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 b0red5tiff
i deliver the news
Registered: 09/16/06
Posts: 9,344
Loc: \m/
Last seen: 25 minutes, 54 seconds
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 War on drugs is a war on youth, people of color
#6937952 - 05/19/07 08:11 AM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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http://www.gp.org/press/pr_2007_05_16.shtml
WASHINGTON, DC -- Green Party leaders called for a national discussion on how the US's 'war on drugs' has turned into a war on young people, the poor, and African Americans, Latinos, and other people of color.
"The human and economic devastation caused by the war on drugs is missing from the range of debate among both Democratic and Republican presidential candidates. Politicians from these parties, when asked about drug policies, prefer to posture about law and order and endorse failed measures. These politicians don't realize that going along to get along makes one complicit said Cliff Thornton, Green candidate for Governor of Connecticut in 2006 and co-founder of Efficacy, Inc. <http://www.efficacy-online.org>, which promotes major reforms in drug policy.
Greens cited a study by the American Civil Liberties Union ("Cracks in the System: Twenty Years of Unjust Federal Crack Cocaine Law," October 2006, <http://www.aclu.org/pdfs/drugpolicy/cracksinsystem_20061025.pdf>), 37% of people arrested, 59% of people convicted, and 74% of those sent to prison are African American, even though only 15% of drug users are African American.
The Associated Press <http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20061130-9999-1n30nation.html>; has reported that "a record 7 million people -- or one in every 32 American adults -- were behind bars, on probation or on parole by the end of last year, according to the Justice Department.... From 1995 to 2003, inmates in federal prison for drug offenses have accounted for 49 percent of total prison population growth."
In state prisons, 260,000 people were serving sentences on nonviolent drug charges in 2005, of whom more than 70% were African American or Latino <http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/p05.htm>;. The Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics reports that nearly one in eight drug prisoners (45,000 Americans) are behind bars for marijuana-related offenses.
Green leaders also strongly criticized the punitive denial of financial aid to students with drug convictions, and supported Students for a Sensible Drug Policy <http://www.ssdp.org>; in their effort to persuade Congress to reinstate such aid.
"The war on drugs is an excuse to ignore the US Constitution's prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment, with long prison sentences for minor and nonviolent offenses. The drug war is meant to be waged, not won," added Mr. Thornton. "This is in part a result of pressure on elected officials from the private prison industry lobby, which seeks to build new prisons and fill up cells in order to win government giveaways and increase corporate profits. The Green Party calls for a public debate that challenges the rhetoric of Democratic and Republican politicians who are under influence of these companies, and that recognizes how the war on drugs has only resulted in more crime and violence."
"We need to stop spending $50 billion a year on the drug war, and use that money for treatment. We need to repeal mandatory sentencing laws, which override judges' discretion in determining prison time, and 'three strikes' laws that send people -- mostly the poor and people of color -- away for life on nonviolent and minor felonies," said Kevin Zeese, 2006 candidate for the US Senate candidate in Maryland and president of Common Sense for Drug Policy <http://www.csdp.org>;.
The Green Party's national platform <http://www.gp.org/platform/2004> endorses decriminalization of victimless crimes, such as the possession of small amounts of marijuana; an end to the war on drugs; expanded drug counseling and treatment; and an end to arrest of 'medical marijuana' arrests and prosecution.
"Law enforcement should focus efforts on organized crime, including the laundering of drug money at banks, rather than on street-level drug trade, in which kids who get arrested -- or killed -- are quickly replaced," said Nan Garrett, Co-Chair of the National Women's Caucus of the Green Party and 2002 candidate for Governor of Georgia. "Addictive use should be treated as a medical and social problem. Locking up addicts in stressed prison environments, with minimal effort to address the addiction itself, and then freeing them to go back into the same circumstances that led to their abuse of drugs has only aggravated the problem of addiction. Greens endorse rational solutions to the problems of drug abuse that are based on science and health, compassion for addicts and their families, reduction of harm rather than moral judgment, and respect for basic civil liberties and principles of justice."
MORE INFORMATION
Green Party of the United States
http://www.gp.org
1700 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 404
Washington, DC 20009.
202-319-7191, 866-41GREEN
Fax 202-319-7193
Green Party News Center
http://www.gp.org/newscenter.shtml
Drug War Facts:
Drug Offenders In The Corrections System - Prisons, Jails and Probation
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/prison.htm
Race, Prison and the Drug Laws (with information on the disproportionate incarceration of African Americans and other people of color)
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/racepris.htm
Crime (with information on the correlation between drug prohibition and violence)
http://www.drugwarfacts.org/crime.htm
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there is no pill, piece, puzzle, solution
pulse, reaction, inhilation, exhale, gag
fall out, retarding, pussyhole theory
you fucking dumb fuck
Get killed
__________
You know... I've been lying awake at night. I feel... like I'm sleeping... but I'm awake. That's when I hear him. And lately, when I hear him... all at once... I understand. Everything. John, do you remember the last time you were happy?
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Mr_DeeMsTer
Mystic
Registered: 01/20/07
Posts: 207
Last seen: 8 months, 13 days
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 Re: War on drugs is a war on youth, people of color [Re: b0red5tiff]
#6938213 - 05/19/07 10:19 AM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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neato
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 DNKYD
Turtle!
Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 10,432
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Re: War on drugs is a war on youth, people of color [Re: b0red5tiff]
#6938836 - 05/19/07 01:42 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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Why does this matter? It doesn't make a damn bit of difference if you're brown, black, white, yellow, red, or whatever else. The only thing that matters is our government is waging a war against its own citizens. The ignorant majority of Americans think this failed war is against some dark, evil force in the universe. They never stop to think that the government is sending out SWAT teams in full assault gear busting down doors of tax-paying citizens. The very citizens that pay the wages of every worthless piggy that "accidentally" barges into the "wrong house" and shoots the "wrong person".
Playing the race card, which apparently must be done in every fucking aspect of our lives, is moot. I couldn't care less if a thousand black people were targeted yesterday by drug enforcement agents and only 10 white people were. The fact of the matter is they are waging war against liberty and the "citizens of the free world."
The whole premise of this article is like trying to focus on putting out the fires of the WTC on 9/11 when you still know the whole damn thing is gonna come crashing down.
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SuperD
THE SPIRIT OFTRUTH
Registered: 10/05/03
Posts: 2,470
Loc: TX
Last seen: 1 hour, 14 minutes
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Re: War on drugs is a war on youth, people of color [Re: DNKYD]
#6938848 - 05/19/07 01:45 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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Don't think I could have worded that better myself.
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I'd like you to meet my local drug dealer 
Bruce Campbell for a day! said: Go misidentify a mushroom please.
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Phish_Dude
steppin' into yesterday
Registered: 10/16/06
Posts: 2,019
Loc: secret tweeker pad
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Re: War on drugs is a war on youth, people of color [Re: SuperD]
#6938963 - 05/19/07 02:32 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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it is the sad truth though, and we all must deal with it until someone decides to act on it.
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Lost my mind just a couple of times.
Lost my mind just a couple of times.
You can spend your nickels, you can spend your dimes.
But I lost my mind just a couple of times.
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nub
Plobable
Registered: 04/14/06
Posts: 189
Loc: little district
Last seen: 17 days, 20 hours
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Re: War on drugs is a war on youth, people of color [Re: Phish_Dude]
#6939243 - 05/19/07 04:13 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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why dont we act on it? are we all in fear of the swat and what not, or do we not know how to affect it. Are u all just what u think u think it isnt but is?
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Dust everywhere
http://rense.com/
http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/index.php
http://ufo.whipnet.org/digital.proof/index.html
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ozzyozzyozzy
Australian
Registered: 10/23/06
Posts: 421
Last seen: 6 hours, 53 minutes
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Re: War on drugs is a war on youth, people of color [Re: DNKYD]
#6939672 - 05/19/07 06:45 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
DNKYD said:
Why does this matter? It doesn't make a damn bit of difference if you're brown, black, white, yellow, red, or whatever else. The only thing that matters is our government is waging a war against its own citizens. The ignorant majority of Americans think this failed war is against some dark, evil force in the universe. They never stop to think that the government is sending out SWAT teams in full assault gear busting down doors of tax-paying citizens. The very citizens that pay the wages of every worthless piggy that "accidentally" barges into the "wrong house" and shoots the "wrong person".
Playing the race card, which apparently must be done in every fucking aspect of our lives, is moot. I couldn't care less if a thousand black people were targeted yesterday by drug enforcement agents and only 10 white people were. The fact of the matter is they are waging war against liberty and the "citizens of the free world."
The whole premise of this article is like trying to focus on putting out the fires of the WTC on 9/11 when you still know the whole damn thing is gonna come crashing down.
It's all well and good saying 'race is moot', but it's historically undeniable that the entire basis of the criminalization of marijuana was based on racism. Look up harry j. anslinger and his rise to become the first drug czar. It may have more 'politically correct' [i.e still lying but not directly blaming the blacks/mexicans] arguments for criminalization now, but the basis still remains the same and racism is a large part of it.
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supermush
Stranger
Registered: 05/18/07
Posts: 1
Last seen: 1 year, 4 months
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Re: War on drugs is a war on youth, people of color [Re: nub]
#6942855 - 05/20/07 01:39 PM (1 year, 6 months ago) |
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Quote:
nub said:
why dont we act on it? are we all in fear of the swat and what not, or do we not know how to affect it. Are u all just what u think u think it isnt but is?
We should try to act on it, I'm sure tons of people on this website would be willing to help...We would need them to make a difference..
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