The real fear regarding the ending of Drug Prohibition is that it will hurt the Police/Prison Industrial Complex.
Ever wonder what happened to the Untouchables and all those police units that were mobilized to “Fight the War on Alcohol” during Prohibition once Prohibition was over turned?
Hint. They weren’t retired or absorbed back into other units. They were instead given a new war to fight. The War on Drugs was created. Incidentally the original war on drug focused then as it does today mainly on the poor and on people of color.
As for the dangers of illegal drugs. Pharmaceutical Corporation generated drugs kill more people every year than illegal drugs do. Indeed most of my friends who died of drug over doses got those drugs from a Doctor and they were manufactured by a major corporation.
Criminal laws are not an effective way to control marijuana; removing criminal penalties does not lead to increased use; decriminalization creates savings in law enforcement.
By Kevin Zeese, CounterPunch
Posted on October 18, 2010,Printed on October 19, 2010
The great divide between politicians and the people is showing itself in California where polls show the voters support Proposition 19 and where the mainstream politicians mostly oppose it.
To many Americans, there are few policies more bankrupt than the prohibition on marijuana use, a recognition that a blue-ribbon panel reached four decades ago, urging an emphasis on drug education rather than incarceration.
In 1970, the National Commission on Marijuana and Drug Abuse recommended ending the illegality of marijuana in the United States. The Dutch also had a national commission that reached the same conclusion.
The difference was the Dutch listened to their experts and President Nixon and other American politicians ignored the U.S. experts. Well, the results are in – the experts were right and the politicians were wrong, even on the issue of how many people use marijuana. It turns out prohibition was less successful than decriminalization.
Continue reading at: http://www.alternet.org/drugs/148533/15_million_americans_have_been_arrested_because_pot_is_illegal_–_when_will_our_dumb_marijuana_prohibition_be_overturned/
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