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October 2003 Publisher's Statement While President-select Bush has declared victory in Iraq, another war continues unnoticed by all but its victims. It's called the War On Drugs, and its been raging since 1972, when it was first declared by President Nixon. Having been seriously escalated in 1986, when then-President Reagan pushed mandatory-minimum sentencing laws through Congress, this war has cost American taxpayers over a trillion dollars in the last 30 years. That's money out of our pockets that we can never get back. And for what? Drugs are just as easy, if not easier, to obtain than they have ever been. Currently there are two million men and women are behind bars because of our drastic drug laws-that's ____ percent of our prison population. More than 80% of the increase in the federal prison population from 1985 to 1995 has been due to drug convictions, while half the cost of law enforcement and prisons is wasted on drug-related, mostly nonviolent crime. According to the U.S. Sentencing Commission, only 11 percent of all federal drug defendants are high-level drug dealers. Now the Ashcroft Justice Department has also zeroed in on states whose citizens voted for exemptions for medical marijuana: Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, Oregon and Washington. An important California case which may ultimately be decided by the Supreme Court involves Ed Rosenthal, a deputized officer of the city of Oakland licensed to grow medical marijuana. He was recently convicted of being a major drug trafficker by a jury that was prevented from knowing that Mr. Rosenthal was actually enforcing the laws of his state. It's ironic that, while the Bush government proudly boast of its belief in states' rights, it doesn't mind trampling on those very same rights when it suits their obscene agenda. If you still don't recognize that the whole War on Drugs is turning our justice system upside down, consider Sec. 878 of the Homeland Security Act, which allows the government to throw you in jail, deny you an attorney, and try you by a military tribunal if you are caught selling or using even a minor drug such as marijuana. The Justice Department can do this, apparently, by claiming that the drugs came from terrorists and that you, as a seller or user, are supporting those terrorists. Gathering evidence against you has become easier as well. Thanks to Sec. 878, if they even suspect you of being involved with drugs, they have the right to search your residence and other property including your car and computer files. They are also free to interrogate your friends, neighbors and associates, all without obtaining a court's permission. So much for the Fourth Amendment. Add to the above the abuses regarding property seizures, and it's absolutely clear that it's time to end the War on Drugs. It is, after all, a war that is being waged by hypocrites and religious zealots against the people of the United States. Enough, I say. Larry Flynt Publisher |
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