“Alcohol didn’t cause the high crime rates of the ‘20s and ‘30s, Prohibition did. And drugs
do not cause today’s alarming crime rates, but drug prohibition does…. Trying to wage war
on 23 million Americans who are obviously very committed to certain recreational activities is not going to be any more successful than Prohibition was.”
– Judge James Paine
U.S. District Court
Source: address to the Florida Bar Association in Miami, November, 1991
“Thanks to the war on drugs, nearly 700,000 people were arrested in the United States for
possession of marijuana in 1997, while 400,000 currently sit in prison for drug crimes –
more than the entire prison population of Britain, Germany and Belgium — for what is a
consensual act. Nearly $35 billion a year is spent on arresting, prosecuting and jailing
drug criminals in the US — $400 million in Canada — to hammer at a crime which
essentially harms no one but the drug user.”
– Steven Martinovich
Source: The Tainted Truth, REALMENSCH April 30, 1999
“I say legalize drugs because I want to see less drug abuse, not more. And I say legalize drugs because I want to see the criminals put out of business.”
– Edward Ellison
head of Scotland Yard’s Antidrug Squad
Source: March 10, 1998, London’s Daily Mail.
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Edward.Ellison.Quote.665E
“No-knock police raids destroy Americans’ right to privacy and safety. People’s lives are being ruined or ended as a result of unsubstantiated assertions by anonymous government informants. … Unfortunately, no-knock raids are becoming more common as federal, state, and local politicians and law enforcement agencies decide that the war on drugs justified nullifying the Fourth Amendment. … No-knock raids in response to alleged narcotics violations presume that the government should have practically unlimited power to endanger some people’s lives in order to control what others ingest.”
– James Bovard
American author, lecturer
Source: OOOPS—YOU’RE DEAD… The Body Count from NO-KNOCK RAIDS is climbing. ARE YOU NEXT?
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/James.Bovard.Quote.21AB
“Legalizing drugs would simultaneously reduce the amount of crime and also the quality of law enforcement. Can you conceive of any other measure that would accomplish so much to promote law and order?”
– Milton Friedman
(1912-2006) Nobel Prize-winning economist, economic advisor to President Ronald Reagan, “ultimate guru of the free-market system”
Source: May 1, 1972, Newsweek
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Milton.Friedman.Quote.877B
“In ancient Babylon, Sumeria, Egypt, China, Greece, and Rome, for instance, price controls promoted not fairness but famine. During the twentieth century, central banks were supposed to help safeguard economies, but they brought on the worst inflations and depressions. Alcohol and drug prohibition, intended to enforce moral behavior, contributed to escalating violence.”
– Marisa Manley
Source: Why Laws Backfire, THE FREEMAN, p. 545, August 1996.
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Marisa.Manley.Quote.42E2