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Stop insanity of government’s ‘war on drugs’
Dave Allen,
9/23/2014
Facts show nation is on wrong track in its fight against drug use
One definition of faith: “Firm belief in something for which there is no proof.”
Obsession: “An idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind.”
Einstein’s definition of insanity: “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
In 1973, the Drug Enforcement Agency was formed. The DEA reports that, in current dollars, the agency has spent approximately $100 billion. Using Health and Human Services Department websites, Forbes and other web research, I’ve found that, since the formation of the DEA:
• Our country has spent more than $2 trillion in current dollars incarcerating people for minor drug offenses.
• U.S. citizens who have used marijuana rose from 12 percent to 38 percent.
• Federal prisons have increased their annual processing of drug-related prisoners from 41,000 to 500,000.
• The U.S. has increased its incarceration rate to 715 per 100,000 population, the highest in the civilized world.
• The percentage of Americans who have been arrested for drug crimes has risen to 10 percent of the total population.
• Drug cartels south of the border have become fabulously wealthy.
• Drug-related crime is now the major fundamental cause of crime in many communities.
• Legal drug cartels in the guise of drug companies have created innumerable addictive but legal substances that are so popular, prescription drug abuse now vastly outweighs illegal drug abuse.
• Many minority communities have essentially lost huge segments of their youth to drug-related police encounters.
• The power of the state to search, seize, surveil and coerce has increased exponentially.
• Many of our citizens are forced to inform on their fellow citizens to such an extent that the “Red Chinese” would certainly blush if it were them.
• At a cost of $24,000 per inmate per year, this country and our state now spend more to imprison people than educate our young college students. Wisconsin has budgeted $2.315 billion for corrections for the 2013-2015 budget and only $2.273 billion for higher education.
And yet, the insanity continues. The prosecution continues and the results don’t change.
We have failed in our drug war — miserably, totally and unambiguously failed. No amount of effort or discipline or additional resources will make our failure not be a failure. Our faith in our methods will continue the drift toward the militarization of our police and a police state.
For 41 years and through seven administrations, the obsession with the “war on drugs” has become a convenient tool to misdirect our attention from fundamental problems that threaten the very existence of our way of life.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can recognize human nature and humanity, decriminalize the recreational use of drugs and divert resources to treatment and education. Countries much wiser than us have accomplished this. In Portugal, 10 years after decriminalization, drug use has dropped by 50 percent and the use of marijuana is one-third of what it is in the United States. The Netherlands has a similar history.
Are we too ignorant to make this change? Or too proud? Or too stupid? Will we have to be bankrupt before we change?
How long are the citizens of this great state going to pay more for prisons than college and all the way complain about how high property and income taxes are?
How long are voters willing to condemn others for personal failure? How long are politicians going to pander for votes by appealing to the cruelest instincts of voters, rather than the better angels of their nature? How many students will be kicked out of college, lose student-loan eligibility and lessen their chances to be productive citizens?
Continued here https://www.google.com/search?q=Dav...w.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D3lUJeOJpnFE;88;88
Dave Allen,
9/23/2014
Facts show nation is on wrong track in its fight against drug use
One definition of faith: “Firm belief in something for which there is no proof.”
Obsession: “An idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person’s mind.”
Einstein’s definition of insanity: “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
In 1973, the Drug Enforcement Agency was formed. The DEA reports that, in current dollars, the agency has spent approximately $100 billion. Using Health and Human Services Department websites, Forbes and other web research, I’ve found that, since the formation of the DEA:
• Our country has spent more than $2 trillion in current dollars incarcerating people for minor drug offenses.
• U.S. citizens who have used marijuana rose from 12 percent to 38 percent.
• Federal prisons have increased their annual processing of drug-related prisoners from 41,000 to 500,000.
• The U.S. has increased its incarceration rate to 715 per 100,000 population, the highest in the civilized world.
• The percentage of Americans who have been arrested for drug crimes has risen to 10 percent of the total population.
• Drug cartels south of the border have become fabulously wealthy.
• Drug-related crime is now the major fundamental cause of crime in many communities.
• Legal drug cartels in the guise of drug companies have created innumerable addictive but legal substances that are so popular, prescription drug abuse now vastly outweighs illegal drug abuse.
• Many minority communities have essentially lost huge segments of their youth to drug-related police encounters.
• The power of the state to search, seize, surveil and coerce has increased exponentially.
• Many of our citizens are forced to inform on their fellow citizens to such an extent that the “Red Chinese” would certainly blush if it were them.
• At a cost of $24,000 per inmate per year, this country and our state now spend more to imprison people than educate our young college students. Wisconsin has budgeted $2.315 billion for corrections for the 2013-2015 budget and only $2.273 billion for higher education.
And yet, the insanity continues. The prosecution continues and the results don’t change.
We have failed in our drug war — miserably, totally and unambiguously failed. No amount of effort or discipline or additional resources will make our failure not be a failure. Our faith in our methods will continue the drift toward the militarization of our police and a police state.
For 41 years and through seven administrations, the obsession with the “war on drugs” has become a convenient tool to misdirect our attention from fundamental problems that threaten the very existence of our way of life.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. We can recognize human nature and humanity, decriminalize the recreational use of drugs and divert resources to treatment and education. Countries much wiser than us have accomplished this. In Portugal, 10 years after decriminalization, drug use has dropped by 50 percent and the use of marijuana is one-third of what it is in the United States. The Netherlands has a similar history.
Are we too ignorant to make this change? Or too proud? Or too stupid? Will we have to be bankrupt before we change?
How long are the citizens of this great state going to pay more for prisons than college and all the way complain about how high property and income taxes are?
How long are voters willing to condemn others for personal failure? How long are politicians going to pander for votes by appealing to the cruelest instincts of voters, rather than the better angels of their nature? How many students will be kicked out of college, lose student-loan eligibility and lessen their chances to be productive citizens?
Continued here https://www.google.com/search?q=Dav...w.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D3lUJeOJpnFE;88;88
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