Drug War

From the Trenches of the Drug War: A Street Cops Perspective

by Howard J. Wooldridge March 18, 2009

The nine-year-old boys eyes went as big as saucers, as my 40-caliber Glock came into view and paused for a split second on his chest. Being the fourth officer through the door of the townhouse meant the woman and her three kids were already in a state of shock. We spent ...

Why Does America Have a Drug War?

by Jacob G. Hornberger November 1, 2008

Given that most people agree that the drug war has failed to achieve its supposed purpose after decades of warfare, an important question arises: Why is the drug war still being waged, especially when we consider all the collateral damage that this federal program has produced? Hasn’t the time arrived for Americans to demand an immediate end to the ...

Common Sense and the Drug Problem

by Hank Sames February 25, 2008

“Largest Pot Bust on Record” ... “State to Fund New Jail Construction” ... “City Police and County Sheriffs Lobby for More Federal Funds to Fight Drugs” ... “Federal Courthouse Overwhelmed with Drug Cases” The headlines are disturbing and are never-ending. The “war on drugs” has gone on since the Nixon administration in the 1970s and ...

Ending America’s Domestic Quagmire

by Paul Armentano December 1, 2007

A growing number of political pundits are questioning America’s military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and some are beginning to draw parallels to lawmakers’ much longer domestic war effort: the so-called war on drugs. The comparison is apropos. For nearly 100 years, starting with the passage of America’s first federal anti-drug law in 1914, lawmakers have relied on the mantra ...

The Lies of the Drug War

by Paul Armentano November 1, 2007

Lies, Damned Lies, and Drug War Statistics by Matthew B. Robinson and Renee G. Scherlen (Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007); 268 pages; $27.95. One war appears to be going well for the United States and its allies these days: the drug war. That was the lead in dozens of U.S. newspapers in response to a June 2007 ...

Will a Drug Warrior Be Hanged?

by James Bovard October 1, 2007

Thailand’s billionaire prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, was deposed in a coup last year by the country’s military. Somchai Hom-la-or, chairman of the National Human Rights Commission, recently declared that “Thaksin and his government committed crimes against humanity.” Thai lawyers and human-rights activists are suggesting that he be indicted and tried by the International ...

End the Other War, Too

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2007

The war in Iraq goes on, but we shouldn’t let it overshadow the war at home — one that frequently takes the lives of people who don’t deserve to die. It’s known as the war on drugs, but it’s really a war on people who themselves are not making war against anyone. Too often individuals ...

End the Other War Too

by Sheldon Richman December 1, 2006

The war in Iraq goes on, but we shouldn’t let it overshadow the war at home — one that frequently takes the lives of people who don’t deserve to die. It’s known as the War on Drugs, but it’s really a war on people who themselves are not making war against anyone. Too often individuals ...

Lies and Myths about Opiates

by Randal Cousins October 1, 2006

Romancing Opiates: Pharmacological Lies and the Addiction Bureaucracy by Theodore Dalrymple (New York: Encounter Books, 2006); 146 pages; $21.95. This is a hugely important book. If it gets sufficient attention, it could be a major landmark in the ongoing campaign to introduce truth into the honesty-challenged issue of recreational drugs. Although written very much from a conservative point of ...

DEA Snake Oil

by Jacob G. Hornberger August 18, 2006

Don’t ever suggest that federal bureaucrats are not smart. Take, for instance, the DEA, the federal agency that has the responsibility of waging the war on drugs, a war that has obviously failed to achieve its objective after 30 years of warfare, not to mention all the collateral violence that the drug war has ...

The Drug War’s Immorality and Abject Failure

by Anthony Gregory July 1, 2006

If the idea is to create a drug-free America, then we can safely say that after hundreds of billions of dollars spent, millions of arrests, and decades of escalating police and military efforts, the war on drugs is a complete failure. The reason is clear if you think about it. The ...

Free Cory Maye

by Sheldon Richman May 1, 2006

Where are all the celebrities and human-rights activists? Where are Mike Farrell and Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon? Bianca Jagger, call your office! I watch cable news a lot, but I have yet to see one word about death-row inmate Cory Maye. Why not? You haven’t heard of Cory Maye? Few people have, despite the best ...