Ming the Mechanic:
Counting the Costs of the Drug War

The NewsLog of Flemming Funch
 Counting the Costs of the Drug War2004-06-03 15:24
14 comments
picture by Flemming Funch

A good article on alternet about the costs of the drug "war".
Each year, the U.S. government spends more than $30 billion on the drug war and arrests more than 1.5 million people on drug-related charges. More than 318,000 people are now behind bars in the U.S. for drug violations. This is more than the total number of people incarcerated for all crimes in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy and Spain combined.
Well, I believe that the meaning of an action is the result that it gets. The purpose of the drug war is obviously to finance a multi-billion dollar criminal cartel, to make sure that the american population get unpredictable bad quality drugs, paying as much as possible for them, and it is to acquire hundreds of thousands of prison slaves who can work for the commercial prison industry for next to nothing.

If we even assumed it for a moment to be a worthwhile goal to inspire people to use fewer drugs, of the kind not manufactured by the pharmaceutical industry, then prohibition and criminalization has the worst possible record. In Holland, where one can freely buy hashis in coffeeshops, there are half as many cannabis users as in the United States, and Holland has amongst the lowest rates in the world of hard drug use, overdoses, drug crime, murders, and any other bad stuff that relates to drugs. See here, here, here or here. As several of these articles point out, the real studies are mostly forbidden reading in places like the U.S.

The drug war is a criminal scam. Its likely aim is the complete opposite of what it claims.


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14 comments

3 Jun 2004 @ 17:27 by Jon Husband @24.87.29.68 : Imprisonment and Unemployment
I guess, too, that if the incarcerated drug users weren't in jail, the unemplyment rate would go up by 1/2 to one full percent.

Now, I suppose they could all go to work in coffee houses if they were made legal.

Loved Amsterdam.  



3 Jun 2004 @ 17:47 by skookum : yes.. ok
but it costs more than I make in a year to incarerate one prisoner. Seems to me this is all funded by the taxpayer.  


3 Jun 2004 @ 18:15 by jmarc : its a shame
like we used to say back in the 80s, just say no to nancy(reagan). to bad we didn't. i'd like to take this opportunity to celebrate my own sobrietry, totally drug and alcohol free for over 100 days, and it sure as hell didn't have any help from the government. Just a decision i made and stuck with.In fact i smoked weed for a good 25 years, never went without. The drug war is surely a farce.  


3 Jun 2004 @ 18:26 by skookum : Good for you jmarc
takes a lot of self determination to do that.  


3 Jun 2004 @ 18:41 by jmarc : wasn't taking me
where i wanted to be, no real struggle, maybe initially for a few days. I'm sure it's hard for some people, and maybe would have been for me at another time in life. If it were legal though, i bet it would loose alot of the mystique and the rebelliousness attached to it and it wouldn't be so popular. I can't think of any good reason for putting people in jail for possessing some weed though. That's just criminal.  


3 Jun 2004 @ 18:57 by ming : Choices
So many things would work so much better if there were a free market of thought and action. I.e. we each can choose what we believe is right for us, or struggle to do what we believe is right for us. And if there's a need for some service, somebody can find a business opportunity there, and strive to deliver the best quality product to the most people. Prohibition and criminalization of something a significant number of people want only influences things in all the wrong ways. Low quality for high prices, multi-national criminal empires, and more people doing what they don't really think is right for them or others. Whether one should smoke weed, get a tattoo, start or stop drinking, smoking, or whatever, those are part of somebody's personal process, and putting anybody in jail for it just doesn't help it.  


4 Jun 2004 @ 08:28 by Klaus Gormsen @195.47.131.159 : The new drug war on alternative medicine
Maybe the war against drugs like hashish and narcotics and psychedelic drugs will be nothing compared to the drug war on users of alternative healing medidicines (orthomolcular and so on)and the "system" thats coming up. A Hell lot of vitamin, mineral and herbal supplements will be OUTLAWED in the EU by august 2005, only a few allowed by a very restrictive "positive list". This will make it very very difficult for alternative healing. The EU is totally working for the (medical) drug industry in the war against alternative healing effectively trying to outlaw this ever more succesfull alternative/supplement to ordinary medicine. It will be interesting to what police ressources will be necessary when all kinds of patients will try to smuggle "illegal substances" like high dose minerals, vitamins and herbal remedies. Probably fighting this drug war with high fines, but maybe well go to jail for buying illegal highdosed vitamins for healing and prevention of disease! There are people for instance in the "Mayday" organisation fighting this EU directive like mad, I hope they succeed. If not we have a new and very interesting "War on drugs" in the EU.  


4 Jun 2004 @ 09:22 by ming : Vitamin War
Yeah, I'm aware of that. CODEX, etc. Totally sucks. I notice already how, here in France, in is rather hard to come by the types of vitamins we're used to. They're in ridiculous small doses and with added sugar and color and other junk and very expensive. At least I can then buy what we need in England. But if they wipe out the whole field across all of EU, on the bidding of the pharmaceutical industry, it is going to be hard. Not looking good for alternative healing at all. They'd obviously rather that we're hooked on synthetic drugs than staying healthy in natural ways on our own.  


4 Jun 2004 @ 17:14 by vaxen : start...
blowing up the pharmacies and killing/kidnapping, for ransome, all chemists and pseudo scientist/ androids that work for the 'pharmaceutical' rip off industry. people outnumber the gestapo battalions and drug company security 'forces' by millions to one so...they could also be dealt with in a 'deep black' kind of way. while that is being done why not kill off a few hundred international banker/criminals as well and get the mafiosi behind it all too. hang em all in the sqaure and celebrate while we do the dirty deed. a kind of reverse ethnic cleansing only in this case all pharmaceutical, and related industries, such as the oil industry, executives and kingpins would be genocided/marched right off the face of the planet. all governments, too, and those who form them can be dealt with in like manner. yeah! power to the sheople! otherwise? same old same old...

http://www.studentsfororwell.org/  



4 Jun 2004 @ 17:22 by ming : A bit severe
I can't recommend that, of course, as, well, it is illegal and generally frowned upon to string people up on the townhall square nowadays. Aside from that, the magnitude of what is needed is about right. And the people greatly outnumber the few mob/pharmaceutical/banking/oil/arms lynchpins who work towards aims that don't serve the rest of us. The key thing is that we realize that, and we network effectively, and act collectively.  


6 Jun 2004 @ 16:41 by Quirkeboy @209.92.185.199 : Another victim of the drug war..
A police officer died here Saturday night in a gun battle.
The violence and cost of this drug war are staggering..
The hottest new thing here in the US is mandatory minimum sentences.. which is caused by fear which has been shoved down our throats by the media and the politicians who ALL have a "tough on crime" platform.. (although crime is a fraction of what it was 20 years ago)
So you end up with people in jail for 13 years for selling pot.. where a child molester can get 5!! I think the prison system is a multimillion dollar industry and a great way to get the damn "liberals" off the street.
The republicans put alot of effort into keeping x-criminals from voting in the Florida elections... mainly because young ethnic people are overwhelmingly liberal. Drug wars keep them out of the voting booth.
What is really strange is when you watch television.. and every commercial break is trying to sell you a drug to cure your social anxiety disorder.. your depression.. your hangnails.. if you cry too much.. if you laugh too much.. if you're anything thats not considered "normal"!! But.. marijuana which could cure depression and social anxiety disorder.. is illegal!! And you know why.. because you can grow it in your backyard.. how are the pharmaceutical companies going to make any money off of that?  



8 Jun 2004 @ 08:26 by celestial @131.191.56.165 : REVENUES ov the WICKED
After reading this, and thinking about a solution, Ming's "The key thing is that...we NETWORK EFFECTIVELY, and ACT COLLECTIVELY" is truly the answer.
Proverbs 15:06 "...but in the revenues of the wicked is trouble" pretty much describes it all. The greedy have conspired together to increase their wealth at the expense of humanity as a whole. All nationalities must work together to overcome the monster facing all ov us.
Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (with truth, and righteousness, and faith)  



8 Jun 2004 @ 17:16 by ming : Drugs
It is absolutely bizarre having a "drug war" against natural substances that mostly have the effect of making people feel good and relaxed or dreaming weird dreams while they're awake. While at the same time, yes, TV bombards you several times per hour with paid commercials encouraging us to use synthetical pharmaceutical drugs. Many of which are addictive and of very questionable value, and mainly intended to make people unfeeling and docile.

So, it is one of those things that indeed require us to get better organized, better connected, better informed, and able to act together, manifesting the will of the people, rather than just being manipulated by commercial and political special interests.  



29 Apr 2016 @ 04:15 by Stone @188.143.232.32 : LWHtmzEqRQwnx
Salut Olivier,Merci énormément pour le temps que tu as mis à crée cet art20lei3c; tu me sauve la vie ! Quick Books n’est pas trop fort sur le support !  


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