SF Mayor: End The War On Drugs And Crime Will Drop By 70 Percent

CBS 5 San Francisco:

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom proclaimed the nation's war on drugs a total failure and insisted the crime rate would go down if the government spent money on treatment as opposed to jailing people with drug problems.

"If you want to get serious, if you want to reduce crime by 70% in this country overnight, end this war on drugs," he told reporters at City Hall on Thursday. "You want to get serious, seriously serious about crime and violence end this war on drugs."

Read the whole story: CBS 5 San Francisco

Comments

[midtown]

The Mayor is right.

Amsterdam legalizes it. Society hasn't broken down.

[factanonverba]

I simply adore my mayor. Makes me proud to be a San Franciscan. The US has the world's largest number of prisoners and what percentage of these are for drug-related offenses?

[paixa3]

I do not know the percentage, but it is an excellent question.

[Purple Girl]

Absolutely agree with the Mayor. The War on Drugs was just a catch phrase to endear Nancy Reagan adn be an area the Feds could stash money and weld unfettered influences around the world. Until we solve the social probelms that encourage drug use, their can be no real soutions. Same for the War on Terror- same stupid use of muscle over mental and social solutions. Could use some Sociologists and Anthropologists on this problem to- anybody ever ask?

[pangardenguru]

faced with any problem, the republicans never go to experts in the field,they always turn to some predictable idiot jesus freak for answers and of course they are always against everything and never know what they are talking about, so nothing ever gets actually fixed, just condemed for some so called moral reason. nothing will ever get done, no progress will ever be made anywhere if we cant get these idiot moralists out of the picture.

[VictorLudorum]

Agreed! Then we can tackle the fight for food without wearing van-dykes.


The poppy growers/weed growers are at talking terms and connected to United Nation's Authorities that regularly discusses the crop and acreage limitations there...

[totalliberal]

I'm 67. Smoked pot in 1956. Didn't try it again until the 60's. Tried them all and didn't like most of them.

Raised a family and proud to say, they all went through college and have families. Now I occasionally do a dube. So I should be arrested?

[SaviourMachine]

The Mayor is right.

Gravel has been saying this as well.

[AKJM]

Did Gravel really say that?
Yes, tax it, sell it at state stores-- looks like national health care and saved social security to me!

[lochnessmonster]

Gravel is still saying that. The way I understand his thinking: Give it to the users...ta­ke the profit out of it for the dealers. Doctors will give prescriptions, you know who the users are, when they want help to quit, you can help them right away. Pay for the program from the tax collected.

[planetfotheApes]

Did I forget to mention that people in America have a Constitutional right to ingest or smoke anything they choose as long as they don't violate the rights of others?

Each new war on ______, is just another move by the elites to end freedom. Look at what a great job GW has done in this regard.

[massimo1]

The war on drugs is a flat-out failure and expensive in many ways. But you know these so-called small government republicans, once a dubious bureaucracy is in place, they'd rather fund it than look intelligen­t... ooops I mean, soft.

[planetfotheApes]

He has the same sane position as Ron Paul. It seems the war on drugs has even less validity than the BS "war on terror"

[dax49]

finally, some straight thinking

[realitytrumpsbull]

I second that emotion, I've long held that the
War On Drugs is 60% jobs program, 40% futile effort, to try and deal with what is at heart
a medical problem of addiction, I think they
make plenty of stuff that can be administered
professionally as an interim substitute for the
street drugs, that would put the kaibosh on a
lot of the US/Mexico cross-border crime, too
if drug treatment was improved. Counseling,
treatment, and border enforcement=giant leap
forward for so-called 'war on drugs'...

[Doug]

I agree.

Keep the legal usage restrictions, i.e. driving under the influence, etc.

I also think the age to purchase alcohol should be removed.

Parents, it's your job to take care of your kids and teach them about bad habits.

[totalliberal]

Wanna get rid of crime, get rid of hand-guns and assault weapons. If you're caught with one in public, 30 years, no questions asked.

Let's see how many gang-bangers and dealers are brave/stupid enough to drive around with them in their cars.

(Make room for them by tossing out all the non-violent drug criminals.­)

[totalliberal]

Oh, and by the way, all the chicken-shit gun worshipers can keep their well oiled weapons at home and rub themselves any time they want.

[nomoredead]

I couldn't agree more, lib.

[Horus]

Take away guns? I was watching this conspiracy laden video called Descent into Tyranny. It was by Alex Jones...he­'s a guy on the radio that really gets into all the conspiracy stuff. His site is infowars.com. Its kinda out there stuff but some of what he says is interesting and some of it seems eerily logical. Anyway he is always going on and on about how taking away the guns of citizens is one of the first steps of the New World Order and establishing a police state and all that. You might get a kick out checking him out.

[1will]

Yeah, let's have more gun laws because the 20,000 or so we already have aren't working. If we have one or two more the criminals will start obeying them. Sure we have Cocaine, Meth and Heroin flowing in from outside the country almost unimpeded but if guns were outlawed no criminals would ever consider smuggling them in as well.

[ipitombi]

Loonie mayor of a loonie town. San Fransisco needs to be renamed: "Sodom & Gomorrah"

[levibatgirl]

Go away idiot. Don't attempt to comment on subjects that are way over your head.

[ipitombi]

BatNutJobGirl;

You'll have my vote when you run for mayor of Sodom... you dumb freak.

[aicon]

Hey, Ipitombi blogger, most people ignore you cause you are not worth of their time, but I will for once say it in your face, you American Taliban! You are an idiot who comes here with no arguments to debate!

Some GOP "Moral Saints":
SIX of your GOP party officials have been preaching morals and were caught in Pedophile or homosexual acts only recently. Go check the records, you school dropout!

Two weeks ago the republican chairman of the St. Petersburg, Florida, City Council was accused of having sex with his two adopted daughters and their nanny. And he could have been in real trouble, too, if it turned out the nanny was an illegal. But he got ahead of the story when he killed himself by sitting in the garage with the doors closed and the riding lawn mower on.

Republican Senator Craigs called BIll Clinton a nasty naughty boy
and then it's caught in a Mens room trying to find sex. His Party colleagues are embarrassed to see him stay in the Senate.

Christian reverend Ted Haggard's demonises gays and lesbians, then he is caught buying drugs and seeking sex from a male prostitute

Spokane Mayor Jim West, who championed an anti-gay agenda
during his tenure as one of the most powerful Republicans in the
Legislature, and then shows his resignation for his own gay scandal.

Foley, a Florida Republican, resigned from Congress on
Sept. 29 after being confronted with the computer messages he sent to
male teenage pages who had worked on Capitol Hill.

Jeff Gannon's, a known male Hooker had access to the White house and was in most press conferences at the white house

Ipitombi, you make a fool of yourself on this forum!!

[ipitombi]

aicon;

you are a total waste of space. idiots like you should crawl under a dirty rock and never show his/her slimy features again.

[Horus]

Nope he's definitely not from Sodom. If he was from Sodom he would be cool right? Everybody's like, "Nope he's not from Sodom!" as if thats an insult, ever look at the way you think and see anything wrong with it?

[totalliberal]

And you are from?

[ipitombi]

not from sodom...

[RogerHWerner]

SF has its problems for sure but this is one idea that the US should have adopted years ago. We have pissed away billions of dollars and it hasn't made the slightest dent in drug use or availability but criminalization of drugs has jacked up drug costs and in a very real sense caused the black market in drugs. The situation today is much the same as it was in the 1930s. Viotent crime relating to bootlegging virtually ended overnight when the Volstead Act was repealed ending Prohibition. We ought to regulate drug sales and while we're at it, we ought to decriminalize victimless social crimes such as prostitution. Attempting to regulate vice is simply a waste of money and resources.

[drumz]

One of the most beautiful cities in the world and a moron like you who I'm sure has never been there calls it a loonie town?
You're the freak'n lunatic and such a typical troll spouting out about something they know nothing about - priceless.

[ipitombi]

And shitty-ass Sodomite get off my ass. We can settle this in the parking lot if you want.

[desertlover]

Gavin Newsom for President.

Finally, a politician with the balls to talk straight about the joke we call the War on Drugs. However, the problem is that too many people make way too much money by drugs being illegal.

Cops don't want a change in policy. They make too much money fighting drugs.

Prison guards and companies who build prisons don't want a change in policy because they make too much money imprisoning drugs users.

Drug dealer, gangs and the drug cartel doesn't want a change in policy because they make too much money selling drugs.

Cops, prison guards and drug dealers all agree on this one. They all win with the war on drugs.

The big losers are the American people and those sad souls who are addicted to drugs and can't afford, like Rush Limbaugh or some Hollywood celeb, the medical and psychological treatment they need to fight their illness.

The War on Drugs is un-American.

[CyrusBeaucephus]

Its a welfare handout to both Drug Warriors & Drug Dealers

Legalization would force thousands of leeches to find real occupations. I'm not just talking about dealers here, but everyone involved in this sordid business

[nomoredead]

Exactly, these privatized­.. for profit prisons are making more money by housing more prisoners. Probably like the rest of the greedy corporations in America, they have good lobbyist.