A
Thanksgiving
Note
to
Our
Readers
11/24/00
David Borden, Executive Director, [email protected] On this eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, and on behalf of all of DRCNet's staff and allies, I would like to extend our thanks to you, our readers, for your support through these past several years. Without you, there would be no DRCNet! More importantly, without you, there would be no hope of ending this century's destructive prohibition and war on drugs. In part because of you, hope is growing, and growing every day. Readers of this newsletter are in a better position to realize that than others who don't follow drug policy issues so closely. One of the ways we'd like to say thank you is also a milestone in our organization's growth and development: Today marks the first time an issue of The Week Online has been published during the week of Thanksgiving itself, albeit slightly shorter than issues published during ordinary, full work weeks. So I'd also like to give my personal thanks to our staff, who have committed themselves so deeply to this and other projects of the organization. A look at a pre-Thanksgiving issue of a few years ago can provide some perspective on our struggles today. Issue #20, published on November 23rd, 1997, reported that the state of Texas, under Gov. George W. Bush, had okayed construction of 4,120 more prison beds, having already tripled their incarcerated population since 1992. Gov. Bush is now mere inches from the presidency of the US, with only a handful of "dimpled ballots" or "pregnant chads" away from victory. His opponent, Vice-President Al Gore, has spent eight years as the number two man in an administration presiding over a staggering increase in federal incarcerations. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. On a more hopeful note, however, issue #20 also reported that Canada's "Mounties" police force was targeting a medical marijuana network, despite public support for medical marijuana polling at 85%. Today, however, Canada now has legal medical marijuana through governmental certification and is setting up a full-blown regulated system of medical marijuana availability for all patients needing it. Some things have definitely gone right. Also from issue #20, "Giving Thanks in a Time of (Drug) War," by DRCNet's former Associate Director, Adam J. Smith, http://www.drcnet.org/wol/020.html#thanks in our archives. Adam can be reached at [email protected]. If you didn't read last week's editorial, "A Message to the President-Elect," it still applies: We still don't know who the new President will be, but we do know he's used drugs -- http://www.drcnet.org/wol/160.html#editorial -- read it and start thinking about how you can help make drug war hypocrisy the theme of the next four years. See you next week, and in the meantime, happy Thanksgiving. But don't forget about those who can't go home for Thanksgiving because their freedom has been taken away by the drug warriors. Let us all work to bring them a second chance.
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