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OfflineSirFrancisBacon
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"[They] are Winning the War on Drugs"
    #5270571 - 02/06/06 05:52 PM (17 years, 11 months ago)

WE ARE WINNING THE WAR ON DRUGS
by Jonathan V. Last, (Source:Philadelphia Inquirer)
05 Feb 2006

Pennsylvania
-------
There's a wonderful scene in the movie Traffic in which a captured drug kingpin, played by Miguel Ferrer, is being interrogated by two federal agents. Ferrer says to them disdainfully: "You people are like those Japanese soldiers left behind on deserted islands who think that World War II is still going on. Let me be the first to tell you, your government surrendered this war a long time ago."

It's a brilliant bit of filmmaking; it's also bunk. Over the last five years, while no one was paying attention, America has been winning its war on drugs.

The cosmopolitan view has long been that the fight against drugs is a losing battle; that the supply of drugs pouring into America is never-ending; that drug lords are unrelenting zombie-supermen - kill one, and five more spring up.

The American drug problem grew to epidemic proportions throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In 1979, agencies of Health and Human Services and the National Institutes of Health performed a national household survey of illicit drug use; substances included marijuana, cocaine, heroin, banned hallucinogens and inhalants, and unauthorized use of sedatives, stimulants and analgesics. As of 1979, the numbers were horrifying: 31.8 percent of teens ages 12 to 17 had used drugs; 16.3 percent of them had used in the last month. Among those ages 18 to 25 it was worse: 69 percent had used at some point; 38 percent in the last month.

But throughout the '80s, those numbers shrank. Sophisticates derided "Just Say No," but by 1993, only 16.4 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds had used, and only 5.7 percent had used in the last month. In the 18-to-25 age bracket, 50.2 percent had tried drugs, but only 15 percent had used in the last 30 days. It was a remarkable success.

From 1993 to 2001, the numbers become less rosy: Among ages 12 to 17, the percentage of youths who had tried drugs increased almost twofold. In the 18-to-25 crowd, the increase was less marked, but still noticeable.

There's a reason we pay so much attention to these two age groups. As Tom Riley, the director of public affairs at the Office of National Drug Control Policy ( ONDCP ), explains: "If people don't start using drugs as teenagers - the mechanism of addiction clicks much more quickly in the developing brain - then they are unlikely to ever go on to serious drug abuse. If we can reduce the number of teens who use drugs, we change the shape of the problem for generations to come."

After 2001, the tide turned again. Since then, teen drug use is off nearly 19 percent. Which means that 700,000 fewer teens are using drugs today than just a few years ago.

What happened? For one thing: funding. Since 1998, the ONDCP's real budget has increased, from $8.2 billion to $12.4 billion. That extra money has mostly gone to law enforcement and drug treatment, attacking both the supply and the demand sides of the problem. Measures for demand are fuzzy, but the supply side of the equation - the "war" part of the war on drugs - has solid metrics.

Each substance is its own front and has its own dynamics. Drug supply is shockingly local. Take coca, the substance from which cocaine and crack are derived. From 1998 to 2001, world coca production increased from 586,100 metric tons to 655,800 metric tons, with the lion's share grown in Columbia. Since then, the ONDCP orchestrated a campaign to spray 140,000 hectares of Colombian coca fields with glyphosate ( you know it as Roundup ). The result: world coca production is down 20 percent.

With other substances, the news is even better. On Nov. 6, 2000, the Drug Enforcement Agency raided an abandoned missile silo in Wamego, Kan., which housed the world's leading LSD operation. By 2004, LSD availability in America was down 95 percent. The market still hasn't recovered.

The supply of all the major drugs is down, but at the same time, drug interdiction is up. In 1989, 533,533 kilograms of the four major drugs were seized by U.S. authorities. By 2005, the total had risen to 1.3 million kilograms.

Next week, the ONDCP will release a report outlining their order of battle for 2006. Director John Walters is not the type to go running for the nearest TV camera. Yet the quiet success he has overseen is a powerful reminder that the bad guys are not 10 feet tall; that failure is not inevitable; that the war on drugs is a war worth fighting; and that we're fighting it well.

http://www.mapinc.org/norml/v06/n150/a08.htm


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InvisibleKoala Koolio
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Registered: 01/07/04
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Re: "[They] are Winning the War on Drugs" [Re: SirFrancisBacon]
    #5271013 - 02/06/06 07:26 PM (17 years, 11 months ago)

Gross propaganda.

Didn't say too much about the feds in columbia contributing to the cartel success. But, I guess they didn't need to, it *is* and example of the government "winning" the war on drugs. They can win on either side they choose.


--------------------
You're not like the others. You like the same things I do. Wax paper, boiled football leather... dog breath. We're not hitch-hiking anymore, we're riding!


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Invisibledemiu5
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Re: "[They] are Winning the War on Drugs" [Re: SirFrancisBacon]
    #5271056 - 02/06/06 07:44 PM (17 years, 11 months ago)

Quote:

Since then, the ONDCP orchestrated a campaign to spray 140,000 hectares of Colombian coca fields with glyphosate ( you know it as Roundup ). The result: world coca production is down 20 percent.




Office of National Drug Control Policy, where do they get the right to spray foreign fields with glyphosate? I'm not a fan of cocaine, but seriously, stay in this damn country.


--------------------
channel your inner Larry David


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Offlinewilshire
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Re: "[They] are Winning the War on Drugs" [Re: SirFrancisBacon]
    #5271438 - 02/06/06 09:23 PM (17 years, 11 months ago)

how obvious is it that the writer had the idea to write a story with this theme before getting started on the 'research'? great investigative journalism.  :smirk:

poorly written and very poorly supported. reads like a high school kid's english class report.


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OfflineCUBErt
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Re: "[They] are Winning the War on Drugs" [Re: wilshire]
    #5271890 - 02/06/06 11:19 PM (17 years, 11 months ago)

Quote:

wilshire said:
poorly written and very poorly supported. reads like a high school kid's english class report.




I'm in high school and the paper I just wrote on a very similar topic is much more realistic and (in my opinion) well-written than this article (and yes I am 18).

One of the biggest flaws of the War on Drugs is that it measures success in destroying supply. As long as there is a demand people will find some way to get high, and as long as you have the human race you will have those who desire to explore altered states of conciousness. And that, simply put, is why the war on drugs can never and will never be won.


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OfflineSirFrancisBacon
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Re: "[They] are Winning the War on Drugs" [Re: wilshire]
    #5271900 - 02/06/06 11:22 PM (17 years, 11 months ago)

@demius

Plan Columbia is the title they give to the crop spraying spree. It sucked for everyone involved. The people in the planes would be shot down. The farmers would loose their crops. Columbian soverignty was put into question (i made that one up, but its prolly true). John Stossel slams it (as well as the rest of the drug war) here: http://www.pot.tv/archive/shows/pottvshowse-1448.html

enjoy :thumbup:


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OfflineSeussA
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Re: "[They] are Winning the War on Drugs" [Re: CUBErt]
    #5272291 - 02/07/06 03:58 AM (17 years, 11 months ago)

Quote:

One of the biggest flaws of the War on Drugs is that it measures success in destroying supply. As long as there is a demand people will find some way to get high, and as long as you have the human race you will have those who desire to explore altered states of conciousness. And that, simply put, is why the war on drugs can never and will never be won.




Pretty well thought out with only eighteen years of experience. As long as you keep your head below the radar of those that don't want you to succeed, you should go far in life.


--------------------
Just another spore in the wind.


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Invisibledblaney
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Re: "[They] are Winning the War on Drugs" [Re: SirFrancisBacon]
    #5272324 - 02/07/06 04:53 AM (17 years, 11 months ago)

Since then, the ONDCP orchestrated a campaign to spray 140,000 hectares of Colombian coca fields with glyphosate ( you know it as Roundup ). The result: world coca production is down 20 percent.

The other results: displacement of hundreds of native peoples and animals of the area, horrible lung and skin infections, destruction of food and other plants, violations of international laws...

What happened? For one thing: funding. Since 1998, the ONDCP's real budget has increased, from $8.2 billion to $12.4 billion. That extra money has mostly gone to law enforcement and drug treatment, attacking both the supply and the demand sides of the problem. Measures for demand are fuzzy, but the supply side of the equation - the "war" part of the war on drugs - has solid metrics.

Thank goodness! People certainly aren't capable of thinking and making decisions for themselves, so it's such a lucky thing that the governments of the world are willing to think for us and impose prohibitions, sanctions, and imprison us for longer sentences than rapists and murderers.


--------------------
"What is in us that turns a deaf ear to the cries of human suffering?"

"Belief is a beautiful armor
But makes for the heaviest sword"
- John Mayer

Making the noise "penicillin" is no substitute for actually taking penicillin.

"This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it." -Abraham Lincoln


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OfflineSeussA
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Re: "[They] are Winning the War on Drugs" [Re: SirFrancisBacon]
    #5272376 - 02/07/06 06:21 AM (17 years, 11 months ago)

Kinda like claiming that one is winning the war against athletes foot by cutting off everybodies feet.


--------------------
Just another spore in the wind.


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Invisiblekoppie
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Re: "[They] are Winning the War on Drugs" [Re: Seuss]
    #5272399 - 02/07/06 06:47 AM (17 years, 11 months ago)

From 1993 to 2001, the numbers become less rosy: Among ages 12 to 17, the percentage of youths who had tried drugs increased almost twofold. In the 18-to-25 crowd, the increase was less marked, but still noticeable.

So according to this piece Bill Clinton was responsible for the rise in drug use?

This looks more like party political propaganda masked as anti drug propaganda. Don't you people have an election coming up later this year?


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Offlinelemon_lw
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Re: "[They] are Winning the War on Drugs" [Re: koppie]
    #5272457 - 02/07/06 07:43 AM (17 years, 11 months ago)

"If people don't start using drugs as teenagers - the mechanism of addiction clicks much more quickly in the developing brain - then they are unlikely to ever go on to serious drug abuse. If we can reduce the number of teens who use drugs, we change the shape of the problem for generations to come."

ehat i get out of that is if they lower use among 12-17 y.o then once that group gets older there will be less users in the 18-25 y.o group.


but if you look at the numbers every generation that had high 12-17 y/o use the next generation had low 18-25 y/o and vica versa (sp?). which would mean that the first statment is false because the exact opposite of what they said would happen happened. see if you get my drift





As of 1979, the numbers were horrifying: 31.8 percent of teens ages 12 to 17 had used drugs; 16.3 percent of them had used in the last month. Among those ages 18 to 25 it was worse: 69 percent had used at some point; 38 percent in the last month.

But throughout the '80s, those numbers shrank. Sophisticates derided "Just Say No," but by 1993, only 16.4 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds had used, and only 5.7 percent had used in the last month. In the 18-to-25 age bracket, 50.2 percent had tried drugs, but only 15 percent had used in the last 30 days. It was a remarkable success.

From 1993 to 2001, the numbers become less rosy: Among ages 12 to 17, the percentage of youths who had tried drugs increased almost twofold. In the 18-to-25 crowd, the increase was less marked, but still noticeable.

After 2001, the tide turned again. Since then, teen drug use is off nearly 19 percent. Which means that 700,000 fewer teens are using drugs today than just a few years ago.

so instead of the war being won it seems to be a small shift in percentages. doesnt seem like much of any winning to me. because the article doesnt state if the polls were performed in the same area then the result in the changes could be strictly due to the poll being taken in different areas.


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In the belly of the Leviathan, one can either despair and perish, or be cheerful and persevere.-Dean Koontz


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OfflineRemainRandom50
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Re: "[They] are Winning the War on Drugs" [Re: CUBErt]
    #5273230 - 02/07/06 12:18 PM (17 years, 11 months ago)

Quote:

CUBErt said:
Quote:

wilshire said:
poorly written and very poorly supported. reads like a high school kid's english class report.




I'm in high school and the paper I just wrote on a very similar topic is much more realistic and (in my opinion) well-written than this article (and yes I am 18).


great way to put it :wink:

One of the biggest flaws of the War on Drugs is that it measures success in destroying supply. As long as there is a demand people will find some way to get high, and as long as you have the human race you will have those who desire to explore altered states of conciousness. And that, simply put, is why the war on drugs can never and will never be won.




--------------------
At times I get consumed by my everyday life and will leave the Shroomery. Yet, every time drugs come falling into my life for fun.....I always think about the Shroomery and then I'm back!


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Offlinekindadank
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Re: "[They] are Winning the War on Drugs" [Re: SirFrancisBacon]
    #5273882 - 02/07/06 03:18 PM (17 years, 11 months ago)

Anyone up for writing this moron some hate emails?


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OfflineCUBErt
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Re: "[They] are Winning the War on Drugs" [Re: Seuss]
    #5273932 - 02/07/06 03:40 PM (17 years, 11 months ago)

Quote:

Seuss said:
Pretty well thought out with only eighteen years of experience.  As long as you keep your head below the radar of those that don't want you to succeed, you should go far in life.




Thank you  :smile:

Yeah so far I have done a pretty good job of "staying under the radar." Most of the teachers/administration at my school would never suspect me of using at all. But the sad thing is that I strongly get the impression that many of them, upon learning of my habits, would rather see me fail and use me as an example than have me succeed while being a drug user. It's like this quote I read somewhere that this LAPD sheriff said something like "recreational drug users (implying those who used drugs and maintained a very average, mainstream American lifestyle) should be shot for committing treason in the war on drugs." And they say the druggies are crazy  :rolleyes:


--------------------
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:cubie::levitate::cubie:


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OfflineCUBErt
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Re: "[They] are Winning the War on Drugs" [Re: kindadank]
    #5273938 - 02/07/06 03:45 PM (17 years, 11 months ago)

Quote:

kindadank said:
Anyone up for writing this moron some hate emails?




Gotta be careful how you go about that. "Hate mails" will be construed as "Oh a bunch of coked-up drug addicts with bad tempers can't accept the truth," and would probably be successfully butchered and used as more anti-drug propaganda. Better to write an insightful letter, pointing out many of the facts discussed in this thread, and challenging the credability of this article... of course, if you actually were to prove some good points the author would probably just delete the mail rather than admit his mistake


--------------------
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:cubie::levitate::cubie:


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Offlinekindadank
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Re: "[They] are Winning the War on Drugs" [Re: CUBErt]
    #5274224 - 02/07/06 05:22 PM (17 years, 11 months ago)

Yeah it could go either way...I'm not actually going to take the time to do it because, like you said, he would probably just delete it without even finishing it no matter how rediculous or intelligent.


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InvisibleOJK
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Re: "[They] are Winning the War on Drugs" [Re: Seuss]
    #5280834 - 02/09/06 07:13 AM (17 years, 11 months ago)

Quote:

Seuss said:
Kinda like claiming that one is winning the war against athletes foot by cutting off everybodies feet.




that is an absolutely brilliant comment


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