Online Drug
Policy Library
Constitution of the United States
The Bill of Rights
Against the "War on Drugs"
A Dangerous Policy
Drug High
How Has the "War on Drugs" Failed?"
The Duplicity of the War on Drugs
Seizing Drugs, Seizing Property
Abolish the Drug Laws?
A Losing Battle
Marijuana, a Signal of Misunderstanding
Nicotine Is More Addictive Than Heroin
Addictive Properties of Nicotine
Marijuana and Immunity:
Health Aspects of Cannabis:
Legalize it NOW:
Introduction to the Hoover Resolution.
The Hover Resolution
The Heidelberg Declaration
Bibliography
For further reading
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There are many areas on the Web where important information regarding drugs, their history, their use, and the "War on Drugs" can be found. One
of the biggest and best--complete with search engine--is the
Online Drug
Policy Library of the Drug Reform Coordination Network.
What I offer here is an opportunity to read and contribute to a few powerful writings which can help us understand the history of this war against American citizens and what we can do to put an end to it.
The damage the "War on Drugs" has done to our society is already far greater than most of us know. It is a National Tragedy that may take generations to heal. Failure to act quickly and responsibly by educating ourselves and our neighbors while taking a strong political stand in opposition to this war will only lead to further erosions of our cherished Constitution
and its Bill of Rights.
- Against the "War on Drugs,"
- A short political rant that continues the themes begun above.
- A Dangerous Policy
- Mark Greer, director of the Media Awareness Project (MAP), gets heat for reflecting the DEA's own militaristic rhetoric of the "War On Drugs"
- Drug High
- Editorial from the June 26 issue of the Detroit News: "It should also be remembered that marijuana use among high school seniors dropped steadily for years after 1978 - a shift that took place during the Carter presidency. If presidential rhetoric were key to drug use patterns, this shift wouldn't have occurred: Mr. Carter's administration was more receptive to arguments for decriminalizing marijuana use than any in recent history. And if presidential policy and rhetoric explained teen drug use, the Clinton administration's notable hostility to cigarettes should have produced reductions in teen smoking. Teen smoking has risen nevertheless. . ."
- How Has the "War on Drugs" Failed?"
- Four Media Awareness Project (MAP) volunteers respond to the article above and get letters to the editor published in the July 18 issue of The Detroit News. Once you know the facts, writing letters to editors isn't difficult. This is one of the best ways to Arm Yourself against the "War on Drugs."
One author writes: "A new hysteria is loose in the land and it is clearly the child of election-time excess. Clinton has stolen the match from the Republicans on every other issue and now is attempting to appear tough on drugs. That much is obvious to everyone. . . "
- The Duplicity of the War on Drugs
- This essay was written in the early '90s by an anonymous author and posted on the Web. I feel the information contained in it is so important that I am asking everyone to down load it, read it, print it out, make copies and distribute them as widely as possible.
- Seizing Drugs, Seizing Property
- By Sidney Zion, Journal of Commerce July 8, 1996 Page 7A:
"The Marines aren't in your living room yet, to be sure. But why
bother, when the government can take your house. Just be criminal enough
to get caught with marijuana seeds in the kitchen, and Janet Reno owns the joint."
- Abolish the Drug Laws?
- National Review, Cover Story, July 1, 1996; Edited by William F. Buckley: 400 National Review readers give their views on NR's anti-prohibitionist stance.
- A Losing Battle
- A review of Dan Baum's SMOKE AND MIRRORS by Michael Massing, a fellow at the New York Institute for the Humanities at
New York University.
"On May 2, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno, flanked by a phalanx of law
enforcement officials, announced that the United States had smashed a
major drug trafficking ring with tentacles extending into Colombia,
Mexico and cities across the United States. In all, the operation netted
130 arrests, $17 million in cash and 6 tons of cocaine. "The most
sophisticated and the most well-coordinated effort that I've ever seen,"
said one U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official. The bust was
trumpeted on the network news and on National Public Radio and in many of the nation's newspapers.
"Unfortunately, those reports offered readers little context. They
failed to note, for instance, that operations of this sort are fairly
routine. . . "
- Marijuana, a Signal of Misunderstanding
- An excerpt from Dan Baum's, SMOKE AND MIRRORS:
"The inevitable finally happened: the National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse delivered its
report to the White House. Michael Sonnenreich gave the document a name he felt captured the
essence of the pot issue: Marihuana, A Signal of Misunderstanding. The conclusion: marijuana should
be legalized."
- Nicotine Is More Addictive Than Heroin
- A short, pirated posting from the nations leading expert on
addiction, Jack Henningfield, stating that nicotine is more
addictive than heroin, alcohol, or cocaine. A voice uncorrupted by
tobacco money.
- Addictive Properties of Nicotine
- A report from the Boston Globe, July 18, 1996, "a new study reveals
that nicotine targets the same "reward system" in the brain as cocaine,
amphetamines and morphine. . ."
- USA Today endorses Medical Marijuana
- From NORML News: "USA Today, the nation's most widely read
daily newspaper, has endorsed access to medical marijuana."
- Marijuana and Immunity: Leo E. Hollister,
MD.
- A study published in the Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
p159-163 Vol. 24 Apr.-Jun. 1992. Such studies as this, though somewhat
difficult for the lay person to read, make up the scientific foundation
for rational discussion of Drug Policy Reform.
- Those of us who advocate Drug Policy Reform understand that drug abuse is a reality--a serious reality with which every American should be concerned. However, the current policy of prohibition and criminalization of drugs does not reduce drug abuse or the harms drugs cause. On the contrary, it exacerbates them far beyond the dangers of the drugs themselves by making criminals of drug users and transforming our society into a police state. Clearly, therefore, some rational alternative that will effectively limit the harms drugs cause both the individual and society must be sought.
- Health Aspects of Cannabis: Leo E.
Hollister, MD.
- This lengthy but balanced and well documented study of the Health
Aspects of Cannabis is taken from PHARMACOLOGICAL REVIEWS Copyright
© 1986 by The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental
Therapeutics. Dr. Hollister is an associate of the Veterans
Administration Medical Center and Stanford University School of
Medicine, Palo Alto, California.
- Just about anything you would want to know regarding the Health
Aspects of Cannabis Use are contained in this report. Special thanks to
R. Givens of the San Francisco Bay Guardian for making these two
reports by Dr. Hollister available.
- Legalize it NOW: Kykeon
- I sent this letter, accompanied by many of the materials
contained in this site, to President Clinton, both my
Senators and my Congressman on Independence day, 1996. It expresses my outrage at the CONTINUATION of this treasonous crime waged against American citizens and the Constitution by elected Federal officials. I will no longer vote for or advocate any political party or politician which utilizes the "War on Drugs" as a "get votes" strategy. It is simply unconscionable.
- I encourage you to write a letter to your elected representatives, expressing your own outrage. If you email a copy to me, I'll post it here for others to read.
- The Hover Resolution
- An important document which could change the course of American
history. The Hover Resolution calls upon the government to reexamine
our nation's drug laws. It has received support from the Mayor and the
Police Chief of
San Francisco, Baltimore Mayor
San Francisco, former
Police Chief of San Jose
Joseph
MacNamara, Dr.
Milton
Friedman, former Secretary of State George
Schultz, and Orange
County Superior Court Judge James
Gray.
Please down load, print out, sign and mail a copy of this document
to the addresses provided.
Drug Reform Activist Cliff Schaffer has written an extensive introduction
to the Hoover Resolution.
The Heidleberg Declaration
An English translation of an international petition to end the
common
practice of imprisoning non-violent drug offenders. Read it. Print out
a copy. Sign it and mail it to the address included.
Bibliography
An extensive list of books and articles on the "War on Drugs." I personally recommend "Smoke and Mirrors; The Politics of Failure," (Little Brown, 1996), by Dan Baum. It is the most readable and informative
history of this crime against all Americans that I have read. I also
recommend "The
Politics of Consciousness," (Loompanics, 1995), by Steve Kubby. Steve is a true American patriot and Consciousness Revolutionary.
This bibliography was borrowed from another site and added
to by me. If you know of works you feel should be included in this
Bibliography, please email me with their titles and other relevant information: kykeon@lycaeum.org
Submissions are not only welcome but solicited for this site. I am looking primarily for information that is relevant to the history of the "war on drugs," as well as steps one can take NOW to bring it to an end.
drugwar@lycaeum.org
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