Former New Jersey Bar Judge Martin Haines: Drug War Is War of Deception

PUBLIC FIGURES & DRUGS July 1993

America's war on drugs is a disaster based on decades of willful deception, and can be reversed only by a combination of re-educating the public and honest talk on the part of judicial and other officials, according to former Burlington County, N.J. judge and state Bar president Martin Haines (Martin Haines, Inside The Courts, "Drug War: America's War Of Self-Deception," New Jersey Law Journal, 6/21/93, p. 20).

In a far-ranging and comprehensive critique of the drug war, Haines traces the failure of punitive anti-drug policies, and provides compelling arguments for rethinking the drug war. He notes the increase in various categories of drug use following their criminalization, and points to statistics in other countries showing much lower rates of arrest and drug-related health problems with more tolerant approaches.