Is the war on drugs the "Forgotten War"?!?
 

Are drugs a weapon of mass destruction? Should we treat drug users and traffickers like terrorists?

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Lou Dobbs
AIRS: 6-7 p.m. ET Monday-Friday

'The Forgotten War'

Monday, August 04, 2003

Join us for our series of special reports "The Forgotten War" as we look at an addicted nation and the war on drugs. We begin with what is being done to stop drugs from coming into the United States. Deborah McCarthy, deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs is our guest.

So CNN Calls America an Addicted nation?

You think pharmeceutical companies will be included in his report?

a war on drugs is a logical falacy. you cannot wage war on your own people over a matter of moral law.

The head of US Customs was on CNN over the weekend saying flat out that drug shipment interception is no longer a priority and they are focusing the majority of their resources on counter terrorism right now and for the foreseeable future.

I'm sure there are lots of smiling faces in South America these days.

Governments must act "logically"?

DEA = drug enforecement agency
how to takeover drug's money?

Drug enforcement is a waste of time and money.

Yep this is why California decriminalized marijuana.

It takes up tons of resources, and billions of dollars, nearly 10 billion a year) for what? To bust some stoner with a couple bags of weed?

Check these stats:

'60,000 individuals are behind bars for marijuana offenses at a cost to taxpayers of $1.2 billion per year.
REFERENCE: Marijuana Arrests and Incarceration in the United States. 1999. The Federation of American Scientists' Drug Policy Analysis Bulletin.

Taxpayers annually spend between $7.5 billion and $10 billion arresting and prosecuting individuals for marijuana violations. Almost 90 percent of these arrests are for marijuana possession only.
REFERENCE: NORML. 1997. Still Crazy After All These Years: Marijuana Prohibition 1937-1997: A report prepared by the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML) on the occasion of the Sixtieth anniversary of the adoption of the Marijuana Tax Act of 1937. Washington, DC; Federal Bureau of Investigation's combined Uniform Crime Reports: Crime in the United States (1990-2000): Table: Arrest for Drug Abuse Violations. U.S. Department of Justice: Washington, DC.

The state of California saved nearly $1 billion dollars from 1976 to 1985 by decriminalizing the personal possession of one ounce of marijuana, according to a study of the state justice department budget.
REFERENCE: M. Aldrich and T. Mikuriya. 1988. Savings in California marijuana law enforcement costs attributable to the Moscone Act of 1976. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs 20: 75-81.

New Mexico's 2001 state-commissioned Drug Policy Advisory Group determined that marijuana decriminalization "will result in greater availability of resources to respond to more serious crimes without any increased risks to public safety."
REFERENCE: New Mexico Governor's Drug Policy Advisory Group. 2001. Report and Recommendations to the Governor's Office. State Capitol: Santa Fe.

Marijuana arrests have more than doubled since 1991, while adult use of the drug has remained stable. During this same period, the number of arrests for cocaine and heroin fell by approximately 33 percent.
REFERENCE: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2000. Drugs and Crime Facts. Table: Number of Arrests by Drug Type, 1982-99. U.S. Department of Justice: Washington, DC; U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 1996. National Household Survey on Drug Abuse: Main Findings (1990- 1999). DHHS Printing Office: Rockville, MD.

Police arrest more Americans per year on marijuana charges than the total number of arrestees for all violent crimes combined, including murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault.
REFERENCE: Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2001. Uniform Crime Report: Crime in the United States, 2000. Table 29: Total estimated arrests in the United States, 2000. U.S. Department of Justice: Washington, DC.

Marijuana violations constitute the fifth most common criminal offense in the United States.
REFERENCE: Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2000. Drugs and Crime Facts. Table: Estimated totals of top 7 arrest offenses, United States, 1999. U.S. Department of Justice: Washington, DC.

More than 734,000 individuals were arrested on marijuana charges in 2000. Eighty-eight percent of those arrested were charged with marijuana possession only.
REFERENCE: Federal Bureau of Investigation. 2001. Uniform Crime Report Crime in the United States, 2000. Table: Arrest for Drug Abuse Violations. U.S. Department of Justice: Washington, DC.

Almost 5 million Americans have been arrested for marijuana since 1992. That's more than the entire populations of Alaska, Delaware, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, Washington DC and Wyoming combined.
REFERENCE. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Uniform Crime Reports: Crime in the United States (1993-2000). Table: Arrest for Drug Abuse Violations. U.S. Department of Justice: Washington, DC.'

Prohibition failed, the war on drugs has failed, even underage drinking and smoking fails.

The government can't stop people from doing what they want to do. All they're doing is making a black market for criminals to get rich from.

The billions spent on drug enforcement would be much better spent on education and supporting high school sports in my opinion.

http://www.drugsense.org/wodclock.htm

Imagine an extra $40 billion a year spent on education and after school programs in poor communities instead of drug enforcement?

without the 'war on drugs' there wouldn't be 1+ million ppl in prison about half of the prison population is in there for non-violent offense(drugs),they need that 'legal slavery' prison labor is cheap ass hell

speeking of drugs...how much does a pound of pot go for in the states?

Guess that 11 ton pot seizure here a couple of weeks ago must have been all hype...

The same with the three college students, bound and executed over a drug thing (pot suspected as the drug) a week ago...

Hmmm about 60% of the local area crime being directly involved over pot, needing the money for, fighting over a street corner, owing 10 bucks... etc...

Yep good ol pot, nothing criminal about it. Mayhaps we should shoot ONE 'so called "Good" ' pot smoker for every one of the idiots that commit a crime to get it or over it. Save up that prison money for good criminals eh?

My non-porn income comes from be being a DJ in the local Club/Rave scene here in California.

Being so, the new 'war on ecstacy' has hit my business. With clubs and raves being raided, tons of undercovers, etc.

But WHY are they spending so much money to bust kids with 10 pills on them????

The answer: to distract us from the fact that drugs come though our borders in HUGE AMMOUNTS.

Our borders are insecure as FUCK.... these drug shipments could be biological weapons, nukes, or anything else under the sun.

They do not want us to connect the dots. If the drugs are still getting in, what else is???

Um, pot smokers fight? That's a new one to me...

I wonder, if they improved people's lives a bit, so they were more livable, if people might require fewer drugs on a regular basis.

What about improving minimum wage, child daycare, crime, pollution, and workplace stress? Reduce the demand, and there will be less trafficking.

But no, that would be too expensive.

If you asked my mom's cousin he would always say Korea was the forgotten war

How many cans of Budweiser did you slam while while writing that babbling bullshit?

yes

Ahh Elli, they call it 'defending' (fighting) over street corners with drive bys, we had a local recent bicycle by (NO kidding), all sorts of BS, true its among the dealers in alot of THOSE cases but the users would steal your eyeteeth if they think that metal might be silver and you laugh outside so it shows. Grrr

Sorry Thunder, come back when you are 22 and allowed to talk to adults. Oh and buttwipers? Yuck!

In your case, we may need to adust the age to 35 before you have anything worthwhile to say come to think of it.

There's a difference between crimes committed because of drugs and crimes committed because drugs have been outlawed. Failure to understand that concept says more about you than the current state of affairs.

5eyes, I will CERTAINLY take that into consideration if a bullet hits someone at our house from down the block rather than it hit here because one of us is involved. It will make ALL the difference. It also will allow one of us to feel much better about the others passing. Idiot.

Gemini:
The sooner you wake up to the fact that history does replay itself when allowed, the sooner you'll realize that you're merely describing the exact same issues that we were faced with during Prohibition.

Drugs are simply a vice. I want you to show me a single instance of a vice being successfully curtailed by legislation and enforcement. To the contrary, every attempt to impose morality by enacting laws against a vice has repeatedly, time and again, and always will, result in violence, destruction and death when the underworld moves in to reap the profits to be had because it IS outlawed.

Trying to justify continued suppression of a vice by pointing out the natural consequences of outlawing it is... well, I guess you signed your last post correctly, sir.

]

:thumbsup

I live in a suburb of Vancouver. Believe me, just about everyone here smokes pot, and they start at a young age, even if they don't smoke habitually or that often. I know coconuts who have knocked over the PetroCan every other week for two years, and drug deals gone bad between the bigwig dealers, but I have YET to see or hear of a violent crime committed by a pothead in order to secure more pot.

You might be running into a problem with widespread firearms use, actually. And of course you realize, if the government took over distribution, then there would be no more corner stakeouts or fights over territory.

Damn, now I know the intellect level the 'this is your brain on drugs' campaign was directed towards.

Given your 'govt textbook' comments and the fact that you cannot distinguish the difference between a marijuana user and a crack user its obvious you don't know what the hell you're even talking about.

You think people are out commiting crimes for a pot fix! Do you also think people are stealing cars for a pack of smokes? Get back in your fuckin hole moron.

:1orglaugh

You can have a legal arsenal in the USA but you can't grow a plant.

Fucking hilarious.