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14 May 2004 @ 06:49, by spells. Violence, War
Copyright 1998-2004
World Socialist Web Site
All rights reserved
The terrible and strange death of Nick Berg
By James Conachy
14 May 2004
The terrible death of Nick Berg in Iraq—beheaded in front of a video camera—has taken place in such strange and suspicious circumstances that it raises deeply troubling questions. Among them is whether American agencies had a direct or indirect hand in the young man’s murder.
Questions immediately arise from the timing and political consequences of his killing. At the height of a massive scandal engulfing the Bush administration, Berg’s death has been exploited by the American government and the US media to launch a counter-offensive against the revelations of systematic US torture in Abu Ghraib and other Iraqi prisons. A wholesale attempt is being made to shift American and international public opinion away from the outrage over the criminal character of the US occupation of Iraq and behind the self-serving argument that American forces are needed in Iraq to prevent the country descending into barbarism and chaos.
Were Berg’s murderers being directly paid by the American government, they could not have performed a more timely service for the Bush White House.
Berg’s killing was carried out in the name of al-Qaeda-aligned Jordanian terrorist Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi. Whoever is operating in the name of Zarqawi, they have a proven record of provocative actions that have only helped to prop up the American occupation of Iraq.
On February 9, amid signs that the majority Iraqi Shiite population was on the verge of joining the armed resistance being fought mainly in Sunni Muslim areas, a letter, allegedly authored by Zarqawi, called for Sunnis to provoke a civil war with the Shiites. American officials used the letter to argue that their occupation was the only thing holding Iraq’s religious groups apart. Several weeks later, on March 2, suicide bombings at Shiite mosques in Karbala and Baghdad were blamed on what the US now calls the “Zarqawi network.”
Contrary to the schema outlined by US officials and in Zarqawi’s letter, the bulk of the Iraqi masses spurned sectarianism. The growing unity has been on display in mass demonstrations and joint struggle since the eruption of a Shiite uprising in early April. Even before the torture revelations, the US occupation of Iraq had crumbled into a morass of bloody reprisals against the Iraqi people and growing American casualties. Opposition has been steadily growing in the US and internationally.
The group who carried out the beheading of Berg and then ensured it was broadcast around the globe must have known that it would horrify American and world public opinion and assist the efforts at damage control in Washington.
Further questions are raised by the attempts of the US government to conceal or distort what it knew about Berg himself and the events leading up to his disappearance in Baghdad on April 10. Berg vanished in Iraq just 72 hours after being released from 13 days in US military custody and questioning by the FBI.
Berg has been described by his family and friends as adventurous. He had a limited knowledge of Arabic and an interest in obtaining reconstruction contracts in Iraq for the family telecommunications company, Prometheus Methods Tower Service. In December 2003 he travelled to Iraq and went home on February 1. Among the places the young man inquired for contract work was the Abu Ghraib prison—which he referred to as a “notorious prison for army and political prisoners.” He returned to Iraq in mid-March.
CBS News revealed yesterday that the young man had been on the FBI’s books for at least two years. In 2002, he was interviewed as part of the investigations in the September 11 terror attacks, over the fact his computer password had been used by alleged al-Qaeda terrorist Zaccarias Moussaoui. According to Berg’s family, the FBI was reportedly satisfied the password was obtained during a brief encounter on a bus, when Nick Berg had allowed Moussaoui to use his computer.
On March 7, the pro-Bush website FreeRepublic.com published a list of “enemies” who were opposing the US occupation of Iraq. Among the names, taken from a public list of people who had endorsed a planned March 20 antiwar demonstration on the website of the group ANSWER, was Michael Berg—Nick’s father—and the name of the Berg family company. Such information would be entered into the databases of US intelligence agencies as well.
Berg was seized on March 24, within one week of returning to Iraq, and held incommunicado without charges in a Mosul prison for unspecified “suspicious activities.” His parents in Philadelphia were visited by the FBI on March 31 and asked why their son was in Iraq. Berg reported being interviewed at least three times during his detention by FBI agents and asked whether he had constructed pipe bombs or had visited Iran. He was released on April 6 only after his family filed a federal court case against the US government the day before for illegal imprisonment.
Dan Senor, the Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman in Iraq, claimed this week that Berg had never been detained by US forces, only by Iraqis. This has been exposed to be a lie. Berg’s family has produced an email from Beth A Payne, a US consular official in Iraq, dated April 1. Payne wrote: “I have confirmed that your son, Nick, is being detained by the US military in Mosul... He was picked up approximately one week ago.”
The chief of the Iraqi police in Mosul has also publicly rejected the claim that Berg was detained by his command. He told a press conference on May 13: “The Iraqi police never arrested the slain American. Take it from me... that such reports are baseless.”
After his release, Nick Berg travelled to Baghdad. His family last heard from him on April 9, when he reported he was looking to leave Iraq via Kuwait as soon as it was safe enough. They have indicated Berg told them he was wary of trying to fly out to Jordan on the grounds it was too dangerous. At the time, much of Baghdad was in engulfed in heavy fighting. Large parts of the city, including the roadways leading to the airport, were under constant attack by the Iraqi resistance and Westerners and Japanese had been taken hostage by various groups.
The last alleged contact with Berg by a US official was on April 10. A State department spokesperson told CBS an American diplomat offered to arrange a flight for him to Jordan. He allegedly refused and restated his intention to travel to Kuwait. His hotel has reported he left early on April 10, saying he intended to be back within a few days.
If the American government is to be believed, no US agency then took any further interest in his activities or well-being until it was apparent he had disappeared. No satisfying answers have been given to obvious questions. Were Berg’s movements in Iraq being monitored by American intelligence? Why was he detained and on whose orders? Was he under surveillance after he was released on April 6? If he was, how did he come to be kidnapped in the centre of Baghdad?
Throughout this week, Berg’s father Michael has repeatedly denounced the Bush administration for complicity in his son’s death. He told Boston radio station WBUR on Tuesday: “[W]hat cost my son his life was the fact the US government saw fit to keep him in custody for 13 days without any of due process or civil rights and released him when they were good and ready. It goes further than Donald Rumsfeld. It’s the whole Patriot Act, it’s the whole feeling in this country that rights don’t matter any more because there are terrorists about. Well in my opinion ‘terrorist’ is just another word like ‘communist’ or ‘witch’ and it’s a witchhunt and this whole administration is just representing something that is not America.”
Yesterday, he told Philadelphia radio: “My son died for the sins of George Bush and Donald Rumsfeld. This administration did this.” He has also demanded to know whether “it is true that al-Qaeda offered to trade my son’s life for another person,” as is alleged in the video-tape statement of Nick Berg’s killers.
The issues being raised by Michael Berg point to the fact, that at best, the US authorities created the conditions in which his son could be kidnapped by extremists and killed.
The more disturbing possibility that arises from all the evidence that is known is that Berg’s disappearance and subsequent killing was the work of US agencies or pro-US Iraqi factions. One month after he disappeared, Berg was murdered at the most opportune moment for the US government.
Anyone who believes it is unthinkable or outrageous to suggest that the American government would sanction having one of its citizens murdered to shore up its fortunes is underestimating the political situation.
The Bush administration and elements of the American military hierarchy, media and corporate establishment are indictable war criminals. They ordered, directed, propagated or have profited from a criminal war, in flagrant violation of international law. The year since the US-led invasion of Iraq has been marked by further war crimes and atrocities. For significant sections of the American ruling class, everything depends upon preventing opposition to the occupation of Iraq within the American and international working class from developing into a conscious movement for political and social change. To them, the life of 26-year-old Nick Berg would have meant nothing.
See Also:
Behind the demands for Rumsfeld to resign: White House prepares a fallback position to continue Iraq atrocities
[7 May 2004]
Marines pull back from Fallujah: a debacle for American imperialism
[4 May 2004]
Who benefits from the Karbala and Baghdad bombings?
[5 March 2004]
Iraq: A convenient letter from an Al Qaeda terrorist
[17 February 2004]
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Readers: The WSWS invites your comments. Please send e-mail.
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 13 May 2004 @ 22:25, by bushman. Space Exploration
This is Hubbles latest pic. :}
[link] More >
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12 May 2004 @ 19:26, by raypows. Counseling, Psychology
PSYCHOLOGISTS NOW KNOW WHAT MAKES PEOPLE HAPPY
By Marilyn Elias
USA TODAY
December 10, 2002
The happiest people surround themselves with family and friends, don't care about keeping up with the Joneses next door, lose themselves in daily activities and, most important, forgive easily.
The once-fuzzy picture of what makes people happy is coming into focus as psychologists no longer shun the study of happiness. In the mid-'90s, scientific journals published about 100 studies on sadness for every one study on happiness.
Now a burgeoning "positive psychology" movement that emphasizes people's strengths and talents instead of their weaknesses is rapidly closing the gap, says University of Pennsylvania psychologist Martin E. P. Seligman, author of the new book, Authentic Happiness. The work of Seligman and other experts in the field is in the early stages, but they are already starting to see why some people are happy while others are not:
The happiest people spend the least time alone. They pursue personal growth and intimacy; they judge themselves by their own yardsticks, never against what others do or have. More >
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 10 May 2004 @ 15:56, by ming. Science
From FutureHi, abstract of paper, "What is Natural Selection? A Plea for Clarification", by Neil Broom:I argue in this paper that any evolutionary theory of life that excludes from the living world a primary non-material or transcendent dimension or guiding presence, is no theory at all. The materialist's claim that natural selection supplies this evolutionary 'arrow' but is entirely material in its action, is a fundamentally dishonest claim. If there is no real purposive agenda that natural selection is pursuing then the expression "natural selection" is blatantly misleading and should be deleted from the evolutionary vocabulary. The paper is very readable and absolutely brilliantly argued, I think. He's right. Materialist neo-darwinism is a bunch of superstituous crap. Well, those are my words. It mostly consists of skipping over the evidence and bending over backwards to try to prove with mere words that life is based on a completely blind and unconscious and random process, and there's no purpose to anything. But that gets a little silly when you try to explain how things that do have a purpose come about. There are no half-eyes or half-flying animals or birds that are half laying eggs that sort of half have unborn chicks inside. Explaining how amazingly complex organs like eyes come about, or how animals end up flying through the air, all by miniscule and completely random accidents, requires arguing in circles for quite a while, until the reader sort or gives up, or decides he agrees with you. It is pretty much the same approach as in Creationism, just with the use of a sort of Anti-God, called Unconscious Randomness. Becomes just as silly as trying to explain that a God decided to create humans out of mud. Or that it is turtles all the way down. Anyway, I'm ranting. Neil Broom argues much more soberly and provides plenty of reference material.
And here, via Frank Patrick's Focused Performance Blog, is a quote from Agent(s) Smith in Matrix Reloaded: "Without purpose, we would not exist. It is purpose that created us, purpose that connects us, purpose that pulls us, that guides, that drives us. It is purpose that defines us, purpose that binds us." More >
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 10 May 2004 @ 10:16, by jazzolog. Medicine, Healthcare
Why am I aging so
this autumn?
A bird flying into the clouds.
---Basho
The quieter you become,
the more you can hear.
---Baba Ram Dass
Springtime light
fills the room
vacancy.
---Soen Nakagawa
First, I'd like to thank those who have encouraged me to get back to writing...and particularly an attempt to chronicle this past week. It's a daunting project for a number of reasons, but chiefly physical: I still tire easily, and my coordination is not always there when I look for it. But the longer I put this off the more difficult it becomes, so here goes~~~ More >
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 9 May 2004 @ 07:09, by tsebastian. Personal Development
Very Subtle Beings
are rarely appreciated.
The aesthetic appreciation faculty is numbed
by the frantic search for meaning
that runs rampantly through the wandering minds
of the non self reflective.
I don't know what the hell to do about it.
Should I?
I am stirred, not shaken
to wonder, and ponder about it.
It's hardly avoidable... in every interaction,
it becomes apparent.
So what's a bhodi to do?
I shoot love / truth bullets
into the heart / minds of the distracted
that bump into me.
Sometimes they look startled like deer in headlights.
They soon forget for the most part.
Resonance... substantiates our Reality Song
And when it does... sweetness can be shared...
Even that is not enough to draw them away from their becoming... what?
...For the most part
I could be sad, but not today.
What for? More >
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5 May 2004 @ 10:59, by craiglang. Spirituality
In the last week or two, I have heard more and more people tell me how they feel an increasing level of anxiety, depression and overall gloom. I have wondered if it was simply the weird weather we have had this spring, or if there is something else afoot. However in the last couple of days I too have felt this same sense - a perception of "gathering darkness". More >
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4 May 2004 @ 14:41, by adi. Extraterrestrials
MEDIA PLAY
by Steven M. Greer M.D.
Director, The Disclosure Project
[link]
Copyright 2004
Conventional Wisdom has it that we live in a free and open society with a free press, which plays the role of a key check and balance on government secrecy and abuse. This and other fantasies, foisted on a gullible public, have enabled runaway illegal secret projects to get away with murder, and they are now on the verge of planeticide - the killing of an entire planet.
The truth is that we have free media - so long as it is inconsequential. That is, freedom of the press exists so long as it is exercised within a certain sphere of influence that does not reach a critical mass of significance. Sure, you can say and write anything - so long as it does not get placed in front of the masses in an honest way. The quaint notion of a free press, serving as the Fourth Estate and watching vigilantly over the interests of The People is one of the great lies perpetrated by the government, and by the corporate media itself. Every insider knows this is a lie.
Big Media must be distinguished from the media in general, insofar as the former is utterly corrupted and the latter is sequestered into spheres of limited influence and significance. Mass retail media - the nightly news, CNN, The NY Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, Time and the like are less free on anything of real significance than the media of many third world countries - or even communist China.
We know, because we have beta tested the system. (More on this later.)
The implications of this corruption cannot be overestimated. In the world today, the corrupt, dumbed-down and controlled Big Media is the central reason for significant investigations being killed, illegal secrecy persisting and major scientific breakthroughs being suppressed.
Without the cooperation, compliance and corruption of Big Media, the shadowy programs that keep the world burning could in no way prevail. In fact, when recently asked by a member of Congress how these illegal operations persist and flourish, I had to tell him it was the primarily due to the fact that Big Media give them a free pass.
Years ago, while at a gathering in New York City with Laurence Rockefeller and a few other influential people in the city, Bob Schwartz, a noted journalist who had been on the Board of Time Life (before it was Time Warner, or AOL Time Warner etc, etc) flat out told me that the Big Media "Â…had become scribes taking dictation from the right hand of the kingÂ…" rather than really functioning as a free press and the Fourth Estate. He proceeded to tell me how he had given his friend Mike Wallace of CBS' 60 Minutes a number of government documents on UFOs, and that Mr. Wallace wanted to pursue the story, but ultimately dropped it due to pressure from 'somewhere'.
Now, Big Media will tell you that the UFO matter is closed, that the Air Force looked into UFOs and ended Project Blue Book with a report from the Condon Committee that essentially said there was nothing to study. This is one of the Big Lies and can be proven to be so. But every Big Media outlet in the US holds to this line, notwithstanding overwhelming evidence to the contrary - and the fact that we can now prove that Dr. Condon himself corrupted the study and was on the payroll of the shadowy projects keeping the matter secret!
Essentially, America has no free press of any significance when it comes to real investigative reporting, government secrecy or serious technology breakthroughs dealing with energy and propulsion systems that could replace Big Oil. The Big Media is vertically and horizontally integrated into a large corporate and quasi-governmental matrix of shadowy interests and corrupting influences. In no way is the major media in America free, nor has it been for decades.
In the late 1990s I met with a senior reporter for the Washington Post, whose beat included government, military and national security issues, who told me that he was sitting on rather explosive files on a number of issues (hint: we were talking about secret underground facilities and certain genetic experiments that are ongoing). When I asked him when they would run that story he winked and said, "Oh Dr. Greer, you know that nothing important is ever printed in the Washington Post. We will never print that kind of story and, if anything, we will work to debunk it if it appears anywhere elseÂ…" When I asked him, "Well what about the Fourth Estate - our free media being a check and balance on government and extreme secrecy that is out of control?" he said, "You know that doesn't exist anymoreÂ…" We had a drink and went on our way.
Senior government officials, members of Congress and top Pentagon officials with whom I have met have cited media infiltration, corruption and ridicule as the main reason they steer clear of certain areas. Why look into super-secret UFO related projects if you will only be shellacked by the Big Media as Senator Moon Beam?
Of course, many people in the media never look into these issues since they have blindly accepted the party line and bought into the ridicule and disinformation surrounding the subject. A lack of independent investigation, and a prevailing prejudice, prevents most journalists from even giving a cursory look into these controversies. A senior editor for the Boston Globe once told me that they would never run a story on UFOs "Â…even if you put a dead ET on my deskÂ…" since such topics were the stuff of the low-end tabloids. (I guess 24/7 coverage of titillating details of sexual escapades and lurid murders are ok, however.) Persistent ridicule and a glib dismissal of 'conspiracy' theorists and 'UFO believers' are about as far as most journalists get. The facts are seldom investigated, and on the rare occasion when they are, the story is blocked.
It is also an open secret that the intelligence community has infiltrated and used the media for decades. What is not acknowledged is the extent to which the Big Media are controlled by corrupt interests that are the antithesis of freedom. It is a pervasive problem that is subtly managed very quietly, but anyone who has gotten close to the truth on a really Big Story that these interests want kept secret know what happens.
Such journalists walk into the mother of all buzz saws, and learn very quickly how un-free the Big Media really is. Into The Buzz Saw, with a forward by Gore Vidal, is a book that recounts the experiences of a number of journalists who came across a story that 'they' did not want out -and who found out how ruthless media suppression really is.
The crown jewel of secrecy is the collection of projects that deal with advanced technologies, energy systems, propulsion systems - and UFO matters - that, once disclosed, would end the need for oil, gas, coal or nuclear power. The corruption and secrecy surrounding this issue is like none other - it is in a class of its own. The media can only cover the subject either in a cavalier or dismissive way - or through direct disinformation and ridicule. No honest investigative report has every appeared, over time, on this subject in any Big Media outlet - not in over 50 years of secrecy. Why?
Because they are not allowed to do it. And if they did, it would mark the end of their career and possibly their lives. It is not an overstatement to say that I have spoken to mainstream journalist who evince palpable fear when the matter is brought up.
Of course, because of sensational cases of 'investigative reporting' like Watergate, Monica-gate and the like, the public believe the media is this fierce watch dog guarding the interests of the people and courageously ferreting out the truth. If only.
Sure, Big Media can have 24/7 coverage of trivial matters like a President's private sex life (NEWS FLASH: Powerful men are known to have affairs and may even - gasp - lie about it!). Or a bungled and clumsy break-in at the Watergate. But the really big stories are never printed, the research is not allowed, and the truth is only whispered about privately, and carefully.
Shills in the Big Media are the central reason why the truth about many matters of great importance will never be told. Sure they will tell you about a titillating scandal, or about a tax cut, or a bombing. But get close to stories related to real power, and these Big Media hacks run the other way.
The proof?
In May of 2001, The Disclosure Project (www.DisclosureProject.org) held a major international press conference at the National Press Club in Washington DC. Hosted by legendary White House reporter Sarah McClendon, the event featured over 20 top-secret government, military, intelligence and corporate witnesses to UFO events and projects. No flakes amongst these: The witness testimony presented ranged from Brig. General to Colonels to a top FAA official. The National Press Club ball room was packed with media from around the world and the event was - briefly - reported on CNN, BBC, Fox and many other outlets.
This two-hour event was the most watched live press event on the Internet and eventually over 1 million people saw the event on the net. We called for a full investigation into illegal covert programs dealing with UFOs and covert energy and propulsion projects. Congressional hearings were requested and the media were asked to fully investigate the matter. Tens of thousands of people wrote members of Congress and the US President asking for full, open, honest hearings at which some of the over 400 military and government-connected witnesses identified by The Disclosure Project could testify. (The reader may read the testimony of over 5 dozen of these witnesses in the book Disclosure or view their testimony at www.DisclosureProject.org).
Interestingly, the first hour of the event was externally electronically jammed by "someone outside the Press Club", according to Internet hosting company Connect Live. (Sources later confirmed that this was an electronic warfare jamming of the broadcast.)
Senior producers at two Big Media networks, who had been briefed in advance and were planning major exposes in their newsmagazine programs, later told me that they were not allowed to go forward with their investigations or broadcast the programs. When I asked why, they simply said, "They just won't let us do it." And when I ask who are 'they', I was told, "Dr. Greer, you know who they areÂ…"
Indeed.
Here, smoking gun evidence, official government documents and dozens of credible, corroborated, top-secret witnesses were presented to the world's major media - and Big Media did virtually nothing. On major stories, involving controversial matters, I am told the New York Times requires three points of corroboration. Here, dozens were presented, from men and women with impeccable credentials and high national security clearances - and they were not anonymous sources, but presented with name, rank and serial number! But the coverage was brief (just enough to allow for 'plausible freedom of the press', I am told by insiders) and then quickly taken down. And no Big Media entity was allowed to do serious follow-up investigations. And none have occurred up to this date.
Such 'editorial discretion' has been abused hundreds of times to keep big stories out of the major media. People do not realize it, but we already live in an extremely controlled and closed society that is micro-managed by an elite few - all the while looking populist, democratic and open. As I write this a few miles from Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, I can feel him spinning in his graveÂ…
Meanwhile, it is up to us to get the truth out, notwithstanding the overwhelming force and corruption of the Big Media. It is almost too late - but not quite. With a Herculean effort, we might yet get the facts out before the public before the control freaks run the entire biosphere into the ground and we end up, Mad Max-like, fighting over the last barrel of oil in endless oil wars.
Perhaps someone in Big Media will step up to the plate and do the matter justice. But more likely, we need to identify a financial sponsor to start what I am calling "The Disclosure Network" via satellite. With adequate funding, we could begin real investigative reporting on issues that really matter - and renew the promise of a free press.
Until then, spread the word and get the truth out. Ultimately, if the people will lead the leaders will follow. Time is getting short for the corrupt corporate Big Media to regain its role as the Fourth Estate. And the earth cannot take another 50 years of ecological abuse, geopolitical instability born out of the injustice of poverty, and more oil wars. It is up to us to change course and create the sustainable civilization necessary for peace. For without peace there can be no future - and peace is impossible without truth, an open society and justice. There is time to act, but we must act now.
Steven M. Greer MD
Director, Disclosure Project
[link]
29 April 2004
Albemarle County, Virginia
[link]
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 3 May 2004 @ 21:54, by skookum. Personal Development
One of my earliest poems... written for some friends of mine on the tartans.com board.
Brave Knights of Lore
Are these brave knights of ancient lore,
Going where none have gone before?
To slay the dragon of awsome might,
Showing their courage in deadly fight? More >
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2 May 2004 @ 23:08, by raypows. Activism
Comment from Transform: the campaign for effective drug policy
1 Address the real issues For too long policy makers have used prohibition as a smoke screen to avoid addressing the social and economic factors that lead people to use drugs. Most illegal and legal drug use is recreational. Poverty and despair are at the root of most problematic drug use and it is only by addressing these underlying causes that we can hope to significantly decrease the number of problematic users.
2 Eliminate the criminal market place The market for drugs is demand-led and millions of people demand illegal drugs. Making the production, supply and use of some drugs illegal creates a vacuum into which organised crime moves. The profits are worth billions of pounds. Legalisation forces organised crime from the drugs trade, starves them of income and enables us to regulate and control the market (i.e. prescription, licensing, laws on sales to minors, advertising regulations etc.)
3 Massively reduce crime The price of illegal drugs is determined by a demand-led, unregulated market. Using illegal drugs is very expensive. This means that some dependent users resort to stealing to raise funds (accounting for 50% of UK property crime - estimated at £2 billion a year). Most of the violence associated with illegal drug dealing is caused by its illegality
Legalisation would enable us to regulate the market, determine a much lower price and remove users need to raise funds through crime. Our legal system would be freed up and our prison population dramatically reduced, saving billions. Because of the low price, cigarette smokers do not have to steal to support their habits. There is also no violence associated with the legal tobacco market.
4 Drug users are a majority Recent research shows that nearly half of all 15-16 year olds have used an illegal drug. Up to one and a half million people use ecstasy every weekend. Amongst young people, illegal drug use is seen as normal. Intensifying the 'war on drugs' is not reducing demand. In Holland, where cannabis laws are far less harsh, drug usage is amongst the lowest in Europe.
Legalisation accepts that drug use is normal and that it is a social issue, not a criminal justice one. How we deal with it is up to all of us to decide.
In 1970 there were 9000 convictions or cautions for drug offences and 15% of young people had used an illegal drug. In 1995 the figures were 94 000 and 45%. Prohibition doesn't work.
5 Provide access to truthful information and education A wealth of disinformation about drugs and drug use is given to us by ignorant and prejudiced policy-makers and media who peddle myths upon lies for their own ends. This creates many of the risks and dangers associated with drug use.
Legalisation would help us to disseminate open, honest and truthful information to users and non-users to help them to make decisions about whether and how to use. We could begin research again on presently illicit drugs to discover all their uses and effects - both positive and negative.
6 Make all drug use safer Prohibition has led to the stigmatisation and marginalisation of drug users. Countries that operate ultra-prohibitionist policies have very high rates of HIV infection amongst injecting users. Hepatitis C rates amongst users in the UK are increasing substantially.
In the UK in the '80's clean needles for injecting users and safer sex education for young people were made available in response to fears of HIV. Harm reduction policies are in direct opposition to prohibitionist laws.
7 Restore our rights and responsibilities Prohibition unnecessarily criminalises millions of otherwise law-abiding people. It removes the responsibility for distribution of drugs from policy makers and hands it over to unregulated, sometimes violent dealers.
Legalisation restores our right to use drugs responsibly to change the way we think and feel. It enables controls and regulations to be put in place to protect the vulnerable.
8 Race and Drugs Black people are over ten times more likely to be imprisoned for drug offences than whites. Arrests for drug offences are notoriously discretionary allowing enforcement to easily target a particular ethnic group. Prohibition has fostered this stereotyping of black people.
Legalisation removes a whole set of laws that are used to disproportionately bring black people into contact with the criminal justice system. It would help to redress the over representation of black drug offenders in prison.
9 Global Implications The illegal drugs market makes up 8% of all world trade (around £300 billion a year). Whole countries are run under the corrupting influence of drug cartels. Prohibition also enables developed countries to wield vast political power over producer nations under the auspices of drug control programmes.
Legalisation returns lost revenue to the legitimate taxed economy and removes some of the high-level corruption. It also removes a tool of political interference by foreign countries against producer nations.
10 Prohibition doesn't work There is no evidence to show that prohibition is succeeding. The question we must ask ourselves is, "What are the benefits of criminalising any drug?" If, after examining all the available evidence, we find that the costs outweigh the benefits, then we must seek an alternative policy.
Legalisation is not a cure-all but it does allow us to address many of the problems associated with drug use, and those created by prohibition. The time has come for an effective and pragmatic drug policy.
"If the (drug) problem continues advancing as it is at the moment, we're going to be faced with some very frightening options. Either you have a massive reduction in civil rights or you have to look at some radical solutions. The issue has to be, can a criminal justice system solve this particular problem?" Commander John Grieve, Criminal Intelligence Unit, Scotland Yard, Channel 4 1997
Copyright Transform Campaign for effective drug policy Easton Business Centre Felix Road Easton Bristol BS1 0HE Telephone: +44 (0) 117 941 5810 Facsimile: +44 (0) 117 941 5809 Email: rae@transform-drugs.org.uk web:www.transform-drugs.org.uk More >
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