Drug Warriors write Congress. Demand more Drug War!

[Oldgamer]

Former federal prosecutors and Justice Department Officials on the drug war's 'front lines.'

Not giving up their tax payer funded budgets without a fight!

In contrast, here is a short video from retired Police Captain, Peter Christ, founder of LEAP Law Enforcement Against Prohibition where he demolishes the Drug War...

Why Legalize Drugs
So what is your opinion?

In the drug war, who do you support?

More billions for the Drug Warriors and their friends in the prison industry?

Or, the retired police captain and Law Enforcement Against Prohibition?

And generating funds by regulating and taxing distribution.

Uno

Not surprising in the least because there are huge profits that will essentially go away if marijuana is legalized in this country and lots of local PD's will lose out as well.

 

[DucatiMonster696]

I.e. Those who are part of DEA and other drug enforcement agencies realize that their jobs, their justification of control and power over the individual via rights they demand be seed to them to "Combat the war on drugs" is put in danger if you push for legalization or worse allow it to take root.

 

[unokitty]

Elizabeth Warren Slams Federal Regulators Over Bank Money Laundering

"If you're caught with an ounce of cocaine, you're going to go to jail... But if you launder nearly a billion dollars for international cartels and violate sanctions you pay a fine and you go home and sleep in your own bed a night."

"How would you explain this to your neighbor?" Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) asked, noting that the fine slapped on HSBC amounted to about one percent of its profits over 10 years. "Does that really send a message?"

Of course, if you're a bank that launders $881 million dollars for the cartels, you really don't have to worry about the drug war anyway...

Now, imagine that the laws were different.

How much tax revenue could the government have generated from that $881 million dollars in drug profits?

How many jobs could have been generated in a retail operation?

How many medical marijuana patents could have been served?


But the laws aren't different. So while the banks, the cartels, the prison industry and the remainder of the drug war infrastructure profit, you pay taxes to support the 'Drug Warriors' and their friends in the prison industry.

DucatiMonster696, thanks for the Milton Friedman reference...

All the way back in 1972, he saw this...

Makes me feel humble.

Uno

 

[Jhhnn]

Since when does cost/benefit have to do with my right to do what I want to my own body?

You're a scumbag, just like the right wing you hate. You just want a tiny bit less totalitarianism than they do.

Oh, please. Absolutist bullshit got us where we are today. The way to get out is to appeal to things that others believe in, build coalitions to effect positive change.

Some people believe in legalization strictly from a cost benefit pov. To scorn them is to drive away the support needed to accomplish the goal.

A64 passed in CO through just such a coalition building process. It works. It's a winner, unlike what you offer.

 

[uclaLabrat]

Legalize marijuana... fine. No reason to send someone to jail for smoking a doobie.

But people need to be cautious when calling for everything to be legal. I don't want to have to support a bunch of meth or heroin junkies. These types of drugs are highly addictive and I would hate to see the medical bills of having to treat people who use the drugs. At least if marijuana were legal and cheaper maybe there would be less of a demand for heroin and meth.

Not only are you already supporting them (in prison) you're actively making it harder for them to be productive members of society by giving them a record and limiting their career options

 

[master_shake_]

you cannot stop the war on drugs.

the prison industrial complex relies on it.

how else you gonna fill beds? states that have contracts with private prisons have to pay these prisons if the beds aren't filled.

 

[Moonbeam]

I thought Moonbeam was being sarcastic.

I wasn't being sarcastic, I was telling Bober everything he fears in frightening reality, to point out the fear base of his anxiety. He is hard and kindness and warmth, don't come easily to him. I am what he fars and fears irrationally. I believe in compassion and understanding and his hatred on my motherly love for him doesn't intimidate me. He is emotionally less developed than I am. I know it. He doesn't, and there we are. I will do what I can for him regardless of his opinion. He fears this because he can't change me. My point of view is superior and there it is.

 

[MongGrel]

Go go moron GOP sheep.

To counter Stewox I imagine if he's not in here yet he will be, hadn't even read the thread.

Suck up those tax dollars for the rich guys.

To quote Steve Miller from the 70's "He makes his living off other peoples taxes"

This country is filled with idiots these days that can vote, about all I can say.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

I have lost more friends and family to the Drug War in the last 20 years than I have lost in my entire lifetime of wars abroad.

How many good and decent human beings have been ruined by this covert civil war?

 

[unokitty]

... How many good and decent human beings have been ruined by this covert civil war?

According to Urban Institute Justice Policy Center, the yearly cost for an inmate in a minimum security prison is $21,006. Let us use this figure because 56% of all inmates are housed in minimum security institutions. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, in 2010, the average prison sentence for inmates incarcerated for marijuana abuses is 36.8 months.

With 757,969 individuals incarcerated for marijuana abuse, at $21,006 a pop, that is $15,921,896,814 to keep these individuals imprisoned for one year. At this rate, over the course of 36.8 months, $44,765,690,442 would have to be coughed up by the American taxpayer to clothe, shelter, offer medical, dental and psychiatric care, maintain, transport, and educate these individuals and maintain facilities for them to live in. This — $44 billion over more than 30 years — is the grand cost of petty crime.

An interesting point that Law Enforcement against Prohibition makes in the previously linked video is that there is not one US prison that is drug free.

Another point the retired police captain makes is that its not about drugs, its about money. Make no mistake lots and lots of people in this country profit from the drug war. Private prisons, DEA, ICE, not to mention all of the drug lawyers and judges.

Make no mistake, whether you use drugs or not, you pay for the prison system. You pay for the SWAT teams that serve the search warrants. You pay for the judges that hear the court cases. You pay for the District Attorneys that prosecute the marijuana possession cases.

If you look at the situation objectively, the only question is who do you want to profit from and control the distribution and sale of marijuana?

Two choices. Allow gangsters to profit. Or allow the government to regulate and tax it.

Uno

 

[waggy]

The drug war is nothing more then a way to keep jobs and let cops continue to be "soldiers" in the drug "war". they can buy the armored vehicles, high capacity weapons etc

If they legalized most (frankly some should never be legal) teh police would have to go back to protecting people instead of making money and jailing people over pot.

 

[rommelrommel]

you cannot stop the war on drugs.

the prison industrial complex relies on it.

how else you gonna fill beds? states that have contracts with private prisons have to pay these prisons if the beds aren't filled.

Break the contracts. Either tell the corps to go pound sand, or pay em out.

(I know that's not really your point but it's what should happen.)

 

[Paul98]

This should be a huge outrage, we must end the war on drugs. It does nothing good

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Two choices. Allow gangsters to profit. Or allow the government to regulate and tax it.

Uno

There is a third choice. Complete legalization/decriminalization.

That is the choice of true freedom.

 

[shira]

There is a third choice. Complete legalization/decriminalization.

That is the choice of true freedom.

I disagree. Absolute liberty without rational controls is anarchy, not freedom. Do you REALLY want drugs of unknown strength and containing possibly dangerous impurities freely available in the market? Do you REALLY want drugs freely available to children?

No, it makes much more sense to legalize and regulate all of the currently-illegal drugs that it makes sense to legalize/regulate. That would solve probably 90+% of the criminal-justice problems while limiting the downside of increased health risks.

And regulation has the side benefit of raising significant revenues through taxation, which can be used to fund public-awareness campaigns and detox programs. Almost everything else we put in our bodies is regulated; why should currently-illicit drugs be the exception?

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Blah blah blah *insert extreme opposite view that completely ignores the point in discussion and spread plenty of nanny state garbage on top for flavor* blah blah blah

Do you REALLY have to jump into a conversation you were not involved in to infect us with your extremist tripe?

We were talking about marijuana.

Thanks for bringing your nanny state garbage views into a discussion about a harmless substance that could easily, and MOST SAFELY, be produced individually were it just decriminalized.