What’s Next After the War on Drugs?

Between Bill Clinton denouncing the overreach of his own crime policies during the 1990s, and Barack Obama making some refreshingly unequivocal statements about mass incarceration during his historic visit to a federal penitentiary, last week was something of a pivotal moment for criminal justice reform. Yet as we reach the tipping point in the national conversation about the failure of the war on drugs, it’s increasingly frustrating to hear experts rehashing the damages of failed policies—over and again—rather than proposing any solid alternatives.

This glaring problem was on display at Thursday night’s symposium in Denver called “Legalization, the Next Phase in the War on Drugs?”

War on Drugs symposium in Denver