What the world needs at this moment, and the U.S., is to look at the problem of consumption of drugs as a sickness, as a problem of health, but not as a criminal activity...it's not using enough money on information and prevention and the problem of using marijuana is totally out of hand...it's time that the U.S. at least look at Europe that has been handling this in a much more intelligent way. They use the word harm, less harm for society, and I really think that is a much better approach.

— César Gaviria, former president of Colombia and a commissioner on the Global Commission on Drug Policy, on The Brian Lehrer Show.

People don’t have to get a marriage visa every time they cross the George Washington bridge. Unfortunately, though, there has been a gay exception carved into the way our country treats marriage.

— Evan Wolfsen, president of Freedom to Marry, on The Brian Lehrer Show.

The expectation was that at a certain point they’d have to leave the hard decisions to President Obama and to the Speaker of the House.

— Congressional Quarterly senior writer Joseph Schatz, on The Brian Lehrer Show.

Military forces are voracious consumers of all kinds of expendables and most of these supplies have to come through Pakistan. The larger the US force, the more leverage Pakistan has.

— Robert Haddick, managing editor of Small Wars Journal, on The Brian Lehrer Show.

[I]f the first amendment continues to bar efforts to protect privacy, then privacy may really have an uphill battle in the future.

— Jeffrey Rosen, professor of law at The George Washington University and the legal affairs editor of The New Republic, on The Brian Lehrer Show.

It's not over with yet, it's a very fluid situation. But clearly, to effectively implement a tax cap without destroying community college participation, or long term home health care programs, nursing homes, tourism, water, sewer, economic development projects, road patrol, infrastructure—they need to get this mandate relief.

— Stephen Acquario, Executive Director of the New York State Association of Counties, on The Brian Lehrer Show.

The tritium leaks are something about which you have got to be concerned. Even [though] the AP says none of them have reached drinking water aquifers, it’s still not something you want to see. But they don’t mention the amount of money that has gone into improving and trying to stop that from happening.

— Former New Jersey governor and EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman on The Brian Lehrer Show.