Christie Rips War on Drugs as a “Well-Intentioned Failure”

In a move surprising to some, Chris Christie voiced his opinion against the war on drugs on Monday during a speech at The Brookings Institution.  

The staunchly conservative New Jersey Governor praised recently passed legislation lessening the punishment for first-time, nonviolent drug offenders in his state. He cited fiscal and moral reasons behind his stance.

"The war on drugs, while well-intentioned, has been a failure," Christie said. "We're warehousing addicted people every day in state prisons in New Jersey, giving them no treatment. It costs us $49,000 a year to warehouse a prisoner in New Jersey state prisons last year. A full year of inpatient drug treatment costs $24,000 a year."

Don't worry, Christie isn't switching teams - he jumped on the opportunity to drive home some of his more conservative views too.

"If you're pro-life, as I am, you can't be pro-life just in the womb. Every life is precious and every one of God's creatures can be redeemed, but they won't if we ignore them," he said. "You can certainly make the argument that no one should try drugs in the first place, I certainly am in that camp. But tens of millions of people in our society do every year, and for some people they can try it and walk away from it, but for others the first time they try it they become an addict, and they're sick and they need treatment."

According to the New York Times, the government has spent $20 billion to $25 billion a year on counter-narcotics efforts ever the last decade. In New York City alone, processing approximately 85,000 arrests for drug misdemeanors  - like carrying an ounce of marijuana - cost the city between $1,500 and $2,000 last year.