This is one of the most powerful books I've read in a long time. Richard L. Miller deserves an award. In this book, the author details the erosion of civil liberties by the current war on drugs. For those familiar with this area, he trots out the typical points: harsh penalties for minor violations and loss of civil liberties for all.

But what makes this book special is the author's analysis of legal issues and history. Richard Miller is an independent scholar who has written about Nazi justice (in "Nazi Justiz"). I thought his application of Nazi jurisprudence to the drug war was overkill at first. Little did I know just how wrong I was. As one reviewer put it, this book will help you lose weight.

What sets this book above the others on the drug war is that Miller explains how the war effects the innocent, and how innocence is no longer an adequate defense. In fact, Miller has a Justice Department official quoted as saying that innocence was not a defense to forfeiture of assets. He argues that asset forfeiture has corrupted law enforcement at all levels.

In one example, Miller tells of an elderly couple in one California county who owned a mutil-million dollar ranch adjacent to a national park. Apparently, the Park Service wanted the land, the local law enforcement the assets (in the form of the house, possessions, etc.). Thus, police had to get a warrant to raid the property. First, they searched it illegally. This is a typical tactic of DEA agents and local law enforcement, who search a house and either plant or discover evidence that they can use to get a warrent later. Regardless, the courts have determined that even illegal searches and seizures are acceptable in the war on drugs. All of this is documented in the book. Even in the illegal search, no drugs were discovered. An elderly couple, go figure?

If you think that stopped the police, DEA, et al., then you haven't read the book. One local officer testified before a judge that "thousands" of marijuana plants were being cultivated on the property. This testimony was based on a lie told to the officer by another. Although both were aware of the lie (and the couple's complete innocence of ANYTHING), this way neither officer could be chared with perjury. Needless to say, the judge issued the warrant.

During the raid, the husband was sleeping. He was roused awake by his wife's screaming and was shot to death as he put down his rifle, which he had becuase he thought he was being robbed and was defending his wife. The agents participating in the raid evicted the wife. Even agents of the U.S. Park Service were involved, in case you doubted their complicity.

It gets better. The location of the ranch was in a different county than the one in which the local police were from! They went out of their own jurisdiction for the express purpose of seizing property from people THEY KNEW were innocent. All of this was expressed by the county prosecutor (where the ranch was), when he said that they appeared to be motivated by a desire to obtain the property and assests of its owners.

This book is meticulously documented and researched. The analysis of the legal issues with references to the Nuremburg Tribunal and Nazi legal principles is stunning. As well as his telling of the internment of Japenese-Americans to demonstrate how segments of society can be treated if the propaganda warriors desire their elimination.

If you're not enraged by the time you're finished reading this book, your heart is dead.

The author has done the work and now the citizens must spread the "gospel". Like a seer Lawrence is able to anticipate the insane trajectory of where this drug war is leading. Though the picture he paints is ugly, if these drug warrior zealots are not vigorously challenged now he clearly shows how much uglier it will become. The evil of Nazi Germany and that of the US drug war are clearly shown to progress via the same chain of events: identification, ostracism, confiscation, concentration, and the final solution ie annihilation. Miller is an American hero doing the best he can to awaken conciousness.

As a passionate archenemy of the "Drug War", the "Drug Czar" and everything else brearhing of fascism in this once-free country, I have read many many boks and articles against this so-called war. I even try (if possible without gagging) to read books that try to support this horrendous farce - many of which are written by people who are drug warriors themselves or just terribly deluded) because I think it's very important to know my enemy. Of all the books that I have ever read on this atrocity, this book has got to be the most articulate and momentous. Other books slash at the war, make fun of it, and are often quite entertaining as well as frightening. Entertainment definitely has its place, and it is great when one is (somehow) able to laugh at even matters as horrendous as child-beatings, rapes, and drug warriors. Sometimes that's the only way we can face the grim realities. This book spares, for the most part, any humor, however, and just tells us, very convincingly, how it is. The author's thesis is simple: He sees a direct parallel between the drug war and the Nazis in Germany. I would like to believe that he is being too extremist in his position. Surely our drug czar and his henchmen will never be as ruthless and terrifying as Hitler! That's what I once thought too, but after reading the book I was convinced otherwise. The creators of this "drug-war" are no mere well-intentioned fools or people ignorant of abstract concepts such as freedom. They have one clear goal in mind: power, power and more power. Let's hope enough Americans wake up in time and the see chasm into which the road is leading us! This incredibly well researched and articulate just may wake us up in time - that is, if it doesn't scare us to death first. Read the book! Read it NOW!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!

Gordon Wilson (Mathematician, Libertarian, and a bit of a mixture between Paul Revere and Patrick Henry )

Political debate of sensitive issues is too freqently polarized by passion, and too infreqently built upon the foundations of rigorous research, rational analysis and orderly presentation. Miller's book is therefore an invaluable tool for the proponents of legalization. It offers unassailable validity to arguments that are easily dismissed when couched in the shrill voice of uninformed activism. Miller's book is a masterpiece. The single flaw is that the notes are re-numbered for each chapter and the sources cited require two steps to find. But were the connections less exciting, this would go un-noticed.

Fantastically written and masterfully researched, this book contains more hard data than any other resource I've seen. My own misguided impressions of America's drug problem have been set straight thanks to this resource. I would never fathom such scenarios and circumstances as those depicted in this book, accounts deftly brought into light with unparalleled skill and remarkable insight. Common sense runs fully through each point the author makes, and vivid analogies provide the reader a capability to understand the complex ideas within... without requiring a degree in sociology, psycology, pharmecology, or the like. All in all, this book demands the highest respect and forces the reader to explore new ideas with an open mind - something the nation's drug education force has failed to do in the last few decades.

Miller goes into meticulous detail, illustrating the harm caused by drugs and drug users, compared to the harm caused by the War on Drugs. He often makes statements that seem to wildly contrast with what most people think is true about drugs, and but for the painstaking use of footnotes after each of these statements which refers to a study, or a well-regarded book on the topic, this book would not nearly be so convincing.

This book is a must read for politicians and anyone who feels strongly about drugs and drug prohibition.

Nothing original in the book. The author borrows mostly from Raul Hilberg's "Destruction of the European Jews"---published in 1961, but remaining one of, if not the, seminal works on the Holocaust. Many of the "stories" of Nazi perversions in administering the law have been recounted in other works such as Ingo Mueller's "Furchtbare Juristen" which is far better researched and written. "Nazi Justiz" is not worth reading, much less paying [a lot of money] for. Get a used copy of Hilberg's book for a few dollars.

Pre-Nazi Germany was a land of high culture and many laws, so how did it become both legal and acceptable to commit mass murder as the "final solution?" Bizarre as it might seem to most Americans, the road to genocide was "legal" ... and the German judicial system actively paved that road. In this fairly short and highly readable book, the author shows how the five steps to the Nazi genocide took place ... and all quite "legally." The five steps were: identification, ostracism, confiscation, concentration and annihilation.

After reading this book, you will know what happened and "how it could happen in a civilized nation." Then you'll start to see some of those road signs to persecution on the American social landscape. (My detailed review and analysis of this trend was published elsewhere.)

The book does not just describe the horrors of Nazism. It teaches you how to spot the lessons of history. The author warns all generations that the road to genocide starts with steps that even the persecutors don't recognize.

Every person should memorize the author's clearest advice: "As soon as we see our productive, ordinary next-door neighbors somehow being identified as deviant by our government, we now know to leap to their defense before they are ostracized, before their property is seized, before they are concentrated in certain areas, before they are annihiliated."

Nazi Justiz is for anyone who wants to be able to foresee -- and prevent -- genocide from every happening again. And that ought to be just about everyone.