President Barack Obama's new drug czar, former Seattle police chief Gil Kerlikowske told us just 8 months ago that the idiocy was over, that "We're not at war with people in this country" but action speaks louder than words.
The new budget for fiscal 2011's war on drugs is increased and the emphasis is still on "enforcement" which means more spitting on constitutional rights, more interference with private matters, more clogging up of courts, more disrupted families, more crime, more prisons training more harmless people to be criminals and more ruining the lives of innocent people. In fact it's more of George W. Bush and it's more of what has only made things worse and worse. Even so, that 15.5 billion dollar budget vastly understates the cost to the nation as much as that of our former administration because it ignores the huge cost of incarceration and due process.
From "the war on drugs is over" to
"In a time of tight budgets and fiscal restraint, these new investments are targeted at reducing Americans' drug use and the substantial costs associated with the health and social consequences of drug abuse"took us only 8 months and a return to doing what always fails; a return to pseudomoralistic prohibitions, fraudulent medical data and a continuation of being the biggest jailer in the world makes liars out of the idiots shouting "Liberal" as much as it makes liars of our administration.
Guv'ment servants have no business playing moral prudes and scolds with their employers, the people. Yes of course hard drugs are very bad stuff. I'm for keeping tabs on the use of certain substances that are by no means low-key in their effects, but outright criminalizing them is stupid and ineffective, unless of course you happen to have a major interest in a sector of the enforcement industrial complex.
ReplyDeleteThe War on Drugs has been a monumental waste of money and effort and has only increased the suffering of many caught up in the snare of drug abuse. The Admin's initial impulse was correct: this is a medical and social problem that becomes even more intractable than ever when you insist on treating all addicts as if they were murderers and bank robbers. Once you get people into the penal system, it's almost impossible to return them to a productive, normal life. They become regular "clients" of that system rather than good citizens.
We need an approach that avoids criminalization but also doesn't simply amount to full legalization. The policy should suit the message, "you shouldn't be using this destructive junk; we expect you to stop ruining your life and will gladly help you however we can."
I've had long time friendships with a few heavy drug users and a lot who can take it or leave it with no fuss.
ReplyDeleteThe only deaths were from cigarettes and alcohol however, yet the most intransigent position is taken with Cannabis, the one with zero toxicity and an intoxication factor on a par with beer.
It's prohibition was based on forged documents and newspaper articles cut from whole cloth by the Hearst papers - and yet we take it far more seriously than we take the Constitution and the Pythagorean theorem.
Violent criminals get a free pass to get out of jail early so that drug users can stay locked up.
ReplyDeleteWhat an ass backwards screwball system we have and still they parade out the "drug war" banner as if they were doing something good for the people.
HA!
Yes, the war on drugs is a fraud--especially on marijuana as it is 70% of the illegal trade. If we legalized it we could stop crime on the border nearly over night. Plus, we live in a free society, so what ever happened to keep the government out of our business you law and order conservatives?
ReplyDeleteIt boggles my mind that you can go out and buy a gun that you could kill someone with in a matter of seconds. But you can't smoke a joint of marijuana--a drug, which hasn't directly killed ANYONE. It's impossible to O.D. on pot.
Yes, of course it is and I read some study last year that shows smoking it has no link to lung cancer. One probably shouldn't drive or operate heavy equipment but the thrust of the early anti-pot propaganda is that it leads inevitable to brain damage which causes violent crime. Unless you consider that eating three boxes of Chips Ahoy in a hour is a violent crime, it's a lie.
ReplyDeleteActually people have been arrested for having unsmokable remnants in a pipe or seeds in a carpet, such is the fanatic, quasi-religious abhorrence of weed.
Yep, they say that pot leads to other things...yeah, junk food!! LMAO. I've heard of countless violent incidents from alcohol but NONE from marijuana.
ReplyDeleteMost people who smoke pot aren't bothering anyone. They just sit on the couch and laugh at cartoons/movies. Once again I think the people are ahead of the government on this issue of pot.
Yep, I heard of the preventing cancer thing too. It is especially less harmful if you use a vaporizer. It's certainly better for you than cigarettes, which ARE LEGAL!!! We're so backwards in what we ban in this society.
Oops, that James Ure comment is mine (Handsome B. Wonderful). I was signed into the wrong account. :)
ReplyDeleteWell, I agree with both of you!
ReplyDelete