Many may wonder: "Why this sudden focus on the drug war?" Perhaps it is difficult for many to see how this issue deeply permeates our lives, since many of us in law school are of at least moderate privilege. We are among the educated, the empowered, the elite. Or so it seems? However, it is this class (our class I guess we could say) of persons that is so devoid of critical information, so unaware of how the larger policies are affecting our culture, our communities, and the world. As a National Lawyer’s Guild announcement so appropriately put it: "Resist the apathy that law school fosters." Despite the call, few actually do.

The drug war sits at the frontline of the erosion of our civil liberties. The drug war sits at the front of the violent intervention of foreign nations’ and their domestic economies, their politics, and their social policies. The drug war is, contrary to many whom seem to be in love with prisons, racist in its most basic form, and effectively ensures that those who are the most disempowered will stay that way. Hell, let’s just speak honestly...the drug war punishes instead of treats, it spanks and beats instead of counseling and creating much-needed dialogue.

It is well understood that many cannot see this, nor can they be directed in ways that will allow them to see this unfolding drama. However we hope that cold-hard facts, will speak to our collective sensibilities. We hope that awareness will make drug war policies as obsolete as cold war policies have become. With overall drug-war government spending skyrocketing from $7 billion to $17 billion over the past 10 years, it is hard to predict how much higher costs will eventually run.

...and in the end, the war will still fail as it has since its inception,

...and the prisoners for victimless crimes will continue to be punished with unbelievable sentences (see New York mandatory minimum sentencing below),

...and profiling and other racist techniques will continue to be employed against those who can ill-afford such debilitating, punishing treatment.

We hope that at some point, America will wake from its slumber, and begin TREATING the intake of drugs (illicit or legal) as a health issue. It’s time we put to rest the iron fist policies of the previous administrations and move toward a time when we administer compassion and cease the senseless and ineffectual punishment of victims (drug addicts). It can no longer be denied after years and years of spending, punishing and pointing fingers that these victims only become further disempowered by the prisons that we create, and the brutal sentences that we dole out. It is a new millennium, and time for a new perspective.