Recently we had the privilege of recognizing 10 community organizers at the White House as "Champions of Change." Each of these Champions represent innovative organizations and programs working across America to reform the way we approach our nation's drug problem. Among this group of educators, physicians, social workers and people in recovery from substance use disorders, was a 25-year veteran of the Providence, R.I. police department.
As we sat in the Roosevelt Room just steps from the Oval Office, Lt. Daniel Gannon told us something many Americans might not expect from a law enforcement officer. Not every drug offender belongs in prison, he said. "Prisons are for the bad guys." For many of the others, he said, what's often needed is access to drug treatment, community services and a second chance. Lt. Gannon -- who advocates for an innovative community policing program called Drug Market Intervention -- is just one among thousands of community leaders around the country working to implement a variety of innovative, compassionate and evidenced-based drug policies at the local level.
Progressive and effective reform efforts like these could not come at a better time. More than seven million people in the United States are under the supervision of the criminal justice system. Of these, more than two million are behind bars. Making matters worse, African Americans are disproportionately incarcerated for drug offenses. In fact, African Americans have higher proportions of inmates in state prison who are drug offenders compared to whites -- about 50 percent higher. For states and localities, the cost of managing the prison population has grown significantly. Between 1988 and 2009, annual state corrections spending jumped from $12 billion to more than $50 billion.
Just as alarming is the strong connection between crime and substance use. Data shows that over half of state and federal inmates used drugs during the month preceding the offense corresponding to their sentence. And nearly a third of state prisoners and a quarter of Federal prisoners were using drugs at the time of the offense.
The complexity and scale of our drug problem requires a nationwide effort to support smart drug policies that reduce drug use and its consequences. Since day one, the Obama Administration has been engaged in an unprecedented government-wide effort to reform our nation's drug policies and restore balance to the way we deal with the drug problem. We have pursued a variety of alternatives that abandon an unproductive enforcement-only "War on Drugs" approach to drug control and acknowledge we cannot arrest our way out of the drug problem and, further, that drug addiction is a disease of the brain, not some "moral failing."
This strategy is vital because by recognizing drug addiction as a chronic and progressive disease, we can actually work to prevent and treat substance use disorders and break the cycle of drug-related crime. Simply put, it makes more sense to prevent and treat drug problems before they become chronic than simply to legalize drugs altogether or keep filling our prisons with drug offenders over and over again. Neither of these extremes are sound or humane drug policies.
Under the Obama Administration, the shift has already begun toward programs that emphasize public health over incarceration. Over the past year, the federal government spent $10.4 billion on drug prevention and treatment programs. That is more than twice the amount -- $4.3 billion -- spent on drug-related incarceration operations. And it's just the beginning:
But more still must be done. That is why we are closely examining innovative new programs that show great promise in extending our approach to criminal justice reform and alternatives to incarceration. Here are two that are already showing solid results:
There is no simple, straightforward fix to America's drug problem. Successfully combating this social challenge and reducing the toll substance abuse takes on our nation requires a broad approach that blends drug treatment, smart law enforcement and effective alternatives to incarceration. With these proven public health and public safety strategies, we can break the vicious cycle of drug use and crime, thereby saving countless lives and taxpayer dollars and helping to make it possible for all Americans to achieve their full potential.
It is infuriating to year after year hear the same old tired misinformation, pandering, and fear-mongering from those who profit from the marijuana Prohibition and larger WOD's! At least policy could be based on truth rather than who profits, who has a job either enforcing drug laws, or are "communications Directors" who only talk about their own "facts" and point of view, not mountains of contrary evidence! It is time to legalize/de-criminalize Cannabis and change our national direction on drugs to a medical rather than a criminal enforcement basis.
This in effect is making it easier for police departments to make money off of drug offenders. They are encouraged to not pursue self-defense, but rather take the "slap on the wrist", which is the easier way out for people that cannot afford to defend themselves.
There is no incentive to treat drug issues as health issues, but rather just a "fast track" punishment and fine system.
Freedom and responsibility.
Why should the government have the right to tell anyone what they do with their own bodies?
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The Prohibition has criminalized millions of otherwise law-abiding citizens, cost them their livelihoods, families, savings, all because of the abuses of the war on cannabis by law enforcement that, along with numerous other special interests, profits from continued Prohibition; the increasing militarization of the WOD and marijuana is increasing the abuse and killings of Americans. Some in law-enforcement work to end Prohibition notably LEAP that fights the big-lie, and some remain repeating the big-lie; that is no longer acceptable and the truth is reaching millions who are demanding a final end to cannabis/marijuana IH Prohibition abuses and corrupt utter waste of billions annually.
http://www.leap.cc/cms/index.php
Washington hasn’t the integrity or wise judgment to end Prohibition, they’re mired in the quest for campaign contributions, & corporations, police agencies & others who profit from the Prohibition continue to exert influence to maintain it; we must free ourselves from that MO and call BS on those who perpetuate the big-lie.
The history of the marijuana Prohibition is one of deception and bald-faced lies about one of the most beneficial plants on Earth; it began with commercial interests and big-money power, including the Hearst and DuPont empires, eliminating a threat to their profits; millions have been victims of the big-lie and we have wasted hundreds of billions.
http://www.jackherer.com/thebook/
http://www.jackherer.com/thebook/chapter-four/
The war on marijuana/cannabis and IH took-on a life of its own with many making lucrative careers from the Prohibition, recently big-pharma has joined the list of corporate entities pressuring to keep medicinal cannabis illegal. Cannabis is highly effective in safely treating numerous conditions and diseases, including cancer; in the early ‘70’s the truth was known but suppressed to keep cannabis illegal and the profits flowing for pharmaceutical drug manufacturers; that continues to this day. Cannabis has never killed anyone, unlike dangerous “legal” synthetics produced by big-pharma that kill tens of thousands annually.
http://www.safeaccessnow.org/article.php?id=748
http://www.letfreedomgrow.com/cmu/
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Check out the article in today's New York Times. Up to $38 BILLION in drug money continues to flow between the US and the Mexican drug cartels - and banks in the US are part of the money-laundering scheme with the DEA, so they are complicit, too.