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Shattered Lives: Portraits from America's Drug War

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In addition to agreeing with most of the other reviews of this book, I think the main mission is to show this nation's harsh mandatory minimum sentencing. Also, a lot of people shown in this book are in prison solely for being associated with someone (usually a boyfriend or husband) who was dealing drugs. A lot of times, these people receive larger sentences than the leaders of the drug rings because they refuse to testify against their loved ones.

Recently, Amy Pofahl, (who is featured in this book) was granted sentence commutation by President Clinton. She had already served nearly ten years of a no-parole 24-year sentence on conspiracy charges related to her ex-husband's participation in an Ecstasy production and distribution ring. He got three years of probation in the US, but also served a four-year sentence in Germany.

Overall, this book is very important and well laid out. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who is overly emotional because it's incredibly sad how our own government treats these people.

This is by far the saddest book I own. I cannot believe that the U.S. government would allow such cruel and unusual punishments. Murderers and child Molesters don't even serve half the time as most the people in this book are or will be serving. 189 years, 8 months charged with conspiracy to transport cocaine. I'm not saying I agree with with the crime committed but I have to admit that the sentences are far from just. Non Violent Drug Offenders, Not Rapist, Not Serial Killers. 24 years charged with conspiracy to possess marijuana with intent to distribute. Many, many more stories and lots of them are first time offenders...What kind of country are we? No wonder the UN voted us off. I just can't believe this kind of ignorance is happening right under our noses...and maximum sentencing for many convicted murders is less than 30 years for Violent crimes...does this make sense to you? Early parole for them to make room for these drug prisoners. I am appalled. The authors did an outstanding job presenting these tragic stories. Hats off to them. I will share this book with everyone I know! That is the only way to change this unrelenting system called justice! United we stand, divided we fall, and that is a bummer!The authors of this book are giving these people who are locked away a voice that will hopefully reach people like you or myself that might read this book and want to do something to help change these uncivilized laws.

I just finished a most incredible book, Shattered Lives. It succeeds in putting a very human face on "the big ugly", the US drug war. Reading the review on this book by someone called Newtiger it became painfully obvious that this reviewer had a political agenda in trying to turn off potential readers. The power of Shattered Lives on an unbiased reader to be sickened by the actions of the government in its drug war role elicited what is likely to be Newtiger's self promoting review. It would not surprise me to learn that Newtiger is someone directly profitting by the drug war insanity ie. prosecutor, politician, prison guard,etc. Anyone who sincerely wants to understand what is happening in America should read this book- after finishing the book they might read Newtiger's review to understand spinmaster illusions.

This book should be required reading for anyone who thinks that a "tough on drugs" policy is a good idea. In particular, judges, prosecutors, and potential jurors should be *required* to study this book before participating in drug cases.

The authors have done an excellent job of portraying the *human* side of this war against our own people - most of whom are otherwise law-abiding, productive citizens. The prisoners in this ill-conceived war are also for the most part loving family members, and the forced separation of children from their parents in the name of the war on drugs should be viewed as a crime against humanity.

The photos and stories of ordinary folks caught in the life-shattering juggernaut of drug prohibition are immensely potent. They do not make for a pleasant or easy read, depicting as they do the tragic story of archaic anti-drug laws wrecking the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. People who - by any rational standard - do not deserve anything like the decades-long sentences so casually meted out by a system gone out of control. But concerned citizens have a responsibility to face the consequences of our failed drug policy, however painful this might be.

Please read this book if you care about fairness and humanity and how these have "gone missing" in America. You'll be amazed and appalled at just how far drug prohibition has removed us from the ideals of liberty and, especially, the right to be left alone. Perhaps more than any other single book, Shattered Lives helps us to *feel* the wrongness of our mean-spirited and futile drug prohibition policies.

Shattered Lives is an excellent read for both those who already know that the "War on Drugs" is a failure as well as those who need to know.

It is a collection of short stories and photos of scores of victims that demonstrate very graphically how foolish this decades long failure we call the "War on Drugs" (Which is actually a war on our citizens) has been and continues to be.

We use this book as a promotional item for our members and many copies have been sent to politicians. HIGHLY recommended. If you don't oppose the "Drug War" now you will after you read this book

Mark Greer

"Shattered Lives: Portraits from America's Drug War", is a collaborative effort by three writers: Mikki Norris and Chris Conrad, who are members of the Family Council on Drug Awareness; and Virginia Resner, member of the activist group Families Against Mandatory Minimums. These individuals joined together to write this book as a means to educate the public about the myriad of problems that the war on drugs has caused.

This book was written in a very personal way, with most of the pages dedicated to the individuals who are Prisoners of War, languishing behind bars as the result of America's unethical war on drugs. These people are not criminally- minded in any way and many of them were falsely imprisoned in the first place. But our political leaders in Washington do not seem to care at all. They continue to send non- violent individuals to prison and continue to fight the War on Drugs even though all indicators show the war was lost decades ago and can never be won.

Some of the cases depicted in this book will shock the average reader. One good example is millionaire Donald Scott, who was shot dead by U.S government drug enforcement agents after the agents received false information and proceeded to raid Scott's home without a warrant. The real motive behind this, it seems, was the seizure of Scott's property. He owned a parcel of land that the government wanted, but he refused to sell. By creating a phony drug charge, government police had an excuse to raid his home and seize his property. Of course, there were no drugs found because Scott was not a drug user at all. But government officials seized his property regardless and refused to return it, or to make any apology to the family. Yet another case of outrageousness involved Melinda George. She was caught trying to sell a tiny amount of cocaine- one- tenth of a gram, to be precise. But because of mandatory minimum laws, she has been sentenced to 99 years in prison. Convicted murders get shorter sentences than this.

Then, there are sentences that are unjust and tragic. The best example here is Mr. Lonnie Lundy. He is spending decades in prison, as part of a false testimony. Another person who was caught with drugs was offered a lighter sentence if he agreed to snitch on someone else. So, the man falsely accused Lundy, and got his own sentence reduced, while Lundy, an innocent man, was sent to prison. Later on, this other man openly admitted that he lied, but government authorities will still not let Lundy out of prison.

The purpose of this book is to make people outraged by showing the reader the tragedies of America's War on Drugs. Most of the book contains pictures of Drug War POW's, many of them with their families. Each photograph includes the victim's age, the sentence they are serving, and the "crime" they committed. Some also include stories of how the government unethically sent them to prison and how drug laws have destroyed their lives and the lives of their families. And there are often quotes included from children who want their mother or father back. The book is intended to invoke emotion by letting people see and get to know some of the real victims in the drug war- the members of the families of those who are sent to prison each year for committing a victimless crime.

This book is a quick read, with only 118 pages. In many ways, its size and emphasis on photos makes it seem more like a magazine than an actual reading book. It's a quick and easy read because most of the pages are filled with pictures. It doesn't contain much debate or anti- drug war education as other books of its genre, mainly because it is too brief and because the pages are covered mostly with pictures. Its goal is to get people outraged by showing dozens of examples of lives that have been destroyed more by drug laws than by the drugs themselves.

The last two pages of Shattered Lives include resources for activist organizations, complete with addresses, phone numbers, and the web site address for each. Interested readers can call or logon to the web site to begin their activist work. It's an appropriate ending to a book that has an obvious agenda: To stir readers' emotions by showing them the innocent victims of the failed drug war and to gain new anti- drug war activists in the process.

Overall, Shattered Lives is an effective book that could have been even more effective with more written words on the costs and failures of America's longest war. It would also be nice if it was a little bit longer. But this is still a good book for everyone that vividly illustrates what happens when government attempts prohibition.

Shattered Lives is a well-researched and highly moving account of the many severe human rights abuses of the Drug War in America.

This excellent book puts a human face on those unfortunate enough to become victims to the failed Drug War. By doing so, it graphically demonstrates that this misguided and truly insensitive public policy basically amount to waging war on our own citizens at tremendous cost to the country in terms of reduced personal freedoms and increased expenditure on policing, prosecuting and prisons.

Shattered Lives is bound to shock those who thought that only the 'bad guys' are in prison for drug-related crimes, and meaningfully brings into question the prohibitionist rationale for creating laws against consensual crimes in the first place.

This book is highly recommended to anyone who wishes to be accurately informed about issues pertaining to the Drug War.

One of the main difficulties in selling the drug policy reform message to Americans has been the lack of an appealing poster child" who might evoke the public's sympathy - and those its support of our cause. Most images of the drug war we see are those of hooded black teenagers, their underwear sticking out of baggy pants. This is not an image destined to elicit sympathy from middle-class Americans. "Shattered Lives" changes that.

This glossy, paper-bound 81/2" x 11" book features a perfect poster child - a pretty white girl - on the cover, and is packed with photos and bios of individuals and families whose lives have been shattered by the Drug War. This "coffee table" book will create a new image of the costs of Prohibition in the minds of anyone who reads, or even browses through, it. Here are snapshots and bios of people doing 10, 20, and even 90 years for being involved with illegal drugs - or simply being marginally associated with people involved with illegal drugs. Many of the people depicted were convicted of "conspiracy" charges, bringing sentences of 15 years or more because they didn't have sufficient information to share with authorities. And guess what - most victims are white, middle-class Americans of all ages - people who look like your friends or neighbors, people whose families have been destroyed by the very people who claim to cherish the family.

"Shattered Lives" fills a heretofore empty space on the anti-Prohibition bookshelf. Thanks Mikki, Chris, and Virginia for this important contribution.

Shattered Lives, authored by long-time activists Mikki Norris, Chris Conrad and Virginia Resner, grew out of the Human Rights and the Drug War exhibit, first unveiled as "Atrocities of the Drug War" in June 1995. I first saw the exhibit at the Drug Policy Foundation's 9th annual conference that year. Though it was almost three years ago, I still vividly remember walking through aisle after aisle of suffering and injustice, each panel a gripping indictment of a nation's conscience twisted upside down in our government's cruel and pointless war against its own citizenry.

Leafing through Shattered Lives, I am again reminded of the reasons we are working, and of the urgency our cause demands: every day, hundreds, perhaps thousands of lives are systematically and undeservedly disrupted, as a matter of official government drug war policy.

Though Shattered Lives is a gallery you can flip through and browse and sample, it is also an educational work, providing hard facts on issues such as mandatory minimum sentences, conspiracy laws, prison growth, asset forfeiture, bad drug raids, privacy violations, medical marijuana, drug war militarization, eradication programs, harm reduction, drug education and more. You can read it cover to cover, or you can place it on your coffee table and use it to draw guests into discussion of these important issues, or you can donate your copy or a second copy to your local library. -- Dave Borden, director, DRC Net, Sept. 14, 1998

"Shattered Lives" is an extremely dynamic and powerful book. Unlike many other excellent books that have been written about America's depraved, pathetic,obscene, and truly criminal "drug war", it aims directly at the the heart and soul of the reader - more so than any other book I have read on the topic, and I have read many!

By introducing the reader to numerous tragic victims of this "war", it totally shatters the many myths and misconceptions created by our "czar" ( don't you love it! A Czar in this "free" country? ) and his henchmen, and it shows that what we have here is not at all unlike the insanities of Hitler and his Nazzi robots a few decades ago. The photographs from the book are all too real, and I find it almost impossible to look at them without then experiencing the flood of tears - from both intense anger and from compassion -that flood my eyes. But if this is what is needed to get Americans off their buffs and onto the streets, protesting at the tops of their lungs the injustices and the travesties of this assanine "war on drugs", so be it! We need to start winning our country back, and "Shattered Lives" will point us in the right direction! Bravo for a magnificent book!