Law Enforcement Against Prohibition

It's Time for an Exit Strategy from the "War on Drugs"

As more people become aware of the devastating consequences of the failed "war on drugs," it becomes apparent that we need to find a new way forward for actually controlling drugs. Many prominent citizens are now calling for the creation of a "Blue Ribbon Commission" to finally take a serious look at real solutions to our drug abuse and illegal drug market problems.

Indeed, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) and several other senators have introduced bipartisan legislation to create a commission charged with conducting an 18-month, top-to-bottom review of the nation's entire criminal justice system and offering concrete recommendations for reform. When asked on CNN about legalizing drugs, Sen. Webb replied, “Nothing should be off the table.”

Please join us by signing the petition below. We will compile the names and present them to Senator Webb in support of his bill, S.714, the National Criminal Justice Commission Act. We will also forward the petition and its signatures to President Obama.

Whereas, the overall situation regarding the use of drugs in our society and the crime and misery that accompany it has continued to deteriorate for several decades; and

Whereas, our society has continued to attempt, at enormous financial cost and loss of civil liberties, to resolve drug abuse problems through the criminal justice system, with the accompanying increase of prisons and numbers of inmates; and

Whereas, the huge untaxed revenues generated by the illicit drug trade are undermining legitimate governments world-wide; and

Whereas, the present system has spawned a cycle of hostility by the incarceration of disproportionate numbers of African-Americans, Hispanics, and other minority groups; and

Whereas, the number of people who have contracted AIDS, hepatitis, and other diseases from contaminated hypodermic needles is epidemic under our present system; and

Whereas, in our society's zeal to pursue our criminal approach, legitimate medical uses for the relief of pain and suffering of patients have been suppressed;

Therefore be it resolved that our society must recognize drug use and abuse as the medical and social problems that they are, and that they must be treated with medical and social solutions; and

Further be it resolved that an objective commission be immediately empowered by the President and by Congress to recommend revisions of the drug laws of these United States in order to reduce the harm our current policies are causing.

First Name*

Last Name

Email*

Zip/Postal Code*

Additional comments about the "war on drugs":

Original signatories:

Dr. Milton Friedman	Nobel laureate; Professor Emeritus of Economics, University of Chicago; Senior Research Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford, CA
Dr. Joseph D. McNamara	Former Chief of Police, San Jose, CA, and Kansas City, MO; Fellow, Hoover Institution, Stanford, CA
Herbert Berger, M.D.	F.A.C.P.; F.C.C.P.; Internationally recognized authority on drug treatment, Staten Island, NY
Judge James P. Gray	Orange County Superior Court, Santa Ana, CA
Katherine H. Smith	Founder, Group Resolving Anti-Social Problems (GRASP), Anaheim, CA
S. Clarke Smith, M.D.	F.A.A.F.P.; Board of Directors, California Academy of Family Physicians, Anaheim, CA
Clifford A. Schaffer	Author; Computer Consultant, Canyon Country, CA
Frederick H. Meyers, M.D.	Professor of Pharmacology, University of California at San Francisco; Chairman of the California Research Advisory Panel on Drugs
Harvey L. Rose, M.D.	Author of California’s “Intractable Pain Treatment Act;” Family Practice, Carmichael, CA
John J. McCarthy, M.D., A.B.P.N.	Psychiatrist, Executive Director, Bi-Valley Medical Clinic, Sacramento, CA
Gary Davis, M.D.	Diplomate in Psychiatry, A.B.P.N., American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology, Citrus Heights, CA
Benson B. Roe, M.D.	Professor and Chief Emeritus of Cardiothoracic Surgery, University of California at San Francisco, CA
Stephen A. Fisher, M.D.	Diplomate in Psychiatry, A.B.P.N., American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology, Berkeley, CA
Reverend Leonard B. Jackson	First A.M.E. Church of Los Angeles, CA
Reverend J. D. Moore	First A.M.E. Church of Los Angeles, CA
Donald McNamara	Investment Consultant, New York, NY
Richard Arthur	Educator, Former Principal of Castlemont High School, Oakland, CA; Author of Gangs and Schools, Richmond, CA
Howard Levine	Office of the Mayor, Baltimore, MD
Kurt L. Schmoke	Mayor, City of Baltimore, Maryland
George P. Shultz	Former United States Secretary of State, Hoover Institution, Stanford, CA

0-25 of 2852 signatures

Number	Date	Name	Additional comments about the "war on drugs":
2852	March 19, 2010	Ronald Rush
2851	March 19, 2010	Jude McCauley	in my personal experience with my girlfriend who was an alcoholic and an addict, after she got in trouble and went to jail she got worse. i believe that jail is a horrible way to treat people who are ill with addiction to drugs or alcohol.
2850	March 19, 2010	Randy Berry	Stop the abuse of our Justice system because of this war that can never be won.
2849	March 19, 2010	hugo Ortega
2848	March 16, 2010	William Henry
2847	March 15, 2010	James Clark	The police are focused on bringing the wrong people "to justice". Their resources are better spent pursuing violent offenders and keeping these same offenders behind bars. Non violent low level drug users should not be incarcerated. Period. I hope this commission will recommend full legalization for non-addictive substances such as marijuana so that fully functioning and productive members of society will not have their lives, families, and careers destroyed any longer.
2846	March 15, 2010	larry sims	look at ourgangs and shootings all supplied by drug money,look at the violence and murders along our borders all about drugs. WHY! get controll with legalization.
2845	March 15, 2010	Garrett Brown
2844	March 15, 2010	Daniel Nelson	This has become an endless cycle of spending more and more tax dollars on a policy that does nothing but support the profits of organized crime worldwide.
2843	March 14, 2010	SCOTT STEWART
2842	March 12, 2010	Rinaldo Olff
2841	March 12, 2010	Daniel Carr	I am willing to die to end the usless victimization of americans who dont comply with prohibition
2840	March 12, 2010	jerry howell
2839	March 11, 2010	Carl Raff	Drug abuse is a health issue, not a criminal one.
2838	March 11, 2010	kevin greene	its time to stop the wholesale warehousing of non violent consenting adults who use drugs or anything else in the privacy of their own homes.where does the government have the right to tell a free citizen of this nation what they can and cannot put in their body!!
2837	March 11, 2010	karen brand
2836	March 11, 2010	joshua montgomery	stop wasting my money on this, i'm sick of congress bitching about not having money for stupid shit they want to do, but yet they spend a shit load on the war on drugs......hand over your personal check book i'll show you how it feels to be us! i'd give it all to LEAP & NORML!
2835	March 11, 2010	arch mcgill	The war on drugs is a farce, the time has come to end this waste of time and money. The time of our enforcement people can be better utilized, Mexico could be lost to drug lords, our jails are unnecessarily crowded and costly, etc.
2834	March 10, 2010	Veronica Leal-Lesko
2833	March 10, 2010	David Petti
2832	March 09, 2010	Sean
2831	March 09, 2010	Eric Wood	I agree, something needs to happen. This is a ridiculous "war" that will never be won. Everyone knows this! They will continue to spend ungodly amounts of money on incarcerating people and paying cops to bust potheads, instead of spending their time on murderers or pedophiles.
2830	March 08, 2010	Paul Lesko	There is a reason why so many medical doctors have signed this bill; there is a dramatic under-treatment of chronic non-cancer pain throughout the United States by otherwise good doctors for the simple fact that the DEA has arrested and incarcerated such doctors for giving what they deemed appropriate pain medication to individuals who needed them. It's called the "chilling effect" and ending the war on drugs will end this behavior and end a lot of useless pain and suffering across the US. See this website!: http://www.doctordeluca.com/Library/WOD/WOD-PCA060404cWeb.htm It's time for us to stand up and say enough is enough, people need proper, factual education and regulation to minimize drug abuse, not deception, and incarceration which leads to an increase in crime.
2829	March 07, 2010	James Gierach	The drug war doesn't work; end it. The drug war is the heart of most American crises that, collectively, are unaffordable.
2828	March 07, 2010	john moran	i think that it is a classic example of"a cure being much worse than the disease" i heard 1 judge say that overall crime would be reduced by 80 % after legalization of drugs

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Dedicated to our departed colleagues who courageously spoke out about the destructive policy of Drug Prohibition
Eleanor Schockett	Gil Puder	Whitman Knapp	John Perry	Ralph Salerno	Bob Owens	Eddie Ellison	Martin Haines