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OfflineCubie
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Presidential Candidate Statements Against The War On Drugs
    #8043352 - 02/19/08 03:36 PM (15 years, 11 months ago)

There are three presidential candidates, Republican Ron Paul of Texas, Democrat Mike Gravel of Alaskaand obama. who adamantly oppose the crime fostering and terrorism funding Jim Crow war on drugs. Another Democrat, Congressman Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, espouses a very limited and frankly ineffectual drug war reform platform.

The rest of the Democrats and Republicans, looking to leave their mark in the Oval Office, all still support the counter-productive anti-democracy drug war policy.

Sen. Barack Obama has said some things that strongly imply that he understands, at least some, of the negative consequences of the drug war and mass incarceration of drug offenders. Make up your own mind.

&eurl=http://aleftindependent.blogspot.com/2007/11/presidential-candidate-statements.html

"The wrong way to go about it is simply to think that if you just crack down. Lock up. Don't care about recidivism rates, ex-cetera, that somehow your going to see major improvement. And unfortunately, that's been the approach we've taken particularly when it comes to non-violent drug offenses.

Now again, I've got two kids so I don't want anybody pushing drugs on them. And we wanna take that seriously as a crime.

But what we also have to recognize is that you've got a non-violent drug offender. Particularly if their kids. Effectively kids. Even if their tried as adults. Even if their eighteen, nineteen, twenty. That, the worst thing we can do is lock them up for a long period of time. Without any education, if their functionally illiterate. Without any skills or training where they can get a real profession. Their now convicted felons. We release them. Now their now twenty-five, twenty-six. Their out on the streets. Can't be hired by anybody. What are they going to do? Their gonna go back to dealing drugs. Only now they've got... they've probably become more locked into a life of crime because of their stay in prison.

So to the extent that we can look at diversion programs that use drug courts. That treat those that have substance abuse problems. That encourage training and skills and literacy. Even while people are being punished for their drug crimes. The more we take that kind of approach the more effective we are at reducing recidivism rates.

That's not going to be perfect. there are going to be some folks who need to be locked up. We don't want to be polyannish about it.

But the fact is we now have 2-million people who are locked up. We have, by far, the largest prison population, per capita, of any place on earth."
(snip)
The last point I want to make. There does appear to be a racial component to some of the arrest, conviction, prosecution rates when it comes to these offenses. And that something I think we should take seriously. That's not a Black or White issue. That's an American issue. Our basic precept is equality under the law. And we've gotta have a president and a Justice Department and a Civil Rights Division that's willing to enforce the law equally. It doesn't matter, if we're going to have drug laws, it shouldn't matter that your dealing in public housing or in the suburbs. Out of your mom's backyard. That has to be a basic precept of..."



Following are recent statements by Gravel, Paul and Kucinich about the war on drugs. Both video links and transcript.
&eurl=http://aleftindependent.blogspot.com/2007/11/presidential-candidate-statements.html

Gravel: "Racism was here at the beginning of this country. It was here in the last century and its going to be us in the 21st century.

And one of the areas that touches me the most. And enrages me the most is our war on drugs that this country has been putting forth for the last generation. In 1972 we had a hundred and seventy-nine thousand human beings in jail in this country. Today its 2.3 million and 70% of them are Black African Americans. I hope my colleagues will join me and stand up in saying, like FDR did with Prohibition, 'we'll do away with that'. And FDR did it. And if I'm president I'll do away with the war on drugs. Which does nothing but savage our inner-cities. And put our children at risk!

There's no reason for this. there's not an American who doesn't understand the culture and the understanding that Prohibition was a failure. And so we repeat it again like we repeated Iraq after we had the failure of Vietnam.

When will we learn? when will we learn? That the issue of drugs is a public health issue. Addiction is a public health issue. Not a criminal issue where we throw people in jail and criminalize them to no advancement to the people.

And if there's one group of people in this country that needs to face up to that problem, and we have to face up to it. And that is the African American community."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Congressman Ron Paul participating at the Republican debate on PBS hosted by Tavis Smiley.
&eurl=http://aleftindependent.blogspot.com/2007/11/presidential-candidate-statements.html
Ron Paul: "I like to believe that if we have a freer society it will take care of blacks and whites and everybody equally because we're all individuals and that, to me, that is so important. But if we have equal justice under the law I think it would be a big improvement. if we have, a probably a repeal of most of the federal laws on drugs and the unfairness of how blacks are treated with these drug laws it would be an improvement."

"A system designed to protect individual liberty will have no punishment for any group and no privileges. Today I think inner city folks, minorities are punished unfairly in the war on drugs. For instance, blacks make up 14% of those who use drugs. Yet 36% of those arrested are blacks. And it ends up that 63% of those who finally end up in prison are blacks. This has to change. We don't have to have more courts and more prisons. We need to repeal the whole war on drugs. It isn't working."

(Loud cheers in audience)

"We have already spent over $ 400 billion since the early seventies and its a wasted money. Prohibition didn't work. Prohibition on drugs doesn't work. So we need to come to our senses. And absolutely, its a disease. We don't treat alcoholics like this. This a disease and we should orient ourselves to this. That is one way you could have equal justice under the law."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dennis Kucinich on Bill Maher 6:23 into the video.
Maher: "Do you believe in legalizing all drugs?"

Kucinich: "I think that. No. The first answers no. But I do think that.."

Maher interrupts.

Kucinich: "I think that we need a policy that looks at marijuana and just aaa decriminalizes it to begin with. I think we need to stop the mandatory minimums. Which really have put a lot of people in prison. And I think we need to look at drug use as a medical problem rather than as a criminal justice problem."


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Offlineblackegg
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Re: Presidential Candidate Statements Against The War On Drugs [Re: Cubie]
    #8046260 - 02/20/08 07:16 AM (15 years, 11 months ago)

Right on, vote Obama.


--------------------
'Pain is meant to wake us up. People try to hide their pain. But they're wrong. Pain is something to carry, like a radio. You feel your strength in the experience of pain. It's all in how you carry it. That's what matters. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you. Your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you're letting society destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel your pain and leave the Shroomery.' ~ Jim Morrison


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