Drug WarRant

[DdC]

Demonizing Drugs By Paul Campos
CN Source: SHNS July 04, 2006 USA 

My office at the University of Colorado is a three-minute walk from the Coors Events Center, built by the makers of Coors beer.

That this seems completely unremarkable illustrates the remarkable rehabilitation alcohol has undergone since the collapse of legal attempts to ban it. And that rehabilitation exemplifies the astonishingly arbitrary way in which we deal with mind-altering substances.

Consider, for example, that we reflexively speak of "drugs and alcohol," as if somehow alcohol was something other than a drug. But of course alcohol is a drug _ a particularly powerful, addictive, and potentially dangerous drug.

One measure of a drug's dangerousness is the gap between the typical effective dose and the typical fatal dose. By this measure alcohol, which is fatal at a dose about ten times greater than that that produces the initial desired effect in users, is about as dangerous as cocaine and heroin, and vastly more dangerous than LSD or marijuana.

Several hundred Americans per year die from simple alcohol overdoses; perhaps 20,000 die in car accidents in which the drug is a contributing factor; tens of thousands die from diseases connected to alcoholism; and alcohol plays a role in enormous numbers of violent crimes, reckless sexual behavior, and other socially destructive acts.

Given such statistics, it's hardly surprising that alcohol was the first serious target of the war on drugs. Yet the standard story of why Prohibition failed itself fails to explain what was wrong with the attempt to make America an alcohol-free nation.

The standard story is that Prohibition was a bad idea because it couldn't "work." It's said the attempt to make America dry was doomed to failure because our legal system lacked the resources to stamp out alcohol use, at least at an acceptable price.

The problem with this story is it assumes that, if it were possible to eliminate alcohol use in America at an "acceptable" cost, then this would be a desirable thing. And that is a seriously wrongheaded belief.

The truth about alcohol is that, for all the damage it does, its net effect on society is strongly positive. Alcoholic beverages bring both simple and sophisticated pleasures to the 75 percent of American adults who drink them at least occasionally.

Alcohol encourages conviviality, making otherwise tedious social events palatable, and pleasant occasions even more enjoyable. Alcohol enhances meals, relationships, sporting events, and many other aspects of life. Human beings have recognized this for thousands of years. For example, the ancient Greek dramas, which remain among the greatest artistic achievements of civilization, were composed specifically for an annual festival to honor the god of wine.

In other words, to make America a completely sober nation, even if it were possible, would be a terrible thing. And this point applies to many other mind-altering substances as well, to greater and lesser extents. In particular, the socially harmful effects of marijuana are almost wholly a product of the fact that its use is prosecuted as a crime, while the drug's beneficial effects may well be comparable to those of its far more dangerous legal cousin, alcohol.

It's not even clear that it would be desirable to completely eliminate heroin and cocaine use, assuming such a thing could be done, which of course it can't (one of the dirty little secrets of the drug war is that many people use these drugs recreationally for years on end with little or no adverse effect).

All drugs have both good and bad effects. Alcohol, whose compulsive use plays a part in a certain amount of human self-destruction, enhances the lives of most people who use it. And what is true for alcohol is also true for substances that are no more (and often less) dangerous, but which our government now demonizes, just as liquor was demonized not that long ago.

Paul Campos is a law professor at the University of Colorado and can be reached at Paul.Campos@Colorado.edu

Contact: copelandp@shns.com * Website

CannabisNews Justice Archives



The rhetoric of the "drug war" pervades the media. News reports, papers, prosecutors, and politicians all assert that America and the world are in the clutches of a horrible drug "epidemic." They assure us drugs are a terrible "scourge," and that drug users are the despicable enemy of all good and decent folk.
Drug War Propaganda by Doug Snead

THE DEMONIZATION OF GANJA

Former DEAth Merchant's Delusions
X Drug Czars Believe Their War Has Been Won

de·mon·ize tr.v.
de·mon·ized, de·mon·iz·ing, de·mon·iz·es,

1. To turn into or as if into a demon.
2. To possess by or as if by a demon.
3. To represent as evil or diabolic: wartime propaganda that demonizes the enemy.

demon·i·zation n.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition



de·mon also dai·mon or dae·mon n.
Greek Mythology

1. An inferior deity, such as a deified hero.
2. An attendant spirit; a genius.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. An evil supernatural being; a devil.
2. A persistently tormenting person, force, or passion: the demon of drug addiction.
3. One who is extremely zealous, skillful, or diligent: worked away like a demon; a real demon at math.
4. Variant of daimon.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1: one of the evil spirits of traditional Jewish and Christian belief [syn: devil, fiend, daemon, daimon]
2: a cruel wicked and inhuman person [syn: monster, fiend, devil, ogre]
3: someone extremely diligent or skillful; "he worked like a demon to finish the job on time"; "she's a demon at math"
Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University


Voices around the world call for an end to the persecution of cannabis smokers.

When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.
Hos.7:1



We "shall not bear false witness" about people who use cannabis, nor judge them because that judgement is reserved to the Lord. The Lord hates those who speak lies and sow discord among brethern.

Ganja/hemp lnfolinx

"You're enough of a pro," Nixon tells Shafer, "to know that for you to come out with something that would run counter to what the Congress feels and what the country feels, and what we're planning to do, would make your commission just look bad as hell."
Richard Nixon missing tapes



Police officials lied in cop killer case by Reverend Damuzi (06 Mar, 2005)

Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan is hoping anti-pot hysteria will give her the support she needs for even tougher pot laws, and now supports provisions that would force judges to explain lenient sentences for "major producers". McLellan would also like to see more money for narcotics enforcement and bigger penalties for growing cannabis.

The result: media throughout Canada have reported that the killing of these officers occurred during a grow op raid, sporting such headlines as "Drug officers cite dangers of grow-op raids" and "grow op maniac kills 4 mounties." Had police been more honest, the headlines instead may have read, "Botched raid, police supervisors to blame":

Psychosis, Hype And Baloney

Blindness of the Prohibitionists Paradigm

"Several generations of high school students have grown up ignoring and disbelieving everything they've heard from government and police about drugs, including information that was factual and valid, because they discovered for themselves that most of what has been taught to them was simply not true."
Ann Shulgin, PhD, Therapist and Author,
Lafayette, CA, at the DPF Conference, November 1996

Souder Says Drug Czar’s Fake News Didn’t Break Law

If a ruler hearken to lies, all his servants are wicked. Prov.29:12

Anti-Drug Office's Videos Defended

Drug Control Office Faulted For Issuing Tapes


A key element in this theme is the arbitrary designation of "good" and "evil" drugs with evil drugs possessing powers that can overwhelm all efforts at human control. "The Devil made him do it" is changed to "the drug made him do it."

The Sensational Beginnings of Yellow Journalism
In 1898, newspapers provided the major source of news in America.

At this time, it was common practice for a newspaper to report the editor's interpretation of the news rather than objective journalism.

If the information reported was inaccurate or biased, the American public had little means for verification.

With this sort of influence, the newspapers wielded much political power. In order to increase circulation, the publishers of these papers often exploited their position by sponsoring a flamboyant and irresponsible approach to news reporting that became known as "yellow journalism."

Though the term was originally coined to describe the journalistic practices of Joseph Pulitzer, William Randolph Hearst proved himself worthy of the title. Today, it is his name that is synonymous with "yellow journalism."

PDFA - Slickly Packaged Lies.

D.E.A.th Deceptions

Silencing Political Dissent



Priming The Propaganda Mill

Bad research makes headlines

Anti-pot propaganda 14 Mar, 2005
US feds are addicted to making up fake anti-pot news.

Demon Drug Propaganda Doesn't Cut It Anymore
America's war on drugs is actually a Raid on Taxpayers. The war costs an estimated $70 billion a year to prosecute, and the drugs keep pouring in. But while the War on Drugs may have failed its official mission, it is a great success as a job-creation program.

Thousands of drug agents, police, detectives, prosecutors, judges, anti-drug activists, prison guards and their support staffs can thank the program for their daily bread and health benefits.



Abbie List: Reefer Madness

Marijuana Prohibition by Jack Herer

“Should we believe self-serving, ever-growing drug enforcement/drug treatment bureaucrats, whose pay and advancement depends on finding more and more people to arrest and ‘treat’?

“More Americans die in just one day in prisons, penitentiaries, jails, and stockades than have ever died from marijuana throughout history. Who are they protecting? From what?”
—Fred Oerther, M.D., Portland Oregon, September, 1986.



Tell me again. Why is Marijuana illegal?

Reefer Madness By Abbie Hoffman

Marijuana causes far more than mere moral degeneration--
it breaks down the mentality of its slaves. 
THE KEYNOTE - Jan/Feb 1941 - Detroit Federation of Musicians Union

The Great Marijuana Hoax By Allen Ginsberg

Marijuana Revolution by John Sinclair
marihemp/7x4819



"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face!
It’s just a goddamned piece of paper."
— G. W. Bush (Source: Capitol Hill Blue)

Pipe Dreams: Serving Time for The Politics of Pot By Jennifer Merin
CN Source: New York Press June 14, 2006  New York

"Dear Agent ..., please prepare all cases in your jurisdiction involving musicians in violation of the marijuana laws. We will have a great national round-up arrest of all such persons on a single day. I will let you know what day."
Harry J. Anslinger, Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 1947

VIDEO: Josh Gilbert and his documentary "AKA Tommy Chong"



“In the past we have had officers of this department shot and killed by marihuana addicts and we have traced the act of murder directly to the influence of marihuana, with no other motive.  We have found from long experience and dealing with this type of criminal that marihuana is probably the most dangerous of all our narcotic drugs.”
J.F. Taylor, Chief of Detectives L.A.P.D. -
Fraternal Order of Police Journal - Jan. 1933

The Marijuana Conspiracy - The Real Reason Hemp is Illegal

[DdC]

No drug matches the threat posed by marijuana.
-- US Office of National Drug Control Policy,
in a November 2002 letter to all federal prosecutors Friday, 23 June 2006



The Marihuana Tax Act of 1937
The history of how the Marihuana Tax Act came to be the law of the land.

DEA Raids East Bay Medical Pot Distributor March 16, 2006

The Drug War Refugees

For those people harrassed and imprisoned for using cannabis rightfuly, Jesus offers these words of comfort, "Blessed are those persecuted for righteousness's sake: For theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven."



A Nationwide crusade of American women against the menace of marihuana smoking has been launched by the Women’s National Exposition of Arts and Industries in New York City.

H.J. Anslinger, head of the Federal Narcotics Bureau, explained to the group the urgent necessity of NATIONAL ACTION.

Declaring that marihuana smoking is “taking our youth like wildfire,” Mr. Anslinger said: “If the hideous monster Frankenstein came face to face with the monster marihuana he would drop dead of fright.”

This is not an overstatement.

Users of the marihuana weed are committing a large percentage of the atrocious crimes blotting the daily picture of American life.

It is reducing thousands of boys to CRIMINAL INSANITY.

And ONLY TWO STATES have effective laws to protect their people against it.

The marihuana weed, according to Mr. Anslinger, is grown, sold and USED in every State in the Union. He charges, and rightly, that this is not a responsibility of one State, but OF ALL — and of the Federal Government.

American women, aroused to this DANGER, will GET ACTION.
A Roundup of Hearst's Hysterical Headlines



Drug Bust By Vince Beiser
Source: American Prospect January 09, 2006 USA

A $100-million anti-drug ad campaign was a complete waste. Here’s why.

The federal drug czar’s famous advertising campaign is suffering a serious buzz-kill. The series of anti-drug radio, TV, print, and Internet ads produced by the Office of National Drug Control Policy is under unprecedented fire--including a recent call for its elimination from dozens of Congressional Republicans.

That caps a series of scandals and dismal evaluations of the program that brings such bon mots as “Parents: The Anti-Drug” and “Above the Influence” to your TV screen.



"I hate seeing commercials like 'Don't do drugs!',
and 'Why do you think they call it dope?',
and then the next commercial is 'This Buds for you!' "
- Bill Hicks



"Today's DEA arrest of Marc Scott Emery, publisher of Cannabis Culture Magazine, and the founder of a marijuana legalization group, is a significant blow not only to the marijuana trafficking trade in the U.S. and Canada, but also to the marijuana legalization movement. ... Hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery's illicit profits are known to have been channeled to marijuana legalization groups active in the United States and Canada."
Karen Tandy, head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

Tandy's office has declined to comment about the statement, but locally, federal prosecutors have distanced themselves from her remarks.

Ideas are more powerful than guns.
We would not let our enemies have guns,
why should we let them have ideas.
Joseph Stalin

"Not only are we here to protect the public from vicious criminals in the street
but also to protect the public from harmful ideas."
Robert Ingersoll, then Director of the Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs, in a column by Jack Anderson in the Washington Post, June 24, 1972, p. 31 (Ingersoll became the first director of the DEA in 1974)


– Emily Murphy, the first woman to become a member of Parliament and one of the "Famous Five" who helped Canadian women become "persons" under the law, was also an early anti-marijuana activist. In her 1922 book The Black Candle, Murphy called marijuana the "new menace."

"Persons using this narcotic [marijuana] smoke the dried leaves of the plant, which has the effect of driving them completely insane. The addict loses all sense of moral responsibility. Addicts to this drug, while under its influence, are immune to pain, and could be injured without having any realization of their condition. While in this condition they become raving maniacs and are liable to kill or indulge in any form of violence to other persons, using the most savage methods of cruelty without, as said before, any sense of moral responsibility. . . . If this drug is indulged in to any great extent, it ends in the untimely death of its addict."
Activists - Emily Murphy



For more background on the history of, and reasons for the Marihuana Tax Act, see also these related documents:

The History of the Non-Medical Use of Drugs in the United States - a speech by Professor Charles Whitebread to the California Judge's Conference - This contains a short history of the marijuana laws.

HIGH SCHOOL, youngsters who turn to banditry for thrills, girls who leap from skyscraper windows, striplings who chop their parents to death . . . .The list of holdups, sex crimes, murders and suicides by marijuana addicts could be multiplied indefinitely. THE CHRISTIAN CENTURY  - June 29, 1938

The Distinctly Non-Christian Origins of the U.S.A

Bush. Religious drug treatment in Texas

Bush's 'Born-Again Drug War' August 13, 2004

Bush Puts Faith in a Social Service Role May 5, 2000

"Drug Addiction Is NOT a Disease. It's a Sin."

Ancient Temple Hashish Incense! Did Jesus Inhale?

And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more. -- Ezekiel 34:29

Ganja & the Bible

Morality is always the product of terror; its chains and strait-waistcoats are fashioned by those who dare not trust others, because they dare not trust themselves, to walk in liberty.
-- Aldous Huxley



My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
Hos.4:6

The Forbidden Fruit and the Tree of Knowledge , by Professors Richard Bonnie and Charles Whitebread - This is a more extended history of the origins of the marijuana laws.

The Demonization of Marihuana - by John C. Lupien
Unraveling an American Dilemma: This is the best exploration I have seen of the background of the supposed Anslinger-Hearst-DuPont conspiracy to outlaw marijuana in order to remove hemp as a possible competitor to their products.



"Marijuana is ten times more dangerous than twenty years ago. 
Presidential candidate Bill Clinton 1992

Pot Potency? Boomers' blissfully unfazed by mere facts.

The Ganjawar Fraud

Teens More Likely To Try Marijuana after DEAthreats

100 YEARS OF "JUST SAY NO" VERSUS "JUST SAY KNOW" by Jerome E. Beck, Dr. P.H.

Reevaluating Drug Education Goals for the Coming Century
A particularly notorious example of this was the time Anslinger began to issue frequent press releases in 1935 that documented the horrible crimes committed by marijuana-intoxicated youth and/or addicts. With headlines announcing "The New Narcotic Menace" and the "Crusade Against Marijuana," articles that contained remarkably similar accounts appeared in major newspapers and national magazines.

Quotes on Prohibition: People and Prohibition.



War posters often portray the enemy as a beast or demon in order to foster unity against the opposing side. People sometimes experience difficulty generating malevolence towards a faceless enemy. By giving the population visual examples of the offensive and immoral actions of the enemy, a strong sense of nationalism is established.  People always seem drawn to the macabre, so these posters all but command that individuals stop and look. Often artists used photographs of actual human bodies, adding to the shock value and the familiarization of the message.



Demonizing Jews

It's those Jewish Bastards Out for Legalizing!

1972 US Marihuana: A Signal of Misunderstanding,
US National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse

Nixon Tapes Reveal Twisted Roots Of Marijuana Prohibition
White House Conversations Reveal Prejudices,
Culture War Behind Nixon's Drug War

The Former Governor Delivered An Honest, Thorough Report.

The President Wanted Something Different.

Washington, DC: "We need, and I use the word 'all out war,' or all fronts . . .

" That was Richard Nixon's reaction to his national commission's recommendation that marijuana no longer be a criminal offense, according to Nixon's Oval Office tapes. The year after Nixon's "all out war" marijuana arrests jumped by over 100,000 people.

Examiner ad demonizes Palestinian children



Pertinent Texts and Images in the 19th Century
As stated in the Introduction, representations of American Indians in nineteenth century literature were seldom culturally relative. The authors failed to understand American Indians within the context of their separate cultures; instead, Indians became homogenized as the alien "Other," treated in terms of one of two polarizations: as the essentialized ideal, or the degenerated demon. While Cooper and Twain are icons on either end of the nineteenth century, acting as beacons for this polarization, there is a wide range of nineteenth-century authors whose characterizations of American Indians fall within this spectrum of polarization. The following is not an exhaustive list, but a brief outline of major nineteenth century authors who approached the subject of American Indians in their work.


Although these images are not necessarily contemporary with Twain's work,
they all share the common trait of demonizing the Native American.

West Demonizing Islam
A top Islamic official on Tuesday criticized the West for what he called “demonizing“ Islam following the Sept. 11 attacks, warning against attributing individual crimes to an entire religion, AP reported.

"Marijuana leads to homosexuality ... and therefore to AIDS."
Reagan Bush Drug Czar Carlton Turner 1986


Jailing Bush for demonizing the opposition.

"Marihuana leads to pacifism and communist brainwashing"
Federal Bureau of Narcotics Chief Harry J. Anslinger, 1948



Nazism or the Ganjawar

SCAPEGOATING -
Blaming social problems on a cultural, racial, or behaviorial group.

PREJUDICE -
Selling the public on the idea that all members of the targeted group are 'bad' people.

LIES -
'Facts', which cannot be verified, and pseudo scientific studies are used as propaganda against the targeted group. History is rewritten.

NO PUBLIC DEBATE -
"These people have no right to have their viewpoiunt aired." and " Anyone who disagrees or questions us must be one of them!"

DEHUMANIZATION -
Characterizing all members of a targeted group as subhuman and typically capable of monstrous deeds and/or crimes.

PROTECT OUR CHILDREN -
"They corrupt, seduce and or destroy our children."

CIVIL LIBERTIES SACRIFICED -
"We must give up some of our freedoms, liberties, and rights in order to combat this menace to society."

LEGAL DESCRIMINATION -
Laws criminalize members of targeted group and they may be denied jobs, the right to own property and/or be restricted as to where they may live or go.

INFORMERS -
Citizens are urged to 'turn in' friends, neighbors, co- workers and family members.

SECRET POLICE -
Non-uniformed police squads set up to wage war on targeted groups utilizing deception, infiltration, espionage and entrapment.



CONFISCATION OF PROPERTY -
Property and assets are seized from people who are members of targeted group. Property may be divided between the informer and the state.

REMOVAL FROM SOCIETY -
Prisons, rehabilitation camps, 'hospitals', executions and genocide...

("kill them all" "Zero Tolerance")

The Racist Ganjawar

PREJUDICE: MARIJUANA AND JIM CROW LAWS



[Marihuana use] - “In many instances the preliminary stimulation soon gives way to apprehension, and to a terror and feeling of persecution which not infrequently lead to violence and crime, sexual aberrations or even suicide.“
The American Scholar (Phi Beta Kappa Society) Winter 1938/39



“Marihuana is “a more dangerous drug than heroin or cocaine.” 

Authority for this statement is United States Commissioner of Narcotics H. J. Anslinger. . . . the drug is adhering to its Old World traditions of murder, assault, rape, physical demoralization, and mental breakdown.”
Scientific American - May 1938



The influence of marijuana as a cause of crime would be hard to overestimate.  With the victim experiencing hallucination and violent rages, he is likely to run-amuck and commit crimes he would not have nerve enough to attempt if he were in his right mind.
THE CHRISTIAN CENTURY  - June 29, 1938



"Marijuana causes insanity... in non-smokers."
Tim Leary


In 1972, Timothy Leary (center) was brought to justice by DEA Special Agents Don Strange (right) and Howard Safir (left). Leary, a psychology instructor; was fired from his post at Harvard University as a result of his experimentation with LSD. In 1969, he founded a clandestine drug-trafficking ring, known as the Brotherhood of Eternal Love, that became the largest supplier of hashish and LSD in the United States.



"Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."
Reichsmarschall Hermann Goering, Nazi Air Force (Luftwaffe) commander, the Nuremberg Trials

GREEN PANTHERS!

"These companies, not the lunatic Nazi fanatics, are the main war criminals. If the guilt of these criminals is not brought to daylight and if they are not punished, they will pose a much greater threat to the future peace of the world than Hitler if he were still alive."
-- Telford Taylor, US-Chief Prosecutor, 1947 Nuremberg War Trial against the managers of IG Farben.



"Terrorist operatives infiltrate our communities, plotting, planning and waiting to kill again....To those who scare peace-loving people with phantoms of lost liberty, my message is this: your tactics only aid terrorists."
United States Attorney General John Ashcroft

The Marijuana Tax Act was prepared during two years of secret meetings, held by Treasury Department officials between 1935 and 1937. At no time was the American Medical Association consulted for an opinion on the health effects of Marijuana smoking and were not even informed that the meetings were taking place

"He killed the old man. . . That’s marijuana!'' -- Harry Anslinger

Destroying Propaganda - Anslingerisms
Portland NORML News, Saturday October 3, 1998

UNITED STATES DISPENSATORY also listed cannabis as a useful medicine.
The 1851 edition states: The complaints in which it [cannabis] has been specially recommended are neuralgia, gout, rheumatism, tetanus, hydrophobia, epidemic cholera, convulsions, chorea, hysteria, mental depression, delirium tremens, insanity
and uterine hemorrhage.

Cannabis was removed from the US Pharmacopeia in 1942 because of political
pressure from Harry Anslinger and the U S Treasury Department.

"How many murders, suicides, robberies, criminal assaults, holdups, burglaries, and deeds of maniacal insanity it (marijuana) causes each year, especially among the young, can only be conjectured."
Harry Anslinger