From NBC:
Epic Drug Lab Scandal Results in More Than 20,000 Convictions Dropped
..."This was a mistake that comes from the war on drugs," said Carl Williams, an ACLU lawyer. ...
When I hear conservatives complain about the weight of the government on our lives, I hear about things like high taxes, regulations, litigation, etc. They're annoyed.
When I hear disadvantaged young people complain about the weight of the government on our lives, I hear about already difficult lives being utterly and permanently destroyed under the hammer of the War on Drugs. They're doomed.
Please, conservatives, use the same logic you apply to regulations, taxes, litigiousness, to the plight of these people. It's not as if they're lives are ideal in the first place. The War on Drugs, as it does with so many other social ills, only makes things worse.
JMJ
The War on Drugs has been a social failure, consumed massive amounts of tax dollars, and created a prision population for which there is no justification.
ReplyDeleteA majority of conservatives believe punishment is more effective than addressing the underlying causes creating the symptoms.
Yeah, but it's a great way to keep down the "darkies" and the "trailer trash." They know what they're doing.
DeleteJMJ
If we wanted to keep down the "darkies", the best solution would be to legalize canibus. That way, the State would get all the money (through taxes) and the drug dealing inner-city economies would collapse.
DeleteThey may know what they're doing , but, the long term results of their near term thinking is not going to be anything this nation really wants to witness.
ReplyDeleteOr maybe it is.
BTW, I have this theory the human race will be a lighter shade of darkDr across the board someday anyway. Nothing wrong with that.
Its cool with me! Then maybe white people won't have to turn their skin into leather for the sake of being tan anymore! LOL!
DeleteAnd you are right on about the long-term consequences of the WoD. If they don't stop it, and with all the guns all over the streets of America, it's going to lead to one hell of a conflagration one day...
JMJ
This article may be of interest to you Jersey and others who comment on this post... The age of mass incarceration may actually be abating
ReplyDeleteI love this line..."Federal policy makes headlines, but in the vast majority of cases, criminal justice takes place at the grass roots. And in recent years, that is the level at which the most promising reform efforts have occurred. Those efforts can and should continue, whatever might happen next in Washington."
ReplyDeleteMost government involvement in our ordinary lives is with the states and counties and cities and towns - not the federal government. Guys like Sheldon Adelson may have big issues with Washington, but not Joe Six Pack (though you can be sure ol' Shelly is paying for ads to tell Joe otherwise).
What the federal government can do is reclassify drugs and set minimum standards, as the industry, "legal" and "illegal," is almost completely interstate and international. I am familiar with the various theories on connection or lack thereof of the drug war on violence, but with the way our prisons are actually run, the environment, the way they are considered among the violent and hellish in the world, it's hard for me to detach the war on drugs from violent crime. They are attached by the prisons themselves.
Great find!
JMJ
Yes, lets legalize drugs and let the inner city economies depend upon gambling and prostitution alone.
Delete:P
DeleteYes, legalize drugs, regulate them, remove the need for the black market and gangland enforcers, and earmark the revenue or drug education and treatment.
ReplyDeleteSimple, sensible, and right. Of course that is why old school thinking and authoritarians along with morality police will fight it tooth and nail.
The inner city becomes an economic daed zone. I love it!
DeleteSo much for livion' for the city!
Delete