Ken Kesey Quotes

The war on drugs has failed. Its failure has been so categorical and self-evident that the statement itself is bromidic. By any reasonable metric of success—addiction rates, violence, the availability of drugs in our schools— it’s clear that our 40-year jihad against certain plants and chemicals has done far more harm than good.

I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol. I've never used marijuana and I don't intend to, but it's just one of those things that I think: this war on drugs just hasn't succeeded.

The war on drugs has made government more powerful, citizens less free, and hasn't helped users or addicts.

I'm in favor of legalizing drugs. According to my value system, if people want to kill themselves, they have every right to do so. Most of the harm that comes from drugs is because they are illegal

Not since the collapse of the attempt to prohibit the ingestion of alcohol has our liberty been in such danger as it now is from the misnamed “war on drugs.”

We need to repeal the whole war on drugs. It isn’t working. We have already spent over $400 billion since the early 1970s, and it is wasted money

If drugs are bad, any respectable society should do something to deal with them.

So many people view the war on drugs as a failure, as something that was perhaps intended and carried out with good intentions but very badly executed.

The War on Drugs has been an utter failure. We need to rethink and decriminalize our marijuana laws.

The War on Drugs employs millions - politicians, bureaucrats, policemen, and now the military - that probably couldn't find a place for their dubious talents in a free market, unless they were to sell pencils from a tin cup on street corners.

I believe that the war on drugs is a tragically misplaced use of resources - an immoral venture that produces far more suffering than it alleviates.

The war on drugs is wrong, both tactically and morally. It assumes that people are too stupid, too reckless, and too irresponsible to decide whether and under what conditions to consume drugs. The war on drugs is morally bankrupt.

By bringing about a rational drug policy, we'd be freeing up a lot of resources for real crime. Drug disputes would get played out with courts rather than with guns. So it would make this country a much better place overnight.

The war on drugs is being lost on a daily basis.

I was trying in 'The Power of the Dog' to write a brutally accurate in-your-face, if you will, description of 30 years in the war on drugs. And the effect that that had on people.

Until we do something about demand, Latin America will never be able to solve the drug problem on its own.

We've been fighting this war on drugs for 60 or 70 years and haven't gotten anywhere yet.

Should someone go to jail for just doing drugs? I believe the time has come for that to end.

The drug problem in this country is a consumption issue.

I inherited the War on Drugs from a former president who inherited it from a president who also inherited it from a former president. I’m not sure who it is that we are fighting but I know we are not winning.

The consumption of drugs could be legalized, not penalized.

Penalties against drug use should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against the possession of marijuana in private for personal use.

Certainly our democracy is not going to fall if you legalize marijuana.

Yes, cannabis is dangerous, but no more than other perfectly legal drugs. It's time for a rethink

Incarcerating people for their [drug] consumption choices has the consistency of arresting a survivor of suicide for attempted murder.