[UUDPR home]   [Why UUs Need To Take a Stand]

This section contains articles from the news media and other various writings to flesh out some of the facts and figures presented elsewhere on the UUDPR page. (Construction has just begun, so check back soon for more articles.) If you find any of these writings particularly compelling, please print and share with your congregation. More sophisticated analyses of these (and other) major drug policy issues may be found here. Also visit here, especially the printed resources sections.

• Definitions of Various Drug Policy Alternatives
  • "Perspective on Legalizing Drugs: Don't Get Carried Away," by Ethan Nadelmann (Los Angeles Times, 9/19/99)
  • "Like Drug Abusers, By Persisting We Hurt Ourselves," by David Klinger professor of criminology at the University of Missouri and former LA police officer. (Spokesman-Review, 1/12/01)
  • "War No More, The Folly And Futility Of Drug Prohibition," by Timothy Lynch (National Review, February 5, 2001)
  • "Getting Off Drugs: The Legalization Option," by Walter Wink, Professor of Biblical Interpretation at Auburn Theological Seminary (Friends Journal (Quaker)), February 1996)
     
• Drug Courts: A band-aid, step in the right direction, or dangerous subterfuge to substantial reform?
  • "Coerced Abstinence," by Joseph McNamara, retired police chief and Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University (Vital Speeches, 12/1/00)
  • excerpts from "The Drug Court Scandal," by Judge Morris Hoffman (North Carolina Law Review, 2000)
  • miscellaneous links
     
• Drug Use, Abuse and Addiction
  • "Drugs 'R' Us If We Were Honest," by Salim Muwakkiln (Chicago Tribune, 9/18/00)
  • "America's Altered States," by Joshua Wolf Shenk (Harper's, May 1999), parts I, II and III
  • "The Drug War's True Failure and the Yearning for a Deeper Self," by Rev. Mike Young (UU World, November/December 2000)
  • "Understanding our Inherent Human Needs: Winning The Drug War Will Require A New Perspective," by Rev. Kirk A. Ballin (Roanoke Times, July 11, 2000)
  • "Heavy Traffic: The war on drugs is worse than drug abuse," by Paul Campos (Corpus Christi Caller-Times, 2/8/01)
     
• Drug War Spending
   
• Effective Education vs. D.A.R.E. and Other Zero-Tolerance Approaches
  • " 'Just say no' -- or 'just know'?", by Marsha Rosenbaum, Ph.D. (USA Today, 7/10/00)
  • "Safety First: A Reality-Based Approach to Teens, Drugs, and Drug Education," by Marsha Rosenbaum, Ph.D. (Lindesmith Center publication, 1999)
  • "Student Drug Use Rose During 1990s," by Associated Press (Washington Post, June 9, 2000) (Interestingly, student sexual activity decreased during the 1990s, even though students are not arrested for having sex; i.e., truthful education works, threats and punishment do not.)
  • "Anderson Calls D.A.R.E. a Fraud: Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson Has Sights on the Most Widely Used Drug-Education Program in America," by Kristen Stewart (Salt Lake Tribune, June 22, 2000)
  • For more information about D.A.R.E., see http://www.drcnet.org/DARE
     
• Enforcement Issues
  • "Suburban Youth in Marijuana Protest Meet City's Tough Justice," by David Rohde (New York Times, 5/9/00)
  • "Drug Agency Investigates Own Cover-Up," by Michael Sorkin and Phyllis Brasch (St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 5/28/00)
  • "U.S. War On Drugs Singles Out Blacks, Report Finds," by Jan Cienski (National Post (Canada)), 6/8/00)
  • "Casualty in the War on Drugs," by Jim Dwyer (Playboy, October 2000)
  • "DA's Office Apologizes for Getting Address Wrong on Drug Raid," by Joel Rosenblatt (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 11/25/00)
  • "Vermont Woman Claims False Drug Arrest," by Associated Press (Boston Globe, 11/23/00)
  • "Officer Kills Boy, Police Call Shooting An Accident," by Ty Phillips (Modesto Bee (CA)), 9/14/00)
  • "Innocent Man Dies in Police Blunder," by Warren Duzak (The Tennessean, 10/06/00)
     
• Harm Reduction
   
• International Issues
  • "We Believe The Global War on Drugs is Now Causing More Harm Than Drug Abuse Itself," a statement to the United Nations Secretary General signed by 500 world leaders and other prominent signatories, presented as a two-page ad in the New York Times (6/8/98)
     
• Legislative Proposals
  • Gov. Gary Johnson's (R) drug policy reform proposals being considered by the New Mexico legislature
     
• Prison Issues
  • "Unitarian Universalists Fight to End Drug War," by Chuck Thomas, UUDPR president (The Razor Wire -- a newsletter for drug prisoners -- Jan/Feb 2001)
  • "And Justice for All: The U.S. Sentencing Commission Reported in 1995 That More Than 55 Percent of Federal Drug Defendants Were The Lowest Level Offenders: Couriers, "Mules," Bodyguards, or Street-Level Dealers," by Eric Sterling (Baltimore Sun, 5/9/00)
     
• Treatment Issues

[UUDPR home]   [Why UUs Need To Take a Stand]