Legalize it

As a cop, I bore witness to the multiple lunacies of the “war on drugs.” Lasting far longer than any other of our national conflicts, the drug war has been prosecuted with equal vigor by Republican and Democratic administrations, with one president after another — Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, Bush — delivering sanctimonious sermons, squandering vast sums of taxpayer money and cheerleading law enforcers from the safety of the sidelines.

It’s not a stretch to conclude that our draconian approach to drug use is the most injurious domestic policy since slavery. Want to cut back on prison overcrowding and save a bundle on the construction of new facilities? Open the doors, let the nonviolent drug offenders go. The huge increases in federal and state prison populations during the 1980s and ’90s (from 139 per 100,000 residents in 1980 to 482 per 100,000 in 2003) were mainly for drug convictions. In 1980, 580,900 Americans were arrested on drug charges. By 2003, that figure had ballooned to 1,678,200. We’re making more arrests for drug offenses than for murder, manslaughter, forcible rape and aggravated assault combined. Feel safer?

Norm Stamper, former chief of the Seattle Police Department in the LA Times

Read the article. I completely agree with Mr. Stamper.

The prohibition of alcohol required a constitutional amendment because the original constitution did not grant Congress the authority to do so. Where then does the authority to prohibit any other drug come from?

Posted on October 17th, 2005 by pwyll
Filed under: law, politics

4 Responses to “Legalize it”

  1. Paco Malo, on October 18th, 2005 at 1:07 am Said:

    Tell it on the mountain, brothers!

  2. M. Simon, on October 18th, 2005 at 1:42 am Said:

    Nothing will get fixed until the full dimensions are recognized.

    Why some people take drugs
    A well known secret

    Addiction or Self Medication?

    Why drug companies don’t want them to:
    The War On Unpatented Drugs

    Scam

  3. Paco Malo, on October 19th, 2005 at 12:05 pm Said:

    Regarding M. Simon’s 18October2005 comment:

    A great version of the “full dimensions”, bouncing around in old school hip hop culture, is contained in the liner notes to Cypress Hill’s first album. While you read those notes with the album playing, listen to the quite innovative track “Another Hit From the Bong”.

    If you get your hand on a copy of the album or CD

  4. Paco Malo, on October 19th, 2005 at 12:08 pm Said:

    Please ignore the proofreading error “If you get your hand on a copy of the album or CD”

« To see a World in a grain of sand, And Heaven in a wild flower Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate »