The Wire’s War on the Drug War – TIME

First off, great photo. The lighting is great, the location is great (watch the show to really appreciate it). The article that accompanies this photo is an editorial authored by the three writers of HBO‘s TV show The Wire. In it they argue the uselessness of the US drug war. Citing a statistic: A new [...]Published March 6, 2008

Written by Joey

Photography introduced me to the 'new media' evolution. I currently do community management at Meraki in San Francisco, but this blog is about journalism, some UX design, and the occasional rant. more →

@joeybaker | joey@byjoeybaker.com

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A new report by the Pew Center shows that 1 of every 100 adults in the U.S. — and 1 in 15 black men over 18 — is currently incarcerated. That’s the world’s highest rate of imprisonment.

I had actually run across this stat several weeks ago, thought, “Man, that’s a little extreme,” and then carried on with my life here in London. When put into this context though, the information just becomes annoying. So many of these prisoners are behind bars for a drug charge. I am of the opinion the US drug policy needs to be changed. We need to explore the options behind legalizing some of the ‘illegal’ drugs out there today. (I’d start with cannabis, but that’s just me.) And, I say this is a person who does not do drugs. At all. I enjoy a drink or two, but drugs, just like cigarettes remain on the untouchable list for me.

Our leaders? There aren’t any politicians — Democrat or Republican — willing to speak truth on this. Instead, politicians compete to prove themselves more draconian than thou, to embrace America’s most profound and enduring policy failure.

…and that’s an issue. If the politicians are not motivated to change, then nothing ever will. The American public, in my opinion, has largely forgotten about the drug war. The people who sell drugs have just gotten used to cops beating down their doors and accept it as a risk of doing business. The cops have gotten used to “court pay” and easy arrests that accomplishes nothing. And politicians have gotten used to not having to argue this topic.

The authors close their article by calling for a bit of civil disobedience, which I will happily go along with:

If asked to serve on a jury deliberating a violation of state or federal drug laws, we will vote to acquit, regardless of the evidence presented. Save for a prosecution in which acts of violence or intended violence are alleged, we will — to borrow Justice Harry Blackmun’s manifesto against the death penalty — no longer tinker with the machinery of the drug war. No longer can we collaborate with a government that uses nonviolent drug offenses to fill prisons with its poorest, most damaged and most desperate citizens.
– The Wire’s War on the Drug War – TIME

Rohan Shahani

There’s a large issue at work here that no one, especially our government likes to discuss at all. Namely, that drugs are big business, and that the American economy is completely dependent on them.

I live in the city of Los Angeles….a city famous for it’s crack epidemic, an episode for which there is documented proof that not only did the Federal government know of it’s complicity in this affair, but deliberately lied about their involvement.

Over the last two years in LA, the street price of Heroin has gone down. You can now buy some of the highest quality Asian Heroin in the world as easily as one might buy cigarettes at a gas station. Now this is a trend that has entirely grown since American involvement in Afghanistan.

The Taliban, whatever they might have done, and been, were incredibly anti-drug. Under their regime almost no Poppies were grown in Afghanistan. Since the American occupation, ALL of our allies and partners in the country have been in some way affiliated with poppy cultivation. Afghanistan now produces 90% of the worlds poppies.

These don’t all go to Heroin. There’s a massively booming International market in prescription pain-killers. Drugs like Oxycontin, Fentanyl, Vicodin (the most prescribed drug in the world) are sold legally at a profit, and are driving the next epidemic in our society.

HOWEVER….there’s too much money to be made. Example: the Cephalon corporation, held up as a standard of how Pharmaceutical companies should run. Here’s a company that was on the verge of bankruptcy. New CEO comes in, and their main product offering changed to Painkillers. They developed a whole line of Incredibly potent opiate painkillers that come in Lollipop form, or patch form. In the span of two years, the company’s value goes up exponentially, and is eventually acquired.

As far as I’m concerned, that’s way more scandalous than candy cigarettes.

There seems to be a general consensus on Wall street and in the marketplace: If people take drugs, they’re too stupid to deserve to live. If they sell them and get caught, they’re too stupid to be free. If they sell them and bribe the right folks, we’ll happily re-invest their money. And all the while, we’ll make a killing off the blood of your children.

r
http://www.noprescriptioneeded.com/ drugs online

Everyone has fallen into complacency when it comes to the war on drugs. It is just like the article said “Our leaders? There aren’t any politicians — Democrat or Republican — willing to speak truth on this. Instead, politicians compete to prove themselves more draconian than thou, to embrace America’s most profound and enduring policy failure.” We need someone to step up and take action and stop falling into the same ruts that plague the government.