That is all, So now what will happen to the “War On Drugs”.
all that $$, all the choppers, all the C.I.A. stuff,
Can we now expect a government who will re-think
this “war”?
Just a thought.
Sadly, I seriously doubt it.
I sorta asked the same question in GD with poor results, (well since I checked yesterday) I asked because a) Borders and those crossing them are examined with more detail.
b) The Taliban control 92% of the poppy fields which is their largest sourse of income.
The article I read all this in is linked to the GD thread I started.
My WAG is smuggling into the country will be more difficult, yet I do not see how it will greatly affect domestic production of various narcotic and it’s trade.
Osip
From what I can gather from a thread I started in Great Debates, drugs will no longer be a problem, because all the people currently employed in this trade will be recruited by the CIA to fight terrorism.
If the attourney general gets what he wants from Congress regarding revisions on restrictions with respect to surveillance, that some great strides could be made here.
Ugh.
I don’t suppose anyone has budget proposals, press releases from the drug czar’s office, Ari Fleischer, or anything like that?
The cynical part of me says that the War on Drugs will continue, only now it will have all kinds of quasi-constitional tools courtesy of the real war. A roving wiretap is a pretty powerful weapon against drug dealers.
The optimist in me says that we’ll gain some perspective after this and realize that smoking the occasional joint is not the height of evil.
One the one hand, it looks likely that DEA will have some new federal law enforcement laws in their (IMHO misguided and futile) mission. So antidrug forces may become more effective.
OTOH, the federal govt has to prioritize. It can’t do everything, and it’s throwing a huge amount of its resources - people, money, time - at the War on Terrorism. I see a Big Forget happening in the Drug War, as well as other initiatives. (Is there enough room around that Cabinet Conference table to squeeze in Tom Ridge, or did someone just get voted off the island…?)
I agree that the general tightening of borders and “roundups of the usual suspects” will inadvertantly nab a few drug traffickers (perhaps some with terrorist ties may be funding themselves w/ drug money?). Just as this wide net will also pull in a few innocents.
One thought I had as the Bush administration reaction took shape was that at least he wouldn’t be spending time on domestic actions which I’d likely dislike. W is far too focussed on terrorism now to bother with a sequel to his partial stem cell research ban.
Well, since manhattan asked…
National Drug Control Strategy: the 2001 Annual Report.
In the short term, resources have in fact been diverted from interdiction to anti-terrorism. Since this press release is public, I shall quote lavishly:
*The Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) is providing equipment, technology, and personnel to assist in the massive recovery and investigation efforts taking place following terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center in New York City. Assistance provided by ONDCP will help federal, state, and local officials build a communications network for the retrieval of victims and will provide ground-level investigative and intelligence support for the FBI-led investigation.
…
Personnel from the New York/New Jersey HIDTA have been redirected to support the “intelligence zone defense” for New York City. More than 500 HIDTA detective/investigators are aiding the FBI by gathering and analyzing information and following up leads. The New York/New Jersey HIDTA is also providing 200 pieces of equipment to enable radio communications, computer terminals and networks, and 70 vehicles to support the operations in New York City. *
However, that won’t last long. Where better to train your terrorist-group infiltrators than right here in the good 'ol U.S. of A., where civil liberties soon will erode like a sandcastle urinal and the trainees will learn among docile criminals who are most likely to retaliate by splashing bongwater on their new undercover hempware?
NPR did a short little piece on marijuana this morning. It seems that just as harvest time is here in British Columbia there is a shortage of people willing to bring it across the Canadian border because of tighter security. They stated that prices are lower north of the border and are rising here in the states. I’m assuming this is only temporary, necessity is the mother of invention.
[nitpick]
It wasn’t really a ‘war on drugs’, it was a war on people who used drugs.
[/nitpick]
this is just too rich
the US gave the Taliban $43 million bucks just 4 months ago.
Not really related to Bin Laden, but the Irish terrorist groups are principally financed by drug sales.
sigh
Cite?
I heard a news report the other night with a Pentagon official trying to emphasise that this “war against terrorisim” would not have a D-Day (i.e. a conventional invasion) but would be more like the “war on drugs”…
I only hope it will not have the same measure of success!!
Gp
The below stuff has helped give me some perspective,
but now that we are actually “in it” I wonder what will happen now.
This is not true. That $43 million was given for humanitarian aid, primarily food, to be distributed by the United Nations, the World Food Project, and other NGOs. It was not given to, nor intended for, the Taliban for any reason whatsoever. This State Department press release makes that clear; and what’s more, this is just a continuation of Clinton Administration policy.
Robert Scheer should lose his press credentials anywhere he had any for publishing that lie and allowing it to proliferate.
yes, I retract my criticism about that aid grant. I have since read threads here as well as other press that put that in a different perspective.
The new Drug Czar, in his opening statement, made it clear that he’s going for the easy targets. His first target, he said, will be medical marijuana. Nail the sick and the dying. That’s the way to be a Compassionate Conservative.
–Nott
Considering the number of people who grow it right here in the US, that shouldn’t be a problem.