“I ended the war on drugs, if you didn’t know this war was over. That was last May,” Kerlikowske said. He characterized the decades-old war on drugs as an empty “bumper sticker,” saying the country was ready for a more “complex discussion of a complex subject.”
As with the war in Iraq, where combat operations officially ended last week, the fight against drugs continues but in a different form. During a day in which he toured several drug treatment and prevention centers and met with city police brass, Kerlikowske promoted a cooperative approach in which law enforcement, community groups, recovery specialists and job-training providers work together to combat the problem.
“It’s not about being soft on crime or soft on drugs,” he would say repeatedly throughout the day. “It’s about being smart on drugs.”
As soon as he said “smart on drugs,” the conversation fell apart as first Deputy Director Ben Tucker, and then David Mineta, broke out laughing. Within seconds, the Drug Czar himself joined in, unable to keep the straight face any longer. “War on drugs…over” Tucker chortled.
Gil Kerlikowske, Ben Tucker, David Mineta
Aides were pleased to see Kerlikowske smile, saying it was time he stopped taking the job so seriously. “I think it’s the first time he didn’t look constipated since he took the job,” one quipped.
Meanwhile…
REYNOSA, Mexico — A car explodes outside a police station, another outside a television station. A gang is suspected of massacring 72 migrants. A prosecutor investigating those deaths suddenly disappears.
Mexico’s drug cartels seem to be adopting the tactics of war zones half a world away.
And…
The drug war is over, I ended it last May.
Holy shit what garbage. Ask the victims killed and arrested since May, and there have been a shitload of them, if the war is over.
Want to end the drug war, Gil? To end a war you either have to win, lose, or surrender. Gil, you didn’t win, and the drugs didn’t lose. And the fighting goes on. So….I’m eagerly awaiting the terms of your surrender.
The czars all laughed when Kerly said “…smart on drugs.” Is that because they all know what a joke this “new policy” is? It certainly wasn’t because what Kerly said was particularly funny. As for this “new policy” and the end of the drug war. Gee it looks just like the old Drug War, same bloated budgets and the same tactics used by the stormtroopers.
Gee Kerly and the czars….I had NO idea there was so much humor in the suffering you cause. I’m really glad you feel so fucking light hearted about it. Personally I’d like to know what else you find funny…severed heads? Powerful criminal cartels capable of bringing soveriegn nations to their knees? Funny? What about preventing sick people from getting the medicine they need not to suffer? That’s a frikking RIOT isn’t it? Arresting people for providing medicine to sick people? also funny? Golly I had no idea there was so much FUN in your work.
I hope they all fucking choke.
Did that sound angry?
Thousands are suffering and dying in a “war” on drugs, and the CEOs conducting it are making jokes and laughing about it. Yep, they’re real heroes, alright.
I’ll laugh too when they get their ugly mugs riddled by bullets and bomb-flack.
This Non-war of Kerli’s has claimed more victims in this year alone than ten years of war in Afghanistan. Somebody oughta tell him.
You guys realize everything about the picture and their reactions is me making up stuff, right?
You Got me.
You make stuff up. They make stuff up. It’s getting really hard to tell the real world from the Onion.
Sorry, I thought my sarcasm was pretty obvious.
Notice that Kerly did not say ‘mission accomplished’. They laugh ,we bleed, ha-ha-ha. Too bad there will never be a ‘drug war’ crimes tribunal.
No. To the reader, it just looks like the same old irony we’re completely used to seeing on a daily basis.
$113 billion is spent on marijuana every year in the U.S., and because of the prohibition *every* dollar of it goes straight into the hands of criminals. Far from preventing people from using marijuana, the prohibition instead creates zero legal supply amid massive and unrelenting demand.
According to the ONDCP, two-thirds of the Mexican drug cartel’s money comes from selling marijuana in the U.S., and they protect this cash flow by brutally torturing, murdering and dismembering thousands of innocent people.
If we can STOP people using marijuana then we need to do so now, but if we can’t then we need to legalize the production and sale of marijuana to adults with after-tax prices set too low for the cartels to match. One way or the other, we have to force the cartels out of the marijuana market and eliminate their highly lucrative marijuana incomes – no business can withstand the loss of two-thirds of its revenue!
To date, the cartels have amassed more than 100,000 “foot soldiers” and operate in 230 U.S. cities, and the longer they’re able to exploit the prohibition the more powerful they’re going to get and the more our own personal security is put in jeopardy.
Yeah, Pete, some of us know the meaning of “jk.” I caught it. BTW, whatever you did to the WP mobi plugin, leave it alone now. I can finally get the full DWR on my Nokia E71 again and am no longer locked into “read only” mode. Before, I couldn’t even get into the comment secton, let alone, read any of them. All’s ok now.
Cannabis, please stop making crap up! You’re either a Narc or you’ve had a cheap lobotomy done somewhere in the Caribbean.
Those prosecuting the war on some drugs do not ever admit that their bullshit is spun from whole cloth, which isn’t the habit of the friends of freedom, as demonstrated by Pete’s post above quickly admitting that his blog entry was fiction when he realized that some people were confused about that. I still recall the ‘brain scan’ allegedly of a chronic cannabis user. I recall how an MD recognized it as being from a person in a coma, and called the liars out. The know nothing liars not only wouldn’t admit their perfidy, they continued using the irrelevant brain scan to promote their agenda without ever admitting that it was fraudulent.
Just by happenstance I had an MRI of my brain today. I’ll be getting opinions from 2 doctors, my PCP and a neurologist. If either of these guys with medical degrees and a license to practice tell me that I have to give up cannabis I will no longer oppose the war on some drugs. One thing I think I need to mention is that I’m not going to inform them up front that I am a regular cannabis consumer, and have been for 33 years now. According to the know nothings’ flapdoodle these doctors should have no problem diagnosing that from my MRI. It’s kind of groovy that the tech gave me a copy of the test on DVD. Maybe I’ll upload it somewhere after they’ve made their diagnoses.
82% of statistics are made up on the fly.
Comrade Czar was kidding ohh P.G. added the sarcasm, love it! Czars are good tovarisch, unelected and unaccountable.
Well at least we’ve gotten one of the know nothings to learn the word cannabis.
As of today, August 30, Mexico just fired one-tenth of its police force (3200 officers) for corruption. Another 1000 face disciplinary charges and potential loss of their jobs.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-11132589