Jeff Sessions Redefines Failure

At her confirmation hearing yesterday, acting DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart agreed with Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) that drug legalization has "failed" in "any country that's tried that." Strictly speaking, no country has legalized drugs, but many have policies less draconian than the U.S. government's, and several have experimented with various forms of decriminalization. Portugal arguably has gone the farthest, treating possession of all drugs for personal use as an administrative rather than criminal matter. Based on a comparison of health and criminal justice trends in Portugal to those in Italy and Spain since 2001, a new study (PDF), reported this month in the British Journal of Criminology, finds that Portugese decriminalization has been associated with "reductions in problematic use, drug-related harms and criminal justice overcrowding."

Last year Reason interviewed Glenn Greenwald about his Cato Institute paper on decriminalization in Portugal, which reached similar conclusions.

Comments

[Wind Rider]

Jeff Sessions = tool.

[Aresen]

Well, I suppose we could cite Jeff Sessions as an example of "the failure of American Public Education."

[Wind Rider]

Nah. He's been educated with the made up bullshit anti-drug propaganda quite well. I'm sure all the other gullible alumni of the curricula probably gave him a gold star for his parrot like performance.

[Aresen]

I suppose if you define "success" in NEA terms.

I was thinking of "failure" in the sense of 'not equipped to deal with the real world.'

[Pro Libertate]

Come now, let's not take his quote out of context. What he said was "[D]rug legalization has [failed to increase government power and trash civil liberties in] "any country that's tried that."

[mr simple]

acting DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart agreed with Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) that drug legalization has "failed" in "any country that's tried that."

Well, sure this may not be factually correct, but I'm sure we can all understand how this conclusion can be reached when you're an idiot.

[Wind Rider]

Well, it's 'failed' from the standpoint of letting people do what they want instead of making them do what Jeff Sessions wants.

[Tulpa]

A logician would say Sessions' statement was true.

Of course, the opposite statement would also be true.

The empty set is a twisted little bitch, ain't it?

[BakedPenguin]

Are you talking about the set of countries that have legalized drugs, or the space in between Sessions' ears?

[Aresen]

There is a certain segment of the Drug Warrior crowd that is absolutely impervious to logic and blind to the effects of what they are doing.

Kind of like the NEA when it comes to kids school test scores.

[Virginia]

decriminalization of illicit drug use and possession does not appear to lead automatically to an increase in drug-related harms. Nor does it eliminate all drug-related problems. But it may offer a model for other nations that wish to provide less punitive, more integrated and effective responses to drug use.

That doesn't sound very tuffgai-on-crime.

[cynical]

Well, certainly legalization failed to keep people from doing drugs.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

I'd like for these fatheads to tell me: has drug prohibition ever succeeded? Anywhere?

[BakedPenguin]

Maoist China. Mao's solution: kill everyone who uses or sells drugs, while locking up the country like it was a prison, making movement of people and goods almost impossible.

In their more candid moments, some drug warriors have praised Mao's methods.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

And we're sure there are no drug users in China, are we? Based on what? Claims by the Communist Chinese government?

Bwuhahahahahahahahaha!

[BakedPenguin]

Well, people were pretty busy trying to find scraps of food to fend off starvation, as well as being in fear of liquidation.

However, you're undoubtedly right that drug use could not have been entirely eliminated, especially considering the misery inflicted on the people.

[J_L_B]

Singapore.
Moderate possession can get you the death penalty, minor can get you several decades. Also, a lot of small stuff like spitting on the sidewalk, chewing gum, and drunkeness can get you large fines in the thousands. It's no wonder they sell t-shirts promoting Singapore as a fine city.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

Nobody uses drugs in Singapore? Or...

Nobody gets caught? Or...

The government fudges the numbers?

[P Brooks]

Every time I start to think it isn't possible to dumb down the Senate any more, I am proved wrong.

[DRM]

It is actually true that it's failed in every country that's tried it. It's been tried in zero countries and it's failed in zero countries. 0=0.

[Steve]

I'm not a big fan of the stoner culture, but where the heck does this anti-drug hysteria come from, my gosh. You'd think that everytime time somebody lights up, these people think the friggin' world's coming to an end!

[heller]

Stoners can take prescription drugs just like everyone else! See, what is they're to complain about?

[Apogee]

where the heck does this anti-drug hysteria come from,

Operating budgets.

[Aresen]

Somewhat off topic, but related (via Drudge)

Rick Perry suggests that US troops could go into Mexico to curb drug violence:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/ne.....14404.html

[malcolm kyle]

If you support prohibition then you are NOT a conservative.
Conservative principles, quite clearly, ARE:

1) Limited, locally controlled government.
2) Individual liberty coupled with personal responsibility.
3) Free enterprise.
4) A strong national defense.
5) Fiscal responsibility.

Prohibition is actually an authoritarian War on the Constitution and all civic institutions of our great nation.

It's all about the market and cost/benefit analysis. Whether any particular drug is good, bad, or otherwise is irrelevant! As long as there is demand for any mind altering substance, there will be supply; the end! The only affect prohibiting it has is to drive the price up, increase the costs and profits, and where there is illegal profit to be made criminals and terrorists thrive.

The cost of criminalizing citizens who are using substances no more harmful than similar things that are perfectly legal like alcohol and tobacco, is not only hypocritical and futile, but also simply not worth the incredible damage it does.

Afghani farmers produce approx. 93% of the world's opium which is then, mostly, refined into street heroin then smuggled throughout Eastern and Western Europe.

Both the Taliban and the terrorists of al Qaeda derive their main income from the prohibition-inflated value of this very easily grown crop, which means that Prohibition is the "Goose that laid the golden egg" and the lifeblood of terrorists as well as drug cartels. Only those opposed, or willing to ignore this fact, want things the way they are.

See: How opium profits the Taliban: http://tinyurl.com/37mr86k

or: A GLOBAL OVERVIEW OF NARCOTICS-FUNDED TERRORIST GROUPS
http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/pdf-.....xtrems.pdf

Prohibition provides America's sworn enemies with financial "aid" and tactical "comforts". The Constitution of the United States of America defines treason as:
"Article III / Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort."

Support for prohibition is therefor an act of treason against the Constitution, and a dire threat to the nation's civic institutions.

The Founding Fathers were not social conservatives who believed that citizens should be subordinate to any particular narrow religious moral order. That is what the whole concept of unalienable individual rights means, and sumptuary laws, especially in the form of prohibition, were something they continually warned about.

It's time for us all to wise up and help curtail the dangerous expansions of federal police powers, the encroachments on individual liberties, and the increasing government expenditure devoted to enforcing the unworkable and dangerous policy of drug prohibition.

To support prohibition you have to be either a socialist, ignorant, stupid, brainwashed, insane or corrupt.

* The US national debt has increased at an average rate of $3,000,000000 per day since 2006.
* The unemployment rate has increased by 7300 per day since 2008.
* The loss of manufacturing jobs has been 1400 per day since 2006.
* Without the legalized regulation of opium products Afghanistan will continue to be a bottomless pit in which to throw countless billions of tax dollars and wasted American lives.
* The hopeless situation in Afghanistan is helping to destabilize it's neighbor, Pakistan, which is a country with nuclear weapons.
* The mayhem in Mexico has deteriorated so badly that it's bordering on farcical.

There is nothing conservative about prohibition, which enlists the most centralized state power in displacement of domestic and community roles. There is everything authoritarian and subversive about this policy which has incinerated American traditions such as Freedom and Federalism with its puritanical flames. Any person seeking to insure and not further compromise the safety of their family and of their neighbors must not only repudiate prohibition but help spearhead its abolition.

We will always have adults who are too immature to responsibly deal with tobacco alcohol, heroin amphetamines, cocaine, various prescription drugs and even food. Our answer to them should always be: "Get a Nanny, and stop turning the government into one for the rest of us!"

[malcolm kyle]

If you support prohibition then you are NOT a conservative.
Conservative principles, quite clearly, ARE:

1) Limited, locally controlled government.
2) Individual liberty coupled with personal responsibility.
3) Free enterprise.
4) A strong national defense.
5) Fiscal responsibility.

Prohibition is actually an authoritarian War on the Constitution and all civic institutions of our great nation.

It's all about the market and cost/benefit analysis. Whether any particular drug is good, bad, or otherwise is irrelevant! As long as there is demand for any mind altering substance, there will be supply; the end! The only affect prohibiting it has is to drive the price up, increase the costs and profits, and where there is illegal profit to be made criminals and terrorists thrive.

The cost of criminalizing citizens who are using substances no more harmful than similar things that are perfectly legal like alcohol and tobacco, is not only hypocritical and futile, but also simply not worth the incredible damage it does.

Afghani farmers produce approx. 93% of the world's opium which is then, mostly, refined into street heroin then smuggled throughout Eastern and Western Europe.

Both the Taliban and the terrorists of al Qaeda derive their main income from the prohibition-inflated value of this very easily grown crop, which means that Prohibition is the "Goose that laid the golden egg" and the lifeblood of terrorists as well as drug cartels. Only those opposed, or willing to ignore this fact, want things the way they are.

Prohibition provides America's sworn enemies with financial "aid" and tactical "comforts". The Constitution of the United States of America defines treason as:
"Article III / Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort."

Support for prohibition is therefor an act of treason against the Constitution, and a dire threat to the nation's civic institutions.

The Founding Fathers were not social conservatives who believed that citizens should be subordinate to any particular narrow religious moral order. That is what the whole concept of unalienable individual rights means, and sumptuary laws, especially in the form of prohibition, were something they continually warned about.

It's time for us all to wise up and help curtail the dangerous expansions of federal police powers, the encroachments on individual liberties, and the increasing government expenditure devoted to enforcing the unworkable and dangerous policy of drug prohibition.

To support prohibition you have to be either a socialist, ignorant, stupid, brainwashed, insane or corrupt.

* The US national debt has increased at an average rate of $3,000,000000 per day since 2006. http://www.usdebtclock.org/
* The unemployment rate has increased by 7300 per day since 2008.
* The loss of manufacturing jobs has been 1400 per day since 2006.
* Without the legalized regulation of opium products Afghanistan will continue to be a bottomless pit in which to throw countless billions of tax dollars and wasted American lives.
* The hopeless situation in Afghanistan is helping to destabilize it's neighbor, Pakistan, which is a country with nuclear weapons.
* The mayhem in Mexico has deteriorated so badly that it's bordering on farcical.

There is nothing conservative about prohibition, which enlists the most centralized state power in displacement of domestic and community roles. There is everything authoritarian and subversive about this policy which has incinerated American traditions such as Freedom and Federalism with its puritanical flames. Any person seeking to insure and not further compromise the safety of their family and of their neighbors must not only repudiate prohibition but help spearhead its abolition.

We will always have adults who are too immature to responsibly deal with tobacco alcohol, heroin amphetamines, cocaine, various prescription drugs and even food. Our answer to them should always be: "Get a Nanny, and stop turning the government into one for the rest of us!"

Prohibition provides America's sworn enemies with financial "aid" and tactical "comforts". The Constitution of the United States of America defines treason as:
"Article III / Section 3. Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort."

Support for prohibition is therefor an act of treason against the Constitution, and a dire threat to the nation's civic institutions.

The Founding Fathers were not social conservatives who believed that citizens should be subordinate to any particular narrow religious moral order. That is what the whole concept of unalienable individual rights means, and sumptuary laws, especially in the form of prohibition, were something they continually warned about.

It's time for us all to wise up and help curtail the dangerous expansions of federal police powers, the encroachments on individual liberties, and the increasing government expenditure devoted to enforcing the unworkable and dangerous policy of drug prohibition.

To support prohibition you have to be either a socialist, ignorant, stupid, brainwashed, insane or corrupt.

* The US national debt has increased at an average rate of $3,000,000000 per day since 2006. http://www.usdebtclock.org/
* The unemployment rate has increased by 7300 per day since 2008.
* The loss of manufacturing jobs has been 1400 per day since 2006.
* Without the legalized regulation of opium products Afghanistan will continue to be a bottomless pit in which to throw countless billions of tax dollars and wasted American lives.
* The hopeless situation in Afghanistan is helping to destabilize it's neighbor, Pakistan, which is a country with nuclear weapons.
* The mayhem in Mexico has deteriorated so badly that it's bordering on farcical.

There is nothing conservative about prohibition, which enlists the most centralized state power in displacement of domestic and community roles. There is everything authoritarian and subversive about this policy which has incinerated American traditions such as Freedom and Federalism with its puritanical flames. Any person seeking to insure and not further compromise the safety of their family and of their neighbors must not only repudiate prohibition but help spearhead its abolition.

We will always have adults who are too immature to responsibly deal with tobacco alcohol, heroin amphetamines, cocaine, various prescription drugs and even food. Our answer to them should always be: "Get a Nanny, and stop turning the government into one for the rest of us!"

[Hacha Cha]

The Czech Republic and Mexico legalized possession of certain amounts of all drugs, which is a better policy than even Portugal's.