Bob Barr Says Ending the Drug War is Bipartisan

Former Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Barr believes drug policy reform is a bipartisan issue and that the time for serious reform is now. He spoke at a Cato Institute Capitol Hill briefing July 7, 2009.

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[Truthguy9698]

Good job Bob.

Drug laws are some of the stupidest and expensive laws ever devise. Right behind Social security.

[ForTehNguyen]

funny how a few thousand people get killed by drugs so the govt steps into "help" and now due to their laws 10s of 1000s of people are killed now due to drugs and the crime associated with it.

[HumbleWillis]

@ForTehNguyen CORRECTION: thousands were being harmed and killed by the drugs. TENS OF THOUSANDS are being harmed and killed by the war on drugs, and those numbers increase as more resources are spent on the war. The harder we fight, the more people die. This isn't saving anyone from anything.

[BarrFanForever]

Bob Barr, you ROCK!

[catscratchass]

grind up human lives for profits... where is your conscience ?

we are all one life.. what you do do to another .. you do to yourself.

[noyouaintgettingit]

I love you Bob Barr!

[mrfinn9]

Short definition of crime-something that violates normative behaviour in a society. So if the majority of the country has or does smoke pot is it a crime since it would be normal to smoke pot?

[charlesvan13]

I think a few years ago this guy was saying all people who use illegal drugs are bad people who should be locked up. That is no exageration.

[andyrooney11]

About 700,000 non-violent offenders are arrested every year & it costs an average of $35,000/year to keep a non-violent offender in prison. Those are just people who were caught with a small quantity of marijuana. After multiple offenses they're just thrown in prison in many states. In addition to that about $20B/yr is spent on the War on Drugs which is also matched by state governments. What a waste of tax payer funds...legalize it & tax it. Turn it around & use it as a money-making machine.

[thesepipesRclean]

Either way , it is just an illustration of what we could do with that money . I wouldn't mind if it all went to paying for college tuition or cleaning up the Gulf and rebuilding the New Orleans area . Anything positive would be better than spending it on something so destructive as the Drug War . How many lives have been ruined as a result of this "war" ? What is it getting us ? I just don't see why any logical person could buy into these policies .

[CaffeinatedRX8]

Great point... But the money should go to lowering or eliminating taxes , not universal health care.

[thesepipesRclean]

The War on Drugs costs $1,623 dollars per second and that does NOT include the costs of courts and incarceration . So we are talking about a total cost of about 80-90 billion a year to arrest , convict , and house non-violent drug offenders . That would take a nice chunk out of the cost for universal health care . If we also legalised and taxed marijuana then we could be talking about a 250 billion + a year positive for our country .