Alan Watts on Psychedelics

"When you get the message, hang up the phone."



I couldn't have said it better. Thank you, Mr. Alan Watts

The War On Drugs

Rolling Stone has published a very interesting history of the United States' War on Drugs. It describes how the presidential administrations starting back with Nixon have tried different approaches towards quelling the production and transportation of narcotics from South America and how the cartels changed and adapted to meet the new restrictions. It describes how the Columbians split up after Pablo Escobar was killed and how the Mexicans began to get more and more power and eventually began introducing methamphetamine into the American market.

What meth proved was that even if the DEA could wipe out every last millionaire cocaine goon in Colombia, burn every coca field in Bolivia and Peru, and build an impenetrable wall along the entire length of the Mexican border - even then, we wouldn't have won the War on Drugs, because there would still be methamphetamine, and after that, something else.

This article is well detailed and teaches a lot about how we've gotten into this mess, and how even $500 billion later, we are no better off than we were in the 1970s. Lobbying by pharmaceutical companies and military executives has led to misguided politics and useless enforcement. Drug use has not changed, drug prices have gone down and purity has risen.

"The lesson of U.S. drug policy is that this world runs on unintended consequences. No matter how noble your intentions, there's a good chance that in solving one problem, you'll screw something else up."

Pretty wise words.

Link to article.

The War on Drugs

A poll was released on October 2 that indicated 3 out of 4 Americans belive the War on Drugs is failing.

Three in four likely voters (76%) believe the U.S. war on drugs is failing, a sentiment that cuts across the political spectrum – including the vast majority of Democrats (86%), political independents (81%), and most Republicans (61%). There is also a strong belief that the anti-drug effort is failing among those who intend to vote for Barack Obama (89%) for president, as well as most supporters of John McCain (61%).

When asked what they believe is the single best way to combat international drug trafficking and illicit use, 27% of likely voters said legalizing some drugs would be the best approach -- 34% of Obama supporters and 20% of McCain backers agreed.

This "war" has been a way for politicans to fearmonger their way through elections and to funnel money through the industrial criminal system we now have in this nation once founded upon principals of freedom. 

Compare this snippet from the Orlando Sentinel just a few days ago:

In Orlando, officers seized seven AK-47s and similarly high-powered AR-15s in 2003. Orange County deputies seized eight that year. Four years later, those numbers jumped more than 400 percent -- 31 in Orlando, 48 in the county. Total for the five years: 321.

321 assault rifles seized in Orange County, Florida.  I remember while living in New Orleans seeing news footage of a man with an AK-47 attacking a carwash for unknown reasons.  It is frightening to think there are people running around with that kind of firepower and a likely compulsion to use it.  The police in the article say that 9 times out of 10, a gun is involved in a drug arrest.  As we continue to fail in the War on Drugs, it seems our criminals are becoming better armed.  

Much like the War on Terror, this is something that I think we're just going to continue bumbling our way through, unable to really address the root of the problem or treat the symptoms.  

Um, what's in this closet here?

MIAMI -- The Drug Enforcement Administration discovered something unexpected in the Mall of the Americas.

DEA agents found a hydroponics lab with more than 200 marijuana plants, standing 3 to 6 feet tall in the air and worth millions of dollars, in a storage area on the second floor of the mall.

Authorities said the electricity that powered the lab was diverted from the mall's main power supply.

No arrests have been made. Authorities said officials with the Mall of the Americas are cooperating with the investigation.

Keith Richards to Youth: "Lay off the dope...."

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080228091142.rurxd28x&show_article=1

Now you tell me!!!!