Panel: America's Drug War: Failed

I'm not as concerned about the pot as I am other drugs.

Link: The commission, headed by Mr. Cardoso and former presidents Ernesto Zedillo of Mexico and César Gaviria of Colombia, says Latin American governments as well as the U.S. must break what they say is a policy "taboo" and re-examine U.S.-inspired antidrugs efforts. The panel recommends that governments consider measures including decriminalizing the use of marijuana.

Comments

[Eric Blair]

It's all a failure. Legalize and tax it like tobacco and alcohol, and throw some more money at the health service for addiction treatment. It will be so much cheaper and less violent in the end.

[sookie]

The problem was including pot in the first place. It never made sense.

But I've got to tell you if people want to kill themselves, why step in?

[Pat Smith]

If this new administration really wants change, a much better economy, more available health care, and an end to ALL the wars we are fighting this would be the best place to start:

“Afghanistan has doubled its opium production over the past two years and now accounts for 93 percent of the world's output, according to the annual UNODC survey. The southern province of Helmand alone has become the world's biggest source of illicit drugs. The amount of Afghan land used for opium has surpassed the total used for coca cultivation in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia combined. Afghan poppies, which start as flowers in farmers' fields and often wind up as heroin on U.S. streets, fuel a $3 billion a year industry in Afghanistan. The industry is filling the coffers of the Taliban, the group who gave safe haven to al Qaeda before and after 9/11, and it is destabilizing the Afghan government” (CNN). This investigative report was done using the figures from 2005, since then the figures from 2006 have been released and are much higher.
After our many decades of fighting this same war on illegal drugs; it would be safer, faster and much cheaper to end this war by legalizing the drugs. The worst resistance would come from the drug cartels world-wide and the terrorist networks in the Middle-East and Mexico. Without the illegal drug industry funding the terrorists, this global war on terror could end much sooner, and our own boarders would be easier to guard. At the same time for just a few more years (not decades) the United States would still have to continue clearing up the mess by the once illegal drugs; the same way as usual, with tax-payer funded drug rehabs, including heroine or methadone babies and their lifetime medical costs etc… Our society needs to get more faith in itself because in the Middle-East where it is much easier to get heroin than it is to get clean drinking water; they are not a society of drug addicts.

This would also cut off the funded government corruption in the Middle East, Mexico, and the United States. In time this will also solve many other problems in our economy especially the cost, and availability of health care. The repercussions this would help to create for a few years (not decades) is one of the best examples of why our forefathers emphasized so strongly on the necessity of separation between the church and state. We should take one-third of the drug rehabs in the U.S. and turn them into hospice units for the “drug challenged”.

[Anon]

I agree, weed is much, much less destructive than either alcohol or tobacco, we should legalize it and tax it. Hell, that alone might bring the economy out of the recession, everyone could start their own 'smoke shop' and start growing hydroponic kind bud in their basement:)

The rest of the so called hard drugs, it should be decriminalized for possession of small amounts for personal use, first time street dealers should get probation and major traffickers should be deported to their home countries. The bullk of the war on drugs money should be diverted back to fighting VIOLENT CRIME.

[Lala]

A study has just come out that testicular cancer may be caused by marijuana. I knew 3 pot-smokers who died of this disease. One was a legend in fitness.

I wonder if it is also causing breast cancer. I knew 4 young women who died of breast cancer, all four were heavy pot smokers.

[Svein]

I knew a guy who recently died of a heart attack. He really enjoyed watching "The Beverly Hillbillies". I wonder if Buddy Ebsen causes heart attacks....

[Rachel]

The war on drugs may need to be changed, but drug users will not. Tell me, would you feel comfortable if your children were riding on a bus where the driver was a regular heroin user? Or pot user? I know I would not. I personally lost a best friend thanksto your so-called "light" drugs. And I can guarantee that your self-righteous beliefs will kill us more than this drug war. To me, the WoD keeps my kids safe, knowing that these things are not acceptable in society. And here's another tidbit I got from another supporter like myself:

So answer me this:
All users of illicit drugs know that their habits contribute to corruption and murder, lots of it. Yet they still pay money which they often get by criminal means to support their habits. How do we get from today’s situation in the USA to the wonderful nirvana where drug users become magically transformed into responsible citizens? Lay out the plan so I can read it, because I don't see how it will ever work.

[Rachel]

and cutesy, non-material retorts like Svein's just proves I'm right.

[Lala]

That's why it's called dope.

[anon]

The war on drugs hasn't prevented numerous people from doing drugs or drinking on the job. THe war on drugs has failed on every level, the cost of cocaine and heroin hasn't changed in 20 years.

That's the whole point, people who want to do drugs are going to do them regardless. It is furthermore INSANE that smoking, possessing or growing POT can send someone to jail and ruin their life where they are doing more time that rapists and burglars. It is a complete waste of resources especially since there is zero, none, nada evidence that pot is anything close to as harmful as either booze or tobacco.

The reason that gangs control the drug trade is because it is illegal, exactly how the mob came into being when prohibition made booze illegal..the criminal network was created when the product was made illegal.

Weed should be fully legalized and taxed. There is no rational reason why it is illegal or why anyone should go to jail for it. Treat it just like booze and tobacco.

Hard drugs should remain illegal but be decriminalized for possession of personal use amounts, though I would suggest some pilot programs to test out what happens if the drugs are legalized and regulated, as they are in The Netherlands, that society if you will notice has not been overrun by criminal gangs or descended into a situation where everyone is high all the time.

Of course if the country wanted to end the import of cocaine and heroin it could, exactly the same way we could end the migration of illegals across the borders, but we've been at both for 30+ years with no results, so it is time to admit that we do not have the will to really stop these drugs from entering the country and start looking for a sensible way to manage it.

Same way prostitution should be legalized, it is insane for police resources to be used putting women in jail who willingly sell their bodies, instead it should be legalized, taxed and regulated because it is impossible to get rid of it.

[Lala]

Zurich has "needle park." It's a mess.
Don't be so sure that drugs are not a problem in the Netherlands. One funny thing is that they banned cigarette smoking in the pot bars.

[anon]

Yeah, I know and they have some problems with people coming to the country specifically to do hard drugs, but overall, the country has had drugs more or less legalized, certainly decriminalized for a long, long time and they don't seem to be breeding generations of children who do coke and heroin all day...which is one of the alleged fears of legalizing/decriminalizing drugs...that all of a sudden, en masse, everyone will start doing them.

The hysteria about cigarettes is truly, truly bizarre, I only hope I live long enough to be able to say "I told you so" when the millions of people who are allegedly dying as a direct result of cigarettes continue to die at the same rate as once the evil tobacco has been stamped out. So far, we've gone from a country were 75% smoked to one where 25% smoke and I am unware of any massive drop off in health care costs, heart attack rates or stroke...but of course, we need to wait a couple of more decades for this brilliant plan to show its benefits. Yeah. Not happening.

I think a certain percentage of people are risk takers and like being in an altered state, another percentage are not and would never do drugs under any circumstances, a smaller subset of people are going to get addicted to whatever is available...opium, laudinum, ether, absythne, heroin, oxycontin...and the best that can be done w/that group is to contain them and keep them from committing crimes.

At the very least it is time for some pilot programs to see what happens to rate of drug use over 5 years or so if the laws are loosened.

I've also never believed the statistics on violent crime as a result of drug addiction...the true drug addict is not with it enough to be a capable criminal and the best drug dealers don't do drugs...again there is a subset of druggies who are going to commit violent crime BECAUSE of their need for drugs, but I think its been extremely overhyped.

[Madeline_Woe]

You can say that people want to get high in some way and it will always be true. It is because we carved it into our society that going to the bar or meeting up with friends and drinking is ok. Then we added to the recipe and said smoking pot is just another form of this social structure we created. Then there are more "risk takers" that did the harder stuff because they really like to get high. Take a pill to sleep take a pill to wake snort a line to lose weight...Yet medically, what is found is fact. It is not good for us...The Law is the most simple containment to this.
Reality must prevail, despite our inherent desires to escape it!
The greatest thing we could do for ourselves is erase the appeal. Glorify sobriety and demonize drug use. The propaganda should be true. Some of these commercials are so exaggerated. Make it be known that even though you smoke a doob and feel wonderful and it makes food taste soooo good, you are inhaling carbon monoxide. The old man with cancer ad is the best one out there. The Meth ads, too. It makes you feel like superman then after a while of use, you see this drug induced schizophrenic dramatic zit faced loser in the mirror losing their teeth. It is not instantly as the ads portray. Real nice people do drugs and become victims to them. What once was fun and games is loss of vitality, possible Hepatitis, and a wracked up nervous system.
Tell the truth and know the truth IS a demon wearing party clothes!