[Peace-discuss] Re: War on drugs

[E. Wayne Johnson]

Actually the term War on Drugs was coined by Richard Nixon and further 
promoted by others as you note.
One of the most unfortunate things about the so-called Christian Right 
is that quite often is not Christian, and concerning the
teachings of Christ, they have it mostly Wrong.  One of the main 
precepts of Christ is that you cannot create good behaviour
by enforcement of a set of rules.  Most of your so-called Christian 
Right are modern day Pharisees and Sadducees, Judaizers who
have either not read the simple precepts of the book of Galatians, or 
maybe they did and either they just don't get it
or maybe they chose to reject it because they can have more power and 
money that way.

Much of the present background law prohibiting the use of marijuana was 
directed at the use of hemp as an industrial fiber,
which was backed by the DuPont corporation in the 1930s because hemp 
fiber was in competition with DuPont's synthetic fibers
such as nylon.   This information adds significantly to the bogus-ness 
of the whole matter.

Of course I am in favour of a rather uncompromising repeal of the drug 
laws and a drastic reduction in the authority and scope of the
the DEA and FDA.  That could be too much of a bite to take at once.

I really am ignorant about how much authority local (city, county) 
government has to countervene on behalf of the citizenry against the 
Illinois drug laws. 
Any scholarly advice on this would be useful.

I suspect that the Federal laws may be wholly unconstitutional, 
considering that constitutional amendments were deemed necessary to 
invoke&repeal alcohol prohibition.

I would favour local action to detoxify local drug laws to the maximum 
possible extent, and cutting through as many of the intermediate
steps as possible.  I perceive moderation  in this case to be agreement 
with the legitimacy of the present law.  I have no present information
on the scope or degree of resolve among the opposition (those who want 
to maintain the status quo).  I do see that those who favour the status quo,
the legal profession, law enforcement, etc., have a stake in the matter 
(dirty hands) which should be played against them to their extreme 
non-benefit.

I am not on the courtwatch list (as far as I know) but they might be 
watching (who knows).

Bob Illyes wrote:
> Wayne Johnson writes "The war on drugs is a racket, a scam, a pretext 
> for legalized robbery in the name of the law."
>
> The war on drugs goes back to Reagan, who decided that drug addicts 
> were evil and should be punished, rather than people with a medical 
> problem who should be treated. He was pandering to the "Christian" 
> right. I've heard it estimated that half of the folks in prison for 
> dealing were not dealers, but were falsely convicted by testimony of 
> actual dealers looking for a lighter sentence, and I believe it. If 
> you think tickets for marijuana use are too expensive, Wayne, have a 
> look at the cost of all of these prisoners.
>
> The war on drugs is more legalized idiocy than legalized robbery. As 
> with Prohibition, we need to change the law. Meanwhile, almost 
> anything that keeps folks out of prison for having at most a medical 
> problem is a good idea.
>
> Wayne- are you a member of the courtwatch discuss list, or are those 
> folks wondering what I am replying to?
>
> Bob
>
>