Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It: A Judicial Indictment of the War on Drugs

by James Gray

Overview

Our drug prohibition policy is hopeless, just as Prohibition, our alcohol prohibition policy, was before it. Today there are more drugs in our communities and at lower prices and higher strengths than ever before.

We have built large numbers of prisons, but they are overflowing with non-violent drug offenders. The huge profits made from drug sales are corrupting people and institutions here and abroad. And far from being protected by our drug prohibition policy, our children are being recruited by it to a lifestyle of drug use and drug selling.

Judge Gray’s book drives a stake through the heart of the War on Drugs. After documenting the wide-ranging harms caused by this failed policy, Judge Gray also gives us hope. We have viable options. The author evaluates these options, ranging from education and drug treatment to different strategies for taking the profit out of drug-dealing.

Many officials will not say publicly what they acknowledge privately about the failure of the War on Drugs. Politicians especially are afraid of not appearing "tough on drugs." But Judge Gray’s conclusions as a veteran trial judge and former federal prosecutor are reinforced by the testimonies of more than forty other judges nationwide.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781439908006
Publisher:	Temple University Press
Publication date:	12/16/2011
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	284
File size:	536 KB

About the Author

James P. Gray is Judge of the Superior Court in Orange County in Southern California. He has served as former federal prosecutor in Los Angeles and as a criminal defense attorney as a member of the JAG Corps in the Navy. In 1998 he made an unsuccessful run for Congress as a Republican against Bob Dornan. Judge Gray has discussed issues of drug policy on more than one hundred radio and TV shows and numerous drug forums around the country.

Table of Contents

Preface to Second Edition

PART I: Introduction

PART II: Our Drug Laws Have Failed

1 Past and Present

   A Historical Perspective

   Emergence of the Prison-Industrial Complex

2 Increased Harm to Communities

   Communities Awash in Illicit Drugs

   Violence and Corruption

     Domestic

     Foreign

3 Erosion of Protections of the Bill of Rights: Where's Paul Revere?

4 Increased Harm to Drug Users

   Demonization

   Deterioration of Health

5 Increased Harm for the Future

   Conspiracy Theories

   Government Policy: Don’t Discuss It!

PART III: Options

6 Increased Zero Tolerance

7 Education

8 Drug Treatment

   Rehabilitation

   Medicalization

     Needle Exchange Programs

     Drug Substitution Programs

     Drug Maintenance Programs

9 Deprofitization of Drugs

   Legalization

   Decriminalization

   Regulated Distribution

10 Federalism, Not Federalization

PART IV: What We Can Do About It

Appendix A: Resolution

Appendix B: Government Commission Reports and Other Public Inquiries

Index