Friday, February 29, 2008

Let My People Go

One of the first demands we made upon Raul Castro as he stepped in to fill his brothers shoes as President of Cuba was that he immediately release all political prisoners.

Wouldn't it be nice if we did the same here?

We hit an ominous record in the the supposed Free-est place on earth this month. There are now 1 in 100 adults behind bars in this country. The highest in the world.

The majority of those incarcerated are political prisoners from our internal war on drugs. We are spending billions of dollars and destroying countless lives to lock up pot heads.

It is time to admit that our policy on drugs in America has failed.

If you really believe in Freedom and Democracy..

Let my people go.....

7 comments:

Maggie Moo said...

I think they might be more than pot heads in there, don't you?

Pot is a hot topic and I don't think people should be locked up for a long time but it is still illegal-that's a fact-and if it means that much to someone to smoke it, they should move to a place where it's allowed. I get it that it's fun and it makes you feel good-that's cool..but the law is the law. Either that or they should be meeting with law makers and giving them well researched and educated material on why it should be legal.

It's the people who sell heroin and crack that should really be in there. Not just b/c of the drugs, but because of the things they steal and the things they do when they need money for their habit or when they are high and don't know what they are doing. Being someone who's been on the receiving end of someone who was addicted to crack, it's kind of a sore subject for me. Can you tell?

:)

(I do agree though that there should be more focus on rehab and education and more resources for people to better their lives instead of just locking them up)

Brianinmpls said...

I love your passion:)


But if it was regulated prices would drop, people could be monitored, exchanges could be made in the light of day, drug dealers would not exsist nor their violent efforts to control their businesses. Sure some people would still be "bad" addicts but their is no difference between the bad adics we have with other legal products...oxycotin, booze etc.

Anonymous said...

I think the druggies should be helped, not incarcerated. Addiction is a disease and it's a terrible disease.

Colette said...

It's more than the addiction though. I know it sound's like AA but you can not help someone who wants to be helped. Drugs like crack, herione, and the other harsh stuff aren't so much about the addiction or possession. What about the kids these people sell to. What about the lives they ruin other than their own?

People are free to make choices but kids no matter how "real" their lives have been are impressionable, and for a crack head dealing or stealing to get some, they don't care whose lives they've ruined.

Pot, I aggree with Mags. Do more research. Come up with reasons it should be legal. The other stuff. Lock em up. I've seen crack ruin a friends family and forever scar the children in it. Watch Basketball Diaries. Old movie, good story.

Alcohol may be legal and it may ruin people's lives, but when alcoholics commit a crime, where do they go? ,just like the rest of them.

(Guess I'm a little opinionated on this one too..) Sorry.

Rocketstar said...

Here, here. We trade wioth China and China may have more political prisonoers than any other nation on this planet.

In the end it is the Cuban lobby that keeps American policy the way it is. They do so because they can continue to send thier American dollars to thier families back in Cuba that are living high off the hog as the cost of living is so depressed due to our embargo.

I would like to hear one valid reason WHY pot should be illegal and alcohol legal (other than white old men have made it that way).

Anonymous said...

All the social-good comments are quite valid, but the truth is, like Brian wrote, that the current war on drugs is Just Not Working. This could be seen many years ago, already, like perhaps during Reagan's tenure. And obviously the situation with drugs is getting worse, not better, so one or more major paradigms and approaches in the drug war need to be changed.

PurestGreen said...

Greetings. I am always hopeful that the U.S. will chill out slightly regarding pot, so that Canada could legalize it, or at least decriminalize it further (it's all about political peer pressure). Think of the government profits if weed was taxed and regulated. I am shocked when I see some of the lengthy sentences people get in the U.S. for possession of pot. Sometimes longer than for a violent crime like robbery.
In the UK pot is also strictly illegal, but the problem with binge drinking is like nowhere I've ever seen. People rarely toss in alcohol as a drug, because we're all so used to it.
And now I have to go to work. Byeee!