NAACP Joins Call To End War On Drugs

Photo: The Daily Record

Benjamin Jealous, NAACP president and CEO: “These flawed drug policies that have been mostly enforced in African American communities must be stopped”

​The NAACP has just joined the list of prominent organizations and individuals calling for a major paradigm shift away from the failed and punitive “War On Drugs” and toward a health-based approach with a historic resolution passed Tuesday at the organization’s national conference in Los Angeles.

“Today the NAACP has taken a major step towards equity, justice, and effective law enforcement,” said Benjamin Todd Jealous, president and CEO of the NAACP. “These flawed drug policies that have been mostly enforced in African American communities must be stopped and replaced with evidence-based practices that address the root causes of drug use and abuse in America.”

Neill Franklin, an African American former narcotics cop from Baltimore and executive director of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), had presented a talk on the need to end the War On Drugs at the NAACP conference on Monday.

“The NAACP has been on the forefront of the struggle for civil rights and social justice in this country for over a century,” Franklin said Tuesday about the passage of the resolution.

“The fact that these leaders are joining others like the National Black Police Association in calling for an end to the ‘war on drugs’ should be a wake up call to those politicians — including and especially President Obama — who still have not come to terms with the devastation that the ‘drug war’ causes in our society and especially in communities of color,” Franklin said.

The resolution was voted on by a majority of delegates at the 102nd NAACP Annual Convention. The overall message of the resolution is captured by its title: A Call to End the War on Drugs, Allocate Funding to Investigate Substance Abuse Treatment, Education, and Opportunities in Communities of Color for A Better Tomorrow.

The resolution outlines the facts about the failed Drug War, highlighting that the U.S. spends more than $40 billion annually on the War On Drugs, locking up low level drug offenders — mostly from communities of color.

African Americans are, in fact, 13 times more likely to go to jail for the same drug-related offense than their white counterparts.

“Studies show that all racial groups abuse drugs at similar rates, but the numbers also show that African Americans, Hispanics and other people of color are stopped, searched, arrested, charged, convicted, and sent to prison for drug-related charges at a much higher rate,” said Alice Huffman, president of the California State Conference of the NAACP.

“This dual system of drug law enforcement that serves to keep African Americans and other minorities under lock and key and in prison must be exposed and eradicated,” Huffman said. ”Instead of sending drug offenders to prison, the resolution calls for the creation and expansion of rehabilitation and treatment programs, methadone clinics, and other treatment protocols that have been proven effective.”

“We know that the war on drugs has been a complete failure because in the 40 years that we’ve been waging this war, drug use and abuse has not gone down,” said Robert Rooks, director of the NAACP Criminal Justice Program.

“The only thing we’ve accomplished is becoming the world’s largest incarcerator, sending people with mental health and addiction issues to prison, and creating a system of racial disparities that rivals Jim Crow policies of the 1960s.”

Once ratified by the board of directors in October, the resolution will encourage the more than 1,200 active NAACP units across the country to organize campaigns to advocate for the end of the War On Drugs.

Top 11 Reasons America Doesn’t Want Marijuana Legalized

Top 11 Reasons America Doesn’t Want Legal Marijuana

By Steve Elliott ~alapoet~ in Culture

Wednesday, June 29, 2011, at 12:57 pm

Photo: NORML Blog

​​​​

By Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town

Northern California Correspondent

11. Wars make money for a few and kill the rest…

The War On Drugs makes money for cartels, police, the government, prisons, politicians, crooks, and all those other people we can’t see, like the Glad Bag people and the grow-light industry.

This 100-year revenue stream could dry up if Americans couldn’t be arrested for a drug that has been proven to be less destructive than whole milk.

10. Doesn’t matter what we do?

Barney Frank and Ron Paul cross the aisle for a bi-huggable confabulous (I know, but let me have it) bill supporting the legalization of marijuana.

Lamar Smith (R-Texas, surprise!), drinking buddy of the alcoholic lobbyists everywhere, will single-handedly try to stop the demon weed so that beer, wine and booze will never have to suffer like it did for those 13 long years almost a hundred years ago.

Lamar, according to Opensecrets.com, makes around 20 grand a year to ensure that the only bud that American kids put to their lips, has an Anheuser-Busch label on it.

Photo: Joe Raedle

​9. Drinking went up during Prohibition.

I know — who cares? — but apparently when you can’t get something, you want it more.

Per capita consumption of alcohol had been declining in the U.S. right before Prohibition started. After alcohol consumption hit an all-time low in 1921, it began to increase starting in 1922.

Especially alarming is economist Mark Thorton’s research finding that the “homicide rate increased from 6 per 100,000 population in the pre-Prohibition period to nearly 10 per 100,000 in 1933.”

8. In 1937, the guy who started this whole fiasco said…

“No one knows, when he places a marijuana cigarette to his lips, whether he will become a philosopher, a joyous reveler in a musical heaven, a mad insensate, a calm philosopher, or a murderer.” ~ Harry J. Anslinger

And people still believe this… Let me help you out, America. You get mellow when you smoke. Whatever was troubling you hurts less now.

Harry was right about it making music and stories better, but murderers and insensate? I haven’t insensate since high school. (Someone should tell me what “insensate” means.)

Arkansans for Compassionate Care

​7. Where are the doctors? The AMA?

When all the false information was produced to scare America into marijuana prohibition in 1937, only one doctor testified before the congressional hearings.

All “evidence” was contrived by a small clique of an American cartel that wanted to do away with industrial hemp.

Where are the doctors now? They’re trying to find a way to market marijuana so it profits just the pharmaceutical companies and the doctors who play ball with a health care industry that is for profit, not for compassion.

6. We do not want to tarnish the memory of Richard Nixon.

The President that had to step down because he lied to America created the Drug Enforcement Administration, a vast network of white, short-sleeved worker bees who hated marijuana.

As of 2009, the DEA has a budget of around $2.6 billion with 83 offices worldwide. For 40 years this agency has destroyed lives and families, making criminals out of otherwise law-abiding citizens.

Does it work? No! Can we stop it? Not unless we want to rethink our whole I-Love-Dick-Nixon-and-all-he-stands-for attitude. After Reagan, secretively, Nixon is the Right’s favorite son.

Graphic: American Patriot Friends Network

​5. Prisons, prisons, prisons!

In a September 2008 report, the Marijuana Policy Project found that between 1995 and 2008 nearly 9.5 million individuals had been arrested due to connections with marijuana (whether it is cultivation, possession, or distribution). In 2007, there were 872,7209 marijuana-related arrests, an all-time record, totaling more arrests than those for all violent crimes combined.

This means, on average, that one person is arrested on marijuana charges every 36 seconds.

Cultivating as little as one marijuana plant is a federal felony. Several states have interjected and slightly decriminalized certain aspects of marijuana policy, but the majority of U.S. states continue to echo federal marijuana laws.

It doesn’t matter that Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce was working with the for-profit prison industry, Corrections Corporation of America, when composing the anti-immigration bill that his state made into law. The bill was about putting butts in the beds and all Russell and his friends were doing was making sure that before they build those big new prisons, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and others would make sure they came. But please, only your browns and blacks.

Every year as pro-medical marijuana legislation and other progressive measures are advanced throughout the country, the correctional officers unions — along with the liquor lobby — are the major contributors to squashing any pro-pot laws.

Why? ‘Cause it ain’t any good for business.

Graphic: Rense.com

​4. Hemp.

Sorry, but the silent sister of weed is always at the dance, but hardly ever asked to dance. There is so much money to be saved with hemp, meaning there are so many fearful industries that could lose money if there was a cheap alternative available: they’re scared shitless.

A fascinating exploration into the possibilities of hemp can be seen in two issues of Popular Mechanics in 1938 and 1941. An interesting side note is that these issues, which contain extensive praise for the possibilities of hemp production, were written after cannabis was already criminalized in 1937 with the Marihuana Tax Act.

It’s hard to believe that even after a year of cannabis being outlawed in America, Popular Mechanics was still praising the value of hemp. The magazine proudly proclaimed “hemp will produce every grade of paper and government figures estimate than 10,000 acres devoted to hemp will produce as much paper as 40,000 acres of average pulp land.”

Hemp is the standard fiber of the world. It has great tensile strength and durability. It is used to produce more than 5,000 textile products, ranging from rope to fine laces, and the woody “hurds” remaining after the fiber has been removed contain more than 77 percent cellulose, which can be used to produce more than 25,000 products ranging from dynamite to cellophane.

3. Too many Americans still have access to marijuana.

Even though I am an activist fighting for the right of patients to get the medication they need, with that being said, I still know about 40,000 people growing it.

It is America’s number one cash crop. Someone’s got to be growing it.

This pisses off the Powers That Be. Until they can figure out how to stop unregulated growers (in their eyes) from trying to do their thing, Big Money and Big Pharma won’t rest. It’s never been about the weed, it’s about freedom.

Graphic: 303 Magazine

​2. Big Pharma wants to own marijuana.

A study from Mohamed Ben Amar in the Journal of Ethnopharmacology researched the therapeutic effects of cannabinoids in marijuana. The study monitored the effects that cannabinoids had on seriously ill patients in several countries. In this study, Amar concluded:

“[I]t [i]s possible to affirm that cannabinoids exhibit an interesting therapeutic potential as stopping vomiting and nausea, an appetite stimulant in debilitating diseases (cancer and AIDS), analgesic, as well as in the treatment of multiple sclerosis, spinal cord injuries, Tourette’s syndrome, epilepsy and glaucoma.”

It works and they know it!

1. The chief reason Marijuana is still illegal in this country…

Because Big Pharma — even with all their money, scientists and resources — still can’t figure out how to grow the Diggity-Dank like those stoners do!!

Photo: Jack Rikess

Toke of the Town correspondent Jack Rikess blogs from the Haight in San Francisco.

Jack Rikess, a former stand-up comic, writes a regular column most directly found at jackrikess.com.

Jack delivers real-time coverage following the cannabis community, focusing on politics and culture.

His beat includes San Francisco, the Bay Area and Mendocino-Humboldt counties.

He has been quoted by the national media and is known for his unique view with thoughtful, insightful perspective.

 

Former President Carter Urges Marijuana Legalization

Photo: Jimmy Carter Library & Museum

Former President Jimmy Carter: “Maybe the increased tax burden on wealthy citizens necessary to pay for the war on drugs will help bring about a reform of America’s drug policies”

​In a new op-ed published in The New York Timesto coincide with Friday’s 40th anniversary of President Nixon declaring “War On Drugs,” former President Jimmy Carter supports recent recommendations for countries around the world to try “models of legal regulation of drugs … that are designed to undermine the power of organized crime and safeguard the health and security of their citizens.”

In the New York Times op-ed, President Carter called the recommendations of the Global Commission on Drug Policy “courageous and profoundly important.”

“In a message to Congress in 1977, I said the country should decriminalize the possession of less than an ounce of marijuana, with a full program of treatment for addicts,” Carter wrote. “I also cautioned against filling our prisons with young people who were no threat to society, and summarized by saying: ‘Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself.’ “

“Those ideas were widely accepted at the time,” Carter wrote. “But in the 1980s President Ronald Reagan and Congress began to shift from balanced drug policies, including the treatment and rehabilitation of addicts, toward futile efforts to control drug imports from foreign countries.”

“One result has been a terrible escalation in drug-related violence, corruption and gross violations of human rights in a growing number of Latin American countries,” Carter wrote.

“Maybe the increased tax burden on wealthy citizens necessary to pay for the war on drugs will help bring about a reform of America’s drug policies,” Carter wrote. “At least the recommendations of the Global Commission will give some cover to political leaders who wish to do what is right.”

Elected Officials and Celebrities Denounce War on Drugs

Graphic: Emilie_Ann_McGregor

​40th Anniversary of President Nixon’s Declaration of a ‘War On Drugs’ Will Be Marked By Thursday Press Conference

June 17 will mark 40 years since President Richard Nixon, claiming drug abuse was “public enemy number one,” officially declared a “War On Drugs.” A trillion dollars and millions of ruined lives later, the War On Drugs has proven to be a catastrophic failure, according to the Drug Policy Alliance (DPA).

The DPA, considered one of the nation’s leading organizations promoting drug policies grounded in science, compassion, health and human rights, will host a press conference on Thursday, June 16 with elected officials, celebrities and VIP’s to call attention to the failures of the Drug War and to propose new solutions.

The press conference is intended to raise awareness about the failures of drug prohibition and call for an exit strategy from the failed War On Drugs.

The press conference will also be streamed on the web and can be viewed live at 
http://www.newseum.org/streaming/index.htm
.

The press conference comes on the heels of a Global Commission on Drug Policy, which released a groundbreaking report on June 2 calling for a paradigm shift in how our society deals with drugs, including decriminalization and allowing countries to experiment with models of legal regulation.

The commission is comprised of international dignitaries including Kofi Annan, former Secretary General of the United Nations; Richard Branson, entrepreneur and founder of the Virgin Group; and the former presidents of Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Switzerland. George P. Shultz and Paul Volcker, who penned a recently Wall Street Journal op-ed opposing the Drug War, are the U.S. commissioners.

The press conference will set the stage for the following national day of action. Dozens of events will be held throughout the country, including major cities like New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and New Orleans. The day of action will be highlighted with a large-scale event with elected officials in Washington, D.C.

In Arms Reach, a nonprofit organization that works with at-risk children and young adults who have incarcerated parent(s), has enlisted the rapper SAIGON to release a song in support of DPA’s “No More Drug War” campaign highlighting the 40-year anniversary of the War On Drugs.

The Drug Policy Alliance is also leading thousands of advocates all across the country in a “Day of Action” to raise awareness about the catastrophic failure of drug prohibition and to call for an exit strategy from the failed War On Drugs.

To see a list of events around the nation, visit: 
http://nomoredrugwar.org/take-action#events

What: Press conference

When: June 16, 2011, 1 p.m.

Where: The Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Washington, D.C. (Knight Studio A)

Who: Ethan Nadelmann, founder and executive director, Drug Policy Alliance

         John Conyers, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Michigan’s 14th District

         Jared Polis, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, Colorado’s 2nd District

         Rev. Al Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network (tentatively confirmed)

         Peter Shumlin, Governor of Vermont

         Sonja Sohn, actress from the HBO series “The Wire”

         Maxine Waters, member of the U.S. House of Representatives, California’s 35th District