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America Should Decriminalize Drugs
Ginnette Riquelme / AP Photo
That's what César Gaviria, the former president of Colombia, tells The Daily Beast in an exclusive interview following Obama's visit to Latin America.
"Demand for these drugs in the U.S. is what is helping to keep these cartels in business," said President Obama in Mexico City last week, speaking against a backdrop of spiraling drug-fueled violence there. The statement echoed one recently made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and further signaled a change in U.S. attitude toward the drug war. Previously, acknowledging America’s role in creating demand for drugs was politically taboo.
But despite the change in tone, how to squelch this demand remains a point of thorny contention. So far, the Obama administration hasn’t called for any drastic changes to America’s drug policy. In fact, even as he noted the problem of American demand, Obama sought $80 million for Mexico for the purchase of Black Hawk helicopters to fight the cartels.
“It is a failed policy to think that the drug problem will be solved in the supply countries. It has never worked out that way.”
These sorts of enforcements efforts are important, but when it comes to diluting the demand for drugs, the U.S. is missing the point, says the former president of Colombia, César Gaviria, in an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast. A central player in the 1990s drug wars, Gaviria was the leader of a country that supplied the bulk of the planet’s cocaine. Now, he says he believes the best way to break the world’s thirst for drugs is to decriminalize them—not just the “soft” ones, but all of them.
Seeking to promote “a profound change in paradigm,” Gaviria has joined with two other former Latin American presidents—Fernando Henrique Cardoso of Brazil and Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico—to create the Latin American Commission on Drugs and Democracy. Financially supported by billionaire decriminalization advocate George Soros, the idea for the commission, according to Gaviria, “came from President Cardoso, and we joined him because we are convinced that what has been called the War on Drugs for several decades now has not brought the results that most of us expected.”
The commission was established in March 2008, and presented its findings at a meeting in Rio de Janeiro in February. Its report, "Drugs and Democracy: Toward a Paradigm Shift," called for a prompt decriminalization of marijuana and, ultimately, all illicit drugs. Hamid Ghodse, president of the U.N.'s International Narcotics Control Board, dismissed the findings, saying "the board rejects statements calling international conventions [on drugs] a failure.”
But Gaviria has lived the drug war first-hand, and says fighting it was “a very frustrating experience.” He says he believes “it is a failure because there are hundreds of thousands of people jailed, while consumption remains basically unchanged in the U.S. and is growing significantly in Europe.” He also points out that it has been “a source of indiscriminate violence and corruption in Latin America, and is weakening our democratic institutions.”
For the 62-year-old Gaviria, the former secretary general of the Organization of American States, to call for such a radical change as decriminalization is groundbreaking. As president of Colombia from 1990 to 1994, he battled the cartels during some of that country’s most violent years. He led the crackdown that would ultimately bring down the powerful Medellín Cartel and its infamous leader, Pablo Escobar. “The fight against the drug cartels is unavoidable,” Gaviria says. “If you don’t do it, they become too powerful and may even pose a military threat, as we saw in Colombia. But that does not mean that such efforts reduce the flow of drugs.”
John Talks Joe
Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
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Constantino Diaz-Duran is a writer living in Manhattan. He has written for the New York Post, the Washington Blade, El Diario NY and the Orange County Register.
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Constantino Diaz-Duran is a writer living in Manhattan. He has written for the New York Post, the Washington Blade, El Diario NY and the Orange County Register.
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Constantino Diaz-Duran is a writer living in Manhattan. He has written for the New York Post, the Washington Blade, El Diario NY and the Orange County Register.
Obama hasn't made a move on drugs because when he tries to raise taxes on the wealthy he is called a fascist.
When he merely talks about enacting stricter gun control, Texas threatens to secede.
So if he talks about legalizing drugs, that's one more unnecessary topic for the Irish goon squad at Fox News to cry about.
Irish goon squad. Good one!
(snickers...)
Right on.
Hahahahahahaaha
Ritarita: It's
Haha
Ha
Hahaha
Haha
Ha.
If I were Obama, I wouldn't base any policies on what Texas, Fox "News" and the Republicans want. All of that is for Sarah Palin, not a reformist administration.
The Republicans are going to attack them no matter what they do, so they might as well do whatever they want.
I just moved from Medford Oregon to Santa Clara, California. While in Oregon, there are mixed opinions about the legalization of drugs. I find that in California where the factors related to the drug trade have had a huge impact on families and the government expenditure, not to mention thousands of people in jail for drug crimes (this costs money), almost everyone gives the nod to legalization. There are few politicians with enough courage to follow logic.
1. Legalize Drugs & Tax the hell out of the industry.
2.Stop taxing income and start taxing consumption(ie. the FAIR TAX)
3.take control of our boarders by deploying the National Guard.
4. End "mark to market" accounting for the Banking industry.
WATERPROOFER
You would really use the National Guard on boarders? Are you talking skate boarders of surf boarders? Don't you think that is a bit extreme?
As far as mark to market accountant was that the name of the first little piggy? I am not sure of what you are alluding to.
I do agree with the legalizing part but I don't know why you would "tax the hell out of it"... why should it be different than alcohol... wouldn't it just be another luxury tax? If you tax the hell out of it users would still want the cartels around... wouldn't they?
OOps... did it again... I will be more patient with my postings in the future... sorry again!
You would really use the National Guard on boarders? Are you talking skate boarders of surf boarders? Don't you think that is a bit extreme?
As far as "mark to market" accounting was mark the name of the first little piggy? I am not sure of what you are alluding to.
I do agree with the legalizing part but I don't know why you would "tax the hell out of it"... why should it be different than alcohol... wouldn't it just be another luxury tax? If you tax the hell out of it users would still want the cartels around... wouldn't they?
You know what will happen if we legalize drugs?
We'll TAKE THE MARGIN OUT OF IT, and nobody will be interested anymore because there's no profit. There won't be any more junkies than what we have already--and we will tax it and have another source of income to pay for the increased medical expenses that junkies cost us.
Too logical, though. I can just hear Fox News demagogueing this now......
It's a shame that Obama is not in the political position to legalize drugs. It just wouldn't look good. At least now.
But the DOJ could do a few soft shifts in enforcing laws. The ATF could do so as well.
Pot, LSD, Ecstasy. Stuff like that is OK as long as there's some regulation. But the meth thing is really nasty. So is heroin and crack. These are substances that have immediately pro-active nasty societal impacts. Yes, tobacco eventually kills, but it doesn't disrupt society immediately. That's why it was so difficult to legislate against. Alcohol doesn't always create alcoholics. But the substances above are 100% nasty.
If we make one group of drugs legal and not the other, what would that do? Same narco-trafficing, same violence.
What about everyone waking up and deciding to become mature stable adults on the face of this beautiful earth?
"If we make one group of drugs legal and not the other, what would that do? Same narco-trafficing, same violence."
Even if only marijuana were legalized it would make a tremendous difference. The argument for legalization should be primarily economic. Marijuana accounts for over half the Mexican cartels' revenues, and by legalizing it we could cut the legs off these cartels so that they cannot use the marijuana trade to subsidize their trafficking efforts for coke, heroine, meth, etc.
As for your "everybody waking up and becoming mature stable adults" argument, why doesn't every one just wake up and not be depressed anymore, or wake up and not have bi-polar disorder, or anxiety? Your comment disregards reality.
Did anyone else see something strange in this article? I will be the first to admit that I don't know how to solve this problem and have done little research on the subject; however, two parts seemingly contradicted here.
"consumption ... is growing significantly in Europe."
"the U.S. should start thinking about dealing with consumption, based on the European model."
Now as I admitted earlier, I don't know a lot about the specifics. What was being asked was a sort of paradigm shift. Why make this huge change to something which apparently is unsuccessful?
On a side note for people's inevitable bashing of my post: I really don't care if they are legal or not.
I think you're mistaken in understanding what the problem is. US policy is unsuccessful compared to Europe because we have exponentially higher numbers of non-violent criminals in prison on drug charges. There are over 2.3 million people currently incarcerated in the US. 37% of those people are there on drug charges, by far the largest percentage rate for any crime and about 30% of those people are in prison for possession of marijuana.
Europe's policies may be unsuccessful in preventing people from using drugs, but they are far more successful in not turning otherwise active, tax-paying citizens into criminals and in not costing the state billions of dollars on prosecuting and incarcerating individuals whose only crime was indulging in substances not sanctioned by the government.
Prohibition does not work and has never worked. Under Tsar Peter the Great in Russia, the penalty for smoking tobacco was to have one of your nostrils sliced, the second time you were caught, the penalty was death - and people still smoked!
The government's job and law enforcement's job is to protect people from harming each other, not from harming themselves. The amount of money we are spending enforcing drug prohibition is astounding, but there is a more important issue at stake - freedom. We have turned millions of our citizens into criminals, not because they robbed or killed or raped or damaged property, but all because they ingested something someone else a long time ago, usually for economic reasons (drug and chemical companies), decided they didn't want people to be able to enjoy.
This doesn't make sense. It's time to fix this mess.
My political ideology desires for people to be able to use drugs freely. I wrote a paper two years ago advocating the decriminalization of all drugs. One of my main arguments was the enormous expense it costs in incarcerate individuals and a persons' individual right to hurt themselves. I also referenced "Forbidden Fruit" and similar arguments believing it might actually decrease consumption.
I, however, don't think the situation is that simple. As time passes, I'm willing to compromise with this ideology in favor of results. I want what most people want, that the consumption of drugs is radically decreased.
Although I think rights of citizens and other similar arguments are legitimate, my reading of the article didn't bring up these points. There are some other comments saying I didn't "comprehend" the article. That is fine. To me the article was not a diatribe on the right of citizens to hurt themselves, but an argument explaining why our current strategy is ineffective at stemming the cause of the problem: namely consumption. Was my comprehension of those two quotes inaccurate?
Let us all search for the best possible result aside from prejudice. If we want the right to hurt ourselves, then we must assume some corresponding responsibility. What is that responsibility? Let's find one that diminishes the cause to the overall problem.
itstrue
Good post... and good logic. It boggles my mind that such a fuss is made over marijuana when it is no more harmful then tobacco or alcohol. (Tobacco is far more addictive. I know, I've tried to quite 3 stinkin' times!)
Didn't you watch Family Guy last night? Marijuana was made illegal because of William Randolph Hearst's timber interests! heheh.
buffgbob, comprehension can be a side effect of too many drugs, he is simply saying that the european models deals in health and saftey issues with respect to the user not incarceration and intimidation that is so popular in many states, unless your daddies rich and a congressman like your last hypocrite, er I mean president. Current day society can not deal responsibly with drugs, not because it can't, the 20% or so that basically make up the lion share of the outrage and indignation over drugs will never let it go nor understand the issue, these people have a vested interest in keeping the prohibition alive, they are law enforcement, prison guards lawyers and those filled with too many religious prejudices to even remotely approach the subject with common sense and frank debate. Drugs are good, life sucks, is it any wonder so many turn to drugs and politicians still just talk and talk, justifying torture and spending all the tax money on bombs and guns.
Your post is resoundingly depressing, mostly because it is true. There is a vested interest on our side of the border in keeping the drug industry alive and there always has been. Nice people don't talk about that. Heck, nice people don't even know about it.
All too true...
It seems that those who support the idea of legalizing drugs fail to see the big picture. If you want an example, just look at the American Mob, a group who used illegal and often violent businesses practices to finance legal business, which were in turn use as fronts for more illegal businesses. And they brought that same ruthless culture with them wherever they want. Not good for communities or society at large.
I do not think cartels or anyone in the drug business would just suddenly let go of those billions of dollars just because the trade is legalized or because there are smaller profit. It's all they know. It's not only likely that these people would stay in business, but could use legal outlets to bring the same ruthless culture and other legal activitied that they did in their own country. I, for one, want none of that.
It's the people of the US that needs to take responsibility for themselves here. Stop using drugs, and cartels don't make money. Then they have no money to buy guns, recruit other members, terrorize communities, murder, extort, etc. It's a shame that people value getting high over the lives of others. If you really want to make a difference, take responsibility and stop using drugs.
nok
It would
Be great
But it's never
Going to happen
Repeat
Never going to happen.
And that's the
Problem
With most of what
Conservatives
Preach.
Real life
Needs
Real solutions.
And it's past
Time for
Some new
Thinking.
Consider WHY people use drugs. To escape the emptiness inside. Why are we empty? Is it because consumerism is unfulfilling? Is it because our so-called "leaders" are actually the biggest crooks of all? Is it because instead of teaching peace, we teach violence? As with all of our current problems, we look at symptoms; we preserve the status quo; we WANT Bin Laden out there to justify the war profiteering and corruption (without the 'boogeyman', there's less excuse for our military industrial complex).
Imagine what we could do with the time, money, and effort directed at peaceful projects, like exploring Mars, or solving the energy conundrum. Read my blog: http://fentrosphere.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-to-fix-world-remove-assholes-f rom.html
Enough Hypocrisy already. Light up, my friends!
From here
Please go directly
To Bob Dylan
Blog.
You can wish in one hand, and @#$% in the other. See which one gets filled first. (My grandfather used to say that.) Though what you post would be nice... it isn't realistic.
And if the money were not there, the cartels would crumble. That is how capitalism works. There is an irony in there...
Do you know that hemp is one of the best solutions for alternative energy, and that Henry Ford built and powered the first Model-T out of Hemp?
Do you know that we can replace every single petrolium based product out of the same quality products made from hemp? What would that due to the environment? It would decrease pollution and augment the production of oxygen on a massive scale.
Do you know that hemp for many decades was the largest American export and that George wWashington farmed it? Do you now that we even went to war in 1812 over hemp (yeah... thats right. Check it out if you want.).
Do you know that there is massive support from our law enforcement departments across the country as well as massive support from our justice department for the legalization of marijuana? Check the records... you have the right to do so.
I could go on but what is the point? Some people take pride in their ignorance.
Moe
Didn't you
Take a lot of
Flak
For this same post
Previously?
You mean when someone called me a dead head as an insult (which is funny because I am a Dead Head in the positive musical way)?
Excuse me... I am playing parchesee with my kid... no... this is the first time I have posted this one... I just posted it twice because I lost the first half of my opinion the first time I submitted it. Why?
I remembered
A hemp rant
Thought it
Was you.
Who won?
I remember a hemp rant as well. But hemp does get a bad rap.
A Model T powered by hemp? In the 1920's?
Wow. The possibilities are endless.
"Demand for these drugs in the U.S. is what is helping to keep these cartels in business," - Wrong what keeps the cartels in business is that the cartels are main suppliers for the United State's demand... legalizing cognitive liberty (a much more important issue than legalizing marijuana) would end the need for the cartels. Do you want me to go slower so you can understand that?
"...the War on Drugs for several decades now has not brought the results that most of us expected." What it has brought has been enormous benefits to the prison industry. We have been building more and more prisons over the last thirty years while the crime rate has been dropping (check out the federal info available under the freedom of information act) over the same time frame. There is no way that there will be any legalization when that would mean emptying out over 30% of our prison space and stocks in private prisons are about the best return you can get on your money so there you go. Has anyone noticed that the not $900 million dollars of the stimulus package allotted to prison construction was kept while the $800 million allocated for schools was dropped due to Republican pressure. Do you still wonder why?
"It is a failure because there are hundreds of thousands of people jailed, while consumption remains basically unchanged in the U.S. and is growing significantly in Europe." Wrong - when you can accept the fact that all studies show that the countries in Europe that have legalized drug use have the lowest consumption rates of previously illegal drugs you will understand this statement for what it is... another lie.
"The fight against the drug cartels is unavoidable," Wrong - legalization would leave the cartels without clients... or is that another idea that is just too simple to understand.
Why don't you all check out what the American Medical Association has to say about the subject while you are at it? Marijuana is healthy for you and as a food product it has more protein than soya. Do you know that before 1927 over 60% of all prescription drugs were marijuana based?
Why don't you all check out the ramifications on the building industry while you are at it as well. Do you know that plywood made out of hemp is 2.5 times stronger in both tension and compression than normal plywood? Do you know that hemp board is naturally insect (termites included) resistant so it does not need to be soaked in arsenic (a poison for those of you who did not know) like ordinary lumber? Do you know that in most areas of the states you can get 4 harvests of hemp per year? Do you understand that that means hemp is the cheapest renewable building, food and energy source available?
Do you know that hemp is one of the best solutions for alternative energy, and that Henry Ford built and powered the first Model-T out of Hemp?
Do you know that we can replace every single petroleum based products with same quality products made from hemp? What would that due to the environment? It would decrease pollution and augment the production of oxygen on a massive scale.
Do you know that hemp for many decades was the largest American export and that George Washington farmed it himself (info available at the library of congress? Do you now that we even went to war in 1812 over hemp (yeah... that's right. Check it out if you want.)?
I could go on but what is the point? Some people take pride in their ignorance.
PS: Sorry about the double entry... the first one did not appear to have gone thru!
I'm shocked, shocked I tell you that Columbia would want drugs in America legalized. Surprised Jamaica isn't pushing for ganja to be legalized in America - Man, the money they would make.
Not if it was legalized! If the user can get the product through the government or even via a private business, the huge profit margin would disappear, and the layers of distributors, dealers, etc. would disappear, to be replaced by tobacco companies operating at a normal consumer goods profit margin.
Also, the "cool" aspect of consuming something outside the law would also disappear, and user rates would probably decline or at least stabilize.
As easy as that... it kind of makes you want to cry when you realize that no one in their right mind should be able to deny it today... We might even find ourselves with a new style Kennedy Family (maybe a little more relaxed), remember how they were propelled to political stardom with the money made off of supplying the publics demand for illegal alcohol!!
Instead if NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement we could have a SAFDTA... South American Free Drug Trade Agreement!!!!!
maybe if we would spend time educating kids about the proper use and the actual problems created by drugs instead of just lying to them and telling them that using them will ultimately ruin there life...
If you tell a kid that smoking pot will ruin his life, then he smokes, realizes it won't ruin his life, the kids going to think "Well gee, what other drugs was I lied to about..." That is why marijuana is a gateway drug.
If we just educated them instead of lying to them then maybe we'd have fewer drug abusers.
This user is no longer registered.
Are you going to run for president anytime soon? I'd vote for you!!
It's time to, if only Marijuana - other drugs are a bit too strong and can kill - no one is EVER going to OD on weed. Our national hypocrisy is, as David Shuster on MSNBC says, "wrong." This issue should be voted on in a national referendum (or, remove the Federal law and let states vote on it). Look in the mirror, America, and stop lying to yourself. You like to get high, and done in moderation, there's NOTHING WRONG WITH IT! Our ancestors did through our entire history. It's logical, and safe than alcohol.It hasn't hurt folks like Richard Branson, Michael Phelps, Paul McCartney, and Bill Gates, so let's tell the meddlesome conservatives to "stop talking about that which you have no experience with".
C'mon Baby, Light My Fire!
Peace
http://fentrosphere.blogspot.com
Most people do not realize, but there was a similar level of violence during Prohibition.
My mother and her brother told me of a mafia don going to their house, and warning their father, my maternal grandfather, to stay off certain streets, which was his territory, He showed a revolver at the end.
Having treated substance abusers for three decades, it is undeniably clear that laws against drugs accomplish nothing positive. Laws against marijuana only encourage young people to ignore warnings about the potential harm from cocaine, heroin, PCP, et.al.
Laws against drugs are an outmoded relic of another era. The most dangerous drug around is alcohol: 20% of those who try it become alcoholics, it is a prominent cause of many fatal motor vehicle accidents, & it contributes to a multitude of medical problems. Rational drug laws should reflect the relative dangerousness of various substances. Alcohol is a million times more dangerous than is marijuana.
If alcohol is legal, then there is no reason to make pot illegal.
Anyone who supports the criminalization of marijuana, but condones the recreational use of alcohol, is being a total hypocrite!
Amen.
I'll drink to that!
Hear Hear! Cheers!
I wonder if President Obama knows that one of the main reasons that pot was made illegal is as follows:
The acting Commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, Harry J. Anslinger went before a congressional committee in 1937. His testimony was read from a paper with the heading of "Crime." At the top of the list was the following statement: "Colored students at the Univ. of Minn. Partying with female [white] smoking and getting their sympathy with stories of racial persecution. Results pregnancy."
From Drug Crazy pg. 81 by Mike Gray
I think that Gaviria brings up a really good point here. The money that we use to combat drugs could be better used to help alleviate poverty. I support a decriminalization of marijuana and an increase in the U.S. strategic foreign aid budget for the improvement of a vast amount of lives. The Borgen Project has good info on the estimated cost of ending global poverty:
$30 billion: Annual shortfall to end world hunger.
$550 billion: U.S. Defense budget.
AFGHANISTAN WILD WOOD FLOWER
Sitting on those stack of seeds
Now, in Afghanistan they got what is there form of the wild wood flower, now the wild wood flower grows wild in some forms around the globe, and for a county boy it can allow the boy to take a trip without even leaving the farm, and there is a country song to that effect. Now, in the song it all comes down to the government sending in there anti-wild wood flower people and them cutting, slashing and burning all the wild wood flowers that the country boys had grown, well the boys were just sitting there watching until the anti-wild wood flower group, had finished with their work and gotten into their vehicles and were driving off as the boys wave sitting there on a stack of seed of wild wood flowers. So, what has this got to do with Afghanistan, everything in the world, as long as there is a demand for the wild wood flower and taking trips without moving one inch, the wild wood flowers are not going away.
Never Inhaled
Now, the (AIE) American Israeli Empire Secretary of State Diane Hillary Rodham-Clinton has called a narco-state, and she would know as Bill and her brother-in-law were heavily involved in the trade themselves in Arkansas, something about smoking and not inhaling, and never having had sex with that woman. And, you all wonder why the war on drugs coming out of Mexico into the Empire failed. It comes down to don't throw stone if you live in a glass house, the whole idea that your going to have them boys in Afghanistan all growing corn to eat and sell, when they can just as well grow wild wood flowers and take trips anything they like, plus sell what they do not use to a market with a large demand, and then buy corn to eat, put an addition onto the house, buy some goats, a horse, and a new dress for the wife, lets see grow corn or a real cash crop, give me them wild wood flower seeds.
Prohibition-era Afghanistan
Now, the Imperial Media Messiah President of the Empire compared (Mexicos drug problem to Prohibition-era America. Describing the current unrest in Mexico, Obama said Mexican President Felipe Calderon's anti-drug work is comparable to when Eliot Ness took on Al Capone back during Prohibition. Oftentimes that causes even more violence. And we're seeing that flare up.) Well, lets take another look at this statement first of all it was Canada that sent a lot of the good stuff over the boarder, and it was a Kennedy, old Joe who was making a good profit supplying a large demand market, so if were comparing apples and oranges, King David H. Betray Us, Petraeus the Butcher of Islam would have to be Eliot Ness, and Osama Bin Laden is Al Capone, Afghanistan is now Mexico, and were in the middle of Prohibition. Well friends we all know how Prohibition turned out, and the Empire lost its own war on drugs but is now going to solve the problem generated in Afghanistan, this is going to be good.
Sticking to the Story
The war in Afghanistan is about The Central Asian Pipeline: from Turkmenistan which is rich in hydrocarbons and the building of the "Central Asian Pipeline" system transporting (NG) across Afghanistan to the ports of Pakistan, Karachi, and round the globe in (LG) Liquid Gas from, to waiting markets, with a branch line to supply the needs of India, and that is the story were sticking to.
Nicely done! Isn't that what it is all about? The imperial economic warfare being waged with drugs as one of the major trade items? I especially like the truth in what you say about the economic turn around that would occur in Afghanistan if the workers generated the profits and not our military-industrial complex. Keep on writing (I could have said Keep on Truckin' but I hate the stereotypes that the less informed among use when expressions from the 60's/70's are used)... you have done your research and know what you are talking about. Thanks for telling it straight.
Triathalon, from one good ol' country boy to another, you got yer finger on the pulse, my friend. You (heck we all) know the truth, and the Bilderbergers or Morgans or Roosevelts or whomever it is that controls the whole deal, well, they're making it on the dope, on the cops, the DEA, taxing us, gassing us, infecting us and curing us - making coin all 'round. Heck, as long as I can take that trip without going anywhere, I'll gladly watch those Mercedes drive on by on television. It's the Big Show.
Keep the story goin' - the 'climax' is just ahead.
It is time to start talking about the drug issue using correct terminology, the most important being:
PSYCHOTROPIC: "acting on the mind"
The biggest killer in the psychotropic drug market is sugar (LEGAL). The pusher, the sugar industry, pumps sugar into just about every food item you find on the market.
The second biggest psychotropic drug killer on the market is tobacco (LEGAL) and most of its deadliness is due to the poison that is pumped into it by the tobacco industry.
Alcohol (LEGAL) is just (I do not mean to trivialize the tragedy of alcohol abuse by saying "just") the third largest psychotropic drug killer on the market.
Marijuana is illegal and no one is killed from its responsible use. I don't think I really need to go into the multitude of known medical uses it has and the incredible new possibilities that are being studied even as we speak (imagine how easy it is to grow and how cheap and affordable it would be for the majority of us financially suffering Americans!!!!!!!)
LSD is illegal and its responsible use has killed no one. The medical potential for successfully treating all sorts of mental disorders are extremely well documented and known here in the USA (stop ostracizing T. Leary for his post Harvard senile/wacky years and accept that his medical research was a MAJOR victory in keeping first time prisoners out of prison a second time thru the use of LSD therapy) and abroad.
Heroin is illegal and its illegal status is what turns it into a killer with all the toxins that are cut into it. There is also Ibogaine (RE: Staten Island Project) which is a drug that stops addiction to heroin with NO withdrawal symptoms... but how many of you have heard of Ibogaine?
I could go on about this for longer but I will spare you since the point that I want to make is that it is time to stop beating around the bush if there is a real public desire to win this war against drugs... I believe that we should use the correct terms when discussing any issue with serious intent... We should be talking about the LEGALITY the KILLER PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS (talk about a great way to cut health costs!) and the ILLEGALITY of the MEDICALLY BENIFICIAL PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS (talk about a great way to generate an incredible amount of new tax revenue)!!
There is an important and a nearly knockdown move* in this debate: ask not "Should we decriminalize drug use?" but "Why should we criminalize drug use?". Appeals to current law can not work as it is question-begging: this is specifically the issue we are addressing. Aside the muddled issue of "what is a drug?" (alcohol, tobacco, coffee, Tylenol, cocaine) and the effects (alcohol being the most violence-inducing) what principled difference is there between the use of alcohol, Tylenol, or cocaine to relieve pain? Anecdotal evidence should not be used, because every time a person is put in jail (or punished otherwise) an important question needs to be answered "Why am I being put in jail?".
Decriminalize drugs and stop violent crimes! - from Berkshire County MA
IN FIFTEEN MONTHS I WILL BE EIGHTY (80) YEARS OLD. I HAVE BEEN SMOKING CANNABIS SINCE 1946. AFTER 73 YEARS OF USING THE BEST WEED AS OFTEN AS POSSIBLE, I CAN HONESTLY REPORT THAT I'M A COMPLETE STRANGER TO: EXTREME STRESS, ANGER TANTRUMS, INSOMNIA, AND LUNG CANCER.
I HAVE NEVER HAD A DUI, OR ANY TICKET EVER FOR A MOVING TRAFFIC VIOLATION. MY LIFE HAS BEEN FULL, SATISFYING, PRODUCTIVE, USEFUL, AND FULL OF LAUGHS. I AM HEALTHY, HAPPY, AND FULLY PREPARED TO CATCH THE BIG BUS WHEN IT COMES FOR ME.
IT'S UP TO YOU. MAKE THEM, FORCE THEM, TO LEGALIZE POT. I WON'T BE AROUND FOR IT, BUT YOU WILL. GOOD LUCK AND REMEMBER THIS ONE THING: YOU DON'T HAVE TO HOLD YOUR BREATH AT ALL, IT WORKS INSTANTANEOUSLY.
THANKS FOR THE USE OF YOUR EYEBALLS.
Thanks for the very thoughtful comment. I know lots of professionals who are regular pot smokers; they are happy, healthy, well-adjusted, law-abiding citizens who function well in all spheres of life. It is undeniably true that the vast majority of people who use pot are able to use it responsibly & do not cause any health problems by doing so. If only the same could be said about alcohol!
Having been a former addict, having it decriminalized would have "probably" had me hitting bottom faster and headed toward beating my addiction earlier than when it did occur. Worrying about getting caught by police delayed my progress by not going into certain neighborhoods in late hours. Being able to go to a pharmacy, getting an assured amount and quality, for a stated price would have definitely bypassed all the foolishness on the street, taking chances of getting fake product and the retaliation it fosters. Yeah, I'm for making it legal. Empty the prisons which aren't doing a thing for the addict, and I know, because I was there, and instead begin them on a road to recovery. ...roymartinministries.com
I agree. The War on Drugs has filled the prisons past the breaking point, but it hasn't fixed this problem. That approach has only made it worse.
Thank you.
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