Drug war thrad

[The Man]

I haven't seen a thrad related to the drug war in quite some time and I'm too lazy to look for one, so the news that as of 2010, the drug war is now killing more people than the war in Afghanistan seems like a nice time to start a new one. Unsurprisingly, thousands in Mexico have been taking to the streets to protest, but it is also not particularly surprising that the same is not happening here. It seems rather unlikely that matters will change until widespread protests begin to occur.

[The Man]

Ron Paul on the drug war: "The drug war has...

To be honest the whole thing is an hour long (it's divided into several parts) and I didn't watch most of it, and not all of it is about the drug war, but it may be of interest to people here.

[The Man]

Vancouver's safe injection site has helped to reduce the number of fatal overdoses by over thirty-five percent.

[The Man]

A senior citizen has been sentenced to jail for growing medicinal pot for his wife, who has cancer.

There are no words.

[Deadlokd]

The War on Drugs is Important. It diverts attention from the War on Terror when that isn't going well. It is used to justify the War on Poor People.

[chunksmediocrites]

Originally Posted by The Man

I haven't seen a thrad related to the drug war in quite some time and I'm too lazy to look for one, so the news that as of 2010, the drug war is now killing more people than the war in Afghanistan seems like a nice time to start a new one. Unsurprisingly, thousands in Mexico have been taking to the streets to protest, but it is also not particularly surprising that the same is not happening here. It seems rather unlikely that matters will change until widespread protests begin to occur.

I was thinking today about your link to the drug war in Mexico having more casualties that the war in Afghanistan, because I saw an article in the newspaper that the Mexican drug war has a pretty huge number of deaths since 2006.

So for a comparison, I pulled up casualty figures for Afghanistan 2006 to present. I divided it roughly between any kind of Afghan deaths (civilian, security forces, anti-government forces) and Coalition deaths, because that's how the numbers come mostly; the Afghan figures a more difficult to get, and not always grouped neatly. Anyway: Afghanistan, mostly sourced from here and here:
2006: 4,400 +191
2007: 7,700 +232
2008: 8,748 +295
2009: 2,412 +521
2010: 2,777 +711
2011: ?(I'm pulling out of my ass 900)+167
29,054 rough total, 2006 to present. This number is probably quite low-end estimates.

Al Jazeera April 25, 2011:

Violence linked to Mexico's drug war has claimed more than 36,000 lives since President Felipe Calderon declared all-out war on cartels in December 2006.

I probably should not have counted all of 2006 in Afghanistan for numbers comparisons, and I know population-wise the numbers become even less comparable (Afghanistan has a population of 29.8 million, and Mexico is 113.7 million), but yeah. That's startling.

[lisarea]

I haven't watched or read through all of this yet, but I wanted to hurry up and post it first for FF credit:

The Exile Nation Project: An Oral History of the War on Drugs & The American Criminal Justice System | openDemocracy

[chunksmediocrites]

One of the results of the drug war, as has been pointed out above, is the massive increase in imprisonment in the US. Related to this is the decision by the Supreme Court that California's massively overcrowded prisons have to reduce inmate population because the conditions of overcrowding are unconstitutional.

The court said in a 5-4 decision that the reduction is "required by the Constitution" to correct longstanding violations of inmates' rights. The order mandates a prison population of no more than 110,000 inmates, still far above the system's designed capacity.

There were more than 143,000 inmates in the state's 33 adult prisons as of May 11, meaning roughly 33,000 inmates will need to be transferred to other jurisdictions or released.
...>snip<...
The California dispute is the first high court case that reviewed a prisoner release order under a 1996 federal law that made it much harder for inmates to challenge prison conditions.

The case revolves around inadequate mental and physical health care in a state prison system that in 2009 averaged nearly a death a week that might have been prevented or delayed with better medical care.

The facilities were designed to hold about 80,000 inmates.

Here's an article which mentions some of the pictures that were used to illustrate to the court the conditions. Here's a gallery of those photos.

[Watser?]

Avaaz started a campaign: Avaaz - End the War on Drugs!Â*

Experts all agree that the most sensible policy is to regulate, but politicians are afraid to touch the issue. In days, a global commission including former heads of state and foreign policy chiefs of the UN, EU, US, Brazil, Mexico and more will break the taboo and publicly call for new approaches including decriminalization and regulation of drugs.

This could be a once-in-a-generation tipping-point moment -- if enough of us call for an end to this madness. Politicians say they understand that the war on drugs has failed, but claim the public isn't ready for an alternative. Let's show them we not only accept a sane and humane policy -- we demand it. Sign the petition and share with everyone --if we reach 1 million voices, it will be personally delivered to world leaders by the global commission.

[ZEZOZE]

drug laws keep authorities employed and fill prisons with product.

oh and it keeps COPS on the air.

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by chunksmediocrites

Here's an article which mentions some of the pictures that were used to illustrate to the court the conditions. Here's a gallery of those photos.

Jesus Christ, that's in California?! I was reading the page from the bottom up and when I saw the pic I assumed it was another country.

[Stormlight]

Originally Posted by ITSOZAZ

drug laws keep authorities employed and fill prisons with product cheap labour.

[ZEZOZE]

well yeah...but that's what prisons sell. slaves.


well...rent them out.

[lisarea]

lol, sorta.

Dumb Drug War Propagandist To Tommy Chong: ‘My Heart Goes Out To You … You’ve Got a Marijuana Addiction’

[Watser?]

What a condescending dubmass.

[Stormlight]

Another huge victory in the war on drugs!!!

[Hermit]

[Watser?]

Health experts in Portugal said Friday that Portugal's decision 10 years ago to decriminalise drug use and treat addicts rather than punishing them is an experiment that has worked.

"There is no doubt that the phenomenon of addiction is in decline in Portugal," said Joao Goulao, President of the Institute of Drugs and Drugs Addiction, a press conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the law.

The number of addicts considered "problematic" -- those who repeatedly use "hard" drugs and intravenous users -- had fallen by half since the early 1990s, when the figure was estimated at around 100,000 people, Goulao said.

Other factors had also played their part however, Goulao, a medical doctor added.

"This development can not only be attributed to decriminalisation but to a confluence of treatment and risk reduction policies."

Portugal's holistic approach had also led to a "spectacular" reduction in the number of infections among intravenous users and a significant drop in drug-related crimes, he added.

Portugal drug law show results ten years on, experts say - Yahoo! News

[lisarea]

Oh, God, this is just a lose all the way around. The dad's fucked, and those kids have got to be crippled with guilt by now.

12 And 13-Year-Old Kids Turn In Dad For Marijuana Possession Say Police

Best part: It was a misdemeanor possession charge, with two felony child endangerment charges added on.

[Crumb]

How does having marijuana endanger children?

[lisarea]

It gets their parents arrested!

[Gonzo]

[Ari]

I was annoyed when I found out the feds are hassling legal medical marijuana growers in California, and now a bit pissed to find out it's actually 4 US attorneys from California who are crusading against marijuana using federal laws. Just another fuck you to states and their rights. US Attorney Haag does not represent my views and was sadly appointed by Obama right around the time he claimed he would ease off the medical pot raids. While I would be quite happy if Obama reeled her back in, I expect he will play dumb and act like he didn't see anything.

Overall I assume someone somewhere is getting a lot of money because otherwise I'm dumbfounded as to why the government keeps attacking such a safe drug. California has a budding industry just waiting to explode and bring in tons of tax dollars while reducing money to gangs, but until then it has a medical marijuana program supported by the majority of Californians and groups like the AMA (doctors, phft what do they know about health). Hopefully this is the spark needed to legalize marijuana partly as a fuck you back to the feds.

Of course legalized pot would reduce the sale of opiates, barbiturates, THC and amphetamines, in brand name form. While the government demonizes pot the DEA keeps OKing larger and larger production quantities of pharmaceutical drugs including a synthetic version of the main active chemical in Marijuana, a drug with "no currently accepted medical use in treatment."

[Gonzo]

Drug Test the Rich

[Angakuk]

Originally Posted by Ari

California has a budding industry just waiting to explode

LOL at "budding industry".