LA Times: White House says the war is working -- the war on drugs

[sailingaway]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/06/white-house-urged-by-world-leaders-to-end-the-war-on-drugs.html

I like the last line the best.

[HOLLYWOOD]

War on drugs has failed, report finds

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/06/02/drug.commission.report/
By the CNN Wire Staff
June 2, 2011 7:27 p.m. EDT

http://www.cnn.com/video/bestoftv/2011/06/02/exp.tsr.sylvester.war.on.drugs.cnn.640x360.jpghttp ://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/img/3.0/1px.gif (http://www.cnn.com/video/?/video/bestoftv/2011/06/02/exp.tsr.sylvester.war.on.drugs.cnn)


Time to end war on drugs?



STORY HIGHLIGHTS


Group suggests legalization, access to syringes, new education programs
Increasing law enforcement has not worked, group says
More than 40,000 people have been killed in Mexico's drug war in the past four years



(CNN) -- The global war on drugs has failed, a high-level commission comprised of former presidents, public intellectuals and other leaders studying drug policies concluded in a report released Thursday.
International efforts to crack down on drug producers and consumers and to try to reduce demand have had "devastating consequences for individuals and societies around the world," the report from the Global Commission on Drug Policy said.
The commission, which includes former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson and Nobel laureate Mario Vargas Llosa, challenges the conventional wisdom about drug markets and drug use.
Among the group's recommendations:
-- End of criminalization and stigmatization of people who use drugs but do not harm others
-- Encourage governments to experiment with drug legalization, especially marijuana
-- Offer more harm reduction measures, such as access to syringes
-- Ditch "just say no" and "zero tolerance" policies for youth in favor of other educational efforts.
The theory that increasing law enforcement action would lead to a shrinking drug market has not worked, the report says. To the contrary, illegal drug markets and the organized criminal organizations that traffic them have grown, the group found.
The report comes as countries such as Mexico suffer from widespread drug-related violence. More than 40,000 people have been killed in Mexico in the past four years as rival cartels battle each other over lucrative smuggling corridors and as the army fights the cartels.
The commission's findings add more high-profile voices to a growing movement calling for a radical approach to drugs. Other leaders, such as former Mexican President Vicente Fox, have called for drug legalization as part of a solution to his country's woes.

[Xenophage]

How long have libertarians been saying this?

It'll end eventually.

[tangent4ronpaul]

"It’s estimated that over $1 trillion has been spent on fighting this unwinnable battle."

$1 trillion has been spent on Iraq and Afghanistan...

We are $4.2 trillion in debt.

I wonder how much we spend every year maintaining all those military bases and what the war on terror is costing?

Might be good campaign talking points.

-t

[gls]

We are $4.2 trillion in debt.


I wish. Isn't it more like $14 trillion? Not counting the tens of trillions in unfunded entitlements of course.

[hazek]

I wonder if the White house read about this:

"The Underground Website Where You Can Buy Any Drug Imaginable

Adrian Chen — Making small talk with your pot dealer sucks. Buying cocaine can get you shot. What if you could buy and sell drugs online like books or light bulbs? Now you can: Welcome to Silk Road.."

read more at: http://gawker.com/5805928/the-underground-website-where-you-can-buy-any-drug-imaginable

[Brian4Liberty]

The story leaves out a glaring side effect of prohibition, the militarization of the Police. SWAT teams invading homes, no knock warrants and other violations of the Constitution are direct results of the war on drugs.

[Wolfgang Bohringer]

Ron Paul needs to join Javier Sicilia on June 10 in Ciudad Juarez Mexico and address the 10s of thousands of Mexicans marching against the US's drug war:


SAN FRANCISCO -- A Mexican poet who channeled his grief over a slain son into a mass peace movement took his cause to the United States on Wednesday, calling on American officials to halt the illicit flow of U.S.-bought guns south of the border and rethink their support of the Mexican government's war on drug cartels.

Javier Sicilia lost his son when drug gangs allegedly killed the 24-year-old and six others near the city of Cuernavaca. Sicilia turned the personal tragedy into a national call for action that inspired hundreds of thousands of Mexicans to march last month for peace.

"It's going to take generations, this process of remaking the country through nonviolence," Sicilia said in a Wednesday visit to San Francisco, a short respite from a burgeoning protest movement that has rallied behind the 55-year-old writer.

Sicilia is leading another peace march June 10 through the violence-racked border city of Ciudad Juárez that has attracted close attention from President Felipe Calderon, who plans to meet with Sicilia when it is over. Some observers have compared the mass movement in Mexico to those happening in the Arab world

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18185016?nclick_check=1

And I think he needs to turn it up a notch and explain that we've been ruled by drug cartels controlled by government spy and military organizations for hundreds of years--since the british opium wars at least. The CIA controlled media won't be able to suppress news of the 10s and 100s of thousands of marchers and protesters if Ron Paul would jump in front of this.

The 200 that marched with the Oathkeepers in Tuscon last weekend gives me hope that US of Americans could turn out by the 10s or 100s of thousands to join the Mexicans and organize more of our own marches and protests.

http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2011/06/02/walking-a-mile-in-freedom%e2%80%99s-shoes-oath-keepers-muster-tucson-memorial-day-may-30-2011/