cannabisnews.com: Drug War Unwinnable Without Legalization





Drug War Unwinnable Without Legalization
Posted by FoM on September 29, 2000 at 20:16:59 PT
By David T. Wilkinson
Source: Bangor Daily News
Jay McCloskey, a lawyer trained to find fact, lets his emotions carry away his brain in his column, “Making the case against legalization” (BDN, Sept. 23-24).Does he remember a time when Maine, along with nine other states, decriminalized marijuana possession back in the ’70s? At the time this reform was considered “tantamount to legalization” and was predicted to produce a veritable drug orgy. After all, you could own an ounce of the stuff and worry about nothing more than a $100 fine. That was hardly considered to be a deterrent against jaywalking, let alone the irresistible addictiveness of the evil weed.
But marijuana use did not go up, either among youth or adults, in any of the states which decriminalzed. Nor were there any of the mass migrations of marijuana users, also predicted by the McCloskeys of that time, to states which offered a safe haven to depravity.Holland, which made cannabis products virtually — but not officially —- legal back in the ’70s, boasts drug use rates among its teen-agers that are a small fraction of U.S. rates. More than this, crime and incarceration rates are also well below ours. Switzerland, Spain, Italy and other countries have also decriminalized marijuana and other drugs without the McCloskey scenario of “90 percent” drug use rates.What causes the cognitive dissonance here is the fact that prohibition itself — the law — is the real reason behind most of the ills, including “the devastating consequences that drugs have on the people who use them and on their families,” which the law ascribes to drugs. Even the well-intentioned D.A.R.E. program has been shown in study after study to increase drug use among its graduates. Blinded by our outrage, we have for generations woven the enemy out of our own faith in the force of law as remedy for all ills.We pretend that the drug war is different from alcohol prohibition and so refuse to learn the obvious lessons of history. The results fly in the face of our attempts to beat, shoot, propagandize and jail the drug problem out of our lives. We have been getting tougher on drugs for 100 years, and the drugs just get tougher.In a familiar story of Drug War America, last week an 11-year-old child was shot in San Diego by no-knock, hair-triggered police. The 41 shots New York police made into an unarmed man they had approached with the intent of setting him up as a marijuana dealer have become legend sung by Bruce Springsteen.How can this carnage possibly be better than the effective policy of “harm reduction,” which our European neighbors have shown actually reduces drug use rates?Perhaps another reason for cognitive dissonance is the fact that McCloskey makes his living from a system that depends on the drug war. Remove marijuana prosecutions as alcohol prosecutions were removed in 1933, and the Department of Justice would be closing down 75 percent of its offices and letting go of 75 percent of its employees. The drug war is a major vested interest. In California, the largest contributor to political campaigns is the prison guards’ union.This huge flow of federal drug war dollars is the most addictive substance of all. It makes all those charts and paid expert reports seem to make sense even when obvious facts contradict them.Supply follows demand, legal or not. If you want to control something, you don’t turn it over to gangsters. By funding the criminals, the law has turned the world into a vast 1920s Chicago.It is in the case for legalization that alcohol and tobacco are exhibits A and B. They are much more toxic and addictive than marijuana, which has never caused a recorded medical death and is rated below caffeine by addiction experts. But at least we do not have alcohol and tobacco gangsters selling these products in schoolyards, nor are people dying in turf wars or police raids.McCloskey is still struggling with the devastating truth that is barely starting to hit America, that the “solution” is actually most of the problem with respect to marijuana. Holding up such paper-thin premises as “we could expect to see use rates rise to climb to about 90 percent” shows just how close the truth has finally come.David T. Wilkinson of Bethesda, Md., is a former Maine resident, a Bowdoin College alumnus and reform activist. Source: Bangor Daily News (ME)Published: Friday, September 29, 2000 Author: David T. WilkinsonCopyright: 2000, Bangor Daily News Inc.Contact: bdnmail bangornews.infi.netWebsite: http://www.bangornews.com/Related Article: Making The Case Against Legalization http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread7142.shtml
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Comment #4 posted by i_rule_ on September 30, 2000 at 18:13:32 PT
Want to answer some questions, McCaffrey?
(If this truly is you.)So the only "error" you can find in the article is the location of where the murder occured? Does that mean you agree with the rest of the article? That legalization is the way to go? Care to admit your lies about marijuana to the public? No, you probably don't want to debate one on one with the average Joe. We pose no threat to you. You have billions of dollars to protect your lies, we only have the truth to fight you with. And it's been proven for years that money will defeat the truth quite handily. If this really is you, I'm sure there are many people who visit this site who would love to engage you in debate. Please come back and share with us your logic of terror and intimidation. Let us hear it from the horses mouth how evil marijuana is. We know the man-made chemical drugs are dangerous and I personally would not suggest them being legalized. But explain to us how an herb that has been used for centuries all over the world can suddenly become prohibited in the twentieth century. Could it be a little word called "competition?" Don't be afraid of the truth, Barry, it will only set you free. There are many other questions you could answer here for us if you only would. But, mind you, we won't accept your lies like the sheeples in this country. We know better.Legalize and Realize. 
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Comment #3 posted by Barry McAffrey on September 30, 2000 at 16:07:22 PT:
minor error in article
In a familiar story of Drug War America, last week an 11-year-old child was shot in San Diego by no-knock, hair-triggered police.I thought it was in Modesto, which is in Northern California.
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Comment #2 posted by nl5x on September 30, 2000 at 16:04:05 PT
The industrial-complex
Remove marijuana prosecutions as alcohol prosecutions were removed in 1933, and the Department of Justice would be closing down 75 percent of its offices and letting go of 75 percent of its employees. The drug war is a major vested interest. In California, the largest contributor to political campaigns is the prison guards’ union.By funding the criminals, the law has turned the world into a vast 1920s Chicago.
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Comment #1 posted by EdC on September 30, 2000 at 03:50:31 PT:
Drug war unwinnable without legalization
Excellent article. 
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