The Agitator has the story.
The war on drugs has failed. Its failure has been so categorical and self-evident that the statement itself is bromidic. By any reasonable metric of success—addiction rates, violence, the availability of drugs in our schools— it’s clear that our 40-year jihad against certain plants and chemicals has done far more harm than good. Despite this, the federal government’s drug war strategy, which is founded upon aggressive law enforcement and mass incarceration, remains unchanged. We continue to arrest nearly a million people a year for marijuana offenses. We remain the world’s leading jailer, with an incarceration rate more than five times the global average. And this year, the federal government will spend nearly $4 billion more on drug law enforcement and interdiction than it will on drug treatment.
What has this strategy gotten us? The highest drug abuse rates on the planet and 50,000 corpses in Mexico.
The American people—along with a growing chorus of world leaders—are rapidly waking up to this reality. Just 10 percent of the public now believes that the drug war is succeeding, and a majority now favors marijuana legalization. To mix metaphors a bit, public opinion is undergoing a sea-change and is quickly approaching an inevitable tipping point.
Apparently, I’m a slow learner, as I was well behind that curve. I spent 13 years working as an Intelligence Analyst with the Drug Enforcement Administration before resigning last year.
Well guess what big name in Law Enforcement worked for the DEA and to this day remains silent about the failures of the Drug War? Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Arpaio served in the Army from 1950 to 1954 in the Medical Detachment Division and was stationed in France for part of the time as a military policeman.[13]
Following his discharge in 1954, Arpaio moved to Washington, D.C. and became a police officer, moving in 1957 to Las Vegas, Nevada. He served as a police officer in Las Vegas for six months before being appointed as a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, which later became part of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).[14] During his 25-year tenure with the DEA, he was stationed in Argentina, Turkey and Mexico, and advanced through the ranks to the position of head of the DEA’s Arizona branch.[15]
Kinda makes you wonder. Is all his noise about Obama a cover for something?
Phoenix New Times is covering it including this link to hundreds of botched sex crime investigations in El Mirage. Not to mention the abuses Eric has covered.
Comments
2 responses to “DEA Agent – We Made Things Worse”
Ignoring for the moment the financial benefits that accrue to pharmaceutical, chemical, medical, financial and purely governement agencis; my experience while teaching in an American “detention” center leads me to consider the massive benefits of the drug wars for society.
Since it is forbidden to acknowledge that enormous numbers of our fellow citizens and residents are biologically prone to stupidity and violence and sweeping them from the streets is a major plus, the fact that these violence prone populations are frequently too stupid to remove drugs from their pockets and cars allow their arrests without wasting time on detection. The more of these people in prison for whatever reason the safer the rest of us.
And when keeping them in prison becomes too expensive? I suppose Newt had the right idea. Make drug possession an immediate death penalty crime. Shoot on sight.
And you run into another little problem. At a large aerospace company I once worked for 1/2 the engineers were stoners. What happens if the police – needing to fill their body quotas – get a few of them in their dragnet? The people keeping civilization running are then beset with infinite troubles instead of keeping their minds on their jobs. If they still have a job.
We also have the little problem alluded to in the above. The clearance rate for real crimes like murder, rape, and robbery has dropped by 1/2 since dopers became a profit center.
Why not just put people in jail based on their looks?
I suppose putting more people in criminal training institutes will improve the level of civilization. Especially if those with records have difficulty getting normal jobs – they will have to prey on the rest of us for sustenance.
You well only be temporarily safer. Because the number of criminals will be continually augmented and multiplied.
See http://pjmedia.com/victordavishanson/california-the-road-warrior-is-here/?singlepage=true for a look at the future you desire.