cannabisnews.com: It's Time We Admit Drug War a Failure It's Time We Admit Drug War a Failure Posted by FoM on August 16, 2001 at 22:46:31 PT By Thom Marshall Source: Houston Chronicle Perhaps, if what's happened in Harris County since Saturday still isn't enough to convince us to make some changes, we could agree on some numbers that would be. By the most recent count available when I was writing this, unregulated illegal drugs had killed up to 15 people here since Saturday. This number made news because it is so much larger than the two or three deaths that occur on an average weekend in Harris County due to unregulated illegal drugs. While we surely agree that is an alarming number, it likely will not be a sufficiently convincing one. Consider these drug war casualty figures from the government: A total of 11,651 deaths related to drug abuse were reported in 1999 by 139 medical examiners in 40 metropolitan areas. One of those who died locally a few days ago after taking unregulated drugs was a 16-year-old girl. Her entire life was lived during our nation's ever-escalating drug war. Yet her life came to an end so abruptly and prematurely because the war has failed. Drugs available from criminal dealers remain plentiful, and easily obtainable, and totally free of requirements regarding purity or strength. The numbers don't lieI hear from many people who believe that anyone who takes unregulated drugs deserves whatever happens to them as a result. After all, people know the dangers when they choose to take drugs. If one of them dies as a result, I've heard hard-liners say, that's one less druggie adding to the problem. Every time someone makes such a cold comment, I wonder whether they are aware of the huge numbers involved, the number of people at risk. Here is another statistic from the government: In 1999, some 88 million Americans age 12 or older reported using an illicit drug at least once. That is 40 percent of the population. It doesn't matter how straight you are, that is almost certain to include some people you know, some friends, some family members. All these years we've fought the drug war and yet in 1997, almost one-third of all high school students (grades 9-12) reported that someone had offered, sold or given them an illegal drug on school property. This was up from the one-quarter of the student body that reported drugs available on school property in 1993. That is losing. Government drug war officials like to provide us with numbers about their busts and seizures. Wednesday's paper, which had a front-page update story about the weekend surge in Harris County drug deaths, also carried, on an inside page, a small item about the U.S. Coast Guard grabbing 9 tons of cocaine worth $270 million off a fishing boat in international waters off Colombia's Pacific coast. But if we look at other numbers, such as those drug deaths and the increased availability of drugs at schools, it's obvious that the busts and seizures haven't amounted to squat in the big picture. Losing an occasional shipment to the authorities is simply a cost of doing business for the big dealers. Drugs remain plentiful in Houston, obviously. Throwing money awayFor people who aren't convinced by lost lives, let's look at some dollar figures: The Office of National Drug Control Policy reports that federal spending on drug control programs has increased from $1.5 billion in fiscal year 1981 to $19.2 billion (estimated) in fiscal year 2001. That's just the feds' part of funding the drug war. States and counties and cities are spending many billions more. So how much money and how many lives are we willing to lose before we say enough, let's try something else? Something like ending the government's drug war and concentrating on doctors and psychologists to treat those who abuse drugs. Something like regulating currently illegal drugs the way we started regulating alcohol to do away with bootleggers and eliminate poisonous hooch. Won't someone in authority please start negotiations to set some limits? Some of us in Harris County would like to know when we could look for some changes. If 14 deaths in one weekend aren't enough, how many will it take? Thom Marshall's e-mail address is: thom.marshall chron.comSource: Houston Chronicle (TX)Author: Thom MarshallPublished: August 16, 2001Copyright: 2001 Houston Chronicle Contact: viewpoints chron.com Website: http://www.chron.com/ Related Articles:Cocaine-Opiate Mixture Suspect in 14 of 18 Deathshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10618.shtmlNew Civil Rights Movement: Ending the Drug Warhttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10466.shtml END SNIP --> Snipped Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #10 posted by lookinside on August 17, 2001 at 19:01:45 PT: la guillotine... i think an investment in a manufacturer of high qualityguillotines might be wise...the product should be good forat least 1000 uses before sharpening...the war crimes tribunals should be able to keep severalhundred units busy for several years...with today's technology, a state of the art machine shouldbe able to place, decapitate and dispose of at least 10 warcriminals an hour...about the same rate at which eachtribunal will find the anti's guilty of treason and murder...i'm not a veteran, except of the WoD...and i'm angry too... [ Post Comment ] Comment #9 posted by Patrick on August 17, 2001 at 11:49:48 PT The Evil & Hate of WWII? It's alive in the American Government. Singing the National Anthem that way gave me visions of steely eyed Nazi Youth united in an effort to eradicate another people in another time with gas chambers and stoves. From another Army-Vet kaptinemo. [ Post Comment ] Comment #8 posted by Ethan Russo, MD on August 17, 2001 at 11:15:34 PT: Sitting Here Seething Kap, I share your outrage. The trick here is to get the rest of Amerika fired up to a similar degree. When and if that occurs, there could be a massive backlash, and the re-establishment of true civil rights in this country.What to do? I plan to keep on talking, keep on writing, and hoping that the movement attains critical mass. Hopefully, our comrades in pens will do the same. [ Post Comment ] Comment #7 posted by kaptinemo on August 17, 2001 at 10:59:55 PT: Another damn' good reason to stop the WOSD This is something I received from DRCNet. In just a few paragraphs, it relates a very chilling promise: The prison/industrial complex is building cells with our names on them...""The people who profit from prisons have names and addresses. This August, that address will be Philadelphia." So reads the web site of the Coalition Against the American Corrections Association (http://www.stoptheaca.org). The American Corrections Association (ACA), the trade group for the prison-industrial complex, held its annual convention in Philadelphia this week, and the CA-ACA was there to put it on notice."A broad coalition of community-based prison reform groups, CA-ACA brought hundreds of people to Philadelphia this week for a series of workshops and demonstrations designed to coincide with and act as a counter to the ACA's week-long industry trade show. At a weekend "counter convention," members of ACT-UP, Mothers Against Police Terror, Youth United for Change, and Abolitionists United Against the Death Penalty, among others, dissected the prison industry's profit motive, its racially disparate workings, the impact of the drug war on imprisonment, and the everyday brutality of existence behind bars in the contemporary US."...Now, pay attention. I'll make it real easy for ya:"For ACA members, the Philly confab was billed as a realmoneymaker. "The corrections market is growing due toskyrocketing offender populations," read a blurb on the ACA website. "The inmate population in the United States is almost two million, with dramatic increases forecasted for the next few years. (Oh really? Pray tell, who made such a wonderfully optimistic remark?)In the United States alone, more than $5 billion is spent on the construction of new jails and prisons annually. Over $50 billion is budgeted annually for the day-to-day operations of correctional facilities. Product and service demand is increasing in every area from toiletries to furniture to communications equipment. Don't let your company miss out on this prime, revenue-generating opportunity!"There it is, as crass and as up-front, in-yer-face as it gets. The only thing missing are the obnoxiously loud TV announcer's voices. They want you in a cell...so they can be mulitmillionaires.Now, get this:"For protestors and conventioneers alike, the week culminated with a series of arrests at the show's final plenary session. In a Philadelphia City Paper ad the week before the trade show, the ACA invited its critics to voice their concerns and stated that they were "open to dialogue." The CA-ACA decided to take them up on their offer. But when a small group of activists attempted to address the meeting with a list of demands, conventioneers first attempted to drown them out by singing "America" and "The Star Spangled Banner," then asked police to remove the disruptors. Philadelphia police arrested 12 people. They remain in jail at press time.I am coldly furious at this. These money grubbing skunks are rubbing their hands in anticipation of all the lovely money they expect to make from a prison system Norwegians consider to be so cruel that they gave an American hash smuggler asylum to prevent him from being extradited here. And when real patriots, concerned only for the welfare of their fellow Americans, show up and want to talk, these Gottverdamt poepjegaaten have the brass balls to sing the National Anthem in an attempt to drown them out!!!!! As if implying that they were more patriotic than the activists! (Growling sound from thoroughly pissed-off Army Vet)God grant me the restraint.....please! [ Post Comment ] Comment #6 posted by Doug on August 17, 2001 at 09:04:36 PT So True Many people, and that includes so-called Christians, believe that drug use leads to death, and that drug users deserve death. They cheer when someone dies from an "overdose" since they can use that death to bolster their statistics that drugs kill.This is a major human rights problem. Drug users are considered non-human, animals, not worthy of our care. If drug users were some other race (even though to many people drug users are synonymous with 'minority') there would be seen a need for anti-discrimination laws. But instead we get pro-discrimination laws. This is certainly a dark time for the soul of America. [ Post Comment ] Comment #5 posted by dddd on August 17, 2001 at 07:36:36 PT jeez Lehder .,..hope I never have to use any of those suggestions.......I always figured that if I got sent up to the big house,,Iwould walk in with kindof a butt-cheek pinching,Charlie Chaplintype walk,,you know,,the kind of walk that the guy at the airporthas,as he tells the customs agent,"I dont know why you wannasearch me?"...............then when my new cellmate,"Rocco the Greek"asked why I was walking that way,,I'd tell him that it was because ofthe fragile sphinctal weeping boils from the Ugandan Lymes diseasethat I got while visiting Somalia......sick joke....In fact,,,the situation in prisons is no laughing matter.The only thingthat would be justifiably funny,,would be to see some of the politicianswho are locking non violent people up,become inmates in these brutal institutions.dddd [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by The GCW on August 17, 2001 at 07:36:13 PT 2 competing laws. When man is ready to end this insanity they will realize to head to the single common denominator. God. With out God we will continue to turn to politicians for answers. Politicians might as well be the modern Pharisee. The government must choose between 2 competing laws: one is mans laws that says it is ok to kill Gods child for growing plants (as in America's example w/Columbia), or cage Gods child for using cannabis, while we also have Gods laws stating that God created all green plants and they were for us to use as blessings from God. Gods law on this subject, by the way, is on the VERY 1st page of the Bible in Gen. 1:11-12 & 29-30. And the 1st page is just the start. Plants are for the service of man. Much similar to going to a sunday church SERVICE. Cannabis may aid the home church service, as thought of by the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, the Rastafarians, WHICH ARE TODAY THE ONLY TRUELY PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS (BY WAY OF IMPRISONMENT), IN AMERICA.When people use the Bible for persecuting man for accepting Gods plants as a blessing, then the flock gets scattered. Accepting plants as written throughout the Bible brings man closer to God.The war on drugs ---against cannabis is a very complex issue, UNTILL we find the most common denominator and look though less smoke screens for examination. It does not get any simpler than God, as this is TRUELY the most common denominator.As the Houstonian exposes in comment #2, by the term Bible thumpers, there is a cost to be paid by people that say Christian yet live evil toward their neighbor and brother. That does not please God when mans laws scatters the flock.Thank God for cannabis, literaly in prayer, thank God for cannabis. [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Lehder on August 17, 2001 at 07:08:52 PT 88 million used unregulated illegal drugs in 1999 Q: "If 14 deaths in one weekend aren't enough, how many will it take? "A: 88 millionA large prison, like Levenworth, holds about 2200 internees. 88 million drug offenders could be taken off the streets and held in 40,000 new prisons. That's 800 large prisons in each of fifty states. Leavenworth Prison employs 564 guards, administrators and other workers. So the 40,000 new prisons will together employ 22,560,000. Inmates+employees = about 110 million.http://www.bop.gov/recruit.htmlhttp://www.lvarea.com/data/prison.htmHere's a really good book by an excellent writer. I've read it and give it and all of Early's work my best recommendation.The Hot House : Life Inside Leavenworth Prisonby Pete EarleyHere are some reviews and ordering info - only $6.95 for a good long read.http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0553560239/qid=998056223/sr=1-3/ref=sc_b_3/104-7864018-8039919And if you're too busy putting your affairs in order to buy the book, here's a tip for y'all: The one sure way of avoiding anal rape while an inmate in Leavenworth Prison is to strip your clothes off and smear your feces all over your naked body. You will be severely beaten by resentful inmates, but you will not be analy raped and die of AIDS and you will not be forced to commit fellatio by predator inmates. If you are concerned about the prison drug tests, you can buy a plastic honey bear at the canteen. Pour the honey into you combo sink/toilet ( or save it and a piece of stale bread for making hooch ), fill the plastic bear with water, apply the tapered spout to your penis and fill your bladder with clean water. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by Houstonian on August 17, 2001 at 06:28:36 PT Amazing from Houston I can't believe that the Houston Chronicle would even print such a liberal (and sane) article. This city and the state of Texas are so conservative, and bible thumping, that this is truly amazing. Mr. Marshall, IMHO, is lucky to get this article printed there. I hope it becomes a trend. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by Phyro_the_Dragon on August 17, 2001 at 00:46:58 PT: Well its Abought Time!!!!! Finaley the people whant to know whats going on & what the (War On Some Drugs ) is doing to correct this Problem ??? It cerated it the Quagmier that we are in at this presant time. Leglize now for the Children's Sake!Phyro_the_Dragon [ Post Comment ] Post Comment