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Posted on 06/16/2009 12:43:47 PM PDT by wolfcreek
This year marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s start of the war on drugs, and it now appears that drugs have won.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
And it’s been over 40 years since President Johnson started the war on poverty. I think poverty won that war. After 40+ years we still have about the same proportion of the population grappling with poverty.
I wish somebody would write an article about the failure of the war on poverty. We can and should discuss the war on drugs. Drugs have caused lots of devastation to our country. But the war on poverty and its abject failure has similarly had huge negative consequences. And these consequences never get talked about.
Nixon’s war on drugs was an evil Republican war, perhaps?
Whereas LBJ’s war on poverty was a good Democrat war.
Agreed 100%.
Whenever the Government declares a war on anything, it is actually a war on our “Rights.” In that respect, both the war on poverty, and the war on drugs have been a huge success.
Ding, ding, ding, ding....thread over, we have our winner!!
And just think, Obama may be ending the war on terror......
I thought FDR went to war against pot. And cocaine had been criminalized before that.
How’s MADD’s zero.zero war on drunk driving going? States, insurance, and lawyers are doing quite well from it.
We have upwards of 1.5 million otherwise peaceful individuals sitting in OUR tax payer funded prisons for nothing more than simple possession.
Those folks could be working, paying taxes and supporting their families.
We're paying for the WOD and the WOP, coming and going while politicians and corrupt LEOs are raking in the benefits.
The NY Times is always right and the Caps Lock is really convincing.
BS
Those folks could be working, paying taxes and supporting their families.
Piled Higher and Deeper.
It’s also time for the war on poverty to end. That one’s being going on longer, and it’s proven a dismal failure.
I just wish the pro legalization crowd would be a little wiser about who they accept as allies.
http://www.aim.org/aim-column/soros-infiltrates-conservative-movement/
Hey, don’t kill the messenger. Broke clock and all that....
At least the Temperance Union and the Anti-Saloon League had the decency to pass a Constitutional Amendment to further their prohibionists goals.
The pro-drug war folks have no such decency, or any Constitutional loyalty that stops them from supporting a policy of prohibition by fiat.
“It’s time for the WOD to end. (for more than a few reasons)”
Which isn’t to say we have to legalize everything or give up on efforts to prevent destructive addictions, but clearly approaching drug abuse almost entirely as a law enforcement problem has not been very effective. OTOH, alcohol is legal and it continues to be a problem, and abuse of it appears to me to be even a growing problem among young adults. I don’t know what the answer is.
Just curious what percentage of them you think would actually do this.
Perhaps, but I’d like to know why so many of these left-wing douchenozzles who are advocating to end the war on drugs and decriminalize marijuana are working so hard at the same time to criminalize tobacco and cigarettes.
I'm not for total *legalization* but, like another FReeper said, “All these *wars* created by the government are nothing more than plots to take OUR rights away”.
You guys have any ideas?
“After 40+ years we still have about the same proportion of the population grappling with poverty.”
What’s your definition of “poverty”?
If you are referring to “relative poverty” (e.g. “% of population making less than X% of the average income”) then you are probably correct.
If you are referring to “absolute poverty” (e.g. “% of population unable to afford necessities of life”), then you’re probably incorrect.
By some measures, the “poverty line” today begins where the middle of the middle class was a few decades ago.
One of the best and most direct posts I have seen in a while. You hit that one out of the park and onto Waveland Ave.
(singing)
I fought the drugs and the drugs won,
I fought the drugs and the drugs won!
Just make it illegal to drink in bars.
Second-hand fumes and all that.
I wasn’t aware that was happening to such a degree.
Got any links?
....every day 60,000 addicts wake up in Baltimore hustling to get the money for their next fix....make it legal and they’ll still be robbing, stealing and turning tricks to come up with the money.
Add in a repeal of all the anti-RKBA nonsense and theft/robbery victims can help thin the herd of drug addled criminals.
So, basically, NO CHANGE.
Except that we won’t be;
1. Spending billions to fight this stupid war.
2. Attacking the civil rights of our citizenry in an attempt to win this stupid war.
Sounds good to me.
Those are the ones who need to be locked up or in treatment not, some guy who got caught smoking a joint.
I’ve tried to figure how it might be if all drugs were legal but, there would be many a pitfall.
Would there still be a supply of heroin it it was legal?
Would there still be dealers?
Would it save the Border patrol a lot of time and money not looking for drugs and smugglers?
Remarks Following the Swearing-in Ceremony for William J. Bennett as Director of National Drug Control Policy
1989-03-13
-snip-
But those here and across the country who join me today in our just war against drugs may take some renewed confidence in our prospects for success because the President of the United States has placed this struggle at the top of his administration's agenda, at the top of our common national agenda where it needs to be.
-snip-
My office is already conducting an exhaustive review of our national fight against drugs on both supply and demand sides. Where past strategy has succeeded, we will see to it that it's continued. Where past strategy has failed, we will see that it's replaced or modified.
-snip-
http://bushlibrary.tamu.edu/research/public_papers.php?id=160&year=1989&month=3
______________________________________
You can see for yourself how Dr. Bennett's brainchild has failed on both the supply and demand side:
Heroin is nasty stuff, but the amount of people who have actually used heroin in their lifetime is somewhere south of 1% of the populace, and regular uses are less than that.
I’m not strictly opposed to legalization of marijuana. I just think libertarians and conservatives should stay away from Soros money and push for small measures.
For instance, instead of outright legalization, push for decriminalization. A ticket is a lot better than jail time any day of the week. It should also be pointed out that few people are in prison for drug use or possession alone. There are usually other associated crimes. That said shorter sentences given to those who successfully complete real drug treatment.
I'm thinking this, like many other issues, this needs to go to the states and let them decide what's best.
Unfortunately, we seem to be headed in the other direction.
There’s been no “war on drugs.” If there were a war on drugs, all of the dopers would be dead.
Not from the standpoint of a loss of rights for the general populace.
If you take too many painkillers because you're sad, that's a problem. For you. You're your own victim.
If a door gets kicked in by a SWAT team and Grandma gets shot because some anonymous informant tells tall tales, that's a problem. For anyone who wakes up unlucky that day.
Freedom means being able to f@#$^ up your own life, and you deal with the consequences. Tyranny means other people can f@#$^ up your life, and leave you with the consequences.
I'll take my chances with freedom.
Ha ha, drugs aren’t the only winners, check my tagline...
Then explain why Singapore and Iran have such a bad heroin problem.¹
People have been *indulging* in mind altering substances since the beginning. Are you suggesting most of us should be dead?
I know what the answer is: PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY. If you must face the consequences for your actions, you tend to become much more temperate in what you do and how much of what chemicals you use for relaxation...
Let’s get rid of ALL these wars conducted by FedGov which are, after all, only excuses to expand the reach of government and have NOTHING to do with preventing or ending that which they are “against.”
YES on the former, & NO on the latter. They are BOTH evil, unconstitutional, unnecessary, & have caused more problems than they have "solved".
You’re almost right. There IS, however, a war on the Constitution, masquerading as a war on drugs. And THAT is what must be stopped dead in its tracks.
And the drug warrior cult is largely responsible for perpetuating that war on America and our Constitution. So thanks a lot!
Roger that. How hard is it for the drug warriors to comprehend that simple fact???
Worth repeating.
When your town is run by Mexican drug lords funded by the war on drugs and drug prohibition, don't complain. You will have gotten exactly what you wanted.
BTW in case you still don't understand, just like alcohol prohibition gave millions to Al Capone and his gangster contemporaries, so drug prohibition gives millions to what would be two bit petty criminals these days. If you want two bit petty criminals to have the money to buy judges, prosecutors and law enforcement officers then supporting the war on drugs is the way to go.
Want to know who the biggest supporters of the war on drugs is? Criminals. Without drug prohibition, they would have to work for a living.
And when alcohol prohibition ended so did organized rime. /sarcasm
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