| Photo: stingus.net |
Internationally renowned musician and activist Sting has teamed up with the Drug Policy Alliance to call for an end to the failed War on Drugs. The musician has written a passionate letter spelling out the devastating consequences of the Drug War, and is urging people to support the DPA in advocating for sane drug policies.
“The War on Drugs has failed — but it’s worse than that,” Sting writes. “It is actively harming our society. Violent crime is thriving in the shadows to which the drug trade has been consigned. People who genuinely need help can’t get it. Neither can people who need medical marijuana to treat terrible diseases. We are spending billions, filling up our prisons with non-violent offenders and sacrificing our liberties.”
| Photo: Good Deed A Day |
| World-famous photographer Francesco Scavullo shot this photo in 1984, the year The Police broke up |
Sting said he came across the DPA after reading an opinion piece on the failures of drug prohibition written by its executive director, Ethan Nadelmann, in the Wall Street Journal.
Nadelmann’s article “dared to say in print — in a thoughtful, meticulous argument — what everyone who has seriously looked at the issue has known for years: The War on Drugs is an absolute failure whose cost to society is increasingly unbearable and absolutely unjustifiable.”
DPA said it will be using Sting’s letter to recruit new members.
“I am absolutely thrilled that Sting has agreed to join with DPA in advocating for an end to the Drug War,” Nadelmann said. “Sting is taking leadership on this important issue and we know it will inspire others to speak out and get involved.”
Besides writing the letter, Sting has also become a member of the honorary board of the Drug Policy Alliance. He joins other DPA honorary board members including former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, Arianna Huffington, Russell Simmons, former Czech President Vaclav Havel, and other prominent drug policy reform advocates.
Sting follows in the estimable footsteps of veteran newsman Walter Cronkite, a longtime DPA supporter who died late last year.