The ACLU blog is marking the 40th Anniversary of Nixon’s declaration of a “War on Drugs.”
June 2011 marks the 40th anniversary of President Richard Nixon’s declaration of a “war on drugs” — a war which has cost roughly trillion dollars, has produced little to no effect on the supply of or demand for drugs in the United States, and has contributed to making America the world’s largest incarcerator. To mark the occasion, we will be running a series of blog posts throughout the month about the drug war, its victims and what needs to be done to restore fairness and create effective policy.
Keith Humphreys thinks Nixon is getting a bad rap.
As President, he dramatically reduced federal criminal penalties for marijuana possession and launched the largest expansion of drug addiction treatment in U.S. history. I refer of course to Richard M. Nixon, who is today widely remembered as the President who launched the “war on drugsâ€. Why are his well-documented progressive drug policies almost completely forgotten today, leaving us with a collective memory of Nixon as the original snarling drug warrior?
But Mark Kleiman sets him straight.
Yes, but Nixon’s rhetoric outlived his policies, and is doing damage to this very day.
He invented drug-policy-as-culture-war, and the idea that drug policy was a struggle between the pure-minded Republicans and the druggie Democrats, the party of “acid, amnesty, and abortion.†[…] Nixon’s other great contribution was the idea of blaming Mexico for U.S. drug problems, leading to policies such as “Operation Intercept.†[…]
Nixon is remembered as a nasty SOB because he was a nasty SOB […]
I’m not sure what Keith Humphries is talking about… listen to Nixon’s tapes… those damn Jews and hippies… denying the Shafer Commission’s findings… Nixon did have good moments, drug policy not among them.
Nixon makes George W. look like a Boy Scout. Bush just sent troops to the Middle East, Nixon deployed drug warriors across the entire globe. Nixon may have had his moments, but his finest came August 9, 1974.
Dear Allan
I totally your coming from,heck yes Nixon was wrong on the hippies and the drug war.
But
Jews,especially the sect called the Zionist Nixon was right.
I can tell your a man of peace.
But
The reason why there’s soo much bloodshed in the middle east is because of the Jewish clique called Zionism.
Because
Their religion is from the Babylonian Talmud that has such verses as:
Baba Mezia, 114b “The Jews are called human beings, but the non-Jews are not humans. They are beasts.”
Jalkut Rubeni gadol 12b: “The souls of non-Jews come from impure spirits and are called pigs.”
Hadarine, 20, B; Schulchan 9ruch, Choszen Hamiszpat 348. “A Jew may do to a non-Jewess what he can do. He may treat her as he treats a piece of meat.”
Coschen Hamischpat 405: “A pregnant non-jew is no better than a pregnant animal.”
Schulchan Aruch, Jore Dia. “A Jew is permitted to rape, cheat and perjure himself; but he must take care that he is not found out, so that Israel may not suffer.”
Szaaloth-Utszabot, The Book of Jore Via 17.”A Jew should and must make a false oath when the goyim asks if our books contain anything against them.”
Shas. 2:2. “A Jew may violate but not marry a non-Jewish girl.”
Bammidber raba c 21 & jalkut 772: “Every Jew who spills the blood of the godless (non-Jews), is doing the same as making a sacrifice to God.”
Pesachis F. 113B. “When you go to war do not go as the First, but as the last, so that you may return as the first. Five things has Kanaan recommended to his sons: ‘Love each other, love the robbery, hate your masters and never tell the truth.’ ”
Rabbi Morris N. Kertzer, Directory of Intereligious Activities of the American Jewish Committe wrote concerning the role of the Talmud in Judaism: “The Talmud consists of 63 books of legal, ethical and historical writings of the ancient rabbis. It was edited five centruies after the brith of Jesus. It is a compenduim of Law and Lore. It is the legal code which forms the Basis of Jewish Religious Law , and it is the Textbook used in the training of Rabbis.”
“The Talmud is to this day the circulating heart’s blood of the Jewish religion. Whatever laws, customs, or ceremonies we observe-whether we are Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, or merely spasmodic sentimentalists-we follow the Talmud. It is our common law.” – Herman Wouk, This is My God.
Don’t get wrong i have some best friends who are Jewish,and actually right now the Jews are rising up against The Babylonian Talmudic Zionists.
But
Those verses above provide a excellent viewpoint anyone would have anything against the Jews.
Because of their religion.
Now I’m talking about this,what about atrocities(Mudrering men,women and children,Defecation in the Gazians and Palestinians water,gutting teanage arab organs and trading them) by Israel against the Gazians and Plaestinians.
They are Arabs and Semitic Peoples.
Well Allan,What about it!!!?
Talking about Drug wars,ain’t funny over here in the US it’s illegal to produce Cannabis,Shrooms and other Psychedelics.
But
Over in Afghanistan the US Military is over there for Opium
@roninfreedom: It is simply stunning that you do not see that organized religion, whether it be Christianity, Judiasm or Islam, is the true root of all evil. Quoting from any of their three main religious rags to make your point seems only to validate mine.
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The Jews are the only religionists for whom I have any respect at all. Quite frankly the world would be a much better place if they had been in charge. Let’s see, there’s one country in the world that allows sick people in the hospital to utilize medicinal cannabis if indicated. Does anyone need more than one guess the name of that country?
@Daniel Williams “It is simply stunning that you do not see that organized religion”You wrote that after what i just post,now i know you didn’t read what i said,because i quoted from a relgious book.
It is true that organized religion is the root of all evil.
But
Also men like yourself don’t see the root cause of problems.
Because
Of that,I leaned on my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who smoked Weed and took Shrooms and would’ve hit Acid today.
Because
Man is soo Stupid Today.
Wow.
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I don’t subscribe to the notion that this is Mr. Nixon’s war on (some) drugs. Not because he had “progressive” policies and not because he didn’t start it. But in the late 1970s/ early 1980s there was no war on (some) drugs. Jimmy Carter publicly supported the decriminalization of cannabis, Cheech & Chong were cultural icons, and everyone I knew expected cannabis and cocaine to become mainstream recreational substances.
If you want my opinion of when the current war on (some) drugs started I’d peg it to the day that Nancy Reagan introduced the world to the catch phrase, “just say no”. Mr Nixon may have built the machinery but it was sitting in the back yard rusting until Mr. Reagan pulled it out and rebuilt it. Ronnie hated the 1960s culture/hippies at least as much as Tricky Dick. Remember, Mr. Reagan was Governor of California during the “summer of love”. It wasn’t any secret that he hated the hippies with a passion and blamed them for many of his administrations failures.
Anyway, it’s all academic now, just another argument over how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.
(hmm, I hadn’t been aware that Dick Nixon ran for Governor of California, losing to Governor Brown (Jerry’s dad) in 1962)
Picking a moment might be futile, but you could point to Len Bias’s overdose death as a catalyst for passing mandatory minimums and ramping up the general “culture war” aspect of the WOD.
For what it’s worth, Richard Bonnie, who served on the Shafer Commission and wrote the classic _The Marihuana Conviction_ with the late Charles Whitebread, also had favorable words about Nixon as compared to his successors in the drug war. You might take a look at budget priorities to make a useful comparison.
“You can’t depend on the man who made the mess to clean it up.”
– Richard Nixon
Oh crist. Nexxon was a typical bigot, as were most in the 60’s. Nexxon fought his entire political career after VP out of vengeance for Ike and the small r republicans. For shunning him and warning against the Military Industrial Complex. Nexxon and older Boosh sold war paraphernalia. Dyncorps, Lockheed, Exxon along with most of Wall St in one way or another. As Vietnam was winding down and Leary overturned the Marihuana Tax Act. A source of revenue was needed. The drug war filled the gap. When Rayguns Boosh started losing the profits of the cold war, they jacked up the drug war.
Hippies didn’t end the “police action” in Vietnam, when we protested it only made people aware of it. The moms ended the war. 5 years later. Its short term victory for a small portion of the suffering to treat their symptoms. The Cons just invent another bogeyman. TV is saturated with fear mongers. We have to deal with the Neocon fascism disease. That’s from the bottom up, town by town. The “leaders” only follow the money or the voice of the people speaking out. The Neocons know and know how to herd the unknowing. Just like the Roman’s Catholics and their version of the black white men, the Protest-ants. Informing is what we do on the net better than anyone. Good job. Now it’s up to the moms to “get it”.
Crist 2, Jesus was a fucking Jew, Mel Gibson. Khristzions are Neocons practicing Fascism in spite of being circumsized or not. And purely by coincidence, I also think the Jewish people are kind and considerate. Many Christians and even the wealthy individuals I’ve met were civilized. So I’d say it’s a minority of well connected international corporatists we all should be focusing on. From anti choice aborting with cropdusters to wealthy tax dodgers to insane war mongers and a corporate press doing nothing but making people afraid and dependent on big brother to protect them. Everybody claims to be against government tyranny, except the Neocon politicians. Getting informed by TV is the same as those not wanting to see behind the curtain and others who’s agenda won’t permit truth to ruin good paychecks. Nixon lied while the World watched a botched two bit red herring break in of no real significance. We’re still paying for it.
Christians have nothing to do with Jesus.
The drug war has nothing to do with drugs.
Politicians have nothing to do with laws.
Cops and Lawyers have nothing to do with Justice.
“I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator.
By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord’s work.”
Adolph Hitler, Speech, Reichstag, 1936
Christian Extremism and Terrorism In History
It is the duty of every true Deist to vindicate the moral justice of God
against the evils of the Bible.
~ Thomas Paine
AMA Calls For Ending Nixon’s Lie?
James Madison: What influence in fact have Christian ecclesiastical establishments had on civil society? In many instances they have been upholding the thrones of political tyranny. In no instance have they been seen as the guardians of the liberties of the people. Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty have found in the clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just government, instituted to secure and perpetuate liberty, does not need the clergy.
Nixon’s 40 Year War On Drugs… Drugs Won!
In December 1971, John Lennon sang at an Ann Arbor, Mich., concert calling for the release of a man who had been given 10 years in prison for possessing two marijuana cigarettes. The song he wrote for the occasion, “John Sinclair,†was remarkably effective. Within days, the Michigan Supreme Court ordered Mr. Sinclair released.
Nixon lied to schedule Ganja #1
“Our programme is cultural revolution thorugh a total assault on culture, which makes use of every tool, every energy and every media we can get our collective hands on… our culture, our art, our music, our books, our posters, our clothing, the way our hair grows long, the way we smoke dope and fuck and eat and sleep – it’s all one message-the message is freedom”
– John Sinclair (1969)
Not my words, but I agree with all of it:
So here’s my question for Obama supporters, though it’s really a series of logical propositions:
1. We all know that, intellectually, the man is capable of rationally seeing the stupidity and waste behind the War on Drugs.
2. We also know that, however he campaigned, he learned more from Clinton’s triangulating policies than anyone else. If he’s not lamely attempting to strike a ‘centrist'(-right) position on this issue, then he’s a weakling succumbing to institutional pressure to continue to support these failed policies.
3. And here comes the question – if he doesn’t respond to your frail efforts to pressure him from the left, and goes on to rail against you and run towards the right in the media, and throws you paltry policy bones, why support him? We all know that the border hawk conservatives would have raised all sorts of Hell if Bush’s term had extended longer into ’09.
Is it the polls? ‘Cause, the last time I checked, marijuana legalization is now the majority view in this nation. And a good, slick, politically astute and spineless triangulator like Obama ought to know all about poll-watchin’.
I vote for the idea that institutional liberalism has reached its limits along with the limits of the institution itself.
Chris June 4, 2011 at 1:35 am
http://www.drugwarrant.com/2011/06/40-years/comment-page-1/#comment-82531
Not my words, but I agree with all of it:
So here’s my question for Obama supporters, though it’s really a series of logical propositions:
1. We all know that, intellectually, the man is capable of rationally seeing the stupidity and waste behind the War on Drugs.
Waste? It’s not waste to the profiteers fabricating the Ganjawar to eliminate competition that would take profits from them. The prisons and the paraphernalia they purchase isn’t a waste to them. The corporate news selling commercials to an audience of consumers doesn’t think their bias stories are a waste. The growers getting $400.00 an ounce risking their health and liberty are serving the publics needs. The only ones calling it a waste are those without a clue to what it even is. Obombo is a President. That position wasn’t even included originally because we didn’t want another monarchy. Only after discovering Congress couldn’t act fast enough if we were attacked was a President elected. Washington was the 5th or 6th. So to think any one person can just arbitrarily stop something sanctioned by Congress is illogical. Obombo never said he would do anything more than what he is doing regardless of buyers clubs profiteers whining. Prop 215 is for non criminalized compassionate use by individuals not for selling Ganja. Those being harassed by the Feds in states with initiatives are not individuals growing for themselves or actual care providers in group settings. Only Commerce. Its all BS considering Nixon’s lies for the corporations. But that ain’t Obombo. If he pulls out of Colombia, Afghanistan and Iraq and conducts an investigation on Boosh Cheney and their neocon Klan I’d say people got more than they voted for. Although I didn’t vote for him. I did plenty of cartoons during the campaign and his Ganja war promises sucked as bad as Hilary and Edwards with Kucinich and Paul on top. So there were no expectations and to even think of comparing him with a 60 year infrastructure of fascism is laughable. Or rather, it should be.
Busht: Timeline of Treason
2. We also know that, however he campaigned, he learned more from Clinton’s triangulating policies than anyone else. If he’s not lamely attempting to strike a ‘centrist’(-right) position on this issue, then he’s a weakling succumbing to institutional pressure to continue to support these failed policies.
Exactly. The opposite of item #one. That is why it has to be from the ground up. This silly blaming each other for what neither has control over keeps it going. Unquestioned by manipulation. Censored school books. So damn many red flags people walk by bitching about them damn Liberals and Conservatives. No one is anything but themselves. If you have any political affiliation it is as an American. Anyone who disregards the Constitution to protect the Constitution is is fascist. Money over People is not seen as waste if you are on the receiving end. No bid contracts. Mandatory pisstastes. Mandatory minimum, 3 strikes, 303 gag rules, forced rehabilitation plea bargains, snitch evidence, sneak and peak, smell and sounds no knock warrants… These are assembled to hasten justice, to fill cages faster. The incentive is to sell bandaids not bend over the nail. These are not partisan policies they are neocon eliminations of unalienable rights. Obombo choosing Iran Contra Gates was a clue. Michele Lyingheart another. Klintoon has been with Boosh since the early 70’s CIA. Through his governorship in Arkansas with Asa Hutchinson as DA. If you are the government then the law enforcement is under your command. Barry dropping off cocaine is more than coincidence.
Beating Boosh wasn’t a miracle as the press claimed. He went totally gung ho against Ganja. BJ diversions while bombing Kosovo after Bosnia now a path to the Oil with Military basis. Unocal pipelines through Afghanistan and Central America. Corporate interest protection. Al Gores Occidental in Colombia or Boosh behind Nixon, Bay of Pigs, Carter rescue snafu and Dyncorps surveillance around the globe. In the name of the Ganjawar. Obombo is a junior and without Justice there is no Liberty.
Al Capone and Watergate were red herrings to divert the countries attention from the Fascist acts of eliminating competition. Booze/Ethanol or Ganja//Hemp.
Nothing about the Courts is even close to resembling Justice as long as money is involved. Retribution becomes the incentive and not simple education. Why BP dispersed the oil with worse consequences over collecting it was because fines are dependent on quantity recovered. Oil makes plastic. Crude oil hydrocarbons with sulfur and dioxins and wars and asthma or veggie oil homegrown by local farmers. Hemp being the most versatile is no surprise why Nexxon included it as the buzzword “maria juana”. As long as Libertines and Greens and typically the status quo monopoly parties refuse to include this reality. Divert the debate away from the profit base. With this one facet hard to grasp, with so much in plain sight. Not a wonder. A minority of the total population, spraying 90 million pounds of poisons on US cotton while organic hemp is clean. Cotton making people sick and the chemical corporations doing it also sell the treatment drugs. Convenient coincidence. As the same chemicals added to tobacco are not mentioned by smoke phoebes.
3. And here comes the question – if he doesn’t respond to your frail efforts to pressure him from the left, and goes on to rail against you and run towards the right in the media, and throws you paltry policy bones, why support him?
Lesser evil. Reality. Same thing as a leaky roof or standing in the rain. If enough speak out a critical mass is inevitable. If that sustains long enough to move Congress and impeach the Neocons then keep them out. We got a chance. If we just stand back in the rain and don’t even get the exposure we’re getting it defeats the purpose. Most of the argument revolves around money with stoners being the red herring. Obombo knows as stated, and with an already established base being shunned he is more apt to grant more time and argument. But its the Neocon profit. Obombo is also in a position of creating jobs and there are many in the fossil fools and prisons. Poisons and war. To just do what is right would be like killing medicare for seniors. No way to treat Americans. Cure the Disease, then Prevent it from returning. You simply sell “treatments” for the symptoms. Your brand of bandaid. Yawn…
We all know that the border hawk conservatives would have raised all sorts of Hell if Bush’s term had extended longer into ’09.
It’s illegal to serve more than two terms and WTF did they do in 04 after the first 4 years 3 wars and pillaged the Treasury? Short term memory loss. Since Johnson who was only Liberal by chance as a pro war dixie democrat, meaning since Kennedy with money connections. So actual socially Liberal probably hasn’t existed in a long while if ever. Carter before Billy Beer but then Disco warped that window into white powders, bad music and crude oil bell bottoms. Besides that your statement is totally illogical since Boosh Cheney have prospered on the wars and had no intent of ending the gravy train. Starting with We all know won’t change the reality of your statement.
Is it the polls? ‘Cause, the last time I checked, marijuana legalization is now the majority view in this nation. And a good, slick, politically astute and spineless triangulator like Obama ought to know all about poll-watchin’.
I don’t think the Polish people have much say in it. They grow Hemp. A majority view not helped by Palin Neocons or Teabog ditto’s. Still denied by the major corporations media outlets. The “Liberals” you seem so quick to condemn as the conservative the Greens seek big brother over. Perpetuate the profits that have nothing to do with doing drugs or smoking pot. We wouldn’t need big brother regulations if corporations didn’t spew dioxins. Instead of whining to cut the regulation tax burden why not whine to cut the dioxin emissions? When communities talk freely and openly about anything and it becomes the norm Congress acts quicker. Boosh behind closed door policy is not an option. If you want to break the law make sure its a bad law. Abolishing all laws would put us in a barbaric condition. Money does the same might makes right mentality.
I vote for the idea that institutional liberalism has reached its limits along with the limits of the institution itself.
Fascism is the problem. Institutions that serve Americans are not wasted taxes. Corporations that take money from communities and institutions deregulated to being puppets for corporations is killing the country. International corporations profits on misery with no allegiance to us or the Constitution. Fall in line eyes straight ahead and you want to condemn the oppressed. Like the Neocon talking heads protesting for the Tyrants Constitutional right to gut Americans wages.
Herbert Packer, 1968
The Limits of the Criminal Sanction
For over fifty years the United States has been committed to a policy of
suppressing the “abuse” of narcotic and other “dangerous” drugs. The primary
instrument in carrying out this policy has been the criminal sanction. The results of
this reliance on the criminal sanction have included the following:
(1) Several hundred thousand people, the overwhelming majority of whom
have been primarily users rather than traffickers, have been subjected to severe
criminal punishment.
(2) An immensely profitable illegal traffic in narcotic and other forbidden
drugs has developed.
(3) This illegal traffic has contributed significantly to the growth and
prosperity of organized criminal groups.
(4) A substantial number of all acquisitive crimes – burglary, robbery, auto theft, other forms of larceny – have been committed by drug users in order to get the wherewithal to pay the artificially high prices charged for drugs on the illegal market.
(5) Billions of dollars and a significant proportion of total law enforcement resources have been expended in all stages of the criminal process.
(6) A disturbingly large number of undesirable police practices – unconstitutional searches and seizures, entrapment, electronic surveillance have become habitual because of the great difficulty that attends the detection of narcotics offenses.
(7) The burden of enforcement has fallen primarily on the urban poor, especially Negroes and Mexican-Americans.
(8) Research on the causes, effects, and cures of drug use has been stultified.
(9) The medical profession has been intimidated into neglecting its accustomed role of relieving this form of human misery.
(10) A large and well-entrenched enforcement bureaucracy has developed a vested interest in the status quo, and has effectively thwarted all but the most marginal reforms.
(11) Legislative invocations of the criminal sanction have automatically and unthinkingly been extended from narcotics to marijuana to the flood of new mind-altering drugs that have appeared in recent years, thereby compounding the preexisting problem. A clearer case of misapplication of the criminal sanction would be difficult to imagine.
Free Speech TV Episode on Private Prisons.
Kochaine A.L.E.C. Drug Detention Centers
American High Society
ABOR Bans Medical Marijuana on Campus
Despite the allowance of medical marijuana in Arizona, the Arizona Board of Regents will not be allowing the substance on any state university campuses.
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The death of Mr. Bias was most certainly a significant catalyst of the situation we find ourselves today but that was 1986. Perhaps it was more of a local thing, after all I was living in the DC Metro area, but by the time of his death we were most certainly fully involved.
The most significant thing about his death was that it marked the line of demarcation when the general view that cocaine wasn’t such a bad thing ended.
Yes, that shift in the popular view: shit, you can die from this!
But also, in my recollection, legislators named that moment as one that helped convince them to vote for the mandatory minimums that came in after that.
No the NRA had successfully lobbied for mandatory minimums to be used against crimes committed with guns. To send a message that they advocate the 2nd amendment, not crimes. Then after Bias died from snorting cocaine. Tip o’Neil lumped it into the mandatory sentencing. With Walters and Bennet pushing preditor gangs hyped up on potent pot. Super strength crack fit in with old Anslinger Gore files about blacks using cocaine getting super human strength. Since most of the cocaine is snorted by white Madison Ave suits and others with lawyers. It was called crack and separated from the more popular coca leaf fabrication.
In other words the same fascism manipulating facts and legislation for profits. In this case it exploded the prison numbers with mostly those seeking the cheaper crack in the minorities. Easier figuring profits long term. With that in place it morphed to all drugs deterring exercising the right of a jury trial. Now its leaving 95% to plea bargain. Those attempting to defend themselves on medicinal charges are forbidden to mention its for medicinal use. Leaving most of the 5% to loose and serve MM, unless a rouge judge does what’s civil. Plea bargains profit the mandatory rehabilitation asylums like Calvina and Califono, and with them come mandatory urine tests and court fees, lawyers, fines and probation costs.
Its a clear it’s a fascist racket. Nothing to do with the safety of the drug user. Crack made cocaine fit as a dangerous drug. Coke is a white powder Big Pharma synthetic used to dispel the effects of booze at 3 Martini lunches by Madison Ave Ad agents dealing over anti drug commercials. Crack is a cheap imitation free base with no social value imho. I believe its a CIA invention to do what it has done, create sheep. What Nixon said the drug war would accomplish, is. Getting them blacks off the street. Now with Koch Bro private profit prisons. The Ganjawar is a product being sold. Like a Ford truck it doesn’t come with the chick on the commercial.
“Another weapon I discovered early was the power of the printed word to sway souls to me. The newspaper was soon my gun, my flag- a thing with a soul that could mirror my own.”
Adolph Hitler
“You know, it’s a funny thing, every one of the bastards that are out for legalizing marijuana is Jewish. What the Christ is the matter with the Jews, Bob? What is the matter with them? I suppose it is because most of them are psychiatrists.”
Just What Was He Smoking?
Richard Nixon missing tapes
Déjà vu
“Through clever and constant application of propaganda, people can be made to see paradise as hell, and also the other way around, to consider the most wretched sort of life as paradise.”
From Benito Mussolini contributing to the “London Sunday Express,” December 8, 1935
“Marihuana Makes Fiends of Boys in 30 Days; Hasheesh Goads Users to Blood-Lust” create terror of the “killer weed from Mexico.” Through his relentless disinformation campaign, Hearst is credited with bringing the word “marijuana” into the English language. In addition to fueling racist attitudes toward Hispanics, Hearst papers run articles about “marijuana-crazed negroes” raping white women and playing “voodoo-satanic” jazz music. Driven insane by marijuana, these blacks — according to accounts in Hearst-owned newspapers — dared to step on white men’s shadows, look white people directly in the eye for more than three seconds, and even laugh out loud at white people.
Calvina Fay Prohibition Inc.
“You’re enough of a pro,” Nixon tells Shafer, “to know that for you to come out with something that would run counter to what the Congress feels and what the country feels, and what we’re planning to do, would make your commission just look bad as hell.”
Soon after Turner left office, Nancy Reagan recommended that no corporation be permitted to do business with the Federal government without having a urine purity policy in place to show their loyalty. Carlton Turner became a rich man in what has now become a huge growth industry: urine-testing.
The Enron, Bush, Baker, Rockefeller connection
“Rudolph Diesel produced the engine bearing his name in 1896. He expected that it would be powered by vegetable oils (including hemp) and seed oils. A special interest group that included the DuPont petrochemical company, its major financial backer and long- time Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon, and the newspaper man William Randolph Hearst mounted a propaganda campaign against hemp, emphasizing the fact that is caused physical pleasure and downplaying the pollutants generated by industrial hydrocarbons. In 1937 they were able to push a “marijuana” prohibition bill through Congress in less than three months, which destroyed the domestic hemp industry. Henry Ford built a car that ran on hemp oil and grew fields of hemp to become independent of the oil industry, but
the law caught up with him. In 1937 DuPont filed a patent on nylon, which took over many of the uses of hemp. How different would our world be with hemp oil instead of gasoline to power our cars!
~ Chris Conrad,
Hemp: Lifeline to the Future
Good article in the Age Melbourne Australia.
An interesting quote from it is this:-
“Many politicians, both of the left and of the right, have accepted the arguments for legalising drugs – but only before or after being in office”.
It is interesting to speculate what kills the enthusiasm of politicians to end the drug war once they are in power.
Nixon deeply opposed the culture embracing certain recreational drugs.
Republicans, in continuing hatred of that culture, have continued to support the demonizing of the substances beloved within that culture.
That culture is apparently made up of people who lean left (if not extreme left) politically, and that is the reason for such hatred.
Ironically, however, is the fact that the war on some drugs is actually part of the liberal/progressive agenda, which in strong part includes abusing the Commerce Clause as a legal “battering ram” against the limits of power set in the U.S. Constitution (search “switch in time that saved nine” to learn more).
Our nation’s greatest challenge comes from the inability to realize liberty as it is defined in the U.S. Declaration of Independence (a self-evidently naturally given and unalienable right).
Rationally speaking, the only limit against your liberty is the right itself (i.e. optimal liberty in a civilized society). The purpose of this is to defy the traditional source defining your liberty — that source being the people in power (e.g. public majority).
Without its realization, the people in power do in fact define your liberty without authority, and the masses have yet to be oppressed enough to cause the impending backlash that history repeatedly shows naturally comes with that corruptible definition source.
With relevance to the Commerce Clause, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his dissent (Gonzales v. Raich) that if that ruling stands, “the federal government is no longer one of limited and enumerated power”.
That was an extremely seriously condemning statement made by a Supreme Court justice in the public record (first paragraph, even), and the liberal-leaning mainstream media (who generally loves the Commerce Clause “interpretation”) did not say a word (when “O.J. Simpson level” coverage is warranted).
Republicans should be leading the way towards repealing the Controlled Substances Act, because the legal precedence supporting the CSA deeply opposes defending the private sector from public servant interference.
When direct harm is applied by the private sector, the unalienable right to liberty (and the evolving laws that legally define it) should be the solution, not the ‘war on capitalism’ that ‘regulates all use to go after abuse’.
Liberals in our movement are hypocrites, if they believe that private sector abuse is resolved by blanket legislation against even those within the private sector who never directly harm anyone.
And so thanks to ‘Coke vs. Pepsi’ politics, we officially have the CSA still after four decades, a policy that is unconstitutional by any rational interpretation of the Commerce Clause, ineffective by any reasonable cost/benefit analysis, destructive given the black market violence that exists due to it, and when it comes to drugs for which no experimental science concludes any harm in moderate use (e.g. cannabis and LSD25), unwarranted.
And so do you continue to support the dominating believe that the people in power should define liberty?
If not, then you should really study up on the revolutionary principle that is the unalienable right to liberty, which says that if you are not directly infringing upon the rights of another person, you are not doing anything wrong (and that should stand up in court).
Given that liberty is your greatest asset (defining what you can do with your life), and that its aforementioned definition is optimal liberty in a civilized society, that principle is literally the most brilliant social construct ever possible.
It is an ideal that guides us away from the abuse of power (e.g. the war on some drugs).
+1 Scott.
Scott June 4, 2011 at 9:15 am
Nixon deeply opposed the culture embracing certain recreational drugs.
Thats generic supposition. Observance of the symptoms not why he did or didn’t. He went on laugh in. Kennedy used Ganja and there was talk of decriminalizing it. He fired Anslinger before Nexxon was in office. No he opposed the hippies because they spoke against the fascism and profits by the war machine. If it wasn’t hippies it would have been any pascivists or unions or whomever is against cheap labor practices.
Republicans, in continuing hatred of that culture, have continued to support the demonizing of the substances beloved within that culture.
Again you revert back to the symptoms. Republicans this Liberals that. Its all just diversions and the Neocons go scott free. Republicans are people and they don’t hate their classmates or neighbors just out of political affiliation. The hatred is taught by the same lessons as racism or culturism you mentioned. Its taught. People aren’t born hating longhairs or do they have genetic defects causing racism. Its an agenda. For profit, period. Nexxon and Kissenger the same as Boosh and Rove plotting in Heratage Foundations brainstorming sessions.
That culture is apparently made up of people who lean left (if not extreme left) politically, and that is the reason for such hatred.
Apparently? People lean left usually after they have a mishap and get screwed by the system. Loose their jobs or get busted and experience the system. Or just sheople afraid of liberty. ADD fear prone mindsets. Those on the right stick their heads in the sand more often and more comfortably. Neither have a thing to do with the Neocon fascism behind the scenes. Diversions pitting one similar group against another similar group using lies and deception. Hippies were dumbed down with the Monkey’s or Partridge family or Mod Squad or Dragnet TV manipulations. All teaching classism in half hour time slots. None of the TV hippies smoked pot.
Ironically, however, is the fact that the war on some drugs is actually part of the liberal/progressive agenda, which in strong part includes abusing the Commerce Clause as a legal “battering ram†against the limits of power set in the U.S. Constitution (search “switch in time that saved nine†to learn more).
If you can’t get passed this petty blame game you don’t have to wonder why it continues. The Supremests were Neocons voting for the Commerce Clause. Except Cliarence Thomas with huge Monsanto ties, it was a GOPerverted effort to inlclude Angel. Not Liberal or Republican. Typical bait and switch. Falling in line without question blaming one or another keeping the profits perpetuating. Keep attacking the bandaids and the mad slasher escapes once again into the confusion of the political lapdogs blurbs and talking head sputoms.
Our nation’s greatest challenge comes from the inability to realize liberty as it is defined in the U.S. Declaration of Independence (a self-evidently naturally given and unalienable right).
No our nation’s greatest challenge is to learn our nation is no longer in existence. The world is our new country and the continents our new states. Divided by the G-20 and duping politico’s into maintaining their dysfunction while boatloads of profits keep coming. Keeping homegrown alternatives off the market while getting rich caging dissidents. Blame the workers and give corporations Constitutional rights and this is what you get.
Rationally speaking, the only limit against your liberty is the right itself (i.e. optimal liberty in a civilized society). The purpose of this is to defy the traditional source defining your liberty — that source being the people in power (e.g. public majority).
No rational involved. On the contrary. Confusion as witnessed by cable news reports is how they keep this war going 75 years and resurrected for the last 40 into a science of manipulation. All for corporate profits.
Without its realization, the people in power do in fact define your liberty without authority, and the masses have yet to be oppressed enough to cause the impending backlash that history repeatedly shows naturally comes with that corruptible definition source.
That isn’t any closer, blaming politics for what is fascism. Yes I agree if it ever got as bad as with the slaves people would revolt. Thats why it always takes appeasers like some here to bury their heads and go along with the illogical answers. The TV keeps the answers lost while people get up and do it again and again without question. But at the end of the day its all for profit and that brings power. Liberty can not be granted dude. Its a birthright you either take or leave. By the time laws are voted on its way too late. As long as no one questions why it will continue. As long as no one cares why it is inevitable.
With relevance to the Commerce Clause, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in his dissent (Gonzales v. Raich) that if that ruling stands, “the federal government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powerâ€.
The Commerse Clause was invoked for sales or donations, not individuals using or growing. None of the state initiatives have provisions for buyers clubs or coops like WAMM. Prop 215 states for anyone for any reason so no other laws “legalizing use” are needed. Lee’s initiative is meant for people to sell and tax and clearly is the target of the CC. So I’m hesitant to endorse it in 2012 for that reason. Its already OK and by adding a new restriction to 18 year olds, old enough to shoot people. More BS for making a buck, nothing added for the benefit of people using. Get over the political maneuvering. Its fascism. Them against Us. A marriage of corporations and the state. Same with the corporate church.
That was an extremely seriously condemning statement made by a Supreme Court justice in the public record (first paragraph, even), and the liberal-leaning mainstream media (who generally loves the Commerce Clause “interpretationâ€) did not say a word (when “O.J. Simpson level†coverage is warranted).
Ok now your time is up. Boring commercial geared to the dunkem mindset. Liberal leaning GE and Disney dude. Stop reading Fox memo’s and building castles in the sky with them. Your lies can’t be a foundation for anything any more than Nexxons lies including Ganja and Hemp as number one narcotics. Its a corporate owned media with nothing Liberal about it. They held George’s hand marching into bagdad. What a crock.
The Myth of “Liberal Bias” in the Media
Republicans should be leading the way towards repealing the Controlled Substances Act, because the legal precedence supporting the CSA deeply opposes defending the private sector from public servant interference.
Republickers caved first. Most are lemmings obedient to authority. The NRA gave us mandatory minimum sentences. Neocons control most of the Military and prison profits. Your getting silly watching OxyRush. Typical teabog dipshit answer. As long as the GOP and DNC are controlled by no limit donations and legislated profit. More concerned with their party winning than Justice or Liberty. This is what you get. This is what you cause with gossip blaming Liberals.
Conservative Addiction Good, Liberal Addiction Bad!
When direct harm is applied by the private sector, the unalienable right to liberty (and the evolving laws that legally define it) should be the solution, not the ‘war on capitalism’ that ‘regulates all use to go after abuse’.
Boosh took more Liberty than anyone in American history. Signing the Patriot Act and two bogus police actions. Klintoon went against his party to bust more than anyone. Nothing American in either of them. Just brainwashed fox gossip is all I see.
Liberals in our movement are hypocrites, if they believe that private sector abuse is resolved by blanket legislation against even those within the private sector who never directly harm anyone. Liberals are complaining that Obombo is not being true to his base. His base are Liberals. Your confusion is boring.
Busht Hypocrisy & Double Standards
Boosh was the biggest Liberal in History. Bigger government, bigger debt. All politicians are hypocrites. Your bias only shows you have no clue and must be hoping for some of that magic trickle down. We don’t want more regulations on individuals, just corporations stealing liberty from individuals. By deregulating laws protecting individuals from their pollution taking our liberty. You protect the corporations right to spew toxins on the public. Including kids and pregnant women. All justified in your eyes by profits. Thats just sick.
And so thanks to ‘Coke vs. Pepsi’ politics, we officially have the CSA still after four decades, a policy that is unconstitutional by any rational interpretation of the Commerce Clause, ineffective by any reasonable cost/benefit analysis, destructive given the black market violence that exists due to it, and when it comes to drugs for which no experimental science concludes any harm in moderate use (e.g. cannabis and LSD25), unwarranted.
Nexxon profits on Pepsi had little to do with the CSA. That was pure lies and simply and obviously was only to include Hemp and RxGanja never included in the 1937 Tax Act. Behind the headlines of Watergate the same as Rockefeller eliminated ethanol for the farmers behind headlines about Al Capone. At the end of the day farmers had to buy gas and Hemp was a schedule#1 narcotic after Nexxon. Get real.
And so do you continue to support the dominating believe that the people in power should define liberty?
Of coarse not. Liberty is already defined and your Libitars should be the ones you ask. You give Koch the power to define Liberty. You give Boosh power and by granting the conservatives power you keep the Ganjawar flowing. You can’t keep blaming Liberals when they are the ones on the net demanding Obombo keep his promise to the base. Obombo is no Liberal as stated in the campaign. Liberal Kucinich was against the Ganjawar and Patriot Act and never made it. Nader the same thing. Liberals don’t want liberty infringement, the opposite. They want corporate infringement curtailed and you whine about it being UnConstitutional? Corporations have no unalienable rights in the Declaration. Yet you grant them carte blanch in buying Neocon judges and Congress reps. Not Liberals. We want pollution laws to protect conservative pregnant farm wives, you want Monsanto to dictate limits. You side with Exxon squirming out of paying for the clean up that we tax payers have to pay. We tax payers have to pay for Libertarian taxes sheltered in the Caymans. Or the GOP shelters funding DARE and Calvina groups. Not Liberals. Those you list as Liberals like Feinstein and Klintoon are Neocons. Not politicians, fascists.
If not, then you should really study up on the revolutionary principle that is the unalienable right to liberty, which says that if you are not directly infringing upon the rights of another person, you are not doing anything wrong (and that should stand up in court).
Back at ya. I do. Although I’m a-political. I disagree that you can think you can obtain Lberty when corporations buy laws eliminating it. Again you protect the rights of the corporations who oppress the individuals and eliminate competition in the process. Its all about cheap labor and more profits. Words are words.
Given that liberty is your greatest asset (defining what you can do with your life), and that its aforementioned definition is optimal liberty in a civilized society, that principle is literally the most brilliant social construct ever possible.
Then you should stop advocating for the moneysluts and appeasing the Nexxon means to an end fascism. You and most reformers have a clear grasp of the symptoms and how to remedy them. Another 75 years if need be. But you hide from the truth that your country is no longer what the forefathers wrote about or tried to protect. Lincoln warned of corporations, Jefferson warned of outside influence changing what is to protect individuals, into what harms them. You support the constitutional right to cage people or eminent domain to steal their houses or forfeiture laws to remove unruly protesters. If you side with Wall St you can not be taken seriously about the Constitution.
It is an ideal that guides us away from the abuse of power (e.g. the war on some drugs).
The ideal you aren’t doing anything about hiding your head in the sand blaming gerbals. If you want to end the wars you have to remove the profits of war. If you want liberty you have to teach tolerance not scapegoating the poor and advocating for the poor rich Kocknockers. Until you figure out why people like Nexxon stigmatized hippies you just perpetuate the fascism. So called hippies were never a threat to anyone. No money or power to change anything. Yet they are the group blamed and its only a diversion. Same as a “liberal” media or that obombo has any smidgeon of the Neocons connections that the Boosh Klan has maintained since Eisenhower. Nexxon, Rayguns, Art Linkletter and Walt Disney all programmed the culture. Proctor and Gamble did the same with soap operas as a menu for yuppies. How to act how to dress. All promoting the status quo polyester clothing and cardboard box food. Booze and Pills over natural preventions and cures. Now you fall in line and with their blame. Push the same hobgoblins and other non molecular fictions. Hippies are only mythical fabrications of the media. Individuals growing their hair long and smoking pot are just individuals growing their hair long naturally as intended. Smoking pot is a thousand year old tradition as well as organic food. All threats to corporations you protect. Follow the money or stay with the denialists.
Bushladen and the Terrorists Carlyles Groups
When history’s dust settles on the drug war, I don’t think it’s going to matter much who or what started it.
Once assembled, situated, and turned on, the prohibition machine churns and morphs itself into an uncontrollable, self-perpetuating killer of hopes, dreams, and ultimately people. Prohibition takes on a life of its own, as if it were some nuclear powered Pandora’s box. What will matter is that prohibition will be forever seen as the emergence of a destructive force far greater than the sum of its parts.
Pseudo-solutions like prohibition show similar patterns of failure. Torture is a prime example. Torture appears to far too many people in the U.S. as a really simple solution for obtaining accurate testimony. Implemented, the consequences of torture create unpredictable complexities and failures, and the failures are disproportionately horrendous compared to any useful bit of retrievable information. Torture always turns into a useless disaster, and not just because it’s unreliable.
As with torture, prohibition is a disaster no matter who implements it. History paints an malevolent picture of prohibitionism whenever and wherever it arises. Alternatives to prohibitionism have proven superior in test after test.
Government incompetence, and its inevitable corruption, adds to the problem of prohibition like anything else. Incompetence and corruption are not the core problems. The core problem is prohibitionism itself.
To forever clarify that prohibitionist law enforcement will not be tolerated requires a major shift in international policy: that the use of prohibition, as we know it, be given the same illegality as torture under international law.
Prohibitionism must, and will be, recognized as a crime against humanity.
Thanks Servetus! – I worked some of your post into one of my replies to ‘Shawninmo’
You are an accessory to a very serious crime. Every-time you blame the ghastly violence of prohibition on the users, it is seen by the rest of us as a lame attempt to diminish your own culpability. You yourself are truly responsible for maintaining the status quo. Prohibition is an absolute scourge -the end! The use of drugs is NOT the real problem, the system that grants exclusive distribution rights to violent cartels and terrorists IS. And you support this!
Fact 1. Due to Prohibition, the availability of mind-altering drugs has become so universal and unfettered, that in any city of the civilized world, either of us would be able to procure practically any drug we wish within an hour.
Fact 2. Many people will always use drugs (and this of course includes alcohol, tobacco, etc.) because the effects can be pleasurable and, in some instances, even enlightening.
Fact 3. The massive majority of people who use drugs do so recreationally – getting high at the weekend, then up for work on Monday morning. Sound familiar? A significant minority of drug use (and, again, this includes alcohol) is problematic.
Fact 4. Throughout history, the Prohibition of any mind-altering substance has always exploded usage rates, overcrowded jails, fueled organized crime , created rampant corruption of law-enforcement and whole governments while causing thousands of deaths.
Fact 5. As with torture, prohibition is a grievous crime against humanity. If you support it, tolerate it, or simply look the other way while others commit it, then you are an accessory to a very serious crime.
It’s not possible to even keep drugs out of prison, but you wish to keep throwing hundreds of billions away in a wasted attempt to keep them off the streets. Prohibition kills more people and ruins more lives than the prohibited drugs have ever done. Your amazing unwillingness to even look at alternatives to the current and failed policy is ridiculous. You are willing to dismiss all the evidence presented to you without even giving it the slightest serious thought.
America Re-legalized drug use in 1933. The drug was alcohol, and the 21st amendment legalized its production, distribution and sale. Both alcohol consumption and violent crime dropped immediately as a result. The economy picked up very soon after.
http://www.opposingviews.com/comments/you-re-a-user-of-alcohol-and-tobacco
I applaud Pat Robertson coming out in support of normalization. It is unfortunate that Tallahasee continues to ignore through their obnoxious big government legislation against employees and the poor. Florida a a state important to many in our land, and may have to consider investing in places with more cognitive perspectives on this subject.