Ralph Nader on Drugs 2008 Independent for for President; 2004 Reform nominee; 2000 Green nominee

The drug war has failed, despite $50B annually

A: Nader says, “The drug war has failed--we spend nearly $50 billion annually on the drug war and problems related to drug abuse continue to worsen. We need to acknowledge that drug abuse is a healt problem with social and economic consequences. It is time to bring some illegal drugs within the law by regulating, taxing and controlling them. Ending the drug war will dramatically reduce violence related to underground drug dealing.”

Rehabilitation, not incarceration

Women targeted by tobacco and alcohol companies

Failed War on Drugs endangers communities

A. Our failed war on drugs is endangering our communities, imperiling police, wasting tens of billions of dollars and, because it is criminalizing what is a health problem instead of rehabilitation for drug addicts, is filling our prisons at $40,000 a prisoner and making the corporate-prison industry even richer. The way to go is to look at drug addiction as a rehabilitation challenge, focus on youngsters in terms of prevention, have community policing where the police work and live in the community, which is the best way to make a community safe, and decriminalize marijuana so we can begin to move this into a rehabilitation-health problem.

Legalize marijuana, and treat addiction as a health problem

Treat hemp like poppy seeds, not like heroin

Remove industrial hemp from DEA drug list

Replace Drug War with treatment and alternative sentencing

Nader supports the Green Party Platform, which states:
• We support decriminalization of “VICTIMLESS” CRIMES, for example, the possession of small amounts of marijuana.
• We call for legalization of industrial hemp and all its many uses.
• We oppose the illicit activities of the international drug trade and the illicit money laundering that often accompanies the drug cartels. We call for a revised view of the “drug problem” and an end to the “war on drugs,” recognizing that after over a decade of strident law-and-order posturing, the problems with hard drugs have only worsened.
• We call for expanding drug counseling and treatment for those who need it.
• We believe mandatory drug testing violates civil rights; therefore, we oppose mandatory testing.
• We favor innovative sentencing and punishment options, including community service for first-time offenders and “Drug Court” diversion programs. We support alternative sentencing for non-violent crimes.

Supports legalization of industrial hemp

Solution to addiction is information, not prohibition

A: No. You never prohibit an addiction because what you do is you drive it underground and a huge black market occurs. What you do with an addiction is expose the addicters to massive information, protect them from deceptive advertising, protect the young from being sold such [things] as tobacco products. Keep the research up to make whatever tobacco is consumed less lethal in terms of nicotine and other levels and increasingly make it socially stigmatized so that people often will stop smoking or won’t smoke, not because it’s bad for their health, but because it’s no longer the thing to do. When I was in college, non-smokers were on the defensive. The smokers would blow smoke derisively in non-smokers’ faces. You’d never see that today.

Rated A+ by VOTE-HEMP, indicating a pro-hemp voting record.

VOTE HEMP is a non-profit organization dedicated to the acceptance of and free market for Industrial Hemp. Industrial Hemp is non-psychoactive low THC varieties of the cannabis sativa plant. Currently, it is illegal for U.S. farmers to grow Industrial Hemp because it is improperly classified as a "drug" under the Controlled Substances Act. Since changes in law require shifts in thinking and this requires education in the facts, our primary goal is the education of legislators and regulators, farmers and businesses, students and other concerned citizens.