This wobegotton land
Posted by: peridot on Dec 6, 2005 1:34 AM
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where the river had changed its course once in a time before the white men arrived, and had left an island in the old riverbed, elevated, a mound of the most fecund earth populated with every variety of berry and bush possible in the honey summers of the Minnesota river valley and one of those blessed herbs possessed the power to alliviate the minor miseries of old age and so it was when I was a young boy there in that place that after the harvest, in the golden autumn of the year our family or some member would visit the 'island' and harvest ground cherries and berries and walnuts and a few stalks of the female of hemp.
Jams, jellies, sugared nuts, and a green flour resulted.
These things were part and parcel of a place and a time when freedom had a distinct meaning. Not a tag line to some marketing bamboozle or the cleverly crafted slogan of some corporate lackey seeking public trust.
The boozed up brain of Richard Nixon produced the War On Drugs.
Now, nearly 40 years and hundreds of billions of dollars spent on this war and who has benefitted? Who is to blame? Just as the life of its citizens have been consumed, freedom itself has been consumed.

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Thank you, Mr. Keillor
Posted by: sabibabi on Dec 6, 2005 4:36 AM
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Thank you for stating the Truth. The War of Drugs is as big a failure as the War on Iraq, and - in my opinion - has caused even more harm. With 2 million plus of our citizens in prison, the devastation caused to the prisoners extends to their family and friends...and ripples through our society. Innocent until proven guilty has become a fantasy - it is said that 98% of federal cases plead guilty - frequently because those charged know they have no chance in court. Just read Christian Parenti's LOCKDOWN AMERICA, or Google "wrongful convictions". The political and media "spin" around this issue has used the "fear" button to push through the changes in laws that you mentioned, as well as others.
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Let's be consistent
Posted by: jimb on Dec 6, 2005 7:21 AM [
One of the biggest lies we Americans tell \nourselves is that alcohol isn't a drug. If your view is that adults can be responsible enough to have legal access to alcohol at whatever rate of consumption they see fit, then that's just fine. But, allow adults that same choice with marijuana. If it's your belief that marijuana is a mood altering drug and adults can't be trusted to make a decision for themselves whether to use it and how much to use, then how in God's name can you justify keeping it legal to sell and consume alcohol, the drug that is by far the leading cause of ruined lives, beaten spouses and kids, lost fortunes, destroyed property, homicides and slow suicides, well beyond that of any other recreational intoxicant?Make up your mind, America. Either adults can manage their own access to recreational drugs or they can't, but stop telling yourselves that alcohol isn't a drug. It makes no sense.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] This message needs more publicity!
Posted by: cbaker2001 on Dec 6, 2005 8:38 AM
[Report this comment] I agree with Mr. Keillor, I agree with sabibabi and with jimb -- the "war" on drugs needs to end before we sentence any more otherwise law-abiding citizens to ridiculous prison sentences while at the same time we condone alcohol. If America would only come to its senses and put a "sin" tax on marijuana the way they have on alcohol and tobacco, we could probably pay off the national debt AND the horrible deficit Bush has run up in the first year alone (okay, that may be overly optimistic, but you get my drift). When are the puritan minds in this country going to finally learn that you really can't legislate morality?

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RE: This message needs more publicity!
Posted by: fullavit@hotmail.com
Drug War Casualty Posted by: bambic on Dec 6, 2005 11:17 AM
[Report this comment] I am a former ass't. press secretary for a Democratic Presidential candidate who recently spent 99 days in jail because I was given a $50,000 bond for a first probation revocation for possession of a marijuana pipe. I was in a hospital and missed a visit to my probation officer. The judge made no allowance for this and gave me the same bond as a major cocaine trafficker and a meth manufacturer. My use of marijuana was medicinal.As harmless as this drug is, it is the laws that are dangerous and I would advise all users to consider this---jail is not where you want to end up.
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» RE: Drug War Casualty Posted by: fullavit@hotmail.com » RE: Drug War Casualty Posted by: doneman2000
RE: Drug War

Okay. My comment. I got kicked out of good old Minnesota to make a quota for the War on Drugs to make the INS/DEA look GOOD! The WAR on DRUGS is not a collosial failure on the part of the public to stand up to various "puritans" or because one can't tell one drug from another.

The War on Drugs was/is a way to ensure the rich maintain(ed) their control over the supply and profit of drugs. Pure, simple. The Feds are just the agents to maintain the rich and powerful's agenda. And it "works" too -- for them.

The cost to maintain the prisons and the judiciary "system", which is rife with lawyer/judge misconduct, payola to various administrators and the Federal officials necessary to perpetuate the insanity is astronomical. The point is: the real drug barons pay NOTHING for their enforcers. So sad, too bad, eh?

Not really, because the true COST is the broken people, their families, their friends and an increasingly startled public as to HOW this thing got so out of control.

I'll tell you why: When people like me stood up to the plate and told it like it REALLY is, they ran away and called me and us CRAZY. The system is CRAZY and crazy-making.

Haven't you heard about the coalition between Bush and Clinton to bring drugs into Arkansas?

Don't you realize that every GI is continually being thrown drugs to keep them KILLING? And when they return home to 1984, are offered drugs to keep them thinking about what they did, why they did it and what they can do about it ...

Are you aware that lawyers and other shysters just THRIVE financially off all the insanity and are going to do nothing to change the system?

Are you aware treatment centres profit on "failures" who come back for multiple returns? They have a vested INTEREST in keeping the "system" going. Why would they speak out in outrage. No skin off their backs, until it hits someone they KNOW.

Perhaps the lack of imagination is primary problem here.

And most importantly are you aware:

Addiction is a spiritual maladay: a dis-ease of the soul. A restless to find a Higher Source that goes to the wrong address.

We are spiritual beings in a human body, not humans with a spiritual "side". We addicts are those who need to take our POWER back before all the mad addictive thinking destroys OurSelves and Our Planet.