Protestant, Catholic and Jewish Clergy Speak Out Against The War on Drugs

View this 10-minute video at:

www.idpi.us/clergy_dvd

"One of the reasons that we as religious leaders need to speak out against it is because we share responsibility for it."

 REV. SCOTT RICHARDSON, Dean, St. Paul's Episcopal Cathedral, San Diego

"There has to be a complete reconsideration of what law enforcement represents in our community... I’m convinced that it would be a totally different world if that adversarial relationship did not exist between law enforcement and the young people of this country."

 REV. EDWIN SANDERS, Senior Pastor, Metropolitan Interdenominational, Nashville

"With the mandatory sentences you don’t need a judge or a jury. All you need is a clerk to come in and weigh the drugs... [T]he whole drug policy and those laws need to be repealed."

 SISTER MARION DEFEIS, Catholic prison chaplain (ret.)

"We know we have a drug problem [but] war is definitely not the answer... The reality is... this drug war has put more armaments on our streets."

 EDDIE LOPEZ, Former United Methodist Pastor, New York

"I would say that the war on drugs has caused as much devastation to communities around this country, particularly low income communities, as the drugs themselves."

 RABBI MICHAEL FEINBERG, Exec. Dir., Greater New York Labor-Religion Coalition