Trump Vows "Ruthless" War On Drugs
By Thom Hartmann A...
With Jeff Sessions now officially leading the Justice Department, Donald Trump has set the stage for the administration to quote "restore safety in America" by getting tough on crime - especially drugs.
"I've been here two weeks. I've met a lot of law enforcement officials. Yesterday, I brought them into the Oval Office. I asked a group, what impact do drugs have in terms of a percentage on crime? They said, 75 to 80 percent. That's pretty sad. We're going to stop the drugs from pouring in. We're going to stop those drugs from poisoning our youth, from poisoning our people. We're going to be ruthless in that fight. We have no choice."
Alternet contributor Phillip Smith recently penned an article bluntly titled "Trump Goes Full Nixon on Law-and-Order Executive Orders, Vows 'Ruthless' War on Drugs and Crime".
But as Nixon's domestic-policy advisor and Watergate co-conspirator John Ehrlichman later admitted - Nixon's drug war was never about drugs.
It was about destroying Nixon's enemies.
Ehrlichman told Dan Baum in 1994 the "[The Nixon White House] knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities. ... Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did."
Since Nixon though, a lot has changed.
28 states and the District of Columbia have already legalized marijuana in some form, and more are following suit.
So will the Trump administration respect the 10th Amendment and embrace the budding industry across the country?
Or is it just a matter of time until Jeff "Good People Don't Smoke Marijuana" Sessions decides to disrupt your community and comes for YOUR pot?
Comments
#2
"Some people say" (the Fox Faux "News" way of citing sources) that at least half of the people who support Trump also support legalizing ganja. (Ya, mon, smoke all day long!) Hopefully, if squinty-eyed Jefferson Beauregard Sessions the Third bogarts the joint and is a big downer by violating state's rights, it will piss off Trump's Libertarian following and backfire politically. Republicans smoke just as much pot as Democrats -- some people say. Yeah, man! Go Beauregard! Make innocent people criminals and build more private prisons! Justice for the People!
The pot heads who voted for Republicans probably deserve it. (Remember, moderation is the key; otherwise, you might make some really f--ked up decisions.)
#3
So, father is out with daughter, has a couple beers at the bar-b-que. Kid jumps out chasing ball into street. His reaction time is delayed so he accidentally kills him. Father is put to death. Dauther is fatherless, becomes a terrorist against the state who killed her father. Good plan.
#4
Well Jeff can have ALL of my pot, that is, any he can find around here. I smoked the stuff back in the 60's when I was a student at the University of Washington, but since have given it up in favor of my drug of choice: bourbon. Now if that asshole came to confiscate my boubon he'd have a serious firefight on his hands! ;-) Isn't it amusing that we keep having these "prohibition" discussions, long after most of us have come to realize it's all just a smokescreen? When will we all get together, pack these hypocrites onto a barge and cut it adrift in the North Atlantic in, say, November?
#5
Resolutely marching backward. Great idea. And yet one more good reason for California, Oregon, Washington, and Hawaii to secede or become part of Canada.
#6
I agree whole heartedly with the previous comments. 45 is going to find that potheads lock & load too. In fact, there is nothing better than smoking a bowl and shooting things up. If 45 isn't for States' Rights now, he will be in a very short time.
#7
To makuck:
At my age I've suffered the loss of a few freinds becuase of drunk drivers; I've had a few close encounters my self with drunk drivers; and if my child were killed because a driver was drunk, I think I would want that driver executed. And there's probably a lot of parents out there that feel the same way.
#8
The scorpian (Sessions) will of course do what scorpians do naturally. The reason he said that Marijuana users are not good people is because he knows that Marijuana users don't like him. Just like what Nixon and Reagan. He knows that LGBT people don't like him, and of course he's already attacking them as well. In conclusion, the Trump cabinet and his highest ranking supporters are the KKK, the Neo-Confederates and the Nazis, just short of the sheets and the swasticas of course.
#9
In Oregon the value of secluded farm land with Tier 2 Cannabis grow licensing (as well as Warehouses anywhere in the State with good access to power), had skyrocketed. Check Craigslist to see small farms that a year ago couldn't sell for $500k, now asking $2 mil plus.
So, the war on (some) drugs will come down to whether RJ Reynolds and their ilk join the growers before Trumps group can restart the 'war'.
#10
I think the Mexican Wall is a move to favor South American Czars.
#11
In the Victorian era all drugs were legal, and available for sale at any drug store. There was no such thing as a prescription, you didn't need permission from anyone to buy any drug, including heroin. At some point, it was realized that almost 2% of the population were drug addicts! Thus began the horrors of the prohibition era. Now, after trillions have been spent and millions jailed, and an entire industry created around "recovery," the rate of addiction is....around 2%. There will always be people who want to alter their consciousness. Why do we need these thought police? Their meddling has cost far more lives than it has saved, and their 'help" has had no effect, except creating a nation of hypocondriacs and chronic meddlers.
#12
I lived in Poland for several years and worked as an ESL teacher. They used to have a big problem with drunk driving, now they have all but eliminated it. Their solution? Real penalties. In Poland if alcohol is registered in your blood stream at all, you lose your car, and your driving priveleges for life. You are also subject to a huge fine or jail term depending on your record and the circumstances. People will not risk driving if they have had one beer. They will not get drunk late at night, for fear they will test positive driving the next day. Would americans risk their pickup truck just to drive home from the bar, or would they take a cab? Bring in meaningful penalties and the problem will cease. BTW in Europe, laws apply to police officers too, unlike North America where they are above the law, but that's for another comment another time.
#13
I would begin by saying "unbelievable" but nothing is unbelievable, as far as bad policy goes, in this Trump nightmare we're living in. It's been proven the war on drugs was a failure. If the attempt is to give for profit prisons more "customers" then the plan should work like a charm. Personally, as a taxpayer I'm so done with paying to imprison people for decades over drugs. And personally, as someone who has struggled with addiction, I find these laws cruel. It is a disease and many who fall into the pattern of addiction have trauma they're trying to deal with.
It's such a blow to think about the fact that true bipartisan support was growing to address issues of mass incarceration and now that'll be torn down. The moral implications of our rate and length of incarceration in this country is sick. The fact that lobbyists work towards this I'm order to fuel their for profit prisons is sick. The fact that for profit federal prisons had such horrendous civil rights violations that the contracts were rescinded, but will most likely now be reinstated is sick. And the fact that American taxpayers can't have single payer health care, our social security is being torn apart, social programs for the betterment of society, but somehow there's enough money to fund this draconian prison system is sick. With every move this evil man makes I feel like weeping. I see what's coming and I wish I had the means to get the hell outta here. May God have mercy on the people of this country.
#14
And btw, I'm sure zero funding will be going towards treatment. Lock them up and throw away the key will most certainly be the model sought after. Poverty, income inequality, despair-all key components which lend to drug problems, none of this will be addressed. It's no coincidence that drug use has soared since the recession. People feel hopeless. And if the government doesn't care if I live or die due to lack of health coverage then why do they care what substances I use? They want all the control but none of the responsibility. If someone commits a crime to get their drug money we already have laws for that. So they're willing to say, screw responsibility to people societally, you're on your own. Oh, but we do want to enforce what you put in your own body, even if you're hurting no one in order to do so
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Great! Now I'll have to get a prescription to buy aspirin!
When are the anti-druggies going to realize the problem is not with the drugs; the problem is with people who, for whatever reason, feel the need to use drugs.
If I could work my will, I would legalize the use of most drugs, IN THE PRIVACY OF ONE'S HOME ONLY. Along with that legalization would come very severe penalties, including the death penalty, for being under the influence in public. Yes, the death penalty would be automatic if you cause a death while under the influence. But as long as you keep it in your home, fly as high as you can.