cannabisnews.com: Drug-Fighters Pan Legalization Idea





Drug-Fighters Pan Legalization Idea
Posted by FoM on October 10, 1999 at 08:15:42 PT
By Rene Romo, Journal Southern Bureau
Source: ABQ Journal
A central premise of Gov. Gary Johnson's belief that the nation should consider legalizing some illegal drugs is his conclusion that the drug war has been a "miserable failure." 
But for El Paso-based Drug Enforcement Administration agent David Monnette, the problem is with the oft-used war metaphor -- not the fight against illegal substances. "It's a nonsensical metaphor," said Monnette, drug demand reduction coordinator in the DEA's El Paso Intelligence Center. "A war has a beginning and an end. This is not a war." It is a huge community problem, said Monnette. And by several measures, the U.S. and New Mexico have serious problems associated with drug use and abuse, Johnson and his critics agree. But Monnette and others along the New Mexico-Mexico border attempting to stem the flow of illegal drugs say making drugs legal is a risk not worth taking. "If we give up the effort and remove the thin blue line, we'd be totally overrun by this scourge of traffickers who would have easy access to the U.S. with tons and tons of poison for our citizens," says James Jennings, the Las Cruces-based director of the New Mexico High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. The federally funded program joins federal, state and local agencies on drug investigation and interdiction efforts. "We are concerned about the comments of the governor -- I consider them to be careless, without proper thought and background, and certainly not in the best interests of our children," Jennings said. Making headway Certainly federal agencies in New Mexico have made strides in capturing bigger and bigger quantities of illegal drugs crossing the Mexican border -- the source of more than half the cocaine consumed in the U.S., as well as large quantities of heroin and marijuana. Federal agents seized 858 tons of illegal drugs along the Southwest border in 1998, a 26 percent increase over 1997, according to the DEA's El Paso Intelligence Center. Border Patrol agents in the El Paso sector, which includes West Texas and all of New Mexico's southern flank, made 1,267 seizures of marijuana and cocaine in the 1999 fiscal year -- a 14 percent increase over the previous year. Drugs seized during the 1999 fiscal year -- which ended Sept. 30 -- were valued at $257.4 million. Customs agents in the same region hauled in nearly 250,000 pounds of illegal drugs in the eleven months ending Aug. 30, roughly six times the amount seized in all of 1990. But federal officials know that they are still capturing only a small portion of the drugs secreted through the porous border with Mexico. According to drug czar Barry McCaffrey's Office of National Drug Control Policy, 254 million people, 75 million cars and 3.5 million trucks and rail cars entered the U.S. from Mexico in 1996 through 63 crossings and ports of entry along the 2,000-mile border. Conducting searches of each of those vehicles is a physical impossibility with the staff available and the need to keep traffic moving through the border's clogged ports of entry. U.S. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, former Border Patrol chief of the El Paso sector, has estimated that federal authorities capture 10 percent of the illegal drugs entering the United States from Mexico. U.S. Customs officials based in the El Paso headquarters declined to comment on how effective the fight against cross-border drug trafficking has been. "I don't think we can say we've won the battle," Jennings said, "but I think we are getting closer to that point than we are to losing. ... We are making headway." The drug debate McCaffrey argued last week during a visit to Albuquerque that drug use in the nation has dropped significantly -- from 25 million "current" drug users -- those who had used drugs in the previous 30 days -- in 1979 to 13 million nationwide in 1996. Advocates of drug law reform argue that such rosy results are exaggerated because the surveys are unreliable. Surveys of students' drug use "rely on a child's willingness to admit to doing something that the government calls an illegal and immoral act," said Allen St. Pierre, executive director of the Washington, D.C.-based National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws Foundation. Assuming surveys accurately reflect drug use among the state population, the picture does not look good in New Mexico, whether the subject is legal drugs, such as alcohol or cigarettes, or illegal drugs. According to a 1997 school survey, 41 percent of New Mexico students from grades 9 through 12 had smoked marijuana. According to the same survey, 71 percent of high school students had consumed alcohol, and 52 percent smoked cigarettes. Without commenting on the wisdom of decriminalizing some drugs, state Health Department epidemiologist Dr. C. Mack Sewell said of the war on drugs: "Do you or does anyone else think we are winning the war on drugs? If you look at the data we put out, it's pretty clear that we have a significant substance abuse problem in the state." Johnson has argued that federal, state and local governments, which spend $50 billion a year on drug enforcement, should divert much of those funds to education and treatment programs once drugs were legalized. Johnson says he believes drug abuse would be reduced under legalization because the distribution of drugs would be government regulated and taxed and more resources would be available for education and treatment, spokesman Diane Kinderwater said. Jose Frietze, executive director of the Las Cruces-based Families and Youth Inc., a private agency that administers drug treatment programs for teen-agers, is concerned about the impact of legalization on young people. Even if drug sales were prohibited to teens under a system of legalization, he said, the risk of teens gaining access to drugs would increase. For many, Johnson's views get to the heart of whether drug use is really criminal behavior. At a speech in Las Cruces last month, Johnson said of drug use: "Do I think it's criminal? Personally, I don't think it's criminal. I think it's a terrible personal choice that is dangerous, that has all sorts of negative health consequences for anyone choosing to use drugs." Steven Bunch, president of the New Mexico Drug Policy Foundation in Albuquerque, said Johnson has tried to make room in the drug war debate for a simple notion considered taboo to law enforcement -- that illegal drug use does not always lead to personal or social problems.Media Awareness Projecthttp://www.mapinc.org/ "There's a huge part of drug users who use occasionally and use responsibly," Bunch said. "Gov. Johnson doesn't want people to take drugs. What he's talking about is getting a handle on people taking drugs." But Monnette argued that, simply by discussing a policy of legalizing drugs, Johnson is undermining efforts to deter drug use. Besides parental disapproval, one of the top two reasons teens cite for the decision to abstain from drug use is fear of the law, Monnette said. "If your goal is to reduce drug use, then legalization is totally counterproductive," Monnette said. And no one should ever realistically expect drug use to be eliminated, said Monnette. "You are holding society to an unrealistic standard, because this war has no end," Monnette said. And far from being solely a law enforcement problem, Monnette said, "Substance abuse and violence is a community problem and requires a community solution." Sunday, October 10, 1999 Copyright © 1997, 1998, 1999 Albuquerque JournalLet's Debate This Drug War - 10/09/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3223.shtmlGovernor Johnson Comes to Washington - 10/08/99 http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3204.shtmlDrug Czar Takes Aim At Johnson - 10/08/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3211.shtmlDebate Drug Legalization - 10/07/99http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread3191.shtml 
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Comment #5 posted by Pat Dwyer on April 10, 2001 at 02:29:27 PT:
Cal/Mex Border JTF freqs
 I'm looking for any freqs, particularily Military & Aircraft, used by the Military on the Border, encrypted or not. JTF-6 freqs especially, if anyone has a Ft Bliss list.This information is for hobby purposes only! If anyone knows any of these (particuarily helo's & aircraft) freqs, please e-mail me. Thanks alot!! Pat
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Comment #4 posted by J Christen-Mitchell on October 10, 1999 at 15:20:08 PT:
Which Children
Which children are the Drug Warriors fighting for? The hundreds of thousands of Drug War orphans... The millions forced to take ritalin, dexidrine, prozac and paxill... The urban black male who has a 50% chance of death or incarceration... The children with problems who are expelled at the first drug offence... The children prosecuted as adults at 14 years... Or is it for the children of the rich.
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Comment #3 posted by kaptinemo on October 10, 1999 at 12:35:17 PT
Santayana's Curse... and we are NOT immune.
Having travelled a lot for the Army, I've had lots of conversations with foreigners. They are always amazed at the naivete of Americans regarding the nature of power. Particularly at how special interests can negate democracy so easily. Monette and Jennings are perfect examples.They, like all their brethren, couch their language in terms that, if you were to rebut their statements, would make you seem as if you were anti-family and anti-child.The sad truth is, most adults have short attention spans, and are not likely to risk debating such a parasite when the parasite has all the advantages. So, all the the bureaucrats have to do is chant their holy mantra "For the children, for the children" and the money keeps rolling in.This kind of thing is recorded throughout history, but Americans believe themselves unique, and unaffected by the forces of history. And that is a very dangerous conceit to have. Fascism starts when you let the bureaucrats have any power. And a lot of them have way too much. The Drug War is a perfect example. For supposedly all the best of reasons, the worst things continue to happen, and we let it out of inertia... and complacency. We let bureaucrats like the ones above tell us what we, who pay *his* salary, can and cannot do with our lives, our property, and our freedoms. Enough already.
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Comment #2 posted by observer on October 10, 1999 at 12:05:17 PT
jailing adults for 'our children'
> [Federal Bureaucrat] James Jennings, the Las Cruces-based director of the New Mexico High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. ... "We are concerned about the comments of the governor -- I consider them to be careless, without proper thought and background, and certainly not in the best interests of our children," Jennings said. Is it any wonder commissars like Jennings, whose paychecks and pensions rely on the continuance of a war on Americans who use drugs (the epitome of a "vestered interest"), assure us that that he is really only saving "our children" ? Did anyone notice also, how this article carefully avoids mentioning anything about how adults are sent to prison for using substances like cannabis? Why don't prohibitionists like to talk about that?
more on jailing adults for 'our children' ...
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Comment #1 posted by observer on October 10, 1999 at 11:40:46 PT
The Expedience of The State
> Monnette, drug demand reduction coordinator in the DEA's El Paso Intelligence Center ... "If your goal is to reduce drug use, then legalization is totally counterproductive," Monnette said. '' Entry: vested interest (noun)1 a : an interest (as a title to an estate) carrying a legal right of present or future enjoyment b : a right vested in an employee under a pension plan2 : a special concern or stake in maintaining or influencing a condition, arrangement, or action especially for selfish ends3 : one having a vested interest in something; specifically : a group enjoying benefits from an existing economic or political privilege ''( http://www.m-w.com/ )> It is a huge community problem, said Monnette...> And far from being solely a law enforcement problem, Monnette said, "Substance abuse and violence is a community problem and requires a community solution." Sigh. Well, at least "community" ... sounds nicer than "ze State", I suppose.   '' ... Engels undoubtedly, in his own as well as in Marx's name, suggests to the leader of the German workers' party that the word "state" be struck out of the programme and replaced by the word "community". ''   -- The Marxist Theory of the State and the Tasks of the Proletariat in the Revolution by V.I. LENIN http://csf.colorado.edu/psn/marx/Other/Lenin/Archive/1917-SAR/sar.txt
prohibition of drugs has created a statist wrecking ball...
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