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Forum Post: 2007 U.S. Conference of Mayors Declared Drug War a Failure

Posted 12 years ago on Jan. 16, 2012, 10:15 a.m. EST by aahpat (1407)
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U.S. Mayors Declare Drug War a Failure July 18, 2007

The mayors of America's large cities have unanimously approved a resolution stating that the drug war "has failed" and calling for a harm-reduction oriented approach to drug policy that focuses on public health.

Sponsored by Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, the resolution states that the drug war costs $40 billion annually but has not cut drug use or demand. It slams the Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP) drug-prevention programs -- specifically, the agency's national antidrug media campaign -- as "costly and ineffective," but called drug treatment cost-effective and a major contributor to public safety because it prevents criminal behavior.

"Anderson is no newcomer to the drug issue; he has previously called the drug war "phony, inhumane, and ineffective," and his official biography calls him "an outspoken advocate for drug policy reform." He received the DPA's 2005 Richard J. Dennis Drugpeace Award for outstanding achievements in the field of drug policy reform."

Rocky Anderson for president in 2012: https://www.voterocky.org/home

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[-] 2 points by aahpat (1407) 12 years ago

Rocky Anderson called the drug war "phony, inhumane, and ineffective,"

[-] 2 points by JamesS89118 (646) from Las Vegas, NV 12 years ago

Then, he was right on all accounts. It's either Rocky or Gary Johnson for me come Nov.

[-] 2 points by aahpat (1407) 12 years ago

Gary Johnson is a libertarian. That makes him not as smart or honest as he might otherwise present himself as being. The libertarians are far too much to the right of sanity for me.

Anderson is a lifelong social justice advocate, as I am. He reflects and respects my social justice, civil liberties and human rights Constitution based values.

[-] 2 points by JamesS89118 (646) from Las Vegas, NV 12 years ago

I can respect that! I'm just scratching the 3rd party surface at the moment. And I do admit Gary Johnson does reference a whack-a-doodle for an economist.

For a while my mantra has been "Anybody but Obama, Nobody but Hillary". But that's not a solution to anything really. ssdd

[-] 2 points by aahpat (1407) 12 years ago

I appreciate your awakening from the two party coma. It came for me in 1996 when "liberal" Bill Clinton gave America its world record prison population. I looked at the parties and ended up realizing that George Washington was right about "the baneful effects of the spirit of party". It has been my political mantra ever since. home.ptd.net/~aahpat/aandc/gw.htm

Seeing the harm that the War on Drugs has been doing since 1971 to America's democratic institutions, Constitution, public health and national security drove me to realize that the only solution is to stop voting for or supporting any political candidate or party that supports the Jim Crow Drug War. So encouraging support for third party and Independents who oppose the Drug War has been my focus ever since.

If the parties don't hear it from us they won't hear it.

[-] 2 points by JamesS89118 (646) from Las Vegas, NV 12 years ago

The corruption that is "The war on drugs" is nauseating. This I only realized by living in L.A. for 10 years and seeing wave after wave of kids churned into felons.

A truly horrific introduction to adulthood by incarcerating our youth for entrepreneurship of a weed. That judge in PA convicted for convicting kids into a prison he owned stock in was the last straw.

The Drug War is completely over for me. No government has license from me any longer to steal life over a weed or addiction.

[-] 2 points by aahpat (1407) 12 years ago

Drug War's only real success

Richard Nixon and the Dixie-crats in Congress in 1971 created the Drug War to re-invigorate Jim Crow and to neutralize the electoral empowerment effects of the 1965 Voting rights Act along with the 1971 26st Amendment. This is the Drug War's only real success. It was a tactic in Nixon's Southern Strategy to entice white racists into the GOP.

By flooding urban pluralistic communities with drugs the right-wing racists knew that they could entice generations of poverty oppressed young people with low skill high income tax free economic opportunity that would expose them to mass arrest and criminal prosecution resulting in electoral disenfranchisement.

Since then the right-wing has also learned that they could concentrate prisons in rural communities where the census would count the prisoners as living in those communities but the prisoners would have no vote there. The rural white politicians would have an artificially larger population than they would actually have to campaign to creating what are today known as "safe" legislative districts. While the urban pluralistic home districts of the incarcerated are gerrymandered into suburban white districts so that politicians have to campaign to the interests of the white communities rather than the broader pluralistic urban interests. SEE: http://www.prisonpolicy.org/

American democracy has been effectively subverted since 1971.

[-] 2 points by JamesS89118 (646) from Las Vegas, NV 12 years ago

Hazues! I've heard those theories from time to time and would throw Rockerfella in there too. This is the first all 3 has been laid out like that for me. I'll check out the site. :) Peace

[-] 2 points by aahpat (1407) 12 years ago

Drug War = Economic Warfare against minorities and non-conformist American youth.

Nixon understood the economics of prohibition from having lived through the alcohol prohibition. Crime soared and poor people were enticed into crime by the easy money that black markets throw off.

That combined with the history since the late 19th century of using drug laws to oppress minorities and Nixon had the perfect storm economic and political weapon to use against both minorities and disaffected non-conformist young white Americans who on one hand were electorally empowered by the 26st Amendment and on the other opposed his Vietnam war policies.

[-] 2 points by JamesS89118 (646) from Las Vegas, NV 12 years ago

'm glad to meet ya aahpat. Social justice I fear is a lost art. We need a contemporary painter.