Comments on: LEAP once again points out the insanity of the “war on drugs”

By: Dear Mom and Dear Dad: new ads regarding legalized marijuana : Dangerous Intersection

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 02:29:58 +0000

[...] I’ve never used marijuana and I’m not trying to encourage other people to use marijuana. But neither am I discouraging adults who want to responsibly use marijuana the same way as many people responsibly use alcohol and prescription drugs. The reason I promote the legalization of marijuana is that I am horrified by the way that our politicians make personal marijuana use a criminal justice issue. Arresting 800,000 people each year (the equivalent of the population of the state of South Dakota) is a waste of taxpayer dollars and it makes our streets violent. We should tax and regulate marijuana for the same reasons we did away with Prohibition. This position is advocated by many people with careers in law enforcement, including all members of LEAP. [...]

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Thu, 22 Mar 2012 15:15:43 +0000

“A group of police officers, prosecutors, judges and other criminal justice professionals – including Seattle’s former chief of police – is endorsing I-502, the Washington initiative to regulate and tax marijuana that voters will decide on this November.” http://digg.com/newsbar/topnews/cops_judges_endorse_washington_i_502_marijuana_legalization

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 03:47:34 +0000

“At some point in the distant past, the war on drugs might have been popular. But not anymore — the polling is clear, but beyond that, the last three Presidents have used illegal drugs. So why do we still put hundreds of thousands of people in steel cages for pot-related offenses? Well, there are many reasons, but one of them is, of course, money in politics. Corruption. Whatever you want to call it, it’s why you can’t smoke a joint without committing a crime, though of course you can ingest any number of pills or drinks completely within the law.”

http://www.truth-out.org/why-cant-you-smoke-pot-because-lobbyists-are-getting-rich-war-drugs/1331480883

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 01:54:34 +0000

2011′s significant events regarding marijuana can be viewed here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/30/marijuana-policy-top-pot-stories-2011_n_1176744.html#s581464&title=Lawmakers_Propose_Ending

Once again, more than 800,000 Americans were arrested for possessing marijuana. We apparently can’t think of any better use for law enforcement and our criminal justice system.

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 05:40:49 +0000

California is gearing up to get a new law on the ballot: RMLW (Regulate Marijuana Like Wine). Follow this link for an analysis of what went wrong with the previous effort, and why proponents are quite optimistic about RMLW. http://regulatemarijuanalikewine.com/legal-and-political-analysis-of-regulate-marijuana-like-wine/

By: Mike M.

Mike M. — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 18:19:04 +0000

Also, in addition to increasing police department budgets and bringing in more toys for the boys in blue to play with, what the escalating “War on Drugs” does is create hostility between officers and the citizens they’re supposed to be “protecting.” Think about this: if the police concentrated their efforts into only stopping real crimes (you know, crimes that have actual victims) then all law-abiding citizens would love the police, and hail them as heroes. Instead, by forcing police to act as morality thugs and the enforcement arm of the Vatican, it creates an antagonistic and disfunctional relationship between the police and the people. Punishing citizens for breaking religious, moral or cultural taboos that hurt no one should not be the function of the police, but a function of the clerics and priestcraft (if they could still get away with it, you know they would!).

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 21:57:24 +0000

From Huffpo, more on our screwed up priorities regarding the “war on drugs”:

Arresting people for assaults, beatings and robberies doesn’t bring money back to police departments, but drug cases do in a couple of ways. First, police departments across the country compete for a pool of federal anti-drug grants. The more arrests and drug seizures a department can claim, the stronger its application for those grants.

“The availability of huge federal anti-drug grants incentivizes departments to pay for SWAT team armor and weapons, and leads our police officers to abandon real crime victims in our communities in favor of ratcheting up their drug arrest stats,” said former Los Angeles Deputy Chief of Police Stephen Downing. Downing is now a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an advocacy group of cops and prosecutors who are calling for an end to the drug war.

“When our cops are focused on executing large-scale, constitutionally questionable raids at the slightest hint that a small-time pot dealer is at work, real police work preventing and investigating crimes like robberies and rapes falls by the wayside,” Downing said.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/21/drug-war-incentives-police-violent-crime_n_1105701.html

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 03:47:36 +0000

“I think the federal war on drugs is a total failure,” said Paul to hearty applause from the audience.

“The drug war is out of control,” he added. “I fear the drug war, because it undermines our civil liberties, it magnifies our problems on the borders — we spent like over the last 40 years a trillion dollars on this war and, believe me, the kids can still get the drugs. It just hasn’t worked.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/republican-debate-gop-debate_n_1108379.html#8_romney-forgets-his-first-name-as-debate-kicks-off

And see this video of Ron Paul’s condemnation of the “war on drugs.” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/22/ron-paul-pot_n_1109102.html

By: Mike M.

Mike M. — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 23:18:25 +0000

You don’t say? I find that so hard to believe. Maybe those narco detectives forgot their White Hats at home that day? Gosh, these are the Good Guys, here to Serve and Protect us right? Boy, I hope they catch and reprimand these bad apples, or at least take away a few of their vacation days. Darn–see how one or two renegade officers can blacken the reputation of a fine upstanding moral group of fellas?

By: Erich Vieth

Erich Vieth — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 04:17:05 +0000

“A former NYPD narcotics detective snared in a corruption scandal testified it was common practice to fabricate drug charges against innocent people to meet arrest quotas.”