cannabisnews.com: Quakers Oppose U.S. Drug War Quakers Oppose U.S. Drug War Posted by FoM on August 21, 2000 at 09:24:00 PT By Beth E. Fand, Staff Writer Source: Trenton Times America needs to end its war on people who use illegal drugsand, instead, invest in substance-abuse treatment, research and education, local Quakers say.Quakers in Trenton, Princeton, Mount Holly and Yardley, Pa., were part of a regional group that approved a statement opposing the country's drug policy during a March gathering in Philadelphia. On Aug. 1, the statement -- called a "minute" -- was read during the Shadow Convention in Philadelphia, a five-day alternative to the Republican National Convention. George Willoughby, a Deptford resident and a member of the Central Philadelphia Friends Meeting, said he and others conceived the Minute on Drug Concerns as a way of encouraging Quakers throughout the region to work to change U.S. drug policy.Now, he said, Philadelphia Quakers will visit their peers in Mount Holly and other communities to make a further call for action on the issue."We have set out to educate and arouse and awaken the Quakers in this area to the whole problem so that they will look at it in light of the Quaker principles of peace, equality and relating to people as human beings, in love rather than punishment," Willoughby said.According to the Lindesmith Center-Drug Policy Foundation, one of the organizers of the Shadow Conventions held in Philadelphia and, last week, in Los Angeles, the federal and state governments will spend close to $40 billion this year fighting the drug war, which now has nearly 500,000 Americans behind bars.Despite the government's efforts, illicit drugs are cheap, available and potent, and 57 percent of the Americans who need drug treatment don't receive it, the center said.An analyst for the Office of National Drug Control Policy disagreed with some of those numbers, saying drug-use punishment and prevention costs will total about $30 billion this year, and that 300,000 people are imprisoned for drug-related offenses. He agreed that drugs have become cheaper and purer but said that is because demand for the substances has dropped.According to the analyst, the government no longer describes its fight against drug use as a war but as a means of solving a public health problem.But in their minute, the Quakers say the government's tactics "bear all the hallmarks of war: displaced populations, disrupted economies, terrorism, abandonment of hope by those the war is supposedly being fought to help, the use of military force, the curtailment of civil liberties and the demonizing of the `enemies.' "Victimized the most are "people of color, the poor and other less powerful persons," the Quakers said.That claim was echoed by the Rev. Jesse Jackson during the Shadow conventions, which also focused on poverty and a call for campaign-finance reform."When the poor, the black, the brown are caught with drugs, it's called crime," the civil rights leader told a crowd of more than 500 people in Philadelphia. "When you're rich and inherit power, it's called youthful indiscretion. We demand one set of rules."In the minute, local Quakers call on their peers to seek ways to divert government money toward treatment, research and education on the dangers of drug use. They also ask Friends to "be mindful of ways in which our behavior and our speech support this war and the misuse of drugs."Friends in Mount Holly may take up that call. They have invited a member of the Central Philadelphia Meeting to speak to them next month about drug concerns, member Ed Dreby said.The Mount Holly Meeting decided to learn more about national drug policy after a member voiced concern about it during worship recently, Dreby said. In the past, Dreby said, another member had complained about "the perversity of our drug laws in driving criminal behavior and promoting violence."Dreby said he agrees that America's drug policy is hurting people."The increasing criminalization of large proportions of our population, and the extent to which suburban whites get off but lower-income blacks get incarcerated -- that's just sick," he said. "The justice system, with regard to drug use, is at its most unjust."Source: Trenton Times, The (NJ)Copyright: 2000 The Times.Contact: letters njtimes.comWebsite: http://www.njo.com/times/Related Articles & Web Sites:TLC - DPFhttp://www.lindesmith.org/The Shadow Conventionshttp://www.shadowconventions.com/Shadow Convention 2000 News Boardhttp://homepages.go.com/~marthag1/Shadcon.htm Rethinking War On Drugs From Quaker Perspectivehttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6769.shtmlThe Drug War is a Dismal Failure http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread6751.shtml END SNIP --> Snipped Home Comment Email Register Recent Comments Help Comment #6 posted by MikeEEEEE on August 21, 2000 at 17:22:06 PT Morality Anyone? Quakers are some the most moral people, this is a really good sign that they oppose the drug war. [ Post Comment ] Comment #4 posted by freedom fighter on August 21, 2000 at 14:55:54 PT Speaking of Quakers November 3, 1965, a Quaker man named Norman Morrison burned himself to death in front of the Pentagon to protest the Vietnam War.November 28, 1965 25,000 showed up Washington Monument to protest the war.It seems that 3000 Buddhists were the first to protest/demonstrate against US role in Vietnam.I was only a five year old brat.:)\/War is HellPeace is Lovehttp://celebrate2000.searchcolorado.com/stories/091299/his_1965.shtml [ Post Comment ] Comment #3 posted by Tim Stone on August 21, 2000 at 13:54:50 PT Deja vu all over again Help me out, fellow boomers, but weren't the Friends one of the first to come out against the Vietnam war? A gold star for anyone with the time and know-how to document just when they came out against the 'Nam.My point here being more evidence of the increasingly eery parallels between the drug war and Vietnam, especially in light of the recent aid to Colombia. [ Post Comment ] Comment #2 posted by kaptinemo on August 21, 2000 at 13:45:40 PT: The "Duh" factor. Bang on target again, Observer. Someone should send these goofs back to high school for a refresher course in basic economics.Scarcity drives prices up. A surplus drives prices down. Quality of goods is determined by the consumer refusing poor quality material in favor of better. If quality is high and prices are low, then a surplus exists.Ergo, the attempted interdiction of illicit drugs has failed. Miserably...totally...completely...failed. But the DrugWarriors try to, as always, say that black is white, up is down and in is out. To say that the price is *down* and quality is *up* is because demand is *down* is patently ludicrous.But then, that has never stopped them from ramming both feet in their mouths, before. [ Post Comment ] Comment #1 posted by observer on August 21, 2000 at 12:56:01 PT Quakers and Movers Bravo for the Quakers! Hopefully they will come out strongly against forced "treatment" for cannabis smokers as "the" alternative to prison.[The ONDCP mouthpiece] agreed that drugs have become cheaper and purer but said that is because demand for the substances has dropped.I see. This must also explain why seizures of drugs have increased. The slacking demand means more for drug warriors to seize. "This year (1997) 132,485 plants were seized, the most in the 1990's - a 40% increase in the number of plants seized when compared to 1996. . ." -- Daniel E. Lungren, Former California Attorney General This must also explain the skyrocketing imprisonment of citizens for non-violent drug "crimes" http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/graphs/30.htm .The ONDCP's assumption, demand for the substances has dropped, is flawed because there's no way that the ONDCP or anyone can hope to measure the demand for an illegal substance. The ONDCP's convenient assertion relies on self-reporting and probably reflects the anti-drug political climate more than anything. When the nice man calls (saying he's certainly not from the government) and wants to know if you any commit illegal acts (confession of which is a fine excuse to knock down your door for a little midnight raid), what do you think most people are going to say? In our current repressive prison-loving evironment, versus, say, the Carter administration years, what are cannabis users more likely to do? Share the truth with the nice [government] person (who promises that the information will be "confidential")? Sure they will. This is the "drop in demand" that our propagandist friends at the ONDCP hold out as their great success: self-reporting. Wow. The ONDCP's "drop in demand" is measuring the public's prudent lack of candor with the brutal US anti-drug regime, nothing more. [ Post Comment ] Post Comment Name: Optional Password: E-Mail: Subject: Comment: [Please refrain from using profanity in your message] Link URL: Link Title: