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UNIVERSITY of PENNSYLVANIA
JOURNAL of LAW & PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Vol. 5 November 2019 No. 1
ADDICTED TO THE WAR ON DRUGS
Brendan Walden*
INTRODUCTION ...............................................................................................1
I. AMERICA' S DRUG PROBLEM INTRODUCTION...............................................2
II. INSTITUTIONAL BARRIERS AND SOLUTIONS................................................5
III. THE BATTLE FOR HARM REDUCTION IN PHILADELPHIA ........................ 8
IV. SOCIAL WORK & THE PATH FORWARD ...................................................12
CONCLUSION .................................................................................................13
INTRODUCTION
On March 13th, 2019, the University of Pennsylvania Journal ofLaw
& Public Affairs held a symposium entitled Addicted to the War on Drugs.
Symposium speakers not only examined the statistical and historical failure
of American drug policy, but also explored the institutional consequences
of those failures, potential paths forward, and barriers to lasting change.
After almost fifty years of violent conflict with civilian populations,
America's global War on Drugs is uniquely pervasive and normalized.
Weighed against basic principles of justice and liberty, the mass incarcer-
ation of drug users may be inherently immoral. However, institutional
violence is almost always defended, at least theoretically, as the lesser
of two evils.1 The extreme scale and intensity of the drug war demands
* Symposium Editor, Volume 4, University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law & Public
Affairs. J.D., 2019, University of Pennsylvania Law School; B.A., 2010, Rutgers College.
My sincere appreciation to Volume 4 Editor-in-Chief Amanda LeSavage, Managing Editor
Mary Lester, Faculty Advisor Cary Coglianese, and the entire JLPA team for all their hard
work, without whose support our 2019 Symposium would not have been possible.
'See, e.g., Ian Morris, In the Long Run, Wars Make Us Safer and Richer, WASH. POST (Apr.
25, 2014), https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-the-long-n-wars-make-us-safer-and-
richer/2014/04/25/a4207660-c965-11e3-a75e-463587891b57_stoiy.html [perma.cc/7MG3-5RW4]
(arguing that the extreme human costs of war are worth it to create more peaceful, civilized
societies). See generally, e.g., MICHAEL IGNATIEFF, THE LESSER EVIL: POLITICAL ETHICS IN](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/penjuaf5&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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