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Want to know what the drug war is costing you and me? Want to know how easy it is for our youth to end up addicted to drugs and end up in jail? If so, read this website. It will shed some light. Post by Mary Slivinski.
DRUG WAR FACTS. CLICK HERE
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/cms/
Drug War Facts provides reliable information with applicable citations on important public health and criminal justice issues. It is updated continuously by its editor, Douglas A. McVay.
Most charts, facts and figures are from government sources, government-sponsored sources, peer reviewed journals and occasionally newspapers. In all cases the source is cited so that journalists, scholars and students can verify, check context and obtain additional information.
This 9/14/09 video production from Democracy Now! – Charles Bowden on Mexico’s Dirty War Against Drugs. Tucson author Charles Bowden’s investigative journalism unearthed some interesting facts about the floundering drug war. The video underscores why America needs to do something radically different.
Heroin’s Comeback: Busts at Levels Not Seen Since the 70’s. Mexican dealers are flooding the market with a cheap form of heroin that is more potent than its predecessors, snaring younger users. Read article here. By Michael B. Farrell | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor 4/08/09 (This post submitted by Dr. R. Osborn, treatment advocate and provider.) Dr. Robert Osborn has successfully integrated addiction treatment into his practice in the most accessible way we’ve seen in the Tucson area. He is a model that other practices can follow to help promote recovery from addiction.
Written by Ted Jackson
April 2008
For those who have waited years and years through the “Just Say No,” the insidious rise of the Prison Industrial Complex and the overall absurdity of our nation’s policies toward addiction, the time of reform has finally come.
Partly driven by an inability to pay the $60 billion a year it costs to warehouse addicts in our vast prison system, and partly driven by a public increasingly well-educated about addiction, in state after state policies are being rewritten to mandate treatment instead of jail for those who are addicted to drugs. And the spectacle of a Mexican government impotent in the face of the enormous wealth and power of that nation’s drug cartels is shining a spotlight on the Big Lie that is the War on Drugs, prompting the beginnings of a examination of our approach to drug policy at it most fundamental level, which is whether drugs should be illegal in the first place and whether such vast sums should be allowed to be funneled into the hands of the world’s least socially desirable elements, like Mexico’s cartels, instead of toward things like treatment.
Many thought that the treatment industry might experience a sharp downturn during this harshest of recessions, but we here at Treatment Magazine have never believed that, looking as we have at the fundamentals, which point toward explosive growth over the next decade as vast sums are shifted from the prison system into the treatment industry. And on the private side, insurers have been hugely remiss in cutting back on funding by amounts that are no longer going to be tolerated by a public more and more wanting access to quality care. We believe that the treatment industry, as it introduces increasingly sophisticated “evidence based” treatment products, is on the cusp of a period of unprecedented explosive growth with annual spending on treatment easily reaching $50 billion a year within the next ten years, double our nation’s current rate of spending.
The September issue of Rolling Stone online features a short but telling video interview of investigative reporter, Guy Lawson, explaining a more accurate picture of the continuing transformation of Mexico into a Narco State. Watch the video: The Drug War Source: Rollingstone.com
Mexican Drug War Claims 18 Lives at Treatment Center – September 3, 2009
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico – Neighbors mopped blood from the sidewalk outside a drug rehabilitation center Thursday, cleaning up the carnage after gunmen lined up patients against a wall and then riddled them with bullets, killing 18. Incredible! This won’t happen in America. Read the rest of the article here. Source: http://www.jointogether.org
Here’s some breaking news on Mexico’s answer to the massive violence perpetrated upon its people by the drug cartel and the drug war. This article, Mexico Decriminalizes Small-Scale Drug Possession, announces an unprecedented move in decriminalization. Another article, Mexico’s New Drug Law Worries U.S., underscores worry by U.S. authorities. See also Blog of Freedom which was dadonfire’s source for this information as published on August 21st, 2009.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime says opium cultivation has fallen by 22% in a year and production by 10%, with the biggest fall in Helmand province. See the rest of the article here
“…The new atmosphere is most apparent vis-à-vis the Obama administration’s move away from “war on drugs” rhetoric and toward a harm-reduction strategy. Gil Kerlikowske, the new head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, has made it clear that he prefers treatment over punishment for drug users”… “We need to ask, Is there a more sensible approach?” argues Norm Stamper, who, like Kerlikowske, is a former chief of police of Seattle who believes the criminal justice system is broken. “And the answer is prevention and education and treatment.”…read the entire article here.
Throughout the 1990’s, journalist Gary Webb had uncovered evidence implicating the CIA’s complicity in drug running. His passing in 2004 left suspicion. Numerous reports followed Webb’s investigations including this late 90’s NBC news report. An old problem now only a bigger problem today. On fire for solutions. Content contributed by Bill Ford and Janusz Grajewski.
Interesting perspective on America’s war on drugs by 22-year-old Janusz Grajewski of Hamburg, Germany, previously residing in Tucson, Arizona: “I have always had the opinion that drug abuse is a medical problem. One only needs to look at Holland to see that hard drug addiction can be dealt with in a humane manner”…read the rest of Janusz’s article. Click here.
June 11, 2009 – Highlights of Judiciary Subcommittee Hearing on Sen. Webb’s Criminal Justice Bill. Sweeping movement at federal level, to review the entire prison- sentencing policies across America. Hopes are to engage addict offenders in early treatment of drug addiction and identify offenders with dual diagnosis. See also special reports. Parade Magazine and Fact Sheet.
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The money saved by quickly stopping the street use of heroin can be staggering. Much of the saving can be realized by the insurance companies themselves. HealthNet now has an opportunity to lead the way. The cost savings are especially true in the case of heroin addicts with dangerous dual diagnosis of another disease or mental illness, simply from the standpoint of greatly reducing the need for ER service. click here to read more
Webb Crime Bill Moving in House – by Ryan Grim, Huffington Post 06-24-09
“Delahunt, a senior Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said that reform of the American justice system should begin with a broad look at drug policy.” See full article here.
| Written by Ted Jackson |
| June 2008 |
| The War on Drugs has its roots in a U.S. lead prohibition effort that began over one hundred years ago, an initiative that has ultimately resulted in the criminalization of non-prescription drug use in practically every nation on earth. In the wake of the explosion of drug use following the Vietnam War, the War on Drugs in its current aggressive and malignant form began with the creation of the DEA, along with other programs and legislation, during the Nixon administration. And, now, the newest numbers from the Justice Department are just the latest in a long line of events and data that prove the abject failure of one of the most misguided policies in the history of this nation.
Year after year, the Justice Department announces record numbers of prisoners, and the latest figures are no exception, with 7.2 million people reported as incarcerated in 2007, by far the largest per capita imprisonment rate in the world. DOJ estimates that 21 percent of all state inmates, and 55 percent of federal inmates, are sentenced for drug crimes. But other estimates of drugrelated imprisonment put the figure at closer to 75 percent of the prisoner population. And it now costs $60 billion a year to fund this vast new prison industrial complex, an eightfold increase since the War on Drugs, in its current incarnation, began 35 years ago. When governments seeks to criminalise a common behavior – 40 million Amercans have used cocaine – it sets itself up in a war against the people, a war that we have seen has had huge costs on society. If the War on Drugs were effective, it might be worth the cost. But the War in Drugs has not been in any way effective, and it’s time now for a new policy. |
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