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President Obama's New Drug War Strategy and the Low-Down on 'America's Trillion Dollar Dope Game'
Houston-area journalist Clarence Walker reflects on the occasion of a trillion dollars spent on the failed US drug war.
No other has spent more money on the dope trade than our own U.S. Federal Government. Even the richest of drug barons and associated players, dead and alive, cannot or could not have competed with the avalanche of paperwork doled out by the government in its fight against this monster. Even the once ruthless - and now dead - Pablo Escobar and his Medellin Cartel, the Cali Cartel or the Mexican Drug Cartels cannot match the money they have earned from the drug trade with the amount the Federal Government has allocated for years in its battle to stem the flow of illegal drugs into America.
And what is the cost for our government in its fight against this narcotics epidemic, a war raged now for some four decades? By all means have a guess, but here is the figure according to The White House: One trillion dollars.
The war on drugs is the longest war the American government has ever fought, longer than World War II, the Cold War, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. And even after 40 years, the battle to enforce the laws of the land that prohibits "getting high on dope", this poisonous, addictive trade continues to thrive with the ferocity of an earthquake across the planet. Quite obviously, there is no clear-cut victory in sight.
From the outset, if the intent driving the war on drugs, beginning in 1970 under President Nixon's Administration, was to create a drug-free America, we can see that after the spending of a trillion dollars, culminating in millions of arrests, the creation of a burgeoning health care system with which to effectively treat addicts, and the billions spent on law enforcement's task of arresting drug dealers and the prison system in housing the millions of nonviolent drug offenders alongside thousands who have brought violence and death, the "war on drugs" nevertheless remains a dismal failure.
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Labor, Black Police Groups Endorse Prop 19, Prison Guards Stay Neutral
California's Prop 19 marijuana legalization initiative picked up two important endorsements this week, while the powerful state prison guard union says it is neutral.
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Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) photo
Drug Offenses 1/3 of US Criminal Deportations, DHS Says
The leading cause of deportation under the US government's criminal alien removal program is drug offenses, the Department of Homeland Security reports. Anything from being a cocaine kingpin to smoking a joint can get you deported.
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Costa Rica Is Wary of Plans to Allow U.S. Naval Ships to Dock on Its Shores for Anti-Drug Missions
A U.S. warship capable of deploying more than 1,000 military personnel and dozens of helicopters is headed right for Costa Ricaâs peaceful Caribbean coast. In July, Costa Rica's legislative assembly approved a U.S. request for permission to dock 46 warships and 7,000 military personnel, mostly for narcotics missions in Costa Rican territory, sparking outrage among skeptics of the global war on drugs, including outspoken politicians, pacifists, student groups and everyday "Ticos", who are proud of their countryâs six decades without a military. In short, itâs been an outright public relations disaster.
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Wall Street Drug Use: Employees Giving Up Cocaine for Pot and Pills
According to federal Health Department data, across the U.S., cocaine and marijuana use have been static since 2002. But New York is a hot-bed for drugs, and Manhattanites are particularly heavy users. A review of drug-test data compiled by drug testing firm Sterling Infosystems shows that cocaine is losing its favor among investment professionals, and is being replaced by marijuana.
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In Drug War, the Beginning of the End? (Opinion)
Prohibition lasted from 1920 to 1933 and is now considered a failed experiment in social engineering. Alcohol and marijuana prohibition have much in common: both in effect handed production, sales and distribution of a commodity in high demand to criminal organizations, both filled the prisons (America's population behind bars is now the world's largest), both diverted the resources of law enforcement, and both created millions of scoff-laws. Many prominent people think there is reason to believe that we are at the beginning of the end of the drug war as we know it.
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Bringing Doctors to MMJ Patients: MMAPR Brings Mobile Doctors to Patients at Cannabis Festival
âNo patient left behindâ is the mantra of the Denver-based Medical Marijuana Assistance Program of the Rockies (MMAPR). Working with indigent, low-income patients, MMAPR has launched a mobile doctors service, bringing doctors to the patients themselves. Through the support of local dispensaries and other medical marijuana industry businesses, MMAPR is able to not only provide convenient doctor visits, but also significant savings to patients, often as much as 25 percent.
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Legal Pot Gets Calderon Consideration as Deaths Mount
A record number of homicides in Mexico has forced President Felipe Calderon to open discussions on a new strategy in the war on drugs: legalization. The impact of violence is the biggest threat to the Mexican economy according to 57 percent of Mexican executives, a survey published last month by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu showed. Mexico, which spends about $8.2 billion annually on law enforcement, would save between 5 percent and 15 percent of GDP if narcotics were legal in all countries, said Luis Rayo, a finance professor at the University of Utah.
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Gary Johnson Says Legalize Marijuana on MSNBC
If you want to legalize marijuana as badly as I do, it's time to start paying attention to Gary Johnson. This MSNBC interview is just a preview of the awesomeness that's going to happen when he runs for president in 2012.
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Rand Paul (courtesy Gage Skidmore via wikimedia.org)
Rand Paul & Medical Marijuana [Updated]
See updates below.
[image:1 align:left caption:true]Mike Meno at MPP points out that Kentucky Senate candidate Rand Paul no longer supports medical marijuana. That's right, folks. Rand Paul, son of the famously libertarian-leaning and pro-marijuana-reform Congressman Ron Paul, is now in favor of arresting sick people for medical marijuana.
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Trevon Cole
Raid Victim Family May Hit Vegas Police with RICO Suit
The coroner's inquest for Trevon Cole is over and his killer has been cleared. Now, the attorney for Cole's family is getting ready to file a wrongful death, civil rights, and maybe even a RICO lawsuit.
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Ketamine Is 'magic drug' for Depression
Scientists claim that a single dose of the drug Ketamine, nicknamed Special K, acts like "magic" lifting people out of depression in hours and lasting more than a week. Studies have found it can treat depression within hours, even when years of alternative treatments have failed, and the effects of just one dose can last up to 10 days. The drug was even shown to restore brain-connections damaged by stress.
In The Trenches
National Black Police Association Endorses Marijuana Legalization (Press Release)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: August 19, 2010
CONTACT: Tom Angell - (202) 557-4979 or [email protected]
National Black Police Association Endorses Marijuana Legalization
African American Cops Say California's Prop. 19 Will Protect Civil Rights & Public Safety
SACRAMENTO, CA -- A national organization of African American law enforcement officers has announced its endorsement of Proposition 19, California's initiative to legalize marijuana.
The National Black Police Association (NBPA), which was founded in 1972 and is currently holding its 38th national conference in Sacramento, is urging a yes vote on legalization this November 2.
"When I was a cop in Baltimore, and even before that when I was growing up there, I saw with my own eyes the devastating impact these misguided marijuana laws have on our communities and neighborhoods. But it's not just in Baltimore, or in Los Angeles; prohibition takes a toll on people of color across the country," said Neill Franklin, a 33-year veteran police officer and executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), an international group of pro-legalization cops, judges, prosecutors and corrections officials who have been organizing to support Prop. 19. "This November, with the National Black Police Association's help, Californians finally have an opportunity to do something about it by approving the initiative to control and tax marijuana."
On Thursday, Franklin spoke alongside California NAACP president Alice Huffman at the NBPA conference on a panel about criminal justice issues like marijuana legalization.
Many cops and civil rights leaders are now speaking out against marijuana prohibition because it is not only ineffective at reducing marijuana use and results in the arrest and incarceration of people of color at a highly disproportionate rate, but also because making marijuana illegal has created a lucrative black market controlled by violent gangs and cartels. LEAP has organized a group of more than 30 California police officers, judges, prosecutors and other criminal justice professionals who support Prop. 19.
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) and its 30,000 supporters represent police, prosecutors, judges, FBI/DEA agents and others who want to legalize and regulate drugs after fighting on the front lines of the "war on drugs" and learning firsthand that prohibition only serves to worsen addiction and violence.
According to NBPA, there are 80,000 black law enforcement officials in the U.S.
For more information, visit http://www.CopsSayLegalizeDrugs.com or http://www.BlackPolice.org
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The 8 Most Absurd Excuses for Trying to Defeat Legal Pot
Russ Belville, NORML's outreach coordinator, has collected and debunked eight of the craziest claims about a post-legalization state of California predicted by opponents of Proposition 19.
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Texas Counties $4.2 Million Drug Search and Seizures Fund Trips to Vegas
In a classic example of drug prohibition money corrupting, Frank Garza, the former District Attorney of Jim Wells and Brooks Counties in Texas, has been charged with going on a $4.2 million dollar drug search and seizure forfeiture spending spree in seven years. This story draws attention to the practice of authorities and officials and the very lucrative search, seizure and forfeiture drug laws, in particular, the state of Texas. According to the Institute of Justice, due to Texasâs search and seizure forfeiture laws, Texas law enforcement agencies seized in property and currency, ânearly a quarter of a billion dollarsâ between 2001 and 2008.
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With 28,000 Killed Since 2006, Movement for Drug Legalization in Mexico Takes Hold (Video)
A growing movement in Mexico to legalize drugs, particularly marijuana, is taking shape. Four proposals that aim for varying degrees of decriminalization or legalization of drugs are on the docket in Mexicoâs House of Deputies, and another is circulating in the Senate. Meanwhile, former Mexican President Vicente Fox, who was a key U.S. ally in the war on drugs, has backed the legalization of drugs, saying prohibition has failed to reduce violence and corruption.
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California Appeals Court in Split Decision on Medical Marijuana Dispensaries
A California appeals court Wednesday held that federal law did not preempt California laws allowing medical marijuana dispensaries, but did not decide the bottom line issue: Can cities or counties ban dispensaries?
Chronicle
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Texas Now Prosecuting TWO Medical Marijuana Patients [FEATURE]
Two extreme cases from Texas demonstrate why legislation to protect medical marijuana patients there is badly needed.
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Santiago Papasquiaro, site of Saturday's firefight
Mexico Drug War Update
The death toll in Ciudad Juarez this year is over 1,800 so far, meaning 2010 is on pace to be another record year for murder there. And that's just Juarez.