Should Christians Oppose the War on Drugs?

By Rod Anderson, CP Cartoonist Wednesday, July 15, 2015

The New England Conference of United Methodist Churches, a group of 600 churches spanning six states, voted in favor of a resolution Saturday which calls for an end to the war on drugs because it is the Christian thing to do.

"In the love of Christ, who came to save those who are lost and vulnerable, we urge the creation of a genuinely new system for the care and restoration of victims, offenders, criminal justice officials, and the community as a whole," said the resolution, in part, according to a release from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition.

"Restorative justice grows out of biblical authority, which emphasizes a right relationship with God, self and community. When such relationships are violated or broken through crime, opportunities are created to make things right," it continued.

In the resolution, the group highlights a long list of concerns and reasons to end prohibition, including public health, violent trafficking as well as the loss of countless innocent lives in overcrowded prisons — many of them black and Latino.

"To people of color, the 'war on drugs' has arguably been the single most devastating, dysfunctional social policy since slavery," the resolution asserts.