“All people make mistakes. All of us are sinners. All of us are criminals. All of us violate the law at some point in our lives. In fact, if the worst thing you have ever done is speed ten miles over the speed limit on the freeway, you have put yourself and others at more risk of harm than someone smoking marijuana in the privacy of his or her living room. Yet there are people in the United States serving life sentences for first-time drug offenses, something virtually unheard of anywhere else in the world.” PeopleIfsWorldFirstsStatesDoneFactsLawUnitedRoomsMistakeUnited StatesOur LivesRiskWorstDrugTenLimitsFirst TimeSentencesSpeedHarmCriminalsMilesSmokingPrivacyMaking MistakesSinnerServingMarijuanaOffenseWorst ThingsLiving RoomUnheardFreewaysSpeed LimitsPeople Make Mistakes Book:The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness Source: The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness
“[T]ake the war on drugs. The average American says, "The war on drugs has been beneficial." The rest of us see reality. This war has destroyed thousands of Americans. It is also a pretext for government agents to rob innocent people in airports and on the highways - they seize and confiscate large amounts of cash and say to their victims: "Sue us if you don't like it." And more and more judges, politicians, intelligence agents, and law-enforcement officers are on the take - as dependent on the drug-war largess as the drug lords themselves.” PeopleIfsHas BeensWarRealityGovernmentLawLordJudgingAmountPoliticianDrugVictimAverageInnocentDestroyedAgentsDependentOfficersCashLaw EnforcementEnforcementHighwaysAirportsBeneficialWar On DrugsPretext Author:Jacob G. Hornberger
“Our whole life can go on in observation of the laws of nature, if we gain dominion over our desires from the beginning and if we do not kill, by various means of a perverse art, the human offspring, born according to the designs of divine providence; for these women who, in order to hide their immorality, use abortive drugs which expel the child completely dead, abort at the same time their own human feelings.” IfsHumansMeanChildrenArtWholeUseFeelingsLawDesireOrderBornDesignDivineGoes OnDrugGainsVariousWhole LifeObservationProvidenceLaws Of NatureDominionOffspringImmoralityDivine Providence Author:Clement of Alexandria
“No-knock police raids destroy Americans' right to privacy and safety. People's lives are being ruined or ended as a result of unsubstantiated assertions by anonymous government informants. ... Unfortunately, no-knock raids are becoming more common as federal, state, and local politicians and law enforcement agencies decide that the war on drugs justified nullifying the Fourth Amendment. ... No-knock raids in response to alleged narcotics violations presume that the government should have practically unlimited power to endanger some people's lives in order to control what others ingest.” PeopleShouldWarStatesGovernmentLawOrderResultsCommonBecomingPoliticianDrugShould HavePoliceSafetyResponseLocalsAgencyPrivacyAmendmentsFourthUnlimitedLaw EnforcementRuinedEnforcementJustifiedViolationAssertionBecoming MoreWar On DrugsNarcoticsUnlimited PowerRight To PrivacyFourth AmendmentInformants Author:James Bovard
“America didn't have a drug problem before it passed drug laws. While drugs were consumed by large numbers of people — the number of women habituated to the opium found in laudanum was, no pun intended, staggering — they were, for the most part, easily able to live their lives, do their jobs, and raise their families pretty much the way we do today.” ProblemAmericaLawDrugDrug Laws Author:L. Neil Smith
“Repealing drug laws would remove the risks involved with producing and distributing drugs, bringing 'street prices' crashing down (it's estimated that a 'spoon' of heroin would cost about a quarter in the free market), thereby eradicating any incentive that criminals might have to compete with legitimate businesses, and greatly reducing if not eliminating altogether any economic reason to 'push' drugs on children.” IfsChildrenReasonMightLawRiskEconomicStreetsInvolvedCostDrugCriminalsRemoveQuartersFree MarketIncentivesReducingHeroinSpoonsEliminatingDrug LawsRepealingCrashing Down Author:L. Neil Smith
“While the collateral consequences of drugs such as cocaine are indisputably severe, they are not unlike those which flow from the misuse of other, legal, substances.” LawScienceResponsibilityKnowledgeDrugConsequenceFlowToleranceSubstanceSevereCocaineProhibitionMisuseCollateral Author:Byron White
“Laws against things like drugs are inhumane, and create an inhumane society and inhumane law enforcement. I know whats causing violence in America - the damn drug laws.” KnowsAmericaLawViolenceDrugDamnLaw EnforcementEnforcementInhumaneDrug Laws Author:Michael Moriarty