Vice President Joe Biden will tour Latin America and meet with heads of state amid growing pressure from the region for a different approach to the failed war on drugs. Political leaders from Costa Rica, Guatemala, El Salvador, Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, Honduras and others have voiced support for abandoning the drug war pushed for so long by the United States and instead decriminalizing drug use.
Throughout Latin America, the U.S.’s drug war has cost a trillion dollars, encouraged police state abuses, fueled violence with drug gangs, strengthened cartels, killed tens of thousands of people, and has not markedly dented drug production and trafficking.
Still, the top Latin America official in the White House, Dan Restrepo, said Latin American leaders shouldn’t expect a shift in policy. “The Obama administration has been quite clear in our opposition to decriminalization or legalization of illicit drugs,” he said.
Stopping the War on Drug, that I want to see, the policy war on drug by the US is a money making machine, is like stopping the war by the US all to gather, if that is possible then war on drug is possible too, USA war machineries and its politicians are addicted to wars and there is no rehabilitation made for it, so get it on and continue with the legacy proclaiming – making wars on everything, forget about love, peace of BOMB with chocolate would do the same.
With millions jailed, lives ruined, in the WOD, do people like Biden suffer? His daughter was arrested for pot pocession while a student at Tulane. Pfff .. . charges disappeared. If she was a black women a charge like this would lead to conviction and a burden she would carry for the rest of her life.
These people are disgusting.
But you see, this "war on drugs" in Central and South America allows the USG to maintain a level of destabilization in these countries which, in turn, keeps them from coalescing into a functioning and advancing society. It's much easier for the USG to "control" a backward, dysfunctional group of people than it is an educated, discerning one.
The "war on drugs" has been a tool of subjugation by the USG since it's inception. From the very beginning, it has been clear – and clearly stated by some – that this war will never be over as long as there is demand and the drugs remain illegal. There is too much money at stake. But, that is not why the USG pursues this strategy.
What! Give up a WAR?
Never!
How would corporate America "earn" its living?
Every time the US declares war on something it only increases it and makes it worse, except for the people profiteering from it. But, that's the intent, right?
The leaders of South American countries are right, the "drug war" is killing thousands of people. It puts money, and guns in the hands of criminals, drug legalization would take that away. John Stossel did an excellent report on drug legalization on 02/25/12. I will quote from it here: "We've all heard the arguments against drug legalization: It would be anarchy! Americans would ingest dangerous substances wildly! They would randomly commit violence! Society as we know it would cease to exist! The people of Portugal heard these claims 10 years ago, when the country decriminalized all drugs. People predicted the country would spiral into chaos. So did that happen? No. Independent studies found that, after the drug law passed, the number of Portuguese who regularly do drugs stayed about the same. Problematic and youth drug use went down. We spoke to a chief police inspector in Lisbon who was very dubious about decriminalization. But now he's a convert. He told us, "the level of conflicts on the street are reduced"…"drug related robberies are reduced"…and "now police are not the enemies of the consumers". Adults in a free society should be able to ingest anything they want to, as long as they don't injure somebody else." Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/stossel/blog/20…. America and the free world must do as Portugal did, legalize drugs and treat addicts medically, prison only makes smarter addicts! Innocent people are being killed daily while the supply of illegal drugs is increasing, not going down. We need to choose life…
What a travesty the "war on drugs" is. Such madness.
Anything that has proved a costly failure will be continued by the USA.
One day soon, Joe Biden, and all the rest of the so called 'drug warriors', will stand trial as drug war criminals.
* Colombia, Peru, Mexico or Afghanistan with their coca leaves, marijuana buds or poppy sap are not igniting temptation in the minds of our weak, innocent citizens. These countries are duly responding to the enormous demand that comes from within our own borders. Invading or destroying these countries, thus creating more hate, violence, instability, injustice and corruption, will not fix our problem.
* A rather large majority of people will always feel the need to use drugs such as heroin, opium, nicotine, amphetamines, alcohol, sugar, or caffeine.
* The massive majority of adults who use drugs do so recreationally – getting high at the weekend then up for work on a Monday morning.
* Apart from the huge percentage of people addicted to both sugar and caffeine, a small minority of adults (nearly 5%) will always experience the use of drugs as problematic. – approx. 3% are dependent on alcohol and approx. 1.5% are dependent on other drugs such as methamphetamine, cocaine, heroine etc.
* Just as it was impossible to prevent alcohol from being produced and used in the U.S. in the 1920s, so too, it is equally impossible to prevent any of the aforementioned drugs from being produced, distributed and widely used by those who desire to do so.
* Prohibition kills more people and ruins more lives than the drugs it prohibits.
* Due to Prohibition (historically proven to be an utter failure at every level), the availability of most of these mood-altering drugs has become so universal and unfettered that in any city of the civilized world, any one of us would be able to procure practically any drug we wish within an hour.
* Throughout history, the prohibition of any mind-altering substance has always exploded usage rates, overcrowded jails, fueled organized crime, created rampant corruption of law-enforcement – even whole governments, while inducing an incalculable amount of suffering and death.
* Apart from the fact that the DEA is the de facto enforcement wing of the pharmaceutical industry, the involvement of the CIA in running Heroin from Vietnam, Southeast Asia and Afghanistan and Cocaine from Central America has been well documented by the 1989 Kerry Committee report, academic researchers Alfred McCoy and Peter Dale Scott, and the late journalist Gary Webb.
* It's not even possible to keep drugs out of prisons, but prohibitionists wish to waste trillions of dollars in an utterly futile attempt to keep them off our streets.
* The United States jails a larger percentage of it's own citizens than any other country in the world, including those run by the worst totalitarian regimes, yet it has far higher use/addiction rates than most other countries.
* Prohibition is the "Goose that laid the golden egg" and the lifeblood of terrorists as well as drug cartels. Both the Taliban and the terrorists of al Qaeda derive their main income from the prohibition-inflated value of the opium poppy. An estimated 44 % of the heroin produced in Afghanistan, with an estimated annual destination value of US $ 27 Billion, transits through Pakistan. Prohibition has essentially destroyed Pakistan's legal economy and social fabric. – We may be about to witness the planet's first civil war in a nation with nuclear capabilities. – Kindly Google: 'A GLOBAL OVERVIEW OF NARCOTICS-FUNDED TERRORIST GROUPS' Only those opposed, or willing to ignore these facts, want things the way they are.
There is an alcohol-related death in the U.S. every 30 minutes.
There have been zero – as in 0 – marijuana-related deaths – Ever !!
Atta boy, Joe. Whether it's Joe Biden or Joe Arpaio or Joe Lieberman, there doesn't seem to be a shortage of Joes out there calling for everything that goes against normalcy and humanity.
Even the foot soldiers in the WOD are starting to realize that prohibition funnels massive profits to criminals which cause them to organize and lobby (corrupt) the political system. Near (within 100 miles) the border people deal with being dogged everyday. Prohibition also causes a huge upswing in violent and property crime. Mexican nationals are jailed for 20 to life so that we can subsidize Wackenhut profits as our crime rate goes down our jails get full with people that face the death of their families if the don't mule the drugs over. Meanwhile cannabis represents the green revolution and a major pillar to self sustainability, yet you can't even grow varieties without thc in them. Read federal judge grey's book drug crazy. Read Comprimised to see that the corruption goes to highest levels in the land. It took a constitutional amendment to outlaw one of the worst drug and we found out these same lessons in a few short years, the first drug laws were passed in el paso and new Orleans to help break up the political organizations of brown people.