Let me rant a bit. There was a long segment on the local news last night about a "major" drug bust in Warren county Ohio. The police chief was beaming with pride. He explained how a long and coordinated effort by law enforcement led to the seizure of 500 pounds of marijuana. All in all, the news broadcast portrayed this as a big victory in the war on drugs.
I yelled "BULLSHIT" at the tv screen. Even if law enforcement made many such busts, all that would do is lower the supply of drugs and jack up the price(assuming le burns it and doesn't sell it themselves, which is known to happen). Of course higher prices give the drug producers even greater incentive to send more product to the market. It's a never ending cycle.
The U.S. has spent over a trillion dollars fighting this disastrous war on drugs, and we incarcerate well over two million of our citizens. Still, the drugs are prevalent and easy to obtain. A 15 year old boy told me he can get pot "100 times" easier than tobacco because the dealers obviously don't check id's.
I hope trend setting California legalizes possession of one ounce of marijuana in November. The idiotic DOJ is already threatening to sue them. But an article I just read said California stands to earn several hundred million in pot taxes AND save far more than that on law enforcement and prison cost.
What is even more ironic about the War of Drugs, not only are drugs still absurdly easy to get, but the price of such "hard" drugs like cocaine have actaully fallen by about fifty percent, and that is "real" price, not even counting for inflation.
Oh yes, the war on drugs has been a riproaring success, billions upon billions of dollars spent, petty drug lords becoming billionaire power brokers, not to mention millions of our own citizens branded as criminals, their lives ruined simply for indulging in a form of recreation that could harm no one but themselves.
How can it be a waste? It is been going on for only 39 years. Give it few hundred more years, it will succeed. If it doesn't, you won't be around to complain, that certain.
How can it be a waste? It is been going on for only 39 years. Give it few hundred more years, it will succeed. If it doesn't, you won't be around to complain, that certain.
Didn't Nixon also take the U.S. dollar off the gold standard? When the dollar eventually collapses(as it surely will) then Nixon will further enhance his legacy of lying and destruction.
Nixon, LBJ, Carter, George W Bush, and now Obama. That is a lot of horrible HORRIBLE leaders within a 50 year period of time.
Think for a moment about what happens when a person is believed by law enforcement to have derived income from sales of drugs. They use a clever little mechanism called "civil property forfeiture" to seize that person's assets -- up to and including real property. The agency that seizes the assets can then auction them off for funding or keep them.
For up-to-date information on what is going on, its enormity, its unfairness and how 80% of all assets seized are taken from people who have never even been charged with a crime, check out http://www.fear.org. Billions upon billions of dollars worth of assets are taken every year from Americans who have not even been charged with a crime.
Meanwhile, the war on drugs essentially gives big pharma a monopoly on the drug business with a maze of regulations that essentially give them free rein in the market.
Also, the war on drugs has brought things such as "dynamic entry" "no-knock warrants" and flash bang grenades into the vocabulary of peace officers; and innocent people die every year simply from the shock and awe of these miltaristic approaches of dealing with the population.
Because of the nature of the enhanced militarization of the techniques used against the population, the capacity to seize assets without the people even being charged (much less convicted) of a crime and so forth -- I consider the war on drugs to be terrorism worked by our government against the population.
How do you suppose it can be that the ACLU or some other holier than thow organization hasn't made the seemingly unconstitutional seizure of property with charge a front page banner on every newspaper in the world? I'm really perplexed at what allows this to happen.
During prohibition all of the LE swore up and down they weren't on the take. In the 90's a comp study was done. It was determined that well over 70% were on the take which allowed the booze to flow. Now with billions of dollars involved what do you think.
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