U.S. Should End Failed War on Drugs

* For some time now, since hearing [Orange County Superior Court] Judge James P. Gray speak on our nation’s failed drug policy, I have had a deep and abiding concern for the hideous costs and collateral damage inflicted by this failed “war on drugs.”

Its effect upon the very foundation of our democracy, not to mention the many victims of escalating violence, is a travesty. The resultant effects of crime, street shootings, drug busts, illegal seizures, police corruption, revolving door incarcerations etcetera cry out for a change in our approach.

The past 15 years of escalating penalties, long-term incarceration through mandatory sentencing, logjams in our courts and serious overcrowding of our jails and prisons, erosion of our constitutional rights, and horrifying costs of the “war” with no measurable improvements begs for a rethinking of alternative approaches.

I only hope that we will wise up to our failed approach to drug use and abuse before it’s too late and draw from the painful history of alcohol prohibition and the end of prohibition-induced crime when repeal came.

BILL KRAMES

Tustin