those funds could have been used for education, jobs and drug treatment in the communities that needed it most. We could have used those funds for our collective well being, instead those dollars paved the way for the destruction of countless lives, families, and dreams.”

Way Wells Has Beens War Dream Jobs Used Community Needed Drug Destruction Dollars Well Being Collectives Treatment Fund Could Have Been Family Life War On Drugs

Author:Michelle Alexander

“We need to take a hard look at the war on drugs and the number of non-violent offenders who end up getting their lives destroyed by going to prison. We need to look at mandatory minimum sentencing and give judges more flexibility when there are issues of drug abuse or addiction.”

Needs Giving Looks War Ends Hard Numbers Issues Judging Drug Abuse Prison Addiction Violent Destroyed Minimum Flexibility War On Drugs Offenders Non Violent Drug Abuse

Author:Bernie Sanders

“Three strikes' laws make no sense as policy. They are more about the politicians responding to the people's desire to see their fury at social dysfunction reflected in the law. Our sentences are way too long. We need to look at the war on drugs, which is to say we need to look and this is easier said than done. Once again, politically, not an easy lift at all. Nevertheless, our policy is self-defeating. We're not keeping people from using the substances. We're creating a huge black market, just like we did under prohibition, which attracts all kinds of criminal enterprise.”

People Kind Long War Done Desire Easy Black Policy Politician Drug All Kinds Enterprise Fury Prohibition War On Drugs

Author:Glenn Loury

“None of us are rational economic men as we're supposed to be portrayed in economic theory where mixes of passions, of desires, of moral principles, of self-deception, of altruism, of concern of others, of concerns for ourselves and an interest in our bank accounts. And social policies have to be responsive to the complexity of who we are as people or else, like the war on drugs, they're simply going to fail.”

People Men War Desire Passion Interest Moral Failing Economic Policy Drug Concern Rational Complexity Altruism War On Drugs

Author:Dale Jamieson

“Various "wars on drugs" throughout history have killed millions, enslaved millions more, destroyed families, are usually just thin pretenses for mass incarceration, mass surveillance, ethnic cleansing, population control.”

War Drug Various Pretense War On Drugs Incarceration

Author:Kool A.D.

“The War on Drugs is a war on people, but particularly it's been a war on low-income people and a war on minorities. We know in the United States of America there is no difference in drug use between black, white and Latinos. But if you're Latino in the United States of America, you're about twice as likely to be arrested for drug use than if you're white. If you're black, you are about four times as likely to be arrested if you're African American than if you are white. This drug war has done so much to destroy, undermine, sabotage families, communities, neighborhoods, cities.”

People War Done Black Community Drug African American Neighborhood Latino War On Drugs Sabotage

Author:Cory Booker

“We started America with the sin of slavery that led right into the post-reconstruction period which was the greatest period of domestic terrorism in our country's history. Then after that, we had Jim Crow emerge and just when the Jim Crow laws were ending came the onslaught of the drug war. Well, the drug war has so perniciously effected, insidiously infected communities of color that in some ways it has come full circle, and we now have more African Americans under criminal supervision than all of the slaves in 1865. This is a profoundly unjust war.”

War Community Sin Drug Slavery Slave Terrorism African American Crow War On Drugs Jim Crow Supervision

Author:Cory Booker

“The murder clearance rate now in my city Baltimore is almost non-existent. Nobody can solve a murder, nobody can do any actual police work, because they've learned how to do bad police work, chase drugs. Fighting vice, while being unable to respond to sin. Generations of cops have learned how not to police work by policing the drug war. Not only are they police brutal, they're ineffective. Baltimore is more violent than it has ever been in modern history.”

War Fighting Sin Modern Drug Murder Police Rate Violent Cop Brutal War On Drugs

Author:David Simon

“Barack Obama's understanding of what the drug war had cost the country was meaningful. And very quietly in his second term, he and Eric Holder did make some adjustments in terms of the use of the Department of Justice, on the federal level. You saw ratcheting back of drug prohibition, and mass incarceration. You also saw, on the part of some certain states, a realization that they followed the war on drugs to a useless place, that they were only doing damage to communities, and bankrupting budgets with prison construction.”

War Country Understanding Term Community Justice Drug Prison Meaningful Realization Barack Construction Prohibition War On Drugs Incarceration

Author:David Simon

“The thing I wrote we ought to look to Canada for is the shorter sentences. I mean, the mess we're in here, is because of the drug war and this idea of adding another five years, another 10 years, you know, like it means nothing to the people involved. It certainly does nothing for crime prevention - what problem are we hoping to solve?”

People Mean War Problem Crime Drug Mess War On Drugs

Author:Peter Moskos

“When you hear the ex-politician tell you that the reason they created the War on Drugs was to get black people and to get hippies...that to me is just as shitty as saying all Mexicans are murderers and rapists. Or all Muslims. That's what I'm paying attention to. And everybody is hedging their bets when it comes to marijuana. The government is sitting on this lie saying it's a gateway drug.”

People War Reason Lying Black Attention Drug Pay Attention Black People Marijuana Murderer Hippie War On Drugs

Author:Whoopi Goldberg

“If you want to fight a war on drugs, sit down at your own kitchen table and talk to your own children.”

Ifs Want Children War Fighting Drug Tables Kitchen War On Drugs Kitchen Table

Author:Barry McCaffrey

“Anyway, no drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.”

Source: Give War a Chance: Eyewitness Accounts of Mankind's Struggle Against Tyranny, Injustice, and Alcohol-Free Beer

“See, if you look at the drug war from a purely economic point of view, the role of the government is to protect the drug cartel. That's literally true.”

Ifs Looks War Government Views Roles Economic Drug Protect Point Of View War On Drugs Cartels Drug Cartels

Author:Milton Friedman

“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... Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce [28g] of marijuana.”

“Our government's got a war on drugs. That's certainly better than no drugs at all.”

War Government Drug War On Drugs

Author:Kurt Vonnegut

“The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world.”

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