Most states have a 3 strikes rule for DUI’s and I think the same should apply to most drugs. After all it is much more dangerous to drink and drive than it is smoke a joint and play video games.

The WOD has failed, and should never have been fought in the beginning. It has been a convenient excuse for those who would be in control to pass any law they desire under the guise of public safety.

either my computer or the website won’t allow me.

I agree 110%. I remember hearing Mike Huckabee make a lot of these same points during the Republican primary debates, and I agreed with him then wholeheartedly. I have always thought that, with the way the war on drugs is waged, that we are just creating bigger, badder criminals by sending these kids to jail instead of rehabilitating them.

You can become a felon for multiple convictions for minor consuming in several states including mine. Stuff that used to get our beer taken or at most a call to our parents now causes you to become a convicted criminal and even to lose your rights of citizenship.

but the others are waiting moderation….WHO does that? because I cannot see how to approve them and the approve button doesn’t do it….HELP!

I blogged about this today at another site and at close to the same time that you did here, however you did a much better job on this issue than I did.

No surprise there.

I hope that President Bush will commute Clarence Aaron’s sentence and I’ve asked my friends to email him asking him to do so.

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Stuff that used to get our beer taken or at most a call to our parents now causes you to become a convicted criminal and even to lose your rights of citizenship.

Calling the offender’s parents will often come up empty, ergo, absentee parents; or parents who will lambast the authorities and make excuses for the kid and never take corrective action.

Don’t get me wrong. Though I’m of two minds about the war on drugs, I’m not in favor of the draconian punishments for many of the seemingly minor offenses. But, law enforcement can’t do a job of keeping society safe without the cooperation of parents – when it comes to minors.

That is the national average for incarceration. The worst part about it is that criminals are using it as an “advancement” system. Most report that they would rather serve a little time, come out more respected, than have to change their lives and work. Most criminals report that they do not view incarceration as a severe punishment and prefer it over rehab and community service.

I remember being raked over the coals just a few years ago for saying much the same thing (although in my abrasive manner). Maybe we are making progress.

I was a little kid in the 1980′s when cocaine use peaked in the US. I recently saw some of the statistics though and many people do not realize just how close we were to the brink of disaster when the crackdown began.

There are ALWAYS innocent, or nearly innocent victims, but if you look at cocaine use among adults today, it is hard to argue that the WoD has not been at all effective. There are probably a few innocent people in Gitmo too, but that doesn’t mean the GWOT is a failure.

Certainly we could tweak the drug laws and enforcement, but to call the WoD a failure is a bit too far I think.

It’s either we conform to the ultra-anti-drug extremist demanding that an all out raid of the Nation be performed to jail for life the drug dealers or go with a flexible response and sentencing on a case by case basis, promoting the use and selling of drugs on a “moderate” basis with a “moderate” consequence risk. The illuminati left wants to see drugs go away permanently and any measure to stop the spread of drug use is justified by their standards. Who’s going to argue that drugs are bad? Anyone who disagrees with them is going to be branded as a drug-supporter, similar to the “racist” issue we saw in the Obama campaign.

…is patently un-american. It’s the kind of social wedge that leads to political correctness and thought police. But that’s more of a visceral thing maybe.

What is totally repulsive is that the government of a nation founded by gun-packing tobacco growers who hung out in taverns has an agency called the BATF.

Okay, maybe that’s slightly off-topic. Pithy, though.

I’m constantly surprised at how universally the War on Drugs is declared a failure. I can’t think of a single constituency that really supports it, but politicians and actual policy don’t seem to reflect this at all.

I guess either (1) critics of the War on Drugs are overrepresented on the internet or (2) the payoff of addressing it is just too low to make political radar.

In any case, recommended.

they would attract a great deal of support from all sides and substantially rehabilitate the current image of the party. I believe that many independents (myself included) would be very attracted to a party that was courageous enough to stand up to the entrenched interests and help bring about a rational approach to drug policy.

From an economic standpoint, if you saved all of the money to wage this stupid war on ourselves AND had the opportunity to implement a new sin tax, this could be a huge winner. (I’ve always wondered why the Republican party never jumped on this as being just good business.)

Of course, this would not come without risks. Some people would say they are ‘soft on drugs’. But taking that risk would actually show me a party with a backbone and a grasp of reality. That would be enormously attractive to me.

Call me a statist if you will, but I continue to support removing drugs, and those who use and sell them, from society.

We should end the prohibition altogether. There has to be something wrong with a law whose biggest proponents are the people breaking them. The WOD is making the narco drug lords rich and funding terrorists who use the money to kill our troops. It is destroying Mexico an other southern neighbors who are dealing with the massive corrupting influence of our drug war. And the WOD in wholly ineffective. Drugs are cheaper now, in nominal dollars then they were 20 years ago.

I’d replace the WOD with the three T’s. Teach, Tax and Treat. Regulationof commerce is very effective and will ultimately be much easier to control then a blackmarket. There is a reason why it is easier to get drugs in school then it is to get alcohol. Rather than the profits going to drug dealers they would be realized as taxes that could be used for teaching people about the danger of drugs and for treatment for those who wanted it. And there would also be huge law enforcement savings.

My thought is similar…..make it legal and TAX THE S**T OUT OF IT! That way we can get more money in and lower the taxes on all with shrinking the government too…………yes, I know it is a dream, but let me have it…..please…..

It’s a pity that fewer and fewer come to this conclusion via the Bill of Rights, however…

You should know that even a blind pig occasionally finds an acorn.

:>)

Between illegal immigration and the War on Drugs pretty strong?

Shutting down the money would do a lot to reduce Mexican corruption and the stranglehold the cartels have over rural Mexican government. You can find articles about sheriff positions going unfilled because nobody wants to be murdered by the cartels. That’s “failed state” status, and we made it happen.

There’s two ways to shut down the money river — there’s the one we’ve faithlessly executed for twenty years, and there’s the one that would work.

We have a beauracracy here in Kentucky called “the Department of Health and Family Services”. They need to continually justify their jobs and keep the funds coming in (and you can only shut down so many meth labs and pass so many smoking bans). Their forever crusade is to *fight addiction*. Of course they never once sit down with a patient who is taking a certain class of drugs the DHFS deems politically incorrect and asks–”how is this medicine helping you? Is it improving your quality of life?” It doesn’t seem to register that dependence is not the same as addiction. Regardless, they investigate the doctors with the largest pratices and if they along with the state board and the DEA feels like a doctor is “prescribing too much” or not going by established norms will surely dock his license.

Last summer, as people tried to have their medications refilled, the pharmacies informed us that there was a hold put on all controlled meds written by two doctors here in the city. People–some elderly, sick and handicapped began to go into withdrawal and all the other practices including emergency rooms were naturally reluctant to treat them, much less continue to prescibe opioids for pain or nerve medicine. Many were simply turned away and certain treated as suspects. It was a rough time. It still is. This is supposed to be the government trying to help people??

Our family doctor has been nearly bankrupted by this system…the govt and the lawyers drag the process out for as long as possible. They really like to make examples of certain doctors who do not conform. Our doctor is a long time established respected physician who has did all he could for patient needs including how to save us money. He had/has a large practice that he began in the 1960′s. What apparently happened was that DEA pharmacists filed complaints and the govt. started building a case so they could put out an “Emergency Restriction” on his licence–(in order to protect patients and familes of course.) His goal is to uphold the Hippocratic Oath, plain and simple. He is holding on and doing all he can to fight the charges and get back his good name and his practice. Of course this costing him a great deal.

It’s just another stream of revenue for the government so they have to keep the drugs flowing. If Uncle Sam were serious about putting a serious dent in the importation of illegal drugs, every car and truck crossing the border would get sniffed by a dog.

I travel to a border city fairly often and every time I come back, I drive though a Border Patrol checkpoint on I-10 in Sierra Blanca, TX. They always wave me on through along with the others in line and I’ve never seen a dog there.

it also appears it is a Democrat Jim Webb of VA and right out of the bat Cuccinelli who is running for AG is saying it’s wrong I did call Ken’s office and suggested that perhaps they take another look at what Webb wants to accomplish and that we would like to stop militarizing our police departments etc as I have said in my post. I also called Webbs office and told them to read this diary on Redstate to see the support that Conservatives and Libertarians have shown for it. I suggested he find a colleague on the right to support his bill….there will of course have to be commonality on the way forward but it NEEDS to be addressed!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/12/28/AR2008122801728.html

As a PO, I agree that the current way of doing things is not working and probably making things worse. There are some programs in place that have proven to be more cost effective than jail. One of those being used in VA is drug court. Offenders must enter treatment, screened regularly, and must maintain employment, which means they are still paying taxes. Kinda paying for their own treatment. More offenders are sentenced to probation which requires sub. abuse evaluations, screening, and treatment. Much more cost effective than jail. However, with more people being referred to these services there is a need for providers, which means funding. Typically R’s shy away from these programs because they are seen as “easy on crime.” My own state rep. cannot stand his local drug court, even though it is the second oldest in VA and one of the more effective ones. Being supportive of it is not being tough on crime, in his eyes. He is looking at it as a crime and punishment thing instead of a fiscal responsibility thing.

Along with the above stated programs I also believe that states should invest in treatment facilities. More bed space is needed for treatment. The construction of these facilities will require money spent by the states and localities, another hurdle for fiscal conservatives. But it will be money spent smarter than continually building jails and prisons to warehouse individuals.

Please don’t think that I am some wussy lib who thinks everyone is innocent and the man is keeping him down. Not me. Dealers still need to be dealt with. Trafficking needs to be dealt with. Prisons are for those people. We need to lower the demand for drugs, which treatment does. Jails do not. The drug business in prisons and jails is lucrative, in some cases more so than on the street.

Another point, I have toyed with the idea of legalizing drugs. After doing what I do for a few years, there is a stark difference in drug users and non drug users, whether it be marijuana or meth. I in no way am supportive of legalizing drugs. The financial gain of taxing these substances would be meager to the ruin of social values, family values, etc. More problems would be caused I’m afraid.

Now, lowering the drinking age is a whole other story.

Although the failed War on Drugs is mostly responsible for our costly overcrowded prison system it is not alone in producing lengthy unjust sentences.

4 people were sentenced to prison sentences ranging from 2 years to 8 years for importing Honduran Lobster Tails, a non-endangered species.

The reason they were sent to prison is due to the fact they had packed a few undersized Lobster Tails in clear plastic bags instead of cardboard boxes.

They were imprisoned for violating a wildlife law in Honduras that no longer existed at the time of these business peoples alleged criminal actions!

Even though the Honduran Government testified that the law was no longer valid the courts in America including our U.S. Supreme Court ruled the sentences valid.

Keeping US Safe From Plastic-packed Lobster Tails Complexity of laws leading to “over-Criminalization” of America?

Diane Huang, a small business owner from New Jersey, is scheduled to enter federal prison on July 21, where she will begin serving a two-year sentence for purchasing undersized lobster tails shipped in clear plastic bags.

Under the Lacey Act, a U.S. law, it is illegal to take wildlife in violation of foreign law. The lobsters Ms. Huang purchased violated obscure laws of Honduras because they were shipped in clear plastic bags, rather than opaque cardboard boxes, and a small percentage of the lobsters did not measure to 5.5 inches in length.

Case ‘an abominable injustice’
Sunday, June 22, 2008

There are times when a prosecution and a prison sentence are so fishy that they cry out for clemency.

Sometime between now and Sept. 4, Honduran businessman David Henson McNab will be released after nearly eight full years in a U.S. federal prison, all because, prosecutors say, he was too selfish about shellfish.

half the population is against the war on drugs . I don’t know the answer but prison doesn’t work. It’s failed for far too long and my patience with it ran out long ago.

Americans should atleast be able to grow their own marijuana. We’re sending a fortune everyday to Mexican gangsters.