No, Mr. Bush, this is not a nation
of laws.
This is a nation of freedom, where one's propriety is
determined ultimately by peer review.
Nazi Germany was a nation of laws.
To contact me
anonymously, use
the
Riot Anonymous Remailer
to
DRHilton@officer.com.
PGP key is on the MIT server for the San Bernardino County
Speakeasy. Report corruption and crime in gov'tt, law
enforcement, courts, schools, media and private orgs. Be
specific as I will have no way to reply to you. If you need
some kind of response, include a nick and watch for your requested
reply on the
discussion board.
Alternatively, you may specify a Usenet group to which you wish me
to post a reply, and may also provide a PGP public key if you wish
the response to be encrypted. -drh
I just e-mailed Prexy, sub-Prexy,
the Ladies and Jer. I asked why they don't ask their constituents what
they want. There's not much of a postal fee at their websites.
Wouldn't it be nice if they asked instead of told? Can you imagine
living in a democracy? Doesn't it make you wonder why it took a
billionaire Soros to go over their heads and ask the people (regarding
Prop 36)? And when the people stated their opinion, what do they get? Lady
Di trying to control Sudafed!
And here's another: I've asked all my friends why Davis was recalled. A
couple said they heard it was about he budget. The rest don't know. I
don't know. Yet, it happened. If it was about the budget, then how
did Arnold qualify? Houston, we have a problem...
"Ashley, rather then the
photo used making her look like a drug crazed drop out
teen ax murder...this is the real Ashley, sweet, meek,
and a beautiful person and spirit."
Mike
Ramos,
District Attorney
Dennis Stout,
Former District Attorney
and Wife, Linda
A
message reading: Update: Death of Ashley Mangus, see:
http://usuarios.lycos.es/speakeasy/ was posted to
the Big Bear message board at
http://www.rimoftheworld.net - and promptly removed.
This is just one example of what Big Bear faces in
trying to establish communications and justice in the
face of an organized criminal establishment operating
under the color of law enforcement and religion.
See below...
Some correspondence I received from Kim, mother of
Ashley's boyfriend:
"I would like to respond to the comments left by a
poster ***** regarding the death of Ashley. HOW DARE YOU
state Ashley died from self hatred and ignorance on the
part of her friends!!!!!!!. I knew this child very well.
I saw her every single day as she was my son's
girlfriend. Ashley didn't hate herself, she loved
herself, she loved life and everyone IN her life. She
didn't die because of her friends ignorance....we TRIED
to get her medical attention but ***** wouldn't allow
it. Before a person spouts off about how someone died,
why they died, or how they felt about themselves or the
character of their friends....it might benefit them if
they even knew the person. To *****, Ashley had NOT been
knee bending drunk on several occasions!!! If you knew
what you were talking about you wouldn't be discrediting
this child or her family or friends and many who
actually DID know this beautiful girl, take great
offense to your comments. By the way, if you had any
actual facts, you'd know that Ashley didn't even die
from alcohol anyway, after she was beaten up at that
party for vomiting, she was given a drink laced with
drugs that others thought would sober her up)...THOSE
teens should be facing murder charges as far as myself
and her mother are concerned!!!! *****, should be the
girl in jail for murder! Ashley never had a chance.
Lured to this party of older teens, given alcohol, then
drugged and beaten for vomiting...sad. *****, you need
to shut your big pie hole unless you have facts, which
you do not...just an ill advised opinion."
----------
"Post away lol, I've already spoken to ***** @ the *****
and emailed ***** but she never responded. I have no
idea who ***** is but I've a pretty good feeling she
didn't know Ashley at all, if barely.
Ashley died, I'm fairly confident, from being
intoxicated (however, not enough to kill her) but in
combination to being drugged at a party. I know this
because she was dumped out at MY house by two men and my
son went to the street to retrieve her back into our
home. She was crying hysterically, she had been slapped
and shoved around for quite some time by two girls, one
of which lured her TO that party...*****, much older and
very prone to more serious drug and alcohol use...who
also paid for and had an adult purchase a fifth of Vodka
for them BEFORE they ever went to the party...and then
later beat Ashley up because she wouldn't stop vomiting.
Ashley told us they (the two girls) continued to abuse
her because she couldn't stop vomiting and they then
told her they had given her something to calm her down
so they could get her out of that house ...Ashley knew
she had been drugged but not with what. Now, to date,
I've left several messages for Dect. Hagen (what a JOKE)
regarding his investigation ...and never heard back from
him to date. Wouldn't you THINK a person investigating a
DEATH, possibly homicide want to come and speak to the
very last people who ever spent time with this child??
Hear what she said had happened to her ...and by whom??
Her mother called Dect. Hagen and told him she wanted
him to speak with us, but he never did, a few deputies
gave him my name and number, he never called. What sort
of investigation is this anyway? A reporter @ the *****
told me confidentially, they would never report this
side of this story because a homicide in Big Bear would
be bad for tourism...HA HA!!! It's all a joke. They
...meaning the whole structure of law in this Valley
from the School district to the uppers in the SD, to the
DA...have a 'don't tarnish the tourist dollars'
attitude..sweep it under the rug, keep those people
coming up the hill with their kids because nothing
outside a Disneyland movie EVER happens up here...come
on down and we'll throw a stuffed bear in with your
visit to perfect land. It's sad, sad, sad. Our local
youth continue to do what they do and those in charge
continue to ignore and hush it and sweep, sweep, sweep.
Same thing they did when Michael Coleman died almost two
years ago (my sons best friend). Nobody cared, nobody
ever did time...he's gone and most people quit talking
about it, except those VERY few who loved the kid and
still miss him,,,,,ME, my son, his friends and family.
You can print what ever you want to print...at this
point, I really am just so sad, as is Ashley's mother,
we WANT the real truth out. Ashley was abused at that
party, she WAS given alcohol but not by those who were
arrested, she was given a drug and the girl who took her
there even said her last words to ashley...'I hope you
die *****'...yep, those were *****'s last words to
Ashley as they shoved her into someones car and then
came dumped her off here, in our street. PATHETIC..more
pathetic the Dectective doesn't even want to hear about
it, and just close the book calling it another
accidental teen alcohol death....which couldn't be
FARTHER from the truth."
Every holiday season, researchers from the University of
Michigan's Youth and Social Issues Program issue a report
detailing the year's trends in student drug use. The 2004
Monitoring the Future survey released last week revealed
little change -- with marijuana, "ecstasy," amphetamines and
steroids showing slight declines in use, while
hallucinogens, cocaine, heroin, other narcotics and
tranquilizers remained steady.
Alcohol, however, the most
widely used drug among high school students, increased in
prevalence since last year among older teens, with nearly 77
percent of seniors having tried it at some point before
graduation, and 60 percent admitting getting drunk -- half
within the past month.
As a result, parents, school
officials, and law enforcement have properly expressed
heightened concern about teenage consumption of alcohol. But
some of the policies designed to eradicate underage drinking
may be making things worse.
It's worth remembering that
teenage drinking is nothing new. It's been a part of
American culture since the first Puritan settlers in the
16th century. Alcohol has always been America's drug of
choice -- the substance we still use to celebrate ("Let's
drink to that!"), recreate ("I can't wait to kick back and
have a cold one!"), and medicate ("Boy, I really need a
drink!"). Since alcohol is used throughout our society, it
is no wonder that teenagers use it too, despite serious
attempts to stop them.
As City University of New York
professor Harry G. Levine, an eminent alcohol historian,
told me, "For 400 years, adult Americans have drunk
alcoholic drinks -- rum, ale, corn whiskey, lager beer,
roaring '20s cocktails, gin, wine, scotch, vodka and
nowadays piña coladas in cans. And for 400 years, each
generation of American parents have also worried about the
drinking and drunkenness of their teenage children and
fretted about their incapacity to eliminate it, or even
reduce it. None of that is new. But the riskiness of teenage
drinking is greater now than in the past because of our
reliance on automobiles."
The most lethal aspect of
underage alcohol use, by far, is drunken driving. The
National Highway Safety Administration reported in 2003 that
nearly 2,400 teens died in car accidents involving alcohol.
While I applaud increasing
alcohol education and crackdowns on drunken driving,
including the loss of a driver's license for a DUI, I worry
that some of the current efforts to eliminate underage
drinking may actually reduce teen safety. Designated-driver
programs have fallen out of favor as we move toward
punitive, zero-tolerance policies. Mothers Against Drunk
Driving, for example, has followed the lead of sexuality
education and taken an abstinence-only posture, and in
Naperville, Ill., a sober 20-year-old can be ticketed under
"presence" laws for chauffeuring friends who have been
drinking.
One of the most disturbing
trends targets parents. State and local "social host" laws
are popping up all over the country, from Oregon to Florida
to Vermont, which hold parents criminally responsible for
allowing underage drinking in their homes, evidenced by
their confiscation of car keys. These parents do not condone
or promote drinking. Nor do they provide alcohol at parties.
But they understand that underage drinking will occur,
whether or not they approve. Ultimately they believe their
teens are safer at home where they can be supervised, than
on the road.
I hate to see safety-oriented
parents vilified, but worry even more about the teenagers
they're trying to protect. When I ask young people how
they'll respond to the proliferation of these laws, which
will effectively eliminate the availability of parentally
supervised homes where they can "hang out," none say they'll
stop drinking. Instead, they say they will simply move the
party to the street, the local park, the beach or some other
public place. And they'll get there by car.
New Year's Eve is coming up, and
there will be parties. We ought to get real, and while we
encourage and promote sober gatherings, have a fallback
strategy that makes sure drinking and driving don't mix.
As long as drug use is evil, wrong, shameful,
guilty, criminal, et cetera; and as long as we continue our
current extending of "childhood," these things will happen. People
of 14 and 15 years have more than enough age to know better - if
they are allowed to learn.
A child becomes an adult at puberty.
Adults of this age have fought in wars. Drivers licenses were
still issued down to age 10 when I lived in Arkansas. I used to
drive and hunt alone by age 12. I had a part-time bartender job at
16, and partied and drank with doctors, lawyers and respectable
people who acknowledged and assisted me in my desire to grow up.
The same for other drug experimentation. He who treats a young adult as such, instead of as a child,
will witness the a most fulfilling spontaneous growth and
maturation in that young adult.
These poor souls are the victims of an
unfortunate set of psycho-social dynamics which might find
explanation by some of our older grandparents and
great-grandparents who know that slapping a morality upon normal
behavior and driving it into the back streets and alleyways - in
response to peer pressure and/or a lack of understanding, can only
cause tragedy. And these two young ladies are also, in fact, model
examples of the drug war victim. They died from forcibly
administered social and experiential deprivation.
From around age 7 or 8, any time my wife,
daughter and I ate out at a place where I could order my favorite,
a bottle of Merlot, my daughter was invited to a small glass. I
wasn't going to wait for 14 or 15. She was treated like an adult -
the best way to practice being one. She will never have a drug
problem or accident. But few parents even have the ability
any more to so prepare their children without losing them or going
to jail in the process.
About 60% of high school students admit
"illicit" drug use on recent surveys. That means and over half are
criminals - a fine way to start them out. They know first hand,
then see those lying "this is your brain on.." stuff, and are then
criminals who know the "experts" are full of it, too. Especially
when they see how drugs are "controlled" in relationship to their
effectiveness and safety.
But we're being told to just put our foot down.
Make 'em take it on faith... A real American value and virtue.
Good little obedient workers for the future - but not somebody to
whom I would trust mine. We have basically offered our youth two
options: Helpless or Outlaw.
Just think back to your younger years, and how
you would have felt and responded when treated with confidence,
pride and respect. That is how responsibility is fostered.
The proof is in the pudding - centuries of it.
If the face of instant communication,
population density and the resultant Jungian extroverts being
produced, WE HAVE A MAJOR PROBLEM BREWING. At this point, I am
afraid that condoning civil disobedience and independence is
essential, until we some how get a handle on this and are able to
provide education without becoming targets of the same forces from
which our younger brothers and sisters are forced to defend
themselves.
What the parents of Ashley and Carrie really
need to know is that their daughters were innocent and good - that
their exploratory behavior demonstrated, in fact, their
exceptional courage and maturity. They need to know that the
friends who provided the assistance to overcome the "handicap" of
their age were also brave and good. They need to know that people
who parented such exceptional children are also to be commended.
And they need to know that any blame can only be accepted by those
who demanded, took and hold by force, the role of "protector."
What frightens and angers me the most is the
knowledge, from first hand experience, that at least our county's
law enforcement and criminal justice system is fully appraised,
and shamelessly and intentionally exploiting its bosses for power
and money. When I heard a man I once respected say, "Whoaa... This
is my bread and butter," that woke me up.
--Dennis R. Hilton
Carrie Marie
Williams, 15,
of Hesperia,
our latest victim
of the Drug War.
Members
of Operation Breakthrough are going to light candles, hold
meetings to divert funds into their candle account and tie
ribbons on each other while doing deep knee bends, clapping
hands, chanting spells and examining their pee,
The Big Bear Grizzly will make big Kudos!
Sylvia Husing will have a cocktail with fellow alumnus Dennis
Stout,
The Big Bear Ministerial Association is going to have faith,
The District Attorney, Mike Ramos, is going to instruct his
deputies to pleasure their tongues over the whole thing,
The Sheriff, Gary Penrod, is going to demand more jails and kill
a bunch of innocent people to get even - but cover Tidwell's
ass,
School
board member Gary Thielfoldt is going to follow the orders of
the Sheriff,
School board member Larry E. Poland is going to heal by faith
and the laying upon of hands,
Another school board member is going to play dumb and be
sarcastic and silent,
Our teachers are going to fear the union, Jeezu Weezu, and shut
up,
Larry & Associates will be hosting a fundraiser,
The Board of Collusion will sponsor another spontaneous
inflation,
All the above are joining together to place the blame on
inanimate objects, thereby protecting their own
and nobody is going to be a hero (after all, Mrs. Thielfoldt, we don't
want to make the same mistake as did Japan, right?).
...and Ashley gets to die for nothing..
Humanity could sleep upon its cot
Even whilst the boards which hold it rot
And slumber still they could when they do fall.
Even the pain would not awake them all.
And sleeping still, they could rebuild the same
To start the falling over, once again.
And twice, and thrice, and more, they'd take the pain
And dream of dark lament, but never shame.
No, only few do know this taste of tastes,
Although it stares all keenly in the face,
I wonder just how long we'll live that doom,
Until the day we wake, that promised noon!
When after all the waves there'll come a crest,
Different than all the dormant rest,
Where ev'ry droplet shines and keeps abreast
And doesn't crash, but carries on! ...unless...
We take the other way... for it exists,
And if WE can't against it raise our fists,
Then it shall rise as surely as the sun,
At dawn: Extinction and Oblivion.
Not I, nor we, nor even this shall see
Of either day, and all that comes to be
Upon this youngest world, but surely we
Must work the harder for humanity.
We are but the dawn! And yet the day
Will surely follow... IN WHATEVER WAY.
--- Quincy
Saul
Educators, we have seen faith-based, fear-based, force-based,
censorship-based, shame-based, lie-based, Bear Valley Community
Collaborative greed-based and every other fool-based exploit
imaginable. It is time for fact-based, truth-based and
reason-based address to an issue which is simple, clear and
easily understood. If you can be shut up and cowed, we do
then have a problem.
Here are
some starting points. Please examine them before
dismissal. These people are not the salesmen or
witch-doctors to whom you have been most certainly accustomed in
regards to this issue. Among your supporters you will find
narcotics experts from Scotland Yard, Interpol and other law
enforcement agencies. You will find physicians, national
heads of state and Nobel Prize winners. And you will find
the data and logic clear and verifiable. There is nothing
to "believe."
In a few days,
I will be posting information and accounts specific to Big Bear.
I will also provide you with contact information for people of
world-wide recognition, with whom you can correspond personally.
This is the arena of the scientist and the educator. This
is your home field. As you have discovered, this subject is
hardly approachable to most people today. You need to fix
this. All that is required is knowledge, reason and truth.
I will respond privately to inquiries addressed to
drhilton@officer.com.
My responses neither require, expect or seek your "belief" - you
will either verify, concur or dismiss. Thank you.
(George Soros (www.soros.org)
is the benefactor of many of these groups)
Our local
court has long been a practice ground for new deputy prosecutors and
new sheriff's deputies, where they are allowed to develop a perfect
arrest or prosecution success record to use for their résumés when
they move on. A nursery, so to speak.
With no local
reporting or coverage, anything goes - and the defendant is
helpless. If your relationship is close enough, you may be
able to extract the truth
from a local attorney, this being that you will NEVER receive a
criminal defense unless you hire private counsel from out of the
area - preferably the county. And in the case of drug issues,
the DA and Public Defender will work hand in hand with the Sheriff
to make sure you go down without a jury trial or any attention by
the public.
Since our community can never financially support our local
attorneys, they all feed from the hand of the District Attorney's
Office via Public Defender assignments. Therefore, they go
hungry, and out of business, if they cross the DA. This in
fact is not limited to Big Bear. The DA passes out a huge
amount of Public Defender assignments to new and incompetent or
unpopular lawyers in return for "favors" by way of turn-coat
representation.
Here's a typical case:
"Joe" has
expired tags. He gets stopped. When asked if he has ever
been arrested, he admits to a previous possession charge.
Brownie immediately smiles and says, sarcastically, "I smell
marijuana! Out of the car! Whip it out and pee in this
cup!"
Joe gets a
ream of charges. He tells Dan, the Public Defender, he will
pay the registration fine - Brownie had no rhyme nor reason to
search his car. Dan says the DA has offered a 60-day jail
term. Joe says no way - he wants a jury trial and he is not
waiving his right to a speedy one, either.
At this, Dan
becomes upset, tries to erode Joe's confidence. Finally he
comes up with, "Well, this local deputy DA is such a bitch that we
better move the trial off the hill."
Why? Does anyone believe this bald-faced bull? No.
Actually, Dan has an office in Big Bear. If he defends Joe (I
could, and would win), his PD rations dry up and he gets
blackballed. Normally the procedure is to convince the
defendant to accept a plea bargain so Brownie and District
Attorneyette get that break and build their reputations. But
now we are looking at letting 12 local "peers" see and judge the
action - and that is a catastrophe waiting to explode in the faces
of the DA and Brownie. If it happens once, the cat is out of
the bag! If Dan wins, he gets blackballed. If he loses,
nobody will want to hire him...
The situation is so tense, that the judge, himself, intervened and
offered a drug court deal - after his "defense" attorney told him he
had no hope!
If you get popped for drugs in Big Bear, remember that we all know
each other Plead innocent, demand a jury trial of your PEERS,
meaning here in Big Bear, and do not waive time And no
Operation Exploitation or Drug Court. What a shameful thing
our law enforcement and criminal justice systems have become!
Soon they will be randomly fingering our ani and "taxing" us for
their smelly digits At your trial, make sure we see you, and
hear what you have to say about what you did do, did not do, and
what you want us to know. As jurors, WE decide ANY WAY WE
WANT, on WHATEVER REASONING WE WISH - regardless of misleading
"instructions." That is what a jury is all about. See
FIJA.
If everyone would just take this advice seriously, the rapists of
innocent well-known and good people would get a cock-bobbing that
would dry them right up.
DATE: 30 Nov 2004
TO: Banning Unified School District Superintendent Kathleen
McNamara, Assistant Superintendent John Schrom, Board Members Alice
Silverman, Amy Herr, Ann Peace, Karl Walton, Pelton Teague
cc: Banning Record Gazette, San Bernardino County Sun
Before making a decision which will further undermine relationships
between parents, educators and students, I urge you to examine the
information born of experience and provided at
www.drugtestingfails.org. I would further like to
introduce you to Educators for Sensible Drug Policy at
www.efsdp.org.
Our students of today will soon be the parents, officials and voters
of tomorrow. If we want them to learn how to be, in fact want them
to want to be, responsible, respectful, considerate, thinking
adults, we must treat them as such. The primary reason that America
now imprisons more of its people than any nation in the free world;
the primary reason for the trend toward an anti-social society, is
the manner in which our youth are treated.
Raise our young in an authoritative environment where obedience and
compliance are of supreme importance; where age, titles, offices and
ranks segregate people into castes of rulers and servants, and they
will turn on others with a vengeance as soon as they climb to
THEIR position of "superiority."
Your historians know the truth of "prohibition." Your psychologists
and sociologists know the results of (and real motivations for)
prohibiting anything. They also know that "abstainers"
represent the most emotionally-disturbed segment of society, while
casual, recreational drug/alcohol users are the most stable and
healthy. You tried and/or use drugs - how can you scorn your child
for the same curious, learning behavior? And how can your child
respect anyone who lies?
I was taught as a child to "have a questioning mind," not to shut up
and obey. How do you want to be treated when you are old and
retired? How do you want your children's children to be treated?
Thanks for lending me an ear. PLEASE examine the resources listed
herein.
"Random drug testing is invasive and unconstitutional
in government-funded institutions such as the public schools. The
purpose of a school is to simply educate. When an individual is
regulated and controlled, it is only human nature to resist that
confinement. Such an attempt may actually be counterproductive,
leaving students cautious of the intentions of people they are
supposed to trust. The truth is that such testing does not result in
drug-free schools but only produces a population of humiliated,
angry, and fearful students."
--Katherine Peterson, Daily Iowan, September 6,
2002
"The "War on Drugs" is arguably America's #1 public
policy failure. After decades of criminal prohibition and
intensive law enforcement efforts to rid the country of illegal
drugs, violent traffickers and dealers still endanger life in our
cities, a steady stream of drug offenders still pours in and out of
our jails and prisons, and tons of cocaine, heroin and marijuana
still cross our borders unimpeded. Every year, it becomes
increasingly obvious that the effects of our drug control policy are
more harmful than the effects of drugs themselves.
Educators For Sensible Drug Policy opposes criminal prohibition of
drugs. Not only does it subject otherwise law-abiding citizens
to arrest, prosecution and imprisonment for what they do in private,
but prohibition is a proven failure as a drug control strategy. In
trying to enforce the drug laws, the government violates the
fundamental rights of privacy and personal autonomy that are
guaranteed by our Constitution.
EFSDP believes that unless they do harm to others, people should not
be punished -- even if they do harm to themselves.
Unfortunately, our schools are often times the battlegrounds upon
which the "War on Drugs" is waged, with our children always ending
up the victims. EFSDP is committed to combating the Higher Education
Act Amendment, D.A.R.E. in our schools, and the drug testing of
students who wish to participate in extra-curricular activities."
"In 1929 W.O.N.P.R. was founded to rescue America's families and
communities from the ravages of ten years of alcohol prohibition.
In 2004, after thirty years of a failed "War on Drugs", the tragic
consequences of prohibition are back - gang warfare, arbitrary and
racially biased enforcement, corruption and broken homes.
The Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform has been
resurrected to return dignity to school children, responsibility to
families and credibility to law enforcement."
--Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform,
www.wonpr.org
Why I want all drugs legalised
by Edward Ellison,
Former Head of Scotland Yard's Anti-Drugs Squad
As a former drugs squad chief
I've seen too may youngsters die. I'm determined my children don't
get hooked - which is why I want all drugs legalised.
Seven years of my life was spent in Scotland Yard anti-drugs squad,
four as its head. I saw the misery that drug abuse can cause. I saw
at first hand the squalor, the wrecked lives, the deaths.
And I saw, and arrested when I could, the people who do so well out
of drugs; the dealers, the importers, the organisers. I saw the
immense profits they were making out of human misery, the money
laundering, the crime syndicates they financed.
They were running a business - a hugely profitable business where
mark-ups were immense, where they had a captive market, and where
they paid no taxes on their profits.
Later, in the murder squad, I saw the drugs-related killings. And as
'crime manager' of London police stations, I saw the knock-on crime:
the muggings, break-ins and burglaries to which addicts resort to
pay for their drugs. I had a professional interest in stopping all
this.
Now I am retired, I have the strongest of personal vested interests
in reducing drug use. I have two children at a vulnerable age and I
will do anything in my power to keep them from the clutches of the
drug barons, and to keep them from abusing drugs.
So when I now say "let us legalise drugs", I hope I will not be
accused of being tolerant of the evils that drugs cause, or soft on
the thugs and violent criminals who push drugs, wreck lives, and are
imperilling our society.
Suffered
I say legalise drugs because I want to see less drug abuse, not
more. And I say legalise drugs because I want to see the criminals
put out of business.
I learned one thing in those years: we all pay for drugs. The true
cost of every drug deal falls on the public. Muggings, cars broken
into, houses burgled - if you have suffered, the odds are that the
goods you lost were used to pay for drugs. The money they fetched
went into the hands of the drug barons.
More than half the victims of theft are victims of drug crime. The
huge profits the drug-pushers make come from your pocket and mine.
Everyone who pays increased insurance premiums is doing so,
indirectly, for that same reason.
We have attempted prohibition. Police forces used to target the
end-user. All that happened was that courts and laboratories became
clogged with thousands of cases of small, individual users, and a
generation of young people came to think of the police as their
enemies. There were no resources left to fight other crime.
In sheer self-defence, senior police then concentrated on the supply
chain - the pushers - and tolerated possession. End-users were let
off with a caution. It saved court and laboratory time, reduced
friction between police and young people, but gave us the worst of
both worlds: a high crime rate and high profits for the criminals.
If prohibition is the right policy, why hasn't it worked? drug use
is now part of the social life of around half of our children. From
cannabis to registered heroin addiction, drug use is growing.
Police and Customs have had their successes but each large seizure
they make merely drives up the price on the street, guaranteeing
even higher profits for the criminals.
Quite obviously, prohibition has failed.
Demand and supply are increasing. The pushers make profits that are
quite obscene. And as the stakes get higher, the violence more
vicious. It means attempts to corrupt the legal system, grievous
personal injury and even murder.
Why does drug gang violence occur? Because criminals fight to expand
their trade and make more money. They have a monopoly business and a
captive market: so the only competition is among themselves.
Government of all hues credit 'market forces' with invincible power
- yet refuse to unleash that power, or deploy it in the drug fight.
Let us use market forces to drive them out of business.
We can take the criminal out of the supply chain, and reduce demand
by economic means and by education. We cannot do it by policing.
Lord knows we have been trying long enough.
Cowardly
Time and again politicians parrot one phrase: Legalising drugs is
'unthinkable'. Yet politicians are paid to think. Sadly, their
leaders forbid them licence to even discuss the matter.
The pushers earn my hatred: politicians who are too cowardly to
think, or to promote public debate, earn my contempt.
They forget, those who spout the word 'unthinkable', that drugs like
heroin were once legal, and fairly recently too. In the Sixties,
clinics were allowed to prescribe to heroin addicts, drugs from
reputable, medical sources at prices that were not inflated.
Today, drugs at cost equivalent of £1,000 pound on the street could
be produced for the NHS for just £1. That is £999 that would not
have to be found by the addicts - in other words, stolen from you.
It is £999 that would not go straight into the pockets of crime
syndicates.
The benefit to the drug addict would be huge. Getting his drugs from
a legal source would access him to counselling, support, therapy -
all the things he or she needs to break dependency.
'Legalised cannabis' does not mean 'encourage cannabis'. It means
the reverse. I want to see the lowest level of drug abuse, with the
least detrimental effect on everyone else.
Legalised cannabis would mean that parents and teachers could
discuss it with young people openly, not confrontationally. It means
those thinking of using it will get education, not propaganda, and
they will be less likely to take it as a gesture of adolescent
rebellion. The same applies to the harder drugs.
Ashamed
If reputable companies, of the calibre of ICI, say, were allowed to
make and sell these drugs there would be education, knowledge and
quality control. The price would plummet.
The criminals would be hit where it hurts them most - in their
pockets. Their power-base would be cut from under their feet. They
would have no more clients. We would truly drive them out of
business.
I abhor drug abuse and criminal activity. I condemn a policy that
profits criminals, and I am angered by the drug crimes that effect
us all. I am ashamed at the limited resources available to support
victims and their families, and I am angered most by politicians who
claim to have no licence even to discuss alternatives.
We now have a drug czar, with wide-ranging powers. Keith Hellawell
is a man of experience. He has a proper background and broad vision.
Let us hope that the politicians will allow him to use it.
Edward Ellison,
Former Head of Scotland Yard's Anti-Drugs Squad
Scotland Yard Chief
Anthony Wills Says, "Legalize It"
One of Britain's most senior police officers has joined the
legalization chorus. Chief Superintendent Anthony Wills, borough
commander of Hammersmith and Fulham in London, called for the
government to take over the drug trade since it cannot stop it.
In an interview with the
Hammersmith and Shephards Bush Gazette last week, Wills said
even hard drugs, such as crack cocaine and heroin, should be
legalized. "I would have no problems with decriminalizing drugs
full stop," said Mr. Wills. "There have to be very stringent
measures over the production and supply of drugs, and we have
got to remove the drug market from criminals. I do not want
people to take drugs, but if they are going to, I want them to
take them safely, with a degree of purity and in a controlled
way."
Wills repeated his insistence
that he was not promoting drug use. "I am not saying people
should take drugs. They are very bad for you, but the reality of
the world we live in is this: If people want to get drugs, they
can get them. Drugs are a fact of life, and you cannot eradicate
them," Wills said. "My only concern is to increase the safety of
the community and not to allow these ghastly people to make a
fortune out of other people's misery."
Wills, a 30-year veteran who
commands more than 2,000 officers, said that no matter how harsh
drug laws are, they are doomed to failure. "There are some
places where people are beheaded if they sell drugs, but even
this does not stop the trade."
And enforcing the cannabis
laws is a waste of police resources, Wills added. "I am very
liberal in relation to possession of drugs," he said. "Policing
cannabis is a waste of our time, as I do not feel the effects of
cannabis are any worse than over-consumption of alcohol."
Wills may have joined the
growing number of high police and government officials who have
gone off the reservation on drug policy, but the Blair
government remains steadfast. "All controlled drugs are harmful
and will remain illegal," the Home Office noted tersely in
response to Wills' remarks. "The Government's drug strategy
focuses on the most dangerous drugs as the misery they cause
cannot be underestimated. We have not seen the interview and so
cannot comment on it."
Flex Your Rights is a nonprofit,
educational organization working to train individuals to protect their
civil liberties during police encounters. Recent decisions by
the Supreme Court have expanded the scope of police power with respect
to search and seizure for the purpose of fighting illegal drugs.
In response to this apparent "drug exception to the Constitution,"
police agencies have adopted more invasive and controversial police
tactics.
We are the young men and women whose names the government uses to
justify a war that destroys lives, a war that attempts to attain the
unattainable objective of an America free of drugs. We want answers
from those that wage war in our name.
"We videotape the police to insure
accountability"
The Police Complaint Center is a national non-profit organization
that provides assistance to victims of police misconduct. Using
available technology, the Police Complaint Center documents and
investigates alleged incidents of police abuse. Our staff are former
police officers and licensed private investigators. We believe that
many police organizations have done a poor job of protecting the
public from abusive officers. Our primary service is assisting victims
of misconduct with reporting complaints to appropriate enforcement
agencies. We also investigate police and sheriffs deputies that are
accused of abusive behavior.
GoodBadCorrupt.com
"The mission of this website is to
EXPOSE CORRUPTION
in local government. I was a police officer with the San Bernardino
Police Department in California for over a decade and was shot twice
by officers..."
Dedicated
to the many law enforcement professionals who bring honor to the
badge. Officers who report corruption should be promoted, not punished
and ostracized.
Congress Against Racism &
Corruption in Law Enforcement
Democracy is a conversation.
Have a good
idea? Got a complaint? Write a letter to the public servant of your
choice. Choose from over 40,000 officials.
Indymedia is a collective of independent media organizations and
hundreds of journalists offering grassroots, non-corporate coverage.
Indymedia is a democratic media outlet for the creation of radical,
accurate, and passionate tellings of truth. Publish your own
news online.
The Center for Cognitive Liberty &
Ethics (CCLE) is a network of scholars elaborating the law, policy and
ethics of freedom of thought. Our mission is to develop public polices
that will preserve and enhance freedom of thought into the 21st
Century.
We have imprisoned more than 2.2
million of our citizens and every year we arrest an additional 1.6
million for nonviolent drug offenses - more per capita than any
country in the world. The United States has 5 percent of the
population of the world but 25 percent of the world's prisoners.
Current and former members of law enforcement have recently created a
new and important drug-policy reform group called LEAP.
In 1929 W.O.N.P.R. was founded to rescue
America's families and communities from the ravages of ten years of
alcohol prohibition. In 2004, after thirty years of a failed
"War on Drugs", the tragic consequences of prohibition are back - gang
warfare, arbitrary and racially biased enforcement, corruption and
broken homes. The Women's Organization for National Prohibition
Reform has been resurrected to return dignity to school children,
responsibility to families and credibility to law enforcement.
With American
search engines now censored, either for the "war effort" or for the
dollar, I suggest you try these:
A
message to drug law "offenders" in Big Bear
