Thread: America’s War on Drugs a total failure as deadly drugs across the open border continu

America’s “War on Drugs” declared a total failure as flow of deadly drugs across the open border continues to worsen

(Natural News) A recently released report from the International Drug Policy Consortium just concluded that the "War on Drugs" is a massive failure. The United Nations' call to dismantle the international illegal drug trade by 2019 has gone nowhere, and in fact, it appears that things are worse now than ever before. As the International … [Read More...]

Sunday, November 04, 2018 by: Vicki Batts
Tags: addiction, drug abuse, drug cartels, Drug policy, government, immigrations, invasion usa, Liberty, Open Borders, police state, sanctuary cities, United Nations, United States, War on Drugs

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(Natural News) A recently released report from the International Drug Policy Consortium just concluded that the “War on Drugs” is a massive failure. The United Nations’ call to dismantle the international illegal drug trade by 2019 has gone nowhere, and in fact, it appears that things are worse now than ever before. As the International Drug Policy Consortium (IDPC) contends, the “war” has had virtually zero impact on the availability of illegal drugs worldwide, and has been detrimental to human rights, health and safety.
Some of the biggest players in the rise of illicit drugs in the United States include open borders and sanctuary city policies. Even the DEA admits that fentanyl (an extremely potent and lethal opioid drug) from China is smuggled into the United States through the Mexican border. And yet, the radical Left says that even mentioning the fact that bad things are often trafficked into the U.S. through Mexico is “racist,” and anyone who wants to secure the border for national security reasons is a Nazi, a fascist, or a xenophobe. It is no wonder that this “war” has gone nowhere.

The “War on Drugs” fails

As data from the IDPC report show, drug-related deaths have increased by a staggering 145 percent over the course of the last decade. In 2017, there were over 71,000 overdose deaths — and that’s just in the United States. Many thousands of people have been executed for drug-related offenses internationally, as well.
In a statement, Ann Fordham, the Executive Director of IDPC, commented, “This report is another nail in the coffin for the war on drugs.”
“The fact that governments and the U.N. do not see fit to properly evaluate the disastrous impact of the last ten years of drug policy is depressingly unsurprising,” Fordham added.
The report notes that illegal drug use has led to mass incarcerations, with an estimated 1-in-5 prisoners locked up for drug-related offenses. A majority of these charges are related to possession for personal use. Whether or not possession in and of itself ought to be a crime is a hotly debated topic, but the impact remains clear: People are suffering, and drugs are increasingly rampant in our society regardless of the government’s efforts.

Open borders equal total mayhem

Writing for Conservative Review, Daniel Horowitz contends that Obama’s legacy of open borders and sanctuary cities has directly contributed to a rising drug problem. As stated above by the IDPC, drug-related deaths surged during the last ten years — eight of which include Obama’s presidency.
Horowitz explains:
The two years with the biggest surge in heroin seizures at the border, by far, were 2014 and 2015, the years with the largest surge of Central Americans who came because of the promise of DACA. The epidemic-level surge in heroin and fentanyl unmistakably coincided with Obama’s shutdown of immigration enforcement between 2010 and 2013. The promise of Obama’s amnesty resulted in the surge in young male drug mules from Central America, the enriching of the drug cartels who control the smuggling routes, the growth of MS-13 drug distributors, and the poisoning of our people.
He contends further that the connection between drugs and sanctuary cities is impossible to ignore: More people crossing the border means more opportunities for drug cartels to turn people into drug mules. While open borders are problem enough, the lure of sanctuary cities is especially magnetic for this kind of set-up.
Recall the precedent that was set in the murder of Kate Steinle: Jose Garcia Zarate, Steinle’s killer, had been deported five times. He had seven felonies on his criminal record, including felony drug charges. He killed Kate Steinle with a gun stolen from a federal officer. And the good progressives of California saw fit to not only let this man walk the streets by releasing him from jail before the murder, but they acquitted him of all charges afterwards.
The real question is why wouldn’t drug cartels want to do business in the U.S.? They literally get away with murder here.

Sources for this article include:
PlanetFreeWill.com
ConservativeReview.com

https://www.naturalnews.com/2018-11-...en-border.html

Yes, the War on Drugs has been a total failure. No doubt about it. Legalize and Regulate.

• HEALTH

How Legalizing Marijuana Will Hurt Americans Long-Term

While marijuana’s surface-level effects appear more benign than its detractors suggest, its unintended consequences run deeper than its advocates like to admit.



By Joseph TurnerMARCH 31, 2017

While the Trump effect has hidden this reality, last November marijuana had its biggest night at the polls ever, with seven states easing restrictions on the drug through ballot initiatives.

On most fronts, the culture wars have been fought in courts and bureaucracies in a most undemocratic fashion. Marijuana is different. Here, referendum-based changes in policy have passed with relatively little controversy because most people just don’t seem to care. Of those who do care, pot activists are the more vocal and motivated group. Also, frankly, arguments against legalization are often logically flawed and tone-deaf to the milieu of marijuana.

My years as a Southern Californian, a student at a “No. 1 party school,” an employee of many fast food establishments, a musician, and now a social worker, have furnished me with a more-than-passing familiarity with weed culture. I’ve dealt with smokers from all walks of life, young and old, rich and poor, urban and rural, black and white, skinny and fat, frat boys and hippies and thugs (oh my!). I’ve spent days educating troubled teens about marijuana’s harmful effects, only to find myself in a cloud of someone else’s weed smoke at a gathering that same evening.

Based on my experiences, I think both sides of the debate are missing the mark. While marijuana’s surface-level effects appear more benign than its detractors suggest, its unintended consequences run deeper than its advocates like to admit.

Liquor and Weed are Apples and Oranges

A common and compelling talking point from the legalization crowd is simply this: Alcohol is a drug with established risks, yet still legal. Marijuana is also a drug, with arguably milder risks, but not legal. How does this make sense?

In terms of potential short-term effects, this analysis is surely correct. Alcohol, if abused, contributes to all manner of instability, violence, crime, poor decision-making, dangerous driving, fatal overdose, and general mayhem.

Marijuana’s immediate effects, as comedian Katt Williams so eloquently summarized, are “hungry, happy, sleepy.” Overindulgence in cannabis may result in an empty wallet, an overfull belly, and a wasted weekend. But that admittedly doesn’t compare to an alcohol binge. As advocates love to point out, “Nobody ever overdosed on weed.”

By this measure, we could argue for legalizing all kinds of things. Alcohol is more physically harmful than cocaine. Its detox process is worse even than that of heroin. It fuels more violence than PCP. If we’re setting booze as the bar for acceptable risk, and opening the door to anything beneath that bar, we might as well all slap “Legalize Everything” stickers on our bumpers.

But this line of reasoning is misguided. Alcohol is socially and legally accepted not because of its benign nature, but rather its place of prominence throughout the history of Western civilization. Since time immemorial, liquors and wines and ales have been used to melt tensions and build bonds, mark celebrations and consecrate rituals. Dangerous or not, it is a part of our heritage.

My tenth grade English teacher once remarked that if alcohol were a new drug hitting the street, it would be illegal, and that is undoubtedly true. But it isn’t. When we drafted our drug policy, you might say it was great-great-grandfathered in. The same can’t be said for marijuana.

There are other differences as well. Mind-altering substances don’t always lend themselves to side-by-side comparisons. Their effects are different in nature and trajectory, apples and oranges. It’s quite possible to drink socially, for instance, while I’ve yet to meet the man who uses heroin in moderation. So let’s move on from alcohol and examine marijuana use on its own merits.

Put Down the Pipe

The long-term effects of marijuana use paint a much darker picture than advocates would have us believe. Studies link cannabis use to onset of schizophrenia and other manifestations of mental illness. I’ve known people who lived happily as potheads for long stretches, only to have paranoid mental breakdowns down the line.

Further research suggests a substantial decrease in IQ related to long-term use. Cranial scans of chronic users reveal significant alterations in brain structures. Damage to both short and long-term memory is well-known. The negative impact is greatest for teens and young adults, the very people most at risk for using. The harm done by marijuana is real, and may not be apparent until it’s too late. There’s also still a lot about its effects we don’t know, which should frighten us.

I don’t want to be too dismissive of weed’s short-term effects, either. The drug’s surface benignity is partly what lures so many into long-term abuse. It doesn’t make users nauseous or volatile while high, or hung over the next day. It’s an easy habit to pick up because it doesn’t seem at first to come with a high cost. A marijuana high is often fairly simple to conceal, enabling users to get stoned as they go about daily tasks. Thus, cannabis has the potential to sneak in and dominate one’s life in an especially insidious way.

Even “hungry, happy, sleepy” over a long period of time can be destructive. We’re all familiar with the image of the pothead as a fixture on the couch, watching cartoons and drooling all the day long. I’ve seen enough of these types to confirm this isn’t urban legend. People I’ve known have dropped out of school or missed out on good jobs because they couldn’t be bothered to put down the bong.

Marijuana has both acute and residual effects, and these become the normal state for habitual users —“permastoned,” as the smokers say. They may be basically functional, but experience constant low energy, faint anxiety, and dulled minds that impair their ability to operate in the world. A few months or years of this can seriously impede one’s potential.

In a strange role reversal, normally progressive weed advocates often respond to these points by appealing to personal accountability. “Well, if they’re prone to mental problems, they shouldn’t be smoking in the first place.” “If they can’t smoke weed and still handle their business, that’s their own damn fault.” “The problem is with the person, not the drug.”

As much as my ears delight in the rhetoric of responsibility, I also recognize that clearly, some people don’t have the ability to control their marijuana use. Others, even if they aren’t completely derailed, will still become lesser versions of themselves. We need to think about them, too. Life already has enough built-in pitfalls without an expanded and legitimized marijuana culture luring people in.

What Happens Long-Term If We Legalize Marijuana?

But just what are the effects of marijuana legalization on society in the long-term? The truth is, we don’t know. In Colorado and other states, the experiment is still too new to judge if its fruits are sweet or sour. Preliminary results are inconclusive. Unintended consequences are a given, but as with any major shift in cultural norms, we can only speculate on the future.

So let me speculate. I wouldn’t anticipate a quick and dramatic impact, but rather changes more tectonic in nature—subtle at first, profound over time. Initially, patterns of use may not change that much. Former pot enthusiasts were already using, and those averse to it won’t change their minds right away.
Kids will raid their fathers’ marijuana jars just as they used to do their liquor cabinets.

But with legalization comes increased availability and reduced stigma. Those with no previous ties to the drug market will now have casual cannabis access. Law-abiding but curious types will try it out. Social circles will mingle. Usage will surely spread as habits tend to do. Workplaces will eventually relax their drug policies to adapt to a newly THC-infused labor force. So even within professional settings, pot may be normalized.

As adult use increases, teens will follow suit, spurred by both greater exposure and access. Kids will raid their fathers’ marijuana jars just as they used to do their liquor cabinets. Those who like what they find will only be a fake ID away from fueling their habits at will. Underage dealing will persist, and patterns of substance abuse will solidify still earlier in life. Because the effects of marijuana are less pronounced than those of other drugs, and given the proliferation of “edible” THC products that can be consumed inconspicuously, in-school stoners will multiply.

With overall growth in marijuana use will come an increase in its aggregate negative effects on the population. We probably won’t see crime waves, spikes in traffic accidents, or junkies roaming the streets, as some have speculated, because that’s not what pot does. Rather, we can expect the results of a collective decrease in motivation and ambition.

There may be higher dropout rates and lower average levels of professional and academic achievement. Civic engagement will likely drop, both because that takes effort and because cannabis doesn’t tend to foster attachment to social institutions. Habitual smokers are too content in their own worlds to involve themselves with the larger one around them.

Physical and mental health will suffer. Despite legalization, marijuana won’t entirely lose its countercultural associations, and therefore, the “gateway drug” effect will still be an issue.

That’s Not To Say the Status Quo Rocks

To be sure, most of these problems won’t be new, and may not reach epidemic proportions. But they will be strengthened and, perhaps worst of all, entrenched. Legalization preemptively thwarts any serious effort to curtail the harms cannabis causes. Hapless potheads will now be operating entirely within their legal rights, and their dealers will never run dry. The primary victims, as ever, will be minors and those prone to addiction and mental illness.

Legalization preemptively thwarts any serious effort to curtail the harms cannabis causes.

None of this should be interpreted as defense of the status quo. The state-federal tug of war over drug policy creates a “Who’s in charge here?” situation that’s not good for anybody. Fighting illegal substances with purely punitive measures has been less than successful.

The “medical marijuana” system has been a joke, although I don’t rule out the drug’s potential medicinal value if properly applied. Addictions treatment nationwide leaves much to be desired. The pot issue is complex, and I hope to see the states keep experimenting with different combinations of law enforcement, treatment, diversion programs, education, and other strategies to combat the marijuana market.
But wholesale legalization won’t make our problems go away. It will only deepen their roots.

http://thefederalist.com/2017/03/31/...ans-long-term/

Collateral Impact: The Unintended Consequences of the Legalization of Pot

• By: By David Olinger, Special to The Gazette
• Feb 17, 2018

Four years after legal recreational marijuana went on sale in Colorado, Gov. John Hickenlooper says the black market for marijuana in the state is shrinking and predicted that it "will be largely gone" in a few years.

But new statistics show that arrests for the production of black market pot increased by 380 percent in the 2014-16 time frame, and Colorado law enforcement agencies say they are battling a boom in illegal marijuana cultivation by sometimes violent groups of criminals who rake in millions of dollars by exporting what they grow.

The Colorado Department of Public Safety, which tracks various marijuana-related statistics, found that manufacturing arrests leapt from 126 in 2014 to 476 in 2016, according to new state data obtained by The Gazette. Illegal manufacturing encompasses the unlicensed making of THC-laced products, as well as large, hidden growing operations where plant counts far exceed those allowed by state law.

Those numbers have not been put into a formal report yet. But Jack Reed, the state official who compiles them, confirmed the dramatic increase in arrests for illegal grows. Reed deferred to law enforcement officials for interpretation of the new data.

Other police agencies also report a growing element of violence in the illegal marijuana trade.

Denver counts seven of its 56 homicides in 2017 as marijuana-related.

The U.S. Attorney's Office in Denver classified one-third of its 2017 marijuana cases as violent. Other agencies routinely report seizing guns in marijuana busts.

Overall, marijuana cases filed in state courts have plummeted by about 80 percent since voters legalized recreational marijuana in November, 2012, with sales beginning in 2014. Most officials attribute that number to the precipitous drop in simple possession arrests. There were 9,789 total cases in 2012, compared to 1,650 overall cases in 2016, and a 6 percent spike to 1,759 cases in 2017.

However, felony marijuana cases have risen steadily beginning in 2015 with 579 cases; 2016 saw 807 felony cases, and there were 901 in 2017. Possession of an ounce or less of marijuana is legal, whereas possessing 10 ounces or more is a felony.

That complicates enforcement, because a single home-grown plant can produce up to 2 pounds of leaves and flowers, officials say.

No statewide system tracks marijuana-related violence. But evidence of the human toll keeps rising. In Elbert County, two men recently shot each other to death in an apparent squabble over a large, illegally grown crop.

Just last week, a Jefferson County jury convicted a man of murdering a black market dealer who tried to sell him a pound of pot on Craigslist.

By nature, black market sales are impossible to quantify accurately, but even as arrests rise, black market sales appear to be a fraction of the legal sales in Colorado.

From 2014 through 2017, recreational and medical marijuana sales grew from $683 million annually to $1.5 billion last year. By comparison, the largest Colorado bust in 2017 charged 62 people and netted 4,000 pounds, which authorities estimate could be worth $16 million in states where marijuana is contraband.

One pound of Colorado marijuana can fetch $4,000 on the East Coast, a Front Range prosecutor said, citing the allure of the illegal market.

When Hickenlooper said the tide of black market production is receding, he was responding to a threat from U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to crack down on states that legalized marijuana sales.

He defended the success of Colorado's legal dispensaries, adding, "I think in the next two or three years that black market might never be zero but it will be largely gone."

Mark Bolton, the governor's marijuana advisor, doesn't dispute that arrests for illegal manufacturing have risen. But he said Hickenlooper has taken "important steps to getting rid of black market activity," from supporting legislation that reduced the legal number of plants per household to bolstering law enforcement budgets for investigation.

Law enforcement officials, particularly Republicans, accuse the state's Democratic governor of minimizing the side effects of legalization. They contend that illegal basement businesses are thriving under their noses in a state that permits growing small amounts for personal use.

"It's out of control," said Ray Padilla, a drug agent who had just returned from a 20-house bust that yielded thousands of plants and several hundred pounds of harvested marijuana. "We probably spend more assets on marijuana now than we ever did."

Padilla, a balding 42-year-old sporting a beard, earrings and jeans, heads the Colorado Drug Investigators Association.

He and other law enforcement leaders say the lure of marijuana millions has drawn armed growers from places as distant as Florida, California and Mexico, as well as home-grown black marketeers who set up elaborate lighting and irrigation systems in suburban houses.

"I have encountered more weapons in marijuana locations than any other type of drug," Padilla said.

In El Paso County, the Sheriff's Office says violence is becoming common in the illegal market.

Last month, a man was Tased and zip-tied by assailants who broke into his home and stole his marijuana, wallet and truck. In December, a man who had stashed hundreds of pounds of marijuana in his home was shot in his doorway.

The victim has disappeared, and an arrest warrant has been issued.

In 27 raids last year, Sheriff Bill Elder said, "We seized guns out of almost every single one."

He holds the high potency of Colorado marijuana partly to blame.

"Colorado is exporting the best marijuana in the country, and it's the number one exporter," Elder said. "We are cranking out some seriously good weed."

In the 18th Judicial District, based in Arapahoe County, Republican District Attorney George Brauchler laments that law enforcement agencies have not tracked violence in marijuana-related crimes since legalization.

Brauchler, who is seeking the GOP nomination to run for state attorney general, said he is aware of at least nine homicide cases, not including the double killing in rural Elbert County.

In November, an illegal grower who lived in Elbert County and a smuggler shot and killed each other at a house where more than 50 pounds of marijuana was stored, according to Clinton McKinzie, Brauchler's chief deputy.

Prosecutors have seen marijuana seized in everything from Chinese food cans and car tires to duffel bags.

In addition to murders, "we've had a few tortures" by robbers demanding marijuana, McKinzie said. "One dude was blowtorched on the bottom of his feet, his thighs and his back."

In Denver, police counted seven homicide cases last year as marijuana-related, with five remaining open investigations.

In one of the two cases moving through the criminal justice system, a gang broke into the South Delaware Street home of Dominique Cozy, looking for marijuana and other drugs, and shot him to death during an attempted robbery, according to court records.

Six young men were charged with murder, and a teenage girl will be tried in juvenile court for allegedly helping them.

Cozy lived two doors down from a dispensary, Mighty Tree, and was a regular recreational customer, according to an employee, Steven Shorter.

He described Cozy as a good neighbor who would pick up trash to help the appearance of a largely industrial area. "Nice kid. Pleasant demeanor. Always had a kind word," he said. "I can't see how anyone had a problem with him."

On West Evans Avenue in Denver, a gunbattle erupted in a car after an argument over the quality of marijuana and marijuana resin in a black market sale. The buyer, the seller and the seller's girlfriend all fired weapons. A shot to the chest killed the buyer. The seller, James Wheeler, and his girlfriend, Kara Stewart, fled to Chicago, where they were found and arrested.

Last month, Wheeler was sentenced to seven years in federal prison.

In the Jefferson County case concluded this month, the defendant, Toussaint Hampton, was convicted of first-degree murder for killing the man who tried to sell him a pound of marijuana on Craigslist for $1,700. His co-defendant, Kainetray Bell, has pleaded guilty as an accessory and is due to be sentenced after trial.

Advocates of recreational use say they support efforts to weed out illegal growers, provided police respect legally operating dispensaries.

"We believe in the laws," said Kristi Kelly, executive director of the Marijuana Industry Group in Colorado. "My hope is eventually this will all stabilize."

Kelly suggested that budget increases for enforcement could be a factor in the growth of marijuana seizures.

Beth McCann, the Democratic district attorney in Denver, voices less alarm about illegal growers than some elected Republican colleagues.

McCann praises dispensaries for adhering to the state's complex rules and for keeping violence from their doorsteps.

She counts children's access to marijuana and the opioid and methamphetamine epidemics as her top drug concerns, followed by illegal growers.

"I am kind of neutral," she said of legalization. "The tax money is certainly helpful to us. It's a lot of money. We're using some of that money for drug treatment."

John Walsh, the U.S. Attorney in Denver when recreational sales began, described smuggling as a cause for concern but not panic.

"Has there been an influx of people from out of state? Yes. Has there been an effective law enforcement response? Also yes. It is an ongoing problem," he said.

He credits the Hickenlooper administration for "taking it very seriously" and cooperating with federal efforts to curb black market dealing.

"This is a new world. Colorado is on the front end," he said. "We're doing more than any other state in trying to set up a really effective regulatory system."

https://gazette.com/news/collateral-...9162a1da4.html

Yep, the greedy politicians SEE dollar signs in tax revenue and IGNORE the unintended consequences of the problems this causes and will cost the taxpayers more money then they will take in.

Dumb, dumb, dumb!