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  Drug Battle To Receive $1.6B Boost, Official Says
Posted by FoM on April 09, 2002 at 22:31:29 PT
By Rob Johnson, Staff Writer 
Source: Tennessean 

justice The Bush administration intends to embark on a three-pronged approach to curbing the nation's use of illegal drugs that will include increased funding for treating addicts, the nation's drug czar told a Nashville audience yesterday.

John P. Walters, the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Strategy, said the administration is committed to boosting treatment funds by $1.6 billion over the next five years.

That, coupled with prevention programs and drug-market interdiction, is how the administration proposes to reduce drug use among teens and adults by 10% over the next two years. The administration also has set a goal of a 25% reduction in both categories within five years.

''We believe the country can do better,'' he told a luncheon meeting of the Nashville Prevention Partnership. ''We intend to hold ourselves accountable.''

Walters has served in the office before, as former drug czar William Bennett's deputy director for supply reduction in 1991-1993. He was sworn in as director in December and is overseeing a detailed review of the nation's drug-control strategy.

But even with prevention campaigns and more money for drug-treatment programs, Walters still believes in clamping down on supply — law enforcement's traditional role in the drug wars.

''If we don't reduce supply, the very forces that we talk about will undermine our process of reducing demand, if there are cheaper, purer drugs that are more widely available,'' Walter said.

He contends that a recent national household survey found that 4.5 million people in the country are dependent on illegal drugs, and of those, 65% have a secondary dependence on marijuana.

''But the facts are with illegal drugs, if you want to deal with the addiction problem in the United States as it exists today ... if you don't talk about marijuana, 65% of the problem is not being addressed. That is not known widely.''

From the back of the crowded Frist Center auditorium, the executive director of the Tennessee Association of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services watched.

''He seems to be carrying out the wishes of the president, and he gives me the impression that he gets it,'' said Rogers Thomson, long an advocate of prevention and treatment programs over strategies that focus most heavily on interdiction.

Walters said that his biggest challenge is the widespread cynicism that there's nothing the country can do to battle its drug problems:

''I believe the cynicism here is because people have been led to believe through experience that the drug problem has remained larger than they want. And larger than society should allow. And that they've been told by the well-financed campaigns in this country that you can't really make any headway, that what we're doing now is misguided to try to reduce use and supply and that what we should do is just put all our money into treatment.''

Curbing use and disrupting drug economies that move ''metric tons'' of money remains key, he said.

''We have to do a better job of explaining what can be done, energizing the communities as this community is energized and of establishing confidence of reducing supply and reducing addiction.''

Complete Title: Drug Battle To Receive $1.6B Boost, Bush Official Says in Nashville Visit

Source: Tennessean, The (TN)
Author: Rob Johnson, Staff Writer
Published: April 9, 2002
Copyright: 2002 The Tennessean
Contact: letters@tennessean.com
Website: http://www.tennessean.com/

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Comment #18 posted by Dan B on April 10, 2002 at 13:47:14 PT:

Thanks, everyone.
I appreciate all the praise for that comment from the good folks here at C-News. Now that I re-read it, el toonces, I wish I had made it into a more formal article and sent it out to Common Dreams or some other site that might appreciate what it has to say. I think I'll do just that--write a more formal version of it (in which I actually introduce the subject rather than allude to Raving Dave's comment here).

By the way, Raving Dave--I mean no disrespect. I just saw your comment and it gave me an idea (that's often how I get good ideas, and your comment was great, by the way).

Thanks again, el toonces, dddd, Patrick, and goneposthole.

Freddiebigbee--I wholeheartedly agree. "Metric tons of money" set off buzzers, lights and a wide assortment of red flags for me. I wish I knew why more people can't see right through this crap they're dishing out.

Dan B

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Comment #17 posted by el_toonces on April 10, 2002 at 12:20:46 PT:

Excellent, Dan.....
.....and with such well-crafted prose. My only lament is not reading it on newsprint:)>

El

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Comment #16 posted by qqqq on April 10, 2002 at 11:44:55 PT
entertainment
....Robert Downey jr. ,and Daryl Strawberry drive to Colombia in a DeLorean,to entertain the troops.....
..Andrea Peyser is caught balling Rudy Gulianni in a dope crazed stupor!...
..William Bennett forms a new youth group which he calls,"The Taliban of Virtues"...
..It is discovered that Ariel Sharon was the original bass player for the Dave Clark Five.


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Comment #15 posted by goneposthole on April 10, 2002 at 11:22:18 PT
I suppose
A trip to Afghanistan to play country music for the leaders of the Taliban, you wouldn't be able to drink any alkyhol; then over to Colombia for another concert for FARC. That is the way things are everywhere. Maybe George Bush could make special appearance with Ariel Sharon. For 1.6 Billion, one shoould be able to enjoy a little entertainment. Pravda says that the government has spent about 330 billion trying to catch bin Laden. He's a sly dog.

When it rains, it rains like a cow pissin' on a flat rock.

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Comment #14 posted by freddybigbee on April 10, 2002 at 10:57:59 PT:

Metric Tons of Money?
The sad reality is "we" are throwing tons of U.S tax dollars out the window in the war on drugs. Or more precisely, "we" are funnelling it into the pockets of the most hypocritical, least honorable segment of society, the drug warriers.

Metric tons of money? If my bull$hit meter was working, it would be flashing violently at this hyperbole. A bushel-basket of bull if ever I've heard one.

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Comment #13 posted by dddd on April 10, 2002 at 08:01:57 PT
goneposthole
the Willy Nelson gig;,,,that's the way things are nowdays,,,,George Jones would probably give you a breathalyzer before each show,,,,Lou Reed is doing DARE benifit shows,,,Paul McCartney works for the the Homeland security office,,,,,,next thing ya know,David Bowie will be doing ab-buster vitamin commercials,and getting married to Paula Jones....dddd

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Comment #12 posted by goneposthole on April 10, 2002 at 07:24:51 PT
Way to go
Dan B

BGreen, Bill Bennet is not obese, he's a big fat slob.

dddd- Willie Nelson smokes pot, too. If you do drugs, you can't be in his C&W band.



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Comment #11 posted by potpal on April 10, 2002 at 07:20:33 PT
I'd agree with this...
...disrupting drug economies that move ''metric tons'' of money remains key...

If he's refering to prohibition.

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Comment #10 posted by dddd on April 10, 2002 at 06:40:21 PT
Goneposthole
...what about,,"She's Actin' Single,an I'm drinkin' Doubles"...
..I hate to say it,,but country western music without liquor would be about like rock and roll without drugs,


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Comment #9 posted by qqqq on April 10, 2002 at 06:13:29 PT
overtoke
..well now,,,that's a conservative,,yet realistic goal...My 5 year budget includes a 12 percent increase for liquor ,but most of it will be due to switching to a better grade of vodka,,and rising prices in the hard lemonade market. My accountant discourages investing in weed....I lost a bunch in crack and meth futures when the market went sour last year......the smart money is in prisons,,handcuffs,,airport butt probes,,,and terrorism insurance

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Comment #8 posted by goneposthole on April 10, 2002 at 06:10:59 PT
"We intend to hold ourselves accountable."
Obfuscation will kill that.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. (again)

There is nothing that can be done to reduce drug use, it is happening everyday. It is not cynical, just reality. It's been going on for centuries, stopping it is impossible. The Romans drank leaded wine like it was going out of style. "Ridin' that train, high on cocaine" "Whiskey River don't run dry" "If the ocean was whiskey and I were a duck, I'd dive to the bottom and never come up" "If drinking don't kill me, her memory will" "In heaven ther is no beer that's why we drink it here" "Smoke, smoke, smoke, smoke that cigarette" "If Irene should leave me, I'd take morphine and die, Irene, goodnight" and last but not least-"Don't bogart that joint, my friend. Pass it over to me"

Flip flop it never stops.

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Comment #7 posted by kaptinemo on April 10, 2002 at 06:02:35 PT:

The 'Royal' "We", the Editorial "We"
and then there's the mice-in-the-pocket "We".

''We believe the country can do better,'' he told a luncheon meeting of the Nashville Prevention Partnership. ''We intend to hold ourselves accountable.''...

''If we don't reduce supply, the very forces that we talk about will undermine our process of reducing demand, if there are cheaper, purer drugs that are more widely available,'' Walter said.

Uh, excuse me, Mr. Walters, but perhaps you should have your clothes dry-cleaned; they seem to be home to rodents. It's the only way I can explain this constant pronoun abuse; rodentia infestation. How else can this continual assumption that you speak for me? I most certainly did not give you that right.

And as to the latter statement...

(WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! THIS IS AN OFFICIAL US GOVERNMENT SITE THAT MAY EMPLOY SPYWARE. DO NOT GO THERE UNLESS YOU CAN CLEAN OUT YOUR COOKIES AND HISTORY BEFORE AND AFTER VISITING!!!!!!!!)

from U.S. Department of Justice HEROIN http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/concern/heroin.htm

During the last decade, the purity of street heroin ranged from one to ten percent; more recently, the purity of heroin, especially that from South America, has skyrocketed to rates as high as 98 percent, with the national purity average at 41 percent. Heroin is most often injected; however, high-purity heroin may also be snorted or smoked. (Emphasis mine - k.)

In other words, Walters has just tumbled to something known for over a decade. But he and his ilk still refuse to acknowledge that drug prohibition provided the evolutionary pressure to improve illicit drug operations and quality at every level. Hence, the DrugWarriors have only themselves to blame for the success of their opponents.



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Comment #6 posted by overtoke on April 10, 2002 at 05:33:05 PT:

My Goal
Personally, I'm shooting for an increase of 25 percent in my cannabis intake over the next 5 years :)

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Comment #5 posted by Patrick on April 10, 2002 at 05:22:22 PT
Let's remind them any way we can.
Amen Dan B.

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Comment #4 posted by dddd on April 10, 2002 at 04:00:18 PT
BGreen & Dr Dan
..Excellently spoken Dan!..I am a fan of yours!...Dont stop.


BGreen,,,I will be proud and glad to join you in a tournament style power barf, including the shameless use of massive amounts of thrust enhancing steroids,,embellished with meth and crack Jack Daniels shooters,chased by Zima and Budwieser...Book of Virtues Bennett is one of my favorite shitheads!....I've won several World Titles in projectile vomiting competitions,,and I gotta admit,,I might not have been able to do it without Willie Bennett.........dddd


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Comment #3 posted by Dan B on April 10, 2002 at 03:20:49 PT:

Careful, now . . .
from RavingDave: That choice is the constitutionally-guaranteed right to the pursuit of happiness.

First, I appreciate your comment. It is both insightful and passionate. But I have to quibble with the statement quoted above: the right to the pursuit of happiness is mentioned in the Declaration of Independence, but not in the Constitution. That is the loophole these prohibitionist (fill in expletive here)s use to claim ownership of our rights to pursue happiness as we-the-people see fit.

You see, lawyers in this country (and by extension politicians) are sworn to uphold the Constitution, but not the values upon which it was founded, namely those outlined in the Declaration of Independence. Thus, the "founding fathers" who fought and won the Revolutionary War against King George III were later defeated because they assumed Americans would recognize that the Constitution is incomplete without the Declaration.

Make no mistake about it, it is right wing puritans who have gone astray from the founding principles of this country, for it is they who have claimed the right to govern the personal decisions of this country's citizenry. I speak here not of Republicans alone, but of Democrats and Independents as well who choose to follow the right wing toward fascist totalitarianism, rather than lead the country toward ever greater freedom.

The right wing likes to say, "with great freedom comes great responsibility." This statement is true, but not for the reasons they give. The right wing would like us to believe that the government has granted us our freedom, therefore it is the government's responsibility to reign in that freedom where the citizens might make decisions that do not benefit the greater good. That, my friends, is fascism.

No, the statement that "with great freedom comes great responsibility" can only be understand in the context of reality, which tells us that governments cannot grant freedoms, but can only take them away; therefore, the freedoms the right wing would have us believe are granted by the state are, in actuality (as pointed out in the Declaration of Independence) granted us by God (or, if you do not believe in God, are inherent in the human condition).

Therefore, since we are born with these rights, we have a great responsibility to exercise these rights, whether government affords us the freedom to do so or not. Our country began to take its revolutionary shape when good people began to recognize that a government an ocean away did not have the right to dictate how they could and could not live. It's called civil disobedience, and perhaps the most famous example of it was the Boston Tea Party, when a small group of people took it upon themselves to tell the British royalty where they could stuff their stamp taxes on tea by committing the criminal act of dumping a shipment of said tea into the ocean.

Today's "American" government has applied more restrictions on personal choice than Great Britain ever applied to the colonies, yet most Americans sit idly by as their elected officials piss the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution away. And once again, a small but growing segment of the population has taken it upon themselves to correct that situation. Some write to their elected officials, some attend rallies and demonstrations, and still others seek to garner support by staging acts of civil disobedience, like "smoke-ins." But we are all part of the same movement--a movement hell-bent on wrenching power from the hands of the wealthy few and returning that power to the many.

So, remember this when people get in your face and proclaim you to be un-American because you support the rights of individuals to govern their own bodies: you are the true legacy of America's founders, you are the protector of our way of life, and you are the embodiment of what it means to be an American. If our elected officials don't understand this (or simply don't care, as the case often is), it is our job to remind them.

Let's remind them any way we can.

Dan B

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Comment #2 posted by BGreen on April 10, 2002 at 01:01:27 PT
What the ...??
SECONDARY DEPENDENCE??????

He's inventing this BS. Now it's cannabis that is exacerbating the "drug" problem, serving as a sort of "heroin helper," if you will. 65% of the problem? 100% of the lies.

BTW, did anybody catch Bill Bennett on the Today show on Tuesday? I turned the channel because this mouthpiece of satan makes me want to projectile vomit, but the 'teaser' announcing his appearance stated that (paraphrasing) 'In his book, "Why We Fight," Bennett states that the problem with America is that we keep forgetting history.' Duh, straight from the mouth of the King of Duh's-ville.

And BTW, Bill Bennett: They say being obese is worse on your health long term than even tobacco, so I'd start taking a few pounds off your "Temple of God," before you collapse like a beached whale and meet satan face to face.

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Comment #1 posted by RavingDave on April 09, 2002 at 22:50:40 PT
It's No Secret...
...why you continue to fail, Mr. Walters. The simple fact is that you are trying to take away a choice from competent, responsible adults. That choice is the constitutionally-guaranteed right to the pursuit of happiness. Those adults are the millions of voters in this country who CHOOSE to do illegal drugs, despite the interdiction and treatment.

The only mystery here is why the government feels a need to play Mommy to so many people. Who mandated that the government should protect us from ourselves? Was it you, Mr. Walters? I think not. It happened to be mandated by a small minority of greedy corporate types in backroom deals, using fear as a medium for the spread of lies and "policies" which now account for the incarceration of millions of innocent people.

As long as you try to prevent Americans from choosing their own forms of happiness, you will fail, Mr. Walters. I have a Makita power drill you can borrow, if you want help getting that through your thick skull.

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