Lessons for Creating Successful Drug Policies DRUG DECRIMINALIZATION IN PORTUGAL

On July 1, 2001, a nationwide law in Portugal took effect that decriminalized all drugs, includ- ing cocaine and heroin. Under the new legal framework, all drugs were “decriminalized,” not “legalized.” Thus, drug possession for personal use and drug usage itself are still legally prohib- ited, but violations of those prohibitions are deemed to be exclusively administrative viola- tions and are removed completely from the crim- inal realm. Drug trafficking continues to be prosecuted as a criminal offense. While other states in the European Union have developed various forms of de facto decrim- inalization—whereby substances perceived to be less serious (such as cannabis) rarely lead to crim- inal prosecution—Portugal remains the only EU member state with a law explicitly declaring drugs to be “decriminalized.” Because more than seven years have now elapsed since enactment of Portugal’s decriminalization system, there are ample data enabling its effects to be assessed. Notably, decriminalization has become increas- ingly popular in Portugal since 2001. Except for some far-right politicians, very few domestic politi- cal factions are agitating for a repeal of the 2001 law. And while there is a widespread perception that bureaucratic changes need to be made to Portugal’s decriminalization framework to make it more effi- cient and effective, there is no real debate about whether drugs should once again be criminalized. More significantly, none of the nightmare scenarios touted by preenactment decriminalization oppo- nents—from rampant increases in drug usage among the young to the transformation of Lisbon into a haven for “drug tourists”—has occurred. The political consensus in favor of decriminal- ization is unsurprising in light of the relevant empirical data. Those data indicate that decrimi- nalization has had no adverse effect on drug usage rates in Portugal, which, in numerous categories, are now among the lowest in the EU, particularly when compared with states with stringent crimi- nalization regimes. Although postdecriminaliza- tion usage rates have remained roughly the same or even decreased slightly when compared with other EU states, drug-related pathologies—such as sexu- ally transmitted diseases and deaths due to drug usage—have decreased dramatically. Drug policy experts attribute those positive trends to the enhanced ability of the Portuguese government to offer treatment programs to its citizens—enhance- ments made possible, for numerous reasons, by decriminalization. This report will begin with an examination of the Portuguese decriminalization framework as set forth in law and in terms of how it functions in practice. Also examined is the political climate in Portugal both pre- and postdecriminalization with regard to drug policy, and the impetus that led that nation to adopt decriminalization. The report then assesses Portuguese drug poli- cy in the context of the EU’s approach to drugs. The varying legal frameworks, as well as the overall trend toward liberalization, are examined to enable a meaningful comparative assessment between Portuguese data and data from other EU states. The report also sets forth the data concerning drug-related trends in Portugal both pre- and postdecriminalization. The effects of decriminal- ization in Portugal are examined both in absolute terms and in comparisons with other states that continue to criminalize drugs, partic- ularly within the EU. The data show that, judged by virtually every metric, the Portuguese decriminalization frame- work has been a resounding success. Within this success lie self-evident lessons that should guide drug policy debates around the world.

Drug Czar Required By Law To Lie!

A fact that pretty much encapsulates the entire conservative agenda, one that cannot exist without telling lies to itself as a way of reducing the chronic fear that drives the conservative mindset. http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/why-is-marijuana-illegal/

Report to Congress - Chapter 5 - Cocaine and Federal Sentencing Policy - Feb 1995

Report to Congress - Chapter 5 - Cocaine and Federal Sentencing Policy - Feb 1995

Empirical Findings on Crack and Powder Cocaine and Psychopharmacologically Driven Crime The limited evidence to date suggests that psychopharmacologically driven crime may be least important in explaining the association between crime and both crack and powder cocaine. With respect to violent crime, the 1990 Goldstein et al., Homicide Study found that only three of the 118 exclusively crack-related homicides in the study were psychopharmacological in nature, and in two of these three cases the victim precipitated the crime. The study concluded that there were another two psychopharmacologically driven homicides in which crack was involved. However, alcohol also was involved in these two cases, and overall, some 21 alcohol-only homicides were considered to be psychopharmacologically driven - considerably more than for any other drug - suggesting that alcohol may have played a significant role in these two crack-related cases. Id. at 664 (table 2), 665.

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Obama's Drug Czar Lies About Medical Marijuana

Obama's Drug Czar Lies About Medical Marijuana

'Marijuana is dangerous and has no medicinal benefit,' Drug Czar Gil Kerlikowske said in downtown Fresno while discussing a multiagency effort to eradicate marijuana in eastern Fresno County, even though his boss, President Obama, campaigned on a pledge to stop bullying medical marijuana in California. cont...

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Drug czar: Feds won't support legalized pot - Top Stories - fresnobee.com

Drug czar: Feds won't support legalized pot - Top Stories - fresnobee.com

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World Health Organization global Cocaine Project Study suppressed by the United States for 13 years, 1995 - Wikileaks (8 July 2009)

World Health Organization global Cocaine Project Study suppressed by the United States for 13 years, 1995 June 13, 2009 Summary In March 1995, the WHO and UNICRI announced the publication of the results of a global study on cocaine. Information had been collected in 22 cities and 19 countries about the use of the coca leaf and its derivatives, its effects on consumers and the community as a whole, and the answers of the governments concerned to the cocaine problem. Preparations for the research began in 1991. Over more than two years, three sub-projects were developed which "proposed to collect up-to-date information about cocaine at regional and national levels." The study was never published despite being "the largest study ever on cocaine use." Reference to the study can be found in the UNICRI (United Nations Interregional Institute of Crime Investigation) library, where it is still marked as "RESTRICTED" [1] The Director of the PSA, Hans Emblad, sent a copy of the Briefing Kit to the United Nations Drugs Control Programme (UNDCP), where it caused a sensation. Two months later, on 9 May 1995 in Commission B of the forty-eighth General Health Assembly, the destiny of these years of labour was determined by the intervention of the representative of the United States of America, Mr Boyer. He expressed his government's concern with the results of this study: "which seem to make a case for the positive uses of cocaine, claiming that use of the coca leaf did not lead to noticeable damage to mental or physical health, that the positive health effects of coca leaf chewing might be transferable from traditional settings to other countries and cultures and that coca production provides financial benefits to peasants". cont.... World Health Organization global Cocaine Project Study suppressed by the United States for 13 years, 1995 - Wikileaks (8 July 2009) http://tinyurl.com/lulhjl

RCMP Catches Itself In a Lie

‘We rarely have our facts straight early on’

Who is keeping them accountable? May 7th, 2009 · Raphael Alexander (National Post Editorial) - Just when you think nothing more scandalous could be discovered at the Braidwood Inquiry overseeing the taser-related death of 40-year-old Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver International Airport on October 14, 2007, the former commanding officer in charge of investigating the death today defended the RCMP decision to maintain erroneous information publicly for 14 months. The preliminary reports of the death have been contradicted by actual testimony during the Braidwood Inquiry, leading many people to speculate there has been an attempted RCMP cover-up. RCMP Superintendent Wayne Rideout explained that he did not correct falsified reports in the media because his “[...] belief at the time is we needed to protect the facts we were gathering”. He said that it was his decision not to release any further facts about the case, although they allowed the preliminary reports of Mr.Dziekanski being combative, resistant, and only fired upon with the taser twice to stand. “We rarely have our facts straight early on,” he explained. Well...that’s very interesting of them to say. Does that mean that if the police rarely have their facts straight early in a case, is it at all possible for the RCMP to immediately exonerate the officers involved? To decide that they had all acted “appropriately”? Of course not

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Richard Cohen Reveals His RWA Bias

January 28, 2009 6:48 PM

"And I thought, No, I'm not going to sit here passively and wait for it to happen. I wanted to go to "them," whoever "they" were, grab them by the neck, and get them before they could get us."

DHS scientists, looking into the mindset of those who use terrorism, have focused nearly all their attention on one specific group. This group is notable for the way they behave when mortality salience is present. They behave almost as though they are somehow being rushed to make their decisions, thus the shortcuts and/or following a path that may actually do more harm than good given the lack of understanding of those they are involved with. They seem to be in a chronic state of anxiety, behaving much like what one would expect from those who must try and deal with a steady, low-level fear, with the"fight or flight" response always on a hair trigger, thus the violent and aggressive actions taken over matters that did not seem worthy of the deadly force used. So which group am I talking about? Conservatives of course. Or more specifically, right wing authoritarians and the 'social dominance-oriented' they follow unquestioningly (in that "RWA-SDO embrace", as it's known) http://www.wam.umd.edu/~hannahk/conservatism.html Now it appears we have a journalist who openly admits his decisions are strongly informed by the fear and anger generated by the WTC attack. Then there's the editor, the public, and the political hacks who are at present still quite clueless over who it is that initiates, perpetuates, and promotes highly damaging reactionary responses to problems m uch more complex that they are willing to acknowledge, or perhaps be unable to even conceive. GWB's presidency played out nearly every single symptom of this debilitating societal disorder. To continue tolerating them as intellectual or emotional equals of other subgroups within the population, will be to bring about our own destruction. Their denial of Global Warming is just one example of their willingness to destroy the planet merely becaused the idea is too discomforting to the way they prefer to see their world. And as far as Cohen is concerned, the big question then is... how could he find this trait admirable enough he'd openly admit it in his column?

The histopathologic effects of Securidaca longepedunculata

Here's another example of the bizarre level of hypocrisy that the prohibitionists behind the WODs must engage in in order to defend their motives.

Note how, at the end of this abstract, the authors compare this plants toxic effects as being of a sort that strongly resembles the damage seen in the organs of chronic users of alcohol --- and acetaminophen! --- or "Tylenol" IOW. How can LEOs live with themselves when one considers the cruel, heartless lack of ethics it must take to arrest, prosecute and imprison a parent, husband or child for smoking pot? How can they sit at a bar-stool popping Tylenol and sharing a drink with buddies, when ALL scientifically rigid studies confirm both drugs as being much more pathological or dangerous to use? It's thinmgs like this that make me wonder if "conservatism" isn't merely a euphemism for persons who share the same emotional stunting that sees them as adults still reliant on an authority figures; people whom they've substituted as the parent, and like the paremnt to a young child, obedience is mandatory. As such, justification for any given law is not theirs to question. It is from them that they depend for knowledge that forms their concepts of existentialism. It's from outside sources that make claims of having all the answers they gravitate toward because they are intellectually incapable of forming abstract thought structures themselves.

Their lack of empathy for anyone outside their own group is one of the hallmarks of political conservatism. It is noteworthy that the very act of employing empathy requires an intellectual feat that newborns and "toddlers" are incapable of, and is one that only becomes available to us once we reach an age where social skills are benificial to getting what the individual needs from others who are not their parents.

The simple-mindedness and "black & white" perception of the world, the inordinate number of conservatives who join any given societies military or police force is also explainable as being motivated by a need to place themselves somewhere they aren't expected to think for themselves; where they will always know what is expected of them; as well as the practical shield that being an LEO can bring to a personality with little empathy. Otherwise, they would very likely to be arrested for after acting out their frustration and embarrassment at not being an intellectually capable person. It all seems to fit. And DHS agrees with me. See Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ABSTRACT

Securidaca longepedunculata is a savannah shrub commonly used by traditional medicine practitioners in Nigeria; the plant is reputed to have over one hundred medicinal indications. In this investigation, the histopathologic effects of S. longepedunculata on the heart, kidneys, liver and lungs of rats were examined. Albino rats (Sprague Dawley strain) weighing 200 – 250 g were given 2 mg/kg (I.P) of aqueous extract daily for fourteen days and then sacrificed. Tissues were harvested and processed for photomicrographic examinations. Extracts of the plant gave an LD₅₀ value of 37 mg/kg (I.P) and histological alterations monitored. In the kidneys, there was acute tubular necrosis with diffused interstitial and glumerular haemorrhage characteristic of irreversible cellular injury of the epithelium and parenchyma. Similar changes were observed in the liver showing severe ballooning degeneration of the hepatocytes, necrosis and formation of mallory bodies. In the lungs diffused alveolar and capillary damage as well as early formation of hyaline membranes were evident. The histological changes are similar to those produced by chronic ethanol and p-acetaminophene ingestion, suggesting the presence of toxic constituents. From these observations, it can be inferred that the use of S. longepedunculata may be associated with tissue structural damage of some vital organs.

Technorati Tags: Securidaca, longepedunculata, histopathologic, heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, Uwar-magunguna.

It Oughta Be Criminal!

Weather Underground: Honoring the Cops They Killed - PoliceLink

For persons who have been granted the authority to give and take life, I see a frightening disregard for facts, truth and honesty here. Doesn't anyone care for the truth of a given situation? Or is following the herd preferable to being honest? Because a look outside the echo-chamber so many seem to prefer learning from will quickly reveal the following:

The Weather Underground was investigated ONLY for the 1970 bombing, including again in 2003 using advances in technology to find the bombers. No one from the WUO was indicted. The WOU took responsibility for numerous bombing, all of which were preceded by warnings to allow evacuation. Of the bombings claimed by WUO, not one person was killed.

Given these facts, it seems more likely that another of the many radical groups then protesting Vietnam, woman's liberation and black civil rights was responsible. The modus operandi of the Weatherman was not present during the murder of Sgt. McDonnell, and all subsequent investigations bear that out.

The author of the article states "This article’s only purpose is to honor those three fallen heroes. Plenty has been written about their relationship from both sides of the campaign, and I have absolutely no interest in exploring that relationship further."
But contrary to his own words,. the very next paragraph starts, "Ayers, who has long held a position as a college professor in Chicago, has a surprisingly nefarious past."
No interest in exploring "that relationship" further ? One would have to be both stupid and blind not to see that smearing Obama with the Weathermen brush is all he is concerned with doing, and using the "memory of fallen officers" is the way he's going to do it.

As for "honoring" their memory....Well, let's take a look at how honorable the man is, shall we?

Despite his claim that the WUO operated through the 70s and early 80s, they were in fact a group of 60's radicals whose main concern was the civil rights movement and the Vietnam War. When the Vietnam War came to a close, so did any support they might have had, which resulted in their own demise soon after. Ayers and Dorhn eventually turned themselves in in 1980, both receiving only fines and probation --- hardly he kind of sentences one would expect had they been anywhere near as dangerous as the "murderous terrorists" depicted above.

The proof that our noble author has an agenda other than what he claims is the simple fact that the 1983 robbery and subsequent firefight he tries to pin on Ayers group, the WUO, was in fact committed by members of another group known as the Black Liberation Army. They were all caught, convicted and sentenced to terms that will not see them up for parole until the year 2056. The only connection that can possibly be made is that one member had at one time belonged to the Weathermen. As for who that member was, it is notable only in that this is the one who received the shortest sentence, namely only one 20 - to life-sentence. The reason she received less time is that she was the unarmed get-away driver of the U-Haul that was miles away during the botched robbery, and had already surrendered herself at the time the robbers, now inside the cargo area, opened fire killing Officer's Brown and O'Grady.

So the claim that the Weather Underground is responsible for any of these deaths, nevertheless specifically Ayers and Dohrn, is absurd. Not only is it dishonest, but it is being done using the memory of officers who he claims to be respecting. Well, I don't know about the rest of you, but to me....anyone who would seek political advantage using the bodies of fallen LEOs as stepping stones, then lying to their surviving fellow years later, no doubt banking on the fact that most of you are too young to remember what was happening at that time....is lower than low. It's despicable!
Then to somehow take n even greater leap and try to link this whole mess to Obama, a man who was all of 8 yrs old at the time, is bordering on criminal insanity.
The only connection between Ayers and Obama is a $200 donation by Ayers to his re-election campaign, including his membership on the same 8-man Woods Fund board, a position that once saw the group together at Ayers residence. Whoopee....

And what he isn't telling you is that Ayers was an aide to Mayor Richard M. Daley at the time. Is he ready to call Mayor Daley a terrorist? Why not? Having Ayers as his paid employee would make Daley the Bin Laden of Chicago! .....Or at least if we are going to use the same reasoning as this puke has done.

No, no. If there's anything to be pissed about it's people who would manipulate law-enforcement with such crass motives and deeds. In fact, it ought to be a crime.

http://blog.washingtonpost.com/fact-checker/2008/02/obamas_weatherm...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Weatherman_actions

http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=1521312

http://web.archive.org/web/20060616133324/www.kathyboudin.com/facts...

Supreme Court Backs Rights for Guantanamo Detainees » The Foundry

Having heard the name “Heritage Foundation” referred to as an old and venerable institution of the American political conservatives establishment, I am surprised and extremely saddened to find the level of discourse here only marginally better than one can find on any right-wing forum.

As a matter of curiosity I spend a great deal of time interacting with the members of a wide cross-section of the ideological spectrum; from communist or socialist on the left through the popular and personal mainstream bloggers, on through the fascist, monarchist or even racist skin-head ideologies of the far-right. And on a subject as lofty and full of dire implications for the survival of the country, reading all these desperate rationalizations for why you disagree with the decision leaves me wondering whether conservatism has anything /at all/ to do with ideology, or whether instead it is really is a personality disorder with political representation.

Have any of you asked yourself why you disagree with the decision to reinstate Habeas in GITMO? Did any of you think out the ramifications of allowing a President to decide when and where fundamental human rights will apply? Did you ask yourself whether every President who suspends it will be conservative, or whether it’s at all possible one of you could be picked up by a foreign government who decides whether you should be afforded the right to contest your imprisonment based on the decision your own leader took when holding his citizens?

Look. Bush has lied to you all about so many things now that one would think it would be an automatic reaction for a sane person to distrust what he has done and trust what has been tradition for over 800 years in the West. Habeas Corpus.

But no. Your fear of a threat exaggerated in your minds by the spectacle of 9/11 has somehow tripped a perceptual or cognitive switch too where you now believe stateless religious kooks can somehow launch attacks with results more dire than what the USSR presented you. And now you want to let a President decide when and where habeas rights apply to human beings, a right that was thousands of years in the making, and hundreds of years as the keystone of democratic rule. You should be ashamed of yourselves. You’re acting like children!

Palin's Lot

Todd Palin says contacts with his wife's administration were proper - Juneau Empire

What needs to be taken into account by political wonks and citizens concerned about the future, is that the term "conservative" doesn't apply to a description of a political ideolog.... or at least not in the sense that "fascism", "communism", "liberalism" are. It's actually a description of a personality profile.

To illustrate, take the following: You will never find a left-wing, liberal, religious fundamentalist.

The significance of this is that other, "non-conservative" ideologies have a logical basis upon which it's learners can reason out their relative merits, benefits or drawbacks...see what each one offers the most hope for someone of their particular tastes and background.

OTOH, conservatism serves no purpose outside the comfort it offers those so afflicted with what I believe is a disfunctional behavioural trait left us from our pre-Neolithic ancestors. But that is a whole other area of inguiry I cannot hope to cover here.

So. Back to our anti-vice, anti-change crusaders.

The  conservativism "movement" works in much the same way as the drugs that others use to escape the harsh realities of their lives. But a drug's deadening or euphoriant effects change our moods or minds in ways that are far too scary for conservatives, who are ironically probably the one group whose minds could most benefit from a change of mood.

As it is however, they are in perpetual fear of the gay "agenda" (?), a plot I have been lucky enough to actually have a conservative outline for me. This experience alone would have sufficed as convincing evidence that I was in the presence of a strong contender for placement in the next DSM, but my curiousity was now firmly captured by this presence among us. I found they also see other economically deprived ethnic groups as the people responsible for their own crappy jobs, see academics as the cause of their own failure to achieve any real education; and see journalists as the reason they themselves are uninformed about the world. Amazing.

And
anywhere in the world one goes, their 'devils' follow...merely changing
names and faces depending on the culture the conservative mindset appears in.
But the same basic pattern of denial and blame-placement are identical
across cultures, languages, religions or ideologies.

If you watch who they choose as persons whom they'll trust to let guide their thoughts, it'll be persons with a charismatic or authoritarian presence that seem best able to re-frame their discomfort by blaming it away on the people who oppose their existence (intellectuals, "elitists"). Them...and of course their own counterparts in different countries and continents.

Given that the majority of them do indeed live a miserable life,
it's a lucrative career opportunity for someone willing to come up with
enough enemies for them to place all that blame. Unfortunately, few person's with strong ethics or social maturity even
exist outside their own numbers. As such, right-wing authoritarians
have long been the default fill-in; a role that is far too important
for our own survival as a species to allow this incestuous relationship
to continue as it has.

Thankfully they are a minority of the population. And with the advent
of the internet, it's now possible for us to educate ourselves at least
to the basic facts about subjects that have long been the domain only
of the highly educated or well traveled.

Because their antics "over there" scare our ones "over here", they are as much a threat to the peace wherever they appear. Ours will mobilize and threaten war, impose sanctions, and any other antics they can think of to ensure nobody is any happier than they. And no-one, ever, was beset by more devils than the typical conservative.  The 'traditional' RWA-SDO alliance creates a cycle of violence that is
far too dangerous in these nuclear, and now climactically fragile,
times.

But psychologists are fascinated. "Group centrism syndrome" is the phrase psychologists use when referring to their specific disorder. Now you are aware. Tell your neighbours, teach your children. Mankind neds to change course NOW!

"front lines"?

"front lines"?

While I'm perfectly aware of the possibility of an LEO being injured or killed while in the performance of his duty, it seems somewhat of a leap to compare the danger an LEO faces when executing a warrant on a the residence of some crack-wh**re pimp with the attempt to capture/kill Mullah Omar or patrol the streets of Fallujah. When I look at the number of LEOs killed since alcohol prohibition gave rise to Al Capone and the like, then compare it to the total deaths from any single war, including the current death toll in Iraq, there's simply no comparison.

As  a man now about to turn 50 yrs old, I rember when LEO's didn't have...or even want....armored personnel carriers and all the other military hardware now available to police departments. I mean....i realize crime in England doesn't compare to here, but over there, about the only people that do carry guns really are only the criminals! But it was only a couple decades ago that British LEOs did their job without so much as a simple side-arm! That's simply inconcievable to most N. American LEOs, especially the new guysd who have been fed nothing but a steady diet of of the kind of comparisons FOP is making with the actual military. The result is that nowadays LEOs wouldn't even consider stepping out of their vehicle armed with nothing more than a baton. Why is that?

Why are all drug-warrants served by SWAT teams using "quick-knock" or no-knock warrants ?

I can't help but think it's laregely a result of a pissing match between county sherrifs to see who can assemble the most fearsome collection of military hardware the Pentagon started giving away back in the 80s when Cheney and pals saw to it that the Posse Comitatus laws that had always banned the use of the military to solve domestic problems....short very extreme circumstances like an armed insurrection. 

As well, the WCs and other CO's are under constant pressure to buy the latest product that companies like Taser International or the makers of personal body armor carry because the rank and file have been bombarded with slick advertising campaigns convincing them  that they absolutely must have their particular product because their very lives depend on it starting the very moment they leave the station, no matter where or what they are doing.

Whatever the reason, there's a huge change in the way LEOs see their job compared to just a couple decades ago.

So what's gojng on? Why the fear? Why the military hardware?

Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis

Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis
(PAIDOC)

thepotlawhasfallen.ca

When race groups, religious groups, gay rights groups, or disabled groups see articles or comments in the media that they find offensive or damaging to their groups' way of life, they complain. When they hear government or law-enforcement officials using inflammatory or derisive language, they complain.

Anytime someone incites hate, violence, discrimination, or alienation of an identifiable group, it is often referred to as “Hate Speech”.

As a result, many insulting and insensitive words and turns of phrase that were once commonplace in media and in print, are no longer acceptable. This, we applaud.

Patients Against Ignorance and Discrimination on Cannabis intends to do the same thing, as it relates to Cannabis users.

Cultural Baggage: Jack Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP)

BBC interview with Jack Cole of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) + New Zealand interview with Judge Jerry Paradis also of LEAP + Poppygate Report with Glenn Greenway, Terry Nelson of LEAP, Doug McVay with Drug War Facts & CB premiere of "Eternal War" by Adult Users. MP3 LINK: http://www.drugtruth.net/cms/?q=audio/download/2045/FDBCB_091008.mp3

What's Wrong With the Drug War?

What's Wrong With the Drug War?

What's Wrong With the Drug War?

Everyone has a stake in ending the war on drugs. Whether you’re a parent concerned about protecting children from drug-related harm, a social justice advocate worried about racially disproportionate incarceration rates, an environmentalist seeking to protect the Amazon rainforest or a fiscally conservative taxpayer you have a stake in ending the drug war. U.S. federal, state and local governments have spent hundreds of billions of dollars trying to make America “drug-free.” Yet heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and other illicit drugs are cheaper, purer and easier to get than ever before. Nearly half a million people are behind bars on drug charges - more than all of western Europe (with a bigger population) incarcerates for all offenses. The war on drugs has become a war on families, a war on public health and a war on our constitutional rights.

Many of the problems the drug war purports to resolve are in fact caused by the drug war itself. So-called “drug-related” crime is a direct result of drug prohibition's distortion of immutable laws of supply and demand. Public health problems like HIV and Hepatitis C are all exacerbated by zero tolerance laws that restrict access to clean needles. The drug war is not the promoter of family values that some would have us believe. Children of inmates are at risk of educational failure, joblessness, addiction and delinquency. Drug abuse is bad, but the drug war is worse.

Few public policies have compromised public health and undermined our fundamental civil liberties for so long and to such a degree as the war on drugs. The United States is now the world's largest jailer, imprisoning nearly half a million people for drug offenses alone. That's more people than Western Europe, with a bigger population, incarcerates for all offenses. Roughly 1.5 million people are arrested each year for drug law violations - 40% of them just for marijuana possession. People suffering from cancer, AIDS and other debilitating illnesses are regularly denied access to their medicine or even arrested and prosecuted for using medical marijuana. We can do better. Join us.

Visit these pages to see how the drug war affects all aspects of our lives:

Drug War Funding
Pain Underprescribing
Terrorism
Informants
Environmental Consequences
Economics
Mandatory Minimum Sentences
Voter Disenfranchisement
Public Health Crisis
Access to Treatment
Higher Education Act
Public Benefits
Forced Evictions
Alternatives to Prohibition

Alternatives To Prohibition

Drug Policy Alliance Network: Alternatives to Marijuana Prohibition and the Drug War

Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America

Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids in America (says the Cato Institute, a highly influential Libertarian think-tank)

Americans have long maintained that a man’s home is his castle and that he has the right to defend it from unlawful intruders. Unfortunately, that right may be disappearing. Over the last 25 years, America has seen a disturbing militarization of its civilian law enforcement, along with a dramatic and unsettling rise in the use of paramilitary police units (most commonly called Special Weapons and Tactics, or SWAT) for routine police work. The most common use of SWAT teams today is to serve narcotics warrants, usually with forced, unannounced entry into the home. These increasingly frequent raids, 40,000 per year by one estimate, are needlessly subjecting nonviolent drug offenders, bystanders, and wrongly targeted civilians to the terror of having their homes invaded while they’re sleeping, usually by teams of heavily armed paramilitary units dressed not as police officers but as soldiers. These raids bring unnecessary violence and provocation to nonviolent drug offenders, many of whom were guilty of only misdemeanors. The raids terrorize innocents when police mistakenly target the wrong residence. And they have resulted in dozens of needless deaths and injuries, not only of drug offenders, but also of police officers, children, bystanders, and innocent suspects. This paper presents a history and overview of the issue of paramilitary drug raids, provides an extensive catalogue of abuses and mistaken raids, and offers recommendations for reform.

"NO KNOCK" RAID GOES BAD

Jon Christian Ryter -- "No Knock" raid goes bad

"NO KNOCK" RAID GOES BAD By Jon Christian Ryter August 8, 2008 NewsWithViews.com Prince George's County, Maryland police officers did not get the "no knock" warrant they sought from Circuit Court Judge Albert W. Northrup but they broke down the door of Berwyn Heights, Maryland Mayor Cheye Calvo's home on July 29 anyway. The police were looking for 32 lb. of marijuana. Adding trauma to injury, when they entered the home, the cops shot the mayor's black Labrador Retrievers. Neither dog was trying to attack them. In fact the younger dog, 4-year old Chase, was shot by officers as he tried to escape into the kitchen of the home. Seven-year old Payton was shot by the police the moment they entered the house. Police officers said the large dogs "intimidated them," and without being threatened by either docile pet, cops shot both of them. Cont...

Ex-Cop (Dean Becker) On The Insanity Of Prohibition

Dean Becker On Prohibition's Insanity Even law-enforcement officers and officials have come to the conclusion that the drug-war is a costly and cruel policy that has proven to be as misguided as Alcohol Prohibition. Unfortunately there remains a core group of LEOs whose conservative political agenda requires them to keep the status quo in place due their irrational fear of change.They are echoed by conservative citizens and politicians who cannot see any other way of dealing with domestic or international problems other than the use of force i.e passing laws and waging wars. Mycos