Robert Almonte, executive director, Texas Narcotic Officers Association and El Paso police deputy chief (retired), had a different view of the war on drugs than most of the learned participants in the recent conference in El Paso (surprise, surprise): ‘War on Drugs’ conference got the issue wrong
It’s a pretty bad piece of dreck, full of standard stale prohibitionist misdirection, strawmen, and cherry-picked statistics. I particularly noted the ending:
Our children deserve better; El Paso deserves better. O’Rourke, in calling for the public to exert pressure on our elected officials to legalize marijuana, has stated: “As evidence, I point to the 3,200 people who have been killed in Juárez.”
I say to you, Mr. O’Rourke, as evidence against legalizing marijuana and other dangerous drugs, I point to the countless Americans and their families whose lives have been destroyed by drugs and the over 38,000 Americans who die from drug overdoses each year.
Let me get this straight. As a defense of prohibition, we should ignore the 3200 killed in Juárez under prohibition, and instead focus on the 38,000 Americans killed by overdoses under prohibition.
Right.
LMAO ! They just stated that prohibition is a failure because if it wasnt those 38,000 wouldnt have died! And, How many of those 38,000 deaths were from Pharma drug? Give me a break!
http://www.foxnews.com/freedomwatch/
Heres an interveiw with Judge Napolitano And Pual Armetano, also one with the Judge and Andy Levy about prohibition and why its a failure.
Too much of anything is bad for you or can KILL you, even government .
CORRUPTION: A disease that spares no one.
overdose deaths are a products of prohibition….. almost all those people didnt intend to overdose but they have no idea the purity, and if your used to shooting up crap and you get some highly pure stuff, then your chances of overdosing increase greatly….
we need quality control and regulation. If people knew what they were using and exactly how much to use and how much is too much, then we wouldnt have all the overdose deaths. Plus all the clean needles will slow the spread of diseases. I dont understand how any logically thinking person would be for prohibition.
Well most prohibitionists have proven they dont think logically so theres my answer i guess.
Really? They actually brought up overdose deaths in the *cannabis* legalization debate? Cannabis, perhaps the one drug in the whole wide world that you *can’t* die from a overdose of because the LD50 is so ridiculously high? Good God, why the hell does anyone listen to anything these clowns say?
The hardcore prohibitionists can’t see the forest because of all the tree’s. If the prohibition was reducing drug use,(it isn’t),or reducing young people from using drugs,(dealers don’t check ID’s),or even slowing down the drugs coming across
our borders,then continuing the prohibition might be justifiable.
Right now,a black market for cigarettes is forming,buying cigarettes,made by American companies,from countries that don’t have all the sin taxes added on,and will continue too grow as long as people can get their tobacco at 1/2 the price of domestic cigarettes. We are a nation of bargain hunters.
We have increased security on our borders so much,that now the cartels are moving growers into every state in the union,just too bypass all our added security. The violence and crime surrounding these organizations will follow them and we will start seeing Americans with their heads cut off in front of our schools just as they do in Mexico today.
Our own prison systems,where our government will put you for possessing marijuana,can’t stop marijuana within their walls and chain link fences. How do they expect too stop it in a “free” society?
Well, at least the he made the arguement for us as far as pot goes. 38,000 drug overdoses last year – not one due to pot. If the discussion had been exclusively about legalizing pot, though, he’d be arguing about how its the #1 most “abused”, “illegal” drug in the world and treatment center admissions and such. It’s all BS circular logic that most 3rd graders are sharp enough to poke a hole in. Too bad we don’t have more 3rd graders running for public offices – the world would likely be a better place.
Claygooding:
Ya if I still smoked cigs I would be looking to the black market for them. These fools who think they can get people to quit by making them expensive are crazy. They are just driving cigs underground. Whoohoo …something else thats easy for cops to bust people for. Goood God, get real.
One of the dirty little secrets of drug rehab is that people addicted to what I call ‘body drugs’, heroin, cocaine, etc will often ‘relapse’ after a period of time and seek out their drug of choice. Not realizing that the tolerance they had built previously actually kept them from dying of overdose, they inject what was their standard dose, OD and die. I’m willing to bet that a significant mnumber, if not a majority, of the 38,000 that died from overdoses were in fact ‘in rehab’ immediately preceeding their deaths.
I wonder, does the 38,000 include overdoses from alcohol and nicotine? Those run about 5000 deaths per year IIRC.
Duncan, don’t forget those who were locked up in jail or prison prior to relapse and overdose.
It’s telling that the comments on the piece are overwhelmingly in favor of ending drug prohibition. One slam after another. And vanishingly few supporters of drug prohibition are daring to add to the conversation. Ah, the sound of craven silence!
not all of those overdoses are due to prohibition but then again I never hear of anyone dying frm lead poisoning in alcohol nowadays.
[i]Texas Narcotic Officers Association and
El Paso police deputy chief (retired)…[/i]
Retired or retarded, I always get those two confused when reading drug worrier dribble. All overdoses are caused by prohibition. Except suicides. Most junkies are opposed to those. Most use prescriptions, not street drugs. The key is to escape reality for a while, not forever. Tobacco isn’t causing the harm, chemicals added do the damage. More chemicals in cheaper generic brands the poor are driven too by raising the prices. Like the Nazi’s never lost, just relocated. If the poor don’t do much for profits, get em sick and then sell them drugs on the tax payers dime. Outlaw treatment you can grow for nothing. Feed em preservatives to make the profits last. Mandatory sentences do the same for prison profits. We the sheople have become products ourselves. Sold by fascists to treat. Treat our illness with mandatory white powders. Treat crime with cages and rehabs and pisstasters keeping the workplace free of undesirables. Wars or Mission Accomplished “police actions” earned a trillion bucks bilking kids into joining up. Major tax spenders supplying the tools of the war trade. Can’t bust them for stealing billions, might upset the teabog ditties. Another drug thug without a clue. As stated so many times before. Its all happening during “prohibition” And all we are saying is Give Peace a Chance!
He was in a wheelchair!
Don’t let San Diego’s district attorney get away with hurting medical marijuana patients!
You won’t believe what’s happening on your dime!
Bill Piper Drug Policy Alliance Network
San Diego law enforcement called in the DEA this month to assist with SWAT-style raids of 14 medical marijuana dispensaries. Local and federal authorities arrested dozens of people and physically accosted at least one patient. We have to stop the district attorney behind this persecution campaign! News footage even shows local police pulling a handcuffed patient out of his wheelchair. Sign the petition calling for California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Attorney General Jerry Brown to rein in the district attorney who orchestrated the raids.
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Noam Chomsky deconstructs the drug war
ABC News: 46% of Americans Support Legalizing Marijuana