Tag Archives | War On Drugs

Out of All Drugs Legal And Illegal, Which Ones Kill?

By on April 27, 2013 in News 0
Picture: William Rafti (CC)

Picture: William Rafti (CC)

If we were to have a sane and adult conversation about drug use and abuse in America instead of waging a war on drugs the same way we wage a war on terror, we might come to the realization that  we’re letting the bad ones in our homes freely while some of the most helpful to improving the quality of life of the average person carry some of the highest minimum prison sentences of all, while touting an infinitesimal number of related deaths.  Some of you may have read Thad McKracken’s well thought out article on the state of drugs in society today.  The numbers fall in lockstep with his thoughts.

It turns out that, aside from Alcohol, Big Pharma is the #1 killer  while drugs that have been used traditionally as entheogens hardly appear in the statistics at all.  Drugs like LSD, DMT, Marajuana, Peyote and other psychedelics are used as a religious sacrament in many belief systems around the world, but are vilified because of their tendency to provide people with what Terence McKenna simply called ‘funny ideas’.… Read the rest

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Happy 420!

By on April 20, 2013 in News 0

via chycho

Cannabis_sativa_thumb

April is indeed one of the most exciting months of the year. On April 19 we have the pleasure of celebrating Bicycle Day, and on April 20 we follow it up with 420.

April 20 has been designated as global cannabis appreciation day. It is a day to let the world know that this beautiful plant genus is part of our society and one of the most important bounties of nature. As our civilization expands and evolves, it has become essential for us to recognize and celebrate this day and share the wealth and knowledge that comes from harvesting and consuming what we have so generously been provided.

As for how this day came to be chosen as an official holiday for the 420 community, in the following 2002 interview, Steven Hager, at the time the editor-in-chief of High Times magazine, explains its origins.

“The earliest use of the term began among a group of teenagers in San Rafael, California in 1971, calling themselves the Waldos, because ‘their chosen hang-out spot was a wall outside the school’.

… Read the rest

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Police Kill Woman Fleeing Drug Warrants

By on April 12, 2013 in News 0

Emily_Josephine_KrumreiI feel safer now, don’t you?

Via Information Liberation:

A police officer in the suburban Dallas community of Richardson, Texas, shot and killed a woman with outstanding drug arrest warrants as she fled from an attempted traffic stop Monday morning. Emily Krumrei, 32, becomes the 9th person to die in US domestic drug law enforcement operations so far this year.

Emily Josephine Krumrei (Smith County SO)According to the Dallas Morning News, citing Richardson police spokesperson Sgt. Kevin Perlich, an officer “was attempting to get a violator to pull over in a parking lot” for reasons that are yet unclear, but Krumrei fled in her Lexus. Shortly thereafter, an officer in a squad car saw her and attempted to stop her, but she refused to pull over.

Krumrei turned onto the southbound frontage road to the North Central Expressway. There, Perlich said, “a third officer near the frontage road was working a traffic accident.

… Read the rest

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The House I Live In Takes a Hard Look at The War on Drugs

By on April 2, 2013 in News 0

America’s longest war? The war on drugs. And many contend that it’s the most unsuccessful war as well. For the past 40 years, the war on drugs has resulted in more than 45 million arrests, $1 trillion in government spending, and America’s role as the world’s largest jailer. Yet for all that, drugs are cheaper, purer, and more available than ever.

From director Eugene Jarecki (Why We Fight) comes an unflinching look at how the War on Drugs has disproportionately disenfranchised, incarcerated, and impoverished African Americans. Trailer below – the film debuts on PBS on April 8th.

For some more clips, visit the Independent Lens site.

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GHB Prohibition: Codification of Moral Mass Hysteria

By on January 28, 2013 in News 7

[disinfo ed.'s note: this original essay was first published by disinformation on November 23, 2001.]

Banned by the Food and Drug Administration in 1990, gamma hydroxybutyrate (GHB), an alleged aphrodisiac and muscle enhancer, continues to wreak havoc.
~~ New York Times (“Love Hurts”)

The popularity of date rape drugs–like the clear, slightly salty-tasting liquid GHB–has prompted bar owners and law enforcement agencies around the state to launch aggressive public awareness campaigns.
~~ Los Angeles Times (Dirmann)

Gamma-hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, is known as a date-rape drug because it is often used on sexual assault victims. It is also gaining popularity as a recreational drug.
~~ Minnesota Daily (Olson)

GHB is so new, experts say, that few are aware of its danger. And at the raves, it’s becoming the rage.
~~ CNN (“Trendy Drug”)

These reports luridly describe GHB as “an alleged aphrodisiac and muscle enhancer” that “continues to wreak havoc,” as a “date-rape drug,” as a “recreational drug,” and as a “new” and popular drug at “raves.” These usually credible news sources deride GHB as a threat to society with little legitimate use.… Read the rest

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Crystal Myths: Methamphetamine & Misinformation

By on January 27, 2013 in News 30

Photo: Jlcoving (CC)

[disinfo ed.'s note: this original essay was first published by disinformation on January 16, 2002. Some links may have expired.]

War generally brings with it a civilian incendiary known as propaganda. This tool may best be described as a clever combination of fact, exaggeration, and imagination designed to stir the emotions of the masses and America’s War on Drugs is no exception to this blight.

Myth #1: Speed Kills

This slogan, borrowed from the Department of Transportation, was introduced following the 1968 “Summer of Love” in Haight-Ashbury and is perpetuated to this day. In reality, the only correlation between meth and death is the two words happen to rhyme. A closer look at the raw data from which government agencies like the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration derive their “statistics” reveals the truth.

According to the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN), an office of the US Department of Health, there were 1,206 “mentions” of drug deaths attributable to amphetamines in 40 metropolitan areas in 1999.… Read the rest

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Seven Things All Americans Should Disapprove Of

By on January 11, 2013 in News 21

A certain pro-gun rights guest on a certain British former tabloid editor’s CNN evening talk show has made it seem like all people who oppose our ever-growing federal government are a bit, well, unhinged.

Nothing could be further from the truth, and to prove that point, here are 7 scary things that all Americans should be asking our government to put the brakes on immediately.

One of the most annoying things out there at the moment—aside from late-night reverse mortgage commercials—is the false paradigm spread by some big government, big Obama Democrats that anyone who questions government corruption is an actual crazy person.

Start talking about drone strikes or Bradley Manning or the billions we spend on warrantless domestic spying, and you’re likely to get an eye roll and a “You aren’t one of those Glenn Beck people, are you?”

These big government Democrats, as utterly well-intentioned as they are (healthcare for the disadvantaged and keeping Wall Street from feasting on your young soul are noble intentions, at least in theory, if not in practice), think that having attended a “grassroots” (haha) election event for the incumbent of the most powerful elected office in the United States somehow makes them politically cool, indie hardcore, and in-the-know.… Read the rest

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Quentin Tarantino: Drug War, Justice System Are Modern-Day Slavery

By on December 20, 2012 in News 6

Not that anyone in Washington is likely to be listening, but bad boy film director Quentin Tarantino makes a very good point. Movieline reports on his interview with disinformation ally Strombo:

Quentin Tarantino says slavery continues in the United States.  The outspoken filmmaker — whose spaghetti southern Django Unchained unflinchingly depicts the brutality of slavery — stoked the debate on race Tuesday night when he appeared on the Canadian television talk show George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight to suggest that the United States’ “war on drugs” and  its “mass incarcerations” of black men is “just slavery through and through.”

Tarantino didn’t cite these figures, but he could have: According to the  New York Times, half of the 2.3 million Americans in prison or jail are black, an astonishing figure when compared to 2011 U.S. Censusinformation that indicates blacks comprise only 13.1 percent of the country’s population.

In other words, he’s got a point, and this is a conversation our country should stop avoiding…

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Notorious For-Profit Prison Company Doing ‘Drug Sweeps’ Of Arizona Public School Students

By on December 17, 2012 in News 8

Corrections Corporation of America, recently sued over its collaborating with violent gangs, is now partnering with police to conduct “lock down sweeps” in which high schoolers are locked in their classrooms while canine units search their possessions for illegal contraband. Via PR Watch:

An unsettling trend appears to be underway in Arizona: the use of private prison employees in law enforcement operations.

The state has graced national headlines in recent years as the result of its cozy relationship with the for-profit prison industry. Such controversies have included the role of private prison corporations in SB 1070 and similar anti-immigrant legislation disseminated in other states; a 2010 private prison escape that resulted in two murders and a nationwide manhunt; and a failed bid to privatize nearly the entire Arizona prison system.

And now, recent events in the central Arizona town of Casa Grande show the hand of private corrections corporations reaching into the classroom, assisting local law enforcement agencies in drug raids at public schools.

… Read the rest

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