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InvisibleOneMoreRobot3021
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U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure
    #7196783 - 07/19/07 09:03 AM (16 years, 8 months ago)

http://www.jointogether.org/news/features/2007/us-mayors-declare-drug-war.html

U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure
July 18, 2007
By Bob Curley

The mayors of America's large cities have unanimously approved a resolution stating that the drug war "has failed" and calling for a harm-reduction oriented approach to drug policy that focuses on public health.

The U.S. Conference of Mayors adopted the resolution during its June 21-26 annual meeting in Los Angeles, calling for a "new bottom line" in drug policy that "concentrates more fully on reducing the negative consequences associated with drug abuse, while ensuring that our policies do not exacerbate these problems or create new social problems of their own; establishes quantifiable, short- and long-term objectives for drug policy; saves taxpayers money; and holds state and federal agencies responsible."

Sponsored by Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, the resolution states that the drug war costs $40 billion annually but has not cut drug use or demand. It slams the Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP) drug-prevention programs -- specifically, the agency's national anti-drug media campaign -- as "costly and ineffective," but called drug treatment cost-effective and a major contributor to public safety because it prevents criminal behavior.

"This Conference recognizes that addiction is a chronic medical illness that is treatable, and drug treatment success rates exceed those of many cancer therapies," the document states.

The resolution condemns mandatory minimum sentences and incarceration of drug offenders, particularly minorities, and called for more control of anti-drug spending and priorities at the local level, where the impact is most acutely felt.

"U.S. policy should not be measured solely on drug-use levels or number of people imprisoned, but rather on the amount of drug-related harm reduced," according to the resolution. The document calls for more accountability among federal, state and local drug agencies, with funding tied to performance measures, more treatment funding and alternatives to incarceration, and lifting the federal funding ban for needle-exchanges.

The resolution, which will be used to guide the U.S. Conference of Mayors' Washington lobbying on addiction issues, passed with minimal debate, clearing two committees and the general assembly by unanimous votes.

"The mayors are clearly signaling the serious need for drug policy reform," said Daniel Abrahamson, director of legal affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA), who worked with Anderson's staff to draft the resolution. Daniel Robelo, a DPA legal research assistant, said the resolution could become an "incredibly powerful" advocacy tool for DPA and other drug-reform groups. "While it has no legal effect, it has a powerful symbolic effect," he told Join Together.

Alexa Eggleston, director of national policy for the Legal Action Center, which advocates for increased investment in addiction treatment and prevention, praised the mayors for acknowledging "that alcohol and drug addiction is a treatable medical illness and is supportive of expanding treatment to the approximately 21 million Americans with alcohol and drug problems who need it, expanding effective prevention initiatives in communities nationwide, and fighting discrimination against people with addiction histories by repealing discriminatory laws and policies that prevent them from accessing employment, insurance, and other necessities of life."

But Tom Riley, a spokesperson for ONDCP, called the resolution a "grab bag" of DPA positions and a publicity stunt by proponents of drug legalization. "We don't think it's very serious," he said of the resolution, adding that to declare the drug war a failure "is a slogan rather than a policy proposal."

"Most of the mayors our office talks to consider drugs a huge problem in their communities and are anxious to get more resources for prevention, treatment and law enforcement," said Riley. "I don't know many mayors who are in favor of drug legalization."

Anderson is no newcomer to the drug issue; he has previously called the drug war "phony, inhumane, and ineffective," and his official biography calls him "an outspoken advocate for drug policy reform." He received the DPA's 2005 Richard J. Dennis Drugpeace Award for outstanding achievements in the field of drug policy reform.

Nor is Anderson alone in his harsh criticism of the drug war: Newark Mayor Cory Booker, seen as a rising political leader, recently stated that he's prepared to go to jail to protest a war on drugs that he sees as shackling African-Americans into poverty and feeding crime and murder in his city.

"I'm going to battle on this," Booker recently told the Newark Star-Ledger. "We're going to start this in the gentlemanly way. And then we're going to do the civil disobedience way. Because this is absurd."

Booker says he wants to see nonviolent drug offenders placed in treatment programs and halfway houses, not prisons, and to stop banning ex-offenders from jobs. "The drug war is causing crime," he said. "It's just chewing up young black men. And it's killing Newark."


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Acid doesn't give you truths; it builds machines that push the envelope of perception. Whatever revelations came to me then have dissolved like skywriting. All I really know is that those few years saddled me with a faith in the redemptive potential of the imagination which, however flat, stale and unprofitable the world seems to me now, I cannot for the life of me shake.

-Erik Davis

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InvisibleSuperD
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Re: U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure [Re: OneMoreRobot3021]
    #7196805 - 07/19/07 09:11 AM (16 years, 8 months ago)

FY, HFY


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:super:D
Manoa said:
I need to stop spending all my money on plants and take up a cheaper hobby, like heroin. :lol:

Looking for Rauhocereus riosaniensis seeds or live specimen(s), :pm: me if you have any for trade

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Offlinechamp
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Re: U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure [Re: OneMoreRobot3021]
    #7196932 - 07/19/07 09:49 AM (16 years, 8 months ago)

Quote:

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, seen as a rising political leader, recently stated that he's prepared to go to jail to protest a war on drugs that he sees as shackling African-Americans into poverty and feeding crime and murder in his city.

"I'm going to battle on this," Booker recently told the Newark Star-Ledger. "We're going to start this in the gentlemanly way. And then we're going to do the civil disobedience way. Because this is absurd."

Booker says he wants to see nonviolent drug offenders placed in treatment programs and halfway houses, not prisons, and to stop banning ex-offenders from jobs. "The drug war is causing crime," he said. "It's just chewing up young black men. And it's killing Newark."




This part is the most impressive to me. I think we need to start talking openly about the terribly racist character of the war on drugs. The prison system being fed by the drug war is really the new form of slavery.

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InvisibleOneMoreRobot3021
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Re: U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure [Re: champ]
    #7196934 - 07/19/07 09:51 AM (16 years, 8 months ago)

Absolutely. I have so much respect for Cory Booker for taking a stand like this, for expressing support for needle exchanges and rehab programs especially.


--------------------
Acid doesn't give you truths; it builds machines that push the envelope of perception. Whatever revelations came to me then have dissolved like skywriting. All I really know is that those few years saddled me with a faith in the redemptive potential of the imagination which, however flat, stale and unprofitable the world seems to me now, I cannot for the life of me shake.

-Erik Davis

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InvisibleSuperD
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Re: U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure [Re: champ]
    #7197022 - 07/19/07 10:14 AM (16 years, 8 months ago)

<<The prison system being fed by the drug war is really the new form of slavery.>>

QFT.


--------------------
:super:D
Manoa said:
I need to stop spending all my money on plants and take up a cheaper hobby, like heroin. :lol:

Looking for Rauhocereus riosaniensis seeds or live specimen(s), :pm: me if you have any for trade

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Offlinetihkalpihkal
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Re: U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure [Re: SuperD]
    #7197091 - 07/19/07 10:31 AM (16 years, 8 months ago)

If only it was the governors also


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Was the lockness monster in fact Jack the Ripper?

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OfflineJon

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Re: U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure [Re: tihkalpihkal]
    #7197173 - 07/19/07 10:55 AM (16 years, 8 months ago)

No wonder the law enforcement around here is bein soo light about pot charges these days. Seems like they are after all the alcoholics/meth heads/ dope heads/ cokeheads these days.

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OfflineDavid.Hulse
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Re: U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure [Re: OneMoreRobot3021]
    #7197272 - 07/19/07 11:15 AM (16 years, 8 months ago)

Someone needs to tell this to my local sheriff, DA, and Judge... I'm up on Marijuana "Possession by Ingestion." Tell me about an archaic charge... I am in possession of the marijuana because I smoked it and it is now inside of me? Anybody have a similar experience? I was detained 8 days before my 18th birthday but no doubt will be in court after I turn 18... will I be charged as an adult or be put in juvenile court? I was really cooperative.. probably more cooperative than I needed to be, I submitted to a urine test and most likely an illegal search as there was nothing in my vehicle when they used the dog on it but they searched it anyway and only found a tweezer than I admittedly use for a roach clip.. but it came out of my first aid kit.

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InvisibleEntheogenicPeace
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Re: U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure [Re: OneMoreRobot3021]
    #7197329 - 07/19/07 11:27 AM (16 years, 8 months ago)

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Edited by EntheogenicPeace (06/26/16 08:04 PM)

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InvisibleEntheogenicPeace
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Re: U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure [Re: David.Hulse]
    #7197367 - 07/19/07 11:32 AM (16 years, 8 months ago)

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Edited by EntheogenicPeace (06/26/16 08:05 PM)

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Offlineboomer q
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Re: U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure [Re: EntheogenicPeace]
    #7197639 - 07/19/07 12:20 PM (16 years, 8 months ago)

nice, i love my new mayor! i knew cory booker was gonna be better than sharpe james, but shucks! its true, newark is so crime and drug ridden, and you sure cant tell that the gov spends billions a year in their "war" on drugs....go cory


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I got bags of funk and i sell em by the tons

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Offlinefigurine
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Re: U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure [Re: David.Hulse]
    #7198803 - 07/19/07 05:10 PM (16 years, 8 months ago)

Quote:

David.Hulse said:
Someone needs to tell this to my local sheriff, DA, and Judge... I'm up on Marijuana "Possession by Ingestion." Tell me about an archaic charge... I am in possession of the marijuana because I smoked it and it is now inside of me? Anybody have a similar experience? I was detained 8 days before my 18th birthday but no doubt will be in court after I turn 18... will I be charged as an adult or be put in juvenile court? I was really cooperative.. probably more cooperative than I needed to be, I submitted to a urine test and most likely an illegal search as there was nothing in my vehicle when they used the dog on it but they searched it anyway and only found a tweezer than I admittedly use for a roach clip.. but it came out of my first aid kit.




The police are not there to help you; it is their job to arrest people who break the law, i.e. you. If you hadn't cooperated by telling them that you used the tweezers to smoke marijuana with, they would probably not have been able to charge you with anything.

Anyway, the war on drugs seems like a huge ploy designed to give rural whites jobs imprisoning urban blacks. Prison is a huge industry.


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"It takes one to know one." -Mel Gibson

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InvisibleEntheogenicPeace
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Re: U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure [Re: figurine]
    #7198995 - 07/19/07 06:03 PM (16 years, 8 months ago)

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Edited by EntheogenicPeace (06/26/16 08:05 PM)

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InvisibleEntheogenicPeace
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Re: U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure [Re: figurine]
    #7199026 - 07/19/07 06:09 PM (16 years, 8 months ago)

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Edited by EntheogenicPeace (06/26/16 08:05 PM)

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OfflineUltraPorn
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Re: U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure [Re: EntheogenicPeace]
    #7200120 - 07/19/07 10:05 PM (16 years, 8 months ago)

i LIKE to c the way politics is changing towards mari jane.

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InvisibleZiggen
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Re: U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure [Re: UltraPorn]
    #7201155 - 07/20/07 03:19 AM (16 years, 8 months ago)

The funny thing is to me that the people fighting the Drug-War, who claim that it is not failed, drugs are bad, etc., for the most part all know that it is an unwinnable war (This should be obvious just because drugs are inanimate objects and as such are incapable of surrendering or signing cease-fire treaties.), and they also almost all know that legalized drugs would not be the disaster they foresee.

The problem, and what none of them say, is that it would be personally disastrous for all of them, as they would be out of jobs.
It is not, unfortunately, only the Halliburtons of the world that benefit from the War on Drugs. There is an entire economy built around sending inner-city blacks to jail, and confiscating the property of anyone even unfortunate enough to be accused of a drug crime. (Have fun trying to get your car back after you're acquitted. Have fun trying to get a job while your at it, as employers rarely check to see your actual criminal record. All they bother checking nowadays is your arrest record, which ain't sealed no matter what the judge said. It's in a national database, and it's about as hard for a local judge to keep your arrest off that database as it is to get your confiscated property back after your acquittal.)

Long story short(er): If you want to see drugs legalized, come up with a plan to fill that gap in the economy, because that is what those prosecuting the War on Drugs really care about.


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Rock over London, rock on Chicago
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InvisibleEntheogenicPeace
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Re: U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure [Re: Ziggen]
    #7203477 - 07/20/07 05:45 PM (16 years, 8 months ago)

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Edited by EntheogenicPeace (06/26/16 08:06 PM)

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