The relentless War On Drugs is a War on our Economy, on Women, and on
Our ability to remain a productive, abundant and democratic society.
Why The War on marijuana is a war on middle class America, on women and on our economy as a whole
It only helps Big Pharma, Big For Profit Prisons, Politicians, Big Banks
(And all other nebulous and nefarious aspects of life in the USA.)
Recently on some topic I wrote here, I delineated the Obama Administration's tax and war on drugs policies and their catastrophic effects on the rural economic situation in Northern California.
The reply from another DU poster was immediately to the effect that he or she wanted to
leave cannabis out of the discussion, because, although this poster claimed to be "totally
into legalizing marijuana," they are of the opinion that it distracted from any discussion
about the economy to discuss the growing, selling and use of marijuana.
Well, now, how special is that reply? Unfortunately it is not special at all.
We now live in a world where many people are content with the headlines. And over in
Mainstream Media, you only rarely find the importance of the marijuana issue and its
effects on the economy being discussed.
My supposition is that the War on Drugs is a war on a substance that if left unfetterd by
laws making its growth and sales a crime would actually push forward the nation's economic
engine. It would transform the rural areas of America where the economy is currently stagnant and
people face an 18% unemployment rate into a virtual paradise of economic growth, where
everyone can participate.
Currently only the Biggest Economic Forces profit from drug activity without any fear.
Under DOJ Eric "Too Big to Jail" Holder, banks have been taught that the largest amount of
money laundering in history will be marked only by what are relatively puny fines. But
while Big Banks pay little if any attention to laws against money laundering, a guy
arrested for a single joint in WTshington DC might easily find themselves serving 47 days
in the clink!
So let us look at the one place where the growing, selling and use of marijuana has been if
not totally legalized, at least totally de-criminalized: COLORADO.
Here are several articles that spell out the "up" side of Colorado's voter-approved
marijuana laws:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columists/rekha-basu/2014/08/17/colorados-ma
rijuana-law-brought-tourists-tax-revenues/14178219/
If the above link doesn't work, here is its tinyurl -
http://tinyurl.com/k34onks
The above article mentions a major feature of the Colorado legalizing of cannabis that I
had not thought of before: state colleges and universities have had an 33% uptick in
applications from young people from out of state desiring a "higher" education.
From there, the "JustSayNow" Site over at firedoglake, we also learn that the state of Colorado
has had a 184 millions dollar increase in tax revenue.
We also learn that the Court, Attorney and Big Prison Industry System is suffering: The
Denver Post found that “the number of cases filed in state court alleging at least one
marijuana offense plunged 77 percent between 2012 and 2013. The decline is most notable for
charges of petty marijuana possession, which dropped from an average of 714 per month
during the first nine months of 2012 to 133 per month during the same period in 2013 — a
decline of 81 percent.” Fewer poor people's bodies sitting in jail on account of not being
able to handle court fees and fines, and no prison terms.
Another media discussion of increased revenue --
2) $184 Million in new tax revenue – Legal marijuana sales are now projected to bring in
$184 Millions of Dollars after just one year!!
http://justsaynow.firedoglake.com/2014/02/25/these-5-numbers-show-marijuana-legalization-is
-going-well-in-colorado/
If the above link will not work, here is its tinyurl:
http://tinyurl.com/mrcxual
Please go to the above link - it is a very decent collection of truths about what happens
when you finally get freedom from a repressive situation.
Remember: this started under Ronald Reagan's "Just Say No!" policies.
It is incredible to understand that there are more people currently dealing with America's
prison system than had been enslaved under Stalin's gulag system. (That number, of people
now on parole or in prison for drug use, is around 6 million Americans.)
And the War on Drugs is a triple whammy - when a young person is convicted of a felony, the
conviction ensures their difficulty in obtaioning suitable employemnt once released from
jail. Also, they often then cannot obtain student grants and loans. They are often on
parole for years, which means that one small slip up can mean a return to prison.
And if their conviction is a flemony, these same young people may find it difficult to vote
in elections!! So the system is guaranteed their dual status quo powers, of income deprivation, and profits from Big Prison Proliferation.
Please read this article about the situation, which is so deplorable that even Pat
Robertson is saying that marijuana should be legalized!
http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2109777,00.html
One more fact from the above article: on account of the war on drugs - "Drug convictions
went from 15 inmates per 100,000 adults in 1980 to 148 in 1996, an almost tenfold increase.
More than half of America's federal inmates today are in prison on drug convictions. In
2009 alone, 1.66 million Americans were arrested on drug charges, more than were arrested
on assault or larceny charges. And 4 of 5 of those arrests were simply for possession."
Furthermore, as referred to in my sig line: "the U.S. has spent more than $1 trillion
fighting the war on drugs. The results? In 2011 a global commission on drug policy issued a
report signed by George Shultz, Secretary of State under Ronald Reagan; the
archconservative Peruvian writer-politician Mario Vargas Llosa; former Fed Chairman Paul
Volcker; and former Presidents of Brazil and Mexico Fernando Henrique Cardoso and Ernesto
Zedillo. It begins, "The global war on drugs has failed ... Vast expenditures on
criminalization and those repressive measures directed at producers, traffickers and
consumers of illegal drugs have clearly failed to effectively curtail supply or limit
consumption." Its main recommendation is to "encourage experimentation by governments with
models of legal regulation of drugs to undermine the power of organized crime and safeguard
the health and security of their citizens."
The Time Magazine article also points to a trend that anyone attending a California campus
of higher learning could explain to you: Partly as a result, the money that states spend
on prisons has risen at six times the rate of spending on higher education in the past 20
years. In 2011, California spent $9.6 billion on prisons vs. $5.7 billion on the UC system
and state colleges. Since 1980, California has built one college campus and 21 prisons. A
college student costs the state $8,667 per year; a prisoner costs it $45,006 a year.
Additonally the college sutdents are asked again and again to submit to tuition hikes.
The Time Magazine article concludes with this paragraph: "The results are gruesome at every
level. We are creating a vast prisoner underclass in this country at huge expense,
increasingly unable to function in normal society, all in the name of a war we have already
lost. If Pat Robertson can admit he was wrong, surely it is not too much to ask the same of
America's political leaders."
But the facts are even worse than what has been discussed. The effrorts of any various
economic interests are pushing an "All Prison, All the Time," attitude with respect to
the drug issue. People in the USA who have never dealt with the criminal justice and prison
system remain unaware of one of the nastier trends in deling with crime - although someone
must always pay when there is a drug crime, often the true criminal is too valuable to various
criminal justice officials. Everyone from t he local cop on the beat to the agents who work
the Drug task forces at DOJ, DEA and FBI are desirous of having people put in the slammer
when a big bust occurs. It is just that the Law men and women cannot afford to actually
put the drug kingpin in jail,a she is of more worth to them if they become a
"Confidential Informant." So you have this weird and immoral situation wherein a large
drug bust is made. We are talking large amounts of meth or cocaine, as well as marijauna.
The person who is actually in business for themselves will simply be allowed plead out, in
exchange for offering up a number of known users, who usually are far down enough in the
food chain that they are not even supporting themselves with drug dealing.
One of the saddest cases I came to find out about was that of a young woman, college age. She was
active in her African American community, in terms of church participation and helping with
youth activites. Then her grandmother died and left her a sizeable inheritnce. As she had
recently graduated HS, she immediately went and pruchased a condo and then began to attend
community college.
Tragically for her, she had no idea that a major drug lord was also living in her condo
complex. He was quite attracted to her, and "put the moves" on her whenever possible. His
advances were always spurned. So when he was taken down by the DEA, and then offered a
"plea" to avoid a serious jail sentence if he simply informed on others, he immediately
stated that this young woman had been working for him.
Cops raided her apartment where a sizeable Ziplock baggie of cocaine was seized, having
been planted there in her freezer. (Have I mentioned yet the corruption rampant in the many
various department that bring such young women to "justice"??) So the drug kingpin was back
out on the streets, while the young woman who had not ever wanted any involvement with the
guy was soon put in prison and given the state minimum of twenty years.
When you look into various internet websites about mandatory sentences, it is easy to see that women are often a casualty of the drug war. Their involvement with drug peddling may be minor or non-existant, but due to economic necessity they are living with their boyfriend or husband and when he is found to be peddling drugs, she is convicted as an accessory. And sicn e she is much less of a major player, she often faces more major consequences in terms of her prison sentence. (Often her only involvement would be simply having knowledge of her man's involvement in drug dealng.)
There are many other sad tales of innocents facing tragedy. San Francisco
newspapers carried the 1990's tale of a man who worked in an industrial park in the East
Bay. One afternoon, a co-worker asked him if he could get a ride home with him, as the
co-worker's car was in the shop. On the ride home, the co-worker stated a craving for a
Burger King. The driver obliged, by stopping and parking there. The co-worker went into the burger place, and made a deal, unfortunately with some DEA agents doing a sting. The innocent car driver was then indicted for transporting a drug pusher, again a criminal activity that carried a mandatory twenty year sentence. It was written tht the judge cried at the sentencing, but then told the reporter that "I have no choice; the law is such that I have to issue the mandatory miniumum of twenty years."
We have no money to help defray the cost of a young Californian attending a decent college in-state, but loads of money to put a guy in jail for 20 years for giving a co-worker a ride home.
Now to return to the erlier theme of cannabis being a powerful player in terms of its sales positively impacting the economy, here is an article from ABC News, off its "Money" pages:
Marijuana Called Top U.S. Cash Crop
Dec. 18, 2006
By NITYA VENKATARAMAN
Weeding through the value of the nation's cash crops, a study released today states that marijuana is the U.S.'s most valuable crop and promotes the drug's legalization and taxation.
(Snip)
The report, "Marijuana Production in the United States," by marijuana policy researcher Jon Gettman, concludes that despite massive eradication efforts at the hands of the federal government, "marijuana has become a pervasive and ineradicable part of the national economy." In the report, Gettman, a marijuana-reform activist and leader of the Coalition for Rescheduling Cannabis, champions a system of legal regulation.
Contrasting government figures for traditional crops -- like corn and wheat -- against the study's projections for marijuana production, the report cites marijuana as the top cash crop in 12 states and among the top three cash crops in 30. The study estimates that marijuana production, at a value of $35.8 billion, exceeds the combined value of corn ($23.3 billion) and wheat ($7.5 billion).
####
And the following article contains interesting maps and graphs, for the reader's perusal, including the statement that Oregon would be the cheapest state to grow lots of ganga,. One of the graphs demonstrates that while drug use has stayed fairly constant since 1980, the amount of money wasted on that drug use has continually risen skyward.
http://mic.com/articles/72497/how-much-money-could-america-make-off-of-legal-marijuana-check-this-map
Anyway, this is a lot of information to take in. And what is your two cents on the issue?
