Pubdate: Thu, 01 Jul 2004 Source: Free Press, The (Houston, TX) Copyright: 2004 The Free Press, Houston Contact: http://www.mapinc.org/media/3222 Note: This monthly newspaper does not have a website. Author: Dean Becker Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/pot.htm (Cannabis) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hallucinogens.htm (Hallucinogens) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) DRUGS ARE GOOD! The American people love drugs, all kinds of drugs. Recent polls indicate that a majority of US citizens have used some form of illegal drugs. Whether that's marijuana, cocaine, heroin or LSD or if it's using someone else's pain pills or muscle relaxers, it's all illegal, subject to the same provisions of the laughingly named "Controlled Substances Act." Marijuana use as sacrament, for health or for just plain relaxing and fun is a federal crime, subject to sentences that can range to the penalty of death if your thumb is too green. We must remember, that in its 8,000-year history, marijuana has never killed anyone. Use of coca or opium products from the horribly inept black market, is responsible for less than 10% of the number killed each year by bumbling pharmacists at Eckerd's and Walgreen's. Whether it's for enlightenment, medicine or just plain fun, the societal effects of all the drugs taken, that are on the "forbidden list" are miniscule in comparison to the harms inflicted on our society by terrorists, street gangs, corrupt public officials, tainted drugs, the inflated prices of the black market, and most important of all is to recognize that drug prohibition gives easy access to drugs for our children. Public safety is jeopardized because we mandate that our law enforcement community focus their attentions on drug users, sellers and traffickers. We waste millions of man years looking under car seats, under dashboards and in trunks, searching for the mother load of dope that brings a rise in rank, a fatter paycheck and career stature to an otherwise thoroughly distracted policeman. When we finally end this drug war, we will immediately reap huge financial rewards as well. The $50 billion squandered each year could be used for health, education, roads and bridges. With a small tax on these drugs, we could rake in billions instead of constantly opening our wallets for more prisons, more welfare and the destruction of millions of families every year. over the contents of a baggie. Fear, huge, looming, hulking FEAR runs the drug war. Stop, educate yourself, and get out from under the bed or the dark closet you hide in. There is not one iota of truth, not one speck of logic and not one valid, justifiable reason for this drug war to continue. Since no authority can stand and defend this policy I urge you to pick up this readily available information and stand forth against those who would cage generations of your family, not for the use of powders, pills and plant extracts, but simply because you allow them to do so, "because they could." The people know the truth, even the politicians, pundits and doctors know. The problem lies in the law enforcement community, whether that's the patrolman on the beat or the district attorneys focus, the financial machinations and requirements of the probation officer or the need of treatment providers to fill their beds, it's the "authority" and bully pulpit of those who benefit the most from this drug war, that continually pervert the truth so as to perpetuate this madness (and make that mortgage payment.) I stand the heat, 24/7 and though it now seems a sure way to the poorhouse because nobody will hire an individual with a Goggle search-result like mine, otherwise there are no roadblocks in place. The only fear we have to fear is that you may have permanently lost your nerve and that you wind up doing nothing to stop this madness of drug war, of war on terror. Do nothing and some day they WILL come for you. Like the Soviet Empire, which necessarily and continually had to rewrite their five-year plans to show exaggerated success, so too do each newly elected batch of politicians ask us to believe they finally have the solution. Just a few more years, (trust them) and they'll stop the black market. How high the harvest warden? 2.1 million, and rising! To learn more, please visit these sites: www.cultural-baggage.com, www.mpp.org, www.mapinc.org, www.drugwarfacts.org, www.drugpolicy.org, www.norml.org or for a laugh, visit: www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov. Please listen to the 4:20 Drug War NEWS each afternoon and to Cultural Baggage, "the Unvarnished Truth about the Drug War" on KPFT radio, 90.1 FM or online at www.kpft.org each Tuesday at 6:30 PM, CDT. You'll hear judges and congressmen, police and prisoners speaking of the need for drug reform. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager