War On Drugs Quotes

• It's not a war on drugs, it's a war on personal freedom.

  Bill Hicks

  War, Drug, Personal Freedom

  74 Copy quote

• Drugs have destroyed many lives, but wrongheaded governmental policies have destroyed many more. I think it's obvious that after 40 years of war on drugs, it has not worked. There should be decriminalization of drugs.

  Kofi Annan

  War, Thinking, Years

  6 Copy quote

• See, if you look at the drug war from a purely economic point of view, the role of the government is to protect the drug cartel. That's literally true.

  Milton Friedman

  War, Drug Cartels, Government

  "Friedman & Szasz On Liberty and Drugs". Interview with Randy Paige on "America's Drug Forum", www.druglibrary.org. 1991.

  69 Copy quote

  Show source

• Prohibition only drives drunkenness behind doors and into dark places, and does not cure it or even diminish it.

  Mark Twain

  Dark, Doors, Sobriety

  Mark Twain (2012). “Mark Twain at Your Fingertips: A Book of Quotations”, p.383, Courier Corporation

  135 Copy quote

  Show source

• The War on Drugs has been an utter failure. We need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws.

  Barack Obama

  Weed, War, Marijuana

  21 Copy quote

• The War on Drugs has failed - but it’s worse than that. It is actively harming our society. Violent crime is thriving in the shadows to which the drug trade has been consigned. People who genuinely need help can’t get it. Neither can people who need medical marijuana to treat terrible diseases. We are spending billions, filling up our prisons with non-violent offenders and sacrificing our liberties.

  Sting

  Weed, War, Sacrifice

  "Let’s End the War on Drugs" by Sting, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 31, 2010.

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• We are losing the 'War on Drugs,' which means there's a war going on and people on drugs are winning it.

  Bill Hicks

  War, Mean, Winning

  14 Copy quote

• Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself

  Jimmy Carter

  Weed, Marijuana, Drug Use

  Jimmy Carter (2010). “White House Diary”, p.74, Macmillan

  50 Copy quote

  Show source

• Instead of war on poverty, they got a war on drugs so the police can bother me.

  Tupac Shakur

  War, Drug, Police

  Song: Changes

  73 Copy quote

  Show source

• The whole drug war is nothing but a pretext to increase police power and personnel, and that, of course, is dead wrong. So many created imagined drug offenses.

  William S. Burroughs

  War, Police, Drug

  Source: www.litkicks.com

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• We cannot continue doing the same thing and expect different results

  Otto Perez Molina

  War, Drug, Different

  6 Copy quote

• Most Americans violate drug laws in their lifetime, but the enemy in this war has been racially defined. Not by accident, the drug war has been waged almost exclusively in poor communities of color, even though studies have consistently shown - for decades - the people of color are no more likely to use or sell illegal drugs than whites.

  Michelle Alexander

  War, Color, Law

  Source: www.truth-out.org

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• The war on drugs is really no war at all - it's a business!

  Jerry Brown

  War, Drug, No War

  5 Copy quote

• The war on drugs is identical to the prohibition of alcohol: all you're doing is making criminals rich and powerful.

  Jesse Ventura

  Powerful, War, Alcohol

  Source: thecelebritycafe.com

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Many people don't realize that financial incentives have been built into the drug war that guarantee that law enforcement will continue to arrest extraordinary numbers of people, particularly in poor communities of color, for minor drug offenses that get ignored on the other side of town.

  Michelle Alexander

  War, Numbers, Color

  Source: www.truth-out.org

  10 Copy quote

  Show source

• We need to take a hard look at the war on drugs and the number of non-violent offenders who end up getting their lives destroyed by going to prison. We need to look at mandatory minimum sentencing and give judges more flexibility when there are issues of drug abuse or addiction.

  Bernie Sanders

  War, Numbers, Issues

  Source: www.ebony.com

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• Various "wars on drugs" throughout history have killed millions, enslaved millions more, destroyed families, are usually just thin pretenses for mass incarceration, mass surveillance, ethnic cleansing, population control.

  Kool A.D.

  War, Drug, Incarceration

  Source: therumpus.net

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• I believe that the war on drugs is a tragically misplaced use of resources - an immoral venture that produces far more suffering than it alleviates.

  David Harsanyi

  War, Believe, Drug

  David Harsanyi (2015). “David Harsanyi: Volume I”, p.2, Creators Publishing

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Once brave politicians and others explain the war on drugs' true cost, the American people will scream for a cease-fire. Bring the troops home, people will urge. Treat drugs as a health problem, not as a matter for the criminal justice system.

  Larry Elder

  War, Home, Fire

  65 Copy quote

• The war on drugs has gone on for about forty-five, fifty years - and it's been a complete failure. If you had a business that was failing so badly, you would change course. And it's just incredible that governments continue along the same course.

  Richard Branson

  War, Years, Government

  Interview with Maranda Pleasant, www.marandapleasantmedia.com. 2013.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• The War on Drugs employs millions - politicians, bureaucrats, policemen, and now the military - that probably couldn't find a place for their dubious talents in a free market, unless they were to sell pencils from a tin cup on street corners.

  L. Neil Smith

  Military, War, Drug

  65 Copy quote

• It would be a good time to replace the drug war with something more constructive. The cure offered the drug war today has probably been more harmful and done more damage than the disease.

  George McGovern

  War, Drug, Would Be

  6 Copy quote

• Let the people know the truth and the country is safe.

  Abraham Lincoln

  Country, War, Safety

  Abraham Lincoln (1907). “The Lincoln Year Book: Axioms and Aphorisms from the Great Emancipator”, p.28, Library of Alexandria

  67 Copy quote

  Show source

• If you want to fight a war on drugs, sit down at your own kitchen table and talk to your own children.

  Barry McCaffrey

  Children, War, Fighting

  "A Mission Gone Wrong" by Mattathias Schwartz, www.newyorker.com. January 06, 2014.

  8 Copy quote

  Show source

• If we would end the war on drugs, you would see the end of the militarization of our police forces and you would see an end to a lot of the shooting violence that's going on when people are being pulled over for traffic stops and then suddenly executed right in the street.

  Jesse Ventura

  War, People, Drug

  "Former governor Jesse Ventura talks about new books ‘Marijuana Manifesto’ and ‘Shit Politicians Say,’ plus much more". Interview with Michelle Tompkins, thecelebritycafe.com. September 1, 2016.

  5 Copy quote

  Show source