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Green_T


Registered: 10/02/08
Posts: 4,042
Loc: UK
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It's time to call off war on drugs, former narcotics agent says
#13292395 - 10/05/10 08:21 AM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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It's time to call off war on drugs, former narcotics agent says 10/03/2010 - The Oakland Tribune
RUSS JONES has spent nearly half of his 64 years dealing with drugs.
Of his 10 years with the San Jose Police Department, six were in the narcotics division. He was part of a Drug Enforcement Agency task force. He did intelligence work in Central America for the U.S. State Department and research in China and the Soviet Union for the Office of International Criminal Justice.
Name a controlled substance, and he can tell you how it is made, where it is marketed and what it costs on the street. He can tell you something else: America's war on drugs is an unmitigated failure that should be terminated.
"The U.S. over the last four decades has spent $1 trillion of our tax dollars, made 38 million nonviolent drug arrests and quadrupled our prison population," he said. "And the rate of addiction today, 1.3 percent, is the same as it was in 1970, when we started."
Jones spoke to the Martinez Rotary Club last week on behalf of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition, a volunteer organization of 15,000 former judges, prosecutors, federal agents and police officers who support the end of drug prohibition.
He wasn't specifically promoting Proposition 19, which would legalize marijuana in the state, but he welcomes any advancement toward the larger goal of legalizing and regulating all controlled substances.
Jones said he began to question the war on drugs while working undercover in setting up major Advertisement drug busts. He still has copies of the front-page headlines that appeared in the newspapers.
"The district attorney would announce that a major blow had been dealt to the drug network," Jones said. "Then what would follow is some new drug dealer would take the old dealer's place."
This same pattern was repeated so often -- a heralded drug bust followed by the arrival of a new dealer -- that narcotics officers winced whenever the district attorney claimed a "victory" over drugs.
"When I arrested a rapist or a robber, the community was safer," Jones said. "When I arrested a drug dealer, all I did was create a job opening."
He said one of the unintended consequences of shutting down local dealers was to create a void into which moved much larger, better-organized operations.
Unintended consequences are a product of the war on drugs. When amphetamines were outlawed, Jones said, criminals learned to cook up methamphetamines, which are far more potent. Because cocaine is water soluble, requiring special packaging that is difficult to get past authorities, dealers invented the derivative crack in smaller, easier-to-hide "rocks." Those smaller, cheaper portions made it affordable in poor communities.
Jones reminds anyone who will listen that you can be against drugs and still favor reform. He wants addicts to receive professional treatment and education, recognizing abuse as a health concern, not a legal one.
"Doctors should be allowed to prescribe drugs to addicts, who can take their prescription to a clinic where they can get a pharmaceutical-grade dose administered by a health clinician. When habitual users start going to clinics, you put violent drug dealers out of business, and addicts don't commit crimes to support their habit."
He cited as an example clinics in Switzerland, where heroin is dispensed freely. Deaths by overdose have been reduced by 50 percent, drug crimes by 60 percent.
To those who doubt the effectiveness of education, he points to cigarette smoking. "With education," he said, "we reduced the use of tobacco in this country from 42 percent to 17 percent, and we did that without firing one shot or kicking in any doors."
With such powerful logic, why does drug regulation keep meeting resistance? For some people, Jones says, it's a moral and ideological issue. For others, the reason is simpler: money.
He said the DEA, with a $2.6 billion annual budget and nearly 11,000 employees, would be out of work without illegal drugs.
Local law enforcement agencies would be denied federal funds.
Privately operated prisons, whose revenues are based on occupancy, would wind up with empty beds.
"A lot of people have their fingers in the bowl of money tied up in the drug war complex," he said.
The arguments might be dismissed if the speaker had wandered in from a college campus with a new book to promote and a string of letters behind his name.
But this is a guy who during six years in the major violator unit averaged one narcotics arrest per week. He understands the damage drugs can do.
He thinks the damage done by the war on drugs has been far worse.
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"I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man" - Thomas Jefferson Legalize Meth | Drug War Victims
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German Kahuna
Facepalmer of Stoopid



Registered: 10/31/08
Posts: 15,798
Loc: On a Chemical Vacation
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Re: It's time to call off war on drugs, former narcotics agent says [Re: Green_T]
#13292868 - 10/05/10 10:36 AM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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Good guy, this Mr. Jones.
-------------------- "Vegetarian" [ /ˌvedʒəˈteəriən/] - Ancient slang meaning "village idiot who can't hunt, fish or ride".
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Le_Canard
The Duk Abides


Registered: 05/16/03
Posts: 94,392
Loc: Earthfarm 1
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Re: It's time to call off war on drugs, former narcotics agent says [Re: German Kahuna]
#13292948 - 10/05/10 10:57 AM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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Indeed. He would be the one who would know firsthand the damage done by the so-called "war on drugs".
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Sophistic Radiance
Free sVs!



Registered: 07/11/06
Posts: 43,135
Loc: Center of the Universe
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Re: It's time to call off war on drugs, former narcotics agent says [Re: Le_Canard]
#13293024 - 10/05/10 11:13 AM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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The drug war is slowly but surely boiling down to a classic tale of Good Cop vs. Bad Cop as the inefficacy of its methods grow harder to ignore.
Good always wins in the end, right?
-------------------- Enlil said: You really are the worst kind of person.
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Le_Canard
The Duk Abides


Registered: 05/16/03
Posts: 94,392
Loc: Earthfarm 1
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Re: It's time to call off war on drugs, former narcotics agent says [Re: Sophistic Radiance]
#13293111 - 10/05/10 11:31 AM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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Well, not always, but one can hope....
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auronlives69
psychedelic monk



Registered: 04/19/09
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Re: It's time to call off war on drugs, former narcotics agent says [Re: Green_T]
#13294410 - 10/05/10 04:13 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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sounds unlikely to happen anytime durring our lifetime, even so for every freedom we get we lose another like mabe all drugs would be legal but porn gets criminalized cause of the "porn addiction" epidemic
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SuperD
Cacti junky


Registered: 10/05/03
Posts: 6,648
Loc: The bridgesii bridge
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Re: It's time to call off war on drugs, former narcotics agent says [Re: auronlives69]
#13294551 - 10/05/10 04:38 PM (13 years, 7 months ago) |
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Don't be so uncertain about that auron. I too have my doubts, but then again, within the next decade or two most of these old fucks with outdated perspectives with regards to drugs will no longer be walking around on our planet. The younger generation has a lot less tolerance for the insane drug laws we currently have in place, mostly because they are either directly affected by it or know someone who has been.
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   D Manoa said: I need to stop spending all my money on plants and take up a cheaper hobby, like heroin. Looking for Rauhocereus riosaniensis seeds or live specimen(s), me if you have any for trade
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