Comments on: Einstein, insanity and the war on drugs

By: darcmac

darcmac — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 05:52:38 +0000

Re: “Heroin and cocaine were legal and then banned because of the harm they were doing people…”

You need to watch that History Channel show again because you clearly missed what they actually said (or go do some independent research). Heroine and cocaine were not banned because of the harm they were doing people; they were demonized because of racial intolerance of Chinese immigrants and Southern blacks, respectively, and then legislated under the Harrison Narcotics Tax Act of 1914 which circumvented the Constitution of the United States to appease political interests in those states concerned as well as the League of Nations.

By: gjfj

gjfj — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 09:07:22 +0000

iversary of prohibition’s end by Harvard economist Jeffrey A. Miron. He estimates that legalizing drugs would inject $76.8 billion a year into the U.S. economy — $44.1 billion through savings on law enforcement and at least $32.7 billion in tax revenu

By: James Raider

James Raider — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 01:20:53 +0000

THE WAR ON DRUGS IS A WAR ON OUR OWN SOCIETY

Prohibition strains the Constitution and The War on Drugs has been a misguided failure. END IT.

http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2009 /04/war-on-drugs-time-for-change.html

Time to regain control of our streets and our sanity.

By: John

John — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 02:46:55 +0000

“If you put faith in declarations by the United Nations, a “drug-free world” is an attainable goal and the war on drugs all but over.”

The last time anyone in the UN tried to raise a hand and say “this isnt working right” about prohibition (the WHO report on Cocaine), the United States threatened to pull all funding of the WHO if they released it, hence the report died.

Moral to that story? Dont expect the US to have as much genuine support as it may seem.

By: Anirban

Anirban — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 07:58:02 +0000

The drug addition in America is increasing violently along with the cocaine production. But there is a good news that the fight against this evil going on by this country and California Drug rehabilitation center is one of the leading organisation which are fighting against addiction.

By: Gerard

Gerard — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:40:11 +0000

Keeping drugs illegal is a failed policy. What it does is create drug cartels with no respect for human life, corrupt officials at the borders, increase the profits of the private prison providers and keep the DEA spending $20bil for nothing gained! Poppy production in Afghanistan is at records levels as they sell heroin to buy guns to fight our guys!
Read Forbes December 22 “The Next Disaster” which is the effect of violence exploding across our border all related to drug profits.
Support LEAP and let’s try to get the new administration to listen to the people.
Please write to http://change.gov/page/s/economy and let our new President understand your concerns.
It’s time to wake up America.

By: Bill

Bill — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 14:37:20 +0000

I’m delighted to see a rational article about how crazy the “war on drugs” is. In addition to its other dysfunctional features, it has been the most powerful tool used against low-income people of color since slavery. And the idea that we should only modify SOME of our prohibitions, e.g. decriminalizing small quantities of marijuana, makes as much sense as saying that in 1933 they should have decriminalized six packs of beer. (Don’t mention legalizing gin, that’s too controversial!) The basic prohibitionist approach is not amenable to tinkering at the margins. It is fatally flawed and must be overturned completely. The sooner the better.

By: Kirk Muse

Kirk Muse — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 12:01:49 +0000

Addiction is usually not a problem unless the substance people are
addicted to is illegal. Lots of people are addicted to products containing caffeine, myself included. I could quit if I wanted to, but I don’t want to.

Addiction to coffee containing caffeine is affordable for most people.
Almost nobody has to rob, steal or commit acts of prostitution to
purchase coffee.

Criminalize coffee and the situation would soon change. Then coffee
would be untaxed, unregulated and controlled by criminals and very
expensive — just like marijuana is today. How would coffee consumers
feel if their beverage of choice was criminalized by our nanny-state
government?

Probably the same way marijuana consumers feel today.

Kirk Muse

By: steve

steve — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 13:15:30 +0000

I’m an American living in Japan, and don’t see the problems with drugs here like I did in America. They definitely exist, and are a problem, but not in the way there are in the states and Mexico.

What the society here has done here that has worked was to deeply educate and condition people not to do drugs to begin with. The penalties for drug crimes are far worse here than in the US. Still, the prisons are not overflowing with drug offenders. Legalizing drugs was not the solution either.

It’s the education and beliefs people develop that prevent them from starting in the first place. In other words, the demand is never there to begin with. At least not in the same way it exists in the US. Alcoholism is quite common and accepted. But drug addiction is still taboo. Society has deemed it wrong, and has burned that idea into the minds of its children.

If the drug problem is really to be stopped, it’s not going to happen through legalization or more money being thrown at a losing drug war. It has to start with educating people, conditioning them, to truly believe that doing hard drugs, or any other type of drugs, is wrong or will cause them pain in the long run.

What could $100 billion in the hands of modern advertising companies and universities do, if it was used to educate people about the problems drug use creates? I think it would do a lot more good than it’s currently doing in this obscene war or dealers and addicts.

Steve

By: johnm214

johnm214 — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 09:20:21 +0000

Its disheartening to read some of these comments discussing “pro drug” and “drug users” and what these people need to consider.

The war on drugs is morally and practically wrong. You do not have to use illicit drugs to conclude this.

Second, those recomending people not use drugs are missing the point. People do use and give drugs to their friends. The issue is: should we mark them as felons for life and put them in jails at 22k a year? Should they have to get a job without financial aid for college or employment to pay for their degree?

Should we put someone in jail that makes a choice that you don’t agree with? Should we have to pay for people to go to mandatory (go or to jail with you) treatment facilities? NO.

Add in the fact that the drug harms are largely a result of prohibition (profit-motivated violence coupled with low market barriers and no legal dispute resolution; impure adulterated substances) and this talk about what drug users should do becomes increasingly irrelevant. The fact is people do drugs. Here’s one non illicit drug user who says my paxil and coffee are addicting and psychotropic but I should not go to jail for it. Here’s one non-illicit drug user that says nobody should go to jail for it, regardless of what some here would prefer they do with their life.

Freedom means you decide for yourself. Until you harm a nonconsenting party (theft, violence, fraud, minors involved) the law should not fine you, jail you (at my expense), or ‘offer’ mandatory treatment which you go to or see jail. Add in the severe ostracizing effect of a felony conviction and record on employment and mobility, and its no wonder the war on drugs is an ineffective method to deal with something a small percentage of the population has a problem with.