I don’t know why, but Gil Kerliowske seems to have a lot of problem getting words and concepts mixed up. I keep having to fix them.
And now, more than ever, it’s important to recognize that
drug use[the drug war] harms every sector of this country. From keeping individual families together, creating a healthy and strong workforce, reducing the economic strain on the criminal justice system, and fostering a safe environment in local communities, tackling America’ssubstance abuse issues[drug war problem] is vital for winning the future.
There.
Pete, you just don’t understand the Humpty Dumpty School of Sophistry.
Pete – to Duncan’s point – Kerlikowski’s problems with the english language relate to the fact that if he told the truth, he’d have to admit he is milking the system and lying to keep his job oppressing the poor and black.
He is a moral degenerate, like most political appointees in the federal government, utterly compromised.
Apropos of my earlier comment on the disconnect between conservative’s rhetoric and their (all-too-frequent) support for the drug war, I spotted a story on the conservative townhall.com regarding the tobacco companies’ suit against the federal government over the new graphic labeling requirements. Townhall labeled the link to the story “Tobacco Companies Suing the Nanny State,” and naturally most of the commenters sided with the tobacco companies.
Here’s what I said in a comment:
“[C]ould someone please explain to me how conservatives can lament, as an outrageous intrusion of an overbearing ‘nanny-state,’ a mere labeling requirement for tobacco — a highly-addictive and lethal substance that is responsible for an estimated 440,000 deaths in the U.S. each year — while simultaneously defending the complete criminal prohibition of cannabis — a non-addictive and non-lethal substance? Seriously. Someone please reconcile those two positions for me.”
Because, like most of our fellow citizens, they are populists. Being a populist makes it easy to ignore any logical inconsistencies in one’s politics. This applies to many on the Left as well.
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Francis, by the time people realized the potential health hazards of tobacco and drinking alcohol there were significant, vested financial interests in the production and distribution chains of both substances. In addition there was also the failed attempts to criminalize both. I was shocked earlier this year when I learned that when the 18th Amendment was ratified that 21 of the 48 States had criminalized tobacco. The fact that so many States criminalized and then subsequently decriminalized tobacco with hardly a mention in our recorded history is beyond my ken, but it did happen. I’ve actually been watching the classic Perry Mason TV show and it made me laugh out loud when Mr. Burger fired up a cigarette in the courtroom when he was asking Perry to ‘splain it to him after the case was dismissed. (Mr. Burger, you should have figured out by now the Lt. Tragg hates your guts and very much enjoys making you the fool. How hard is it to see that Lt. Tragg gives you enough evidence to keep you prosecuting innocent person after innocent person, confident in the fact that Perry will make sure there’s no miscarriage of justice in the end? That’s why he always get that shit eating grin whenever he runs into Perry at the crime scene. Well there was the one case that Perry lost, but his client really was guilty so it was all good. There just aren’t that many innocent people ending up charged with murder without somebody pulling some strings.)
Kerliowske’s Legal Drug Hypocrisy * linx.pics
Prescription Drugs More Likely to Kill You than Recreational Drugs
More than 700,000 people visit U.S. emergency rooms each year as a result of adverse drug reactions. And, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), adverse drug reactions from drugs that are properly prescribed and properly administered cause about 106,000 deaths per year, making prescription drugs the fourth-leading cause of death in the U.S.
* What the WHO doesn’t want you to know about cannabis
* 3 million children taking stimulant drugs for ADHD
* The Side Effects Include Death:
The Real Truth About Pharmaceuticals
* Monsanto Hid Decades Of Pollution
* Mon$anto’$ WoD on Ditchweed
* Hemp vs Dioxins
* Chemical Cotton vs Organic Hemp
* The Deal on Substances
A drug may be helpful or harmful. The effects of drugs can vary depending upon the kind of drug taken, how much is taken, how often it is used, how quickly it gets to the brain, and what other drugs, food, or substances are taken at the same time. Effects can also vary based on the differences in body size, shape, and chemistry.
* Prozac and other anti-depressants can KILL by Vickie Barker
* Prescription Drug Deaths Soar
* 10 Worst Prescription Drug Side Effects
Amnesia
Enlarged Breasts (in men, sorry girls)
Death
Shrinkage
Cancer, Stroke, Dementia and Much More
Suicide
Hallucinations
Loss of Sense of Taste (and other senses)
Coughing up blood or vomit that looks like coffee grounds
Pregnancy
* Alcohol & Drug Use
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
Alcohol is one of the most widely used drug substances in the world. Alcohol use and binge drinking among our nation’s youth is a major public health problem
* 2011 World Hunger and Poverty Facts and Statistics
No one really knows how many people are malnourished. The statistic most frequently cited is that of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, which measures ‘undernutrition’. The most recent estimate, released in October 2010 by FAO, says that 925 million people are undernourished.
* Starving Babies and Illegal Food
Of the 3 million plus edible plants that grow on earth, no other single plant source can compare with the nutritional value of hempseeds. Both the complete protein and the essential oil contained in hempseeds are in ideal ratios for human nutrition.
* Food-Related Illness and Death in the United States
We estimate that foodborne diseases cause approximately 76 million illnesses, 325,000 hospitalizations, and 5,000 deaths in the United States each year. Known pathogens account for an estimated 14 million illnesses, 60,000 hospitalizations, and 1,800 deaths.
* 40,000 deaths a year due to junk food, says health watchdog Nice
* Drugs A to Z
* Is Death An Acceptable Drug Side Effect?
Would you take a medicine that listed death as a possible side effect? Lots of people do. If you read drug ads in popular magazines, you might end up wondering who would ever beg a doctor for a prescription.
…[harms every sector of this country. From keeping individual families together, creating a healthy and strong workforce, reducing the economic strain on the criminal justice system, …]
1.keeping individual families together.
Humm…I keep having a vision of some guy sitting at home enjoying a toke or to before bed and work the next day…..Bamm! In comes the SWAT team to wreck your family and life.
2. creating a healthy and strong workforce
Ya…Gotta keep those elitists rolling in tax money dont we. Last I knew..this was a free country and my health is my buisness.
3. reducing the economic strain on the criminal justice system
What a joke this statement is. All the drug war does is keep those in the criminal justice system employed, there by creating more strain on the tax payer…all of them, not just those who consume any drug. Hello Mr Czar, drugs arent going away so the drug war should go away…along with you and your friends.
But, but, but drugs are bad, m’kay?
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I find it very amusing that the Federal governments effort to get anti-drug messages included in popular entertainment is largely forgotten, but South Park’s parody of that program not only survives, but has entered the language as a ubiquitous denigration of the idiots prosecuting the war on (some) drugs.
Here’s another example of the way the drug war breaks up families. In these cases, New York is denying people custody of their children based on the parents being busted for minute quantities of pot.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/nyregion/parents-minor-marijuana-arrests-lead-to-child-neglect-cases.html?_r=2
The usual double standard applies here. Despite alcohol presenting a far greater potential danger to child welfare, there is no chance that social services would investigate a parent whose partner kept a six-pack for personal use. But then, it never was about child safety, was it… any more than the drug war is about reducing drug use…