War & Peace Quote by Holly Near

“The war on drugs is a war against the communities” lands like a protest chorus: blunt, rhythmic, and built to be repeated until it stops sounding metaphorical. Coming from Holly Near, a musician whose career is braided into activism, the line isn’t interested in policy nuance as much as moral accounting. It takes a familiar slogan - “war on drugs” - and forces you to notice what “war” actually means when it’s waged at home: surveillance, raids, cages, and the slow erosion of trust that makes neighborhoods feel occupied rather than served.

The intent is accusatory but strategic. Near isn’t claiming drug harm is imaginary; she’s arguing the state’s chosen response treats social breakdown as an enemy to be defeated, not a condition to be healed. The subtext points to how “drugs” becomes a proxy label that justifies targeting certain people: poor communities, Black and brown communities, queer and countercultural spaces - the places that already carry the least political protection. Calling it a war “against the communities” reframes the victims. The casualties aren’t abstract addicts; they’re families dealing with incarceration, kids growing up with a parent missing, local economies distorted by criminalization, and civic life hollowed out by fear.

Context matters: the phrase echoes decades of critique of punitive drug policy, from Nixon-era rhetoric through Reagan escalation and into the era of mass incarceration. Near’s strength is making that critique emotionally legible. She compresses a sprawling system into one line you can chant, sing, or repeat at a city council meeting, turning analysis into collective memory.