cannabisnews.com: Thousands Protest Failed Drug War





Thousands Protest Failed Drug War
Posted by FoM on August 01, 2000 at 16:28:05 PT
By April Pederson, SpeakOut.com
Source: AlterNet
Today busloads of people with family members incarcerated for non-violent drug offenses arrive in Philadelphia for what is expected to be the largest-ever gathering of Americans protesting the drug war. But the crowds numbers won't even approach the nearly 500,000 non-violent drug offenders living behind bars in the United States, according to the Lindesmith Center, a number that has increased ten-fold in two decades. 
As part of the "Shadow Convention," which aims to address key issues largely ignored by the major political parties during their National Conventions, the Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation, a group pushing for alternative drug policies and expanding drug treatment, is organizing Shadow proceedings on the drug war. What they're calling the "failed drug war" is one of three topics to be addressed during the Shadow Conventions. Campaign finance reform and the growing wealth gap are also on the agenda. "Millions of Americans now have a family member behind bars for violating the drug laws," said Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation. "This gathering is about giving a voice to those family members and others who have been victimized by a war on drugs that is doing far more harm than good." Non-Violent Drug Users: 25 Percent of Prisoners: As Republicans gather in the city that gave birth to the penitentiary, here is something to muse: Nearly 1 in 4 people in prison in the United States is there for a drug offense — and, according to a recent report, the number of drug offenders locked up today is roughly the same as the entire prison and jail population in 1980. Some prominent Republican officials descending upon Philadelphia this week are beginning to ask the hard questions about the drug war. Outspoken critics like New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, the first U.S. governor to call for marijuana legalization and other major drug policy reforms, and Representative Tom Campbell, the first major party politician to run for statewide office on a platform that includes significant drug policy reform, are both on the bill. Reverend Jesse Jackson is also scheduled to deliver an address criticizing the way current drug policies unfairly target minorities. Most notoriously, stiffer laws instituted in the 1980s against the cheaper crack form of cocaine continue to put drug-abusing African Americans and Latinos in jail for far longer sentences than white Americans. A report released last week, "Poor Prescription: the Costs of Imprisoning Drug Offenders in the United States," published by the Justice Policy Institute, reveals in the consequences of the bipartisan, two-decade obsession with mandatory sentences and harsh drug policies. The nation's prison population now stands at 2 million, but according to the report, this has less to do with making streets safer than with locking up nonviolent drug users. According to the study, while the number of people in state prisons for violent crime has doubled since 1980, the number of nonviolent offenders behind bars has tripled -- and the number of people incarcerated for drug offenses has gone up more than 11-fold. Since President Ronald Reagan initiated an all-out "war on drugs" in 1982, the United States has been spending tens of billions of dollars a year in an attempt to control the trafficking and use of illicit drugs. Deterrence-Value of Harsh Laws Questioned: The activists, researchers and officials at the drug policy reform proceedings at the Shadow Conventions will work hard to get the message out that current drug policies are doing more harm than good. Current U.S. drug policy is based on the logic of deterrence, which assumes that targeting the drug supply through aggressive law enforcement will deter drug use by making drugs scarcer, more expensive and more difficult to buy. Drug enforcement, interdiction and overseas programs to halt foreign drug supplies continue to dominate spending, accounting for two-thirds of the federal drug budget. Less punitive demand-side measures such as treatment, prevention and education play a secondary role. The Lindesmith Center and other groups holding the Shadow meetings contend that laws that focus largely on criminalization and punishment are simply not working. And, scarce resources better expended on health, education and economic development are squandered on ever more expensive interdiction efforts. Persisting with current policies of busting and squeezing drug users through overburdened courts and prisons, but not treating most of them, will only result in more drug abuse, more empowerment of drug markets and criminals, and more disease, they say. Wanted: Political Courage: Drug abuse can certainly cause enormous damage, and needs to be reduced, says Nadelmann, but "drug prohibition, like alcohol Prohibition decades ago, generates extraordinary harms as well. It, not drugs per se, is responsible for creating vast underground markets, criminalizing million of otherwise law-abiding citizens, and corrupting both governments and societies at large." Since no society is -- or can ever be -- drug free, the proper goal, these groups insist, should be to reduce the harms associated with both drug use and prohibitionist policies. "Drug policy reform is rapidly emerging as a new movement for political and social justice in the United States," Nadelmann says, "one that calls for drug policies based upon common sense, science, public health, and human rights." "Most thoughtful Americans know that the drug war has failed, and that it cannot succeed," said Nadelmann. "Sorely lacking, however, is the political courage required to open this debate." E-mail: info alternet.orgContact Information:http://www.alternet.org/contact.htmlPublished: Tuesday, August 1, 2000©2000 Independent Media Institute. Related Articles & Web Sites:SpeakOut.comhttp://www.speakout.com/The Shadow Conventionshttp://www.shadowconventions.com/Shadow Conventionshttp://www.lindesmith.org/shadowconventions/Shadow Convention 2000 News Boardhttp://homepages.go.com/~marthag1/Shadcon.htmJohnson Airs Views on Drugshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6580.shtmlMapInc. Articles On The Shadow Conventions:http://mapinc.org/shadow.htm CannabisNews Articles On The Shadow Conventions:http://cannabisnews.com/thcgi/search.pl?K=shadow 
Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help




Comment #5 posted by Albert S. Burney on May 15, 2001 at 19:29:49 PT
law enforcement
According to news reports New Mexico has the highest crime in the United States. Please make a concerted effort to correct that fact in the general population as well as in your administraion. It is much worse than believe.School buses are smashed all to frequently. Please correct that fact before a bus load of kids are cremated.
[ Post Comment ]


Comment #4 posted by kaptinemo on August 02, 2000 at 05:44:37 PT:
Boogeymen, Straw Men and Dead Horses
Dan, I sincerely hope this goof answers you and you make his reply public here. Because it has provided some more insights.There are some questions I ask of every pol I meet who pays lip service to the antis and prays at their budgetary altar (SINCE MONEY SEEMS TO BE THE ONLY GOD THESE PEOPLE REVERE):How long has the DrugWar gone on? (They *always* give the wrong answer; I let them know the Federal DrugWar has been going on for 84 years.)How much money have we spent on it? (Try 200 Billion dollars over 20 years, Federal, State and local.)How many schools could we have built for that money? (In California, more prisons have been built that universities.) How many hospitals and facilities for our elderly? How many school lunches bought for kids that don't get what they need nutritionally? How many people do think you will have to incarcerate to win the DrugWar? We've already got 2 million in prison, half of that drug offense related. How many more have to be locked up before we can declare victory? Finally, given question Number One, when do you think we will win the DrugWar? 2 years? Five? Ten? When? (In the late 1980's the Congress appropriated funds to eliminate illicit drug usage and make America 'Drug-Free' by 1995. Five years later, and we are no close to achieving that goal than we were then.)The pols like to couch their terms in neutral venues, like war on inanimate objects like drugs. Such straw men and dead horses are easy to immolate and whip. But when you rub their noses in the foulness of this huge mess that is the War on Some Drugs, they become indignant at your reminding them that they've participated in a *failure*. They've voted for a *failure*. They've budgeted taxpayer's money for a *failure*. If you raise those epoints, you are also implying something that they REALLY don't want to hear, because if it is said openly, they are doomed. And thatis:Because they voted for and supported such a massively wasteful, destructive policy and have absolutely nothing to show for it, then they ARE a *failure* - and that really rankles them.
[ Post Comment ]

Comment #3 posted by Dan B on August 01, 2000 at 21:48:26 PT:
New Mexico Delegates - Republican Majority Opinion
"'We are building unity and this is a very divisive issue,' Bolton said."In other words, the Republican Party is all about retaining the status quo at all costs. Please don't mention anything that might be important. Please, for heaven's sake, don't bring up issues that might embarrass those of us who want to keep things in their current corrupt state (Texas?). To illustrate the majority viewpoint in the Republican Party (and I deeply respect Governor Johnson for his support of an as-yet-unpopular-in-the-world-of-politics isue), I want to write a bit about a letter I received today from Larry Combest (R-TX), the current U.S. Representative in my area of Texas. He sent the letter to tell me the following:"I have always supported placing tough measures on those who are responsible for distributing illegal drugs and who are repeat offenders. I believe a greater effort should be made to imprison those who are the source of our nation's drug supply. I firmly believe that the government has no greater charge than to provide a safe and just environment where young people and families can thrive. Because of this, I am opposed to the legalization of marijuana."First, I don't recall ever sending a letter to Larry Combest asking him to legalize marijuana. This letter baffles me in that regard alone. I have sent letters opposing portions of the HEA that provide restrictions to college financial aid for those with drug offenses. I have sent letters against the Colombia Aid package. I have sent letters against the Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Bill and others like it that allow for clear violations of the 1st and 4th Amendments in the name of the war on drugs. But I don't recall ever sending a letter asking outright for the legalization of marijuana, nor can I find such a letter in my e-mail files.Whatever. At any rate, I am sure that anyone reading the message he sent would come up with a thousand and one arguments against Combest's poor excuse for a response. His statement of beliefs betrays his ignorance of the drug policy issue. Clearly, this man has no conscience when it comes to inflicting his personal beliefs on others, has no common sense to see that the policies he so ardently supports destroy public safety and promote injustice to a ghastly degree, and has neither the self-respect nor the respect for his constituents and his country required to research drug policy and the disastrous effects current policies are having and have been having for decades. He has no intention of wavering from his current stance, not because he is right, but because that's what he believes and that's that. What a pompous, arrogant, irresponsible man we have elected to represent West Texas! By the way, he'll be getting a letter from me soon. I'm itching to respond to his letter.
[ Post Comment ]

Comment #2 posted by nl5x on August 01, 2000 at 19:30:46 PT
“Criminal justice system protest” 
I watched MSNBC almost all day at work and they said they were protesting the (Criminal justice system)no mention of drugs in general. They had “Criminal justice system protest” posted on the screen all day. I And had no idea they were from the shadow conv.
[ Post Comment ]

Comment #1 posted by FoM on August 01, 2000 at 19:27:29 PT:
Gov. Blasts Prohibition Bogeyman at Convention
Gov. Blasts Prohibition 'Bogeyman' At Shadow Convention NewsHawk: http://www.cannabisnews.com/Published: August 1, 2000Source: Albuquerque Journalhttp://www.abqjournal.com/Author: Michael Coleman, Journal Washington Bureau Copyright © 1997 - 2000 Albuquerque Journal  Gov. Gary Johnson brought his controversial crusade for drug legalization to Philadelphia, where he received a hero's welcome Tuesday from hundreds of participants at a so-called shadow convention.   The Republican governor outlined a policy position now familiar to many New Mexicans: The drug war is ruining lives and unnecessarily costing society billions of dollars.   "Drug prohibition is tearing this country apart. Prohibition is the bogeyman," Johnson said to heavy applause and shouts of encouragement from the audience.   "Marijuana should be legal," the governor said.   Some of the New Mexico delegates to the Republican National Convention here were not as enthusiastic about Johnson's comments as people attending the shadow convention.   "He has a perfect right to say anything he wants but he could have picked a better time and a better place," said Meribelle "Dusty" Bolton, a New Mexico delegate and vice chair of the state Republican Party.   "We are building unity and this is a very divisive issue," Bolton said.   The shadow convention, organized by syndicated columnist Arianna Huffington, is being billed as an alternative to the Republican National Convention taking place across town.
[ Post Comment ]

Post Comment


Name: Optional Password: 
E-Mail: 
Subject: 
Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message]
Link URL: 
Link Title: