- The war on drugs, which has been waged vigorously by Republican and Democratic administrations alike since the 1970s, has had a number of negative impacts with little practical benefits. Drug prohibition funds inner city gangs, ruins lives, swells the prison population, and promotes corruption in neighboring countries (thus, in the long run, aggravating immigration problems). What should congress do to alleviate these damaging results of our perpetual, unwinnable war on drugs?
- In
- The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-sci-warming5may05,0,4174050.story?coll=la-home-headlines) calling on the world to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit global warming. How aggressive should we be to reduce greenhouse gas emissions? Can we rely on technological innovation to prevent widespread disruptive environmental change, or should we aggressively control fossil fuel use by imposing carbon use taxes and mandatory reductions?
- Is it possible to halt the spread of nuclear weapons, and, if so, what resources should we commit to prevent Iran (for example) from acquiring them? Would it be better to accept, as Einstein and others said at the beginning of the nuclear age, that the genie is out of the bottle? If the latter, would it be better to build a world community in which the use of nuclear weapons is unlikely even if more countries have them? How can
- What, if anything, should the
Friday, May 4, 2007
Questions I'd like to ask the candidates
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2 comments:
I don't believe in asking the candidates what their positions are. Those are softball questions that invite mealy-mouthed, meaningless answers. You will learn nothing from their replies as to how they will perform in office.
I believe in telling the candidates what I want done and how my best knowledge tells me it should be done and inviting their response. If I don't know what I want and have some idea about how to achieve it then I am not fit to engage in participatory politics. Big Money doesn't ask what a candidate what he/she thinks about any issue. Big Money tells the candidate what It thinks and wants. Every voter should do the same.
I hope you will visit my blog
www.lefthandjesus.blogspot.com
and also my campaign website
www.danielforcongress.com
to get a sense of who I am and what I stand for.
I have a strong position on the failed drug war and I would be honored by your support.
From my platform:
Prisons and the War on Drugs
· The war on drugs is a monumental disaster, financially, socially, legally, and morally.
· The war on drugs is unconstitutional.
· Rehabilitation, not prisons, is the answer to the drug problem.
· The war on drugs is racist and disproportionately affects women, poor people and ethnic minorities.
· Racial profiling is unconstitutional and wrong.
· Better legal services for are needed for people with limited financial means.
· Civil liberties must be protected.
· Prisoners have fundamental human rights the state and prison system are bound to respect.
While the drug war excuses all kinds of civil rights infringements without reducing addiction rates, culturally accepted drugs continue to wreak havoc with the public health. Alcohol kills perhaps a quarter million Americans directly or indirectly each year, second only to tobacco, which is responsible for as many 1,200 fatalities every day. Half of all fatal car crashes, homicides, suicides, domestic assaults and cases of child abuse or neglect involve alcohol.
The problem with drugs is not that people use them, it is that some people abuse and become dependent on drugs. This is a problem for health professionals, not police, who need to be protecting us from truly dangerous criminals.
The Constitution does not give the federal government power to regulate personal drug use. Nearly one million non-violent drug offenders crowd in our prisons. Civil rights have been curtailed in the name of countering drug use. Precious law enforcement resources are taken away from fighting real crime, and violence is endemic among gangs fighting for turf in the drug trade. Families are torn apart by mandatory sentencing, and urban residents learn to mistrust police. Addicts avoid seeking help because they fear losing their jobs, reputations, and liberty. And billions of dollars are lost to fight a losing battle.
Drug use remains steady.
Any teenager can obtain pot or cocaine; it is much harder to obtain alcohol because the government regulates intoxicating beverages. Enacting a similar approach to soft drugs would go a long way to keeping kids from using.
Harder drugs need to be dispensed by licensed professionals, and universities should begin looking at degree programs for specially trained psychiatrists who can provide these substances and supervise their use in individuals of questionable mental health.
No one wants children to use drugs. No one wants to see Americans sicken, destroy or kill themselves with drugs. Yet, these things are happening, with both legal and illegal drugs. Locking people up neither helps them nor prevents others from using drugs; it simply makes criminals out of them. They leave jail much worse off than when they went in, with fewer opportunities and less hope. If we want to improve safety and health and reduce crime, we must learn to accept regulated use of drugs by adults, and leave abuse and dependence to health practitioners, not politicians, police and judges – as our neighbors in Canada and our allies in England, Denmark, the Netherlands and elsewhere have done with considerable success. This approach will be cheaper, more effective, and better in keeping with the American values of self-determination and liberty.
peace to you
-daniel abraham brezenoff
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