DVDizzy Forum

Posted: **Sat Jul 07, 2007 10:13 pm**

First off, let me state that this is about raising awareness of the consequences of drug prohibition. I'm not a drug user and I'm in no way conceding to the sale and distribution of illegal drugs.

I honestly believe that everything we are being told about the drugs and the drug users is being grossly distorted, and presented without useful context. The so called "War on Drugs", is primarily a tactic to keep street prices high and profits astronomical, regardless of the huge social and personal damage done.

This war was announced by Richard Nixon in 1971 and in 2003, it was announced that the U.S. federal government spent over $19 billion dollars on the War on Drugs. The budget has since been increased by over a billion dollars. There are currently over 1.5 million people in prisons across the United States, 59.6% of them are in there for drug offenses. While prisons are being populated with drug offenders, asset forfeiture laws have enabled police to confiscate millions of dollars in property from citizens merely suspected of involvement in drug trafficking.

Yet heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and other illicit drugs are cheaper, purer and easier to get than ever before.

What's wrong with this picture and what is this war really about?

Many of the problems the drug war purports to resolve are in fact caused by the "Drug War" itself. So-called "drug-related" crime is a direct result of drug prohibition's distortion of immutable laws of supply and demand.

Let me explain.

The illicit drug industry is an annual market of $400 billion. The war on drugs is fought by trying to apprehend producers and distributors of drugs, and then to punish them rather severely if convicted. The expected punishment raises the price that suppliers of drugs need to receive in order for them to be willing to take the considerable risks involved in the drug trade. The harder the war is fought, the greater the expected punishment, the higher is the street price of drugs. This is the law of supply and demand.

The real problem with drugs in the modern world is that they are illegal. A legal drug is not necessarily safe or non-addictive. Drugs that are both legal and freely available (such as alcohol and nicotine) are among the most often abused. Even prescription drugs at prescribed doses can be addictive, can have dangerous side effects and can cause drug interactions. Other drugs (such as sedatives and tranquilizers) are available by prescription and are considered safe for medical purposes, but they are highly addictive, even at prescribed dosages.

The death of Anna Nicole Smith is a perfect example. Tests revealed that she had nine legal drugs in her blood.

There are now more Americans in prison than there are on active duty in the military. We spend about $40,000 per year per prisoner. How many people are dying everyday because they don't have access to medical care and proper nutrition? Should they start selling drugs and hope to get incarcerated?

Nowadays, it seems like everyone are either on some kind of anti-depressants or taking sleeping pills. We drown our sorrows in alcohol and control our pains with prescriptions.

I'm not saying that there is a simple solution to this problem but if we've been fighting this war a certain way since the 70's then maybe we should start looking for another avenue. It is my opinion that legalization could have a greater effect in reducing drug use than a "war on drug" without all the large and disturbing system costs.

The tax revenue from drugs would accrue to state and federal authorities, rather than being dissipated into the real cost involving police, imprisonment, dangerous qualities, and the like. Instead of drug cartels, there would be legal companies involved in production and distribution of drugs of reliable quality, as happened after the prohibition of alcohol ended.

What do you think?

Posted: **Sat Jul 07, 2007 10:27 pm**

I couldn't help but quote the best candidate for the United States presidency in 2008.

War On Terror?
It's As Bad As War on Drugs
By Rep. Ron Paul

I would like to draw an analogy between the drug war and the war against terrorism. In the last 30 years, we have spent hundreds of billions of dollars on a failed war on drugs. This war has been used as an excuse to attack our liberties and privacy. It has been an excuse to undermine our financial privacy while promoting illegal searches and seizures with many innocent people losing their lives and property. Seizure and forfeiture have harmed a great number of innocent American citizens.

Another result of this unwise war has been the corruption of many law enforcement officials. It is well known that with the profit incentives so high, we are not even able to keep drugs out of our armed prisons. Making our whole society a prison would not bring success to this floundering war on drugs. Sinister motives of the profiteers and gangsters, along with prevailing public ignorance, keep this futile war going. Illegal and artificially high priced drugs drive the underworld to produce, sell and profit from this social depravity. Failure to recognize that drug addiction, like alcoholism, is a disease rather than a crime, encourage the drug warriors in efforts that have not and will not ever work. We learned the hard way about alcohol prohibition and crime, but we have not yet seriously considered it in the ongoing drug war.

Corruption associated with the drug dealers is endless. It has involved our police, the military, border guards and the judicial system. It has affected government policy and our own CIA. The artificially high profits from illegal drugs provide easy access to funds for rogue groups involved in fighting civil wars throughout the world. Ironically, opium sales by the Taliban and artificially high prices helped to finance their war against us. In spite of the incongruity, we rewarded the Taliban this spring with a huge cash payment for promises to eradicate some poppy fields. Sure.

For the first 140 years of our history, we had essentially no Federal war on drugs, and far fewer problems with drug addiction and related crimes was a consequence. In the past 30 years, even with the hundreds of millions of dollars spent on the drug war, little good has come of it. We have vacillated from efforts to stop the drugs at the source to severely punishing the users, yet nothing has improved. This war has been behind most big government policy powers of the last 30 years, with continual undermining of our civil liberties and personal privacy. Those who support the IRS's efforts to collect maximum revenues and root out the underground economy, have welcomed this intrusion, even if the drug underworld grows in size and influence.

The drug war encourages violence. Government violence against nonviolent users is notorious and has led to the unnecessary prison overpopulation. Innocent taxpayers are forced to pay for all this so-called justice. Our eradication project through spraying around the world, from Colombia to Afghanistan, breeds resentment because normal crops and good land can be severely damaged. Local populations perceive that the efforts and the profiteering remain somehow beneficial to our own agenda in these various countries.

Drug dealers and drug gangs are a consequence of our unwise approach to drug usage. Many innocent people are killed in the crossfire by the mob justice that this war generates. But just because the laws are unwise and have had unintended consequences, no excuses can ever be made for the monster who would kill and maim innocent people for illegal profits. But as the violent killers are removed from society, reconsideration of our drug laws ought to occur.

A similar approach should be applied to our war on those who would terrorize and kill our people for political reasons. If the drug laws and the policies that incite hatred against the United States are not clearly understood and, therefore, never changed, the number of drug criminals and terrorists will only multiply. Although this unwise war on drugs generates criminal violence, the violence can never be tolerated. Even if repeal of drug laws would decrease the motivation for drug dealer violence, this can never be an excuse to condone the violence. On the short term, those who kill must be punished, imprisoned, or killed. Long term though, a better understanding of how drug laws have unintended consequences is required if we want to significantly improve the situation and actually reduce the great harms drugs are doing to our society.

The same is true in dealing with those who so passionately hate us that suicide becomes a just and noble cause in their effort to kill and terrorize us. Without some understanding of what has brought us to the brink of a worldwide conflict in reconsidering our policies around the globe, we will be no more successful in making our land secure and free than the drug war has been in removing drug violence from our cities and towns.

Without some understanding why terrorism is directed towards the United States, we may well build a prison for ourselves with something called homeland security while doing nothing to combat the root causes of terrorism. Let us hope we figure this out soon. We have promoted a foolish and very expensive domestic war on drugs for more than 30 years. It has done no good whatsoever. I doubt our Republic can survive a 30-year period of trying to figure out how to win this guerilla war against terrorism. Hopefully, we will all seek the answers in these trying times with an open mind and understanding. CP

Ron Paul is a libertarian/Republican who represents Texas's 14th congressional district.

Posted: **Sat Jul 07, 2007 10:58 pm**

we've been having trouble with drugs since they were discovered so it'll be hard to stop it just like how impossible it seems to get world peace like what our forfathers wanted. and i can't that many prisoners are just for the drugs. i actually know one but not personally. i know him because he's my uncle on my fathers side. he went to jail for selling drugs to the FBI by mistake. i must actually be one of the few people that say no to drugs, alchohal, and cigarates while at the same saying no to pollution and anything that kills our planet but i'm not one of those 'tree-huggers' type of people since i do sometimes not clean up which is a bad habit of mine. it would be great if every horrible that can happen to person would just go away forever so we wouldn't have these stupid laws that make things worse instead of better.

Posted: **Sat Jul 07, 2007 11:24 pm**

Oh man.
I hope this thread doesn't turn out to become a fight like other threads papibears' started

no offense

Posted: **Sat Jul 07, 2007 11:28 pm**

I totally agree about the drug problems, Here in Carson City their is a major problem with Meth. the only other drug you here about here is Marijuana,which alost became legal in the last election. Proudly I can say in my 39 years of life I have never done any illegal drugs or smoked cigarettes, I do have an occasional drink though. I think I have been drunk 4 times

Posted: **Sun Jul 08, 2007 7:13 am**

Are we going to discuss Fetal Alcohol Syndrome? While my own mother has never drunk anything alcoholic in her life, I can think of at least three people with F.A.S. because of their parent's (or parents') alcohol and/or drug abuse.

Posted: **Sun Jul 08, 2007 7:16 am**

Prudence wrote:Are we going to discuss Fetal Alcohol Syndrome? While my own mother has never drunk anything alcoholic in her life, I can think of at least three people with F.A.S. because of their parent's (or parents') alcohol and/or drug abuse.

Feel free to start a thread on it.

Posted: **Sun Jul 08, 2007 7:25 am**

Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it!Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it!Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it!Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it!Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it!Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it!Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it! Lock it, Lock it, Lock it!

Posted: **Sun Jul 08, 2007 8:02 am**

PapiBear, I agree 100% with your post. This "war" on drugs causes nothing but problems and actually increases drug use. Furthermore, this supposed "war" is disproportionately fought against the poor and minorities.

castleinthesky, thank you for posting the Ron Paul quote. As usual, nothing but wisdom and common sense from the best presidential candidate I have seen in my lifetime, and I've been following elections since 1980.

DVDizzy Forum

The War on Drugs

The War on Drugs