Stephanie S.

I have begun reading the book mentioned in the subject of this thread. It is written by Dan Baum, a former reporter for The Wall Street Journal. This book is non-fiction; everything is true and accurate.

I am going to take the space of this thread to comment as I read through this book. It contains many actual accounts of arrests and detainment of 100's of people throughout the WoD.

To begin my comments, I'd like to share that the term War on Drugs was coined in the 1968 presidential election by none other than our very own all around great guy, Richard Nixon. He used the term to convince the population that, "Drugs could stand in for a host of troubles too awkward to discuss plainly."

Baum points out that the War on Drugs idea has fed so mnay people in need of something to blame for various problems. "Parents appaled by teens behavior, police starved for revenue, conservative politicians pandering to their constituents' moral dudgeon, liberal politicians needing a chance to look tough, presidents looking for distractions from scandals, whites-and blacks- striving to "explain" the ghetto, editors filling page one, spies and colonels needing enemy to replace Communists...The War on Drugs is about a lot of things, but only rarely is it really about drugs."

During the Bush presidency the nation spent more than $120 billion on the WoD...more than health care for that same period.


So, this is just a brief hint at the first TWO pages of this book. I've read most of it and am now re-reading for extra thought and brevity. I hope that some of what people see here will entice you to go and buy this book or check it out at the library. (If you do get it at the library..PLEASE take it BACK so that others may appreciate it as well!!)

It's an education, it's a message, and every American should read it.

peace

mirage

sounds cool ill order it off amazon tonight

steph i thought you were a mod on this site

Stephanie S.

Mirage: Yep, used to be an Admin here Life got too busy for me.

Now, as I see it from this book, Richard Nixon needed something to campaign on so he (and his "people" namely Don Santarelli) came of with a War on Drugs. They were putting marijuana and heroin side-by-side in their ugly depiction of drug abusing criminals. They needed something to give the Democrats a run-for-their-money, so to speak. JFK had promised a "Great Society" and after his assassination, LBJ (Lyndon B. Johnson for those less informed) had a good run as president with a strong economy fueled by the Vietnam War; unemployment was down, anti-communism was out.

So, Santarelli developed ideas to be tossed around in the House (which he never really believed would become law). Such as the "No-Knock" law. This took away the possibility of drug users to flush their stash or whatever. Now, officers could knock down the doors of those they were serving drug warrants on! Then he devised the "Prevention Detention" idea. This would stop people arrested for ANYTHING from being released on bail, forcing the defendant to prove he deserved bail. Neither of these things became law until later, but in the 80s, these two things would become the cornerstone of the WoD.

In effect, Santarelli was coming up with something the Democrats could not argue or fight in an election. How were the Democrats to argue locking up Drug Pushing/using criminals?

Needless to say, the media was eating all of this up. Now, marijuana was right next to heroin on the list of BAD THINGS the government needed to control(eradicate).

So, the hippies were fighting over the Vietnam War, race riots were heating up all over the place, and the Republicans came up with the source of all this shame and drudgery.....DRUGS!

So, now we had the Republicans jumping all over this idea...now the Democrats had to define themselves on the matter. "In 1967, the federal government had a tiny role in drug enforcement and the Justice Department, no role at all." J. Edgar Hoover had refused to make the drug war an FBI issue (even though the FBI had been involved with Drug crimes for a llooonng time making llootts of money!) What was left? Make a new department, The Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs-BNDD. The DEA grew from this organization. Thus, the USA now had "drug police".

THEN...LBJ worked with congress to form the LEAA - Law Enforcement Assistance Administration. This tied local police to the Washington and, "Municipal police would become as dependent on Washington as an addict on his pusher."

So, the War in Nam raged on..The WoD is being born...
and I'll tell ya some more later..1968 coming up next!


peace

ThE_MinOritY

i just got this book from the library, havent read any of it yet but it looks very interesting, i also picked up "BUSTED stone cowboys, narco-lords, and washingtons war on drugs" edited by mike gray. ive only read the first few pages and it has a lot of interesting facts about the "war on drugs" and how its not working at all

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Minor drug offenders fill your prisons you don't even flinch. All our taxes paying for your wars against the new non-rich - System Of A Down