Phil Bredesen Quotes

For the past several years, the Meth Caucus has worked to engage the Office of National Drug Control Policy on this issue. We have tried to get their attention that meth requires a strong, comprehensive Federal policy.

You can't expect law enforcement to provide the solution to the drug problem.

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 use of methamphetamines has become pervasive in our country, and especially in rural areas.

It is about time that we develop a worldwide strategy to reduce illegal trade in meth and its precursor chemicals and stop the devastating impact that methamphetamine use is having on our children and our communities.

Meth is a major problem not only in our urban areas, but in most of the rural areas of Colorado. No region has been immune from this scourge and it is getting larger.

Meth is a national problem to the extent that it's not limited to one state; it's not limited to one region of the country. As to whether or not it requires a national solution, I'm not sure we're there yet, but that's something that's certainly being debated on the Hill; it's certainly something that we're discussing within the administration and that will continue.

While alcohol ... continues to wreak havoc in America, supported by a $6 billion-a-year alcohol industry advertising campaign extolling the joy of inebriation, the far less harmful drug of marijuana remains illegal and continues to ruin people's lives - only if they are caught possessing and convicted of that crime.

We have not yet concluded that needle-exchange programs do not encourage drug use.

The criminalization of marijuana did not prevent marijuana from becoming the most widely used illegal substance in the United States and many other countries. But it did result in extensive costs and negative consequences.

The war on meth must be fought with a multi-pronged approach.

If the Southeast represents the new battlefield in the war on meth, then Tennessee clearly is at ground zero.

By regulating marijuana, we can put black market drug dealers out of business and eliminate the rebellious allure that attracts young people.

We need to educate Americans about the real harms of marijuana if we want to sustain the gains we've made over the past three years.

The President wishes the Japanese to be very prudent about the introduction of opium, and if a treaty is made, he wishes that opium may be strictly prohibited.

We also have to stop the flow of precursor chemicals that meth cooks use to boil up this poison.

While we must ensure that these dangerous new drugs and precursors do not get in the hands of children or others who would use them improperly, we must also be aware that these same drugs have legitimate uses.

The war on drugs is a war against the communities.

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

Our communities face many challenges, from keeping our kids safe in public, to the war on terrorism. But few have such immediate consequences as we face from methamphetamine.

If grass were legalized, it would help our drug problem enormously.

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

I would equate the legalization of drugs to the moral equivalent of genocide.

We cannot arrest our way out of the drug problem.

For all our policing, we understand that law enforcement is not the solution to the problem of drugs in our society.