The most frequent and insidious crimes are perpetrated by gun owners not drug users yet we should not expect a well-armed and misdirected police state to affect gun control, nor should we expect a political party aligned with white nationalists to punish gun manufacturers with rational gun laws. I grew up in Tennessee and I can assure you that a very prejudiced police state was well established long before Nixon.
Another excellent post by Thom. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander offers additional focus on the effect that prosecuting the "war on drugs" has on communities, especially people of color and I recommend it as a compliment to Thom's writing.
I keep trying to get more eyeballs cast Thom's way. It feels like the strength of the astringent truth he writes is too much for a country nourished on its own exceptionalism.
No, there is something else that it did too. Forfeiture laws allow police departments to make a lot of money by confiscating anything "related" to the drug industry. There have been cases of people who money was taken at airports because it was "suspicious" that they were carrying so much cash, even though some of their businesses, like buying used cars, could involve money up front. Unfortunately this is something that Biden, Ted Kennedy and much of Congress helped expand in the 1980s. There was a little pullback in 2000 and more done later when rich people started having their yachts confiscated, but it remains a nasty and ruinous part of a failed policy.
No one involved will admit that so long as the demand exists the supply will come. But then treating drug use as a medical issue is neither fast, glamorous nor very profitable. Unlike an "Untouchables" style shoot up with a neat ending to the bad guys, it involves long hard work. And it raises questions about a society where so many people feel miserable enough to want to internally escape from it, as well as the logic of a war on plants. (Or for that matter on any other noun, like say "terror".) That way leads to discomfort and a loss of power.
Thom, on point as always Nixon was the villain in the black community. They just made up anything. The couple in the store being singled out was a bunch of garbage. Tea, seriously. The War continues. Thom, with all of the information you give people there really is no excuse to be unaware of the facts. You really are the keeper of the gates of wisdom and nothing can ever beat your facts on all of this. Let’s all stay aware with just having your voice to block out the noise.
All weapons production and use on the planet has to be somehow stopped or slowed or something. It's not just the havoc it brings everywhere, it's the pollution caused by every aspect from mining to production to use allowing global warming to continue no matter how much greening countries manage. When are people going to learn to talk to one another without the money grubbers grabbing dominance in every aspect of human existence?
Guns, Militarism, and the War on Drugs
The most frequent and insidious crimes are perpetrated by gun owners not drug users yet we should not expect a well-armed and misdirected police state to affect gun control, nor should we expect a political party aligned with white nationalists to punish gun manufacturers with rational gun laws. I grew up in Tennessee and I can assure you that a very prejudiced police state was well established long before Nixon.
Another excellent post by Thom. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander offers additional focus on the effect that prosecuting the "war on drugs" has on communities, especially people of color and I recommend it as a compliment to Thom's writing.
I keep trying to get more eyeballs cast Thom's way. It feels like the strength of the astringent truth he writes is too much for a country nourished on its own exceptionalism.
No, there is something else that it did too. Forfeiture laws allow police departments to make a lot of money by confiscating anything "related" to the drug industry. There have been cases of people who money was taken at airports because it was "suspicious" that they were carrying so much cash, even though some of their businesses, like buying used cars, could involve money up front. Unfortunately this is something that Biden, Ted Kennedy and much of Congress helped expand in the 1980s. There was a little pullback in 2000 and more done later when rich people started having their yachts confiscated, but it remains a nasty and ruinous part of a failed policy.
No one involved will admit that so long as the demand exists the supply will come. But then treating drug use as a medical issue is neither fast, glamorous nor very profitable. Unlike an "Untouchables" style shoot up with a neat ending to the bad guys, it involves long hard work. And it raises questions about a society where so many people feel miserable enough to want to internally escape from it, as well as the logic of a war on plants. (Or for that matter on any other noun, like say "terror".) That way leads to discomfort and a loss of power.
Thom, on point as always Nixon was the villain in the black community. They just made up anything. The couple in the store being singled out was a bunch of garbage. Tea, seriously. The War continues. Thom, with all of the information you give people there really is no excuse to be unaware of the facts. You really are the keeper of the gates of wisdom and nothing can ever beat your facts on all of this. Let’s all stay aware with just having your voice to block out the noise.
All weapons production and use on the planet has to be somehow stopped or slowed or something. It's not just the havoc it brings everywhere, it's the pollution caused by every aspect from mining to production to use allowing global warming to continue no matter how much greening countries manage. When are people going to learn to talk to one another without the money grubbers grabbing dominance in every aspect of human existence?