This page documents some of the accomplishments of the nightmare known commonly as the "war on drugs".

 

Its accomplishments are many, varied, and far-reaching. However, the Mount Rushmore State Chapter of NORML will pay $1000.00 to anyone who can exemplify one beneficial accomplishment -- to the majority of us, to society as a whole -- of any law prohibiting peaceful honest adults from purchasing, possessing, distributing, or ingesting any substance they choose. It's easy, for example, to prove that laws against murder and theft are beneficial, or even that stepped-up enforcement of DUI laws have a benefit. However, despite a huge effort, the "war on drugs" continues to have effects to the opposite of its stated and implied goals.

 

Just one beneficial accomplishment in a century of ever-increasing governmental efforts fighting products from plants God placed on earth for us to use.

 

Just one benefit from putting millions of people in jail and spending thousands of billions of dollars on enforcement, interdiction, foreign-governmental appeasement...

 

You'd think there'd be one, wouldn't you?

 

 

 

 

Bob Newland

Chairman: NORML--Mt Rushmore State Chapter

HC 89 Box 184-A

Hermosa SD 57744

605-255-4032

newland@rapidcity.com

http://www.nakedgov.com

Tobacco causes about 400,000 Americans per year to die earlier than they would have otherwise.

Alcohol kills about 150,000 Americans per year (not counting 50% of all highway deaths and 65% of all murders)

Caffeine from coffee kills about 5000 people per year.

According to a report published in the Rapid City Journal in early summer, 1998, unexpected side effects of prescription medications, taken under medical supervision, kill about 120,000 Americans per year.

According to a Johns Hopkins University study just released, over-the-counter medications, notably aspirin and ibuprofen, kill about 16,500 Americans per year.

Illegal stimulant and narcotic drugs kill about 5500 Americans per year, from overdose or from acute effects of addiction.

Hemp (marijuana) kills no one -- anywhere -- from overdose or acute effects of addiction.

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Just as bootleggers were forced out of business in 1933 when Prohibition was repealed, making the sale of liquor legal (thus eliminating racketeering), the legalization of drugs would put drug dealers out of business. An added plus: There would be far less crowding in our prisons due to drug-related crimes. It's something to consider.

Abigail Van Buren, Dear Abby, May 3, 1994

Is it obvious that if drugs were legalized, the rate of drug consumption would dramatically rise?

No - only 2% of Americans say they don't use drugs because they are illegal.

William F. Buckley; Houston Chronicle, Oct. 3, 1994

If the most profitable drugs were legalized and controlled-like booze and gambling - the illegal profits would shrink, the motives for many drug crimes would disappear and we wouldn't be wasting so much prison space and money on people who merely want to exercise their right to scramble their own brains.

Mike Royko; Chicago Tribune, May 11, 1995

With 40 states under court order to reduce prison overcrowding, sending a drug offender to prison for one year is the equivalent of freeing a violent criminal to commit 40 robberies, seven assaults and dozens of burglaries and auto thefts. Almost all experts now agree that the best hope for success is to turn from interdiction to prevention and treatment. Dr. Kildare, rather than Eliot Ness, is the role model for banishing our deepest sickness.

Mortimer Zuckerman, Editor-in Chief, U.S. News & World Report, April 26, 1993

Prohibition has failed before in America, and many believe that the war on drugs is failing now. Champions of legalization, including this newspaper, argue that if it is done properly governments could take the world's largest untaxed industry out of the hands of criminals and start to exercise workable controls. Legalizing drugs, another move in the direction of individual liberty and responsibility, would reduce crime more effectively (than gun control and stiffer mandatory sentences.)

The Economist, Jan. 29, 1994

In 1992, National Guard members assisted in making almost 20,000 arrests, searching over 120,000 cars, entering (without a warrant) over 1,200 privately owned buildings, and trespassing on private property over 6,500 times.

Lost Rights, James Bovard (1994)

The journal Drug Topics notes that more than 125,000 Americans die and 20 million workdays are lost every year because people don't follow directions when taking [legal] medications for treatable diseases.

Daily Local News, March 16 & March 29, 1993

Drugs can kill, of course. But drug prohibition kills too. In Washington, an estimated 80% of homicides are drug related, meaning drug-prohibition related. It's gunshot wounds that fill our urban emergency rooms, not ODs and bad trips.

Barbara Ehrenreich; Time magazine, Feb. 28, 1994

(Dutch) figures, compiled independently by the University of Amsterdam, reveal that the climate of tolerance has not created more demand. In 1987, 5.5% of Dutch citizens had smoked hashish or marijuana within the previous month; in 1990, 6%. In 1987, only 0.2% were regular users of heroin; in 1990, 0.1%. More than half the heroin addicts hold jobs. As for the distribution of clean needles, the Dutch note that in 1990, only 8% of their AIDS patients were heroin addicts; the U.S. figure was 26%. The Dutch link about 18,000 annual deaths to cigarettes, 2,000 to alcohol, and 50 to drugs. Three years ago in Amsterdam, a city of 700,000 people, just 16 deaths were attributed to drugs.

The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 21, 1993

Taken together, prowling junkies and violence-prone traffickers generate as much as 50 to 80% of all crime in this country as well as 20 to 40% of all murders -- offenses that Steven B. Duke, a Yale University law professor, claims 'would not exist without drug prohibition. This much is undeniable: the use of drugs themselves causes almost no crime,' Duke said. Ironically, the biggest exception is alcohol, which studies suggest promotes violent behavior.

The Washington Post, March 27, 1994

In a world of scarce resources, sending a drug offender to prison for one year is equivalent to freeing a violent criminal to commit 40 robberies, seven assaults, 110 burglaries, and 25 auto thefts.

James Ostrowski, Cato Institute (1989)

Number of state and local law enforcement officials assigned to the War on Drugs on a full-time basis: 19,000

U.S. Newswire, May 16, 1992

In a recent survey of persons in prison for robbery or burglary, one out of three said they committed their crimes in order to buy drugs. Forty-five percent of callers to a cocaine hot line said they had stolen to buy cocaine. In several studies of prisoners, 65 to 80% have admitted regular or lifetime illicit drug use. Numerous studies show that drug users commit far fewer crimes when undergoing outpatient drug therapy or even when the price of drugs drop. Drug prohibition also fosters crime by producing official corruption.

In many cities, half or more of the arrests are for drugs or other crimes related to drug trafficking. The energy of the police expended on drug offenders is not available to be focused on domestic violence, rape, and other serious offenses.

As a consequence, all criminals have a much better chance of escaping detection and punishment than if drugs were legal.

Child molesters and rapists are being paroled early or having their sentences chopped to make prison space for drug users and drug dealers. About half our prisoners wouldn't be there if drugs were legal.

America's Longest War: Rethinking Our Tragic Crusade Against Drugs, Chicago Tribune, Jan. 5, 1994

From the beginning, a few small voices said we could not win a drug war without creating a police state. Well, we have police kicking down doors in the middle of the night on false tips from paid informants. Property can be seized and sold, even if charges are never filed. And the minimum sentence for mere usage of marijuana can be longer than the average time served for murder. Are we winning yet?

Mike Hihn in Liberty Issues, 1994

Declaring the war on drugs a blatant failure, the Baltimore chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has passed a resolution calling for the decriminalization of illegal drugs.

The resolution calls for movement toward treating drug abuse as a health issue and less of a crime issue. It's controversial but we have to start discussing it,' said George N. Buntin, Jr., executive director of the local chapter of the civil rights group.

Baltimore Sun, July 31, 1993

A short history of the prohibition movement.

 

Alcohol prohibition was the aim of the temperance movement which began in the United States in the eighteenth century.

 

In 1918, the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States--the Volstead act--was ratified, making it illegal to manufacture, transport or sell alcoholic beverages. Alcohol use was declining when the amendment was introduced.

 

After 14 years of ever-increasing violence in the streets, and steadily increasing alcohol use, the 21st Amendment repealed alcohol prohibition.

 

Opiate (products of the opium poppy -- heroin, morphine, opium) prohibition was instituted in the 1890's in the United States. Opiates were common additives to patent (over-the-counter) medicines. Laudanum was a trade name for one such "remedy", and was enormously popular as a sedative until folks started realizing it was enormously addictive. Opiate use was declining when the law was passed.

 

Hemp (marijuana) prohibition began with a tax act in 1937, then became absolutely prohibited over the course of the next 40 years.

 

As other mind-altering chemical compunds were introduced throughout the latter half of the 20th century, to a public only too eager to experiment with them, they too were prohibited by state and federal laws.

 

The "War on Drugs" was first announced about 1968. The so-called "war on drugs" involves a loosely-connected group of initiatives by various agencies of government which has no official defined objective, but which has at least the implied goal of reducing or eliminating the use of certain non-governmentally-approved mind-altering substances.

 

To achieve that objective, the "war on drugs" employs tactics which violate every single one of the Bill of Rights.

 

While the "war on drugs" has not accomplished a single one of its goals, it has accomplished their opposite. Here is a list of eleven accomplishments of the "war on drugs".

 

Accomplishment #1

The War on Drugs has created more users than before war was declared.

Every survey confirms this, even those of the agencies charged with eliminating drug use. Each successive survey says that more people have recently used one of these substances than does the previous survey.

 

Accomplishment #2

The War on Drugs has made heroin, cocaine, and hemp more available to more people than they were before war was declared.

Most reports say that these drugs are now readily available almost everywhere in this nation. Give a reasonably street-wise person two days and a couple hundred dollars, and put him or her in any town in South Dakota with a bar, and he or she will be able to buy a useable quantity of at least one of these drugs. Probably all three.

 

Now, the U.S. Attorney for South Dakota is pursuing a special "Meth is Death" campaign. Use of methamphetamine will rise in direct proportion to the amount of prosecutorial attention paid it.

 

Accomplishment #3

The War on Drugs has steadily lowered the age at which people first experiment with drugs.

Surveys suggest that the average age of first use has steadily dropped since 1968. With further success, kids will be cooking crank as a class exercise in HeadStart. The founder of the DARE (Drug Awareness Resistance Education), a federally-funded program, has asked that the program be suspended. Surveys find that drug use among children who have been through the DARE program is higher than among those who have not.

 

Accomplishment #4

The War on Drugs has created jobs.

Naturally, when 1,200,000 of the current 2,000,000 people in state and federal prisons are there for the crime of having either possessed or sold a prohibited substance, and not for having actually caused harm to someone else, jobs at all levels of law enforcement and incarceration flourish. Unfortunately, governments extract the money -- to build prisons and hire cops and guards -- from those of us who are still allowed to go about our business.

 

The federal drug war budget now exceeds $13 billion per year. In thirty years the government admits to having thrown $500 billion at drug law enforcement. The actual cost in lost resources exceeds a trillion $.

In South Dakota, there are currently about 2300 people in prison. About 60%, or 1380 of them, are there for sale or possession. At $25,000 per prisoner, that's $34,500,000 per year of tax revenue used to keep them there. That's about 5% -- 1/20 -- of the entire amount of revenue raised by taxes and fees in South Dakota. The legislature sometimes spends days trying to scrape up just $4 million to make ends meet.

 

Accomplishment #5

The War on Drugs has made thousands of the most vicious people on earth extremely wealthy.

In a perverse sense, the drug war is a price-support program for drug dealers, since the price of illegal drugs on the street is about 90% driven by the risk factor. And every time a dealer is arrested, that's a job opening for someone else, often someone more vicious.

 

Accomplishment #6

The War on Drugs has interfered with the relationships between patients and their doctors.

This is especially true of patients with chronic pain. The most effective pain relievers are derivatives of the opium plant or their synthetic equivalents. However, the Drug Enforcement Administration has a zero-tolerance policy towards addiction, even among those who are going to die shortly anyway.

 

Horror stories are legion in this vein, but we've never seen one to top this. A Virginia doctor named William Hurwitz wrote Joe Klimek, and several other amputees, a series of prescriptions for opiates. Joe Klimek was in a car wreck on a winter night. Pinned in his car all night, his legs froze, resulting in a series of amputations which left him only a torso, arms and head. His nerve endings, however, told him constantly that his legs were still being sawed off. He said the agony was excrutiating and Hurwitz believed him. However, Virginia narcotics agents are trained to see through this clever ruse. They know that amputees fake their symptoms to feed their drug habits. In fact, the Virginia state police manual warns, "Physicians should be alert for 'professional patients' showing up in wheelchairs missing various limbs." Hurwitz lost his license to practice medicine.

 

Nationwide, doctors are refusing to treat chronic pain patients with medicine which would allow them to lead more normal lives.

 

We're all familiar now with the ballot initiatives which passed in 1996 in Arizona and California, allowing physicians to prescribe hemp in California for certain chronic conditions and any drug they saw fit in Arizona. We're familiar, too, with the contortions still being writhed by the federal government over these votes. Some of us were grimly amused by the Clinton administration's claim that Arizona and California voters were duped by the testimonials of thousands of patients and their doctors that these substances relieved their symptoms. The DEA is still threatening dire consequences for any doctor so bold as to accept the validity of the law.

 

Accomplishment #7

The War on Drugs has stripped back the covers of personal and financial privacy from the lives of peaceful honest people.

If any of us deposits or withdraws an amount in excess of $9999 into or from a financial institution, we must certify where we got it or what we're gonna do with it. If we deposit or withdraw amounts equalling $10,000, but in increments, over the course of a few days, the DEA might accuse us of "structuring", and either prosecute us for evading the reporting requirements, or simply sic the IRS on us.

 

Accomplishment #8

The War on Drugs has virtually erased the fourth and fifth amendments to the Constitution.

Cops routinely search people for drugs, often when they have done nothing to warrant a search except look like a good candidate in the eyes of the cop. When the cop finds nothing, the suspect is let go with a warning not to look so suspicious. When the cop finds drugs, he then makes up a reason consistent with the local court's interpretation of the Constitution to satisfy the "reasonable search" language.

 

Asset forfeiture has risen in popularity. Using laws designed to stop smuggling during the War of 1812, police seize property on the arcane premise that the property has committed a crime. Since property has no civil rights, due process is not a factor.

 

In many jurisdictions, all that's needed is a tip like this: Your neighbor calls the cops and says you're dealing drugs out of your house. A SWAT team arrives at 3 a.m., kicks down your door, handcuffs you and your kids at shotgun point, and trashes your house. Whether or not they find drugs, they still might kick you out into the street and seize your house. It's then up to you to prove you never dealt drugs out of your house. Before you have time to do that, though, the police agency may sell your house and split the proceeds with your neighbor.

 

In Florida, notably, and in other states, certain police agencies, not wanting to deal with the messiness of real property, simply take cash off people they stop and search on the highways. After some folks got irate about that deal, the cops started offering to take only some of the cash if the people signed waivers agreeing not to complain.

 

Asset forfeiture under questionable circumstances occurs several tens of thousands of times per year. 80 percent of the folks who forfeit their property are never charged with a crime. I guess to the law enforcement officers and agents involved, there is a difference between such action and that of armed muggers in dark alleys.

 

Police agencies in South Dakota divvy up the loot among themselves, the state, and informants.

 

Accomplishment #9

The War on Drugs promotes massive corruption at all levels of law enforcement and government.

Three groups of people in Mexico and South America--the decision-making cartels totalling less than ten men--control budgets derived from coca, heroin and/or hemp which add up to more money than the entire United States Department of Defense budget. About 60% of that money-- $2 billion a week or so--is estimated to be spent in bribes.

 

Almost no one is immune to such temptation. It's as simple as this: a border customs agent can earn $5000 for choosing one truck in a three-truck convoy to inspect, the one with an otherwise insignificant mark on a tire. The other two trucks are given a pass. Thousands of trucks cross the border every day. Hundreds of customs agents choose, based on training, intuition, and certain other factors--like bribes--which trucks to inspect. 14 semi-trailer loads of cocaine supplies the entire annual cocaine appetite of the United States.

 

If you're a cop and you burst into a room on good suspicion only to see its occupant disappearing through the window and there are several hundred thousand dollars on a table along with a bag or two of white powder, and you know that what you're doing is pissing in the wind as far as the drug trade goes, would you pocket some or all of the cash? Do you know anyone who might?

 

Oliver North's diaries refer to "kilos" and "hundreds of kilos" several times in conjunction with trips to Central and South America while he was in the employ of Ronald "Just Say No" Reagan.

 

Accomplishment #10

The War on Drugs promotes violence.

In 1918, at the inception of alcohol prohibition, there were 7 homicides per 100,000 people in this country. The graph rises in a steep climb to its peak in 1933 at 10 per 100,000. The graph falls off as steeply for the next ten years, and levels out at 5.5 homicides per hundred thousand population until 1965, the year marijuana was featured in cover stories on Time and Newsweek, and law enforcement started getting real excited about drugs. The '50's really were good times, at least insofar as violent crime went.

 

By 1973 the rate was back up to 10 homicides per hundred thousand. However, in real numbers, 10 per hundred thousand in 1975 is twice as many actual murders as 10 per hundred thousand in 1933. There are twice as many people in this country now. Incidentally, one can interchange the graph lines of the increase in the drug war budget with the increase in homicide rates.

 

This massive warfare on the streets of our cities is fueling the anti-gun movement as well, resulting in such anti-Constitutional atrocities as the Brady Bill, the Feinstein ban on weapons with a military appearance, and the Lautenburg Act.

 

Accomplishment #11

The War on Drugs has destabilized and/or toppled most of the governments in the Western Hemisphere.

With a combination of financial carrot-and-stick, and military and police intervention, the United States has caused immense financial and personal misery south of our border with Mexico. Every government in Central and South America has been destabilized by U.S. drug policy. A majority have been overturned as a result.

 

During the '70's, '80's, and '90's, tens of thousands of innocent people were killed in the crossfire and terrorist bombings in South America, particularly in Colombia, all victims of the drug war. As you read this, U.S. aircraft are raining defoliants and herbicides on valleys in South America, unconcerned about the innocent people who are absorbing it. A daily dose of Agent Orange, anyone?