cannabisnews.com: Change Drug Policy from Enforcement to Control





Change Drug Policy from Enforcement to Control
Posted by CN Staff on December 31, 2002 at 19:29:24 PT
Viewpoint By Rev. Dennis Shields
Source: West Hawaii Today 
A recent viewpoint's simplistic and totalitarian lock 'em up drug war strategy has but one reply: seig heil - both to the thought so expressed and to the policy that our drug czar evilly promotesOf 1.3 million drug arrests each year, 700,000 are for so-called cannabis crimes, 85 percent for possession; arrests in Hawaii County have numbered as high as 666 per year in recent years.
There is a better option.Drug regulation is a policy which would give us much better control over drug abuse than does either prohibition or unregulated legalization.We should do away with the schedule one classification for all drugs. Allow physicians to both prescribe, recommend and even allow with reservation currently prohibited drugs. This may be done in a way that tracks drug use and reacts to treat individual drug abuse as it occurs.Tax all recreational drug use and include existing alcohol and tobacco taxes and reserve all the moneys from these taxes for drug abuse treatment programs and anti-drug abuse educational programs.This offers a vast gain over the expensive draconian criminalization scheme proposed by that recent viewpoint in this paper.Prescriptive and recommended drug use should be monitored as part and parcel of the licensed and regulated sales of all drugs. As a part of diminishing drug abuse all mass media advertising for any recreational drug should be prohibited speech. Ones partaking of physically addictive drugs, opiates, ice, cocaine etc., would result in immediate eligibility for voluntary withdrawal treatment programs combined with life skills training - all funded by the taxes on drug use itself.The black market dealers and the violence they promote would dry up as obscene profits disappeared because addictive drugs and recreational drugs would be cheaply available to users in pharmacies. Alcohol, tobacco and cannabis would be sold over the counter in licensed establishments who would card users, something current dealers do not. Driver license restriction and controlled environment (no public use) for these drugs could be enforced more efficiently than it is now. Burglary and other property crimes would diminish dramatically as junkies would not be compelled to steal to pay 1,000 per cent profits to dealers to avoid the horribly painful withdrawal from opiates.Teen drug abuse and addiction would go down as regulated drugs would be less available; this currently demonstrated by the sad fact it is easier for teens to get cannabis and ecstasy than beer or tobacco.As now there would still be drug abuse, just less of it.Society would not be adding drugs to the index of human misery as these drugs are already presently in use, but regulating them; and using the taxes from their sales to diminish their use is something prohibition will never do. Regulation fixes problems the current policy neglects, given current drug policy it's unknown who distributes the drugs, nor are dealers subjected to licensing and quality control; who buys which drugs, and how much, who abuses them; no taxes are paid on them; drugs are directly marketed to kids; when someone is found abusing drugs taxpayers are forced to house them in overcrowded "correctional facilities" at rates more costly than a college tuition. Taxpayers currently fund a $50 billion a year war on some drugs, the states, federal, and local cost combined, the status quo is in fact a full employment act for the bureaucratic aristocracy. Drug warriors' greatest reason for keeping prohibition is not public safety, rather to keep their jobs. After all, where does the $50 billion in tax go but to pay those in public employ to clog our courts and waste public treasure in a task best served by those who society recognizes as trained and licensed to deal with drugs - physicians. The bureaucratic aristocracy has a vested interest in perpetuating the status quo. However, there is a way out for drug addictions as reported in this month's Journal of the American Medical Association's article on ibogaine, a drug which is an addiction interrupter. Addicts given this drug, after sleeping at the end of a 36-hour treatment, wake up former addicts who experience no withdrawal symptoms nor do they crave their drug of choice.If we used ibogaine treatment camps where drug abusers could enroll in a residency program teaching life skills, we could make rapid gain in rehabilitating lives now lost in America's drug gulag.Further information of the clinical use and success of withdrawal can be found with a Internet search on ibogaine or at these web locations: http://www.ibogaine.org/allan.htmlhttp://www.ibogaine.org/treatment.htmlhttp://www.ibogaine.org/manual.htmlInsanity is repeating over and over an act with failed results; prohibition has a 70-year history of failure. We need to treat drug abusers as the sons and daughters of America and free them from their illnesses mercifully, humanely, rather than waging war on them.Viewpoint articles represent the views of individuals in our community and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the newspaper.Viewpoint By Rev. Dennis Shields,The Religion of Jesus Church/Captain CookSource: West Hawaii Today (HI)Author: Rev. Dennis ShieldsPublished: Tuesday, December 31, 2002Copyright: 2002 West Hawaii TodayContact: wht aloha.netWebsite: http://westhawaiitoday.com/Related Articles & Web Site:Rev. Dennis Shields Home Pagehttp://hialoha.com/konagold/church/Addiction Treatment Strives for Legitimacy http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread15049.shtmlCannabisNews Search -- Rev. Dennis Shieldhttp://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=Dennis+Shields
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Comment #7 posted by FoM on January 01, 2003 at 21:32:23 PT
BGreen 
No No No with observer who made the program! LOL!
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Comment #6 posted by BGreen on January 01, 2003 at 21:27:49 PT
You've been chatting by yourself?
Let us know when you get bored with yourself and want us to join in.
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Comment #5 posted by FoM on January 01, 2003 at 21:18:57 PT
BGreen
I have been in the chat today learning everything. I haven't posted the link yet but will soon. I figured on a major holiday wouldn't be the best time since everyone has more then likely been partying and might need to get some rest. Hopefully tomorrow though. It is working very well and seems very nice to use. So far so good! I just wanted to mention why I didn't get the link posted. After it is up and running ok Richard said Matt would put it on CNews' front page probably where the chat link is. 
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Comment #4 posted by FoM on January 01, 2003 at 11:48:19 PT
BGreen
None of that stuff. Why do you think I don't go to chat rooms! LOL! I really enjoyed MSNBC and CNN chats years ago and they are moderated and that made it nice for people who don't want to get into topics like that. I'm sure there are plenty of chat rooms where people can do whatever they want but having a CNews chat is for us to talk. I need to call observer sometime today with a few questions and if I feel comfortable we can open it up later on today or as soon as we can.
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Comment #3 posted by BGreen on January 01, 2003 at 11:19:28 PT
If I Go To The Chat Room
do I have to have a screen name like "sexydude" or "studmuffin?" LOLI've never been in a chat room before. I've known people who've got caught up in some pretty questionable relationships in chat rooms, though.I'm kidding, if you haven't figured it out yet. I think this will be great.
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Comment #2 posted by FoM on January 01, 2003 at 09:33:34 PT
Just A Comment
First of all Happy New Year! I sure hope everyone had a nice New Years Eve. We did. I hope that 2003 will be a good year for all of us. I wanted to mention that CannabisNews now has it's own Chat Room. I want to thank observer for making it for us. I will post the link a little later on. I still need to figure a few things out and when I do I will post the url. I want the chat to be a place for us to talk about reform and be a nice place for us to exchange ideas on how we can contribute to bringing change to our current laws against Cannabis. I am not a person who goes to chats but will give it a try when I'm sure I understand how it works. Until then Happy New Year 2003!
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Comment #1 posted by The GCW on January 01, 2003 at 04:48:20 PT
Rev. Dennis Shields
Is right on.Hawaii is having real problems with ice, and when the state cracks down on cannabis, ice use goes up. Even if all drugs were not made legal, and they just Re-legalized cannabis, the use of ice would go down.Rev. Dennis Shields, is a proponent of using cannabis according to the Bible. He is an opponent of using cannabis according to prohibitionists, which use it to decide who to cage.
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