ABSTRACT
Over the years an enormous volume of research has criticized the war on drugs, including studies that have been carried out by agencies authorized by Congress to evaluate our drug policy, such as the Institute of Medicine and the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The war has been condemned by researchers on a number of grounds: namely, that it's racist, that it incarcerates nonviolent offenders, that it's ineffective in reducing drug use, and that it punishes people for consuming marijuana, which is misrepresented by the federal government as a gateway to hard drugs. It would not be surprising to find the czars being rattled by the avalanche of criticisms leveled at them from the scientific community; and, indeed they appear to be. What follows are the czars' attempts to refute these criticisms leveled at the drug war.
