WOULD JESUS PERSECUTE DRUG OFFENDERS? NO

The justices of the Supreme Court should take a cue from the
nonsensical banner that inspired their decision to limit student free
speech. It might do them some good to take a few bong hits for Jesus.
Before sacrificing more civil liberties at the altar of the drug war,
they should ask themselves, "What would Jesus do?" Would Jesus
persecute, incarcerate and deny forgiveness to nonviolent drug
offenders? Zero tolerance is decidedly unchristian.

Morally, the drug war is wrong. On a practical level, the drug war is
an abject failure. According to the FBI, there were 786,545 marijuana
arrests in 2005, the vast majority of which were for simple
possession. America is one of the few Western countries that punishes
citizens who prefer marijuana to martinis, yet lifetime use of
marijuana is higher in the United States than in any European country
(www.monitoringthefuture.org/pubs/espad_pr.pdf).

Thanks to the war on some drugs, the Constitution is becoming
increasingly irrelevant, and the land of the free now has the highest
incarceration rate in the world. This is not a policy worthy of
constitutional exemptions. The drug war has failed to keep drugs out
of prisons, much less schools. The Supreme Court should prioritize
protecting civil liberties over perpetuating drug war failure.

Robert Sharpe

Policy analyst Common Sense for Drug Policy Arlington, Va.