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Serpo
17th April 2012, 04:28 PM
If you happen to need even more evidence that President Obama has gutted his campaign promises and betrayed not only the left but also African Americans who enthusiastically supported his election, he has just gone public with his support for the continued war on drugs. Keeping marijuana criminalized, it seems -- and keeping more African Americans in prison -- is a top priority for the Obama administration.

This means Obama supports the midnight DEA raids on our citizenry; the filling of prisons with small-time pot smokers; the disproportionately punitive sentences handed down to black men and women across America who aren't really criminals at all... they merely suffer from a chemical addiction that would more rightly be considered a medical issue.

Nearly every country in Latin America has now openly and publicize recognized that the so-called "war on drugs" is a complete and total failure. But Obama thinks it's just great! Fill the prisons! Prosecute more blacks! Buy more guns and night vision gear for the DEA! That's what Obama's America stands for, it seems.

"I personally and my administration's position is that legalization is not the answer," Obama said just hours before the meeting of Latin American leaders at the Convention Centre in Cartagena, Colombia, for the Americas Summit (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-17716926). Meanwhile, Obama's top Secret Service agents and military commanders were banging Colombian whores in the background, then refusing to pay them their $47 prostitution fee. (http://www.naturalnews.com/035580_Secret_Service_Colombia_prostitutes...) Obama had "no comment" on that particular issue.

Let's get real about all this. Marijuana prohibition simply doesn't work. At least not for reducing crime and drug addiction. Anyone who thinks prohibition works is completely delusional. But it does work for certain special interests. What are those special interests, anyway?

Who BENEFITS from the continued criminalization of marijuana?
If you really want to know why prohibition remains in place with marijuana, it's simple to find out why. Just ask yourself "Who benefits?"

• The DEA. Without a drug "problem," the DEA won't get hundreds of millions of dollars worth of increases in operating budgets from the federal purse strings. If drugs were decriminalized, the DEA would have to be sharply downsized (which would be a great thing for liberty and safety but a terrible thing for the DEA honchos).

• Private prisons. Thanks to illegal agreements between prison operators and state governments, prisons can put prisoners to work at slave labor wages -- just a few cents an hour -- manufacturing goods that the corporate prison owners sell for pure profit. If you thought the Nike sweatshops in Asia were bad, go visit a prison in the USA some time and watch the slave labor taking place right here at home.

• Local police. The "drug war" is the excuse that local police departments use to receive more grant money for weapons, assault gear and now even armored assault vehicles to be used against the citizens. Without the drug war excuse, all this grant money disappears and these cops have to go back to actually serving the community instead of bashing in doors like a bunch of cocaine cowboys.

• The government drug runners! It's now a well-known fact that the ATF, DEA and other government agencies are all heavily involved in running drugs across America. Just Google any of these terms if you want to check it out for yourself. The ATF is even engaged in money laundering through the globalist banks. This is why government crackdowns on drugs are highly selectively -- drug raids are really just a way to eliminate the competition so that the biggest drug dealer of all -- the government itself -- can continue to rake in the maximum profits. Legalizing drugs would obviously cause street prices to collapse, sucking all the profits out of the government-run drug business.

• Local District Attorneys and prosecutors. Without the drug war to give them a juicy field of easy targets to prosecute, their careers would take a huge hit. It's so much harder to arrest real criminals than to go after pot smokers and raw milk farmers, isn't it? Gee, imagine the difficulty of actually fighting REAL crime for a change?

• Big Government. The entire government benefits from the continued criminalization of drugs. For starters, it establishes the outrageous precedent that government can outlaw a native plant -- even a plant that has grown wild across North America for hundreds of years. This alone is an outrageous encroachment on fundamental human freedom. Beyond that, the government can always point to "drug violence" as another excuse to squash our freedoms and put in place a tyrannical police state. It's all "for your own good," of course. Isn't it always?

• Big Pharma and the hospital industry. Because recreational drugs are illegal, they're often cut with dangerous chemicals that cause liver damage and kidney damage. This results in yet more repeat business for hospitals and the drug industry. If street drugs were legalized, they would be standardized and regulated, and adulteration of those products would be extremely rare. They would be safer to use, in other words, which is exactly what the pharmaceutical industry is dead set against. They only make money when people are damaged or sick from using street drugs concocted in somebody's trailer.

Who LOSES from the drug war? You!
So we've covered the beneficiaries of the drug war, but who loses from it? You do, of course: Your liberties, freedoms, tax dollars and personal safety are all threatened by the existence of the war on drugs. Decriminalizing and regulating these drugs would have an enormously positive impact on you and your life.

If drugs were decriminalized, here's what would happen:

• Drug gangs would vanish as their source of revenues (illegal drugs at black market prices) dry up.

• Drug-related crime would sharply fall.

• State revenues would skyrocket from the regulated sale of legalized marijuana.

• The corrupt prison industry would collapse to perhaps only 25% of its current size.

• Your personal safety and security would be greatly enhanced due to the lack of drug violence, shootings, home invasions and more.

• Mexican drug gangs would lose their power base, resulting in a sharp drop in crime along the border.

• Former "criminal" pot smokers would once again become taxpaying members of the workforce, contributing to the financial upkeep of society rather than draining it as prisoners.

• The happiness index across society would sharply rise.

Even the Red Cross says decriminalize marijuana
It's all pure economics, my friends. Cause and effect. Legalize recreational drugs and you end the violence, the crime, the prison system overload and the entire underground market for the stuff.

It's all so obvious that even the Red Cross has called for decriminalization (http://copssaylegalize.blogspot.com/2012/03/red-cross-calls-for-drug....).

At the same time, countless members of the FBI, DEA and active-duty police organizations are also openly calling for decriminalization (http://www.leap.cc/).

The rational argument for ending prohibition is further detailed at www.Norml.org (http://www.Norml.org)

There are no rational reasons for keeping marijuana criminalized. There are only political reasons for doing so. That's why Obama continues to support the irrational war on drugs -- because it's a political issue.

Obama, the betrayer of the political left
Obama, of course, is a teleprompter-reading puppet of the global elite. He does what they tell him to do, and right now they're telling him to keep pushing Drug War propaganda because it's a highly effective way to expand the police state and keep people living in fear while denying them access to plant-based medicine.

Obama, it turns out, has betrayed the left so many times I can hardly keep count: He supports the GMO industry, he signed the NDAA which expands secret arrests and secret Gitmo-style prisons, he's an opponent of farm and food freedom (http://www.naturalnews.com/035301_Obama_executive_orders_food_supply....) and he has proven himself to be nothing more than a big business operative who defends the status quo while preaching "hope and change" that he never delivers.

Obama has assaulted free speech, due process (http://www.naturalnews.com/034537_NDAA_Bill_of_Rights_Obama.html), medical freedom and parental rights. In doing so, he has betrayed many of the top priorities of the very people who once put him into office.

He wants to keep marijuana criminalized because that's what the police state fascist system of corporate control wants.

Of course, this doesn't mean the alternatives we're given are going to be any better. This is not some pitch for Romney, for God's sake. That guy is just as much of a corporate sellout as Obama (and Bush before him). Elections are created to present the illusion that the People have a choice when, in reality, all they're voting for is which color of puppet they want to see on television while we're all being imprisoned, exploited, enslaved and oppressed by a growing fascist state.

Care to guess which candidate would have decriminalized marijuana from the get-go? His name is Ron Paul, and the ideas of freedom and liberty that he espouses are the real answer for the future of our nation. No matter who shows up in the ballot box this November, Ron Paul is my President, because he's the only candidate who is deeply committed to legalizing freedom in America.
oO***oO***oO***oO***oO***oO***oO***oO***oO***



http://www.naturalnews.com/035584_Obama_War_on_Drugs_prohibition.html

Serpo
17th April 2012, 04:38 PM
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/sm/custom/8a2d19aafc.jpg

Plus the CIA would have too much to lose if drugs where legal...........:(??

PatColo
18th April 2012, 04:21 AM
Thread: Afghan opium production up > 3100% since '01 invasion (http://gold-silver.us/forum/showthread.php?58993-Afghan-opium-production-up-gt-3100-since-01-invasion)

also:

Thursday, December 8, 2011

10 Ways the War on Drugs is a Wild Success (http://www.activistpost.com/2011/12/10-ways-war-on-drugs-is-wild-success.html)


http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B0NwK19ZGaU/TuDVMrDxckI/AAAAAAAANJ8/MPLvANZt8bA/s200/Dees-Bush-passing-the-Afghan-poppy-ball-to-Obama1.jpg (http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-B0NwK19ZGaU/TuDVMrDxckI/AAAAAAAANJ8/MPLvANZt8bA/s1600/Dees-Bush-passing-the-Afghan-poppy-ball-to-Obama1.jpg)
Dees Illustration (http://www.deesillustration.com/)

Eric Blair
Activist Post (http://www.activistpost.com/2011/12/10-ways-war-on-drugs-is-wild-success.html)

For all the evidence of how the War on Drugs has failed society, there's equally as much evidence of how it is a great success to those who continue to support it. The drug war has many advantages if you wish to control society and expand your empire. It also enriches several industries that would otherwise have a very difficult time staying solvent without it.

Here are ten ways the War on Drugs is a wild success:

Military-Industrial Profits: As the Vietnam War came to an end, it struck fear into the military-industrial machine that enjoyed great profits from that conflict. In a world where contrived enemies were needed to keep a constant funding of weapons, Richard Nixon declared drugs "Public Enemy Number 1" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsrxpVUKUK0). Thus, domestic armies were erected to combat the illegal drug trade, delivering consistent cash flow to weapons manufacturers. These companies make money, not just from the needs of the DEA, border patrol, and local police forces, but also from drug traffickers. Win-win and profits all around.

Huge Boon to Private Prisons: The private prison industry thrives off long sentences for drug offenders. At least 25% of their profits come from these nonviolent criminals. A great number more are held on "drug related" charges that may have resulted in drug violence. However, the current trend (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States) shows that three-quarters of new inmates admitted to state prisons are nonviolent offenders. Private prisons clearly depend on arresting pot smokers and addicts of more severe drugs.


Prevents Higher Unemployment Rates: Imagine if the millions of American currently jailed on drug charges were released into a job market already suffering from real unemployment numbers over 20% (http://www.shadowstats.com/alternate_data/unemployment-charts). Additionally, if it wasn't for drugs being illegal, countless people like DEA agents, court staff, prison guards, parole officers, drug dealers, etc would otherwise be unemployed. Thank goodness for the war on drugs, or the U.S. economy would look even worse.

Suppresses Minority Populations: It's often said that the drug war is a war on minorities (http://www.alternet.org/rights/49782/): "According to the ACLU, African Americans make up an estimated 15% of drug users, but they account for 37% of those arrested on drug charges, 59% of those convicted and 74% of all drug offenders sentenced to prison. Or consider this: The U.S. has 260,000 people in state prisons on nonviolent drug charges; 183,200 (more than 70%) of them are black or Latino." So it is a huge success for those who wish to suppress minority populations.

Drives Up Prices: Making any substance illegal will result in much higher prices than a free market would dictate. Especially when there's a high demand for that substance. In the case of the cannabis plant, which grows like a weed and requires very little value added, the dried flower would virtually be free if it wasn't for the harsh restrictions and dangers involved in producing and distributing it. These high prices are terrific for drug dealers and even medical marijuana growers opposed legalization (http://www.allgov.com/Unusual_News/ViewNews/Marijuana_Growers_Voted_against_Legalization_10110 7) in California because it threatened their profits.

Drug Violence Justifies Tough Gun Laws: The violence generated from the prohibition of drugs is reminiscent of the extreme mob violence during the prohibition of alcohol. Prohibition of anything will always create black markets which require firearms to protect banned products. Recently, the U.S. government itself was caught red-handed supplying guns (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ntp4iv_s0dY) to Mexican drug cartels in their "Fast and Furious" scandal. It's now proven that the ATF plotted to use Fast and Furious (http://www.prisonplanet.com/confirmed-atf-plotted-to-use-fast-and-furious-to-demonize-second-amendment.html) to push for new gun control regulations. Indeed, most street violence is due to turf wars over the drug trade, and tougher gun laws are proposed as the war escalates. It's wonderful for those who blame violence on guns and wish to restrict them from law-abiding citizens.

Protects Big Pharma Monopolies: No one is happier about the war on drugs than Big Pharma. Their control over the FDA and monopoly of "controlled substances" would be threatened if all drugs were legalized. They want you addicted to their FDA-approved versions of heroin and cocaine, not something you can get on the black market. In turn, they also benefit greatly when the prices of street drugs increase, as they can then inflate the cost of their products. They love the drug war so much they've lobbied to extend it to vitamins and supplements (http://www.naturalnews.com/021789.html).

Allows Proxy Armies: If you want to create an empire by force, but it's politically disadvantageous to base your army in certain countries, then the global war on drugs is your ticket to supplying troops or creating proxy armies. One of the most recent examples is Costa Rica (http://www.activistpost.com/2010/07/are-us-taxpayers-funding-empire.html), a peaceful country in Central America without an army, where the U.S. bribed the government to allow the Navy and Marines to be stationed off the Caribbean coast to fight the war on drugs. In other nations where even this won't be allowed, the CIA funds and arms one of the drug cartels who then act as their hired enforcers, or they're used as an excuse for governments to accept U.S. help to combat the enemy they created. In either case, the U.S. sells more arms and trains soldiers to be used upon command.

Keeps Big Banks Flush with Cash: It has long been known that big banks happily launder money for the big drug cartels. According to (http://en.rian.ru/world/20100530/159275376.html) The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), "Up to 1.5 trillion dollars in drug money are laundered through legal enterprises, accounting for 5% of global GDP." Take just this year and one bank, Wachovia; who had to pay a slap-on-the-wrist fine for laundering more than $420 billion (http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/27/world/la-fg-mexico-money-laundering-banks-20111128) for Mexican drug cartels. Imagine where the big banks would be without this money, given that they also needed a bailout of over $23 trillion (http://www.activistpost.com/2011/11/how-to-end-federal-reserve-and-bailout.html) for lack of sufficient deposits to pay for their gambling habits.

Funds CIA Black Ops: Do you ever wonder where the U.S. government gets all that money for their secret "Black Ops" like underground bases, secret wars, corporate takeovers and seed money, etc? It's been proven over and over that the CIA (and Pentagon) controls a large majority (http://www.whale.to/b/ruppert1.html) of the illicit drug trade either directly or indirectly through proxies mentioned above. They've been caught in the act of shipping in massive amounts of cocaine, while the CIA now openly admits (http://www.naturalnews.com/034289_Afghanistan_opium_trade.html) to protecting and facilitating the opium trade in Afghanistan. If it wasn't for this tremendous profit, the CIA would not be able to build their secret shadow government.

So, as you can see, there are great benefits to the War on Drugs depending what side of the coin you're on. If you're a poor pot smoker, well, you're out of luck. But if you're the biggest heroin and cocaine dealer in the world and desire a monopoly . . . well, you've got the world right where you want it.

gunDriller
18th April 2012, 09:36 AM
how come doctors USED to proscribe Valium - but now treat it the way a Vampire treats daylight ?

i wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that THE PATENT HAS EXPIRED.


the Pharma path to riches is to claim a monopoly-by-patent on various drugs, then to bribe the "doctors" to support the monopoly by proscribing the EXPENSIVE drugs.


and there's no patent on Pot. For sure, good pot is the best thing i've ever found for an upset stomach/ indigestion. WAAAY better than Tagamet & Zantac and all the pharma pseudo-treatments.

well, besides ice cream, anyway. :)

Hatha Sunahara
18th April 2012, 10:36 AM
Pat Colo, most of the elements of success in your post above are generic to all the activities the government engages in that could be characterized as a 'war'.

Previous generations had a concept of war that included a state during which there was no war--usually called 'peace'. When our modern economists convinced our politicians of the 'benefits' of going to war, we developed a wider definition of war--one that includes any kind of conflict where the government 'protects' is and is the good guy against the declared 'enemy' who is dehumanized and drastically mistreated if not exterminated. The drug war was the first of these 'ersatz' wars. We now have one called the war on terror which is a success by many of the same measures in your list about the drug war, but far exceeds the viciousness of the drug war because it is a pretext to destroying all of our civil liberties. The drug war went a long way to eroding those civil liberties, but the war on terror has eliminated them, and destroyed the constitution as well. It has also destroyed the idea of 'peace' because these ersatz wars are ongoing and neverending.

Success has to be measured in the context of your goals. Your list includes constituents of various activities that profit these people. Overall, there are more victims of these wars than profiteers, so like any real war, mankind in general loses more than it gains, and therefore the whole venture is a failure. It will continue as long as some people are profiting, and therefore, the only real success is one that can be claimed by people who view failure as 'success'.


Hatha

DMac
19th April 2012, 08:48 AM
Pat Colo, most of the elements of success in your post above are generic to all the activities the government engages in that could be characterized as a 'war'.

Previous generations had a concept of war that included a state during which there was no war--usually called 'peace'. When our modern economists convinced our politicians of the 'benefits' of going to war, we developed a wider definition of war--one that includes any kind of conflict where the government 'protects' is and is the good guy against the declared 'enemy' who is dehumanized and drastically mistreated if not exterminated. The drug war was the first of these 'ersatz' wars. We now have one called the war on terror which is a success by many of the same measures in your list about the drug war, but far exceeds the viciousness of the drug war because it is a pretext to destroying all of our civil liberties. The drug war went a long way to eroding those civil liberties, but the war on terror has eliminated them, and destroyed the constitution as well. It has also destroyed the idea of 'peace' because these ersatz wars are ongoing and neverending.

Success has to be measured in the context of your goals. Your list includes constituents of various activities that profit these people. Overall, there are more victims of these wars than profiteers, so like any real war, mankind in general loses more than it gains, and therefore the whole venture is a failure. It will continue as long as some people are profiting, and therefore, the only real success is one that can be claimed by people who view failure as 'success'.


Hatha

Don't forget the War on Poverty, I think this one is being managed by the Federal Reserve o)(~