Login
Forgot Password?

OR

Login with Google Login with Twitter Login with Facebook
  • Join
  • Profiles
  • Groups
  • SuicideGirls
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Shop
Vital Stats

hecklongtree

Syosset, NY

Member Since 2004

Followers 236 Following 1985

  • Everything
  • Photos
  • Video
  • Blogs
  • Groups
  • From Others

Friday Jan 13, 2006

Jan 13, 2006
0
  • Facebook
  • Tweet
  • Email
I'm reading a great book,"Bad Neighbor Policy: Washington's Futile War on Drugs in Latin America" by Cato Institute scholar Ted Galen Carpenter. It is a penetrating examination of America's vain attempts, under both Republican and Democratic administrations, to stop drug trafficking in Latin America and the Caribbean.

When he first declared a "war on drugs," Richard Nixon was simply using a metaphor. We should make the same effort to eliminate drug abuse, Nixon was saying, as we do when we wage war. Nevertheless, as Carpenter astutely observes, by framing American efforts to end drug abuse as a "war," he shaped America's response to the problem.

By the 1980's, the war on drugs had become an actual shooting war, with the Panama invasion to capture Noriega (under US drug-trafficking indictments) being one of its notable battles. But, more than that, declaring a war on drugs created a war mentality in the United States.

Carpenter cites a 1989 Washington Post/ABCNews Poll, where respondents declared that, in service of the war on drugs, they would permit the following:

1. 62% would give up a few freedoms ;
2. 67% would allow random car searches for drugs;
3. 52% would allow police, without a warrant, to search suspected drug traffickers' homes, even if some homes were searched by mistake;
4. 71% supported making it against the law to portray illegal drug use in movies.

The poll results are troubling, since they reveal Americans' willingness to surrender their consitutional rights. But, as Carpenter observes, resort to such desperate measures is to be expected when a nation is engaged in a protracted conflict that it is on the verge of losing.

Carpenter's book was published in 2003, right at the dawn of the "war on terror," so it doesn't directly address the matter. I bet, though, that if you took that same poll today, substituting the word terror for drugs, you woud get the same results.
VIEW 14 of 14 COMMENTS
lostidentity:
Happy Birthday!!!

I think one of the best ways to handle the drug problem is rather than cut out supply, cut out the demand, but maybe thats easier said than done.
Jan 18, 2006
latchbeam:
Hey, you have to update on your birthday and tell people what you did!
Jan 18, 2006

More Blogs

  • 04.20.07
    2

    Friday Apr 20, 2007

    Update: I'm now in the top 22% of the nearly one million players in C…
  • 04.09.07
    3

    Monday Apr 09, 2007

    Anyone else playing the CNBC Portfolio Challenge? Players get one mil…
  • 02.17.07
    5

    Saturday Feb 17, 2007

    All weekend, I've been watching the "Alfred Hitchcock Presents--Seaso…
  • 01.25.07
    7

    Thursday Jan 25, 2007

    I can't believe Donald Trump received a star on the Hollywood Walk of…
  • 01.17.07
    3

    Wednesday Jan 17, 2007

    I turn 45 today. Egad!
  • 01.10.07
    2

    Wednesday Jan 10, 2007

    And so it's 2007, year four of the war in Iraq. Tonight, the Presiden…
  • 12.31.06
    3

    Sunday Dec 31, 2006

    The Jets are playoff bound!
  • 12.20.06
    4

    Wednesday Dec 20, 2006

    Did anyone see the Knicks game? They won on a buzzer-beater for the …
  • 12.07.06
    1

    Thursday Dec 07, 2006

    Nice to see the membership is growing in SG Pulp Fiction, the group …
  • 12.04.06
    3

    Monday Dec 04, 2006

    I see SG is messing around with the web site design again. Not sure I…

We at SuicideGirls have been celebrating alternative pin-up girls for:

23
years
9
months
6
days
  • 5,509,826 fans
  • 41,393 fans
  • 10,327,617 followers
  • 4,593 SuicideGirls
  • 1,120,333 followers
  • 14,919,693 photos
  • 321,315 followers
  • 61,389,486 comments
  • Join
  • Profiles
  • Groups
  • Photos
  • Videos
  • Shop
  • Help
  • About
  • Press
  • LIVE

Legal/Tos | DMCA | Privacy Policy | 18 U.S.C. 2257 Record-Keeping Requirements Compliance Statement | Contact Us | Vendo Payment Support
©SuicideGirls 2001-2025

Press enter to search
Fast Hi-res

Click here to join & see it all...

Crop your photo