cannabisnews.com: Drug Legalization Doesn't Work
Drug Legalization Doesn't Work
Posted by CN Staff on October 08, 2002 at 22:23:34 PT
By Asa Hutchinson
Source: Washington Post
On a recent summer tour through south London, I saw the future of drug legalization. A young couple injected heroin inside the filthy ruins of an abandoned building. In this working-class neighborhood, residents weave in and out of crowded sidewalks, trying to avoid making eye contact with dealers who openly push heroin, marijuana and crack.Scotland Yard aggressively targets international drug traffickers, and I applaud its strong overall anti-drug policy.
But last year, a local police commander initiated a pilot program in which people caught possessing marijuana are warned rather than arrested. Often, they're just ignored. In news reports and my interviews, residents criticize the program for bringing more drug dealers, more petty criminals and more drug use.The one-year Lambeth pilot ended Aug. 1, but Britain has announced it will relax the country's marijuana laws. That move has given fuel to those in the United States who believe we should follow suit. Some have called for the outright legalization of marijuana. People could buy dope over the counter, as they do in the red-light district of Amsterdam.What these legalization advocates do not talk about are the disturbing problems that people in Lambeth lived with every day. They ignore the sad misery of young people addicted to drugs. They ignore the serious problems that countries such as the Netherlands are experiencing -- problems that are leading them to reconsider their own liberal drug laws.The culture of drug use and acceptance in the Netherlands has played a role in that country's becoming the world's top producer of Ecstasy. It's interesting that, in a 2001 study, the British Home Office found that violent crime and property crime increased in the late 1990s in every wealthy country except the United States. No doubt effective drug enforcement had a part in declining crime in the United States.Maybe it's time Europeans looked to America's drug policy as their model. Our approach -- tough drug laws coupled with effective education programs and compassionate treatment -- is having success. It's a great myth that there's been no progress in our anti-drug effort. To the contrary, there's been remarkable success. Overall drug use in the United States is down by more than a third since the late 1970s. That's 9.5 million fewer people using illegal drugs. We have reduced cocaine use by an astounding 70 percent in the past 15 years.This is not to say we have done enough. Drugs are still readily available, and a new National Household Survey on Drug Abuse shows that American kids are increasingly using drugs such as Ecstasy. As long as we have despair, poverty and frustration, as long as we have teenage rebellion, we're going to have problems with drugs. But we must keep in mind our success and also keep some perspective about U.S. drug use. Less than 5 percent of the population uses illegal drugs. That's 16 million regular users of all illegal drugs, compared with 66 million tobacco users and 109 million alcohol users.Emerging drug threats such as Ecstasy and methamphetamine are going to require even more resolve and innovation. We need a renewed dedication by all Americans to help our kids stay away from the misery and addiction of drugs. In fighting drugs, we do have new ideas: from drug courts to community coalitions; from more investment in education to more effective treatment; from drug testing in the workplace to drug counselors in schools. These are ideas that work.What doesn't work is legalization. It's a well-kept secret that we have tried it before in this country. In 1975, Alaska's Supreme Court held that under that state's constitution, an adult could possess marijuana for personal consumption at home.The court's ruling became a green light for marijuana use. A 1988 University of Alaska survey showed that the state's teenagers used marijuana at a rate more than twice the national average for their age group. The report also showed a frequency of marijuana use that suggested it wasn't experimental but was a well-incorporated practice for teens. Fed up with this dangerous experiment, Alaska's residents voted in 1990 to recriminalize the possession of marijuana. But 15 years of legalization left its mark -- increased drug use by a generation of our youth.Legalizing drugs is simply a surrender. It's giving up on the hope of a drug-free future for our next generation. It's writing off those still in the grip of addiction and despair. Isn't every life worth fighting for?The writer is director of the Drug Enforcement Administration.Source: Washington Post (DC)Author: Asa HutchinsonPublished: Wednesday, October 9, 2002; Page A31 Copyright: 2002 The Washington Post Company Contact: letterstoed washpost.comWebsite: http://www.washingtonpost.com CannabisNews DEA Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/DEA.shtml
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help
Comment #27 posted by knox42897 on October 09, 2002 at 22:12:09 PT:
ASA HUTCHINSON ADDICTED TO FAILURE
ASA is a junkie, he is addicted to failure!
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #26 posted by knox42897 on October 09, 2002 at 18:53:17 PT:
PROTEST RALLY TOMORROW
Who: NRLE, the campaign to pass Question 9What: A rally to support Question 9. Assemblywoman Chris Giunchiliangi will
be tapping a segment opposite the Federal Drug Czar on John
Ralston's show, "day one" on channel 8.When: THURSDAY, October 10, 2002. 11:00 a.m. PRESS EVENT.
Supporters please arrive by 10:15 a.m.Where: Near the Channel 8 Studios. 3228 Channel 8 Drive, the cross streets
are paradise and convention center drive. We will meet outside the
parking garage and assemble on the sidewalk near the studios. We will
validate your parking ticket.Why: To show our support for Question 9 and courageous spokespeople like
Assemblywoman Chris Giunchigliani. Nevadans DON'T appreciate the
Federal Government coming into our state and telling us how to vote on
Question 9. This is YOUR chance to be part of this historic effort. Look
professional-- the dress is business casual. We will have signs on hand
for supports to wave.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #25 posted by Jeaneous on October 09, 2002 at 18:18:17 PT:
Ddc
Very well put. I hope you sent it. You sure hit many nails on the head in that one. Very informational. Thank you.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #24 posted by DdC on October 09, 2002 at 12:54:05 PT
My LTE to Asa...
Bite me you Nazi Lapdog! Your fascist cronnies have poisoned more people with chemicals and biohazards than any amount of ilicit drug use could ever hope to do. Then cage the poisoned citizens as a threat to all who don't fall in line.From dosing innocent bystanders with LSD in MKULTRA to dosing soldiers with nuclear radiation to experimenting on prisoners with anthrax and serin gas to injecting Syphlus into blacks to hiding research on cannabis treatments you lying dogs should be nutered!!!Every time you open your mouth horseflys hover! Ain't that a sign you should go away? Never to be heard from again!Enough of your programmed paranoia, enough of your sadistic treatment of Free citizens, enough of your D.E.A.th mongering fascism! Enough!Peace, Love and Liberty or the Merchants of D.E.A.th!
DdCNY Post U.S. REVEALS '60S BIO, CHEM TESTS!October 9, 2002 -- The United States staged open-air biological- and chemical- weapons tests in Alaska, Hawaii, Maryland and Florida during the1960s in an effort to develop defenses against such weapons, according to Pentagon documents obtained yesterday. The tests, conducted from 1965 to '67, used artillery shells and bombs filled with the nerve agents sarin and VX, the records show.The Defense Department plans to release summaries of 28 chemical-and biological-weapons tests at a House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing today. The Associated Press obtained the summaries yesterday.The documents did not say whether any civilians had been exposed to the poisons. Military personnel would have worn protective gear, the Pentagon says.The tests were directed from the Deseret Test Center, part of a biological and chemical weapons complex in the Utah desert.Post Wire ServicesAP. 3 November 2001. Military Learned Threat of Bioweapons in Cold War With Secret Tests on Civilians.
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitioncannabisnewsandinformation.showMessage?topicID=22.topicBarry Stoller
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ProletarianNews
with continuing coverage of WWIIICan Cannabis the Antibiotic Treat/Prevent Anthrax?
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitioncannabisfoodfuelfiberfarmaceuticals.showMessage?topicID=44.topicOnly The PotHeads Will Survive Thread with articles below...
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitioncannabisfoodfuelfiberfarmaceuticals.showMessage?topicID=45.topicCounter Reefer Maniac accusations that marijuana users support terrorism with the plain fact that these dizzy morons are preventing the use of the "best available protection against nerve gas attack" with their marijuana madness.Marijuana Substitute Combats Nerve Gas by Julian BorgerJune 05, 1998 - Scripps Howard News Service
JERUSALEM -- The best available protection against nerve gas attack comes from an Israeli-made synthetic equivalent of marijuana, U.S. military experiments have shown.Marijuana protects your brain by Dana Larsen (01 Jan, 1999)Studies reveal that marijuana protects against brain damage from stroke, heart attacks, and nerve gas.ANTIBIOTIC CBD DISINFECTANTS
http://www.jackherer.com/book/ch07.htmlMKULTRA: CIA Mind Control
http://www.parascope.com/ds/mkultra0.htmAEC, DOE, NRC, Nuclear Murderers
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=257.topicCOINTELPRO
http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointel.htmbilderberg
http://www.bilderberg.com/home/home.htmlThe Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment & Linx
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=341.topic
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/politics/media/40/40342.jpgPREJUDICE: CANNABIS AND JIM CROW LAWS
http://www.jackherer.com/book/ch13.htmlJC or DC
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionlinx.showMessage?topicID=76.topic
http://boards.marihemp.com/boards/politics/media/40/40295.gif
Asa D.E.A.th Salesman
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #23 posted by malleus on October 09, 2002 at 12:04:09 PT
My LTE
Dear Sirs,In response to Mr. Asa Hutchinson’s opinions (I was always told that if you can’t prove something, any statement you make is an opinion) on drug legalization not working, I ask: How does he know? Especially as it has never been tried?Nations around the globe have tried our hard line attempts to control illegal drugs, and having failed that, are now turning away from using the criminalizing modality in favor of the public health one. But not one single nation on Earth has full legalization. Even in the Netherlands, possession and sale of drugs like marijuana is still technically illegal. So how does he know legalization will fail? It’s never been fully tried. His statements are just more examples of how bureaucrats misrepresent the facts.It’s long past time that the misinformation and outright lies about the War on Drugs be faced for what it is. Namely, a con job perpetrated upon Americans by a cynical and self-serving bureaucracy whose prime motivation is not public health but the continuance of their paychecks at the expense of our civil liberties. If they were worried about public health, then tobacco would have been outlawed long ago. And Mr. Hutchinson and Company would be arresting nicotine addicts. With exactly the same tragically useless results.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #22 posted by VitaminT on October 09, 2002 at 11:48:14 PT
but Prohibition does work!
As a follow-on to the politically incorrect Jim Crow laws, prohibition has been wildly successful. As a graduate of Bob Jones University - College of Fanatical Racist Hatred and Aryan Purity! Asa believes what he says!
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #21 posted by Kevin Hebert on October 09, 2002 at 11:37:08 PT:
My Response To The Washington Post
Dear Editors:DEA Chief Asa Hutchinsons "Drug Legalization Doesn't Work" is typical drug-warrior nonsense. His premise is that we will not be able to eliminate drug use if we legalize drugs.He may be right. Making drugs legal will probably not lead to an end to drug use. But that is not the goal of legalization.The goal of legalization is to end the insane excesses of our so-called "War On Drugs". These excesses include prisons overflowing with low-level street drug dealers and casual drug users. We have seen our civil liberties diminished and opportunities for corruption increased with asset forfeiture laws and mandatory minimum sentences. The racist nature of The War on Drugs can no longer be ignored, with minorities bearing the brunt of our draconian policies.It is a noble goal to try and reduce drug use. Drugs certainly do cause problems in some users. But how do you justify jailing people who choose to ingest drugs in a free society? Finally, it must be affirmed once and for all that our current policy does not work as advertised. We have a system that funnels billions of dollars every year to criminals, and does not keep drugs from our children.The War on Drugs has failed on every level. To deny it is to deny reality. Drugs are cheaper, purer, and more readily available than ever before. Drug profits support terrorism and elevate common criminals to powerful kingpins. End the War on Drugs and allow American companies to satisfy the
insatiable American demand for drugs. Take the money out of the pockets of Drugs are, for better or worse, a part of society. We cannot stick our heads in the sand like Asa Hutchinson, and pretend that another decade of failed policies will somehow work this time. It is time to move past our failure. We must legalize and regulate the recreational drug market. Every
day we don't is another day where criminals get rich and children get addicted. We can, and must, do better than continue the dark path Asa Hutchinson wants to follow no matter what the consequences for our great nation. Sincerely,
Kevin M. Hebert
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #20 posted by Sam Adams on October 09, 2002 at 11:07:36 PT
Somebody help!
I'm trapped in a country with a bunch of crazed religious fundamentalists! Damn, as each day goes by, I wish Lincoln had just let the South go. The Supreme Court really did screw up the 2000 election - the solution was obvious. They should have split the US into 2 counties, the Gore states and the Bush states.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #19 posted by observer on October 09, 2002 at 10:48:09 PT
Note again... and again and again ''Legalization''
The "Legalization" boogeyman was repeated again and again by the propagandist. Jailing pot adult smokers (the whole point of our police state) was never mentioned.When people (well meaning) say ''Hey man, Legalize!'' ''Legalize pot maaaan!'' You're playing into his hands. Instead, attack the jailing of pot smokers. Go on the offensive by attacking the jailing of tokers. Don't be put on the defensive having to defend "legalization" whatever that means. See the difference?Asa knows this. When will we learn? He knows better than to defend jailing pot smokers. Instead, he attacks "legalization". Get smart, stop defending "legalization" and attack the jailing of tokers!
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #18 posted by schmeff on October 09, 2002 at 10:25:23 PT
Drug Legalization Doesn't Work ?
Seems to work for Seagrams. Or R. J. Reynolds. Or Anheuser-Busch.But of course the by-line tells all:Drug Legalization Doesn't Work ...if you make your living as a prohibitionist.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #17 posted by afterburner on October 09, 2002 at 10:18:06 PT:
Satchmo Blows His Horn Again
"It really puzzles me to see marijuana connected with narcotics... dope and all that crap... it's a thousand times better than whiskey - it's an assistant - a friend."
- Louis Armstrong -
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #15 posted by Doobinie on October 09, 2002 at 10:16:30 PT
Asa, pick your battles...
I agree with whoever said that this guy is obviously drunk all the time. First he wants to continue his losing prohibitionist battle, and now he throws teenage rebellion into the mix? (as long as we have teenage rebellion, we're going to have problems with drugs.) Actually, I would like to reconsider the statement about Hutchinson being drunk- I think he may in fact be developmentaly delayed (a politically correct expression meaning retarded).Drug use, teenage rebellion... maybe he should add the insane problems of sex outside of marriage and dancing to his list of things to criminalize. Then, not only would he have a challenge worthy of his prestige, but he would provide us with the utopia that he so obviously seeks... all in the name of democracy, freedom and liberty, of course...Doobinie
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #14 posted by mrherbalwarrior on October 09, 2002 at 08:09:19 PT:
confusing the drugs
It seems to me, the us gov't(and many more) never really seem to just say marijuana
they always say things like
"trying to avoid making eye contact with dealers who openly push heroin, marijuana and crack."(from the begining of this article)
heroin, marijuana and crack
your looking at 3 incredible diffrent drugs
2 which kill people, yet they're used in the same sentence, it's like comparing oxycotin to tums
they're both drugs sure, but your gonna have a compelty diffrent experience taking them. and even oxycotin and tums are more apt to kill you then marijuana is.
so all im really asking here, is if people could for once realize marijuana is like no other drug, illegal or legal, because at the very least, it has never EVER killed anyone.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #13 posted by goneposthole on October 09, 2002 at 06:53:57 PT
typo correction
How can I do this with post confirmations?Anywho, there is no fuel like an old fuel.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #12 posted by goneposthole on October 09, 2002 at 06:47:19 PT
There's no fuel like and old fuel
Actually, the guy has a tough job keeping drugs illegal. The deck is definitely stacked against him.He wasn't in Afghanistan chopping down poppy plants in the poppy fields over there now was he?I guess he forgot that cannabis was once legal over here.Drug illegalization doesn't work, either. He must be drunk all of the time. Drunk on booze, drunk on power, it doesn't matter, now does it? He's drunk on something.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #11 posted by kanabys on October 09, 2002 at 05:54:26 PT
Cannabis culture is alive and thriving.
I was at a festival recently and I can tell you from first hand account that the cannabis culture is alive and well. From what I saw, there will NEVER be a drug free culture, not if you count cannabis as a drug, which it is albeit a very safe one. Assa's dream of a drug-free culture is so ridiculous. It can NEVER come true. HaHa! Keep tokin'...
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #10 posted by malleus on October 09, 2002 at 05:38:15 PT
Shoot him? Why waste good metal?
Instead, I would force him to remain, day after day, in the home of a cancer victim. I'd then make him responsible for the 24/7 care of that unfortunate, to hear the cries and whimpers of pain and watch the tears flow, to see what chemo and the continual nausea it creates does to someone. To look into the eys of someone whose universe has shrunk to a dull red cage of pain.And to make sure he'd get the message, I'd crazy-glue headphones to his ears, with a tape that continually says, over and over, "You are helping to cause this suffering with your lies about cannabis!"But a political creature like Asa has no soul. Only a balance sheet: one side says BEEN SCREWED and the other side says TO BE SCREWED. Take a guess who's on the latter list?
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #9 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on October 09, 2002 at 05:25:39 PT
LTE
Sirs, Asa Hutchinson uses London as an example of what we can expect if drugs are legalized. However, drugs are not legal in London. Heroin and cocaine are still illegal, and the new policy on cannabis doesn't make it legal either. If it were legal, he would not see people selling it on the street. For an example of what a legal drug looks like in London, he only needs to visit the local pub. What doesn't work is drug prohibition. No matter how dangerous he might think something to be, turning over its production and distribution to criminals is not making it any safer. It does, however, create a lucrative revenue source for organized crime. If drugs do fund terrorists, it is because of their illegal status. No criminal has made a living from alcohol sales since we repealed alcohol prohibition. And we also don't see people going blind after drinking impure liquor, either. Mr. Hutchinson ends his editorial with the plea, "Isn't every life worth fighting for?" Does this include Christian missionaries Veronica and Charity Bowers, shot down over the Andes last year because their plane was mistaken for a drug courier flight? What about Clayton Helriggle, the 23-year-old who was gunned down in Ohio earlier this month by police who were tipped off about a small quantity of marijuana? Does this include the sick and dying patients of the hospice center in California which Mr. Hutchinson's DEA raided last month because they were growing marijuana to ease their pain? The list goes on and on. None of these people died from drug use. Every one of them died because of prohibition. I, too, believe every life is worth fighting for - but I'm not willing to kill harmless citizens in order to save them.-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=I also included, after my signiature, three links to Mapinc for stories about WAMM, Clayton H., and the Bowers.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #8 posted by mayan on October 09, 2002 at 00:17:25 PT
Fight the RAVE Act!
Fight the RAVE Act!!! Protect Free Speech and the Right to Dance. The House Subcommittee on Crime will be considering a House version of the RAVE Act this Thursday (the 10th). If your Representative is on the Subcommittee on Crime, please fax your Representative TODAY and urge him or her to vote against the bill. (If your Representative is not on the Subcommittee, you will not be able to fax). http://actioncenter.drugpolicy.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=1287
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #7 posted by Nicholas Thimmesch on October 08, 2002 at 23:57:20 PT:
Another example...
...of the Washington/New York media axis running anything the D.E.A/ONDCP's pr machine puts out without accepting let alone seeking a response/rebuttal from drug policy reform organizations. So a hack speechwriter pens this for Asa and the Post, sadly runs it -- probably verbatum.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #6 posted by DdC on October 08, 2002 at 23:49:40 PT
Give em enough hemp, and they'll hang themselves!
I find the responses much more interesting than the same old Wally & Assa droppings. Another Arkansas Lawyer riding the religious right train about to crash! Death to the D.E.A.th!
The world is tiring of the lies these whiners use to blame everybody else for a-motivation in torturing citizens using non P.C.substances. Its always so bad everywhere else when the US does more illegal hardrugs than anyone. And more legal chemical posions than everyone!
Peace, Love and Liberty or Brain D.E.A.d Asa, Glad I skipped the article... ¶8)
DdCDutch vs US
http://www.cannabinoid.com/wwwboard/politics/binaries/29/29151.gifDEAth Store
http://www.cannabinoid.com/boards/politics/media/36/36482.gifAsa and Me
http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread9898.shtmlThe conversion of Asa
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1999/10/12/hutchinson/index.htmlAsa Isa Assa
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionprohibitionistwodjunkies.showMessage?topicID=31.topicD.E.A.th Deceptions
http://www.angelfire.com/ca7/ddc/DEAth.html
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #5 posted by BGreen on October 08, 2002 at 23:26:18 PT
There are about 900 coffeeshops in the Netherlands
The are about 275 coffeeshops in Amsterdam, around 70 coffeeshops in the entire "Old Side" of Amsterdam, and maybe 20 in the Red Light District itself (which is a small part of the "Old Side.")If Asa would have gone any place BESIDES the Red Light District he might realize that TWO THIRDS of the Coffeeshops in the Netherlands are outside of the "Drug Vacation" hot spot of Amsterdam.Damn! I'm sick of the lies about the Netherlands. The cops there say it's no big deal, and being that they're COPS doesn't Asa think they'd be the FIRST ONES TO COMPLAIN? The cops there treated me so well that I almost gained an ounce of respect for their profession ... then I came home to amerika.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #4 posted by Toker00 on October 08, 2002 at 23:12:27 PT
Man, if being straight all your life leads to this
kind of mental illness, thank God for Cannabis. A preventer of this "reefer madness" psychosis.Pure desperation. How about those stats on alcohol and tobacco? Hell, there are more cannabis-only users in the U.S., than what he says is ALL illegal drugusers. How many of those users of these legal, Korporate/government approved "dangerous drugs" have DIED? And how many Cannabists, not gunned down or penalized by this madness they call DEA sponsored PROHIBITION, died from their cannabis use? We've been waiting for thousands of years for the counter to register 1.And let's DO compare the 66 million tobacco users, and the 109 million alcohol users, and the death and destruction they have spawned, and then let's look at all the death and destruction handed down for decades, to the American Cannabists, by the DEAth squads. It's OK to voluntarily cause death and destruction to yourself and society, since tobacco and alcohol are LEGAL. And it's ok for the DEA to cause death and destruction to people who use a plant for medicine and enlightenment that CAUSES no death and destruction. Does that make sense to ANYONE?They killed... no, MURDERED, ANOTHER innocent Cannabist recently. Musician. Young. Someone's child. Could have been YOUR child. COULD have been YOU.Peace. Realize, then Legalize.
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #3 posted by Dan B on October 08, 2002 at 23:08:05 PT:
London is not a model of legalization
The foundation for Hutchinson's entire argument is that Lambeth is a model of legalization. It is not. In fact, no country, including the Netherlands, is a model of legalization because outright legalization and regulation exists nowhere. The Netherlands is merely the best model we have so far, and their approach does not go far enough.The only way to stop the devastation caused by the drug trade is to legalize. As long as we keep certain drugs illegal, the criminal element will be attracted to selling those drugs. Once you eliminate the criminal element from the picture, the incentive to sell diminishes, and as a result so will the demand. Why would the demand diminish? Because we would place regulations on who can sell and how it can be sold, plus we would undercut the black market. We cannot eliminate drugs from society, but we can put a major damper on the hard sell if we legalize and regulate.Hutchinson says, Legalizing drugs is simply a surrender. It's giving up on the hope of a drug-free future for our next generation. Wrong. Legalizing drugs is creating hope for a future that is free from the harmful effects of the illegal drug trade. It is also a call to personal responsibility, coupled with a more open society in which we do not hide our problems in prisons. Legalizing drugs means opening the reservoir of funding for treatment on a national scale. If we legalize, we would have enough money to treat every drug addict in the country plus some spare change to help pay down that huge and growing deficit that Bush has created.Again, Hutchinson says, [Legalization is] writing off those still in the grip of addiction and despair. Isn't every life worth fighting for?No, prohibition is writing off those still in the grip of addiction and despair. What else can you call it when the primary "solution" to the "drug problem" is to completely devastate the drug addict by taking everything of value from him or her, removing access to college loans, denying drivers licenses and professional licenses, eliminating the drug user from the job market, then hauling him or her off to prison where he or she will be fingerprinted, kept from family, strip searched, and humiliated in every conceivable way for years and often decades at a time? Yes, every life is worth fighting for, but the prohibitionists are not fighting for lives; they are fighting for their share of the almighty dollar a la the prison-industrial complex. If you call that compassion, you are one sick individual.Unfortunately, most of the country gets off on this scenario. They like to know that their tax dollars are paying for the rape of nonviolent prisoners of the drug war, and they enjoy knowing that drug users are systematically removed from every aspect of society, like the Jews in Nazi Germany, and placed into concentration camps that we call prisons. How else can we understand the people's overwhelming support for this sick, disgusting war on drugs? Shame on you, Asa Hutchinson. Shame on all of you who support him.Dan B
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #2 posted by afterburner on October 08, 2002 at 22:58:05 PT:
News Flash, Asa, Drugs are Not Legal in London!!!
And selling drugs on the street is not legalization. Using drugs on the street is not what cannabis proponents are asking for. And drugs are not legal in the Netherlands either. Your misguided U.N. treaties have so far kept a mild plant called cannabis from being legalized anywhere on the planet, have kept doctors and scientists from studying its medical uses, and have made many people think it is a crime to even talk about the plant. America has a successful approach to drug policy? Are you kidding??? The prisons are overflowing. Citizens are being shot by SWAT teams. The sick and dying are being harassed and intimidated for using their medicine. The medicine is being stolen and destroyed by jack-booted thugs. And you call this a successful drug policy?
[ Post Comment ]
Comment #1 posted by idbsne1 on October 08, 2002 at 22:35:01 PT
Somebody....
Please give this guy a brain (or shoot him)......:)idbsne1
[ Post Comment ]
Post Comment