'War on Drugs:' A Foul Tragedy - Garrison Keillor

[Sinsemilla Jones]

http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21360.shtml

Posted by CN Staff on December 06, 2005 at 07:48:21 PT
By Garrison Keillor, In These Times
Source: AlterNet

USA -- A marijuana grower can get life in prison without parole, while a murderer might be in for eight years. No rational person can defend this. We Democrats are at our worst when we try to emulate Republicans -- as we did in signing onto the "war" on drugs that has ruined so many young lives.

The cruelty of the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984 is stark indeed, as are the sentencing guidelines that impose mandatory minimum sentences for minor drug possession -- guidelines in the 1986 Anti-Drug Abuse Act that sailed through Congress without benefit of public hearings, drafted before an election by Democrats afraid to be labeled "soft on drugs."

As a result, a marijuana grower can land in prison for life without parole while a murderer might be in for eight years. No rational person can defend this; it is a Dostoevskian nightmare, and it exists only because politicians fled in the face of danger.

That includes Bill Clinton, under whose administration the prosecution of Americans for marijuana went up hugely, so that now there are more folks in prison for marijuana than for violent crimes. More than for manslaughter or rape. This only makes sense in the fantasy world of Washington, where perception counts for more than reality. To an old Democrat, who takes a ground view of politics -- What is the actual effect of this action on the lives of real people? -- it is a foul tragedy that makes you feel guilty about enjoying your freedom.

If suddenly on a Friday night the red lights flash and the cops yank your teenage son and his little envelope of marijuana into the legal meatgrinder and some bullet-headed prosecutor decides to flex his muscle and charge your teenager -- because he had a .22 rifle in his upstairs bedroom closet -- with a felony involving the use of a firearm, which under our brutal sentencing code means he can be put on ice for 20 years, and the prosecutor goes at him hammer and tong and convinces a passive jury and your boy's life is sacrificed so this creep can run for Congress next year -- this is not your cross alone to bear. If the state cuts off your right hand with a meat cleaver on my account and I don't object, then it is my cleaver and my fingerprints on it.

I don't dare visit Sandstone Federal Prison here in Minnesota for fear of what I'd see there: People who chose marijuana, a more benign drug than alcohol, and got caught in the religious war that we Democrats in a weak moment signed onto. God help us if we form alliance with such bullies as would destroy a kid's life for raising cannabis plants.

Garrison Keillor is the host and writer of "A Prairie Home Companion," now in its 26th year on the air.

:stoned:

Source: AlterNet (US)
Author: Garrison Keillor, In These Times
Published: December 06, 2005
Copyright: 2005 Independent Media Institute
Contact: [email protected]
Website: http://www.alternet.org/
DL: http://alternet.org/drugreporter/29113/

Sinsemilla Jones Reviewed by Sinsemilla Jones on 12-07-2005. 'War on Drugs:' A Foul Tragedy - Garrison Keillor http://www.cannabisnews.com/news/thread21360.shtml Posted by CN Staff on December 06, 2005 at 07:48:21 PT By Garrison Keillor, In These Times Source: AlterNet USA -- A marijuana grower can get life in prison without parole, while a murderer might be in for eight years. No rational person can defend this. We Democrats are at our worst when we try to emulate Republicans -- as we did in signing onto the "war" on drugs that has ruined so many young lives. The Rating: 5

[Sinsemilla Jones]

do da bump

[eg420ne]

LOL--- Ya i hate the war on drugs -Congress & co always tryin to take away our freedom- dem bastards should fry for these outrageous laws to protect our freedom(I can protect my own self, dont need no more laws protecting me), and congress right now tryin to keep the patriot act for goood--and they also made taxs cut for the wealthy-- I say congress is were it begin, take out all of congress(not killing them, not yet -lol), I would say vote, but it dont seem to work out like we want it 2- dem bastards--good post-- SJ

[Psycho4Bud]

LOL--- Ya i hate the war on drugs -Congress & co always tryin to take away our freedom- dem bastards should fry for these outrageous laws to protect our freedom(I can protect my own self, dont need no more laws protecting me), and congress right now tryin to keep the patriot act for goood--and they also made taxs cut for the wealthy-- I say congress is were it begin, take out all of congress(not killing them, not yet -lol), I would say vote, but it dont seem to work out like we want it 2- dem bastards--good post-- SJ

The war on drugs is like a double blade sword. It's not about supressing our freedoms as much as self interests. Theres two parts to it; the first is the booze lobbyists....heres a little example of "contributions" and look at some of the groups they contribute to....makes them look like the good guys.

http://www.beersoaksamerica.org/money.htm
The Power of Beer Money

The National Beer Wholesalers Association's (NBWA) political action committee, using the name "Six-PAC," is one of the top 20 PAC contributors to members of Congress, donating some $2,065,250 to Senate and House candidates in 2002.

Anheuser-Busch, Inc. contributed more than $300,000 to Missouri legislative candidates in 2003-2004.

Coors Brewing Company donated $52,000 to political candidates in Colorado in 2002.

In the 2000 presidential election, George W. Bush received more than $421,000 from the beer, wine, and liquor industry.1

A 1997 report from New Mexico reviews alcohol lobbyists' contributions to state policymakers and the high rate of alcohol-related problems in the state.2 An AP article revealed how Miller Brewing Company gave $11,000 to the Beer Institute and an organization called New Mexicans for Fair Taxation to buy television ads opposing a proposal to increase alcohol taxes in the state.3

Research reports have documented an association between industry's contributions to policymakers and legislative results supported by the industry.4

Three out of four Americans are concerned that the beer industry gives money to legislators. Moreover, most Americans (69%) believe that it is inappropriate for politicians who accept money from the beer industry to vote on a bill to reduce the beer tax.5

The beer industry also buys influence, innocence by association, and friends by making "charitable" donations to organizations. Some gifts are even tinged with irony, such as NBWA's partnership with Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN) to deflect the focus from beer's contribution to sexual assaults to personal responsibility issues. Sexual assaults, as well as most rapes of college women, occur when either the perpetrator and/or the victim are under the influence of alcohol.6

Brewers cover their bases in the community by contributing to such groups as:

100 Black Men of America

Alliance for a Livable World

American Forests

BACCHUS and GAMMA Peer Education Network

Big Brothers Big Sisters

Boy Scouts of America

Boys & Girls Clubs

The Children's Center

Girl Scout Council of Greater St. Louis

Girls Inc.

Hispanic Scholarship Fund

March of Dimes

National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week

Take Stock in Children

Urban League

Few of those groups ever strongly advocate policies opposed by the beer industry.



References:

1. Center for Responsive Politics. Online: http://www.opensecrets.org/industrie...=N&sortorder=U.

2. Lopez, D.A. (1997). The influence of alcohol & tobacco money in New Mexico politics. Report by Re-Visioning New Mexico, Inc.

3. Massey, B. (2004). Richardson committee top recipient of lobbyist contributions. AP article. May 4, 2004.

4. Common Cause. (2000). Paying the Price: How Tobacco, Gun, Gambling & Alcohol Interests Block Common Sense Solutions To Some Of The Nation's Most Urgent Problems. Research Report. Online: http://www.commoncause.org/publicati...ice/index.html.

5. MADD/CSPI Nationally Representative Poll conducted by Penn, Schoen, Berland & Associates, Inc. July and August 2002.

6. Mohler-Kuo, M., Dowdall, G.W., Koss, M. & Wechsler, H. (2004). Correlates


The second part is their personal interests...or maybe prejuduces. If drugs were made legal there are a lot of Mexicans and Blacks that would have a shit load of clean money which translates to power. The Kennedys, Kerrys, Clintons, Bushs..etc...does not want to have to "socialize" with this "type" of people. Better to bust em' and confiscate their goods than to let them into the country clubs and house floors.
It's going to take a STRONG popular opinion for these people to do what should be done. With laws changing in our "allie" countries our government will eventually be forced to change policy in order to uphold with trade agreements and also with the nations popular vote.
Look what happened during probition, Canada was a big factor in the change of U.S. policy.
If we are a nation of sheep I elect Holland to be the shepard! :thumbsup:

[Stoner Shadow Wolf]

the problem is Cannabis, when smoked, allevates cravings for alcohol, although in some it increases the desire for a smoke, but not if you are adequately blazed.

tokers are quitting tobacco and alcohol. but when they run out of pot, they'll run to their next fix...


if pot were legal, tobacco and alcohol would tank in minutes.
within a week, the pharmacy would be out of luck, albiet many false (though hilarious) hospital visits...
by the end of the month, plastics, rope, oil, and timber would be extinct.

within this month, cotton and hemp would merge, and we'd have extremely long lasting and comfertable clothes...
our cars would run on resin, and be built largely out of it...
sickness and disease would slowly disappear, and many cures will be discovered from hemp and marijuana extracts...
the discovery for the cure for any addiction will be found in pot
obesity will be reduced by 90%

yeah, we need to keep hemp illegal though, so our guberment and core per rations can get super duper rich, so when hemp becomes the national industry, they are al lset for billions of generations.

[eg420ne]

The War on Drugs is One of AmericAs biggest lies- Corporate greed and power hungry politicians is all it took to make criminals out of ordinarily law-abiding Americans, whos only crime was doing something they enjoyed. I hate the fact that i was busted for pot i can only blame myself for having it on me i wasnt even high when i got busted but the hi-po could smell it , its a shame is all I can say. I have been pulled over a few times since my arrest and everytime i get ask if i have marijuana in the car and they end up searching anyways-I never wanted to be a fukin criminal- you rat bastards, thanks loving govt and your greedy corporations friends :thumbsup: And the Money spent on the war on drugs goes somewhere I know its not winning the War On Drugs----The Govt, police, Feds can never eliminate drug uses in america, Its a neverending goal...------------.....
We cannot expect people to have respect for law and order until we teach respect to those we have entrusted to enforce the law--HST

[weirdo79]

I'm all for legalized Cannabis but it will not cure the world's ill's completely. Not even the MP (marijuana party) is that delusional.....it's not a cure all . It would hit them(oil etc) in the pocket book but it's still not a complete substitute for synthetics (means we still need oil) also the lubricants made dont last half as long as industrial oil based ones we have now. There is the matter of efficiency after all. (So I hope your post is a joke and not something you take seriously ). Plus not much use for high grade hemp at the old steel mill . or in a computer (the last thing you want there is anything that will biodegrade reasonably fast he he.....). Try the rainforest if you actually want to find a wide range of medicine that will help. Cannabis research is extensive as long as you look outside the USA.....Australia is actually pretty good for it. They did a 40 year study concluded a few years ago that had over 40,000 subjects. They basically dismissed all the long held views by most such as memory loss , lowered iq , mental disease etc. Which is why I love reading about those "new studies" that claim this or that (in the newspaper) then you hear from the scientists who did the research and they somehow come to a different conclusion from the media.....(you gotta ask yourself after that "who has the degree".... ). (that was a joke against the recent study the USDA and many others are claiming proves cannabis has a link to schizophrenia (the scientists actually doing the study found it didnt....but ironically no newspaper but a few reported THEIR conclusions and instead most reported what they(reporters) thought it meant (not the scientists). Personally I think any "study" quoted in any article should also list the hypothesis, method and results exactly , but this unfortunately doesnt sell papers .

Speaking from experience no matter how much weed I had , I'de still enjoy my occasional drink and a good cigar.....(sometimes stuffed with weed! ).

Hey psycho you should check out how cannabis became illegal in Canada ironically enough its basically the same woman who gave women rights up here. There was a big stink when she was going to be on the 50 dollar bill because all the human rights types and of course EVERY minority(with good reason) was harassing the government saying "You do know she started cannabis prohibition on the premise it made black's and latino's go mad with rage and attack and rape white women right?" (any officials have yet to justify this "war on drugs" from either side of the border with any science supported by the scientific community so I'm still waiting ). My question is ,......why hasnt it been repealed yet (and you answered beautifully with the lobbies ), thats exactly why....the pocketbook, same reason vice cops tell you about drugs being a scourge. They're out of a job if they ever told the truth.....and stood up for it.(although a few have L.E.A.P. for instance a stand up group of cops in my estimation)

You should also hear Emily Murphy's diatribe on the asian's......I can't believe this woman held power , but I guess if Thurman did down there we have to have one to match his nastiness up here . Thankfully she's as dead as Thurman (and died before him by a long shot....thankfully). Here's an interesting aside "Who paid alot of Emily's costs?" why the Oil, alcohol and cotton industries ! gasp! I guess they were just good friends though of course (as any prohibitionist would argue har har).

(thought you might find all that interesting)

[Psycho4Bud]

JANEY CANUCK was good ol' Emily's pen name from what I gather. Ya, she was a real piece of work!

Thanks for the heads up!!!! :thumbsup:


http://www.marijuananews.com/news.php3?sid=186
Janey urged stiffer jail sentences for drug offenders, healthy doses of the lash, and if they were aliens, instant deportation. She was not a nice person. According to the commission's team, her writing was sensationalist, fable-ridden and exploitative of "popular racial bias." Yes indeed. "She created a series of women-seducing villains, primarily non-white and non-Christian, who threatened the Anglo-Saxon way of life."

While explaining the motive behind the drug trade, Janey declared, "It is claimed, but with what truth we cannot say, that there is a well-defined propaganda among the aliens of color to bring about the degeneration of the white race." Another thing she apparently could not say was who made the claim.

On the same theme, she then summarized the opinion of "Major Crehan of British Columbia" that since "the traffic always comes with the Oriental, one would be justified in assuming that it was their desire to injure the bright-browed races of the world. ...Some of the Negroes coming into Canada - -- and they are no fiddle-faddle fellows either -- have similar ideas, and one of their greatest writers has boasted how ultimately they will control the white men." And who was that great black writer? Janey wasn't telling.

She refers to "the lowest classes of yellow and black men," and "this sallow, unsmiling Oriental." After describing "a certain blackamoor," a railroad porter who was not only a drug offender but a possessor of "the most obscene literature ever printed," Janey wrote, "One can hardly imagine anything more dangerous than a filthy-minded drug addict in charge of a coach of sleeping people, whatever his color may be."

Even when complimenting one race, Janey felt compelled to trash another:

"The Chinese are as a rule friendly people and have a fine sense of humor that puts them on an easy footing with our folk, as compared with the Hindu and others we might mention. ...Ah Duck, or whatever we choose to call him," was at least "patient, polite and persevering."
See
"The Asian drug cartels are targeting Washington state."
Last Week It Was The Motorcycle Gangs. Now It Is The Yellow Peril.
Racist Anti-Canadian Prohibitionist Propaganda Runs In DEAland Papers

Janey's articles were so popular among Canada's Christian whites, with their fears of the Yellow Peril and the dangers that lurked among dark-skinned people, that in 1922, the stories appeared between hard covers as The Black Candle. It was in Back Pages, a fine little used-book store in downtown Halifax, that I stumbled upon this little-known CanLit gem.

My, she was proud of that book, so proud she nominated herself for a 1923 Nobel Prize. Frederick Banting and J.J.R. McLeod shared a Nobel that year for the discovery of insulin, but alas for Janey, the award for literature went to some poet named William Butler Yeats. At least he belonged to a "bright-browed" race, even if he was an Irishman.

Who was the charming Miss Canuck? None other than Mrs. Emily Murphy, the first woman judge in the British Empire, and one of the "the famous five."

In 1929, these women won a judgment from the British Privy Council that declared women were indeed persons under the British North America Act, and therefore entitled to sit in the Senate. They had proved the truth of Emily's credo: "The world loves a peaceful man, but gives way to a strenuous kicker."

So she's huge in the heroine biz. Edmonton has its Emily Murphy Road, and its Emily Murphy Park, with its Emily Murphy statue. Calgary recently unveiled a statue of the famous five, which of course included Emily. From a similar statue, she'll soon glare in all her glory on Parliament Hill.

Kate Nelligan portrays her in one of those sucky Canadian Heritage fillers on television. Greg Gatenby, director of Toronto's Harbourfront Reading Series, wants a new street near his home named after her.

To be fair to Janey, The Black Candle not only urged those corrective lashings -- 10 on the way into the slammer, and just for good measure, 10 more on the way out -- but also recommended, unsuccessfully, the establishment of treatment centres for drug addicts. Still, if pot-smokers (not to mention Chinese Canadians) were as fanatical as certain Quebec separatists, they'd be planting bombs under those bronze Emilies. But they're not.

Compared to Janey, they're a gentle crowd.

Copyright The National Post

[andruejaysin]

If weed were legal, I would probably smoke as much pot, and as many cigarettes, and drink as much beer as I do now, the only difference would be that I would not be a felon for doing so. I'm gonna guess most of us agree on this issue, given that this is cannabis.com

[weirdo79]

You know what I find particularly amusing about that post (from the post he he). I have defaced her statue in Ottawa, we tried to "bart simpson" it but it's not as easy as he makes it look......