People are much stronger today, the media doesn’t dominate like it did years back. People today are now coming out and speaking the truth, without fear. Nothing can overpower freewill. This past decade has been the biggest movement for anti-drug prohibition ever recorded in the united states. The public is now realizing the truth. Tax payer’s money is not going to what the public really needs. This war is not on drugs anymore, its on the people. Government trust is fading, as nothing the government has done today has helped the public of the serious issues, Our health care, economic downfall due to wasteful spending, gas prices; this list can go on.

People now seek for the truth and now they don’t go for the government. Today, information can be found easily which was not available years ago. The Internet is a powerful tool. This allows a person to believe what they want to believe instead of being fed the facts by the media. This Drug war has been the biggest waste of the United States with the most failure ever documented. Now we all are realizing; the brainwashing and false advertising of Marijuana to be “dangerous and deadly” in America is fading.  

Soon, there will be commercials of Marijuana Healing, instead of bashing. The “War On Drugs” is a failure. How many news articles, internet blogs, speeches, events, rallys and anything speaking the truth of this does it take to convince the federal government of the truth?  Norm Stamper former cheif of the Seatle Police Department, at Western Washing University he speaks in an event at the school’s Drug Information center:

Despite more than a trillion dollars spent, drugs are more available today at lower prices and higher potency than at the beginning of America’s “war on drugs,” the former chief of the Seattle Police Department argued Thursday. Norm Stamper, chief of the department from 1994 to 2000, spoke at Western Washington University in an event organized by the school’s Drug Information Center.

Photo by Mark Malijan - The Bellingham Herald
Norm Stamper, former Seattle Chief of Police,
delivers a speech on the war on drugs at the
Performing Arts Center at Western Washington University, on March 3.

Speaking for Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, Stamper called the drug war an “abject failure” that has led to the unjust incarceration of millions and created a system that promotes a violent drug trade that has ravaged Mexico and the rest of Latin America.

 

“The incineration of human beings … decapitation … this is the kind of violence that a multibillion-dollar drug trafficking industry creates,” Stamper told a crowd of approximately 150 students and community members.

Stamper said the prohibition of drugs is partially responsible for that violence, since it creates a market that dealers exploit.

“The demand has always been greater than the supply, which is why the suppliers make so much on these drugs,” he said.

Stamper outlined some of the “collateral damage” of the drug war, including:

Students who have lost out on financial aid because of misdemeanor drug convictions. Individuals living in poverty who have been denied federal public housing because of drug convictions. Stamper noted that neither rape nor murder convictions prevent someone from receiving public housing.

Nearly 2.3 million Americans jailed on drug charges, with nearly 90 percent of those convictions being simple possession. Stamper also argued that the drug war has disproportionately affected African Americans, leading to between seven and 10 times more black people being charged with drug crimes than white people.

As a solution, Stamper proposed legalizing all drugs and having the government regulate them — similar to the current system for alcohol and tobacco. Stamper argued that since decades of government intervention has done little to stem the flow of drugs into the country, the government may as well try to cut down on the violence inherent in the drug trade.

Several audience members questioned the morality and practicality of having the government sell drugs that could kill people and lead to addiction.

Stamper was not completely sure of the logistics, but countered by saying that drug addiction would be a reality whether users were getting their substance from the government or a drug dealer on the street. Why not ensure that people were getting clean needles for intravenous drugs and using proper strength drugs that would limit overdoses, Stamper argued, pointing to the success of rehabilitation programs for addicts in Europe. Either way, Stamper said America has erred in treating drugs as a criminal-justice issue instead of a publichealth issue.

“We spend seven times more on enforcement than we do on prevention and treatment,” he said. “Think about all the good that would be caused if we reversed that number.”

Article found: Here

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 5th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

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and is filed under Daily Posts. Written by: Dr.Roots