Guns for Columbia.

K

Keiller TN

New member
I wrote to my Senator, Fred Thompson, expressing my objection to spending $1.3 billion in Columbia to fight the drug problem. This is an excerpt from his answer:
"As you may know, Colombian President Andres Pastrana recently asked the U.S. government for an additional $1.3 billion dollars over two years to aid the fight against the production and export of drugs from Columbia. This new funding would be used to provide more training and equipment for rapid deployment units and to increase economic aid in rural areas where drugs are grown in order to encourage farmers to stop drug production."
Sounds like we are being blackmailed. Who thinks this will stem the flow of drugs? Have you ever lived in an apartment complex with cockroaches? You have to spray the whole building, not just one apartment. They roaches just move to other apartments till the poison clears. I think this is what will happen in South America. Our money into another black hole!!!!!!1

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"Unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain that build it:
except the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain." (Psalm 127:1)


"Freedom is given to the human conditionally, in the assumption of his constant religious responsibility."
(Alexander Solzhenitzyn)

[This message has been edited by Keiller TN (edited September 12, 2000).]
 
You are correct in supposing that there will be little effect on the drug trade because the bulk of this money is, as the Senator notes, for the formation of "rapid deployment units" of the Columbian Army, which has been fighting a loosing war against two rebel groups who now may conctrol over half the territiory (but not half the population) of the country. The strength of the rebel force has grown in proportion to their increase in area contoled. There may now be up to 40,000 regulars in their service and who knows how many local guerillas.
Even if the Army wins, it will not stop the drug trade, because in reality, massive corruption within the Army itself in this reguard has been one of the major problems with this government from the start. Each Colonel has his own private territory in which he can basically do whatever he pleases: little warlords.
Perhaps the new units will be under the control of a stronger central command.
 
Instead of spending 1.3 Billion on the Columbians... I would instead use the book HAMMERHEADS as an operations manual for future drug control.
 
Why don't we just genetically mutate some sort of insect to devastate cocaine, marajuana, and opium crops?

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The Alcove

I twist the facts until they tell the truth. -Some intellectual sadist

The Bill of Rights is a document of brilliance, a document of wisdom, and it is the ultimate law, spoken or not, for the very concept of a society that holds liberty above the desire for ever greater power. -Me
 
Better yet, why don't we curb our insatiable appetite for cocaine and shut down the drug-lords next week?

Won't ever happen, but that's the only real solution of course.

Lots of $$$ being made on BOTH sides of this "war."
 
Agree with Jack 99. Make it so unpleasant an experience for the user to be caught with drugs that he will think twice before doing it again. Community service picking up dog doo in the city park, cleaning public bathrooms, sweeping street gutters, cleaning vacant lots, etc, etc, every weekend for a year on first offense. Huge monetary fines and property confiscation for second offense. Dry up the demand and the supply will disappear. Locking up dealers is a waste of time and jail space. There is too much money in dealing and too many people waiting in line to take the other guys place when he is sent up.
 
I third that sentiment. As long as their is demand there will be supply. I think the $1.3 billion should be either
A) given to people who don't and have never taken drugs. THAT'S an incentive!
B) used to develop an additive/ genetically alter cocaine crops so that if you use it you turn flourescent orange. That would make it easier to spot users and color coordinate them with those nifty jumpsuits they will end up wearing with "PROPERTY OF[your local area here] CORRECTIONAL FACILITY" stenciled on the back.

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Those who use arms well cultivate the Way and keep the rules.Thus they can govern in such a way as to prevail over the corrupt- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
 
I have a better idea. Give the 280 million Americans their $4K back and stop trying to flog a dead horse with a better whip. The war on drugs is a lost cause. We should declare a victory and get on with our lives. Even if you nuked Columbia there would be some other 3rd world nation popping up to replace the supply; there is WAY too much $$ to be made. The only reason why there is so much $$ to be made is cause its illegal. Legalize it, tax it and get the government nose the F out of people's private lives. What we do on oour time is our business. Dont give me the how would you like the bus driver showing up stoned cause it already happens. Penalize the crap out of its abuse, stop funding rehab clinics and allow insurance companies to rape junkies with high rates and or no coverage. Make people face the consequences of drug abuse.
 
Hey, I know -- let's make possession of any non-prescription drug in any amount punishable by death, and let's set up special drug courts to process the arrests, with summary execution immediately following conviction.

The anti-drug warriors here are the spiritual kin of the anti-gun warriors at HCI. I hope you folks like your plans for the War on Drugs, because the War on Guns will be following the exact same blueprint in about five years (maybe 10 years if by some miracle Bush is elected in November).
 
Remember when we banned alcohol sales in the US? Prohibition didn't work then, all it did was fund the Mafia. Prohibition of drugs isn't working now, all it is doing is funding the drug gangs.

Legalize it, tax it, and spend the tax dollars on drug rehab. Face it, CVS and Rexall don't shoot it deciding who can build a drugstore on which corner.

The longer we allow the drug war to go on, the more civil rights we will lose. Let's declare victory and go home.

M1911
 
I don't agree with legalization, I don't want the stuff officially endorsed in any way.

I do, however, think the government is botching the job of fighting drugs. DARE has had some effect, that's for sure, but why stop there? Why not focus more on education and empowerment rather than waiting until after the fact to clean up?

For those that still slip through, I think harsh probation is important. Jail time is a waste of money, and often just hooks drug dealers up with other drug dealers they'd probably never meet otherwise.

The idea of community policing needs to be recognized as being as useful as it really is. Neighborhood watches can do a lot more than the government would like you to believe, and in some places they have. You will never see a drug dealer in my neighborhood, and if you do, chances are he's going to have a hole through him or handcuffs on in very short time.

Also, we need to continue our efforts of cutting off the supply, but only practically, not with the stupidity that is currently directed at this problem. Make drug dealing a vastly more harsh penalty than drug using, and make the penalties simple, and forthright. Physical punishments would probably be best, such as flogging, or caning. Criminals go to jail and get to live with people like themselves, some of them really don't mind it so much, but they would never forget being beaten severely with no chance of fighting back, and full advanced knowledge that it was going to happen to them.

Also, we need to make the penalties for bringing drugs across the border extremely severe. Perhaps not only a beating, but solitary confinement as well.

There is NO point in attacking the end user, it will not ever solve anything, and it will only make the people hate their government even more, and for all the wrong reasons.

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The Alcove

I twist the facts until they tell the truth. -Some intellectual sadist

The Bill of Rights is a document of brilliance, a document of wisdom, and it is the ultimate law, spoken or not, for the very concept of a society that holds liberty above the desire for ever greater power. -Me
 
Dangus, you sometimes scare me. First and foremost can anybody come up with a reason why certain drugs are illegal and others are not??? The reason why the DARE programs were cut is that they were working. If we actually solved the problem, either through legalizations or educations all the little empires would be gone and the beurocRATS running them would have to get real jobs. We couldnt have that now could we? No matter how harsh you penalize its distribution/use... there WILL be people who want it and would be willing to pay for it, hence you WILL have people willing to risk things to make the $$. Do we really want to go to the point of executing drug runners??? Just think about it for a second. We are going to execute/beat/torture... someone for supplying a commodity that another knowingly asks for? Give me a break. I have yet to see many dealers tie people to chairs and force them to smoke dope, crack... People WANT the stuff and they volunteer to take it. If they are so stupid as to get hooked on the stuff let them die and help eliminate weak genes from the pool. We should legalize all of it, tax it and spend the money on educating people and kids better so thay can make wiser choice in life. No tax funded rehab clinics, no medical bennies to allow for detox, nothing. If youre stupid enough to get yourself hooked, then get yourself off it. No handouts from my wallet for your stupidity.

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"Liberty is never unalienable; it must be redeemed regularly with the blood of patriots or it always vanishes."
-R.A. Heinlein
 
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