War on drugs 100th anniversary (Congress, enemy, Mexicans, illegal)

[Roadking2003]

100 years ago on December 17, 1914, the Harrison Narcotic Act was passed by the US Congress. This was the beginning of the longest and most destructive war in the history of our country. In the 1890s the Sears catalog had a syringe and a small amount of cocaine for $1.50, but it really wasn't a big problem. Then race and fear entered the debate. Here is a summary from Wikipedia;

"House representative Thomas Sisson stated, "The purpose of this bill—and we are all in sympathy with it—is to prevent the use of opium in the United States, destructive as it is to human happiness and human life."[15]

The drafters played on fears of “drug-crazed, sex-mad negroes” and made references to Negroes under the influence of drugs murdering whites, degenerate Mexicans smoking marijuana, and “Chinamen” seducing white women with drugs.[16][17] Dr. Hamilton Wright, testified at a hearing for the Harrison Act. Wright alleged that drugs made blacks uncontrollable, gave them superhuman powers and caused them to rebel against white authority. Dr. Christopher Koch of the State Pharmacy Board of Pennsylvania testified that "Most of the attacks upon the white women of the South are the direct result of a cocaine-crazed Negro brain".[4]

Before the Act was passed, on February 8, 1914, The New York Times published an article entitled "Negro Cocaine 'Fiends' Are New Southern Menace: Murder and Insanity Increasing Among Lower-Class Blacks" by Edward Huntington Williams, which reported that Southern sheriffs had increased the caliber of their weapons from .32 to .38 to bring down Negroes under the effect of cocaine.[4][8][12]

Despite the extreme racialization of the issue that took place in the buildup to the Act's passage, the contemporary research on the subject indicated that black Americans were in fact using cocaine and opium at much lower rates than white Americans.[18]"

Harrison Narcotics Tax Act - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Then the madness accelerated under FDR with the passage of the Marijuana Tax act of 1937. And the war got another boost in 1970 with the Controlled Substances Act and Nixon giving it the name "War on Drugs" and called illegal drug use "public enemy number one".

So what have we achieved with this war?

• Illgal drug use has gone up and down over the past century, but does not track with increased war on drug efforts.
• We arrest 1.6 MILLION people for drug crimes every year with over 80% of those being for possession.
• The war costs us over $100 billion every year when you combine the cost of fighting the war with the lost tax revenue.
• Hundreds of thousands of Americans are imprisoned for drug crimes and hundreds of thousands more have their life ruined by the war on drugs.
• There is no evidence that the war has reduced drug use, and in fact, some studies indicate it has increased drug use.
• It costs $20,000 more per person to imprison a drug user than to treat them for drug abuse.

So ask yourself this; If your child were abusing drugs, would you prefer that they go to prison for several years or get treatment for their abuse?

[steven_h]

The real war began just after Popular Mechanics ran an article about the industrial hemp industry being worth more than $1B per year, and this was in 1938 dollars.

American farmers are promised a new cash crop with an annual value of several hundred million dollars, all because a machine has been invented that solves a problem more than 6,000 years old.
New Billion-Dollar Crop, PAGE 1 of 3

1 year later, at the direction of the DuPont family, and W.R. Hurst, industrial hemp was outlawed. The promise was ripped away from farmers, so the DuPont's could line their pockets.

In 1970, Nixon doubled down with the CSA.

This country has been intentionally misinformed for nearly eighty years, and downright backasswards for 45 years.

[oberon_1]

1) Does anyone know how much the US spent over a century?
2) The defense budget is always scrutinized. So are all other budgets. I don't see much of a public debate about war on drugs and how much it costs this nation. Are fiscal conservatives ok with it?

[ChrisC]

Nothing to do with race. Last I checked cocaine was illegal for whites as well as blacks. Everything to do with control.

It was simply another stepping stone along the path of social control and removal of free agency. One day, you won't be able to let a fart without an environmental impact study, or eat a potato chip without a SWAT team busting your door down.

[steven_h]

Originally Posted by oberon_1

1) Does anyone know how much the US spent over a century?
2) The defense budget is always scrutinized. So are all other budgets. I don't see much of a public debate about war on drugs and how much it costs this nation. Why?

Because the public has been misinformed since day one. It's a shining example of crony capitaism, and how our elected officials create laws that favor one industry over another, even if it means outlawing, banning, and over regulating a thing out of existence.


Since 1970, when Nixon passed the CSA, the war on drugs has cost well over $1T. This doesn;t take into account how much it has cost farmers and businesses who would have reaped billions. Not to mention the millions of lives it has otherwise ruined for such a petty thing. Jaywalking is more dangerous than pot.

Canada made industrial hemp legal in 1997, and they account for 99% of the industrial hemp market. Guess what, the US is their biggest export partner.

Yes, it's illegal for us to grow it, but we import nearly $500M worth of hemp products each year from Canada. How's that for backassward legislation?

Since 1939 I would guess we are well north of $2T, and close to $1T in lost revenues.

[Roadking2003]

Originally Posted by oberon_1

1) Does anyone know how much the US spent over a century?

I'm sure it was relatively small until 50 years ago. I don't have a source for the early years, but there have been studies in the past decade that put the cost number at 30 - 50 billion per year plus lost tax revenue. And of course there is a huge social cost with hundreds of thousands of adults out of the workforce.

And then there is the large number of LE officers and drug uses who have been killed fighting this war.

[GregW]

Anyone noticed that all the money we have spent on the drug war has been someone else's income. There are a lot of companies making a lot of money off our War on Drugs. Just follow the money and you will see who is "winning" the war. Look at the jails and see who is loosing.

[Redraven]

Do some research on when and why marijuana was outlawed.
When you learn the truth, it SHOULD make you angry, since it was based on a LIE!

I find it quite amusing that obama harps on the "fact" that the 50 year embargo on Cuba accomplished NOTHING, yet he appears to be just fine with the "war on drugs", which has not only accomplished NOTHING, but created a cash cow for organized crime, and cost the country unknown amounts of cash and lives.
the logic escapes me...

[no1brownsfan]

Originally Posted by Redraven

Do some research on when and why marijuana was outlawed.
When you learn the truth, it SHOULD make you angry, since it was based on a LIE!

I find it quite amusing that obama harps on the "fact" that the 50 year embargo on Cuba accomplished NOTHING, yet he appears to be just fine with the "war on drugs", which has not only accomplished NOTHING, but created a cash cow for organized crime, and cost the country unknown amounts of cash and lives.
the logic escapes me...

Been there. Done that. Well aware. And yet there are those in our society in a country that was founded on freedom, and liberty who still seek to continue with prohibition, and have no issue using the force of government to do so!

[Frank DeForrest]

A hundred years and another failed war, oorah America