On Apr 21, 6:03 pm, b...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(B1ackwater) wrote:
> On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:04:19 -0700 (PDT), M_P <m...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> wrote:
>
> >http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/Content?oid=3D3D411739
>
> >By Dale Gieringer
> >This article was published on 08.23.07.
>
> >While California tries to legalize medical marijuana, the war on pot
> >rages on. Helicopters comb the forests for illegal gardens, drug
> >squads raid suburban pot houses, and residents grapple with street
> >dealers. Meanwhile, the United States is paying Mexico to combat
> >violent marijuana-dealing gangs.
>
> Hey ... there's tons of PROFIT in fighting the 'drug war'.
The author agrees: 'The major beneficiaries of this system are the
drug cops and criminal dealers'.
> Outright profit and kickbacks for corrupt officials, profit
> for those who make all that drug-war-fighting stuff, profit
> for govt/police budgets, profit for the for-profit prisons ...
> and then there are the POLITICAL profits ranging from
> suckering-in the soccermom vote to justifying messing in other
> nations politics to substituting for those old "black op"
> schemes for paying off friendly dictators and generals
> (Reagans original reason) to being a great way to keep
> minorities under the jackboot and much much more.
>
> And you think they're gonna END the 'drug war' ??? No, no ...
> they'll just continue to ESCALATE it. So long as it PAYS,
> it plays. If you're trying to reason your way out of it
> then you're heading in the wrong direction entirely.
> Follow the MONEY, follow the PROFITS.
Following the money won't work as a political strategy by itself, but
only in conjunction with a reasoned argument to those soccer moms and
like thinkers as to why the drug war is not actually in their best
interest. As the author says:
'Like alcohol prohibition, these laws have proven counterproductive
and should be
repealed.
'The laws against marijuana aren=92t based on scientific evidence.
Repeated expert studies have recommended that marijuana be
decriminalized. This was the conclusion of President Nixon=92s
Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse (1972), as well as California=92s
own Research Advisory Panel (1990), which observed, =93An objective
consideration of marijuana shows that it is responsible for less
damage to society and the individual than are alcohol and cigarettes.=94
'The laws against marijuana have done nothing to dampen its use.
Marijuana was first outlawed in California in 1913, when its usage was
virtually unknown. Since then, the number of users has skyrocketed
into the millions, despite more than 1 million marijuana arrests. The
passage of Proposition 215 hasn=92t reduced arrests. The number of
marijuana prisoners in California is now 10 times greater than 25
years ago.
'Like alcohol prohibition, the laws against marijuana are a crime-
creation program. On one hand, they criminalize millions of otherwise
law-abiding citizens for their own personal choice of intoxicant. On
the other, they create a lucrative black market for criminal dealers,
growers and smugglers'
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