How long do you fight a war that cannot be won? Lawrence O'Donnell asked the both moral and political question in the latest Rewrite.
We fought the Vietnam War long past the point when we knew we could not win, and in the process sent 58,193 Americans to die there in a 14-year period. America's so-called War on Drugs to end illegal drug consumption is now 41-years-old. How's that for perspective?
The war plan was simple: the price of drugs would be driven sky-high as the government seized more and more drugs and made drugs more rare — and therefore, way more expensive. That hasn't been the case in reality. While well-intentioned, it has left countless victims in its wake while only driving the cost of many drugs down.
Eduardo Porter reported last month in the New York Times that, according to Drug Enforcement Administration data, the street price of one gram of pure cocaine is in fact 74 percent cheaper than it was 30 years ago.
So, again, we ask how long do you fight a war that cannot be won?
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it never fails to amuse me that the most hits on any blog topic on this liberal disgrace of thought, reason, and morals msnbc network are made when he throws out the legalization of drugs thingy. lol! what are bunch of losers!
6,000 died in Iraq and Afghanistan so you could post this -what a good use of your time. Drug money killed 6,000 U.S. soldiers because they responded to a drug money sponsored 9/11.
@Warwiser- hey Bud, I think you got a hold of some of those drugs that that sinful drug money bought. You keep babling about 9/11 and this and that. Let me repeat what I said to our good friend Joey "the closet Liberal" Ismail. Get off the pipe kid. Your fogging your brain with that @!$%# and it's ruining your common sense.
@ Kirok.
You mentioned greed and cycles of greed. What would your mother rather have: for her
to be shot by a heroin junky (while you are safe) or for you to be killed in
war (while she is safe)? Drug money: let’s
say there was a great hat you wanted to buy and it cost $35 dollars, but all
you had in your wallet was $5 –can you afford a $35 dollars hat for only $5? How many fewer bombs and bullets would there
be in the hands of criminals if we eliminated drug money? The war on Drugs cost our nation $3 trillion
dollars between 9/11 and today (Brown University, NY Times) . . . a few mothers
getting killed by a junky (which happens now while illegal) or thousands of mothers
living in a car with their children because $3 trillion being wasted on a war
fighting drug money is a significant factor into our recession and unemployment
rate. If the hijackers of 9/11 didn’t
have any money –how could they purchase an airline ticket? How could their organization organize enough
to do such a plot without any money.
Yes, war has always existed, but is it right that we create another one
with drug money? Would it have been more
humane to let just one more war not happen due to lack of resources (or for
that war to be smaller and shorter).
Drug money finances genocides and most likely paid for 80,000 (8% of the
total 100% killed) Cambodians to die in the 70’s genocide and another small
percentage in Rwanda . . . those are people who could have lived if money for
the killers were denied . . . gasoline not in their trucks (which costs money)
for a day, thus giving them more time to flee or hide. Would your mother rather see herself shot by
a junky or you get tortured and killed by some killers with a bit more funding
from drugs or all their funding from drugs (what if life only gave her one of
the two choices to choose from and she had to decide on one –which would she
pick)? Is it humane for you to say “I
would rather have 25,000 dead innocent Mexicans from drug cartels than for my
mother to be killed by a stoned out lunatic on legal drugs (which currently
happens on illicit drugs)? What if
nobody chose to join the military? There
would be a draft right and then you would get people forced to die against drug
money? How about this: Let’s keep drugs
illegal, but make it illegal for you and I and everyone one else to be paid
cash for work –to make it illegal to use money to purchase goods, therefore money
would not exist –but not just that: everything you need from food, shelter,
medicine and clothing will be given to you by the State as long as you worked,
meaing if you washed dishes for Pizza Hut, you would receive the same goods to
live on as the Doctor or Scientist or inventor or farmer or soldier . . . would
that tickle your fancy? Drug legalization
has nothing to do with people’s right to use drugs – it’s all about drug money
in the wrong hands . . . are you wanting legal money out of the wrong hands via
making all money outlawed like some “1984” Communist State? Are you saying: its OK for thousands on Africa to die from a drug money financed genocide, but I
don’t want legal drugs, which would put a stop to it, thus meaning we saved
thousands of lives by keeping drug money out of reach . . . let’s go one step
forward: outlaw money (and trade and barter) on a global level, now as long as
you work, you get to eat, wear clothing, and sleep in a shelter –sounds good
right? Do you not pay your taxes -paying for politicians to send us to fight a drug war in the Middle East . . . are you too not as corrupt by not wanting it to stop the right way? Each tax payer at a time keeps the ball rolling . . . some tax payers went the extra mile to help get laws like 'illicit drugs' changed with their taxes . . . some boycott their taxes like a Thoreau and take jail instead. And I don't use drugs . . . like I said -there is no link between drug legalization and legal drug use.
ASA
A formal rejection of the CRC petition would enable the group to challenge in court the government's assertion that marijuana has no medical value. "Adhering to outdated public policy that ignores science has created a war zone for doctors and their patients who are seeking use cannabis therapeutics," said Steph Sherer, Executive Director of ASA and a plaintiff in the writ. Jon Gettman, who filed the rescheduling petition on behalf of the CRC added that, "The Obama Administration's refusal to act on this petition is an irresponsible stalling tactic."
"If the people knew what we had done,
they would chase us down the street and lynch us."
~ George H.W. Bush to journalist Sarah McClendon
D.E.A. Confirms Grounds To Remove Marijuana From Sched#1 - 10/14/01
Drug Czar Manipulating Data in a Report to Congress
Nixon lied to schedule Ganja #1
"You know, it's a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob?
Tapes Reveal Nixon's Prejudices Again
"You're enough of a pro, to know that for you to come out with something that would run counter to what the Congress feels and what the country feels, and what we're planning to do, would make your commission just look bad as hell."
~ R.M.Nixon
"Marijuana does not lead to physical dependency, although some evidence indicates that the heavy, long-term users may develop a psychological dependence on the drug"
The Shafer Commission of 1972
Nixon Tapes Reveal Twisted Roots Of Marijuana Prohibition
The Nixon White House tapes from 1971-1972 demonstrate that the foundation of the modern war on marijuana was Nixonian prejudice, culture war and misinformation.
"The individual is handicapped
by coming face to face with a conspiracy
so monstrous he cannot believe it exists."
~ Edgar J Hoover
☛ "... the primary reason to outlaw marijuana
is its effect on the degenerate races."
☛ "Marihuana is an addictive drug
which produces in its users
insanity, criminality, and death."
☛ "You smoke a joint
and you're likely to kill your brother."
☛ "marijuana is the most violence-causing drug
in the history of mankind."
~ Harry Anslinger
“We can't be so fixated on our desire
to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans.”
~ Bill Clinton
Thanks to Keith and the other dung worrier profiteers...
Making Sure Drugs Kill:
Commission Blames Drug War for Spreading AIDS
by Phillip Smith, June 26, 2012h stopthedrugwar
On Tuesday, as the UN's global drug prohibition bureaucracy marked its annual International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking and UN Office on Drugs and Crime head Yuri Fedotov blamed hard drug use for "bringing misery to thousands of people, insecurity, and the spread of HIV," a group of leading international voices offered a starkly contrasting perspective, arguing instead that is the failures and consequences of global drug prohibition that are driving the spread of HIV/AIDS and other blood-borne diseases among drug users.
New Report: Drug War is Fueling the Global HIV Pandemic
By Kristen Gwynne | AlterNet June 26, 2012
Read the report:
World Leaders:
We Cannot End AIDS Until We End War On Drugs
By Steve Elliott July 19, 2012 tokeofthetown
<img src="http://www.evolvefish.com/fish/media/S-IgnoranceArrogance2.gif" height="63" width"240" </A>
Where are all the tax phobic whiners when it comes to paying for this waste?
Exporting DEAmocracy
From dwr: This is part of our global contribution. The drug war has become the preferred foreign policy approach toward controlling much of the world. We export our drug war, our tactics, and, most of all, our DEA.
(Now with offices in Belize, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Mexico, Canada, Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Paraguay, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Chile, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Aruba, Netherlands Antilles, Suriname, Jamaica, The Bahamas, Turks & Caicos Islands, Haiti, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname, Dominican Republic, Cambodia, Thailand, Mongolia, Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Caldeonia, New Zealand, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis & Futuna, Western Samoa, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Malaysia, Kiribati, Nauru, Philippines, Burma, South Korea, Brunei, East Timor, Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Laos, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Greece, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Romania, Bahrain, Chad, Dijibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kuwait, Libya, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Oman, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Afghanistan, Russia, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Cyprus, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Kazakstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Sweden, Czech Republic, Germany, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo, Western Sahara, Channel Islands, Ireland, Isle of Man, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom, Azores, Balearic Islands, Canary Islands, Cape Verde, Gibraltar, Portugal, Principality of Andorra, Spain, Spanish Enclaves (Ceuta & Melilla), Algeria, France, Monaco, Morocco, Tunisia, Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Central African Republic, Comoros, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Rwanda, Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Albania, Bosnia, Croatia, Italy, Malta, Montenegro, San Marino, Serbia, Slovenia, Netherlands, Poland, Austria, Belarus, Hungary, Moldova, Slovak Republic, Ukraine.)
With that kind of presence, we insure that the rest of the world follows our lead. And if they don't toe the line in the way we want to fight the drug war, we threaten to cut foreign aid, or in the case of Venezuela, which kicked out the DEA for spying, we accuse them of allowing drug trafficking.
Most countries are hesitant to buck the system, and would rather appear eager to participate
Phnom Penh: The National Authority for Combating Drugs has asked the US Embassy to create an office for the enforcement of the anti-drug law in Cambodia, in order to train the Cambodian anti-drugs authorities in different skills, and in order to help them to combat drugs worldwide.
Why can't we go back to exporting Big Macs and "Baywatch"? Sure, they may not have been very fulfilling, but at least they generally didn't kill you in the middle of the night.
...compiled @ dwr
Don't forget 9/11 and the WAr on Terror: all funded by drug money or caused by drug money. Drugs being illegal is what created our recession . . . spending $3 trillion dollars fighting drug money and fixing drug money financed 9/11 would result in a recession -just ask the Soviet Union back in the 1980's who went broke fighting a long 9yr war against Afghanistan -fighting a people too poor to fight back without drug money . . . drugs are covert and takes away a nation's blame when dealing with drug money -that's why Russia couldn't prove America was supporting the rebels . . . drug money doesn't come from taxed money or legal corporations, thus meaning its more covert and harder to prove and easier to cover up. Many a book at a university library or Gov't website will prove drugs are the main reason we went to war for longer than a few years. Iraq and Afghanistan was the first U.S. wars where the soldiers had to fight and die for drugs -to make sure drug money didn't harm us further . . . to make sure drug money didn't help make or buy the BOMB . . . poppy erradication kills soldiers via supply and demand spiking the price of dope up and turning the poor locals into enemeis who need to fight us for their families and survival . . . not erradicating poppies kills soldiers via drug money (Catch 22). Soldiers protecting heroin does more good than harm by keeping the peace with the majority . . . soldiers protecting heroin does more harm than good by giving the enemy a means to fight us (Catch 22).