(A Public Service Announcement from Suburra Publishing.)
Fact #5
The Drug War Debilitates Our Government
Page 1
A. Bush Got High. Why Can’t I?:
Hypocrisy
The hypocrisy of politicians on the drug issue is rampant. One only has to look
at the last two presidential administrations. In 1992 President Bill Clinton
told a young crowd that he tried to smoke marijuana but he did not inhale, then
added with a smile that he wished he had. His vice-president has admitted to
smoking marijuana infrequently in college, while serving in Vietnam, and as a
young reporter. However, a close friend of Gore from those days says that for
periods of time he smoked everyday with Gore and that Gore, “loved it.”
President George W. Bush’s brother, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, has admitted that
he smoked marijuana in high school. His other brother, Marvin Bush, has used
illegal prescriptions to get narcotics. His wife, Laura Bush, used and dealt
marijuana as a student at Southern Methodist University. His daughters smoked
marijuana at a Hollywood house party.
Numerous people from W. Bush’s past allege that he used marijuana and cocaine. For example, W. Bush’s co-workers on a 1972 senatorial campaign in
Alabama have said that he, “liked to sneak out back for a joint of marijuana or
into the bathroom for a line of cocaine.” His sister-in-law has alleged that W.
Bush and one of his brothers used to snort cocaine at Camp David when H.W. Bush
was president. Perhaps most telling is that W. Bush has never denied using
drugs, instead saying things like, “When I was young and irresponsible, I was
young and irresponsible,” and “If you’re asking me if I’ve done drugs in the
last seven years the answer is no.”
An Inconvenient Truth – Both 2000 presidential candidates
enjoyed smoking marijuana as younger men.
The coyness displayed by these candidates on the issue of marijuana is repulsive
considering the federal government’s oppression of the states that have
decriminalized marijuana. In 1996 the voters of Arizona passed a medical
marijuana law by ballot with a sweeping 65% of the vote. (They did this despite
the fact that Vice President Al Gore came to the state to campaign against it.)
In an amazing disregard of state’s rights the Clinton administration announced
in 1997 that it would prosecute Arizona doctors that prescribed marijuana.
This war on the states continues under W. Bush. In January of 2007 federal DEA
agents raided 11 medical marijuana outlets in Los Angeles County. This display
of force angered local officials and citizens:
B. Why They Hate Us: The DEA Pisses On The Whole World
The DEA and other federal drug toughs do not just run roughshod over the states.
They run roughshod over the entire world. This is sorely evident in Latin
America.
The United States uses the threat of
withdrawn aid and financial sanctions to get any Latin American government
officials critical of the drug war canned. It absurdly accuses these officials
as being in cahoots with the drug cartels. (Legalization would put cartels out
of business.) The DEA also runs raids in these countries with little respect for
their respective governments.
The DEA also works with these countries’
criminals. In 1990 the DEA was impatient with the Mexican government’s
extradition of a Mexican doctor suspected in the torture and murder of a DEA
agent. The DEA paid a bounty to have the doctor kidnapped and brought to
America. This egregious disregard of Mexican law ended with the doctor being
acquitted by a federal judge because the case against him was so weak.
The audacity of these actions is
demonstrated when the roles are reversed. If the European Union used its
political influence to defeat American politicians supporting the death penalty
would it not be considered meddling? If Saudi Arabia financed the fumigation of
American farms that it believed were supplying barley and hops for beer being
smuggled into its country would that not be deemed ridiculous? If Iran offered a
bounty for the kidnapping of an American suspected of murdering an Iranian,
would Americans not be aghast?
The anti-American sentiment caused by
the DEA and other federal drug warriors disregard of other countries’
sovereignty is, “political nitro-glycerin.”
C. Tax Addiction Is A Moral Issue:
Bloated Bureaucracy
A current United States Representative describes the federal drug war as
“essentially a jobs program.” As a judge observed, if drugs were legalized the
two hardest hit groups, that would suffer almost equally, would be organized
crime and law enforcement.
However law enforcement jobs are not the
only government employees to benefit from this succor. Every single federal
agency gets substantial extra funding to carry out the drug war. This includes
agencies such as the Department of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian
Affairs. Congressmen have said off the record that all of our federal agencies
are addicted to the War on Drugs funding and do not want to give up that money.
It is not surprising that in 2003 the federal government revamped the way it
accounted for money spent on drug control to effectively hide over a third of
drug spending in 2003 and an unknown amount thenceforth.
In 1972, the director of President
Richard Nixon’s drug abuse commission observed that four years earlier $66
million had been spent in the drug abuse area and that the budget was now
approaching the one billion mark and when that point was reached, “we become,
for want of a better term, a drug abuse industrial complex.” (In 2003 the
federal drug budget was almost $20 billion)
This strength of the industrial complex
was evident in California’s 1988 election. The correctional workers’ association
was the number one donor to legislative races and provided the fiscal muscle for
the passage of California’s gothic three-strikes sentencing policy.
All information taken from You Will Die: The Burden of Modern Taboos, Book I by Robert R. Arthur. Detailed documentation of sources can be found therein.
Page last modified August 29, 2007.