End the Foolish War on Drugs

[mattskramer]

Pedro Oregon Navarro of Houston, Texas, was shot 12 times in his bedroom by police who were initiating a drug raid on his home. No drugs were found. In Los Angeles, Calif., 65-year-old Mario Paz was fatally shot in the back by police although he was unarmed, and on his knees in his own bedroom. Read the stories.

http://www.polkonline.com/stories/101500/opi_beckett.shtml

Ismael Mena was killed when police barged into his house looking for drugs. They had the wrong address. Check out the list of innocent victims of the drug war:

http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/2003/08/17/drugWarVictims.html

Just picture this and imagine yourself being the victim:
Accelyne Williams of Boston was such a victim. Boston's anti-narcotics squad hammered down his door, expecting to find a cache of guns and drugs. Instead, they found Reverend Williams, a 75-year-old retired Methodist preacher and substance abuse counselor. Reverend Williams, hands tied behind his back, died of a heart attack during the botched drug-raid. The police broke into the wrong apartment because they failed to check the story of an intoxicated paid informant who gave them the wrong address. Police like their “no knock” raids because they provide surprise and safety—safety for the police, death for Reverend Williams. Read the story.

http://www.independent.org/tii/news/000710Benson.html

If we legalize drugs, there might be a few more addicts actually in need of medical attention, but I think that the benefit (fewer innocent victims, fewer prison inmates, etc.) would greatly exceed the cost. I fully believe that we should end this costly and foolish war.

For the Libertarian Party's official reasons for opposing the war on drugs read:

http://www.lp.org/issues/relegalize.html

 

[rtwngAvngr]

I agree 100%, Matty.

 

[OCA]

Never going to happen. Americans don't want a country full of drug addicts. Yeah it would be cool for 18& over to have legal availability of crack, crank and heroin, yeah thats real conducive to a civilized society. Anyone who believes that America would be better off with ALL drugs being legalized is off their rocker and really irrelevant.

 

[rtwngAvngr]

Originally posted by OCA
Never going to happen. Americans don't want a country full of drug addicts. Yeah it would be cool for 18& over to have legal availability of crack, crank and heroin, yeah thats real conducive to a civilized society. Anyone who believes that America would be better off with ALL drugs being legalized is off their rocker and really irrelevant.

At least weed though, right man?

 

[OCA]

Originally posted by rtwngAvngr
At least weed though, right man?

I'm already down on this board saying that i'm cool with weed being legalized. Used to like a couple tokes at a party myself in college and didn't feel any different than I did after a few martinis. But for chrissakes legalizing all drugs, might as well let the fat lady start singing because that will be all she wrote. Look at all the problems we have now and people have to get into some shady situations to get their dope, if it is as easy as going to the corner pharmacy? Katie bar the door!

 

[rtwngAvngr]

Originally posted by OCA
I'm already down on this board saying that i'm cool with weed being legalized. Used to like a couple tokes at a party myself in college and didn't feel any different than I did after a few martinis. But for chrissakes legalizing all drugs, might as well let the fat lady start singing because that will be all she wrote. Look at all the problems we have now and people have to get into some shady situations to get their dope, if it is as easy as going to the corner pharmacy? Katie bar the door!

Addiction is a problem. So much of the crime is due to the exorbitant prices of drugs due to their blackmarket nature, and battles over distribution territories.

I still have my doubts about crack being legal though.

 

[OCA]

Yeah the price will come down but then low price and easy availability will open drugs up I believe to a whole new market. I wonder how many people there are out there who are weak and would jump at the chance to do some dope if they didn't have to deal with the riff raff they do to get it right now?

 

[5stringJeff]

Originally posted by mattskramer
Pedro Oregon Navarro of Houston, Texas, was shot 12 times in his bedroom by police who were initiating a drug raid on his home. No drugs were found. In Los Angeles, Calif., 65-year-old Mario Paz was fatally shot in the back by police although he was unarmed, and on his knees in his own bedroom. Read the stories.

http://www.polkonline.com/stories/101500/opi_beckett.shtml

Ismael Mena was killed when police barged into his house looking for drugs. They had the wrong address. Check out the list of innocent victims of the drug war:

http://blogs.salon.com/0002762/stories/2003/08/17/drugWarVictims.html

Just picture this and imagine yourself being the victim:
Accelyne Williams of Boston was such a victim. Boston's anti-narcotics squad hammered down his door, expecting to find a cache of guns and drugs. Instead, they found Reverend Williams, a 75-year-old retired Methodist preacher and substance abuse counselor. Reverend Williams, hands tied behind his back, died of a heart attack during the botched drug-raid. The police broke into the wrong apartment because they failed to check the story of an intoxicated paid informant who gave them the wrong address. Police like their “no knock” raids because they provide surprise and safety—safety for the police, death for Reverend Williams. Read the story.

http://www.independent.org/tii/news/000710Benson.html

1. Legalize Marijuana. I've been saying that for months on here.
2. Shoot back.

 

[rtwngAvngr]

Originally posted by OCA
Yeah the price will come down but then low price and easy availability will open drugs up I believe to a whole new market.

BUt the shooting, stabbing, robbing, and unnecessary burden on the prison sytem will disappear.

I wonder how many people there are out there who are weak and would jump at the chance to do some dope if they didn't have to deal with the riff raff they do to get it right now?

Of course there will be the Don't do drugs campaigns, just like there are no smoking campaigns.

I see your point though. There will be more addicts.

 

[DKSuddeth]

anyone who is ok with drug enforcement agencies having the power to raid, terrorize, and kill citizens of this country in the fervent pursuit of the war on drugs needs to be the next victim of a police drug raid.

there is NO, and I mean NO, excuse for the death of an innocent citizen with the stupid explanation of being for the 'greater good' in the fight against drugs.

 

[insein]

Weed yes. LSD, Heroin, Crack, Coke, Base; Hell NO!!

Weed has never killed anyone due to an overdose. Weed has never caused a man to beat his wife. Weed has never made a guy pick up a gun and kill himself. If anything it has prevented all that.

I don't smoke pot. Never have, never will. But alot of my friends do. Let me tell you, without weed, they'd be pretty deranged individuals. With it they seem much more normal.

I think the overcrowding of jails due to weed related arrests is ridiculous. Alot of people smoke weed. Not just the criminal ilk or kids looking to experiment. Fathers and Mothers, Grandparents of Suburbia all smoke it. I know my dad smokes it. He's never done any harm to me, my sisters, my mother or anybody else.

So legalize weed, but not the hard shit.

 

[love11]

In the end pot is illegal because it is currently more profitable for the govenment and it's cronies (i.e. drug companies and private prisons) than if it were legal. Geeze, if you can throw a 60 year old man living in Texas in prison for life for possessing a simple joint, imagine the profits to the prison private sector! Pharmacutical companies have disputed the beneficial effects of Mary Jane forever and will continue to do so - afterall, what's a $25 bag of pot to a $200 bottle of oxicotton. Hmmm.
The War on Drugs isn't about addiction. It's about profit.

 

[insein]

Originally posted by love11
In the end pot is illegal because it is currently more profitable for the govenment and it's cronies (i.e. drug companies and private prisons) than if it were legal. Geeze, if you can throw a 60 year old man living in Texas in prison for life for possessing a simple joint, imagine the profits to the prison private sector! Pharmacutical companies have disputed the beneficial effects of Mary Jane forever and will continue to do so - afterall, what's a $25 bag of pot to a $200 bottle of oxicotton. Hmmm.
The War on Drugs isn't about addiction. It's about profit.

Great conspiracy theories. Except that for possession of a joint you don't get life in prison.

 

[love11]

I guess it depends what state you live in and whose your judge. Ever read the book "Reefer Madness - sex, drugs and labor in the american black market" by Eric Schlosser?

 

[nycflasher]

Originally posted by OCA
Never going to happen. Americans don't want a country full of drug addicts.

IMO, we already have 'em and legalization wouldn't increase addiction rates significantly, if at all.

Alcohol, Cannabis, Cocaine, Heroin, Extacy, Morphine, Vikadin, Valium, Caffeine, Nicotine, MDMA, Meth, Oxycodone, etc.

WHAT IS THE BENEFIT OF THE WAR ON DRUGS?

 

[mattskramer]

Today's illegal drugs were legal before 1914. Cocaine was even found in the original Coca-Cola recipe. Americans had few problems with cocaine, opium, heroin or marijuana. Drugs were inexpensive; crime was low. Most users handled their drug of choice and lived normal, productive lives. Addicts out of control were a tiny minority.

http://www.lp.org/issues/relegalize.html

Let's outlaw fast food cheeseburgers. They really put a strain on the healthcare dollar. Some people just don't seem capable of controlling themselves. They make themselves sick by eating fat, greasy, cholesterol-filled burgers day after day, week after week, and year after year, and then leave health-conscious citizens to pick up their medical bills.

In addition to that, we better outlaw high-sugar foods. I made the mistake of overdosing on sodas and sugar cookies a few months ago. I was on a sugar high all afternoon and evening. It was not a pretty picture.

I wonder if we should make the possession of bars of soap illegal. Consider all the people (particularly the elderly) who slip and fall on soap that they carelessly left in the bathtub, or even on the slick bathroom floor. If we need soap, let us limit it to "soap on a rope" which must always be hung. Perhaps we can allow people to have bottled soap though some people might not be able to handle that stuff.

 

[love11]

The benefit of the war on drugs is to limit freedom to the individual, the little guy, who perhaps, if allowed to smoke a toke or two would take more of an interest in other freedoms taken away on the sly (patriot act ring a bell?). Cospiracy theory? What's not conspiratorial about tossing thousands of non-violent offenders into prisons for longer sentences than given to most murders that have been turned over from governmental control to private businesses?

 

[nycflasher]

Originally posted by mattskramer
I made the mistake of overdosing on sodas and sugar cookies a few months ago. I was on a sugar high all afternoon and evening. It was not a pretty picture.

We admitted we were powerless over sugar--that our lives had become unmanageable.

Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God, as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to sugar-addicts, and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

 

[nycflasher]

Originally posted by love11
What's not conspiratorial about tossing thousands of non-violent offenders into prisons for longer sentences than given to most murders that have been turned over from governmental control to private businesses?

In 1980, 14.5% of all juvenile drug arrests were Black youth; by 1990, Black youth constituted 48.8% of juvenile drug arrests.

Hmm, could the War on Drugs be racist even?
What do you make of this statistic? (Big D go fuck yourself)

 

[OCA]

Originally posted by nycflasher
IMO, we already have 'em and legalization wouldn't increase addiction rates significantly, if at all.

Alcohol, Cannabis, Cocaine, Heroin, Extacy, Morphine, Vikadin, Valium, Caffeine, Nicotine, MDMA, Meth, Oxycodone, etc.

WHAT IS THE BENEFIT OF TH EWAR ON DRUGS?

Absolutely one of the most ridiculous statements posted on USMB to date. Right, you're going to sit there with a straight face and tell me there aren't any other people who would go down and get some black tar or crystal meth if it were available at Rite-Aid? Are you fucking serious?