The drugs that are now illegal were once not only legal but found in cough syrup, over the counter medicines, refreshments, etc. They were not made illegal to protect people"s health. They were made illegal to punish minorities who used these drugs recreationally. There have been excellent documentaries on PBS, The History Channel and others to show the bizarreness behind the prohibition of drugs. Addicts have a medical problem; they are self medicating. Making drugs illegal forces people to resort to crime to pay for them. Meth and other drugs do terrible things to people addicted to them, but these people are not helped by throwing them in jail. They need help. I am a nurse and I am appalled that we let non-medical people determine issues regarding drugs.
Paul Says Citizens Will Rise to End Drug War
The following piece was produced by the Huffington Post's OffTheBus.
There is something important to remember about conventional wisdom: it's almost never the same thing as real wisdom. Conventional wisdom in politics says you can't be against the War on Drugs and win election to federal office.
Ron Paul has done it repeatedly, and in very conservative south Texas districts. It's not because his opponents didn't make it an issue.
When activist Phillip Allen caught up with Paul Oct. 23 and asked how his opposition to Prohibition had effected him on the campaign trail, Paul told him "It really hasn't hurt."
He went on to describe his return to Congress in 1996. After serving in Congress from 1976 to 1984, Paul took twelve years off, and that was when he really began to express his opposition to the War on Drugs. Paul said that in 1996, his Republican primary opponent spent a pile of money attacking his drug policy stance, but to no avail. Then the Democrat focused on attacking Paul's anti-prohibitionism in the general election. But Paul stayed on message and prevailed, to the disbelief of drug warriors in his district.
"I think the people are way ahead of the government and the politicians," he concluded.
Paul explained that he has long been optimistic Drug Prohibition would end similarly to Alcohol Prohibition, with a general public awakening to the policy's unintended consequences. He said Alcohol Prohibition ended abruptly when the country realized it was counterproductive and "crazy."
"I think we're going to get to that point (with drugs), and I think we're approaching it right now," he said.
Any person who gives Paul five minutes to explain himself will understand the former obstetrician is deeply concerned about our society's very real drug problems. "As a physician I just think it's a horrible problem, drug addiction, but I think it's a medical problem," he told Allen. "We don't put alcoholics in prison."
Paul tops this "Anti-Prohibitionist Candidate Report Card" with an A plus. But are Republican primary voters ready to admit the War on Drugs has been a disaster?
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Ron equates the war on drugs to the prohibition years....Once the people figured out it was wrong and created more problems then it was worth, the people ended it...
He says the same thing is happening with rec. drugs....
He states "we dont put people in jail for being an alcoholic, why should it be any different for drug use?"
This is a medical condition not a criminal one.
Ron Paul's 1988 position paper on the futility, cruelty, and lawlessness of the drug war can be dusted off and used verbatim twenty years later.
His stand on this issue matters enough to me so that I suspend my disagreement with some other parts of his platform. This man respects the notion of civil liberties! Of course, Dennis Kucinich is also excellent on specific questions about the worst drug prohibition policies, and we should give Mike Gravel his due, as well, for advocating legal cannabis. Yet since it is Dr. Paul's campaign which is catching on, I'll do the cheerleading for him, without hesitation.
The next war Republicans should start should be on their wanton, utterly stupid, childishly simpleton, fricking policies they back.
This isn"t a war on drugs; this is a war on people. I like the following from P.J. O'Rourke:
"Anyway, no drug causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the source of our troubles, we shouldn't test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power."
In the 20 something years of the "Drug War" use and abuse of drugs has gone up, not down. Early studies showed that the more you talk about drugs being bad the more adolescents want them.
Working with young people and dealt with their drug use and abuse. I have learned that some make it through that period and some don"t. The ones that make it do so for one of two reasons, first they are not addictively constructed or second, they are addictively constructed and have a strong support structure of friends and family that help them to overcome and learn to live with their addiction.
People who want people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps are really saying, " I don"t want deal with your problems". In a social contract like the one that our Constitution provides we are all affected by the problems of others. Prisons are crime universities and raise the potential of crime. Higher prison population means higher taxes. Taking care of drug issues locally is cheaper and of shorter duration.
The Constitution is a living document and needs to be read by on a regular basis. We must never forget that the constitution assumes that all rights are retained by the people and the government is given power to serve us, not the other way around. An Imperial President is a strutting scoundrel with not clothes. What power the President or Congress has is determined by the Courts (whose power is also limited) and ultimately the people.
Ron Paul has some extreme ideas but never sell him short as a nut case. If you love and care for the U S Constitution you have no greater defender of that document than Ron Paul. The democrat leadership in the Congress has rolled over and let Bush shred the Constitution.
"I am just a poor boy and my story"s seldom told
I"ve squandered my resistance for a pocketful of mumbles, such are promises
All lies and jest, still the man hears what he wants to hear
And disregards the rest, lie de lie..."
Drug legalization actually favors a dictatorship, as addicts make for poor rebels.
Hey BlackJac --
Given the holier-than-thou, smug attitude evident in your post, can we safely assume that you are "drug-free?" If so, you stand as prime evidence that abstinence from drugs provides no protection against fractured logic and wacky, nonsensical "reasoning."
How else to explain your premise that drug legalization equates to widespread addiction? Your implication is that when it comes to drugs, there is either abstinence or addiction. In your world, there evidently is no such thing as moderate, responsible consumption of drugs.
Ever been to a wedding and toasted the bride and groom with a glass of champagne? Is everyone who partakes in this tradition an addict, unless they sip Martinelli's? How about that wedding at Cana a couple of thousand years ago? Were all of the attendees there addicts?
Bottom line, BlackJac? This is your brain not on drugs. Good luck with that.
I never said it equates to addiction. I'm saying it makes social control that much easier. Case in point: the reason why prisons get cable television is because it's a simpler, easier and faster way of keeping a bunch of violent felons docile than regular mandatory injections of Thorazine.
Bottom line, Scurvybro? Libertarian philosophies are ultimatley utopian, for they only work when everybody is on the same side and follows the rules, and quite frankly, you don't think like a dirtbag.
The whole point is that legalization
DOES NOT
create addicts.
Nor does it prevent addicts.
yeah the hippies in the 60s and 70s sure proves that
Yeah, I remember the day the hippies took up arms and stormed the White House and the Capitol, violently overthrowing LBJ and Congress.
Tell that to Abbie Hoffman or Jerry Rubin.
As long as there's even one police station without a full gymnasium, there will always be a War On Drugs.
Good God, can you imagine what these people could accomplish if they were chasing real criminals instead of busting a carload of teenyboppers for possession of a joint?
So basically, by your own admission, vehicular homicide compliments of being under the influence is not a "real crime."
vehicular homicide is. period.
I lean left, admire the much of the right (that which rejects magical religous belief and invasive government) and currently belong to neither party, but I think we'll see many like me who will actually do the unthinkable and join the republicans if that's what it takes to get Ron Paul into a position where the process he intends to initiate will be put into effect.
The fact that all the leaders in the current national race are mute on subjects which mean so much to us (invasive taxation, the war on drugs, adherence to the constitution and the pernicious attacks on citizens by government agencies)will result in a successfull third party run with Ron Paul...or his successor...creating a path towards sanity in the civic life of the country.
I'm no fan of the current GOP but they should keep in mind the status of their party when John C.Fremont formed it in the 1850's when it was derided as a bothersome spoiler, until Lincoln was elected as their first successfull presidential candidate just 4 years later.
As Twain said, "history may not repeat itself, but it does rhyme."
The war on drugs, simply put, favors privat prisons slavery.
Fill those prisons with inmates, even for less then a gram of pot, and have them as slave labour for 10 to 20 years.
These private prisons are sweatshops, they are an industry, and their labourers are the inmates.
Why do you think that the politio-judicial are so keen to fill them up. Is it normal that nearly one in ten citizen of a country go to prison? Not even China has such a record. Wake up america.
The War on Drug is a sham. How can one fight the this war when the government bring in the drugs or the police turns it over to them and somehow it ends up back on the street. The government wins on both ends. They bring in the drugs and they lock you up, ergo making money! Too lucrative. So let us treat it like alcohol. Only punish those who are a danger to society. Educate about the drugs like Europeans do. Those who will do it do it anyway. Those who want more of life will shun it. The very person on cocaine is against making it legal, typically!
War! Good gawd, y'all, what is it good for?
Why lots of things!
War on Poverty
War on Drugs
War on Terror
Next up:
War on Vandalism
War on Serial Killers
War on Litter
What the world needs now is War! War! War!
When in doubt, Surge!
Not all drug users are addicts. You probably know some without knowing they use.
In 36 years, from the time Tricky Dicky foisted another unwinnable war on America, it has cost one trillion dollars and created a $500 billion per annum illegal industry. Despite all the DEA 'successes', the street price is often better and quality higher.
The markup is high, yes, and funds corrupt police, military, politicians. With plenty of profit left over after getting the product to market.
Legalise all drugs, market at a fair price, by prescription, tax it, fine. It will save money.
Anyone now that wants illegal drugs will get them. Prohibition never works, it didn't for alcohol. I strongly doubt legal availability would change the user base to any degree. I am quite happy with pipe tobacco, beer and wine. So, no, I'm not in the market.
With the exorbitant profit incentive quashed, the drug cartels will fade away. Crime, to support an expensive habit (for some) will diminish. What's not to like?
Oh well, yes, those on the take now won't like it. Too bad.
As for the unfortunate addicts, a new radical approach to sensible law will free up plenty of money for medical approaches to that problem.
You do know that tobbaco and alcohol are drugs too, yes? Being legal doesn't make a substance any less of a drug.
Ahhhh, the sound of sanity is so sweet!
Thank you, Ron Paul. Let's hope your message is highly contagious.
The Ron Paul proposition for Black America:
Give up some of your social welfare goodies (which are probably not helping your community as much as you think) and I will stop the government from putting as much as a third of you males in jail for victimless drug crimes.
It is a tempting proposition for many, as I see an unusually high level of support for Ron Paul from black people.
The "white liberals" don't like this deal because a lot of their jobs are within the "welfare industrial complex."
They could care less about all those who are locked up.
You are an idiot and a bigot. "White" liberals and liberals of all colors have been against the drug war from the beginning. Did you forget, we're the dirty f*ucking hippies that main streamed recreational drug use?
Ron Paul 'may' be the blessing in disguise that fed-up local roots and worker bees through out America have been hoping for, wishing for and desperately seeking. He isn't a fan of the political religious right and believes that religicians should stay in their pulpit and start practicing to be the Christians they claim to be, but don't look, feel, taste or act like.
Let's face it, why should those of us that are rational stay with a party composed of irrational idiots that follow #43 & Big Dick into disaster after disaster; Iraq, and the incompetence and blunders just keep coming; the unreality of winning anything is clear and he still won't admit he screwed up, or to all the theft and graft Is there any need to guess why millions are deserting what the GOP now displays. The current crop of wannabees sound just like him, they don't seem to have anything different to say or offer and want to "stay his course" - EXCEPT RON PAUL.
But is he too little or too late? Can he change the rhetoric, the focus and bring about a return to sanity, to what the GOP party used to stand for? We used to stand for less government fiscal sanity and getting value for the dollar. We used to stand for the LITTLE businessman and the individual entrepreneur making a success through hard work and an independent spirit. We used to stand for preserving our natural heritage and demand honest and open government operations and didn't buy politicians to get a free ride by giving politicians our shareholders dividends and we didn't go around Bible-thumping and telling everybody what they 'ought-to-do.
Well it's time and past time to to return to true values that Americans still believe in and clean out all these wackos ideas, and ideological nuts that have turned the middle class away from what the GOP devolved into and return to our once respected ideals.; and if we want to start getting our fiscal house in order .
Considering Ron Paul is a Texas Republican, I am fascinated and, in many instances, approving of his ideology with regard to many issues.
Drug use, like smoking and alcoholism are diseases and addictions. These are not criminal actions in and of themselves. Much of the crime in this country is perpetrated by those trying to get money for their additiction. If pharmacies and hospitals were allowed to legally prescribe and sell certain drugs, much of our street crime would be eliminated. We wouldn't need to pay nearly $100,000 annually per inmate to incarcerate drug addicts, and could spend less than half that amount to TREAT and REHABILITATE them instead. Rather than a prison sentence, after which they emerge as hardened criminals, we could "sentence" drug addicts to therapy, community service and perhaps job-training, so they'd become productive tax-paying citizens than deadbeats siphoning tax dollars or welfare.
Our government does not want to eliminate drug use, as it would lessen support of rogue nations which grow, sell and trade their products for weapons. We supported Noriega in Panama, and other ruthless leaders who financed their governments and weapons purchases (from us) on their illegal drug sales.
Our military was able to find Saddam Hussein in a bunker behind a chicken-farm in a remote village in Iraq, but still can't locate or capture Bin-Laden. We financed and trained him and al-Qaeda during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Reagan even called him a "freedom-fighter." Now, despite our troop presence there, poppy fields are sprouting like weeds, as elsewhere: the Golden Triangle, South America and within our own borders.
Let's get real and deal with drug addiction in the U.S. once and for all. The DEA has lost many good agents, and our military can't do this job. Our police forces can't cope and are stretched beyond their capabilities in the so-called War on Drugs. I'm not advocating legalizing all drugs, but items like marijuana and other "recreational" drugs and users should not be criminalized.
Really well put.
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Posted November 5, 2007 | 08:50 AM (EST)