T
The420Guy
Guest
Feb 15, 00
Kansas City Star (MO)
Copyright: 2000 The Kansas City Star
Author: Frank Lingo
****
DRUG WARS POLITICAL PRISONERS Today, Feb. 15, America's prisons are expected to reach a population of 2 million inmates. Vigils and protests are planned in more than 30 cities to mark this miserable milestone. Although violent crime has steadily dropped, our prison population has nearly tripled in 15 years. The reason for the skyrocketing figure is simple: the war on drugs. According to an FBI report, nationally more than 680,000 marijuana arrests were made in 1998, exceeding the total arrests for murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault combined. Eighty-eight percent of the pot busts were for possession only. This monumental waste of lives, money and the judicial system itself is gaining steam due to our pig-headed politicians. President Clinton has viciously cracked down on medical use of marijuana after several states passed citizen initiatives to allow cannabis use by people suffering from AIDS, cancer and other diseases. Clinton's repressive tactics extend past our borders to U.S. support of the Mexican government, heavily corrupted by drug lords, and also U.S. military aid to Colombia. The Colombian army is notorious for human-rights abuses in its drug war -- really a 40-year civil war -- with abundant murder and mayhem on all sides. One of the largest demonstrations in world history took place in Colombia last October when more than 10 million people turned out to call for peace. But peace won't be achieved anywhere until we quit persecuting people for pursuing pleasure. The politicians piously proclaim they're protecting our kids while they merrily mangle our constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure. And it hasn't worked. Teens' rate of drug use is about the same as it has been for decades, despite drug education programs such as DARE, which lecture rather than engage the kids, and lose credibility by lumping marijuana with hard drugs. We Americans love our drugs and always have. A century ago there were plenty of drug addicts, hooked to similar narcotics we see today. But we didn't have the government protecting us from ourselves. Back then, drug addicts held jobs and lived somewhat normal lives since their drugs were affordable and administered orally. It's comparable to those hooked on tobacco or prescription drugs today. With the advent of drug laws, dope became much more expensive, necessitating the efficiency of injection and a life of crime for addicts. Of course, the key comparison is to alcohol. After 14 years of Prohibition, our leaders saw that this curtailment of personal freedom was useless and had only succeeded in bolstering organized crime. Now, after many decades of drug prohibition, our leaders refuse to see that we're stuck in the same quagmire with drugs. The Eisenhower Foundation, a nonprofit research group, recently found that wrong policy choices have contributed to our continuing violence. The foundation cited building prisons, the war on drugs and zero tolerance toward criminals as examples of misguided policies. Recommended were longer-term solutions such as early intervention for troubled youth, job training and drug treatment programs. Turning us into a nation of screws and cons is bad enough, but it gets worse when police abuse their power. After massive corruption was revealed in the Los Angeles Police Department, Joseph McNamara, fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institute and former Kansas City police chief, was interviewed by the Drug Reform Coordination Network. "This is not an LAPD problem, this is a national crisis, and it is directly reflective of the immense profits available under drug prohibition," said McNamara. "The pattern is that you get a small group of predatory criminals with badges and they commit armed robbery, they steal drugs, plant evidence, commit homicide and so on." On the positive side, New Mexico's Republican Gov. Gary Johnson has boldly proposed legalizing drugs. Where drug-reform measures have been brought to the ballot, they've usually won. But some lawmakers have suppressed or vetoed the voters' decisions. And the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate has endlessly stalled confirmation votes on dozens of federal judges for overburdened courts. Al Gore and George W. Bush don't offer hope for compassion, despite Gore's admission of earlier drug use and Bush's admission to earlier alcohol abuse and allegations of cocaine use. The candidates tell us they're close to Jesus, but it would be helpful if they had a personal relationship with justice. We, the people, need to drill the message into our leaders' thick skulls to get the government out of our private lives. Until we do, we can expect a society in turmoil.
Kansas City Star (MO)
Copyright: 2000 The Kansas City Star
Author: Frank Lingo
****
DRUG WARS POLITICAL PRISONERS Today, Feb. 15, America's prisons are expected to reach a population of 2 million inmates. Vigils and protests are planned in more than 30 cities to mark this miserable milestone. Although violent crime has steadily dropped, our prison population has nearly tripled in 15 years. The reason for the skyrocketing figure is simple: the war on drugs. According to an FBI report, nationally more than 680,000 marijuana arrests were made in 1998, exceeding the total arrests for murder, rape, robbery and aggravated assault combined. Eighty-eight percent of the pot busts were for possession only. This monumental waste of lives, money and the judicial system itself is gaining steam due to our pig-headed politicians. President Clinton has viciously cracked down on medical use of marijuana after several states passed citizen initiatives to allow cannabis use by people suffering from AIDS, cancer and other diseases. Clinton's repressive tactics extend past our borders to U.S. support of the Mexican government, heavily corrupted by drug lords, and also U.S. military aid to Colombia. The Colombian army is notorious for human-rights abuses in its drug war -- really a 40-year civil war -- with abundant murder and mayhem on all sides. One of the largest demonstrations in world history took place in Colombia last October when more than 10 million people turned out to call for peace. But peace won't be achieved anywhere until we quit persecuting people for pursuing pleasure. The politicians piously proclaim they're protecting our kids while they merrily mangle our constitutional rights against unreasonable search and seizure. And it hasn't worked. Teens' rate of drug use is about the same as it has been for decades, despite drug education programs such as DARE, which lecture rather than engage the kids, and lose credibility by lumping marijuana with hard drugs. We Americans love our drugs and always have. A century ago there were plenty of drug addicts, hooked to similar narcotics we see today. But we didn't have the government protecting us from ourselves. Back then, drug addicts held jobs and lived somewhat normal lives since their drugs were affordable and administered orally. It's comparable to those hooked on tobacco or prescription drugs today. With the advent of drug laws, dope became much more expensive, necessitating the efficiency of injection and a life of crime for addicts. Of course, the key comparison is to alcohol. After 14 years of Prohibition, our leaders saw that this curtailment of personal freedom was useless and had only succeeded in bolstering organized crime. Now, after many decades of drug prohibition, our leaders refuse to see that we're stuck in the same quagmire with drugs. The Eisenhower Foundation, a nonprofit research group, recently found that wrong policy choices have contributed to our continuing violence. The foundation cited building prisons, the war on drugs and zero tolerance toward criminals as examples of misguided policies. Recommended were longer-term solutions such as early intervention for troubled youth, job training and drug treatment programs. Turning us into a nation of screws and cons is bad enough, but it gets worse when police abuse their power. After massive corruption was revealed in the Los Angeles Police Department, Joseph McNamara, fellow at Stanford's Hoover Institute and former Kansas City police chief, was interviewed by the Drug Reform Coordination Network. "This is not an LAPD problem, this is a national crisis, and it is directly reflective of the immense profits available under drug prohibition," said McNamara. "The pattern is that you get a small group of predatory criminals with badges and they commit armed robbery, they steal drugs, plant evidence, commit homicide and so on." On the positive side, New Mexico's Republican Gov. Gary Johnson has boldly proposed legalizing drugs. Where drug-reform measures have been brought to the ballot, they've usually won. But some lawmakers have suppressed or vetoed the voters' decisions. And the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate has endlessly stalled confirmation votes on dozens of federal judges for overburdened courts. Al Gore and George W. Bush don't offer hope for compassion, despite Gore's admission of earlier drug use and Bush's admission to earlier alcohol abuse and allegations of cocaine use. The candidates tell us they're close to Jesus, but it would be helpful if they had a personal relationship with justice. We, the people, need to drill the message into our leaders' thick skulls to get the government out of our private lives. Until we do, we can expect a society in turmoil.
