Pompo

Obama Administration Ends Drug War
As a former cop I could not help but think "it's about time."
4/1/09|Salem-News| by Peter Christ of LEAP



Kind of shocking isn't it? But then I read the body of the President's new drug czar's press release. Former Seattle Police Chief and new head man at the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Gil Kerlikowske admitted that the government had abdicated its' duty to the citizens of our country by not just blocking, but in some cases hiding evidence that clearly demonstrated our drug policies were based solely on ideology and not science or legal jurisprudence.


Gil Kerlilkowski and Barack Obama--------Photo courtesy of Salem-News.com

As an example, Kerlilkowski said, "government studies have shown over and over that marijuana is not a threat to civil or social order and is in fact a safer intoxicant than alcohol."

As a former cop I could not help but think "it's about time." And as an ex-cop that has been against our drug war for many years I was overjoyed at the prospect that police officers would actually be freed to perform their duties against real crime instead of chasing pot smokers and troubled addicts. I knew that the Obama administration was doing work toward reform but the text of this statement from our nation's drug czar was just amazing.

Kerlikowski pointed out that some programs had begun almost immediately upon Mr. Obama becoming President. Already our prison populations were dropping due to the Stamper Commission’s recommendations (named for it’s director, Chief Norm Stamper) to review criminal backgrounds of offenders and to move them back into their communities…families were being reunited and money previously spent on corrections facilities was now being spent on job training and funding entrepreneur programs.

Needle exchanges were being funded. Marijuana was now neither legal nor illegal. Rather it was left as an issue for each state to decide how they wished to best handle cannabis in its' various forms - as medicine, agri-industrial hemp and its' recreational use. Pot would be managed on the same model alcohol operates under.

Little did anyone know how serious President Obama was when he said:

"Promoting science isn't just about providing resources, it is also about protecting free and open inquiry. It is about letting scientists like those here today do their jobs, free from manipulation or coercion, and listening to what they tell us, even when it's inconvenient especially when it's inconvenient. It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology."

Well, I hate to say this... but... April Fools!


Peter Christ of L.E.A.P.

I wish that were all true, but the truth is "change" doesn't seem to be the mantra we all thought and hoped it would be in regards to our punitive Prohibition drug policies. Our moves towards "handling" the violence now going on in Mexico calls for escalating the war as a war.

More aircraft, weapons, law enforcement personnel and now, soldiers, will go to fighting a war we lost on the first day.

Prohibition hasn't worked since God told Adam and Eve "you can't eat from that ONE tree. OK?" We know how that turned out and, well, if God can't enforce Prohibition aren't we perhaps a bit delusional thinking we can? I mean it hasn't worked well so far. Alcohol Prohibition only took 13 years to end (so miserable were the consequences of that), drugs Prohibition began over a century ago and drugs are everywhere.

And criminals control virtually every one of them and profit -- tax free -- from them all.

Sadly the drug war won't end any day soon. More cops will die fighting against the unending tide of illegal drugs or be swept up by the temptations of corruption. More innocent civilians like Kathryn Johnston of Atlanta or Patrick Dorismond, or Zeke Hernandez, or Tiffany and Charity Bowers... will die, caught in the crossfire between the peddlers of illegal drugs and the law.

Stigma420247

u sir...are an asshole



but great joke

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Thought is free. - William Shakespeare

hippie557

Breaking news, it's April 1st.

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"How does it feel?
To be on your own,
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A complete unknown,
Like a rolling stone."

doyoulikegreen

+1

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"I don't know what is marijuana. Perhaps I will try it when it will no longer be criminal. I will have my money for my fine and a joint in the other hand"

- Jean Chretien, Former Canadian Prime Minister

Freedom_User

Man.....



....Fuck that guy. I was having mini orgasms erupt in my body after every sentence. Shit. Funny though.

Keep working guys, with all our hard work, this one day will be true.

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The feds continually use and twist this simple clause as an excuse to expand their own power - at the expense of our liberty.

"If you shot a ton of pot to the Sun, will it burn up and get everyone high?"

Everlong2019

I hates you...

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Frylok

lol ya got me

ctwalrus

BASTARD!
i just got done reading the april fools thread too
aghhhhh
you got me!!!!


damn

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☮ ♥

Vicki

Wow, I don't think I've ever seen an April Fool's joke done like this on here before.

It's not nice to get an old womans hope up like that, damn you!

I'd whip you, but the smiley is gone. Lucky you.

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from the shelter of compassion and pity,
you have men who will deal likewise with their fellow man."
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DoobieBrother

Every year, I'm on my guard. Didn't fool me.