The War on Drugs Has Become the War on the American People

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Sir -

You simply don’t understand (tongue firmly in cheek): we are all children needing guidance by our superiors, our betters. After all, how could we live without them?

Take a look at what our superiors, our betters, have done to this nation. Aren’t things much better in the last 40+ years than at any time before in our history?

We need them to continue “leading” us down the road to “utopia” since we are incapable clods and unable to fend for, or take care of, ourselves. Without them, we face an existential threat.

We should be thankful that, in the end, it is Hamilton’s wishes of a strong central govt with a king that have triumphed over Jeffersonian individualism.

Kirk

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I read your article on the Internet. Your comments were very appropriate, and your conclusions are correct. While drug addiction is a major problem in the USA, the more serious, or just as serious problem is giving the establishment an excuse for entering a house under this pretext. This extends to the family in general where the state comes between children, and their parents for various trumped-up reasons. The America I, and we grew up in has completely vanished since about 9-11.

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The war on drugs has always been a war on Americans. How can we get
politicians to talk about legalizing marijuana? The conventional wisdom
is that being hard on crime gets votes. How do we reverse the world wide
anti-marijuana bias? We have only begun to see any discussion as medical
marijuana is considered and adopted.

Even people who used marijuana when they were young (Obama) are reluctant
to support changes in drug policy because of concern for kids. The
reality is that kids can get marijuana as easily as they can get
prescription drugs from the medicine cabinet at home. I'm pretty sure
that prescription drugs do far more harm than marijuana.

There is zero discussion of the relative advantages of legalization. No
one mentions the fact that marijuana has never caused anyone to die. Your
own article points out deaths from marijuana raids. Drug users are the
new closeted class (used to be gay people). You can't advocate for
legalization due to the risk of job loss or incarceration.

We live in a society where enforcement is the preferred over harm
reduction. This runs all the way from foreign policy to drug testing at
work. We need less police and military and more social workers and
treatment programs. People need help not enforcement.

Drug users and the legal trade of drugs don't do as much harm as
prohibition does. A rational comparison with the affects of alcohol shows
that "drugs" are less harmful.

When I was 20 I thought marijuana would become legal. I still think it
will but probably not in my lifetime (I'm 63). American think they live
in a free society, well, not really.

Thanks,

mark

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This truly is a war on some people who use some drugs. In Canada we have a conservative government determiuned to implement the worst of your drug policies

The problem lies in the fact that the Government is trying to use a neutral Healthcare Act to shoehorn its prohibitionist policies on to the public based on a moral attitude towards some drugs. They have neglected to put before the parliament the most dangerous drugs: Alcohol and Tobacco. This would not mean prohibition as the minister is able to make any and all exemptions for any and all classes of users. There is actually no such thing in law as "illegal and legal" drugs. Drugs are inanimate objects and have no agency before the law. These are propaganda tools which have worked their way into even Supreme court decisions. (See my comments to Neil Boyd's article Klaus Kaczor) They end up serving the oppressors by conflating the user with an illegal object and thereby denying them the same rights under common law as the users of the more dangerous drugs alcohol and tobacco. The Minister has no right not to give full effect to the CDSA by not putting these two dangerous to the public substances before parliament (there are no exemptions for historical, cultural or hard to do political reasons), actually it is their duty to do so. By conflating all use of these substances to misuse the peaceful responsible users of these substances are denied their basic equality before the law with users of A&T the producers of which enjoy a virtual monopoly.This is exactly the same as the Jim Crow laws in the 50's. This is not a war against drugs it is a war against "some people." I will be going to court to challenge this law, on not charter, but common law disparity of treatment issue. We are the same class of people. Please feel free to follow my blog "Off the Bell Curve"

Thanks again for your rational piece of journalism

Klaus

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John,

Just read your piece in the FFF.

Working as a lobbyist in DC the past six years, IMHO the Republicans will zero out the Medicare, Medicaid and SS budget before they give up on 11 aircraft carriers, 2500 new F-35 and 1.6 million soldiers.

Reason? Usa is Gods chosen country and must lead the world.

Howard

The War on Drugs/Drug Prohibition has been the most destructive, most dysfunctional and immoral policy since slavery and Jim Crow.

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John,

I believe that the main impetus for outlawing hemp came not from the cotton industry but the paper industry dominated by Hearst who had purchased extensive timber holdings in the pacific north west and saw that a new technique to harvest hemp and turn it into paper without the use of dioxins would put a major dent in his profits. Also DuPont saw that fuel from hemp would eliminate the need for their lead fuel additives.

It would be nice if we made fuel from hemp rather than corn. It would not drive the price of food stock up so much.

A great thing about hemp is that it will grow practically anywhere, doesn't need fertilizer and is pest resistant.

John.

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Sir:

Many law enforcement officers have crossed the line and have become public menaces. If a citizens committee decided to take some unilateral action, SWAT teams would become a thing of the past.

Charles

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Mr. Rutherford,

I believe that the number of people in prison for drug offenses is much higher. If a person breaks into a house or business and gets caught in the act of stealing property, would this be considered a drug violation? I’m not sure. The problem still remains that each drug offender, crack, heroin etc., is physically addicted. When he serves his time he is released. What do you think he is going to do as soon as he gets out? How long will it take to figure this all out? Great article and thanks for fighting the good fight.

Kelly

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Thanks for shedding more light on this egregious behavior.

The significant point is that US citizens do this to other fellow citizens. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t right to do it to the Iraqi’s, … this list is long I expect the SWATs are mostly the same military trained, mentally deranged, that some groups worship as our freedom saviors. Behavior morons watch on TV as entertainment.

I have lived an adult life of chronic, at times debilitating pain – unnecessarily. My doctor and insurance were a Big Pharma and I paid.

Strive to thrive,

Tom

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Great article and right on. I am a retired police officer and former SWAT operator for a police department in south Florida. I have seen this kind of tragedy up close and personal. I have since become a member of LEAPS, Law enforcement against prohibition. The war on drugs is a war on private property, American citizens, and it offends the US Constitution. It should be immediately terminated. Drug addiction and use is a health and social problem. It should be managed as such and not a criminal matter. No one should ever go to jail for marijuana. This is just a way for government to seize property, generate revenue and to control non-criminal behavior of the populace.