Anatomy of a Failure: How America Lost the War on Drugs
Great new read by Ben Wallace-Wells in this month's Rolling Stone that exposes how the $500 Billion spent on the Drug War over the last 35 years has been all but a complete waste of time and money, and an absolute failure by any standard of measure.
[A]fter U.S. drug agents began systematically busting up the Colombian cartels - doubt was replaced with hard data. Thanks to new research, U.S. policy-makers knew with increasing certainty what would work and what wouldn't. The tragedy of the War on Drugs is that this knowledge hasn't been heeded. We continue to treat marijuana as a major threat to public health, even though we know it isn't. We continue to lock up generations of teenage drug dealers, even though we know imprisonment does little to reduce the amount of drugs sold on the street. And we continue to spend billions to fight drugs abroad, even though we know that military efforts are an ineffective way to cut the supply of narcotics in America or raise the price.
All told, the United States has spent an estimated $500 billion to fight drugs - with very little to show for it. [...]
Even by conservative estimates, the War on Drugs now costs the United States $50 billion each year and has overcrowded prisons to the breaking point - all with little discernible impact on the drug trade. ...(read on)
That is a truly one great article every policy maker should have to read. I can't ever read a word on this topic without remembering how Col Oliver North was involved in smuggling cocaine into the U.S. under Reagan, circumventing Congress to pay for an illegal proxy war, which coincided with the birth of the crack epidemic at the very same time the President had declared a 'War on Drugs' (Remember Nancy's 'Just Say No'?) and the great expansion in the building of prisons and increasing sentences that has resulted in the disenfranchisement of generations of disproportionately black would-be voters to this very day. But of course all that was just another unintended but electorally significant consequence of Ronald Reagan's.
this my be a moot point, but the 'war on drugs' is a silly notion anyway -- you can't have a war on an abstract that will end at any point -- it's just an excuse to continue the war like
Not to mention that the entire Afghanistan 'war' has been a joke. People spend a ridiculous amount of time rightly protesting the war in Iraq but if anyone is willing to open their eyes they will see that all the U.S. has done in Afghanistan is repopulate their drug trade. U.S. out of Iraq AND Afghanistan.
The war on drugs like the war on terror is virtually unwinnable. The only way to ensure that drug use or terrorism stop is to kill everyone. I'm sure that Cheney has pondered just that very scenario.
So drugs from Mexico and South America are bad....but booze (a drug) from Kentucky that kills thousands and tobacco (a drug) from Virginny which kills MILLIONS are AOK...the problem here, again, is selective morality....
I know this is a bit off subject but it seems like keeping Mexicans out of America with a 700 mile long wall would be just as effective as this ill-fated "war on drugs".
Heard that the new president of Ecuador informed the US that Ecuador will re-new the US Air Force base lease when the US allows Ecuador to build a Navy base in Miami. Ha! How's that for the war on drugs.
I will note that the War on Drugs HAS been a smashing success- for the Law Enforcement, who's AntiDrug racket has extended the long arm of the law and eroded civil liberties, as well
giving them and the Prison Industry a larger revenue stream.
It's eroded worker rights, it's made whole categories ("Black and brown folks", "drivers with college parking stickers", "Drivers with 'Vietnam Veteran' stickers", etc>) suspect.
It's been a way to increase fear and conservative votes and is beloved by authoritarians everywheres.
I think many people see that Afghanistan, like Iraq, has been and continues to be a complete botch. Unfortunately we can't address the existing fubars because we have to prevent the next fubar in Iran. And with our totally compromised leadership in Pelosi and Reid, we don't have impeachment to use as a threat (see, Nancy, when you negotiate, you don't start by throwing away your biggest stick) so we have to fight them policy by policy, phone call by phone call, to legislator after legislator.
That doesn't leave a lot of energy left to say "And by the way WFT is the Taliban doing back in Afghanistan, and why is bin Laden still alive?" We're too busy screaming "No, you CAN'T invade Iran."
Sometimes when I read that global warming will result in D.C. beltway being completely immersed in Atlantic waters, I want to go out back and set fire to a panda and waft the carbon up into the atmosphere. Anything to dislodge the encrusted ruling class from their beltway bubble...
roger @ 2:
I agree. Last I heard more opium was coming out of Afghanistan than ever before.
Our war on drugs and our war on terror has produced more of both.
Dave @ 3:
Only if Cheney can shoot us at a "canned hunt". Cheney needs to see us penned in otherwise he'll miss and shoot another lawyer in the face.
raymond @ 4:
And then there is threats of armed insurrection by the Second Amendment absolutists at any attempt to control the gun industry and it's ways of fueling crime...Guns do in fact kill. Efficiently.
Alcohol is the cause of so much of the death and destruction around us. One place to avoid at all costs is any night club region when the bars close. Young, liquored up and testosterone fueled thugs prowling the streets looking for trouble.
And the impounding of personal property...like cars, houses...
Dave @ 12:
You for that right. It happened about 3 months ago in Kutztown, PA. Three drunks beat a college student to death after they left Shorty's Bar on "Thirsty Thursday". Horrible.
janefromhell @ 13:
Now that is one sweet racket that the cops have going on for themselves. They are allowed to seize AND sell your property BEFORE you are convicted of any crime. WTF?
Coffins Draped with Flags @ 14:
Should have typed: You got that right. (Duh... stupid fingers.)
Yeah, but on the plus side, we got to play "N*A*R*C" at the corner store, and then Pixies covered the theme tune.
It's all a rich tapestry...
They don't want to stop the selling of drugs. Just the selling of drugs by people other than them and their buddies.
Coffins Draped with Flags @ 16:
Doh. It happens every single weekend here. Hundreds of drunks spill out of the clubs at closing time and wreak havoc on the streets. And here's something truly retarded: we keep getting inundated with the don't drink and drive message, but the transit has stopped running 2 hours before the bars close.
D U H. I'd like to meet someone who doesnt know these things. Then ask where the fuck they've been. I'm glad you're putting it up, more people can learn whats really going on with this drug war. Maybe one day soon we can get non-fringe candidates who are willing to talk and do something about this.
As if we're really trying to WIN any war we're waging - the MIC benefits from a war on drugs almost as much as a war on terra.
I think...eessss...the dope war...eessss...is a fu*king...eessss...waste...eessss...of time.
The money...eessss...could be better...eessss...spent...eessss...on some real good...eessss...eessss...what was...eessss...I saying?...eesss
Want to know how much more drugs since the US messed over the Afgans, again ...... http://skyreporter.com/
Nothing is as it seems to be. Learn from history!
Funny you should say that. I'm about to win a battle as soon as I find a screen.
The "War on Drugs" is just a sop to the Prison Industrial Complex. Driven by mindless authoritarianism, ignorance and grandstanding politicians, it criminalizes people who mind their own business and do no harm to anyone else while creating a massive monitory incentive for organized crime. It's past time that we elected honorable politicians who have the courage to stand up to establishment consensus when it is wrong and does real harm to society. Millions of people use recreational drugs responsibly, suffer no ill effects and otherwise are productive citizens who do no harm to anybody else. These people should have the right to alter their consciousness unimpeded by intrusion of the state or misguided fanatically puritanical do-gooders. For the few that have real problems self-medicating or forming addictions, they should be treated with compassion, care and modern medical science, not the iron fist of the law.
The "War on Drugs" is and was a great success if we change the name to
"War on Opposition to Controlling the Domestic Agenda".
The War on Drugs is and always has been a farce.
The War on Drugs is bogus.
Nixon invented it to harass his opposition in the 60's and 70's.
Prohibition of Pot started in the SW US to control the Latin population.
Drug abuse is a health issue, not typically a criminal one.
...
My dad, who's father was a bootlegger during prohibition, used to say that the illegal drug trade could not be successful without help from the governing authorities. He knew this from experience.
What really burns me up is that you hear so much about illegal drugs, but hardly a peep about oxycontin. Oxycontin is a scourge on young people. I know of two young women who are struggling with addictions to that drug. The withdrawal and rehab are as bad as with heroin.
I was serving as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Coast Guard during the Reagan years of "zero tolerance." We were told to bust any pleasure craft that had any detectable amount of drugs. I told my commanding officer I would be happy to do so, and would immediately go out and bust any pleasure craft where anyone on board had a $20 bill; virtually all $20 bills had detectable amounts of cocaine during that period. I was told not to obey the zero tolerance then.
I think the above reflects my opinion of the war on drugs.
When that didn't work we went on to the war on terror. What will the next noun be?
The "Police Action Against Some Drugs" (it's neither a declared war, nor is it against drugs in general) may be unwinnable from the standpoint of stopping the illegal drug trade (Capitalism 101 tells us that as long as there's a demand for something, there will be a market for it, legal or otherwise) ... but it gives a very convenient, selectively-enforcible excuse to smear and/or lock up anyone who the Finger-Wagging Moralists don't like. Plus, Big-Pharma and Big-Tobacco simply love it, since they have the monopoly on medicine and vice. And that's to say nothing of the merry bushels of cash that the CIA makes in the drug traffic....
So it's a win-win scenario... the government wins, and the corporations win! Who else is there?
Why is it no one sees the correlation between what happened when alcohol was prohibited to the current prohibitions on drugs? People are going to obtain these things if they want them, regardless of whatever laws are there. This is not to say that legalizing drugs would not have huge pitfalls, but compared to the massive incarcerations, and high costs of drugs associated with them being illegal, how can we possibly say that legalizing the drugs and then using the taxes generated from those sales would not easliy pay for all of the rehab and education that is needed even now. Not to mention drying up a huge source of income for drug kingpins and terrorist organizations, if drugs were made legal. Sorry for the long post-
Fight a war for 30 years, and you are still loosing. Are you stupid, or is that what you really want.
The only winners in the "war on drugs" are all the lawyers, district attorneys, police, and prison guards who would be out of work if drugs were legalized. Other than that the whole concept is a joke.
You would think we learned with alcohol prohibition... but like has been said... you will never go broke betting on the stupidity of the American people.
When the street price of a pound of a weed you can grow in your backyard is over $5K, your a fool if you think you can stop it.
What war on drugs? What a joke. How do you think tons of money are made to start little wars all over the world. How do you think families like the Rothchilds made fortunes during the opium wars? If its not durgs, it's guns with a US president caught while claiming plausible denial. What else is new?
1) Check out Dan Baum's 1996 book about the failed drug war, SMOKE AND MIRRORS.
2) In the words of the late, great Bill Hicks, "George Bush says 'we are losing the war on drugs'. Well you know what that implies? There's a war going on, and people on drugs are winning it!"
I'm not Andrew of comment #34, BTW
We lost the war on drugs the moment we decided to have one.
Andrew @ 34:
Bingo!!! Biggest drug dealer in the world? US CIA. Proven fact.
In my city, we've got something called Insite. It's a supervised shooting gallery for addicts. It's supposedly part of a Four Pillar Plan to stop the drug epidemic. The four pillars are 1. Harm reduction. 2. Enforcement. 3. Treatment. 4. Prevention. They were supposed to institute the strategy several years ago. The only thing that is really up and running is the shooting den. It makes a really good photo op place for the politicians. They can go there and say "see we're working to make their lives better. We're saving lives". Unfortunately, at the same time they are closing beds in detox centers, underfunding treatment centers and our judiciary are springing the addicts out on the streets with a slap on the wrist. I have personal knowledge of many people who have made the decision that they want off of drugs and out of the cycle of addiction. When they try to go to detox, they're told to come back in 5 days or so and maybe there might be an open bed. For most addicts that is far too long. The window of opportunity for cleaning up is a very narrow one. One days wait is often too long. We've got an estimated 5,000 addicts on our streets here. Surveys have shown that for most to get the money to fuel their addiction, they must turn to crime. Prostitution, theft, violence against other addicts. For an addict with a $200 a day habit, that means that they have to steal some where in the neighborhood of $2,000 a day. Every day. It's horrendous how the politicians slap themselves on the back and congratulate each other for saving that life. Keeping that addict on the cycle of despair.
I declare War on Wars against stuff.
There. that should fix it.
To celebrate our losing the war on drugs, I'm going to take one bong hit for every comment on this thread. Now that the drugs have won, we must embrace their ways, and do as they say.
The War on Drugs is not a failure. It's just that you don't understand it's purpose.
The purpose of the War on Drugs is to entrench the political power of the authoritarian, and 'religious' politicians of the republican party, to provide a use for american military weaponry, as well as american para-military personel, to provide financial and legal support for a vast expansion of police power and presence within the country and without, to create a large class of businesses supportive of the aims of the republican party (by virtue of recieving money to provide support functions such as building of jails), and to create a large class of people whose incomes depend, directly or indirectly, on federal spending in pursuit of right wing politiicians.
They learned significantly from this War, compared to the previous 'Cold War', that the most important thing was a self-sustaining logic, such that the harder the 'war' was fought, the more powerful the 'enemy' became, thus ensuring eternal support for the political class smart enough to deliver the war...
Version 3.0 is called 'the Global War on Islamo-fascists and anybody else we don't like that we already know is going to go on for a very very very long time'. Interestingly this time the branding of the War as 'eternal' was part and parcel of the selling of it. They are getting quite confident in their ability to gin up self perpetuating cycles (known eupemistically as 'wars').
Now, why is again that we believe the Democratic Party isn't going to play 'Me Too' just like in Versions 1.0 and 2.0?
How many people think there is still time to stop either Mrs. Me Too, or incredibly slickly packaged backup Mr. Me 2 from becoming president? Well, one clue: vote in the Primaries, and vote for someone who really is going to stop the Eternal Global War.
I have evidence we are winning the drug war.
Drugs fund terrorism.
There have been no terrorist attacks in the US since 911.
Ergo, drugs have been eliminated.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! AGAIN!
The CIA seems to be the most involved in the illegal drug trade. Poppies in Afghanistan. South America. Etc. Marijuana should be grown for its many uses besides getting a little happy or paranoid depending on the person. Our country is ridiculous on this stuff and we as a citizenry are ridiculous for allowing it to occur year after year. Imagine if that money went to education or our country's health care. Damn these tyrannical a-holes who seem to strive for these positions of power more than the general well meaning members of society. Damn.
Prison Reform is a necessity as well. For humanity's sake and for the monetary benefit.
Funny isn't it, just say no! Just like the Republicans to say 1 thing and do another.
I just wanted to point out 2 little tid-bits,
I believe the planes carrying the cocain, happend to land in Arizona, Who was the Govener? Bill?????Clinton??????
Am I right?
Like I said before, these guys need to get out , all of them. New faces Different places.
Now belive this there is a group of Dems and repugs working together to destroy us!!!
On the subject of drugs and prostitution I find myself firmly in the Left Libertarian camp.
Legalize it all and tax it.Enough of these absurd "Wars" on everything.
Folks have been getting high one way or another since the first batch of grape juice sat around too long and some lucky caveman took a swig. We need to accept it.
Our government's attitude toward meds is: If it grows in the woods - bad drug. If it's a chemical stew that sells for big bucks - good drug.
Great!!! Another phony war we lost! What is up with concervatives? and they will tell you what a great job their leaders do, except on making Abortion Illegal, stopping Mexicans from coming into America and finding Bin Laden...
But otherwise their 100% spot on...
Except when their having gay sex in a public restroom, or doing meth with their gay male prostitute, or trafficing the male Congressional Pages over to one dirty little Republican who always keeps his hands in his pockets for some reason...
But other then that they are real good leaders! and you can take that to the bank...oops, they stole the bank...never mind!
Minor drug offenders
fill your prisons
you don't even flinch
all our taxes paying
for your wars
against the new non-rich
The Prison Song/System of a Down
The problem is not the Afghans growng poppies or the Colubians. The market for drugs is in the USA. At the local high school there seemed to be a minor problem with drugs. Someone or some students were buying something. Then those students graduated and now there are no more stories. The problem is in your neighbourhood , not overseas.
How? Same way this government is losing every war since Korea, same way it's losing the faith of an increasing percentage of the American population... By lying its ass off, then lying again to cover up that lie and by getting in bed 69ing with the MIC which is really the only beneficiary of all that wasted money...
Who does anyone think is in bed with all those Junta's down south supposedly in 'partnership' with America on this phonyass war on drugs..... Where do you think those weapons and other toys they use are coming from and what do you suppose they are using to pay for them.... Yep, that's right.. The money we send to them to fight this so-called war.....right back into the pockets of the MIC, with of course the usual syphoning off of a percentage to the locals.. Just for processing fees so to speak.
Keeps them happy and with plenty of supplies in ciggies, whores and their own private stash of coke/name that drug of choice....
Hell, just legalize pot and half the goddamned war would be obsolete overnight... But, naw, that would be too rational to do something like that. No, lets just keep up this sick charade for another twenty years.. After all, it's propping up at least six other sick industries besides the MIC....
*Prison industrial complex
*Illegal immigration for cheap labor complex
*Graft and kickbacks to corrupt politicians complex
*K-Street for corrupt out of office politicians complex
*Lecture circuit for rigthwing freaks complex
*Privatized merenary army complex...
And that's just off the top of my head... I'm certain that there are many other 'complexes' all this phony shit props up......JD
the war was a success. the gop was able to steal voting rights from a million blacks and left wing hippies and throw a half a trillion dollars towards supporters.
If the idea was to give the gangsters a protected monopoly on drugs, I'd say the war on drugs has been an outstanding success. Extreme profits for minimum risk. Capitalism at it's best.
The only way to control drugs is to legalize everything and make everything cheaply available to anybody who is of age through state or government operated monopolies like ABC stores. Just like alcohol. Portect the monoploly the way the mafia would - with the most extreme prejudice against anybody who would try to muscle in on your operation. Place reasonable taxes on the goods. Nothing else will ever work.
This is just making gansters rich, not to mention our own government agencies - like the CIA who sell drugs to finance black programs. Oh, and the Bush crime family, too.
I don't think they lost the "War on Drugs" at all. I think they’re pretty much getting a lot out of the deal.
They gave the hardest sentences for crack rock, weed, and other drugs in small amounts 5 year sentences or more. That helped jail a lot of inner city kids and insured a permanent underclass of minority men.
They increase the prison industry 10x fold.
They took away voting rights by arresting people and giving them fed charges for non violent drug related crimes. It's a great way to get pass the voting rights act which has always been a thorn in a lot of backsides.
They dramatically took way large about of the inner city tax base by getting rid of local prisons and shipping people all across the country to rural areas. These rural areas saw their tax returns increase 10x fold as well. Which allowed them to feed pork projects, and give better schools and services to rural and suburb neighborhoods at the expense of the inner cities. No one can't help to see the serious decline in recreational services, social services, and after school programs, that help keep kids busy almost dry up in most inner cities since the Reagan era.
With over 50% of the prisoners in jail on non violent charges it almost guarantees a safe work force you can work for next to nothing.
Taking away all programs that are geared to reform a prisoner which could have given him skills in order to secure a job when he leaves was helpful to the war on drugs too.
The destruction of educational programs and job training programs in prison helps them keep a revolving door.
Drugs are pouring into the county from our ports and boarders everyday. Yet, congress and states are not doing much about it at all. It’s no accident we hardly see a huge shipment of drugs stopped on the boarder or our ports but every blue moon. When some one is found with a Kilo in the suburbs he MIGHT get 2-5 yrs but most suburban kids get rehab and probation. While the inner city kids get 5 yrs mandatory for 5 grams of crack rock.
hmmmmmm
When you think about it... they are doing quite well.
I was all ready to rail against the Drug War, but it looks like I would only be preaching to the choir.
Instead, I offer this very real idea: Since the Dollar is just a fiat currency, and the monopoly of it's creation in the hands of the Federal Reserve is a noose made of debt, how about replacing the Dollar with HASHISH as currency? Need some gas for the car? Some new shoes maybe? That'll cost you 10 grams of hash.
If you think it can't work, then look to Afghanistan, where some villages have started using opium as currency.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/article2510906.ece
Paul @ 53:
Agreed on all counts save for the government monopoly ... setting aside my raging paranoid fantasies, wherein the government uses its monopoly on addictive and psychoactive substances to control the populace ("Be good, or you won't get your fix!"), any kind of monopoly like that will inevitably lead to a black market in such a high-demand product. We already have a monopolized legal drug market, and it's just not working .... people go to Canada and Mexico to smuggle in generic prescription drugs so that they don't have to pay the prices set by Big-Pharma.
don't forget the corporate role with mandatory drug testing. they want to control their slaves 24/7.
C'mon people .. the "War On Drugs" is a RACKET.
It NEVER was intended to limit or eliminate the flow of illegal drugs. Every dollar has been spent to keep the flow in the hands of the connected few.
They use OUR tax-payers' dollars to protect their own interests in the drug trade.
And to funnel money to their own "security" industries. Check out which American companies are getting rich off US taxpayer's dollars given to Colombia in the form of foreign aid in the so-called "War On Drugs" ..
And look at the situation in Afghanistan. Taliban had all but eliminated the heroin traffic. Then our WarLord President invaded, made deals with all the local warlords, and the heroin trade is back stronger than ever.
Anyone here study the connection between IG Farben, the Bush family, and heroin?
Well, that's a good place to start.
ciao!
So, if the Dollar is just a fiat currency, and the monopoly of its creation in the hands of the Federal Reserve is a noose made of debt, then how about replacing the Dollar with HASHISH as currency? Need some gas for the car? What about those new shoes you've been eyeing? Those will cost you 10 grams of hash.
If you think it can't work, then look at Afghanistan where some villages have returned to using opium as currency.
Oh, and to #41, don't worry about this post, I've got you covered. :-)
curtilingus @ 41:
Yes, as a duly authorized representative of the Drugs' side of this war, I think it's high time to end hostilities, and pass one around.
Oh, and that's another hit ... you keeping up?
Big Pharma doesn't want you to read this story:
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Study_Pot_slows_breast_cancer_1203.html
MountainMan23 @ 58:
Quite so.
The 'War on Drugs' is just the CIA eliminating the competition.
raymond @ 4:
When you consider the drugs brought in from South America and sold on the streets of America by Bush 41, Ollie North and crew to raise funds to buy weapons for the Iran Contra Fiasco. The whole concept of a war on drugs dissolves. It is another mind manipulation in progress.
Sherri' @ 54:
You and I are totally on the same page. :)
"the $500 Billion spent on the Drug War over the last 35 years has been all but a complete waste of time and money, and an absolute failure by any standard of measure."
It's obvious to anyone that the drug war is NOT intended to 'succeed.'
It is, and has been, a method of funding dictatorships and rightwing deathsquads and their training.
Oh, and making money on drugs.
Take a gander at the doctor's manual for prescription meds given to psychiatric patients. Now THOSE are dangerous drugs, and in many cases they are not even posited as holding out a cure or even a treatment, but are given to 'maintain' the patients in an institutional environment. Translation: it makes them easier to push around.
MR. Bill @ 7:
what he said.
There has never been a war on drugs.
There has only been a war to control who has control of drugs.
legalize god damnit. Hemp makes great biofuel as well
Wow! Just heard RANDI RHODES speak in Michigan. Give her WE BELIEVE speech a whirl. http://www.therandirhodesshow.com/live/ Explains the patriotic duty to IMPEACH.
"Before President Bush proposed giving the Mexican government more than a billion dollars in aid to fight the war on drugs last week…We noticed a strange phenomenon."
Chicago Public Radio
http://www.chicagopublicradio.org/content.aspx?audioID=14304
Drug abuse among American youth has been on the decline for the past decade, and counter-drug efforts in recent years have resulted in record seizures of drugs. Many experts believe it's time to come up with a new strategy. Currently, the biggest drug use in America stems from homegrown marijuana and prescription drugs. If that's the case, critics ask, why does the United States continue to spend
billions in anti-drug efforts that end up pushing production from one Latin American country to another?
------------------------
Sarah
Anatomy of a Failure: How America Lost the War on Drugs
alberta drug rehab
Dave @ 15:
We don't want to win the war on drugs. How do you think the CIA gets it's money for covert actions? Their budget is to small.
The War on Cannabis is a total ethical, economic, environmental, cultural, and human freedom holocaust on humanity.
Some say War on Drugs... It really is a War on Cannabis.... as Cannabis users have more arrests then all the other drugs, plus all other crimes committed combined....
By the mere fact that over 890,000 people were arrested for it last year ... it should be made LEGAL.. 890,000 last year.. 830,000 the year before... and on words.. a quick estimate tells me that over 4 million in this decade alone... 4 million... 4 million who have to go to court, get drug tested, go to therapy, lose student financial aid for college, have their homes and vehicles confiscated by the police and sold before they go to trial, lose their jobs and have their job possibilities evaporate...
If 890,000 murders were committed in this country a year, year after year... We would have to have be under attack from Terminator robots...
The harder drugs like Opiates, Cocaine, and Meth- have clear ties to covert Government Alphabet agencies and the vested Economic powers ranging from the prison industrial complex, pharmaceutical industries, even our soft drink manufacturers and so on .... They WANT them in our streets...they want the profits they make from it, and they love the other perks that come with them like the 'mainstream prole' paranoia of drug epidemics sweeping the nation, enabling of their police forces to purchase more military hardware, and further erode our civil liberties among many other 'perks' are almost so beneficial to keeping them in power... that to think it is just a convenient by product is kind of inane.
It is established fact that The Powers that Be WANT the hard drugs to flourish... They want the price high, just as Putin wants the price of oil high.
Look at the track record throughout history... From the East Indian Tea Company... To Air America... To Columbia... To Afghanistan...
And its the same group of fuckers through history...
The Underground economy does all sorts of things in their favor... from inflating up our illusionary house of cards of a stock market... to assisting them into living lifestyles that can barely be shown in the movies.
All of that PLUS... (Tell this one to your tax hating, authoritarian minded, drug war lusting repiglican friends)
EACH TAX payer puts in $550- A YEAR to pay for it...
The sales taxes from the "conservative" $130,000,000,000 black market Cannabis market in the USA ... could pay for SCHIP and then some...
That .. and the only halfway effective way to get the drugs out of the hands of the "children"... is to LEGALIZE them and put them behind a counter... or into a coffee shop type of place that enforces the age limit accordingly .. facing even stiffer sentances then bars currently do for serving minors now...
The fact that they are illegal makes them easier to get by minors... It is easier for a 14 year old to get COCAINE.. or METH... then it is for them to get Alcohol or Ciggarettes...
/end rant
Yoda @ 45:
Bill Clinton was governor of ARKANSAS, not Arizona. However, Newton County, in NW Arkansas, was the source of 10% of the domestic crop of marijuana in the early 80s, during Clinton's first term as governor of Arkansas. I know plebians who claim to have toked with BOTH the Clintons. Don't believe the old adage, "I didn't inhale."
Please look at this issue from a macro perspective. It matters not which political party or person is currently in power. Since the Kennedy administration (and before), the powers that be have been the corporatists. The corporatists have a vested interest in keeping the masses addicted to various substances (food, alcohol, cigarettes, 'illegal' drugs and prescription drugs, television...) If you don't recognize the 'war on drugs' as a ruse to deflect your attention from the corporatist agenda, you are not alone. MANY of us are unaware. However, your one statement herein above ("there is a group of Dems and repugs working together to destroy us!!!") is absolute truth: the two party system is yet another ruse to convince you (indeed, ALL of us) that we have an active role in the political process. Hmph! That won't be true until We The People make it so.
Prohibition doesn't work. It never works. It only continues because it has become a profitable industry. The only politicians with the balls to do anything about it would never make it through the media filter alive.
drugs are a public health issue not a criminal issue.
"increase their supply more addicts" - same thing they said about alcohol. should alcohol be illegal?
Mike Gravel is the only one who has come out against the "war on drugs"
you'd think you'd mention that considering you're a "liberal blog thats supposed to inform people on "Policy Makers"
christ. so tired
Uh, it would seem that many here are of the mistaken belief that the DrugWar is a purely Rethuglican invention. It isn't. The first phase of the DrugWar began a century ago, and it was aimed at people of color. It's been aided and abetted by both parties, to the detriment of all Americans, but especially to those of color, courtesy of felony voter disenfranchisements.
The Dems have been supporting a process that has cost them dearly in lost votes. Will they wise up and make an about-face, and renounce the DrugWar? Of course not. The DLC/DNC is too dickless and limp-wristed for that. Too afraid of a tiny Drugwar favoring minority (who get their backing from Big Pharma and distillers, brewers and vintners) that is far more vocal than their numbers reveal. They're too afraid of losing even the slightest, razor-thin advantage in a poll or election. They won't do the right thing, admit their mistake in previous support for the DrugWar, and take a new tack towards ending it. So kiss more minority votes goodbye, thus practically guaranteeing contested, acrimonious ballot counts for years to come.
With the DrugWar, the Dems take the pistols from the hands of Rethugs and happily and oh-so-accommodatingly shoot themselves in the foot with them. When they stop doing that, then they'll merit respect...not before.
Twinky and Cheese Poof commercials
Hear, hear! Duh! Yea verily! Etc.!
"He who controls the Spice controls the Universe." -Frank Herbert, 'Dune'
Crack The CIA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYOVQezWaCY
etc etc etc etc ad nauseum
yeah
I'm one of those who believes strongly in Terence Mckenna's seminal work, 'Food Of The Gods' -even after he stated that notion originated purely in stimulating and fomenting the dialogue.
I'm one of those convinced 99% of the crap we take isn't from human beings but alcohol (in it's human hosts), and that said crap is responsible for this American Empire nightmare. (Thanks a load, Teeddy Roosevelt, you were right, sea power!)
I'm one of those who has long found a strong work ethic and cannabis are mutually sympathetic to each other.
I'm one of those who long ago found great distinction between 'head drugs' and 'body drugs'.
I'm one of those who, thanks to substance 'experimentation', found a long time ago, there is indeed a higher [perception of] reality. -And that the lower ones can be and are indeed themselves a 'crutch' (and promote gospels of greed even).
I'm One Of Those whom was originally led through the gateway, the political gateway, the radical gateway, thanks to the stupid Drug Scheduling Act. Gateway drugs indeed.
I'm One Of Those who would not only legalize cannabis, but safeguard tobacco's [current and future] use at the same time -*as* I would bring Alcohol Prohibition back...
yep. one of them...
http://zuma.vip.warped.com/page.htm
Jon Carroll of the San Francisco Chronicle calls this The War on Some Drugs. I'm with him. Colombian Drug Cartel -- BAD!!! U.S. Drug Cartel -- GOOD!!! U.S. Tobacco Cartel -- GOOD!!! U.S. Alcoholic Beverage Cartel -- GOOD!!! Afghanistan Opium Poppy Effort (I don't think it's quite on the level of a Cartel) -- BAD!!!
The "War on Drugs" has been as effective as the "War on Prostitution". Both drugs and sex have been around as long as people have been around.
The only effect making these things illegal has is to enrich criminals, the courts, and law enforcement.
The average citizen gets screwed all around;
a)By having to pay taxes to fund the police, the courts and now, FOR PROFIT prisons.
b)Because the cost of the drugs are inflated due to their illegal status the junkie must steal to afford his fix, which means ripping off the average citizen's stereo, computer, etc.
Legalize it. Regulate it. Tax it.
However, seeing as how the law enforcement industry is as corrupt and criminal as the criminals themselves, it's a self-perpetuating relationship and will do everything it can to maintain the incredibly profitable status quo.
Ask yourself, "Why are people taking drugs?" Maybe it's because they want to escape this joke of a life we live.
Fix the cause of drug use then you don't have to worry about drugs infiltrating our kids lives.
Diana
"60 Million people smoking the Bud... Cause the American way of life is bug!"- KRS ONE
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