Pastors seek to end war on drugs by decriminalizing use

Posted: Published on June 15th, 2013

This post was added by Dr P. Richardson

By Bob Smietana The Rev. Edwin Sanders says churches should help heal the sick, feed the hungry and set prisoners free. Even if they smoke pot.

Sanders, pastor of Metropolitan Interdenominational Church in Nashville, is part of a group of clergy who want to end the war on drugs by decriminalizing drug use. They met this week in Nashville at American Baptist College.

Sanders said the so-called war on drugs has failed for two reasons. First, he said, addiction to drugs is a disease, not a crime.

"You don't criminalize and incarcerate people who have a disease," Sanders said. "You treat and care for them."

Second, Sanders said, the laws on drug use aren't enforced fairly. A report from the ACLU of Tennessee released Thursday showed that black Tennesseans are arrested on marijuana possession charges four times as often as whites. About 45 percent of those arrested for marijuana-related crimes are black, even though blacks make up about 17 percent of the state's population.

The war on drugs has led to mass incarceration of young black men, said the Rev. Forrest Harris, president of American Baptist College.

"The war on drugs is a moral injustice," he said.

Ethan Nadelmann of the New York-based Drug Policy Alliance, which advocates decriminalizing drug use, was one of the guest speakers at the conference, which ended Friday.

He said pastors and many other Americans, especially in the South, believe drugs are inherently evil. That's why jailing people for using them sounds so appealing.

"Deep down, we believe that putting these drugs in our bodies is a sin," he said.

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Pastors seek to end war on drugs by decriminalizing use

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