美国的无休止的禁止
华盛顿(路透社) -美国的酒精禁止持续了13年，填装了国家的监狱、被启发的蔑视为法律在成千上万之中，助长的腐败和被生产的Al Capone。 什么它没有做是保留美国人从喝。
美国的大麻禁止引入它的第72年这个月。 它创造了巨大的地下产业迎合的用户，被帮助美国。 监狱人口气球到世界的里最大和牵制美国执法资源。 什么它未做是保留美国人从用大麻。
相反。 自1937年以来，年大麻由4,000%，根据大麻政策项目，主张调控药物相似与酒精的一个基于华盛顿的大厅小组在美国禁止，它的用途上升。 大麻用途的一项最近世界卫生组织研究在17个国家安置了美国人在名单的上面。
1920-1933禁止在酒精的销售、生产和运输现在看作为社会工程学的忧郁失败。 禁止是否在大麻将看在相似的光？
第一次在世代，有票据，在会消灭联邦惩罚“为对大麻的个人使用由有责任感的成年人的国会之前”。 但没有平衡介绍票据的议员，民主党巴尔尼直率，为快速段落看明亮的远景。
上次美国。 在1978年之内国会应付decriminalized大麻的立法到，当爱德华·肯尼迪参议员介绍的法案在议院里通过参议院，但未曾有一个表决。
盒为合法化的大麻，最用途广泛的药物在酒精以后和烟草，基于几个板条-最明显是禁止未尽管非凡劳动强度和昂贵的政府努力简单地运作。 2006年，去年从联邦调查局计算是可利用的， 830,000个美国人被拘捕了在大麻充电，大多数为财产而不是交易。
解决在大麻拘捕每38秒。 研究去年估计这些拘捕的费用在$10.7十亿。
“这是极大的浪费于猛烈和严肃的罪行应该集中的执法资源”，说亚伦St. Pierre, who heads the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), the marijuana smokers’ lobby in Washington.
NO DISTINCTION BETWEEN USE AND ABUSE
“With alcohol we acknowledge the distinction between use and abuse, and we focus our law enforcement on efforts to stop irresponsible use. We do not arrest or jail responsible drinkers. That should be our policy for marijuana as well.”
The Bush administration’s drug czar, John Walters, will have none of this. He talks about marijuana in terms reminiscent of the apocalyptic warnings issued by Harry Anslinger, the first head of the Bureau of Narcotics in the 1930s and a driving force behind the 1937 marijuana prohibition.
Anslinger deemed marijuana “an addictive drug which induces in its users insanity, criminality and death.” Walters often takes issue with “the perception that marijuana is about fun and freedom. It isn’t. It’s about dependency, disease and dysfunction.”
(For a vivid portrayal of the dysfunction Walters warns about, see a mock documentary produced for the White House Office of National Drug Policy. It is entitled Stoners in the Mist, a play on the 1988 film on mountain gorillas in the Congo. here)
Americans who have admitted smoking marijuana at one point or another but escaped dependency, disease and dysfunction include President George W. Bush, Supreme Court Judge Clarence Thomas, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Senator John Kerry, former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich, former Vice President Al Gore and Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee for next November’s presidential election.
Former President Bill Clinton falls into a special category. When he studied in England, away from the long reach of U.S. law, he experimented with marijuana “a time or two,” he once told a television interviewer. “I didn’t inhale and I didn’t try again.”
Hollywood, conscious of a mass audience that does inhale, has produced a slew of new “stoner” movies this year. The pot-smoking protagonists include an investment banker and a medical student (Harold & Kumar), a psychiatrist (The Wackness), and a process server (Pineapple Express).
But sympathetic portrayals of marijuana use in popular culture do not necessarily translate into faster progress towards legalization. Government anti-drug fighters are serious in their opposition.
When Barney Frank, at a news conference to explain the rationale for his bill, was asked what timeline he had in mind, he quipped: “Not soon … but eventually, you’ll see the development of a marijuana futures market.” David Murray, the chief scientist in the drug czar’s office who had listened to the briefing, was not amused. “It’s not funny,” he said, “not funny at all.”
But not impossible either, in the long run
Have Your Say: America’s never-ending prohibition
Please read our posting guidelines before posting.
Alternatively you can discuss this report here.
This entry was posted on Friday, August 8th, 2008 at 7:34 pm and is filed under Culture . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Translations
Loading ...Related News
- The World Health Organization Documents Failure of U.S. Drug Policies
- The Truth About Marijuana Legalisation
- How to Improve the Economy - Legalise Cannabis
- Moronic marijuana policies
- Schwarzenegger: ‘Marijuana is not a drug, it’s a leaf’
Email This Page To A Friend
Latest Headlines
- HOO U GONNA COAL?
- New Book Reveals What You Aren’t Supposed To Know
- F.B.I. Says It Obtained Reporters’ Phone Records
- Class War Reply To The New Statesman
- Climate protesters arrested after gluing themselves to bank
- ‘No to Olympics without human rights’
- Call to crack down on police taser use
- Waterboard torture a theme park attraction
- Why DNA databases are doomed
- DMCA Does Not Apply to U.S. Government
More Breaking News
Archive
