Reject Notion That We're Winning War on Drugs

The Southwest News-Herald ^ | February 15, 2006 | By JACOB G. HORNBERGER

[MRMEAN]

Conservatives never cease to fascinate me, given their professed devotion to “freedom, free enterprise, and limited government” and their ardent support of policies that violate that principle.

One of the most prominent examples is the drug war. In fact, if you’re ever wondering whether a person is a conservative or a libertarian, a good litmus-test question is, How do you feel about the war on drugs? The conservative will respond, “Even though I believe in freedom, free enterprise, and limited government, we’ve got to continue waging the war on drugs.” The libertarian will respond, “End it. It is an immoral and destructive violation of the principles of freedom, free enterprise, and limited government.”

The most recent example of conservative drug-war nonsense is an article entitled “Winning the Drug War,” by Jonathan V. Last in the current issue of The Weekly Standard, one of the premier conservative publications in the country.

In his article, Last cites statistics showing that drug usage among certain groups of Americans has diminished and that supplies of certain drugs have decreased. He says that all this is evidence that the war on drugs is finally succeeding and that we just need to keep waging it for some indeterminate time into the future, when presumably U.S. officials will finally be able to declare “victory.”

Of course, we’ve heard this type of “positive” drug-war nonsense for the past several decades, at least since Richard Nixon declared war on drugs back in the 1970s. What conservatives never tell us is how final “victory” will ultimately be measured. Like all other drug warriors for the past several decades, Last doesn’t say, “The statistics are so good that the drug war has now been won and therefore we can now end it,” but rather, “Victory is right around the corner. The statistics are getting better. Let’s keep going.”

Last failed to mention what is happening to the people of Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, where drug lords compete violently to export illegal drugs into the United States to reap the financial benefits of exorbitant black-market prices and profits that the drug war has produced.

Recently, drug gangs fired high-powered weapons and a grenade into the newsroom of La Manana, killing Jaime Orozco Tey, a 40-year-old father of three.

Several other journalists have been killed in retaliation for their stories on the drug war, and newspapers are now self-censoring in fear of the drug lords. There are also political killings in Nuevo Laredo arising out of the drug war, including the city's mayor after he had served the grand total of nine hours in office.

According to the New York Times, “In Nuevo Laredo, the federal police say average citizens live in terror of drug dealers. Drug-related killings have become commonplace.” The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says that the U.S.-Mexico border region is now one of the world’s most dangerous places for reporters.

Not surprisingly, Last did not mention these statistics in his “We’re winning the drug war” article.

During Prohibition, there were undoubtedly people such as Last claiming, “Booze consumption is down. We’re winning the war on booze. Al Capone is in jail. We’ve got to keep on waging the war on booze until we can declare final victory.”

Fortunately, Americans living at that time finally saw through such nonsense, especially given the massive Prohibition-related violent crime that the war on booze had spawned. They were right to finally legalize the manufacture and sale of alcohol and treat alcohol consumption as a social issue, not a criminal-justice problem.

Both conservatives and liberals have waged their war on drugs for decades, and they have reaped nothing but drug gangs, drug lords, robberies, thefts, muggings, murders, dirty needles, overcrowded prisons, decimated families, record drug busts, government corruption, infringements on civil liberties, violations of financial privacy, massive federal spending, and, of course, ever-glowing statistics reflecting drug-war “progress.”

Americans would be wise to reject, once and for all, the war on drugs, and cast drug prohibition, like booze prohibition, into the ashcan of history.

[Blackirish]

I resent the slimy insinuation ...worry about yourself. I never said drug trafficking or hard crime should be hands off ...see previous post about hanging.

Devoting billions of dollars and agents ....which could be used on the WOT...on completely failed policy. Drugs are cheaper then ever. ..is just plain stuck on stupid.

Like I said ..decirminalize them...hang the dealers ..and when people hit bottom send them to an AA meeting.

[MillerCreek]

Amusing philosophical rant, there.

Opinions are like arses: everyone has them.

Whenever anyone interjects the recant, "you're not a conservative if you..." in relationship to the illegal drug issues, I know they've lost.

[MillerCreek]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1579266/posts?page=102#102

[freepatriot32]

dont forget the all encompassing the war on drugs is for the children that has been brought up on every drug thread since freerepublic has been founded.See below for some exapmles of how the drug war is protecting children

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/apr2001/peru-a24.shtml

Missionary plane shot down in Peru: collateral damage in US "drug war"

Following the revelation that a reconnaissance aircraft carrying CIA contract employees participated in the April 20 shoot-down of a plane carrying an American missionary family over the Peruvian Amazon region, Washington has attempted to pin the blame on the Peruvian military.

Whatever the exchange between the CIA contractors and the Peruvian Air Force officer aboard the spy plane, a Peruvian jet fighter was called in and shot into the plane, killing the woman and her baby. It then continued strafing the survivors—the wounded pilot, Ms. Bowers' husband James and their six-year-old son—as they clung to the plane's burning wreckage after it crashed into the Amazon River.

DEA Kills 14-Year-Old Girl in San Antonio, Claims Self Defense

Fourteen-year-old Ashley Villarreal of San Antonio died on February 11 after being shot in the head three days earlier by a DEA agent while driving away from her home.

Ashley Villarreal was the unintended victim of a DEA stake-out designed to catch her father, Joey Villarreal, whom the DEA suspected of involvement in cocaine sales.

The man in the vehicle, David Robles, was not the DEA's suspect.

According to Trevino, Ashley Villarreal continued to drive toward the approaching agents, at which point two DEA agents fired two shots each into the car, striking the girl in the back of the head. Trevino did not explain how a boxed-in car could continue to drive or how it became a threat to the narcs.

There are other questions and doubts about the police version of events. "The agents made it very clear to the people in the car that they were police, that they were agents," Trevino said. But David Robles told the Express News that as Ashley drove him away from the house, it appeared that they were being pursued by unknown assailants. Neither, said Robles, did the assailants identify themselves as law enforcement officers until after they shot into the trapped vehicle, fatally wounding the girl.

Robles' account was supported by "earwitnesses" who heard a crash and then shots. Manuel Martinez, who lives across the street from the shooting site, told the Express News he heard a crash followed by gunfire. "I heard them call to 'Stop! Don't move,'" he said. "I didn't hear them say they were policemen." Other witnesses cited by the Express News supported that account, raising the obvious question about what threat Ashley posed to the agents after her vehicle had already been stopped and boxed in.

DEA agent Bill Swierc has been named as the man who fired the fatal shots, and both the DEA and the San Antonio Police Department are investigating the killing. But as readers of this newsletter know, police shooters in drug cases are rarely bound over for prosecution.

http://www.stopthedrugwar.org/chronicle/169/modesto.shtml

Last October, DRCNet reported on the shooting death of elementary school student Alberto Sepulveda during a raid by the Modesto, California, SWAT team as it executed a federal search warrant in a methamphetamine trafficking investigation Now, after three separate investigations by Modesto police and the city attorney, Modesto police can say only that it was an accident.

Hawn, a veteran member of the Modesto SWAT team, shot and killed young Sepulveda as the boy, following Hawn's barked commands, lay prone on his bedroom floor. At a January 10th press conference called to announce the result of the department's investigations, Police Chief Roy Wasden said Hawn's Benelli shotgun could have misfired, Hawn could have accidentally squeezed the trigger, or Hawn's equipment, particularly a knife on his belt, could have accidentally caused the gun to discharge.

Wasden, however, pointed the finger at the federal law enforcement agencies -- DEA, FBI, and IRS -- at whose behest the Modesto SWAT team executed the warrant.

Across South America, children are being killed by drug war cops.

On April 17, 2003, four unarmed male teens begged for their lives after being caught in a drug sting in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Police shot them all in the back of the head, execution style. At their funerals, unrepentant officers harassed and intimidated the family members of their victims, hoping to scare them from pressing charges.

One night in 1993, 50 homeless children lay huddled together on the steps of a Rio church. According to media reports, five hooded men, arriving in vehicles, fired into their sleeping mass, killing four before they could begin to flee, perhaps before they awoke. A fifth was shot in the back as he ran for cover. Three more were abducted and two of those three were executed later that night. The third was left for dead after being shot in the face. It was later discovered that three of the hooded gunmen were off-duty military police, employed by the US in the war on drugs.

In 2001, police officially killed 52 children in Rio alone. The majority of all police killings in Rio were done with a single shot from behind or to the head. To keep the numbers down, police used secret graves to bury many little bodies

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here

[Freedom_no_exceptions]

I'm not a member of the Libertarian party either (was briefly in late '90s). I just cannot reconcile a philosophy based on non-initiation of force with any other philosophy that favors aggression. Against drug users, drug sellers, or anyone else.

Tell me how in this real world, the decriminalization of drugs is going to happen?

Simple. If all it takes for big guys with guns to be able to kidnap drug users and sellers and toss them in cages is a few words inserted into statute books, those words should be crossed out. The resulting world would be just as "real," only much better.

Once someone begins to make a profit, governments proper response is to control that action.

This sounds neither libertarian nor Republican. My parents and I left Soviet Russia in 1980 to escape this type of philosophy.

[Moonman62]

Ones rights end where another's rights begin. Murder, burglary and robbery violate the rights of others. Possessing a flower gifted from the garden of God does not.

If you ever get nailed for pot, please post a transcript of the trial. I'd love to get the judge's reaction.

[PsyOp]

Trying to discount it as an amusing rant doesn't change facts. I too, once believed that the war on drugs would work. I still wish it could. It is simply a sad reality that it won't. Ever.

If you consider what I said a political rant, then every thing Adam Smith wrote is as well, because that's where I got it from. Those Adam Smith quotes that I linked to were taken, by me, directly from the original text. Yes. I have read the entire "Wealth of Nations."

Milton and Rose Friedman (Nobel Laureate conservative econimists), hold the same opinion (read "Free To Choose"). So, if I'm ranting, I'm in good company. There is no conservative economist, that understands and believes in capitalism, that believes that the war on drugs will ever be successful. It is an economic impossibility.

If you think I am wrong. Please be specific and point out how. Knee-jerk reactions don't count.

And don't confuse people like me with wanna-be dopers. Reality does not always dove-tail with the way we would like things to be, or even with conservative agendas. I'm a conservative because I believe in following the facts where they lead you, even if it's not where you wanted to go. Fantasy is for liberals, and in the case of the drug war, for many conservatives as well.

[pageonetoo]

Gee Dad, you make such an eloquent argument. (/s) The only problem with it is that the facts don't support you. The link to anything can be made for anything. Just think 'Kevin bacon".

Some people like to stop at the 7-11 and pick up a twelve pack every evening. I know several. They drink themselves into a stupor. But, the first tab is pulled on the way home. They learned that activity earlier, when in the service, or from their friends (I was Navy 66-68, and can cite lots of evidence to support that claim).

I am not for making all drugs legal. I am definitely against keeping marijuana on the list of prohibited substances. I would much rather see anybody high on pot, instead of alcohol. I have experience with both.

Drunks tend to fall into two major categories. Abrasive, or abusive. Most potheads are just happy to be sitting around with some twinkies! I don't know of any factually based reports of hyped up pothead killing and maiming. That can't be said for the alchies.

[Magic Fingers]

"I regard people who take drugs as being vaguely suicidal."

I regard people who eat at McDonald's the same way.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

So no need to change anything...just end the War on Drugs.
Then arrest anyone who is selling drugs illegally...whether that is Pharmaceutical drugs or cocaine or marijuana? BTW, in NY state it used to be ( not sure if it still is) you had to go to a state liquor store to buy hard liquor.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

wow. The logic of your post just astounds me!

[TheSpottedOwl]

Oh, okay. I thought you meant an accident victim. The ACLU would never let your proposal see the light of day.

Stop and think for a minute. How do druggies pay for their habit? Not by working a 40 hr a week job, that's for sure.

[augggh]

How do druggies pay for their habit? Not by working a 40 hr a week job, that's for sure.

Actually, plenty of them do just that.

It's quite possible to maintain a drug addiction while meeting the responsibilities of living in society.

I wouldn't say the majority of drug addicts do, but certainly a measurable percentage.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

How do people get pain meds or other controlled substances unless someone sells them.

How do adults buy booze unless someone selss it legally?

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

thank you for your rational response.

[tacticalogic]

Did you know that Ronald Reagan called libertarianism the "heart and soul of conservatism"?

The libertarianism that Reagan spoke of describes a philosophy of preserving individual liberty, with the idea that doing so is in the best long-term interest of the nation. Sadly, we're seeing an attempt to re-define it as being synonymous with anarchy simply to discredit the Libertarian party. The cost is the loss of the idea of libertarianism Reagan spoke, and leaving his words incoherent as a result.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

I'm with you!!!!!!

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Good points.

[DakotaRed]

Since we can't win the war on murder, maybe that should be legalized too? What about robbery? Can't stop it, legalize it. While we are at it, why not just legalize terrorism as well. It's sure been around and we are having a hard time stopping it.

As long as people refuse to face life and need their "crutch" in the form of drugs to escape reality, we will have illegal drugs. Legalizing them will do nothing to get people to face reality and see they are responsible for their own life and don't need escapes from reality.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

No problem...you stop drivers now that are causing problems, give them sobriety and breathalyzer tests...and many on prescription drugs are also getting DUI's for driving impaired.