Legalization Question

Greenman · 06-02-2003, 06:11 AM

Who are the top 5 corporate supporters of the drug war? In other words, in terms of total dollars, who are the 5 largest corporate sponsors of the major prohibitionist groups such as the Partnership for a Drug Free America, that pay for all those egg on a griddle comercials?

Peace.

ComfortablyNumb · 06-02-2003, 06:35 AM

Thats a damn good question!

FullyBaked · 06-02-2003, 07:08 AM

I don't know for sure at ALL but my guess...

1. Tobbacoo industry (sorry, Tabacco is addictive, Weed isn't, they wan't life long subscribers not just occasional users)

2. Cotton Industry? (since hemp fabric is better than cotton)

3. Government (they get money to fight against drugs.. they are addicted to the money)

Just MY guesses.. wish I could offer fact and monetary evidence =/

Greenman · 06-02-2003, 08:08 AM

Not the industry, because there are companies in that industry that may not be contributing to Prohibition. The individual companys that are the largest contributors.

Also, the government is not a company. You cannot affect the governments revenues because they gather it through taxation, which you do not have a choice to pay. However, after you find out who the companies are, then you can start looking into the government and see which politicians recieved large donations to their campaign funds from said companies....

Peace.

CheebaMonkey · 06-02-2003, 08:28 AM

I don't know off the top of my head, and I don't even know where to look for the answer -- yet.

It gets even more complicated considering that at the state and federal level combined they spend about $40 billion (around $20 billion each). But now it's going to look like the government is spending less on the WoD because they don't consider certain fund spending to fall under the category of 'primary spending.' But in reality, the money spent will be increasing.

I'll try and find out, all I have is this at the moment.

From the Lindesmith Organization

Quote:

Who really profits from drug prohibition?

Organized Crime. According to the United Nations, drug trafficking is a $400 billion per year industry, equaling 8% of the world's trade.(14) By empowering organized criminals with enormous profits, prohibition stimulates violence, corrupts governments at all levels, and erodes community order.

Arms manufacturers, the prison industry, and other special interest groups.

Anti-drug aid to other nations often comes in the form of military assistance. This year's National Drug Control Budget, for example, includes $452 million to provide Blackhawk helicopters to the Colombian military to fight coca cultivation.(15) Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., the exclusive manufacturer of the helicopters, lobbied heavily in favor of an escalation of aid to Colombia.(16)
With the overall prison population at roughly 2 million, nearly 500,000 of whom are drug law violators,(17) federal and state governments have been forced to build an ever increasing number of prisons to house what former drug czar Barry McCaffrey has called "America's internal gulag."(18)
Drug testing is a lucrative industry with a strong interest in perpetuating drug war hysteria. It is estimated that the United States spends $1 billion annually to drug test about 20 million of our workers,(19) in spite of research demonstrating the high cost and low effectiveness of this assault on American privacy.(20)

---

14. Associated Press, "U.N. Estimates Drug Business Equal to 8 Percent of World Trade," (1997, June 26).
15. National Drug Control Strategy 2000 Annual Report, Office of National Drug Control Policy, page 17, February 2000.
16. Sam Lowenberg, "Big Guns Back Aid To Colombia: Well-Financed U.S. Lobby Seeks Relief From Drug Wars," Legal Times, February 21, 2000.
17. Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 1998, Page 462, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1999.
18. Timothy Egan, "The Nation: Hard Time; Less Crime, More Criminals," The New York Times, March 7, 1999.
19. Shepard, Edward M., and Thomas J. Clifton, Drug Testing and Labor Productivity: Estimates Applying a Production Function Model, Institute of Industrial Relations, Research Paper No. 18, Le Moyne University, Syracuse, NY (1998), Page 8.
20. Drug Testing: A Bad Investment, American Civil Liberties Union, September, 1999.

Wait, I found some more.

From Marijuana.Com

Quote:

By far the largest and most startling financial manipulations are within the Department of Justice (DOJ), which reported a reduction of more than $5.5 billion dollars in drug-war related expenses between 2002 and 2003. Remarkably, the majority of costs removed are those associated with the incarceration and care of federal drug prisoners!

How so? "Based on the criterion that they are associated with the secondary consequences of the government's primary drug law enforcement and investigation activities," such expenses will no longer be tabulated in the federal drug budget, the ONDCP explained.

Other DOJ departments and activities related to drug law enforcement, investigation and prosecution are also deceptively missing from this year's tally. For example, annual funding for INTERPOL, the U.S. Marshals Service, the U.S. Attorney's office, the federal "asset forfeiture fund," and community policing are noticeably absent.

Millions of dollars in annual funding for additional agencies previously tabulated in the national drug war budget, such as the Department of Education, have been reduced without explanation, while others—including the Department of Transportation ($594 million in 2002), Department of Interior ($39 million in 2002), and the Department of Agriculture ($29 million)—have been expunged from the books all together.

I must now enter a period of peaceful and relaxing slumber.

Goodnight.

06-02-2003, 06:11 AM	#1
Greenman Seasoned Activist Join Date: Oct 2000 Posts: 817 Grams: 5,231.05 Thanks: 0 Thanked 2 Times in 2 Posts Stock Portfolio Total Value: 0.000 Gain/Loss: 0.000%	Legalization Question Who are the top 5 corporate supporters of the drug war? In other words, in terms of total dollars, who are the 5 largest corporate sponsors of the major prohibitionist groups such as the Partnership for a Drug Free America, that pay for all those egg on a griddle comercials? Peace. __________________ Some will never open their eyes. Some will have them opened for them. Some will see light, some won't be able to stand the brightness and will turn away. -Robin Prosser's Diary Day 23 -- Please read our Posting Guidelines for questions on our policies.

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