Roar Mikalsen - HUMAN RISING - radiofri..

America, National Association of People With AIDS, the state medical associations of New
York, California, and Rhode Island. Også flere tidsskrifter stiller seg bak
legaliseringsbevegelsen. Redaktørene i det konservative National Review, sier dette om
hvorfor: “It is our judgment that the war on drugs has failed, that it is diverting intelligent
energy away from how to deal with the problem of addiction, that it is wasting our
resources, and that it is encouraging civil, judicial, and penal procedures associated with
police states. We all agree on movement toward legalization, even though we may differ on
just how far. We are joined in our judgment by Ethan A. Nadelmann, a scholar and
researcher; Kurt Schmoke, a mayor and former prosecutor; Joseph D. McNamara, a former
police chief; Robert W. Sweet, a federal judge and former prosecutor; Thomas Szasz, a
psychiatrist; and Steven B. Duke, a law professor. Each has his own emphases, as one might
expect. All agree that the celebrated war has failed, and that it is time to go home, and to
mobilize fresh thought on the drug problem in the context of a free society. This symposium
is our contribution to such thought”.
På side 22 i rapporten sin for år 2008, konkluderer legaliseringsorganisasjonen Drug Policy
Alliance (DPA) med følgende: “The ground has never been more fertile for a change to our
nation’s failed drug policies. The folly and waste of the drug war becomes apparent to ever
more lawmakers and citizens each day. We are seeing a broader questioning of America’s
gulag drug policy that fills our prisons and jails and empties our coffers, that severely
punishes the use of certain drugs but tolerates, regulates, taxes and even subsidizes others.
Yet even as minds and eyes are opening, the assault on American citizens continues. In 2008,
more than 800,000 marijuana arrests were made, nearly 90 percent of those for simple
possession. Nationwide, almost a half million people are currently incarcerated for drug law
violations. This is why DPA’s work is so vitally important: to expose the daily injustices of this
destructive war on our families and communities; to pursue justice in the courts, in state
capitols and in the halls of Congress; and to renew hope inside state and federal prisons, on
neighborhood streets, and in our schools and houses of worship. DPA is committed to a
more just and humane future, and we will not stop until our society and state houses
embrace a fundamentally different way of dealing with drugs and the people who buy, sell,
make and use them. We’ve never been more hopeful – and we hope you’ll join us in this
historic struggle for reason, compassion and justice!”
144 Drugs and Crime Across America: Police Chiefs Speak Out. Drug Strategies & Police
Foundation. 2004.
145 James P Gray, Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed And What We Can Do About It; A Judical
Indictment of the War on Drugs, (Temple University Press 2001) s 5
146 Ibid s 146.
398