Every day we read and hear about the horrors of the failed drug war in newspapers and on TV. There is the tragic bloodbath in Mexico where more than 50,000 people have been killed since President Calderon launched his "surge" against the drug traffickers 5 years ago. We see our state and local governments struggling to pay teachers while our prisons are exploding with people with nonviolent drug offenses at a price tag of $50,000 per person. We hear about the overdose crisis where more people are now dying from preventable overdoses than from car accidents. That's the bad news.
The good news is that there is a growing movement bubbling up across the country that will help us find an exit strategy to this unwinnable war. Do you want to feel the momentum for change and be a part of the solution? Join the more than 1,000 people from around the world who will come together in Los Angeles at the International Drug Policy Reform conference on November 2nd - 5th.
Our conference is made up of people who love drugs, people who hate drugs and people who don't care about drugs. There are people who enjoy marijuana or other drugs and don't consider themselves criminals just because they like to unwind with a joint instead of a cocktail. There are also people who have seen the horrors of drugs and addiction. Their substance abuse may have led to them going to jail or maybe they lost a loved one to an overdose. There are also people who have never tried illicit drugs, but are outraged at the money and lives wasted due to drug war. What unites all of these people is the belief the war on drugs causes more harm then good.
The movement to end the drug war is a very big tent that emcompasses people across the political spectrum. Gavin Newsom, the former Democratic Mayor of San Francisco and current Liutenent Governor of California, will share the stage with the libertarian former Governor of New Mexico Gary Johnson. Dozens of people who have spent years behind bars for a nonviolent drug offense will participate in conversations and panels with dozens of police officers who saw the futility of the drug war and are speaking out against drug prohibition. Students who are just beginning their activism will appear alongside veterans of the movement who have worked for decades against drug war hysteria.
You will spend three days sharing and learning from people who have won numerous legislative victories like passing laws for treatment instead of incarceration for drug offenders to medical marijuana for sick patients. You will spend time with movements leaders abroad, like Javier Sicilia, the Mexican poet whose son is one of the 50,000 people killed over the last 5 years and who is now leading a mass movement against the drug war that brings tens of thousands to the streets of Mexico.
As much as you will learn from the panel and seminars, you will learn at night hanging out with folks at the hotel bar or restaurant. You will meet people who pass out syringes to people who inject drugs on the streets of Chicago or talk to a Reverend from Tennessee who helps people in the community reenter society after a long time behind bars. The gathering allows you to meet people you have only communicated with on email or have only seen on TV.
For the first time at the Reform Conference, we are staging a mass public protest acknowledging President Nixon's declaration of the drug war 40 years ago this year, demanding health-centered alternatives and celebrating this incredible, diverse movement. "No More Drug War: A Rally & Concert to End the War on Drugs" is taking place Thursday, November 3rd at the Levitt Pavilion in historic MacArthur Park. The event will feature international reform leaders, live music, spoken word artists, and a host of gourmet food trucks. This will be the largest event of its kind ever!
It is obvious that the war on drugs has failed. We are building an alternative. It is time for us as a society to learn how to live with drugs, because they aren't going anywhere. Drugs have been around for thousands of years and will be here for thousands more. We need to educate people about the possible harms of drug use, offer compassion and treatment to people who have problems, and leave in peace the people who are not causing harm. And we need to take action against the incarceration of so many of our brothers and sisters who are suffering behind bars. We need you to join us in Los Angeles. If the people lead, the leaders will follow!
Tony Newman is the director of media relations at the Drug Policy Alliance (www.drugpolicy.org)
Follow Tony Newman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TonyNewmanDPA
Chris Weigant: Marijuana Prohibition's Legal Insanity Continues
My wife and I have a son. Our son has autism and intense rage, directed primarily at himself. His episodes of violence were so intense that people believed we abused him. We felt it necessary after an anonymous tip to CPS to take a lot of video to prove it was him and not us. Many people can't watch these videos without at least a shocked gasp.
What if there was a plant he could ingest which could calm that rage and help him focus? What if once every three or four uses, that plant proved to completely halt major self-injurious behaviors?
Well, too bad. Because we didn't (and still don't) know **** about said plant - how to dose, the best strain, whether hash is better than oil, etc. - we couldn't get it right more than once every few tries. Because the plant is so hated and feared, our son's condition rapidly escalated into a crisis situation, and he's now living in a group home because we can't keep him safe.
He's doing moderately well now, but what if cannabis could have kept him at home? What if prohibition destroyed this child's chance at happiness? What if thousands of other children are in similar situations and the country is so damned scared of legalization that more children have to suffer?
http://www.alexneedshelp.com/video
Vacations in some areas of Mexico are now so great they will literally make you lose your mind (along with your head), and armaments manufacturers in the United States have a nice 'free market' (okay, it's really a 'black market' - but who cares about little details like that?) to sell their wares into. Add to that that some Americans get all-expenses-paid non-voluntary vacations for life for non-violent acts, and that the private prison industry is booming, and the whole picture is rosy.
Hey, if it ain't broke, right?
Gart Valenc
http://www.stopthewarondrugs.org
It is highly hypocritical, indeed, that despite the fact that it is our demand which underpins and sustains the ‘drug trafficking business’, we continue to show a total lack of commitment to seek real changes in the legislation, a state of affairs that, to be frank, is tantamount to turning a blind eye to the catastrophic consequences the WoD is having on drug producing countries.
I do not have any doubts that the decriminalisation of the demand for drugs is a sensible policy; but if we were serious about tackling the ‘drug problem’, we should be accompanying those same policies with equally sensible policies towards the supply of drugs; we should also be promoting the legalisation of the supply; we should be the ones making all the noises calling for a change in the national and international legislation on drugs. In a nutshell, we should be spearheading the movement seeking to legalise the production and distribution of all drugs.
Continues on next and final commnent
Therefore, IT IS PROHIBITION ITSELF WHICH MUST BE ENDED. It should not be confined to a particular drug or to one side of the drug trade. It concerns not just marijuana, but all drugs; not just the legalisation and regulation of the demand but perhaps more importantly, the legalisation and regulation of the supply, too.
Legalising only one side of the drug market, in this case the demand, is akin to relieving drug consuming countries of any responsibility we may have, and we have a lot, in the state of affairs regarding Prohibition and the War on Drugs policies. We may not like it, we may even get angry with anybody suggesting it, but we must acknowledge that our demand, and our willingness and ability to pay for illegal drugs, are sufficient and necessary conditions to make the supply of drugs possible, and to sustain and stimulate its relentless growth.
Continues on next comment
----------------------------------
maybe..
getting wound up in the first place should be illegal?
and Ken Burn's wonderful documentary ''Prohibition''..
the prohibitionists are the least educated among us..
and this woeful lack of education allows for fears that scares them into zealots LOL.
march on my friend - Peace
fire
Nancy Rector
Author of "A Painful Truth - The Entrapment of America's Sick"
(How being ill got me arrested)
www.apainfultruth.com
As we saw during the 1920's, Prohibition caused liquor consumption to soar and the effects are nearly identical when compared to that of the War on Drugs...
If you want to encourage more behavior of the type that you are seeking in actuality to diminish, then just put that activity on the prohibited list and watch things explode from there.
We desperately want to harm you...is for your own good!
Gart Valenc
http://www.stopthewarondrugs.org
«Consumer countries are morally obliged to reduce their vast economic demand. If you can’t cut it, cut the economic profits. You have to find how to staunch this demand. Seek out all possible options, including market alternatives, so that drugs trafficking ceases to be a source of violence in Latin America ...»
I do believe that now is a golden opportunity for drug producing countries to unite around a common purpose: to put an end to Prohibition and the War on Drugs. It is time that Latin America give their unconditional support to Felipe Calderón's call for Legalisation & regulation to solve the so-called drug problem.
There is no doubt that rejecting or opposing Prohibition and the War on Drugs might carry huge costs in term of retaliations by the "international community", i.e. the USA, the largest consumer of drugs in the world and the most belligerent war on drugs warrior. What we should always keep in mind is that no price can be higher than the one drug producing countries have already paid and will continue to pay as long as this insane and irrational regime.