tagged w/ Prohibition
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The so-called war on drugs is a sham. It has cost billions of dollars and thousands of lives of not only the traffickers but also too many innocent people and for what; to stop people from using something that they have made a personal decision to do? Cutting of the supply of one drug does nothing to deal with what is causing people to use drugs, including Alcohol, in the first place.The so-called war on drugs is a sham. It has cost billions of dollars and thousands of... more
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WASHINGTON -- Nearly three-quarters of Americans and more than two-thirds of Republicans believe federal officials should respect state laws on medical marijuana, a new Mason-Dixon survey of 1,000 likely 2012 general election voters found.
"What the results of this survey show is that there is absolutely no political justification for what President [Barack] Obama is doing with respect to medical marijuana laws," Steve Fox, director of government relations for The Marijuana Policy Project, told HuffPost on Tuesday afternoon. "Across the board ... there is extremely strong support for respecting state medical marijuana laws."
Medical cannabis is currently legal in 16 states and the District of Columbia but remains illegal under federal law, even in states that have passed laws allowing for its use in medical treatment. Federal officials have ramped up enforcement actions around state medical marijuana laws but mounting evidence suggests such actions may not poll well in November.
Asked whether voters felt President Obama should respect the medical marijuana laws in these states, or use federal resources to arrest and prosecute individuals who are acting in compliance with state medical marijuana laws, 74 percent of voters nationally said the president should respect state laws, 15 percent said he should prosecute in accordance with federal law and 11 percent weren't sure.
Further, Fox noted, the survey question specifically mentions that some states allow for the regulated cultivation and sale of medical marijuana and the more sympathetic term, "patient," was never even used.
Non-intervention polled well across parties and demographics, with 75 percent of Democrats, 67 percent of Republicans and 79 percent of independents signaling their support for a hands-off federal approach to state medical marijuana laws. A full 75 percent of women stated they support states' rights when it comes to medical marijuana, which is somewhat surprising, given ample public polling in Colorado and California that suggests more women oppose legalization than men.
A non-intervention policy was also broadly supported across racial groups, with 73 percent of whites, 73 percent of Hispanics and 81 percent of blacks in favor, although polling for minorities may be less accurate: 71 percent of all respondents were white.
Respondents were interviewed nationwide from May 10 through May 14, 2012, by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research, Inc. of Washington, D.C. Eighty-five percent of respondents were 35 or older, and as a whole were split 48 percent male to 52 percent female.
The margin for error is 3 percent.
The poll comes as the Obama administration has unleashed an interagency crackdown on the cannabis industry, with raids on pot dispensaries, many in California, that were operating in compliance with state law. Since October 2009, the Justice Department has conducted more than 170 aggressive SWAT-style raids in nine states that allow medical marijuana, resulting in at least 61 federal indictments, according to data compiled by Americans for Safe Access, an advocacy group.
While medical marijuana is legal under laws in 17 states and the District of Columbia, federal law says any use of marijuana is illegal.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/15/republicans-state-medical-marijuana-laws_n_1519176.htmlWASHINGTON -- Nearly three-quarters of Americans and more than two-thirds of... more
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Over the past week, President Obama spent time promoting the Buffett Rule surtax on millionaires and paid a visit to Colombia in which he reiterated his opposition to legalizing drugs. Though the two issues were unrelated, it's worth remarking that legalizing drugs would actually do more to reduce deficits than implementing the Buffett Rule.
The Buffett tax, which failed to advance in the Senate last night, would have raised $5.1 billion in 2013 (theoretically its first full year of implementation), according to the Joint Committee on Taxation. Yet a 2010 study by the libertarian Cato Institute found that legalizing marijuana alone would save the federal government $3.3 billion in reduced enforcement expenditures per year and raise an additional $5.8 billion in revenue assuming it would be taxed. If all drugs were legalized, the study estimated it would save the federal government $15.6 billion a year and raise an additional $31.2 billion in revenue -- for a total of $46.8 billion. That's slightly higher than the $46.7 billion the Buffett Rule tax is projected to raise over the full decade.
These numbers only pertain to the federal government, but the majority of the cost of the drug war is imposed on state and local governments. If governments at all levels are included, the Cato study projected that full drug legalization would reduce total budgets by $88 billion when one includes enforcement savings and new tax collections.
To be sure, the issue of drug legalization is less about the budget and more about personal liberty. Those who oppose prohibition believe that individuals should be allowed to do whatever they want and risk the consequences as long as their actions don't harm others in the process. But it's also interesting to put the costs of the drug war in perspective.
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/legalizing-pot-would-raise-more-buffett-rule/485101
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Not to mention take a significant revenue stream away from gangs/cartels and keep millions of nonviolent users out of the private prison machine!Over the past week, President Obama spent time promoting the Buffett Rule surtax on... more
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Drug warriors often contend that drug use would skyrocket if we were to legalize or decriminalize drugs in the United States. Fortunately, we have a real-world example of the actual effects of ending the violent, expensive War on Drugs and replacing it with a system of treatment for problem users and addicts.
Ten years ago, Portugal decriminalized all drugs. One decade after this unprecedented experiment, drug abuse is down by half:
Health experts in Portugal said Friday that Portugal’s decision 10 years ago to decriminalise drug use and treat addicts rather than punishing them is an experiment that has worked.
"There is no doubt that the phenomenon of addiction is in decline in Portugal," said Joao Goulao, President of the Institute of Drugs and Drugs Addiction, a press conference to mark the 10th anniversary of the law.
The number of addicts considered "problematic" — those who repeatedly use "hard" drugs and intravenous users — had fallen by half since the early 1990s, when the figure was estimated at around 100,000 people, Goulao said.
Other factors had also played their part however, Goulao, a medical doctor added.
"This development can not only be attributed to decriminalisation but to a confluence of treatment and risk reduction policies."
Many of these innovative treatment procedures would not have emerged if addicts had continued to be arrested and locked up rather than treated by medical experts and psychologists. Currently 40,000 people in Portugal are being treated for drug abuse. This is a far cheaper, far more humane way to tackle the problem. Rather than locking up 100,000 criminals, the Portuguese are working to cure 40,000 patients and fine-tuning a whole new canon of drug treatment knowledge at the same time.
None of this is possible when waging a war.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2011/07/05/ten-years-after-decriminalization-drug-abuse-down-by-half-in-portugal/Drug warriors often contend that drug use would skyrocket if we were to legalize or... more
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In yet another attempt to ‘ensure our liberties’, congress is currently debating Stop Online Piracy Act – aka SOPA. The very fact that their current laws are unenforceable due to a lack of personnel and funding, congress apparently feels that more laws are the answer…again. In their twisted heads, they seem to believe that by denying a dns (domain name service) entry onto the web via its ISP (Internet Service Provider), they can somehow save money. Just a few minor holes into this thing that I would like to shoot down right now.
1 – Smaller ISP’s are to be more impacted by this than the larger ones – small wonder as to why the big dogs in the major Companies support this nonsense (for a list of supporting companies, go t......
http://peacefreedomprosperity.com/6151/12-reasons-why-sopa-is-worse-than-you-think/In yet another attempt to ‘ensure our liberties’, congress is currently... more
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It's fascinating to watch the long knives coming out for Texas Republican Rep. Ron Paul, now that according to some mainstream polls he has become the front-running candidate in the Jan. 3 GOP caucus race in Iowa, and perhaps also in the first primary campaign in New Hampshire.
What's interesting is what he's being attacked for: being a racist, being "anti-Israel" and being an isolationist.
The racist bit is funny. After all, if we're honest, the whole political infrastructure of the US is riven with racism. Just check out the public schools in any urban area, where you'll find most of the students are non-white, or check out the schools in rural parts of the southeast in areas where most of the students are black -- compare the condition of those schools and the class sizes to schools in the white neighborhoods. Check out the wildly different jobless figures for whites and for blacks. Check out the (very pale) complexion of the student bodies at just about any state university, check out the skin tones of the judges on the US Supreme Court, or for that matter, the whole federal bench. Check out the racial breakdown of the nation's jails, and especially on the country's many death rows, where you'll find a wildly outsized percentage of people with black or brown skin waiting to be killed by the state.
Being a racist is clearly no disqualifier for national political office. It's just that you are not supposed to say overtly racist things, at least in public. It's fine to pass laws and push for enforcement actions and "tough" judges that end up putting most young African-American males in prison at some point in their lives. It's okay to promote a "War" on drugs that ends up creating a whole new slavery in the form of black men locked up in for-profit prisons. It's okay to shortchange minority school districts. You just aren't supposed to say you're doing these things on purpose...It's fascinating to watch the long knives coming out for Texas Republican Rep.... more
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This two-minute mockumentary may have the answer. If was produced by BAMPA -- the Barely Any Motion Picture Association.
http://youtu.be/sdeKW76y_3UThis two-minute mockumentary may have the answer. If was produced by BAMPA -- the... more
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Countless studies have highlighted the industrial and medicinal uses of marijuana (cannabis), yet the federal government claims that it has ‘no accepted medical use’ and continues to classify it in the same category as heroin, MDMA, and PCP.
Despite the ruling, the medial marijuana market is priced at around $1.7 billion — that’s almost as much as the explosive Viagra market, coming in at around $1.9 billion.
Why do so many individuals suffering from disease swear by marijuana if it has no real medical use? And furthermore, were the thousands of studies on the medicinal benefits of marijuana completely incorrect?
Studies have found marijuana use to be beneficial in treating multiple sclerosis, Tourette syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, brachial plexus neuropathies, insomnia, pain, memory disorders, anxiety disorders, cancer, neurodegenerative disease, and many more conditions.
Marijuana Plant, Hemp, and Cannabinoids
Some cannabis activists actually state that certain properties of marijuana can act as a “cure-all” in the right forms. You may know that marijuana is usually quite high in THC (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol), which is the compound responsible for the psychoactive effect of cannabis. In contrast, it is also low in CBD (cannabidiol) content. Both THC and CBD are known as cannabinoids, however, which interacts with your body in a very unique way.
What you may not be familiar with is how CBD has been shown to block the effect of THC in the nervous system. This allows marijuana plants to exhibit the most psychoactive effects. Hemp, on the other hand, is high in CBD and low in THC. This is due to the fact that it is bred to maximize its fiber, seeds, and oil. Of course these key properties are what it is most commonly used for.
You see, hemp is a very powerful industrial substance, but it also has a number of health benefits.
Interestingly enough, THC-free hemp is actually quite popular in protein drinks, green superfoods, and even clothing. This type of hemp has zero psychoative effects, yet it is still illegal to grow within the United States.
Two tablespoons of shelled hemp seeds contain about 11 grams of protein and 2 grams of unsaturated omega-3 fatty acids.
Cannabinoids are promoted as a health-promoting substance in the popular documentary Run from the Cure with Rick Simpson. The entire documentary is available free on YouTube:
The film speaks specifically on Hemp Oil, which Rick Simpson and his followers say can even cure cancer. Speaking on the subject of marijuana benefits, particularly in the form of Hemp Oil, Simpson states:
I have been providing people with instructions on how to make Hemp Oil medicines for about 8 years. The results have been nothing short of amazing. Throughout man’s history hemp has always been known as the most medicinal plant in the world. Even with this knowledge hemp has always been used as a political and religious football.
Marijuana Made Illegal While Pharmaceuticals Kill More than Traffic Accidents
Research has shown marijuana to be beneficial to health, yet Marijuana has been classified as dangerous by the federal government, outlawed, and made illegal. Many pharmaceuticals, on the other hand, have gone unchecked despite causing more fatalities than traffic accidents. In fact, even slightly more than the recommended dose of Tylenol can kill you, while THC-free hemp will simply boost your immune system.
You do not have to smoke marijuana to enjoy its benefits. THC-free hemp, which comes without any mind-altering effects, is a great health superfood that is used by many. For the government to classify marijuana in the same category as heroin and PCP while allowing deadly pharmaceuticals to go unregulated shows how little they truly care about public health.
http://www.activistpost.com/2011/11/why-is-marijuana-illegal-examining.htmlCountless studies have highlighted the industrial and medicinal uses of marijuana... more
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Arresting people for assaults, beatings and robberies doesn't bring money back to police departments, but drug cases do in a couple of ways. First, police departments across the country compete for a pool of federal anti-drug grants. The more arrests and drug seizures a department can claim, the stronger its application for those grants.
"The availability of huge federal anti-drug grants incentivizes departments to pay for SWAT team armor and weapons, and leads our police officers to abandon real crime victims in our communities in favor of ratcheting up their drug arrest stats," said former Los Angeles Deputy Chief of Police Stephen Downing. Downing is now a member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, an advocacy group of cops and prosecutors who are calling for an end to the drug war.
"When our cops are focused on executing large-scale, constitutionally questionable raids at the slightest hint that a small-time pot dealer is at work, real police work preventing and investigating crimes like robberies and rapes falls by the wayside," Downing said.
And this problem is on the rise all over the country. Last year, police in New York City arrested around 50,000 people for marijuana possession. Pot has been decriminalized in New York since 1977, but displaying the drug in public is still a crime. So police officers stop people who look "suspicious," frisk them, ask them to empty their pockets, then arrest them if they pull out a joint or a small amount of marijuana. They're tricked into breaking the law. According to a report from Queens College sociologist Harry Levine, there were 33,775 such arrests from 1981 to 1995. Between 1996 and 2010 there were 536,322.
Several NYPD officers have alleged that in some precincts, police officers are asked to meet quotas for drug arrests. Former NYPD narcotics detective Stephen Anderson recently testified in court that it's common for cops in the department to plant drugs on innocent people to meet those quotas -- a practice for which Anderson himself was then on trial.
At the same time, there's increasing evidence that the NYPD is paying less attention to violent crime. In an explosive Village Voice series last year, current and former NYPD officers told the publication that supervising officers encouraged them to either downgrade or not even bother to file reports for assault, robbery and even sexual assault. The theory is that the department faces political pressure to produce statistics showing that violent crime continues to drop. Since then, other New Yorkers have told the Voice that they have been rebuffed by NYPD when trying to report a crime.
The most perverse policy may be asset forfeiture. Under civil asset forfeiture, police can seize property from people merely SUSPECTED of drug crimes. So long as police can show even the slightest link of drug activity to a car, some cash, or even a home, they can seize it. In the majority of cases, most or all of the seized cash goes back to the police department. In some cases, the department has taken possession of cars as well, but generally non-cash property is auctioned off, with the proceeds then going back to the department. An innocent person who has property seized must go to court and prove his property was earned legitimately, even if he was never charged with a crime. The process of going to court can often be more expensive than the value of the property itself.
Asset forfeiture not only encourages police agencies to use resources and manpower on drug crimes at the expense of violent crimes, it also provides an incentive for police agencies to actually wait until drugs are on the streets before making a bust. In a 1994 study reported in Justice Quarterly, criminologists J. Mitchell Miller and Lance H. Selva watched several police agencies delay busts of suspected drug dealers in order to maximize the cash the department could seize. A stash of illegal drugs isn't of much value to a police department. Letting the dealers sell the drugs first is more lucrative.
Earlier this year, Nashville's News 5 ran a report on how police in Tennessee are pulling over suspected drug dealers and seizing their cash along I-40, often without bothering to make an arrest. The station combed through police reports showing that officers spent 10 times as long policing the side of the interstate where a drug runner would be leaving after he sold his supply -- and thus would be flush with sizable amounts of cash -- than on the side where he was likely to be flush with drugs. The police were letting the drugs be sold in order to get their hands on the cash.
Back in Illinois, Gov. Pat Quinn (D) recently signed a new law that will require convicted drug dealers to reimburse the police agencies that arrested and prosecuted them. The law will provide even more incentive for departments to devote time and resources to drug crimes -- and that shift comes at the expense of solving more serious crimes.
The bill does not require reimbursement from convicted rapists or murderers.
Which means battery victims like Shaver can expect even less cooperation from police as more officers are moved to investigations that pay for themselves -- and then some.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/21/drug-war-incentives-police-violent-crime_n_1105701.html?page=1Arresting people for assaults, beatings and robberies doesn't bring money back to... more
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When people cannot for some reason govern themselves – they turn to a small group of people to do it for them. They lack the belief in their own abilities to fix something, so they turn to an outside force to level the playing field. The irony here is that the playing field itself was never tilted to begin with. As such, it is the idea that everyon
http://peacefreedomprosperity.com/5785/the-plight-of-mariestown/When people cannot for some reason govern themselves – they turn to a small... more
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Anarchist Artist Victor Pross takes on a few common objections to the idea of a stateless society, philosophical anarchism. Those objections remain the same, forever spinning out on a hamster wheel, repeatedly and persistently: “What about the roads? What about the poor? What about violent crimes? What about theft?”
Listen to this video for a different perspective to the nature of the issue.
http://peacefreedomprosperity.com/5782/objections-to-the-freedom-movement/Anarchist Artist Victor Pross takes on a few common objections to the idea of a... more
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The hyphenated anarchists can be a combative bunch. I’ve done my share of arguing from an Ancap perspective, against sects of the movement I believe wish to achieve freedom- so long as it is done their way. Tired and stale as the news on it may be, the Occupy Movement lends itself well to unification behind a few vital, strategy-related principles for pushing back the state. Libertarian and anarchist circles have reacted to the Movement in a number of ways, ranging from complete dismissal to complete embrace. The implications of the current Movement, which has now spread to Europe, are too large not to take advantage of, but in a measured way. Because the Movement presents an opportuni.......
http://peacefreedomprosperity.com/5749/ows-an-anti-state-perspective/The hyphenated anarchists can be a combative bunch. I’ve done my share of... more
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After breaking $4 a gallon for a short time in may, the steady decline in gas prices over the last five months has come as a breath of fresh air to commuters and consumers everywhere. The current average is hovering around $3.46 a gallon.
In such times it is far too easy to look at the current price and gain false hope in a recovering market. For example in July 2008, gas prices were pushing $4.12 a gallon. In a highly unusual dip the prices fell to nearly $1.60 a gallon in less than 6 months – something that has never happened in at least over 7 years.
Why? Well, the price of light crude on the WTI at the time was at an all time high in July, and made a very sudden decline from $133/barrel monthly average to $41/barrel monthly average in less than 5 months – right before elections. While it was noticeable at the time, it was hardly used then as a political stateme
http://peacefreedomprosperity.com/5738/on-oil-and-gas/After breaking $4 a gallon for a short time in may, the steady decline in gas prices... more
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“I, David P Shirk, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.” – August 8, 1998.
If there is one regret I have had in my lifetime, it was the utterance of those words. My intentions were good, after all, I wanted to protect people and serve them – just as so many I knew and respected who came before me. What I didn’t know at the time was my countries history (great job public school system), and the full actions taken by the government since its founding.
Before 9-11, I started seeing my job as having no real point. I was good at it to be sure, but could not see its use. We were not under attack, and the US seemed to be doing okay without using us. Then 9-11 happened, and everything changed. At first, I was eager to find the people responsible, and go earn my pay. Thank goodness my name was never called up for the task. I never would have thought at the time that the attack on the towers was the result of foreign meddling for the better part of 50 years.
Yet that one event set off a red flag in my head, and it was during that time tha.......
http://peacefreedomprosperity.com/5734/oathbreaker/“I, David P Shirk, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the... more
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Howard Beach, Queens - Tired of seeing their criminal gains decline due to a shrinking economy and legislative indifference, the leading organized crime families in America have joined forces to take over the US government.
“Youse won’t be hearing about government gridlock any more,” said Johnny “Sweet Toes” Baducci, the new Speaker of the House.
“That’s why they call us organized crime,” Baducci explained. “We keep things in order so everything goes okay, and everybody gets what’s coming to them. The people we replaced weren’t doing that. I guess you can call them disorganized crime.”
More…Howard Beach, Queens - Tired of seeing their criminal gains decline due to a shrinking... more
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October 7th 2011 will mark the 10 year anniversary of the war in the Middle East. This 10 years of war, has gone on for far too long.
War has a heavy cost, a heavy cost that we don’t think about in our daily busy lives. That cost is your children or your grandchildren dying before their time, being severely injured or mentally scarred for life.
War is your brothers and sisters being taught to kill other people — and to hate people who are just like themselves and who don’t want to kill anyone either.
War is your children seeing their friends killed before their very eyes or seeing their limbs blown off their bodies.
War is genocide; it is hundreds of thousands of human beings dying years before their time.
War is millions of people separated forever from their loved ones.
War is the destruction of homes which people worked for.
War is the end of careers that meant as much to others as your career means to you.
You cannot put a cost on a human life, but the financial cost on war is now running into the trillions of dollars. As illustrated by Cost Of War Dot Com.
War is the imposition of heavy taxes on you, other Americans, and on people in other countries — taxes that remain long after the war is over.
War is the suppression of free speech and the jailing of people who criticize the government.
War is the imposition of slavery when young men and women serve in the military.
War is goading the public to hate foreign people and races.
It is time to end the war and bring the troops home.
If you like the majority of Americans want to end the bombing and occupation of the Middle East.
Visit http://www.AntiWar.com, or Call Angela at: 1-323-512-7095
http://peacefreedomprosperity.com/5719/10-years-in-the-middle-east-is-far-too-long-antiwar/October 7th 2011 will mark the 10 year anniversary of the war in the Middle East.... more
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Methodology – a set or system of methods, principles, and rules for regulating a given discipline; the underlying principles and rules of organization of a philosophical system or inquiry procedure; a branch of pedagogics dealing with analysis and evaluation of subjects to be taught and of the methods of teaching them.
Policy – a definite course of action adopted for the sake of expediency, facility, etc; a course of action adopted and pursued by a government, ruler, political party, etc.; action or procedure conforming to or considered with reference to prudence or expediency.
In the army, training doctrine is drawn and taught with a methodology that is set forth as a policy. On the most basic of levels, it is slimmed down and simple. This is not because it assumes a new recruit is stupid. It is done because in order for a large body of people to act in a coordinated and efficient manner, the more synchronized they have to be. The only way to do this, is to teach all recruits the basics, and grind them so far in that what is learned becomes almost as natural as breathing. You are taught to obey, not to question. This is on the premise that th....
http://peacefreedomprosperity.com/5642/the-failed-policy-called-government/Methodology – a set or system of methods, principles, and rules for regulating a... more
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