It’s often been noted here that calling the drug war a failure is only true depending on what you consider to be the true goals of the drug war.
Kevin Carson does a nice riff on that with Fifteen Benefits of the War on Drugs
1. It has surrounded the Fourth Amendment’s “search and seizure†restrictions, and similar provisions in state constitutions, with so many “good faith,†“reasonable suspicion†and “reasonable expectation of privacy†loopholes as to turn them into toilet paper for all intents and purposes. […]
5. As a result of the way DARE interacts with other things like Zero Tolerance policies and warrantless inspections by drug-sniffing dogs, the Drug War has conditioned children to believe “the policeman is their friend,†and to view snitching as admirable behavior, and to instinctively look for an authority figure to report to the second they see anything the least bit eccentric or anomalous.
6. Via civil forfeiture, it has enabled the state to create a lucrative racket in property stolen from citizens never charged, let alone convicted, of a crime. Best of all, even possessing large amounts of cash, while technically not a crime, can be treated as evidence of intent to commit a crime — saving the state the trouble of having to convert all that stolen tangible property into liquid form.
7. It has enabled local police forces to undergo military training, create paramilitary SWAT teams that operate just like the U.S. military in an occupied enemy country, get billions of dollars worth of surplus military weaponry, and wear really cool black uniforms just like the SS. […]
The real problem is that police see no problems with any of that,,and if they do and say anything they join the unemployed.
It’s the best practice in the world when gearing for a ‘real’ police state.
This is why we need to encourage many anti-prohibs to serve the state in either military or police so we can dilute the current mindset of the police state. But when citizens decide to not get involved in some sort of service for a few years at least, they have no civic credibility under them and thus they cannot earn the respect of the current authorities -simply because they refused to teach the younger generation of cops and soldiers how to be good and just authority figures. When the drug using citizen refuses to serve in uniform though legally and physically eligible to do so –they are surrendering their powers as citizens and offering up their control to people who may be more susceptible to the lies of government and the notion of the ‘law is the law’.
Right now, I’m mentoring a young Army female who’s in Afghanistan who would like a degree in Criminal Justice. I’m teaching her that her friends are dead in Afghanistan because some American cop is arresting someone for drugs without questioning the impact of what it does to undergo prohibition. When the Anti-Prohib citizen refuses service, then they are to blame for the ongoing War on Drugs and any negative actions done by the military by refusing to destroy the system from the inside -by refusing to lead and teach others justice. Believe it or not, even being a member of the VFW is one way of dismantling the War on Drugs if you utilize it correctly. Personally, I think it’s selfish to go to college right after high school, because that is saying “What can I do for myself and my future†–and not “what I can do for others and the future of this country.†Sometimes postponing or even boycotting your dreams is what is required so our children and their children will at least not have it worse than we do. What is so wrong with sacrificing just a few years of your time for the greater good? This is why everybody who enjoys using drugs should join the police force or military etc at age 18 so they can escape the odds of being denied service because of an adult arrest record. Refusal to serve is to completely accept and encourage the current Police State status quo. You can always do more damage to the system from the inside than that of the outside and any citizen who never served, though were eligible will have a very hard time being on the inside and not the outside of the body politic. For any of us on this couch too old to serve or too ‘arrested’ to serve, we should encourage everybody in the younger generations we know to join the military or police etc for few years of their life so they can be that driving force of change. In order for a Government by the People to work, the people must first be that Government. Do you really expect your family Doctor to have never gone to Med School? So how would a citizen know how to mold and follow moral logical ethical law(s) without first offering service?
I agree with the necessity of service, especially for young men. But military service is only one way to serve. And I think it’s wrong to glorify military service above all other forms of service – we are already way too militaristic as a society.
Part of the atomization of American society is the decline in local community service. This is the glue that holds society together. Military service is paid and has lifelong government benefits. Volunteering at the Food Bank is unpaid and has purely selfless benefits. Volunteering as a firefighter is pure community service.
I’m much more grateful to those who serve for no pay and no future benefit (PURE SERVICE) than for those who join up for the benefits of military service.
That said, I would be much more supportive of military service if we had a system more like the Swiss system, where every man is a soldier who keeps his kit (and weapons) at home, has regular weekly training, and once a year two weeks of maneuvers. From 18 to 50, and if you want to stay on past fifty you can if you are physically able. And Switzerland has not been successfully invaded for a thousand years!
I am opposed to any forced or coerced service whether for military or civil service. Such forced service is slavery/indentured servitude even if only temporary, and slavery of ALL types was banned in this country long ago. Forced servitude is anathema in a supposedly free society.
If you force yourself, then how is it like slavery? Its not about being forced but to realize that one’s nation and hopes of a true free society is at risk without the individaul stepping up and diluting it. If you dump a thousand gallons of water on a few drops of black ink -the water is very black right?
Sorry Windy -I should have read Divs before posting this below yours . . . didn’t ketch the ‘Swiss’ part you were commenting on until now.
Windy – I’m very conflicted on this point. I think you respect the concept of service to the greater society by the individual, right? Then how does a society make it fair so that everybody pulls their weight? I.e. how do you make slackers accountable?
The Swiss system, as I understand it, is that military service is considered a duty for all men. For the defence and strength of the Nation. If people could slack off and not serve, aren’t they freeloaders?
Perhaps the best approach is an incentive approach – tax benefits for those who serve and tax penalties for those who don’t. In Civil War times, both the COnfederacy and the Union had compulsory military service. But there was a legal way to fulfill your obligation, but not serve – you could get someone else to serve in your place. Lincoln did this – he hired an immigrant to serve in his place in the Union Army.
Diva, there’s another side, you know. When a government makes full citizenship or even voting rights dependent on service, aren’t they also saying: “Nobody can participate with out undergoing indoctrination first?”
DC -then we create the indoctrination . . . who said indoctrination cannot be a ‘do unto others’ human rights kind of model of equal justice for all. What I mean -we influence it the way parents influence their children to not make fun of other kids –but what is drug prohibition: the making fun and bullying of other people akin to the way it is done in school. The best path for me is to define what makes myself a hypocrite so I can eliminate it and if it’s something my conscious won’t allow me to eliminate, then I hide it so no one will ever know that’s how I feel since being a hypocrite is wrong, therefore it behooves me to eliminate it: either out of mind or at least out of sight if I’m too morally week to not eliminate all my hypocrisies. It’s physically impossible to both pay taxes and not support the military –to at least support the small soldier’s humanitarian efforts and not the evil motives behind doing goodness . . . that one dude didn’t inoculate a little arm for oil –he did it because it was the right thing . . . you show support for that –you support it to tell the people what you the citizen expect out of the military, instead of simply washing one’s hands clean of them, so you can be that light to shine up them if they ever lose their moral groundings or to teach them how to find the appropriate moral high ground.
But in my late night haste to write, I did forget to mention park rangers, EMSA, firefighters, Habitat 4 Humanity, American Red Cross, Peace Corps etc. But I was more or less thinking of where some of the ‘strongest’ powers lay in, like Police or Military and to dilute it with justice. I’ve done both American Red Cross and Habitat, thus successfully proving there is nothing ‘aggressive’ about military service when individuals step up and make the right decisions for the right reasons.
Dividav, I don’t believe we get paid to join the military, I didn’t join to get paid and I don’t call risking life against evil men with drug money something that one does for pay. Before 9/11 I had big dreams of being a college professor or archeologist before the war, but I boycotted those dreams for a better tomorrow for my nation and for those afflicted with terror and injustice, thus I’ve just proven, we don’t get paid to serve in the Army . . . someone needed my help: be it Muslim Citizen fighting the Taliban or the American citizen trying to find what is true freedom and true justice. Besides, your logic in saying we only serve in the army for pay is you trying to prove humans don’t eat food to live since modern Westernized humans have to have money to eat food and take care of their family, which is why we get paid –so we can eat . . . are you assuming the ‘non-paid’ service people are unemployed . . . maybe they should decide to boycott getting paid for working at their civilian job, while volunteering on the weekends or after work –therefore I’ve thus proven even ‘non-paid’ volunteers receive money just like the soldier does.
When I was a civilian, I fantasized about teaching college kids either philosophy, art history, poetry, or literature, which would pay more than an E4 Hazard Pay in a combat zone, so again, I have a hard time believing we get paid in the Army . . . I don’t call the money I received as pay . . . do you really think someone who works over 100hrs a week has time to get a 40hr a week ‘civilian’ job to keep the wolf away from the door? Even if there are a lot of people serving to get a financial future, you have to teach them right from wrong regardless, since no man is an island . . . even if their reasons were not pure doesn’t mean you don’t have the power to purify their hearts and desires by being the example. If you think we (I) get (got) paid to serve, then it’s because you believe in only doing good as a method of getting rewards. I’m not of that mindset, nor am I a fool to say no to free money or education, which can teach me how to further spot the wolf in sheep’s clothing . . . I bet you would accept one million dollars (or some) if it was offered to you for carrying a bucket of water up a hill for an old wealthy lady who refused to not let you go home without the pay –even if you only did it because it was the right thing to do? You have to be morally strong enough to realize that getting paid isn’t the reason to do certain jobs in life . . . but maybe I’m wrong, maybe you’d say no to me offering you one thousand pounds of kind bud for helping me find my lost kitten? I’m not in it for the bud, but for the kitten Dividav –but kind bud is sure nice, no matter how or who or why one gives it to you.
Why do not enough morally right and ethically logical and just people serve? Because one citizen at a time decided that helping isn’t worth their time. Sometimes serving in the military is the best way to learn how to be civically active in areas outside of the military . . . if you don’t know what the color red looks like, how can you spot the red car? If one didn’t try, then one has to realize it’s one’s fault as to why an African American 17yr old looking for free college and a way out of the ghetto and gang life didn’t get anything more out of serving his nation.
Speaking Personally: War gave me a kind of insight and wisdom that made me personally feel that everything I learned before I lost my civilian rank was akin to a young child just learning how to place the round peg in the round hole. But now I utilize my new wisdom that only war can give. Why do you think your officers always tell you to ‘disobey’ any orders that go against your morals and ethics and to ignore the ‘it’s the orders’ mentality when it comes to wrong actions? My Commanding Officer told me to disobey the military’s orders if they were wrong. He’s one example of one citizen who knew what justice was and what justice looked like and he passed the example down to us.
If one’s reasons to not serve is because one believes the military is wrong, then one has just proven that they don’t have the moral fortitude to do right, thus they are the ‘evil’ in society by allowing others to continue the injustice and slaughter –but then again, it takes a wise man to know they don’t have what it take to be good or do good in that kind of environment in the first place, so I’m kind of grateful we have a few citiznes who think military service is bad, because I would hate to live in a nation full of those individuals too weak to do right in the face of a national emergency or war in the first place . . . it didn’t work for Germany when the people ignored justice and human rights . . . maybe Nazi Germany would have never existed if maybe only 15% of the military population was moral and logically and ethically just . . . it takes an immoral citizen to be an immoral soldier . . . it takes a moral citizen to be a moral soldier. If we think the war on drugs is immoral, then how do we stop it from ever happening again with another war on something else if the people cannot step up all the time and cannot teach the young by example? I get more respect from cops because I own a real hat that says ‘Vet’ . . . I’m an example, but too bad I appear to be the few and thus diluted by the ones who will not put their fingers in the dike next to me to reduce the flood or next flood. But yes Dividab, there are many ways to help the community and nation and I’ve done several while in uniform. This is in no way or form a glorification of the military –do you glorify the Polio Vaccine or just realize it’s necessary because of polio?
Greed is the greatest cause as to why the military can be used for bad, thus it must be true that anyone, including myself, who has a job that utilizes cash, are inherently committing wrong . . . working in a factory or store or restaurant or hospital for pay is immoral when all any a human needs to survive is nothing more than food, shelter, water and human companionship –therefore a true communistic/tribal like society is next to Godliness . . . even before the war and military service, I knew it was immoral to have a job or go to work because it’s ability perpetuate the rat race and the greed that creates and endorses violence and war when one’s work isn’t solely in the fields of food and shelter (and maybe medicine). Therefore, in a society with no military being used for war: there should never be a difference between first place and 10th place when it comes to passing out the prizes, since it’s cruel to not let the loser who worked just as hard, to not share in the spoils. A dream maybe, but only a classless society will learn how to utilize the military for something more than just war –if this is not true, then the pot plant is only useful for the buzz and not the healthy CBD’s or hemp products. One as a human must know that having a job (quite different from work since work is good) is evil when we don’t see the rabbits and the bears work jobs for the purpose of obtaining cash –since cash is used to buy more and more and more of things we cannot utilize as shelter or nutrition or even medicine . . . even owning a CD can be bad since it forced us to waste our time as being ‘slaves’ to industry just so we can buy it . . . doubtful humans can eat CD’s to live, which makes the ownership of even a music CD a perversion in nature and thus immoral (which I’m guilty of). But what can I say, that is just human nature: a total flaw in being. The Drug War in an acronym for being human.
@darkcyc – I’m conflicted on this point – doing your duty to society is voluntary, but how do you make sure those who don;t do their duty don;t benefit at the expense of the dutiful?
Here’s my example – during WW2, the draft was in effect. Everybody, rich or poor, smart or dumb, was called to serve in the war effort against fascism. In a just and honorable cause like this, isn;t the draft justified to make sure that the cost of engagement is spread evenly?
But – the draft was also in effect during the Vietnam war, which can hardly be characterised as just or honorable. SO the draft had the paradoxical effect of ending the war sooner than the current costly mess in AF-IRAQ istan. Because when everybody;s kids are called up in a war they know is stupid and wrong, the parents will object to the politicians strongly. And with our current military, by contrast, everybody in it has volunteered, so how can they complain when the shooting starts?
There’s the rub right there. When service is compulsory the rich and the connected are able to ensure their kids don’t go. In WW2 they did it by securing jobs for them in “war essential industries”. These jobs were unavailable to most ordinary folks for the duratin of hostilities. In Viet Nam, weasles like Dick Cheney were able to secure exemptions much more blatanlty and obviously. But that’s the cold hard fact….the draft is for the poor and colored folk. Always has been.
@DC – I know in just my circle of acquaintances several people who either were drafted and served, or were close to being drafted but their number didn’t go up. And none were what I would characterize as poor.
I don;t doubt that the children of the connected were able to either get out of service, or to serve in a safe branch. GW, for example, did gold-plated Texas Air National guard service through his Dad’s pull. But Cheney avoided service by techniques available to everyone – college deferment, then marriage deferment, then children deferment. Limbaugh was 4f because he had boils on his posterior fundament, according to lore.
But enough people are caught up in the draft that they make for an “unreliable” military – why else did they go to Iraq and Afghanistan without operating the draft? And even then they have Bradley Manning to deal with (not widespread mutiny like they had in Vietnam).
War Vet – I thought you would find this story interesting..
21 Tons of heroin seized in Afghanistan
^Filling the jihad coffers but I bet the big banks are really upset!
That’ll get us a few months of ease when backing out of that place. I really hope we’ll learn to not eat the apple with the worm . . . Somalia and even parts of Yugoslavia taught us to fight for others regardless of the higher-ups and politicians evil motives and lies behind the lines. Damn, I hope Afghanistan won’t allow small groups of evil drug merchants to terrorize the hillsides and pass dehumanizing laws -I hope it just wasn’t a switch from Taliban to Karzai. Hopefully the Chinese won’t teach the war lords how to be a legal corporate beast scathing with corruption and underpaid workers. Too bad drug money murkies up the water -too bad drug money created the show that the privateers and politicians and military higher-ups use to utilize their ulterior motives . . . it’s easy for the soldier to be the pawn in the face of danger -unlike the cops who face no danger, but created the drug money key made out of prohibition to unlock the room we call Afghanistan.
Great there’s a global morphine shortage right now and they’re gonna destroy 21 tons of perfectly good medicine just because the morphine has been acetylated (heroin is diacetylmorphine). That seizure could be diverted to a pharmaceutical firm, purified and made into individual doses, and distributed to ease the morphine shortage. It could also be de-acetylated back to morphine.
Why isn’t Afghanistan being contracted to produce medicinal opium (opium processed into pharmaceuticals)? While the pharmaceutical market can’t compare to the black market for prices, the price of opium produced for illicit heroin could easily triple or quadruple without effecting the retail price at the consumer countries, at least some of the opium could be diverted to the legal market. This would help the farmers, weaken the drug lords (maybe) and ease the global shortage of morphine. It would at least be better than crop eradication, which has some devastating unintended consequences.
Speaking of opium, there is no particular reason why the US could not supply its own opiate needs (both licit and illicit) by growing poppies domestically. There is a common misconception that the “right” poppies do not grow in North America. This is not true, in gardens all across the US opium poppies are cultivated for their ornamental value. Michael Pollan writes about this is his Harper’s article, Opium Made Easy. Gardener’s should take note, prescription opioids seem to be the next big bad drug fad that will destroy America. Vicodin has recently been further restricted to schedule II. Given the amount of opiophobia in the world today, growing a small amount of morphine in your backward may very well prove invaluable. Just take Pollan’s “innocent gardener” defense with a grain of salt, with drugs mens rea (criminal intent) is assumed.
Stop the war by joining the aggressors? How can you even pretend that makes sense?
The aggressors chose to be the aggressor. I did not. There is no proof that Military service for the U.S. in an ‘aggressive’ action when one can simply decide to make it less aggressive. If you think it’s aggressive, it’s because you are the aggressor getting in the way of progress by teaching people that it’s impossible to make the world a better place with the tools we have. I gave hundreds of dollars of my stuff to the Indian contractors struggling to provide for their families in India via working for the Private Sector of the War. This was an example and thus proof that military service is not aggressive . . . how is giving socks and toothpaste to poor people wrong? How is telling younger soldiers that these Indian citizens are just like you and I and deserve the utmost respect –wrong? I don’t recall North Vietnam attacking America –I missed that in History, but I did watch my nation get attacked less than four months after I graduated from high school, so serving to defend is completely different than serving because it’s a ‘paying job’ or a ‘draft’. Too much logic, history and news dictates drug money gave the attackers the means to attack us, which caused a frenzy in America, which caused many to join only because of that . . . how is protecting someone wrong? Shame on those Americans who died as a method of freeing the Jew and the rest of Europe from history –it was the will of life to let the Jew die –is that what you believe? I don’t. Being brain washed to think service is not good is what the police state wants that way the police state will get the kind of recruits it desires, instead of recruits who will question authority and mold the American Military in the direction of the true Human Rights America is supposed to stand for –our great experiment in freedom and democracy, crushed by the sheep who do nothing, but let the power get corrupt in the first place by others, instead of serving as a method of checks and ballances for justice and ethics. Or do you believe it takes courage to stand up against the aggressor on his own turf. When the people join in service, then the people have more power over the military. How about shame on the tax payer for freely giving up their hard earned money to the actual immoral killers that do wear the uniform . . . paying another human being to conduct murder is the same thing as being a killer one’s self –shame on the tax payer then I say –if there is to be shame in service . . . civilian tax payers can often act like a bunch of little children driving a Mack truck through the crowd the way they just freely toss their tax money to the Feds instead of taking control themselves . . . Maybe Henry David Thoreau was a fictitious character who really didn’t decided to go to jail over not paying taxes over the slavery issue. Maybe the black man was not worth one single white man’s life in the Civil War . . . many white men did join over slavery –not all and we are to be those handful of ‘white men’ who will serve and die for another’s human rights instead of just hoping the job will be done by someone with a real moral and just consciousness.
“freeing from History,” I meant: ‘freeing from Nazi Germany.’
“We can smell pot”
Probable cause conjured from thin air.
War vet…it’s hard to know the right from the wrong.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqMz_6CsunE
It can be hard to know the right from wrong, so I ask myself, does my Indian worker want what I get in the mail from the states . . . thus I give them my gifts from home. Would I want to be arrested for my belief when the belief doesn’t steal or kill? I say, let’s all be more like Nietzsche’s ‘Superman’: totally morally and ethically right and completely genius when it comes to being a human being. The more smart people working as cop or troops will be less likely to violate human rights. Even MLK Jr. said some legal laws are technically felonies and thus illegal . . . many legal laws are illegal . . . law doesn’t always mean lawful for those with real educations. Do unto others as you would do unto them, I believe could stop the police state and misuse for the military . . . if the human race is too dumb to invent a military that won’t be used to wage war outside of necessary defense or to stop violence in other places, then it’s physically impossible for humans to be smart enough to invent a machine that can fly, simply because humans have no wings and thus are not educated enough think of flight in the first place. The human race must learn that seeking ‘middle class’ status is inherently evil when it means my $10hr or more a job means someone else here or there will earn less. We need to outlaw paychecks and getting paid to work at jobs since maybe just maybe, money truly is the root of all evil . . . any one, including me, who doesn’t have the strength to go ‘Walden Pond’ Style and accepts money for work is practicing evil and we must first recognize that . . . it’s physically impossible to know quantum physics without the basic understanding of one plus one first I say. Communism is next to Godliness when we outlaw the use of money for everyone to enjoy as equals.
Be the first on your block to own your very own drone target T-shirt,,comes in all sizes because your children want to be targeted too.
OT: California Lieutenant Gavin Newsom: ‘The War On Drugs Is An Abject Failure’ (VIDEO)
“It’s disappointing,” the former San Francisco mayor said to host Josh Zepps of the Obama administration’s renewed crackdown on California’s medical cannabis operations. “The fact that we’re having raids, the likes of which wouldn’t have even happened in the Bush administration, has been frustrating.”
http://tinyurl.com/a6e5aus
Marijuana: A Gift of the Left to America’s Youth
Legalization in Colorado and Washington is already having bad consequences.
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Here’s a link to the nonsense article mentioned in the article linked above:
Drug Testing Company Sees Spike In Children Using Marijuana
March 6, 2013
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Get a load of the name of the drug testing company: Conspire
The prohibitionists need a hole drilled in their skulls to relieve the pressure. As much as I like the idea of seeing their heads explode it would be a nasty, nasty, nasty thing to witness. I’ll bet their brains smell like vulture crap too.
“Equally foolish is that as a society we have made peace with marijuana while making war on tobacco.”
Where are all the “tobacco war” incarcerated I’d like to know?
Prager is a character straight out of Orwell: “WAR IS PEACE,” “FREEDOM IS SLAVERY,” “IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH,” he then blames it all on the left and “sex-ed for kindergartners.”
Guys like him and whatshisname Kennedy make a mistake when they paint this as an issue of the “left.”
Just stupid, really, in the NR of WF Buckley…
What a hard-hitting piece. It asks all the tough questions:
“How would Britain have fared in World War II if Winston Churchill had smoked pot instead of cigars?”
Um, good point. Clearly the Nazis would have triumphed.
Churchill, a belligerant drunk, was just what was needed in a leader when Hitler seemed to be about to invade Britain… whether he would have benefited on a personal level from cannabis is another question. As a life-long sufferer from depression I suspect he may have done.
And the big one:
It (the drug war) has allowed ignorant, sadistic miscreants to commit fraud, theft and murder without so much as a whiff of accountability. And we are forced to pay for it all.
Protect & Serve (Themselves!)
The drug war has been an unqualified success from the perspective of the drug warriors. I think it’s obvious that the (unstated) goal of the drug war is to punish people who use unapproved drugs. That is the only criterion drug warriors measure their success by. And in that respect, the drug war has been successful beyond even Anslinger’s or Nixon’s wildest dreams.
All that talk about deterrence and protecting people from themselves is just window dressing to make their cause sound noble. But it’s really all about the punishment.
“To punish people who use unapproved drugs” seems a little underdetermined on its own as motivation for the drug war.
What do “unapproved drugs” represent that must be repressed?
And the insistent question I can’t shake: why were drugs selected as the particular modality for this exercise of power?
Well we know with MJ there was a large racial element to the decision.
“why were drugs selected as the particular modality for this exercise of power?”
The entire business model of the AMA and the APA are built on the diagnostic and prescription model. Diagnose and treat by symptom using approved drugs.
Our entire health system supports this model. There are many who suppose that unapproved drugs would ruin this system upon which billions depend. Finding the source of illness and disease are the job of laboratories which are supported and run by drug companies and governments. Corporations and governments are loyal to these principles and depend upon them ensure colleges and institutions of higher learning are well connected with the funds necessary.
I’m shocked. Well not really. I made my health my bizness 35 years ago. Docs are like mechanics. They’re for when things break, not for checking air pressure and changing oil. And I hate pharmaceuticals. I hesitate to take an ibuprofen.
The good thing about pharmaceuticals? they have drugs to counteract the negative side effects of prescribed drugs and more drugs to counteract those effects. Wiwy wascals…
And I will vouch for ganja as the best medicine for easing those nasty symptoms of the flu.
Because I work in the “services industry” (home and bldg maintenance) I’ve become very aware how incapable people are at caring for all the stuff they have. I don’t know when folks decided they needed multi-thousand sq ft homes. Some people have more stored in their garages and attics than I own.
Consumerism is dying, as it must. That model of health care was built around consumerism (drugs are the commodity), not caring for health.
It’s time to ban pharmaceutical advertising
Last doctor I went to had a constant parade of drug company representatives in and out of his office while I waited for my appointment time. Perks were obvious in the office everywhere. Paper, pens, clocks, free samples, and plenty of drug seminars for doctors run by the drug companies. Doc was going to be gone to one the next week.
I am not sure whom the doctors are beholden to anymore for their business. Patients seem like a sideline.
The theory that the pharmaceutical industry and / or the AMA are behind the drug war as a mean to eliminate competition makes sense on its face.
But I wonder: the AMA was opposed to cannabis prohibition in 1937, and couldn’t make it not happen. That argues against their great influence during the period when all the cement was being poured for the drug war’s foundation.
And I think the idea begs the question of how drug laws gained their moral authority with the public at large. Would prohibitions on other things / classes of behavior have been accepted as readily?
The WoD has indeed corrupted medicine. First, by making self-medication a crime doctors, working closely with the government, are able to form a monopoly on what is considered therapeutic. Certain forms of self-medication becomes “drug abuse.” Secondly, doctors have largely consumed the professional responsibilities of pharmacists, while pharmacists are now little more than glorified pill counters and gatekeepers. When a patient wants drugs, they should consult a pharmacist. When they need a diagnosis and treatment recommendation they should consult a doctor. The current system drives up costs and makes some doctors little more than “pill pushers.” Third, by declaring certain plants long used by humans for their medicinal properties, in particular cannabis, opium and coca, we are robbed of many of mankind’s oldest, safest, cheapest and most reliable treatments for the many vicissitudes of life.
Iowa rewrites bill to eliminate the possibility of Medical Marijuana:
http://tinyurl.com/b49wzl8
DC,
Thought this one might be of particular interest to you.
“Copenhagen looking to import cannabis from the US”
http://tinyurl.com/cd7sme7
Ahh c’mon, the world knows the U.S. fed only exports jobs. It would be a site to see, the U.S.S. Darkcycle ported in a Washington harbor en route to Denmark! I call dibs on 1st mate 😉
Don’t forget trash. From what I recall reading that’s the leading commodity export. It’s not any sort of manufactured commodities, it’s scrap and e-scrap and other crap that can be reused, recycled, and rendered.
The US is like a pig farm. The farmer sells of the waste to fertilize far off fields and gets ready to slaughter the docile fat pork for the dinner table. Squeal!
Aw geeze. Looks like I’m feeling hyperbolic today.
I’m WAY ahead of you there, matey! My genes are already there. 😉
“Adults possessing less than 8 ounces of marijuana in New Mexico would no longer receive any jail time under a bill passed Monday by the House.
The House voted 37-33 in favor of House Bill 465, sponsored by Rep. Emily Kane, D-Albuquerque. The bill would reduce penalties for possession of up to 4 ounces to a civil penalty with increasing fines while eliminating the potential for jail time for any amount up to 8 ounces.”
The bill now goes to the Senate, which has only four and a half more days to act on it.”
house-passes-bill
Her talking heads issued the following statement and once again the will of the people will be stomped on. Their prohib Governor is already threatening a veto while dry humping the same ol’ sorry b.s. about impacting youth.
//snip
“As a prosecutor and district attorney, the governor has seen first-hand how illegal drug use destroys lives, especially among our youth, and she opposes drug legalization or decriminalization efforts. Proponents of these efforts often ignore the fact that the vast majority of people convicted for possessing small amounts of marijuana are diverted to treatment programs and those who are sentenced to prison are individuals with long criminal records with convictions for things like assault, burglary, and other crimes.”
//snip
Maybe I can help a bit by re-writing it for them to at least have some semblance of truth. Here is my version:
“As a prosecutor and district attorney, the governor has made a lucrative fortune as a direct result of the laws this bill threatens to over turn. The governor realizes that if she does not veto this legislation it could negatively impact her wealth building potential after leaving office. A veto will adequately cushion her return to the private sector while insulating campaign contributors.”
I passed this info on to a friend who lives in NM yesterday, she was grateful and immediately emailed her rep in the legislature.
Don’t make videos that incriminate. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/video-shows-mom-letting-toddler-smoke-pot-article-1.1285898 And at repeal of the Voorstead act the sky fell when they installed whiskey bars in high school cafeterias!
Flowers having small concentrations of caffeine in their pollen display an evolutionary advantage over those having only trace amounts of the drug.
Honey bees get a buzz from the caffeinated pollen that has them coming back for more. The caffeine appears to stimulate cells in the bee’s brain involving reward and long term memory, thereby helping the bee remember flowers offering the spiked nectar.
The popular phrase ‘busy as a bee’ can now be thought of as having a drug correlation.
http://tinyurl.com/aza7svv
Exactly, and for humans and not just for bees and flowers: why would human nature allow drugs to be bad for the body when survival simply states the body should simply adapt and thus mimic the chemical make up of the drugs in the DNA to negate the worse possible side affects that can occur from long term use. Possibly, in thousands of years, we might see it impossible for the human to become addicted or OD on opiates when human consciousness and our sciences can learn to wield the power of genetic alterations to make the species stronger against foreign substance, which occurs naturally in nature.
Our City Maintenance Workers recieved a visit encouraging them to Snitch to BigBro HQ anything out of the Ordinary. LoL seeing a bunch of Drunkards, Night Shift Pole-Dancers, and Injection-Wrinkled Crooks looking at me Frog-Eyed from behind their Shovels and Picks as I Cruise slowly past, Hilarious.
I am not a Crook :seriousface:
The media is a drug. Not being Newscorp os not a cop-out.
Some things never change:
The Lady seemed Perplexed, as She scanned the 30 or so long List of Meth related Items beside the Card Reader. Coffee Filters, Cough Medicines Etcetera, but no, the Oxygen Cylinder I was Purchasing, was not on it. Could have went BOO! and surely She’d have had a Stroke. Not S’posed to be like This in Canada.
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This one is from the “tax revenue is to a politician as crack is to a cocaine addict” category:
They haven’t collected even a single penny in revenue from I-502 but already they want MORE! Cry about if you want but this stuff makes me ecstatic. Let’s see Calvina Fay try to take their cannabis tax money away.
Definitely some mixed feelings on this one. But I’m with you.
It is apparent that the state needs to hire a professor of economics to explain that increasing retail market prices ABOVE black market prices is not going to bring in very much tax revenue and I am not talking about cartels but the home grow industry already established cannot pay excessive fees and then watch entrepreneurs sell their weed while his sits on the store shelf getting old.
This is odd, this is the first time I’ve seen this post by claygooding but it is already marked with one like and blacked out so I cannot add my thumbs up, and I still have to enter my name and eamil addy to post this response. WTH? Anyway, clay, add one more like to your total than is visible.
Now that I’ve posted this it was open with 2 likes and I got to add mine. Strange happenings, must be merc retch.
DC thanks for the call.
Re WA State lawmakers:
Sounds like the same old pattern of locking in bad legislation to keep the status quo forever… Anslinger in the US and at the UN did this very effectively and of course the various statutory constraints placed on the Drug Czar to prevent him telling the truth is another.
This is awful. The prosecutor is an ass.
Claiming Nontoxic LSD Killed a Woman, Prosecutor Charges Her Husband With Murder
http://tinyurl.com/bo4norm
That’s messed up. I wonder if perhaps the drug in question was not acid but something else sold as acid. You know, thanks to a completely unregulated cornucopia of black market substances out there.
Yet another successful war on drugs (people) victory.
So, off-topic – But anyone think the New Pope from Argentina will be even a tiny bit more liberal on cannabis? And, the drug war(s) in general??
It seems that a few years ago (2010 from what I can quick-google) he was “very against” the legalization of gay marriage there… BUT, basically Everyone one was still against marriage equality then = the last couple years have been very good for what are normally seen as ‘Liberal Social Issues’ – what with most everyone’s views “Evolving” = (Now there’s some irony for yah!)
Still, the majority of “Social Conservatives” aren’t evolving, they’re just dying out. Albeit somewhat more slowly than many of us (lets say ’18 to 40-somethings’) had previously hoped they would…
We’re gonna win this thru attrition eventually. I’d just like it to be (Oh, any day now!)- As opposed to when I’m nearly pushing senior citizen age.
Because it really is (basically) Senior Citizens, and a few Far-Right wing, “values-voting” evangelicals religious zealots = that are still fighting this stuff that Reagan & Ralph Reed, (chief hypocrite) Newt Gingrich & all the early 90’s – ‘Contract *on* America’ folks = who were so keen on crying/wailing about. On how even tolerating other folks living with liberal social policies would bring-on the the end of civilization… (You know, the old “For the Children”/”what message does it send”/Hallelujah Chorus!
(Yes, I know it wasn’t written as “with” NOT *on* America, I lived thru that crap as a young adult = aka potential target… [Mr Rogers Voice] Can you say ‘minor’ nervous breakdown at ~22? – “I knew you could”. [/Mr Rogers Voice])
If his conservative views on gays, abortion and contraceptives, along with his murky involvement with the Argentinian death squads in the 70s are anything to go by, he will not be doing anything for drug reform.
Federal Government Reports Marijuana Effective in Combatting Certain Cancers Reports ADSI
http://tinyurl.com/cp4dgxy
“”In a recent report, the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the Federal government’s National Institutes of Health (NIH), stated that marijuana “inhibited the survival of both estrogen receptor–positive and estrogen receptor–negative breast cancer cell lines.” The same report showed marijuana slows or stops the growth of certain lung cancer cells and suggested that marijuana may provide “risk reduction and treatment of colorectal cancer. “snipped”
I think we have already discussed most of the studies listed in the article but it is another advocacy group signing on for medical marijuana.
Colorado task force releases it’s report, and 58 recommendations.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/13/colorados-marijuana-task-force-recommendations-report-pot_n_2871455.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false
I really like seeing more and more well expressed righteous indignation pieces coming from our side:
A Prohibitionist Blind to the Drug War’s Costs
And then of course… hmmm… not sure what to say about this’n:
Radford ‘War on Drugs’ professor facing drug charges
having fun with squirming repubs:
Gay Marriage, Marijuana Legalization Are Bad News for the GOP
The numbers and statistics cited in the piece are vital for anyone facing drug charges who decides to go to trial before a jury.
Based on the article, jury selection would work to exclude white, religious-right conservatives such as evangelicals and fundamentalists. Jury selection strategies are things the defense attorney is supposed to know and utilize.
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Somebody call the cops! Massachusetts AG Martha Coakley has been abducted by allens and a near perfect duplicate has replaced her!!
AG says Mass. towns cannot bar marijuana centers
Ms. Coaklys position in April 2012:
Coakley Looks To Snuff Medical Marijuana Question From November Ballot
**************************************************
I watched an episode of The Streets of San Francisco last night.
Inspector Keller has just barged into Lt. Stones office.
Lt. Stone: Didn’t anyone ever tell you that doors were to knock on?
Inspector Keller: No Lieutenant, but they always told us at the academy that they were to knock down.
Allen…you bring her back right this minute!
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/130312/kevin-sabet-drug-war-US-drug-strategy-cannabis-use?page=0,1
Comments are open, and there were six when I posted.
took too long to load so I didn’t see the comments. Sabet is quite the ass.
Re the Netherlands:
Going Dutch: Teen Marijuana Use in the US vs. Netherlands — the Full Interview with Cal Professor Robert MacCoun (2011)
Dutch drug policies do not increase marijuana use, first rigorous comparative study finds (2004)
And who are these “people who smoke marijuana usually also drink alcohol” anyway? Is he talking at the same time? Or does the fact I smoke ganja almost every day but prolly only drink a beer 2 or 3 times a year mean I’m part of his group? And like Russ B asked Kev-kev, “why do you want to arrest me for smoking cannabis?”
I am tho’ so very glad to see that kevie is about the best they’ve got. And if that’s the best they can do… look out! Falling bricks…
OT:Indicted drug analyst Annie Dookhan’s e-mails reveal her close personal ties to prosecutors
“Dookhan, arraigned Thursday on 27 counts of altering drug evidence and obstructing justice, viewed herself as part of the prosecution team, the Âe-mails show. She coached Âassistant district attorneys on trial strategy and told one that her goal was “getting [drug dealers] off the streets.†When Dookhan told a prosecutor that she could not testify in her case, the woman replied with an anguished: “No no no!!! I need you!!!—
http://tinyurl.com/bjpt96g
Different analyst is Texas
http://tinyurl.com/a2em9sz
dookhan is just the personification of the prohibitionist mentality: how can i get a carreer advantage through totally destroying other people’s lives. i’m sure she will be presented as unique in the drug war but she definately is not. i hope her conscience troubles her but i doubt it
Boy does this ring true now:
“The Shafer commission concluded that the drug problem would “not collapse our society,†and noted that “the compulsive use of alcohol remains the nation’s most serious drug problem.†It cautioned against a “drug abuse industrial complex,†that could perpetuate the problem, and called for a review of programs that might be doing more harm than good.”
America’s drug war of attrition
http://tinyurl.com/bgzutvx
What happens when the drug war ends –will another war on something else happen –possibly making the war on drugs look like yummy Girl Scout Cookies? What happens to us drug users on this couch after we get our prohibition free dope? Are we going to fight the war on something else or are we going to let that minority group fight while we get stoned off the legal stuff? What about a War on Poverty –Bad or Good? Did not Mr. Scrooge ask: are there not enough work houses and poor houses for the poor? Legalizing drugs will probably force others to find another War on Something else in the future –so why risk legalizing drugs if it frees up a far worse ‘War on Something Else’? Are we on this couch prepared? Do any of you on this couch want to or know how to take a hold of the wheel and drive –The Government that is –the fast vehicle we call the Government. Wouldn’t a Government by the People and For the People need to know how to work inside the cogs and gears of the government . . . how do you know the vehicle needs an oil change if one refuses to drive let alone do vehicle maintenance on the Government? It seems like voting, supporting laws, being in and supporting activist groups and favored politicians takes too long to end slavery, segregation, War on Drugs etc. What if the process could be sped up by already having our various good cause movements, activists and issues in place before they are even needed? To make sure no such bad laws (or fewer) will ever be put in place in the first place by being a part of the legislator’s ‘chemical make up’, which would refute any and all (or at best most) illogical though legal ‘by the state’ efforts . . . for the left hand to know what the right hand is doing by being ambidextrous.
What do we teach our children: “It’s someone else’s job to do that work –to fight that fight . . . someone else needs to influence and work on the inside (even for a few seasons)?†Activist groups like NORML are good, but first the activists should know the nation inside out to solidify any gains –or at the very least, influence and support those working on the inside of the machine with more than just words of ‘thanks’ or silence. So, where are all the little kids pulling their red Radio Flyer Wagons looking for canned foods, scrap metal, rubber etc. I heard tell rumor that America is at war (on several fronts). The citizen as a whole is inactive when compared to the citizen of the 1940’s (yet Japan never attacked America –don’t forget that). Maybe the American citizen is no longer invested in the survival or growth of this nation: be it surviving bad laws (and those who would enforce and endorse them) or lawless war. Maybe we should just realize that the politician like the cop knows best for us because we obviously trust them with our tax dollars, or we wouldn’t pay them right? How many of you purposely buy rotten food for your family? Why would I or you pay the salary of a ‘drug war cop’ if you were not satisfied with the drug war . . . do you pay the cleaner when they bleached your $300 dollar black business suit white?
But who is going to teach our cops and civil servants and those that sincerely believe they are defending this nation etc that even legalizing crystal meth is next to Godliness . . . that it must not stop with pot, or other human rights: “Well, I agree pot should be legalized –look at booze, but heroin or meth –get real.†Who will teach those on the inside of Government (not politicians, but Government) before they cut down all the trees just to nab that annoying woodpecker making that god awful ruckus –before they destroy all the earth just to ketch that stinking gofer (the hard drug user in their mindset)? Is it our responsibility to influence the Government . . . how is anyone of us going to know how to do brain surgery without first taking some lessons on it? How will we influence the people not on this couch about human rights and warning them about the ‘War on Something Else’ or War on Drugs?
Have any of you lads and lasses on the couch read the novel ‘Night’ about the Holocaust . . . ‘only a fool could believe the Germans were killing the Jews’ and that was the Hungarian Jew’s downfall –by not believing –by not heeding the ‘crazy’ Jew’s warning. In the first several pages of that famous novel, did we learn the mistake of ignoring –by not taking action now. For example and a very much what if: What if tens of thousands of those who supported the Jew’s rights to be free and live marched in Hitler’s army and thousands more became policemen for the Nazis state –what would the Holocaust look like then –less or maybe even negated or short termed? Some famous rock band sang (RATM): “If we don’t take action now, we’ll settle for nothing later and then we’ll settle for nothing now –and then we’ll settle for nothing later.†Do any of you know the name of the first independent nation the Nazis marched upon with guns drawn and thus invaded? It was Germany right? Yep, it was Germany.
So, I spend a lot of money (for me –maybe not a lot for you) trying to show camaraderie by mailing out care packages, but now I’m going to send them a letter fully explaining what the War on Drugs has done to them, this nation and the military, so maybe they can learn and spread the word . . . they should trust me since I’ve walked in their boots and experienced ‘boots on ground’ just like them. Some of my next paycheck will be going to some poor soldier in Afghanistan, sending them goodies and a letter . . . I’ll even suggest the same practice to my local NORML group. And at the up coming ‘Home and Garden Show’ in my area this weekend, I’ll see if there’s a Habitat 4 Humanity booth I can re-sign up in –to teach them that ‘Pro drug legalization’ looks exactly just like helping people build a house –just like it looks like giving troops goodies. What did I do when the National Guard wouldn’t let me go down to New Orleans for Katrina because I was in college: I cried and then I worked for the American Red Cross helping elderly refugees coming up to my state . . . that was a good deed, but not very close to being in their shoes since I wasn’t a refuge who lost my home and city . . . had I lost my home in the flood, my service would have been a tremendously bigger blessing to them since I would have been a victim refusing the victim’s role and I would have influenced them to do likewise (I hope). Drug legalization is the epitome of service and taking orders from the Government when the Government is actually in the right via first influencing it from the inside. Following orders should always first begin with questioning those orders –at least in America that is.
Maybe I’m a fool to want to actually live in a nation I’m proud of. Maybe it’s time to emigrate to the new world to escape persecution and I’ll just leave Rome to burn without offering any more of my services to help quench the fire or to teach the young and the old how to put out the flames or where the winds have shifted thus spreading the fire. But I don’t think I can do that since I am the Government and I am the Authority in this nation. Pot is the gateway drug to drug legalization and it must not stop with the leaf –or the powder or the needle –the blotter stamp or a pill . . . who can prove pot legalization isn’t the exact same thing as gay rights or women’s rights etc?
So now we teach the citizen what it means and what is expected out of them and if they are pro-prohibition of any kind, they’ll simply sit down and do nothing and let others take up the slack. And if I’m preaching to the choir, what is wrong with this method –where is the flaw in this design? I will not surrender this nation to the police or to a military that refuses justice . . . but I must teach them and influence them and so do you. What is wrong with being a dreamer then? Maybe our very own unique multi-cultured and people of color military is the best step in defeating the police state . . . but I must teach them how to recognize what to fight and what to influence. I could use a little help. But if you don’t want to help or reach out to the men and women of uniform like the WWII generation did and if any type of uniform wearing service is bad and the action of military duty is to be stigmatized, even if that duty was meant to lead and to know the inside of the machine for the greater good (or at least one’s service led to awareness because this couch or anti-prohibs taught the soldier about the Real drug war), then you are giving someone a copy of the key to enter into your house.
So let us dilute the system with our talents and then we will learn how to drive this car we call ‘Government’. Many of us on this couch have done this . . . many who can, need to. What is wrong with protecting all human rights (even the ones the status quo ignore or are blind to) from the inside? What is wrong with dying for the Jew etc in battle torn Europe? You and I the taxpayer bought every last bullet that is used in the war; so why not take what is yours –this nation and operate the vehicle the way it was meant? Do not give up your birthright to the ones who are blind (show them) or hateful. And attempt to not be mean and mistrusting of those who serve in uniform (love them so you can teach them love by working next to them or supporting them with letters and packages etc) –so you can have an ally in the fight against the war on something else –to maybe have an America that doesn’t go to war quite so often for all the wrong reasons . . . influence us to go to war for real human rights and not for policy, business contracts or oil etc. If you are going to pay for the military, why not join it then or bless it . . . you the taxpayer bought the military, so use it . . . I am at your service and likewise I demand yours –so no one on this couch has to be arrested for drugs or something else in the future.
No U.S. soldier has ever gone to war by themselves –a nation goes to war. Dilute. All I have to work on for myself is loving cops, but American police officers did technically shoot at me when I was in Iraq via the consequences of the Drug War we paid for, which I will dismantle far greater than those who have no clue how to work the machine or never worked inside the machine at all (as stated and promised in my OATH when I signed up). Be the grease –throw some water on the electronics and then fix it better than it was before. Put in drive: go. Teach and influence a young kid who actually wants to join the police or military about the war on drugs. I did and that’s how I lost the best job in my life working at a military youth academy for troubled teens and dropouts . . . I told them to serve and end the drug war for all the right reasons and it was a quasi-military academy. If the kids disobeyed, I made them do pushups while I preached about service, ending the drug war and giving them history lessons while they were doing ‘correctional training’ (up and down up and down while preaching about What is America to be or should be) . . . I made sure those teenagers knew I read lots of books and newspapers, which I shared . . . I made them know that I was aware of every single inch of our political process –I made them know I was higher up on the food chain than our very own sheriff because I decide to and knew how to be. Tell me your examples, so I can synthesize them for myself or others.
Because in the end: The War on Something, will always exist or try to exist. But how bad does it have to be and can I make a difference to end it before it even starts or to at least lessen the pains. If you take offense to the above, then it is because you are the parasite who does nothing to advance human rights and you are loitering on Pete’s Couch –so get off now . . . we don’t need human recipes for creating the next ‘War on Something else’: one part apathy, two parts blame and thus no influence nor service to negate the wrongs. To all the prohibs and mistrusting citizens who don’t recognize that lack of U.S. Military volunteers means a Viet-Nam like draft for America: Fuck you, the military smokes pot (gateway to ending our current three wars and more) and so does my horse who is a high horse, which I’m on, because I trained him.
Do you really believe cops smoke more pot than soldiers do –so why not utilize or become one with the military to defend America against the Federal Government and teach them why and that it’s a part of their oath to do so? I’m not that fool who thinks I cannot do right while in uniform . . . someone (many of you on this couch even) taught me better. So please don’t misinterpret this for anything remotely looking negative or you are just showing me how ignorance is eating this nation up by those who do nothing for it (above and beyond baby). Ask me: what do I do other than write long stuff on this couch to stop the drug war and I’ll tell you. Most of you here have great ideas that I respect and even practice myself, which is why this couch is better than the rest –but be warned: your nation needs your service (or to influence those who serve), or the police state will take us and then he will take the next one and then the next. Dilute the inside of Government before it’s too late. Why legalize drugs if we cannot fight the essence of the ‘war on something’ from the inside out? A Government by the People has to be turned on from the inside before the lights and engines can be seen or heard from the outside. If you don’t support and back the troops up (any which way), then you will teach them how to back up over you in the vehicle –driven by Mr. Police Officer STATE. Be the driver. If you sincerely believe our nation glorifies the military way too much, it’s because we have too many damn ‘victory gardens’, rationings and kids pulling wagons to gather supplies and donations for the war effort. America is the only nation at war that tries to live their life like it is peace time . . . if the citizen will ignore her troops, then the troops of the future will ignore her citizens and they will only recognize orders since you will then only appear to be pests that need controlling. If one human being plays a game of chess by himself, who wins?
Hi Kev!
I figure it is Kev also,,,the post is building straw boogie men to act as if the war on drugs is not the racially applied and family destroying policy it is and that it would evolve into an even more devastating policy of war on something unknown to date but waiting in the shadows to plague American citizens with.
I am concerned that Kev is still writing bullshit about stopping pot when he should be searching for the next government teat available,,the one he is on is drying up.
Did he really just make the argument that the war on drugs needs to continue because we will always have a war on something, so it might as well be drug?
I think that’s not the main argument. It’s more like, we should prepare for the next War on Something before it’s too late.
Maybe I’m being too generous. I’ve been known to be a bit hopeful.
Well, son,…..Two Bulls were on top of a hill, suveying a fine herd of cows in the valley below
Young Bull: Hey Dad, let’s run down and fuck one of those cows there in the valley!
Older Bull: No, son, lets WALK down there and fuck ’em all.
So you see Son, when this cow is good and fucked, I’ll be primed and ready to fuck the next. You need to learn to pick your fights and to use your time productively, you’re spreadin’ yourself too thin (that is if you’re not just out trollin’)
Well, if you manage to slog through that rant, there’s a bit of insight in it.
But Mr/Ms verbal diarrhea? Here’s a pro tip, learn how to edit your writing.
All you really needed to post was the following:
“What happens when the drug war ends? The War on Something will always exist or try to exist. But how bad does it have to be and can I make a difference to end [the next one] before it even starts or to at least lessen the pains.
Most of you here have great ideas that I respect and even practice myself, which is why this couch is better than the rest – but be warned: your nation needs your service (or to influence those who serve), or the police state will take us and then he will take the next one and then the next.
Dilute the inside of Government before it’s too late.”
Now isn’t that better? More coherent? Clearer? Doesn’t that get your point across to your fellow blog readers without all that questionable ego fluff?
*sigh*
Ps. Fellow couch surfers? Come on… It’s a bit ridiculous and echo chamber to say someone is “kevin” just because they aren’t in the same tone as you or they really really don’t know when to stop typing.
if you guys actually read this screed from walton jr you have a lot more patience tthan me
An “unfortunate incident”….I love it!
“The arrest is particularly curious since Katz, who represents parts of Westchester, Putnam and Dutchess counties, voted against the legalization of medical marijuana in June. As the New York Times notes, the Republican assemblyman also serves on New York’s Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Committee.”
http://tinyurl.com/bycggvg
Well, before son of sam got me side tracked, I was going to ask if anyone has any idea what the “drug abuse industrial complex” is that the Shafer commission was referring to?
I have my idea’s – I think we have it now.
How about a drug abuse/prison/military/congressional/industrial complex?
I side with Chomsky:
The Drug War Industrial Complex
Noam Chomsky interviewed by John Veit
High Times, April, 1998
http://tinyurl.com/6ftm6c
Then we should take some of those words out of it so our kids don’t add to that long list of something/something/something complex. Of course, that’s why I’m claiming ownership of what the STATE can operate as a complex. I am the STATE and I won’t use the STATE to undermine the rights of citizens to be free. The system created the drug war, should not the system dismantle it? That’s why I wear a hat to show the system I’m in charge of these Lego Blocks we use to build as laws and America. I salute cops as they drive past me on one of my many stoned walks to show them I’m in charge –not them. If the State isn’t willing to lay down its life for the citizens, they’re no longer the State. No greater love than a man or woman who will lay down his life for others. I’m the police force, not the cops and I don’t even have a badge. Maybe that’s why cops give up on the search request when a ‘hat’ tell the cops that they are about to be placed under citizen’s arrest for harassing a service member of the STATE. There are many ways to fight the drug war. We have no proof drugs are illegal in America by the time you add up the 1890 Sherman Anti Trust Act outlawing the marijuana stamp and prohibtion of certain drugs when others are not and the Drug Prohibition is what is funding of the terrorists, which is why cops belong to Jihad cells if they refuse to disobey illegal laws: proofs that drug war cops practice Jihad on a daily basis: they are willing to kill this nation for a little bit dope.