This article was written in response to a posting on our message board (we've since taken it down since it had just become ridiculously spammy)


JEL (jello@gee.com) said:

: Have you considered putting some anti drug ads on this site? Or is the quad cities people for peace position only represented by your pro drug website links. This would also include anti-tobbacco, anti-alcohol and other harmful substances. The connection of those issues to peace is self evident. : PEACE PEACE PEACE

Actually, none of the links on www.thedeprogrammer.com can be considered pro drug.

In answer to your questions I have written this series of disturbing critiques on:

War, The Peace Movement, The Militarization of our Society and the role the “War on drugs” has played in eroding civil rights in America.

By David VanThournout --02/17/05--

Printable version


Drugs, and our policies concerning them, have played an important role in creating the conditions which have inevitably led many young men to give their lives in the sands of Iraq for oil rather than suffer the fate of their brothers and sisters in burned out crack and heroin neighborhoods throughout America. We call it the “poverty draft”.

See: “I would love to go away” (Tyson Johnson)

The connections, as you suggest, are self-evident, but only if you stray outside the mainstream media. Generally speaking, you may find that the stories relegated to page nine or perhaps not carried on the mainstream news media at all, frequently find their way to thedeprogrammer.com. I, rather than providing both sides to a story, tend to simply provide a balance by focusing on the “buried story”. A label I would apply to every reference in this essay.

My interest in these stories comes primarily from my study of corporate bias in the media and censorship of the media in general and how this has facilitated the rise of fascism in America.

Most of the stories here simply question the sanity of a failed policy, which only perpetuates the police state in America (and the world) and keeps us divided. Like the “Abortion” and “Gay marriage” issues, the “drug war” has its roots in dirty Washington politics.

G. Gordon Liddy, credited as being one of the early architects of the “War on drugs”, suggested to Nixon and staff that by pursuing this "war on drugs" the left could be divided and the anti-war movement stifled. It gave the cops "reason" to surveil peaceful protesters and harassed the peace movement in this way. Under the guise of morality our elected officials pursued a policy that eventually was revealed as the fascism it truly was.

See; www.cointel.org

I should also like to point out that this same G. Gordon Liddy used to cut the heads off chickens until he: (in his own words) "Could kill without feeling". He was quoted as admiring Adolf Hitler and said; "listening to Hitler "made me feel a strength inside I had never known before" Later He renounces Hitler's war against the Jews as "evil" and flaunts his support for Israel's hard right as evidence he is not an anti-Semite. It is worth noting the story behind this early architect of the drug war.

see; G. Gordon Liddy: listening to Hitler "made me feel a strength inside I had never known before" November 23, 2004

Almost two years ago a hemp rally was pre-empted by threatening to invoke a law that allows the state to seize property being used for the rally which intimidated the owners into canceling the event. This was an unprecedented act in that it was the first time in this country the thought police struck and chilled free speech before it happened.

See; DEA Uses RAVE Act Threats to Block Montana NORML#SSDP Benefit 6/6/03

This, I would think, should be of deep concern to those interested in a more peaceful society.

First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a communist;

Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a socialist;

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a trade unionist;

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out--
because I was not a Jew;

Then they came for me--
and there was no one left to speak out for me.

--Martin Niemoeller (1892-1984)--
German Protestant Clergyman


I suggest that everyone take a look at this material and judge for themselves. I personally am not "pro-drug", no one associated with People for Peace is. We are pro Peace and justice however and this “war on drugs” is not about justice or values but about control of the people, and an addiction to the drug trade by the government agencies that profess to be eradicating them.

Censorship of findings that indicate there are medical benefits that could be derived from cannabis is not in keeping with the principals of a free society. Studies have suggested that there may be medical benefits to using cannabis. These studies have subsequently been suppressed in the interests of keeping anti marijuana sentiments the dominant opinion in our society. If there are medical uses for cannabis we as a people have a right to know these facts. Why would we allow police to dictate to us what drugs to use for our illnesses rather than our quite able doctors?

In my opinion, that there is a deep connection between war, oil and drugs. Until this is understood by the public we will continue to wage war upon the environment and upon our inner cities and our youth will continue to exist in conditions that come very close to a war zone in some third world country. This should be of great concern to the peace community. We spend a lot of time fighting the symptoms here on the ground. Dealing with addicts is a way of life for a social worker. What I have attempted to do here is show the symptoms for what they are and the disease and where its roots begin. Our public policies turn a medical condition into a crime. It unnecessarily burdens our police and encourages graft and corruption at the same time it dehumanizes our citizens.

Drug War Reality Tour --

Kensington, PA is one of the nation's poorest and most neglected neighborhoods. Once a thriving industrial hub for the textile sector, during the late 1970's Kensington was hit by a wave of de-industrialization which saw American jobs lost to the growing pool of sweat shop labor in Mexico and South East Asia. Today, Kensington's two major sources of income are welfare and narcotics. As one of the biggest heroin distribution centers in the country, it is not uncommon to find addicts of all ages, crouched in broad daylight, shooting dope with purities ranging from 80 - 90%.

While the US government spends increasingly more money on domestic law enforcement and Colombian paratroopers - all in the name of fighting the so-called War on Drugs - Kensington has spiraled deeper and deeper into abject chaos. Fuelling the crisis, jails are filled to capacity with non-violent drug offenders who, when they are released, cannot qualify for government-sponsored addiction treatment programs. And so a vicious cycle ensues, one that is contained to the Kensington area, where children are brought up in conditions that more closely resemble those of a developing nation than the world's new imperial superpower.

--- Watch the video

Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina --

Drugs, Oil and War explores the underlying factors that have engendered a US strategy of indirect intervention in Third World countries through alliance with drug-trafficking proxies. This strategy was originally evolved in the late 1940s for the containment of Communist China; it has been resorted to since to secure control over foreign petroleum resources.

The result has been a staggering increase in the global drug traffic and the mafias assorted with it, a problem that will worsen until there is a change in policy. The book traces also some of the processes by which some of these covert interventions have escalated into war, and how present strategies to support the US dollar have come to depend on US domination of the global oil economy.

Working to end drug war injustice
www.november.org

We are a growing body of citizens whose lives have been gravely affected by our government's present drug policy. We are prisoners, parents of those incarcerated, wives, sisters, brothers, children, aunts, uncles and cousins. Some of us are loving friends and concerned citizens, each of us alarmed that drug war casualties are rising in absolutely horrific proportions.

The November Coalition is a non-profit organization of grassroots volunteers educating the public about the destructive increase in prison population in the United States due to our current drug laws. We alert our fellow citizens, particularly those who are complacent or naive, about the present and impending dangers of an overly powerful federal authority acting far beyond its constitutional constraints. The drug war is an assault and steady erosion of our civil rights and freedoms by federal and state governments.

The drug war does not reduce drug use. Choosing to wage a 'war' on drugs stimulates a violent, underground economy, an economy which would collapse if drug prohibition ended. Our country, our world should be safer, not simply less free.

Alternet Drug Reporter --

"For the past 15 years, lawmakers have pursued tough-on-drugs policies in an effort to create a "drug free America," plowing billions of dollars into prosecuting and imprisoning drug offenders. Is it working? Not according to many drug policy observers of each political stripe, who claim the war on drugs has been a complete, and extremely costly, failure."

We are currently destroying Columbia's environment in an effort to eradicate cocaine.

The drug war is as misguided as the anti communist scare during the cold war which led to the incredible buildup of nuclear weapons. It is merely a tool of those in power to divide the left among ourselves. Divide and conquer, ever the tactic of empire. All we have is the tactic of empower, and at the core of that is simply truth and honesty.

That's the wonderful thing about the internet. You get to read everything. Not just what the mainstream network news would have us know.

I personally don't smoke, drink and I do my best to avoid eating pesticide ridden food. I ride my bike more than a thousand miles a year. Addictions range from television and oil (the worst) to cigarettes, alcohol and drugs. Anger is actually more damaging to our hearts and kidneys and livers than any drug that is typically abused in our society so I try and stay away from that too.

see; Stress: It's Worse Than You Think

All too often the “solutions” that we implement are worse than the disease itself. People don’t wake up one day and decide: “I’m going to be a crack head when I grow up” We are burdened with a duty to see that our children have an alternative to the world of drugs to grow up into. We need to do more than just “stop drugs” we need to end the conditions which drive otherwise good people drugs by leaving many with no other alternative.

Drug addiction is a medial issue and as Abe Lincoln pointed out in opposition to the abolition of alcohol: “You cannot legislate a man’s appetite”.

So, in the end, no one here that supports anything but the quest for truth. We do not support the abuse of drugs.

The "War on drugs" has been yet another facet of the militarization of our society. Because of our elected officials addiction to policies which both militiarize and dehumanize our citizens (as well as the citizens of foreign countries) they deal only topically with the symptoms of rampant drug use and ignore the deeper causes of these conditions.

How we treat our disenfranchised, our poor, our sick is how we are judged as a "civilized" nation. We here at the bottom, we that will be tending to the traumatized victims both physically and psychologically in the aftermath of the war on Iraq feel that "the temple is only as great as its smallest pillar". The condition of a persons morality is much more dependent upon the conditions of their society than upon "choices" they may or may not have made. It is ridiculous to expect shining examples of humanity from the squalor that greets a child born into the many neighborhoods like Kensington, PA.

Peace requires justice. Peace does not mean silence.

I recall reading about the frustration of a DEA agent of 35 years who claims that whenever he got anywhere near any significant “target” in the drug trade in South America that he was warned off of that person by the CIA who claimed they were an "asset".

CIA’s Drug Confession by Robert Parry Oct. 15, 1998

DEA whistleblower exposes CIA's 'war of pretense' By Bill Conroy September 15, 2004

excerpt from Drug Fallout by Alfred McCoy Progressive magazine, August 1997

There are tapes of John Kerry speaking out in congress on the subject of the CIA and their involvement in the drug trade. I was watching C-Span when he headed the committee investigating the Iran-Contra drug scandal. I heard him say something to the effect of: "It is hard to know where the criminals end and the CIA begins here!" and the His investigations turned up evidence which eventually led to the discovery of a shadowy network of terrorism and drugs perpetrated by criminals and the CIA, elected officials and bank officials with knowledge going all the way to the highest levels of government. The Bush and the Bin Laden families were both major investors in the BCCI bank scandal.

How John Kerry Exposed the Contra-Cocaine Scandal by Robert Parry, Monday 25 October 2004

The BCCI Affair A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate By Senator John Kerry and Senator Hank Brown December 1992, 102d Congress 2d Session Senate Print 102-140 http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/

I personally support anyone in their desire to let go of damaging addictions that rule their lives. Whatever it may be that is controlling our lives and destroying us whether it is drugs, tobacco, alcohol, prescriptions, television, or oil I’m all for a good society that nurtures its children into being happy, responsible citizens. I fully wish to see an improvement which leads us to a more cooperative and compassionate society which enables all of us to realize our full potential. Furthermore I am personally willing to make whatever changes are necessary in my thinking and my actions to bring that concept of a good and just and peaceful society into being.

We apologize for any offense that may be taken because of the stories, the views and opinions you read, and the links you may follow from peacequadcities.org or thedeprogrammer.com. These opinions are entirely the responsibility of the person who has expressed them. They are in no way meant to be interpreted as opinions that members of Quad Cities People for Peace embrace as a group, or that we even necessarily embrace here at The Deprogrammer.

Everyone has an opinion. Our goal is to give you as much un-spun truth as possible so that you may form your own opinions through constant questioning of controversial subjects.

To that end, we will endeavor to present as many sides of a story as possible while at the same time bringing to your attention our countries most critical minds and their opinions on the most important (and controversial) issues we as a society are facing today.

editor@thedeprogrammer.com

Thank you for your questions.

JEL (jello@gee.com) said:

: Have you considered putting some anti drug ads on this site? Or is the quad cities people for peace position only represented by your pro drug website links. This would also include anti-tobbacco, anti-alcohol and other harmful substances. The connection of those issues to peace is self evident. : PEACE PEACE PEACE

www.TheDeprogrammer.com