White House says the war is working – the war on drugs

The White House needs to address the costly war on drugs, says a high-profile panel that includes former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and past presidents of Mexico, Brazil and Colombia. But the Obama administration says the fight against illegal drug use is working, and it wants more than $26 billion in 2012 to continue the battle.

"We cannot have one recipe. It’s not so easy to say, 'Stop the war on drugs and let’s legalize'; it’s more complicated than that," former Brazilian President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, chairman of the Global Commission on Drug Policy, said Thursday at a news conference in New York. "Between prohibition and legalization there is an enormous variety of solutions in between."

"The U.S. needs to open a debate," former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria, a member of the panel, told Times reporters. "When you have 40 years of a policy that is not bringing results, you have to ask if it's time to change it."

The commission, which also includes former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and British billionaire Richard Branson, prepared a report that recommends governments attempt creative ways of legally regulating drugs, especially marijuana, as a way to stymie profits from gangs and cartels.

The White House's Office of National Drug Control Policy quickly sent out a statement claiming the war on drugs is working.

"Drug use in America is half of what it was 30 years ago, cocaine production in Colombia has dropped by almost two-thirds, and we’re successfully diverting thousands of nonviolent offenders into treatment instead of jail by supporting alternatives to incarceration," said Rafael Lemaitre, communications director of the White House drug policy office.

"Making drugs more available — as this report suggests — will make it harder to keep our communities healthy and safe," Lemaitre said.

Branson disagreed. "The war on drugs has increased drug usage, it’s filled our jails, it’s cost millions of taxpayer dollars and it’s fueled organized crime," Branson argued Thursday in New York. "It’s estimated that over $1 trillion has been spent on fighting this unwinnable battle."

Though other programs have been cut and/or trimmed, the Obama administration has asked for money for the war on drugs to be increased. In its 2012 budget, the White House has requested $1.7 billion for drug prevention programs, a 7.9% increase from the previous year, which would bring the total 2012 national drug control budget to $26.2 billion.

In 2009, during an online town hall meeting, Obama addressed a popular question regarding the legalization of marijuana. He kept his response short and not-so-sweet for some.

"There was one question that was voted on that ranked fairly high, and that was whether legalizing marijuana would improve the economy and job creation," the president said to laughter from the crowd. "And I don't know what this says about the online audience.

"The answer is, no, I don't think that is a good strategy to grow our economy," Obama said.

That was a reversal from what candidate Obama said in 2004, when he called the war on drugs "an utter failure," and although he did not believe marijuana should be legalized, he thought it should be decriminalized.

Of all the 2012 presidential hopefuls, the only major candidate who favors the end of the drug war is Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas).

 

RELATED:

Obama was for decriminalizing marijuana before he opposed it

Web lights up with protests over Obama's dismissal of marijuana legalization

-- Tony Pierce
twitter.com/busblog

Photo: Members of the Global Commission on Drug Policy at a news conference in New York on Thursday.

Credit: Stan Honda / AFP-Getty Images

Comments

[ivyawe]

Legalize and tax Prostitution Nationwide like Hungary.

[Dave O.]

Here is why I am for the legalization of drugs. In my lengthy career I have worked as a military policeman, correctional officer and substance abuse counselor specializing in prison based treatment. I was a part of a team that developed one of the first and largest drug court programs in the country. Currently I work for a law enforcement agency in the realm of cybersecurity.

In calling for the legalization of drugs I am not a proponent of drug use. Substance abuse will continue to be a health and social issue for some. My problem with the Drug War has to do with the run-away costs, ineffectiveness, and corrupting influence of using law enforcement resources to wage a war against the citizenry. We claim to be a freedom loving people. But we cheapen that claim by having the largest prison population in the free world.

We need to challenge ourselves to look at closely at the Global Commission's report. Look with an open mind. And then ask yourself; When's the last time two beer distributors engaged in a shoot-out? That would have been during prohibition. In regulated markets turf wars are fought in court. It's under-ground markets that invite anarchy and violence. Don't let the Drug Czar and DEA scare you with tales of anarchy if drugs are legalized. It's the drug war causing the anarchy. Stop this insanity.

[o-dissapointment]

Obama has failed to enact any of the progressive policies that he campaigned on. His complete failure to reform drug policy is the reason I won't be voting for him again (I voted for him in 2008, haha woops).

[JPJones]

Don't believe anything prohibitionists say. Prohibition is only working to keep them & drug dealers employed. The fact is cannabis prohibition has been used to justify seizing property without due process, to enter homes without warning or warrant, & and to take away our civil rights. No one is safe from prohibitionists & their militarized police forces. Cannabis is a non-lethal plant. But cannabis prohibition has caused the deaths of 10's of thousands of cops, criminals, & innocent citizens. Prohibition is corrupting govt officials, the banking system, & the court system. Read about the failed Volstead Act. It lasted 12 years & ended in disaster. Prohibitionists created cannabis prohibition to replace alcohol prohibition in order to stay employed. Cannabis prohibition re-employed former bootleggers. Prohibitionists didn't learn that prohibition doesn't work. All they learned was not to prohibit drug use via Constitutional Amendments, as they can be repealed. Cannabis prohibition was created by lies, distortion, and by deceptively renaming the well known & valued cannabis as the alien 'Marihauna'. Cannabis extracts of up to 40% potency were safely & successfully used in 50% of all American medicines. Cannabis & hemp have been valuable cash crops in America since 1605 & there has never been a public outcry to ban it. Cannabis prohibition has never been about concern for public safety. Prohibition prevents regulation & this leads to anarchy. Cannabis regulation can only be achieved via legalization. Anyone who wants cannabis can easily get it, not in spite of prohibition, but, due to prohibition. Legalization will make it harder for minors to get cannabis, as licensed merchants card for age & criminals don't. Cannabis will be sold & used. The only important question is, do you want pernicious drug cartels controlling cannabis, or licensed farmers & merchants who collect & pay taxes? If you feel that cannabis prohibition has worked & makes you feel safer, then do nothing. If you know that cannabis prohibition threatens us all, contact your elected leaders or candidates & demand the end to the madness. End the 74 year old war on some drug users by making cannabis legal for adults to purchase in the same manner as alcohol & tobacco.

[Phill Bolin]

How idiotic can you be to think you can stop this "war on drugs". People are always going to want drugs and there will always be people that are willing to supply those drugs. And now they want more money? How many more tax dollars are going to be spent for nothing? It doesn't take a genius to see that if something doesn't work for 30 years, then maybe it is time to change something. BTW, I thought this was a democracy...why can't the people decide what they want instead of letting a bunch of over paid morons decide what is best for them?

[kaisersuzuki]

Oddly delusional proclamation.

[JayelleFarmer]

All of these arguments are too rational and will fall upon deaf ears. The "War on Drugs" is all about money.

"Wall Street's Role in Narco Trafficking, The War on Drugs is a Fraud. 'Drug profits, in the most basic sense, are secured through the ability of the cartels to launder and transfer billions of dollars through the US banking system. The scale and scope of the US banking-drug cartel alliance surpasses any other economic activity of the US private banking system. According to US Justice Department records, one bank alone, Wachovia Bank (now owned by Wells Fargo), laundered $378.3 billion dollars between May 1, 2004 and May 31, 2007 (The Guardian, May 11, 2011). Every major bank in the US has served as an active financial partner of the murderous drug cartels.'"

http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article28449.html

No wonder then, that US fed gov wishes to argue so hard to maintain this phoney "war on drugs."

Americans - PLEASE take back your country. They are using your sons and daughters as the fall guys and sending them to prison for cannabis "offences" to maintain this enormous scandal.

[R. Lawson]

I agree with Obama in 2004 - don't legalize but decriminalize. This isn't just a mincing of words. Legalization is really amounts to the government's support and financial gain from drug use (through taxation). I think that would be bad and would send the wrong message. Decriminalization simply says that we choose to deal with drug abuse in smarter ways. Education, healthcare, and treatment instead of prison and criminal records. Perhaps civil offenses (fines and court ordered treatment) are more appropriate if we must have laws against drug use.

If the President and his administration are backing away from the decriminalization position, and truly believe the war on drugs is being won - I'd like to know what they are smoking.

Mexico is falling apart at the seams and that democracy is literally at risk. The criminalization of drugs built the Mexican mafia and gangs across America. If you want to stop them in their tracks, decriminalize the drug. The price goes down, their profits vanish. The criminalization of drugs has been more destructive than the drugs themselves.

[ohio farmer]

Ron Paul is the only presidential candidate that has spoken with honesty about the war on drugs and also hasn't taken illegal drugs.

[Hubert Cross]

The drug laws are an abuse of power. An adult citizen has the inalienable right to hurt himself if he wants to, and THE GOVERNMENT HAS NO BUSINESS TELLING ADULTS WHAT THEY CAN OR CANNOT DO as long as they do not hurt others. The same goes for laws against queer marriage, assisted suicide, sodomy between consenting adults, polygamy, and so on and so forth.

From the "Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen" Article 4: "Liberty consists in the freedom to do everything which injures no one else; hence the exercise of the natural rights of each man has no limits except those which assure to the other members of the society the enjoyment of the same rights."

[Mike]

No it is not working. Never has, never will.

[John Smith]

its amazing Obama is ignoring all this why ? what dose the government have to gain ? this war has claimed many innocent lives just ask a ex Marine called Jose Guerena he died in his home last month he is just 1 victim of the war on drugs it seems like theres more to this Prohibition then it seems now. Obama needs to at least move Marijuana to schedule II at the least. are lost my vote in 2012. the sick need to be secure in there own homes !

[Active]

Yea right !

"Drugs are illegal because they are harmful - they destroy lives and cause untold misery to families and communities." Because due to it's illegal, criminal status the price is high making it a profitable business for producers, traffickers and street sellers who flood the streets with real addictive expensive poisons like truelly addictive homemade methaphetamine and other dangerous impurities. These which are mixed with cocaine for example to make extra profits in the streets causing real mental illness. Making the war on drugs actually the real threat to public health.

Due to governments approach of generalization of all drugs and the lack of general proper, unbiased and factual education, few people know the difference between different kind of drugs. As our law enforcement always talk about "Drugs"are bad. As if nicotine and alcohol are not harmful drugs.

It is typical U.S. Policy to only look at the scope of their own benefits and their own "wellbeing" forgetting about and screwing the rest of the "lesser" world in the process. This report of the Global Commission on Drug Policy is based on Global numbers not the U.S & A alone. This is in contrast to the Local scope of views and conclusions of heads of states of the America's.

[John Hernandez]

A guy at my work Tuesday said that the US was deteriorating, as he criticized the large cuts in education all throughout the country. I really felt as though he was wrong, as though politicians are only doing these cuts as a last resort, because they had no other alternative... What happened? Why is no one stopping these people?! This is OUR money! I don't understand, this a democracy, why are these politicians just doing whatever the hell they want!

[Tom Hartwell]

Come on, Barack: the war against drugs has thrown too much of our public money, resources and human energy into apprehending, processing, trying and incarcerating people whose sole transgression the use of drugs; in other words, their drug use has not led them to rob, rape, burgle or harm anybody else. Drugs have been made illegal because of their potential to cause social ills. Drug abuse can indeed cause harm and hurt to families, friends, loved ones and youngsters. But laws against the commerce of drugs allow for arrest, incarceration etc. of citizens who have not and might not ever steal or hustle or kill for drugs.

Much of the damage inflicted upon families by drugs is the incarceration of family members for engaging in the commerce of drugs, not for engaging in the socially unadapted behavior that drugs and drug abuse are notorious for. Despite strict punishments for possession (who even wants to spend six months in a prison or jail cell, let alone a year or ten) current arrest and incarceration rates indicate that people are going to buy and use, and sometimes abuse drugs despite of risk, warning and penalties.

Illegality puts this commerce in the hands of people willing to do the sort of desperate things one might do when one is risking 5 to 10 in the pen. Moreover, the threat of such jail time makes commercants more desperate. It puts these desperate people in the position to make a serious amount of money for doing little more than driving from Atlanta to Cleveland; it puts in the hands of these desperate people the cash to protect themselves, to draw private militaries around them, to protect them from law enforcement and to edge out competitors.

There is a lot of money to be made in the market for drugs. But people with MBAs and diplomas don't, as a rule, kill each other with machine guns when their companies are wrestling for market share. They don't murder each others family members. Turf wars are won through advertising, pricing, lawsuits and lobbying. Illegality puts commerce in the hands of desperate people willing to do desperate things.

There is money to be made in court and incarceration systems as well. But private prisons are not good for the economy. When prisons become profitable, laws become a way of bleeding the people for profit. Workers, fathers and mothers and sons and daughters in jail is not good for the economy or life in America. It is a social and family ill graver in many cases than drug use in the home. Accidental drug overdose deaths in the U.S. in 2004 were 19,838 according to the CDC. That same year, DEA arrests alone totaled 27,053, according to the agency's own data. The state of Wisconsin that same year made 26,514 arrests. Of those arrests 76.7 percent were for possession.

Anyway, long story short. Drug arrests are tying up the courts and prisons with American workers, young and middle aged men and women who else might be acting as the fiber of our economy and the pillar of our families. To say nothing of the money wasted. Let's get real.

[malcolm kyle]

If you are a Prohibitionist then you owe us answers to the following questions:

#1. Why do you rejoice at the fact that we have all been stripped of our 4th amendment rights and are now totally subordinate to a corporatized, despotic government with a heavily armed and corrupt, militarized police force whose often deadly intrusions into our homes and lives are condoned by an equally corrupt and spineless judiciary?

#2. Why do you wish to continue to spend $50 billion a year to prosecute and cage your fellow citizens for choosing drugs which are not more dangerous than those of which you yourself use and approve of such as alcohol and tobacco?

#3. Do you honestly expect the rest of us to look on passively while you waste another trillion dollars on this garbage policy?

#4. Why are your waging war on your own family, friends and neighbors?

#5. Why are you so complacent with the fact that our once 'free & proud' nation now has the largest percentage of it's citizenry incarcerated than any other on the entire planet?

#6. Why are you helping to fuel a budget crisis to the point of closing hospitals, schools and libraries?

#7. Why do you rejoice at wasting precious resources on prohibition related undercover work while rapists and murderers walk free, while additionally, many cases involving murder and rape do not even get taken to trial because law enforcement priorities are subverted by your beloved failed and dangerous policy?

#8. Why are you such a supporter of the 'prison industrial complex' to the extent of endangering our own children?

#9. Will you graciously applaud, when due to your own incipient and authoritarian approach, even your own child is caged and raped?

* It is estimated that there are over 300,000 instances of prison rape a year.
* 196,000 are estimated to happen to men in prison.
* 123,000 are estimated to happen to men in county jail.
* 40,000 are estimated to be committed against boys in either adult prisons or while in juvenile facilities or lock ups.
* 5000 women are estimated to be raped in prison.

#10. And will you also applaud when your own child, due to an unnecessary and counter productive felony conviction, can no longer find employment?

According to Paul Craig Roberts, a former editor of the Wall Street Journal and former assistant secretary to the treasury under Ronald Reagan, "Police in the US now rival criminals, and exceed terrorists as the greatest threat to the American public."

"Narcotics police are an enormous, corrupt international bureaucracy and now fund a coterie of researchers who provide them with ‘scientific support’, fanatics who distort the legitimate research of others. The anti-marijuana campaign is a cancerous tissue of lies, undermining law enforcement, aggravating the drug problem, depriving the sick of needed help, and suckering well-intentioned conservatives and countless frightened parents."  – William F. Buckley, Commentary in The National Review, April 29, 1983, p. 495

There is no conflict between liberty and safety. We will have both or neither.
William Ramsey Clark (1927--)

[Martin de Pateshull]

THOU SHALT NOT STEAL (Exod 20:15)

Very simple. YOU SHALL NOT STEAL, that is, theft being prohibited, necessitates that the drug war is not only a failure to reach its stated aim (although its unstated aim---a dysgenic employment for sadistic, mentally retarded individuals---it meets quite well) but it is a criminal undertaking. That is, the drug war has more than anything else revealed the national governments of the world to be little more than Crime Organizations.

Possession of vegetables/powders has never been unlawful; those who under colour of judgment arrest, torture, beat, maim, murder and sadistically degrade before fake law-courts are the real criminals, not the peaceful folk who enjoy drugs. All drugs. Heroin, cocaine, pot, methamphetamine, LSD---all are safe and lawful compared with the evil, soul-destroying sin of theft.

Who supports the war on drugs? The real addict population: retarded, violent people who are addicted to easy money. Ask yourself a question: once the drug-theft gangs (police narc squads) are disbanded, what will the mentally retarded individuals formerly on their payrolls do? Become mallcops?

[dave]

The question of "is it time?" is absurd. well duuu, yes
The question of "should it be legal?" is absurd. well duuu, yes
It WAS time many years ago to get the Governments out of our lives.
People have a choice to make, use a substance or not to use it.. that's the end of it.

It makes no sense to ban any substance, but makes perfect sense to ban ACTIONS, such as murder, rape, robbery, child abduction, slavery and others......

As usual, the US GOV is the last to see truth over corruption.

[leslie piper]

THE WAR ON DRUGS IS WORKING. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...etc.
Yes: it helps train the anti-citizen copsies who will be used to crush whatever 'revolution' might arise.
Yes: it gives another route to riches to inventors of 'people-control' gadgets: sell technical advantage to government.
Yes: it keeps the bribe money flowing at all levels of all governments.
Yes: it hires a lot of people who might otherwise punch a clock on an assembly line...it beats working FOR anything. AGAINST is always more fun.
Yes: it increases disaffection FROM government, thus favoring our country's enemies.
A smart guy with more time could list more ways the 'war on drugs' is working.
Anybody remember the story of the 'tar baby'? you fight it, it sticks to you. The more you fight it, the more it sticks...
Think about that for a minute.

Back in the 70's, students of history and reporters who actually work the job
can attest, the Mexican government and the cartels then discussed ending the "war"...the cartels wanted immunity from prosecution and to keep their money. The Mexican government went away and calculated the cost...at THAT time the cartels had enough money to buy EVERYTHING within the borders of Mexico, so the deal fell thru.
Do you think, with Wachovia alone processing 400 BILLION drug dollars in three years...that the cartels will ever allow Obama...or anybody...to legalize?
Get real. It's OVER, just accept that there will be more lying and role-playing.

[Liberty]

To be free is a great responsibility. Eliminate all taxes and remove prohibition of all drugs.

[kenny]

bottom line is obama/bush are domestic terrorists to the american people! The war on drugs creates the very crime just like alcohol prohibition!! any politicians that supports the largest failure in american history will be voted out ASAP!! Pharm drugs kill more then the illegal ones! bottom line only corrupt politicians and drug lords profit of of the drug war! Legalize and they have to apply at burger king!! drug was is one big fact joke on liberty!

[Mark]

Is this the same Obama that admits using coke, heroin, and being a regular pot smoker during his earlier years?

The smoker with the fat wife who continually tell us - the rest of us - that we need to be healthier?

[Janice Johnson]

The only war the US is winning is the war against it's own people. The war on drugs is and always has been a rediculous waste of life and resources. Lives ruined and sick people kept that way with the help of the government. Big business and Big Pharma are really in control and the government henchmen keep us in line and keep the private owned prisons filled. Good going government, by the people, for the people...huh?

[M:-X]

Saying "I support decriminalization but not legalization" is about the same as someone in 1860 saying "I don't support slavery but I don't want them thar blacks bein' equal!"

Legalize. Period.

Here's where the prohibitionist is the most stupid: not everybody who smokes pot has "a problem" that needs to be squashed. Either way, all the people who feel the law is unjust are *already* smoking. Anyone who says "oh I'd love to smoke pot, but darn it-- it's illegal!" is the biggest chump EVER

[Ed D]

Proof that prohibition causes delusional thinking.

Proof that our government is corrupt.

Proof that we live under a fascist oligarchy that can only churn out propaganda.

Prohibition kills.

Prohibition is fraud.

Prohibition and freedom can not co exist.

Prohibition is big government, fiscally reckless and causes crime. It has harmed millions of people, cost tens of thousands of lives and over a TRILLION dollars.

Working? - Nonsense!

[Jason Karimi]

Former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson (garyjohnson2012.com) also favors ending the failed "War on Drugs."

When will the US listen?

[Sjean]

The knowledge that cannabis can be used to fight cancer has been suppressed for almost thirty years. Articles and studies from 1974 to present are evidence of the suppression of medical cannabis as a proven cancer drug. While marijuana has never killed anyone, marijuana prohibition has killed millions and blinded even more.

[Marilyn Ortega]

@ R Lawson-
You say govt backing drug use is the wrong message to send.

Alcohol=drug
Tobacco=drug
Prescription medication=drug

I believe you are ref the legality of the drug--

The only reason that you feel it is bad is because you have been told for your entire life that marijuana is "bad" and the only reason that everyone told you it was bad was because it is illegal. Know your history as an American citizen....why was this herb made to be illegal after such a long history of legal use in America and outside of America? THINK for yourself about EVERYTHING your govt tells you...don't just fall in line!

[Jacob]

Obama is deluded. He is sick. Get him some help, quickly.

[Jack M.]

Hey, remember that prohibition we had in the 1920's where we banned alcohol? And then everything turned out great and no one drank anymore, and syndicates couldn't make money off of it and nothing bad happened?

Me either. This will be no different.

[Stupid American]

L M F A O!!!

And when was the last time the "White House" was actually RIGHT on anything they propagate to the American public?

Obama and Gil Kerlikowske are delusional.

RON PAUL 2012.

[brady]

I don't understand how the government can illegalize a substance that alters your mind, yet allow the consumption of alcohol. I don't understand how the government can illegalize a substance that is "unhealthy" (although marijuana is NOT unhealthy, there isn't even a proven association with lung cancer), yet allow cigarettes, and FAST FOOD.

People will always search for ways to alter their minds...it's fun, it feels good. If drugs are wiped from the earth (which is the goal of the War on Drugs?), people will drink more, pop prescription pills more. Actually is that seriously the goal of the War on Drugs? To wipe drugs out? Aren't most of them plants? Do they want the plants to die?...

Will it get to the point where cleaning supplies are tightly regulated? Food is a drug. Will food be tightly regulated?

Marijuana is stigmatized. And most people are stupid. That's why it's illegal.

[ConservativeChristian]

Jesus said to do unto others as we would have them to do unto us. None of us would want our child thrown in jail with the sexual predators over marijuana. None of us would want to see an older family member’s home confiscated and sold by the police for growing a couple of marijuana plants for their aches and pains. How about $100 for a permit to grow a dozen plants? Also, check out w w w . northpoint.org/ if you’d like to see some very positive material about Jesus at work in people’s lives

[Patrick Beagle]

President Obama is a two-faced, opportunistic hypocrite on this issue. I applaud the Commission's findings. I wanted to share criticism of the drug war over time.

The Drug War: Chronology of an unconsitutional violation of individual and human rights. 96 years of failed policy:

An editorial in the Illinois Medical Journal for June 1926, after eleven years of federal law enforcement, concluded:

The Harrison Narcotic law should never have been placed upon the Statute books of the United States. It is to be granted that the well-meaning blunderers who put it there had in mind only the idea of making it impossible for addicts to secure their supply of "dope" and to prevent unprincipled people from making fortunes, and fattening upon the infirmities of their fellow men. As is the case with most prohibitive laws, however, this one fell far short of the mark. So far, in fact, that instead of stopping the traffic, those who deal in dope now make double their money from the poor unfortunates upon whom they prey. . . The doctor who needs narcotics used in reason to cure and allay human misery finds himself in a pit of trouble. The lawbreaker is in clover. . . . It is costing the United States more to support bootleggers of both narcotics and alcoholics than there is good coming from the farcical laws now on the statute books. As to the Harrison Narcotic law, it is as with prohibition [of alcohol] legislation. People are beginning to ask, "Who did that, anyway?"

Supreme Court Justice James McReynolds in his dissent in Casey v. United States (1928):

"I accept the views stated by MR. JUSTICE BUTLER. With clarity he points out the unreasonableness of the construction of the statute advocated by counsel for the United States. But I go further. The provision under which we are told that one may be presumed unlawfully to have purchased an unstamped package of morphine within the district where he is found in possession of it conflicts with those constitutional guaranties heretofore supposed to protect all against arbitrary conviction and punishment. The suggested rational connection between the fact proved and the ultimate fact presumed is imaginary. Once the thumbscrew and the following confession made conviction easy; but that method was crude and, I suppose, now would be declared unlawful upon some ground. Hereafter, presumption is to lighten the burden of the prosecutor. The victim will be spared the trouble of confessing and will go to his cell without mutilation or disquieting outcry.
Probably most of those accelerated to prison under the present Act will be unfortunate addicts and their abettors; but even they live under the Constitution. And where will the next step take us? When the Harrison Anti-Narcotic Law became effective probably some drug containing opium could have been found in a million or more households within the Union. Paregoric, laudanum, Dover's Powders, were common remedies. Did every man and woman who possessed one of these instantly become a presumptive criminal and liable to imprisonment unless he could explain to the satisfaction of a jury when and where he got the stuff? Certainly, I cannot assent to any such notion, and it seems worthwhile to say so."

[Patrick Beagle]

The Drug War: Chronology of an unconsitutional violation of individual and human rights. 96 years of failed policy (cont):

By 1936, twenty-two years after passage of the Harrison Act, an outstanding police authority had reached the same conclusion. He was August Vollmer, former chief of police in Berkeley, California, former professor of police administration at the Universities of Chicago and California, author of a leading textbook on police science, and past president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Chief Vollmer wrote:

Stringent laws, spectacular police drives, vigorous prosecution, and imprisonment of addicts and peddlers have proved not only useless and enormously expensive as means of correcting this evil, but they are also unjustifiably and unbelievably cruel in their application to the unfortunate drug victims. Repression has driven this vice underground and produced the narcotic smugglers and supply agents, who have grown wealthy out of this evil practice and who, by devious methods, have stimulated traffic in drugs. Finally, and not the least of the evils associated with repression, the helpless addict has been forced to resort to crime in order to get money for the drug which is absolutely indispensable for his comfortable existence...Drug addiction, like prostitution and like liquor, is not a police problem; it never has been and never can be solved by policemen. It is first and last a medical problem, and if there is a solution it will be discovered not by policemen, but by scientific and competently trained medical experts whose sole objective will be the reduction and possible eradication of this devastating appetite. There should be intelligent treatment of the incurables in outpatient clinics, hospitalization of those not too far gone to respond to therapeutic measures, and application of the prophylactic principles which medicine applies to all scourges of mankind.

Perhaps the most eloquent and most persistent critic of our narcotics laws, Professor Alfred R. Lindesmith, Indiana University sociologist, had this to say in 1940:

Solemn discussions are carried on about lengthening the addict's already long sentence and as to whether or not he is a good parole risk. The basic question as to why he should be sent to prison at all is scarcely mentioned. Eventually, it is to be hoped that we shall come to see, as most of the civilized countries of the world have seen, that the punishment and imprisonment of addicts is as cruel and pointless as similar treatment for persons infected with syphilis would be...The treatment of addicts in the United States today is on no higher plane than the persecution of witches of other ages, and like the latter it is to be hoped that it will soon become merely another dark chapter of history.

In 1957, Dr. Karl M. Bowman, one of this country's foremost psychiatrists and authorities on narcotics, concluded similarly:

For the past 40 years we have been trying the mainly punitive approach; we have increased penalties, we have hounded the drug addict, and we have brought out the idea that any person who takes drugs is a most dangerous criminal and a menace to society. We have perpetuated the myth that addiction to opiates is the great cause of crimes of violence and of sex crimes. In spite of the statements of the most eminent medical authorities in this country and elsewhere, this type of propaganda still continues, coming to a large extent from the enforcement bureaus of federal and state governments. Our whole dealing with the problem of drug addiction for the past 40 years has been a sorry mess.

And sadly, we must add yet another 54 years to Dr. Bowman's comment. The drug war is an unconstitional and flagrant violation of individual and human rights. Individuals have a RIGHT to ingest any substance they wish as long as they don't harm others. END THE DRUG WAR

[Matt]

Surely the White House realizes that people aren't buying their line. Why are they afraid to be honest with us? Who's pulling the strings?

[sad american]

A staple of the Amerikan government is the War on Drugs.

This will be the longest battle the American citizens will fight to undo...

The WoD funds many local law enforcement organizations, first by providing small time drug users and the very rare occasion of arresting large time drug dealers and second through federally dispersed grants (money the Fed Reserve prints for fun).

Too many law enforcement organizations, lawyer offices, parole officers, and correctional system employees depend TOO much upon the WoD to have politicians end funding it and reforming our draconian laws.

Much of the public has believed and continue to believe the propaganda the Office of National Drug Control Policies spews to the American public every year. How can we take this office seriously when they have laws stating they must IGNORE scientific research regarding our ignorant laws regarding "drugs"?

This nation has become dependent upon the prison-industrial complex. Something President Eisenhower warned us about doing... the man who dropped the atomic bomb knew the dangers that this soiled system is capable of doing...

Well, welcome to the post 9/11 America.

A government big enough to give you everything is a government big enough to take away everything....

[Tony]

Sometimes wisdom and common sense falls on deaf ears...

[Dave T]

The state is becoming the enemy of the state. This WASTE of my tax dollars must stop.

I agree with and am applauding Dave O.

[Brad Mills]

"Obama has failed to enact any of the progressive policies that he campaigned on. His complete failure to reform drug policy is the reason I won't be voting for him again (I voted for him in 2008, haha woops)."

~You couldn't have said it better, I am gratefully sorry I voted for him, when he said we needed to rethink the war on drugs I thought he actually meant it. Gary Johnson, hes a hopefully when it comes to reforming our drug laws.

[Dan]

Three types of people support the "war on (some) drugs".
They are:
1. The uninformed,
2. Those profiting from the drug war (drug dealers, law enforcement, prisons, politicians, etc.), and,
3. The just plain stupid.

[joe]

A person needs to be mentally retarded to believe drugs are illegal because they are harmful, that they destroy lives and cause untold misery to families and communities. It's the War on Drugs, the war on human Rights, that kills people. It's driven by the anti-American drug warriors who are making a fortune from drug war hatred and intolerence. How can any person still be so dumb to yet support these hatefilled lies? Please, drug law supporters, Stop supporting drug cartels and cowardly DEA agents, please stop killing our childeren.