17. The Drug Policy Alliance recommended an end to the War on Drugs
In the year 2000 the Drug Policy Alliance was formed by the merger of the Lindesmith Center and the Drug Policy Foundation, both of which argued that the War on Drugs was a failure. A primary argument of the Drug Policy Alliance, which is a New York based non-profit organization, is that the War on Drugs was a failure. As part of their argument the DPA presents evidence that after decades of the War on Drugs more than ever illegal drugs are available, with increased potency and thus in many cases greater danger to the user. The DPA also argues that all drugs are different, resorted to for different reasons, and should be dealt with keeping those differing motivations for their use in mind. The DPA was a leading supporter of the law in Uruguay which legalized the possession and use of cannabis in that nation in 2013.
The DPA was actively supported by Walter Cronkite following his retirement from CBS News. In an article Cronkite wrote in support of ending the War on Drugs, Cronkite pointed out that truth is often a victim of war, citing the example of Robert McNamara admitting years after the fact that he knew the Vietnam War was unwinnable, yet continued to try to convince the public that America was winning the war. “And I cannot help but wonder how many more lives, and how much more money, will be wasted,” Cronkite wrote, “before another Robert McNamara admits what is plain for all to see: the war on drugs is a failure”. Cronkite wrote those words in 2006, more than a decade ago, a decade in which the war on drugs and its costs to the American people continued unabated, adding to the overcrowded prisons, the national debt, and the burden on America’s strained military and law enforcement resources.