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Pissing on Drug Warrior Graves
Those who support drug prohibition are the best friends the drug lords could ever hope for.
Drug warriors stand in eternal support of Osama bin Laden and worldwide terrorism; they are the wind beneath the wings of the barbarous cartels in Mexico and serve as home boys to the violent gangs that run roughshod in our neighborhoods. Drug war proponents have crafted policies that ensure ever increasing numbers of deaths from overdose, street corner shoot outs and from diseases that could have been prevented via a more intelligent policy.
In my work I have sought the answer to a very simple question: "Can you name the #1 success of the drug war?" One would think that after a hundred years there would be a powerful answer to the question, but the truth is, from the drug czar on down through the DEA to the cop on the beat there is no one who will answer, none willing to even attempt to justify the horrors created by this policy of drug prohibition.
Behind closed doors, these politicians, judges and law enforcement personnel agree, that the drug war is a failed, hopeless policy. Yet when the corporate media puts that microphone to their face and turns that camera on, they revert to cannibalism. In order for them to thrive, they insist on maintaining the lie and continue devouring generations of our children, for making the same mistakes they made in their youth. (Right, Mr. Obama?)
Those who thrive on eternal drug war refuse to debate me, to submit to an interview on my radio shows, to email or write me or to even talk with me in public. They live in a world of lies, a mutual absolution society. There is no truth, justice, logic, scientific fact, medical data or any legitimate reason for this drug war to exist. The main reason it continues is the silence of the lambs, the populace so afraid to speak, so paranoid of the glaring truth that surrounds us that they remain in the grip of a taboo so powerful that they stand helplessly while the drug war devours our Constitution, fills our prisons with our children, empowers criminals worldwide and wastes hundreds of billions of our tax dollars.
If you're afraid to speak about the drug war at work, in school, in church or elsewhere, you must educate yourself, embolden your efforts and get off the couch to email, write, call and visit your elected officials. You'll be surprised, they get it, they know the full truth about this drug war, they are just waiting to hear it from you.
I'm finishing a new book and might I suggest you use it as a tool to embolden your efforts: "This Is Your Country on Drugs - The Secret History of Getting High in America" by Ryan Grim. Ryan has assembled facts and history enough to give the reader new confidence and enough backbone to do battle in ending the drug war.
Each day you remain silent, you reinforce and support this modern inquisition and it's myriad and murderous ways; and we are once again and so easily one day closer to the destruction of liberty, of America itself.
What do you want America to be, a land of cops, dogs and prisons? That is where we are and will forever be if we do not soon sound the alarm to prevent further damage to our nation from the policy of drug prohibition. You hold the key; you are the answer.
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Dean Becker has the courage and intellect to 'tell it like it is'. I will follow his articles and visit his archive.
Maybe they should appoint Becker as the next 'Drug Czar' ? He would turn things around quickly, and for the better......
Keep it up, Mr. Becker. You are a true journalist and patriot.
"Coffee is an addictive drug which produces in its users anxiety, insomnia and death!" haha.. ludicrous isn't it!
Thank you for your efforts to change hearts and minds with logic and facts. One would wish the Debbie Riddiles of the world would stop to consider the damage they do before they wield their power to try to incarcerate otherwise lawabiding citizens of all ages, gender and beliefs.
Dan
time to write a letter to my reps...
Hey, R. Dean.
Here from HoustonNORML. Listen to Dean's archived shows, everyone. They're illuminating. He's our great drug warrior. Can't have a war, with warriors on only one side.
We have powerful, highly placed people, Dick Cheney, for one, who own portions of private prisons. I'm not saying they're all republicans, either--just that the more people are incarcerated, the wealthier they become.
Here's the link to the story about the 29 year old Houston woman who died during a 2 week sentence, for pot possession?
http://blog.norml.org/2009/06/25/marijuana-pow-dies-in-custody-in-houston/
Change you can believe in, if your gullible enough.
"Each day you remain silent, you reinforce and support this modern inquisition and it's myriad and murderous ways; and we are once again and so easily one day closer to the destruction of liberty, of America itself."
If they don't hear it from us they won't hear it!
It would be advantageous as you indicate for more people to have courage and to speak out against the continuation of the failed drug war. But how do we reconcile that necessity with the fact that we live in an ever expanding police state? It is truly perilous to speak out against the govt. in the present climate. Writing a letter to an elected official might be seen as probable cause for a swat team of militarized police thugs to break down your door in the middle of the night and tear your property apart looking for drugs. I personally am a letter writer and public supporter of drug law reform, but the majority of my friends of like mind wouldn't think of speaking out or joining the fight due to fear of retribution from our govt. agencies.
I felt that way for a long time but learned that that is what the drug warriors want you to think. It is the self enforcing aspect of a fear based policy.
Since 1996 I have spoken out and written letters to political leaders of all stripes. Only once did I have my governor, Ed Rendell, pass my public policy letter on to the commander of the state police to respond to me. I wrote them both back pointing out that it was unAmerican and possibly illegal intimidation for them to have police respond to the public policy concerns of citizens.
Otherwise I have gotten more positive results from lobbying politicians than I have negative. I wrote to a senator recently angry that they had not signed on to co-sponsored Virginia Sen. Jim
Webb's S-714, to create a national criminal justice commission that would analyze the efficacy of the drug war. within a week of my faxing him the Senator's office called me back to alert me to his co-sponsorship. Assertive letters get more personal responses than overly polite and submissive letters. Faxing is also much more immediate and individual than email or snail mail.
The same goes for letters to the editor about how the drug war is a negative influence on community, society and governance.
If they don't hear it from us they won't hear it!
See Dean Becker's Profile
Hary3,
This point in time is the abolitionists moment.
Historically you'll find many examples of some Great Dogma surviving through tyrannical means, and more importantly some very lucid freethinkers standing firm on Enlightenment and Renaissance values.
One of the useful tricks that allowed many a freethinkers to escape prison, execution or persecution from fanatical inquisitionists was Deism: it says God made everything "just right", then He retreated to outside the Universe and doesn't interfere.anymore. This allowed them to practice science and do empirical research, something entirely foreign to religion.
If someone is truly in a position where taking a stand against the WoD is impossible he or she might wish to maintain a certain deniability just like the Deists. A parallel in the irrational Drug War could be some of these strategies:
A. Stick to asking innocent questions. That way it's not you against him. Y'know: "...but how come Holland has such a low use of MJ and other drugs, and Portugal even had better stats after then decriminalized all drugs back in 2001?"
B. Stick to hearsay and stuff you could plausibly have watched on TV. If those you quiz happen to dismiss your questions, try asking them to do you a favor: have them dig up those stats online for you. Next time you meet you can always claim to have fallen for the temptation to check out the numbers for yourself
There are many wonderful books on how we Renaissance men have fought and won over the childish irrationality of many tyrannical movements.
part 3 of 3
A 2007 report for the Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College by strategist John A. Glaze asserted that, "...an estimated 70 percent of the Taliban’s income now comes from protection money and the sale of opium."
Support for the war on drugs is an act of treason against the Constitution by giving America's enemies "aid and comfort".
Legalization of drugs is the fastest way to deprive America's enemies, from the Taliban to the Mexican cartels, of access to a $320-bn annual tax free cash supply.
Good points Pat, bravo! Good article Dean, keep it up. Nail on the head.
I wanted to throw this in;
"Cancer occurs because cells become immortalized; they fail to heed normal signals to turn off growth. A normal function of remodelling in the body requires that cells die on cue. This is called apoptosis, or programmed cell death.
That process fails to work in tumors. THC promotes its reappearance so that gliomas, leukemias, melanomas and other cell types will in fact heed the signals, stop dividing, and die."
"But, that is not all," explains Dr. Russo: "The other way that tumors grow is by ensuring that they are nourished: they send out signals to promote angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels. Cannabinoids turn off these signals as well. It is truly incredible, and elegant."
In other words, this article explains several ways in which cannabinoids might be used to fight cancer, and, as the article says, "Cannabinoids are usually well tolerated, and do not produce the generalized toxic effects of conventional chemo therapies.
That's right, news about the ability of pot to shrink tumors first surfaced, way back in 1974.
Petro-chemical drug companies do not want this out.
And the U.S. congress, that prohibits us from acting on this knowledge for the good of humanity, is less popular than the legalization of pot among Americans according to polling this year.
Go figure?!@
Part 2 of 3
Domestic enemies aid and comfort:
Republican Dan Burton of Indiana on December 12, 2002 stated, as chairman of the Government Reform Committee, "Over seventy percent of all crime is drug-related."
Foreign enemy aid and comfort:
"Of the 36 groups designated by the State Department as foreign terrorist organizations, 14 (or 39 percent) are connected to drug activities, testified Steven W. Casteel, assistant administrator for intelligence of the Drug Enforcement Administration.
He said they range from Middle Eastern terrorist groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, the Shining Path in Peru and the Abu Sayyaf Group in the Philippines." Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, 20 May 2003
2004 Congressional Research Service report, 'Illicit Drugs and the Terrorist Threat: Causal Links and Implications for Domestic Drug Control Policy', "The international traffic in illicit drugs contributes to terrorist risk through at least five mechanisms: supplying cash, creating chaos and instability, supporting corruption, providing "cover" and sustaining common infrastructures for illicit activity, and competing for law enforcement and intelligence attention. Of these, cash and chaos are likely to be the two most important."
Along the same lines;
US Patent 6630507 - Cannabinoids as antioxidants and neuroprotectants
US Patent Issued on October 7, 2003
Abstract Claims
Description
Full Text
6630507
Abstract
Cannabinoids have been found to have antioxidant properties, unrelated
to NMDA receptor antagonism. This new found property makes cannabinoids
useful in the treatment and prophylaxis of wide variety of oxidation
associated diseases, such as ischemic, age-related, inflammatory and
autoimmune diseases. The cannabinoids are found to have particular
application as neuroprotectants, for example in limiting neurological
damage following ischemic insults, such as stroke and trauma, or in the
treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease,
Parkinson's disease and HIV dementia.
Who owns this patent?
Your Federal Government, The Dept. of Health and Human Services.
I smell something rotting.
According to the U.N. 2005 World Drug Report the annual global retail black market for intoxicant illegal drugs was worth some $320 billion.
That $320-bn annual global prohibition black market economy, created and enforced by the War on Drugs policy, funds most of the crime and terrorism in the world today as it also provides our enemies with heroin as an asymmetric weapon that they are reported to be using against western children. The War on drug policy literally subsidizes America's enemies, both foreign and domestic. It gives them aid and comfort.
The asymmetric weapon:
"The crop will be opium and the farmer will be Osama bin Laden, the most wanted terrorist in the world. Bin Laden, accused by the United States of bombing two of their embassies in East Africa this summer and a string of other attacks, sees heroin as a powerful new weapon in his war against the West, capable of wreaking social havoc while generating huge profits, according to sources in eastern Afghanistan and in Pakistan." Dec 1998, Indian Times
As the World Trade Center and the Pentagon still smoldered Senator John Kerry told reporters, "That's part of their revenge on the world," Kerry said. "Get as many people drugged out and screwed up as you can." 21 Sept. 2001
Hurray Dean!
At least someone in the drug reform community actually sees the national security chaos and instability imposed by this war on drugs that Barack Obama is not only continuing but escalating.
Pat Rogers
See Dean Becker's Profile
Good to see you Pat!
I'm going to open up this can of worms and go fishing for truth.
Everybody gets it, except those whose need for a paycheck blinds them.
The national security and public safety arguments should rip the head right off the drug war monster. Americans, regardless of their opinion about drug use, should be incensed at the global terrorism and crime that the drug war itself promotes and subsidizes.
I am hounding the Washington Post forums today on the issue of the Afghanistan military buildup. No more troops until the U.S. does everything that it can on a policy basis to hurt the Taliban. Since the Taliban get 70% of their funding from opium and its protection the best way to quickly deprive the Taliban of most of their funding is to regulate addiction. We don't need more troops. We don't need more money for Afghanistan. End the U.S. drug war subsidy to the Taliban first.
Just think what industrial hemp would do for the traditional weaving and textile industry in Afghanistan.
I for one, will certainly be glad when the gov't allows grown folks to make grown folks decisions. I am grown and can make my choices accordingly. I love the "Drink Responsibly" on the side of the beer trucks. Why is it ok for the drinkers to be trusted to make responsible choices on the matter?
I think the world may be ready for us Dean. "It's been a loooong time comin' but I know a change gon' come." ;)
-Jess
See Dean Becker's Profile
NOTE: My guest on this Sundays Century of Lies program will be Ryan Grim the author referenced in this blog. We'll be discussing This is your Country on Drugs, live on Pacifica's KPFT. You can tune in live at 7:30 central time by going to http://www.kpft.org or on my website a bit later, http://www.drugtruth.net
Thank you for this article Mr. Becker. There are not enough articles like this.
I wish I knew more of what to do about ending the War on Drugs. I think it is a scary situation and a fascist attempt to control, disenfranchise and imprison people. Meantime, the lies abound from the prohibitionists.
I am very afraid for "the children" as long as these prohibitionist maniacs are around and in power.
See Dean Becker's Profile
Worldly,
Thank you for your kind thoughts.
Drug war is the lie that could destroy America. It started out, framed as necessary to protect a vulnerable few. It escalated to the point that it bears many strong and startling similarities to Torquemada's inquisition. It has way too many similarities for my liking to the race/class demonization of the nazis. And of course it is the best thing the bigots could come up with now that slavery is no longer their right.
There is one way that you as an individual can fight the War against the "War on (Some) Drugs." It is called Jury Nullification and it is 100% legal. For more information, refer to the Fully Informed Jury Association at http://www.fija.org
If enough informed citizens refused to convict our fellow citizens on non-violent drug charges, those in power might finally act to end this asinine war. Jury nullification was, in fact, one of the main reasons that alcohol prohibition was reversed.
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