Consequences of Prohibition
David Borden, Executive Director
David Borden
Hear there are drugs somewhere, in someone's house? Break down the door! Even if there's doubt as to the address -- this week we heard about a case where they didn't even have an address. If a kid who lives in public housing sells drugs, kick out the whole family! Kick out the grandmother! Doesn't matter if she knew about it -- doesn't matter if the kid wasn't even selling on premises -- we're talking about drugs! We have to fight drugs, any way we can think of! And once we've thought of it -- we have to do it! Why shouldn't we do it, if there are drugs?
Oh, let's take the house too, auction it off, spend the money on cop cars, or banquets and costumes. No matter if there's ever a conviction, or even a trial. And if we're in certain countries, just kill 'em!
If you follow this issue regularly, you know that I'm not making any of it up, and you know that the outrages keep on piling up. Today -- just today -- two people I know are facing sentencing. One of them is an innocent doctor who treated patients who needed opiates for pain, and got railroaded by prosecutors as happens to pain doctors so often. The other helped supply patients with medical marijuana, and a prosecutor overstated the size of his operation to get him ten years in his first trial. There's reason to believe the prosecutor may have deliberately destroyed evidence that could have exonerated him of the most serious charges. But even if they were guilty of everything, ten years?
Only if anything really goes, and these are only some things being done directly to individuals. There are a host of very reckless tactics that are putting large numbers of people in danger, like aerial fumigation -- or are distorting the perception of the issue, like biased research.
But if anything goes, where then will it end?
My vote is to end it all through legalization. In the meantime, let's try to help some of these people being unfairly victimized too. Thanks for reading.
P.S. Please check out my blog post this morning featuring a drug tax bill sent in by one of our readers.
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
anything goes
during reagunz time there was accountability for hazardous waste. SO, they built fertilizer plants next to haz-mat producers. haz-mat went through the MAGIC VALVUE and became fertilizer. seimens, in germany, was fined for dumping nuclear waste into fertilizer. can you imagine what kind of haz-mat they can dump in herbacide in columbia or the poppy fields? IT WOULD BE INTERESTING TO GET A SAMPLE ANALIZED. i don't know who to get interested. i hope this spurs someone to find out. THEY DUMPED IT ON AMERICANS IN AMERICA. think THEY care if it poisons the next 10 generations of 'BAD' people.
Anything goes?
What is truly sad these years is the People who once were referred to therapy for their fears and phobias are now empowered with millions of dollars and political clout to go forth and destroy anything that gets in their collective way; individuals, even whole families are destroyed, never mind the wide path of destruction they leave in their wake they are on a mission from God, just ask them.
What, I ask you, ever happened to the Freedom of Choice we once held near and dear in this country?
The Do-Gooder Zealots are rising far too fast for my liking. I wouldn't be surprised if we see another McCarthy type mentality era in the near future if this rampant tide isn't turned.
But the problem is we are being attacked on so many different fronts that it reads like Science Fiction and no truly sane person could believe it on a first round exposure. It takes a lot of hard dedicated work to read far enough into each one, each front to begin to see that they are all tied together at some distant point. And all the while the media is spouting their script and making things worse.
And the People keep voting the same set of crooks back into power every election and then have the nerve to wonder why things aren't getting better.
So yes, anything goes if you have a badge or a political office.
Drugs in Mexico
Hey,I'm a 17 year old student in Romania.I'm preparing to go to a MUN congress in which I am representing Mexico,together with my other colleagues.I am in the HUMAN RIGHTS Commission and one of my chores is to find out all I can,discuss and have an opinion about the problem of drug traficking and drug consumption in Mexico.I have read news reports like crazy and I know that it is a huge problem,I have even searched on governmental sites,and I am preparing and researching in order to go speak to Mexico's ambassador.If you know anything unspecified,hidden from the public and want to share,please do.
I'm waiting for a response.
Thank you sincerely!
In reply to Drugs in Mexico by Anonymous (not verified)
Drugts
Alcohol and Tobacco are two of the most Dangerous and Deadliest drugs in the World.....yet they are LEGAL......
Hellllllllllllooooooooooooo..................is anybody awake out there.........
When will it end?
When everyone starts exercising their Right to Self-Defence... a part of Common Law since Roman Times... which authorizes the use of violence and yes even deadly force when protecting yourself & others from violence & theft... which is exactly what Uncle Sam, his Dumb Evil Assholes (DEA), and other prohibitionist are doing!
A "Fuck Me?... No, Fuck You!" attitude is exactly what's needed when dealing with all prohibitionist criminals!
Continuing the fight at the ballot box and in the courts is, of course, necessary... all successful wars are fought on many fronts... but we should never shy away from our duty of enforcing our rights... remember this is a war.... the prohibitionists attacked us... they are radical constitutional criminals... they are all insidious sharks!
Billy B Blunt
Tacoma, WA
Prosecution?
Yes, anything goes in the war against drug users. And that alone distinguishes persecution from prosecution.
Giordano
drug war...
Have you noticed the fiasco called the "Gun Registration" in Canada?
I quit checking the cost when it ran into the billions, but it sure employs a lot of college dropouts and wannabes, and it sure gave Big Brother lots of information about ordinary citizens.
We are joined at the hip to the american gung-hos and it does not make me proud, I am sorry to say.
Were it not for the pot crop, our welfare bill would be much larger than it is, which is why they keep a tight rein on the hiring of more police personnel. I sincerely believe that a good part of drug money, both from the trade and from confiscations, goes to ensure that.
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