WAIT! THESE ARE OUR TRUSTED POLITICIANS!

Is nothing sacred? Will they sell even the shirt off our kid’s backs? Off their kid’s backs?

By Jack E. Lohman

Yea, everything is fair game today. NOTHING phases politicians!

I’ve written about our drug policy before, but this takes the cake. And as a disclosure I’ve never taken drugs in my life. (Maybe I should start, but at 74 I think I’ve missed the fun!)

From Republic Report via Alternet: The Top Five Special Interest Groups Lobbying To Keep Marijuana Illegal

1.) Police Unions: Police departments across the country have become dependent on federal drug war grants to finance their budget. In March, we published a story revealing that a police union lobbyist in California coordinated the effort to defeat Prop 19, a ballot measure in 2010 to legalize marijuana, while helping his police department clients collect tens of millions in federal marijuana-eradication grants. And it’s not just in California. Federal lobbying disclosures show that other police union lobbyists have pushed for stiffer penalties for marijuana-related crimes nationwide.

2.) Private Prisons Corporations: Private prison corporations make millions by incarcerating people who have been imprisoned for drug crimes, including marijuana. As Republic Report’s Matt Stoller noted last year, Corrections Corporation of America, one of the largest for-profit prison companies, revealed in a regulatory filing that continuing the drug war is part in parcel to their business strategy. Prison companies have spent millions bankrolling pro-drug war politicians and have used secretive front groups, like the American Legislative Exchange Council, to pass harsh sentencing requirements for drug crimes.

3.) Alcohol and Beer Companies: Fearing competition for the dollars Americans spend on leisure, alcohol and tobacco interests have lobbied to keep marijuana out of reach. For instance, the California Beer & Beverage Distributors contributed campaign contributions to a committee set up to prevent marijuana from being legalized and taxed.

4.) Pharmaceutical Corporations: Like the sin industries listed above, pharmaceutical interests would like to keep marijuana illegal so American don’t have the option of cheap medical alternatives to their products. Howard Wooldridge, a retired police officer who now lobbies the government to relax marijuana prohibition laws, told Republic Report that next to police unions, the “second biggest opponent on Capitol Hill is big PhRMA” because marijuana can replace “everything from Advil to Vicodin and other expensive pills.”

5.) Prison Guard Unions: Prison guard unions have a vested interest in keeping people behind bars just like for-profit prison companies. In 2008, the California Correctional Peace Officers Association spent a whopping $1 million to defeat a measure that would have “reduced sentences and parole times for nonviolent drug offenders while emphasizing drug treatment over prison.”

And another from Republic Report: Why Can’t You Smoke Pot? Because Lobbyists Are Getting Rich Off of the War on Drugs

Legalizing drugs will take the profit out, keep the pushers out of high schools, and reduce or eliminate killings at the border!

We’ll eliminate unnecessary and costly prison time, and save the country billions of dollars fighting a drug war it cannot win.

Problem is, the special interests favoring legalization cannot compete in the area of political graft.

Hell no I’m not a happy camper…

Let’s understand the root problem in America…

By Jack E. Lohman

I’ve tried to blame our failed war on drugs on the pushers. It doesn’t work. I always come back to the core problem: politicians that are funded by private prison corporations and security guard unions, all of whom want to secure their financial and electoral futures, expand laws. They do not contract them. Look at this excellent 3min video, but also understand the numbers!

I’ve tried to blame our failed healthcare system on the insurers, for-profit hospitals, and doctors. That also doesn’t work! Yes they are all guilty of lobbying for their best interests, but the real culprit is the politician who is paid by the taxpayer to serve on its board of directors and lead this country through thick and thin, but instead has his hand out at every turn.

I’ve tried to blame our enemies in the middle east for causing all of these wars, and then I realize that it is Americans on their soil and not the other way around. And then I realize that the defense industry gives campaign cash to our trusted leaders and it has had the intended effect. No, I’m not a real happy camper.

Even the failed economy I originally blamed on happenstance, until it became obvious that campaign cash caused the politicians to steal from the poor to give to the rich. Tax breaks to the rich with fabricated claims that they create jobs, got a little sickening. We all know that employers would not survive without workers, so it is a necessary marriage. But CEOs fund the campaigns and the workers do not.

And remember this: High unemployment equals low wages, which equals high profits and CEO salaries, and more money for political bribes, all of which equals more profitable political ads flowing to mainstream media!

Isn’t our free-for-all market just great?

This story goes on in virtually every issue, but the Fat Cats get it and the 99% don’t. Or at least didn’t, but they have smartened up. But we sheeples must get off of the little fires that the politicians have built to divert us.

What is rather surprising to me is that our business leaders have not gotten wise yet. Or they have but are enjoying their temporary advantage. But in time a trashed country is not going to be good for them either.

Incarceration rates tied to political bribes

No, Sen. Jim Webb’s concerns don’t go there. Surprised?

By Jack E. Lohman

But this is an excellent Newsweek article anyway. It outlines the high incarceration rates in the U.S. even though it fails to relate them to the growth in campaign contributions from the “privatized” corrections industry.

“In 1980, fewer than 500,000 Americans were in prison; today, the number is 2.3 million. To put that statistic in perspective, the median incarceration rate among all countries is 125 prisoners for every 100,000 people. In England, it’s 153; Germany, 89; Japan, a mere 63. In America, it’s 743, by far the highest in the world.”

It is not just coincidental that the rise in prison population follows the rise in political contributions from the industry that benefits from same; private prison owners under contract to the states.

So we see tougher laws because three-strikes and minimum sentencing laws fill prison beds and satisfy the prison industry. But they are significantly burdening taxpayers and ruining lives.

Indeed we should lock up murderers, child molesters and drug pushers. But we should be rehabilitating drug and alcohol users, which can be done at a fraction of the cost.

I could buy the “tough love” argument if campaign bribes were not flowing to our government leaders, but it is time to rethink this total issue. Most importantly the political corruption that has trashed our economy as well.

The drug war? We’ve lost it!

And we can’t afford it, but that’s a different story.

If we relaxed the laws by decriminalizing “usage,” we’d see lower or zero profits and eliminate the incentive for “pushers” to enter schoolyards and hook our children by giving away drugs for free. And we’d eliminate the drug wars that are killing so many people in Mexico and on our borders.

Sometimes we Americans are not very smart.

“Other countries have legalized drugs and have lowered crime rates. A recent report shows that state prison rates have quadrupled since 1982 and it costs $3.42 a day on average to supervise an offender on probation, compared to $78.95 a day to house them in prison.” Source

Nothing is perfect but the Netherlands’ policy has great merit. Certainly quite different from Louisiana’s at 853 and Wisconsin’s at 374 and Maine’s 151 per 100,000. The U.S. is 743 overall compared to China’s at 120 and the Netherlands at 94, but California’s having to release non-violent criminals should send an important message.

We have much to learn. If only our politicians could break the money strings and do the right thing.

The drug war: When to stop digging?

Drug users need treatment, not incarceration.

By Jack E. Lohman

Doing drugs is a bad thing. May even kill you if the dealers don’t get you first. But fear not, our government has stepped in to save you from yourself.

We as a nation must stop digging this hole. I’ve never taken drugs, and I think it’s a waste in life. But we non-users are mismanaging this “war.”

People are dying because of our wrongheaded policies.  Most are the bad guys, but many bystanders and policemen are killed as well. How many must die before we stop it?

I’m not sure we should legalize drugs, but we should at least decriminalize usage. We should continue locking up the pushers, but it would be far less expensive to treat addicts than to put them in prison.

Let’s look at the two extremes before deciding this. Think wildly for a moment. Unconventionally. What would happen if the government offered totally free drugs to users? We could take bids from Mexico and Afghanistan and get the cheapest price, then give them away or sell them at cost to people who are stupid enough to trash their life.  We’d take 100% of the profit out of illegal drug sales so there’d be no more profits to fight over.

Okay, maybe they wouldn’t be free, but at least sold at cost with all of the profit taken out. You get the point.

In any case there’d be strings, like first attending an educational and rehab seminar. Then they can head to the nearest pharmacy with a permit, sign a release, and go home and get zonked.  Or get zonked and then go home, as they are doing today.

Importantly, they wouldn’t have to rob or murder someone to get money for drugs. If usage went down, crime would go down. There’d be no more profits in pushing, so pushers would not hang out at schools offering free drugs to get our kids hooked. And with no more drug wars, Mexico could go back to being Mexico. What’s not to like about that?

Drug Prevalence

Source: The Economist

See also: The Netherlands

Other countries have legalized drugs and have lowered crime rates. A recent report shows that state prison rates have quadrupled since 1982 and it costs $3.42 a day on average to supervise an offender on probation, compared to $78.95 a day to house them in prison. Only private prison contractors could love today’s system, and of course, so do the politicians they support.

But there I go again, putting pragmatism ahead of ideology. These factors all add up to the highest incarceration rate in the world, but some things we are better off not being first at.

Let’s appoint a non-partisan panel to study the issue. What have these other countries experienced? Would killings go up or down? What can we do better?

For one, the offenders released to society today are at such a severe disadvantage in the job market that they’ll likely end up back in prison soon. We must start educating them! They’re locked up, for crying out loud. We can get their attention. Let’s start training them so when they get out they can compete in the marketplace.

Give them an incentive, a credit of less time to serve, for example. Jobs in training will be created, though jobs will be taken when they become useful citizens. But then again, they will add to the economy. Which is better?

This is the kind of change this nation could use.

Three-strikes and mandatory sentencing are foolish and have overcrowded our prisons. Leave the decision to the judge.

See this excellent 8 minute video HERE

Tidbits:

• The Employee Free Choice Act is neither free nor fair, but it sure is a feel-good name.
• If 50% + 1 employees sign a card supporting a union, that presumes an honest vote and automatically installs the union. Or throws the company into immediate arbitration.
• But if just 1% of those signatures were coerced by fellow workers, or 1% changed their mind and would otherwise vote against a union, such a vote would fail. The unions are not dummies, they know this.
• Not only is this unfair, it may indeed further erode American jobs. Be careful of what you ask for.
• Better, if just 40% sign a card in support, a vote of all employees should be held. Coercion can come from the company too.
• It’s outrageous when CEOs of public companies are getting $10M pay packages and yet criticize the pay of workers. Congress (you know, the jokers taking the campaign contributions) should mandate shareholder approval of executive pay.
• Fair is fair.

Quote: “It is time to replace our failed war on drugs with a strict system of legal regulation, to make the world a safer, healthier place, especially for our children. We must take the trade away from organised criminals and hand it to the control of doctors and pharmacists.”