Further Evidence That the Drug War Doesn't Protect Children
If our drug policy made sense, 6-year-old children wouldn’t be kidnapped in blackmarket business disputes:
Cole was snatched Wednesday in what police are calling a drug-related kidnapping. Three armed men tied up his mother and her fiance and ransacked the home, taking the boy when no money was found, police said.A nationwide Amber Alert was canceled because police believed it had "run its course," Cannito said Saturday.
Police say Cole's grandfather, Clemons F. Tinnemeyer, 51, had been involved in "significant drug dealing" and may have taken millions of dollars from drug dealers. Authorities say the kidnapping may have been in retaliation for the theft. [CNN]
Cole is safe now, thankfully. But as long as the drug war continues, these kinds of things will never stop happening and they won’t always end peacefully. There’s a reason Anheuser-Busch and R.J. Reynolds don’t kidnap children when a retailer is late on a payment.
Any measure of the drug war’s costs and benefits is incomplete unless it accounts for the role of drug prohibition in motivating horrible crimes like this.
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Comment posted by consfearacy on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 1:48am- consfearacy
Drug Prohibition came about because of a thundering voice from the Southwestern U.S. `bout Mexicans during Depression Times. Alcohol cops turned into Plant cops. 80 yrs. later and things are different now in the Southwestern U.S. Has the BEAST come back home? Surely not.
Unregulated drug markets also turn kids into sellers
Comment posted by Anonymous on Tue, 10/21/2008 - 1:27amThe National Household Survey on Drug Use reports that nearly 1 million kids ages 17 and younger sell illicit drugs every year, mostly marijuana. They make up a quarter of the number of people who sell drugs every year.