“Mothers throughout history have come forward for the sake of their children. We’re coming forth saying that the drug war has been more damaging to our families than the drugs themselves.” – Gretchen Burns Bergman, executive director of PATH
Moms United is a growing movement to stop the violence, mass incarceration and overdose deaths that are the result of deeply flawed, punitive and discriminatory drug policies. (more…)
Marches are underway across the land, as hundreds of thousands of people are showing their support for the movement to finally end marijuana prohibition.
In honor of this great day, here’s a lovely infographic showing the negative costs of the ineffectual policies drug prohibition, and what could be gained by finally freeing the weed. (The stats pertain to America, but are equally applicable to any nation choosing to fight the war on drugs.) (more…)
Alternet writers put up a concise piece highlighting 5 Special Interest Groups That Help Keep Marijuana Illegal, something worth knowing if you didn’t already.
The 5 groups listed are:
Seeing how it’s the time of year when billows of pungent smoke pour out across the world (Happy 4/20 everyone!), let us take a few moments to reflect upon the insanity that is drug prohibition.
Suppose every myth you’ve been led to believe about drugs is true, and that they are really an evil scourge on society; destroying families, fueling crime, and turning our young people into mindless addicts. Even if all that were factually accurate (which it isn’t), there is still something far more destructive to our world than drugs themselves. And that something is drug prohibition. (more…)
The war on drugs has failed. Drug prohibition does far more damage to society than illicit substances ever have. Every day, especially in South America, people are being slaughtered by vicious drug gangs who’ve grown powerful off the lucrative drug market.
Decriminalization is the only way out of this quagmire. Just ask Portugal, whose decade long experiment with ending drug prohibition has proven itself a resounding success. (more…)
The war in Iraq was a disaster. The war in Afghanistan is in dire straights. Now, drug prohibition is officially being added to the list of failed wars.
Latin American leaders, in a historic watershed summit, will admit that the war on drugs will never succeed and that alternatives to prohibition must be found, including a more nuanced and rational approach.
Finally! Some common sense coming to the forefront of the great drug debacle. (more…)
Take it from us, the war on drugs has been a “costly failure.” This stark warning comes from a high-profile group of current and former U.S. law enforcement officials in a letter pleading with the Harper government to reconsider their tough stance on drugs.
“We are … extremely concerned that Canada is implementing mandatory minimum sentencing legislation for minor marijuana-related offences similar to those that have been such costly failures in the United States,” the letter reads. “These policies have bankrupted state budgets as limited tax dollars pay to imprison non-violent drug offenders at record rates instead of programs that can actually improve community safety.” (more…)
Ten years ago Portugal decided to end the war on narcotics, opting to decriminalize drug use and treat abusers as patients instead of criminals. The experiment is being touted as a resounding success, and needs to be replicated elsewhere everywhere.
According to health experts, the number of “problematic addicts” in Portugal has fallen by half since the early 1990s. As well, the nation has seen a “spectacular” reduction in the number of infections among intravenous users and a significant drop in drug-related crimes.
See! Prohibition has never shown results like these.
Just ask the escalating number of families in Mexico mourning their dead while under constant threat. Seeing the blatant failures firsthand, it’s no wonder Latin America is poised to follow Portugal’s lead and finally abolish the war on drugs.
Forget the old wives tales about drugs. They aren’t some bogeyman we can just scare off with guns and soldiers. Instead, let’s behave like sensible people and look for an approach to the problem that is proving itself a success. It’s time we give legalization a try.
Last month saw the battle for Internet freedom reach new heights as millions of people and thousands of businesses came together to protest SOPA, the overreaching anti-file sharing bill creeping its way through US legislature.
One day after the Jan. 17th SOPA blackout protest, prominent file-hosting site MegaUpload was shut down. MegaUpload owner Kim Dotcom was extradited to the US and millions of his assets have now been seized.
So what impact did the US Government’s global exercise have on unauthorized file-sharing around the world? Close to zero, according to networking gurus Deepfield, who write “File sharing has not gone away. It did not even decrease much in North America.”
In fact, the brutish take down of Megaupload caused “file sharing to become staggeringly less efficient.” Now, instead of terabytes of North American MegaUpload traffic going to US servers, “most file sharing traffic now comes from Europe over far more expensive transatlantic links.”
By all accounts, this would seem like a failure. Yet, sadly, this kind of Internet censorship has all the makings of a lasting American policy.
Take the war on drugs, as an example. Despite dumping tens of billions of dollars annually chasing illegal substances, America has yet to create even the slightest dent in the flow of drugs.
But that hasn’t stopped them from manufacturing an entire industry around drug prohibition, with task forces and mega-jails to reap in huge profits. This, along with a propaganda machine to keep enough of the public misinformed, is all it takes to keep the whole racket ongoing.
Now, with file-sharing, the US has a new enemy to wage war on. Another target to demonize in the media, more culprits to fill of the jails, and more power handed over to any government agency promising to protect the public from this scourge.
Of course these agencies will not have any lasting impact, but that’s not the goal. Instead, the file-sharing ‘pigs’ will be allowed to grow. Then, when plump and juicy, some well-funded government goons will swoop in and slaughter the swine, leaving the door open for the next one, and the next, and the next.
It’s Prohibition 101, and without enough public uproar, they’ll have no problem running the same tired play ad nauseum. Either speak out now or get your sick bags ready, people.
Oh glorious days! The war against the war on weed is advancing across many fronts. As long as this keeps up, the Western world might actually climb out of the dark ages and finally purge the plague of drug prohibition.
Up in the Great White North, the Liberal party added legalization of marijuana to their platform. Not less enforcement. Not decriminalization. Actual full fledged regulation that allows the unfettered distribution and taxation of legal weed. Take that, Harper!
Spurred forward by the frigid temperatures, Michiganders just kicked of a campaign to amend state law and legalize marijuana for use with adults over the age of 21. Go Wolverines! Or should I say Weedverines? No… Wolverines is just fine.
Members of the Centennial State – Colorado – will soon get a chance, come November, to decide whether or not they’d like to legalize possession of small amounts of the sticky icky. Finally, a law-abiding rocky mountain high!
And last but not least, prepare your bullshit protection for when the US government will be forced to justify the Schedule I status of Marijuana in court. Watch as the contortionists from the pro-prohibition side attempt to show how one of the safest and most beneficial plants on earth is actually just as bad as black tar heroin.
Opposition to drug prohibition has never been stronger than it is right now. The end is in sight. Within a few years, if all goes smoothly, we’ll be able to look back on ourselves today with the same disdain with which we view the quaint alcohol prohibitionists from last century.
Glorious days, indeed!
