Via Eve Tushnet, we found this interview by Michael Lynch in the January issue of Reason. Lynch questions three ex-warriors who now fight against the War on Drugs.

One is a former cop named Joe McNamara.

Reason: From the perspective of the working police officer, how has the War on Drugs changed over the years? McNamara: It has become the priority of police agencies. It’s bizarre. We make 700,000 arrests for marijuana a year. The public is not terrified of marijuana. People are terrified of molesters, school shootings, and people stalking women and children. The police are not putting the resources into those crimes where they could be effective if they gave them top priority.

Another is former DEA Agent, now radio host and author Michael Levine:

What’s the mindset of agents in this war?

Levine: Before you become an agent, you’re bombarded with stories of drug war victories. It’s painted as heroic -- guys in guerrilla outfits and jungle gear fighting the drugs everywhere. You want to do something for your country. Then when you get in, the first thing you discover is that you can’t touch some of the biggest drug dealers in the world because they’re protected by the CIA or they’re protected by the State Department. Everyone from Carlos Salinas de Gortari of Mexico to Manuel Noriega to the contras in Nicaragua to the Mujahedin in Afghanistan. Those of us who work overseas realize that this whole thing is a three-card monte game, that it’s a lie....

Reason: What is the relationship between informants, drug agents, and arrests?

Levine: Informants run the drug war. Ninety-nine percent of all drug cases start off with a criminal informant. These informants are criminals and liars and they will create crimes to make money and, at the same time, get the protection of the people they are working for.

The third is Orange County, California Superior Court Judge James P. Gray:

Reason: You write about a drug exception to the Bill of Rights.

Gray: When I graduated from law school in 1971, it was illegal for a police officer, even after arresting you, to search anything that was outside of your grasp. If you can reach over to something, then you could search it. But if a suitcase you were carrying was locked, the police could not go in there unless they got a search warrant first. They couldn’t go into the trunk of your car, they couldn’t go into the glove compartment, and they couldn’t go into the backseat.

That has totally been reversed. The police not only can search you and everything in your car, but they can also search your passengers. They can search your mobile home, which is in effect a home on wheels. They can go through and search everything....

When I was running for Congress a few years ago, I met individually with two sitting congressmen from Orange County to try to get their support. They both said that the War on Drugs isn’t working, but the problem is even worse than I thought because most federal agencies get extra money to fight the War on Drugs. It’s not just the obvious ones like the U.S. Customs Service and the DEA. It’s the little guys too, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Indian Affairs. They are addicted to drug war funding.

The above are just our selected snippets, all are worth reading in their entirety.