Opinions - Why the Drug War is a Crime against Humanity Explained

[enquirewithin]

In Plain English
http://www.informationclearinghouse....ticle20467.htm
By Carmen Yarrusso 09/08/08 "ICH" -- - Like the Iraq war and the “war on terror”, the so-called “drug war” is a government contrived “war” based on lies that generates massive profits for a few while causing massive suffering for many.

The drug war is futile by design (and thus never-ending) because it doesn’t “fight” drugs—quite the contrary—it strongly encourages production and distribution of prohibited drugs by guaranteeing extremely high profits.

But the most insidious and evil aspect of the drug war is it manufactures its own enemies by criminalizing the most basic of human rights—the right of sovereignty over your own body. The drug war could not exist without first inventing a bogus crime.

Our government wastes billions of tax dollars each year harassing and jailing millions of decent, productive Americans for a government-invented “crime”. The use of drugs (even dangerous drugs like alcohol and nicotine) simply doesn’t meet any reasonable definition of “crime”.

Real crime requires action that harms another. Real crime requires both a victim and a perpetrator. For example, robbery harms another and has both a victim and a perpetrator. Only a corrupt, depraved government could invent a crime you commit against yourself.

If you use certain drugs, our government claims you’re both a criminal and a victim at the same time. Since the perpetrator can't be separated from the victim, the victim is further punished for the “crime”. This pathetic perversion of justice is vigorously championed by our government for selfish political reasons.

More than 50 government agencies share billions of your tax dollars each year “fighting” a government-created crime. Of the millions of illegal drug users, the vast majority use marijuana. If marijuana were legal like alcohol, these government agencies would suddenly lose billions of dollars because millions of former “criminals” would suddenly be granted sovereignty over their own bodies. The vast army amassed to fight the drug war would need to be dissolved at great cost.

That’s why our government strongly opposes even honest debate about marijuana legalization because this massive money-making scam would soon end.

Ingesting nicotine, alcohol, fatty foods, or certain drugs may be unwise. But why is it a crime? If a drug user or a non-drug user harms another they should be treated equally. But the bogus “crime” of drug use doesn't require harming anyone. Nor does it require a victim and a perpetrator. It only requires a government-invented, bogus criminal/victim, a drug user.

By using lies and deception our government convinces gullible Americans that simply putting something into your own body is a serious crime. But evidence clearly shows that nearly all the harm associated with drug use is caused by creating the bogus crime, not from the actual drug use. There are millions of drug users, but relatively few are harmed by their drug use. These few should be patients, not criminals.

But it’s not just the millions arrested for drug use who suffer from this gross injustice. We gullible Americans have allowed our government to invent a bogus crime that causes massive misery worldwide while costing the taxpayers billions.

Consider the following list of easily avoidable human tragedies that are the direct result of a government-invented, bogus crime: A tax-free, unregulated, multi-billion-dollar drug industry necessarily run by violent criminals; a giant law enforcement bureaucracy wasting billions in a futile attempt to curtail this drug industry, which, in fact, guarantees its extreme profitability; a deteriorating public education system robbed of billions to support this law enforcement bureaucracy; courts and prisons overflowing with non-violent "criminals" while murderers, rapists and real criminals go free; tens of thousands of children enduring the suffering and stigma of having one or both parents in jail for a bogus "crime”; the gradual erosion of our Constitution as more and more civil liberties are sacrificed to fight a crime "made in USA."; rampant corruption of foreign governments (like Mexico and Columbia), so driven by US drug profits that life and human rights are secondary; thousands of adults and children infected and dying from HIV because distributing clean needles is a “crime”; violent street gangs with little incentive for education or legitimate jobs reaping huge drug profits made possible by a bogus crime; a growing death toll from police breaking down doors to catch people using substances less dangerous than tobacco, alcohol or fatty foods; a growing cynicism and disrespect for all laws and authority fueled by the knowledge our government can arbitrarily invent a bogus crime…

This sordid list goes on and on.

We're appalled when Islamic regimes invent bogus crimes against reading certain books, or listening to certain music. Using certain drugs is our government's version of the same thing. But the worldwide consequences of US drug prohibition are far more serious and severe. All of these "crimes" lack the moral basis of real crime. All are clear cases of a repressive government dictating the private personal behavior of its citizens.

If real crime is knowingly causing harm to others, then the real crime here is not drug use, but making drug use a “crime”. And the real criminals are not drug users, but ordinary people like us, who sit back and condone a ruthless scam that has been exported and exploited around the world leaving massive human suffering in its wake.

Carmen Yarrusso

Reputation Comments on this post:

	Swim is writing a paper on this topic and this has helped tremendously
	Thanks for sharing this. I'll personally be passing this article around.

[Figaro]

I was not thinking it in those terms.

I was looking at the cruelty of the Syringe Exchange programs and how we are ignoring the many people who have been avoidied from getting AIDS and Hepatitist and then all of the death around those conditions. I wasn't thinking interms of a crime,but defenetly a violations Against Humanity.

[Freedom of Mind]

Some presidential candidates drug stances,

Libertarian Candidate, Bob Barr is against the federal war on drugs, and wants to leave it to the states.

Ralph Nader, running as an Independent and the Green Party Candidate, Cynthia McKinney have both said the war on drugs fails, but both seem more focused on marijuana decriminalization and alternate sentencing, such as rehabilitation for other drugs.

Join McCain wants to increase penalties for selling drugs, supports the death penalty for drug kingpins, favors tightening security to stop the flow of drugs into the country, and wants to restrict availability of methadone for heroin addicts.

Obama supports Drug Prohibtion, but will sometimes mention thinking penalties for some drugs are overly harsh.

So I think Barr would be best, Ralph Nader and Cynthis McKinney would be an improvement, Obama would probably keep things how they are mostly, and with McCain the war on drugs will become even more harsh.

.

[Panthers007]

So voting for a third-party candidate, based on their drug-war stance, would be equivalent as voting for McCain. Unless you believe that Obama supporters would vote for another candidate based solely on their wanting the drug-war to vanish. How many current McCain supporters would likely change their votes based on the drug-war question? I'll throw out a number: 0%

[RHINESTONECOWBOY]

how are the syringe exchange programs cruel? im not very keen on the topic but i originally assumed it was a legit program to promote healthier lifestyles amongst IV users as well as keep those needles off the street. am i wrong? what did i miss?

[Nature Boy]

Originally Posted by Panthers007

So voting for a third-party candidate, based on their drug-war stance, would be equivalent as voting for McCain. Unless you believe that Obama supporters would vote for another candidate based solely on their wanting the drug-war to vanish. How many current McCain supporters would likely change their votes based on the drug-war question? I'll throw out a number: 0%

Which is the great irony of the GOP. A staunch small government, tax cutter should look to profit off regulated drug sales because they don't want to tax anything else. Seems like the perfect way to raise capital without interfering with the rest of the precious free market they claim to love so much.

[enquirewithin]

I'd vote for Nader if I was American for many reasons. Seeing as we ALL have to put up with all this media blitz about the US elections , we should all be able to vote! On McCain, Chomsky says:

the case of McCain, however, it is quite hard to predict. He is a loose cannon. Nobody knows what he would do..

[Nature Boy]

Former Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan knows exactly what McCain will do. Having known him from inside the GOP for years, he claims that when McCain speaks plainly about issues such as foreign policy that you can take him quite literally. Stating that McCain will make "Cheney look like Ghandi" in comparison, he's very concerned that old John will start (or at least encourage) a direct war with Iran. His handling of Putin so far has been very unprofessional and downright worrying. His entire career is built around war and I can't see him using any other platform in order to base his presidency on.

Confident as I am that Obama should win, if McCain wins, we might all be flat-out fucked!

[chillinwill]

Originally Posted by Nature Boy

Former Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan knows exactly what McCain will do. Having known him from inside the GOP for years, he claims that when McCain speaks plainly about issues such as foreign policy that you can take him quite literally. Stating that McCain will make "Cheney look like Ghandi" in comparison, he's very concerned that old John will start (or at least encourage) a direct war with Iran. His handling of Putin so far has been very unprofessional and downright worrying. His entire career is built around war and I can't see him using any other platform in order to base his presidency on.

Confident as I am that Obama should win, if McCain wins, we might all be flat-out fucked!

Agreed with this....we don't need another president that is going to take us into more wars and antagonize other countries. We need someone who can help us end the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and work on our own country instead of others. We have huge problems such as the economy and yet, we are still worrying about weapons of mass destructions and shit. Total bullshit

[libertalism]

Obama might even be good news to potheads since he has smoked some himself and he probably knows that it isn't the devil people claim it to be.

To bad such an important election is being run in a country where 50% of the population seem like they shouldn't even be aloud to vote.

[Panthers007]

An elderly man was caught by a TV crew walking out of a McCain/Palin rally at a college in New Hampshire. He was wearing an Obama button. They asked him what he thought. And he flatly stated: "I have just witnessed a 1935 Nuremberg Rally at my old college." He looked visibly shaken.

As any sane human-being should be right now.

[Figaro]

Originally Posted by RHINESTONECOWBOY

how are the syringe exchange programs cruel? im not very keen on the topic but i originally assumed it was a legit program to promote healthier lifestyles amongst IV users as well as keep those needles off the street. am i wrong? what did i miss?

My appology, I did not say it right. What is cruel is not the Exchanges themselve. But the drug paraphenlia laws that keeps persons who used a syringe as a mode of using their drugs. It makes the syringe unavailable to the person. Not only couasing the person need to use the same syringe over and over again while loosing its points, so person can cause more damage to their veins etc. But the obvious concern for Hepatitis and Aids.

You did not miss anything I said it wrong and thank you for asking. I missed the statemen and said it incorrectly, my wrong.

Figaro added 3 Minutes and 22 Seconds later...

Well I already voted yesterday, and I voted for Obama, that it I can not do years of McCain.

[Burnt]

And he flatly stated: "I have just witnessed a 1935 Nuremberg Rally at my old college." He looked visibly shaken.

As any sane human-being should be right now.

I am not surprised someone would make such a connection. The people backing McCain and he himself are completely off the wall fucked in the head.

I don't agree with everything Obama sais especially concerning drug policy but at least hes a bit more open. He is more willing to allow medical marijuana policies to advance a bit or at least allow more research to go on but it's certainly not a priority of his. It is so pathetic though marinol has been a legal drug since the 80's and yet the reason marijuana is illegal is because it has no acceptable medical value? Who is the government to decide what acceptable medical value is? This way of thinking spits in the face of liberty.

Confident as I am that Obama should win, if McCain wins, we might all be flat-out fucked!

Didn't think bush would win a second term either .


The entire drug war is blatantly bullshit much like the war on terror. I don't see how people don't get it nor why people allow the government to bully them around. The U.S. constitution was written 100% to avoid this kind of thing going on. Unfortunately 90% of the politicians in Washington think the constitution is outdated.