By Reverend Arnold W. Howard of Enon Baptist Church in Baltimore, Maryland.

The Drug War is tearing apart the soul of this country.  As the U.S. secures its role as the leading incarcerator in the world, I have joined a growing movement of people of faith who are calling on the public and our government to make a prophetic shift in how we address our shared concerns over drug use, abuse and addiction.

Building more jails and throwing more money, cops and guns at this problem is completely ineffective at addressing the problem of drug abuse in our community. The Drug War has failed at reducing drug abuse, healing the deep wounds of families hurt by addiction, reducing violent crime, or stemming the spread of disease. In fact, it only makes these problems worse.

Jesus said, you judge a tree by the fruit it bears. It is no surprise that our punitive approach to drug abuse has bared the fruit of chaos on our streets, insanity in our classrooms, and delusion in the halls of Congress. As if drugs aren’t a hard enough problem, we don’t need our drug laws ruining lives, too. Any policy based on fear, retribution, demonization, and marginalization will beget ill results. We become the embodiment of that which we hate.

Our society has become addicted to the drug war. Good people have built up a tolerance to what seems like excessive punishment just a few years ago, so the politicians need to increase the dosage on prison terms in order to fill a compulsive retributive lust. We have over-dosed on prisons, yet society has become co-dependent on politicians who gain political points for feeding the monkey on our backs. We are experiencing cirrhosis of the criminal justice system, too overworked to provide a healthy level of justice.

Just like an addict can spiral out of control and exhibit bizarre behavior, the federal government, in a despicable show of bravado to maintain this drug war addiction, is even arresting legitimate patients who use medical marijuana with the approval of their doctor.

It is time for an intervention. It’s time to intervene in this war and share a compelling vision of polices that abstain from the addictive and damaging habits of punishment and coercion. I understand that total abstinence from punitive approaches to drugs is not ready to be fully embraced by the powers that be. And any attempts at treating drugs entirely as a health issue, not a crime, should be given serious study and community input. These policy options should not be rushed into blindly. But there are many excesses of the drug war that are clearly unconscionable, and we have a moral imperative to champion three immediate issues, regardless of what any of us believe about the more substantial alternatives to prohibition.

The first is Medical Marijuana: If we are going to have a war on drugs, can we at least remove the sick and dieing from the battlefield? Marijuana provides relief for those suffering from the effects of cancer chemotherapy, AIDS wasting syndrome, and other serious illnesses. If a doctor and a patient decide that marijuana is the best medicine for them, let’s have some mercy on these people.

Next is Restoring Educational Opportunities: Because education is a powerful antidote to drug abuse and crime, we must repeal part of the Higher Education Act that denies college aid to students who have a drug conviction. Of course, this law only affects students who need financial aid. Economically disadvantaged minorities are disproportionately hurt by this insane law.

The most crucial issue is Mandatory Minimum Repeal: Mandatory minimum sentencing for non-violent drug offenses is the main culprit responsible for the exploding prison population in the United States. The average federal prison sentence for a first-time drug offense exceeds the average sentence for sexual abuse, assault, manslaughter, or burglary!

People of faith can no longer sit by idly as the United States secures its role as the leading incarcerator in the world. Moreover, mandatory minimums have been called “the new Jim Crow laws” because of the drastically disproportionate impact they are having on communities of color. After two decades of mandatory minimum sentencing, drugs are easier to get, purer and cheaper. These laws are not keeping drugs off the streets, but they are making free black men an endangered species in our communities.

I am pleased that my denomination, the Progressive National Baptist Convention, has taken a favorable position on mandatory minimum sentencing, medical marijuana, and HEA drug provision repeal. We are not alone in the religious community. Thanks to the Interfaith Drug Policy Initiative’s organizing, the religious support for all of at least one of these 3 proposals is virtually universal, including Catholics, Methodists, Episcopalians, Evangelical Lutherans, Presbyterians, Reform Jews, Unitarians, National Council of Churches and many more. The faith community is mobilizing a united effort to give our politicians the courage to vote for what is morally right. These are the first steps to shedding light where there is currently darkness.

For fear of moral outrage, there has been an unspoken rule that drug laws must keep getting harsher and more punitive, regardless of the results of such policies. It’s only fitting that faith groups united or commitment to reducing drug abuse and the hare associated with it, are the ones calling for a drastic shift toward policies that seek to heal, not punish. I pray that we will all gain the courage to challenge our retributive desires and chary a new course toward healing, compassion and love.