The students who graduated Monday from Kennewick’s DARE program will be the last to be taught the potential dangers of marijuana.
Nearly 100 fifth graders at Sunset View Elementary accepted their diplomas after the ten week course, which discourages kids from tobacco, alcohol, and drugs. But DARE officer Mike Meyer says the national dare organization has removed the discussion of marijuana from the curriculum.
“The new curriculum starts as of December for us here in Kennewick. It does not bring up the subject of marijuana at all.”
Drug warriors often contend that drug use would skyrocket if we were to legalize or decriminalize drugs in the United States. Fortunately, we have a real-world example of the actual effects of ending the violent, expensive War on Drugs and replacing it with a system of treatment for problem users and addicts. Ten years ago, Portugal decriminalized all drugs. One decade after this unprecedented experiment, drug abuse is down by half.
U.S. Drug Policy Would Be Imposed Globally By New House Bill | The Huffington Post
The House Judiciary Committee passed a bill yesterday that would make it a federal crime for U.S. residents to discuss or plan activities on foreign soil that, if carried out in the U.S., would violate the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) — even if the planned activities are legal in the countries where they’re carried out. The new law, sponsored by Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) allows prosecutors to bring conspiracy charges against anyone who discusses, plans or advises someone else to engage in any activity that violates the CSA, the massive federal law that prohibits drugs like marijuana and strictly regulates prescription medication. +
yes, this is some Orwellian bullshit,
but it’s also unenforceable and unlikely
to pass.
”Just to make sure that I’m actually answering your question, am I willing to pursue a decriminalization strategy as an approach? No.” - President Obama
You cannot present yourself as a proponent of a public health approach while simultaneously advocating the aggressive pursuit, arrest, and imprisonment of people who might need help with a health problem. One need not come out as a supporter of marijuana legalization to acknowledge that slapping handcuffs on casual users, throwing them in jail, and branding them with criminal records is an approach we’ve already tried several million times too many. When you defend the continued criminalization of drug use, you render yourself an apologist for every dreadful consequence that follows as the crushing weight of the criminal justice system demolishes so much of what it touches…the president has ultimately become an advocate of nothing more than an incoherent and internally contradictory collection of cookie-cutter catch phrases that serve only to distract us while every problem with our drug policy gets worse under his watch