cannabisnews.com: Webb Urges Fresh Look at The War on Drugs





Webb Urges Fresh Look at The War on Drugs
Posted by CN Staff on June 20, 2008 at 05:35:54 PT
By David Lerman
Source: Daily Press 
Washington, DC -- Virginia Sen. Jim Webb began building a public case Thursday to change the nation's drug laws to stress treatment over incarceration for nonviolent offenders.The freshman Democrat held a hearing of the Joint Economic Committee to solicit testimony from prosecutors and scholars who argued that the decades-long emphasis on incarceration has been costly and ineffective.
Armed with statistics showing soaring incarceration rates and drug seizures, Webb argued — and his witnesses agreed — that authorities have failed to reduce the supply of drugs appreciably."Despite the number of people we have arrested, the illegal drug industry and the flow of drugs to our citizens remain undiminished," Webb said.While much of his work in the Senate has focused on the Iraq war and a new GI bill for veterans, Webb has sought to stir a public debate on an issue he acknowledged could be politically perilous. Advocating reductions in prison time, of course, can trigger charges of being "soft on crime."But with more than 2 million Americans now behind bars and drug offenders swamping the prisons, Webb argued, it may be more cost effective to consider treatment options for nonviolent offenders."The time has come to stop locking up people for mere possession and use of marijuana," Webb wrote in his new book, "A Time to Fight."He added in the book: "Drug addiction is not in and of itself a criminal act. It is a medical condition, indeed a disease, just as alcoholism is, and we don't lock people up for being alcoholics."Webb was not quite as blunt at Thursday's hearing, however, and said he was not pursuing any specific legislation at the moment."We're just trying to get the facts out," he said.Joining Webb for the joint Senate-House hearing was Rep. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott, D-Newport News, a longtime critic of prison-focused crime policies. Scott, chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on crime, said prevention programs such as prenatal care, early-childhood education, summer jobs and access to college would prove more cost effective than spending $65 billion a year to lock people up, as the United States does today.In a sign of the political stalemate over crime policy on Capitol Hill, however, no Republicans attended Thursday's hearing.Note: The senator says billions spent on locking people up hasn't reduced the flow of drugs.Source: Daily Press (Newport News,VA)Author: David LermanPublished: June 20, 2008Copyright: 2008 The Daily PressContact: letters dailypress.comWebsite: http://www.dailypress.comCannabisNews -- Cannabis Archiveshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/list/cannabis.shtml
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Comment #23 posted by tintala on June 21, 2008 at 07:54:16 PT:
yes true to the fact they materialized these lies 
about cannabis to make it illegal for the CONGLOMERATES
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Comment #22 posted by FoM on June 21, 2008 at 07:01:52 PT
afterburner
I wonder how many more ways they will spin this until people really understand what a mistake it all has been.
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Comment #21 posted by afterburner on June 21, 2008 at 06:29:48 PT
FoM #16
For the children: "teen marijuana use was down in states with medical marijuana laws." From the article accompanying the poll:"A new report by a University at Albany researcher found teen marijuana use was down in states with medical marijuana laws."Teen use down! Love the children. Legalize the patients.
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Comment #20 posted by FoM on June 21, 2008 at 05:49:03 PT
Jim Webb Tackles Our Tangled Drug Policy 
June 20, 2008Yesterday Senator Jim Webb -- who seems to be on many people's shortlist as a possible running mate for Senator Barack Obama--chaired the Joint Economic Committee's hearing on "Illegal Drugs: Economic Impact, Societal Costs, Policy Reponses". It was the second hearing on drug policy that Senator Webb has convened, the first focused on the steep increase in the US prison population. In his two years in Congress, Senator Webb has established himself as a leader in fighting for economic populism, an end to the War in Iraq and a new GI Bill. Yesterday we saw that his interest in revamping our approach to drug policy is strong as well. Complete Article: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/331478
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Comment #19 posted by DCP on June 20, 2008 at 20:37:58 PT
Re: #2 Afterburner
Nowhere in nature or engineering or society is "zero-tolerance" possible." Right! Thus, perfection may be approached but cannot be achieved (by man). Analogous to the speed of light, the closer you approach perfection, the more difficult it is. 
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Comment #18 posted by FoM on June 20, 2008 at 19:55:29 PT
mykeyb420
That is really good. 
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Comment #17 posted by mykeyb420 on June 20, 2008 at 19:49:09 PT
Im not John McCain
and he dosen't approve of this message
why I'm voting republican
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Comment #16 posted by FoM on June 20, 2008 at 17:33:45 PT
New York Medical Marijuana Poll
Should medical marijuana be legalized in New York?Yes.No.http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S484909.shtml?cat=300
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Comment #15 posted by The GCW on June 20, 2008 at 16:49:23 PT
AND
Your best friend is dead… NOT!Last month, police officers visited the students of El Camino High School to break the terrible news that several of their classmates had died in a drunk driving accident. The students of El Camino were understandably distraught. Many broke down in tears. Some became hysterical. However, their sadness turned to anger several hours later when school officials announced that it was all a hoax. That’s right — it was a big, fat lie constructed by the school to send a message. The message presumably being: Don’t ever trust your teachers, because they’re sadistic bastards who will fuck with your heads. Guidance Counselor Lori Tauber defended the school’s actions, saying, “[The students] were traumatized, but we wanted them to be traumatized. That’s how they get the message.” Tauber has a good point. How else do you expect an educational facility to teach its students except through Machiavellian head games? In the future, El Camino High plans to restructure its entire curriculum based on this method. Chemistry teachers will throw boric acid on students to demonstrate what happens when you ignore laboratory safety procedures, and lunch ladies will stuff chicken bones in the corn dogs in order to give the kids a chance to practice the Heimlich maneuver. Janitors will set up bear traps to teach kids not to run in the hall, and the principal will just go around slapping people who look mischievous. Of course, if the faculty at El Camino thinks this is all a little extreme, they can always fake another student death to teach us a lesson. http://www.boulderweekly.com/20080619/incaseyoumissedit.html
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Comment #14 posted by The GCW on June 20, 2008 at 16:46:35 PT
US CO: Huff and puff and solve 9-across!
US CO: Huff and puff and solve 9-across! Webpage: http://www.boulderweekly.com/20080619/incaseyoumissedit.htmlPubdate: 19 June 2008Source: Boulder Weekly (CO)Contact: letters boulderweekly.comHuff and puff and solve 9-across!Americans have a fascination with making random, slightly toxic items addictively huffable. Children can be smelled miles away toting around their plastic, Chinese-made Strawberry Shortcake and Lemon Meringue scented dolls. “New Car Smell” has become a marketable scent, even though its exhilarating fragrance is a nothing more than a mass off-gassing of residual solvents and chemicals from the fabric and plastic holding the vehicle together. They even make scented markers and Sharpees that can leave your nose ink-stained purple after smelling the grape aromas on the Dry Erase board at work. (Trust us on this one.)And now the Colorado Lottery has joined in to help distract our noses from freshly Xeroxed paper and gasoline pumps. Get a whiff of this: Our state’s lottery system announced June 16 that it would begin selling scratch and sniff tickets. These perfumed gambling aids will be available in three varieties: Crossword Bouquet, Chocolate Crossword and Coffee Crossword. Finally, our race against the odds for quick cash has been combined with our inherent desire to huff that weird flakey crap we scratch off with dirty pennies! Take a deep breath, people. Your new addiction has arrived. 
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Comment #13 posted by RevRayGreen on June 20, 2008 at 15:31:58 PT
Webb
ROCKS !!!!!!!.......need more like him in office.
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Comment #12 posted by observer on June 20, 2008 at 12:34:49 PT
Pot Police's Fake Make-Work $$$, Power Threatened
Armed with statistics showing soaring incarceration rates and drug seizures, Webb argued — and his witnesses agreed — that authorities have failed to reduce the supply of drugs appreciably.Well, true: prohibition keeps pot away from those who want it as well as prohibition kept gin from those who wanted it. But prohibitionists are shifty, slithy toves. When confronted with evidence their stated policies fail, they change the subject. "But we can't send a mixed message to the kids!" (As if it makes sense that adults must be jailed - because children might misunderstand something!) Or prohibition apologists will change the subject by sanctimoniously appearing to take some stance of superior morality with a specious comparison to murder (which has always been punished),"Well, we can't stop all murders, so we should legalize murder, also?" (As if the politician-created "sin" of using cannabis existed for all time, and wasn't legal before 1938.) I congratulate Webb for his courage. It doesn't take much thinking to go along with the red-ribbon parade bandwagon. But going against the drug-war prison industrial complex, going against the billions of dollars in police make-work by busting peaceful potheads and stealing their stuff; going against all that, now that's real courage. Let's review and study how Gary Johnson in New Mexico was treated when he said similar things a few years back. Prohibitionists tend to go over the top in the same ways (wildly stoking fears, esp. over children) should their cash-cow of jailing adult cannabis users be threatened like this. 
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Comment #11 posted by rchandar on June 20, 2008 at 09:50:54 PT:
Piss On That Grave
any of you feel like going to Arlington, to piss on dear Harry's grave?
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Comment #10 posted by rchandar on June 20, 2008 at 09:49:51 PT:
mykeyb420
that's a good summary of it, yeah. thing is, society acts like this was all done for the good of humanity and should never be questioned.
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Comment #9 posted by FoM on June 20, 2008 at 09:40:05 PT
duzt 
I think Senator Webb would be a good pick for Senator Obama too. Obama has a couple of good possible picks. It's nice to be so much better then the Republicans this election season. It takes a lot of worry out of it for me.
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Comment #8 posted by duzt on June 20, 2008 at 09:31:45 PT
Webb
I really like Senator Webb and his ideas. He has a great military background and is considered a blue-dog democrat. I was surprised and happy to see his views on the drug war. I truly hope Obama chooses him as a running mate as his military history and experience if far greater than McCain and I think Obama would destroy McCain with him on his side. Nobody will be able to say the democratic ticket is soft on national security with Webb there.
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Comment #7 posted by mykeyb420 on June 20, 2008 at 09:21:10 PT
 rchandar
Pot became illegal due to racisim against blacks and mexicans. W R Hearst, owner of the SF Examiner, conspired with the Dupont Co and Andrew Melon to print false headlines in the newspapers scareing the general public to think that if the youth smoke pot,,then they will rape the white women. It is in the movie" the Emporer of Hemp" by Jack Herer.
Even though the law against pot is part of the Health and Safety code,,it has nothing to do with anyones health or safety. It is entirely racial. BTW,,the Dupont co was developing a type of paper made from wood( the kind we use today) and they did not want a paper made from hemp because it would cut into their paper $$$.
So, pot is illegal because there is alot of $$$$$ to be made in the prohibition of pot,,not at all for our health and safety
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Comment #6 posted by Sam Adams on June 20, 2008 at 08:25:33 PT
the bottom line
our economy and the dominance of the US dollar is changing fast. The baby boomers are entering retirement.We won't be able to continue the current pace of incarceration and also pay Medicare for the retirees, it will bankrupt the government and our currency. The current gasoline run-up is just the first taste of this process, which is already underway.So what's happening here is the early stages of the battle - who will get the tax money when the inevitable huge cuts come - will it be the drug companies, via Medicare? Will it be the prison-industrial and police complex? The problem really isn't difficult or complicated to understand at all, it's simple enough for a child to understand. We've been wasting HUGE amounts of resources on policies that don't work and damage people's lives, just to enrich a few corrupt cronies. And the result is further rending and tearing of the social fabric which leaves us with even more entitlement costs as families are shattered and entire neighborhoods break down.Do "we" do the right thing, or do we (like the Republicans) continue to stubbornly insist that corruption enriching our friends is the only alternative there is.
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Comment #5 posted by rchandar on June 20, 2008 at 08:04:58 PT:
A Thought
How the HELL did smoking a plant become a "crime"? Any theories? The board is open...rchandar
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Comment #4 posted by runruff on June 20, 2008 at 07:57:52 PT:
                 Hear, hear!
Amen!
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on June 20, 2008 at 07:47:23 PT
I Don't Want To Be Soft on Crime Either
What is or should be a crime? Crime to me is when one person causes serious harm to another person or persons. Corporate criminals seem to walk free even though they often cause harm to many people. A person who murders should be punished at the minimum with life in prison without a chance for parole. The only people who really benefit from all these victimless crimes on the books are the lawyers and the prison industrial complex. 
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Comment #2 posted by afterburner on June 20, 2008 at 07:21:24 PT
Wouldn't Want to be a Flip-flopper
Considering that the USA has the most inmates in prison of any country in the world -- ever(!), the following statement is ridiculous BS:{
Advocating reductions in prison time, of course, can trigger charges of being "soft on crime."
} So, are we to assume that increasing the already heinous burden on society (and the taxpayers!) is the only possible action?Thank God, Senator Webb doesn't think so and neither do many voters.This argument is flawed anyway. Peaceful cannabis people should not be incarcerated in the first place. Legal regulation for medical cannabis dispenseries should be established to take the crime out of the equation. The zero-tolerance concept makes good press to scare the public, but it is unworkable. Nowhere in nature or engineering or society is "zero-tolerance" possible.We need realistic solutions, not more manipulative sound bites and smear attacks. We can change!!!Thank you, Senator Webb.
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Comment #1 posted by FoM on June 20, 2008 at 05:36:53 PT
Thank You Senator Webb
"The time has come to stop locking up people for mere possession and use of marijuana," Webb wrote in his new book, "A Time to Fight."
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