bush says marijuana funds terrorism

Mandatory jail makes a drugs Gulag

by
Duncan Campbell
The US government is stepping up its attempt to link the war on drugs and the war on terrorism. Its office of national drug control policy is running advertisements which tell Americans that by buying drugs they may be financing terrorists - "whether you're shooting heroin, snorting cocaine, taking Ecstasy or sharing a joint in your friend's back yard".

President Bush has declared: "If you quit drugs, you join the fight against terror in America."

Campaigners for changes in the drug laws fear that it is the latest attempt to gather support for an increasingly unpopular war on drugs.

The ad campaign has highlighted the extraordinary number in jail for non-violent drug offences.

The number in jail for drug offences - about 500,000 - is greater than the entire jail population of western Europe. Of these, 320,000 are serving more than a year.

Just under 20% of those jailed for federal drug offences are serving time for marijuana offences.

Even minor marijuana offences carrying mandatory minimum sentences which some judges have apologised for having to apply.

Most are blacks or Latinos, and their imprisonment disenfranchises hundreds of thousands of voters whose absence from the polls was seen as one of the factors responsible for George Bush's election in 2000.

"We have denounced China as a Gulag state, but we have incarcerated many more," said Sanho Tree, director of the drug policy project at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington.

"They want to hitch an increasingly unpopular drug war to a very popular war on terror."

It would be just as accurate, he said, to blame "soccer moms who drive SUVs" - four wheel drive "sports utility vehicles" - for supporting al-Qaida because of the extra petrol they use.

Many middle-class voters believe that the drug laws have eased when the reverse is true.

There were 734,498 marijuana-related arrests in 2000, 646,042 of them for simple possession, and 1,579,566 drugs arrests of all kind, the highest ever recorded by the FBI.

Last year the US spent $40bn fighting drugs, a 40-fold increase since 1980.

The effect on drug use and public opinion is minimal: 35% of Americans over the age of 11 have tried marijuana, and an estimated 11m say that they are current users.

Not all the voices raised against the drug laws are from expected quarters. Gary Johnson, the Republican governor of New Mexico, has been an outspoken advocate of legalising drugs. Last week on an ABC television documentary the Detroit chief of police, Jerry Oliver, described the war as "insanity".

Linking drugs and terrorism shows that President Bush is still committed to a high level of imprisonment. His first budget measure on taking office last year was to give federal prisons $1bn more.

While states' spending on prisons has rised by 30% in the past 10 years, spending on higher education has fallen 18%.

Civil rights activists are concerned about the disparity in sentencing. Government figures show that black people make up 14% of the drug-taking population but 58% of those convicted of drug offences. Ninety-six percent of those prosecuted for possessing crack are black or Latino.

Drug offences are felonies and in many states disqualify voters from voting for the rest of their lives: 1.4 million African-American men are currently disqualified by felony convictions, including one in three of those in Florida and Alabama.

Nora Callahan, who co-founded the November Coalition in Seattle with another woman who, like her, had had a brother jailed for a long time on a drug offence, said: "This is a horrible inhumane war. Things are terrible and desperate for the prisoner in America... Millions of people have been stigmatised."

Mandatory minimum sentences were introduced in the late 80s.

Monica Pratt of Families Against Mandatory Minimums said: "There is a demonisation of drug offenders in the US, but it's not the kingpins doing the hard time, it's these low-level offences."

Julie Stewart, its president, said: "These are ordinary people given extraordinary sentences," she said. "I was naive enough to think that once legislators knew what was happening they would undo the laws. That didn't happen, but the tide is beginning to turn in Congress."

Mr Bush's drugs tsar, John Walters, said the widely held view that the criminal justice system was unjustly punishing young black men was among "the great urban myths of our time".

But a new poll commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union shows that the drug policies no longer enjoy popular support, despite the heavy lobbying by the prison industry and the prison guards' union to maintain the sentences.

It shows that 61% of Americans oppose mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offences.

i guess i fund terrorism then, but so does torog that makes me feel better.

but really that is bullshit, everything bush says about drugs bullshit, the war on drugs more bullshit, osama making money when i buy a dime bag bullshit.The majority of weed coming into the U.S. is from mexico, bush must have confused mexicans with terrorist arabs, i mean there both brown and bush is pretty slow. The real good weed comes down from canada, maybe osamas living up north?

FUCK GEORGE BUSH AND HIS PUSSY ANTICS! His punk ass was a cokehead for a duration of his life, so obviously he "funded terrorism" as well, but of course he's "gods child" and he doesnt do anything wrong. What a bunch of pathetic BS, id like to see George fight for this country and watch his ass get blown up in a matter of seconds! He is such a fucking pussy its unbelievable! How has Georgy managed to stay alive in office? Thats also unbelievable!

its more like bush funds terrorism

Actually a lot of the bud Americans are smoking is domestic, we also get a lot from Canada. Now if you're smoking schwag brick weed, that comes from mexico or is imported from anyother country and maybe some of that money is going back to "terrorists".

Solution: Buy better weed and don't listen to American news sources.

hell yeah, the best bud is american grown and canada doesnt have the greatest shit, i get my goods from honest hardworking american growers and buyers, inc.

hell yeah, the best bud is american grown


no it isnt, its dutch grown. Be an american with a passport, its ok.





i get my goods from honest hardworking american growers and buyers, inc.



Keep telling yourself how great it is when you pay 20 USD a gram or 400 oz. When was the last time anyone grew big indoors in america? You people are scared of your grow laws. Wow sure sounds like freedom to me.
If i could could get hash i dont care if osama grew it himself and my money was funding his camps.

Well im from northeast US, and while I certainly know the bud I get isn't the best im smart enough not to pay $20 a gram. Im fairly confident its grown indoors, it is winter here and though the buds arn't cured great they are still moist when they get to me. I buy ounces usually for $240.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by braindead

hell yeah, the best bud is american grown


no it isnt, its dutch grown. Be an american with a passport, its ok.





i get my goods from honest hardworking american growers and buyers, inc.



Keep telling yourself how great it is when you pay 20 USD a gram or 400 oz. When was the last time anyone grew big indoors in america? You people are scared of your grow laws. Wow sure sounds like freedom to me.
If i could could get hash i dont care if osama grew it himself and my money was funding his camps.

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You dont know shit! Ive been growing for years, ive had a COUPLE grow houses, and i could careless about the drug laws. You've proven to be an ignorant bastard that doesnt know shit. BTW, the best bud in the world is in South America, near the equator, where THC levels reach up to 30%, so get ya facts strait buddy!

bush is terrorism



peace

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Herbaholic00

bush is terrorism



peace

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Fuck Muslims! It's the shrubbery we should be worried about!

Ya I rember when they came out with some of the commericals abokut drugs funding terrosim, what a crock. Most of US's pot is grown here how does that support them?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by chrace

i get my goods from honest hardworking american growers and buyers, inc.

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You mean t-t-t-TERRORISTS :eek: !

If pot sales fund terrorism...how is it in most US states the fines for growing your own... instead of buying from "terrorists" (such BS!) are more harsh....average joe smoke isnt growin head stash to support terror....they are growin to support the buzz........

Well, if Bush says buying weed funds terrorism, there's a very simple solution: allow people to start growing in the US. That way, it's doesn't fund terrorism, and there's less people in jail!

Oh wait, Bush doesn't want people to stop funding terrorism, cause then he'll have nothing to fight, and less people in jail = more votes for democrats... God forbid he shold think about his country's welfare rather than his own fucking ass.

not to mention it's the feds shipping in the majority of the heroin and cocaine (overwhelmingly documented)...they arrest the small timers who haven't paid their cut or are stepping on the feds' toes, and will put a guy in jail for life for selling an ounce.

so you sell their drugs and you get put in their prisons making widgets.

the war on drugs is nothing but an excuse to destroy the constitution.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by F L E S H

Well, if Bush says buying weed funds terrorism, there's a very simple solution: allow people to start growing in the US. That way, it's doesn't fund terrorism, and there's less people in jail!

Oh wait, Bush doesn't want people to stop funding terrorism, cause then he'll have nothing to fight, and less people in jail = more votes for democrats... God forbid he shold think about his country's welfare rather than his own fucking ass.

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WELL FUCKING SAID!


:)