Political Quotes

“This past Friday, the United States would have observed-- ``celebrated'' would be entirely the wrong word--the 40th anniversary of the war on drugs. The war on drugs was initiated by President Richard Nixon. He said we can have a war on drugs 40 years ago. The fact is, 40 years later, we've spent nearly a trillion dollars on the war on drugs. We have just as much drug use in this country as ever before. We've incarcerated millions and millions of people for victimless crimes. And when we get people who sell drugs, which we need to do, all that happens is like sharks teeth--they're replaced by the next in line; somebody else wanting to make money from a program that the public endorses and supports. So the war on drugs has been a terrible mistake. Now, don't get the wrong impression. I'm not suggesting that drug abuse and drug addiction is not a great problem that we must deal with. But our approach in treating it as a law enforcement matter and not as a health matter, a health care issue, has led to prison populations increasing, racial disparities of the greatest source in this Nation in the arrest process, and a lost generation of people with no education and no job prospects because those arrests haunt them for the rest of their lives.…”