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| The Eternal Drug War |
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Posted by CN Staff on May 26, 2002 at 12:23:08 PT By William L. Anderson Source: Mises Institute 
It is a truism in U.S. political economy that whenever a government agency fails miserably, Congress invariably will reward it with more money, power, and discretion. The horror of September 11, for example, came in large part because all of the major players, from the terrorists to the security agents to the pilots, were operating under Federal Aviation Administration guidelines for airline hijackings. Since the FAA prohibited anyone on board from fighting back, three groups of hijackers had near carte blanche in flying airliners into the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon. The fourth "civilian missile" did not make it to its intended target because passengers and crew on board decided to break FAA rules. While they all died in their efforts, the airliner crashed into a deserted Pennsylvania field, not a public building. In the aftermath of this horrible fiasco, Congress has granted the FAA even more powers, along with an enlarged budget, to mismanage airline security. As Murray Rothbard has eloquently demonstrated in his book America’s Great Depression (complete text) -- http://www.mises.org/rothbard/agd.pdf -- the Federal Reserve System engaged in an orgy of money creation during the 1920s, something that led to an inevitable crash and helped trigger the Great Depression. More than five decades later, in 1982, the Fed gave this nation some of its highest inflation rates ever and led us into a severe recession. Not to be outdone, the Fed once again gave us oceans of new money and credit during the 1990s, leading to the current economic downturn. In the 1930s, Congress gave the Fed new powers, and the central bank also centralized its operations in Washington, D.C., building for itself an extravagant new Greek temple for its headquarters. During the 1980s and early 1990s, the Fed received new authority from Congress that basically gave the agency near absolute power in deciding U.S. banking policies. Even this latest Fed fiasco has not cost Chairman Alan Greenspan any loss of his undeserved prestige. The latest federal agency to fall into this category has been the Office of National Drug Control Policy, which has actually admitted that its series of anti-drug advertisements has not worked to discourage young people from experimenting with illegal drugs such as marijuana. Undeterred from reality checks, however, the agency is asking for another cash infusion of $180 million--which its director, John P. Walters, promises will be "better spent" than before--to produce more advertisements. This is an election year, which means that few members of Congress will be willing to subject themselves to negative advertising accusing them of supporting "drug kingpins" and other such social undesirables. Thus, we can expect to see even more ridiculous "public service" advertisements that tell us that anyone who puffs marijuana is actually "supporting terrorism." (For that matter, since a portion of the revenues from Middle East oil invariably funds "terrorist" groups, can one then claim that anyone who purchases gasoline or diesel fuel is "supporting terrorism"?) According to Walters, who wears the title of "Drug Czar," his office will "test" the commercials to see whether they actually do deter youngsters from experimenting with drugs. However, even if a group of 13-year-olds who view the commercial insist on the spot they will never take drugs, what is to stop them when they are 19? For that matter, have any of the hundreds of anti-drug ads we have seen on television or on billboards ever deterred anyone from taking drugs? When it comes to the two-decades-old "War on Drugs," more needs to be scrutinized than just the advertisements the government has dumped upon us. In my present home county in Maryland (Allegany County), the local census has been bolstered the past decade by the growing prison population here. At least half of the prisoners in this county and the United States--a nation that imprisons two million people, a fourth of those who are incarcerated in the world--are in jail for drug-related offenses. The costs that this drug war imposes upon people cannot be underestimated. Not only do we bear the costs of building and maintaining prisons, but we also bear the burdens of creating vast new classes of people who are called criminals because they have engaged in mutually agreeable exchanges with other people. Governments at all levels gobble up vast amounts of resources to pay for this drug war, and there's no end in sight. Furthermore, as Paul Craig Roberts and Lawrence W. Stratton have eloquently pointed out in their book The Tyranny of Good Intentions, the drug war means that the police have been given new powers that they invariably misuse. Roberts and Stratton write: Most Americans are unaware of the police state that is creeping up on us from many directions. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) maintains confiscation squads at major airports and has turned airline and airport employees into informers by awarding them 10 percent of the confiscated assets. The authors point out the case of landscaper Willie Jones, who was carrying about $9,000 in cash to purchase nursery items in Houston, Texas. Police at the Nashville airport confiscated his money on the pretense that he might have been planning to purchase drugs. As Roberts and Stratton and many others have pointed out, law enforcement at all levels has used these "asset forfeiture" laws to seize people's property on the flimsiest of accusations that someone "might" be contemplating the purchase of contraband. Not only does government use lax drug laws to seize property, it also kills innocent citizens with absolutely no prospect of justice being done to the killers. Roberts and Stratton document the case of California landowner Donald Scott, who was shot dead by Los Angeles County police as they raided his home in search of drugs. Investigators found no drugs, of course. Police documents later obtained by the Los Angeles Times show unequivocally that LA authorities were hoping to find drugs on Scott’s property so the government could confiscate his property and turn it over to the National Park Service, which for years had been demanding that the recalcitrant Scott sell the agency his scenic property. Despite the adverse publicity, the perpetrators of this crime went unpunished. Time and again, we find situations in which law enforcement authorities and lawmakers have abused their powers, all in the name of fighting illegal drugs. People who advocate the legalization of drugs like to point out that the "war on drugs" really is a "war on people." That war, as I have noted, takes shape in many forms. There is the violent war that government wages on whoever might be in the way, as Donald Scott’s family found out. Then, there is the war on the senses that so much anti-drug advertising turns out to be. Ultimately, we find that government wages a war on freedom itself. And for doing those things, Congress rewards the perpetrators of these crimes by giving them more money and power. Like the Federal Reserve and the FAA, anti-drug agencies are destined to suck up resources and spit back tyranny. William Anderson, an adjunct scholar of the Mises Institute, teaches economics at Frostburg State University. Roberts, Paul Crain and Lawrence, W. Stratton, The Tyranny of Good Intentions. Roseville, California: Forum, 2000. See William L. Anderson and Gene Callahan, "The Roots of Racial Profiling," Reason Magazine, August 2001. Source: Mises Institute (AL) Related Articles & Web Site: Crossfire: Do Drug Ads Work? Your Tax Dollars on Drugs Downer Story for the Media -- Don't Do Drug Ads New Drug Czar Says Ad Campaign has Flopped Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help |
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| Comment #6 posted by frankdiscussion on July 29, 2002 at 19:53:13 PT |
| I don't know if older news stories get read but I'll reply to this one anyway. (I just happen to stumble across these post through a Google search for "Cannabian".) I was the person who made those "I Am CANNABIAN" t-shirts and sold them at the 2002 MMM in T.O. I designed it and wrote the text on the back. I now have a website and am trying to set up a "shopping cart" system so I can sell them online. You can check out the shirt on my site if you're interested... --- Frank Discussion http://frankdiscussion.netfirms.com --- [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #5 posted by p4me on May 27, 2002 at 07:34:43 PT |
| There are two sections at marijuana.com. One is called cheaptalk and is really dominated by people under 20 and the other section is a grow site sometimes referred to as Operation Overgrow. http://www.marijuananews.com/ is part of the same organization and handles the Richard Cowan commentary. The May22nd commentary of Richard Cowan was very good as it covered in some detail the Select Committee Report and talked about how it was not covered by US media as we might expect but also it was not even covered by Canadian media which is even more scary. This is from RC's 5/22 commentary and is a quote from the report. 12. In 1998, 27% of the population of adults aged 16 and over smoked cigarettes in England and in 1995, over 120,000 deaths were caused by smoking in the UK: 20% of all deaths. The Royal College of Physicians has described cigarette smoking as "the single largest avoidable cause of premature death and disability in Britain" and "the greatest challenge and opportunity for all involved in improving the public health". 13. In 1998, 75% of men and 59% of women had drunk alcohol in the last week, and 37% of men and 20% of women had drunk over the recommended amount in the last week. The toll on health of alcohol misuse is difficult to quantify due to problems of how data is collected. The Department of Health's Statistics on Alcohol: England, 1978 onwards, notes that, depending on definitions, between 5,000 and 40,000 deaths a year can be attributed to alcohol abuse. A report recently published by Alcohol Concern suggested that one in four emergency hospital admissions of men is alcohol-related and that alcohol plays a part in about half of serious road crashes and about half of the incidents of domestic violence. Moreover, in about 40 percent of violent crimes committed in the year 2000 the aggressor was under the influence of alcohol. 89. According to the British Crime Survey 2000, cannabis was the most commonly used of all illegal drugs. Of all respondents aged 16 to 59, 27% said they had tried the drug in their lifetime, 9% had used it in the last year and 6% in the last month. Amongst 16 to 29 year olds, however, 44% had used it in their life, 22% in the last year and 14% in the last month. There was something in the 5/24 commentary that is somewhat shocking and seems more of a problem than marijuana and is copied below. "Misprescription of benzodiazepines ( tranquillizers ) continues to affect millions of people worldwide. Between 5% to 15% of the world's population are chronic users of this dangerous class of drugs listed as drugs of "dependence" by the World Health Organisation and the British Medical Journal as early as the 60s." It might also have been helpful if the Home Affairs Select Committee had looked at the Text of The UK Parliamentary Debate on Benzodiazepines12/7/1999 where it says, "As early as 1980, a report in this country on the use of benzodiazepine-based drugs suggested that they were effective for only 10 days, after which they were no longer effective against the wide variety of problems for which they were originally prescribed. It is now an established fact in the medical profession that it takes only seven to 14 days for addiction to take hold of someone taking benzodiazepines." ICBS,VAAI,POW [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #4 posted by dddd on May 27, 2002 at 06:31:57 PT |
| .....yes,,el toonces,,,..After meeting for several weeks,,,the Awards Committee has released the name of the honorary Grand Prize Winner.....Through out the week,the excitment was building in anticipation of finding who would be the lucky person to win the Surf City Extravaganza Vacation Package,,hosted by dddd,,,qqqq,,,and ddds' dog;'lil' Bill......yes,,,you are the winner el toonces....First rate beatnik Gypsy accomodations,,and deep ethnic cuisine are all part of this stunning vacation experience!...Ed McMahan asked me to see if I could get your phone number,,and credit card information............ ... ...seriously though,,,,you are welcome to visit anytime!,,,,I would love to meet you...It's always interesting to try and imagine what people look like when we become acquainted through this forum,,,and only know each other verbally,,,and by our 'nom de plumes' .........I would really like it,,if somehow,we could assemble a family portrait, ,, ,a class picture kind of thing with all the distinguished commentators who are here....even undistinguished commentators are welcome....I'm pretty good with Photoshop,perhaps we could think about assembling a digital group picture,,,,,,,,,,,naw,,come to think of it,,that would be way too scary....no way.. ......Come on Down el toonces!!!..I guarantee a memorable ,and fun experience! [ Post Comment ] |
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Comment #3 posted by el_toonces on May 27, 2002 at 05:56:24 PT:
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| I tried to access a site with the URL of MJ.com and got a page advising 'access not allowed' and 'PS - This site has nothing to do with Michael Jordan or Michael Jackson' or some such language. Is there a real MJ.com? Moreover, how can I procure a T-shirt with the words p4me so eloquently recites, if anyone knows? Finally, I am serious now about trying to win the "dddd" vacation for two. I figure dddd has now enough time to recover from his recent frightening bout with illness and thus can keep qqqq from disturbing the winning guests, or, perhaps, help qqqq rile up the guests?:) Remember ALL drug war victims today, please, whether still with us or lost along the way. [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #2 posted by Letsgetfree on May 26, 2002 at 20:17:57 PT |
| I AM CANNABIAN! Good article good shirt, I saw them there and am kicking myself for not buying one. O well I assure you I bleed green :)-~~ [ Post Comment ] |
| Comment #1 posted by p4me on May 26, 2002 at 13:05:17 PT |
| This was posted at mj.com and is good reading:http://cheaptalk.marijuana.com/420/showthread.php?s=&threadid=9479 I Am Cannabian If you're reading this thread, you're no doubt familiar with Molson's "I Am" campaign. Perhaps with some poetic justice, the cannabis culture has co-opted the logo for themselves. I'm not sure how many of you were at the marches, or even where they were available, but here in Toronto they were selling "I Am Cannabian" shirts. On the back is the pot smokers version of the now famous "rant", I thought I would post it here... I am not a burnout or a loser, I don't shoot heroin, and I don't own a crack pipe. I am a person who prefers marijuana over alcohol. I am your friend, your relative, or someone you work with. I beleive in scientific research , not prpaganda and hysteria. I beleive in the concept of no victim,no crime. I beleive in tolerance, not a U.S. style drug war. I beleive in harm reduction, not people destruction. Cannabis is not addictive , not a gateway drug, and no one has ever died from smoking it. It's much less harmful than either alcohol or tobacco. The real harm to a person is caused by the laws against it. It's time to legalize marijuana and end the hypocrisy, It's time to stop wasting taxpayer money and police resources. It's time for the government to listen to public opinion. It's time for all pot smokers to speak out and proudly declare... I Am CANNABIAN !!! -Debaser ICBS,VAAI,POW [ Post Comment ] |
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