Introduction
The VCL is an association of lawyers and judges whose members share strong misgivings about the wisdom and consequences of America's perpetual drug war. While favoring no specific drug control policies, the VCL seeks to promote, within and by the legal profession, informed discussion about the objectives of the drug war and its costs to our cherished institutions of liberty and justice. This is the view of one of our founders, former United States Attorney General, Elliot Richardson.
The VCL is modeled after a group of the same name which played a leading role in the repeal of the 18th Amendment in 1933. VCL members see in modern drug prohibition many of the same harmful and unintended consequences associated with alcohol prohibition. Like our predecessors, we seek to work quietly through bar association committees, encouraging study and discussion of drug policy, especially its impact on criminal justice and Constitutional law.
Please browse the rest of this site and sign the open letter from lawyers and judges, and urge your colleagues to do the same. We hope you will lend your support and participation.
Thank you.
Eric E. Sterling
President
Bulletin
05.01 The VCL holds a Law Day Reception at the Culture Center in New York, honoring Judge Robert W. Sweet with the Joseph H. Choate, Jr. Award for Leadership.
04.29
PLEASURE, PAIN, PHYSICIANS AND POLICE: The law of controlled substances and the practice of medicine, program presented by the New York City Bar Association's Committee on Drugs and the Law and the Health Law Committee, with speakers: Marcus Reidenberg, MD, FACP; Joseph Spillane, PhD; Buford Terrell, JD, LLM.
04.09
The New York City Bar Association's Committee on Drugs and the Law releases A Wiser Course: Ending Drug Prohibition, Fifteen Years Later.
04.02.09
The Sentencing Project released a report assessing the impact of drug courts, Drug Courts: A Review of the Evidence.
03.02.09
The Pew Center released a report, One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections, showing that 7.3 million, or 1 in every 31 U.S. adults, is behind bars, on parole or on probation.
02.11.09
The Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy, which includes the former presidents of Mexico, Colombia and Brazil, released a statement, Drugs and Democracy: Towards a Paradigm Shift, declaring the War on Drugs a failure and calling for a meaningful debate on alternatives.
02.05.09
The ABA Commission on Effective Criminal Sanctions and the Public Defender Service for the District of Columbia have released a new study, Internal Exile: Collateral Consequences of Conviction in Federal Laws and Regulations.
10.22.08
Article by our President, Eric E. Sterling, on a way to stimulate the economy: stop locking up and saddling so many of our citizens with felony records so that we may increase their spending power.
09.17.08
You can now BECOME A MEMBER of the VCL at set membership levels or DONATE and help support the VCL's mission of creating and expanding the dialogue examining the efficacy of the war on drugs within the legal, medical and other professional communities. JOIN NOW!
06.26.08
"No one should be stigmatized or discriminated against because of their dependence on drugs."
-United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
05.01.08
Our new website is live. Welcome!
Thank you to Logo Bee for our logo.
