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Weekly: Blogging @ the Speakeasy

Submitted by David Borden on (Issue #611)

Along with our weekly in-depth Chronicle reporting, DRCNet also provides daily content in the way of blogging in the Stop the Drug War Speakeasy -- huge numbers of people have been reading it recently -- as well as Latest News links (upper right-hand corner of most web pages), event listings (lower right-hand corner) and other info. Check out DRCNet every day to stay on top of the drug reform game! Check out the Speakeasy main page at http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy.

prohibition-era beer raid, Washington, DC (Library of Congress)

Since last issue:

Scott Morgan writes: "Proof that the Drug War Sucks: Mexico," "Why Legalizing Marijuana Will Reduce Violent Crime," "BBC News Says Hash is Safer Than Marijuana," "Study Shows Marijuana Reduces Other Drug Use," "Attorney General Promises Aggressive Marijuana Enforcement," "Deputy Drug Czar Asks: Why is Everyone Talking About Legalizing Marijuana?"

Phil Smith posts early copies of many Drug War Chronicle articles.

David Guard posts numerous press releases, action alerts and other organizational announcements in the In the Trenches blog.

Again, http://stopthedrugwar.org/speakeasy is the online place to stay in the loop for the fight to stop the war on drugs. Thanks for reading, and please join us on the comment boards.

Permission to Reprint: This content is licensed under a modified Creative Commons Attribution license. Content of a purely educational nature in Drug War Chronicle appear courtesy of DRCNet Foundation, unless otherwise noted.

Comments

Leagalizing and taxing marijuana will create a safer envioument for kids to grow up in without parental fear of a random act of violence from an altercation between police and a drug dealer. Children are accidently killed if they're caught in the cross fire. My neighbors want all violence associated with the drug war out....gone...without further violence from either side.

We need a diversion from alcohol to lower alcohol consumption and lower alcohol related crime and alcohol crime. In California i know because of the easying of medical marijuana laws marijuana crime has diminished, as well as alcohol crime.

the equates to safer neighborhoods from these two drugs. Is there something wrong with that? President Obama feels its not a good idea to lower crime in our inner city neighborhoods. Didn't he say he felt it wasn't a good idea to tax and regulate marijuana?

Is our president we placed our hope in weak and ineffective?

david

Fri, 12/04/2009 - 1:50pm Permalink
Mike Hodge (not verified)

America’s Five Wars

The United States is fighting five wars: The War on the Economy, the War in Afghanistan, the War on Terror, the War on Illegal Immigration and the War on Drugs.

The United States cannot afford to keep on paying for all these wars. History has proven itself, over and over and time and time again, wars bankrupt economies and if the USA economy bankrupts, we are all going to suffer in a big way.

The problem facing the United States, with the exception of the War on Drugs, the United States cannot immediately get out of any of the Wars it is involved in.

And, if one were to do the math, one would discover if the United States were to call a cease fire on the War on Drugs, the money saved on the cease fire would easily pay for all the other Wars and much more.

HLN, CNN Headline News reported, seven hundred and fifty people per one hundred thousand people in the United States is incarcerated in prison.

Now seven hundred and fifty people per one hundred thousand people may not sound like a lot of American’s in prison, but if you look at the United States Census Bureau numbers, it shows a huge number of American’s are in prison and it is costing the American taxpayers large.

According to the United States Census Bureau, as of the year 2009, the population of the United States was 308,071,000 people. If seven hundred and fifty people per one hundred thousand Americans are incarcerated, that means in the year 2009 the United States had 2,310,533 Americans in prison. It has been published by the Federal Bureau of Prisons it costs the American taxpayers twenty five thousand eight hundred and ninety five dollars a year to keep a person incarcerated in prison. With seven hundred and fifty people per one hundred thousand Americans are incarcerated, that translates into the American Taxpayers having to pay 59,831,239,087.5 (fifty nine billion, eight hundred and thirty one million, two hundred and thirty nine thousand, eighty seven dollars and fifty cents) a year to keep American’s in prison in the year 2009.

Another known fact is; eighty five percent of the American prison population is incarcerated for drug and or drug related crime.

The United States Government law officials state billions of dollars are illegally being made from the sales of illegal drugs in the United States every year and those billions of dollars are leaving the United States to destinations that are unfriendly to the United States.

The United States Government has spent billions of dollars to fight the War on Drugs. Yet, today, after all those billions of dollars spent, we still have the War on Drugs. It is obvious the Government is not winning the War on Drugs, because after forty years there is still a War on Drugs.

Which begs a question: If billions of dollars are being made from the sales of illegal drugs, then how many American people in the United States are using illegal drugs? For the illegal drug smugglers to earn those billions of dollars, then there has to be millions of Americans who are using illegal drugs.

History is repeating itself. In the 1930’s the United States had alcohol prohibition: The War on Alcohol. How many years did the War on Alcohol last, ten, fifteen years, and what happened? Hundreds of American people, criminals and innocence’s alike, were injured, killed and locked up in prison. Cities were in crisis over criminal tuft territory wars and the police patrolled wearing bullet proof vests and carrying machine guns.

After the government called a cease fire on the War on Alcohol, the government took control of the sales of alcohol and has since then turned it into a revenue machine; earning the government billions of dollars a year.

After the government called the cease fire on the War on Alcohol, the organized crime gangs disbanded, the violence, the turf wars and the killings stopped.

Back in those days some argued, if the government legalizes alcohol everybody in the United States will become alcoholics. Did that happen? No.

Today, some offer the same argument, if we stop the War on Drugs everybody will become drug addicts. Which begs the question, would you become a drug addict if the War on Drugs stopped?

Reasons why there should be a cease fire on the Drug War and the government take control;

Illegal drugs sales is funding the terrorist: By the United States government own statistics, millions of American’s are illegal drug users and these of millions of American’s are spending billions of dollars getting their illegal drugs from unknown sources that use the billions of dollars to fund terrorist activities against the United States and its allies.

To call a cease fire on the War on Drugs and take control of the drug trade would virtually deny no terrorist group the ability to profit from illegal drug sales in the United States to fund their terrorist operations against the United States.

A cease fire on the War on Drugs would free up the police from chasing junkies, potheads and crack heads, to focusing the billions of dollars of taxpayer money spent on Policing, to address the real security issues happening in the communities.

A cease fire on the War on Drugs would free up the billions of dollars it costs the American taxpayer every year for the prosecution of drug charges.

The War on Drugs is out of control and it is costing the United States taxpayers billions of dollars every year, and there is no end in sight to the American human suffering, collateral damage and prisons full of drug users.

The billions of dollars from a cease fire on the War on Drugs would easily pay for the economic recovery, health care, and all the other wars.

Fri, 12/04/2009 - 8:01pm Permalink

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