Chemical Weapons in the 'War on Drugs'

[Michael Eisenscher]

At 04:32 PM 6/23/98 PDT, alec ramsdell wrote:
>
>
>>I think that one of the most important tasks for the US Left is to stop
>>the 'war on drugs' here and abroad.
>>
>>
>>Yoshie
>>
>Does this topic make it into many discussions among the Left?
>
>I see that, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, since 1970 the 
>percentage of incarcerated drug offenders has gone from 16.3% to 59.1%.  
>Also, a Sentencing Project report finds that one in seven African 
>American men are currently disenfranchised due to felony conviction 
>(about 4.2 million of all Americans are similarly disenfranchised).
>
>"The War on Drugs" is a miserable and horrifying failure, as the  
>example of Southcentral LA and the war between the

On the contrary.  It is a smashing success.  What better means of
controlling discontent than to dope a substantial portion of the working
class and disenfranchised poor, then put a significant minority of them
under the direct control of the State?  And to boot, another section of the
working class is employed in building prisons, overseeing their occupants,
or monitoring those outside prison who remain under the watchful control of
the criminal injustice system.  It's a growth industry!   As an added bonus,
while incarcerated, we can put those folks to work at slave wages (another
oxymoron) and use their labor to drag down the wage standards of those who
have yet to be jailed.  If they should happen to get out, they certainly
pose no electoral problem, for we take away their right to vote.  I'd say
the War on Drugs has achieved all that it was intended to.  Invest those IRA
dollars in a business with a guaranteed future - Penal Enterprise, Inc.  

In solidarity,
Michael E.