Whereas, the overall situation regarding the use of drugs in our society and the crime and misery that accompanies it has continued to deteriorate for several decades; and

Whereas, our society has continued to attempt, at enormous financial cost, and loss of civil liberties, to resolve drug abuse problems through the criminal justice system, with the accompanying increases of prisons and numbers of inmates; and

Whereas, the huge untaxed revenues generated by the illicit drug trade are undermining legitimate governments world-wide; and Whereas, the present system has spawned a cycle of hostility by the incarceration of disproportionate numbers of African-Americans, Hispanics, and other minority groups; and

Whereas, the number of people who have contracted AIDS, hepatitis, and other diseases from contaminated hypodermic needles is epidemic under our present system; and

Whereas, in our society's zeal to pursue our criminal approach, legitimate medical uses for the relief of pain and suffering of patients have been suppressed.

Therefore be it resolved that our society must recognize drug use and abuse as the medical and social problems that they are and that they must be treated with medical and social solutions; and Further be it resolved that an objective commission be immediately empowered by the President and by Congress to recommend the revision of drug laws of these United States in order to reduce the harm our current policies are causing.

Name

Address

Title

Organization

Signature

return to:

Judge James P. Gray
Orange County Superior Court
700 Civic Center Drive
West Santa Ana, CA 92701

You might also wish to send signed copies to:

President William J. Clinton
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dr. Lee P. Brown
Office of National Drug Control Policy
725 17th St., NW
Washington, DC 20503