Eric Sterling On Bad Drug Laws

[Maskan]

 

 

found this today what are your thoughts?

[solabeirtan]

20 / 20 Hindsight, for what it's Worth. I'm sure the DARE program is totally illegal, unconstsitutional and unethical. Children should never be encouraged or manipulated to Testify against their Parents. It undermines their Entire Parental Obligations. There are somethings that are Sacred, for good reason. Very Hitleresque and Unamerican . Devastaing to Family Unity. Abhorrent to the bone.

[+Annnie]

My thoughts are.. why would the government take this man seriously enough to make these manditory minimums which he admits are grossly unjust but not trust him when he says they are grossly unjust.. Im disgusted..

[greenbuddha]

I wonder what he's trying to do NOW to change the situation?

 

Since he helped 'cause' the problem?

 

And I wonder how many other politicians and LEOs also feel this way but don't have the courage or morals to speak out?

[Timmahh]

Those that made the rules, are realizing the horendouse consequences to their actions.

the change is coming, its going to be a long, hard fight. But with experts such as the gentleman above, giving testimony, its only a matter of time before mainstream america understands this information, and demands some of the change we were promised 2 yrs ago.

[Daddy Nothing]

I wonder what he's trying to do NOW to change the situation?

 

Since he helped 'cause' the problem?

 

And I wonder how many other politicians and LEOs also feel this way but don't have the courage or morals to speak out?

 

I mostly agree with this. But on the other hand the simple fact that he feels this much remorse, and demonstrably so, gives me a lot of hope. The more people that understand the brutal human toll this war on drugs is taking, the closer we are to ending it.

[mibrains]

land of the free?

so long as u submit and comply with the powers that be.

this lifestyle model is not for me.

the time for change is now to end the apathy.

acceptance of mi medicine is the new definition of democracy.

peace....

be upon thee

 

[Royal Smoke]

I wonder what he's trying to do NOW to change the situation?

 

Since he helped 'cause' the problem?

 

And I wonder how many other politicians and LEOs also feel this way but don't have the courage or morals to speak out?

 

http://www.cjpf.org/about/ericbio.html

[+wolfgang]

you dont think he is trying to redeem himself? thats what I got from it,maybe this is his repentance. He knows its corrupt system and at least he had the balls enough to say how ridiculous this all has been.

[greenbuddha]

http://www.cjpf.org/about/ericbio.html

 

Now we know what he's trying to do to rectify ruining millions of lives so that he could make a name for himself in Washington.

 

Forgive and forget?

 

Sure. Why not?

[+Annnie]

well his effort is noted by me .. thats quite a few important boards he is president of.. Better late than never.

[greenbuddha]

well his effort is noted by me .. thats quite a few important boards he is president of.. Better late than never.

 

Annnie, Sorry if I came off as being unforgiving.

 

But I have worked with people that have had their lives ruined by 'well meaning' men like Mr. Sterling for a number of years now and I have seen the actual negative effects that this man's actions helped bring about.

 

And as 'solabeirtan' pointed out, the actions that this man helped to institute and enforce reached terrible and monumental proportions in their damage to the lives of 'millions' of people... and it 'still' goes on!

 

I also have to wonder just how many doors Mr. Sterling has knocked on and when the parents answered he has said, "Hello. I am one of the men that had a direct hand in sending your son or daughter to jail for twenty years for having a quarter ounce of marijuana in their possession... AND I AM SORRY FOR DEVASTATING THEIR LIVES!"

 

When I hear of that event occurring I will be more prone to reevaluate my view of Mr. Stirling... not that he gives two hoots in hell about my opinion of him... but it would be better for 'me' and my spiritual well being if I 'could' see the man in a better light.

[Royal Smoke]

An email to me from Eric Sterling:

 

Dear RS,

 

Thank you so much for your message.

 

 

 

I am aware that there are many people who are unforgiving for my role assisting Members of Congress develop many aspects of the war on drugs of the 1980s. I am aware that, in general, most people are quick to make judgments without considering that there may be facts about which they are unaware. Since I was a criminal defense lawyer for three years before I worked for the Congress, I have a somewhat more skeptical view toward accusations, and am less quick to judge. Thus I am not angry at those who may be angry at me. I don’t feel the need to justify what I did at the time. I had a very exciting, challenging and rewarding job. Not only did I work on drug laws, but I worked on pornography, money laundering, organized crime, military assistance to law enforcement, terrorism, and gun control.

 

 

 

First, I am a lawyer. My job is to represent my client to the best of my ability. When I represented accused burglars I was not defending burglary, I was defending persons accused of burglary. I was defending the constitutional protections we all have.

 

 

 

Second, when I worked for Members of Congress elected by their constituents in free and fair elections, they were my clients. My job was to provide them the best legal work I could. I was working as part of our democracy. I was not elected by anyone; they were. Most Members of Congress were answering the desires of the voters who sent them. That is what our democracy was about.

 

 

 

Yet many times I distinctly felt like an officer in the Wehrmacht trying to save Jews. While I was working for the Congress, I never kept secret my view that legalization of drugs was the only just or humane solution to the problems of substance abuse, and I made that opinion know to Members of Congress and staff. In those pre-Internet days, I routinely provided “public” documents regarding the war on drugs that would not generally be released to the public to news outlets such as High Times magazine.

 

 

 

And when I could, I tried to influence legislation toward civil liberties. I arranged, for example, for Dr. Lester Grinspoon to testify about so-called “designer drugs.” In another instance, I arranged for the Government Printing Office to reprint Jack Herer’s The Emperor Wears No Clothes as part of a subcommittee hearing record in a press run of a couple thousand. There were many instances in which I think that my values resulted in better legislation for the American people because of what I was passionate about. And I know that there are many people who worked there who did not care at all about the injustice of the war on drugs.

 

 

 

I have been working to end drug prohibition my entire adult life. In 1976, I joined NORML while I was still a law student and testified that spring for marijuana decriminalization before the Pennsylvania legislature. I have been a member of NORML my whole life, and met many of my oldest and dearest friends in that work.

 

 

 

While I worked for the Congress, I constantly had to struggle whether what I was doing was helping or not. I knew who else was involved in writing legislation, and I saw how indifferent many, perhaps most of them, were to the lives of those who used drugs or were suffering from substance abuse.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the things about the freedoms that we have is that most people can go about their lives relatively ignorant of their government, and what is going on around them, and yet remain generally free to live their lives, and trust that the principles of democracy and liberty are intact and sufficient to let them lead their lives. That’s okay, but risky. For the past 22 years, I have been working to build the movement to end the war on drugs. Much of that work takes place in private, outside the public eye. As a result, most people do not know the details of what goes on, every day, in the political world of Congress, legislatures, the news media, etc. to protect those liberties, and they have no appreciation for the role that I play in that.

 

 

 

I am not interested in being famous, i.e., being known and recognized by total strangers. I am proud that those who do know me respect me for the work that I am engaged in. You can go to my website and see that I have various titles or hold various positions. But those titles really tell nothing about the work I do and the counsel I provide to activists around the country about how they can fight against the war on drugs. There are many people today who work much harder than I do, and who are much more influential than I am in this work, but that I am pleased that in many cases I have played a direct, constructive role in their growth and advancement.

 

 

 

Ending the war on drugs is a much bigger challenge than I imagined when I was a law student. Fixing the outrageous mandatory minimum sentences of the 1980s has taken much longer than I imagined. Five years ago, I was one of a handful of people who planned a campaign to fix the crack cocaine mandatory minimums. I laid out a political strategy that would get the Republicans to be on board. That campaign bore fruit last summer. Republicans went along with the liberal Democratic agenda. President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 in August. The result is terribly inadequate, but it is the best our political system could produce now. Five years ago, I wrote what became section 4 of that law. I am the only person in our campaign whose words became part of the law that President Obama signed. Granted, those words were part of the sausage that goes into making the law. Would there have been a political agreement on this bill if it did not include the language I wrote? I don’t think anyone knows.

 

 

 

So people can watch a video in which I explain how outrageous the environment was in which these laws were written. (The subject is also covered very well in the excellent book, Smoke and Mirrors, by Dan Baum (Little, Brown, 1996). ) They can conclude that I am a bad guy. They are entitled to make judgments on whatever facts they are aware of.

 

 

 

If you want to post this on your website, you have my permission.

 

 

 

Thanks again for your interest in this work, and your interest in my work.

 

 

 

With all best wishes,

 

 

 

Sincerely yours,

 

 

 

Eric

 

 

 

 

 

Eric E. Sterling, President

The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation

8730 Georgia Avenue, Suite 400

Silver Spring, MD 20910-3649

Tel: 301-589-6020 Cell: 202-365-2420

Fax: 301-589-5056

esterling@cjpf.org www.cjpf.org

www.justiceanddrugs.blogspot.com

 

 

[+wolfgang]

An email to me from Eric Sterling:

 

Dear RS,

 

Thank you so much for your message.

 

 

 

I am aware that there are many people who are unforgiving for my role assisting Members of Congress develop many aspects of the war on drugs of the 1980s. I am aware that, in general, most people are quick to make judgments without considering that there may be facts about which they are unaware. Since I was a criminal defense lawyer for three years before I worked for the Congress, I have a somewhat more skeptical view toward accusations, and am less quick to judge. Thus I am not angry at those who may be angry at me. I don’t feel the need to justify what I did at the time. I had a very exciting, challenging and rewarding job. Not only did I work on drug laws, but I worked on pornography, money laundering, organized crime, military assistance to law enforcement, terrorism, and gun control.

 

 

 

First, I am a lawyer. My job is to represent my client to the best of my ability. When I represented accused burglars I was not defending burglary, I was defending persons accused of burglary. I was defending the constitutional protections we all have.

 

 

 

Second, when I worked for Members of Congress elected by their constituents in free and fair elections, they were my clients. My job was to provide them the best legal work I could. I was working as part of our democracy. I was not elected by anyone; they were. Most Members of Congress were answering the desires of the voters who sent them. That is what our democracy was about.

 

 

 

Yet many times I distinctly felt like an officer in the Wehrmacht trying to save Jews. While I was working for the Congress, I never kept secret my view that legalization of drugs was the only just or humane solution to the problems of substance abuse, and I made that opinion know to Members of Congress and staff. In those pre-Internet days, I routinely provided “public” documents regarding the war on drugs that would not generally be released to the public to news outlets such as High Times magazine.

 

 

 

And when I could, I tried to influence legislation toward civil liberties. I arranged, for example, for Dr. Lester Grinspoon to testify about so-called “designer drugs.” In another instance, I arranged for the Government Printing Office to reprint Jack Herer’s The Emperor Wears No Clothes as part of a subcommittee hearing record in a press run of a couple thousand. There were many instances in which I think that my values resulted in better legislation for the American people because of what I was passionate about. And I know that there are many people who worked there who did not care at all about the injustice of the war on drugs.

 

 

 

I have been working to end drug prohibition my entire adult life. In 1976, I joined NORML while I was still a law student and testified that spring for marijuana decriminalization before the Pennsylvania legislature. I have been a member of NORML my whole life, and met many of my oldest and dearest friends in that work.

 

 

 

While I worked for the Congress, I constantly had to struggle whether what I was doing was helping or not. I knew who else was involved in writing legislation, and I saw how indifferent many, perhaps most of them, were to the lives of those who used drugs or were suffering from substance abuse.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the things about the freedoms that we have is that most people can go about their lives relatively ignorant of their government, and what is going on around them, and yet remain generally free to live their lives, and trust that the principles of democracy and liberty are intact and sufficient to let them lead their lives. That’s okay, but risky. For the past 22 years, I have been working to build the movement to end the war on drugs. Much of that work takes place in private, outside the public eye. As a result, most people do not know the details of what goes on, every day, in the political world of Congress, legislatures, the news media, etc. to protect those liberties, and they have no appreciation for the role that I play in that.

 

 

 

I am not interested in being famous, i.e., being known and recognized by total strangers. I am proud that those who do know me respect me for the work that I am engaged in. You can go to my website and see that I have various titles or hold various positions. But those titles really tell nothing about the work I do and the counsel I provide to activists around the country about how they can fight against the war on drugs. There are many people today who work much harder than I do, and who are much more influential than I am in this work, but that I am pleased that in many cases I have played a direct, constructive role in their growth and advancement.

 

 

 

Ending the war on drugs is a much bigger challenge than I imagined when I was a law student. Fixing the outrageous mandatory minimum sentences of the 1980s has taken much longer than I imagined. Five years ago, I was one of a handful of people who planned a campaign to fix the crack cocaine mandatory minimums. I laid out a political strategy that would get the Republicans to be on board. That campaign bore fruit last summer. Republicans went along with the liberal Democratic agenda. President Obama signed the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 in August. The result is terribly inadequate, but it is the best our political system could produce now. Five years ago, I wrote what became section 4 of that law. I am the only person in our campaign whose words became part of the law that President Obama signed. Granted, those words were part of the sausage that goes into making the law. Would there have been a political agreement on this bill if it did not include the language I wrote? I don’t think anyone knows.

 

 

 

So people can watch a video in which I explain how outrageous the environment was in which these laws were written. (The subject is also covered very well in the excellent book, Smoke and Mirrors, by Dan Baum (Little, Brown, 1996). ) They can conclude that I am a bad guy. They are entitled to make judgments on whatever facts they are aware of.

 

 

 

If you want to post this on your website, you have my permission.

 

 

 

Thanks again for your interest in this work, and your interest in my work.

 

 

 

With all best wishes,

 

 

 

Sincerely yours,

 

 

 

Eric

 

 

 

 

 

Eric E. Sterling, President

The Criminal Justice Policy Foundation

8730 Georgia Avenue, Suite 400

Silver Spring, MD 20910-3649

Tel: 301-589-6020 Cell: 202-365-2420

Fax: 301-589-5056

esterling@cjpf.org www.cjpf.org

www.justiceanddrugs.blogspot.com

GREAT LETTER,I too would like to see what he is doing to rectify the problem he created,even though I still like the fact he came forward.

[+Annnie]

Annnie, Sorry if I came off as being unforgiving.

 

But I have worked with people that have had their lives ruined by 'well meaning' men like Mr. Sterling for a number of years now and I have seen the actual negative effects that this man's actions helped bring about.

 

And as 'solabeirtan' pointed out, the actions that this man helped to institute and enforce reached terrible and monumental proportions in their damage to the lives of 'millions' of people... and it 'still' goes on!

 

I also have to wonder just how many doors Mr. Sterling has knocked on and when the parents answered he has said, "Hello. I am one of the men that had a direct hand in sending your son or daughter to jail for twenty years for having a quarter ounce of marijuana in their possession... AND I AM SORRY FOR DEVASTATING THEIR LIVES!"

 

When I hear of that event occurring I will be more prone to reevaluate my view of Mr. Stirling... not that he gives two hoots in hell about my opinion of him... but it would be better for 'me' and my spiritual well being if I 'could' see the man in a better light.

The devistation of that era is great and it angers me. My own brilliant daughter is now not eligble for a pell grant because of these antics. Her life will be forever changed im sure..

 

I do not see you as unforgiving at all.. Angry is the correct reaction..

 

Thank god this man saw the light..