News & Analysis
Have Elites Decided to Legalize Some US Drugs?
The war on drugs has succeeded only in putting millions of Americans in jail ... Televangelist Pat Robertson recently made a gaffe. A gaffe, as journalist Michael Kinsley defined it, occurs when a political figure accidentally tells the truth. Robertson's truth is that America's drug war has failed and that the country should legalize marijuana. This view goes against the deepest political, moral and religious positions Robertson has held for decades, so imagine the blinding evidence that he has had to confront—and that has been mounting for years—on this topic. Robertson drew attention to one of the great scandals of American life. "Mass incarceration on a scale almost unexampled in human history is a fundamental fact of our country today," writes the New Yorker's Adam Gopnik. "Over all, there are now more people under 'correctional supervision' in America—more than 6 million—than were in the Gulag Archipelago under Stalin at its height." – Fareed Zakaria /Time
Dominant Social Theme: We need to legalize it now because we made a mistake in not legalizing it before.
Free-Market Analysis: What's going on here? The US has jailed tens of millions in the past decade over drug infractions. But now we seem to be seeing some re-thinking.
We usually speculate such campaigns are part of larger elite dominant social themes intended to manipulate public opinion. We think we detect such a pattern here.
First Pat Robertson writes about legalizing marijuana and then CNN's Fareed Zakaria writes about it as well. And that's not all.
A random search of Google shows that a bill to legalize medical marijuana is moving forward in the Tennessee House and that the Rhode Island Senate is discussing legalization as well. In Yakima, Washington, a former Seattle police chief and a former state senator will hold a public forum on the legalization of marijuana. Here's some more from the article:
Is this hyperbole? Here are the facts. The U.S. has 760 prisoners per 100,000 citizens. That's not just many more than in most other developed countries but seven to 10 times as many ... As Robertson pointed out on his TV show, The 700 Club, "We here in America make up 5% of the world's population but we make up 25% of the [world's] jailed prisoners."
There is a temptation to look at this staggering difference in numbers and chalk it up to one more aspect of American exceptionalism. America is different, so the view goes, and it has always had a Wild West culture and a tough legal system. But the facts don't support the conventional wisdom.
This wide gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world is relatively recent. In 1980 the U.S.'s prison population was about 150 per 100,000 adults. It has more than quadrupled since then. So something has happened in the past 30 years to push millions of Americans into prison.
That something, of course, is the war on drugs. Drug convictions went from 15 inmates per 100,000 adults in 1980 to 148 in 1996, an almost tenfold increase. More than half of America's federal inmates today are in prison on drug convictions.
In 2009 alone, 1.66 million Americans were arrested on drug charges, more than were arrested on assault or larceny charges. And 4 of 5 of those arrests were simply for possession. Over the past four decades, the U.S. has spent more than $1 trillion fighting the war on drugs.
Of course, at the Daily Bell we've written regularly about the US penitentiary-industrial complex. And we're not surprised that incarceration began to soar in the 1960s. This is part and parcel of what we consider to be directed history.
This is history that is organized and driven by a power elite that controls the world's central banks and is trying to create global government. This elite, especially what would seem to be its top dynastic families, apparently rule behind the scenes via what has been described as mercantilism.
These elites pass laws that benefit their interests at the expense of others. It benefits the elites in at least two ways to make drugs illegal. For one thing, the elites don't like to use their own money to pursue their goals. They use money generated via fiat central banking.
They also generate huge cash profits from the illegal smuggling that the West's top Intel agencies, including the CIA, are apparently involved in. This black cash funds black ops and increasingly private militias and policing.
It benefits the elites to have a large prison population in the US because doing so fractures families and creates societal dysfunction. The elites have seen the United States as a distinct threat to world government because of its republican culture and quasi-libertarian-mindset of millions of citizens.
The elites use dominant social themes to achieve their mercantilist aims. These memes are intended to scare Western middle classes into giving up power and wealth to internationalist facilities. One of these memes has been the "drug war" and the necessity to put drug addicts in jail to protect society. But now this meme seems to be coming under attack.
The people involved, like Robertson, may mean well but with addition of the CNN editorial (above) and various legislative moves, it would seem that something may be stirring. The mainstream media is controlled by the same elites that control central banking, in our view, and thus when something appears in aggregate on the mainstream media we tend to believe it is being presented for a purpose.
It is hard to say why the elites have decided to soften the rhetoric on the drug war at this time. One speculation would be that reducing drug usage penalties or eliminating them tends to blur the increasingly authoritarian line that Western governments are taking as regards "austerity" and other Draconian measures.
Or perhaps the inevitable sociopolitical debate over drugs will simply distract attention from other more important moves the elites are making to impose global government.
Conclusion: With many such themes, we are not entirely sure of their significance to begin with – or even if they constitute a real elite promotion. We are not sure what this seeming change in direction as regards the drug war means, either. Maybe viewers and feedbackers will have a better sense. As for us, we'll be watching.
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Posted by Col on 04/02/12 10:55 AM
Interesting... ... ... .from Australia TODAY, those damned Aussies are starting to sound like Click to view linkn Hubbard Clones.
Drugs war 'a failure' that bred criminals :
THE Foreign Affairs Minister, Bob Carr, is among a group of prominent Australians who have declared the 'war on drugs' a failure in the most significant challenge to drug laws in decades.
Read more: Click to view link
Click to view link
Time to rethink war on drugs: think tank
"Australia21" Think Tank... ... ..sounds ominous
Click to view link
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Posted by LloydMiller on 03/31/12 07:37 PM
. . .woops: confused conservative Bible thumper trying to think for himself. . . . Robertson may have decided, as should be obvious to all, "THE DRUG STORE IS THE ANSWER TO THE DRUG PROBLEM."
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Posted by LloydMiller on 03/31/12 07:34 PM
I would think the Elite, especially the Soros/Rockefeller end of the Elite spectrum has been for legalizing drugs for some time. The Elite seized upon the "drug problem" around WWI time to justify "necessary" international treaties on the subject as part of a their World Government/ "Internationalist" strategy.
Then, the "drug war" was a good excuse to increase Police State and Police Militarization required for increasing the tyranny thought necessary. However, even the Elite might decide that vast police/imprisonment forces blanketing the country are a vast waste of money that could be better spent and/or a dangerous self-serving "interest group" that must be limited or seen as threatening the Elite itself.
However, Robertson is just a confused conservation Bible thumper trying to think for himself. Perhaps thinking on a suggestion from William Buckley's ghost, Robertson decided THE DRUG STORE IS THE ANSWER TO THE DRUG PROBLEM.
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Posted by provolone on 03/31/12 02:02 AM
The probation officers get paid to keep people on probation. Think about it as 1000 people a week forced into a recurring payment subscription service. If they cancel their subscription, they go to prison. If they refuse to be upsold on extras like paying for their own drug test, they go to prison.
The prison industrial complex is bad, but the probation industry requires less infrastructure and has higher returns. The state can name whatever fee it chooses and freely decide upon the frequency of payments. To increase sales and customer retention, sales agents (probation officers) can receive incentives based on their performance.
Why bother with work camps? Just make everyone come in once a week and pay for their freedom.
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Posted by Danny B on 03/30/12 10:40 PM
As far as legalization, NYPD didn't get the memo.
" September last year, Kelly issued an order to officers not to arrest people caught with small amounts of marijuana. But the number of those arrested increased after the order was made.
In all, about 50,000 people were arrested in 2011 for marijuana possession;"
HOLY crap, that's 1,000 a week.
Click to view link
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Posted by Danny B on 03/30/12 10:26 AM
I forgot the money link. GOV has the patent on cannabis.
Click to view link
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Posted by provolone on 03/30/12 12:40 AM
For a website that is devoted to documenting false narratives, the comments here show a surprising amount of misinformation.
If marijuana slows reaction time and impairs driving, why do downhill mountain bikers smoke so much? What about bike couriers? When I was delivering for K street lobbyists, everyone was smoking. I can think of nothing else that requires as many split second decisions and reactions as weaving through traffic while running red lights.
If chronic marijuana use is an intellectual impairment, how can we account for individuals like Carl Sagan?
Click to view link
This is not an issue that takes extensive research to find the truth. You only need smoke a few joints to figure this out. Maybe that is slightly more work than blindly accepting media stereotypes of 'pot heads'. For all of the free thinking that is advocated here, some comments show a remarkable inability to look outside of their own social group.
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Posted by TimurTheLame on 03/29/12 07:59 PM
@ rossbcam
I agree with your points. And yes, there are real enemies. But reading behind ( and on ) the lines of any cyber intercourse that we have had I suspect that a personal legal issue you have had may have embittered you to a point whereby your objectivity might have been affected.
I too have gone down a similar road and am still angry but I realize that anger is a negative emotion leading to no good. Forgiveness is the cure they say. I agree but as always easier said than done.
Who has more fun than humans?
Cheers-
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Posted by rossbcan on 03/29/12 07:09 PM
Justice has two aspects:
Criminal: deal with criminals (those who steal / initiate aggression) proportionally, fully compensate victims.
Civil: Keep your promises and contracts. Inevitably, they are a part of "quid pro quo" and, breaking them rips off whomever traded something for "future considerations" and, is theft. As are broken political promises.
Criminals in both areas destroy peace and civilization.
as to: "treat others as you would wish to be treated"
if you treat others good, their tit for tat response will be: good
if you treat others bad, theit tit for tat t=response will be: bad
hence: what goes around, comes around.
"you are troubled by a phantom". No phantoms. REAL ENEMIES. Predators on the bench. If aimed karma could kill, they would be very dead. As it is, I patiently wait for the rest of the asylum inmates to "catch up", so we can hang together, as opposed to separately.
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Posted by TimurTheLame on 03/29/12 06:39 PM
@ rossbcam
For some strange reason I like you, if such a sentiment can be expressed through cyberspace but I think that you are troubled by a phantom that you are giving exceptional credit for while pathologically offering equally exceptional remedies, both straining credulity.
From all my readings both historical and mystical I find the maxim of all justice is boiled down to the simple statement of " treat others as you would wish to be treated" . Comment?
PS; If you wish to respond please be concise.
Cheers-
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Posted by Hanna M Jones on 03/29/12 04:59 PM
Yes legalize marijuana--the fact that it isn't is just a joke.
Do the cartels in--let them suck air not dollars.
More people do marijuana that most can guess from 18 to 80.
The State of Tennessee is attempting to legalize it as a substance far less lethal than alcohol. Just do not drive under the influence.
All those kids in jail should be out living, not being abused by hardcore criminals. The stupidity of governments never ceases to amaze me.Spend our money on something worthwhile.
How did all those officers in the field get fragged-- in NAM-- I suspect their "men" were not far from sober but had achieved a level of psychedelic understanding that they were simply fodder for the big guys ( who were standing at the bar in the Officers Club in Saigon).
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Posted by Edgar Friendly on 03/29/12 04:02 PM
I would think that marijuana isn't nearly as imparing of physical rreaction time as alcohol. Anything in moderation will not hurt you. But, chronic marijuana users are definitely at a disadvantage intelletually. Imagine marijuana being sold in state liquor stores from sea to shining sea; with tax revenue! If people are going to toke the poison, let 'em. Tax 'em. Look at cost of cigarettes, which everyone knows is very harmful; yet people on SSI will go without nutricious food to buy cigarettes. There will always be weak souls who cannot turn from addictions; so, for all the athiests; look upon this as Darwinism. :) have a nice day.
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Posted by rossbcan on 03/29/12 02:45 PM
"Widen the blinkers a bit old chap. People might suspect inter-cranial pressure."
"What about the western alphabets namely CIA, FBI, NSA, M16 etc,? What about the NKVd= KGB= FSB or Mossad ? Not important?"
The distiction is unimportant. They are all predators, competing with each other, preying on us. For them, a "good pretext / methodology to prey" is their unifying philosophy.
"intercranial pressure" has led to deep, focussed thinking. You suspect I am an idiot because I discount "other factors", such as particular individuals / groups. I DO NOT. They are just actors / reactors to environmental factors / survival imperatives / opportunities. Their identities / affiliations are irrelevant.
We live in an action precedes consequence reality. Only actions, not the actors are important. Strip the rationalizations, philosophy away and you are left with, in the affairs of mankind: predators versus prey. Civilizations rise and fall depending on whether people are free (of predators) or, predators are in control.
So, proceed in conceptualizing in false terms of groupthink, and falsely believing that if only we identify the "correct" bogeyman and perpetrator groups, all will be "fixed" and we will live happily ever after. Hah! Next generation psychopaths are created by this generation of psychopaths. They will always be with us until we express "zero tolerance" for those whom cause harm and initiate aggression.
Yes, they do live among us. Nazism is a philosophy: We are not ALL equal, in terms of rights and responsibility, under the rule of law. Some get to play god and decide who lives and, who dies.
It boggles the mind that you think I was claiming a physical group of Naizis waltzed into the upper echelons of arbitrary power. Nazis provided the philosophy, power saw the "merits" and refined it.
Monkey see, monkey do applies to criminals also. A "good" pretext to prey, just like taxation spreads like wildfire.
It always has been and always will be about the conflict between predator / prey collapsing civilizations until we wise up and declare our individual independence and right to life and proceeds therof, as the yanks have forgotten why they once found it "neccessary" to do so:
Click to view link
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Posted by Bluebird on 03/29/12 02:26 PM
This is not likely to come to frutition, but it is probably a clownish attempt of the Obama admin to gain Ron Paul supporters who they think will be left in the cold come November. At least that is better to think of than they need the prison space. Now that is not a pleasant thought!
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Posted by R on 03/29/12 11:34 AM
Uhhhhhh... ... not if you Earn your money up front and then Pay Off your cards.
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Posted by R on 03/29/12 11:23 AM
Also: there are huge police budgets funding bloated salaries, benefit packages, and other agendas that depend upon the "war on drugs". It has become a farcical institution that will always increase in expense and never go away with the current "players" in charge.
If the use and possession of "drugs" was de-criminalized (with perhaps some of them to remain as technically a "controlled" substance for an interim period of time)coupled with an innovative drug program, we would break the back of the drug cartels, drug "trade", and our internal Gestapo overnight.
"Drugs" only command a high "street" price because they are illegal. Most of them are extremely inexpensive to produce. I say that we should get into the business of controlled production and distribution ourselves and out-compete the cartels. We can easilly set up at least an initially "controlled" dispensing facility where the addict can either pay for the drugs or if necessary receive them for "free". In exchange, we will be able to identify who they are, and they will agree to receive treatment in an attempt to ween them from their dependency. If they can be "cured" or rehabilitated, great... ... we have saved a soul and returned them to a productive life. If not... ... we have at least eliminated a significant source of street crime by maintaining them on the "drug".
Of course not all drug addicts are without means; many of them can pay for their drugs and their rehabilitation programs. But they will not have to resort to dealing with any drug cartel or syndicate for their "issues".
This can all be accomplished at a small fraction of the current budget commited to the so called "war on drugs" and we might even turn a profit!
We will also reduce or eliiminate the heavy tax burden of staffing and maintaining incarcerated drug users within the "U.S. industrial-penal complex".
If you are an addict in need of money to fund your drug habit, which would you choose; holding up your local liquor store with all of its attending personal risks or going to a local designated dispensary to acquire your "needs"?
A thriving free market with appropriate sources of funding can probably make this work. If we make use of any so called "public money"... ... well we can still make it work if we can keep "government" administration to a miminum.
To return to your main point, of course the P.E. are not interested in genuine solutions unless they can turn it into a mechanism of 'control'.
I just wanted to put forth a generalized solution that I (and I'm sure others) have held for many years that, if 'properly' implemented and allowed to 'properly' function, should at the very least greatly improve the situation.
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Posted by TimurTheLame on 03/29/12 10:46 AM
@ rossbcan
" they live among us, many of them your neighbours or family" Are you referring to nazis?
Who created or more accurately enabled the creation of the nazis? (Hint: read Anthony Sutton).
For you to equate what is happening all over the world ( yes it is becoming obvious that there is some form of coordination or common concern) namely financial ruin, population explosion, resource depletion, police state repressions, societal degeneracy, NWO etc etc.. EXCLUSIVELY to a historical flashpoint that was smashed and eradicated is in my opinion mildly put - unsupportable. Don't bother with the Operation Paperclip nonsense. If I read your rant correctly you are implying a wholesale transfer and continuation of a political ideology. It is as if for you history didn't exist before 1924 or 1933 or 1939.
What about the western alphabets namely CIA, FBI, NSA, M16 etc,? What about the NKVd= KGB= FSB or Mossad ? Not important? They are all In the dark? Is it all Gestapo all the time for you? If so then the above mentioned agencies must be subordinated to who? ( read Gehlen, The Service).
Widen the blinkers a bit old chap. People might suspect inter-cranial pressure.
Now if you were to argue that there is a historical continuation of a Luciferian ( for lack of better term ) mandate, run exclusively by families and bloodlines and selected stooges (which would include your boogeymen) I might be inclined to agree.
Cheers-
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Posted by provolone on 03/29/12 10:20 AM
The drug war has been a huge success in destabilizing our southern neighbors and generating funds for black ops. Why stop now?
Although I might expect Obama to make some motions to appease the anti-prohibition types during this election season, his actions speak otherwise. Click to view link The drug war is not going to end any time soon. Just because a few unexpected voices speak up about the naked emperor does not mean prohibition is genuinely on its way out.
If anything the continuation of the drug war helps create more tension between the state and federal systems. When the gaps between the federal government and interests of individual states widens enough, we may see some of the changes we are looking for.
Drug propaganda is the gateway to observing how entrenched the major media outlets are. For every episode of Zakaria's GPS that treats marijuana lightly, there are a hundred or more over the top hit pieces. Check the absurd debate over 'stoned driving' that is going on right now. Reporters would only need to smoke a J and take a ride around town to figure out how absurd these pieces are. Narratives like this open the door for more people to question the media.
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Posted by vivek on 03/29/12 09:55 AM
Indeed, the unearned part is key ross.
Just like Credit Cards give people an un-earned sense of entitlement.
Vivek
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Posted by rossbcan on 03/29/12 09:28 AM
intellectual pump and dump
elites are predators, they flog an "idea" (prediction of social "good", evasion of social "harm" within the false intellectual paradigms of THEIR "experts") and tax the snot out of everybody in pursuit of faux utopias, to be occupied by the "right thinking" once "dissenters" are dealt with.
the "drug war" was a spawn of MIC, looking for "problems" to rationalize their existence and eat the elusive "peace dividend" after the USSR so rudely cried uncle, imploded and refused to play the symbiotic role of "enemy" (while being heavily subdized by the west) where the "leaders" of both sides terrified their people of the other side, while having back channnels open with zero risk of war due to MAD.
The drug war was pumped, the costs are now too glaring, receiving public blowback, time to "dump". This may be the "cost" to make Obama come up smelling like roses and appease some of the freedom constituency to defect from Ron Paul, as pointed ot by some prescient poster (too lazy to look up whom).
The parallel "war of terrorism" faux meme has also been pumped, and has about reached its "shelf life" and is due to be "dumped", once some equally profitable (to elites) plausible but FALSE threat or opportunity is contrived to hijack the resources of the productive and keep us "divide and conquored", confused lest we turn as one against our common foes (elite predators, wielding virtually all of our subverted public institutuions and our OWN productivity as weapons against "we, the people")
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