Ending the War on Drugs

[Joanne98]

President Obama faces a heap of crises: a major economic recession, crumbling national infrastructure, and ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Buried in that heap is another war, one less present in public discourse but no less toxic: the drug war. The concentrated battleground of the drug war has been on domestic soil, with America’s so-called interdiction efforts spreading the fight across the world, from poppy-rich Afghanistan to the coca-nurturing Andes to the most brutal battlefield of them all, Mexico, which saw more than 5,600 drug-related murders last year, including several that involved publicly displayed decapitations

With the Obama administration, many see an unprecedented opportunity for meaningful criminal justice/drug war reform. Much of that hope stems from Obama’s seven-year track record as a state senator in Illinois—a state with one of the nation’s largest prison populations. In Springfield, Obama sponsored more than 100 bills on crime, corrections, treatment, re-entry, racial disparities and the death penalty that were mostly (though not exclusively) progressive in nature.

He also gained respect among younger voters for his willingness to talk candidly about his teenage drug use, and his present-day battle with nicotine addiction. During a campaign stop at Northwestern University while running for the U.S. Senate in 2004, Obama told a crowd of students that he supported decriminalizing marijuana (a position he no longer supports publicly). More significantly, Obama flatly stated that “the war on drugs has been an utter failure.”

“Most of what Obama has said previously on criminal justice issues has been good,” says David Borden, director of the Drug Reform Coordination Network in Washington, D.C. “If he carries some of that into office, we could see an enormous change in the direction of the drug war and sentencing policies. That said, criminal justice reform, especially when it comes to drugs, has always been the first issue the Democrats drop when it looks like they’re being called ‘soft on crime.’ “

http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/4272/ending_the_war_on_drugs

[Royal Sloan 09]

1. K & R,

War on Drugs = FAILURE

and we make the world comply with our drug war, it's just wrong!

Yes, We Cannabis!

:kick: :smoke: :thumbsup:

[midnight]

2. The DEA is now going after perscription drug users. I'm sure

you have seen the commercials about the medicine cabinet in the bathroom...

[bemildred]

3. A big waster of money, and we need the money.

It is worth mentioning that it was no accident that alcohol prohibition got cancelled in the last depression.

[Oldenuff]

4. We can always hope

that at long last,sane policies regarding drugs will be adopted,and that our freedoms and liberties as adults will finally be respected.(with regards to Cannabis legalization at least)