Ending the war on drugs due to racial profiling

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http://www.rawstory.com/rawreplay/2011/ ... e-mistake/

tell me hat you think???

I think that the issue of drugs should be treated as a health issue, not a crime issue.

I think taking the teeth out of drug laws is a bad idea. If they are nonviolent offenders and not dealers then I think it would be a good idea to delete their record after they have proven they have been clean for a long time. If the minorities don't want to get arrested for drugs or spend the night in jail over it, then they shouldn't do drugs. It's also unclear if he was talking about arrests and incarceration on a per capita basis or using every drug arrest in the community for his statistics.

There were no weed laws before 1936. Somehow the world made it up till then. The laws passed then were directed at Mexicans, in the middle of the depression.

It follows the repeal of prohibition, where government employees were losing their jobs during the depression, and looking for something new to regulate.

The original intent of a law is often forgotten, when it fills jails that charge by the head, lawyers, courts, this is legal system welfare. If everyone smoked pot every day, the world would continue, and likely be a better place.

Weed was one of the first domesticated crops, 38,000 years ago. Only by continous cultivation has it continued. It has a long history of use in religious settings.

When the new world was invaded, settlers brought their seeds. Some for rope, cloth, but they also brought the smoking breeds.

Before the discovery of the new world and tobacco, Europeans made and smoked pipes. Pipe dreams, there is historic record, a long history.

Making criminals where there is no crime is the mark of a police state. Mopery, loitering, vagrant, no visable means of support, have all been used.

They have not become freedom loving Statesmen, they just cannot pay for running a police state. In a lot of the south it was used since 1960, because convicted felons can not vote. The intent was to reduce the Black majority vote.

We are as freedom loving as South Africa was in the old days. The results are the same, whites flee as Blacks take over town after town.

Drug laws prop up a white minority power structure.

There has been more than a little misuse of public office.

When did it become illegal for felons to vote?? Did this happen in the civil rights era??

Convicted felons lose civil rights, it varies by state, but the right to vote, own guns, run for public office, are included.

Florida is notable as being a state where people convicted of felonies cannot vote. Governor Rick Scott though ran a company that was convicted of a felony. As the conviction was not personal but of an entity under his control, he was not disenfranchised and was able to become Governor. The felony is the largest Medicare fraud ever.

It's well-known that non-whites are subject to police focus when it comes to drugs. In short, non-whites have to be a lot more careful and the police have their eyes on them whilst white people can more freely use drugs because the police do not care. That should be a significant civil rights issue.

thank you for clarifying that

xenon13:
thats why I support ending the war on drugs and approach it from a health issue than a crime issue. Alot of these folks in prison for drugs are political prisoners. Anytime they pronounce a war on an issue rather than a country...it seems to end up being a long standing asault on civil rights. Even for the war on terror, the patriot act and other acts like it, swung the door wide open for giving the goverment total control to the point of making crimes against humanity legal for those in power. Not just crimes agianst could be terrorst, but anyone who bucks the system could be defined as a terrorist and are targeted.

xenon13:
thats why I support ending the war on drugs and approach it from a health issue than a crime issue. Alot of these folks in prison for drugs are political prisoners. Anytime they pronounce a war on an issue rather than a country...it seems to end up being a long standing asault on civil rights. Even for the war on terror, the patriot act and other acts like it, swung the door wide open for giving the goverment total control to the point of making crimes against humanity legal for those in power. Not just crimes agianst could be terrorst, but anyone who bucks the system could be defined as a terrorist and are targeted.[/quote]

^^^^^^^^ agreed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/23/world ... 53738.html

The U.S. has the largest Prison population in the world.... Yes, we have more prisoners then CHINA, and we have about 1/6? of their population.... Alot of that is Drug related..... No tolerance = Straight to jail for alot of people over really dumb issues IMHO.

Treating drugs as a health issue and not a crime would take the teeth out of cutting off the drug supply and destroy incentives for users to get clean. Trying to address drug use that way will just increase crime and put a bigger burden on the government paying more mostly non mental health related medical costs.

addiction is a health issue cause it is a disease, but pushers, dealers, and smugglers should be treated as criminals while the addicts should be treated for addiction because the dealers and such exploit the disease for personal gain.

a portion of tax dollars right now, go to imprisionment of addicts which paying for food, shelter, safety personel, water electric, oversight, counseling, staff, oversight ....you name it, costs alot more than out patient drug rehab programs, so that just does not even make sense on a fiancial level. It costs 40 thousand a year to incarcerate 1 person, out patient rehab does not come even close to that.

Treating drugs as a crime has increased supply and lowered prices.

Economics, being illegal is a price support, limits customer complaints, prevents quality standards.

I was around in the sixties, drug use is about the same now. The war on drugs had not made them more or less popular.

If the idea is, illegal drugs cause crime, drug related, the police excuse for most things, legal drugs should lower crime. Methodone Clinics seem to have done just that.

I do not see the connection between drugs and non mental health medical costs.

The big problem with drugs is the money that leaves the country. We also have that problem with gambling. My poor state has legal gaming, that sends several billion a year to Nevada and New York Corportions. When it was illegal the money stayed in state.

I propose a domestic currency, not exportable. It is not the drugs coming in, it is the money going out. Make dollars worthless beyond the borders, that money would have to be spent here. To be spent, it has to be taxed first.

I see it as an economic problem. American produced weed, cheap, or expensive imports. Weed has been called a gateway drug by those who could find nothing else to say. Cheap American produced weed would be a gateway, blocking expensive imports. Importing drugs should still be illegal, not the drugs themselves.

Border control, tax stamps on domestic production, a non exportable currency, and the money stays home.

There are health issues but the big problem is getting consent to treat it. Until they decide they don't want to be in jail or on the street and and in chronically poor health, and they don't want to have regular run-ins with the cops anymore, you won't get anywhere trying to treat them. So what are you going to do? let them loose to use, create more demand for drugs, commit crimes and cause other public nuisances, and create other headaches for emergency responders?

There seems to be a common trait in AS that we tend to think we can get people to behave a certain way and everything will work out just great. Therefore, anyone who is not familiar with addiction and treatment needs to butt out of this discussion. Not only is there NOT a magic government policy that will solve the drug problem, but addicts do things and frequently live their lives in a manner that defies all reason. If it usually takes a lot to happen to them before they really want to quit, how do you expect bureaucrats of all people to help the situation?

It's not like cops use their psychic powers to find drug users. They get stopped or get their residence searched because the cops have some probable cause, which means that they were spotted engaging in what appeared to be illegal activity before the cops found their personal stash. If these drug users were minding their own business while using, the cops wouldn't have cause to find their drugs in the first place. Now methadone, that's not being used as an intoxicant so that's a good idea to help heroin users quit. It does not cause a high and it allows recovering addicts to manage their life, sometimes even hold a job, and reduces the spread of blood-borne diseases. However, that is used under medical supervision so it is not the same as legalizing drugs used as intoxicants.

I disagree cause I know how drug users are, yes they do illegal things to get the money to use, but I have a friend that has been a crack addict for years. She has chased the high to the point of prositution and homelessness and I tried to get her help but because she is on probation for other offenses, if she sought treatment for drug addiction, she would go to jail. Her probation officer asked her if she was on drugs and she lied and told him no. He said that if she entered any kind of rehab or was caught with drugs that she would go to jail.
I dont think that is fair. She hates how crack has ruined her life, but the sytem is designed so even people seeking help end up in jail.
She really wants to quit and she needs medical help cause the physical withdrawl symptoms are very powerful and very real. I remeber last time I seen her try to quit. She was running a high fever, sweating like crazy and was shaking uncontrolably. She needed medical attention, but if she got it, she would have gone to jail. She never wanted to get hooked on crack. She was smoking pot with a "friend" and that woman snuck a crack rock into my friend's joint. She said that she was instantly addicted it felt like experiencing true love like she never had before. comming from a very dysfuctional family, her mother taught her to shoplift when she was a young child and she has been in jail 2 times for shoplifting. When the stores caught her mother teaching her daughter how to shoplift, chiklren protective services should have been called, but wernt. If they did, her life would have been different, but as it is, my friend never had a chance.
We had to part ways because of her drug addiction because she made a deal with someone while I was in the car with her, and I dont want to be going to jail by assocation.
But we were high school b-f-f...then it all went south for her after smoking that one joint that was more than a joint.
There is always more to the story than how black and white politics want to make it...there are lives being affected by policies and laws that are designed to keep the "riff raff" opressed.

What state are you in? Parolees can go to rehab here. There's a place near my town that takes mostly people that are on probation or parole.

Drugs can cause all kinds of health issues, brain damage, and death. While nonviolent addicts it could be argued need treatment, we need to look at how they got hooked in the first place, and some addicts aren't actually convicted because someone else was continually spiking something on them without their knowledge.

Illegal drugs should remain illegal though, addiction is not a laughing matter and we as a society have enough problems with cigarettes and alcohol.

Georgia...where prisons are the 2nd largest employers in the state.