The War on Drugs Starts Here

[BridgeTheGap]

If we have learned one thing in the protracted war on drugs, it is that reining in illicit drug trafficking will require more than fighting cartels south of the border. Nothing can be achieved unless this country curbs its own demand for illegal narcotics.

The Bush administration, which offers regular lectures on the superior logic of the free market, clearly doesn’t get this equation of supply and demand. Last October, Washington announced a new $1.4 billion assistance package for Mexico and Central America to combat the drug trade. Then the White House unveiled its 2009 budget, which calls for a 1.5 percent cut in spending on domestic drug prevention and treatment programs.

The statistics on drug abuse for this country are at best mixed. The share of teenagers who said they had tried illicit drugs within a year has fallen sharply since 2000, according to surveys by researchers at the University of Michigan. The percentage of students in 8th, 10th or 12th grades who tried methamphetamine declined by more than half over the same period, while cocaine abuse declined by almost a quarter among 8th graders and 10th graders.

Still, teenage abuse of other narcotics, like prescription drugs, is growing. So is drug abuse among adults. The latest National Drug Threat Assessment reports that many more Americans over 18 are trying everything from heroin to marijuana to methamphetamine.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/13/opinion/13wed4.html?th&emc=th

[ixion]

1. The so-called "war" on drugs needs to end. Period.

People have been using drugs for thousands of years, and are not going to stop. We are, in fact, hard-wired to alter our reality. There needs to be treatment for people who have a problem, but overall, drugs should be decriminalized and tolerated in our society, if we're ever to have a society again.

[Webster Green]

4. Exactly!

Why would our brains have receptors for these substances if we weren't supposed to enjoy them?

The biggest problem with any drugs are the laws prohibiting their use.:smoke:

[mrreowwr_kittty]

5. Pot should be legalized, taxed, and regulated like cigarettes and alcohol

Just imagine if all the revenue we spend trying to enforce the ban on it were instead turned into revenue coming in?

[Echo In Light]

10. Like all U.S. led "war's" on this, that, or the other: PHONY. A cover w/ulterior agenda

[BridgeTheGap]

2. I'm with you on that. It's one nightmare of a joke that's destroyed so many lives.

The problem I have with this editorial is that the vast majority of people who try drugs don't get addicted. Addiction is the problem, not the drugs themselves.
We tried prohibition with alcohol and created a whole new criminal class in the process. Doesn't seem like we've learned the lesson!

[Warpy]

3. What they don't tell you is that most kids who try this stuff

will shrug and move on. I know I tried every drug I could get my hands on over a period of about 3 years and then just walked away.

I also know there was no way to predict which of my friends would try a drug and decide that's the only thing s/he ever wanted to do for the rest of her/his life. In other words, there is no such thing as an addictive personality.

I firmly believe there is addictive brain chemistry, though. It would be great if the NIH would study people like me who don't seem to have it.

A recent study noted that there were brain chemistry differences between people who quit cigarettes cold turkey, had few serious symptoms and never smoked again and people who found it impossible to quit. I suggest they start there to find out the ways brain chemistry is different so that they might be able to predict the people who are prone to addiction before they ever pick up a cigarette, drink, or syringe.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

6. I think the only reason drugs are illegal

is that it gives the CIA a large profit margin when they bring in cocaine and heroin to this country to fund their illegal activities.

[formerfed]

8. Think That Still Goes On

Do you think that this still goes on today? It was for sure during Iran-Contra.

[Echo In Light]

11. This...

Interview with Former CIA Operative Chip Tatum-2 of 8:

This video presents one of the most provocative interviews ever conducted by Ted Gunderson, a retired FBI Senior Special Agent in Charge; it is with Gene "Chip"
Tatum, a former CIA Black Ops Assassin who was also an Iran-Contra and OSG2 NWO Insider. In this video, you'll hear Chip discuss his involvement in Operation Red Rock, Task Force 160 and OSG2. Hear him reveal the names of high profile officials who were integrally involved in these CIA covert killing sprees and/or narco-trafficking, directly or indirectly: Oliver "Ollie" North, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton. You'll learn from an "insider" about outrageous U.S. government felony crime and corruption and the impending New World Order destruction of
America. You'll hear his amazing insight concerning the Nixon Administration and the dirty politics of the Vietnam War. This is the last interview prior to his sudden disappearance in 1998.

LATEST UPDATE: Chip's tortured body was found in early 2007 washed up on a beach in Panama.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmdFGALbHdY

[Echo In Light]

9. Yes. Peter Dale Scott: DRUGS, OIL, AND WAR

http://infocollective.org/drugoilandwars.htm

http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~pdscott/dowpref.html

http://unjobs.org/authors/peter-dale-scott

[f the letter]

7. i think we as explorers of our collective pscyhe need to

_increase_ our demand for safe drugs in response to the drug war. What a ridiculous money waste. Fight organized crime, not drug use.