Wednesday, July 16, 2025



War on drugs called a failure

Judge Jim Gray argued Thursday that the ongoing war of drug prohibition in the United States has not only failed, it has actually done more bad than good. In a lecture sponsored by Wesleyan’s Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP), Gray asserted that this system is in drastic need of overhaul due to governmental corruption and greed.

Gray has over 25 years of experience within the legal and judicial community and has recently authored a book entitled “Why Our Drug Laws Have Failed and What We Can Do About It – A Judicial Indictment of the War on Drugs.”

“It is basically indisputable that we are not making progress [in the war on drugs],” Gray said.

“The fact that Judge Gray is part of the legal system and has never tried an illicit substance gives him an incredibly unique perspective on the topic,” said Jeffrey Walker ’08, a SSDP member. “I felt like the students took him more seriously by virtue of his expanse of firsthand knowledge, as well as his impersonal motivation for change that might have been unique to their own.”

Gray stressed the idea that regulation and control always work better than prohibition. He recommended fixing the drug problem by restricting the federal government’s overhead role in drug policy, and looking to countries like Switzerland and Holland. These countries have had tremendous success in lowering drug usage and crime through medical legalization and decriminalization policies, respectively.

The current “war on drugs” is essentially fostering racial disparities in our country, increasing fear and conspiracy theories about the government and infringing on civil liberties, according to Gray. The problem is more than a domestic one, since almost every terrorist organization in the world is funded by illicit drug money.

“The golden goose of terrorism is drug money,” Gray said.

According to Gray the current U.S. drug policy is to incarcerate and demonize offenders, and to prohibit discussion. These policies are directed by the principle that a drug user’s life is not worth saving, which is fundamentally contrary to the message of America’s founding fathers, he argued.

“Washington is addicted to drug war funding, thus making the war on drugs not winnable, but eminently fundable even though alcohol and tobacco are statistically much more harm-causing, habit-forming drugs,” Gray said. “Politicians see any legitimacy for marijuana as dangerous because it will cause drug use to spread.”

This includes prohibition on hemp clothing, even though the THC content is minimal, he said.

“Drug prohibition provides terrorists with an enormous black market with which to fund their activities,” said Henry White ’05, an SSDP member. “Crime rises when drugs are illegal. The majority of deaths resulting from drug overdose are because of impurities or unknown strength. These problems would all be easily solved by legalizing and regulating drugs.”

Gray emphasized the importance of drawing distinctions between substances before making policy changes, and making educated use of the U.S. budget rather than spending money on imprisoning offenders.

“The current prison situation in the United States is catastrophic,” White said. “Judge Gray is right that the Drug War is responsible for much of this.”

“I agree with the idea of using regulation instead of prohibition as a means of decreasing the harmful effects of drugs in our society and I found it interesting the way Gray tied our current situation into the alcohol prohibition law and its being repealed by the 21st amendment in 1933,” said Jess Sullivan ’08. “Prohibition obviously doesn’t work. Fear doesn’t work.”

“While he may have seemed conservative to myself and others in the audience, he is extremely liberal compared to national sentiment,” said Kate Piper ’05. “It is crucial for us at Wesleyan to understand that.”

SSDP is currently running workshops that teach local youth about their rights during police encounters. They are also becoming politically involved in the fight to end racial disparities between sentencing for crack and powder cocaine. The SSDP also provides individual support to drug war prisoners through a correspondence program. The group meets every Wednesday night at 10 p.m. on the top floor of the Campus Center.

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