An Open Letter from Lawyers and Judges

        As judges and lawyers, we share with all Americans a deep concern about the threat that drugs pose to our children and our country. For more than twenty years, our nation's response to this threat has been a "war on drugs," enforced primarily through a criminal justice process which we administer and observe on a daily basis.

        Though we differ in political orientation and career experience, we unanimously observe that neither drugs nor drug abuse has been eliminated nor appreciably reduced, despite massive spending on interdiction and harsh punishments. Attempts at enforcement have clogged the courts, filled the prisons with non-predatory offenders, corrupted officials at home and abroad, bred disrespect for the law in important communities, imperiled the liberties of the people, burdened the taxpayers, impeded public health efforts to stem the spread of HIV and other infectious diseases, and brought the nation no closer to abstinence. As Congress and state legislatures enact more punitive and costly drug control measures, we conclude with alarm that the war on drugs now causes more harm than drug abuse itself.

        Accordingly, we join with our colleagues in calling upon our profession, elected officials, the media and the public to initiate a truly open and honest evaluation of the efficacy and consequences of our drug control laws. Only a public debate guided by mutual respect can yield better drug laws in which fear, prejudice, and punitive prohibitions yield to common sense, science, public health and human rights. As America must never "surrender" to drugs, neither must she surrender to inertia or fear that shuts off debate, suppresses critical analysis, dismisses alternatives to current policies, and vilifies those who express dissenting views.

/s/

Please add your name to the list of signatories. And,  please circulate this page among colleagues. Thank you.

Signatories

Charles D. Adler, New York
J. Michael Bass,  Valdosta, Georgia
Jes Beard, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Charles E. Cump, Denver, Colorado
Michael D. Cutler, Boston
Joshua M. Dale, San Francisco Bay Area, Califoria
Gregory T. Day, Grants Pass, Oregon
David L. DenHartigh, Salem, Oregon
Richard D. Elrick, Barnstable, Massachusetts
Richard M. Evans, Northampton, Massachustts
Leonard Frieling, Boulder, Colorado
Hon. Nancy Gertner, Boston
Leonard C. Goodman, Chicago, Illinois
Rankin Johnson IV, Portland, Oregon
Margaret Lunevitz-Smith, Brookline, Massachusetts
Paige A. Martin, Columbus, Ohio
Andrew C. Materowski, Indianapolis, Indiana
David T. McDonald, Portland, Oregon
Jim McMonough, Englewood, Colorado
Jeralyn Merritt, Denver
James P. Moriarty, Cresco, Iowa
William G. Panzer, Oakland, California
Frederick A. Reese, Gloucester, Virginia
Gregory A. Reeves, Decatur, Alabama
James A. Rice, Brookline, Massachusetts
Richard K. Tardy, Noblesville, Indiana
Donald Wirtshafter, Athen, Ohio
Kevin B. Zeese, Falls Church, Virginia

This page is  www.vcl.org/Open_letter.htm

Please circulate it among colleagues.

Thanks to all signers!