Well, at least it’s something…

This is getting ridiculous. Republicans need to open their eyes and realize that the drug policies in place do not work and end up doing more harm than good. It’s time to re-evaluate the war on drugs and reform the policies and laws we currently have in place. To not do so would be ridiculous.

Chuck Grassley and his ‘friends’ have profited greatly from the ‘drug war’ and prohibition. You can’t expect a mafioso from giving up his cash cow so easily.
Much like alcohol prohibition made people wealthy beyond belief and braking the law a well funded industry, so is the ‘war on drugs’ draining the Treasury for a flawed policy.
Grassley is merely a promoter of war and waste of money. This is no different than the pharmaceuticals industry using politicians to protect their profits.
Aren’t we proud of the crooks we send to handle the people’s business? Isn’t this unconstitutional and therefore a crime that can cause his removal from the position he holds in government? Freedom to what, exactly? There’s only freedom for criminals in this country and the worst ones wear badges.

Grassley, is a Reagan error tool.

Further evidence that that the people who support the War on Drugs have weak, unsubstantiated arguments. Their only hope is to avoid debate altogether.

Is Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley on the payroll of the drug cartels?
Probably.

Victory in the drug war would mean that the bureaucracy and industry are
out of business. The notorious gangster Al Capone made most of his
illegal money from alcohol prohibition. Capone had hundreds of
politicians on his payroll. Is it unreasonable to suspect that the drug
lords are following Capone’s business model?

What type of politicians would the drug lords have on their payroll?
Politicians who urge the status quo of drug prohibition, or politicians
who suggest that we re-legalize drugs to put the drug lords out of business?

Grassley is an alcohol supremacist bigot. Alcohol is a major killer and maimer and cannabis is no such thing. The law needs to grow up.

It would just be a cost shift from prisons to hospital costs, mental hospital costs and welfare because they still wouldn’t be getting jobs. So thanks to the public option, they will get free medical care and thanks to welfare they will get get paid to take illegal drugs.

Southern Califronia is the bank robbery capital of the USA and has been for the last 10-15 years. All the efforts of the FBI to stop bank robberies in the area have failed.

Does this mean we should just allow bank robberies, modify the laws making it a crime? This way no robbers would need guns, no one would get shot or killed anymore and the “crime rate” would go down.

Greg,

Why don’t you take a look at the employment rate among addicts in Germany and Switzerland where the government provides free heroin through a doctor’s care? It’s been a huge success and both governments have renewed these programs. The same results would happen in AMerica if our elected leaders had any spine, like Senator Webb.

Bank robberies? Seriously? How does that even compare to the thousands of people that die and are put in prison because of this stupid “War on Drugs”. This isn’t the 1930s, nobody gives a damn about bank robbers. Let’s just hope the stage-coach robbery rate doesn’t see a major increase with less strict laws.

Judith: so was it a bad idea to end alcohol prohibition? The only difference between booze and pot was that the nation didn’t take as long to realize what a disaster the alcohol ban turned out to be.

Judith, robbery is a violation of another person’s rights. Drug laws are a violation of your right to control your own body. The only harm that can come from cannabis is what your government might do to you for using it.

Right on Matt!

Judith and Greg are on a different wavelength. Leave them to their ignorance.

Anybody like Grassley or Judith who still thinks drug prohibition is a good idea is either profiting from it or is simply mentally deficient.

If you support prohibition then you’ve helped trigger the worst crime wave in this nation’s history.

If you support prohibition you’ve helped create a black market with massive incentives to hook both adults and children alike.

If you support prohibition you’ve helped to make these dangerous substances available in schools and prisons.

If you support prohibition you’ve helped raise gang warfare to a level not seen in this country since the days of alcohol bootlegging.

If you support prohibition you’ve helped remove many important civil liberties from those citizens you falsely claim to represent.

If you support prohibition you’ve helped put previously unknown and contaminated drugs on the streets.

If you support prohibition you’ve helped to escalate Theft, Muggings and Burglaries.

If you support prohibition you’ve helped to divert scarce law-enforcement resources away from protecting your fellow citizens from the ever escalating violence against their person or property.

If you support prohibition then you have abandoned American children to the morals and ethics of gangsters and terrorists.

If you support prohibition you’ve helped overcrowd the courts and prisons, thus making it increasingly impossible to curtail the people who are hurting and terrorizing others.

If you support prohibition, then you also support the black market economy that funds most of the terrorist groups in the world today. Including the Taliban and alQaida.

A regulated and licensed distribution network would put responsible adult supervision in between children and premature access to drug distribution outlets. Regulated and licensed distribution would reflect and respect society’s values, thus preventing children obtaining easy access to theses dangerous substances. What we need is legalized regulation. What we have is a non-regulated black market to which everybody has access and where all the profits go to organized crime and terrorists..

Hey Judith…did you ever think if the police didn’t have to worry about enforcing pot laws, they could put more resources towards those bank robberies that you are worried about?

Jed Clampett

But Jeff, they would have to give up such an easy source of cash and reasons to impinge on young people’s right to privacy. Like other mafia, they won’t give up on a money stream that easy.

that’s quite disgusting comparing cannabis users to bank robbers. Several posts have already shredded Judith’s logic. But let’s note what alcohol abusers rob people of: life, limb, safe homes, childhood (alcohol is the drug of choice of child molesters and causes incurable fetal alcohol syndrome), peaceful neighborhoods and more. There’s no decent reason on earth for alcohol users to have dominion over cannabis users.

It’s also quite disgusting for GregD to assume that all these people ‘won’t be getting jobs’.

Reactionary and judgemental much Greg??

Jed Clampett

But yet, even though admittedly the drug alcohol is as dangerous as it is to the public’s well being, it’s perfectly legal to produce, sell and consume the stuff, only its effects are made illegal. Never mind that it seems easier to get addicted to it than cannabis, it’s effects are more dangerous and it is the true gateway drug, let’s bust them pot smokers.
Seems that making money at any cost to society is sanctioned, while the growing of a natural plant that has benefits and dangers, just like anything else, is punished to great cost to the society and the people who get busted. Why is someone prevented from a lucrative career over something done in their youth?

Something just doesn’t seem right there, we are human, not ferengi.

Their is nothing wrong with cannabis at all, one of the main reasons that it is illegal is that they make a lot of money off of charging people with or growing cannabis, honestly, I think cigarettes should be illegal, but the government gets 50% to 75% off of them, and alcohol is more dangerous than cannabis, and another main reason that cannabis is illegal is that some people might abuse it, come on, so if I jab a fork in my arm forks will be illegal? I eat too many fries, are they illegal? no, lets face it, the government is all about the money, i’ve been smoking cannabis for years, and I never regret it, it should be legalized.

How is it that people like Sowell and Dhalmer don’t make anyone wonder if it really is possible for people to be possessed by an external force that makes them dangerous to themselves and others?

Another interesting point, the police were alerted in both cases to the dangers, the smells, the strange goings on, yet they did nothing to protect the public.
Unable to recognize the real suspicious acts apparently.

Let’s keep the focus on the problem, which is the discriminate use of the judicial system to intmidate, harrass and incarcersate citizens who rub against the status quo. It doesn’t matter if the issue is marijuana reform or using your cell phone to let demonstrators know where police are causing a riot.

Right now there is no justice in America, only JUST US. If you aren’t one of them you have to walk through the daily shifting mine field of power. You are a serf living at the will of the masters.

Democracy, my ass.

its good to see so many people enthusiastic about drug reform. we all know it has failed and the governments propaganda is no longer an effective tool to lie to the people with so they are just ignoring the conversation altogether. WE NEED TO MAKE OUR VOICE AND VOTE HEARD.

Chuck Grassley should be a complete minority.

Why is that every time “marihuana” is put to vote the PEOPLE of America vote in favor of ending the prohibition of it? The politicians and the scum always seemingly (percentage wise) vote against what society sees is right?

I thin that judith was being facetious.

Repukes hate individual freedoms and will do everything in their power to restrict them.

75 % of Americans are lovely simple Holy Christian Churchgoing folk who get high from consuming the “body and blood” of some wierd “entity”.

MJ is the “Devil’s Weed” that promotes earthly pleasures that are sinful and cause “Devil Worship”.

Save American Children from the Devil —-
.

When the prison systems were turned over to the for-profit companies that get paid by the head count Congress found a new place to accrue campaign funds . Since then our prisons have become very over crowded . It’s just business .

Many prohibitionists fail to realize that even with ridiculous laws; wasteful, useless, expensive and harmful incarceration policies, drugs are readily available and easily obtained and that hasn’t changed since the inception of these so called unwinnable “Drug Wars”. An intelligent health policy and careful regulation such as those enacted with tobacco (which is actually decreasing the amount of tobacco use) seems like an excellent and workable alternative. And if we tax drugs (to those detractors, which is worse: taxes or possible arrest, lawyer fees, and incarceration?) there is a phenomenal added tax revenue. So what’s the hold-up?

I have been disabled for years,with a VERY painful disease, and pot has helped me in MANY ways, it helps keep the pain down, helps me sleep, lowers the amount of muscle cramps and tremors I have, helps give me an appetite, etc. etc. etc. Alchohol on the other hand does EXACTLY the OPPOSITE of ALL the above, PLUS how many people do you hear of killing others in car crashes from smoking pot? How many are killed from DRINKING and driving? How many people have died from overdosing on POT? How many people have died from ALCHOHOL POISONING? Let’s get REAL!!! It doesn’t take a ROCKET SCIENTIST to figure out which is worse, so WHY is ALCHOHOL LEGAL, and NOT POT? Which is WORSE? Come on people until we MAKE our elected officials do their job and speak FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, they are just going to use their OWN agenda to line their OWN pockets and their already RICH friends! Isn’t it time we took back OUR country from those who are SUPPOSED to have OUR best interests and OUR voice? Isn’t it about time to CLEAN HOUSE?!!!!!!!!

Fascists of this nation have some sort of war against any and everything they don’t understand or believe in.
Yet issues such as health care or education are taboo in their self made fascist world.

They war against this, war against that a war here a war there, hell Im still waiting for the war against war!

What is the point of having the commission if changes aren’t allowed? That’s what it is all about. Grassley’s thinking is to nullify science if it doesn’t agree with what he wants. No wonder the US is falling out of world leadership, with backward thinking like that.

Wasn’t that what Jesus tried to do? start a peaceful struggle against poverty and war.

These pseudo Christians seem to have conveniently forgotten the teachings of the founder of their religion, just like they’ve forgotten the reasons for the “Declaration of Independence” and “Bill of Rights”.

Don’t you fools see? Legalized drugs will be the weapon of choice for Obama’s “Death Panels.” We must all stop thinking critically and BE AFRAID of everything.
I hear that Obama invented swine flu and spreads it one handshake and fist bump (biological terrorism, just ask Fox) at a time.

The drug laws are as antiquated in this “Free Country” as Alcohol was in the “prohibition 0f 1920’s!” In other words, for people like Judith, which obviously lives in another world… she can’t think straight, like her ally Sen. Chuck Grassley! Our forefathers meant for this to be a “Free Country,” for the people to make intelligent sound decisions, Moreover, they meant for our elected Officals to vote and carry out the same! (Thank God for the MASS MAJORITY) i.e. people who can think and make logicial sound decisions for themselves which to me is covered in our Constitution… We the People… However, the elected leaders of our Country seem to think our Constitution is just another piece of paper, a contract – which can be rewritten and or changed at their whim, trading votes in favor of voting for their bills etc.. Sure we elected a new President whose hands seem to be tied by the elected officals in Washington D.C..One man is not totally responsible for the state of our Country; Everyone on Capital Hill has to share in the blame! We are and have been over do for change in this Country…! Personally in my opinion when Bush finished his second term as President; We The People should vote every sitting Congressman and Senator out of office and elect new blood from the top down. The newly elected Officals could not do a worse job than the greedy, corrupt and self serving Congressman and Senators which we have now and who want us “The People” to believe they have our best intrest at heart! Cannabis and the drug reform bill is way over do and with Sen. Grassly “DEMANDING” – AMENDMENT intended to be proposed by Mr. GRASSLEY
….
SEC. ll. RESTRICTIONS ON AUTHORITY.
The Commission shall have no authority to make findings related to current Federal, State, and local criminal justice policies and practices or reform recommendations that involve, support, or otherwise discuss the decriminalization of any offense under the Controlled Substances Act or the legalization of any controlled substance listed under the Controlled Substances Act.
HOW CAN REFORM TAKE PLACE!?
It reminds me of a one legged man in an ass kicking contest, why bother you have already lost.
If reform doesn’t happen in the near future we are doomed to the reality of being slaves to Tyranny! Talk to your neighbors, co-workers… listen to what they have to say; I would venture to say they too would say “enough!” Keep in mind Elections are coming up and the Circus we have representing us in Washington can be defeated at the polls!! Some may have good records others, the mass in power however do not…!
Our Nation as a whole needs to be rebooted from the top down… If that don’t send a message to the Capital and the new powers to be then all the protesting ect., will not! New blood, new ideals… It can not hurt anything especially compared to what we have in power at present!! Yes we need a total reform of Government; Better Government! Your voices will be heard in this manner, REFORM!!!

Every one is missing ONE POINT…. #1) HUGE CA$H PROFITS(so BIG you can’t even fathom) have corrupted our legal system, courts and STATE BAR ASSOCIATIONS …… billions made on both sides of the law… These profits are a GOLDEN CA$H COW root to all the Drug Wars , and Drug Courts and ATTORNEYS and the Judges and Cops and the DEA Agents and the IRS … CORRUPT POLITICIANS ………..and the Gangsters and
EVERYONE ELSE who CA$H in on AMERICA’S DRUG WAR CA$H MACHINE…

Sen Chuck Grassley is the Alan Greenspan of the Drug War debate …. his cronies and electorate think he knows what he talking about.. He even thinks he knows what he’s talking about… The truth is his thinking is corrupt … He is on the take… And expect disaster….
But one thing for sure … THE CROOKED CA$H will KEEP ON FLOWING and so will the ILLIGAL DRUGS and MOUNTAINS OF CA$H….

These drug laws are ridiculous, once again its profiteering on a grand scale. As for cannibis I think its none of the govs business what I smoke.

for a political party that claims to want to get government off people’s backs these Republicans sure do like throwing people who aren’t harming anybody in jail. Any statement that begins, “illegal drugs are a problem because…” could instead say “Drugs being illegal is a problem because…” and be equally true.

‘SMOKE AND MIRRORS’ BY DAN BAUM
(An Investigating report on the Drug War and how it came about)
The Drug War is 100% politically motivated and was started by Nixon
years ago and bigots like Grassley
and the rest of these Republican
land slide victors owe their careers to it (ie. lock up all
of our enemies like African-Americans,Hispanics and Hippies-
remember this was during the Vietnam war, under specious charges and they cannot vote: Wahlah, we
have the world’s largest prision population and the Republicans win
elections and now are making money investing in private prisions!!
Welcome to Police State America!

Let me ask this. Because drugs are so popular and the way we fight the “war” on them isn’t nearly as effective as it needs to be, we give up? With that line of reasoning you could apply it to any act that becomes popular. It doesn’t matter, people like doing it, so let’s legalize it.
If Coleseum-esque games from Roman times return, and we watch murder for sport and it’s popular, should we legalize it?
It’s time to ask what’s moral, what’s right, not what every stoner, junkie, and crack head wants. I speak from personal experience being an ex addict myself. Drugs are nothing to reinforce by legalizing them. Those of you who think so, are desperately ignorant.
Hard drugs can’t be used recreationally, so don’t make that argument please. That’s utter stupidity to say extremely addictive substances can be used occasionally. There’s a reason why we have a drug problem in America and legallizing drugs doesn’t make that problem go away. It simply allows us to make money off of it via taxes.

what grassley wants would invalidate webbs whole idea. obviously the war on drugs has been ineffective. Alcohol- kills 1000s of people every year (not to mention drunk driving). weed-…makes you hungry. sharing needles- spreads aids. handing out fresh ones- might help a bit. Obviously their view is distorted. Just because something is “socially acceptable” makes it completely harmless. right? (sarcasm) when vaporized, you get all of the pro’s of pot (seeing as how it has been deemed the perfect cure for many problems), without all of the cons that come from smoking it. Now, call me crazy, but either someone somewhere is making money off the policies in place now, or potsmokers are trying to take over the world. which seems more realistic, greedy politicians or powerhungry potheads? ( i think that last one is an oxymoron) You get the point.

I’ve been able to detox off oxicontin because my state has given me one of my rights back. the cats out of the bag on this one.If this isn’t medicine why does it help with my cronic pain.

When my friends and I were back in “high”school we sometimes tried all weekend to get our hands on some alcohol. Only to come up empty. However, if we wanted drugs, we could procure them within the hour. Usually we always knew at least 3 or 4 people (all under the age of 18) who sold drugs like weed, mushrooms, lsd, dmt, mushrooms, ecstacy, cocaine, and in some circles (fortunately not ours) meth. My point is the prohibition of drugs, just as with the failed prohibition of alcohol, puts these substances in the hands of criminals, who go about dealing them however they see fit. Indirectly placing them in the hands of our youth as well. I’m not saying i think all drugs should be legalized, but this country has got to make a change in the way we deal with these issues, and it seems that Sen. Jim Webb recognizes this as well. Sounds to me like he could use some support.

Think Again, is there a huge black market underworld of hostile criminals running alcohol in this country? I think that stopped when they legalized it.

In fact, once marijuana is legalized, it won’t be a ‘gateway drug’ anymore.

Reefer Madness is an outdated philosophy. Hard drugs, those that are physically addictive, should be monitored, yes. But, marijuana, which can’t cause an OD, isnt’ physically addictive, and is the number one crop in California, should be fully legalized in the exact sense that alcohol is. Period.

Jed Clampett

How about a little War Madness?

Seems like the training in murder worked a little too well in Fort Hood, some of their human weapons got a little out of control. Sometimes the robots get a little failure in the programming. Could it be that sending people to kill and die makes them just a little insane?

Did you hear that that Sowell dude in Cleveland with all the bodies in is house was a former marine? Apparently someone didn’t get the part of de-training that teaches them that killing is wrong. What’s that? There is no such training? OOOPS!!

Well, it’s OK, at least the MIC is still making lots of profit and the investment banks are back to being profitable as well.Profit is everything, long live money.

All is well, go back to what you were doing, we have everything under control.

BTW – did anyone see the premiere of V on Tuesday?

Steve, CA I had numbers, but an error kept my post from going through. Basically the federal government spent about $11 billion on the war on drugs (with $6 billion on law enforcement) while it had cost $13 billion to treat addicts and I don’t mean treatment of the addiction which was part of that $5 billion remaining of that $11 billion. The nation lost over $200 billion in lost productivity due to drug use. These numbers came from the White House and I believe it was for 2005.

New Zealand spends as much in health care for those on illegal drugs as it does on their drunks.

The war on poverty is older than than the war on drugs and that has been even more expensive and a greater failure. One half of all kids are on food stamps. Way to go LBJ.

150,000 people die in Europe each year due to drug addiction.

Some 60,000 addicts in Germany seek drug treatment, 1,500 of those get the free heroin. Those that get the heroin are basically locked up when they get it. In 2005, Germany had 40,000 alcohol-related deaths, 111,000 deaths from smoking and 1,385 deaths from illegal drugs. Germany has about 110,000-120,000 illegal-drug addicts. Germany has a population of about 82.4 million people. It has between 9-10 million substance abuse addicts. The average resident in Berlin just works 1,494 years. Somebody has to fill that spot and that keeps the unemployment low.

Switzerland had 1,300 patients on controlled supervision and another 16,000 patients on Methadone. It cost 14 million British pounds a year to give those 1,300 patients free heroin per year. Switzerland has about 30,000 addicts, which mostly use heroin or cocaine. Their population is about 7.1 million which is still less than the population of New Jersey. I can’t find any numbers on the number of addicts in New Jersey except that the writers claim that any number is only a guess. If that’s so, then the numbers of addicts in Germany and Switzerland are just a guess too.

Here is the final proof, and I hope people understand this clearly, that these ridiculous, irrelevant old men in Washington have no intention of reforming anything. Grassley understands that the drug war is really about controlling an enormous and rapidly growing population of people who live in dire poverty, black and white, hispanic and anglo, working class and those desperately clinging to the lower rungs of what is left of the middle class after 30 years of war on it by Grassley’s own party. Enough. All of these grasping grotesque old creatures in D.C. have got to go. We have got to do with Congress exactly what we did with the White House: brown it, surround it, and own it.

Who ever coined the phrase “Money is the ROOT of ALL EVIL!” should be given the Congressional Medal of Honor, the Nobel Peace Prize, should be given the title “GREATEST GENIUS OF ALL TIME!”, and SHOULD be made RULER OF THE WHOLE WORLD!!!! EVERYTHING I see here ALL seems to come to ONE POINT……MONEY MONEY MONEY MONEY >>>>>!!!!! I would LOVE to see ALL the money in the world be BURNED and MELTED in a HUGE bonfire! Let’s go back to the old days of barter trading, you trade me for something I want from you. Has ANYONE noticed that we have NO POOR politicians???? Until we get people into the government to speak for us that are JUST LIKE US, and NOT rich, until we vote in AVERAGE people who KNOW what HARD times are like, and what the AVERAGE NORMAL person has to deal with EVERY DAY, we will NEVER EVER EVER have REFORM!!! Just THINK about it!!! WHAT is the motivation for our politicians to change ANYTHING? ……MONEY, POWER, GLORY, FAME, ……EVERYTHING EVIL!!! They are ABOVE the law and they KNOW IT! So until we vote for John or Jane Doe, our next door neighbor, who knows what REALITY is REALLY LIKE for the MAJORITY of us, then FORGET REFORM!!!! AMERICA CLEAN HOUSE, VOTE FOR A NORMAL AVERAGE PERSON, NOT a POLITICIAN!!!!

One last comment! Does ANYONE remember the era of the “Cold War”, before the Berlin Wall came down, etc. Does anyone remember how badly so many people wanted to come to America because they had NO RIGHTS, NO SAY, NO FREEDOMS??? WELL, take a GOOD look around!!! Does ANYONE see ANY similarities???WHAT is it going to take before AMERICA WAKES UP and decides they don’t want ANY MORE of OUR “FREEDOMS” TAKEN AWAY????!!! How long is AMERICA going to let their POLITICIANS decide what they can and more so CAN’T DO!!! WHO DIED and made our politicians GODS??? Who are THEY to decide what is right or wrong for us, who are THEY that they can make laws telling us if we can smoke or not?!!! Are THEY more SPECIAL than the rest of US?!!! Aren’t they SUPPOSED to be OUR voice, do what WE want, work for US,…by the way REMEMBER WHO PAYS THEIR SALARIES?!!!!! WE DO!!! So WHY aren’t they doing what WE tell them?????? Isn’t that how a business works, the BOSS pays the EMPLOYEE to do a JOB???!!!! or does the BOSS take ORDERS from the EMPLOYEE??!!!!! For pete’s sake, WHO gave our politicians the right to VOTE THEIR OWN RAISES??? HOW STUPID IS THAT????? WAKE UP AMERICA, SMELL THE ODOR OF DISFUNCTIONALITY!!!!!!! THE ODOR OF OBSUREDNESS!!!!! THE ODOR OF OUR FREEDOMS GOING DOWN THE TOILET!!!!! WHAT’S IT GOING TO TAKE TO MAKE AMERICA “FREE” AGAIN???? WAKE UP CALL!!!!!!!!RING RING RING!!!!! GOD BLESS THE REAL AMERICA!!! NOT THE ONE OUR POLITICIANS HAVE CREATED FOR THEIR OWN GAIN AND GREED!!!! ANSWER THE CALL AMERICA, RISE AND SHINE, OUR TROOPS ARE DYING FOR IT!!!!!!

I wish my senators Inoye and Akaka would tell Grassley to stick it up his ass……..

Fat Chance!…Vote all these crapheads out of office!

I wish the government would take “Hemp” (app. 20% of the crops destroyed in drug war)off the drug list. It has virtually NO THC (think of it like near beer)and would only serve to produce a headache if smoked. In these renewable times it could become a very valuable resource. Hemp is very easily grown, it actually fertilizes the soil it is grown in and has multiple applications, plastics, clothing, paper, building materials, (Stronger than concrete)paint bases,etc. It is a renewable source that helps in crop rotation and could possibly help to break our dependence on petroleum based products, there has even been research as a fuel source.

It is a great thing to see so many of us in agreement, a great thing! I do wonder just who “Grass”ley works for.

Jed Clampett

Just one thing… it has become evident that politicians do not feel that the public pays their salary, the corporations do that outside the view of the public… not exactly legal considering what the constitution says about open government and all things having to do with the people’s business being an open and transparent endeavor.

People like Bloomberg do not blow $100 million in a campaign to sit at a $150000 a year job, they do it with the expectation that they will make millions on the side, just like Duke Cunningham and all the other entrenched fatcats.

There was a story on NPR a while back talking about how congress does better on the stock market than even Warren Buffett or Bernie Madoff(fake trades notwithstanding)… this is because they have insider knowledge of all the secret laws and hidden policies they are about to enact and can position their portfolios or their cronies accordingly before disclosing them… yes, this is insider trading perpetrated by our most entrusted politicians. This is abuse of the public trust and reason for impeachment, in fact, the most cited reason for impeachment in the forefathers writings.

If you look at other countries that have legalized drugs, less people use them, and there are less addicts. We should legalize them. Our countries debt could be paid off in a matter years. Guns should be legal like Sweden. Everyone over 18 serves the country and keeps the gun for protection after. NO CRIME! Oh wait…that would mean the government would not be able to make so much money on both accounts screwing the poeple of this great country. To many people get thier pockets lined from the “war on drugs”. It is the biggest joke there is. The problem is that not enough people remember that the government is supposed to work for us. Not the other way around. Stop trusting, start questioning. If you think you can trust anything our government does, think again. Get off your ass America!

The Puritan culture wars now have completely overidden the wonderful meritocracy and middle-class superproduction that WWII and the Great Depression allowed the greatest post-revolutionary leaders that America has ever had:FDR,Truman,IKE,JFK. The idiotic concern with SIN!as VICE That Matt referred to above has onve again separated and attenuated our once-strong historical legacy with our forefathers and Founding Deist/Liberal Ideals in Europe.The Calvinists are filling up the jails to show “societies’ disapproval with acts of personal liberty like drugtaking. The strong libertarian strain ought long ago to have seen the vast advantage in taxing our Great Marijuana entrepreneurs and opening that market to the world!
But the broodplace nannies of the postwar “all for kids” (they’re “innocent”!)Kultur that has made America weak and dangerous to its adults’ and the very essence of the phrase “pursuit of Happiness” empty as every knee genuflects to the SuperNannies “Make America a SuperBroodplace for Innocent Children!” campaign will continue to wring every heart with “my innocent kid died fr drugs” campaigns straight form the Silent Majority’s Little Red Book, NixonLand and,now, above all, TailGunner Joe McCarthy’s now-revived “Commies everywhere!” anti-Obama hagiography.

Think Again thinks legalizing drugs by the government is a way of reinforcement and compares the war on drugs to the war on poverty. Yet he fails to realize many facts. The majority of people going to jail for drugs use and posession are from the lower economic classes. Take that money we use incarcerating them and use it to train and educate them. Having government oversight will help control (I didn’t say “completely”) it’s use and distribution. Right now we have no control over it’s use and distribution and 7th and 8th graders are using illegal drugs more and more because they can get it from a classmate or the guy on the corner.
How can you defend a policy of supporting a war that cannot be won? I suppose you would still support us fighting in Vietnam by your ridiculous statements. You got treatment dude. Who paid for it? Your insurance company or the taxpayer? Certianly not the private prisons or law enforcement agencies or attornies who make their $ by sending people to jail!

Until I became disabled, lost my health insurance and could not work (which forced me to live in a poor neighborhood with high crime rates and multiple drug-related problems), I did not understand the connections that some have made here. Yes, a lot of it is about money and power. But why do seemingly intelligent people take drugs in the first place? It really gets down to self-medication. After all, drugs, legal or illegal, are about making one feel better whether they are prescribed legally by a licensed medical practitioner or illegally by someone who is looking for a fast buck by any means necessary and doesn’t give a fig whether they are actually helping their “patients” or not.

Making drugs legal would at least put all drugs in the hands of medically trained and licensed individuals who mostly have a sense of compassion and desire to help their fellow human beings. I volunteer a lot with local groups (including the police) and have seen first hand that the levels of all crimes correlate directly to the amount of illegal drugs being pumped into a neighborhood. It is remarkable the level of noise (loud music and yelling), gunfire, reckless driving, etc. that goes on and then suddenly there is a huge drug bust and, even though I live in the middle of a big city, the noise levels plummet to a level I’ve only previously known living in small towns or in the country. I go to the crime prevention meetings and look at the police reports and repeatedly see the number of burglaries, thefts, break-ins, carjackings, muggings, assaults, etc. go DOWN after big drug busts. Mostly I see users who are either affluent and drive their fancy cars into the neighborhood to buy the drugs anonymously or addicts who live in the neighborhood and do petty theft to get their next fix. Stealing tools to sell on the street is common. The dealers buy stuff like guns and other other weapons to “protect” themselves and they don’t care what kind of weapon it is. They also like to demonstrate their power by shooting the guns off or gunning down rival dealers from other gangs (and they don’t care about if some innocent person gets in the way of their ‘drug wars’. I seriously doubt we’d see licensed medical staff dispensing addictive drugs doing those sorts of activities.

After much research and study, I do believe there is a good deal of truth in the ideas exposed about politicians don’t want to make drugs legal because they or others close to them benefit financially in some way from the billions of dollars made from privatized prisons, attorney fees, law enforcement, and other industries that connected and related to these that benefit from keeping drugs illegal. It also, as was mentioned, keeps a lot of erstwhile undesirable voters off the streets and out of the system.

The drug users, I often hear, take drugs for recreation. I see users who take drugs out of guilt, shame, hopelessness or self-medication when they have inadequate healthcare and see it as the only means to alleviate their suffering. I’ve been very lucky to get government supported healthcare for indigents but that is not the case in most states and can even vary from county to county in states that do have programs. It is also not quality healthcare by any stretch of the imagination. I did not ask to get a chronic debilitating condition. My health plan was quick to dump me as fast as they could once I was diagnosed with a form of arthritis at the age of 39. I am grateful I have the help I do. I’d be dead without it.

I know first hand how important universal healthcare coverage is and how closely related it is to the use of illegal drugs. I chose to stick with the legal drugs and the licensed doctors. Not everyone has access to that information or has connected the dots. There is so much misinformation out there. Some people, like Grassley, evidently profit in some way by the dissemination of misinformation.

Sledge: the complete quote is, “For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” It is from the Holy Bible (KJV) I Timothy Ch. 6 Verse 10. Whether one is Christian or not, it is something worthy of serious though and reflection.

One South FLA bank went from 2 billion in cash deposits one year to 11 billion the next, and the federal reserve is the primary money laundry and beneficiary of the phony drug war.

No American bank has ever been closed down for laundering drug bux. And much of that money is used to grease federal officials. Some earn their “mordida” by keeping drugs illegal and prices high, while others allow thousands of tons of drugs to “slip through the net” and enter the country.

Also, the CIA funds “activities” with drug money.

Except for the herb, all illegal drugs were once legal products of the pharmaceutical industry. Some copied from naturalists and bastardized into a profit making machine, but ultimately, pharmaceuticals industry is responsible for all harmful drugs produced and unleashed on an unsuspecting public.

I live in Tennessee and talk about backward thinking. The state legislature (Republican controlled) has made it a felony to have 14 grams of pot in your possession (1/2 ounce). They also put an IRS sales tax on the retail amount of whatever drug you are busted with.
In the 1970’s, I thought pot would be decriminalized by the year 2000. Obviously, there is too much money to be made with this stupid prohibition of pot.
How much pot money goes to the drug cartels who then use the profit to make meth, coke, crack, etc. available to the general public.
FYI, While I was in college in the ’70’s, I smoked pot before, during and after classes. I was also on the dean’s list every semester. So much for pot dumbing down people. I also know plenty of people who smoke pot that are otherwise responsible, law abiding citizens who make strong contributions to their communities. Go figure.

The WAR on Drugs will never be won or, ever be over with either, as it Employs far too many people in our country today. From Judges to Police Officers to Rehab councilors. What would all of these people do for work if even just Pot was actually legal? Unemployment would be over 20% and the economy would be in even worse shape than it is now… Sorry but, if you think Pot will someday be legal in your lifetime well then, YOUR HIGH!!!

Brandon I disagree!

I want prohibition to end, the sooner the better.

But to do this – we must convince the likes of Greg to change. We need to keep a discussion going with the sceptics. Otherwise we will not ge the real change we want.

LOL… Brinhg down the numbers of imprisoned and then yuou have that wacko Pelosi who wants to throw people in jail if they do not pay for health insurance. you know that TAX on lif she wants to impose on everyone but illegal aliens. They are all scum. Prison is a huge business, do not look for any reforms soon.

The commission would be prohibited, thanks to Grassley, from examining any “policies that favor decriminalization of violations of the Controlled Substances Act or the legalization of any controlled substances.”

So a Senate committee be established which has no power to do anything. Fine. Wise use of resources, especially in these trying times. Grassley is a bought-and-sold ‘Drug War’ player who is in bed with ‘Drug War’ mercenaries and allied special interests.

Sounds like a real reactionary who is against progress. Webb, on the other hand, is a brave guy who is challenging the ‘way things are’ and seeing if we can lower our prison-generating interests. The brunt of this drug & prison deal falls mainly on the low income, minority, and poor.