"The law can be quite open-ended; it is not an exact science. And in common law countries, like Canada and the US, there is a tradition and acceptance of judicial creativity. When judges must resolve cases in the absence of black and white rules they generally rely on their sense of what society embraces in terms of values and principles - what is the social consensus. Needless to say, their own ideological orientations will lead them to different interpretations of what that consensus is, but the more cultural support there is for an idea – say drug legalization - the more likely judges, and legislators, police, prosecutors, for that matter, will exercise the substantial discretion they have on the basis of that idea."
Joel Bakan
Law Professor, UBC
Author: The Corporation

Jay Fleming

"If the drug war was a good thing and everybody believed in it, the word 'narc' wouldn't be a bad word."


Jay Fleming has experienced the effects of the US War on Drugs from several perspectives. He grew up in Spokane, Washington and when the drug war was declared in 1970, Jay worked as an undercover agent for their Police Department. That experience led to several other positions with police and sheriff operations where he continued his fight against the drug trade in the American Northwest. He specialized in long-term deep undercover operations; a lifestyle which he now says has a harmful effect on officers.

Jay has made it his mission to speak out and expose the problems he's seen in the futile policy of declaring "war" on drugs... he now says, "It's the psychology of war. And once you've made that enemy evil enough, it's OK to use any means to destroy that enemy."

As well as advocating legalization, Jay feels that we need to provide more resources and support for recovering members of drug enforcement. It's a tough job: many people don't realize how tough it is on the officers, who face a moral predicament.

"I don't think the drug war is right anymore. Dad's in prison for ten years or something; the kids don't have a father... I know families that have just been destroyed."