Rob Portman Quotes

Researchers, treatment providers - we all have a stake in the drug hysteria game.

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

I don't know if people really want to know how I feel about drugs. I'm not such a stickler. I believe you can choose to live your life any way you want.

If you want to fight a war on drugs, sit down at your own kitchen table and talk to your own children.

Once brave politicians and others explain the war on drugs' true cost, the American people will scream for a cease-fire. Bring the troops home, people will urge. Treat drugs as a health problem, not as a matter for the criminal justice system.

We cannot arrest our way out of the drug problem.

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

The consumption of drugs could be legalized, not penalized.

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

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

Prohibition of substances which give pleasure to people does not work. Addiction is a health problem, not a moral one, and there are many proven strategies which can reduce its burden.

Anyone who advocates pill testing is giving the green light to drugs. That is absolutely unacceptable.

They say drugs are not the answer, but really, what is the question?

Like any tool [drugs] can help you or hurt you.

I think pot should be legalized, but I think the promotion of party culture is irresponsible.

I always thought a very strong anti-drug policy was a good thing for my union members.

Educating young people about the harms of drugs is essential.

Although our war on drugs must be fortified with the best laws, enforcement efforts and resources, we would not be successful without your individual commitment to this cause.

I just think it's shocking how many of these young people wind up in prison and they get turned into hardcore criminals because they had a possession of a very small amount of controlled substance.

You wanna get rid of drug crime in this country? Fine, let's just get rid of all the drug laws.

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

We have lost the War on Drugs. We cannot arrest our way out of it….It’s a public health problem, not a crime problem.

We won't dispassionately investigate or rationally debate which drugs do what damage and whether or how much of that damage is the result of criminalization. We'd rather work ourselves into a screaming fit of puritanism and then go home and take a pill.

I know why we can't have a frank discussion with our policymakers - if you're in the government or in law enforcement you cannot acknowledge that drugs are anything but inherently evil and morally wrong.

Personally I have never found the practice of recreational drug use appealing. In fact, I have always found the lifestyle and the people who surround it to be abhorrent.