The Racist War on Drug, Ethan Nadelmann talks Drug Policy Alliance. He starts off by saying alcohol is known to be more associated with violence than most all other drugs and cigarettes are more addictive than any of drugs which is quite amazing considering both alcohol and cigarettes are legal. He says that heroin addicts say that cigarettes are harder to quit than heroin. The laws weren’t placed for the drugs; they were put in place for the people that used the drugs. Back in the day people used opium as a painkiller for aches and pains, as well as women using them for hormones. But then people started using it like white people drinking a cocktail before bed, which brought the prohibition of opium laws. Than there were laws that criminalized cocaine because the black sailors were snorting white powdered, seen in a racist way. The problem or reason that we have had with these drugs was never the drugs themselves, but the people associated with it.
An explanation of Ecuador's Disproportionate Jail sentencing through a first hand account...4/28/2014 VICE correspondent Krishna Andavolu heads over to Uruguay to see how the country is adjusting to a legally regulated marijuana market. |