Pubdate: Sat, 12 Sep 2015
Source: Boston Globe (MA)
Copyright: 2015 Globe Newspaper Company
Contact: http://services.bostonglobe.com/news/opeds/letter.aspx?id=6340
Website: http://bostonglobe.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/52
Author: Brandon Levey
Referenced: http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v15/n508/a06.html

A Renewed War on Drugs?

LET'S NOT RETURN TO FAILED POLICIES

I was disappointed to read an opinion piece by William J. Bennett and 
John P. Walters advocating for a return to demonstrably failed 
policies ("Bring back the war on drugs"). Since the "war on drugs" 
was declared in the early 1970s, millions have been placed behind 
bars and many more have had lives ruined in a grossly racially 
disproportionate manner. Furthermore, tens of billions of dollars 
have been spent yearly, and drug use has, at best, remained constant.

We've tried incarceration, and it succeeded in destroying lives and 
creating a major illegal, but lucrative, worldwide market. The 
policies that Bennett and Walters carried out under two separate 
presidential administrations didn't work then, and they won't work now.

Brandon Levey

Cambridge

The writer is former chief of staff of the Criminal Justice Policy 
Foundation in Silver Spring, Md.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom