Meet the Voluntary Committee of Lawyers

Dear Friends:

As you know, the "War on Drugs" has been a tragic policy failure, degrading public order and public health and eroding trust in the justice system and respect for the law.  Now you have a chance to participate in an intensive national effort underway to bring about a fundamental shift in our drug control policies.   

If you haven't already met, let me introduce you to the Voluntary Committee of Lawyers!  The VCL is working successfully across the nation to amplify the voice of the legal profession, calling for a serious examination of the "War on Drugs" and its harmful consequences.

During National Alcohol Prohibition in the 1920s, a respected group of New York lawyers founded the original Voluntary Committee of Lawyers, building a national network to set up the state constitutional conventions that eventually led to the repeal of Prohibition in 1933.  The modern VCL is organizing lawyers and judges around the country today to criticize our current prohibition-style drug policies and to suggest workable alternative approaches.  Through state and loc al bar associations in New York, Colorado, Alabama, Wisconsin, Massachusetts, Washington and other states, the VCL is spurring important discussions in professional circles that wield considerable influence in the policymaking process.  

We are approaching a historic turning point in the drug policy debate.  In these troubling times, the fiscal strain of excessive incarceration is leading states to shift their criminal justice policies.  Violence from illegal drug markets is about to spill across the Mexican border.  Leading newspapers regularly highlight the disaster of the "War on Drugs."  The Obama Administration has also made some important signals recently.  Now is the time for the VCL to leverage its deep history and advance the mature legal dialogue about shifting to a more rational drug control policy.

Thanks to your support we can continue this important work.

We are expanding the VCL as a membership organization of lawyers, judges and other professionals, strengthening the call for an exit strategy for the "War on Drugs."  You are invited to join our growing network by becoming a member of the VCL today.  Click here.

To learn more about the VCL and its membership and activities, please join us on Law Day, Friday, May 1st, at the Culture Center on Manhattan's Upper West Side for a reception and presentation of the VCL's Joseph H. Choate, Jr. Award for Leadership to U.S. District Court Judge Robert Sweet.  Then get dinner with us afterward and continue what is sure to be an evening of engaging discussion.

We welcome you to join the VCL and help us push for sanity in our drug control policies.  Thank you very much for your support, and we look forward to working together with you!

Very truly yours,

Roger E. Goodman