LEAP'CC Law Enforcement Against Prohibition ______ The War on Drugs: the Hub of Most American Crises

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LEAP.CCLaw Enforcement Against
Prohibition______The War on Drugs the Hub
of Most American Crises by James E. Gierach
______Northwestern University SSDP,
NORMLThursday, April 23, 2009
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Preface

• Nothing herein is intended to be pro-drug.
• Drugs are dangerous, often addictive, and can be
  lethal.
• But if drugs are bad
• drug war is worse.

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U.S. DRUG WAR (1970 2009)Americas Longest
War

• Prohibition I

Prohibition II
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The Trouble With The Drug War
Part I

• IS
• (It Doesnt Work.)

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Exhibit A - Chicago Sun-Times, 2/22/02
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Exhibit B 40,000 Pound Drug-War Failure
Drug-War Axiom No.1 Large drug seizures evidence
drug-war failure, not success.
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LEAP says The Drug War Puts More Drugs
Everywhere.

• Stronger drugs
• Cheaper drugs
• Contaminated drugs
• Drugs without label or dosage info
• Uncontrolled, unregulated, and prohibited drugs
• Drugs distributed, controlled and regulated by
  drug gangs

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WHY DOESNT THE DRUG WAR WORK?Its the Money,
Honey.

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Exhibit C - 207 Million Under The Mattress
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Failed Drug-War Strategies

• Keep The Prices High
• Law of Supply and Demand
• Law of Addiction
• Denying the Law of Gravity
• Interdiction
• Eradication
• Crop Substitution
• Foreign Aid Plan Colombia and Merida Initiative
• Mexican-American Fence
• D.A.R.E.
• Forfeiture of Assets Half To Local Law
  Enforcement Agency

• Outlawing Drugs
• 100,000 More Police Officers
• Tough Sentencing
• More Prisons
• Drug-Testing
• Big Brother Cameras in the Public Way
• Prevention (Education, DARE)
• Anti-drug Ads
• Drug Dogs
• Radar Balloons in Caribbean

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Drug-War Axiom No. 2

• When it comes to drug-war strategy, figure out
  what seems like a good and sensible idea and,
  then, dont do it.
• E.g. 1. Strategizing to intentionally force
  drug prices higher, thereby increasing
  drug-profit potential, encourages drug
  entrepreneurs to do business. The more this
  strategy succeeds, the more its fails.
• 2. Strategizing to destroy confiscated drugs
  help drug gangs retain exclusive control over
  drugs. Where else can addicts go?
• 3. Strategizing to place anti-drug ads on
  radio, television, billboards and elsewhere puts
  drug ads everywhere.

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Lesser Funded Drug-War Strategies

• Treatment of a medical problem (drug and alcohol
  dependency) is better than trying to arrest and
  incarcerate it.
• 70 - 30 Drug-War Split between Law-Enforcement
  and Treatment/Prevention.
• But remember --

Drug-War Axiom No. 3 Its easier to make a new
drug addict than to cure an old one.
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PART IIThe Drug War Makes Most American Crises
Worse

• Guns
• Gangs
• Crime
• Prisons
• Taxes
• Deficits
• AIDS
• Healthcare
• Trade Imbalance
• Corruption

• No Money For Schools, Job Programs, Drug
  Treatment, Day Care and Healthcare
• Informant Law Enforcement
• Funding of Terrorism
• School dropouts
• Mistaken drug raids
• Contraction of Constitutional Rights
• More ODs
• Contaminated drugs

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Exhibit D Stronger Heroin and Death
Note As a Chicago drug prosecutor in the early
1970s, I know that the best heroin available then
was 2 pure. Now, after 38 years of drug war,
90 pure heroin is readily available on Chicagos
West Side, sometimes cut with deadly Fentenyl.
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Methamphetamine
Drug-war Axiom No. 4 The harder drug prohibition
is pushed, the worse the drug problem becomes.
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In 1992, Lifetime AIDS Cost100,000 Per Person
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In 2006, Lifetime AIDS Cost600,000 Per Person
Drug-War Thinking Clean Needles Send the Wrong
Message.
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Deficits

• National
• State
• County
• City

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Corrupting Kids
San Diego State University, 5/7/08. DEA busts
dozens of fraternity brothers, and six
fraternities are suspended for allegedly selling
crack cocaine.
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Corrupting Police
Chg. Tribune, 12/3/08
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Feeding The Gangs
75,000 Chicago Gang Members
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Drug-War Guns

• Prohibition I

• Prohibition II

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Drug-War Violence
April, 2009 32 Chicago Public School Kids Killed
so far this school year.
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Drug-War Prisons
Note 2.3 Million Behind Bars in US, one in every
100 adults. Highest rate of incarceration in the
world. (PEW Report, 2008.)
Note 800,000 marijuana arrests annually in US.
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Drug-War Enforcementand Sentencing Disparity
Excerpt African-Americans in Cook County were
imprisoned for drug offenses at 58 times the rate
of white people the seventh-worst racial
disparity among large counties nationwide,
according to a new report. Chicago Tribune,
12/4/07.
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16 Tons of Cocaine and Drug-War Sub
Excerpt The 45-year-old Colombian designed
and built 20 fiberglass submarines, strange craft
with the look of sea creatures, for drug
traffickers to haul cocaine from his area of
southern Colombia to Mexico and Central
America. Cost per vessel -- 1 Million.
Chicago Tribune, 12/21/08.
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The QuestionWhy has the Drug War raged so long
while failing so mightily and causing so much
harm?

• The Answer The Drug-War Gravy Train.
• The Answer The bad guys and the good guys
  are both on the same side of the line of
  scrimmage, both in favor of the Drug War.
• Who is against it?

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LAW ENFORCEMENT AGAINST PROHIBITIONLEAP.cc_____
_______________Are You?
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Other Drug-Policy Strategies

• U.S. Drug Policy Pre-1970 and Pre-Harrison
  Narcotics Act of 1914
• Swiss Heroin Maintenance Program
• Coffee Shops of Amsterdam
• Medical Marijuana in 14 U.S. states and growing
• Methadone Clinics
• Safe-Injection Sites
• Clean Needles
• Prisons Reserved for Violent Offenders 1st
• Legalized Drugs for Addicts Only
• Portuguese Drug Decriminalization
• Legalize, Tax and Regulate Drugs Alcohol Model