Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed: A Judicial Indictment of War on Drugs - Softcover

"As provocative and topical as the film Traffic, here's a scathing jeremiad against the war on drugs, notable both for the author's position and for the sustained anger of its argument." -Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Judge Gray's thorough and scholarly work, based as it is on his personal experience, should help considerably to improve our impossible drug laws. [His] book drives a stake through the heart of the failed War on Drugs and gives us options to hope for in the battles to come" -Walter Cronkite "James P. Gray, a California Superior Court judge and a former Republican congressional candidate, has written perhaps the most convincing indictment ever that the war on drugs can never be won. ...Gray's careful, sobering book provides grounds for taking a fresh look at our national drug policies." -Philadelphia Inquirer "...an impassioned plea to reconsider the War on Drugs before it does more harm to our society and our legal system." -Charles K. Bultman, California Lawyer " Gray, a trial judge in the Superior Court in Orange County California, called a press conference on April 8, 1992 to announce that, 'our country's attempt through the criminal justice system to combat drug use and abuse, and all of the crime and misery that accompany them, were not working.' His book provides a comprehensive defense of that indictment..." -Law & Politics Book Review "Against the backdrop of this 'worst of all worlds,' Judge Gray offers up and evaluates a variety of options, ranging from education and drug treatment to different strategies for taking the profit out of drug-dealing." -Books-on-Law "No aspect of the drug war is ignored, no argument in favor of handling drugs through the legal system is spared attention, and few drug warriors emerge unscathed." -Liberty, December 2002 "...an interesting, well-written, and lively account of the costs of drug prohibition." -The Independent Review

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 \u0022tough on drugs.\u0022 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.