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I just returned from a reunion of my Class of 1962 at John Muir High School in Pasadena. Since pretty much all of us are or soon will be 80 years old our reunion was called our class’s 80th Birthday Party. And what a good time we had! Of course so many of our classmates either were too disabled to attend or were no longer on this earth. So that reminded me, as I am trying to remind you, to enjoy our lives while we have them, and to be appreciative of our good fortune at all times!

Some of the best people I have ever met in my life have come from my involvement in trying to help our country change its drug policy. One of those people is my friend James E. (Jim) Gierach, who is a former state prosecutor in Illinois and director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) who has just written a book entitled The Silver Bullet Solution: Is it time to end the War on Drugs? And Jim just sent out what he calls his “Gierach Drug Policy Declaration,” which I have his permission to forward on to our 2 Paragraphs Family for your consideration.

When I was seeking to become a federal prosecutor in Los Angeles part of the application process was to emphasize that, as a prosecutor, we were always to try to “Do the Right Thing for the Right Reason – Every Time!” If we made a mistake along the way, they would have our backs, but if we did things for political, personal or vindictive reasons, etc., we would be held accountable. After I became a trial court judge I have had many opportunities to speak to prosecutors and police officers, and I have often reaffirmed with them the importance of adhering to that challenge.

There is an old saying that “In politics reality is irrelevant; it is only the voters’ perception of reality that matters.” And, regretfully, I believe that this is true. So when we have a housing shortage and people are homeless, many voters naturally look to the government for a resolution. And, since politicians live and die on voter approval, they hasten to enact programs that have the governments paying vast amounts of money to build new housing units.

As I have told you before, about five years ago I was on the syndicated radio show called “Coast to Coast” with George Noory discussing criminal justice issues. Soon thereafter I received letters from twelve men who are incarcerated in various prisons all around the country, so I started corresponding with them about prison conditions. Now the number has gone up to about 40. Most of the letters complain about all kinds of things.

Happily many people from widely different backgrounds and experiences have reached the same conclusions that I have about the failure of our country’s policy of Drug Prohibition. One of them is Ms. Christina Dent who lives with her young family in Mississippi. Ms. Dent has written a book entitled CURIOUS: A Foster Mom’s Discovery of an unexpected Solution to Drugs and Addiction..

As is said routinely, the purpose of this column is to stimulate thought and discussion. So in that pursuit I am passing along to you, with permission, a list of issues that one of our 2 Paragraphs Family members shared with me. Good stimulating questions, don’t you think? And please think about and pass along your answers to your circle of friends (including me). So here they are:

The first paragraph of the article entitled “Rationales for New Regulation” in the Summer 2024 edition of Regulation: The CATO Review of Business and Government, reads as follows: “By any measure, US federal regulation is big business. Year after year, hundreds of thousands of employees at 70-plus regulatory agencies churn out thousands of new rules.

Page one of the July 24-30, 2024 edition of The Epoch Times featured an article entitled “Mothers Blame China, Cartels” with the subtitle of “Fentanyl is ‘weapon of mass destruction’ destroying families.” Of course there are many people in the world who will try to make easy money by selling contraband. For openers, just remember people like Al Capone who took advantage of our nation’s policy of Alcohol Prohibition.

To state the obvious, today our Great Nation is in many ways divided and even polarized. How can we address and overcome this difficulty? Through the healing power of Federalism. And what is that? It institutes two levels of government: one for the entire country (the federal government) that is usually responsible for a few subjects of national interest, and the other for the various constituent of units of the country (the states).