War On Drugs

Large Anti-Trump Protests In Philadelphia At GOP Retreat

January 26, 2017 Kevin Zeese, www.PopularResistance.org Resist! #NoDAPL, Donald Trump, Environment, Healthcare, KXL pipeline, LGBTQ, War On Drugs

By Kevin Zeese for Popular Resistance. On Thursday afternoon the protests grew filling the streets of downtown Philadelphia when Trump arrived at noon. People were protesting a host of extreme right wing issues that Trump and the GOP are pursuing including immigration, healthcare, women's rights, the drug war and civil liberties, urged tolerance and love as an antidote to hate. Thousands of people filled city blocks around the Loews Hotel. People also protested his executive orders that seek to complete the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone Pipeline as well as Trump's threats to the environment.

Portugal 15 Years Of Drug Decriminalization

October 16, 2016 Will Godfrey, theinfluence.org Create! Decriminalization, Portugal, War On Drugs

By Will Godfrey for The Influence. “Will decriminalization solve the drug scourge?” wonders a Washington Post column today. It’s a question being widely asked in the wake of a major report published yesterday by the ACLU and Human Rights Watch, in which those two prestigious organizations called for the decriminalization of all drugs for personal use. The many reasons to support such a move include the right to self-determination when it comes to drug use; better prospects of reducing drug-related harms; and ending America’s appalling, racially biased levels of drug-related arrestsand incarceration. Portugal decriminalized all drugs back in 2001, eliminating criminal penalties for consumption and possession in quantities deemed to be for personal use. Portugal’s bold approach has been in place for long enough to allow meaningful analysis of its results. The result, It’s easy to answer the question of whether or not the US should decriminalize drugs. Indeed, the only debate should be around whether decriminalization goes far enough—whether full legal regulation . . .

Death Penalty for Heroin Dealers?

October 14, 2016 Maya Schenwar, www.truth-out.org Educate! Death Penalty, Drugs, Heroin, War On Drugs

By Maya Schenwar for Truth Out - April, former Attorney General Eric Holder told Frontline that the drug war "is over." Over the last part of his final term, President Obama has echoed that refrain, granting clemency to hundreds of people incarcerated for drug offenses and emphasizing that the US has relied too much on the criminal punishment system to address drug-related problems.

War On Drugs Harmed Public Health: Report

March 31, 2016 Vik Adhopia, www.cbc.ca Create! Public Health, War On Drugs

By Vik Adhopia for CBC News - The war on drugs has failed, fuelling higher rates of infection and harming public health and human rights to such a degree that it's time to decriminalize non-violent minor drug offences, according to a new global report. The authors of the Johns Hopkins-Lancet Commission on Public Health and International Drug Policy call for minor use, possession and petty use to be decriminalized following measurably worsened human health.

Zeese: The War On The War On Drugs

October 31, 2015 Eleanor Goldfield, www.occupy.com Resistance Report Anti-War, Legal System, Marijuana, War On Drugs

By Eleanor Goldfield of Act Out for Occupy.com - The interview examines howending the drug war, especially the war on marijuana, has moved from being a third rail politicial issue to having widespread mainstream support. The legalization of marijuana in Colorado and three other states with more on the horizon is not showing any serious problems and is bringing in millions of dollars in new taxes while savings millions on law enforcement. Zeese explains how the most powerful way to deal with drug abuse is not laws that make them illegal, which have all sorts of unexpected consequences, but cultural controls where people learn what is appropriate and inappropriate drug use. These cultural controls are actually undermined by the war on drugs. Zeese also explains how the drug war is linked to other issues in that (1) we are seeking justice on a wide range of issus including police violence, fair and living wages, climate justice, housing justice and the like; and (2) progress toward justice is blocked by a power structure that puts profits ahead of the necessities of the people and the protection of the planet. He urges us to understand the links between these issue so that we can build a bigger social movement for economic, racial and enviornmental justice.

Why 30 Year Drug War Veteran Now Fights The Drug War

October 13, 2015 Richard Juman, www.alternet.org Resist! Drug Policy, War On Drugs

By Richard Juman for Alternet - When it comes to the War on Drugs, there are few people in a better position to comment on the futility, brutality and tragedy of the endeavor than retired Major Neill Franklin. He spent over 30 years participating in, and directing, state and local police anti-drug efforts before retiring to become the executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), which advocates for the legalization of drugs and a law enforcement approach that defends human rights and views drug misusers as persons in need of treatment as opposed to punishment. He describes the evolution of his personal philosophy and his efforts to produce change in this week’s Professional Voices…Dr. Richard Juman

Ending Police Militarization, One City At A Time

September 30, 2015 Ana Conner and Tara Tabassi, www.truth-out.org Strategize! police brutality, Urban, War On Drugs, Wars and Militarism

By Ana Conner and Tara Tabassi in Truth Out - Urban Shield, the world's largest SWAT training and war-weapons expo, was held in September in California's Bay Area, beginning on the 14th anniversary of 9/11. Hosted each year since 2007 in the Bay Area's Alameda County (last year in Oakland, this year in Pleasanton) with exercises all across the Bay, it is attended by hundreds of local, federal and international law enforcement agencies and weapons manufacturers. Since his tenure began in 2007, Alameda County's sheriff, Gregory J. Ahern, has been waging war on Black and Brown communities across the Bay Area. Urban Shield solidifies Ahern's war, and makes it a profitable one. As the Bay Area Urban Shield's core organizer, he has received over $100,000 in contributions for his electoral campaign from Urban Shield vendors, such as 511 Tactical, Adamson Police Products and Corizon Health.

US Secretly Targeted Evo Morales Of Bolivia

September 16, 2015 Ryan Grim and Nick Wing, www.huffingtonpost.com Educate! Bolivia, Evo Morales, Imperialism, War On Drugs

By Ryan Grim and Nick Wing in The Huffington Post - The United States has secretly indicted top officials connected to the government of Bolivian President Evo Morales for their alleged involvement in a cocaine trafficking scheme. The indictments, secured in a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sting called "Operation Naked King," have not been previously reported. Morales, a former leader of Bolivia's coca growers union, has long been at loggerheads with the DEA. In 2008, Morales expelled the agency from the country and embarked on his own strategy of combatting drug trafficking, acknowledging the traditional uses of coca in Bolivian culture and working cooperatively with coca growers to regulate some legal activity and to promote alternative development elsewhere. Morales' plan has been effective at reducing cultivation, according to the United Nations.

Drug Warriors Have Not Given Up, Call For More Drug War

September 12, 2015 Nick Wing, Ryan Grim, Roque Planas, www.huffingtonpost.com Resist! Mass Incarceration, police brutality, War On Drugs, Wars and Militarism

By Nick Wing, Ryan Grim, Roque Planas - For most Americans, including some presidential candidates, the record on the U.S.-led drug war is settled: After spending more than $1 trillion on efforts that have taken or destroyed the lives of millions around the world, drug purity has risen, prices have fallen and rates of use have remained the same. It has, in no uncertain terms, been a catastrophic failure. But in an op-ed published in The Boston Globe this week, two former drug czars say we have it all wrong. It's time to "Bring back the war on drugs," they argue, and recommit to an enforcement-first policy that puts forth incarceration and interdiction as the best tools to address surging heroin overdose rates. The column, written by William J. Bennett and John P. Walters, drug czars under Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, is based on the controversial premise that the drug policies of the last quarter century have actually been effective.

Is The Failed War On Drugs Finally Coming To An End?

September 8, 2015 Keri Blakinger and Jeff Stein, www.salon.com Resist! Law, Politics, War On Drugs, Wars and Militarism

By Keri Blakinger and Jeff Stein in Salon - Every so often, a fringe political movement wins mainstream acceptance so quickly that its codification in law — once at hand — feels both obviously correct and long overdue. The most recent example, of course, is gay marriage. In just one decade, American support for same-sex unions jumped from 36 percent in 2005 to 57 percent in 2015. By the time of the landmark Supreme Court ruling earlier this year, gay marriage had moved from a pipe dream to common sense. Another idea now stands poised to follow a similar trajectory: The War on Drugs has created suffering on an unimaginable scale, with no discernible benefit. “If this were a war fought for four decades by any other generals with this outcome, we’d have run up the white flag years ago,” David Simon, creator of The Wire, told Salon in a phone interview.

Marijuana: Race & Class, Decriminalization Does Not End The Work

July 4, 2015 Chris S Duvall, www.theconversation.com Educate! Decriminalization, Marijuana, Poverty, War On Drugs

By Chris S Duvall in The Conversation - Massachusetts just opened its first marijuana dispensary, with many applauding the move. And as more and more states decriminalize the drug, polls show that most Americans believe that the costs of marijuana prohibition outweigh its benefits. There are surely social benefits to legalization. For one, fewer marijuana-related arrests should slow spending on the war on drugs, which has been astronomically expensive and unsuccessful. And fewer arrests should benefit minority communities that have experienced racially biased drug-law enforcement. Blacks, for instance, face nearly four times the rate of marijuana arrests as whites, despite similar rates of marijuana use and overall drug use between the two racial groups. However, even after decriminalization in some states, racial disparities in arrest rates have persisted, though the total number of arrests has dropped.

Violence In Mexico, The US Connection & The New Mexican Revolution

December 20, 2014 Jim Cohen, www.truth-out.org Educate! Education, Mexico, usa, War On Drugs

The disappearance and likely massacre of 43 students from the rural teachers' school of Ayotzinapa in Mexico September 26 has provoked shock and outrage internationally. Within Mexico, in addition to unprecedented levels of public anger, it has raised serious doubts about the sustainability of President Enrique Peña Nieto's mode of government, with its aggressively neoliberal economic program and levels of violence as high or higher than under his predecessor, Felipe Calderón, who initiated the drug war in 2006 with US collaboration. Professor of law and political science at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, John Ackerman explores the sources of growing dissatisfaction in Mexico and sheds light on how the US connection perpetuates Mexico's social inequalities, endemic violence and authoritarian government.

Substance Abuse Is A Public Health Issue, Not A Crime

October 15, 2014 Brave New Films, www.youtube.com Educate! Mass Incarceration, Mental Illness, War On Drugs

It’s simple. Diversion programs work better than incarceration – for everyone. In cities like Seattle, San Antonio, and Salt Lake City, we see that successful solutions are a viable option to help end serious social problems. These services alter the course of people’s lives in a positive way and save taxpayers huge amounts of money. We cannot continue to isolate and imprison people who suffer from mental illness, substance abuse, or homelessness. We must treat them with compassion and care to better serve our communities and our pocketbooks. It's time we got serious about pulling our money out of incarceration and putting it into systems that foster healthy communities. Hundreds of thousands of people are locked up not because of any dangerous behavior, but because of problems like mental illness, substance use disorders, and homelessness, which should be dealt with outside the criminal justice system. Services like drug treatment and affordable housing cost less and can have a better record of success.

Carl Sagan’s Long Lost Deep Thoughts On The War On Drugs

October 9, 2014 Tom Angell, www.marijuana.com Educate! Law, Marijuana, Science, War On Drugs

Thanks to a huge collection of Sagan’s papers recently made available to the public for the first time at the Library of Congress, we’ve now been given greater insight into his deep thoughts on the drug war and related topics. The documents confirm that Sagan, whose 1985 “Contact” novel includes a scene where a store in fictionalized future 1999 France is selling marijuana imported from California and Oregon, would’ve been thrilled to see the legalization era we’re entering now, even if we’ve taken a bit more time getting here than he once predicted (back during the height of Nancy Reagan’s “Just Say No” crusade, no less). He passed away just a few months after California voters made their state the first to legalize medical marijuana in 1996. Since then, 22 other states and the District of Columbia have passed laws allowing for medical use, and Colorado and Washington have legalized marijuana outright for all adults over 21.

Holder Prosecuted Whistleblowers & Journalists, Not Bankers & Torturers

September 25, 2014 Kevin Zeese, greenshadowcabinet.us Educate! Bankers, Campaign Finance, Chelsea Manning, Corporate crime, Edward Snowden, Freedom of Speech and Assembly, Freedom of the Press, Julian Assange, Marijuana, Media, Medical Marijuana, Militarized police, NSA, Occupy, Occupy Movement, Police abuse, police brutality, police murder, spying, Torture, War On Drugs, Wars and Militarism, Whistleblowers, Wikileaks

We urge President Obama to replace Holder with a public interest not a corporate lawyer; that will put the rule of law before corporate power. This appointment is an opportunity to shut the revolving door between big business and government. We also hope the next attorney general will put rule of law ahead of the security state, prosecute torture and other war crimes, protect privacy from US intelligence agencies and protect Freedom of Speech, Assembly and Press. Finally, we hope to see an attorney general that will confront the war culture that has allowed the president to ignore the constitutional requirement that Congress is responsible for deciding when the US goes to war, not the president; and one who respects international law and requires UN approval before the US attacks another nation.

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