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Many people agree with RAD or Relegalize All Drugs initiative to re-legalize not only marijuana, but ALL drugs.

Police officers involved with LEAP or Law Enforcement Against Prohibition think all drugs should be re-legalized.

So do the Christians in these United Methodist churches in New England.

Nobody is recommending that 5 year olds start mainlining heroin, or snorting crack. We just think drug abuse should be treated as a medical problem, not a criminal problem.

You don't throw tobacco addicts in prison. And you shouldn't be throwing heroin addicts in prison either.

Source

Like Jesus? Legalize drugs

Linda Valdez, The Republic | azcentral.com 6:26 p.m. MST June 23, 2015

What would Jesus do? Legalize drugs.

Some mainstream Christians are flexing their muscles in the name of a more restorative approach to substance abuse. A group of 600 United Methodist churches in New England is calling for an end to the War on Drugs.

They say it's the Christian way.

This isn't just about marijuana, though the marijuana legalization folks are covering the story.

The resolution approved over the weekend by the New England Conference of United Methodist Churches says "the public policy of prohibition of certain narcotics and psychoactive substances . . . has failed to achieve the goal of eliminating, or even reducing, substance abuse."

It goes on to list a great many negative effects from an expensive and failed effort to treat substance abuse as a criminal problem. They have a more restorative approach in mind.

The churches joined with Maryland-based Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, according to a press release.

LEAP says the drug war wreaks havoc on public safety, damages community relations with police, fosters corruption and racism, and "has cost more than $1 trillion dollars, yielded no positive outcomes, and has ultimately diverted the penal system's attention away from more important crimes."

In the name of Christianity, the churches' resolution calls for finding "means other than prohibition to address the problem of substance abuse" and "to reduce the multitude of unintended harmful consequences resulting from fighting the war on drugs and to lessen the incidence of death, disease, crime, and addiction by ending drug prohibition."

The idea of ending prohibition of all illegal substances and substituting treatment for punishment is quite radical.

But so were the teachings of Jesus.