War on Drugs
This country's war on drugs is embarrassing.
Beyond this point you can replace "War on Drugs" with "War on Citizens"
and still be
talking about the same thing.
" The current crusade against Marijuana
is no more about
Marijuana than the Boston Tea Party was about tea "
Our leaders need to address this nations addiction to drug
war money
It is not the fault of everyday people
and it is not the fault of our law
enforcement.
It is the system and it's policies regarding drugs and the people
who choose to use them.
Especially with regard to Marijuana, we have failed. Absolutely Failed.
Progress in the drug war can only be measured with respect to slowing it's
failure, and it will fail.
Once you realize that a good portion of your money that is going to fight drugs
is for arrest
and prosecution of Marijuana possession charges (over 600,000 people in 2000) ,
it becomes apparent that we are throwing money down a hole. It didn't work for alcohol 80
years ago and it's not working now.
Put pot in the same class as alcohol and nicotine and control
it accordingly, take all the money we're throwing down that hole now and put it
into real drug programs for the serious drugs. We could then re-label our war as
a successful campaign. But then I realize there is much more money
available for a war on drugs as opposed to a successful campaign.
One of the biggest crimes and casualties to come out this
hopeless effort to eradicate pot use is the medical uses of Marijuana, Visit
this site
(
http://www.safeaccess.org )
to see what can be done to help those that can really use this drug in a
beneficial way. Not to mention being enlightened on how the DEA is spending your
tax dollars to prosecute people that they should be helping, and in states that
citizens have already already voted favorably to allow the use of medical
Marijuana. Next time you ask the government to help with a real problem for it's
citizens and they tell you they don't have the money and will have to raise
taxes. Tell them what you think. Somebody needs to.
According to figures
collected from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Report,
police arrested an estimated 734,498 people for marijuana violations in 2000.
That's up from the 704,812 Americans who were arrested in 1999 on
marijuana-related charges.
Of the almost three-quarters of a million people arrested in 2000, approximately
88% -- or about 646,042 individuals -- were charged only with possession of
marijuana.
More Extensive and updated
figures
You just
have to wonder: If the tens of thousands of law enforcement officers, the
millions of man-hours, and the billions of dollars that were spent monitoring,
investigating, arresting, charging, processing, jailing, and bringing to trial
non-violent marijuana users had been used, instead, for anti-terrorist
activities --
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The 1972 National
Commission on Marijuana and Drug Use. In its report, that commission,
appointed by President Richard M. Nixon, contained this conclusion:
"Marihuana's relative potential for harm to the vast majority of
individual users and its actual impact on society does not justify a
social policy designed to seek out and firmly punish those who use it.
This judgment is based on prevalent, use patterns, on behavior exhibited
by the vast majority of users and on our interpretations of existing
medical and scientific data. This position also is consistent with the
estimate by law enforcement personnel that the elimination of use is
unattainable."
These findings are just as valid now as then. Unfortunately for all
of us, the commission's findings were not what Nixon or other repressive
people wanted to hear, so the report was never acted upon. We still
treat marijuana as if it were some kind of deadly poison. |
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THE WAR ON DRUGS An International Disgrace
Editorial Comment
Drugs , Prohibition, and Cost
Legalize it, Don't Demonize It
