40 Years of Drug War Failure Represented in a Single Chart

40 Years of Drug War Failure Represented in a Single Chart
According to The Economic Impact of Illicit Drug Use on American Society, last published by the Department of Justice in 2011, enforcing illegal drug laws imposes an annual cost on the American criminal justice system of $56 billion; while incarceration of drug offenders poses an annual cost of $48 billion.


updated

U.N. told to find alternatives to war on drugs

POLICING FOR PROFIT
DEAth Merchants

Pot Arrests Cost State $300 Million in 25 Years
By Jonathan Martin, Seattle Times Staff Reporter
Washington -- A new crime-data analysis has found that 241,000 people in Washington were arrested for misdemeanor marijuana possession over the last quarter-century, adding fuel to a campaign seeking to make this state the first to legalize recreational marijuana sales. The analysis estimates those arrests translated to nearly $306 million in police and court costs — $194 million of it the past decade. African Americans were arrested twice as often as whites for possession in Washington in the past 25 years, even though whites use marijuana more. full story

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWr0neESf-M"]Yes on I-502 TV Ad - Law Enforcement - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yf9XPlRRvxE"]I-502 TV Ad - John McKay - YouTube

 

But think of all that we've oppressed. Seems a winner for the elite!

 

US War on Drugs is a 'Charade' says Brad Pitt CC
In promotion of new documentary The House I Live In, Pitt says America's anti-drugs strategy is 'backward'

Pitt, who takes a producer's credit on the new film from Why We Fight director Eugene Jarecki, flew in from Europe especially to appear at the Sundance Sunset Cinema in west Hollywood. Jarecki's documentary suggests that efforts by the US government to fight drug trafficking are doomed to failure, and that a new approach should be adopted.

"My drug days have long since passed," Pitt told the Hollywood Reporter. "But I could probably land in any American city and within 24 hours find whatever you want. But we still support this charade called the drug war. We spent a trillion dollars over 40 years and a lot of people have lost their lives over it."

Pitt said he had become involved in the film because "the subject has bugged me for a long time". He added: "It's a backward strategy. It makes no sense and we keep going on the path like we're winning, when it perpetuates more drugs being used."

- Press release fromThe American Civil Liberties Union.

The Ganjawar Fraud

Rick Steves on Tour to Promote Marijuana Initiative
European travel expert and Edmonds resident Rick Steves, perhaps the state's best-known proponent of legalizing marijuana, is now stumping for Initiative 502.

Nelly Is Latest Performer Ensnared at West Texas Checkpoint



Decriminalize Drug Possession, UK Experts Say

Stopped-and-Frisked: 'For Being a F**king Mutt'
The Nation: "Exclusive audio obtained by The Nation of a stop-and-frisk carried out by the New York Police Department freshly reveals the discriminatory and unprofessional way in which this controversial policy is being implemented on the city’s streets."

Your tax dollars at work by Pete Guither dwr
Big press conference today from all the dinosaurs of prohibition, with such names as Bill Bennett, John Walters, Peter Bensinger, Robert DuPont, Calvina Faye, David Evans, and more, pushing to get the Attorney General to speak out against the marijuana legalization votes in November. Here’s thepress conference announcement. In small print at the bottom of the page: continued

Calvina Fay Prohibition Inc.
Drug Warmongers Toll on Americans

We Can Legalize Marijuana This November in Colorado,
But We Need Your Help!

New Jersey Issues First Permit for Medical Marijuana
Arizona Sued in Medical Marijuana Case
Rhode Island Medical Society Joins ACLU Lawsuit over Restrictive Medical Marijuana Policy
DC Appeals Court to Review Marijuana's Medical Benefits

DrugWarRant.com

Decriminalise drug use, say experts after six-year study. Advisors say no serious rise in consumption is likely if possession of small amounts of controlled drugs is allowed.

Front page major article in the Guardian tomorrow. Also front page of the London Times. This is pretty huge.

The panel didn’t go all the way to legalization, but it included decriminalization of all illicit drugs and even “minimal or no sanctions on those growing cannabis for personal use.”

Brad Pitt blasts U.S. ‘War on Drugs,’
calls for policy rethink in Reuters.

Brad Pitt has thrown his weight behind a documentary that blasts America’s 40-year war on drugs as a failure, calling policies that imprison huge numbers of drug-users a “charade” in urgent need of a rethink.

Marijuana Legalization’s Tipping Point in The American Conservative.
“More people are recognizing that we cannot afford to continue arresting and prosecuting and locking up people for marijuana,” Angell says. “State legislators and city councilors across the country are now asking themselves, are we going to pay to arrest people for pot or fill some pot holes in the town?”

Just another isolated incident I can’t even keep track of how many “isolated” incidents Radley’s discussed this week. Go read his site and check them all out.

Will legal marijuana make police less effective?
Check out this quote from where he basically admits that the police are completely incompetent at their job, so they need some fake reason to arrest people in order to accidentally get bad guys off the street. They’ve gotten so used to it, they don’t even realize how pathetic they sound.

Cannabis Culture

Amnesty Raps Mexico on Human Rights Abuses in Drug War
Mexico must take decisive action to rein in systematic and widespread use of torture, ill-treatment, and other human rights abuses, which have increased dramatically since outgoing President Felipe Calderon unleashed the military to fight the country's so-called cartels nearly six years ago, Amnesty International

Grenade Burns Sleeping Girl as SWAT Team Raids Billings
A 12-year-old girl suffered burns to one side of her body when a flash grenade went off next to her as a police SWAT team raided a West End home Tuesday morning.

Got SqWAT?

Map Inc.org

Cannabis catch-22
PTSD patients could be dropped from state's medical program
Nat Dean, shown with her assistance dog, Tommy, at their home in Santa Fe on Friday, developed chronic pain and post-traumatic stress disorder from injuries she sustained in a car crash in 1984. At one point, she was taking 27 different medications to ease her symptoms. She says the cannabis she uses through the state’s Medical Cannabis Program is an alternative tool that helps her more than all of her previous medications combined.

Ganja 4 PTSD & Depression
Military Veterans Say Pot Eases PTSD
Cannabis, the Importance of Forgetting

Cape Cops Fear Medical Marijuana Legalization
LEAP blog
Cop in the Hood
Drugs, Law, and Conflict
Citizens Opposing Prohibition (COPs)
The Joseph McNamara Collection

Cannabis News

Marijuana Referendum Divides Both Sides

Court To Review Marijuana's Medical Benefits
It started with a coalition of disgruntled Americans, then a handful of governors took up the cause last year, and now -- for the first time in nearly 20 years -- a federal court will hear oral arguments in a lawsuit challenging the classification of cannabis as a dangerous drug without medical benefits.

Oakland Sues U.S. to Prevent Closing of Dispensary

US Marijuana Legalization Campaigns Blitz Airwaves With New TV Ads

The Russ Belville Show #71:
Marijuana Activists Defeat 'Meth Girl' Billboards
POT TV - Cannabis commentator 'Radical' Russ Belville is back on the air – and now on Pot TV – with The Russ Belville Show.

Portland anti-marijuana billboards taken down



Aging? Got Ganja?

 

It would probably be a good idea to remove Cannabis from the 'war on drugs'.
But I suppose the argument is it provides funding for other activities.
The 'war on drugs' isn't just about Cannabis, obviously.

 

There is just too much money in it.
sir Hilary Clinton

 

Pardon? What is that supposed to mean?

 

Well I guess not too obvious...

Hilary has stated why they can't legalize, due to the money made. Bloated budgets or forfeitures and confiscations and all the cash they can stuff into their pockets after each raid.

As for any government biting the hand that feeds them. It won't. It is up to us, in how we buy things from international corporations or locally. Hemp would eliminate much of the imported crude oil and funding these fascists receive. Outsourcing jobs or foreclosures or the drug war are all means to an end of control. Profits on misery, even if they have to fabricate the misery to "treat". Be it health or what we choose to consume or put into our bodies. Private prisons and rehabilitation plea bargains are obvious scams, yet along with pisstasting, it makes money. This longest war on people is about profits and power and nothing will change that except individuals standing together against the machine. Good luck with that... Canada never stopped selling seeds to US pet shops even though McCaffrey tried busting 17 truckloads, they eventually went through customs. Clearly making Marc's bust political.

As it stands individuals are legal to grow a reasonable amount for themselves as long as they don't exchange it. Selling or giving away as deemed by the Raich v Gonzales decision granting Feds jurisdiction through the Commerce Claus, not the DEA. The IRS is busting buyers clubs. Not because Obama is a nice guy leaving the poor sick potheads alone. Because he has no authority. The Feds have patents on cannabinoids and already grow it for the IND patients and NIDS gossip queens. Bayer and Barthwell a;ready have a patent on sublingual spray the Mississippi Schwagg Farm could easily grow for. Keeping it illegal for us to grow any quantity over a reasonable amount. Including non-psychoactive Hemp. Wild ditchweed hemp comprises the majority of eradications.

Numbers to justify continuing this farce and wasting another trillion dollars. Saveding the kids from burlap and canvas. Hilary has stated why they can't legalize, due to the money made. Bloated budgets or forfeitures and confiscations and all the cash they can stuff into their pockets after each raid. Time for the people to stand together or sink with any party of imitations.

The vast majority of prohibitionists
profit on the drug war,..
... and that is their only motive. DdC

POLICING FOR PROFIT

Forfeiture $quads

Kochroach & Aleech

Shadow Conventions 2012

Cannabis Eradications 99.28% Ditchweed Schwagg!

Is The DEA Legalizing THC?

Note. Compassionate Use Act not the MMJ Act

U.S.Fort Schwag Mississippi



High on Hemp

Hemp, the misunderstood cousin of marijuana, is not a drug. You can't get high on it, any more than you could by smoking three feet of cotton rope. Yet it is the single most useful plant on earth. David Monson, farmer, school superintendent and state legislator has been trying for ten years to get a federal license to grow ten acres of it. His biggest stumbling block is the DEA which refuses to reclassify hemp, currently and ridiculously listed as a drug, in order to allow the culitvation of this extraordinarily beneficial crop.

The DEA premises their objections the potential for hemp farmers to slip in a few rows of marijana into their acreage. A ridiculous objection since cross pollination would render marijuana plants useless for drug use. Their real fear is that the public would recognize the value of the non-psychotropic plant and thus soften their objection to the use of marijuana, eliminating their easiest target in the war on some drugs.

Hemp is environmentally friendly crop that doesn't require massive applications of fertizilers and pesticides to thrive. It doesn't deplete the land and grows under adverse conditions. Virtually every other country in the world allows its cultivation and are developing its industrial uses which include the extraction of oils for food to the making of bricks for low cost housing. This is the crop that could save the family farm in America.

Seven states has authorized farming of the crop so far, ruling the feds have no grounds to criminalize a plant that is not a drug. U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas is the only legislator who has addressed the issue on the federal level but unfortunately his peers refused to bring his legislation to the floor. Meanwhile, Monson has been trying for ten years to jump through the DEA's hoops in order to give hemp a chance to prove itself useful.

One hopes that as the public begins to recognize the futility of the drug war in general, the DEA will find itself under pressure to rule on the side of common sense and give Mr. Monson his license, rather than continue to protect their own interests in maintaining a prohibition that profits only themselves.

 

Oh, right. I've read that quote. I get you.
*chuckle* I don't think she meant the money Governments made - but the money the Cartels make.
I never quite worked out if she thought they could or could not legalise it for personal use.
She certainly did not seem to be advocating that.

SECRETARY CLINTON: I don't think that will work. I mean, I hear the same debate. I hear it in my country. It is not likely to work. There is just too much money in it, and I don't think that – you can legalize small amounts for possession, but those who are making so much money selling, they have to be stopped. They can’t be given an even easier road to take, because they will then find it in their interest to addict even more young people. Mexico didn’t have much of a drug problem before the last 10 years, and you want to keep it that way. So you don’t want to give any excuse to the drug traffickers to be able legally to addict young people.

This was my point (and I guess hers)...

In Congressional testimony today, two FBI officials said that “marijuana is the top revenue generator for Mexican DTOs [cartels]“, calling it “a cash crop that finances corruption and the carnage of violence year after year.”

The officials Kevin L. Perkins, Assistant Director, Criminal Investigative Division, FBI and Anthony P. Placido, Assistant Administrator for Intelligence, DEA, testified before the Senate’s Drug Caucus hearing on Mexican drug trafficking today. In their prepared statement, Perkins and Placido write of marijuana:

Mexico is the number one foreign supplier of marijuana abused in the United States. In fact, according to a 2008 inter-agency report, marijuana is the top revenue generator for Mexican DTOs—a cash crop that finances corruption and the carnage of violence year after year. The profits derived from marijuana trafficking—an industry with minimal overhead costs, controlled entirely by the traffickers—are used not only to finance other drug enterprises by Mexico’s poly-drug cartels, but also to pay recurring “business” expenses, purchase weapons, and bribe corrupt officials. Though the GOM has a robust eradication program, many of the military personnel traditionally assigned to eradicate marijuana and opium poppy have recently been diverted to the offensive against the cartels.

 

I have a farmer friend in California that has been agitating some Cal legislators for years to allow him to grow hemp. He was/is planning on using hemp oil as fuel for diesel engines. He gets a senator or two interested but it never goes anywhere. All the BS from the days of Reefer Madness to the present has done its work. Religion,the oil companies and the fear of of being thrown out of office continues to work its magic.

 

Btw, I'd like it decriminalised but appreciate why It might not be. It's the bigger picture you have to look at.

 

If it were legal in the US, why do people think it would still come from Mexico? That's BS

 

Insurgency.. Im waiting..

 

I'm confused.
What do you appreciate about marijuana, one of the absolute safest drugs man uses, being illegal?

I know your in the UK, but if you take a look at the history behind the drug laws in the U.S. and by extension the rest of the world, you would see there is nothing about human health and safety in the laws inceptions. It had to do with racism and demonizing an undesirable population group by attacking the substance of choice for that group.
They did it to the immigrant Chinese with opium.
They did it to blacks with cocaine.
They did to Mexicans with marijuana, plus Hearst wasn't about to let hemp replace timber as a paper source considering he owned most of the timber forests in the northwestern U.S.
So he had his newspaper's print outrageous and inflammatory stories about lazy and evil Mexicans and the evil weed they are addicted too, MARIJUANA!!!!

So, what is it you appreciate about the current drug laws again?

Also, what is this "big picture" you are looking at, because if you can understand and appreciate why marijuana is illegal, then buddy your looking at a completely different big picture than the rest of us.

 

I haven't bought any weed from Mexico in ages, probably 10 years or more. All grown right here in sunny Southern Cali.:sunny:
And now that I have my doc's rec and my paperwork, I guarantee nothing I get at dispensaries comes from south of the border.

Legalizing it would instantly pull the rug out from under a lot of criminal enterprises, some of which I wouldn't be surprised were government operations, so there are a lot of criminal elements who DO NOT want it legalized.

Last time when legalization in Ca. was on the ballot the biggest money supporters for the opposition were the beer and wine industry, the tobacco industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and South American drug cartels.

All of those industries stand to lose $$$$$$ overnight if marijuana were legalized in the U.S.
That's fact.

 

If you look at my others posts I posted that marijuana is “a cash crop that finances corruption and the carnage of violence year after year.”
That is the 'bigger picture' as I see it.
Now, I don't mind being proven wrong on that.
Many characterise the 'war on drugs' only with regards to marijuana , which obviously isn't true, is it?
If it were possible to treat marijuana as if it was tobacco - that would be ideal.
However, I'm not sure that is possible.

I'm not talking about it's safety or how it might or might not have been used to demonise 'lazy Mexicans'.
It's simply about how it finances other aspects of the drug trade and quite possibly other despicable activities.
If the focus was on how that is incorrect - then I will learn a valuable lesson, indeed.

 

p

 

Fuck I'm high....

 

Gee slick, you just answered your own doubts about legalization.

Corruption and violence are the result of marijuana's legal status, not the drug itself, you do understand that don't you, because it's not really clear what the hell you are trying to say.

On the one hand you say you can appreciate it being illegal, then to justify that position you cite examples that are the DIRECT RESULT OF IT BEING ILLEGAL.

You really aren't making much sense.


Regarding the "War on Drugs" and marijuana not being the only drug war is being waged against.
True, but if you look at the numbers and the reality of it all or "the bigger picture" marijuana is the scape goat drug and is used to funnel funds to the DEA.
Sorry, but I just can't appreciate marijuana being kept illegal because it provides the most revenue for the warriors against drugs.

No it isn't possible to treat marijuana like tobacco. Tobacco isn't an intoxicant to the same degree as marijuana, but marijuana could be treated the same as alcohol no problem.

I live in a medical marijuana state, Ca., and they have pretty good systems and controls in place. Not too hard to adjust for complete legality.

I really am perplexed about what "bigger picture" your seeing, because all your points thus far have fallen flat.


If you need any examples of what I'm talking about how legalization would hurt criminal activities then just look into the history of alcohol prohibition and why the prohibition was repealed.

 

Fair point. I can see that you are failing to see my logic. My logic is weak right now. It's late. I will respond when it's not so late.

 

In my state the leaders have sex with children to get high.. Im sure they are trying to legalize that, way before cannabis.. isnt that right jerry?. and im not talking garcia either..