Drug War

Terrorism and the Drug War

by Sheldon Richman November 1, 2001

Americans no doubt would be distressed to learn that the U.S. government helped finance the terrorist attacks that killed so many people in New York and Washington. It’s not such a far-fetched thought. According to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, terrorist organizations are financed in part by profits from trading in drugs. “The illegal drug trade ...

Our New National Chief Therapist

by James Bovard October 1, 2001

"I would hope that we are judged by the lives that are touched and the hope that we give America," declared Asa Hutchinson, Bush's new Drug Enforcement Agency chief during a press conference on his first day in his new job. Considering that the DEA seeks to maximize the number of people that ...

The Most Dangerous Substance of All

by Sheldon Richman September 1, 2001

For all our preoccupation with ridding society of cocaine, heroin, and marijuana, little thought is given to the most dangerous mind-altering substance of all: ink. Do you doubters need proof? Take Rachel Carson’s famous book, Silent Spring. In 1963 Carson wrote a book claiming that the insecticide DDT was damaging ...

Update on the Drug War

by Sheldon Richman August 1, 2001

THE U.S. SUPREME COURT has ruled that “medical necessity” is not a permissible defense under the federal statute that outlaws distribution of marijuana. This has been widely interpreted as a lethal blow to the medical marijuana movement. The government had sought an injunction against an Oakland, California, cooperative that distributed marijuana to people whose ...

A Modest Proposal for the Next Drug-War Shootdown

by James Bovard August 1, 2001

THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION and federal agencies are still struggling with the backlash from the shootdown by Peruvian jet fighters of a Cessna airplane in which five Americans were traveling. Everybody regrets the fact that a CIA surveillance plane notified Peruvian jets that a plane carrying Baptist missionaries might contain drug traffickers. But unless the U.S. government is to suffer ...

The Drug War Is Doomed

by Sheldon Richman July 1, 2001

The announcement that we have a new drug czar (a nice term for a government official in America, no?) reminded me of a recent appearance on CNN of the previous drug czar, Gen. Barry McCaffrey, and U.S. Rep. Bob Barr, Republican of Georgia. They were discussing the need to be tough ...

Drug-War Killings in Peru

by Jacob G. Hornberger June 1, 2001

IN APRIL, two more innocent people were killed in the U.S government’s 30-year war on drugs. This time, the victims were a 35-year-old missionary named Veronica Bowers and her 7-month-old baby, Charity, who were flying in a small Cessna from Brazil to Peru with Bowers’s husband, another of their children, and the pilot. After a CIA plane issued an alert ...

Another Drug-War Lesson in Peru

by Jacob G. Hornberger April 1, 2001

The war on drugs has now taken two more casualties — 35-year-old missionary Veronica Bowers and her 7-month old child Charity. Last Friday, April 20, a Peruvian interceptor jet attacked and shot down a defenseless single-engine Cessna in which Bowers and her baby were traveling. Surviving the attack were her ...

The Drug War’s Assault on Liberty

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2001

ROBERT DOWNEY JR. is a perfect example of the war on drug’s tremendous assault on liberty. Downey is the famous Hollywood actor who has a drug problem. To punish him for being a drug addict, the state has arrested him, prosecuted him, incarcerated him, released him, and arrested him anew. The state won’t leave ...

Fox Should Lead Way on Drug Legalization

by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2001

Another Latin American president is talking about ending the war on drugs. First, there is Uruguay's president, Jorge Batlle, who openly calls for drug legalization. And now there is Vicente Fox, Mexico's newly elected president. Last Monday, (March 19) in an article entitled "Fox Talks Drug Legalization," the Associated Press reported, "In an interview ...

Fox Should End Drug War

by Jacob G. Hornberger February 1, 2001

"When President Bush travels to Mexico this week, Mexican President Fox has the opportunity to help lead the world out of one of its most immoral and destructive wars -- the war on drugs. The drug war, as Fox well knows, has produced nothing but failure, death, destruction, and corruption within the Mexican government. ...

A Nation of Children

by Sheldon Richman February 1, 2001

President Clinton took some flak in the closing weeks of his administration when he told a Rolling Stone interviewer, “I think that most small amounts of marijuana have been decriminalized in some places and should be.” The negative reaction was so strong that a Clinton spokesman said that the president was not ...