Vineland Today

[Ian Livingston]

I dunno about this guy's rhetoric. His research might be good, and his
conclusion laudable. but between the two he gets a little squirrely.
An invitation to the right wingnuts for mockery. He says "no
unconventional war will resolve the matter," so "the 'War on Drugs'
should become a war on US citizenry." Is he advocating a civil war, in
which the military should attack and overthrow the stoners? Prop 19 is
unlikely to pass because of the flawed language in its framing and the
sloppy rhetoric in its support, but I intend to vote yes on it just to
send the message to Washington that Americans should pay taxes on
their luxuries instead of being incarcerated for them.

On Thu, Oct 28, 2010 at 5:01 PM, Robin Landseadel
<robinlandseadel at comcast.net> wrote:
>        Proposition 19: a chance to end the 'war on drugs'
>        Juan Gabriel Tokatlian
>        guardian.co.uk,
>        Thursday 28 October 2010
>
>        It is now evident that the "war on drugs" is not a metaphor: in the
>
>        Andean Ridge and Mexico, as well as in West Africa and Central
>        Asia, it has become a militarised crusade against narcotics.
>        Several thousand soldiers are directly involved in anti-drugs
>        operations worldwide. Hundreds of billions have been spent
>        everywhere in an armed combat against drug consumers,
>        drug traffickers, drug producers, drug launders and drug lords.
>
>        As part of an irregular battle against an illicit business, as a twin
>        threat – together with terrorism – to be defeated by a form of low
>        -intensity conflict, or as a component of a punitive war, US and
>        non-US troops are the leading an armed fight against narcotics
>        from Colombia and Guinea Bissau to Afghanistan. The actual
>        results – in terms of crop eradication and substitution, drug inter-
>        diction, narcotics trafficking reduction, organised crime disman-
>        tling, curtailment of money laundering, improved statehood,
>        better civil-military relations and human rights advancement –
>        have been abysmally poor.
>
>        Even though Washington now spends $1,400 every second
>        in the "war on drugs", the crusade has been a complete fiasco.
>        The US-funded Plan Colombia (started by 2000), the Andean
>        Regional Initiative (since 2002), the Merida Initiative (originated
>        in 2007) for Mexico and Central America and Caribbean Basin
>        Security Initiative (launched in 2009), have totalled more than
>        $9bn and have had negligible results in terms of lowering the
>        drug consumption, reducing the availability of psychoactive
>        substances and diminishing the purity of narcotics in the
>        United States.
>
>        What this tells us is that the problem with drugs is no more
>        "alien" than the solution is "military". Drugs are a US demand
>        issue – driven by domestic markets that have their own social
>        and political implications, as well as by transnational economic
>        forces and their global ramifications. So, no unconventional
>        war will resolve the matter. If the idea were to follow the advice
>        of military theorist Carl von Clausewitz – to discern the "enemy's
>        centre of gravity", the pivotal place "on which everything
>        depends" and "the point against which all our energies should
>        be directed" – then the "war on drugs" should become a war on
>        US citizenry.
>
>        One way to begin the domestic dismantling of the "war on drugs"
>        rationale and to signal to the world that the United States is
>        willing to initiate a realistic, frank and effective debate on
>        narcotics is to support Proposition 19, on which Californians
>        will vote on 2 November. If passed in this ballot, the proposition
>        would mean a new regulatory regime of different marijuana-
>        related activities, one no longer based on prohibition and
>        interdiction. This would represent a real advance in dealing
>        seriously and effectively with the narcotics issue – and a
>        bold new step towards broadening the global debate on the
>        effectiveness, or otherwise, of drug prohibition.
>
>        Proposition 19 provides a window of opportunity for Americans
>        to think again about the wisdom of prolonging a costly and futile
>        war.
>
>
> http://tinyurl.com/25mfhnh



-- 
"liber enim librum aperit."