U.S. war on drugs has failed, report says

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: Los Angeles Times

The United States' war on drugs has failed and will continue to do so as long as it emphasizes law enforcement and neglects the problem of consumption, a Washington think tank (Brookings' Partnership for the Americas Commission) says in a report co-chaired by a former president of Mexico.

The former president, Ernesto Zedillo, in an interview, called for a major rethinking of U.S. policy, which he said has been "asymmetrical" in demanding that countries such as Mexico stanch the flow of drugs northward, without successful efforts to stop the flow of guns south. In addition to disrupting drug-smuggling routes, eradicating crops and prosecuting dealers, the U.S. must confront the public health issue that large-scale consumption poses, he said.

Zedillo cited skyrocketing violence in his own country as an example of the damage done by these policies. More than 4,000 people have been killed in Mexico this year in drug-related warfare between government troops and traffickers, and among rival drug gangs. Many of the weapons confiscated in raids and shootouts came from the U.S....

Contrary to government claims, the use of heroin and cocaine in the U.S. has not declined significantly, the report says, and the use of methamphetamine is spreading. Falling street prices suggest that the supply of narcotics has not declined noticeably, and U.S. prevention and treatment programs are woefully underfunded, the study says. "Current U.S. counter- narcotics policies are failing by most objective standards," the report says. "The only long-run solution to the problem of illegal narcotics is to reduce the demand for drugs in the major consuming countries, including the United States."...

***

The report urges the U.S. to take responsibility for stemming the transport of an estimated 2,000 guns a day across the border; to expand drug prevention programs in schools and redirect anti-drug messages to younger people by emphasizing cosmetic damage as well as health risks; and to greatly enhance drug courts, a system that incorporates treatment into prosecution....

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexdrugs27-2008nov27,0,7441414.story

[gblady]

1. No shit, Sherlock!

nt

[20score]

2. K&R. Even if the report is ignored, it's good that it's out there.

The war on drugs is criminal and needs to end.
The question is, how much longer will it take for the slow learners to figure out the obvious?

[DavidMS]

39. Not the first time with a Suden Outbreak of Common Sense

http://www.antiproibizionisti.it/public/docs/thelancet_20070323.pdf was published in the Lancet and argued that drug crime penalties should be based on harm, not hysteria.

That said, I would make a deal with the Mexican government, if you can figure out a way to interdict all drugs flowing north, we can figure out a way to stop guns flowing south. Better to do this a as a public health issue.

[timtom]

3. K & R

And I don't even use the stuff!




(Although I did...for many years...

[Winnipegosis]

4. It's time for a new war

a war on wars.

[silverojo]

5. That policy has failed, too

Does any sane person really believe that "educating" kids about drugs will stop them from doing drugs, any more than "educating" them about safe sex stops them from having sex?

Kids listen to their peers, period. That's why abstinence-only doesn't work, and why education doesn't work.

And look at all the people here on DU who brag about smoking pot and admit to taking drugs. People like these are the consumers that drive the market. When I try to post any sanity of this nature, I get my ass flamed off. Does anybody really think that "educating" such people is going to change their minds, and stop them from making smartass remarks about how cool drugs are--let alone stop them from doing drugs?

No war on drugs, no matter how it's waged, will ever work. Why? Because people are stupid and boring enough to think they can't have fun without doping themselves up.

[reggie the dog]

12. I know I can have fun without smoking grass

I do so all the time, but I still like smoking four or five days a week. I don't think that makes me stupid or boring.

[mrcheerful]

21. Oh no come on every wing nut knows for a fact that sex and drug use as well as Crime

All stem from 1 cause, bad parents or single parents or parents on welfare, after all what can you expect a kid to learn if parents don't work and get high and have more kids. Remember, these wing nuts are all saints and have lived their entire lives with no help from others, they are the masters of destiny, it wasn't luck or anything else except them and santa jesus.

After all it's only poor kids that grow up and get sent to prison. Never mind facts, they don't need facts to show them what they see with their own eyes. Never mind that what they see is based on their concepts and not reality, hey they seen a person drive to the store in a caddy, a brand new caddy at that,go into the store and buy pop, lobster and steaks, not just any steaks either, but new york steaks, with food stamps.

After all, if they had a brand new caddy they wouldn't let anyone else drive it so that means the one using food stamps must own the caddy. Nor do they know that reguardless of personal income if a person is taking care of a foster child that foster parent gets paid by the state with cash and food stamps or if one is on the persons food stamp card they can buy food for a person unable to get to the store themselves.

Btw, up here in michigan they use a debit card because during drug raids they found drug dealers with thousands of dollars worth of food stamps, it was on the news, so that means everyone in the state on welfare were using food stamps for drugs. So if drugs were out lawed and made a criminal offense, people would just stop, according to wing nuts.

Never mind that the government tried that with alcohol in the 20's and only created a generation of acoholics. Never mind that the war on drugs started in 1900 and hasn't stopped one person from becoming a drug addict, oh no, only weak minded folks become addicts, so say the wing nuts.

And remember the driving force behind the drug war is the amounts of money the states get from the feds. It pays states to keep the drug war going and wing nuts feel safe with drug laws because it takes criminals off the street. SUCKERS, once again we see wing nut non thought at its best.

Sorry one of my pet peeves.

[Bluenorthwest]

22. Any more talking points to work in there bud?

First off, 'absatinence-only' does not teach kids about safe sex. It teaches them about having no sex at all, not how to practice a safe sexuality. So your entire premise is incorrect. Teaching about safe sex is not intended to 'stop them from having sex' it is intended to prevent pregnancy and disease. Which is does.
You have no facts or logic to offer at all. All thinking people know that when a poster begins lashing out with invective and calling others names they have no point to make, and no ability to hide that lack of content.

[RadiationTherapy]

27. Does any sane person think that "stopping" people from doing drugs

makes any goddamned sense at all?

People will get high. Booze, church, fast food, diet soda, coffee, cigarettes, shopping, sex, running, adrenaline sports, heated discussions...

People get HIIIIIIGGGGHHHHHH.

That is where we have to get consciously in order to break away from this nonsense. People want to get high and they STILL have to account for their responsibilities. No excuses.

[rucky]

34. Parents can teach kids responsibility.

And to make good decisions.

[RaleighNCDUer]

38. Oh, grow up.

People have used drugs of many sorts for thousands of years. The most common drug, alcohol, was being produced at least 8,000 years ago, by archeological records. Drug use is a natural to people as eating - which is where drug use began.

The problem is not the drugs - it is the criminalization of them, which prevents people who overindulge from getting treatment without risking conflict with the laws.

Want to know why cocaine and heroin and meth use continue to grow? Because pot, which is bulkier, easier to find and easier to bust, is illegal, so narcotics officers waste all their time and resources on the low-hanging fruit which has NEVER is the history of the world killed anyone.

Legalize, regulate and tax pot, and 90% of the nation's drug problem would vanish.

[bahrbearian]

59. Also pot is detected in your system for a longer period of time.

A company that drug test its employees is going to find more pot use than coke or meth. So an employee of said company will take that into account.

[High Plains]

48. Yes, I think education/prevention works.

And you can do it without arresting 1.8 million people a year on drug charges and creating a huge police state.

Look at the decline in cigarette smoking in past decades. That is due entirely to public health/prevention campaigns and punitive taxes, no need for "the war on cigarettes." And guess what? No similar reductions have been achieved with the war on drugs.

[High Plains]

49. You sound like Dana Garvery's grumpy old man.

[Zhade]

65. Here's some education for YOU - marijuana is a beneficial herb. Scientific studies prove this.

Without it, I'd now have glaucoma. That's what my doctors have determined through extensive testing.

People who smoke pot are not stupid. People who believe everyone who does is stupid, are.

[Chulanowa]

67. Drug ed and sex ed are both hobbled by the same attitude you show

"They'll do it anyway!" or "This might even encourage them!"

You want to keep the kids off drugs? Bring a few tweakers to class, and have them smile lots. Or perhaps have a heroin addict in need of a fix try to give the class a lecture. Instead, drug ed amounts to "drugs are bad because they're illegal, because they're bad, so don't do them"

The children are never exposed to the real costs of drug use. They need to be given frank and concise examples. Male students would no doubt love to hear what cocaine will do to their ability to maintain an erection. bringing in a number of addicts - both those in recovery and some on loan from the prison holding tanks, smell and all, would be a decent eye-opener.

That said, most kids are more interested in the psychotropics these days. let the teacher take a bit of acid, then conduct the lesson. if the kids aren't sufficiently freaked, then they're some jaded SOB's.

[Trajan]

70. One of the most ridiculous things I have read in DU ...

Education doesnt work ....

Um .... When someone learns something from 'peers', they are being 'educated' ...

Being informed is the FIRST step to knowing ANYTHING ...

Sheeesh ... Im simply flabbergasted by this statement ....

[tavalon]

6. The United States plays both sides so I'm not sure what failure would look like to them

After all, part of the reason they got into this game was to subjugate blacks and decimate poor inner city areas. Those have been very successful. And much money has been spreed around the DEA for this "War" so they are getting well greased. The "War" never was about stopping drug use so I don't see how not stemming the amount of drug use constitutes a failure.

Inject a little honesty and light into this "War" and it would be over in a heartbeat. I wonder if we will.

[nomorenomore08]

7. Drug prohibition campaigns in the early 20th century did have a strong racial aspect.

When opium, cocaine, and then marijuana were successively banned, each drug was associated with a threatening ethnic "other" - opium with the Chinese, cocaine with black people, and marijuana with Mexicans. And of course nowadays, the "war on drugs" provides cover for all sorts of racist policies, most notably police profiling, and draconian sentencing for (usually black or Latino) drug offenders. And the so-called war has been supported by the public in large part because of politicians exploiting that imbedded mental image of the scary, threatening black (or just dark-skinned in general) man.

[machI]

20. Don't forget about clandestine factions of our own Government wanting to control the drug market

Black operations conducted by clandestine groups in the Government collected a 'tax' from the population by importing illegal drugs. Part of the 'war on drugs' included elimination of the competition to increase profits.

The CIA, NSA and other eidolon groups collect huge sums of money through the back door while the elected politicians score points with their 'programs' intended to help the people.

The War on Drugs is a hideous example of a Government wasting huge sums of money while imprisoning its citizens for social crimes. These social crimes are only crimes because the Government defines them to be so.

[SpiralHawk]

8. D'oh

eom

[eShirl]

9. This is what, the dozenth report saying the WOD has failed?

When do we finally do something besides perpetuate or escalate?

[FiveGoodMen]

76. "When do we finally do something besides perpetuate or escalate?"

When we've won the war on lying motherfuckers in the nation's pulpits.

[gmpierce]

10. It was never about drugs

The war on drugs was never about drugs. It was always about power. The generation of the sixties told the government to stuff it. The major issue was the war, but drugs were an in-your-face that allowed everyone to share in the rebellion.

Reagan's objective was to bring the plebs back under control, and the "war on drugs" was a convenient way of letting everyone know that the boss was back in charge. The sixties rebellion had lost it and no one felt like fighting a war for drugs.

Actually, stopping the use of drugs would have been a disaster. Our masters would have had to find some other way of showing their power.

This crap has been going on for over 20 years, and it is not going to change until we once again tell them to stuff it.

Right now we have a government and a business aristocracy that lacks the competence to run a taco wagon. And once again, we are the ones paying the price for their stupidity

It might, once again, be time to deliver a message.

[Uncle Joe]

61. Bullshit,

they could run a taco wagon!

[Mithreal]

11. Take away the opiates of the masses

and you will have a lot of angry masses.

We have had 2 recent Presidents and a PE now that used recreational drugs. Is America experiencing a little cognitive dissonance?

If we TRULY focused on improving the lives of our citizens and all that entails, invested in depressed communities and had a positive vision for America, maybe just maybe there would not be such a great need for these substances.

The rampant drug use is a symptom, right? There are underlying causes. Punish the symptoms, don't treat the disease.

The data is all important to people like us but no amount of new data or reports is going to win this argument. The folks on the right have already chosen to ignore all facts that do not fit their ideology.

[sofa king]

16. Will Obama dare to go back to the Carter years?

It's widely acknowledged that 1980 was the last year in which America's drug "problem" was treated as a public health issue. Since Saint Ronald, it's been a highly lucrative law enforcement issue. Saint Ronnie cracked down on domestic marijuana cultivation the same summer that crack showed up in our inner cities, and now one percent of our population is in prison.

It's worth noting that neither approach worked very well.

[rucognizant]

42. In 1979

my Father was undergoing chemo for lung cancer...........THE HOSPITAL GAVE HIM MARIJUANA CIGARETTES! He didn't loose his hair, wasn't sick..............and ultimately it was his heart that killed him several years later!
Having lived 5/7th of my life PRIOR to the WOD, W O Liberals, middle class, education, democracy.......................the majority of kids grew up with more focus on their future. AND THEY HAD A FUTURE!

[tridim]

47. My father's asthma treatments consisted of inhaling the smoke from a cup of smoldering cannabis

It was administered at his doctor's office under supervision. He said it stopped his asthma attacks almost instantly and completely. Of course it took place in the 1950's, back before big pharma fucked everything up.

Today's "treatment" is pharmaceutical produced and marketed inhaled steroids. Just lovely huh?

[shanti]

57. one thing will never change

people WILL use mind altering substances, and no laws will stop them.

[Mithreal]

58. Of course, true. nt

[Zhade]

66. Not exactly. I became MORE informed, and thus angrier, after I started smoking herb.

NT!

[Mithreal]

68. Post hoc ergo propter hoc is a logical fallacy. nt

[Window]

13. I swear, I believe some of these reporters/editors/pundits, etc., read DU

and use our posts for their reports...and those that don't, should. Aren't we intelligent. LOL!

[eauclaireliberal]

14. Hell even a lot of right-wingers have been saying the same thing

for YEARS. Its a waste of money, it creates too many stupid laws, ties up courts in lame marijuana convictions and ultimately increases violent crime.

Obviously the lessons of the failures of prohibition (1920-1933) still are ignored.

[ixion]

15. yes, it is a futile and counter-productive 'war' that has hurt more then helped... END IT NOW

eom

[machI]

17. The War on Drugs Has failed? I have never heard that piece of information before!

I have never heard that piece of information before





NOT

[Preening Fop]

18. Pawned my pot pipe.......

And bought a big bottle of government sanctioned :spray: alcohol....!

[ProfessorGAC]

19. That's Not Evidence Of Failure

That's evidence of the consequences of the fundamental failure of the war on drugs. While i certainly can't dispute the seriousness of those consequences to Mexico, Zedillo is describing secondary effects, or symptoms of a policy already in failure.

The failure is an antecedent to the conditions described in this report from Mexico.

The fundamental failure of the WoD is that it attempted to alter behavior for a problem that wasn't really societal in nature, but more personal. And, the attempts to do so created an independent economic system that does more damage to society as a whole than drugs ever did, or ever could.

When a gov't pursues a policy that amounts to a solution in search of a problem, the aftershocks will be as Zedillo describes.

But, what he describes is not evidence of failure. That evidence must, and does, long predate the symptoms rightfully bemoaned in this report.
The Professor

[mdmc]

23. Nothing Obama can't fix

stay the course!

[High Plains]

50. Stay the course?

[mdmc]

51. if there is no spine for real change.. stay the course

Obama is a very smart man. He knows that the drug war is a failure. If he continues to fight it, then we stay the course.

[polichick]

24. The first thing we did wrong was calling it a "war" - I hope the new administration...

...moves away from that counterproductive terminology re the problems of terror, drugs, etc.

[nebenaube]

25. not

"The only long-run solution to the problem of illegal narcotics is to reduce the demand for drugs in the major consuming countries, including the United States."...

Bullshit, how about we eliminate the profit motive by legalizing grass and offering treatment for heroin, opium and cocaine. Redirect the 'hard' drug users to the largely safe habit of cannabis. You know, the 'Dutch' model.

[desktop]

26. Drug war is a jobs program for the prison industry

If we stopped the drug war, what would Texas, Oklahoma, and all other states do with all those prisons they have built? What the heck would these states do with all the money they spend on the prison industry? They might have to spend it on public education, or something. How could Texas destroy public education if they did something like that, and what would happen if a large educated electorate developed? I mean, they might start figuring out things and start voting progressive and put the dumb ass Republicans out of business. Can't have that now, can we.

[kenichol]

31. And Mandatory Minimums fuel private prison profits

There's a reason so many private prison firms like GEO donate to campaigns of legislators who then vote for mandatory minimums that fill up private (and state-run) prisons, creating profits so that private prison firms can donate to ....it's a vicious circle. And addicts like my son get incarceration instead of treatment for non-violent drug offenses. Damned right I'm mad. But we've held forums on this very subject in our very conservative, right-wing community and found many who are coming to the conclusion that this War on Drugs is very, very wrong. When I can, I share LEAP, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php to explain why they, too, are opposed to prohibition. Prohibition created high $$ criminals in the 20's and 30's and it's doing the same now.
Check out LEAP.

[Warren Stupidity]

28. Yes well WOD has failed by every measurement for 20 years

and really for 40 years if you go back to Nixon. And report after report comes out stating 'not working', and the answer is always 'more'.

This report takes the often adopted position that what really needs to be done is to lock up (and/or perhaps 'treat') more consumers as that will surely fix the problem. It won't.

Legalize the recreational drugs that are not very harmful, decriminalize the recreational drugs that are very harmful. Provide medical access to treatment, including dosage treatment for addicts, on demand. Empty the prisons of those incarcerated for non-violent drug crimes.

[Christa]

29. K & R nt

[moondust]

30. Good.

It was essentially Ronald Reagan's thinly veiled "War on Liberals" from the outset, an excuse to trump up charges and lock a lot of them up for little or no reason. Where's the "War on Corruption in Government" and the "War on Corporate Ripoffs and Abuse"? Where's the "War on Predatory Greed" and the "War on Racism" and the "War on Sexism" and the "War on Warmongers"? Oh wait, those are mostly Republican evils. Ronnie? Are you listening?

[justinaforjustice]

32. War on Drugs A Great Success -- for the Anti-Drug Profiteers

Just as the War on Iraq has been a great success from the point of view of the defense contractors such as Halleburton, so with the War on Drugs. A massive industry has developed which is dependent upon the billions of taxpayer dollars spend on anti-drug related activities, including the private prison system. Even the terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda are reaping the proceeds of the U.S.'s absurd anti-drug policies through sales of opium.

U.S. drug policies have placed entire countries into corruption-fed subservience to the illegal drug industry. One prime minister of Cambodia stayed by office by taking DEA money to fight drugs while he exported wholesale huge quantifies of drugs to western countries to finance his election campaigns. The leadership of Colombia is doing exactly the same thing.

The U.S. keeps the price of drugs very high because of the risk factors, thus creating the enormous profits that drug traffickers reap from their product.

The only solution to ending our drug-related problems is legalizing the manufacture and sale of drugs. Yes, a certain percentage of the population will use drugs, a much smaller percentage will use drug to excessive. Those persons need drug treatment, not jail.

We don't have a drug problem, we have a profit problem. The social problems -- the crime and corruption which flows from the high cost of drugs would virtually disappear if we take the profit out of the illegal drug industry by ending the so-called War on Drugs and legalizing it.

The biggest obstacle to ending our drug problems is the anti-drug industry. They will fight tooth and nail to keep drugs illegal so they can make billions "fighting or incarcerating" the so-called problem.

[HopeHoops]

33. Same as with Iraq - the war failed the moment it was announced!

[nadinbrzezinski]

35. really? You don't say...

or is it that the Drug Cartels are starting the same shit in Chula Vista they started in TJ ten years ago?

I mean major shootouts that WILL require army troops are not cool

[shadowknows69]

36. They release this same finding like every year don't they?

I think it's just to rub our faces in it. "Ha ha pot smokers. We know this is a bullshit crime but the Pharma lobby says we need to keep busting you."

[Turbineguy]

37. If participating in drugs

is more rewarding than participating in society...

I told my kids if you get involved with dope, your life is no longer your own.

It sounds hokey.

But there's an interesting economic impact. Far example, it's my belief that most of the technological development in car audio in the last 25 years was driven by drugs.

[valerief]

40. It's not a war ON drugs. It's a war FOR drugs. People here in high places

must be making big bucks off the Afghanistan poppy boom.

[ooglymoogly]

41. This report like all the others will go the way of the doo

doo bird. There is no money nor power for pugs in treatment.

[groovedaddy]

43. Prison Industrial Complex LOVES the war on drugs - lobbies for heavier sentences

Capitalism at work! Keep the customers coming!

[L0oniX]

44. The real problem is the law enforcement workers who profit and keep their jobs because of these laws

This is the main reason I hate cops and private prisons!

[SlingBlade]

45. U.S. war on drugs has failed ?

Duh, First off, Lets call it what it truly is

The U.S War on the American People !
No other scheme by the government has cost the average american citizen
so much as in the loss of personal freedoms and millions of dollars
down a never ending rat hole simply to put the conservative mind or whats
left of it to ease.

And this doesn't even count the millions who are now sitting in prison
for non violent drug crimes.

What a farce, Hopefully President Obama may find the time to look into this.
As a community volunteer he knows better than most what this so called
war on drugs has done to our people and our Nation as a whole.

[Turborama]

52. $46,286,434,456 is how much it's cost so far this year....

War on Drugs Clock


K&R


:kick:

[whyverne]

46. The "War" is worse than the problem.

4,000 people killed! You'd have a hard time finding that many people killed by using drugs. The cure is worse than the disease.
Locally we just had that FBI agent killed in a drug raid. The wife claims she fired because she thought she was being robbed. Meanwhile the neighbors say that these "terrible" drug dealers were the nicest folks in town and would do anything for you.
What the hell was gained?
Spend as much time and money on the users and drug use will go down. It's been proven. But we live in a society that likes to punish. More punishment is the answer to everything. It only creates a more brutish population.

[percussivemadness]

53. U.S. war on some drugs has failed, report says - (fixed the title)

[mbperrin]

54. Sorry - but it's a huge success! At creating slave labor for industry,

which is what it was designed to do.

Tired of paying workers more than 50 cents an hour? Tired of having workers call in late or sick or not even calling? Tired of unmotivated workers demanding perks like health care and whining about not being able to pay their rent or needing groceries? Tired of impaired workers?

Well, then, contact your local prison, which has stocked up on plenty of young offenders who have guaranteed places to live, health care provided by the taxpayers, no union, will be punished for failure to show, have no access to drugs or alcohol, and are available at various rates of pay, typically beginning at 37 cents per hour!

For more information:
http://www.nationalcia.org/


Working on the Inside - - Succeeding on the Outside
The National Correctional Industries Association (NCIA) is an international nonprofit professional association whose members represent all 50 state correctional industry agencies, Federal Prison Industries, foreign correctional industry agencies and city/county jail industry programs. Private sector companies that work in partnership with correctional industries both as suppliers/vendors and as partners in apprenticeship and work programs are also members.

[Texano78704]

55. It has never been about the drugs

It has always been about a counterinsurgency by the rich against the poor. The side benefit of prison labor and the creation of private prisons is merely vulture capitalism at it finest.

[ryanmuegge]

56. But it does create jobs.

[rhett o rick]

60. Wrong, the war on drugs is a huge success. It is only a failure if you believe the goal was to solve

the drug problem. It is a boon for the police business and the prison business and it has helped keep the prices of drugs up so the wealthy's cut is profitable. It has also removed a large number of the poor class off the streets and out of the voting booths. It has been a very useful fear tool for many politicians. You know those that promote three strikes your out, maybe two strikes, or better yet (for them) no strikes just look guilty and your out. Cheney has $85 million invested in the prison system. It is huge business.

[windoe]

62. What a profitable racket they have going

the arms/drugs/ prisons - they have become a powerful international gang.

The money saved by ending this corruption could rebuild the infrastructure of not only America but so many other countries. How on Earth can we pull the plug on them? There has to be a way.

[Roon]

63. Meth was made popular BECAUSE of the war on drugs

It's easy to make, it's cheap, and there is no smuggling involved.

[lin_e65]

64. "Sigh" It failed...huh???

Maybe because more people are taking prescription drugs now. More people are on antidepressants, viagra, botox. Take a little reefer and you won't need presecription drugs!!!

[LynnTheDem]

69. And another duhhhh moment. The entire world knew this "news" years ago.

But give it another few years and most Americans will know this "news", too!




:eyes:

[RCinBrooklyn]

71. Also failed in '07, '06, '05, '04, '03, '02, '01, '00, '99, '98, '97, '96, '95, '94, '93, '92...,

[MrSlayer]

72. No it hasn't, it's provided just what they want.

Lots of bodies for the privatized prisons, plenty of possession fines and confiscations. They bring it in, sell it, bust you for it, resell it and repeat the process.

[Speed8098]

73. The History of the Non-Medicinal Use of Drugs in the US

It's long, but it's worth the read.

http://www.forces.org/articles/files/whiteb/white.htm

I'm hoping President Obama has had the idea of ending the war on drugs in his mind and has smartly kept it quiet until he is in position to change it.

It would solve a ton of problems we have in this country, including the financial ones.

[Quantess]

74. kick

[douglas9]

75. Einstein, insanity and the war on drugs

Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results. His definition fits America’s war on drugs, a multi-billion dollar, four-decade exercise in futility.

The war on drugs has helped turn the United States into the country with the world’s largest prison population. (Noteworthy statistic: The U.S. has 5 percent of the world’s population and around 25 percent of the world’s prisoners). Keen demand for illicit drugs in America, the world’s biggest market, helped spawn global criminal enterprises that use extreme violence in the pursuit of equally extreme profits.

Over the years, the war on drugs has spurred repeated calls from social scientists and economists (including three Nobel prize winners) to seriously rethink a strategy that ignores the laws of supply and demand.

Under the headline “The Failed War on Drugs,” Washington’s respected, middle-of-the-road Brookings Institution said in a November report that drug use had not declined significantly over the years and that “falling retail drug prices reflect the failure of efforts to reduce the supply of drugs.”

http://blogs.reuters.com/great-debate/2008/12/03/einstein-insanity-and-the-war-on-drugs/

[FiveGoodMen]

77. "expecting different results"

What makes you think that the people running the 'War on Drugs' are expecting -- or hoping for -- a different result?

For example, you said...

"The war on drugs has helped turn the United States into the country with the world’s largest prison population"

...and there's lots of money in that industry.

Also, selective prosecution allows Limpbutt to go free but lets any number of otherwise upstanding citizens lose their freedom and basic rights. If you were the one deciding who to go after and who to leave alone, that power might come in real handy.

Just like Iraq, just like the current bail-outs, the War on Drugs is working as designed.