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Julian Critchley was director of the British Cabinet's anti-drug office, where he worked with the British drug tsar to coordinate the nation's drug policy. Now he's come forward to unmask the fraudulent underpinnings of the drug war bureaucracy, simultaneously acknowledging the failure of the war on drugs, while also revealing the hypocrisy of countless officials who carried out policies they personally didn't believe in.

His words now expose the harsh reality that even top "anti-drug" officials privately agree that the drug war is a costly failure:

"I think what was truly depressing about my time in UKADCU was that the overwhelming majority of professionals I met, including those from the police, the health service, government and voluntary sectors held the same view : the illegality of drugs causes far more problems for society and the individual than it solves. Yet publicly, all those intelligent, knowledgeable people were forced to repeat the nonsensical mantra that the Government would be 'tough on drugs', even though they all knew that the Government's policy was actually causing harm." [Guardian]

Critchley isn't the first top drug warrior to come forward in favor of reform, but his scathing indictment of the ideological fraud carried out by those maintaining the drug war infrastructure is truly remarkable:

I recall a conversation I had with a No 10 policy advisor about a series of Whitehall-wide announcements in which we were to emphasise the shift of resources to treatment and highlighting successes in prevention and education. She asked me whether we couldn't arrange for a drugs bust in Brighton at the same time, or a boat speeding down the Thames to catch smugglers. For that advisor, what worked mattered considerably less than what would play well in the Daily Mail. The tragedy of our drugs policy is that it is dictated by tabloid irrationality, and not by reference to evidence. [BBC]

Does that sound familiar? This is just the reality of the modern war on drugs both here and abroad. While a committed few may still cling in desperation to the drug war's fractured legacy, the continuation of unambiguously disastrous policies owes a great deal to the perverted political calculations of countless cynical bureaucrats. A sensationalist press then markets these false philosophies to the public, fueling widespread hysteria and confusion. It is within that vast cauldron of selfishness and incompetence that our drug policies have been sustained against all odds.

But today it has been revealed that the interests of the people were jettisoned willfully and maliciously by those who swore an oath to defend the public interest. Time will tell whether that narrative may soon embed itself within the broader debate. This is the story of the true values and beliefs of the great drug war generals and it must not be forgotten when those same individuals inevitably return to demand further sacrifices in honor of their despicable war.

He just can't help himself. It's hilarious, of course, but it's disturbing to consider that Colbert's facetious rants really aren't any more absurd than the typical government propaganda that emerges from the Drug Czar's office. Colbert is joking, but even if he weren't, we could at least stop paying for cable. This garbage, on the other hand is paid for with our tax dollars whether we like it or not. And it isn’t nearly as funny, either.

CBC Newsworld did a story tonite about undercover cops and the things they can do to make an arrest.Canadian law enforcement uses American DEA agents because they are allowed to do whatever it takes t

Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr is the first presidential hopeful to speak out regarding the brutal drug raid in Berwyn Heights, MD that resulted in the death of the mayor's two dogs:

The former Republican Congressman from Georgia released a statement on his presidential campaign website about the July 29 Prince George's police and sheriff's raid on the home of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo.
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The raid, he wrote, "illustrates how the drug war threatens the liberties of all Americans."

He said he believed that law enforcement has become more arrogant and less accountable, usually with very little public attention, and promises that as president, he will improve the situation.

"As president I will ensure that federal law enforcement agencies set a good example for the rest of the country," he said. "In a Barr administration, government officials will never forget that it is a free people they are protecting." [Washington Post]

I'm still getting used to hearing words like these from former drug warrior Bob Barr, but I'll take it. Barr, despite his unfortunate history, is now speaking out against abusive drug war policing with a vigor unmatched, or even attempted, by the major party candidates.

Unfortunately, we can be reasonably sure we won’t hear a word about this from Obama or McCain. Sure, it is an ugly national controversy with a fairly obvious right and wrong side. And yes, a careful statement promising to defend the rights of innocent, everyday people against government abuse would be politically safe, in and of itself. After all, there's nothing anti-police about standing up for professionalism in law-enforcement.

But implicit in all this is the central question of how far we as a society are willing to push the limits of peace and freedom in the name of a war on drugs that has already exhausted many of us to the point of unrestrained bitterness. It's a conversation that can't be avoided once Cheye Calvo's name is spoken and one which the major party candidates remain hesitant to explore. Their silence becomes increasingly hard to explain as it becomes steadily more apparent each day that the drug war blood bath sometimes doesn't discriminate as well as it's supposed to.

(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.)

The more "progress" Mexico makes in its U.S.-funded war on drugs, the more of this sort of thing we can look forward to:

TIJUANA, Mexico, Aug 12 (Reuters) - American businesswoman Veronica was stepping out of her car in California when two men forced her into the passenger seat at gunpoint, pushed her teenage daughter into the back and drove them into Mexico.

Taking advantage of lax Mexican security at the San Diego border, and with U.S. authorities focused mainly on those entering the United States, the kidnappers took the two women to Tijuana in January and held them for a month before their family paid a $100,000 ransom.
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An unintended consequence of Mexican efforts to weaken drug gangs, drug traffickers around Tijuana are turning to abducting U.S. citizens and residents in southern California and holding them in Mexico as a new way to get funds, U.S. and Mexican authorities say. [Reuters]

This is precisely why there is no such thing as progress in the drug war. The enemy doesn’t give a f$%k about anything. The harder you push, the harder they push back. New criminal opportunities emerge within the culture of violence and corruption the drug war produces and we haven't seen a fraction of the brutality that's in store for Mexican and American citizens if our governments insist on fighting this out in the streets.

The concept is simple: the harder we try to win the drug war, the greater the crime and violence we must endure. There is no threshold to be crossed, no day of reckoning for the warlords we've nurtured and empowered by placing an infinite tax-free economy in their icy death grip.

Just watch as violence against Americans leads to calls for more drug war funding, which in turn leads to more violence against Americans. The drug war itself is the coal that sustains this raging fire and anyone preferring to believe otherwise should probably just go ahead and turn off their TV.

In the wake of the acquittal of the Lima, Ohio, SWAT team member who killed Tarika Wilson -- and with DC-area local Mayor Cheye Calvo pressing the issue of SWAT raids following the killing of his two dogs -- it bears reminding what the root cause was of both these horrible events and of many others -- a stupid, reckless, cowboy mentality, in which law enforcers who are supposed to be protecting us think it's fun and games until someone loses an eye (or a life). I've posted the following graphic before, but I'm posting it again, because it says it all. It appeared at the top of the Lima SWAT team's web page prior to the Wilson killing, before they took it down: Any questions?