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I know why we can't have a frank discussion with our policymakers - if you're in the government or in law enforcement you cannot acknowledge that drugs are anything but inherently evil and morally wrong.

I feel badly for the people who suffer from the side effects and consequences of hazardous pharmaceuticals. It's antithetical to the Hippocratic oath.

Once brave politicians and others explain the war on drugs' true cost, the American people will scream for a cease-fire. Bring the troops home, people will urge. Treat drugs as a health problem, not as a matter for the criminal justice system.

If you sit in a position where decisions that you take would have a serious effect on people, you can't ignore a lot of experience around the world which says this drug has these negative effects.

I respect a system that says we're going to put every bit of pressure on anybody we have to put it on to get to the drug dealer who is bringing his poison into the country.

In recent years, we have been sending a clear, consistent signal about the harms of drugs, particularly marijuana, which for most young people is the first illegal drug that they are exposed to.

After spending three years of my life looking into this, I am more convinced than ever that the U.S. government's responsibility for the drug problems in South Central Los Angeles and other inner cities is greater than I ever wrote in the newspaper.

We're finally moving out of the realm of solely discussing biology in regards to a drug-based world.

I've used drugs that I do consider to be dangerous, drugs that are potentially detrimental to kids and society at large.

It is time to end the discrimination against people who need treatment for chemical addiction. It is time for Congress to deal with our Nation's number one public health problem.