cannabisnews.com: Poll Shows Low Confidence in Drug War





Poll Shows Low Confidence in Drug War
Posted by FoM on September 29, 2001 at 08:34:21 PT
By Michael A. de Yoanna, Staff Writer
Source: Colorado Daily
A poll released on Wednesday shows that Colorado voters have little confidence in the War on Drugs and more people view drug addiction as a health issue than a crime.Ridder-Braden Inc. conducted the poll for the Boulder-based Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center. It asked 500 Colorado voters in 63 counties how they felt the state and federal governments were doing when it comes the War on Drugs.
"This is the first, and most comprehensive, poll taken on the Drug War in the state," Christie Donner of the Peace Center said.According to the poll:* 83 percent of respondents said the country is losing its war on drugs;* 85 percent said the War on Drugs deals with the symptoms of drug use, but fails to solve the underlying causes;* 59 percent said efforts to stop drug use have been ineffective; and* Just 2 percent said the government is winning the War on Drugs.Additionally, the poll indicates that while Colorado voters are wary of drug suppliers, they support treatment over criminal sentences for drug users. Eighty-six percent of those polled said that providing people with treatment would be an effective method for cutting down drug use and 80 percent said they thought such treatment would help reduce the crime related to drug use."This all says that the key to winning the War on Drugs is reducing demand for drugs," Donner said.According to the Colorado Department of Corrections, 3,226 - more than 20 percent - of the prison system's estimated 16,000 inmates are serving sentences for a drug conviction.And inmates serving sentences for drug possession or use constitute a little more than half that number at 1,714, or 10.7 percent, according to Corrections Department statistics released June 30.Colorado ranks 49th in the United States in terms of per-capita spending on drug treatment, Donner said."Colorado is woefully under-funded when it comes to treatment," she said.The state spends $23 million on efforts to combat drug usage, including alcohol use, and just $2 million of it comes directly from the state."The rest comes in federal grants," Donner said. "What the poll indicates is that people don't think the spending is balanced."She added that other Western states, such as New Mexico, Arizona, Idaho and California have extensive drug prevention and treatment programs.Donner Wednesday delivered the results of the poll to state lawmakers on the Legislature's Interim Criminal Justice Committee on Sentencing Reform that is charged with reviewing the state's drug laws and corrections policies."No specifics have come out of that committee yet," Donner said. "They are looking at alternatives to incarceration."The committee is currently considering a proposal by Sen. Ken Gordon, D-Denver, to ease criminal sentences on drug possession and to use the estimated $26,000 a year per person incarcerated in the state to fund effective treatments.According to the poll, 73 percent of the state's voters voiced support for the concept.Note: Coloradans: 85 percent say current War on Drugs deals with symptoms but not causes of drug use.Source: Colorado Daily (CO)Author: Michael A. de Yoanna, Colorado Daily Staff WriterPublished: September 28, 2001Copyright: 2001 Colorado DailyContact: editor coloradodaily.comWebsite: http://www.coloradodaily.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Rocky Mountain Peace & Justice Centerhttp://www.rmpjc.org/It's Time to Give Up the War on Drugs http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10882.shtmlA Debatable War on Drugs - David S. Broder http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10725.shtmlIt's Time We Admit Drug War a Failure http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread10632.shtml 
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Comment #5 posted by dddd on September 30, 2001 at 02:10:31 PT
comments on the comments
....dont ever forget how to laugh FreedomFighter,and markjc...even though there was nothing very funny about what you had to go through,,,laughing is the only way I can maintain sanity....it's better than crying,or freaking...........................................................E_Johnson,,,I hope your not getting sick of my compliments. ...if you are,,then quit saying such right on stuff....."communism",(Soviet style),and the manipulation of a population through governmental nationalisation,,is now being perfected by the West...It makes the Marxist/Soviet brand look quite crude...You're right,,,communism never died,,,,,it was just perfected,and presented under new names......The "War on Terror",has used the theme of defendind "freedom",,,and we hear that these terrorists "hate freedom",,and they,"hate the US because of our freedom",,,,,Chairman Mao would have been awestruck,and jealous,to see todays situation........and Doc Zombie,,,,please refrain from the unnecessary apologies concerning your posts.I find them to be quite excellent and informative......dddd
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Comment #4 posted by xxdr_zombiexx on September 29, 2001 at 15:50:19 PT:
"Treatment" = Re-education.
Back in the early 20th century, just before the Harrison Tax act made heroin and "marijuana" illegal, a number of wealthy people owned "sanitariums". They were similar to residentail hospitals and were for the long-term treatment of tuberculosis, and which were losing business becuase of the revolutions in medicine.heroin addicts were beginning to be referred to them, I suppose to aid in withdrawl problems. (I read all this years ago, cannot remeber the books.. some may be in Herer's Emporer wears no clothes:)The crackdown on heroin that came with the cahange in the law created - overnight- a black market and a crime wave from heroin addicts stealing stuff to finance the habit.Methadone treament was developed and was partly successful. There was a period where the black market lulled and the crime wave ebbed. But then a new revision of the Harrison Tax act was passed in 1933 or 34 and the black market promptly resumed.What I think we see today is the institutionalization of that entire concept and that, in the end, the same persons in this country who make money off of "drug trafficking" are also deeply involved in the ownership of drug treament businesses. Control the Drugs, control the treatment, get treatment mandated to boost "referrals", then turn around and cite the numbers referred as symptoms of a drug epidemic.I have said for awhile that China has Falun Gong, America has us potheads. We all get harrassed, threatened, jailed, smeared in the media, spied upon, arrested, and shot to death in our own homes (if we have land).Substance abuse treatment doesn't work well when done by professionals; most of the court-ordered diversions have to be crappy propaganda - essentially re-education.Sorry you all had to go through that.
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Comment #3 posted by markjc on September 29, 2001 at 14:01:43 PT:
treatment
i had to go to a rehab class for possession of paraphenalia. We watched videos about every drug and every video was blatant propaganda. We were told that marijuana causes AIDS, cancer, men to grow tits, and the video tried to justify alcohol and tobacco being legal over marijuana. I got a good laugh and everyone in the class nailed the instructor about the lies. She was just a puppet and she didn't really know anything about drugs.
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Comment #2 posted by E_Johnson on September 29, 2001 at 13:16:47 PT
Drug Treatment vs. Marxist reeducation
When I was little I was very curious about Communism, because it was such a taboo topic in the early sixties that nobody could have an honest conversatin about it. So I solved my curiousity by stealing a copy of the Quotations of Chairman Mao from the bookstore. (Buying the book would be antirevolutionary, right?)It all sounded kinda compelling until I got to the part about mandatory "reeducation" for the cadres who weren't with the program.At that rebellious age I was starting to understand junior high school education as a fascist adult conspiracy to colonize the teenage mind, so reeducation sounded pretty damned sinister. And my instincts were correct -- Marxist reeducation it was indeed pretty damned sinister.Now animals studies of cocaine show that if you have 100 rats in a box with a tube of cocaine, all of them will sample the cocaine, but only 15 of them will sample it to the extent that they become addicts.So why are we congratulating ourselves for sending all 100 rats through treatment instead of putting all 100 rats in prison?It's Communism all over again. Drug treatment is the modern liberal analogue of marxist reeducation.We're not worried about people who are genuinely ill. We're really worried about people who are nto with the social program. If we were worried about people who are genuinely ill, our drug policy would be significantly different from what we have now.Communism never died. Like the Alien, it just came bursting out of someone else's gut in the next act.
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Comment #1 posted by freedom fighter on September 29, 2001 at 09:14:22 PT
I had to laugh
My so-called "treatment"....For 12 sessions, I sat and listened to the drunks who drove.Three months, six months, 1 yr no driving for these drunks... Many had 2-5 DUIs... One did wrecked someone's car and got one year probation... None of them face jail time.Comparing to my "offense", one little plant in my bedroom closet, I face 2-6 yrs in prison if I fail my "treatment" and I could not drive 2 years. And the authorities had the nerve to show me a film where a "doctor" claimed that if men smoked cannabis will grow boobies and if women smoked cannabis will grow beard.There is just no comparison!ff
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