NEWS: America's War on Drugs Officially Being Abandoned

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has announced today that the USA will officially abandon the 'War on Drugs' in Columbia due to 'Chaos and Corruption. The effort to expunge drug production in Columbia has cost America $3,000,000,000 in the past five years.



What some have deemed 'The War on Columbia' was expected to cost upwards of $7,500,000,000 but was cut short due to its apparent inefficiency. The president of Columbia has asked President Bush to give the Columbian government an extra $130,000,000 to increase the government’s capacity to spray poison on coca crops.

Just last month five U.S. soldiers were arrested for stealing 16 kilos of coc aine from Columbia in an attempt to bring it back to the states.

what it mean for me

will i go to jail for bud

Colombia huh?

Hopefully this means that the 'War on Drugs' will be virtually eliminated on domestic soil also. This means we won't see anymore of the misleading commercials of 'stoned kids running over little children'. Not to mention US can take a note from other European countries as well as Canada and stop demonizing certain drugs and began to embrace them as a financial source.

can i smoke a bowl outside yet?

but seriously... this is good news. the war on columbian drug production was going about half as well as viet nam, but everyone seemed to love it anyway.

just goes to show how much even the revolutionaries and free thinkers will buy into, really.

In sort of a related/unrelated story, Montell Williams is campaiging for the use of Medical Marijuana to help with his MS condition.

Montel's Mission
Montel Williams was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1999. Since then, the TV talk-show host has tried a variety of drugs -- everything from morphine to Vicodin -- to ease the constant pain he feels in his lower extremities.

The drug that has proved most effective for Williams is marijuana, which is why he paid a visit to Capitol Hill recently on behalf of the Marijuana Policy Project.

Williams was on the Hill to try to persuade lawmakers to pass bills pertaining to medicinal marijuana, such as the States' Rights to Medical Marijuana Act, which allows patients who have recommendations from their doctors in California and nine other states where the medical form of the drug is legal, to grow marijuana without fear of arrest. This was Williams' third visit to Capitol Hill. So far, he has met with a total of eight lawmakers. He lives in Manhattan
www.alternet.org...

If this is so, it's the first piece of sensible foreign policy I've seen come out of this administration in a long time. The colombia situation has been a drain on taxpayers money for as far back as I can remember. Even before Plan Colombia we spent a lot of money, much of it off the books, in that region under the auspices of the war on drugs. Why do I still suspect some ruse or subterfuge is afoot?

-koji K.

[edit on 15-5-2005 by koji_K]

After years of failed anti-drug programs, perhaps now the US government will begin working towards controlling drugs instead of enacting prohibitions against them. First, prohibitions simply don't work. Prohibitions simply create black markets, organized crime groups and increased criminal activity. Instead, I hope that the US will simply look towards countries such as Canada, Great Britain, The Netherlands, Switzerland and Italy to see the progressive attitudes that they have developed towards drug control and management. Even if the "war on drugs" is over, we have to accept that drugs will still need to be controlled.

www.gdcada.org...
www.ojp.usdoj.gov...
parentingteens.about.com...
alcoholism.about.com...
alt.samhsa.gov...
www.marijuana-as-medicine.org...
www.letfreedomgrow.com...
www.productionclips.com...

These are links to information.


All the rest, plus my whole Essay like post at politics.abovetopsecret.com...

Here is another link regarding the war on drugs. Drugsense.com has created a 'War on Drugs' clock.
www.drugsense.org...

The U.S. federal government spent over $19 billion dollars in 2003 on the War on Drugs, at a rate of about $600 per second. The budget has since been increased by over a billion dollars.

Arrests for drug law violations in 2005 are expected to exceed the 1,678,192 arrests of 2003.

Someone is arrested every 20 seconds.

In 2002, 45.3 percent of the 1,538,813 total arrests for drug abuse violations were for marijuana -- a total of 697,082. Of those, 613,986 people were arrested for marijuana possession alone. This is a slight decrease from 2000, when a total of 734,497 Americans were arrested for marijuana offenses, of which 646,042 were for possession alone.

Since December 31, 1995, the U.S. prison population has grown an average of 43,266 inmates per year. About 25 per cent are sentenced for drug law violations.

Nearly 4,000 new HIV infections can be prevented before the year 2006 if the federal ban on needle exchange funding is lifted this year.

About 10 new cases could be prevented every day.
www.drugsense.org...

You are told, "Now don't drink, don't smoke pot, but it's ok to come over here and take our mind altering drug, Prozac." Are the people who tell you not to smoke pot, the same people give you the Prozac? I'm not a pot smoker by the way, but I do drink some alcohol on occasion.

Troy

.
How will the religious right respond to this?

Aren't they control freaks who have to force everyone everywhere to do what they think they should?

Maybe Rush Limbaugh has won the religious right over, into finally accepting these particular personal rights?
.

While I see it as a positive step for the US, in that we are finally ending the funding of the corrupt gov't of Colombia, I'm not ready to start handing out clean needles to school kids.

Let Colombia remain a sewer of drug supplies in our world; that doesn't mean that we have to accept what they want to sell us.

Marijuana use is another subject. I'm all for it's medical use, and if you want to smoke it recreationally and look/act like a vegetable, go for it. It's less harmful than alcohol, IMO. Too many resources are being wasted by prosecuting simple marijuana cases.

marijuana.

Wasn't this left over legislation from the 1930s to line the pockets of big business?

www.erowid.org...

The man made stuff is the real poison. Wasn't every plant of the garden good to eat? Doesn't 250M+ years make for a tight ecosystem?

I see this as merely a financial necessity for the United States. The U.S bases consolodation and now the end of the long running "War on Drugs" is all designed to reduce government spending in areas the Bush administration doesnt value. The budget deficit must really be squeezing the bejeebus out of the billions Bush needs to complete his pseudo-imperial empire in the World's oil bucket.

Hey wasnt G.W Bush arrested on drug charges? What does he want to pend an average of $13billion a year on trying to stop drug production for?

Thats money that can be syphoned into their bank accounts dont ya know

This should be a wake up call for those who support the United States other War on a non-state entity, the War on Terror. When will they learn that fighting wars against non-nation entities is impossible without slaughtering populations indescriminately?

Americans should learn from this failure, and yes the U.S lost this war on drugs, and stop the War on Terror.

After all how many people die from drug related effects in the United States? Then compare that to how many people terrorists have killed in the United States. How more vital to your national security was the War on Drugs? Yet your government is abandoning that War.

The War on Terror is set for a similar failure and is merely a pink elephant.

[edit on 16/5/05 by subz]

wonder how much money Condolezza got?

now we just have to wait for all the lawsuits to be filed.
We will soon be paying for every deformed child in Columbia to go to Oxford...

what a great policy... yep... just like vietnam, except we can get sued...

Isn't Rice the last person to be preaching about corruption?

War On Drugs yeah it's been a great joke I know I had my share of laughs.

It did precisely what it was designed to do... increase drug traffic, availability, and usage. Remember DARE? lol. Now we have COMBAT, from the makers of DARE! Here kids, this is what drugs look like. This is where you get them. This is what they cost. Now dont do them, mmkay?

This is just another step in the almighty 'plan', the operators of which you may decide on your own. The Right, NWO, Skull and Bones, maybe just the Bush family in general (dont forget Granddaddy Prescotts' dealings *cough* "... Mr. Bush's program actually increased the flow of narcotics... oh erm yes I do believe it's time for me to retire...").

Whoever you think is pulling the strings, trust that these tactics have been set in stone for a rather long time. Budgetary reasons? Hah. WoD failure? LOL. If you know anyone who has had problems with substance abuse, trust that the WoD was and is a complete success!

Recently I posted a topic on super varities of the cocoa plant which received zero feedback. That was a precursor to the problem, drug lords have enough money and technical expertise to circumvent the problem and create coca plants which yield larger amounts of coc aine per plant. The U.S cannot stop the corruption it just gets worse every day.

I don't think that we'll see any changes at, in everyday life, after the program is cancelled. It probably wasn't very efficient anyway, and on the other hand I really doubt that the US is going to embrace same kind of tolerance attitude which exists in other countries. Pot and coke will remain really, really illegal.

So, the news is more of financial nature. The US will now stop wasting cash in Colombia.

The action in nothing more than shifting gears. For the US, there is no longer need for the existence of a ‘war on drugs’ inside Columbia, especially since the ‘war on terror’ was proclaimed by the US and supporting legislation ratified. An example: FARC is classified as a ‘know terrorist entity’ to the US with ties to Cuba, IRA and drug cartels (as well as smaller organizations inside and outside Columbia). The US no longer needs to provide evidence of drug trafficking through layer after layer of insulation, just support to a terrorist group can earn you a stay at the GTMO or get you a slip for targeting.

With the cooperation of the Columbian government in this task combined with the large US force compliment already established in Columbia, the US will gain intelligence and monitor groups which are using Venezuela as safe haven, maintain a specialized regional force, continue to support and train Columbian troops as well go after persons of suspicion with much less ‘red tape’. The so called ‘war on drugs’ is over and the ‘war on terror’ has much far fewer laws to which abide.

yep, many should be happy now. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Now the US can tax your dope supplier, and get more money out of it.

And those folks who already can't handle alcohol, who can't figure out how to obtain and use pot without getting caught, are gonna be getting into it.

Illegal marijuana kept the stupidest people from getting it, I think. Way I see it, if you can't figure out how to grow your own, you aren't capable of handling the effects anyways.

Soon, the likes of Johnny Suburbia can get some fake ID and score at the local smoke shop. I wonder if welfare will subsidize it as well, for all those "hard working" illegals ol' Vincente is dumping here.

*sigh* Maybe we can set up modern "opium dens" for those weed needs. Twinkies available for a fee. And let the crappy music and poetry ideas flow. Big plans and dreams, y'all.