Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the fallout from our dispute with Marjorie Taylor Greene:

We are delighted with all the kind comments we have received from Catholics, clergy and lay alike, about our denunciation of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Anyone who says the Catholic Church, or its leadership, is run by Satan is a bigot.

But we have our critics, too. There are those who hate the Catholic Church and therefore object to our comments about her. I am not interested in addressing these people—they are haters. I am interested in addressing those who don’t seem to know what we do.

Our primary mission is to combat anti-Catholicism. Secondly, we are strongly committed to religious liberty. These twin issues cover most of what we do. As a sociologist, I also write about issues that bear on the contours of our culture. After all, the Catholic Church does not exist independent of the dominant culture. Indeed, it is very much a part of it. This explains why we track the cultural currents of the day: they are bound to affect the Church.

We are not a wing of the Republican Party or the Democratic Party, and we certainly are not in business to serve either of them. If we go after Democrats more than Republicans—and we do—it is because secularists tend to be Democrats and the more militant among them tend to be anti-Catholic.

We are not a wing of the Catholic hierarchy. We are quite independent of them. To be sure, we are not some renegade Catholic organization—we are listed in the Official Catholic Directory as a bona fide Catholic entity. Just as the bishops don’t tell us what to do, we don’t tell the bishops what  to do. We have neither the authority nor the will to do so. We know our place.

We do not go after critics of the Catholic Church who are upset with a particular public policy that it embraces. They have every right to do so. We only get involved when criticism spills into invective, into boilerplate, taking shots below the belt. We also object to those who make sweeping condemnations of the clergy, blaming all priests and bishops for the miscreant behavior of some. Those are the marks of a bigot.

It must also be said that we object to non-Catholics criticizing the doctrinal prerogatives of the Church: they have no more business doing so than Catholics have a right to criticize the internal strictures of another religion. Fairly criticizing the Church for its position on abortion is one thing; criticizing its teaching on priestly celibacy is another.

Most Catholics, Jews, Muslims and Protestants are good people. But there are some within each group that are intolerant of Catholicism. Among the first two, it is the militant secularists within their ranks that are a problem; among the latter two, it is their extreme interpretation of their religion that is the problem.

Angry ex-Catholics and militant secularists within the Jewish community are consumed with hostility over the Church’s sexual ethics. Practicing Catholics and observant Jews are not the problem—it is those who have lost their way.

When radical Muslims lash out at Catholics, it is usually the result of some twisted understanding of their own religion. Similarly, there is a strain of anti-Catholicism among Protestants, more commonly exhibited by extremists within the evangelical community.

Marjorie Taylor Greene belongs to two of these groups: she is an angry ex-Catholic and an extreme evangelical.

We do not give Republican pro-life politicians a break when they make patently anti-Catholic remarks and refuse to apologize. We denounce them. We don’t cut corners for them because to do so would violate our mission. It is up to Republicans to get bigots like Greene into line—don’t ever expect us to give anti-Catholics a break, no matter what their voting record is.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue says Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene dug herself in deeper with her reply to his news release condemning her anti-Catholicism.

The letter below is being sent to the House Ethics Committee today:

April 28, 2022

Rep. Theodore E. Deutch
Chairman
House Ethics Committee
2323 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Rep. Jackie Walorski
Ranking Member
House Ethics Committee
466 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Rep. Deutch and Rep. Walorski:

As president of the nation’s largest Catholic civil rights organization, I am requesting that you levy sanctions against Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for her virulent anti-Catholicism.

On April 21, Greene was interviewed by Michael Voris, the head of Church Militant. In their discussion about the role of Catholic Charities working with immigrants, Greene said the Catholic Church was run by Satan.

Here is what she said. “I thought we had a separation of church and state, right? No, what it is, is Satan’s controlling the church.”

I asked for an apology and she publicly said there would be none. She responded by saying that her sweeping condemnation of the entire Catholic Church was meant only to apply to the bishops, as if that makes her hate speech acceptable.

Greene has a history of offending African Americans and Jews, so bigotry is something that is apparently baked into her.

The time has come for her to be either reprimanded or censured. Her irresponsible behavior has already caused her to be removed from committee assignments. Accordingly, her burst of anti-Catholicism now demands stronger sanctions against her.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

William A. Donohue, Ph.D.
President

cc:  House Ethics Committee Members

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene:

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene gave an interview on April 21 to Michael Voris, the head of Church Militant, wherein they discussed the role of Catholic Charities assisting illegal aliens. She had plenty of opportunities to make rational criticisms of the agency, but instead she slandered the entire Catholic Church.

“I thought we had a separation of church and state, right? No, what it is, is Satan’s controlling the church.”

Satan is controlling the Catholic Church? She needs to apologize to Catholics immediately. She is a disgrace.

We are contacting House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy about this matter. He’s got a loose cannon on his hands.

Contact her communications director: nick.dyer@mail.house.gov

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on Harvard’s attempt to deal with its legacy of slavery:

Slavery has existed in every part of the world, and it was rarely considered to be morally wrong until Christianity condemned it. In fact, when the U.S. was founded in the late 18th century, Western Europe was the only place in the world where slavery did not exist.

It is ironic to note that white people today feel obliged to provide reparations to black people when white people were the first to object to slavery. They sure didn’t object in Latin America, Africa, the Middle East or Asia—they thought it was normal.

Harvard University is the latest institution to offer its mea culpa, this time with a pledge to spend $100 million of its $53 billion endowment on an endowed “Legacy of Slavery Fund.” No money will go to any individuals. The money will pay for memorials and curricula to honor the past and for exchange programs between Harvard and black colleges, as well as other ventures.

This is a cheap gambit. What makes it cheap is not that it represents only .188% of its total holdings—what makes it cheap is that it does absolutely nothing to address the status of African Americans in the U.S. today.

Tomiko Brown-Nagin is the professor who is leading a committee on this project. “The university is committed to deeply meaningful and sustained remedies that will endure in perpetuity,” she said. “These remedies are focused on leveraging our expertise in education, which is consistent with our mission.”

If the committee is serious, it should endorse charter schools. Charter schools are public schools that are privately run, and they are a smashing success. Black parents love them, precisely because traditional public schools have failed them for decades.

If the committee is serious, it should endorse school choice initiatives, programs which black parents also love. School choice would give these parents the right to send their children to a private or parochial school, places that have a proven record of academic excellence.

If the committee is serious, it should break with the Harvard Graduate Council, which represents 12 Harvard graduate and professional schools. The Council supports Black Lives Matter, a racist and corrupt organization that seeks to punish blacks by destroying the nuclear family. It also wants to defund the police, a policy overwhelmingly rejected by blacks.

If the committee is serious, it should stop segregating the races by having black graduation ceremonies and the like.

If the committee is serious, it should start treating people of all races and ethnicities as equal and stop discriminating against Asians in its admissions policy.

Grandstanding and chest-beating exercises are the cheapest way to address this issue. Why not finally do something that will really provide “meaningful and sustained remedies that will endure in perpetuity”? Why not support education reforms that gives blacks the same opportunities available to affluent whites?

Contact Tomiko Brown-Nagin: tbrownnagin@radcliffe.harvard.edu

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the choice of Trevor Noah as the host of this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner:

On April 30, Comedy Central star Trevor Noah will host the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner. It says a lot about those in the White House and the media that they would pick such a bigot.

On two occasions in the past few years, we contacted his bosses at Viacom (and ViacomCBS), and he initially tapped his brakes, only to start up again with his attacks on Catholics. We all know that if he had said anything like this about any other demographic group, he would not have been invited. In fact, he wouldn’t even have a job—he would have been fired long ago.

The following are quotes from the “Daily Show with Trevor Noah.”

• September 28, 2015—While commenting on the pope’s visit to America, Noah stated that the pope’s car was small and that “somebody’s compensating. I’m saying the pope has a huge c**k.”
• June 27, 2016—After Noah made some humorous and inoffensive jokes about the pope’s quips aboard the papal plane, he referred to the pontiff as that “mother******.”
• January 5, 2017—While commenting on a McDonald’s opening near the Vatican, Noah stated that “it makes a lot of sense when you think about it—both the Catholic Church and McDonald’s have served billions, they both make people feel guilty about themselves, and both are historically bad for children, so it makes sense (emphasis added).”
• March 23, 2017—While commenting on a three-year-old removing the pope’s hat, Noah stated that “I can see why this made the news—a child undressing a priest for a change.”
• September 5, 2018—While commenting on two Catholic priests performing lewd acts on each other, Noah stated, “that sounds like a good news story to me. Two adults having consensual sex, hallelujah! That’s pretty dope.” The comic went on to suggest that the pope was “pretty stoked” about the story and introduced a dubbed-over clip of the Holy Father saying, “You want to talk about a miracle? They are both over 18. Two adults, just a midday quickie in a PT cruiser. Thank you, Lord Jesus!”
• March 26, 2019—While commenting on the pope not wanting people to kiss his ring, Noah stated that “it’s a nice change of pace to see a priest not want to touch people.”
• May 29, 2019—While discussing an alleged Catholic group selling video games, Noah provided a platform to “Daily Show” correspondent Ronny Chieng to say that “I don’t think an institution known for luring children should put out a game to lure more children. Where do you catch the final Pokémon Jesus—Father Garrity’s tickle room?”
• June 11, 2019—While commenting on the Vatican’s teachings on gender ideology, Noah stated that “the Catholic Church thinks that if you’re a girl, you’re a girl forever, and if you’re a boy, they are going to f*** you.” He then made several jokes about “pedophile priests.”
• October 9, 2019—Noah questioned, “Why is the communion wafer so bland? Jesus was from the Middle East. How about a bowl of hummus to go with it? Body of Christ, tasty.”
• January 16, 2020—While commenting on the pope’s remarks on the issue of celibacy for priests, Noah mocked Pope Emeritus Benedict for publishing a book on celibacy stating that “the old pope wants the rules to stay the same. And I get that. I mean if I had been forced to be a virgin for 92 years, I would also be out there like, ‘guys come on! Those are the rules! We agreed!'”
• March 9, 2020—While commenting on Covid-19 restrictions, Noah stated that “it’s going to be hard to take Communion seriously when the priest has to throw wafers into people’s open mouths from across the room, the Body of Christ—from downtown!”
• April 13, 2020—While commenting on Covid-19 restrictions, Noah stated that Easter Sunday would be hard for many church-goers, “but for the Catholic Church, this is a good thing—keeping priests separate from the congregation might not be the worst idea.”
• May 18, 2020—While commenting on Covid-19 restrictions, Noah stated that a Detroit priest using a water gun to bless parishioners with holy water from a distance was “a great way for other Catholic priests to explain why they have a bunch of kid’s toys in their basements.”
• March 16, 2021—While commenting on the Jesuits providing reparations to African-Americans, Noah mocked the Sacrament of Baptism by calling it “waterboarding babies.” The comic went on to do a skit where he impersonates a priest offering money to a black man “for owning [his] great-grandfather.” Noah then takes on the role of the black man and replies that “I thought this was for you guys touching us when we were kids.”

When Obama was president, they never would have allowed a white racist to host this event.

Contact Steven Thomma, executive director, White House Correspondents’ Association: director@whca.press

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on who is working against women’s rights today:

It is not the misogynists who are working hard to destroy the rights of women these days, it is those who fancy themselves as their greatest champions. They are not only placing women in danger, they are allowing men to eviscerate their hard-won freedoms, all in the name of women’s rights.

Having non-doctors perform abortions places women’s lives in danger, yet that is permitted in many states. They are not trained to deal with problems such as hemorrhaging, infection, uterine perforation, heart attacks, strokes, etc. By contrast, we don’t allow dental assistants to do many things that dentists are trained to do (e.g., root canals)—and these  procedures are a whole lot less dangerous than performing an abortion—so why do we cut corners for pregnant women?

There are 15 states, plus the District of Columbia, that allow non-physicians to perform an abortion: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginian, and D.C.

Only two of the 16—Montana and West Virginia—voted for Trump. All of the others are known for championing women’s rights. But not when it comes to safeguarding their health.

Another measure of women’s rights is whether women, and women alone, are permitted to compete in women’s sports. We don’t allow adults to compete with children in sports—that would mean the end of Little League—yet it is fashionable in some places to allow men to participate in women’s sports.

Allowing males to compete against females in girls and women’s sports is the surest way to destroy women’s rights in athletics. Moreover, allowing men to share the same showers and locker rooms compromises the privacy rights of women.

Yet only two of the 15 states that allow non-doctors to perform abortions has a ban on males from competing in women’s sports (Montana and West Virginia); D.C. is with the majority. The others either mandate that men can compete—California, Massachusetts, Oregon and Washington—or allow them to do so. Lawmakers in four states (Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois and Maine) introduced legislation to ban men, but they failed.

It should also be known that the Women’s Sports Foundation, the National Organization for Women, Ms. Magazine and female athletes such as Billie Jean King, Megan Rapinoe and Candace Parker have all taken the side of biological men against women.

We have long known that single men are the greatest advocates of abortion-on-demand (they get what they want minus the baggage), and now they don’t have to worry about a shortage of abortion doctors to finish the job—midwives can do it. Better yet, they can crash women’s sports and walk away as champions, thanks to those who champion women’s rights.

For these guys, it just doesn’t get any better than this.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on the Biden administration’s focus on transgenderism:

There is no such person as a transgender—you are either male or female—but there is such a thing as transgenderism: it is an ideology that promotes the fiction that the sexes are interchangeable.

To win, proponents are bent on getting to children, prompting little kids to question whether they are satisfied being a boy or a girl. If they are in doubt, they should be advised to at least consider making the switch.

There is no more rabid advocate of transgenderism in America than the President of the United States. Indeed, transgender mania has gripped the White House.

Within months, the Biden administration will finalize changes to Obamacare that will make it easier for persons seeking to transition to the opposite sex. The Department of Health and Human Services is leading the way, treating gender identity as a status worthy of being covered by laws against sex discrimination. Changes will also be made to healthcare plans, so that sex-transition procedures can be covered.

This is a classic case of top-down politics. There is no national outcry demanding that those who want to flip their sex should be given the green light. If anything, there is a growing consensus that we need to hit the pause button on this subject.

When White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki recently said that “Gender affirming healthcare for transgender kids is the best practice and potentially lifesaving,” she offered no evidence to support this outlandish claim. But she did make plain that gender-affirming care meant a) social affirmation b) puberty blockers c) hormone therapy and d) gender-affirming surgery.

This four-step approach is a sanitized way of saying that the White House is committed to encouraging the sexually confused to transition to the opposite sex, and that chemical castration and genital mutilation will follow.

Psaki also warned lawmakers who work against them that they have been “put on notice” not to mess with the president. She specifically said the White House will go after states that resist their agenda. She was supported by Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra who said he wants taxpayers to pay for the drugs, incisions and genital reconstructions.

The White House says that gender-affirming care will help transgender adolescents who are suffering from mental health problems, drugs and suicidal thoughts. They should first inquire why these young people are so messed up in the first place and then seek to give them the help they need. It is nonsense to argue that their problems are due to social rejection—their maladies are a function of their mental state.

Dr. Paul McHugh is a noted psychiatrist who has studied this issue as well as anyone. The Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital maintains that transgender people suffer from a “mental disorder” and that “the idea of sex misalignment is simply mistaken—it does not correspond with physical reality.”

Undeterred, the Biden administration cites a Trevor Project survey to support its conclusion, never mentioning that two of organization’s donors, AbbVie and Allergan, make drugs and medical products that facilitate sex transitions.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis apparently was not “put on notice,” or he is simply recalcitrant. His Department of Health has issued its own guidelines on this subject. It declared that because the evidence is inconclusive regarding sex-transition procedures, and could, in fact have “long-term, irreversible effects,” the best way forward is to recommend against treating children and adolescents at this time.

To back up its stance, the Florida agency cited evidence that 80% of those seeking to transition lose their desire to do so over time. It also cited the serious health effects of making the change. There is good reason to support this position.

We could learn a thing or two from the Europeans; they have a richer history of dealing with those who are in rebellion against their nature.

The Amsterdam University Medical Center surveyed 4,600 transgender men and women between 1972 and 2018. It found that transgender medical treatment shortened the lifespan of patients by 50%. This is an astounding finding, one that should make everyone reconsider the conventional wisdom on this subject.

After allowing cross-sex hormone treatment in children for 22 years, Sweden slammed on the brakes and made the practice illegal. Its health officials said these procedures are “potentially fraught with extensive and irreversible adverse consequences such as cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, infertility, increased cancer risk, and thrombosis.” Denmark and France did the same thing.

It must also be said that the psychological problems these people have are every bit as serious as their physical condition.

We look back today at controversial medical treatments that have proven to be a disaster and wonder why we went down this road. Some day we will do the same with regard to sex-transition treatments, but by that time the psychological and physiological damage will have been done, thanks in large part to our “devout Catholic” president.

There is a reason why Pope Francis calls gender ideology “demonic.” This mania has got to stop.

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on plans by the Biden administration to end conscience protections for healthcare workers:

In May 2019, President Donald Trump spoke from the Rose Garden about the conscience rights of healthcare workers. He addressed the final new rules that his administration posited, strictures, he said, that will protect “physicians, pharmacists, nurses, teachers, students and faith-based charities. Together, we are building a culture that cherishes the dignity and worth of human life.”

Trump’s new rules made it easier for those in the medical profession to refuse to participate in morally objectionable procedures, such as abortion and sex-transition surgery. On November 8, 2019, when Trump first made mention of the final rules, I said, “Kudos to President Trump for affirming religious liberty and conscience rights.”

Immediately, pro-abortion groups sued and their objections were sustained by the courts. However, there are still some two dozen federal rules on the books that provide protection for conscience rights.

President Biden is now set to rescind all the conscience rights protections afforded by Trump. His Department of Health and Human Services, which is an ardent defender of abortion-on-demand, is leading the charge. It is expected to soon make public its agenda to eviscerate the First Amendment rights of religious doctors, nurses and hospital staff who cannot in good conscience participate in death-inducing procedures, as well as other morally detestable acts.

The passion that Biden shows for killing unborn children is unparalleled. There have been pro-abortion zealots at the local and state level, and there are some in the Congress today, but never before in American history has there been a president more determined to force Catholic healthcare workers to violate their faith-based conscience. Our “devout Catholic” president wins first prize.

Contact White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki: jennifer.r.psaki@who.eop.gov

Catholic League president Bill Donohue comments on White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki:

White House Press Secretary/MSNBC host-in-waiting Jen Psaki broke down in tears today when discussing parental rights legislation in the schools. She should instead save her tears for the real victims of transgenderism in the schools—parents and their children.

In her April 19 podcast, Psaki bemoaned the right of states like Florida to pass laws which prohibit teachers from engaging little kids—Pre-K through third grade—in discussions about sexual orientation and gender identity. She thinks it is A-OK for teachers to ask children 5-8 if they are satisfied being a boy or a girl. This is the first step toward “assisting” them to switch sexes. Next come the puberty blockers, the chemical castration and the genital mutilation.

Psaki’s endorsement of this practice is obscene. She calls attempts to protect parental rights and stop the sexual engineering of children “harsh and cruel.” Worse, she is claiming that the victimizers are the victims.

Here is what she said about responsible parents who want an end to child abuse in the classroom.

“They’re doing that in a way that is harsh and cruel to a community of kids, especially. I’m going to get emotional about this issue [that is when she started bawling] because it’s horrible! But it’s kids who are bullied, and all these leaders are taking steps to hurt them, and hurt their lives and their families!”

This is a bald-face lie. No kids are being bullied by legislation designed to safeguard the rights of parents and protect kids from being groomed by irresponsible teachers. She has it backwards—it’s parents and their kids who are being bullied by the ruling class.

Psaki is right about one thing. This is “an attempt to win the culture war.” She and her ilk, including her “devout Catholic” boss, started this latest chapter in the culture war. Now our side is going to finish it.

Contact Psaki: jennifer.r.psaki@who.eop.gov

Catholic League president Bill Donohue addresses a bill being taken up by the Senate. To read his longer piece, the one sent to Senators, click here.

On April 1, 2022, the House of Representatives voted 220-204 to decriminalize marijuana. The bill will shortly be taken up in the Senate. New York Senator Chuck Schumer is not satisfied to decriminalize marijuana—he wants to legalize it altogether. He said that federal legislation to do so was a “priority” for the Senate.

Unfortunately, people like Schumer totally ignore what we know about the psychological and physiological effects of marijuana use.

Kenneth L. Davis is the president and chief executive of the Mount Sinai Health System and Mary Jeanne Kreek is the head of the Laboratory of the Biology of Addictive Diseases at Rockefeller University. Their review of the medical literature led them to conclude that marijuana is not the harmless substance that many believe.

Marijuana has a “deleterious impact on cognitive development in adolescents, impairing executive function, processing speed, memory, attention span and concentration. The damage is measurable with an I.Q. test. Researchers who tracked subjects from childhood through age 38 found a consequential I.Q. decline over the 25-year period among adolescents who consistently used marijuana every week. In addition, studies have shown that substantial adolescent exposure to marijuana may be a predictor of opiod use disorders.” They add that the brain is still developing in young people to age 25.

Today’s potent marijuana can make users psychotic. A 2019 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that adolescent marijuana use was associated with significant increases in developing depression and suicidal behavior during adulthood.

Roughly a third of marijuana users become dependent on it and it has proven to be deadly for some of those who have damaged their lungs and heart. In fact, one study found that “a person’s risk of heart attack during the first hour after smoking marijuana is nearly five times his or her usual risk.” A peer-reviewed article published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found that young people who use marijuana were twice more likely to experience a heart attack.

Pregnant women who use marijuana are causing severe behavioral problems for their children. According to Melinda Wenner Moyer, a contributing editor at Scientific American, “deficits in language comprehension, visual perception, attention and memory” are well- documented problems associated with such children. Also, some studies show that marijuana use during pregnancy is linked to “low birth weight, reduced IQ, autism, delusional thoughts and attention problems,” owing in large part to the fact that “cannabis today is nothing like the cannabis of years past.”

If legalizing marijuana were inconsequential, we would know it from studying what has happened in Colorado.

Between 2012, when marijuana was legalized, and 2019, marijuana-related traffic deaths increased by 151 percent, while overall state deaths increased by only 35 percent. Nationwide, between 2000 and 2018 vehicle fatalities from marijuana more than doubled from nine percent to 22 percent, meaning that the situation in Colorado is much worse. Emergency room visits for users increased 52 percent in Colorado, while marijuana-related hospitalizations increased by 148 percent.

Marijuana did not become available for recreational sales until two years after it was legalized. The New York Times did a review of what happened over the next five years. “Nearly twice as many Coloradans smoke pot as the rest of America.” The consequences were horrific.

That’s not all. Violent crime since legalization increased in Colorado by 19 percent; it increased by 3.7 percent nationwide. Property crime increased by eight percent as compared to a national decrease of 13.6 percent. No wonder that one study concluded that “for every dollar gained in tax revenue, Coloradans spent approximately $4.50 to mitigate the effects of legalization.”

Coloradans like their drugs so much that they embarked on a campaign to legalize other drugs. In 2019, lawmakers made the possession of small amounts of heroin and cocaine a misdemeanor, not a felony. The Democrat-controlled legislature included fentanyl, the most dangerous of them all. Colorado prosecutors pleaded with lawmakers to exempt fentanyl—four grams is the equivalent of 13,000 deadly doses—but they refused. What happened? Opiod overdose deaths increased by 54 percent in 2020.

In 2018, King County, which encompasses Seattle, and neighboring Snohomish County, stopped charging people for small amounts of hard drugs. Meth overdoses skyrocketed, going from 18 deaths in 2008 to 197 in 2019. Heroin overdose deaths jumped from 45 to 147 and fentanyl-related deaths climbed from 9 to 106, during the same time period. Seattle radio talk-show host Jason Rantz says decriminalization made “the problems worse.” In fact, he brands it “an unmitigated disaster.” There are now calls to reverse this law.

No policy can stop the demand for drugs, but making it easier to access is the worst alternative. Indeed, it has proven to be a death sentence for too many Americans.