Our sister site, My Ballard, recently sat down with 36th District Representative Mary Lou Dickerson to talk about what she’s working on for the upcoming legislative session, which convenes on January 11, 2010. One bill she’s looking to sponsor would legalize marijuana, an act she believes will ultimately turn into a “net benefit” for the state and its residents. Below are her words:
“We have spent a fortune investigating and incarcerating people for using marijuana. We have not only spent huge sums in this failed effort, we have required individuals and families to spend huge sums on lawyers and other expenses in order to avoid drug-abuse violations on their records. Those who couldn’t afford an effective legal defense have often seen their jobs and lives seriously harmed by the record of the legal violation.
And what have we accomplished with these societal, personal, and family costs? I don’t see the positive benefits. The expensive emphasis on prosecution and fines or other punishment has not deterred marijuana smoking, nor has it had any noticeable impact on accessibility to marijuana. The fact that other countries which have legalized marijuana have not seen consumption rates rise sharply is further evidence that our present policy is a monumentally expensive failure.”
Get the full story, along with the rest of Rep. Dickerson’s statement at My Ballard.
Tweet
44 responses so far ↓
1 jsknow // Nov 2, 2009 at 7:39 pm
My argument is against the way we are handling drug policy. If you want to stop seeing drug related crimes, violence and death then you need to take action and demand rational drug policy reform that has PROVEN to work far better than our war on drugs.
Any time you have laws on the books that are causing a nonviolent US citizen to be arrested every 17 seconds for drug charges and those laws have been in effect for almost 100 years and the goals of those laws are not being accomplished AT ALL. Then it’s time for the citizens to say enough is enough and look for better ways of dealing with that particular problem.
Americans are winners, we hate to lose but we keep letting our political representatives get us involved in wars they have no intention of winning. The drug war is a real war and it is an unnecessarily harmful, completely unwinnable, and wasteful war. It is in fact a war against a certain large percentage of our own population that chooses to different degrees and with a wide range or results, to put a wide variety of different substances in their body and for a wide variety of reasons. It’s being fought in our communities with real guns, teargas, dogs and virtually every other tool of war available.
Right now we are installing 900 new prison beds and hiring 150 new correction officers every 2 weeks. Here in the “land of the free” for the first time in history, more than one of every 100 adults is in jail or prison. 2,319,258 Americans were incarcerated at the start of 2008. The United States incarcerates more people than any other nation, far ahead of even more populous China. More than half of federal prisoners are serving time for a drug offense. Largely because of the drug war, arresting Americans is becoming big business. We now have companies attempting to privatize our penal systems. These companies are huge supporters of drug prohibition and any other laws that cause Americans to be incarcerated. The more Americans behind bars, the more money they get from the government.
The goals of the drug war are to “reduce drug related death, disease, crime and drug use”. It has accomplished NONE of those goals after almost 100 years of prohibition policy, over 1 trillion tax dollars wasted, ever tougher criminal penalties, arresting millions of Americans and all the other effort and resources that have been put into it.
On top of that in the case of marijuana which accounts for roughly half of all drug arrests, that drug never was a serious threat to society, families, or individuals and it never will be. Because of that bad law being implemented based on lies by a few people that stood to gain financially from marijuana’s prohibition and them intentionally deceiving lawmakers, literally millions of Americans that choose to use that plant for ANY purpose are criminalized needlessly. No one in the entire world of any age in all of recorded history has ever died from the ingredients in marijuana. In the US we arrest someone on a marijuana charge every 38 seconds.
Many big corporations that see marijuana as competition contribute heavily to promoting marijuana prohibition. Alcohol, tobacco, petroleum, cotton, timber and pharmaceutical companies, just to name a few and of course the government contributes billions every year to keep their prohibition cash cow alive and well. I’ve seen estimates that contributions toward drug prohibition may be as much as 1 million dollars per day. However, once people learn the truth about the issues they overwhelmingly are in favor of revising drug policy. That’s why 13 states have passed medical marijuana laws already and several have decriminalized. I’m sure you saw the news that the feds revised their policy about prosecuting medical marijuana patients that are in compliance with state laws. That’s a huge step in the right direction and shows that when enough voters take action progress is being made.
Because of our prohibition policy bad laws have been put on the books that make it illegal for IV drug users to obtain clean needles. This results in AIDS and hepatitis being spread unnecessarily into our non drug using society on a huge scale.
Now take a look at the way the Swiss have dealt with their heroin problem. You can watch a lot about this in the video titled “Jack Cole Interview” on the Just Say Know website (link below). In Switzerland they set up government run clinics where heroin addicts can go and get pharmaceutical grade heroin. If you don’t have the money to pay for the drug it’s free. That instantly put every illegal heroin dealer in that country out of business… they can’t compete with free. Anyone that wants heroin can go into a government run clinic up to 3 times a day and inject it. There are medical personnel on hand and anyone that wants to kick their habit is given counseling and help toward that goal. The results are that there has not been a single heroin overdose there in more than 13 years. Switzerland has the lowest AIDS and Hepatitis infection in all of Europe. Crime fell by 60% because no one is stealing or prostituting their self to pay for their heroin and after a 10 year study, they documented that there has been an 82% decline in new heroin users. Now please tell me why our drug war seems like better policy than that. No one went to jail and no one got killed. This program is far less expensive than what we are doing and far less harmful.
True drug addiction of all types should be handled as a medical problem not a criminal problem. Drug use should not automatically be considered abuse or addiction. If a person kills or drives when they are intoxicated or breaks any legitimate law, we already have laws on the books to deal with those problems and if a real danger to society is recognized like it was with drunk driving, then those laws certainly should be rationally adjusted accordingly. Trying to lock up every drug user or eradicate every plant that produces illegal drugs from planet earth are completely unattainable irrational goals. We simply cannot afford to lock up every drug user and even if we could the vast majority go back to using drugs when they are released. Some countries even went so far as to execute drug users and even that has not succeeded in accomplishing a “drug free” country. At some point we have to realize that a certain percentage of people are always going to use drugs and implement policy that minimizes the harms without devastating society.
Most drugs are made from weeds that without prohibition would be of far less financial value. According to a fairly recent documentary by Walter Cronkite, all the plants needed to supply an entire year’s worth of the heroin consumed in the US could be grown on about 50 square miles almost anywhere on earth and the entire year’s worth of heroin could be transported in a single cargo plane. Doesn’t it make more sense to have doctors treat the addicts and rational laws to deal with drug consumption and the related harms like drunk/intoxicated driving than to try and stop heroin or any other drug’s production? It has to because law enforcement has only been able to prevent the production or transportation of about 10% of the heroin and all other illegal drugs according to their own statistics.
Despite the drug war and all the money and efforts that have been put into it, drugs today are more potent, more readily available and often less expensive than they were when Richard Nixon started the modern war on drugs.
If you can show me ANYTHING that the drug war has accomplished when it comes to reducing drug related death, disease, crime and drug use that has significantly improved any drug related area over a long period of time I’d appreciate you telling me what it is.
The Constitutional right to freedom of religion, free speech, a free press, to keep and bear arms, to be secure in your person, house, papers and effects against unreasonable search and seizure, to life, liberty and property, to be protected from having your property taken by the government without due process of law and without just compensation, to confront the witnesses against you, to be protected from excessive bail, excessive fines, cruel and unusual punishment, to vote and others have been unjustly denied to millions of Americans in the name of the drug war.
In 1914 when all drugs were legal in the US, 1.3% of the US population was addicted to drugs. Despite over 1 trillion tax dollars being wasted, millions of Americans being arrested and all the other harms that have resulted from our failed drug prohibition policy, today 1.3% of our population is still addicted to drugs. That’s 0% improvement.
Because of the inflated prices of illegal drugs CAUSED by prohibition the profits between the point of production and the point of sale can be as much as 17,000%. Drug prohibition is a self perpetuating policy that draws people into the illegal drug trade like a magnet because of the enormous profits. Alcohol prohibition created the same problems as every other drug prohibition. The year alcohol prohibition ended violent crime fell by 65%. Regulating drugs is NOT a solution to our true drug problems. Regulating drugs IS a solution to our illegal drug TRADE related crime and violence problems. With rational drug regulation the authorities are in control of the drug trade instead of violent gangsters. That’s a huge step in the right direction and once regulation is in place we can effectively deal with our real drug problems. When was the last time you heard of alcohol dealers getting into a shootout? I bet it was when alcohol was prohibited. Regulation equals control. Prohibition equals crime and corruption.
More information about drug laws from Just Say Know:
Using Internet Explorer web browser: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/home
With All Other Browsers: http://jsknow.angelfire.com/index.html
Well worth reading:
http://www.alternet.org/drugreporter/90295/
http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/library/basicfax11...
2 JohnChase // Nov 3, 2009 at 5:30 am
Cronkite's exact words on the drug war, on the Discovery Channel in June 1995 were these:
~~~~~~~~~
The Drug Dilemma: War or Peace
“Just about every American was shocked when Robert McNamara, one
of the master architects of the Vietnam war, acknowledged that not only did
he believe the war wrong, terribly wrong, but that he thought so at the very
time he was helping to wage it. That's a mistake we must not make in this
tenth year of America's all-out war on drugs. It's surely time for this nation
to stop flying blind, stop accepting the assurances of politicians and other
officials that if only we keep doing what we're doing, add a little more cash,
break down a few more doors, lock up a few more (people), then we would
see the light at the end of the tunnel. Victory would be ours. …
“It seems to this reporter that the time has come for President Clinton to
do what President Hoover did when. Prohibition was tearing the nation apart:
appoint a bipartisan commission of distinguished citizens … a blue ribbon
panel to reappraise our drug policy right down to its very core with a
commission with full investigative authority and the prestige and power to
override bureaucratic concerns and political considerations. Such a
commission could help us focus our thinking, escape the cliches of the drug
war in favor of scientific fact, more rationally analyze the real scope of the
problem, answer the questions that bedevil us, and present a comprehensive
drug policy for the future. …
We cannot go into tomorrow with the same formulas that are failing today. We must not blindly add to the body count and the terrible cost of the war on drugs only to learn from another Robert McNamara thirty years from now that what we've been doing is wrong, terribly wrong.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
3 RFWoodstock // Nov 3, 2009 at 6:28 am
Valid medicinal value, it’s a victimless crime, the War on Drugs WAY too costly, too many arrests for simple possession, tax it and use the money to pay for health insurance and to reduce the deficit…Need I say more?
Woodstock Universe supports legalization of Marijuana.
Add vote in our poll about legalization at http://www.woodstockuniverse.com.
Current poll results…97% for legalization, 3% against.
Listen to RADIO WOODSTOCK 69 which features only music from the original Woodstock era (1967-1971) and RADIO WOODSTOCK with music from the original Woodstock era to today’s artists who reflect the spirit of Woodstock. Watch Woodstock TV.
Peace, love, music, one world,
RFWoodstock
4 WmHarris // Nov 3, 2009 at 6:34 am
I applaud Rep. Dickerson. Prohibition is the problem, not drugs. Liberty is the cure.
5 JohnChase // Nov 3, 2009 at 1:30 pm
Cronkite's exact words on the drug war, on the Discovery Channel in June 1995 were these:
~~~~~~~~~
The Drug Dilemma: War or Peace
“Just about every American was shocked when Robert McNamara, one
of the master architects of the Vietnam war, acknowledged that not only did
he believe the war wrong, terribly wrong, but that he thought so at the very
time he was helping to wage it. That's a mistake we must not make in this
tenth year of America's all-out war on drugs. It's surely time for this nation
to stop flying blind, stop accepting the assurances of politicians and other
officials that if only we keep doing what we're doing, add a little more cash,
break down a few more doors, lock up a few more (people), then we would
see the light at the end of the tunnel. Victory would be ours. …
“It seems to this reporter that the time has come for President Clinton to
do what President Hoover did when. Prohibition was tearing the nation apart:
appoint a bipartisan commission of distinguished citizens … a blue ribbon
panel to reappraise our drug policy right down to its very core with a
commission with full investigative authority and the prestige and power to
override bureaucratic concerns and political considerations. Such a
commission could help us focus our thinking, escape the cliches of the drug
war in favor of scientific fact, more rationally analyze the real scope of the
problem, answer the questions that bedevil us, and present a comprehensive
drug policy for the future. …
We cannot go into tomorrow with the same formulas that are failing today. We must not blindly add to the body count and the terrible cost of the war on drugs only to learn from another Robert McNamara thirty years from now that what we've been doing is wrong, terribly wrong.”
~~~~~~~~~~~
6 RFWoodstock // Nov 3, 2009 at 2:28 pm
Valid medicinal value, it’s a victimless crime, the War on Drugs WAY too costly, too many arrests for simple possession, tax it and use the money to pay for health insurance and to reduce the deficit…Need I say more?
Woodstock Universe supports legalization of Marijuana.
Add vote in our poll about legalization at http://www.woodstockuniverse.com.
Current poll results…97% for legalization, 3% against.
Listen to RADIO WOODSTOCK 69 which features only music from the original Woodstock era (1967-1971) and RADIO WOODSTOCK with music from the original Woodstock era to today’s artists who reflect the spirit of Woodstock. Watch Woodstock TV.
Peace, love, music, one world,
RFWoodstock
7 WmHarris // Nov 3, 2009 at 2:34 pm
I applaud Rep. Dickerson. Prohibition is the problem, not drugs. Liberty is the cure.
8 Pharmc857 // May 7, 2010 at 10:34 am
Hello! bbbkbca interesting bbbkbca site!
9 Pharmb266 // May 7, 2010 at 10:34 am
Very nice site! cheap viagra
10 Pharme656 // May 7, 2010 at 10:34 am
Very nice site! [url=http://aixypeo.com/ayrvqa/2.html]cheap cialis[/url]
11 Pharmg254 // May 7, 2010 at 10:35 am
Very nice site!
12 Pharmg971 // May 7, 2010 at 10:35 am
Very nice site! cheap viagra , cheap viagra , cheap viagra , cheap viagra , cheap viagra ,
13 viagra // May 11, 2010 at 2:46 am
Hello!
viagra , cheap viagra ,
14 cialis // May 11, 2010 at 11:57 pm
Hello!
cialis , cheap cialis ,
15 viagra // May 13, 2010 at 5:36 am
Hello!
viagra , buy viagra ,
16 cialis // May 14, 2010 at 3:36 am
Hello!
cialis , buy cialis ,
17 viagra // May 15, 2010 at 2:08 am
Hello!
viagra , viagra ,
18 cialis // May 17, 2010 at 7:12 am
Hello!
cialis , cialis ,
19 viagra // May 18, 2010 at 3:15 am
Hello!
viagra , cheap viagra , cheap cialis , order cialis ,
20 cheap_cialis // May 19, 2010 at 3:02 am
Hello!
cheap cialis , cheap viagra , viagra , viagra ,
21 online // Jun 16, 2010 at 6:18 am
Hi pipls uyi ui i !!!!
я ебу ))
22 viagra senza ricetta medica // Jun 17, 2010 at 8:39 am
Hi piplsi ui i !!!!
dlrikser viagra naturale corpi cavernosi pene impotenza ewr
23 viagra per donne // Jun 17, 2010 at 12:13 pm
Hi piplsi ui i !!!!
dlrikser acquisto viagra in vaglia come ewr
24 viagra naturale in erboristeria prodotti muira puama // Jun 18, 2010 at 7:57 am
Hi piplsi ui i !!!!
dlrikser viagra online poste approved ewr
25 di disfunzione erettile viagra senza ricetta // Jun 18, 2010 at 1:36 pm
Hi piplsi ui i !!!!
dlrikser viagra novartis prezzo ewr
26 origgio viagra // Jun 18, 2010 at 11:36 pm
Hi piplsi ui i !!!!
dlrikser viagra cardiologia cuore ewr
27 comprare viagra in italia cialis online // Jun 20, 2010 at 10:08 am
Hi piplsi ui i !!!!
site cool !!!!!!
28 snicelisleshY // Jul 1, 2010 at 9:15 pm
sildenafil indications
generic viagra doxycycline
natures viagra
generic viagra gel tab
online viagra scam
zenegra sildenafil citrate wholesale
how is viagra used for women
generia viagra
viagra wp
buying viagra without a perscription
in minute now online prescripiton sildenafil
cheapest prices for viagra online
sildenafil citrate and arginine
generic sale viagra
viagra and altitude sickness
viagra ketoconazale
luxury hotel rome uk viagra supplier
enhancing the viagra experience
is viagra otc in peru
macular degeneration viagra
canada from generic viagra
viagra prescription price
buy viagra in el paso texas
why women shouldnt take viagra
sildenafil intagra
generic viagra soft tab fast
online parmacy viagra cheap
29 buy generic cialis // Jul 2, 2010 at 5:46 am
Riudd ) site coodfdsl !!!!!! sd
30 designer replica handbags // Jul 16, 2010 at 3:35 am
replica watches The Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean Liquidmetal timepiece excellent as the watch is fake tag heuer It’s quite known to nearly all of us that most of the precious goods in the world are just the ones that very difficult to gain with very limited chances If you want to own one piece of the Omega Seamaster Planet Ocean Liquidmetal timepiece you must be hurry up and try to get one with a bountiful of money replica cartier watches fake montblanc Expensive as the replica watches is precious it could be
31 buy kamagra online // Jul 18, 2010 at 5:48 am
Forum u”ber deutsche Miniaturpferde Foren-U”bersicht !!!
32 accelerated ortho k lenses colorado // Jul 18, 2010 at 8:48 pm
Thanx Lot On 91 oldsmobile cialis side marker lens please
33 Untodaweexott // Jul 20, 2010 at 2:09 am
what you need for happiness? that you were 100% happy – what do you need?
all pills generic viagra
34 tooniesse // Jul 21, 2010 at 9:49 am
5 sildenafil free shopping mall
sildenafil and antidepressant sexual dysfunction
viagra spokespersons
viagra female
generic viagra line
viagra and imitrex
viagra in mexico for sale
generic viagra master card payment
cheap herbal viagra
free online viagra pill sample
same as viagra over the counter
viagra alternive
ordering viagra from india
compare viagra and levitra
go generic viagra soft tab
viagra how young is too young
fmale viagra
dietary supplement contamination viagra
viagra pharmaceutical problems
sildenafil viagra
singapore cailis viagra
tramadol viagra fetal monitor online pharmacy
connecticut generic caverta viagra
which is better viagra or levitra
cheap generic viagra no script
35 kamagra_1 // Jul 21, 2010 at 4:01 pm
Forum u”ber deutsche Miniaturpferde levitra_1 Foren-U”bersicht !!!
36 viagra frauen // Jul 22, 2010 at 5:40 am
Forum u”ber deutsche Miniaturpferde viagra frauen Foren-U”bersicht !!!
37 buy viagra // Jul 22, 2010 at 1:50 pm
Forum u”ber deutsche Miniaturpferde buy viagra online Foren-U”bersicht !!!
38 soguevewDoosy // Jul 22, 2010 at 7:09 pm
Forum u”ber buy cialis online deutsche Miniaturpferde buy cialis Foren-U”bersicht !!!
39 braknenesob // Jul 23, 2010 at 8:07 pm
789 generic cialis pills 195 !!!
40 Muctuanda // Jul 24, 2010 at 6:01 pm
online cialis 20 mg best site!!!
41 prTuxU // Jul 25, 2010 at 2:29 pm
jqUNnW
42 heentySeireef // Jul 26, 2010 at 11:22 am
online cialis online generic cialis pills doses
sdfgs cialis panama cialis pills user forums
sdfg cialis generic levitra viagra cialis neil novak uc
s sh hhhh cialis generique cialis online buy adipex
sdfg cialis patent expires cialis mountains in pr
s sh hhhh cialis jelly cialis pills for women
43 tooniesse // Aug 1, 2010 at 12:02 am
viagra lymphoma
premier spot tv viagra
hearing loss from viagra
side effects of taking viagra
viagra and patent expiration
viagra porn
buy viagra over the counter
viagra side effects four hour erection
viagra no perscription
viagra discount sales
xanax and viagra side affects
44 Disney Coloring // Aug 1, 2010 at 12:45 pm
Adding to my bookmarks thanks. Do you have a RSS feed?