ReconsiDer - Stop the Drug War

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The Many Faces of Jack1982
Cole
1964
1970
1977
1973
3
DEA Briefing Book 2001
$6.00
1970
$0.80
1.5 %
38 %
4
DEA Staffing and Appropriations
FY 1973-2000
Employees-3 times as many
Total
Special Support
Budget
Year Employees Agents
Staff ($ in Millions)
1973
2,898
1,470
1,428
74.9
2001
9,132
4,561
4,571
1,550
Budget-20 times larger
5
Marijuana Arrests and Total Drug Arrests in the US
Year
Total Drug Arrests
Marijuana
Total Drug
Total Marijuana
per
year
Tripled
Trafficking/Sale
Arrests
Arrests
2000
1,579,566
1999
Arrests
Marijuana
Possession
Arrests
734,497
84,271
620,541
1,532,200
704,812
84,271
620,541
1998
1,559,100
682,885
84,191
598,694
1995
1,476,100
588,964
85,614
503,350
1990
1,089,500
326,850
66,460
260,390
1980
580,900
401,982
63,318
338,664
Metro Section
February 5 1994, page 23
The New York Times
4,800 pounds of cocaine
Street value of $350 million
Not worthy of an article!
Nancy Siesel/The New York Times
Cocaine Seized in Industrial Machine Imported from Venezuela
The police and Federal authorities recovered 4,800 pounds of cocaine, with an
estimated street value of up to $350 million, and arrested four men unpacking the drugs
at a warehouse in the Corona section of Queens. Police officers and agents from the
United States Customs Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration strained 7to
load the drugs into a truck.
Drug seizures in 1994
New York Times, July 15, 1994, B3
Three tons of cocaine hidden in
cargo at the Port of Newark
Federal agents recovered five tons
of cocaine in Houston in May,
three tons in San Francisco in June
and five more tons in El Paso in
July.
8
How Has Prohibition Changed
Drug Use in US Schools?
“THIS
SURVEY
confirms
that
Monitoring the Future 2002
our drug-prevention efforts are
An
ongoing
study
of
the
behaviors,
working and that when we work
attitudes, and values of American
together
and
push
back,
the
drug
secondary school students, college students,
problem gets
smaller.”
and young
adults
US Drug Czar John Walters
9
How Has Prohibition Changed
Drug Use in US Schools?
Between 1991 and 2002
marijuana use among
students in all school
grades increased.
10
How Has Prohibition Changed
Drug Use in US Schools?
30 % increase
for
12th graders
11
How Has Prohibition Changed
Drug Use in US Schools?
65 % increase
for
10th graders
12
How Has Prohibition Changed
Drug Use in US Schools?
88 % increase
for
8th graders
13
How Has Prohibition Changed
Drug Use in US Schools?
School children report it
is easier to buy illegal
drugs than it is to buy
beer or cigarettes
14
International Trade in
Illicit Drugs
Annually generates:
$400 billion
15
Alternative Policy Solution
Remove the
profit motive
continuously enhanced for 30 years by the
United States policy of a
WAR ON DRUGS
16
End Prohibition
1. Legalize Drugs
17
Won’t legalization cause
everyone to use drugs?
th
gradersininthe
1010th
graders
28 %
Holland
whohave
have
U.S. who
tried
tried marijuana:
marijuana:
18
Outcomes of
Legalization
1.6 million less people
arrested each year
69 Billion Dollars saved
each year
19
End Prohibition
1. Legalize Drugs
2. Have the federal
government produce
those drugs
25
Outcomes of
Government Production
•Quality controlled
production for purity
•Standardized
measurement and potency
•End of overdoses
26
1. Legalize
Drugs
2. Government production
3. Distribute free
maintenance doses of
drugs to any adult
requesting them
27
Results of treating heroin
addiction with heroin
Switzerland
and
Holland
28
Results of treating heroin
addiction with heroin
Unstable
housing
Cocaine
use
among
the
Homelessness
Full-time
Employment
Unemployment
was
Drug-caused
deaths
situations
dropped
by
Crime
was
cut
addicts
plummeted
from
more
than
doubled,
cut
in
half,
dropped
from
nearly
2/3rds
dropped
34
%
35% to 5%
by
60%
from
14%
to
32%
between
2001
&
2002
12
%44%
totoZERO
from
to21%
22%
from
49
29
Outcomes of
Free Governmental Distribution
•No profit motive for drug distribution
•No individuals selling drugs
•No crimes committed to obtain drugs
•No criminal association for drug users
•No diseases passed by sharing needles
•Users able to stabilize their addictions
30
Outcomes of
Legalization and free distribution
•No shootings of dealers by other dealers
•No kids caught in crossfire
•No police killed fighting drug war
•No one killed by police in the drug war
•No advertisement to further drug use
•No one soliciting one more drug user
31
1. Legalize Drugs
2. Government production
3. Distribute free doses
4. Redirect money saved to
programs that offer people
hope for the future
32
Programs offering hope
Rehabilitation
Centers
33
Programs offering hope
Guaranteed Minimums
Housing -
Job Training
Health Care - Employment
Education - Livable Wages
34
Results of offering people
hope for the future
Less need to use drugs
Less drug addicts
35
1. Legalize Drugs
2. Government production
3. Distribute free doses
4. Create hope for the future
5. Redirect money saved
to programs that offer true
education about drugs
36
Does Education Work?
1965
1998
41.924%
% ofofthe
Only
theadult
adult
US population
population
US
smoked tobacco
tobacco
smoked
37
1. Legalize
Drugs
2. Government production
3. Distribute free doses
4. Create hope for the future
5. Educate users and public
38
Albert Einstein on Prohibition
The prestige of government has
undoubtedly
been
lowered
considerably by the Prohibition
law. For nothing is more
destructive of respect for the
government and the law of the
land than passing laws which
cannot be enforced. It is an open
secret that the dangerous
increase of crime in this country
is closely connected with this.
Albert Einstein
39
Prohibition - When will we learn?
Members of the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform pose for
a photograph in 1932 (courtesy of the Hagly Museum and Library, Wilmington,
Delaware). We are having to relearn the same lesson today that they learned 69
years ago.
40
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41
Does Drugs or Drug Prohibition
cause crime?
42
Outcomes of
Legalization
Lower Institutionalized
Racism in the
Criminal Justice System
43
Federal Household Survey
Over
42%
of
those
African-Americans
Whites
constitute
But
37%
of those
Blacks constitute
comprise
almost
60%
inarrested
federal
prisons
for
drug
72%
of
all
drug
15%
of
drug
of
those
in
state
for
drug
violations
violations
are
Black
users
the
US
users
in
the
US
prisons for drug
are
black
felonies
44
Bureau of Justice Statistics
Of
convicted
defendants
Punishment is 100
Black
male
born
today
Disenfranchisement
33%
ofYork
whites
received
a
In
New
State
prisons
has
a
one
in
four
times
worse
for
prison
sentence
Over
10%
of
the
total
voting
Nine in 10 of those serving
population
ofof
black
men
chance
serving
mandatory
sentences
for have
drug
51%
of
African-Americans
Crack
than
for
lost
their
right
to
vote
due
to
offenses
are
black
or
Latino
received
prison
sentences
time
in
prison
felony convictions.
powder cocaine
45
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