Pot Prohibition Is the Cornerstone of a Police State

[marmar]

AlterNet / By Harvey Wasserman

Pot Prohibition Is the Cornerstone of a Police State
Any law that allows the easy incarceration of any citizen any time those in power want to do it is the ultimate enemy of democracy.

October 31, 2010 |


The simple truth about America's marijuana prohibition: any law that allows the easy incarceration of any citizen any time those in power want to do it is the ultimate enemy of democracy. With 800,000 annual arrests over an herb used by tens of millions of Americans, it is the cornerstone of a police state.

The newly energized movement to end prohibition in California -- home to more than 10% of the nation -- is one of the few healthy developments in this otherwise horrific election.

To help pass Proposition 19, go here and sign up to make phone calls in these last crucial hours.

Part of the battle has already been won. By all accounts the California campaign has thrust the issue to a new level. The terms of repeal are not perfect. But the acceptance of marijuana use has taken a giant leap forward. When joints are openly lit and smoked on national television, it's clear that sooner rather than later, this travesty will fall.

The California campaign has drawn the sides clearly. Demanding continued prohibition first and foremost are the drug dealers who profit directly. As Dan Okrent has shown in LAST CALL: THE RISE & FALL OF PROHIBITION, organized crime booms around such bans. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/drugs/148686/pot_prohibition_is_the_cornerstone_of_a_police_state/

[Incognitus Czar]

1. police state? exaggeration much?

What a kook, Wasserman is exaggerating about pot prohibition being a sign of a police state.

This guy takes marijuana seriously.

Although I do find non-recreational uses for marijuana very interesting, like the fuel and textile applications.

[marmar]

2. And you expect us to take your post seriously?

nt

[Incognitus Czar]

3. yes, in fact I do.

saying that pot prohibition is wrong is one thing, but saying that prohibition makes it a police state, is entirely something else.

Any type of law prohibiting the usage or possession of a drug or material or whatever can be accused of being the cornerstone of a police state.

[marmar]

4. Fair enough. I disagree, but I appreciate your articulation of your position.

nt

[Fly by night]

9. Come live in my boots a day.

Most people here know my story. As a new DUer (welcome), you likely do not.

For the crime of growing cannabis for myself and four terminally ill neighbors (which I freely and immediately confessed to), I have endured eight years of a still-unending nightmare. Even though my criminal sentence was light (two years probation), I had to spend 18 months of that locked up in a federal Bureau of Prisons halfway house. Even though the government never accused me of selling any cannabis, my case has cost me over $600,000 in legal fees and lost income and 25 acres of my farm for seven pounds of usable cannabis.

And -- three years after my probation ended -- my house still gets buzzed weekly (sometimes several times a week) by police helicopters flying so low that they rattle the windows in my house and once blew down the late summer sweet corn in my Garden. These harassing flights (that one national columnist -- Robert Koehler -- called "government stalking") continues not because I am still growing cannabis but because I continue to speak out against the senseless police-state war on science, common sense and compassion -- on "illegal smiles".

One can only surmise why new people join DU every day. But please stick around -- you might just learn something.

[ixion]

6. It's not an exaggeration... the US has the highest incarceration rate in the world

the vast majority of which is non-violent drug offenders, and you think it's an exaggeration?

When tens-of-millions of people are breaking a law, the problem is with the law, not the people. And a government that maintains and incarcerates people based on that law, is not a government of the people, by definition.

[Jester Messiah]

10. I find this casual dismissal of the issue troubling.

Given the tendency of "law enforcement" officers to apply copious voltage and/or bullets to anyone they choose, with only the thinnest veneer of a reason, I worry that we are in the beginnings of a police state. We need to nip this problem in the bud now, as it's already starting to get out of hand. Anything we can do to start reining them in is justified and a worthy pursuit.

[HereSince1628]

5. Personally, I think 'Disorderly Conduct' is the cornerstone

Police can make a DC charge or suspicion of Public Intoxication almost at will. They can use DC to sweep up people exercising their freedom of speech attempting to bring public petitions to the attention of candidates and governments.

Granted, once you get suspicion of any easy charge in play aggressive police can use it as a justification to melt away civil rights.

[Fumesucker]

7. I can only think of two national level politicians who are against the drug war..

Both of whom are considered whack jobs, Kookinich and Paultard.

All the rest, Obama included support the continuation of the war on drugs and specifically the war on cannabis.

Gil Kerlikowske speaks for Obama on "drugs".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gil_Kerlikowske

Richard Gil Kerlikowske (born November 23, 1949) is the current Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, a position generally referred to as the United States "Drug Czar". He assumed office on May 7, 2009.

(...)

In a May 22, 2009 interview on KUOW radio, he said any drug 'legalization' would be "waving the white flag" and that "legalization is off the the charts when it comes to discussion, from my viewpoint" and that "legalization vocabulary doesn't exist for me and it was made clear that it doesn't exist in President Obama's vocabulary." Specifically about marijuana, he said, "It's a dangerous drug" and about the medical use of marijuana, he said, "we will wait for evidence on whether smoked marijuana has any medicinal benefits - those aren't in."<16>
In October 2010 he said the federal government would sue the state of California if it legalized marijuana in Proposition 19<17>.

[txaslftist]

8. No it isn't. War is the cornerstone.

Prohibition doesn't even come close.

[katty]

11. Humboldt pot growers and the prison $maker biz are really

against 19, and of course other groups, but they have much to lose (profits and prison profits/jobs)if Prop 19 passes.

[midnight]

12. How did prop 19 do in the elections tonight?