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View Full Version : Jimmy Carter: "Call Off the Global Drug War"




emazur
06-17-2011, 12:22 PM
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/17/opinion/17carter.html?_r=3
props to Carter for this oped. Also, I was completely unaware of this:

These recommendations are compatible with United States drug policy from three decades ago. In a message to Congress in 1977, I said the country should decriminalize the possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, with a full program of treatment for addicts. I also cautioned against filling our prisons with young people who were no threat to society, and summarized by saying: “Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself.”

These ideas were widely accepted at the time. But in the 1980s President Ronald Reagan and Congress began to shift from balanced drug policies, including the treatment and rehabilitation of addicts, toward futile efforts

Fredom101
06-17-2011, 12:35 PM
Carter was completely ineffective in doing anything to stop the destructive war on drugs. That's the problem with trying to take baby steps like decriminalizing small amounts of MJ. The entire W.O.D is completely immoral and needs to be abolished. None of it makes any since, even the punishments for heroin and meth. None of those drug addicts deserve to be in jail. Carter did nothing to help any of these people. Sorry but I just see his comments coming from a place of guilt for not stopping the madness and the lives he was a part of destroying in the process.

dannno
06-17-2011, 01:04 PM
What the hell happened around 1979-1982?! Please, if you were around during this time read my post and try to think REALLY HARD!!

I wasn't born yet, but I am convinced that there was some sort of psychological warfare, perhaps surrounding a specific event, or maybe a series of events, which changed millions and millions of people. My parents changed drastically 180 degrees during that time, society as a whole drastically changed around that time.

Next thing you know, it's 1988 and Ron Paul is on the Morton Downey Jr. show and the crowd of mostly young people at one point gets up and starts chanting "JUST SAY NO!! JUST SAY NO!! JUST SAY NO!!" like how people chant, "USA!! USA!! USA!!" today.

If anybody knows what happened, please tell me!!