Obama Pledges to Continue the Drug War
How shall I respond when a prominent politician rejects drug legalization, while in the same breath criticizing the costs and consequences of our wildly bloated criminal justice system? Should I condemn his tacit endorsement of the drug war or give him credit for at least recognizing a problem that so many still pretend doesn’t exist? I guess I'll try to do both.
Here's what Barack Obama said when a questioner pointed out how lucky he is to have avoided arrest for his past drug use and asked if he would consider ending the drug war:
"I'm not interested in legalizing drugs,'' Obama said, adding that he prefers an approach that puts more emphasis on a public health approach to drugs and less emphasis on incarceration.He said there should be more programs to keep young people from using drugs. And he said first-time offenders should be given help to overcome their drug use instead of being locked up at massive taxpayer expense from which they emerge as unemployable ex-convicts.
"All we do is give them a master's degree in criminology,'' Obama said. [AP]
What a shame that Obama's most forward-thinking comments on criminal justice reform must be prefaced with a rejection of the one idea that has a chance of working. The inherent flaw in Obama's narrow, palatable rhetoric is revealed unintentionally by The Weekly Standard's Jonathan Last:
The only problem with this is that there are very, very few people incarcerated for first-time drug use.
Last goes on to laboriously downplay the persecution of first-time offenders in our criminal justice system. It's an outrageous attempt to argue that everyone in prison deserves to be there. But it does have the effect of reminding us how limited Obama's proposed reforms truly are.
The root of our drug war-fueled incarceration crisis lies in the practice of vigorously arresting and criminalizing people for having drugs. As long as this machinery remains in place, our prison population will continue to grow exponentially. Obama's first-time offender focused model of criminal justice reform is like trying to drain an olympic swimming pool with a pint glass.
Meanwhile, the drug war itself continues to function as a massive black market job recruitment program; a fully functional drug offender factory whose participants are often much more addicted to grocery money than drugs. Treatment-focused reform strategies don't address or even acknowledge this. Still, it remains perfectly commonplace for proponents of partial criminal justice reform to insist that we continue imprisoning suppliers while searching for ever more suppliers to imprison, all while failing entirely to disrupt supply.
The silver lining here is that important people are becoming increasingly comfortable admitting that something is wrong. When the reforms they've agreed upon fail to address the problem, they can't just go back and pretend to be cool with it. They've promised to fix our criminal justice system and if they continue to follow the trail of clues, they will eventually find themselves face to face with the war on drugs.
(This blog post was published by StoptheDrugWar.org's lobbying arm, the Drug Reform Coordination Network, which also shares the cost of maintaining this web site. DRCNet Foundation takes no positions on candidates for public office, in compliance with section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and does not pay for reporting that could be interpreted or misinterpreted as doing so.)
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not to be technical, but...
Comment posted by borden on Sun, 01/20/2008 - 9:13pmNot to be technical, but the poster who brought up Narconon and rehab didn't actually say that he thinks people should be forced into treatment. He didn't express a view on that either way, only that prison isn't the answer, that rehab should be available for those who need it, and that his sister did need it. I don't know what he thinks about legalization, the difference between use and abuse (do we all agree that abuse exists even though use doesn't imply abuse?), whether people with serious drug problems should be mandated into treatment, or whether the state should take care in such cases to avoid mandating religiously-based programs as the choice of treatment.
Just so everyone is clear on where I do stand:
- Not all use is abuse, in fact most isn't, even for the most abusable types of drugs;
- People should not be mandated into drug treatment, certainly not by the criminal justice system;
- Programs that actually help people, such as good treatment programs, or harm reduction efforts like needle exchange, are good;
- Religious aspects of drug treatment programs, or self help programs, are no less important for being cognizant of and avoiding state mandates than for other types of religious programs;
- It's true that Narconon is affiliated with Scientology, though I am not familiar with the extent to which they coordinate with the larger organization;
- All drugs should be legal.
David Borden, Executive Director
StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network
Washington, DC
http://stopthedrugwar.org
In Thialand 1,140 people
Comment posted by Ironman on Fri, 01/18/2008 - 1:21pmIn Thialand 1,140 people have been killed because of an operation called "An Eye for an Eye" In Thialand they are considerably more efficient at fighting their War on Drugs, than we are. They managed to kill this many of their own people in just one month. Our bully boys had better get their act together. How can we let ourselves be "OUT KILLED' by Thialand. We shouldn't fall behind in our killing, look at all the money we spend. I, personaly, believe that the only reason Thialand even has a War on Drugs is because we (USA) pressured them into it. Check out Canada, and tell me it aint so. I feel anger, I feel frustrated, I feel helpless. I feel that if I stand up, and speakout, no one will care, because I will be only one small voice, and easly dismissed. If you believe the War on Drugs is wrong, join an organization that agrees with you, leap.cc, norml.org, safer to name a few. Join the War against the War on Drugs.
DO SOMETHING
Ironman
Heres what to do
Comment posted by jaymz119 on Sat, 01/19/2008 - 3:45pmThe U.S. government has heard the will of the people and they don't care. It's time to fight back. Why should the residents of America or anywhere else care to follow their wishes? They ignore they ignore their own laws and stretch the power of the executive branch way beyond the poewr of the people! It's time to fight back. Ignore their baloney and stop wasting your seeds. Give back to the earth that gave them to us. Hemp has been food, fuel, and pharmaceutical - it's time for it to be a weapon. Take it to the rivers, lakes, and streams... leave seeds in puddles and storm drains... press them into some soft bread and feed them to the ducks and geese... press them into some cheese fish bait and go fishing... put them into bird feeders... drop them into storm drains and puddles... press them into some ground meat and leave them for the foxes and coyotes to eat and distribute, feed seeds to your outdoor cat or your dog that you take to shit in the park or neighbors yard... FREE the WEED! SO WHAT if the result is ditch weed... it's NOT about THC content anymore or profits... it's about freedom of expression, freedom of choice, freedom of weed! Spread the word and your seeds. Enlist you relatives, budd buddies, and neighbors. Reforest what man has cleared in the name of progress... reclaim earth for our plants. Your government cannot possibly tear out every wild weed if we all work together. The D.E.A cannot possibly eradicate our plant of choice if it grows like wild fire... that's why it's time to stop crying about prices and busts and free your weed! Don't throw away the gift of life that is in each seed and don't hoarde them the way so many well meaning (but lazy) smokers do... plant them all. Toss the anywhere there is water- irrigation ditches, lakes, rivers, gardens and parks... anywhere they can haver a chance to grow. If one tenth of all smokers did so there would eventually be too much of our favorite plant to eradicate. Prices for market weed would have to be competitive because there would be free ditch weed for all. And the best part- no more having to bumm smoke from a Budd and nome more having to bumm them some... just send them to the nearest wild crop. It's Time For Revolution! Free weed is just a seeds throw away. So what if the result is ditch weed... it's not about THC content anymore or profits... it's about freedom of expression, freedom of choice, freedom of weed! Spread the word and your seeds. Get every friend, neighbor, and relative to help fight the war on the war on drugs. Reforest what man has cleared in the name of progress... reclaim earth for our plants. With enough plants we could fight Global Warming! Your government cannot possibly tear out every wild weed if we all work together. In just a few years we could see it overwhelm them to a point where they will have to legalize low THC content cannabis... and that's a move in the right direction. Drop your seeds in every flower pot, planter and garden at your local courthouse, police station, library, and park. Let them know they cannot stop our plant!
Free weed
Comment posted by sicntired on Sun, 01/20/2008 - 4:12amThe same goes for the humble poppy.It will grow on a dirty rock and makes a killer tea.Just don't drink too much.It's only available for a month a year so there's no downside(forgive the pun).If the plant is available every where the war on drugs becomes redundant.Good idea.
Barack Obama
Comment posted by snowyphil on Fri, 01/18/2008 - 7:07pmLet's face it no-one running on an 'end the drug war' ticket will get far in the US, we had our shock in the primaries with Obama and Huckabee in Iowa,( not that Obama would have changed anything as we just read) sadly Ron Paul will fade out like most dreams and we will all wake soon to see Mrs Clinton in the White House. So with no change in Drug policies on the horizon we need a new way to end this money pit of a war, the only way any Govt will listen to it's people is when the people make enough noise!, it's time for a massive programme of civil disobedience!. we need people to put themselves in the firing line, swell the courts and prisons to such a ridiculous extent we force a change in policy, it worked in Holland in the 70's, it will work here. You know we are all quick to spout how successive regimes have learnt nothing in three + decades but we are also guilty of not learning, we should have learnt that for all our protests we have also got nowhere in this time, it is time now for a new form of protest, one that the blindest of Govt's can see, we need people being arrested in the thousands, so many, that normal police work cannot be carried out , and then do it all again the next day and the next and the next, if enough people are going through the court system, charged with something without a victim like say possession of a joint, ( smoke it if you like) good normally law abiding citizens with families who will also be making a noise about their loved ones being incarcerated, they have to listen, so many that the Companies of the country cannot do business. When America the Company cannot do normal business that the Govt will listen, OK!, if not my way here, another, as long as the result is cells bursting at the seams with people who want their day in court , people who will not accept a caution but want to be judged by their peers. It really is time we changed our way because you can bet the next President, whoever it is will not be rushing to reform any drug laws any time soon.
Obama Will Do A Clinton
Comment posted by M Simon on Sat, 01/26/2008 - 2:41amBill just about doubled marijuana enforcement.
The hated Bush? He has been squeezing money out of the Drug Task Force Program every year for the last 4.
The agents are howling.
Obama is a Chicago Boy
Comment posted by M Simon on Sat, 01/26/2008 - 2:36amThe gangs would kill him if he eliminated their profit center.
They also supply lots of cash to politicians.
Obama needs the money and support.
Not all abuse
Comment posted by sicntired on Sun, 01/20/2008 - 4:03amsicntired@mac.com Vancouver,B.C. The key word is decriminalization.How can anyone disagree with this?Even Obama says it should be a health issue.He's trying to be elected president.If he continues to imprison people for the same things he admitted to doing himself.He's a hypocrite.I'm a Canadian but what he's saying is more progressive than anything I hear from ANY of the parties up here.Let's give him a chance.Hilary Clinton would probably increase sentences and smoke a joint with Bill to celebrate.