Friday 22 February 2008

Soft Sentences in Vic, Nixon's Joke Taskforce & More Dead in DrugWar

10 More Police Dead

The good ol' US and their wacky 'War on Drugs' is fun, fun, fun.

A Colombia court has convicted 15 soldiers for murder after a local drug baron gave the order to kill 10 officers from the police narcotics division. It seems the drug baron didn't like the Columbian narcotics division so he paid an Army colonel and 14 other soldiers to remove the problem. Such is the reach and power of having so much money earned from illicit drugs.

The local drug baron is purely a result of the US enforcing their moralistic and religious drug policy that kills thousands of people each week. They literary spend billions on forcing crop eradication upon unwilling countries, incarcerating millions of their own citizens or funding law enforcement agencies yet they won't allow federal money to be spent on programs like needle exchanges that save lives in their own homeland.

I think we have seen enough of the 'War on Drugs' to know that it doesn't work. After 35 years and trillions of dollars spent worldwide, drugs are now cheaper, stronger and more readily available than ever before.

Nixon's Task Force a Joke

The illicit drug market is artificial. It only exists because of prohibition that was created by religious groups to further their cause. This artificial market is worth $400 billion dollars per year to organised crime and with most of it being cash and untraceable it becomes very tempting for the police who deal with this on a daily basis. A few members of the notorious Melbourne drug squad fell victim to these temptations and it took 70 full time investigators, analysts and public prosecutors to catch them. 

Now the task force involved is receiving medals from the Victorian Police Chief Commissioner, Christine Nixon. WTF? ... she should be embarrassed. After 6 years of investigations, 121 cases of corruption were investigated. A grand total of 7 police officers were prosecuted. The task force Ceja was just another gimmick in Nixon's bag of publicity tricks and in the end, did virtually nothing in terms of benefiting Victoria.

What if the police stopped going to extraordinary lengths to catch drug dealers and users and actually concentrated on crime that really can be stopped. The drug market has a hierarchy system that protects those at the top and the more pressure you put on illicit drugs, the harder it is to get the kingpins. But we already know this and as long as governments and the public service play politics with drug policy, we are never going to progress. 

The money is just too good and too easy to make so it is almost impossible to stop this type of corruption. As soon as one bent cop is removed someone will take his place. Surely it's time to try something different because the current system hasn't ever worked.

End Soft Sentences, Says Soft Head Prosecutor

EXCLUSIVE: THE state's top prosecutor will challenge the Court of Appeal to set tougher sentences for drug traffickers, murderers and frauds.

-HeraldSun

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Jeremy Rapke, QC believes some crimes had been "devalued" by light sentences. He is concerned that judges are too lenient with their sentences and it doesn't reflect the standards of the community. Maybe sentences are too light. I don't know but I suspect a judge is smarter enough to understand the pros & cons of sentencing. But to include drugs on par with murder and sex crimes is just ludicrous. It's really time that these crusaders stop taking the easy road and throwing up drugs as the evil scourge of society. Most intelligent or informed people know there's a disparity here but to go ahead and use it anyway because it plays well with the MSM is disgraceful. They are playing with people's lives.

In this age of knowledge and scientific advancement, we should be progressing towards a civil, modern and balance society. We have such advanced technology that gives us incredible advantages over previous generations. We have made massive leaps in medical, scientific and social knowledge that gives us much more insight into issues facing society. The internet gives nearly everyone instant access to most of the information known by mankind and we are able to research nearly any issue that confronts us. Why then do we constantly ignore evidence and science and maintain drug polices that should have never even began.

Why can't we get past the process of letting government ideologues use their personal, religious, moral or political ambitions to influence scientific and medical issues? Drug use is a medical and health issue but has always been treated as a law & order problem. We know this is wrong and all the penalties in the world has never deterred drug use or drug suppliers. We have the facts and plenty of experience and even years of research. Why then, are we so thick? 

2 comments:

thr said...

I agree that part of the problem in Colombia are the moralistic policies, analogous to those we see in Africa, where such useful tactics as abstinence preaching are used to combat HIV.
Having said that, I don't think we should let ourselves see only the moralism, pandering to a fanatical US Christian minority. The other side of the coin are the very real geopolitical and corporate interests that US businesses and Govt have in Colombia, a country that is probably the last unequivocal US ally on the continent.
It is these interests that pour generous funding on the bloody military junta that rules Colombia, and who collude with the multi-billion dollar narco-industry. It is not for nothing that we regularly hear reports in the pliant Western press about the alleged ills of Venezeula, and its 'dictator', Chavez, whilst folks in the country next door suffer from rampant crime, corruption, and 'extra-judicial executions' sanctioned by the Colombian military and/or Govt.

Terry Wright said...

Do I call you 'Happy' for short? or THR?
Anyway remember I'm just a loser junkie so don't take what I say as anything more than ramblings.

My main concern is the effects of US drug policy (and other policies) on this world. The results are profound.

The US happily fund the Colombian paramilitary to fight 'the rebels' who are probably most of the country. The excuse used that the funds help fight the drug cartels and coca farmers is a joke. It's just a way to keep the appropriate Colombian government in place.

I am not a fan of the US government(s) and I do accept the words of Chromsky & co. I feel the US influence everyday when I have to take artificial opioids to hold off my addiction and suffer massive depression. US drug policy effects Australian drug policy and I can't have what my body is actually wanting - natural opiates.

PS. I like your site.