War on Drugs a Bust
Epileptic Nascar Driver
How will we know if the war on drugs is ever won? When all the kingpins are
locked up or dead? That was once the prevailing idea among those on the
front lines of the much-ballyhooed "war," which Rolling Stone scribe Ben
Wallace notes has now gone on for over three decades and, in his view, is an
utter failure.
Rolling Stone:
But after Escobar was killed in 1993 - and after U.S. drug agents began
systematically busting up the Colombian cartels - doubt was replaced with
hard data. Thanks to new research, U.S. policy-makers knew with increasing
certainty what would work and what wouldn't. The tragedy of the War on Drugs
is that this knowledge hasn't been heeded. We continue to treat marijuana as
a major threat to public health, even though we know it isn't. We continue
to lock up generations of teenage drug dealers, even though we know
imprisonment does little to reduce the amount of drugs sold on the street.
And we continue to spend billions to fight drugs abroad, even though we know
that military efforts are an ineffective way to cut the supply of narcotics
in America or raise the price.
All told, the United States has spent an estimated $500 billion to fight
drugs - with very little to show for it. Cocaine is now as cheap as it was
when Escobar died and more heavily used. Methamphetamine, barely a presence
in 1993, is now used by 1.5 million Americans and may be more addictive than
crack. We have nearly 500,000 people behind bars for drug crimes - a
twelvefold increase since 1980 - with no discernible effect on the drug
traffic. Virtually the only success the government can claim is the decline
in the number of Americans who smoke marijuana - and even on that count, it
is not clear that federal prevention programs are responsible. In the course
of fighting this war, we have allowed our military to become pawns in a
civil war in Colombia and our drug agents to be used by the cartels for
their own ends. Those we are paying to wage the drug war have been accused
of human-rights abuses in Peru, Bolivia and Colombia. In Mexico, we are
now repeating many of the same mistakes we have made in the Andes.
Read more
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/17438347/how_america_lost_the_war_on_drugs?sid13
I wonder how much money made by U.S. controlled countrie associated with
drugs is going to pay for military-type activities and how much is simply
going into people's pockets. Isn't that why Panama's Noriega was kidnapped
by Bush, SR.?
A Veteran
Legalization?
> Most people who use cannabis are responsible and have a job, just like
> those who use alcohol. If cannabis were regulated like alcohol, there
> would still be cannabis abuse like there is alcohol abuse, but how bad
> could cannabis abuse really be for society?
The tightly wrapped who tend to become "control freaks" and are attracted
to government, are threatened by "drugs' that may cause the user to
"Question Authority".
That's why you see legal "drugs" that dull the mind. or in tobacco use,
just kill the user before they collect benefits that they paid into to.
the government wants sheeple, who go to work, do their time , maybe
even join the military. they don't want "artists"
Just too hard to herd.
--
when you believe the only tool you have is a hammer.
All problems look like nails.