Half Million in US Prisons for Drug Offenses- Highest Prison Rate in World

[Time for change]

“An agent posing as a dealer called and asked to speak with Jeff. Nicole replied that he wasn't home, but gave the man a number where she thought Jeff could be reached. An innocent gesture? It sounds that way to me. But to federal prosecutors, simply giving out a phone number made Nicole Richardson part of a drug dealing conspiracy. Under draconian mandatory minimum sentences, she was sent to federal prison for ten years without possibility of parole.”

Walter Cronkite, former Managing Editor and News Anchorman of CBS Evening News – Discussing the injustice and human toll of our current “war on drugs”, in “Telling the Truth about the War on Drugs”


The scope of the U.S. prison population

According to U.S. Bureau of Justice statistics, there were 2.1 million people incarcerated in U.S. prisons as of mid-year 2004, a 2.6% rise from 2003, and representing a 32 year continuous rise in the U.S. prison population.

The U.S. incarceration rate of 724 per 100,000 residents is now the highest rate in the world. Russia is a distant second, with 564 per 100,000 residents, and the highest rate in Europe is England/Wales, at 145 per 100,000 residents. The United States, with only 5 % of the world’s population, holds one quarter of the prison population of the world.


Drugs and the U.S. prison population

Since Richard Nixon declared a “War on drugs” in 1971, the prison population of the United States has multiplied manifold. From 300,000 U.S. inmates in 1972, the U.S. prison population grew to about one million by 1990 and to about two million by 2000. And this is despite a falling crime rate since 1991.

Of the total U.S. prison population in 2004, more than one quarter, 700,000 marijuana arrests in 1997, 87% were for mere possession, and 41% of those incarcerated for a marijuana offense are incarcerated for possession only. This is not surprising when one considers that most non-violent first time offenders guilty of drug possession today in the United States get a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years with no parole, or 10 years with no parole if a large quantity of drugs is involved. [br />
The racial disparity in the United States for imprisonment for drug offenses is well known. Though the Federal Household Survey (See item # 6) indicated that 72% of illicit drug users are white, compared to 15% who are black, blacks constitute a highly disproportionate percent of the population arrested for (37%) or serving time for (42% of those in federal prisons and 58% of those in state prisons) drug violations.


Other tragic effects of our “war on drugs”

The United States has pressured many countries to collaborate with it in its “War on drugs”, particularly with respect to preventing the production and export of drugs from those countries. This often involves aerial spraying of farmland (especially in Columbia) suspected of growing drugs, and the consequent destruction of the livelihood of farmers.

This “war” provides a lucrative world-wide business for narco-traffickers. Consequently, many believe that it has been responsible for far more violent crime than it has prevented.

Many illicit drugs have important medical uses, but because of the “war on drugs” their use for medical purposes is either completely outlawed or severely curtailed.

And nobody can say that we are winning this “war”, despite the 50 billion or so dollars that we spend on it annually. Drug use in the United States is little different today than it was when the “War on drugs” began”.


Drugs and death and violence

Most Americans believe that the war on drugs is being waged because drugs kill people. But to put things in perspective, consider these figures on annual deaths in the United States, from federal government sources, including the National Institutes of Health:

Cause…..................# annual deaths
Tobacco…................390,000
Alcohol……….……………...80,000
Second hand smoke…..50,000
Marijuana………...................0
All illegal drugs…..…..…..4,500

Ok, so some might look at these figures and ask, “Aren’t those 4,500 lives worth saving?” But there is no evidence that our war against drugs reduces drug use or saves any lives. And why should we incarcerate a half a million people for the mere possibility that that might prevent a tenth of one percent of those people from killing themselves?

Others might have the belief that our “war against drugs” prevents death and violence by taking crazed drug users off the streets. But there is no evidence that the “war against drugs” does this. In fact, the opposite is more likely. If drug use was decriminalized, that would substantially reduce the price and the profitability of selling drugs, thus reducing much of the motive for violence. As Jeffery A. Roth, of the U.S. Department of Justice says:

Illegal drugs and violence are linked primarily through drug marketing: disputes among rival distributors, arguments and robberies involving buyers and sellers, property crimes committed to raise drug money and, more speculatively, social and economic interactions between the illegal markets and the surrounding communities.

Then why has our government persisted in this war on drugs?

I can think of a number of reasons for the persistence of this so-called “war”, but I’m not sure which are the most important.

Ever since Richard Nixon declared war on drugs and then trounced George McGovern (the last presidential nominee to seriously question our drug policies) in the 1972 Presidential election, winning every state in the country except for Massachusetts, politicians have believed that a “tough on drugs” stance is usually necessary to further one’s political ambitions.

It has also been pointed out that, coincident with the burgeoning prison population in the United States, there has also been a large increase in the number of private prisons, which have increased from five in 1995 to 100 in 2005, in which year 62,000 persons were incarcerated in private prisons in the United States. The owners of these prisons have a financial interest in long prison sentences, which they have aggressively lobbied for.

Another reason for the “war on drugs”, which may apply to the cynical leadership of the Republican Party, is that by disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of minority voters, the conservative agenda and chances for electoral success of the Republican Party are substantially enhanced.

And the “war on drugs” gives our government an excuse to intervene in the internal affairs of other countries – such as Colombia. Not to mention the enhanced opportunity it gives to our Executive Branch for control over our own citizens (although today the “war on terror” suffices plenty well for that purpose.) And there is even evidence that the CIA has used the illicit drug trade as a major source of funding for itself.

So, measuring it by the above noted purposes, one could say that the “war on drugs” in our country has been a resounding success. But in terms of the purpose that has been sold to the American people for three and a half decades, it has been anything but a success. As Walter Cronkite recently said about our “war on drugs”:


The “war on drugs” is a failure

I just love what Walter Cronkite (Remember him? Wouldn’t it be great if we had more journalists like him around today?) recently had to say about this:

While the war in Iraq is in the headlines, the other war is still being fought on our own streets. Its casualties are the wasted lives of our own citizens.

I am speaking of the war on drugs. And I cannot help but wonder how many more lives, and how much more money, will be wasted before another Robert McNamara admits what is plain for all to see: the war on drugs is a failure.

While the politicians stutter and stall - while they chase their losses by claiming we could win this war if only we committed more resources, jailed more people and knocked down more doors - the Drug Policy Alliance continues to tell the American people the truth – “the way it is”…..

The federal government has fought terminally ill patients whose doctors say medical marijuana could provide a modicum of relief from their suffering - as though a cancer patient who uses marijuana to relieve the wrenching nausea caused by chemotherapy is somewho a criminal who threatens the public.

People who do genuinely have a problem with durgs, meanwhile, are being imprisoned when what they really need is treatment. And what is the impact of this policy? It surely hasn't made our streets safer. Instead, we have locked up literally millions of people...disproportionately people of color...who have caused little or no harm to others - wasting resources that could be used for counter-terrorism, reducing violent crime, or catching white-collar criminals.

With police wielding unprecedented powers to invade privacy, tap phones and conduct searches seemingly at random, our civil liberties are in a very precarious condition.

Hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on this effort - with no one held accountable for its failure.

Amid the clichés of the drug war, our country has lost sight of the scientific facts. Amid the frantic rhetoric of our leaders, we've become blind to reality: The war on drugs, as it is currently fought, is too expensive, and too inhumane.

But nothing will change until someone has the courage to stand up and say what so many politicians privately know: The war on drugs is a failure.

[al bupp]

1. It should called the "The War on Some Drugs"

This makes explicit the fact that this prohibition applies only to certain verboten substances.

On edit: Thanks are due to Robert Anton Wilson for coining this phrase.

[Time for change]

15. Yes, and the drugs that are targeted are specifically the ones that

minorities tned to use. That's why crack cocaine is targeted so much more than other cocaine, for example:

http://www.cccr.org/justice/issue.cfm?id=19

[Asgaya Dihi]

16. That's true

The stats you posted above for racial balance in prison show one aspect of it, the reason most end up there though is mandatory minimums. Here's a look at them in particular. The exact numbers vary depending on the years evaluated but the trend is pretty solid.

"Mandatory sentencing laws disproportionately affect people of color. African-Americans make up 15% of the country's drug users, yet they make up 37% of those arrested for drug violations, 59% of those convicted, and 74% of those sentenced to prison for a drug offense." http://www.idpi.us/resources/factsheets/mm_factsheet.htm

Why do we think the system can survive with one young black man in eight between 25 and 29 in prison or jail right now, and it's still growing? Because it isn't us so we don't notice so much. As long as it's targeted they can get away with quite a bit, hit the poor and minorities.

[Time for change]

22. Excellent points

"because it isn't us, so we don't notice so much".

Exactly. It's the same reason why so little opposition to Hitler was generated until it was too late. And the same reason why there isn't an uproar in this country about our many abuses of prisoners of war.

[marmar]

2. And yet we get the worst results...

The war on drugs, like the war on terror, is a war on common sense. A sham.

[Time for change]

9. I like the parallel to the "war on terror"

They are both shams - much more about establishing and maintaining control over the people than about doing any public good.

[Systematic Chaos]

3. I think a war on Big Pharm would be much more productive.

Of course, the prison industry will take quite a hit when all those horrible non-violent "drug offenders" are set free and replaced by only a couple thousand various business execs....

[LynzM]

4. Agreed.

It's a whole economic system now, with very close to free, contained laborers. Take that away, and who's going to do that work? Why, people you'd have to pay, silly. And now why would we want that? This country is nuts. Outlaw alcohol and make pot legal, if you want to talk about drugs leading to or exacerbating violence. Oy.

[Time for change]

11. Yes, the prison industry is the biggest outrage IMO

If there is anything that should not be privatized it is the prison system.

Running prisons for profit is one of the most disgusting things that I can think of. And those bastards actually lobby Congress to pass laws mandating toughter prison sentences for drug offenses. I don't see how a country that calls itself a democracy can tolerate such a thing.

[sweetheart]

53. It is outsourced slavery, what century is this?

Here on for-profit prisons:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1292386&mesg_id=1292386

Once imprisoned, their political voices removed, abused in to further
disenfranchisement, why arn't the democrats defending a million
americans? I am sickened, truly... and it undermines any respect that
the US has with its bullshit justice talk. The nation is about slavery,
and reducing the planet to slavery and prisons.... they must go down.

[Time for change]

27. Yes it would - but rather than a "war" against Big Pharm

I think that all we really need to do is to make laws against bribing Congresspersons under the current label of "lobbying" and "campaign donations".

And we should get rid of the prison industry entirely. Prison is the job of government, not for profit corporations. :grr:

[Time for change]

5. Link to marijuana article is not working

But I think this should work:

http://www.mpp.org/arrests/fas61699.html

[midnight]

6. Has anyone ever heard this-Bush family makes their money

via drugs. We need to use that chart as proof how dangerous tobacco is, and not the other way around. I've heard that Amsterdam has a open drug use situation. I don't know if it is leagal or if they just don't prosecute the drug users. It's probably a value added economic booster.

[Time for change]

7. I've never heard that - What drugs are those?

Yes, the dangers of tobacco are well known, it is a major killer, and it should be regulated much more strongly than it is IMO.

In the 1990s, the FDA, under the leadership of David Kessler, tried to get much more intimately involved in the regulation of cigarettes/tobacco. But the tobacco industry proved to be too powerful for them to be successful in the long run.

With regard the Netherlands, they do have controls over drugs, but the big difference between them and us is that generally they consider it a public health problem rather than a criminal problem:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_policy_of_the_Netherlands

And, the evidence suggests that their approach does not spawn violent crime:

Although drugs and violent crime often are linked in America, the violent crime rate in the Netherlands is far lower than in the U.S., despite the Netherlands' more liberal drug policies. There were 1.9 homicides in Holland per 100,000 people in 1993. The U.S. rate was 9.5 homicides per 100,000.

http://www.nationalfamilies.org/publications/about_nfia/amsterdam.html

And the prison rate in the Netherlands is only a small fraction of what it is here.

[Jed Dilligan]

8. In the Netherlands it's legal to sell small amounts of pot and mushrooms

and legal to possess, but not legal to grow or sell or buy large amounts. So the "coffeeshops" get their weed illegally and sell it legally. It's a weird and hypocritical situation like our situation here, where everyone's brother-in-law gets by peddling homegrown. The Dutch in particular tend to rail against the hypocrisy of their own laws and most understand it is about tax revenue.

"Hard" drugs are still strictly illegal there, you can get them off street dealers in the Red Light District. I don't think the penalties are as stiff and they certainly don't imprison 1% of their people, but you can go to jail for coke, heroin or speed (not sure about ecstasy). Smoking pot in public is about a hundred dollar ticket, like possession is in California (the first time!).

That being said, the Dutch don't seem to be nearly as drugged out as the Americans. The visibly high people on the streets of Amsterdam are the tourists. Legality hasn't made the Dutch more susceptible to addiction.

[Time for change]

28. To me, the most telling comparison between us and the Netherlands

is that, despite their much more liberal drug laws and much lower prison rate, the violent crime rate there is much smaller than it is here:

Although drugs and violent crime often are linked in America, the violent crime rate in the Netherlands is far lower than in the U.S., despite the Netherlands' more liberal drug policies. There were 1.9 homicides in Holland per 100,000 people in 1993. The U.S. rate was 9.5 homicides per 100,000.

http://www.nationalfamilies.org/publications/about_nfia/amsterdam.html

I realize that there are different interpretations one could put on those statistics. But still, that strongly suggests that you don't have to lock up hundreds of thousands of people for mere drug possession in order to keep the crime rate down.

[Jed Dilligan]

29. They also have a pretty good welfare system

Not nearly as many homeless people. There are gangs in the suburbs, mostly immigrants' kids. All in all, though, there are very few visible marks of class high or low. The people you see are almost universally healthy and well-dressed but not ostentatious. I think conspicuous consumption combined with the lack of a safety net adds fuel to the fire of American violence. Culturally, we will keep paying forever for slavery and the genocide of the Indians, just as the Dutch in Southern Africa (very different from the Netherlands Dutch!) will always do.

But your point is valid. Most robbery and property crime IS drug-related, and a lot of violent crime happens in that context. The only thing locking up drug dealers does to reduce drug-related crime is drive down the prices of drugs; with harsh sentencing laws people are more eager to get rid of large quantities of drugs at greatly reduced prices. So the street price of drugs has remained pretty much absolutely stable, despite inflation, since the beginning of the "War."

[Time for change]

30. I believe that most experts feel that harsh sentencing laws drive

UP the price of drugs. Isn't that the case with almost all blackmarket products, such as alcohol during the prohibition era?

And though much crime is drug-related, as you say, I also believe that most experts believe that this crime is related to the black market status of the drugs, associated with great profit potential, rather than the drugs themselves.

Such as explained here:

http://www.drugwarfacts.org/crime.htm

[Jed Dilligan]

31. I didn't suggest otherwise re drug crime, or at least didn't intend to

What I was trying to say was that property crimes are mostly just people needing a hit of drugs, and violence often arises from robbery situations, burglaries, and other things that start as just a property crime. There may be a small factor where the perpetrator being high increases the risk of escalation to violence, but I doubt it's very significant.

I do think the experts are wrong on prices. Yes, being illegal drives the prices up to some extent, though legalization in Holland hasn't driven them down much. It's maybe 25% cheaper to get weed in Amsterdam vs. SF. Nobody can explain to me, however, why a bag of almost any drug costs the same as, in some cases less than, it did in the late 80s, while everything else (food, rent, etc.) has increased tremendously in price. I think that past a certain point illegality turns the bag into a hot potato, and dealers are more eager to provide large bulk discounts to their sub-dealers who in turn move the product quickly by passing the discounts on to their customers.

[madokie]

10. The biggest thing that makes drugs bad is the laws

some people have addictive personalities and making what they are addicted to illegal just makes it worst.
bring the Troops home and turn the drug users loose, most of them were functioning citizens until they got busted

[Time for change]

23. I agree

Filling our prisons with hundreds of thousands of non-violent (and non-criminal IMO) persons, largely minority and poor citizens, is disgraceful.

There is little evidence that this serves any useful purpose, and the costs, both in terms of dollars and wasted lives, is enormous.

[mod mom]

12. We need to re-think our entire culture and re-prioritize a lot of things.

TFC, as usual, you out did yourself. Excellent piece.

[Time for change]

14. Thank you mod mom - Yes, we need to re-prioritize a lot of things

And I think that the best place to start would be to have an understanding that our votes need to be counted in a transparent manner, NOT by private companies using secret "proprietary" software, right?

[mod mom]

24. Men to transparent, fair and verifiable elections!

[Asgaya Dihi]

13. Nice work

Thank you for taking the time with this, it's good stuff and more people need to read and understand it.

[Time for change]

26. Thank you -- I think that the fact that one quarter of all prisoners in

the world are United States prisoners ought to raise a lot of eyebrows at the very least, and be cause for serious investigation into the reasons behind that startling figure.

One would not think that a "democracy" would be characterized by such a high prisoner rate.

And this will get worse if we don't substantially change our government in 06 and 08.

[PublicRadioVet]

17. I've never used any illegal drugs

Heck, I don't even drink. But even I can see that the "war" has been lost for decades. One would think that the Prohibition disaster would have taught us the folly of trying to deny substance abusers their fix. Alas...

Because when it comes right down to it, simply removing something from someone who wants that something, only encourages them to go about getting it through alternative channels. We might feel the "something" in question is dangerous or immoral, but it doesn't stop people.

And thus we create a vast black market to support the need, and thus a whole bunch of people wind up being criminalized in the process, while real criminals get rich off the backwash.

Maybe we'll wise up in another generation or two. Honestly, I think the "war" on substances has been a colossal waste of manpower, equipment, and lives. We'd do better to forget about it and legalize. And if we're mad because kids are doing drugs, well, then the best anti-drug in the world is a concerned, involved, loving parent.

[Time for change]

18. Exactly

The thing is though, as far as those who are responsible for this "war", I don't thnk that it is a question of "wising up". I don't believe that this "war" is being run in good faith. Rather I believe that their are cynical motives behind it, such as those I point out in the OP.

Just like with the Iraq War. And the "War on Terror".

[Nutmegger]

19. The "War on Drugs" = "The War on Terra"

A never ending, psychological mindset that is used to manipulate the general public.

[Time for change]

25. I agree - The parallel is very striking IMO

Both of these so called "wars" are meant mainly to manipulate us. Although we don't hear as much about the "war on drugs" lately, since the "war on terror" has been found to be an even better means of manipulation, Bush hasn't neglected other means of keeping the population under control:

Now Bush Junior is readying another front in the war on the underclass, promising this week to build 4,000 new cells for immigrant detainees this year alone – having prudently handed Halliburton a $385 million "contingency" contract back in February to build, lo and behold, "immigrant detention centers" should the need for them arise, the NY Times reports.

Like the war on drugs, the equally ill-conceived war on immigrants will be directed at the poorest and most vulnerable, not the "coyote" gangs who profit from this human trafficking – and certainly not the American businesses and wealthy Homelanders who love the dirt-cheap labor of the illegals. Those for-profit prisons will soon be filled to bursting with this new harvest.

A nation's true values can be measured in how it treats the poor, the weak, the damaged, the unconnected. For more than 30 years, the answer of the American power structure has been clear: you lock them up, you shut them up, you grind them down – and make big bucks in the process.

http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

[donbrunton]

20. Chris Floyd`s take on this story

Gates of Eden: A Nation in Chains

Monday, 22 May 2006

Beneath the thunder of the mighty cataclysms unleashed by the Bush Administration – the war crime in Iraq, the global torture gulag, the epic corruption, the gutting of the Constitution, the open embrace of presidential tyranny – a quieter degradation of American society has continued apace. And this slow descent into barbarism didn`t begin with George W. Bush – although his illicit regime certainly represents the apotheosis of the dark forces driving the decay.

With the world`s attention understandably diverted by the latest scandals and shameless posturings of the Bush Faction – domestic spying, bribes and hookers at the CIA, military units roaring down to the border to scare unarmed poor people looking for work – few noticed a small story that cast a harsh, penetrating light on the corrosion of the national character.

Earlier this month, the International Centre for Prison Studies at King`s College London released its annual World Prison Population List. And there, standing proudly at the head of the line, towering far above all others, is that shining city on the hill, the United States of America. But strangely enough, the Bush gang and its many media sycophants failed to celebrate – or even note – yet another instance where a triumphant America leads the world. Where are the cheering hordes shouting `USA! USA!` at the news that the land of the free imprisons more people than any other country in the world – both in raw numbers and as a percentage of its population?

Yes, the world`s greatest democracy now has more than two million of its citizens locked up in iron cages: an incarceration rate of 714 per 100,000 of the national population, the Centre reports. The only countries within shouting distance are such bastions of penological enlightenment as China (1.55 million prisoners, plus some unsorted `dministrative detainees`), Russia (a wimpy 763,000) and Brazil (330,000), whose exemplary prison management has been on such prominent display this week.

SNIP

http://www.chris-floyd.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

[Time for change]

21. Excellent article

I don't believe that I said a word about Bush in my OP, which is unusual for me, but I didn't think that it would have been quite fair, given that the "war on drugs" was initiated long before his pResidency. But Floyd makes some very good points about him:

Inside the Homeland, the state of Texas sets the pace, as you might imagine. During George W. Bush's tenure there as governor in the 1990s, Texas had the fastest growing prison population in the country, almost doubling the national rate, as the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice reports. In fact, by the time Dubya was translated to glory by Daddy's buddies on the Supreme Court, one out of every 20 adult Texans were "either in prison, jail, on probation or parole," the CJCJ notes; a level of "judicial control" that reached to one in three for African-American males. George also killed more convicts than any other governor in modern U.S. history as well – a nice warm-up for the valorous feats of mass slaughter yet to come....

Now Bush Junior is readying another front in the war on the underclass, promising this week to build 4,000 new cells for immigrant detainees this year alone – having prudently handed Halliburton a $385 million "contingency" contract back in February to build, lo and behold, "immigrant detention centers" should the need for them arise, the NY Times reports.

Like the war on drugs, the equally ill-conceived war on immigrants will be directed at the poorest and most vulnerable, not the "coyote" gangs who profit from this human trafficking – and certainly not the American businesses and wealthy Homelanders who love the dirt-cheap labor of the illegals. Those for-profit prisons will soon be filled to bursting with this new harvest.

A nation's true values can be measured in how it treats the poor, the weak, the damaged, the unconnected. For more than 30 years, the answer of the American power structure has been clear: you lock them up, you shut them up, you grind them down – and make big bucks in the process.

[Control-Z]

42. It would have been more than fair to include Bush

The war on drugs was initiated while he was drinking and drugging. It boggles the mind that the leader of our country is a coke addict/alcoholic to begin with. Now he's taken the reigns on a war that would have his sorry ass behind bars if not for his privileged white status. Fuck him. He's a spiteful dry drunk with a double standard. Fuck that - he has no standards. The war on drugs is a war on the people just like every other war Bush is leading.

[Time for change]

50. You won't get any argument from me there

He's not one of MY favorite people either :)

[porphyrian]

32. Mandatory minimum sentences are unconstitutional bullshit.

End them, now. The racist prison industrial complex doesn't deserve to profit at our expense.

[Time for change]

34. That's what I would think

Do you know if they've ever been challenged in the courts?

Of course, with today's USSC, it's unlikely that such a challenge would get very far.

[porphyrian]

36. I don't know for sure, but it should be if it hasn't. - n/t

[rman]

33. "War on Drugs" - two part documentary

The "War on Drugs"
has caused a massive surge in cost for illicit mind-altering substances, in turn raising the market value of the trade in highly targeted drugs such as Cocaine and Heroin to over a trillion dollars. This has had several prominent sociological, economic and political effects. A case in point is the South American country of Colombia, which had developed a commodity market to manage their imports and exports by the late 1960's. The subsequent actions taken by the American government included dumping surplus corn and grain into the Colombian market below market prices, depressing domestic production. The following decade showed a substantial rise in the profile of Cocaine use in American pop culture.

War on drugs Part I: Winners documentary (realvideo, 50 min)
http://cgi.omroep.nl/cgi-bin/streams?/tv/vpro/tegenlicht/bb.20030622.rm?title=Bekijk%20de%20uitzending%20WAR%20ON%20DRUGS%20DEEL%20I%20in%20realvideo%20BREEDBAND%20tot%20500%20kbs
explaining 'War on Drugs' by Tegenlicht of VPRO Dutch television. After short introduction in Dutch (1 min), English spoken. Broadband internet needed.

War on drugs Part II: Losers documentary (realvideo, 50 min)
http://cgi.omroep.nl/cgi-bin/streams?/tv/vpro/tegenlicht/bb.20030629.rm?title=Bekijk%20de%20uitzending%20WAR%20ON%20DRUGS%20DEEL%20II%20in%20realvideo%20BREEDBAND%20tot%20500%20kbs
showing downside of the 'War on Drugs' by Tegenlicht of VPRO Dutch television. After short introduction in Dutch (1 min), English spoken. Broadband internet needed.

[Time for change]

35. Thank you!

I'll have to listen to these later.

[OnionPatch]

37. This is information everyone should see

I did a report on the war on drugs in college years back and what I found out astounded me. The war on drugs isn't working and what's worse, it's a racket and ends up being a real tragedy for so many. It's time for a new look at our "drug problems".

Here's a link to an interesting group I found that has a lot of info and stats. Being that they are law enforcement, you'd think that their opinions should have some credibility.

http://www.leap.cc/

[Time for change]

38. Thank you for the link

What a lot of people don't realize is that even Nixon's own commission recommended that marijuana be decriminalized:

http://www.csdp.org/news/news/nixon.htm

Jimmy Carter also attempted to tone down the "drug war", but he wasn't too successful at it.

[rman]

41. "War is a racket"

Any war is, including the one on drugs, and the one on terrorism.


War is a racket
by Major General Smedley Butler, 1935
http://www.warisaracket.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smedley_Butler
http://www.veteransforpeace.org/war_is_a_racket_033103.htm

[Time for change]

43. That sounds like a very interesting book

I hope that it can still be found in the bookstores.

[rman]

58. There's a book about the General online,

about Butler preventing a coup against Roosevelt:

http://www.chris-floyd.com/plot/The_Plot_to_Sieze_the_White_House_by_Jules_Archer/


on edit: Butler's original book has been reprinted

http://www.corporatemofo.com/stories/030928warracket.htm
The time has obviously come for Smedley Butler to have his moment in the sun. Adam Parfrey of Feral House, whose name is no doubt at the top of John Ashcroft's "enemies" list, has bravely reprinted Butler's War is a Racket, as well as his essays "Common-Sense Neutrality" and "An Amendment for Peace," in which the general argues for a non-interventionist foreign policy. Also included in the book are shocking photographs from The Horror of It, a photographic essay on the ravages of World War I.
http://www.feralhouse.com/

[Time for change]

60. Thank you - I ordered it from Feral House

It sounds very informative

[me b zola]

39. Another excelent post, TfC

"While the politicians stutter and stall..." ...injustice & insanity prevail in the US.

I have been angry throughout the years as the insane "war on drugs" policies have snowballed, and elected officials have deemed it not "politically expedient" to speak out as a voice of reason.

Here in Oregon the voters have twice--TWICE--voted for use of medical marijuana, and as Mr. Cronkite mentions, the federal government has over-ridden our laws repeatedly.



recomended.

[Time for change]

44. Thank you zola - I have not been able to understand how the federal govt.

can do that.

The states have the right to pass whatever laws they want, as long as they are not inconsistent with our Constitution. And it is the job of the Supreme Court to tell them if their laws are unconstitutional - not the Executive Branch.

I don't understand how our federal government can get away with over-riding those laws. What federal law says that medical marijuana can't be used if a state law is passed to that effect, and how do they get away with that?

[sweetheart]

55. The south won the civil war in 2000,

that's how. The new federal state has 1 state right, to be enslaved.

[me b zola]

40. Another excelent post, TfC

"While the politicians stutter and stall..." ...injustice & insanity prevail in the US.

I have been angry throughout the years as the insane "war on drugs" policies have snowballed, and elected officials have deemed it not "politically expedient" to speak out as a voice of reason.

Here in Oregon the voters have twice--TWICE--voted for use of medical marijuana, and as Mr. Cronkite mentions, the federal government has over-ridden our laws repeatedly.



recomended.

[Ksec]

45. IMO there should be drug laws , but not prison sentences

for common users.

If they put recreational pot smokers in prison thats wrong. Some drugs are really bad, heroin , cocaine, speed. Some are not .

[Time for change]

46. Well, they certainly do put recreational marijuana users in prison

"Of the marijuana-only offenders, 15,400 are incarcerated for possession, not trafficking."

http://www.mpp.org/arrests/fas61699.html

[Ksec]

47. How about habitual possession charges?

Or third strike offenders?

[Time for change]

49. Do you mean, How many of those in prison for marijuana possession are 3rd

time offenders? I couldn't tell you, but my guess is that most of them weren't.

It is also of interest that one of George W. Bush's daughters is a third time drug use offender, in Texas yet, where Bush himself was responsible for draconian punishment laws. But somehow she got out of having to go to prison.

[sweetheart]

51. prisons for poor and black people...

not white daughters of unimprisoned felons. Reality is that the
drugs laws criminalize the poor, as rich people can afford the privacy
to not be caught, to buy their drugs from doctors and pharmacies where
legal perscriptions are the largest source of drugs abuse in north
america. But the valium class is not poor, and hence, no crime.

The prison system is the ugly foul heartless root of an evil virus,
the drugs war is the foulless degeneration of civil society that anyone
could dream up... and it takes sick men and women to keep up mass
persecution and imprisonment for having free will and using an
unenumerated right in the lost, buried, bill of rights.

The drugs war will destroy america, has already, and for all the warmongering,
the country is gone nazi, with the new concentration camps improved with
better mattresses and ovens after 50 years... wow, progress.

[Time for change]

52. Yes, I agree that it is an ugly and heartless system

Hopefully someday before too long our country will progress to the point where we realize that.

[sweetheart]

48. No drug is bad

The user makes the drug "bad", by being "bad". It is a slovenly presumption to constrain
the free will of your fellow citizens as you've have a preconception. Be disabused
and consider how you would feel if we criminaized your addiction, be it television,
eating fatty foods, smoking cigarettes, or supporting war crimes.

Just because you do not have freedom, to wish your prison-plus thinking on others is a waste.

[anewdeal]

54. Every single person in prison for drug related charges should be set free

no exceptions, drug laws are complete bullshit.

[sweetheart]

56. For all my brothers and sisters in prison, kick

You are not forgotten; solidarity. The drugs war is evil, the
police have become evil, the government is now evil, the army and
pretty much everyone involved... but you brothers and sisters in prison
are doing a great favour to the civilians of iraq. Every dollar you
cost the man, every penny you burn up, is a bullet that won't be killing
a child today in a war crime... burn him up.

For all my brothers and sisters in prison, *FUCKING INJUSTICE* of the
evil racist state... fuckem... may they die starving... too kind a curse indeed,
perhaps that the tables be reversed and the white men spend the time in prison
inordinately, 8 times the white male prisoners as any other race... must be
white men are more bent towards murder and crime. Gosh, perhaps they'll excuse
that for the next 100 years like the opposite bias for the last century.

May the evil prison go bankrupt and die taking all who support it down to hell.

[Time for change]

57. I like your homepage

:thumbsup:

[Turtlebah]

59. The drug war

wont end until the people demand that it end. And there is so much propaganda keeping it alive. Even with the invention of the Internet, we still can't reach enough people who are willing to write their reps.

[sweetheart]

62. Its the most beautiful secular document....

i've ever read. All the rights i wondered were missing... well
not many rights left in a prison-nation.

[Time for change]

63. This administration has no respect whatsoever for international law

or for ANY law.

[sweetheart]

65. That document is Elanor Roosevelt's soul

and * W O W * ... what a woman.

She burns for the souls tortured by the injustice.

[madmusic]

61. Fox backtracks, sends drug bill back

President Vicente Fox said he would ask Mexico's Congress to amend a drug decriminalization bill. The decision was praised by the White House, which had voiced serious concerns.
MEXICO CITY - (AP) -- U.S. officials welcomed Mexican President Vicente Fox's decision not to sign a drug decriminalization bill that some had warned could result in ''drug tourism'' in this country and increased availability of narcotics in American border communities.

Fox said Wednesday he was sending the bill back to Congress for changes, just one day after his office had said he would sign into law the measure, which would have dropped criminal penalties for possession of small amounts of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and other drugs.

The president will ask for corrections ``to make it absolutely clear in our country, the possession of drugs and their consumption are, and will continue to be, a criminal offense.''

The White House applauded Fox's decision. Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said U.S. officials had expressed concerns about decriminalizing drugs. ''We welcome the steps that are being taken by President Fox,'' McClellan said Thursday.

My apologies if this story was already posted.

[Time for change]

64. Thank you

If it was already posted, I haven't seen it.

[Time for change]

66. CORRECTION

Some of you may have noticed that in the section of my OP titled "drugs and the U.S. prison population", the first sentence of the second paragraph doesn't make much sense, or doesn't even hold together gramatically. That is because, for technical reasons (I forgot the "|" sign), a section of that sentence was accidentally deleted.

I hate to issue a correction on this at this late date, but it's an important point, so I feel that, even though the good majority of people who read this won't see the correction, I need to do it anyhow, for the record.

The first sentence of the second paragraph of that sentence should read as follows:

"Of the total U.S. prison population in 2004, more than one quarter, 530,000, are imprisoned for drug offenses, and almost a tenth of these are for marijuana only. And many of these are for mere possession, rather than manufacturing or selling. For example, of 700,000 marijuana arrests ......"

Sorry about that :blush:

[sweetheart]

67. You "imprisoned" are not forgotten

Democracy has failed you, and now you are slaves, molested and tortured
in the dark overcrowed injustice of american crime-academy. The whole
culture worships you in prison, as we all know we've betrayed you,
and with the world's hightest prison population, we are no free
country, but a cell block, a nation of cell blocks and repressors to
keep you conformed to war, enslaved to war, enraged and filled with hate
for war, so war will live on past all its slaves.

When they enslave you to prison, you are now free of any conception that
there is good in government or our society. Now that you are disabused
of that lie, extract your toll.